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Some Assembly Required: Happy birthday Perpetuum!
Welcome back to Some Assembly Required, dear readers. This week marks something of a milestone for Perpetuum, the sci-fi sandbox set in the distant future on a far-flung planet known as Nia. Yes, the mech-based MMORPG has survived its first year (without a free-to-play conversion crutch!), and more than that, it's even grown a little bit. That's no small feat for an indie title in today's overcrowded MMO marketplace, never mind a niche sandbox that's been called a ground-based EVE Online. Join me after the break for a recap of Perpetuum's first 12 months.
Perpetuum planning tourney, treasure hunt for first anniversary
Perpetuum turns one year old this week, and the devs at Avatar Creations are celebrating in style. A new blog entry brings word of an anniversary weekend complete with a competitive PvP tournament and a not-so-competitive treasure hunt. The tourney happens on the weekend of December 3rd, and it's open only to corporations (few solo players could afford the 10 million NIC entry fee anyway). In terms of format, the event is a 16-team ladder elimination affair, and the first 16 corporations to mail in their registration fee will be accepted (the deadline is November 27th). If your group isn't up for bloodletting and robotic mayhem, you can join in the PvE treasure hunt and obtain plenty of loot rewards for your trouble. Check out the official Perpetuum website for more details and the full list of tourney rules.
Perpetuum dev blog talks MMO complexity, implementation
Why don't those silly devs just fix it? It's a single line of code! It would take a few seconds! If you've played MMOs for a while, chances are you've uttered (or at least thought about) a variation on those lines at some point. We suggest a read-through of the latest Perpetuum dev blog, as it's a real eye-opener when it comes to the complexity that goes into seemingly simple fixes. Avatar Creations walks us through an example of the ricochet effect that can result from changing a single integer value, and while it's not light reading or intended for those of us whose eyes glaze over at the thought of anything technical, it's nonetheless an interesting peek behind the curtain. The dev blog also illustrates the Perpetuum team's allow-anyone-to-fix-anything-they-can mantra, and you can read the full text at the game's official website.
New Perpetuum patch introduces Sparks, Extension Downgrading
A new patch just hit Perpetuum, and it brings Sparks and Extension Downgrading along with it. No idea what either of those things are? Don't worry, that's why we're here. In the Perpetuum universe, Sparks are nanobots that grant small but permanent bonuses to a player's bot. A number of these Sparks are already available in-game and can be unlocked either by paying a one-time NIC fee, or by reaching "a certain level of relation with a corporation." Sparks will also be available for Energy Credit when the system goes live later on down the road. Extension Downgrading is exactly what it sounds like. It allows players to downgrade the level of their mechs' extensions in order to receive a full EP and NIC refund. The feature is largely intended for new players who aren't sure how to build their bots, so it will only be available to players for 30 days after the creation of their first character. However, since it's a new system, current players will be able to use the feature for 30 days after the feature goes live. For the full details on the patch, boost yourself over to the official Perpetuum site.
Perpetuum adding distress beacons, relaxing trial restrictions
If you've ever wanted to prank-call a mob in an MMORPG, Perpetuum just might be your game. The sci-fi sandbox from Avatar Creations has unveiled a new distress beacon mechanic that basically allows the player to lure a few of the game's alien forces into an ambush. The new gameplay adds a bit of PvE flavor to what is otherwise a PvP-focused title (or at least, a title in which the vast majority of the playerbase PvPs in some fashion), and Avatar is also adding new module tiers, which may be looted from the officers and commanders who respond to the distress beacon calls. Finally, Avatar's latest Perpetuum dev blog brings some good news for those of you looking to partake of the game's free trial. Most of the trial's restrictions are being lifted, and you'll now be able to do just about everything in the game with the exception of founding your own corporation and sending money to other players. Check out the game's website for all the details, and don't forget to have a look at the distress beacon video after the break.
