76 Reply by Alexander

(25 replies, posted in General discussion)

Just patched the non-steam client and the patch did freeze for a few seconds, close and reopen but it only took longer than normal rather than not happening at all.

** EDIT: It appears that the issue is with the Perpetuum.exe file rather than a corruption with any of the data files **

First try running the game with admin rights (Which it really shouldn't need, grr)

If running with admin rights does not fix the issue then deleting the peretuum.exe, reinstalling perpetuum and relaunching should work. It should/will be able to detect the existing data files and use them (After checking they're a match) saving you a hefty download process.

Go to forum: General discussion

77 Topic by Alexander

(3 replies, posted in Bugs)

  • Shadow level should be OFF by default

  • Basic UI elements enabled in a good position

  • VOLUME LEVELS SHOULD BE AT 50% OR LESS (If you find capital letters offensive then you understand how my hears feel right now)

  • Update your Credits and EULA ("Perpetuum - Copyright 2005-2010 - Avatar Creations" Hmm?)

  • First level of terrain pass-ability should be togged on

Please add more suggestions, not talking about game play mechanics, just client side settings/defaults that are NOT friendly at current

Go to forum: Bugs

78 Reply by Alexander

(53 replies, posted in News and information)

Gooma wrote:

"Those who already own the game are now able to link their Perpetuum and Steam accounts on our website and receive a free copy of the game on Steam."

yea your wording on it is terrible.   Since all of our accounts are already free, the way you worded it implies that you will receive another account free.   Try not to use google translate.

What they said makes sense when you understand the separation between Perpetuum accounts and Steam purchases.

Sadly because of the recent "Free account forever" thing they've got going on saying a "free copy of Perpetuum on steam" does not sound very free when you understand what it means.

Go to forum: News and information

79 Reply by Alexander

(25 replies, posted in General discussion)

Prior to this patch when was the last time you launched the client?
Worst case you can probably delete some of the smaller settings and that may fix the issue for you.

Go to forum: General discussion

80 Reply by Alexander

(4 replies, posted in Q & A)

Achievements too! yikes

Go to forum: Q & A

81 Reply by Alexander

(53 replies, posted in News and information)

DEV Zoom wrote:
Alexander wrote:

Zoom, if someone purchases through steam will their account be any different from an non-steam account?
Are they interchangeable? Does it matter which client you use?

If you buy the game on Steam, you get an automatically generated account that you can only use from Steam (through your Steam user), simply because there is no email+password pair for that. So no, they are not interchangeable, but there is no difference besides this.

On the other hand, normal accounts registered on our website can be used in the normal game client, as well as in the Steam client, provided you link your Perpetuum and Steam accounts, and you own the game on Steam.

I am really happy you guys are getting on to steam but I really dislike the disjointed nature of the way it is being handled.

I can't give you any better options or suggestions as no other company seems to be able to do it any better. A few companies do offer a 'migration' service to move away from steam but it is not automatic and requires having a valid reason for no longer wanting to auth through steam to play.

** Ninja Edit: I just installed the steam client and it installed in seconds. I then launched the game and my virus scanner decided this would be the first game I have ever installed from steam to scan (Causing the application to crash). After re-running the client through steam it works successfully. Not sure what you guys are doing different from other steam games but my virus scanner did not like it **

Go to forum: News and information

82 Reply by Alexander

(53 replies, posted in News and information)

Zoom, if someone purchases through steam will their account be any different from an non-steam account?
Are they interchangeable? Does it matter which client you use?

Go to forum: News and information

83 Reply by Alexander

(79 replies, posted in General discussion)

Sundial wrote:
Alexander wrote:

Be cool and edgy, get yourself an agreement with a cloud service so that you can quickly turn more servers on when you need them.

Imagine the way they have things setup they can't move zones without restarting one of the servers. So realistically they would have to use downtime to put less zones on the same instance. Sounds nice, but it won't work as well as designing everything to run in the cloud from day one.

I know this. I was just trying to seem interested in the subject.

There is a huge bottleneck at the moment in the game when more than a few 100 people are on the same server.
It should have been thought about from the beginning and a server/land/continent system developed that could handle dynamic load.

Go to forum: General discussion

84 Reply by Alexander

(28 replies, posted in General discussion)

Travel has needed a rethink for years. I am sure they'll get to it eventually.

