Perhaps, being like 3 months from official release date, devs think that being a Protector of 125PL system will be redundant soon? 

In subsector, I guess there will be tens or hundreds of low level systems, giving small reward to their protectors. At the same time, there won't be one high level system, so there's that. High level players would likely have several systems in protection. Perhaps a nice opportunity for indirect PvP or Cabal PvP?

imo casuals are least affected by this change. they can just log in, run the special missions the have available in the systems for some time (and gain glory and influence on a much higher level than with grey misions from them), and log out again. IF they even have reached maxlvl/PR yet and dont have anything better to do than special missions. when they will be back, they will have new special missions in the systems again.

 its the hardcore-grinder that will run out of missions that net something fairly soon. but running special missions will hopefully only be ONE of the different endgame-activities they promised to implement. well, we will see... :)

edit: im fairly busy with doing cabal-missions, example given.

I agree with the op. I kind of get the need of a diminishing return curve in terms of grinding but it's not rare people play on very slow pace with no intention of challenge. I was once a very dedicated gamer so i know both sides. The power through gamer and the super casual one.

So with that in mind I can see how there has to be a break for power grinders of some sort or developers cannot keep up and / or people finsih to quick.

This however honestly shouldn't affect the casual player base so much that they feel they get penalyzed by doing grey missions.

I see that motivation is generally a problem ( at least to me ) with how the game seems to develop. I get the desire to have something seasonal competetive going on. But I believe it is not enough.

So basically right now the game is a big grind towards lvl X. At lvl X you can get Y power level. You can decide your playstyle by choice of weapon and skills and that's ultimately it.

Since the weapons are tied to the skills defining your playstyle they are somewhat limited as this is one of the keys for dev to balance the game. It's not like once the game is released you will discover any new weapons/ skills/ playstyles. If ever. Maybe some new Icons and some effects re-colored. Mind I am not ranting or anything - It's just a reasonable expectation according to how I perceive how games are made/ run these days.

So that leaves you with.. not so much actually. At least in Alpha. It might be ok for some to race missions for most influence points in ladder but I was hoping for somethinig different when I initially read the plans for the game. Maybe aperreance will bring something I am looking for but right now I feel it's dull. Thus taking away the ability to ultra slow grind things over years is a bad thing from my perspective.

I don't regret buying the game though ^^ because I could sink enough hrs already and I enjoy the art and way it's presented.

Carry the Emperor's will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows.

Influence is capped out pretty fast. If you play more then one toon I would say 40-60h. I never thought of Influence in a timesink way it's just boring grind for minor goodies besides the tarot cards.

oh and something else: if you think about the bigger picture, they have to somehow slow down the influence-gain in systems. limited and timed special missions were a first step in that direction. they plan to develope this game and future expansions in seasons, and somehow they have to keep people busy over that timespan. if you can farm max systeminfluence in every system in a day, you wont have something to return to. special missions to max out system-influence might be something that keeps you playing in the longer term...

if you want to farm system-influence on a highlevel char and have no special missions left: find a lowlevel that hosts missions for you in the system. you get glory and reputation then. tested and confirmed ;)

Thx for the info now it sounds like a bug when I think about how it was earlier in the EA.

No, we tested it yesterday. You neither get glory nor influence for very low PR missions anymore. Something got changed there.

You get glory for a mission that translates into influence for a system. White missions should net 5 glory = 5 influence. The gain of glory was bugged somehow. You got only 5-10 glory no matter what you played so maybe the experience you had came from bugfix attempts.

On the other hand there is no ARPG where you get anything of worth if you do lowlevel stuff. In my oppinion there should be no loot, XP, Rxp, glory, influence or whatever for missions -250 PR. This may be bad for people who don't want to twink but everything has it's flaws ^^.