Perpetuum upgrading to shader 3.0
Avatar Creations has posted a new Perpetuum dev blog that heralds the coming of shader 3.0. This is either great news or irritating news depending on what kind of gaming rig you run, but either way, change is coming. The sci-fi sandbox game launched with model 2.0 shaders because Avatar wanted to make it as accessible as possible for as many people as possible, and because the team initially lacked DirectX experience. Now, though, Avatar has "reached the limits of shader model 2.0," and needs to upgrade the game in a visual sense without "going through significant hacks that reduce client performance and mess up the codebase." Shader 3.0 is the answer, and the dev blog serves as a warning that the game's minimum hardware requirements will be changing. "As the vast majority of you have hardware that supports SM3, the change will only affect a handful of players," Avatar states.
Perpetuum removing character attributes, tweaking character creation
The end of the month is drawing nigh, and that means it's time to check in with the devs at Avatar Creations for the skinny on Perpetuum. The sci-fi sandbox is trucking right along, according to the latest dev blog, which outlines a few changes forthcoming in the near future. First and foremost is the removal of character attributes. If you're not familiar with the game, the change isn't as dire as it initially sounds, as attributes basically determine the cost of extension points, which in turn leads to skill specialization. Avatar says that the only problem with the current system is that it forces players to make critical choices early in their Perpetuum careers (when most don't have a clue how they want to build their character or how the game works). The attribute changes will also necessitate a character creation revamp, and you can read all about the tweaks on the official website.
Perpetuum down today due to datacenter move
If you were planning to play a little Perpetuum today, you might want to make other plans. The sci-fi sandbox's servers are moving to a bigger location across town (in Budapest, Hungary, if you're curious), and the forums and website will down in addition to the game. Avatar Creations' latest dev update says that the game will remain offline "for the better part of the day," and status updates will be available on the Perpetuum Facebook page. When the hardware comes back to life, Perpetuum will be sporting a brand-new website complete with everything you need to keep track of the game on the homepage, not to mention an entirely new section devoted to lore and short fiction. Finally, the newest dev blog mentions that this is not the server move that Avatar has been planning to make in order to address routing issues. Rather, this one is necessitated by a datacenter expansion to a larger facility.
Some Assembly Required: Is the sandbox dead?
Let's face it, folks, 2011 has been a fairly bad year for sandbox MMORPGs. Whether we're talking about the premature (and, ahem, forced) demise of Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online's public relations disasters and its capitulation to the cash-shop-in-a-sub-based game fad, or Earthrise's rough launch, there hasn't been a lot to celebrate for fans of non-linear MMO gameplay in quite a while. I've even had several friends ask me point blank: Is the sandbox dead? The short answer is not just no, but hell no. Join me after the cut for a few bright spots as we look to the future, take stock of the present, and try to forget about the past.
Perpetuum update outlines new assigments and more
It's been a few weeks since we've heard from the Perpetuum dev team, but all is apparently well as Avatar Creations has been working feverishly on the new features detailed a while back. This month's blog update focuses on new assignments, and there are 16 of them spread among the game's three main Alpha terminals. Avatar has also gifted players with new assignment types, including mining, harvesting, production, transport, and combat varieties. The devs have also tweaked Perpetuum's facility relations mechanics, with the largest change being a reduction from nine corporations per faction to a more manageable three. Finally, new random NPC spawns are being introduced, and there will be a small chance of encountering new elite NPCs as well. Along with substantial health increases, these guys boast significantly better drop rates. Read all the rest of the details at the official Perpetuum dev blog.
