Perpetuum | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Developer(s) | Avatar Creations Ltd |
Engine | homegrown [1] |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Vehicular combat MMORPG |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Perpetuum is a video game by Avatar Creations Ltd. It is a player-driven persistent-world MMORPG set in a science fiction ground setting. [2] Players pilot customisable robots on various islands connected by several teleports. These islands are either alpha ('safe' from attacks by players) or beta/gamma, meaning players can freely engage each other.
Players of Perpetuum are able to participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, logistics, missions, manufacturing, trading, artifact hunting and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player). The range of activities available to the player is facilitated by a character advancement system based upon extension points accumulation (EP) in real time, even while not logged into the game. [3]
Perpetuum was first released worldwide via a digital distribution scheme on 25 Nov 2010, [4] following a period of closed and open beta testing. [5] The first major upgrade was the version of Perpetuum dubbed Terra Incognita, which was released on 4 May 2011. [6] [7] The second (current) major upgrade was released 1 June 2012, and is dubbed Gamma Frontier. The main feature of the upgrade is 24 new terraformable islands where player-built settlements (networkable buildings and defensive structures) can be constructed. [8] In April 2014, Perpetuum has dropped its subscription payment model for a pay to play payment model. [9] , and released on Steam, being previously greenlit. The game closed its servers on 25 January 2018, [10] with the server code being open sourced and handed over to the community. [11]
Set somewhere after 2208, the back story of Perpetuum explains that humanity, in search of alternative energy sources, has stumbled upon technology to create tiny particle-sized wormholes, creating shortcuts through spacetime. [12] After sending miniature probes out to map known extrasolar planets, one of them stumbled upon a planet designated Nia, home to a synthetic, robot-like lifeform. [2] It was soon discovered these lifeforms have unique and efficient ways to produce energy, so it was to become an objective for conquest. Earth-based IT specialists found a way by using probes to hack into the alien information system, enabling them to take over several lifeforms and set up a base, facilitated by the fact that most of the alien lifeforms were already divided by a long-standing war and were unable to respond quickly to the takeover. [13] Now that the conquest has begun, the aliens have reinforced their networks and the war will have to be decided on the ground. As it stands, human pilots known as agents control their robots remotely, participating in the Perpetuum Project, with their main goal to transfer as much energy as possible back to earth.
Nia is home to three alien factions: the Pelistal Empire (green, preferring missile launchers), the Nuimqol Union (blue, preferring railguns) and the Thelodica Clan (yellow, preferring lasers). The faction representing Earth is known as the Syndicate, which will also provide new agents with an Arkhe, a weak but fully featured beginner robot. Alpha islands are represented by a syndicate foothold, also providing security for agents against other agents.
Players start the game by either selecting a previously-created character or by creating a new one. Each Perpetuum account allows for up to three characters to be made. When players create a new character they start by choosing one of the three Earth megacorporations (ICS, Truhold-Markson, Asintec), followed by schools (combat, industrial, logistics) and further specializations. These choices also affect starting extensions and attributes. Choosing an Earth megacorporation also determines for which alien faction you'll receive starting extensions for, but by no means limit or determine what faction the player eventually can or cannot use.
The playing environment in Perpetuum consists of several islands, and have either alpha, beta or gamma status. Islands are connected by a teleport network.
Alpha islands are relative safe; player vs player (PvP) can not be initiated unless players activate their PvP flags, and NPC's are (with some rare exceptions) of relative low difficulty and/or value. Beta islands offer more of rarer resources, more challenges and higher rewards, but players can always attack each other. Additionally, beta island offer corporation-owned outposts, to be conquered from other corporations in what is known as an intrusion. This system was later improved, with a more organic mechanic, where ownership of an outpost must be reinforced by completing small objectives randomly set every 8–16 hours, ensuring the owner has a convincing foothold in the area.
All islands originally belonged to one of the three alien factions, and feature faction-specific textures and architecture.
