Hi,
to Alice, Parlog (& others I might have forgotten):
(BlackHawk, there's a paragraph for you, too
)
I don't a doubt a single word you tell me.
I
know that it is possible to
survive in EU with a 15$, even if it would mean to abandon all fun & to take on the most horrible, boring, repetitive grind any computer game ever has offered. Question is how long this is to bear?
[...] ask people for their best tips for starting Planet Calypso with a monthly budget of US$15. [...]
I understood this in a way that we should talk about
the start of an Entropian career. This career wouldn't IMHO end with hunting with P/M 2a and a small amp, in Pixie or Goblin, using TT finders to mine, if at all.
And exactly this is the point where, in my opinion, the 15$ fall short. If going further, be it hunting, mining or crafting, often alone one of the tools that need to be replaced are eating up the whole monthly deposit. So buy a new finder, then wait a month before you can afford the bombs for 1 run?
For sure, P/M 2a might bring you into a region where sometimes a global might ease the losses, but how many are getting globals
today in such a beginner region? And what value?
I know, this was different some time ago, and I enjoyed it myself! I have quite some screenshots of even young Atrax giving globals of 500 PED - today I kill even more of them, but a 100 PED global on anything below Guardian has become close to impossible (delete the "close to" for me ...).
Times have changed. There was times when you could have fun with Axe 2x0 and a TT sword, today you'd lose most badly. Right, today we have nice tools like Embra Laser Sword C1 (without L), I have one and it's the best thing I ever bought, but said 15$ newbie would have to do nothing but collect his monthly deposits for 10 months to even buy a min. condition one, without any MarkUp! According to
Entropedia a full TT one would come for 2,972 PED + 1,020.43 PED markup today - this is 3,992,43 PED, or close to 400$.
27 months to save the monthly deposit to be able to afford ... And the comparable guns have an even higher MU ...
Times have changed, and with them the loot has, especially on small mobs. Eco hunting is the key, and it has its price. For sure, our newbie wouldn't need a unlimited weapon, but how to afford the periodically broken L pendants, after it's very initial phase of maxing TT gear? With 15$/ month? Weapons, FAPs, Finders? With 15$/ month?
This newbie would need to have more luck then anybody I know in game, would it plan to ever step up to the more interesting regions of this game.
And it wouldn't need only loads of luck, but quite some time, too. Skill gains while naked shooting medium Snables with an Opalo are diametrically opposed to the chance to not lose this much ...
It's a question of definition it seems. How far should these 15$/ month last?
I can easily agree they'd be enough for TP running, Opalo hunting, TT finder mining in a small scale, maybe even for initial crafting. For further hunting I'd think the P/M 2a might work, too - the melee ppl would have problems yet.
But further? Better armor, periodically renewed weapons? How to pay from the 15$ if you're not very, very lucky to global huge just in time, repeatedly?
And how to buffer a bad hunt a little later, in the P/M 4a range? How to pay for weapons, FAPs, finders then? With 15$/ month? Sry, folks, I cannot imagine. And I know no one that is able to do this. Not even to talk of the next step, H400/ P5a or Taurus/ LR32 - impossible then!
Think of it - we are still in newbie land here. The occasional Argo Hunter at Twins will have you for breakfast, and you'd just be able to tank an Atrox Provider quite long (provided suiting armor/ plates that doesn't come for nothing), but killing it would make you fall asleep on your keyboard ...
So IMHO the dreaded 15$/ month wouldn't fetch you even to "newbie middle class", as long as you're not the most lucky participant on line, or are prepared to suffer incredible grind for literally years. While your friends will HoF big already you'd still whack cute harmless little critters over and over ...
I stand to it, 15$/ month will help you nothing. Better spent elsewhere. It can make you survive the initial few months (after your sweating), but it will prove much too few very soon.
If you want to start a career in EU, even if you don't have the goal to get Uber in a year, calculate about 25 - 50$/ month, and reserve some bigger amounts you can afford due to XMas/ Birthday/ lottery wins/ whatever. You'll need them, and you'll need repeatedly. Just to keep the pace. You'll be among ppl that deposit 100$/ month or even ways more ...
To BlackHawk:
I cannot but +Rep you now, even if I'm still quite contrary to some of your positions. You showed this much engagement, provided this much help and good will, this needs a reward.
Quietly I'm hoping you'd share one or two of your secrets with us, if baited this way ;-)))
Because "profiting" on a regular base still is foreign language for me. I cannot hunt Neconu youngs even, even in Gremlin/5B and with LR41/a103 and P5s/a104 they eat me before I have wasted 50% of their HP. Atrox, Ambuli, Esto and such rarely even pay my bill.
Even my beloved Atrax have become greedy since quite some time - even if I hunt only Young - Providers naked, only with maxed high-eco weapons, they don't pay anymore.
The only ones that usually pay over longer periods of time are the rare medium snables, high Exaro, and small Argo. I'm grinding on them as long as I don't have money, have I mentioned I deposit just to buy new gear?
But you gave me an idea. I'll get my UL Embra, TT knife and Opalo/a101 to grind on small molisk. In plain Kobold, guess it would suit best of my armors. With Vivo-T1 and Hedoc SK-20 as combat FAP, should I need.
And I'll write down every single hunt. Will I be able to survive this with an initial cost of 150 PED?
Ahem, only my initial gear is worth a multitude - 136.5 PED Kobold F full, 27 PED for two TT knifes, over 93 PED for Opalo/a101 - alone this are 256 PED's, and we haven't even talked about the Embra - see above ... 27 months to save the 15$/ month just to be able to afford ... OK, I assume the L version, same data, but only 148 PED. I just ignore the 104.53 MU on it.
Makes 404 PED. Now the FAPs. OK, I assume a SK-20 for 20 PED, at about 50% condition. Should work. Now the Vivo-T1 as out-of-combat, add 9 PED.
433 PED gear value now, without any ammo.
Understand? I'm kind of an Imp-nOOb now, going out hunting molisk, as you recommended. Alone the necessary gear will cost me very close to 3 of the ominous 15$ deposits. So I have to not log in 3 months before to save my deposits, or have to be insanely lucky to loot it?
I'll check what this hunt will bring, and will tell you. I understand you'd not participate yourself in such an experiment, after all it would hinder you to be profiting yourself - but might I add an proposal? Would it be this hard in the next two weeks to give a little more love to wife, children, cat, dog, hamster, whatever? They'd love it, and we'd enjoy the lootz you'd be grabbing elsewhere - all would be happy, wouldn't they?
Have fun!