Hi guys!

I just started playing PO on monday after a friend of mine (Caithleen/Natasya) persuaded me to come and join him to check out Perpetuum Online.
First of all, I think that PO has great potential and the game feels quite good after the first few hours of gameplay. But to be honest… if Natasya wouldn’t tell me all the good things about PO (Corp gameplay, PvP, base battles etc.) I would definitely quit this game right now and probably never give it a second chance.

The reason is not that I do not like sandbox or complex games as I played EVE, Fallen Earth and PotBS with great enthusiam, but more that I do not feel enough "motivation" during the first hours of gameplay.
For the first few hours of gameplay, the game has by far the most boring and annoying tutorial combined with a high learning curve especially regarding character progress (skills). I of course do not know the numbers but I guess the conversion from a new player to a player completing all the 10 tutorial missions is lower than 20-30%. I think we all know what this means for a game which is more of less “floating” somewhere in the MMO world waiting for players (and/or publishers).

So what are my main concerns:
1. Not enough motivation
The first few hours are very boring and as a player I do not feel rewarded (and so motivated) for the first steps I take within this game. In my opinion this could be "smothened" with just some simple steps. For example: After the player completes the movement tutorial reward him the first weapon. In this way the player will get the first "touchable" reward and he will also have to use it right away in the first combat tutorial.
In addition I would suggest to not grant the 20.000 EP to the player right after the character creation. I would suggest to (for example) award the player with 2k EP for the completion of each Tutorial Assignment (10 in total resulting in 20K EP). In that way the EP do not just be there but they are an additional reward for the player. In addition, the game will be able to tell the player what he should use his first EP for (e.g. basic robotics, navigation, some basic stuff...) while doing the 10 tutorial missions.

2. Boring/Annoying tutorial missions
The very first mission is reaching 4 points on the map... this is by far the most boring thing I ever did in a game. I do not say that this mission should be deleted from the game but it should be shortened by at least 50%.

The combat missions are the first action, but they last far too long… What’s the motivation to target lock a drone and keep firing at it for 3-5 minutes over falling asleep hitting the keyboard with my head?

The second teleport mission (the one backwards) asks you to transport an item which is in your private vault… PLEASE remind the player to fetch this data console in adding a sub-step to this quest (eg. Place the data console into your cargo, Next Step: Deliver the data console to terminal whatever…

3. No forum access during trial
As a new player in a highly complex game like PO I will be able to ask questions even while I am not playing the game right now. For this reason it is absolutely necessary to be able to post on the forums as a trial member. If you are so frightened about spam, negative feedback or whatever then just limit the write access to a single forum area but please give new players the opportunity to get in touch with other players while not having access to the game (e.g. @work, on a trip etc.).

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In my opinion it is very important to keep the player motivated during his first hours of gameplay until the player gets interested in "the real game".
As I stated above, I would not have paid my frist ~9 Euro if I had to check out PO on my own without someone telling me what lies ahead of me. Right now (after having paid my first bucks) I got interested in this game as I begin to understand its progress (fitting, EP) and after I got into a corp. In fact I do think that PO is a very interesting game and that it can be a successfull game in some time but I also think that it is still far away from even being a "medium" successfull sandbox/indie game (for example compared to Fallen Earth).

Best regards,

Legedric

/edit: spelling