FYI: My Guide Reloaded, feedback welcome

[Alice]

I finally had some time a major update and rephrasing of my guide

since i first wrote it i added and updated several things, but this time i read it completely again, rephrased a lot and tried to make it sound more english, as my english improved quite a bit (imo at least) since i first wrote it as well
i also found several outdated and even wrong info (especially about skill effect, but a lot more was based on assumptions back then), which i tried to replace with facts i am pretty sure they are correct or deleted the rubbish

i am currently in a phase where i have it read for typos and grammar errors by a native english speaker (likely by several more once hes finished)


either way, i would like to have a feedback on:
if i should anything in it which may be interesting or missing

if something is totally wrong; especially since i don't craft/tailor, just had my hair made 2 times so far i think, so beauty isnt my area either and may have written rubbish about the stuff i don't perform myself, which i hope is correct

or if you have other remarks


additionaly, i would like to mention again that the server i used to save it on was saved, it is now http://rp.apachenet.de/downloads/planet_calypso_guide.pdf so please use that one instead in case you still use the old adress
also, in case you use alice-pe.tk, which has caused problems in the past, consider changing to rp.apachenet.de


another thing which was proposed to me in the past was to add some kind of donation system to the site, which i won't do
first of all, because i don't want to work me through the problems of that
second, because i don't think it had been much use as newbies don't have cash either way and its for them
third, because i don't want have it look like i just wrote it to get some extra cash, since the main reason was to save me some typing to disciples, when i could provide some info via the guide


back to the feedback about the guide, i especially want to know if i managed to write the eco and armor section understandable, as it is a bit complex with all the figured

so, if you have any feedback, let me know

have fun

 

[Butch C]

helped me a lot your guide thanks

 

[Uvas]

Just downloaded your guide to my kindle

Looks very good. Your guide has been very helpful to me as I learn about EU.

Thanks a bunch

 

[Sweat]

Great guide!
+rep definitely!

 

[misao]

Very in depth. Good stuff.

 

[byubi]

your guide helped me alot when i started... and i always tell new player to take a look at your guide. +rep and big thx

 

[Lucky Seven]

LOL- you left out lots of stuff.

 

[Alice]

LOL- you left out lots of stuff.

like what?

 

[LeeLoo Faith]

Very nice guide! Lots of valuable Info!

I can#t find my items ... scroll down the inv...

Why not simply press the compact button?

 

[Arthurs]

I read all guild wery wery good info.. ty a lot

 

[Alice]

Very nice guide! Lots of valuable Info!

Why not simply press the compact button?

ty

and most ppl have a certain order of their stuff, say the weapons on a certain place, armors in a certain order, etcetc

if you press compact you spend lots of time with reorganizing, so scrolling down is easier

i have that in my tools section rather often when i buy mining amps, where the first line are my faps, a bit down my MF chips, leaving space for the mining equipment
i rather scroll down searching amps

 

[Oleg]

Why not simply press the compact button?

The compact button is evil

 

[Rotrap]

The compact button is evil

Indeed, I made the mistake of pressing it once, still paying for it.



BTW, working on an version of Alice's very useful guide, still a work in progress but online now at http://guide.entropia-connections.net/, so comments on how to make a better conversion are welcome as well.

 

[Razer]

Nice to see you have updated it alice I'm reading it now (at work )
I did come across a small error in the text. On page 5 it says

• What does a mentor have from helping newcomers?

Should be something like "What does a mentor get/receive for helping a newcomer?"

I will try to finish the guide today, but it is a long one, so no guarantees.

Something for the 'when to kick a mentor part', if the mentor wants money to be your mentor. I have heard about this happening, didn't see it myself.

 

[chevrons]

Alice, I'd say that you have not covered sufficiently the way that weapons work
- the 3 weapon types, TT, L, UL
- the effect of Profession Levels on weapons efficiency
- the interaction of Hit Ability and Damage Interval to give actual average damage

This is in the Weapon Statistics sticky thread under Hunting, but really also belongs in a Beginner Guide.

 

[humanwoman]

I only read the table of contents so I'm not sure if you have put this info in the guide or not but.. What I'd like to see as a separate chapter in the ToC/FAQ (and from my experience it's one of the top questions) is a clear explanation of economy basics like:

1. In this game you play against other players, it's not "us" vs MA, it's you against the other guy.
2. The majority of players must lose for MA and minority of players to win.
3. This is a computer game, you chances to make it a source of a tangible RL income are not higher than to win a lottery.
4. If you do something "until you HoF" you might pretty much not live than long.

Ofc it's all IMHO but the majority of newcomers are attracted to the game because of a real economy hype about it and a good guide should start with information of this kind.
It's the most important thing to understand before you find out that you need to press "R" if you want to run.

 

[Az Bloodz]

Found only 2 mistakes so far at least I think they are mistakes:

1. You wrote "guy" insead of "guide" (You can save time by reading this guy)
2. I guess it's Brukite not Rutol (the Stone on the Screenshot, Rutol is like black)

 

[lilac]

Alice, as always your guide is awesome

I really liked the updates on limited armours... as that is something that has most definitely changed since your last guide...

one of the things that i'm curious about is the specific mathematical formula that equates decay (i.e. WHY does more durability mean less decay for Rascal (L) vs rascal). I'm sure many newer players would be interested as well....

