Topic: Beta Islands, PVP, and Alliances - get rid of the islands
There needs to be a tectonic shift in the landscape - literally. With Perpetuum only in release for 2 months, we have seen a significant amount of stagnation to the beta islands and alliances dynamics, and non aligned corps and player's access to beta islands.
Right from release, we saw an immediate "takeover" of the 3 beta islands by the 3 strongest corps at that time, and immediately with that, the formation of the Norhoop and Darmalan alliances, with Hokkagaros forming an alliance only after its first intrusion defense. Since that time, with some minor shifts in those alliances, nothing has changed, and the islands themselves have been locked down from any non alliance aligned corps and players.
PVP has become predictable. Intrusions are scheduled, so everyone knows where the defenders and the aggressors will be, and when. Random PVP is a matter of 1 scout on each tele giving warning, with response teams forming in a matter of minutes, and able to engage relatively quickly to a roaming gang. Same applies to anyone trying to farm kernels or mine epiton on beta islands that is not aligned to an alliance. There are only 3 access points onto each island, which translates into needing only 3 ppl to tell your island where, when and what, entered the island.
-GET RID OF THE ISLANDS. Instead, call it what you will, sea level dropped, tectonic activity raised new landmass, whatever, but make beta a super island or small continent, connected to the alpha islands. Maybe with the alpha islands now as peninsular in an inland sea or gulf. Leave the teleports as quick access lanes, but now you also have a land route of significant area that players can move thru, including “between” the current beta islands. Also, there would be a significant increase in landmass that would make it almost impossible for anyone to lock down an entire “region” to control. And not just connecting the beta islands together, but actually adding landmass around them.
Populate the landscape with significant amounts of spawns and landscape features and resources, including random location/time spawning events, and give incentives to people to explore those regions. The current system, even with our current population, is overcrowded. We need to spread people out more, especially the beta regions. Because of the increased landmass, and the multiple access points beyond the 3 teleports, what will happen is those people in beta will condense into smaller “defensible” areas, leaving a large expanse of territory that an adventurous individual or group might be able to sneak out to to exploit or explore. At the same time, teleport scouts are no longer the early warning system, nor travel of a large group in a direction on alpha islands an indication as to where they are going/attacking.
-PLAYER OWNED STRUCTURES - We all know where everyone’s outposts are, where the miners are likely to be mining, or people farming spawns. With player owned structures, now the issue becomes more complex. With a greatly increased landmass, you’ll have to find it, scout it over time to find where the activity is, and plan accordingly. Anyone potentially could put up a structure, aligned to an alliance or not, if they want to risk the investment in some out of the way corner of the continent.
Potentially, we could see the whole alliance structures that have formed over the past 2 months even breakup to a certain extent. Without the need to lockdown and island, and with significantly greater landmass to expand into, there would no longer be a need to “blob up” to defend an island, nor access to beta resources being dependant on being part of one to the island controlling alliances. Add enough landmass, and it even gives people something that might be fun to explore. Add content into those areas, bizarre landscape features, ruins, spawns, resources, that a small exploring party properly skilled could exploit, but leave the areas as PVP territory, so there is always the risk vs. potential reward.
Discuss.
