Nothing happens as long as the owner doesn't request the retrieval of the container.

The assignment container cannot drop into loot, only its contents, and those will be calculated like normal loot.
In any case, the container will be destroyed and the assignment will fail. (Collateral goes to the contractor.)

Agreed, great patch!

When can we expect the next patch(new bots, new equipment)?

Yes there is plenty of content, thats why we have so many players online everyday.

Are there still connection issues? I logged in for a while, stomped around and explored. I had a solid good ping of around 60ms and a stable 60FPS (V-Synced) with the same settings I've always had.

If you want to start thinking about why new players don't stick around in very high numbers you need to include contact, community and motivation.

The new player experience doesn't shown off any of the larger robots, many of the team based game mechanics aren't covered and for a game that's so 'sandbox' the tutorial is very disjointed. You start to get an idea of how the web of information thrown at you fits together.

It's certainly not bad but throwing a new player into Perpetuum requires a lot of hand holding. Unless you friend tells you to play Perpetuum you are really disadvantaged and likely lack the motivation to keep playing once the bitter-vets get their hooks into you.

P.S. Fix the economy/make it more fun to create things and then you might see people throwing assets at each other for fun rather than digging holes to guard their stashes.

The information is there. If you insist on cushioning people at this stage, they're just going to keep running into walls.

Ease up on the wailing Annihilator, it's starting to get boring. Stop pointing out what's wrong on a heavily biased and generalized basis, it's not helping anyone.

Its ok, we know the GW2 login server is down.  Errhh I mean, yes its annoying that we dont hear much.

[rant]
I think there are two somewhat separate issues when it come to attracting and retaining players.

1) Leaning curve, i.e. how hard is it to go from being a newbie to a competent (i would say independent but i haven't achieved that yet lol) player.

2) The reason for playing the game once you are a competent player

While (1) is important, it is (2) that is absolutely critical for having a working game. 

For me personally it was the pvp that drew me to the game.  Recently I have been enjoying more carebear type activities but I am not one of those people who is happy to mindlessly shoot spawns for months just to make a few little bars fill up (which is what I would need to do to become independent).  You could argue that I am just whiny and lazy but what motivation is there to grind your arse off in this game?

Imo MMOs are slowly but surely moving towards mechanics that make "griding" actually fun while at the same time not making grinding a prerequisite for advancement.
(Examples: battlegrounds in theme-park mmos, incursions in eve)

[/rant]

This is called the circle of death for perpetuum.  One corp or alliance becomes too strong the server completely allys up  against them and either they are removed or not and get bored and go play another game.  Both scenarios are bad.  Typically when either happen people stop playing.  But the worst side of it is the nice people you meet in other alliances or corps and its hard to turn your back on them.   Best advice keep one it two corps blue and kill the rest.

...?

No Anni you once again have no  idea.  The only corp to ever learn from the mistakes of blueing up the server was 62nd.  Making too many friends and one enemy leads to  what we have now 0 pvp.  62nd was part of wambulance  on hokko when CIR got bored and left for a while.  With lack of pvp the smart leadership broke away from the alliance and created a separate faction in order to get back to pvping.  We are currently in the same situation as before.  Too much blue and not enough pew pew.  If you think napping entire powerblocks in order to attack peoples Gamma Base is a good idea, well good luck wasting time and getting blue balled for pvp.

I have 3 blue corps.  Want to compare?