Powerplay: Merit Retention

[Sendraks]

Unless any of you have any other suggestions?

The best option I've found so far with my power is to combine trading with the delivery missions I have. Then I make a decent chunk of money taking 10 of whatever it is I'm taking to a particular system. Not brilliant, but a better use of limited playtime than just doing powerplay.

[Sendraks]

Mind you at rank 4, that's paying 5 million a week. For doing (once you get there) 8 missions a week, 625k a mission, 25k a ton. And you can fill the rest of the cargo bay with whatever you want, and it's empty on the return journey. You can do other trade routes, random missions, while waiting for the timer to expire so you can load up on more Things to ship.

That's pretty positive when you put it that way.

The big question - what happens to all your rank and stuff if your faction gets destroyed? Do you just lose all your hard work?

[Thanewright]

The big question - what happens to all your rank and stuff if your faction gets destroyed? Do you just lose all your hard work?

I can't see any other way of it working.

[Xariann]

So the first week just ended. I had 40 merits. I carried over 35. I don't think the 50% retention is correct.

[Sendraks]

I had 100 merits.
I carried over 100 merits.

Hmmmm.

[PulsarShark]

You don't really need to get to a high rank; the main benefit of hitting Rank 5 is that it gets you a weekly salary of 50mil to make up for all the time you have to put into it.

Rank 3 gets you your Power's special tech-toy, and is pretty attainable in a few weeks (less if you have a lot of credits to pour in with some Powers). After you get the toy, from what people have been saying, you don't have to maintain Rank 3 to keep it - just don't sell it and you can hang onto it indefinitely.

I saw a dev post somewhere saying that they tweaked the first week's retention to be higher than 50%.

[Thanewright]

Yeah I had 100 end of last cycle, carried over... 113? I won't complain!

Made it to rank 4? Don't want to put in the work of 8 missions @25 merits a mission to maintain it? No worries!
You can maintain it with *one* mission a week.
Step 1: Own a ship with 200+ tons cargo space.
Step 2: Show up to a control system, get your half hourly allocation of 25 tons of Things.
Step 3: Buy increased allocation 7 times, for a total of 1.75 MCr. (wait don't leave! Wait 'till step 5).
Step 4: Ship them all to the preparing/expanding/whatever system.
Step 5: Collect 5MCr at end of cycle for a profit of 3.25MCr. Easiest 3.25MCr you'll make all week.

20 minutes of work tops, maintains rank 4 for the week.

Now I've got an Asp with 92 tons cargo, so I'll have to do 3 runs a week.
If you have a Cobra, you can do it in 4 runs a week... *If* you swap your shield for more cargo. Which does sound risky. Personally... I'd do it. For these 4 runs only. Sell shield, do 4 runs, buy shield back :p If interdicted: 4 pips to engines and boost and boost and boost. Few things will catch a boosting Cobra. If it all comes a cropper, well each of these runs is worth 1MCr to you, that buys a lot of insurance.

[Thanewright]

How to rush rank 4 by spending money to make money:

If you're say Rank 2 and want Rank 4 by the end of the week, and are willing to put in a *little* time and effort (like say, a rainy Saturday, looks at tomorrow's forecast...) Here's my plan with my 92 ton cargo Asp.

"Things" are the trade agreements, legal documents, whatever they are.

1) Show up to control system, (system A) get free 15 tons of Things.
2) Pay 600Kcr for another 60 tons of Things.
3) Ship them to target system (system B), get 75 merits.
4) That only took 10 minutes, so check bulletin board, buy commodities, ship them to another system (system C).
5) Arrive here, check bulletin board, sell high, buy cheap, go back to system A.
6) Repeat.

Ideally pick systems A, B, and C so that each leg can make a decent profit. And even better if each one tends to ask, in the bulletin board, for stuff the previous system (or even the next system) sells. Which is why I'm doing 75 tons and not 90: in order to fulfil those quests. Some runs there will be no applicable quests so on those you can ramp up to 90. Doing the bulletin board missions and possibly changing up System C to suit the missions make these runs feel a lot less like a chore/grind.

I found with 45 tons of Things a cycle I was breaking even, at 75 tons of Things I was loosing about 300KCr a cycle, but that's the price I'm willing to pay to rush rank 4. I'm at about 500 merits now, so this will take another 13-14 runs, and I've enough in the bank to see that through.

Unfortunately I won't be able to relax next week: Assuming they start halving your merits for real, I'll be down to 750, and will have to do 10 runs like above next week, and 5 the week after. After that, it'll be just 3 runs as stated above until I can upgrade to a bigger ship (or 8 runs without paying anything).

Edit: Forgot total cost. Starting from 100 merits, you need to make 1400. at 75 merits a run that's 19 runs. 60 merits a run must be bought, or 600KCr * 19 = 11.4 MCr. You'll get back 5MCr at the end of the week so you've paid 6.4 MCr.
Week after it will take 750 merits to maintain rank 4, or 10 runs, costing 6MCr, a loss of 1MCr.
Week after it will take 375 merits to maintain rank 4, or 5 runs, costing 3MCr, or a profit of 2MCr.

If you have a bigger ship and deeper pockets, all this will be quicker but cost more.

With a Cobra I'd probably spread it over 2 weeks.
Week 1: To rank 3. Buy 15 tons each run. Each run generates 30 merits and costs 150KCr. You'll need 22 runs to hit rank 3.
Week 2: To rank 4. Buy 20 tons each run. Each run generates 40 merits and costs 200KCr. You'll need 29 runs to hit rank 4.
That assumes you keep your scanner and shields: A stripped down Cobra can carry 60 tons of cargo, with will bring time down to 11 runs for rank 3, 19 runs for rank 4.

[Delvin Kaar]

So the first week just ended. I had 40 merits. I carried over 35. I don't think the 50% retention is correct.

Xariaan, how far into the first week of Power play did you pledge? When they say first week, they may mean the first full 7 days of you being with that power, maybe not the first "turn" that you've been with them has ended. Just a thought.

[Xariann]

Delvin, I'm not sure I follow 50% is still 50% regardless of how long you have been pledged.

Although someone earlier in this thread said the first week might be higher... Sooo let's wait another week...


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