Go to forum: General discussion

85 Reply by Alexander

(79 replies, posted in General discussion)

Be cool and edgy, get yourself an agreement with a cloud service so that you can quickly turn more servers on when you need them.

Go to forum: General discussion

86 Reply by Alexander

(13 replies, posted in General discussion)

I will return.

Go to forum: General discussion

87 Reply by Alexander

(266 replies, posted in News and information)

DEV Zoom wrote:

Martha: any account that had at least 3 months of subscription EVER will get the game for free.

The blog does not highlight this very well. But that's very cool to know.

Go to forum: News and information

88 Reply by Alexander

(266 replies, posted in News and information)

DEV Zoom wrote:
Alexander wrote:

I meant FULL client file download and patching being handled by Steam

Yes, it will happen like this. Although Steam has some random delay on updating the files, so there can be moments when you launch the client from Steam and it will update some fresh missing data from our resource.

Small minor patches and file changes is one thing, entire expansions or reinstalling the client would likely be faster on Steam. Looking forward to this!

Go to forum: News and information

89 Reply by Alexander

(266 replies, posted in News and information)

DEV BoyC wrote:
Alexander wrote:

3) Some people won't be able to drop £30 in one go for Perpetuum when it releases. They may be playing from using ICE or single month to month transactions. Anyone with less than 3 months subscription time remaining is going to need to purchase the game (3 months sub) and you should at least make this a little easier for existing players. If they have been subbed for 2 years without a break and now you're going to ask them for 3 months money up front, some people won't be able to pay it. Most will not have an issue but try and be as caring as you can. Don't get yourself a bad name for "locking people out". £30 ain't a lot of money and I certainly will be looking forward to making that purchase on Steam.

This is exactly why we're giving more than 2 weeks of a heads up so that players still missing one or two months can make their accounts eligible and not need to pay the full client price. As for the Steam related purchases, we'll be discussing them at a later time, but there won't be a separate Steam only shard for Perpetuum so if a player doesn't want to purchase the game on Steam they won't have to.

Alexander wrote:

2) Any improvement to the engine? Not in terms of appearance but performance. Perpetuum is still very much a GPU killer and while the client might be rendering a lot more things than some games perhaps adding more LOD or occlusion might not burn out a few GPU's on go live day.

Sadly the main issue with the engine is that it's not GPU but CPU limited, which is something that's only worsened by introducing extra CPU side systems. I'm trying to work on it as much as possible but without a major architectural overhaul we've pretty much reached the limits of its capabilities. We have plans to fix this but they are long term and won't be implemented for the Steam launch.

Quotageddon post go! Thanks for the quick reply.
I wasn't suggesting a Steam only shard, sorry. I meant FULL client file download and patching being handled by Steam rather than steam downloading a 2 megabyte launcher that then downloads all of the game resources. This would allow you to continue to patch and distribute to non-steam players but the steam players would get an added benefit of the downloads coming from steam (Often faster than most self-hosted solutions).

Sorry for the GPU and CPU confusion. All I could tell is that my temps rocket on both and it looks like 1 core of my 4 takes most of the Perpetuum client as it sits at 50-80% while the others sit at 10%-20%. Hope you managed to make some improvements and it's great you have long term goals and plans for it! Thanks.

Go to forum: News and information

90 Reply by Alexander

(266 replies, posted in News and information)

Issues:
1) Logging into get EP. Makes sense if you move to a free to play (pay to start) model. However 3 days seems a little short. By all means stop the 5 year AFKer getting 100,000,000 EP but don't punish players (Especially the new players) for going on holiday. Should be 5 days since last login at a minimum or 7 days at a maximum.

2) EP boost and 3 (5-7) day bypass. Wuuuuut? So maybe you don't follow gaming news or you avoid anything with the words EVE or CCP in but you could have learnt a lot from them. This just makes people think they need 1000's of EP to win the game where what they really need is teamwork (Or lots of alts).

3) Some people won't be able to drop £30 in one go for Perpetuum when it releases. They may be playing from using ICE or single month to month transactions. Anyone with less than 3 months subscription time remaining is going to need to purchase the game (3 months sub) and you should at least make this a little easier for existing players. If they have been subbed for 2 years without a break and now you're going to ask them for 3 months money up front, some people won't be able to pay it. Most will not have an issue but try and be as caring as you can. Don't get yourself a bad name for "locking people out". £30 ain't a lot of money and I certainly will be looking forward to making that purchase on Steam.

