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Unpolished EVE-Clone
Perpetuum lacks its own identity, apart from the WASD movement and a few minor mining tweaks, everything else has been copied from EVE. Don't take me wrong, I think EVE is a great game, but PO has lacked the criteria to choose what to copy, what to invent and what to improve. Instead, they've copied indiscriminately every EVE feature: Industry, combat, economy, character creation, character progression... it's EVE in every possible way.
But the problem is it lacks EVE's polish and depth, and some of the features copied just don't work in a ground combat MMO. That said, it has potential to become a great game, just like EVE did, but PO needs to look for its own identity. I for one am doubtful about PO's future, if only because so far I haven't seen any genuine design work behind PO.
Comments
Well. at the moment there aren't news of Perpetuum developers cheating in their own game, I suppose that's a feature they haven´t copied and I hope they don't do it in the future
WASD movement was a must because this was one of the thing that turn off many players in EVE. Many newcomers wanted more control on their ship.
Also, it does provide a good alternative to eve. And there's no monocles yet.
I tried out Perpetuum during the beta and just after release.
I definitely like the movement more than Eve's click-click-click-click-click battle system. I also think the skill system is better; getting points and then spending them on skills, vs. Eve's skill queue system that you have to babysit.
Perpetuum isn't too un-polished, especially for how long it's been out; I was surprised how well it played. Have to keep in mind that Eve had a 7 1/2 year head start. But that being said, Eve has a much stronger and broad economy (HUGE part of the game). AI is equally bad in both games.
To me, both games are more or less about trying to get your bank account as high as you can while waiting for your skills to increase, which doesn't really appeal to me.
I fully agree with the OP about this being an Eve clone though. Which is, unfortuantely, why I stopped playing it. I've been waiting for years for a good sci-fi sandbox without ships (I prefer 3rd person games)
Comparing EvE to Perp and calling it unpolished is a bit stupid. The game is extremely polished for being less than a year old and a sandbox. I have encountered very few bugs while playing and it is very responsive. However, I do agree that their structure is very similar, but I think Perp has a few game mechanics that eclipse EvE. Namely combat with LOS/WASD is much more tactical, and the accumulation of skill points is much more rewarding than having to log on and fill your queue.
Perpetuum is excellent for what it is, and honestly does it a little better than what EVE did at it's start. When I played, they took a lot of what works in EVE and made it work on the ground, and I like that. Overall though, the general gameplay aspect of PO is exactly the same as EVE, which has always left me kind of, "meh." I think they did a good job though and hope they continue to grow the game. It doesn't matter if it is a clone, EVE is the de facto sci-fi sandbox out there and it's good to have another for some competition.
While the safety net in perpetuum is more defined and Alpha Islands offer no PvP for anyone who schooses to opt out, like EVE you will get so far, then you must go to areas of the game where forced PvP in closed societies is mandatory.
"EVE on the gorund"
And I agree with the OP. The game needs to define itself but if it wants to remain true to sanbox it might not be able to.
If everything else was copied from EVE, Perpetuum would be a great game, but unfortunately it was not.
The game indeed lacking an identity so everything that was 'copied' from EVE was done blindly without thought and understanding how it worked in EVE in the first place.
Check out the new blog 'The Great Big Revamp' to perfectly illustrate what lack of identity means. Devs with no doubts work hard on the game but no single part of that so called revamp is moving the game into a clear and defined direction, nor it actually revamps anything.
CCP definitely has got a vision for EVE, vision you might not like and it certainly made a lot of people quit or just never feel attracted to the game but the game is constantly evolving - especially in early years when core game features development was massive.
Perpetuum isn't in a least bit comparable to EVE in this regard, it's development consists of applying a band-aid over band-aid and for the worst part, it is based on biased voice of player minority...
Does it have to move somewhere from what it is now - a PVP game? Definitely not but then I do not see a prosperous future for the game if the game keep this kind of 'ridiculous' development.
An Eve clone it is not.
At first it seems like it is... but after a month or two... definatly not.
If you think its an Eve clone, you havnt played at all and just dis-credit yourself.
Industry, economy, combat, character creation, character progression, manufacturing, refining (they totally SHOULD have avoided refining, I hate PvErs injecting minerals in the economy)... it's 100% EVE-ish.
The whole WASD situation is the only difference. And mining, I've done a bit of mining. It's quite good, probing the ground and so on.
I re-downloaded the game, expend 1 hour adjusting the UI and tested PO a bit further. The lack of storyline is a turn-off. I don't know about sov and POS mechanics yet... but I doubt this game could grow up substantially as it is now, which is a shame since I'm starting to enjoy it.
What catches my attention about PO is the lack of criteria. The Avatars they have are hurting them more than not having avatars, and the collision boxes, invisible walls and so on are quite neglected.
