Tag: Perpetuum

Grave Digging: Dead MMOs You Can Actually Still Play


Reviving the dead.

Continue reading “Grave Digging: Dead MMOs You Can Actually Still Play”

Perpetuum Online Ends Development, Eyes Private Servers


Perpetuum Online is a name that we haven’t heard around MMO Fallout in quite a while, so long that many of you might have assumed that the game had quietly shut down. It hasn’t, although we have learned that development has come to an end. In a post on the official website, detailed plans have been laid out for the future of Perpetuum Online, a rather niche sci-fi MMO. In the post, Avatar Creations announced that while Perpetuum had two major population spikes, the number of players never really remained sustainable to maintain proper development.

While development on the game is ending, that doesn’t mean that Perpetuum will be gone for good. The official server will remain online for an unknown amount of time, and a standalone server client is being created so that players will be able to continue on their own servers. The client is apparently small enough and requires little resources, meaning you could boot it up alongside the game and play on your own server if you want.

As expected, premium currency and DLC are going away, and the game will only be available on Steam:

A bigger change that some of you probably won’t like is that soon Steam will be the only place where Perpetuum will be distributed, including the standalone server. The reason for this is to ensure the availability of the game on a stable platform, as opposed to our own website that we cannot guarantee to be around forever. Another reason is that it’s uneconomical for us to keep our own payment platform, as purchases made via Steam outweigh our own store by far.

You can find the entire announcement at the link below.

(Source: Perpetuum Online)

Another Set Of Titles Greenlit On Steam


 

Heroes & Generals

Heroes and Generals was actually Greenlit the previous time around, but since it was the only MMO at the time to be approved, I feel it warrants another look. Heroes & Generals is an upcoming MMOFPS by Reto-Moto. The game is an open world, free to play title set in World War 2, and mashes together first person shooter with real time strategy. Players on the ground take care of the assault while those higher up in command view the battlefield from a top down perspective and order strategic movements. Reto-Moto is made up of the original founders of IO Interactive, the minds behind the Hitman and Freedom Fighters games.

Heroes & Generals is currently in development and not set for release for some time. Players are able to sign up for a beta key at the main website.

Perpetuum

You likely already know about Perpetuum Online. Like a few of the other games on Greenlight, Perpetuum Online has already launched and has been available for quite some time. Sometimes referred to as Eve Online on the ground, Perpetuum is a single-server, sandbox MMO that focuses on players controlling highly customizable mechs in order to compete over the land, the resources, and the environment. Just like Eve Online, players are able to purchase and trade subscription items (PLEX) which would allow a player to play Perpetuum free of charge as long as they can make enough money.

Everything is manufactured by players, along with player-built settlements. The environment can be terraformed, and character progression is based on time rather than grind.

Perpetuum Online Extends Active Accounts, DDOS Attacks


Back in January I talked about the issue surrounding a certain someone launching a distributed denial of service attack on indie MMO Perpetuum Online. The attacks began in January and caused the server to become unstable for many players. For now, however, the developer believes that the attacks are over. Players are being compensated with three extra days added to their subscription.

Probably most of you are aware of the recent DDOS-attacks against the Perpetuum servers. They seem to have stopped now, but we have and still are taking steps to strengthen our defenses against these kinds of attacks in the future.

To compensate for lost game time, we have decided to extend all active accounts (including trial accounts) by 3 days, effective after today’s patch.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all our players for their continued support through these times, even when they couldn’t even log in and play.

Hopefully this is the end of the story, and the developers can move on to more important issues.

(Source: Perpetuum Forums)

Perpetuum Thriving Off Of Eve Online’s Losses


The guys over at Perpetuum Online were hoping to get a big patch out soon, but according to the latest dev blog much of the past few weeks has been spent dealing with a major increase in players, more specifically refugees from Eve Online.

The influx of players brought light to a lot of glitches, imbalances and dysfunctional mechanisms in the game, so instead of rushing forward and pushing out new features in the next weeks, we are taking a step back and making everything that is available in the game better. All of these features are subject to change, but their purpose and outlines are quite clear.

The connection to Eve Online isn’t just speculation, however, as Perpetuum has been noting the surge of players relating directly with the controversy over at CCP over the cash shop and the long list of players committing to quit and find another game. With Perpetuum being the closest alternative on the market, it only makes sense that the disgruntled players would end up there.

