EVE clone with a hint of MechWarrior on the horizon

In the world of gaming (and not only) you know you're doing something right when others start copying your concepts.

There are tons of more or less successful Command and Conquer clones, tons of WoW clones (even if I have a deep dislike of everything WoW represents, I have to give Blizzard credit for giving the people what they want)

Now there's a game on the horizon that so closely resembles EVE game design that my only reaction when I saw it was "Damn...". The name of the game is...

Perpetuum Online (website)

The creators are a Hungarian company called Avatar Creations. The theme of the game - piloting mechanized vehicles (Mechs) in a sandbox environment very much like EVE.

At the time of this writing, it is in closed Beta, with release scheduled for 2010.

The Basics of the Game

The player is an Agent of one of the three Megacorporations of Earth (reunited in what is called the Syndicate) some 200 years in the future. The plot takes players through an artificial wormhole (sound familiar?) to planet Nia, a life-supporting world some 87000 lightyears from Earth.

Each Megacorp has its own agenda for the exploration and exploitation of Nia... and then there's the locals. Split into 3 factions, the locals are to be NPC's as far as I can tell.

Mechs and Combat

Here it all gets very, VERY familiar. The Mechs in Perpetuum have attributes quite similar to ships in Eve. Here's a short list of attributes in EVE, and their counterparts in Perpetuum:

• Maximum targets (same meaning in both)
• Targetting range (same meaning in both)
• Sensor strength (same meaning in both)
• Capacitor (EVE) = Accumulator (Perpetuum)
• Signature size (EVE) = Surface hit radius (Perpetuum)
• CPU and Powergrid = CPU and Reactor Performance

Weapon classes are the same as in EVE - Firearms (Projectile weapons in EVE), Magnetic weapons (Hybrids in EVE), Lasers and Missiles. Hit and miss are determined by the target's speed, by your guns' tracking and by the target's surface hit radius.

One thing however is different in Perpetuum, and that's WASD control of your craft. EVE doesn't have it, possibly because it creates very high  server loads. Since Perpetuum promises to be a single sharded universe just like EVE, we'll see how the developers handle that.

By the looks of it, well-versed EVE players should have no problems adapting to Perpetuum. Simply jump in, fit a mech and it's business as usual.

Here's a trailer I managed to find, featuring what the game would look like:



Decent graphics, given the fact that this trailer is from February, and since then the GFX engine has received an update, they say.



Industry, Manufacturing and Commerce

Again, this part will look pretty familiar to the knowledgeable EVE industrialist. Gathering resources is done in more-or-less specialized mechs, manufacturing requires a factory slot, blueprint (called patent, off which  manufacturing licenses are obtained) and a set quantity of minerals.

The market however will probably be more limited than in Eve. One will not (atleast for now) be able to sell items for prices differing by more than 25% from the average price. This is a severe limitation, but I hope it gets revisited.

So... what's different?


Well, as I said before from what I've noticed, this game will have WASD controls, the lack of which seems to be extremely frustrating for newer players of EVE which come from other MMO's.

The designers also promise destructible environments. There's even a video of that:



 
There is a Game Guide on the website, a work in progress by the looks of it, but it can certainly allow you to form a better view of what this game is about.

Summing up

At first glance, Perpetuum looks promising. Probably not so much to the hardened, bitter EVE veteran (myself included, but hey, I'll try everything once... I might like it) for which Eve is like a religion, but it certainly will look attractive to the people for whom EVE was a bit much. On the other hand, to be fair, EVE was a much simpler game at its beginnings... It is only fair to assume that Perpetuum could evolve into a game of comparative complexity, given enough tim

I for one would be quite pleased if Perpetuum would also adopt the cold, dark "shoot you in the face if you make a wrong turn" atmosphere we are so used to in Eve.

I signed up for beta testing whenever it comes out of closed beta (which should be "Soon", heheh...), so when/if I manage to get my mitts on Perpetuum I'll certainly give it a thorough look and report what I found.

Supercarrier pilots rejoice!

