Screenshots from Calypso Gateway 2.0

[Mega]

see, i'm not the only one who thinks of the doom games when i look at these pics.

I was reminded of playing Portal 2 last year.

(That cant be seen as criticism)

 

[Shadowsong]

It think a good mix of dark, sad and depressing locations, combined with light and "happy" areas is good. Calypso should be a combination of "Wasteland" and "New Hope and Life".I like the good quality of the graphic, i hope to see more of this kind of quality inside the game.

Actually I'd leave the arrival and "processing" area fairly dark (like in the pictures) but have it lead into a brighter room with large windows so you can see the alien world you have recently arrived to Would give a transition feeling from darkness to light and hope

These two posts are the way to go, imo. The interplay between "shadow and light" provides for more participant option, and in other creative fields, is the essence of what immerses our focus. The stage must inspire the actors, as much as they must fill the stage. That is how all great entertainment works.

Music is not only the notes, but also the spaces in between. Get the balance wrong, and it's all noise, but get it right......

 

[RickEngland]

It's not true that more people are quitting now than before however we have taken measures to increase player retention. One recent example is the significant reduction of no-looters.

yeah i noticed yesterday that tracker had hunting users registering a global to over 3800 and it was 3600 a few weeks ago, and lower than that during deed roll out (this excludes avatar activity for those not registering a global ofc, which might be a lot).

But you know the actual figures Kim.

So I agree things appear to be picking up..hopefully.


On topic...nice screen shots. visuals have always been good within Entropia and one of the reasons I choose to come to this world all those years ago.

GL with new gateway, and as soon as my misses finishes her training (hurry up women), maybe I can go to the gateway.

Rick

 

[Jimmy B]

It think a good mix of dark, sad and depressing locations, combined with light and "happy" areas is good. Calypso should be a combination of "Wasteland" and "New Hope and Life".

I like the good quality of the graphic, i hope to see more of this kind of quality inside the game.

I'd agree with that, I like some of the dark locations, but some cheerful colourful locations (like old Minos say) are important too.

 

[SpikeBlack]

that most people know the reduction of no-looters has only cosmetic (or psychological, if you will) effect and thus it won't really help that much, meaning there's still a lot you guys have to do to improve player retention.

the number of singular stacks I was getting at the weekend was driving me nuts the 1 pec loot is alive and well

 

[uni_corn]

nice pictures.

personally i like this sciFI endworld mood of darker light and such.

is there maybe new storyline comming on caly? or new theme?

like a timeframe the robots are back and is dangerous everywhere.
not easy time for colonist. war is comming!

 

[True Juan]

Not to be an ass but:

Port Atlantis
Swamp

and now Genesis area

Redesigned and still useless. Do you guys actually plan, or you work on things just to keep yourself busy and when they suck you just redesign them again? Really really poor management imho.

I stopped playing because of all the crappy "redesigns" for the last 2 years. Makes me angry that this game could be much more successful with some good managment!

Now Im just an observer, and I'll be doing that until I actually think that its worth playing again.

But anyways, I wish you guys luck... I want this game to succeed.

 

[Alice]

As a Community Advisor working with newbies on the Gateway i am very happy to see that MA is working hard to improve and fix the slightly to heavily broken front door to my favorite planet.
ps. Please oh please make it impossible to farm the freebies (i am so sick of seeing these tens and hundreds of "ndfskn sfkjnkn sdfk" named avatars who know exactly how to milk the tutorial in as short time as possible)...

ya, i agree
the stuff farmers are getting a lil bit annoying
although, i guess most of them are on NI or ark by now, i think the total tt you can get there is higher

either way, redesign of the gateway building wise or so is imo not necessary
the bugged missions are the main problem tho

 

[XeroX2]

Welcome to Afterworld eehhrm sorry Calypso. Apart from that the screenshots look good though lots of details.

 

[Magyar_Republic]

either way, redesign of the gateway building wise or so is imo not necessary

Disagree.

The gateway is a funnel whereby the team can quickly implement changes and view the effect those changes have on their main focus group - new players.

