 This is Witchpace news for Friday the 29th of March 2024, I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, we've an update on accessing the two Titan debris fields and we take a look at the first powerplay 2.0 details released breaking down what it will mean for the galaxy later this year. You know how this bit goes, please like, subscribe and ding that little bell so that YouTube shows you all our content and if you'd like to directly help our work here at the Burpit you can also support us through Patreon, links to that and everything else are in the description below. Before we get into the main subject of today's news we wanted to let you know that the caustic cloud around the former Titan Taranis has now all but completely dissipated. Whilst there is still a green haze the caustic effects of the cloud have stopped completely and the wreck can be explored and indeed pillaged almost without resistance. I say almost without resistance as the Thargoids themselves do jump into the system but whilst they're not completely passive they're nowhere near the danger that they were and there are also NPC AX patrols that will engage them. The second Titan to be destroyed, Leigong this week entered its first phase of caustic cloud dissipation. You can now enter the cloud but the caustic damage permeates throughout the entirety of the still rather dense mist so caustic sinks are advised if you intend to visit. As we've reported previously these can now be purchased from one of the bubble's many rescue mega ships without the need for a material based unlock. The community goal that we reported on last week to recover Titan Drive components is still running up until the next Thursday's server tick and we're seeing a degree of anecdotal evidence at least that Leigong is a better source of those components than Taranis if you're having trouble locating them. The monthly frontier unlocked livestream arrived on Wednesday this week and with it came what had been built to be a deep dive into the power play refresh that is expected to arrive later this year. The original plan frontier for the livestream was that Simon Brewer who is a principal pipeline artist at the company would be interviewed on the show. Simon was unfortunately taken ill on Wednesday and so lead game designer on Elite Dangerous Luke Betten valiantly jumped into the breach at the last minute instead in a pre-recorded interview. Holly Bennett who had previously co-hosted the last two frontier unlocked streams alongside Arthur Tolmey unfortunately left frontier developments in the last month meaning that poor Arthur was left to front almost the entire stream completely on his own a job that he very ably managed with a plomb. In a tweet earlier in the week the stream had been billed as a quote deep dive unquote that deep dive moniker set a somewhat different expectation for the stream's content than was actually delivered on the night as what we actually saw had more of a first look feel to it rather than featuring an in depth look into the mechanics of power play 2.0 the stream instead offered a more surface level look at some of the artwork and assets that are being wielded as part of the update with some broader overview looks at what their inclusion means to the revamped system. That's not to say the stream was without value quite the opposite in fact and what was revealed starts to give a clearer picture of where frontier are going with power play for the uninitiated power play as it stands in very broad terms allows commanders to pledge their service to a galactic superpower and more specifically one of the political figures within that superpower to increase that individuals influence and reach and gain rewards as a result one of the problems with the current system and there are many is that the effects of power play and the given powers reach and influence aren't largely echoed in the game world outside of a few rather dry maps and charts what was shown and talked about as part of the interview with Luke was how the effects of power play in the galaxy will actually be reflected in the live game environment when power play 2.0 launches to demonstrate this principle the interview started by showing the now familiar starport interior space in three different stages of power play influence exploited fortified and stronghold with each state change came increased visual cues to reflect the amount of power and influence that in this case Ashling Duval had over the system the exploited state demonstrated some light propaganda in the form of adverts carrying Ashling's name and some imperial insignia on the floors and Luke also mentioned that in the early stages of a powers encroachment on a system we may even see graffiti reflecting the local populations initial resistance to a power entering a system as the states progressed through fortified and into eventually stronghold the amount of propaganda increased demonstrating a degree more permanence eventually showing up as large amounts of physical signage with huge hanging portraits of Ashling Duval adorning the ceilings the conversation also mentioned that what they referred to as the station's vending machines would display different content depending on the power that was in place in the system by vending machines we're assuming the team are referring to the station's mission terminals and exactly how the content their changes isn't yet clear and wasn't shown on the stream the conversation also briefly touched on a further state that isn't yet being shown that state being contested the team didn't elaborate any more on any details but there definitely was an implication that perhaps there is more to a contested station where two powers are vying for direct control with each other that perhaps is reflected in more than just the aesthetics but we'll have to wait for a future livestream to get more information on that next the conversation moved on to show the reworked power play filter in the galaxy map in the current iteration the various powers sphere of influence are shown as literal coloured bubbles whilst it can be impressive to look at in its current form it's also somewhat unwieldy and oftentimes it can be difficult to get a solid handle on who is where the footage shown of the new map instead replaces the hard border bubbles with blooms of colour to show the various influences and system states which it's hoped will make it altogether more readable Arthur mentioned that one of the goals of the reworked map will be to help players find a power pledge to it and see their efforts having a meaningful impact on the galaxy describing it as a far more reflective system in terms of player effort to reward Luke was also keen to point out the new system overall will make it clearer if players are pushing back against your power and where that push is happening the final thing that Arthur and Luke showed was a feature that will appear in a powers stronghold system that feature being a stronghold carrier fleet the carrier at the centre of the fleet would act as a hub for players supporting the associated faction and it was surrounded by a number of capital class support vessels none of the ships shown were of a specific class that is present in the game at the moment but they all shared components and design cues that are very much present in the game and at least one of the support vessels was of a specific design that was originally destined to be an exploration themed fleet carrier from the original gamescom official fleet carrier reveal trailer in around 2019 before the fleet carrier system was redesigned into what we know today you'll find our original coverage of those designs linked on screen now if you haven't seen it before the official frontier trailer that it references has since been removed after frontier redesigned how fleet carriers were going to work if you're not a supporter of the power that owns the fleet then it's fair to say they're not likely to be terribly welcoming of your presence without giving any more details the team did say that opposing players would be able to mess with the carrier in some regard in the footage shown we can clearly see for example some of the familiar cargo hold door systems that can be hacked and opened on existing mega ships in the game using the right equipment so it's a fair bet that these existing mechanics and perhaps a few others at the very least will be implemented here as well whilst we don't yet know any of the finer details of how powerplay is going to work in 2.0 it's very apparent that one of frontiers goals has been to make its presence felt in the game even if you're not actively participating in it one of powerplay's many problems at the moment is that an awful lot of players don't actually know it exists and if they do know they don't really have a reason to care about it beyond the acquisition of some of the more unusual and powerful modules it provides as well as making its presence felt in the game to the average player fdev have to make power play matter to that same average player beyond the aforementioned gear acquisition it's the gameplay that's associated with getting players to care about powerplay as well as the important visual cues we've now seen that will ultimately draw more players in and we're very intrigued to see what frontier have planned for that gameplay in a future update what do you think of the powerplay reveals in this month's stream will you be trying powerplay for the first time later this year and what gameplay would you like to see around the new carrier fleets let us know in the comments below that's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then oh seven commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time