Don't I get any shameless CoolPoints™ for free advertising on the podcast??? People could start thinking the whole system was biased

Exclusive interview with DEV Zoom posted!!

http://www.perpetuum-intelligence.com/f … 6&t=37

We were worried it was too long and I have to agree with the posters above! As we plan for IT#3 we'll spend a bit of time going over how long we want to spend and we could potentially do a weekly release whilst still recording once every two weeks.

Keep the feedback coming!!

P.S Just for Syndic we will be running a Spread the Love campaign in aid of Jita

Beer + interview = much hilarity.

/signed, especially when multiple people are adding/ removing from communal folders.

One idea I had was that the OPs could have 3 tiers of defences. The inner tiers only become attackable when the previous ones are disabled and a timer is started.

Please note I am typing on an iPad on a very bumpy and packed train so excuse typos and dumb Apple autocorrects.

For example:

Tier 1 consists of 4 watchtowers, with minor automated defences (to stop someone sitting with an arkhe and a syntec gun aft all day) and a low armour regen. Each should take between 4-6 mechs about 20 mins to take down. Once a tower is disbaled it cannot be repaired for 24 hours and requires both resources and RR to bring back online.

Once all 4 are taken down, a timer is started, this timer is dependent upon an amount of resource stored in a special hanger in the OP. This hanger can store between 1 and 12 hours 'reserve'. The amount of resource can only be changed whilst a minimum of 3 towers are active, once there are two left this hanger is locked and the amount can no longer be altered [add appropriate techy story plot reason here]. This provides two things, one the attackers do not know how much is in the pot, and two, the defenders cannot accurately predict when the attacker will take the last towers down. This IMHO, evens the field a little bit away from the poor timer system right and introduces a level of chance to both side (unless you have evil spais!!!).

Tier 2 is a similar concept but is only a single structure, the concept here is that an attacking force (equiv of 15 mechs) needs to attack the structure (20 mins or so) then deposit their own materials to 'own' it. [mid post brainstorm] this could be tied to the new energy system, the previous owner must deposit an amount of energy in the structure which slowly deteriorates, when the structure is taken, the attacker must match the current amount to 'hack' it or overload it or something. Once taken, the attacker must the enter an amount of energy which sets when the actual intrusion will happen. This I'd done on a sliding scale, say 1000 energy units to start the intrusion in 4 hours, down to 50 units for it to happen in 24 hours. The OP owner has 1 chance (within say 2 hours of the structure being taken) to change the timer by half, by depositing double the amount the attacker deposited in the OP. This puts some tactics into play in terms of how much does the tracker put in vs whether the defender wants to alter the time.

Tl;dr - put a system in which a) requires resources, b) has some tactics behind it and c) is not reliant on random timers which means people either have to do stupid timed events or just ignore them as they do now.

CHANGE THE SYSTEM!!!

GLiMPSE hits the nail on the head. All games which rely on a similar system to Perpetuum emphasis the law of diminishing returns. Everyone can be useful no matter what EP, you just won't be in your Mega Death Kill Mech 2000 on day 5 because you can spend 24 hrs a day grinding like in other MMO's. Time based skilling levels the field, it also means that someone may spend 60 days of EP to get that last 5% locking time whereas you can spend EP in other ways to be effective too.

http://www.perpetuum-intelligence.com/f … 3&t=27

That has a good EvE example but here in Perpetuum, player skill plays even more of a part and working your way up the bots is the best way to build those skills.

Agreed, if it isn't urgent, it can wait.

LE;DR (Long Enough, Did Read)

Great post, I think it shows a great community when people take the time to elaborate their points of view and feed back into the games development.

On the post, I wholeheartedly agree!!! I have posted similar thoughts in the past, making the foundation of all other processes (materials) harder to obtain and generally more boring to obtain has done the complete opposite of what was needed. It achieved the DEV goal of removing a massive problem which contributed to the insurance issue but the end effect has annihilated the Market.

The main issues are the ones you hit on perfectly, when mins are hard to obtain, supply dries up and those mechanics in the game which previously were not as profitable become so. as I have said before, killing the bottom of the pyramid does nothing bunt make the pyramid smaller and therefore effects everything above it. If you want a thriving Market you need to adopt the things which have been said above and before, increase demand for minerals by adding higher level sinks.

-- Making minerals more available makes lower tier bots less onerous to replace , therefore people are more willing to fight as loss is less painful.

-- Higher level sinks like larger bots, POS, constructions whatever which take large amounts of minerals encourages trade and competition

-- At the moment everything can be obtained by everyone on beta, make certain mineral types more prevalent on some islands, with the new islands coming in, split the minerals across two betas so no one beta has lots of each type. This encourages, if not mandates trade.

Right now, it's just too painful to mine. When I go to alpha, I see far more long time alts running transpot than I do seeing anyone mining. This is bad for the economy, bad for player interaction and therefore bad for game.

The bottom of the pyramid needs to grow, this will only happen if there is appropriate demand above and the willingness (and playability) to actually supply in at the bottom.

Shiny but not MMO...... Meh.

I agree but earliest I would expect anything would be mid next week.

I agree that PvE needs to be a priority, we can always blow stuff up but we need reasons to do so. Right now the following appears to apply

Time to grind for replacements > time spent playing to need replacements

And

Pain of grinding for replacement > pleasure from playing the game to need replacements

Even good PvE mechanics can solve the above issue and if it does, I am sure all us inventive PvP players will make good on the opportunity and have lots more pew pew without needing a massive content update dedicated to PvP.

I think this has evolved into two points, the first being travel and the second being tactical advantage.

I would propose two types of module. The first being a travel mod, it reduces combat effectiveness and defence but increases speed. This is the Indy speed mod.

The second is the combat speed/jump mod. This reduces parameters such as cargo space, increases your hit size and maybe affects armour/shield in some way. This creates a traveller/interceptor dynamic. Interceptors are hit and run, they are there to catch things and maybe take out the Indy travellers or small stuff, they are however paper thin, rely on the surprise, speed and the ability to 'jump' in and out of cover or to move onto terrain impassable by a following enemy.

So we don't have mechs fit with the first mod as it makes you pointless in combat. We do however provide a pseudo class for all current bots (except ewar, they are fast enough and have a defined pseudo role). You won't see this in larger gangs as you are made paper thin, you aren't there to hold the line.

On a side note, this also opens up something I have been toying with in the current mechanics which is based on a fast, hard hitter role to disrupt gangs but in effect is a suicide class. For anyone into Warhammer 40k think of assault marines. They jump over a hill and it's all or nothing, you either picked the right fight or you get a whooping.

All good stuff and if balanced correctly, you could end up with a whole suite of new tactics, strategy and possibilities without having to introduce spews of new mechs, it could be done with two mods