Happy holidays! :)

Hello there again!

On behalf of the developer team I wish happy holidays and a happy new year to everyone!

Meanwhile, I thought that if I share some info about the new features that we are working on, features that will make you guys very happy. Of course this won't be a super detailed info package, as we are still working on these features. So what will we have in the new year?

• We thought that the Sequer may not be enough for your current freight transporting needs. A new mech will be introduced.
• Lots of people requested a feature that can log some nice data for you. Like who killed you or who did you kill. This so-called ‘Combat history’ will be a nice feature for sure!

After witnessing all those huge pvp fights, we realized that there's an urgent need for a way to deal damage in an area. So we plan to add these shiny new ideas into the game soon:

• Robot-death-explosion-damage. If you die, you actually damage everyone around you. Bigger robots will have bigger explosions.
• If you think about the previous feature as an actual weapon, go no further; we will create an item that allows you to play kamikaze, with bigger fireworks. But it will require some reactor and CPU, so no Intakt rush with explosives.
• Have you ever thought about dropping bombs? You deploy it on the ground, it starts pulsing... and then everything fades to black. Well well well... I'm quite sure it will cause some damage! Use it to separate yourself from your enemy by placing it in narrow passages, or if you're a spy in the flock, why not surprise them with something funny? Also, my mind has just gone crazy about the possibilities of such a basic item and some more work on developer side... And had a vision of a bomberman event.
• What would you do with AOE (area of effect), if you couldn't shoot it on the group; why is it necessary to shake hands every time you want to cause damage? Of course we agree with you - new aoe weapons. Slow cycle time, shot at somebody, collateral damage to everyone nearby that target. And hoping that you ain't nearby that somebody.

So these are the most interesting features that we are currently working on. I still remember a beautiful board in the office, written all over with features to be done. Stay tuned for some moar candy!

Servers down

Our ISP decided for some reason to die. We're... working on it.
Will be back as soon as possible.

Anything lost due to this unexpected downtime will be reimbursed.

Awesome pvp video!

Thank you guys for this high quality, seamless gameplay record.
Congratulations to the winners of the event, and thanks to the other side for their effort on the battlefield! I wish you better luck next time ;)

Release aftermath

It was nearly a month ago, when I was able to stamp the blog with the the "out of beta" post, foolishly thinking that the blogging on this site has been ended for me. Until recent past happenings, I thought so. Plan A was that we will have a nice blog under the official site. Until plan A succeeds, I thought there's place for a plan B too. :)

It's kinda frustrating feeling, when you say "release time". First thing that gets into your head, is to look at the selling statistic. After the first sold copy you finally can say "somebody thinks that what we did actually worth the cash". And it's an awesome feeling after 4 years of developing. (for the developers who actually started the whole thing. For me, it's just nearly 2 years of poking around, mass bug hunting, working on balancing, zones, missions and so on.)

The second thing that you realize is that you developed an mmorpg. Hurray, we made it to release; let's take a sneak peak at the general chat to make sure everything is all right*. And since, we didn't had one day that would go without a new bug reported. Then you realize that mmos require constant developing; you look around to see that everyone works just to stabilize the situation.
* There's no such thing as all right in mmos. Lesson learned.

Then two weeks go by, and you may* actually say that I have time to work on new things again. At moment my main task is to help the GMs, as I can't do nothing else at the moment. :(
*I'm speaking only in my own name. Everyone around me works on thousands of things.

In the past weeks, we realized a lot's of things: we needed better hardware, more hardware. The longer (1 hour long) downtimes are usually due to some hardware upgrade. As the whole game runs now from 3 servers, we hope that the players would experience less server issues. Our network connection also had it first test: around a week ago, there was an intrusion event with lot's of agents taking part of a pvp battle. 45mb/s upload does sound nice, isn't it? :)

Network issues however, such as lag or full disconnect can't be fixed such easily. Many players noted that our connection may not be as stable as they experienced it with other mmos. Until we can improve on this, I found a nice post from the forums from Kethir, who said that his connection is much better, if he turns on a free VPN software called "AnchorFree". Although I can't really tell too much about it, I have to say that the ping to australia from hungary is lowered by 200ms, if this thing is turned on. This may be a good option for people who try to play far from europe, and a very bad idea for everyone in europe (+200ms here, to the server)

We have been nominated for Best New MMORPG in 2010. It's nice to feel that even if we are just a small company, our product is racing against the big releases.

