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Topic: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Hello all,

I'm a fresh new player in this awesome mmorpg which is perpetuum. I really like the game and the number of ways you can play it, but this comes to my major problem.

I already started playing as a combat speced character but somehow i don't feel this fits to how i want to play the game. I really like the economy part of the game and i have read all the topics related on idustry. As it has a lot of possibilities i'm kinda lost.

I was pretty interested on reverse engeneering and manufacturing but as i was looking at these specialities in depth i found that i need to improve "Inventions" so i can manufacture more stuff (which means buying or farming kernels and improve extensions too). Than comes the selling part (Finances), which actually needs to be improved as well. So it's kinda hard to choose the extensions.

Mining seems to be interesting too because it's easier to choose the extensions and it's a pretty good money maker in the game. In some way it joins the same "passive" gameplay as a player who's speced in manufacturing. ( a lot of players told me that this is more of an afk specialities which is mainly used by people having 2 accounts. )

I'm lost because sometimes you just want to get out and kill some stuff and sometimes you want to focus on producing. I know that some people are going to tell me that i can create just another account and do both but i can't do that.

I know that for some people i can seem very difficult in my choices but i just hope that there are some other people that can understand it and can give me some explications or advises about different specialities.

Thank you very much people!

  • Artem
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

I recommend Gerrick's guide to industry, in this subsection of this forum.

Briefly, industry "roles" include miner (and harvester, and possible specialists in each material), refiner, researcher/prototyper, reverser/manufacturer, repairer, recycler, and many forms of combat support. Most players will choose several roles, either by making a generalist character, or by making single-player teams of multiple characters, on the same or different accounts.

Not all roles allow you to make money from the beginning - researcher/prototyper needs a significant amount of investment of kernels before becoming viable as an income source, for example.

3 Reply by Khanatos (edited by Khanatos 2010-12-30 21:30:20)

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Thanks for your time Artem.

Yeah, i've completly read the "gerrick's guide to industry" and that's mainly why i was interested in reverse engeneering and manufacturing (as he explains that those two specialisations are both good to invest in extensions as they have similarities).

But after i was searching in the extensions and functionalities i found that i need to invest in research so i can manufacture something. so all in all even if you want to spec in reverse engeneering and manufacturing do you need to spec also in researche, finances? Can those players go out and kill mobs even if they aren't specialised in it.

I know that a player who is 2 years in the game can specialise in more roles anyway but even if he does he has to choose wisely.

  • Artem
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

If you want to be a reverser/manufacturer who is not also a researcher/prototyper, then you probably will need cooperate with a researcher/prototyper (since the open markets for prototypes are not very liquid) or limit yourself to reversing and manufacturing standard items, obtained from the market or drops.

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Ok, than i guess that there are players who have two accounts and specialise in reverse/manufacturing in 1st account and researche/prototyping in the second. I don't think that you can do all 4 at the same time on the same account?

Let's say i continue with my combat spec character, what are my possibilities?

Which role is the more appropriate for someone who's playing with one account only?

  • Artem
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

As a combat-specced character, you might reasonably invest some EP into repairing and/or recycling. If you fight NPCs that drop modules that you might want to fit, you might obtain modules for your own use more cheaply. If you do assignments regularly for one specific megacorp, then you will find yourself gaining relation ratio, which will help with repairing and recycling. If you choose to get into repairing and/or recycling, you may want to either make marketer contacts and sell your wares directly (in-terminal trade), or also invest EP in marketing, tax reduction, and accounting.

Even if you do not get into repair or recycle, you might invest EP in finance extensions, and place sell orders for your kernels, and/or buy orders for your bots and fittings rather than behaving as a "price taker" - that immediacy is pleasant, but it costs NIC.

  • CIR
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Anyone can play the market -- extensions help you to maximize but understanding what is where and using the economy to buy low and sell high will net you plenty of riches.

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Ok thanks a lot for your advises!

One last question. Let's say i want to spec in researcher/prototyper (i think it's wiser to spec in maximum two "roles" which in some way have similar extensions) and i decide to farm myself kernel to improve my researcher ability. Is this possible?

As i'm going to make prototypes (let's say i produce ammo) do i need to improve my manufacturing skill also? or is it better to be a reverser/manufacterer and search for kernels later (when i'll have enough money)?

Thanks in advance!