My appologies if it's there and i'm just blind

Keep up the great work!

Lilac

 

[Alice]

Nice to see you have updated it alice I'm reading it now (at work )
I did come across a small error in the text. On page 5 it says

• What does a mentor have from helping newcomers?

Should be something like "What does a mentor get/receive for helping a newcomer?"

i rewrote the mentor part a bit already, as i had another thing about scammers
also added the money part, i heard from it too, but i thought scamming section would cover it, but rather warn earlier

Alice, I'd say that you have not covered sufficiently the way that weapons work
- the 3 weapon types, TT, L, UL
- the effect of Profession Levels on weapons efficiency

added this, while tt is basically repairable SIB what i mention as well

19.1.1.2 Types of weapons and Profession Level effects
This part is to explain weapon types and how profession affects the stats of them. The effect it will have on your hunting cost I will explain in the “eco” part, later in the guide.
There are 3 different types of weapons:

 Unlimited (repairable) Weapons without SIB
There are “old school” weapons, which can be repaired and the stats can directly calculated by a look at your profession levels. Those stats will be the same for all weapons without SIB of the same kind. So if your hit ability is 1.0/10 for a Jester D1 laser carbine, it will also be 1.0/10 for a Fire Forge, which is a laser carbine as well.
The formulas to calculate the Hit ability is fairly easy,
your “Hit”-Profession level divided by 10.
If you are a level 10 laser sniper, your hit ability will be 1.0/10 for a Jester d1.
The damage one is a bit more complicated.

The damage of a unlimited weapon without SIB starts at 25%-100% of its max damage. So a Jester d1 would be 2-8 damage at start.
While the 100% will stay as upper border, your damage profession will affect the min damage, according to this formula:
Start of damage interval = 25% + 25% * Profession level.
So if you are level 10 in “ranged laser (dmg)” your Jester d1 will have a damage interval from 27.5% of the max damage to the max damage.
Or in figures: 2.2-8 damage.

The conclusion of this is that you would need a level 100 hit profession and a level 100 damage profession to max the weapon! 
 Limited (L) weapons with SIB
These weapons can’t be repaired, which means you have to buy a new one again when your old one is broken, which usually includes a mark up each time. Although this doesn’t sound appealing, they have a huge advantage, the SIB, which basically allows you to “max" a weapon earlier.
Before you reach the recommended level you can see in the stats, the hit ability will be at 0/10. Once you reached the recommended level, the hit ability will jump to 3 and increase up to 10 until the learning period is over. This differs for the different limited weapons, so there isn’t a formula.

For the damage interval it is similar. Until you are in the SIB period, the damage will be 25%-50%. When reaching the SIB period period it jumps to 40%-80% and increase linearly to 50-100% at which point the SIB period stops.

A rough rule of thumb is that the weapon is maxed 4-6 levels after the SIB started. So for example the Isis CB5 (L), which is similar to the Jester D1, but is a BLP rifle instead of laser and limited, will start its SIB at level 0, so right away when you start.
The hit ability maxes at level 5.7 in BLP sniper hit, the damage interval at level 4.7 in ranged BLP (dmg). So at that point you will have a hit ability of 10/10 and a damage interval of 4-8/4-8. And that at level 5.7!

If you compare the Jester D1 from the unlimited weapons without SIB from the first example now with the CB5 from above, you will notice that while you need level 100 to max a unlimited gun without SIB the L weapon with SIB will be maxed way earlier.
The effects of this I will explain more in the eco part later on.

 Unlimited (repairable) weapons with SIB
This type of weapon now combines the advantages of the both from above:
On the one hand, you can max those weapons out fairly easy and long before level 100 usually, on the other hand you don’t have to buy a new one each time it broke but can repair it, thus saving mark up each time.
Of course, most of those kind of weapons aren’t cheap, as they have a lot of advantages. There are some exceptions though, namely the weapons you can buy in the trade terminal, which are a good way to start therefore and will still prove useful as finishers later on.

- the interaction of Hit Ability and Damage Interval to give actual average damage

added this to that matter

19.1.6.4 Effective eco and effective damage
This is a more scientific approach to how the damage to calculate eco is really done, instead of the cruder “how it affects me” thing I did above, where I just tried to give an idea on the effects.
It explains how to calculate the effective damage or “how much damage my weapon actually does in average per shot in the long run”.
The effective damage is based on the hit ability and the damage interval. Note that all of this is based on tests and statistics, not officially published by the game developers.

First to the effective hit ability, means the likelihood to hit a target, since it isn’t 0%-100% as the 0.0/10 hit ability may imply. A HA of 0.0 means your effective hit ability is around 81%, while a HA of 10 means the effective hit ability is around 92.5% Here the formula:
Hit rate = Hit ability * 1.25 + 80
This can have a serious effect of course, if say 5% or even 10% of your shots miss, you have quite some additional costs to kill your target in the long run.