Again the long term success remains on whether or not those who pledged to never send CCP another dollar/buy another PLEX will actually go through and cancel or turn around and start mailing their subscription in via anonymous money orders, while playing Eve in a secluded room with Xfire turned off. Don’t fret though, the Perpetuum crew has a lot of plans for the game now that the server issues are taken care of. Click on the link above to read the entirety of the dev blog.

Perpetuum Thriving Off Of Eve Online's Losses


The guys over at Perpetuum Online were hoping to get a big patch out soon, but according to the latest dev blog much of the past few weeks has been spent dealing with a major increase in players, more specifically refugees from Eve Online.

The influx of players brought light to a lot of glitches, imbalances and dysfunctional mechanisms in the game, so instead of rushing forward and pushing out new features in the next weeks, we are taking a step back and making everything that is available in the game better. All of these features are subject to change, but their purpose and outlines are quite clear.

The connection to Eve Online isn’t just speculation, however, as Perpetuum has been noting the surge of players relating directly with the controversy over at CCP over the cash shop and the long list of players committing to quit and find another game. With Perpetuum being the closest alternative on the market, it only makes sense that the disgruntled players would end up there.

Again the long term success remains on whether or not those who pledged to never send CCP another dollar/buy another PLEX will actually go through and cancel or turn around and start mailing their subscription in via anonymous money orders, while playing Eve in a secluded room with Xfire turned off. Don’t fret though, the Perpetuum crew has a lot of plans for the game now that the server issues are taken care of. Click on the link above to read the entirety of the dev blog.

What Happened This Week: That’s Not Linguine Edition


Here’s a question for this week: If you could sit down and talk to anyone in the gaming industry, who would you talk to and what would you ask them? Over here at MMO Fallout, I came upon that decision rather easily. The Who: Free to play/cash shop developers. The What: Their business model. Thanks to the saturation by games in the East, the cash shop model was tainted long ago with the idea that any game bearing such a tag would be free to download, pay to win, and buy to compete. With the crowding of the market, the games that do wind up being buy to win are quickly shunned in the west (although they are still great money makers in Korea, China, etc) and have a habit of shutting down only a year or two outside of launch.

I’ll have more details in the weeks to come on that note, but let’s talk about what happened this week.

1. Go To Hell-Gate In a Handbasket

The Hellgate closed beta launched late Friday, and the resulting server implosion was exactly what you would expect with a 50-50 chance of being approved along with major giveaways from 3rd party websites. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that you could call the beta “limited,” given how many keys were being thrown around. Once again, however, a closed beta has gone up and every other video game must have closed doors, because the Hellgate forums are filled with whining about the servers being down, and an apparent lack of anything else to do with your time.

I’ll remind you: The servers for a free beta test for a free game are down, and people are already calling the game a “failure.” Well if the game is a failure, no sense sitting on the forums flailing your arms like toddlers in a WalMart parking lot, right? I’m sure it’s not worth noting, but I’m continually amazed by the amount of people who will (allegedly) call in sick, take the day off, skip school, to get opening day at a video game. Forgetting the obvious lack of priorities, you are guaranteed to be disappointed when the game’s servers are down due to the amount of other people who did the exact same thing.

I rarely suggest people preorder MMOs, because almost none of them have the mentality that accepts the inevitably broken/delayed features, laggy servers, and game breaking bugs. Forgoing income for the sake of playing a video game is just ridiculous in and of itself.

2. Perpetuum Online Mass Ban

Nothing says loving like a mass ban in the oveng. The guys over at Avatar want you to know that cheaters are being dealt with by the mighty banhammer. In a blog post, the team threw up this graph and briefly talked about a game mechanic being exploited in a way no one could mistake for legitimate gameplay, allowing for a massive amount of resource collection.

Good for Perpetuum. A smaller game with a smaller community has to work extra hard to get rid of cheaters.

3. You Remind Me Of Another MMO

Dear MMO,

I’ve had this odd feeling about you over the past year or so, and it wasn’t until just recently that I figured out why. That strange feeling not that I’ve played you before, but that I covered your company, despite being the first game your company has developed. You don’t share any names with this other game, but in spirit you are almost one in the same.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, sweeping me back into a series of waking nightmares I hadn’t experienced for around six years: Mourning. The name, its company…Colton Burgess’ cronies sending me harassing emails and private messages. Sending beta versions of the game on unlabeled Memorex CD’s. Refusing refunds, possible fraud, wiping the forums, administrators telling me to run away as fast as I can! Virtually the only MMO de-listed from MMORPG for harassment from the company-MOMMY!

