@Snowman, very interesting theory.

i wonder how long this topic stays open - the title has nothing to do with the content...

read zooms signature and you get the summary of what you are discussing here. No matter what the DEVs post, all they get as answer "this is not what we want".

do you want the server to be shut down for a half year, and then rebooted with a bunch of new features?
specially for CIR: this is a sandbox - since you consider your previous "goal" as accomplished, perhaps its time to set a new one?

While CIR's goals are always helpful to the game Alex, they are also 100% legit. Can you say the same about the corps you've been in (but naturally didn't know anything whatsoever about it)?

There was a time when the Devs did present us with a plan for the future of Perpetuum though, back in February it sounded like this:

http://blog.perpetuum-online.com/posts/ … perpetuum/

"The features below are listed more or less in the order we currently plan to introduce them, with the first ones being only a few weeks away and the last ones planned more towards the second half of the year."

So, there is still 2 months to introduce the Energy Credit system, Artillery, more types of weapons, hybrid robots, terraforming and player-built structures.

Developers could we have a bit more information on status of these systems you announced to us in February?

For half of your post i'm "omg he actually has half a decent brain" and then I read the next half and go "nah, there was a lucid moment between his inhalations". This "CIR" thing is getting old, find something new.

Actually you missed the point of the post.
CIR is one of the older corps in the game with a "Healthy" number of players.
They, unlike the oldest corp in the game, haven't had their assets wiped and had to start over 6 months into the game.

What I was trying to highlight was the lack of end-game, content and playability past the 6 month / once you get in a heavy mech.

Sorry to use CIR as an example. I wasn't here to insult people or poke fingers at anyone.

While I have no problem with the actual drob rate of Beacons (get 1 to 4 each day) it would be nice to have more information where to get which beacons.
3th Darkstar Assaults drob Level 1 light/assault beacons
3th Darkstar Kains drob level 1 mech/hmech beacons
4th Darkstar Kains drob level 2 light/assault and level 2 mech/hmeach beacons

So I gus it's the same for green and orange (yellow/red).

But where do Industrial beacons drob? Didn't found any random spawn with Industrial Elites .

PS: NO stelth bot without propper anti-stelth modul/bot !!!
Don't know who intruduced this fail mechanic the first time ... but since DAoC every publisher should KNOW stelth/cloak without anti-stelth/cloak is FAIL!

Sure, but Beta stuff is not the main problem.

Very limited market where it is hard to buy some stuff, to trade or sell your stuff is a much MUCH bigger problem!
The first what nearly everybody does in a new game is: Check fenzy stuff. If they see this empty market all over ... it's a freaking bad first impression!

And this is true for any type of player. PvP AND PvE guys check for pewpew Robots and guns, Miners for industry Robots&Tools and mineral market, Traders for trade hubs and hauler Bots. And as soon as they all notice: "damit, the market is close to die" ... the think twice before they subscripe or play for longer time!

Quickfix: Disable corp market until the playerbase reaches several K player simultan.
Not so nice but maybe still helpy: NPC seeds (with INSANE prices of corse). Exlude: Prototypes & Offizer  & Niani items. Just to make the first impression: "well, I can get everything ... but I better try to find someone who can build it".

OnTopic: Beacon drobs are fine.
Within a week we collected ~10+++ beacons of all type for nice corp pew pew at the weekend. And this with just 3 to 4 palyers who all have regular jobs + familys. For us this means around 3 to 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday of cool corp actions .
10 is not much? Well, with more then 4 collecting people you get many more. With 4 players who have much more EP you get many more. With 4 jobless singels you get many more. It's realy not to hard.

But the documentation could be better (where can drob which type of Beacon).

The market needs to be fixed, flat out.

That's the sole reason I left the game some months ago and, had it not been for the 15 day activation, I would not have come back upon finding that the market is still dead.
No one wants to use T1, but they're stuck with it.  No one offers T2 because it's going into T3 also not available because that's 100% tied up in producing T4, so... nothing except T1 and T4 hit the market.  The first being available from NPC drops, and can be reverse-engineered, to be then built by the user.  The second being so laughably expensive for the greater population that they don't move even the few times they are offered.
Yes, they are stupidly expensive to produce, and that is reflected the few times they show up on the market, but with zero competition the prices are highway robbery.

Fix the market, Devs.

Change the build schema so that T2 and T3 are more than just so many crafting parts for T4 so that they'll actually be seeded on the market.

Introduce even higher levels of tech that can, in time, become the 'end game' for both producers (who now laugh at the newbies with their 25% kernel drops) giving them a new milestone to achieve, and users.  How you can prevent those building/using such extremes from laughing while they spank the newbies, though, is a question.

what do you want to fix with the market? the market is player based. only solution would be to add every item to a way more expensive price via npc trader. so that is not realy a good solution for a sandbox game.

the market is player driven. if you want more on the market then bring more on the market. make a produser and offer the products you think are needed. thats the way it works. if you are right, and ppl need that then you will make a good profit. if you are wrong.. well then its your problem. dont complain to the defs about a thing that is is players hands. do something that will change that fact.

The market will fix itself when there are more people in-game.

Offtop beacons.
Ontop market:
I think market will be unhealthy even with a huge numbers of players online. Simple because plasma drop rate. If plasma will not be removed from game, or even reduced, nflation will raise itself to catastrophic level, what will make or empty market, or too high prices.

How much NIC/H have intermediate spawn?

How many nicsink entries we have besides manufacturing?

I think plasma should be removed from game and NIC should be gained from dynamic PvE missions what tied to world state, what will avoid constant inflation. Then market would be ready for use.

So, I have a 500k+ EP account dedicated to mining, and a 500k+ EP account dedicated to combat. Both drive mk2 heavy mechs with top end gear. Leaving beta out of the equation, because I'm not farming there or mining there, my combat character can make roughly triple per hour what my miner can. Granted it's with alot more risk invovled then mining, and typically I'm risking more (combat mk2 heavy + lithus mk2 for looting) in nic value then when I mine (riveler mk2 + 2x sequers). Not sure this is imbalanced but I'm currently pretty happy with the prices people are buying ore at and I don't mind mining, plus it's usually low risk. And granted there's only a few spawns on all the alphas that can produce those results, and they're usually farmed pretty regularly by corps or other high EP toons.

On beta the amounts are probaly closer as you can mine epriton.

I agree with syndic, but with one reservation: The market will sort it's self out with more players that have finished research using it to sell, AND more people using it to buy from. If you're the only one on the market selling anything, it's pretty easy to charge just about whatever you want for it. Honestly, this is what a free market system is about, competiton.

People also need to consider stocking other outposts besides TMA and ICS and to a lesser extent asintec. There are level 2 facilities on the alpha 1s at other outposts and people MAY be willing to pay a small premium to save time and purchase from there. There's also 3 alpha 2 terminals that are probaly more active, and there again people are probaly willing to pay a small premium to buy from there, or there may not even be any competition there.

Beacon drop rate seems ok to me so far.