Unlike most other massively multiplayer online games, player characters in Perpetuum advance continuously over time by the accumulation of extension points (EP), a passive process that occurs in real world time so that the advancement process continues even if the player is not logged in. [14] One EP is assigned every minute to a player's account's EP pool, from which the player can install abilities, or extensions, to any of up to 3 characters.
Any extension can be installed, depending on their prerequisites, but their rank (1 to 9) and attributes determine the cost for increasing levels. Although older players seem to have the advantage (having acquired more EP), younger players can install a wide assortment of extensions straight away, while older players will pay an increasingly larger amount of EP for smaller nominal advantages. Additionally, if a new player is willing to specialize, they can catch up quickly.
The in-game economy in Perpetuum is an open economy that is largely player-driven. Non-player character (NPC) merchants sell low level modules and ammo. The players themselves gather the necessary raw materials to manufacture a large portion of all of the robots, modules and ammunition in the game. NPC robots can be looted for items, kernels (to be sold or used for research, providing base knowledge to build items) and materials. The in-game currency is called NIC, an abbreviation for Nian Credit (the events of the game take place on the planet Nia).
The amount of money or materials in the universe is not fixed and, as such, the economy operates under supply and demand. The game provides support for the trading of in-game resources, including graphs of item price history. Some players operate primarily as traders, buying, selling and transporting goods to earn profits. Others operate primarily as producers, purchasing components or raw materials and transforming them, sometimes on massive scales, into useful items such as modules, robots, ammunition, or various technologies wanted by players. Others still operate as miners, collecting and sometimes processing the raw materials used in manufacturing to sell on to others in bulk.
Robots in Perpetuum are organized into four general classes: Light robots, assault robots, mechs and heavy mechs. With the 3 alien factions, the game follows a rock-paper-scissors scheme, where each faction is weak to one faction, but strong to the other. Additionally, there is a fourth industrial faction, but they feature no significant offensive capabilities.
Each robot has a different set of characteristics and can be fitted with different combinations of modules subject to their fitting requirements. Robots have a wide variety of characteristics, including (but not limited to) reactor size, CPU (robot's computer processing power), accumulator size and accumulator recharge rate (functionally, a battery for activating high powered systems), armor, maximum velocity, locking range, time and maximum number of lockable targets. Robot systems also receive bonuses to performance depending on the level of various appropriate extensions that have been activated by the robot's pilot. These bonuses usually correspond closely to the particular role that the robot has been designed for, and thus vary as widely as the roles of the robots.
One of the most important characteristics of a robot is the slots it has available for fitting modules. Each robot has a number of slots available, ranging from a handful to ten or more. Slots and modules come in three variants: head, legs, and chassis slots, with head modules fitting in a corresponding head slot and so on. Generally speaking, head slots can be considered electronics (such as scanners or sensor amplifiers), legs slots for engineering and chassis slots are for offensive and industrial modules.
Players have several options when playing Perpetuum in regards to how they interact with the community. Some activities can be completed as a solo player, but most activities are more suitable for groups of players, for example corporations (similar to guilds in other MMOs), are run by a chief executive officer (CEO), who also controls the corporation's assets. Several other roles can be given to other corporation members, covering aspects such as finances, storage space, production, promotion, recruitment and diplomacy.[ citation needed ]
Users start playing Perpetuum by buying the game. No subscription is required. [15]
Gamma World is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy role-playing game in which player characters explore Earth centuries after the collapse of civilization, searching for artifacts from the time before "The Great Upheaval". The game was originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrows heavily from Ward's earlier role-playing game, Metamorphosis Alpha.
Eve Online is a space-based, persistent world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by CCP Games. Players of Eve Online can participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat. The game contains a total of 7,800 star systems that can be visited by players.
Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa was a MMORPG developed by Destination Games and published by NCsoft, designed in part by Richard Garriott. The game is a role-playing video game that blends certain shooter aspects into the combat system. It was officially released to retail on November 2, 2007, with customers that pre-ordered the game allowed access to the live servers from October 30, 2007. The development team released updates, called "Deployments," nearly every month following launch. The game required a monthly subscription.
