i want to add to the outpost/pvp/alliance system:

there needs to be a independant broadcasting of events, battles and simply whats happening.
if your not a member of any of the pvp corps, or alliances, you dont get any information about whats happening, if not for some "GF" messages after a battle in general chat.

Syndicate NEWS, broadcasting about those outpost battles afterwards, like who fought there, reliable numbers (not telling exact numbers of bots and equip, but how much "worth" of NIC has been fielded, lost and destroyed on each side)....

A thoroughly enjoyable and well-moderated experience. I hope the dev team takes the discourse to heart; I think some very reasonable positions were established.

Very well done.  I particularly liked the part at the end where people offered their ideas, good all around.

it was a good discussion, thanks for letting me come.

I do wish we had discussed other topics as well, but there's just so much time

Best podcast to date. Really enjoyed listening to the discussion. Lupus makes a good points to think about adding alliance features to early in the game.

Still I think the way land masses have been designed with islands and choke points promotes players to group up and form them.

I think this was a great podcast. Grem, Kal thanks for the work and efforts, and to the panel members you all did a great job and had many great ideas. I hope the info helps the Devs find a road that will work for us (the community).

=S=
sha

In terms of game design - particularly in relation to missions and station holding - the devs need to understand how to construct a skinner box to a much greater extent. They are doing it in an attempt to make it fun at the moment and that wont work - it has to be based on compulsion or you will never get through the points when it is a *** because of internal game issues such as pvp or external game agro such as getting a gf.

Cracked did an article not long ago about it that explained the principle in a funny and informative way - if you havent read it give it a go.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5- … icted.html

I've given some thought to what was said last night. I'm getting the impression that everyone is alergic to how EVE is handled with alliances, but on the other hand everyone wants this to be EVE Mk2. So, here's pretty much what I have to say on the matter:

There is nothing wrong with alliances, or alliance warfare(blobwarfare as its coined). Perpetuum has matured beyond the stage where roams (i.e. griefing/ganking lone players) were the military - and the ONLY relevant - aspect of Perpetuum.

We are moving into the stage where economical, political and logistic aspects are gaining more importance, as well as they should. Now it is simply NOT enough to get the "best fit" and the "best gang" and enjoy a one-dimensional competition between corporations where only military prowess is relevant.

Your economy dictates your ability to fight, your politics dictate your ability to choose the enemies you fight, and your logistics dictate your ability to choose where and how you fight. Action and consequences - That is actually the very essence of the sandbox genre.

As an example, if I'm insulting and trolling every corporation on the server consistently since release; the consequence is that those corporations will be more inclined to put aside their personal grievances and bring together an unstoppable force to overwhelm my corporation.

In this example, is it the fault of the game for not discouraging people to play together, for not discouraging alliances and promoting some WoW-arena 2v2 fair-play mumbo jumbo? Nope, the fault is in the CEO player for not expecting the logical consequences to his actions.

I much prefer the complexity of balancing a war effort on all fronts - economy, politics, logistics and military. After having experienced the "rush" of this in the last three wars fought on the server, the very idea of just fighting a war in the military aspect sounds very dull, boring and unimaginative. Especially considering the "skill" in PVP here consists of pressing R and space at the right time and place.

To conclude, bring the alliance features. Expand corporation features. Hell, add more features in general. Let the game grow in all aspects as a sandbox, not as a World of Mechs equivalent where people log in to have an hour or two of fun and then go play something more meaningful.

I personally don't want to see Perpetuum turn into a game where corporations go to war lightly, because they're bored or just for teh lulz. I say no to having ez-mode for corp CEO's.

DEVs please remember and always bear in mind how you advertise this game:Persistent sandbox world. There's a lot of APB's and World of Tanks and WoW's out there, there's not a lot of good sandboxes.

Totally agree. As mentioned yestersay. This game is not just about PvP. There are many more aspects to it. PvP is what comes out at the end of the chain, after the Industrials, Researchers etc... done their Job well.

Bring in more Alliance features and Corp features.
Put a up a fee for creating an alliance.
Have an upkeep fee and join fee for an alliance.

This also will make NIC a viable element of the game.

Open up Alliance internal Market, similar as we have introduced with the recent patch for Corp internal Market. So alliance can organise themselfs in a better fashion. We are all already doing this in one or the other way with offline tools, dedicated channels and what not. Make it a Ingame Alliance feature.

Create Player/ Corp created assignements, like contracts, Bounty etc...
This will give the world more depth in terms of player interactions.

Good stuff guys.  Thanks!

Great broadcast all around.

The points that stuck with me as far as development priorities were that player retention (and acquisition!) are job one. Alliance tools can wait. How about giving the NPC corps an "intel channel" that feeds out information on roaming alpha island npc convoys? This gives noobs a non-grind activity and a reason to do a group activity. How about an alpha island pvp arena?

Second priority would be the outposts for both a revamp of intrusion mechanics - timing and objectives - and "auras". Thought Friedrich's idea about a nexus-style mining aura was brilliant. This ought not to be independently destructable but rather an addition to the station that transfers when it changes hands. His thoughts on bidding to shift the timing are also right on - attacker sets time, defender pays for an 8 hour shift, attacker pays for a 4 hour shift, defender pays for a 2 hour shift, etc.

For destructable structures, smaller versions of the nexus-auras are a possibility (to extend your corps reach away from the outpost) as are auto-firing defense turrets tied to corp/individual relations. Equip these more or less the way we equip a bot (turrets, armor, etc.) so there is a drop and include some of the construction materials as well to make them attractive targets for roamers.