Topic: Beating a dead horse

The idea that increasing the beta reward will make people log in and play to attack a beta outpost is preposterous. If they were playing already but never leaving alpha it might make some sense perhaps but they are not. They have already gone. Making beta more lucrative will do absolutely nothing to bring these people back, it will just reward the people who are already there. Your list of changes for the remainder of this year have merit in some cases but show a complete lack of forward vision (they don't have a coherent ideal behind them) and distressingly will not make the game more attractive to old or new players.

Really at this point you have three options:

1) Address the reason's why people have left in a big enough package or changes so that it has enough of a flavor change to want to come back

2) Make small changes in the hope that you can change the leaver - new player ratio and build your playerbase over time

3) Create a new influx of players alongside enough changes to keep them in the game to create a stable population that can organically grow

Point 1 wont work. There isn't enough goodwill left to bring back the numbers you would need and the game cannot be changed enough to keep them if they did. This will not happen.

Point 2 is also never going to happen. Even if every new player stayed from now onward it would be several YEARS until you had a sustainable population.

Point 3 is the only option. The problem is your out of big things to throw at people. this leaves you with a bucket with holes in trying to keep the titanic afloat but I still after all these years think you do have some hope left. If I were in your unenviable position i'd go with:

Create a game worth playing:

> Full wipe of assets and skills

> Full rebalance of weapons and mechs / bots with an emphasis on retasking old never used stuff to look like new never had stuff

> Rebalance of risk reward

> Finish of the PvE changes

Bringing in new people:

Make the game FTP limiting skills to a maximum of 5 and making sure things like epriton mining, base building and mk2 bots can only be used by paid accounts (make them use a level 6 skill)

Create a reasonable income:

bring back the monthly sub at $10 for premium with the skill cap lifted and a +30% modifier to asset accumulation for premium users

Possible cash shop for PvP ammo / Mk2 stuff (with no skill requirement) and bot colours

Don't get lynched by the natives

Give people who have purchased the game 12 months premium WITHOUT the 30% bonus and a 50% discount for twelve months on credits

You've heard it a million times, people have told you over and over but the game is still able to be saved but absolutely not in the way your going (or have been going the last year). The existing playerbase will NEVER grow (the game is free for these guys and they still dont play), you need an influx and to keep them.

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

Re: Beating a dead horse

Dead horse is dead.  Please stop beating it.  Nobody wants to watch you beat it.  Go back to omegle.

Re: Beating a dead horse

lol

I am Perpetuum.

Re: Beating a dead horse

Assumption is the mother of all...

And this can be TL;DR'd as "assume everything".

5 (edited by Illiathos 2015-09-02 18:27:56)

Re: Beating a dead horse

On the premium and accounts note: there needs to be a rule that a player may only play on one FREE account.

Also, there would need to be a buy-in for the skill cap (and allowance of multiple kinds of these), but not the premium - premium can bring goodies, that's cool. (if the game was p2p like eve, i would never have bought 15 accounts and the devs would be poorer by ~600 euros)

On the reset assets issue, here's the thing. I am a guy that owns a LOT in the game. I nowadays don't care about my assets. Reset if you wish, I'll happily play again. Others might not.

On the EP reset, fine. But the starter must be no less than 200k EP. I am not waiting again for months to get a riveler.

You could make EP purchaseable to a certain point (for example, the cap of purchased EP would be 100k).


But most importantly, without the balance changes, the game would not change by much. The old vets would know the game from inside out and dominate the grounds not by assets, but by knowledge. And the assets accumulation would begin again. If you need me to clarify: assets will accumulate unless balance is changed.

On another note, 2 hours of epi mining covers most of my rivelers (~80% the costs). Yup, it's that easy to build high end bots.

EDIT: my accounting skills were wrong.

Re: Beating a dead horse

I didn't understand why free accounts gained EP from the get go.

I stand behind full EP/Asset and character wipe.

