Topic: Assignments, Smaller PBS
There's this on-going call for more PvE content, but that's a weird thing to say for Perpetuum. There's a small group of developers trying to work around open-world gameplay, with a player-driven economy. It's hardly feasible. Herein lies my first proposals:
(1) player directed content, like courier contracts... keep thinking along these lines!
(2) increase traffic between alpha en beta... assignment that can be done at least in fast-moving bots for people based on alpha. Risk-reward and all that, but also keep supporting light bots in player progression, maybe even a PvE-role for light ewar;
(3) content based on player interactions; i.e. have missions give players beacons and spawn a few tough NPC's, PvP style, instead of hunting down 20 WoW-like chickens;
(4) I'm thinking certain beacons should be deployed on beta+ only, but that's messing with current mechanics.. touchy subject in these parts
Continuing, in my opinion, PBS is the ideal mechanic for player-driven content, stories, gameplay and all that jazz.
Currently, Gamma PBS is based around a more permanent foothold. It could be for a few days, sure, but there's a fairly large sum of NIC (and time) involved, something that's not that feasible for new groups coming in the game. And it shouldn't.
Yet, it's off-limit for most players. You could argue; just join a corp, but that's not something easily said. It's the sort of conformity that shouldn't be there in the first place (sandbox, remember!)
So we have all this space, rewards (doesn't even have to be Colixum), and I'm sure a lot of players interested in owning a piece of land. So on this, my proposal:
Why not allow small outposts, camps even, to be deployed on Gamma? No defensive capabilities (maybe a single reinforced stage for the timezone predicament), some detection, but overall, something to store your stuff (resources, maybe a bot or two) while you go out and mine, farm, roam, skirmish or stage Gamma assaults.
These are mechanics that can be steered by putting up severe limitations (it's basically a more permanent field container), but supporting one player to a small group could in my opinion really drive Perpetuum to that unique experience it's already steering towards.
Thanks for reading.