Happy thoughts. Luckily I managed to close my notes before my brain was Shish Kebab’d by my wine opener. For those of you who weren’t around when Mourning was up (2005), do some Google research on Mourning, Throne of Chaos, Colton Burgess, and Loud Ant Software. Just in case you need a good laugh, or a horrifying night of no sleep.

4. Does Jagex Need Two Evony-Style MMOs?

Jagex are most known for their MMO Runescape, but did you know that the company has several products live right at this moment? Only two of which they developed in-house. Currently live, Jagex has Runescape (the Fantasy MMO) and FunOrb (mini-game collection) developed in house, while the company publishes War of Legends (Cash shop flash city builder). Upcoming, Jagex is developing Stellar Dawn, a sci-fi MMO, an unnamed fantasy MMO (not a sequel to Runescape), Transformers Online (a Transformers MMO, go figure) and 8Realms, an HTML based city builder.

I’m not saying Jagex can’t maintain two MMORTS games, given all they do with War of Legends is publish it, but you’d think much like the Pizza Hut having a problem with my local Target opening a Pizza Hut in-store and being just down the street, that the War of Legends guys would have an issue with Jagex opening up a direct competitor to their game. Of course, that may just be my speculation.

5. More Stellar Dawn, Less Transformers Online

While we’re on the subject of Jagex, let’s talk Transformers Online. Jagex had the character creator on display at Botcon 11, with some information on the upcoming MMO. The game is set in the Prime continuity, but the team is working with Hasbro to integrate as many characters as possible. The game will feature hundreds of customization options for each part of your bot, and you will indeed create your own transformers robot, on the side you choose. Further down the line, players will be able to create and upload their own parts, decals, and art to make their bots truly unique (or to just upload crudely drawn penis/swastika decals, I’m sure).

Only question remaining is: Why can’t Stellar Dawn get this kind of love? For a game that is reportedly going into beta this year, Jagex has been rather hush on the game. Why the lack of love, Jagex?

And on that note, I’m heading back into the Hellgate Global beta. Sure my character is going to be deleted, but listening to Russians spamming chat is just too good to pass up.

What Happened This Week: That's Not Linguine Edition


Here’s a question for this week: If you could sit down and talk to anyone in the gaming industry, who would you talk to and what would you ask them? Over here at MMO Fallout, I came upon that decision rather easily. The Who: Free to play/cash shop developers. The What: Their business model. Thanks to the saturation by games in the East, the cash shop model was tainted long ago with the idea that any game bearing such a tag would be free to download, pay to win, and buy to compete. With the crowding of the market, the games that do wind up being buy to win are quickly shunned in the west (although they are still great money makers in Korea, China, etc) and have a habit of shutting down only a year or two outside of launch.

I’ll have more details in the weeks to come on that note, but let’s talk about what happened this week.

1. Go To Hell-Gate In a Handbasket

The Hellgate closed beta launched late Friday, and the resulting server implosion was exactly what you would expect with a 50-50 chance of being approved along with major giveaways from 3rd party websites. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that you could call the beta “limited,” given how many keys were being thrown around. Once again, however, a closed beta has gone up and every other video game must have closed doors, because the Hellgate forums are filled with whining about the servers being down, and an apparent lack of anything else to do with your time.

I’ll remind you: The servers for a free beta test for a free game are down, and people are already calling the game a “failure.” Well if the game is a failure, no sense sitting on the forums flailing your arms like toddlers in a WalMart parking lot, right? I’m sure it’s not worth noting, but I’m continually amazed by the amount of people who will (allegedly) call in sick, take the day off, skip school, to get opening day at a video game. Forgetting the obvious lack of priorities, you are guaranteed to be disappointed when the game’s servers are down due to the amount of other people who did the exact same thing.

I rarely suggest people preorder MMOs, because almost none of them have the mentality that accepts the inevitably broken/delayed features, laggy servers, and game breaking bugs. Forgoing income for the sake of playing a video game is just ridiculous in and of itself.

2. Perpetuum Online Mass Ban

Nothing says loving like a mass ban in the oveng. The guys over at Avatar want you to know that cheaters are being dealt with by the mighty banhammer. In a blog post, the team threw up this graph and briefly talked about a game mechanic being exploited in a way no one could mistake for legitimate gameplay, allowing for a massive amount of resource collection.

Good for Perpetuum. A smaller game with a smaller community has to work extra hard to get rid of cheaters.

