Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Update: Codes now gone.

Hello! I’m afraid RPS service isn’t going to resume properly until Wednesday, because we’re all on holiday and stuff. In the meantime I have a small competition for people who like glacially-slow sandbox MMOs! Yes, you know who you are. I’ve been messing around in Perpetuum (think Eve Online with robots) and the devs have given me some 30-day timecodes to give away to RPS readers. If you’d like to join me and the dozen other RPS readers who are currently playing then drop me a line via this link explaining why you should get a code, and then join the chat channel ‘rps’ in game. Codes are limited, so it’s a first-come, first-served basis only. Not that this will stop you joining us, of course, because there’s a fifteen-day trial of the game available here. I should point out that Perpetuum is a sandbox MMO of the territory war/economics/freeform PvP/dismissed-as-a-spreadsheet school I favour, so it won’t be for everyone. Only apply for a code if that sounds like your kind of thing!

Ambitious and beautiful robot MMO Perpetuum is one year old this week, and to celebrate it has received its biggest expansion so far, Intrusion 2.0, which adds a graphical overhaul, new robots, animation fixes and an improved support system. Most interesting to me, however, are the improvements to the PvP game: “Our latest expansion allows corporations to start building their empire by letting them to fight for and secure outposts on the unprotected Beta islands of Nia. Unlike the mostly random previous system, Intrusion 2.0 permits corporations to gradually increase their influence on an outpost by introducing the concept of stability. Stability governs which outpost services can be privatized, and also decreases the cost of those services for the conqueror.” This brings it a lot closer to another ambitious sci-fi MMO in terms of its scope for players carving out their own little empires, which interests me enormously…

Robot-battling MMO Perpetuum has expanded and evolved a bit. Avatar Creations are keen to show off these new features by offering fifteen days to everyone, including fifteen days of game time added to the account of everyone who previously signed up to play. The game has six new islands to explore, three of which are open to PvP. The full breakdown of the expansion details can be found in this devblog. You can register and download the client to get your 15 day trial.

Sandbox robo-MMO Perpetuum is launching on the 25th of November. It’s in open beta at the moment, so anyone can drop in and check it out, but Avatar Creations have also supplied us with a dozen one-month time codes for some of you to play for a free for a month after launch. Want one? If so, you can email us here with an explanation of what your purpose would be, if you were a robot. The best robo-roles will win the prizes. The usual rules apply.

Also, there’s some resplendent robo-biff in the launch trailer, below.
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Sandboxy robot MMO Perpetuum is now in open beta, and Avatar Creations have announced some details for early access purchases of the game. For €8.95/$9.95 players in the beta will be able to start playing a week before the game launches proper (getting 37 days access), as well as getting some “extension point” bonuses.

More interestingly, the game has had a graphical overhaul, has a new tutorial front end, and has opened up territorial warfare. The outer islands can now be fought over by players, which adds the first layer of genuine PvP conflict in the game world. If you’re interested in an MMO that’s doing things a bit differently then this is worth visiting while it’s at open beta. I posted some thoughts on the game here, and previewed it for Eurogamer here.

This game really needs a new trailer.

Perpetuum is to hit open beta, and that will happen on the 18th of October. Perpetuum is an extremely interesting project, for a variety of reasons. Developed by Hungary-based indie outfit Avatar Creations, it’s the first MMO I’ve seen that tries to take what Eve Online did and do something useful with it. Avatar Creations are keen to distance themselves from Eve of course, and recent iterations of the game client have, frankly, often been about making this robot-based, freeform MMO less like CCP’s game of spaceships. But no matter how different the UI ends up looking, the underlying principles are the same. And perhaps they are wrong to try and deny that connection too strongly. CCP’s game, no matter how aged and entrenched it might now seem, remains a poster-child for the army of gamers who understand the MMO doesn’t have to equate the genetic lineage of Everquest and WoW.

Let’s continue this beneath the click, shall we?
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Here and there RPS folks have been asking about Perpetuum Online, the Hungarian robo-MMO that is currently in closed beta. No doubt by now a few of you have made it onto that beta, too. I’ve been on there for a while, and I’ve been intrigued by what I’ve found: a constantly evolving sandbox MMO that is more reminiscent of Eve that anything else, and with an art-style and world design that is refreshingly atmospheric. To find out a little more I took some time to chat to Szelei Kis Gergely, from Avatar Creations, about his company’s aims for this independent MMO project. His responses, as well my time with the game itself, leave me feeling quietly excited for its prospects…
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Remember we talked about how there was an MMO that was basically Eve with robots? It’s called Perpetuum Online, and I only went and wrote about it for Eurogamer.

The biggest difference, of course, is that Perpetuum is not set in space, and has terrain. There are not spaceships, but robots. Some are a little stompy, others skittering, all armed as you see fit. The robots deploy from various techno fortresses that are scattered across the landscape.

And stuff like that.