Topic: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Dear DEVs, (or should i write Dear DEV Zoom, DEV CRM)

Factions - why do you have those in? is there a greater plan for them in, or are you mas0chists that have just implemented all of that because you saw it in "that other game"?

you present new player with three choices, create three different unique faction designs, and even make 4 different weapons (where 3 are almost identical).
Just to present them 3 empty stater zones that they have to progress through (alpha one's) that they can actually totally ignore once the join the factionless player corps (this plural fits, as they are mostly dead bodies anyway)

you implement 3 different resists and damage types for Rock-Paper-Scissors balance, just to negate it with a fourth damage/resist type that is initially the second worst resist for all, and due to npc fits, best to use damage type.
not to forget, you have a dimishing return resist scale, yet most robots are by default at an average of 50% resist!
and you wonder why everyone just fits armor plates and doesn't care much about resist holes.
they have to face PVP ammo anyway (does all damage types equally)

you implement a *** of tiers for each item, initially with different traits as in
- T1 basic
- T2 low mass, low fitting cost
- T3 higher ROF, slightly higher fitting cost
- T4 higher Damage Per Shot, higher fitting cost

yet, you also made it that the T4 is simply gives you the best Mass/DPS/Cost ratio of them all, and no robot ingame struggles to fully fit T4 in all slots, and stay accumulator stable with it, using only ALPHA strikes (you know, in that other mech game, you explode from overheat if you do that)

oh,
and you implement 12! different resources, with several of them somehow factional...
the faction restriction of materials should provide a reason to trade them, especially for waring player groups that have settled on different factional islands.
yet strangely enough, you cannot fit a single bot effectively with the resources from one island, if you would be restricted to that (resist plates require material from other faction, basics like repair and sensor amps are factional)
nor does anyone have to fight over those resources as the PVP island only resource(s) is not factional restricted,
and faction-ores are infinite availiable inbetween pvp zones on alpha

the most mysterious thing is,
with your low DEV capacities you got from the beginning - why did you seperate PVP and PVE into two seperate games?

ever since the day in january, six or seven years ago in closed beta, when i asked in chat "hey, can police towers shoot through rocks?", the game went down with bandaid fixes to prohibit M2S members from griefing defenseless player at the starter terminal.
first, you tried to fix police towers (removing LoS from the weapon)
then, they coninued by just alpha striking single targets with inexpensive gauss fit kains, using several accounts linked by ISOBoxer,
which then led to the syndicate protection all around alpha islands

why did you never consider that the fault was the absolution that came with the explosion for every sinner? you never considered forcing those to respawn at beta terminals, with lasting agression from Police towers on alpha? (At that time, accounts where limited by subscription and beta invites - in theory)

back to factions - you even changed the backgroundstory of the game so the pvp that was/is seen ingame (aka griefing) is supported by it. instead of making pvp a result of the conflicts between the three starter factions.

Tl;DR
question to the DEVs - why did you remove factions and law from the game and never repaired your bandaid fixes?

*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

2 (edited by Obi Wan Kenobi 2016-09-03 23:44:34)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Dead game please move along, Nothing to see here roll

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks tongue

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ? tongue

3 (edited by BeastmodeGuNs 2016-09-04 02:20:41)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

^^ Aussie forum warrior who has not played in over a year. This is not the forum you are looking for. Move along!

Reading this signature fills you with determination.

4 (edited by Gekko 2016-09-04 11:10:44)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Remove PvP and most of the problems will dissapear.

I know that most of you oldfags want the PvE completely removed, totally same as in eve.

But the fact is, potential new players are often asking about PvE, and will they'll be able to play it if they aren't all in PvP.
So if choosing exclusevely between PvE and PvP, reasonable choise is PvE. In terms of marketing and player retention.

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Remove PvP and most of the problems will dissapear.
I know that most of you oldfags want the PvE completely removed, totally same as in eve.
But the fact is, potential new players are often asking about PvE, and will they'll be able to play it if they aren't all in PvP.
So if choosing exclusevely between PvE and PvP, reasonable choise is PvE. In terms of marketing and player retention.


You are a special kind of stupid aren't you the pvp is the only thing that kept this game going this long without pvp we have no need for industry and mining either. Sim city is that way dipshit ====>

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Gekko wrote:

Remove PvP and most of the problems will dissapear.

I know that most of you oldfags want the PvE completely removed, totally same as in eve.

But the fact is, potential new players are often asking about PvE, and will they'll be able to play it if they aren't all in PvP.
So if choosing exclusevely between PvE and PvP, reasonable choise is PvE. In terms of marketing and player retention.

there is no need to remove pvp, it just needs to be connected to the pve part.

*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: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

BeastmodeGuNs wrote:

^^ Aussie forum warrior who has not played in over a year. This is not the forum you are looking for. Move along!

like most of the people who post on these forums! tongue

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks tongue

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ? tongue

8 (edited by Gekko 2016-09-04 14:49:00)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Rugerx wrote:

Remove PvP and most of the problems will dissapear.
I know that most of you oldfags want the PvE completely removed, totally same as in eve.
But the fact is, potential new players are often asking about PvE, and will they'll be able to play it if they aren't all in PvP.
So if choosing exclusevely between PvE and PvP, reasonable choise is PvE. In terms of marketing and player retention.