3. You Remind Me Of Another MMO

Dear MMO,

I’ve had this odd feeling about you over the past year or so, and it wasn’t until just recently that I figured out why. That strange feeling not that I’ve played you before, but that I covered your company, despite being the first game your company has developed. You don’t share any names with this other game, but in spirit you are almost one in the same.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, sweeping me back into a series of waking nightmares I hadn’t experienced for around six years: Mourning. The name, its company…Colton Burgess’ cronies sending me harassing emails and private messages. Sending beta versions of the game on unlabeled Memorex CD’s. Refusing refunds, possible fraud, wiping the forums, administrators telling me to run away as fast as I can! Virtually the only MMO de-listed from MMORPG for harassment from the company-MOMMY!

Happy thoughts. Luckily I managed to close my notes before my brain was Shish Kebab’d by my wine opener. For those of you who weren’t around when Mourning was up (2005), do some Google research on Mourning, Throne of Chaos, Colton Burgess, and Loud Ant Software. Just in case you need a good laugh, or a horrifying night of no sleep.

4. Does Jagex Need Two Evony-Style MMOs?

Jagex are most known for their MMO Runescape, but did you know that the company has several products live right at this moment? Only two of which they developed in-house. Currently live, Jagex has Runescape (the Fantasy MMO) and FunOrb (mini-game collection) developed in house, while the company publishes War of Legends (Cash shop flash city builder). Upcoming, Jagex is developing Stellar Dawn, a sci-fi MMO, an unnamed fantasy MMO (not a sequel to Runescape), Transformers Online (a Transformers MMO, go figure) and 8Realms, an HTML based city builder.

I’m not saying Jagex can’t maintain two MMORTS games, given all they do with War of Legends is publish it, but you’d think much like the Pizza Hut having a problem with my local Target opening a Pizza Hut in-store and being just down the street, that the War of Legends guys would have an issue with Jagex opening up a direct competitor to their game. Of course, that may just be my speculation.

5. More Stellar Dawn, Less Transformers Online

While we’re on the subject of Jagex, let’s talk Transformers Online. Jagex had the character creator on display at Botcon 11, with some information on the upcoming MMO. The game is set in the Prime continuity, but the team is working with Hasbro to integrate as many characters as possible. The game will feature hundreds of customization options for each part of your bot, and you will indeed create your own transformers robot, on the side you choose. Further down the line, players will be able to create and upload their own parts, decals, and art to make their bots truly unique (or to just upload crudely drawn penis/swastika decals, I’m sure).

Only question remaining is: Why can’t Stellar Dawn get this kind of love? For a game that is reportedly going into beta this year, Jagex has been rather hush on the game. Why the lack of love, Jagex?

And on that note, I’m heading back into the Hellgate Global beta. Sure my character is going to be deleted, but listening to Russians spamming chat is just too good to pass up.

Perpetuum Online: Insurance Fraud Ahoy!


Prepare for unforeseen consequences...

Exploits in a sandbox MMO almost always follow the same progression of events. Exploit is discovered, run into the ground, and is eventually fixed with the developers either removing the ill-gotten gains or banning the more explicit offenders. The forums are then awash with a combination of two types of players; those who used the exploit and those who either wanted to use the exploit and didn’t have the cajones to risk their account getting banned, or didn’t hear about the exploit until it was too late. Those who did get caught and either had their gains removed or were outright banned, never seem to take blame for their actions, and the issue of “it was clearly intended,” sprouts up.

Perpetuum Online is not unlike Eve Online on the ground, with mechs, and inevitably the same issues that spring up in Eve will show up in Perpetuum. In this case, the same insurance fraud scheme that hit Eve has just been patched in Perpetuum, and players are taking to the (virtual) streets to pretty much remove any doubt that they are unapologetic cheaters.

In Perpetuum, players can insure their mechs, for a return if the mech is destroyed. The reimbursement is based off of market prices over two weeks, making the system more difficult to game. However, lesser traded mechs can be manipulated to higher prices, to a point where a player can make a profit by building a robot and blowing it up as it exits the manufacturing facility. The exploit has been patched up and the devs responded by removing all of the ill-gotten money from the economy.

Of course, it probably isn’t in their best interest to give the go ahead on exploiting this system, and then expecting less of an uproar when they change pace and retroactively apply the new rule. As for the players, don’t expect much sympathy when what you were doing, albeit within the rules at the time, was as ethically dubious as insurance fraud.