Face of Mankind was a first and third-person massively multiplayer online action role playing game (MMOARPG) set in a futuristic persistent world. The game is played from a variety of points of view. It was designed to emphasize roleplay and community, using a faction system and player-driven politics. It was developed by German studio Duplex Systems.
StarQuest Online was a massively multiplayer online role playing game taking place in a large universe. It was created by Castle Thorn Software. In 2009 NeXeon Technologies partnered with Castle Thorn to support development of the game, but in mid-2014 the game had been shut down. The game created a tight-knit gaming community of around 50 people aged between 12 and 60 which continues today.
The Secret World is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game with a dark urban fantasy theme, in which players play characters defending the world from occult threats.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) previously developed by Flying Lab Software and Portalus Games, and currently supported by Vision Online Games. The game is set in the Caribbean in an anachronistic 1720 and combines tactical ship battles and swashbuckling combat with a player-driven economy and open-ended gameplay. In the game, players can choose from four nations; Great Britain, Spain, France and the generically named 'Pirates'.
Guild Wars is a multiplayer online action role-playing game developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of South Korean game publisher NCSOFT, and released in 2005. As the original installment of the Guild Wars series, its campaign was retroactively titled Prophecies to differentiate it from the content of subsequent releases. The game contains a co-operative role-playing portion and a competitive Player versus Player (PvP) portion. In PvP, players may use either their co-operative characters or PvP-exclusive characters who are inherently maximum level and have account-based access to unlocked content.
Monato Esprit is a 3D, fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game is currently in the open beta stage of development and is tentatively scheduled for release in July, 2009. Monato Esprit is free to download and uses the e-currency "MetaTIX" as its billing system.
Universal Century Gundam Online was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Universal Century Gundam universe that launched in 2006.
Champions Online is a free-to-play superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios. The game is based on the Champions license and its ruleset is loosely based on the HERO System The Game has been released on Steam and Microsoft Windows.
Asda Story was a Fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by the MaxOn Soft corporation. It was published by GamesCampus for the North American market, Play Media Group for the market in Europe, OnGame for the Brazilian market, nDoors for the market in Japan, GamePower7 for the MENA market and mGame for the market in Korea.
Turf Battles, often referred to as TB, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is IMAZIC's first released game first introduced in 2002. Turf Battles takes place within the world of Fomalhaut, years after a major war. Originally published under HyperEngines LLC, The open beta was announced around September 2005. Due to many technical issues, the game ultimately failed, and Hyper Engines LLC closed its operations mid-2008.
Black Prophecy was a 3D real-time space combat massively multiplayer online game developed by Reakktor Media GmbH and published by gamigo AG for Microsoft Windows. It was initially launched in Europe on 21 March 2011, with other versions following up afterwards.
WonderKing Online was a free-of-charge, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by the South Korean company ToWinGames.
AdventureQuest Worlds is a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Artix Entertainment in 2008.
Marvel Super Hero Squad Online was a massively multiplayer free-to-play online game for younger audiences based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad, developed by American video game companies the Amazing Society and Gazillion Entertainment. The open beta version of the game was released on April 29, 2011. It was a freemium in-browser game that offered two types of microtransactions: To purchase in-game currency, or a monthly subscription that gave the player additional perks.
Doki-Doki Universe is a video game published and developed by HumaNature Studios for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. The game is unique in that its gameplay largely revolves around an interactive personality test. The game starts with a robot named QT3 and a talking red balloon accidentally getting left on an asteroid by a human family traveling through space. Roughly forty years later Alien Jeff locates QT3 and informs him that his model is being discontinued for lacking humanity. Alien Jeff has been tasked with determining if QT3, an emotionless and obedient robot, is capable of learning humanity. Alien Jeff then takes QT3 and Balloon to a planet called home.
Star Conflict is a free-to-play dynamic massively multiplayer online space action game. The gaming platform Steam describes it as an "action-packed, massively multiplayer space simulation game". The core of the game is PvP spaceships battles, PvE (Co-Op) missions and an open world. The game uses a free-to-play business model.