Perpetuum Online

[Psygnal]

I'm still playing - though having discovered World of Tanks too, my time is split between the two of them. WoT is great if you just want a quick blat around blowing things up, especially if your time is short - but Perp is definitely filling the spot that was vacated by Eve.

I still really really like it. It's not as fleshed out as Eve - but it's comfortably where Eve was a few years back. Content is being added slowly, but it is coming, and the devs so far seem to be keeping promises in relation to what's happening and when, unlike CCP who have produced more vaporware than anything.

However, I'm pure combat spec - so I can't really tell you what the industry side of things is like, other than the fact that the Eve players who came over seem to think it's pretty good.

Training works very similar to Eve with one big difference. You don't train a skill, you train EP. You get one EP every minute, which goes into a pool, regardless of what skills you have on the go. It's up to you to allocate that accumulated EP to whatever skills you want.

This means you don't have to keep an eye on what you've got training and when it finishes.


The game doesn't encourage cross-training, so each toon is either pure combat or pure industry - but the training model allows you to share your skill points (EP - Extension Points) across all your toons, so you don't have to stop training on one in order to start training on the other. You still only get one toon's worth of EP accumulating, but you can use it on any of your toons as you see fit.

Travel is a bit awkward at times. You need to actually know how to get around... you know you have to get down the hill, but you can't find a path, for example. This can be frustrating during long trips, especially if you're trying to keep off the beaten path - but it's a toss up between fast travel and safe travel, which is actually kind of neat. I would say it's about as annoying as Eve in that regard - though Eve at least has autopilot. Perp does not. (yet).

I love how terrain plays a part in combat. You can hide behind things and use hills for cover, etc. You can be competitive against bigger mechs simply by using your terrain cleverly.

It has been a bit crashy - usually when docking, so not during combat - but the latest patch seems to have tidied that up nicely.

In short, I'm enjoying it a lot - and it's cheaper than Eve. And I'm playing it - unlike Eve where I was pretty much just switching skills and doing the *occasional* L4 mission.

Psyg'