Topic: If I had one wish the next dev blog would be like this:
You have all waited patiently and it's finally time to hear about what we are bringing to the game over the next year.
The first thing I want to talk about is how we are switching to set releases of content. We are moving to a new style of a patch every three months both to give you all something to look forward to and also to give us a bit of a fixed deadline so that we can push ourselves to get stuff on the table. To that end, we will make some firm promises about what we will bring in, and hope to add some little extras in there to surprise you all too.
Currently we are in Perpetuum: Gamma Frontier. Our first release date will be September the 15th and is provisionally called ....
Perpetuum: Assault
Hold on to your hats because this is going to get interesting.
Project Assault is about bringing something that has been sorely lacking over the last few years to you all. New Mechs and Bots. Now before you get overly excited I want to come right out and say that doesn't at this time mean new graphical models. Sadly at this time we don't have the resources to provide that, but more about that later.
What we are talking about is utilizing some of the little used or unused models in game to bring content to the masses that has been sorely missing. We'd like pretty new Mechs too, don't get me wrong, but you don't look at the mantelpiece when your poking the fire.
Public testing of the first patch will go live at the beginning of September and we will talk more about that in the blog below but what you can expect to see over the next twelve months is:
Four tiers of every Robot in the game will be rebalanced and released. Provisionally those tiers will be Reversed, Hacked, Engineered and Commander. Reversed will be based upon technology gleaned from dead robots kernals. Hacked will be from construction templates found in the wreckage of high level missions and through artifacts. Engineered will be made on a bespoke basis based on the technology gained. Commanders are something you will have to wait for ...
Each tier will be distinct and have its own plus and minus points. We are moving away from a blanket increase in power to specialized roles. That's three new Light Bots, Light Ewars, Assaults, Mechs, Ewar Mechs and Heavies that will be released over the next twelve months. If we can get the balancing right we will release some of these every month with the Assault tier in the first six months and the Commander tier released in the following six months.
Now I know you love me, want my babies and can't wait to get the tech, build the bots and go blow each other up in them but wait ... there's more.
In order to facilitate this change Prototyping will be removed from the game in the September patch. All prototypes will be turned in to 150p CT's. Reverse engineering will now produce a CT and not a prototype. The prototype bay will be renamed the engineering bay and used to create the Engineered class of robot.
The next big change I want to discuss is the rebalance and reuse of the weapon tier system. Do you know how many tiers of weapons there are? There are 13. I bet you know how many get used. There is so much filler in the tier system it really gives us a massive opportunity to provide new content.
Expect to see 12 different tiers of weapons, all 12 of which we expect to see in regular use. There will be a standard version of a weapon and then two distinctly different types of weapon. The fourth type will combine some of the bonus of both of those different types for considerably more weight. There will be a slightly better version of each of these weapons that drops relatively regularly from high tier rats and missions. It will also be available in the coming token shop. The last group will be comparatively rare (expected to drop one module per fifty missions) but provide the best performance of each of the types.
The first group of four will be released in September with the next two in the following quarters. The final patch will contain a full rebalance of the gunnery range which will only get the first four tiers up to that point.
All existing modules will be transferred on to the corresponding model on patch day (always moving up if a mid level module) with the exception of T4+ which will remain on the server to either be used or as a collectors item.
Want more? Why not! In order to keep the Devs in Ramen and toast, and hopefully end the year promising new Mech models for Autumn 2016 we are introducing a cash shop which will be on the forums by October and hopefully in game by Christmas.
Provisionally we will have the following items at roughly these prices although expect to see regular changes and sales as we both respond to customer feedback and popularity. The idea is to provide readily available gear and Mechs for reasonable prices. We want to avoid pay to win and rather make it pay not work in much the same way as ICE currently achieves. We will NEVER sell Commander Bots or Mechs or tier three weaponry.
PvP ammo: 500 for $1
Hacked Mech (all Bots - Heavies available, quoted price is a Mech) $5
Engineered Mech (as above) $10
Engineered heavy PVE fit with second tier weaponry $50
Hacked construction templates $5 per 50p
All of the balance changes and new bot types will of course be discussed on the forum beforehand and put on the test server as early as possible. Expect us to respond readily to feedback and them evolve as we balance on the fly and build a new format of fighting in a relatively short amount of time.
Thank you for your patience and I hope we can enjoy this new era together.