The average damage is the next part to look at. It can be calculated like this:
Average damage = (Minimal damage + Maximal damage) / 2
To give an easy example, say you have a maxed weapon dealing 10-20 damage, your average damage is (10+20)/2=15. For maxed weapons the average damage is 75% of the max damage of course.

The combination of both leads to
Effective damage = ((Minimal damage + Maximal damage) / 2) * (80 + Hit ability * 1.25)


The effective eco now is based on this effective damage and the effective cost per use, since for example L weapons which come with a mark up. So if an L weapon with a say 10 ped tt cost 150%, so 15 ped and you would use 10 ped tt totally up and have to buy a new one, you didn’t just use 10 ped but 15 ped, as you need that to buy the next one.
Means, for L weapons the cost per use isn’t just the decay, it is decay*markup.
Additionally, some kind of ammo comes with a mark up as well, such as explosive projectiles or mind essence, which has to be taken into the calculation too:

Cost per use = Decay* mark up % + ammo burn*mark up %

Which leads to the effective eco=

Effective Eco = Effective damage / Cost per use

But what do you have of all of this maths now? This figure will give you the effective eco of any weapon, thus allowing you to compare any weapons, for example SIB ones without SIB ones, mind force attack chips with a sword and so on.


---------

is it that what you meant with your 3 points?

 

[Alice]

I only read the table of contents so I'm not sure if you have put this info in the guide or not but.. What I'd like to see as a separate chapter in the ToC/FAQ (and from my experience it's one of the top questions) is a clear explanation of economy basics like:

1. In this game you play against other players, it's not "us" vs MA, it's you against the other guy.
2. The majority of players must lose for MA and minority of players to win.
3. This is a computer game, you chances to make it a source of a tangible RL income are not higher than to win a lottery.
4. If you do something "until you HoF" you might pretty much not live than long.

Ofc it's all IMHO but the majority of newcomers are attracted to the game because of a real economy hype about it and a good guide should start with information of this kind.
It's the most important thing to understand before you find out that you need to press "R" if you want to run.

to the loot, based on my own tests it averages out pretty much after a while often
so i am more a believer of a "cost come back to a certain% after a while, based on registered cost", which means that if your HA sucks for example that shot isnt registered by the mobs so it doesnt come to the loot pool
however, in either case there isn't a real obvious statement by MA, nor an obvious test, that if i lose say 100 ped and another guy gets a 100 ped global that it is his

this would go into loot theories which i can't do, i mention not to deposit what you cant afford to lose tho, i guess that is the best advice towards that direction as well, also added that getting rich isnt likely

i can't really go into "do something til you hof" or not, as it depends on the persons style and partially time etc of which everyone has to find its own way how it works for him
it is very hard for me to determine some kind of "dos and donts" in case of behavior here, i usually try to give the info for ppl to make their own decisions, i can give pointers, but thats it

and about "go on til you hof", thats a hard pointer

i added this about the loot

Another warning, don’t push it. If you lose and lose on your runs and think “I bet the next loot will be huge”, this may be, but maybe not either. It can be rather risky to play with that attitude. In my experience, loot evens out more or less after a while, usually below the cost you spend on getting it though.


and this about the game
2 About Entropia Universe
In case you have joined to “earn lots of money and get rich” in here, don’t expect to manage that, at least not that easily. What you should expect is actually to lose money, which has a quite simple reason. The company which runs this want to have profit, partially to pay wages partially to grow and maintain business. So in case you trying to get rich by killing monsters, it is very unlikely to happen.
As this is about real money you can fairly easily deposit but also lose, one warning right away: Don’t deposit what you can’t afford to lose!
Yet, although this may sound negatively, it actually isn’t. Many, if not most, people play this as entertainment and are willing to pay a bit per month for example, or buy a new gun or whatever, without even planning to profit. Just don’t overdo depositing to a point you will regret. If you stay with that you will likely have fun and no regrets.
You can also play without depositing money, but don’t expect it to be easy.

I give pointers in the “starting out” section, how to do preserve money, which helps depositors and non depositors alike.

--

Found only 2 mistakes so far at least I think they are mistakes:

1. You wrote "guy" insead of "guide" (You can save time by reading this guy)
2. I guess it's Brukite not Rutol (the Stone on the Screenshot, Rutol is like black)

1.
i think i rewrote that already because of another suggestion i got ingame, i didn't find guy anymore when i searched for it (or him, however you see it)
on a funny side note it goes with a typo i had in soc chat once when i got asked to contact someone on an event and i wrote like
"hm, now i gotta send him a male"
"guess you mean mail?"

2.damnit, you are right
i changed the name to rutol, but i guess it doesnt matter soon anymore, as i need new pics on CE2 likely anyway, gotta update all pics then anyway

 

[humanwoman]

2 About Entropia Universe...

This sounds fair enough, thanks! Because of the ceaseless flow of "how and when I get rich" threads on the forum it's been quite unsettling to see this info missing from many guides Sorry I didn't have time to find this text myself.