Steam achievement Unlocked:  Being a Badass
http://www.perp-kill.net/kill/239407
Dev Zoom: I think its time to confess, Ville is my alt
Dev Zoom: Ville can be sometimes so sane it's scary.

7 (edited by Hunter 2015-09-02 18:39:36)

Re: Beating a dead horse

+1 to wipe and F2P. This is the way.

Compensation for the old players can be black robots each class&race with no requirements.

The theory of mutual interests
Why the crybabies wins?
Где Ханя - там победа (с)
DEV Zoom: No need to speculate...

Re: Beating a dead horse

As for the first paragraph, i tell you this: people are happily living on alpha, with the absolute highest bots the game can give them. That is a big no-no. It doesn't help the game's longevity and we can see that many players go to beta just to pvp. Which is ok in a sense, but keep in mind: if you were forced to go to beta to max yourselves out, then you would need to live in beta. And that creates content. PVP one for that matter. Remember you folks that pvp-ed with us on greens just because you knew that if you go to alsbale, you'll find action? yeah.

There should be a natural progression of the game. The highest and best players should be living in gamma. In their safe spots. Which players would assault, constantly. Just to bring them out of the best islands. Unfortunately, DEVS have disabled any prospects of gamma. Instead of either keeping it as it is or nerfing the turrets a bit to allow easier assaults, they decided to make it not worth for us to be in gamma.

Re: Beating a dead horse

Npcs are the problem with gamma.  Fix npcs and people will use the *** out of gamma in its current state.

Steam achievement Unlocked:  Being a Badass
http://www.perp-kill.net/kill/239407
Dev Zoom: I think its time to confess, Ville is my alt
Dev Zoom: Ville can be sometimes so sane it's scary.

Re: Beating a dead horse

Will wiping the servers make you less of a crybaby and ragequitter tho, and increase your prowess at playing Perpetuum?

That is the real question here.

I believe pvp could be very exciting and the game has what it takes. But this is game is ruined and we all know  by who, it´s by corps like CiR, -77- and PHM. - by Fu ManChu

11 (edited by Naismith 2015-09-03 09:01:55)

Re: Beating a dead horse

A wipe would guarantee a vast majority of players would not return to the game. I doubt a lot of people would be impressed with a F2P Freemium change either.

I love the game but I don't think me or anyone from my corp would consider playing in a freemium post-wipe Perpetuum. I'd be surprised if anyone from our entire alliance played, it'd most likely be a few stragglers here and there.

12 (edited by Burial 2015-09-03 09:53:13)

Re: Beating a dead horse

Once games like Albion/Das Tal/Crowfall/Repopulation are out and there's still 10 people online, it's safe to say they had their chance, missed it 5 times over and nothing they do can change anything.

Sandboxes are the new themeparks and there's new ones popping up quarterly.

Re: Beating a dead horse

Naismith wrote:

A wipe would guarantee a vast majority of players would not return to the game. I doubt a lot of people would be impressed with a F2P Freemium change either.

I love the game but I don't think me or anyone from my corp would consider playing in a freemium post-wipe Perpetuum. I'd be surprised if anyone from our entire alliance played, it'd most likely be a few stragglers here and there.

As usual its always negatives rather than presenting possible solutions. Do you really think the game can grow organically after four years of failing miserably at it? A player infleux with enough changes to keep it is their only hope and since sales so far have failed what other options than ftp are there?

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

Re: Beating a dead horse

Dude nobody is going to pay for a sub in a Freemium, you can stuff it in your crack pipe and smoke it because it won't happen.

Organic growth is the only step forward. It's a slow process, because there's a lot of negative word-of-mouth to be overcome, but quality development can and has brought people back to the game. It's a cumulative result of effort after effort after effort.

Putting the game on a decent sale (like 50-75% off) can always bring more people to the game. People bring their friends with them if they like what they see. That's why quality development is important, providing a reasonable incentive for players to get hyped enough to spend X weeks months building a corporation and going out to Beta or Gamma or whatever.