Questions:
1) Will Steam be handling the patching and distribution of the game or just the basic launcher? I just had to sit through 20 minutes of 100kbps and then suddenly it went to a few mbps but it's not a good first user experience.

2) Any improvement to the engine? Not in terms of appearance but performance. Perpetuum is still very much a GPU killer and while the client might be rendering a lot more things than some games perhaps adding more LOD or occlusion might not burn out a few GPU's on go live day.

3) Early Access or suddenly going live? Perpetuum may have been out for 2 years but some people are going to log in and ask at lot of questions about it feeling a little indie. While it's very much an indie developed game it's aiming for a larger market than most.

Go to forum: News and information

91 Reply by Alexander

(50 replies, posted in General discussion)

Styx let a lot of people down, but I have to say it's only after they had let him down first.
It would be amazing to see Styx back in the game if he really wants to come back.

+1

Go to forum: General discussion

92 Reply by Alexander

(35 replies, posted in News and information)

Idea is sound, I know a fair few players thought about the this and this fits very nicely.

The only suggestion I could make is to have "coaches" who can't get in the way of peoples training but can give advise or demonstrate fittings. Until we can link fittings or share set-ups more easily this could be beneficial.

See you at flood-gate o'clock.

Go to forum: News and information

93 Reply by Alexander

(17 replies, posted in Open discussion)

Stranger Danger wrote:

its not what you think

this isn't a "drop windows for your pc" type of OS.

All it is, is a Linux based CONSOLE operating system for their upcoming steam box or whatever..its going to be so you can play steam games on their console.

You are not going to want to trash windows and all the functionality of your PC out the window and only play games on your PC...unless you do I guess.

if they can get some decent office software developers on steam (shouldn't be hard) and it has the ability to at least read MS office files...then ill gladly drop windows however.

Gaming, for those that do it a lot, is like a hobby. I expect most people will have their existing gaming computing while having an excuse to buy a new shiny computer to run SteamOS.
I was looking to buy a media PC to replace the xBox 360 I currently use and this is the perfect excuse for me. This means getting the best of both worlds. New games that are focused on the SteamOS will run natively very well on the new SteamOS machine while older games can be streamed from the Windows PC to the SteamOS.

The new Steam Controller is designed to replace the keyboard and mouse for games that don't require more than 12+ key bindings. I can't see the SteamOS/Steam Machines/Steam Controller getting much of a foothold on the MMO market (Unless games are designed for it) but for general games it should be pretty cool.

Most, if not all, of my work can be done OS independent as we use Google Drive for documents (Not amazing but what it lacks in formatting/control it makes up for in document sharing and accessibility) and for any development work we each have a provided high spec VM.

I am pretty sure that over the next few years we'll see more indie and small companies start by designing games for Linux environments first as the development costs will be much cheaper and the consumer accessibility will be greatly increased with SteamOS being able to be thrown on top any machine with high enough specs to run it. With Steam being a viable publishing platform developers can connect to their customers, push out updates and spend more time on development than community managment.

But with all that said it won't be for everyone. Every company does what it does for money so for this venture to be marked a success and continued Value will need to see a profit from it.

Go to forum: Open discussion

94 Reply by Alexander

(46 replies, posted in News and information)

As a mechanic for delivering missions I really like it.

For now rewards, objectives and mission structure should only be considered for the stage 2 of assignments.

I like the idea that each location has a different set of boxes you can get missions from. I like the standings are being made more simple as this encourages people to cross-train a single character. (This doesn't weaken the power of alts but it does mean they're less required, always good).

Until I see it in action I can't say there is anything bad about the system, but my gut is telling me that the reward multiplier might need a cap or be worked into the complexity of the mission (Stage 2 again).

I am glad you didn't go down the route of 'agents' and that the missions are being posted/created by the different megacorps. Nicely done.

Go to forum: News and information

95 Topic by Alexander

(12 replies, posted in General discussion)

I've been using Thelodica chassis since launch and the entire time I wish I had been Pelistal.

Anyone else have feelings like this?