Out in the main game there are too many divergent paths to take for proper study and analysis when it comes to how well players react to the game. In the gateway those reactions can be measured instantly, players tracked from start to finish based off a very finite group of activities, and then those players quantified over 30-60-90-and 120 day periods into retention categories based off their level of involvement in gateway.

I imagine the questions they are trying to answer are:

• Does gateway increase player retention over 30 days?
• Do those 30 day players stay longer?
• If those 30 day players stay longer, how long?
• What activities then keep them around longer?
• Would adding these into gateway as some sort of introduction increase retention?
• Are activities satisfactory planetside, or are players looking for an activity and leaving due to a poor experience?
• Of these, what has the highest negative impact? What is the timetable for a redesign of this activity?

Gateway is valuable. That the average player doesnt see it doesnt mean its not there.

 

[Silvia Universe]

it is HUGE!

EDIT:
That text should be replaced with:

Daily Specials! Menu

Wonton Soup - 2 dolla
Chicken & Mushroom Fried Rice - 7 dolla
Spring Roll - 1 dolla
etc..

there's plenty of room for more text

 

[Etopia]

It's not true that more people are quitting now than before however we have taken measures to increase player retention. One recent example is the significant reduction of no-looters.

why not going back to the old system , where all mobs had loot ?

Yes we had less global , less hof and for sure lot less big ATH ; but it was way way way more easy to play on low-medium budget , since you was always coming back from hunt with something descent.

at least , you should make all mobs for medium player and lower always looter...

 

[Kim|MindArk]

why not going back to the old system , where all mobs had loot ?

Yes we had less global , less hof and for sure lot less big ATH ; but it was way way way more easy to play on low-medium budget , since you was always coming back from hunt with something descent.

at least , you should make all mobs for medium player and lower always looter...

That is our ambition but it must be done in a careful manner.

 

[wizzszz]

That is our ambition but it must be done in a careful manner.

Why?

When you fuck up, errrm... nerf another game system you hardly waste a thought on what effects this may have on the gameplay, but something that would stop the ever declining playerbase must "be done in a careful manner"?

I don't get it. I really do not get it.

 

[Butch C]

That is our ambition but it must be done in a careful manner.

Doesnt seem hard to me

If i was a lower player and went out with 100 ped of ammo give me 90 ped back.

If im a medium player and go out with 500 ped ammo give me 450 back

If im hardocre and head out with 1000 ped ammo per hunt give me 900 ped back.

This going out with 900 ped ammo and coming back with 450 ped of crap TT loot and 100 ped repairs is ridicolous and basically says to me "here take a kick to the nuts for actualy skilling up and playing our game" rather than encourages me.

I dont want to make money playing your game i just want value for my money and at the moment at my level im getting shafted.

If I was to get 90% back the onus is on me to hunt for mu loot and make up the difference, if i was gettign 90% back i would be more inclined to promote the game to friends knowing they wouldnt be getting taken to the cleaners. It's fine people saying well my returns over time are around 80 to 90% but if you are playing the game hard and doing 1000ped hunts that take less than 2 hours then you go broke before you get anywhere near this magically 90%.

This is my situation anyway and i'm not alone we just dont moan or make "im leaving unless i get an ath" threads on the forums about it as much as some.

Like i said most of the people i know just want value for money we are not sweaters tryng to play and never deposit we are willing to deposit but it's becoming unsustainable as you get to levels of a medium ish player like myself at lvl 74.

People say hunt lower mobs but to me that kind of defeats the purpose of skilling which the game is all about skills and rising thru the ranks and better yourself? Well to me it is perhaps not to the sweater or non depositor who never contributes to your wages.

Most new people i help out just say it costs to much and they fall by the wayside and the rest sweat and say they will never deposit, so your basically just retaining the leeches and the odd depositor and i and other deposting players are paying for that privilage.

Yes we and you need more new players for sure but don't disregard the players at the moment who are paying the wages and costs Calypso/MA have to meet.

Not a whine just how it is for me and the people i hunt with.

goodluck we all want the game to go in leaps and bounds but we get frustrated

 

[Chrome]

I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from an outpost in the new gateway area that we're designing for Calypso. Enjoy!

