I never have been griefed, just to establish my starting premises (though I did get lag-ganked once, but that's the internet, not the game).  I have played in high sec, hunted and missioned in low sec, and lived in 0.0 and wormholes.

But it is very easy to grief in EVE, and it is especially easy to grief newer players that do not know all of the highly-obfuscated game mechanics.  The consequences for griefing are of very low value compared to its potential gain, or it would not be a viable source of income.  As a different poster remarked in a different, current thread, a reasonably "realistic" response to a very few repeated grief/gank attacks in high sec would be to make it impossible to raise one's standings enough to re-enter without being sought by Concorde.  But griefers do not wish that "everyone can play their own way"; they wish people to be forced to play their (the griefers') way.

Regarding "no moral ground" being a design "cop-out" (your words, not mine), I am speaking from the point of view of dollars and resources invested.  If your players cook up drama for you, that's less that you have to invest in the game.  So yes, it is very convenient and a big money- and time-saver.  I used the word "convenience", not "cop-out".  The two mean rather different things.

However, your inflammatory turns of phrase seem to signal that this has ceased being a discussion, and I have no inclination to respond further to emotional cant.  Your are certainly entitled to your opinion, just as is everyone else here.

So I will just return us once more to the OP and agree that  the Alpha islands are currenly a selling point, and will be moreso when PvE experiences are revisited, fixed and/or expanded.

Well.   I was not actually using the thread to compare Perpetuum at its present state with EVE at its present state.  I play both.  From what I can see, once Perpetuum has had half the number of years and expansions as EVE, it should have just as many things to do.  And PvE is next up after Industry2, as I recall.

Only if you listen to it with simple ears.   Best to address the issue, I'd think.  Certainly all sorts of activities can attract people to make a trial.  Whether they are retained is another thing.  How many of them could actually do that sort of griefing viably?  People will do a drive-by of a game for any number of reasons.  I was looking at it from the point of view of attracting players that were interested in significant play and interested in staying in the game.

Some "content" is not worth creating.   "No moral ground" is actually a simple convenience for the designers; it eliminates a lot of work.  Also not quite true; they do have a bar below which they will not let the game sink, but admittedly, it is very low.  There are many, many ways to affect the EVE game world-- and there will be in Perpetuum as well-- that do not have to be churlish, short-sighted, griefing or exploitative.

In my opinion, they are not "assaulting Jita".  They are simply suicide ganking a fraction of the shipping there.  "Burn Jita" was hyperbole and self-gratification, overblown at a minimum.  The only valid part of it is if they have aligned it towards economic manipulation that could benefit their alliance and holdings.  They ave done that by far subtler and better methods in the past, in my opinion.

It's "finest"--seriously?  heh, we'll just have to agree to have differing opinions on that one...

Here we agree.  As far as I am concerned, it did kill EVE, or at least what EVE could have grown into.  If you read or listened to any of their "manifesto" statements, they wanted to have the game allow you to do "anything you could read in a science fiction story".  All I can say is that their reading list must be rather limited. 

And check out their population increase as a proportional fraction of the total population playing MMOs, which have become more and more popular as an entertainment pastime over the last decade.

Considering the size of most games nowadays, the truly benchmarking, large games, EVE is little more than a niche game.  They may survive based upon franchising to Japan and China (thank goodness they abandoned the "one universe" there, for localisation reasons if not for anything else), or if they can retain Dust514 players.  As well, there is always a turnover in such games.

As for Perpetuum, I sincerely hope it can avoid making some of the same mistakes that EVE has over the years. 

QFT and +1.

PvP is good.  Griefing is not.  Pseudo-legitimised griefing is not.  Sandbox cannot translate into "anyone can do anything they want" unless you want a tiny niche game.  There are actions that may be good for a player or a corp that are not good for the game as a whole.  For example, if you have a small player population, using a huge corp to massacre a smaller one completely and drive them out of the game, while providing epeen, is counterproductive to the game's life and expansion.  I am not saying that such a thing has happened here, or necessarily would happen (I have only played for a couple of months), but it serves as an example.