Your suggestion is a reflection of your behavior as a player and corporation leader - chaotic, drastic, and unreliable. You want them to wipe after they said they won't wipe (as if that won't be dragged up), go from F2P+sub to B2P-no-sub back over to F2P+sub-or-youre-worthless?

Who would want to play and pay for a game where the developers change not just the game rules but the whole business model willy-nilly?

Re: Beating a dead horse

Naismith wrote:

A wipe would guarantee a vast majority of players would not return to the game. I doubt a lot of people would be impressed with a F2P Freemium change either.

I love the game but I don't think me or anyone from my corp would consider playing in a freemium post-wipe Perpetuum. I'd be surprised if anyone from our entire alliance played, it'd most likely be a few stragglers here and there.

a vast majortiy of players would not/does not return in any case. About your corps/alliance members not returning is no argument either.

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: Beating a dead horse

Holy crap...I actually agree with you Syndic.  Content for players that is engaging and interesting pve will retain players. Letting corps that are new, grow and allowing them to find content that helps that, will grow. Advertising and some sensible robot balancing (perhaps some new bots and modules. Not some so called emergent pvp gank mechanic around opening the beta bases that jita once proposed....

Its ok now...Ive taken my meds and I'm zen'd out....lol

Re: Beating a dead horse

On the other hand, I wouldn't care about a server wipe anyway, that would be fine. Most of the comments here seem to be from people who no longer play the game......go play something else...or come back and contribute....


back to Zenning..peace out screamers

18 (edited by Burial 2015-09-03 13:34:29)

Re: Beating a dead horse

They've been trying to do the organic growth for 5 years and the game is still dead. What's going to make the coming years any different?

19 (edited by Naismith 2015-09-03 14:31:36)

Re: Beating a dead horse

We've had how many huge population influxes?

Did they work?

What's the point in redesigning the whole game trying to get another huge population influx, if the 5 before that didn't work?

Re: Beating a dead horse

Naismith wrote:

We've had how many huge population influxes?

Did they work?

What's the point in redesigning the whole game trying to get another huge population influx, if the 5 before that didn't work?

There might be some balancing changes that would make the vets op. Remember removing static spawns? made the folks with full research chain unlocked even more op.

On another note, unless you have those changes planned, there's not really any good reason to reset the game.

Re: Beating a dead horse

Naismith wrote:

We've had how many huge population influxes?

Did they work?

What's the point in redesigning the whole game trying to get another huge population influx, if the 5 before that didn't work?

The point would be redesigning the game because the player influx's dont stay and the organic growth doesnt happen so perhaps change the game enough so that either of them does work?

You seem to want to continue to do the same thing that hasn't worked for years while discounting the opinions of those who don't play like the opinions of the ten who do is somehow more valuable. Theres a reason they dont play. The game needs some of these people to play.

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

Re: Beating a dead horse

I know what holds the developers from f2p model.

No, this is not a problems with balance and mystic pay2win danger. Let's be honest. The people who want take advantage - they will sell ICEs and run in the mk2/t4 ever.

The only problem with BOTs. Nothing else. Only few hamsters wonders about apparent disbalance.

The theory of mutual interests
Why the crybabies wins?
Где Ханя - там победа (с)
DEV Zoom: No need to speculate...

Re: Beating a dead horse

I think they are more worried about the tiny income source drying up to nothing. The buy to play amount was based on an average paid tenure of less than three months and so if you bought the game and effectively paid three months up front they made more money.

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."

Re: Beating a dead horse

The game should be $19.99.  Or $14.99

Steam achievement Unlocked:  Being a Badass
http://www.perp-kill.net/kill/239407
Dev Zoom: I think its time to confess, Ville is my alt
Dev Zoom: Ville can be sometimes so sane it's scary.

Re: Beating a dead horse

In it's current state if the game was free you still wouldn't get 100 in general chat.

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."