Note that these screenshots depict a work in progress and the outpost may change before release.

Very nice.


Just my opinion, but from a strategic marketing point-of-view, you may want to consider removing this:

 

[SamNinja]

...

Looks nice. Here's a suggestion to get more business and improve customer service, beyond making the Calypso Gateway pretty--let users accept the ToU only once unless it changes. Haven't got an answer from MA, since October.

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...-terms-every-time-client-loader-launched.html

 

[Alice]

D
[*]Does gateway increase player retention over 30 days?
[*]Do those 30 day players stay longer?
[*]If those 30 day players stay longer, how long?
[*]What activities then keep them around longer?
[*]Would adding these into gateway as some sort of introduction increase retention?
[*]Are activities satisfactory planetside, or are players looking for an activity and leaving due to a poor experience?
[*]Of these, what has the highest negative impact? What is the timetable for a redesign of this activity?
[/LIST]

Gateway is valuable. That the average player doesnt see it doesnt mean its not there.

ive been at the gateway during the adviser program for months
people didn't have trouble with the building, except for the televator to get to the hunting guy partially, thus put a stairs there, problem solved
and more activities could be added to that location as well, its not like there isnt space left for that

no idea about the 30 days, nor if the advisers when they were there in full force increased this rate (although my guess would be yes)


so i guess, yet another, summary of the posts from the adviser times about the current gateway design is in order
just in case you MA guys want some first hand infos of ppl who used to be there a lot
in case you want more, check with one of the adviser people

the activities at the moment at the gateway are either bugged or a bit tricky
so i agree that those need a redesign definitely
been a while since i was there, so mebbe fixed by now, but i wouldnt bet on it
in either case, it may give pointers what to look at

1. starting with a mining mission telling you to drop 5 bombs, which wasnt fixed for months (no idea if its now) after mining merged probes and bombs
it still told you to drop 5 bombs, which was impossible item was as well as amount wise
it still seemed to work if you went for ore tho, but if the people choose enmatter or both->uncompletable

2. going to hunting which most people had trouble of not completing the mission because their gun broke (ammo was enough there if spoken to veteran, gun breaking was the actual problem)
that the gun broke, pity, could have aimed better, no need to give them 5 ped tt guns (reason later)
but if i would join a game and have one of the -beginner- missions uncompletable, i would go away again
so at least some kind of "your gun broke, that obviously means you can learned how to shoot, mission completed" thing would have helped imo
just as personal note, the best question i answered about broken guns went like this
newbie "my gun broke"
me "you may not complete the mission then"
newbie "shouldnt have shot at the trees then, eh?"
---
so i think the breaking gun HAS a learning effect of taking care of your stuff

3. fragment mission
the chick just accepted the fragments when they were looted AFTER you got the mission
naturally, if your gun broke by then cause you didnt visit her first->uncompleteable
easy fix had been to have the blazers or whatever count anyway

this were the main issues on gateway mission wise


the other main topic we had, that there were quite many second avas going for free items
iirc we counted 15 in 3 hours once
that kind of ppl is prolly at NI or Ark now tho, i think the newbie stuff you get there has higher tt in total
just thought its worth to mention it


the last problem for now is the brought back newbie farming right away on gateway
that basically involves adding everyone passing around as disciple
this was after my real active adviser time, so i just heard it
but it is a good likelihood that you could bring second avas up there, even add them to socs and let them add away
again, just saying

 

[Jennson]

That is our ambition but it must be done in a careful manner.

When this is the case why doesn't need altering the lootables of important mobs for the worse doesn'T need that careful manner ?

 

[KlowN]

I'd like to suggest that while you guys are focusing on the new player area, how about finally stopping the !!!! of us beauty stylists and change it back to how it was 3 years ago where new players could only select hair styles 1-10, etc (the same amount a new stylist can do). This thing nowadays with new avatars leaving with green mohawks, cat eyes, etc really screws us. Who do you think 99% of our customer-base was?

 

[uni_corn]

Very nice.