Perpetuum dev blog talks intrusion revamp
Avatar Creations has updated its Perpetuum dev blog, and the latest entry is quite a long read (and also of interest to players concerned about the game's intrusion and outpost conquest systems). As it currently stands, base attack and defense in Perpetuum is a pretty random affair. "One's ability to hold an outpost is largely luck, combined with the number of players one can bring to bear in a specific time zone," Avatar admits. The blog entry sums up the tentative path forward, and a future intrusion revamp will be deployed "rather than build[ing] upon a broken mechanic and creat[ing] more issues." What will the revamp entail? For starters, outpost ownership will cease to be about raid-and-retreat gameplay and instead will be focused on players who actually live on a particular island for the long term. Avatar is confident its new system will encourage PvP while simultaneously preventing instances where players wake up and are unable to access their assets. While there's no date for the intrusion revamp as of yet, there is quite a bit of mechanical info to be read on the official Perpetuum dev blog (and don't forget to leave your feedback in the comments and on the forums after you've checked out the details).
Perpetuum dev blog talks player influx, bug fixing, and new features
Avatar Creations has come up with a new Perpetuum dev blog, and it looks like the little sandbox that could has turned a bit of a corner when it comes to server stability and accommodating its expanding community. Avatar's Dev Calvin explains how the team had to allocate most of its resources to dealing with an influx of EVE Online refugees. The scramble was a successful one, but "the development plan for the first two weeks [of July] was ruined," he writes. Going forward, Perpetuum players will be seeing the long-awaited storyline PvE missions in short order, as well as tweaks to beta outposts and a large helping of what Avatar calls "industrialist love." Calvin does point out that new features will be taking something of a backseat to bug fixes, though, so a little patience is in order. "The influx of players brought light to a lot of glitches, imbalances and dysfunctional mechanisms in the game, so instead of rushing forward and pushing out new features in the next few weeks, we are taking a step back and making everything that is available in the game better," he said.
Perpetuum blog outlines summer development schedule
Hot on the heels of some unfortunate mass bannings, Avatar Creations has posted a more upbeat Perpetuum blog entry. Dev Zoom takes us through the planned content updates for the next few months, and despite the title's PvP nature, there are PvE-focused patches coming. "While our sandbox storyline assignments may not turn out as grandiose as those in other dedicated themepark MMOs, they will still be a nice breeze of fresh air for those interested in the lore and the ones looking for non-standard objectives," Zoom says. There's also a blurb about some new career advice functionality (which will basically be an add-on to the existing help system for players who want to do XYZ but don't know how to begin). Outpost maintenance fees are also in the works, as are tweaks to the friend system (to make it less trivial to spy on your enemies). Finally, Zoom talks a bit about the energy credit system and how it will affect the world of Nia. Read all about in on the official Perpetuum dev blog.
Avatar breaks out the banhammer for Perpetuum cheaters
Rut roh! It's banhammer time in Perpetuum, the sci-fi indie sandbox from Avatar Creations. The latest Avatar dev blog has the (sparse) details courtesy of Dev Calvin. Apparently some players availed themselves of a game exploit that allowed for significant gains in robots, equipment, and other commodities. It's not as innocent as it sounds, though, as the dev blog makes clear. "The method that was used can by no means [be] interpreted as intended gameplay. A lot of technical preparation and effort went into the experimentation and execution," Calvin writes. The ill-gotten gains have of course been removed, and Avatar has also permabanned the offending accounts, which sends a clear message as to the type of zero-tolerance policy toward cheating on display in the world of Nia. Check out the official Perpetuum website for more reading material.
Community Detective Issue #23: Perpetuum
Welcome to the Perpetuum edition of Community Detective. Avatar Creations' mech-based sandbox MMORPG launched back in November, and despite being relatively new to the market, it has already had time to release a free expansion and a 15-day free trial as well as build itself a small but dedicated fanbase. I spent the last couple of weeks tooling around the game's tutorials and early mission content as well as observing Perpetuum's community and customer service offerings. Due to the size of the community and the bare-bones approach to customer service, this week's issue of Community Detective departs from my standard data-centric format in favor of some general impressions. Join me after the cut to see what's happening on the planet Nia.