Go to forum: General discussion

96 Reply by Alexander

(30 replies, posted in General discussion)

Edit: Meh.. There will always be gaps. Perpetuum needs people. People won't stay if it's not worth it. It won't be worth it if it's not balanced. Fix a few issues/upgrade a few features and it might attract people.

Go to forum: General discussion

97 Reply by Alexander

(80 replies, posted in News and information)

I saw the tech tree and realized that people have to research weapons before they can research the robot to use them.

Now I don't know about anyone else but this doesn't feel right.

Go to forum: News and information

98 Reply by Alexander

(8 replies, posted in Guides and Resources)

Books to read:

  • Paragraphing 101

  • A Dummies Guide to Forum Tags

  • How to Start a Sentence Without the Word "Ok" - Miniature Edition

Here's an example of how to write a guide. Be precise, don't over complicate things, include diagrams where possible. Remember people won't always be reading this guide in their first language.

A Beginner's Guide to Artifacts

This is a guide to artifacting basic's. In this guide we will discuss a number of topics covering:

  • What artifacting hunting is

  • What items and extensions you will need

  • The mechanics of artifact hunting

  • How to use the artifact hunting modules/charges

  • A number of artifact hunting tactics

What is artifacting
Artifacting is a in game way of finding unique items, unique gear and resources. Artifacting once learned is profitable and fun. I would suggest using a indy bot to artifacting but in truth, any robot can, but will not get scanner bonuses.

If you would like some help turning this guide into something that is readable and educational let me know and I can put together a template. Also guides like this really belong on the wiki which can be formatted much more efficiently.

Go to forum: Guides and Resources

99 Topic by Alexander

(14 replies, posted in General discussion)

I've heard a lot of hype about "Repopulation" and having looked into it I really think Peretuum has a lot of hope.

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eNokCaEeHA

Look at the engine, look at the terrain (And if you want check their crafting system, really remind me of Vanguard).

If people are excited about this game and don't care about the graphics then it's the depth of a game that is important.

This got me thinking, I can't really find anything wrong with Perpetuum apart from something pretty major. The progression, or speed, at which a player move from area to area. Gamma bases, well it's a sandbox, people won't make something pretty unless it's functional so make functional pretty and you'd have pretty gamma islands.

Finally, hype. Perpetuum hype. It used to be pretty big not too long ago and then mistakes and bugs and rumoured staff layoffs and forums trolling and.. well the list goes on.

I wouldn't say it was the developers that killed the game, but I would agree with anyone who says their actions haven't helped. In a world of harshness and sandboxing the devs have been very whimsical with their attitudes on many issues. Nine times out of ten I would have rather seen the iron first of justice than the tug of war "calm down children" approach to dealing with a lot of the issues that came up.

When you make your development team look like "ordinary people" and let them interact with the game and players on both a professional and casual manner the line in the sand between person/friend/player and developer becomes very blurred. This may also have to do with the companies structure given that on a number of occasions we've been told that the developers have a number of ongoing projects.

The development team shouldn't lose their faith in this game, and if they've lost their faith in the players then they're half way to making a great sandbox game (Sandbox players should never like their developers, it just gets messy, however they should respect them).

So I was wondering what other people think about Perpetuums stability, development team (And their interactions with the players through blog posts and news feeds) and the community. There's no need to point fingers but it would be interesting to know what little niggles people have with the game and what they really enjoy doing. What keeps you coming back and what's stopping you for having a good time? What's given you confidence in the development team and has anything knocked it?

I really get the feeling that the development team feel they have a thankless task of trying to keep the wheels of this games from coming off but I wonder if being in the eye of the storms makes it difficult to get the whole picture.

P.s. Only useful posts please, trollers aren't needed here.

Go to forum: General discussion

100 Reply by Alexander

(6 replies, posted in Bugs)

Mouse button down (The event of pressing the button down) should never trigger any main event but should active "Click and Drag" features.

Mouse button up is what you have clicked on. Try it on browsers, applications and file managers. Clicking down doesn't cause the event to fire unless you let go of the button over the icon.

I found a number of examples (Like popup option menus) where mouse button down is used to trigger the event but this is due to the UI having no click/drag functionality.]

The is the same for left and right mouse buttons. Menus or application launches shouldn't happen on mouse button down.

Go to forum: Bugs