The time has arrived to wrap up the final phase of the anniversary events, and our final step is to perform some sort of prize ceremony, for the lack of a better method, here on this blog. (We'll see if we can work on this somewhere down the line and add fireworks, ribbons and glow for the next occasion; right now you have to make do with overwrought verbal gymnastics and crude image manipulations.)

It has been an extraordinary weekend for us, seeing both the Agents in the audience and in the arena completely tuned to the same frequency and enjoying it as much as we enjoyed donning the visibility vests while rounding up the teams, conducting the matches as the officials, and pushing out the Zamboni afterwards to clear the arena of leftover robot parts. The great atmosphere certainly underlined our trust in the community Perpetuum has built around itself, it has been a great inspiration for us, and we're certainly gonna do this once again.

The execution of the tournament by was no means flawless, and I'd like to observe some things that we need to think about later: First off, the upper rim of the arena was way too popular, because it consisted of one single ring without any interruptions. We duly noted this and while we don't want to discourage long-range fighting, the amount of constant merry-go-rounding eventually just became silly after a while, and we'll certainly take steps against this next time. Another thing that gave us a bit of a headache was the obviously hasty decision of allowing matches to be decided with a coin-flip. This turned out to be a bad idea and we'll make sure to granulate the rules more specifically next time, perhaps including things like damage dealt or shots fired. (Again, these are just conclusions, not plans. We'll see.)

That all said, let's start the ceremony with a few people who we need to thank.

The "Jackie Stewart"-award for the commentary booth

The tournament certainly wouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was for people outside the arena if it wasn't for the amazing (and I mean that to the fullest extent) insights to the people who did the commentary with Mancs and Calvin on the stream: a big thank you go out to Lemon, Gremrod and GLiMPSE who attended our little livestream as guests, performed interviews and generally made the video stream entertaining even for people who weren't as savvy about the game as most of us. Their reward for their time and unwavering enthusiasm shall be a custom label on the forums reminding everyone that these people mean business.

The "Baby's First PVP" award for the best newcomer group

We'd like to take time to provide some kudos to the only corporation in the tournament who, despite being a fairly new PVE formation, decided to not only give the whole thing a shot but also managed to advance to the second round of the tournament, so a big hand goes to Rue Tang Clan for proving that even low EP players with enough dedication, creativity, a good understanding of game mechanics can match up any other group. They will receive what they probably need the most after the tourney: a round of reimbursements for their robots lost during those two matches.

The combined "Dale Earnhardt Jr."-award for most left turn laps around the arena and the "Garden Rake"-award for least rules observed

To commemorate the special moment of seeing four completely masked Troiars running full speed around the top rim of the arena for 30 minutes in hopes to avoid any sort of firefight and getting through the round via the coin flip, but ultimately realizing that they forgot to fill out the point cap and will be eliminated regardless, we'd like to present Infinity with a special Perpetuum 500 lightweight frame to aid them in their future efforts of legging it from firefights. This is also in honor of what we perceived to be the biggest surprise in tournament, eliminating M2S in the first round.

The "COME AT ME BRO"-award for most spectacular tanking

This one goes to a moment in a match we all found incredibly entertaining: We'd like to hand out our only individual award to Tux from 62nd, who successfully held his ground as a single robot for about 20 minutes after his team was destroyed early by Remedy, eating ridiculous amount of damage and EW like a boss. His reward will be, appropriately, a unique The Wall-brand shield hardener, to help him become comfortably numb.

...and now without further ado, let's hear it for the winners:

  • On runner-up place: Remedy Inc.
  • On third place: Crimson Imperium Reborn
  • On second place: Immortal Legacy

And finally, the winner of the first anniversary Perpetuum Tournament is:

With a nail-biting finale, CHAOS has shown us amazing proficiency, tactics and discipline as they marched through the rounds with their impenetrable Tyrannos squad, and they're well deserving to the champion title, and by proxy the free entry to the next tournament as reigning champion. The top three teams are already in the process of receiving their rewards (see details here), and all other participating teams will also receive a complimentary goodie package, so hopefully we can wrap all this up within a few days.

Once again, a big big honest Thank You to all the groups who have stepped up to participate, the players spectating in the audience, all the players who in the meantime roamed the fields in search for treasure, and all those who watched the weekend unfold on the video stream. (If you missed it, check the video archive here.)

We had a great time - hope to see even more of you in the next event!

Has it been a year already? Wow, time goes fast when you have your hands full of development work.