  • Artem
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

It is entirely possible to be a combat + research/prototyper combination. It just will be a fairly long time of doing combat to get kernels, and researching a fraction of them, selling a fraction of them, and using the money to buy ammo, always feeling "poor", before you have enough research% that you can buy refined commodities and prototype something (a non-standard item, so not ammo) that you can sell to a manufacturer.

10 Reply by Khanatos (edited by Khanatos 2010-12-31 15:16:26)

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

It is entirely possible to be a combat + research/prototyper combination

What i meant is that let's say that i want to reset my account and make a full industrial character. Is a researcher/prototyper/manufacturer a viable choice? Can i go search for kernels myself? (i'm not saying that i want to farm lvl 3+ kernels as i'm not going to be a combat character).

I've used the famous perpetuum planner, here's what i did. What do you think?

Edit : i did some changes to the build that i hope are viable.

khanatos.agent

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Up

  • M2S
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Make an industry character and try stuf out.  Shop around and Find something you enjoy.  Dont invest what you could lose (kernal research and relation/standing)

When you find what you like, delete your characters and respec to get all of your EP back and make a character for that role with  full ep. You have 45 days to do this and costs 2 days of ep per character you have to delete.

->You just lost The Game<-
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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

looked through your build just now, so here are my two cents, if there are any question don't hesitate to ask:

You only have a month of ep to spend on, so orientate on one path for that! You can work on the others later on.
At the moment you have too many of them (<< khanatos.agent).

  • Research + Proto
    Research is only necessary if u want to prototype, but will have the most effect at extensionlvl 8 from the beginning. Prototyping gets you some bonuses but it's a moneysink, since u will mainly sell massproduced items. Dont think of producing  ammo with it, its not worth the materials.
    => only take that path if you have a second account to farm masses of kernels and/or if you are in a corp that already has some producers.

  • Massproduction
    with producing you sell the items at market for income. For the beginning: to be able to buy the materials your mainincome will come from geoscanmissions (until you have enough money for a sequer) then transports. So 'Parallel Assignments'lvl3 (to take 4 missions at once) is a must have. Next step can be to RE ammo or standarditems and massproduce them for selling (doesn't need proto).
    extensions:

  • Reverse Engineering (RE)
    is the necessary connection between proto and producer, but you wont really need more lines or more time at the beginning.
    => install the extensions if you have some EP left after some months

  • Market
    necessary for sell- and buyorders or less tax, get 'basic marketing' lvl2-3 optional; but dont put too much EP in Finances, there will be enough profit even without it; you can raise it later on bit by bit.

Since you want to produce to sell I advice you the massproducing path. Kernelfarming for Research+Proto would only pay out with a second pure combat account (not Agent!). Even so later on you will need connections to get prototypes or CT's to sell higher.
All in all it would look like this with pure industry attributes (ICS):

  • Basic Extensions: 26.943 EP
            "Advanced efficient mass production" : 1,
            "Basic efficient mass production" : 5,
            "Basic extensive mass production" : 4,
            "Basic parallel assignments" : 3,
            "Basic robotics" : 4,
            "Industrial robot control" : 4,
            "Intensive mass production" : 4,
            "Navigation" : 4

  • Optional Extensions:
            "Basic marketing" : 3 = 398 EP,
            "Diplomacy" : 5 = 5.460 EP,
            "Navigation" : 7 = +3.135 EP

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Arjha, he can respec his account within the first 45 days, so taking several paths right now might be a good idea so he can get a good feel for the game and where he wants to specialize later.

Of course, if he's planning to keep that plan and run with it for the long term, its not a very good idea.  Specialize first, then diversify once you get those to higher levels (7+).

->You just lost The Game<-

15 Reply by Khanatos (edited by Khanatos 2010-12-31 22:47:22)

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Thanks Neoxx for your answer! I actually already spent my EP's in the combat spec path and have just enough Ep's so i can delete my characters (3 actually) and make the reset. I was farming some kernels and made a pretty good money from it as i had 58 "rookie light robot kernels" in 30 minutes. Depends on the market but the most of the time you can sell it for 8000 NIC which is pretty good. But as i said at the beginning, i don't feel this path is the one i want to continue because i don't feel that usefull for the community and want to make stuff.

Awesome reply Shanoo! This is very helpful for me and makes things really clear as what i can choose and which way.

Thanks for your advice, it's really helpful!

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Re: Some questions about specialisations and Extensions

Btw, HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!