276 Reply by Blocker

(18 replies, posted in General discussion)

To be clear here, I am concerned primarily with getting new players and then keeping them. By all means throw the bitter old vets (me included) a bone but in all honestly the PVE needs to be the primary focus now. For too long the focus has been all on the PVP side of things, gamma islands, MPC's etc. All great work by the devs, but where has it got us ? Minimal population and next to zero PVP.

Why??

Time to step back and take stock, for a start perp has to compete with a lot of good F2P games, so we have one hand tied behind our back straight off.  I'm going to use the royal pronoun "we" to mean the entire remaining player base( including the DEVS), because it's going to take all of us.
We have one chance at this (steam release) and we better get it right. First up let me say for PVE CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT!!
I know the devs have been working on this and that's great to hear. Consider these points.

    Industry: As far as PVE is concerned it's all arse about face! Make factories just as efficient (or maybe nearly) on Alpha as they are on gamma. PVE people will WANT to build stuff. Don't restrict them or try and force them into situations they are not comfortable with, give them the oppotunity. When the gamma concept was released it came with a nerf to everything on alpha. WTF ? I mean PVE people pay for subscriptions too right? Now, before you all scream at me, consider that the gamma and beta islands should be the source of rare RESOURCES needed in these factories.

      Resources: Complete rethink needed here.. Remember we are talking about PVE so the amount and location of resources needs redoing. Also I don't think the random spawning of fields has really worked. This may be another factor that contributed to people leaving. You know I have not seen one blood red ore field on gamma yet! To be honest I can't remember the last time I saw a blood red resource field. In any case we need to revisit the resourse side of things with the focus on the new player and PVE

        Missions: Well as Jita said there are other games out there with some good mission systems, we could learn from them..

        I really like Ludlow's storyline content idea, that's exactly the sort of thing to attract and keep people playing. We have everything we need for PVP except population.. Time to focus on PVE and see if we can boost that population and thus have a resource pool of players that we can try and encourage to come PVP.

        Remember: If you keep them playing, you keep them paying!

        Sorry for the great wall of text..

        Go to forum: General discussion

        277 Reply by Blocker

        (18 replies, posted in General discussion)

        When myself and a friend started playing (2 or 3 years ago?) we were hooked straight away with the sheer number of spawns. They were everywhere and none of this orange rubbish, they would agro if they could. There was also roaming observers, these were excellent. I'm referring to the alpha islands here.

        Look at the situation now and it's like a wasteland. You can roam all over some beta/gamma islands and nearly never see any NPC's. Some beta's are better, not sure why, but the bottom line is a LOT of content was removed. This is the only game I have played in the last 10 years that has REMOVED content.. Why ?? How the hell do you expect to attract new users, and more importantly keep them, when you remove content..

        Some suggestions:
        1. Have the orange NPC's only on alpha 1 islands. Alpha 1 islands should be for new players, where they learn the ropes.
        2. Remove all orange NPC's from alpha 2 islands and make them all red. Bring back roaming observers on alpha 2's even if they are just assaults. Gives newer players a progression from alpha 1 islands.
        3. Increase the numbers of NPC's on ALL islands, what mechanics they use to move etc is of secondary importance and can be refined/tuned later if needed.

        Just my 2 cents...

        [PS] We already have 1 to 5 classes of NPC's. Do the same with observers and allocate them across beta and gamma islands. Observer class 1-3 on beta and 3-5 on gamma. Make them so you need a group effort for the 3-5 spawns. Anything to encourage more group play, same could be done with missions.

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        278 Reply by Blocker

        (5 replies, posted in Guides and Resources)

        I too have had sucess running perp uner Linux. So far using just wine v1.4 and Mint 13 (Ubuntu based). I also got it running under Scientific Linux 6.3 (Redhat) but had sound issues with Teamspeak. Had the same issues in Mint but got them sorted so will go back to Sci Nix now and see if I can get that working as well.

        Go to forum: Guides and Resources

        279 Reply by Blocker

        (8 replies, posted in Events)

        Sounds like a good idea.

        Go to forum: Events

        280 Reply by Blocker

        (9 replies, posted in General discussion)

        Hunter is correct..
        The problem is two major power blocks and a low population. I don't consider the AIG alliance a power block as they have declared neutrality. If you have power and do not wield it, you in essence, have no power.

        A certain power block,  upon finding out there is a gamma base will use their numbers to just stomp on you and destroy everything they find, unless you agree to play on their terms, and that's fine the game allows that. But as the pop is low and ppl have lives as hunter has said, it should be no surprise that most islands are empty still.

        It is a shame as Inda has said the Devs have put a lot of work into this expansion and whilst their efforts are appreciated, it should come as no surprise that most gamma islands remain empty.

        Flame and troll away little people...

        ohh and hunter "not to nolifers (like me)." you funny..  lol

        Go to forum: General discussion

        281 Reply by Blocker

        (116 replies, posted in News and information)

        I think the island suggestion by Karism has potential as well. As far as the gamma pve content goes, I think Dan has some good ideas there. I don't think instances would be good, we need to try and keep it as simple as possible, if possible. No need to over complicate things, remember the Dev's have to write the code, not us. So simple is better and faster to bring to production.

        I've been thinking about the terraforming issue and it occurred to me that something like this may work:
        1. Base can only be placed x distance from teleport. (x being decided by devs and community)
        3. once base is deployed a terraforming zone is established and terraforming can only be done by the base owner within a given radius of x. (x being decided by Devs and community)
        4. This terraforming zone only lasts for x hours (refer previous X explanation) after which terrafroming becomes permanent and no-one can do any further terraforming including base owner. To remove a base requires one of two things:
        a) The base is deconstructed by the owner, thereby cancelling the terraforming zone and allowing anyone to terraform again.
        b) The base is destroyed by attackers thereby cancelling the terraforming zone and allowing anyone to terraform again.

        Some notes about 4. if corp A completely encloses themselves in before the time limit to terraform has expired and then the timer expires,  they are locked in. This would be a stupid thing for a corp to do. So a corp must have a way in and out of the base. So corps would have to plan their base much more carefully before dropping stuff down.
        If a base is destroyed by enemy attackers then the terraforming timer and zone is reset.

        Just some thoughts I had.. Yes they may be crap, but at least I'm trying to contribute..

        Go to forum: News and information

        282 Reply by Blocker

        (89 replies, posted in General discussion)

        To Mark Zima:
        Mate, with all due respect, don't be angry with the players for using the tools provided by the DEV's. Be angry at the DEV's for not putting enough thought into the ramifications of the use of the tools they introduce into the game.

        Go to forum: General discussion