Well then, it seems it's high time for some proper festivities, complete with a number of surprises, treasure hunts, and robot massacres!

Perpetuum Corporation Tournament

It is with a mixture of great pleasure and honor that we announce the first Perpetuum Corporation Tournament. We will be hosting this prestigious event on the first weekend of December (3rd and 4th). Allow me to cut through the red tape, here are the rules:

Registration

  • Application for the tournament is done by the CEO or Deputy CEO of a corporation.
  • The registration fee is 10 million NIC. Only the exact amount done in one transfer will count as a proper registration.
  • The registration fee is to be transferred to “DEV Tournament” (use Agent search); this will be the proof of application.
  • One application per corporation. To make it fair for everyone, we'll check for alt corporations and let them only apply if we don't have the 16 teams.
  • The first 16 applications are accepted, above this the money will be simply sent back.
  • The deadline for the applications is the 27th of November, 20:00 server time (CET).
  • The exact time for the tournament matches will be announced after all applications have been processed. The first day will see the first elimination round, the second day will host the finals.

Rules

  • The tournament is a 16 team straight elimination ladder.
  • Robots destroyed in the tournament will NOT be reimbursed.
  • Looting on the battlefield is allowed.
  • Team members will be placed into the combat zone, where they must remain still and may not engage any modules until the Tournament Master gives the signal for the fight to commence.
  • The team that eliminates all its opponent’s robots first wins the match.
  • There are no module restrictions, robots may be fit freely.
  • The maximum time frame for a round is 30 minutes. Once this expires the team with most points on the field wins (calculated from still standing robots - for the point system see below). If this number is the same, the team with the most points destroyed wins. If the number is still the same, we draw a winner.

Team compositions

Every team can have up to 10 members. Teams can only include members of the registered corporation.

Teams can be assembled using a point system for robot classes. Every team will have a maximum of 25 points available to spend in any given match. The point cost of robots is as follows:

  • Light: 2 points (Mk2: +1, Indy: -1)
  • Light EW: 3 points (Mk2: +1)
  • Assault: 3 points (Mk2: +1, Indy: -1)
  • Mech: 6 points (Mk2: +1, Indy: -1)
  • EW Mech: 8 points (Mk2: +1)
  • Heavy Mech: 8 points (Mk2: +1, Indy: -1)

As you can see, Mk2 and industrial robots modify the base value up and down, for example a mech-class Kain Mk2 will cost 6+1=7 points, while a light industrial robot like the Argano will cost 2-1=1 points. The modifiers for industrial Mk2 robots eliminate each other, so these cost exactly the base points.

Rewards

1st place:

  • 10 robots of the winners choice of Vanguard Mesmer, Mercenary Seth or Praetorian Gropho in any combination. These babies have somewhat better stats than their Mk2 counterparts, and won't be available anywhere else in the game. Also, they are black.
  • 5 T4 Prototype items of choice and 5 level 10 decoders.

2nd place:

  • 10 Mk2 robots of choice.
  • 4 T4 Prototype items of choice and 4 level 10 decoders.

3rd place:

  • 10 standard robots of choice.
  • 3 T4 Prototype items of choice and 3 level 10 decoders.

For those who just like to watch

The tournament will be held in a designated area only accessible for the combatants, but we will video stream the matches to the public.

Anniversary Treasure Hunt

Of course we will also have something for those who are not interested in such violent practices like killing each other, and would rather engage in a fun community event with a promise for shiny loot.

The Syndicate got word that the enemy is digging out never before seen ancient data consoles, which contain very valuable pieces of information that could help in our cause battling them.

Time will be short; you’ll have to be quick and grab as many as you can before they do. These ancient data consoles can be found in new types of artifacts, as well as looting them from elite and officer-class Nians who carry them on their way home.

We’ll set up some new delivery assignments where you will be able to exchange the consoles you find for rare Alien Improbability Devices. What are they good for? Well, that’s a surprise!

The surprises don’t end here: we’ll also introduce two very special sparks (one combat and one industrial type), which will be only available to unlock during this anniversary weekend.

Mark the date

The big Perpetuum Anniversary Weekend will start on the 2nd of December at 12:00, and will end on the 5th at 12:00 (all CET/server times). As mentioned above, the event will also include the Corporation Tournament taking place on the 3rd and 4th. Make sure you don’t miss this, we’ll surely be there!

ps. Details on Intrusion 2.0 coming up next week, which will also be a part of our anniversary package!