Industry is way differerent. In fact its the number 1 reason why Eve players prefer PO its so much better.
combat... again, completly different, fights dont occur around gates and stations, there is line of sight. and when you die there is AOE explosive damage! - clearly, you've not done pvp since this only happens on pvp territory.
..
Sorry, I could go on, but clearly you havnt really played the game much at all. Everything you say is what new players think when they first start to play.
Its a proper, traditional hardcore pvp game... Eve has become softcore, pve focused blob-warfare, carebear game.
I get that people dont like it, but making false, generalisations when you obviously havnt put more than a few days effort into it is just insulting.
Oh really...? Number 1?
Can you elaborate how the industry is so much better and therefore why the market is virtually dead?
You know, in early beta, there was a different production system. You bought a Blueprint from the NPC, then you trained up extensions so you could research blueprint efficiency and make copies. After that, you trained some more extensions for manufacturing... Does it sound familiar, huh?
Then the EVE system was revamped to current Perpetuum garbage...
You say it's different, without stating what's different. I saw that it also consist on collecting raw materials, selecting empty manufacture slot, blueprint and start producing. I like this system and I'm glad that PO added it in its gameplay.
About combat, fights dont occur around gates and stations because in alpha islands (or beta ones, don't remember) you need to be flagged for PvP or else no one can attack you. That's also a negative point about PO.
I haven't done PvP, but I've done PvE. I wouldn't say it's better but different. Speed, signature sight, collision angle.. I don't know how PO works. Also, there's the fact that the Robots haven't their own collision box. In a PvP this is a mistake IMO.
As already said, anti-blob mechanics is a very nice one. I'm liking PO so far, but it offers no guarantee of longevity because of the many details and design oversights. I wish I'm wrong and most likely I'll sub when the trial expires, because PO's dev guys are really nice peeps and seem to be working quite hard.
Perpetuum is Eve 2004 (with some better features) in it's current state and that is a very good thing. I'm counting on Perpetuum's devs to learn from Eve's misdirection and keep it a strictly sandbox environment.
I disagree with EVE's misdirection. This last expansion was rather disappointing gameplay wise, but it was a necessary step in the right direction through the full sci-fi experience.
In my opinion, a Sandbox provides you with the tools for doing your own stuff, and that's what EVE is doing. They're adding horizontal stuff to play with. It's all about choices, we can feel it in their "future vision" and their design plans. Also, In their last interview they stated that they'll be tweaking spaceships balance and nullsec mechanics, which is a great thing. Bashing EVE for adding stuff is nonsense.
Perpetuum should rather be Perpetuum 2011 than EVE 2004.
Making it a successful (no. 2?) game on western MMO market, is what you consider misdirection?
But yeah, you can be sure that Avatar Creations won't be following success of CCP but more like a success of Aventurine or StarVault...
After all, those studios and their games share with Perpetuum more than CCP and EVE Online.
This!
Lulz, this discussion again... Truth is it's similar but different. Different enough to be it's own game but similar enough to belong to the same genre, which by the way did NOT begin with EVE. Remember when everything new game was billed as either a WOW Clone, the WOW Killer, or both? Remember what games like EVE and WOW were like BEFORE they defined their genres? Let me refresh your memory.
Eve Online evolved from the classic computer game Elite, which itself was based on concepts from the science-fiction role-playing game Traveller, add in a dash of UO and walla EVE Online is born. Thats more or less straight from the Dev's mouthes not mine. Some game reviewers were referring to it as 'Privateer Online' if anyone here remembers Privateer. Personally I think they borrowed a lot from SWG in the early years.
As for the second part, do your research, heres what professional game reviewers were saying in EVE's first year after release. (a release that was delayed and pushed back one year)
"Buggy, constantly patched, slow as molasses, steep learning curve, and boring for action gamers."
"There are bugs in this kind of games... updates happen on a regular base. Every day in fact. Indeed, every day there is a 1 hour lasting period that the development team can use to implement new things or remove bugs. Wine and games like this one get better and better in time."
The industry had such high hopes for EVE that Viacom sold the rights back to CCP when their publisher was aquired.
This. Folks that are claiming it is an EvE clone are not looking at it very hard. Some mechanics may look similar on the surface, but the feel of the world is not remotely the same, it play differently, and, in the end, is a very different sandbox.
The same as EvE argument seems similar to saying "football is a soccer clone; they both have players, a ball, a field, points are scored, even off-sides (but they mean very different things)".
Shallow analysis is....shallow. Always will be.
It's a matter of perspective. You've chosen to see this game like an unique snowflake whereas I had a feeling of already-seen while playing this game. We can argue why it is or it isn't different ad nauseam without agreeing on anything, but In my opinion facts support me.
Also
"Eve Online evolved from the classic computer game Elite"
if Perpetuum would have evolved from EVE the same way EVE evolved from Elite we wouldn't be having this conversation. That said, I hope that Perpetuum finds his way. The industry really needs more sandbox.