You are a special kind of stupid aren't you the pvp is the only thing that kept this game going this long without pvp we have no need for industry and mining either. Sim city is that way dipshit ====>

Without PvE it would be dead(for real) PvP game. Like those steam games with always empty multiplayer. But i don't really have so much time to discuss it with that stupid kinds wink

9 (edited by Gekko 2016-09-04 15:03:53)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Annihilator wrote:
Gekko wrote:

Remove PvP and most of the problems will dissapear.

I know that most of you oldfags want the PvE completely removed, totally same as in eve.

But the fact is, potential new players are often asking about PvE, and will they'll be able to play it if they aren't all in PvP.
So if choosing exclusevely between PvE and PvP, reasonable choise is PvE. In terms of marketing and player retention.

there is no need to remove pvp, it just needs to be connected to the pve part.

Could be. There's some ways to do really interesting PvPvE activities. But it should blend togther in truly interesting way, not just by removing Alpha protection from farming and mining or by simple reward multiplier.
One of very successful examples were wormholes in eve, with a lot of unique group PvE and PvP gameplay. Looking for "adventures and fortune", not for artificial "PvP fun".
But potato sad

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

thats true.
the point is, to change PvE content, how its played to the same playstyle that you will get in PvP.

I wouldn't really look into "how EvE" does it, as that game has similar issues.

First change necessary - it has to make no difference if i shoot a hostile NPC or hostile Player.
- i need to be rewarded or punished equally for shooting a criminal/hostile entity
-- for that "criminal" or "hostile" must have a definition
--- for that you need to make player pledge to NPC factions or flag themselfs as "lawless"

a rather good example is the faction system in E:D, even though its not flawlessly implemented, and the stupid instanced gameworld.

*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

11 (edited by Celebro 2016-09-04 21:10:56)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Great post. Eve 'safe zone' is truly tried and tested and it works very well imho. Kill to many players on alpha get standing penalty, you become KOS for any player anywhere. Grind up 'Police' standing to make up for it.

I wish they would have continued with police towers, this would have avoided complete safe zones which players balance out the risk/reward aspect on alpha.

About PVP-PVE connection I don't understand where you are going with this. PVE has always been a means to and end to enable you to PVP, at that level they are connected.

RIP PERPETUUM

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

and thats the issue i am writing about. that connection is as if you had to play several hours solitaire between every round counterstrike...

*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

13 (edited by Celebro 2016-09-04 21:34:08)

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Annihilator wrote:

and thats the issue i am writing about. that connection is as if you had to play several hours solitaire between every round counterstrike...

Some players like solitaire others counter strike, some like both wink. Now, with too few players most are forced to do both, that's why the market is dead. I understand low playerbase is a very big failing factor in this design, really works well with much more players, after all it's an MMO.

If what you want is more meaningful NPC combat , not to sure how it can be accomplished without getting boring after a while. Even if you tried to, it would get boring and would need to be updated constantly which is not realistic considering the resources available from developers.

What's left say is: NPC are there just to grind and gather resources for either personal progression, RP or PVP requirements, then the players drive the game with their own content. This is thought out by design.

RIP PERPETUUM

Re: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

beating dead horse phrases that come up all the time:

more player will make the market work -> proven wrong
higher rewards on beta will increase pvp activity -> proven wrong
its a sandbox game, the playerbase has to create the content -> proven misconception
more player will make the game mechanis work -> proven wrong

how the hell do you expect the game to work with more player, when BY DESIGN, two competing forces cannot even play next to each other. by design not even friendly forces can do stuff well together (aka missions as a group).

*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: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

Annihilator wrote:

beating dead horse phrases that come up all the time:

more player will make the market work -> proven wrong

This is true


higher rewards on beta will increase pvp activity -> proven wrong

This is false


its a sandbox game, the playerbase has to create the content -> proven misconception

This is partially true but the ability to pull in players and advertise needs to be higher so false

more player will make the game mechanis work -> proven wrong

This is false. The game was wonderful when there were a few thousand playing. It's maintaining those numbers they suck at.

how the hell do you expect the game to work with more player, when BY DESIGN, two competing forces cannot even play next to each other. by design not even friendly forces can do stuff well together (aka missions as a group).

Mortal Online has some of the best most engaging and fun PVE and PVP I've played, it has great group content, amazing world size and low barriers to entry. It's still empty.

When you look at why perp is empty you need to look at all games really, from the dead ones who are doing a lot of the stuff you are advocating to the busy ones who are not. If I had to put my finger on it it wouldn't be game design or PVE content or any of the *** people talk about. This game is very engaging with even a half decent population. I really believe that once you have a good game (and this is) the only way to maintain a population is regular new content alongside heavy advertising. The only other bit is to avoid the watershed moments that she'd 10 - 30 percent of the population.

Perp will NEVER be populated.

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: Questions to DEVs about this game, accumulated over the years

I'm having fun.
8D