Oh, and I made some time-lapse thing when I had a bit time; I was amazed that our beautiful garden in the TM starting zone can be so cool.

Alright, I'm out of interesting topics. Don't worry: We already working on our first huge patch, that will include some new tools to play with. Of course, it still requires lot's of work, so I'm going to stay silent about everything... for now.

Beta is officially over

Dear players,

We wish to say our thanks to every player who joined us for the beta. It's been a long development, and we are proud that the game is ready for release.

I wish to say special thanks to all those players who took part of the community, either by working for or with a corporation, helping or trolling on the channels. It's been a great experience for us, and every one of you contributed to the beta feeling in some way. We saw great pvp battles, corporations working to gain new technology levels and outposts... annoying bugs. :)

We hope to see you guys again after the release.

In the end, I wish to show you some nice videos from the community. :)

Screenshot gallery update

Our Screenshot gallery has been updated. Make sure to check it out! ;)

Press Release - October 6, 2010

AVATAR CREATIONS ANNOUNCES OPEN BETA AND EARLY ACCESS PHASES FOR THEIR OPEN WORLD ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME, PERPETUUM

Free for all testing of Perpetuum will begin on the 18th of October, 2010.

2010 October 6, Budapest - Avatar Creations Limited has today announced that after one and a half years of closed testing, the publicly available Open Beta testing of the persistent world Massively Multiplayer Online Game Perpetuum will begin on the 18th of October, 2010. During the Open Beta phase players from all around the world will be welcome to play Perpetuum and explore the alien planet of Nia.

Early Access

Perpetuum will be available for early subscription after the start of the Open Beta phase. Players with Early Access subscriptions will be able to enter and play the game once the Open Beta phase has ended, one full week before the official launch. Early Access subscriptions will include 30 days of playtime and will be priced at 9.95€. The exact date of when early subscriptions will be available and more information on the Early Access period and official launch date of the game will be announced at a later time.

About Perpetuum

In the sci-fi world of Perpetuum players engage in exploring the alien planet of Nia with huge robots. Remotely controlling these robots from Earth, players are thrown into a foothold situation where they need to build a stable economy while battling the natives and rogue human agents, all in order to supply Earth with precious energy.

Key game features

-Completely open, persistent game world on a single server

All the players in Perpetuum play in the same unsharded world, and the actions of players have permanent consequences which can only be changed by other players or the natural physics of the game world.

-Highly scalable combat

Fights in Perpetuum can range from one on one to whole armies battling it out, and thousands of items and versatility of the game world guarantee no two fights will be alike.

-Complex crafting system

Perpetuum features an advanced item crafting system ranging from mining raw materials and gaining knowledge to the mass production of items. Players will be able to reverse engineer technology found in the wild and even build special prototype items with the knowledge they amass over time.

-Player driven market

All game systems in Perpetuum have been built towards the goal to rely on each other, thereby creating constant supply and demand between the players of different specializations and encouraging trade between players.

-Time based character progression

Experience in Perpetuum is gained over time on each active account, even when the player isn't logged in the game. Extension points gained this way can be used to purchase skills on any character on the account.

-A living world

The environment on Nia is one that is constantly changing. Plantlife is fighting for territory while large battles leave barren wastelands where a forest of alien vegetation used to stand. Minerals in the ground require regular scans to find, and later even the face of the planet will be deformable by players as they start building their own settlements.

More information on Perpetuum can be found on the official website: http://www.perpetuum-online.com

About Avatar Creations

Avatar Creations, located in Budapest, Hungary is a small, independent game development studio of about 10 people. The company was founded for the development of their first game, Perpetuum - a completely unique, open, persistent world where players are able to engage in a wide variety of interactions ranging from combat to complex economics. The goal of Avatar Creations is to continually develop this world in the coming years to provide a game which a growing number of players can enjoy worldwide.