In a presentation done about the Dominion expansion (linky - check at 13:00) by CCP Torfi at Fanfest there's a little nugget of information specifically interesting for would-be Supercarrier pilots. In a list of possible solar system upgrades after the change in Sov mechanics, one item reads as follows: "Supercarrier Docking Facilities - Perhaps... allow players to dock in player built outposts" (pic below, last item on the list):

Click For Larger Pic

It would seem my greatest Supercarrier-related wish (expressed in this article at their announcement) has a chance to materialize:


"One thing I would like to see given to Supercarriers though is the ability to dock. Yes, regular carriers can dock, and now that they had their Cloning Vat removed,. their bigger cousins should be able to do this as well. Not having a character stuck at all times in what seems to be a very expensive coffin with big bad drones would make a big difference towards making the ship class more popular and seen more often on the battlefield - otherwise people are simply going to do what they've been doing until now - BRING MORE DREADS"

Other System Upgrades include better rats, better ores, better exploration content, system cyno jammer, cyno generator, the ability to anchor starbases and many more... do watch the presentation, it's quite interesting.


Epic Win! Please excuse me, I need to go rethink my skill queue :)

The Fun of Training From Scratch

Training a second character is inherently easier than what you went through training the first. For one, you know what the hell you're doing from the beginning and have a plan from the get-go.

You're also likely to be able to support the new guy with the resources needed. A skill costs a few million? No problem... cash transfer, and a few clicks later you're training Exhumers. Implants? Sure, full set of +3's from day one. Your second account tends to train much faster than your first.

A few months ago I started along this road as well, started anew with a Caldari Civire guy on a second account. I didn't start with a Military profession, as this is something I could mold him into on my own. Mostly I picked a Civire based on the fact that I didn't like the other races' mugs any more - atleast Civire look remotely human, hehe.

So I started with the Prospector profession, as I wanted to train a hulk pilot and not waste time for this on the other account. So for 2 months and change he simply sat berthed in a University station in The Forge, churning away at getting the skills needed to fly a decent rock buster. Interestingly enough, the starting skills included everything needed to use T2 Modulated Strip Miners (with T2 Veldspar crystals), all that was needed were the skills to fly the ship and various odds and ends to make it all fit, like mining upgrades, Mechanic etc.

I also trained a couple of levels in Corporation Management so I could start a one-man corp in order not to have to listen to all the newbie chatter in the Deep Core Mining channel every time I logged in.

After 2 months I was looking at a character sporting 3.6 million SP (If I recall correctly, Brutus only hit 4 mil SP four and a half months after creation). A quick 100 mil transfer from Brutus' wallet later, he had a fitted hulk (minus the rigs, for now - forgot about them when I bought it). He's far from a perfect miner, actually he's quite bog-standard, I trained for this just to prove to myself I could, but anything else, like additional t2 crystals can be trained on-the-fly. Now comes the real skill plan, focused on ship and weapon skills.

Even though he's Caldari, I do not plan training this race further than frigates. Instead, he'll focus on becoming an Amarr ship pilot. Not to disrespect Caldari pilots, but I tend to believe the best defence against incoming rounds of ordinance are heavy plates of hard alloy, not shields, and the best weapons are those that cause pain when you press the trigger as opposed to half a minute later - but that's just me, don't pay too much attention to it.

As opposed to my first character, I'm in no hurry to step into a bigger ship. I know how a battleship blows up, just as well as I know how a frigate blows up. So first - support skills, and lots of them. To level IV at least, preferably maxed out in the long run.

New Year's Resolutions

To me, and to many others I'm sure, Eve is more than a mere game. It's something I've put unparalleled effort into, and despite its shortcomings I am certain that I'm going to enjoy it for years to come. And since this is the time of year to make plans and put business in order, I've put together a little list of what I hope to accomplish ingame this year. So here goes, my 2009 to-do list:

1. Become an accomplished and effective Battleship pilot. This means skills in spaceship command (notably the dreaded BS V), gunnery (notably large T2 Blasters), some more navigation, which shall be beneficial to all ships I fly and Drones... lots of drones.

2. Train all required skills for carrier use to a decent level (the training schedule says it takes me 230-ish days to become a decent fleet carrier pilot, support skills and all, some of which overlap with my previous goal)

3. The two points above bring me within shooting distance (pun intended) of also being able to fly a Dreadnought

4. Train a second account to run in parallel and eventually take over most of the science and industry tasks and ventures I'm involved in, and provide additional income to support the goals above... this is the time when skillbooks and equipment become quite, QUITE expensive.

That's about it for personal goals. I feel they are well achievable and well-balanced, but time will tell if I'm right or not :)

If you also have some goals set for yourself, or wish to make comments or suggestions to mine, please feel free to post comments. Or if you run a blog as well and have a similar post, drop me a line in-game, I'd love to read them.