Perpetuum launches 15-day free trial
Perpetuum's newest expansion officially went live last week, and Terra Incognita brought a bunch of changes to the world of Nia. Chief among them is the doubling of the game world's size, and the extra space makes all the more sense when coupled with the sci-fi sandbox's new free trial. Said trial gives you 15 days of game time, during which you're free to putter around in your giant mech, exploring six new islands and raining death down on NPCs and your fellow players. The trial does come with a couple of restrictions, namely the inability to trade or join a corporation. Other than that, you can build and fight to your heart's content, as well as check out all the new expansion features like the highway fast travel system, new modules, and a highly customizable event notification system. Head to the official Perpetuum website to sign up!
Perpetuum's Terra Incognita expansion coming May 4th
Avatar Creations has a bit of a surprise in store for fans looking forward to Perpetuum's next patch. The update will be a full-blown expansion titled Terra Incognita and will be free to download despite the fact that it's crammed full of content. Avatar has also announced the official release date as May 4th, 2011. So what's in store for the sci-fi sandbox's first expansion? The game world is doubling in size, and six new islands are being made available (three Alpha and three Beta zones, PvE and PvP respectively). Since you can't have a huge game world without providing players a way to avoid traversing it, Avatar is also introducing a new highway system, which will speed travel by an additional 36 kilometers per hour. Terra Incognita is also bringing a new event notification system to the table (and by events, Avatar means UI pop-ups, not in-game shindigs). Gameplay additions include AoE damage from exploding robots, new armor and weapon modules, internal corporation markets, and various mineral and mining tweaks. Head to the official Perpetuum dev blog to get the full scoop.
Perpetuum dev blog outlines upcoming tweaks
There's a new dev blog floating around the Perpetuum website, and it's got quite a bit of interesting info to share with players of Avatar Creations' mech-based sandbox MMORPG. Avatar's Dev Zoom writes that while most of the team is hard at work on growing the world of Nia, there's also room for "a few small but rather important changes, which we intend to implement in smaller patches before and around the world expansion patch." Chief among these updates is a global storage listing. Zoom says that this new asset list functionality will allow players to browse their items in both local and remote terminals. Avatar is also removing NPC buy orders for kernels, leaving the kernel market totally in the hands of players and dependent on player research needs. Also scheduled for a revamp are geoscanner folders, the market rates graph, and the game's event notification system, which the dev blog labels as an "age-old fossil." And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as Avatar has several more items on its to-do list. We've only got so much space though, so you'll have to head to the official Perpetuum dev blog to read the rest.
Perpetuum doubling world size, offering free trials
What's new in the world of Perpetuum? Well, free trials for starters, as Avatar Creations has officially introduced a 15-day grace period for each newly created account. Trial players will not be able to trade items or currency, and they also will be prevented from joining corporations in order to safeguard the game's economy from exploits. Perhaps the biggest update in the world of Perpetuum is, well, the world -- or rather, the world as it will look in an upcoming patch. Avatar's official dev blog details plans to effectively double the size of the planet known as Nia in a patch "planned for about a month from now." The new territory will include six new islands (three of them safe zones and three free-for-all areas). All of the zones will boast infrastructure, NPCs, and materials, and Avatar plans on introducing missions shortly after going live with the update.
New zones and artifacts in latest Perpetuum devblog
Perpetuum has been stomping its way along after its fairly recent launch, doing its level best to prove that everything really is better with giant robots. While the development team has been a bit quiet the past few weeks, the newest devblog entry explains some of the reasons behind the silence. A lot of the team's focus has been on adding new zones to the game for players to explore, with six new zones in development -- three of them remaining safe and three allowing for the unrepentant robot warfare that drives the core game. The game's artifact scanning minigame is also nearing completion, and while the blog entry states outright that the mechanics will be fairly similar, it sounds like a good way to pass some time while there's nothing for your robot to shoot at. There's also official support for an emulation platform on Linux and OSX, which makes the game available to a wider range of potential players. Perpetuum players should take a look at the full entry for all the details. [Thanks to Roy Ary for the tip!]