Just my opinion, but from a strategic marketing point-of-view, you may want to consider removing this:

the mountain at the prophet

 

[Akoz]

Very nice.


Just my opinion, but from a strategic marketing point-of-view, you may want to consider removing this:

This actually seems quite accurate. This must be the department in charge of fixing Medusa's Head apartment bugs

 

[valentin]

That is our ambition but it must be done in a careful manner.

But when you took away all it went very quickly, from VU 4.0 - 6.0.
So i hope it would take the same time to bring it back.

It took 20 months so i hope you bring back all the old glory who ppl are missing in 20 months.

 

[valentin]

Doesnt seem hard to me

If i was a lower player and went out with 100 ped of ammo give me 90 ped back.

If im a medium player and go out with 500 ped ammo give me 450 back

If im hardocre and head out with 1000 ped ammo per hunt give me 900 ped back.

This going out with 900 ped ammo and coming back with 450 ped of crap TT loot and 100 ped repairs is ridicolous and basically says to me "here take a kick to the nuts for actualy skilling up and playing our game" rather than encourages me.

I dont want to make money playing your game i just want value for my money and at the moment at my level im getting shafted.

If I was to get 90% back the onus is on me to hunt for mu loot and make up the difference, if i was gettign 90% back i would be more inclined to promote the game to friends knowing they wouldnt be getting taken to the cleaners. It's fine people saying well my returns over time are around 80 to 90% but if you are playing the game hard and doing 1000ped hunts that take less than 2 hours then you go broke before you get anywhere near this magically 90%.

This is my situation anyway and i'm not alone we just dont moan or make "im leaving unless i get an ath" threads on the forums about it as much as some.

Like i said most of the people i know just want value for money we are not sweaters tryng to play and never deposit we are willing to deposit but it's becoming unsustainable as you get to levels of a medium ish player like myself at lvl 74.

People say hunt lower mobs but to me that kind of defeats the purpose of skilling which the game is all about skills and rising thru the ranks and better yourself? Well to me it is perhaps not to the sweater or non depositor who never contributes to your wages.

Most new people i help out just say it costs to much and they fall by the wayside and the rest sweat and say they will never deposit, so your basically just retaining the leeches and the odd depositor and i and other deposting players are paying for that privilage.

Yes we and you need more new players for sure but don't disregard the players at the moment who are paying the wages and costs Calypso/MA have to meet.

Not a whine just how it is for me and the people i hunt with.

goodluck we all want the game to go in leaps and bounds but we get frustrated

I feel with your lvl 74 but i have the same problem and i am lvl 99 so you know what you have infront of you.

 

[Dan59]

It look same as Medusa head, Chug's hideout and Fort Cayuse - prison.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

It look same as Medusa head, Chug's hideout and Fort Cayuse - prison.

What? How does Chug's Hideout look like a prison? Surely you mean Fort Isis, the new place close to Chugs?

 

[sledgehammer]

Why?

When you fuck up, errrm... nerf another game system you hardly waste a thought on what effects this may have on the gameplay, but something that would stop the ever declining playerbase must "be done in a careful manner"?

I don't get it. I really do not get it.

Because the current system also pays back 90%, but it does so on a lengthened timeline, to include hofs, ubers, and sometimes even ATH's. If they were to shorten that timeline suddenly, they would have a major fiscal problem throwing out all that PED at once to everyone in great big HOFs.

 

[Dan59]

What? How does Chug's Hideout look like a prison? Surely you mean Fort Isis, the new place close to Chugs?

Yes that one

 

[Wollongong]

Just a thought which popped up:

If the new player area looks this amazing... won't they be kind of dissappointed once they arrive in the real world, which is not all this beautiful...?


Could hurt retention rates...

 

[Jennson]

Just a thought which popped up:

If the new player area looks this amazing... won't they be kind of dissappointed once they arrive in the real world, which is not all this beautiful...?


Could hurt retention rates...

All that is just eyecandy. People would play Entropia and hunt blue boxes or yellow pyramids and red balls when the loot is properly. The eyecandy is imho just a minor factor for retention.