My opinion; your mileage may vary: Note also that "sandbox = free choice" is a laughable illusion.  It's like saying that you can order anything you want in a restaurant.  You can-- if it is on the menu.  Some games have a large menu and players mistake that for free choice.  "Sandbox = realism" is an even more laughable illusion.  Real societies maintain their status quo and mercilessly crush "in your face" (unsubtle) criminals and those that would deprive the enfranchised.

Some games allow griefing, and players mistake that for "hardcore".  Hardcore, in my opinion, is taking large risks with opponents who know what they are doing and who can hurt you back, not suicide ganking some poor new player that has 10% of your capabilities and may not even understand all the mechanics.  Only my opinion, mind you, and players are free to do whatever the game allows.

Devs and game owners have to decide what is valid on the menu.  I support allowing the PvEers to worry about PvE risk in a "safe" zone.  Mind you, the corollary is that the PvE experience then has to be balanced as the Devs think is good for their game as well.

32 bit.  However, I will be switching to a new 64 bit computer in about a week, with a rather titanic increase in processor power, RAM, VRAM, etc.  I'll see if that makes a difference.

Agreed, and not only are the highlights/borders useful in general, but new players would find the head's-up very good.  Many, many times I have answered in Help, "What does it mean if it says I cannot exit the terminal without and extension"?

+1

I reinstalled the drivers.  At the moment, that seems to have worked.  I'll see if it remains stable tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice, all.

No joy.   Same problem still exists.  Thanks for the idea anyway.

Devs?  Any ideas?

However, PvP does not reduce the NIC in the game.  The only thing that takes NIC out of the game is if it gets given to NPCs for some reason.  Otherwise, it just circulates, as PvP losses are replaced at the market or through production.

Now, NIC circulating does stimulate the economy.  So what is the problem?

Inflation.

Eventually there is a huge amount of NIC in the system.

Is Inflation bad?  Yes and no.

If a huge amount of money in the hands of whichever segment of players are "the NIC stops here" players, then whether inflation is bad essentially depends on what can be done with the NIC.  Also, as has already been observed, if they feel that they have "won" the game they may leave-- but if they do, that takes some NIC out of the mix.  Not good for company revenue, though, because accounts get closed.

If a lot of players have hundreds of millions or billions, and continue to play and decide to purchase things, then prices for hard goods get driven up and newcomers will find themselves incapable of buying anything high-end in a sandbox system, unless individuals or corps simply practice charity.  That has not happened yet likely due to the low number of players-- many of those that have been here for months have just about anything they want already, so all they would spend NIC on is stockpiling extras and replacements in case PvP picks up.

Inflation also makes the game very shaky, if there are any items that have an out-of-game significance-- for example the ability to purchase game time with NIC.  Perp does not have this system, but if it ever did, infinite NIC sources and very few sinks could cause great problems for the parent company.  Not because the game time would not have to be bought for real money, but because people with huge amounts of NIC could in effect price control the value of game time extensions, or even attempt to corner the market, and that is a bridge between real money and play money.  NIC-for-game-time also still ends up simply putting the NIC in the hands of the player selling the time-- unless only the NPCs (company) sell the time directly-- but then the company loses revenue: deadly.

The other sandbox game has almost reached the crisis point regarding this right now: they are already about to implement "watchdog" measures regarding their gametime-for-play-money system.

If more players join the game, it will stimulate the market-- for a time.  But as the OP understands, more and more players means more and more NIC entering the game without any exit point.

Regarding Inflation, if the PBS system keeps any high end items as strictly NPC-supplied, and if the costs are high, then that will serve as a NIC sink where it is needed-- at the high end.  Whether it will be enough of a sink will not be predictable until population and Terraforming start to set up the new dynamic.

If, due to typical "sandbox" philosophy, it eventually becomes possible for player characters to produce all of the new items, then the NIC sink disappears again and Inflation again may become a problem.

Yes, I am a player who subbed for 3 months after the trial.  I am only in my first paid month.

Since these forums seem reasonably open to new ideas, I thought I'd toss one out there. Unfortunately I came into the game during the "PvP lull", so I am not sure how interesting/nonsensical my ideas are.  Still, you don't find out if you don't ask.