I've always like the idea of player created missions. The only way to make it work in practice though is to create an internal balancing system that decides the reward based on what your mission parameters are, and a meta-resource exclusively used to create missions.

Heres an example. A corp gets delegation points (the meta-resource) from each megacorp for either holding an outpost associated with that megacorp, or from having members with high standings with that megacorp (so it's available to pvpers and pve'ers). Delegation points determine how much reward your missions can give out, and they can be performed an unlimited number of times (with the normal 6/10 restriction), as long as you leave them available. When you create a mission, it's level and reward are automatically decided by what objectives you decide, or perhaps a number of reward type options are available and simply the size of the reward is determined automatically.

Atlantica Online does a fantastic job of making PVE and PVP mechanics different but good. You should take a gander at how it works. Much similar to guildwars, except that skill effects are actually tied to the character targeted rather than area.

Savin: My comments are only related to PVE, which I interpret as combat vs. npcs primarily. Industry and market solutions are beyond the scope of PVE in my eyes. Industry should have it's own thread, separate from this one, so that good industry ideas do not get overlooked. (I main a prototyper. Economics make or break an MMO in my eyes.)

I would however like to see UT/DotA style warfare areas for some sort of benefit open up, but no team balancing. Heck dont even make the teams related to the players, just pelistal vs nuimquol war broke out again, go zone in and play dota with giant robots, (or just gank everyone there for fun, or just try to farm the waves of bots and avoid the pvpers, whatever floats your boat.)

I just wanted to chime in on this, because i really love good PVE (and perpetuum doesn't yet have good PVE in my opinion.)

In my opinion, PVE should be designed so that it would be fun, even if you weren't being rewarded in game from it, then just add the rewards on top. This means looking at games that don't have a persistent character, and basing the PVE content on those.

Using RTS logic would be a good idea for group based encounters. The previously discussed use of scripted actions (alpha island invasions by npcs at scheduled times maybe?) would go well there, as would semi-instanced areas (instanced in that they are technically zoned as a separate island, and persist only as long as there are active players there, but they dont keep other players from coming in to the same instance as you, I believe EQ2 had a few dungeons like that.)

For solo encounters, either the player twitch reaction difficulty or the strategic difficulty needs to be increased, and not just by making the numbers on the targets bigger. I personally intentionally go beyond my efficient farming level to farm T5 heavy mechs solo in urban spawns just so i can really make use of the combined tactical elements of cover, range, ewar, and targeting.

Now how that is done, I could care less about, I loved Tabula Rasa's fast paced punchy FPS based style, and I also love Atlantica's heavily tactical turn based combat. They're both good examples of how to make PVE fun.

Lifeblood, armor boosts exist, in the form of active hardeners. Just like locking boosts exist in the form of sensor amps.

Slope capability boost, well, that would be jump jets.

But yes I agree, this is not eve. The balance is different, and the mechanics are different. People should remember that when they ask for things.

I'm impressed, very good writing. As far as I'm concerned, this should be cannon.

You are clearly using the wrong weapons sir, medium EMguns > medium gauss guns.

Really the problem is that the short range medium weapons just... suck. The long range ones are much better all around.

And you are right, the cost benifit in nic favors assaults, and that is intended to make you want to have more people. Basically the lower cost effectiveness of mechs puts a NIC value on teamwork.

Mechs should do less damage to small targets than small targets do to mechs, period. This is balanced by the fact that mechs have longer range and more armor. It isnt really an issue in pvp (where being able to strike from a greater distance is quite the advantage) or pve (where you can choose the bot/mech you bring based on the spawn).

Overall pelistal received a buff. Other races get range bonuses to high end weapons, and this range change brings missiles back in line with them. The improved explosion radius, even longer T4 range, and improved racial ewar range make pelistals much better than they were pre patch.

The cost to value ratio presumes that pilot availability is a limiting factor. If you have 10 pilots, would you rather have them in 10 mechs or 10 assaults (you probably actually want a mix of types, including things that are not mechs or assaults but for the sake of argument, assume those were the choices you had). Clearly the 10 mechs, despite their drawbacks, should easily dispatch 10 assaults (again assuming an appropriate amount of EP, even as low as 60k for every pilot involved). Yes the mechs cost far more nic, but with a limited amount of pilots, who cares.

Skills meaning extensions. A well designed character in a mech is clearly better than a similarly designed character in an assault, assuming both have a decent amount of EP.