VU 9.4 vs VU 12.4

slither said:

Now they keep the armour on 'cause it costs them 7pec to remove it

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Hmm, good point. When MA implemented the 7 PEC decay they obviously thought that it is a great idea to make money but in the end it could have cost them. If people keep their armor on MA is missing out on a fortune in clothes related income like skilling tailors, colorers and texturers, auction fees, locked in PEDs and so on. Maybe, to improve their income, MA should do away with the 7 PEC decay.

True Juan said:

Seems that a lot of people like the details. Kim, take notes

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Yep, atmosphere really is about the details.

Take the trade huts for example. The ones today are dark little things where everyone faces a wall and if you want to go to a craft machine you have to go round the corner out of the way - not very sociable at all. The old ones were well lit and had the auctioneer in the center with everyone circling him around the counter, and if you scrolled back to 3rd person mode you could see everyone in the room and everyone entering/leaving.

True Juan said:

Seems that a lot of people like the details. Kim, take notes

To Kim: I have a pretty good idea how to improve PA and the Swamp area and it would not be time consuming. I checked every detail of PA, and the surrounding area, and I think this is the place that needs a small upgrade. With the change I have in mind we could not only upgrade PA, but also Jason Center (and I think this can be a win-win) I will post a video in about 2 weeks explaining all the details that need changing. I hope you take a look at it and consider...

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For the love of all things Lootius .. dont change PA again!!!!!!


Bones

Bones said:

For the love of all things Lootius .. dont change PA again!!!!!!

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I second this. PA is perfect as it is, the circle on the balcony would make a great market square, and the only reason it isn't a trade hub anymore is that there are less people in game than it was pre-vu10.

remontoire said:

Find somebody who crafts with what you have excess of. Or somebody who sells to those people. Quite possibly occasinonally making sales threads with these would help with this.

If any of those stuff not ending in big enough stacks are diluted cloth extractors, I'll take them.

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Yes, the problem is since the stacks are small, the MU gained by trading it is not worth the time required for making a sales thread or standing around in Twin for hours. But it's a small problem, there are more important things.

Noted regarding the diluted cloth extractors

Bones said:

For the love of all things Lootius .. dont change PA again!!!!!!
Bones

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Svarog said:

I second this. PA is perfect as it is, the circle on the balcony would make a great market square, and the only reason it isn't a trade hub anymore is that there are less people in game than it was pre-vu10.

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Guys, its not a huge thing. The layout should stay the same. Just some things that could improve it. After I make the vid, you guys can say if you think its a good idea or not Until then just wait, and please hear me out on that video when its done.

True Juan said:

Guys, its not a huge thing. The layout should stay the same. Just some things that could improve it. After I make the vid, you guys can say if you think its a good idea or not Until then just wait, and please hear me out on that video when its done.

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PA does not need change. The fact that PA isnt perfect is the first point to drive community members toward socialization. Because they take work to get to users actually communicate with others, get their first plane rides, and in general are pushed to actually seeing more of the world.

Sweat Camp's belong on different servers, at different physical locations than PA. Couple that with paying some attention to detail in those different areas and people will actively seek new locales within Calypso.

Magyar_Republic said:

PA does not need change. The fact that PA isnt perfect is the first point to drive community members toward socialization. Because they take work to get to users actually communicate with others, get their first plane rides, and in general are pushed to actually seeing more of the world.

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Best way to socialize while doing law level decay (as opposed to staning at PA with zero decay) had been doing TP run old fashioned way.....Also helped a newbie learn the game better (effortless) while having hand on experiences.

Kim|MindArk said:

When you talk about old music, do you mean the music from the entropia albums that can be found on planetcalypso.com?

Edit/ Around the World is probably my favourite track

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When I hear the old tracks, it makes me really sad. Sad to actually say that out loud lol but I do feel down. When I hear that music I remember discovering all the things in Project Entropia, as it was known then, and thinking it was all awesome and it didn't matter that the graphics stank compared to other games at the time.

There were loads of people, lots of people made it fun, you made new friends and discovered things together. Those friends, for the most part, don't log in anymore.

The new features are awesome, they certainly do enhance the experience in Entropia Universe, but the way loot worked out over time in comparison to those old days, things just got worse and worse from a customer base sustainability point of view.

One of the massive hits on this was the Amped Opalo paradigm. If you wanted to hunt big, you could hunt big, but if you had a bad month, you could slap your amp on your trusted Opalo and eek out your dollars for much much longer. This kept people playing, kept it busy, kept it fun.

The next nail was the push to Limited items. Basically, Limited items and the change to the effectiveness of Unlimited items (and it seems the loot returned also,) has rendered almost all Unlimited items USELESS. There was a time where if you used a low dmg/sec weapon that was UL and not SIB, you could still do quite well. You can't now. You HAVE to use Limited to make your peds go anywhere. So, ok that's ok then?? But no it's not because you have to deal with heavy markups the more skilled you get.

Oh and don't forget the oils *sigh*.

I say, take me back to 2005, they were happy happy times.

I would like to see back the city of culture --> NEW OXFORD <-- I cant see any Culture there, since VU10. It just have a outpost, a catewalk, a deer mall and a bank. Is a outpost a city ? Where is the cloth shop ? where is the gallery?

This city need the atmospheric back! Oxford could be a really nice place on amethera.. more as just to be a outpost!

Kim|MindArk said:

When you talk about old music, do you mean the music from the entropia albums that can be found on planetcalypso.com?

Edit/ Around the World is probably my favourite track

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That's why I play all my old entropia tunes in media player

Brings back a little of the atmosphere, and the memories.

Btw, does Lars still work at Mindark?

Late to the party here. but I started in VU 8.x so I played about evenly on both sides of the VU 10, and I prefer 12.4 to 9.4 - but I've loved it all along.

(For me the worst period was from VU 10 until I was able to upgrade my PC - I couldn't even access most of my inventory for those painful weeks, and I still played every day)

There was an intangible quality that is missing from some places that has been mentioned in this thread, and I agree. On the other hand, a lot of the old magic was the promise of the future - much of which has come to be.

It is impossible to move forward without losing some of the past, and for me moving forward has been well worth it, but if any of that old atmosphere can be woven back into the new fabric, I'll take it.



Miles

Miles said:

Late to the party here. but I started in VU 8.x so I played about evenly on both sides of the VU 10, and I prefer 12.4 to 9.4 - but I've loved it all along.

(For me the worst period was from VU 10 until I was able to upgrade my PC - I couldn't even access most of my inventory for those painful weeks, and I still played every day)

There was an intangible quality that is missing from some places that has been mentioned in this thread, and I agree. On the other hand, a lot of the old magic was the promise of the future - much of which has come to be.

It is impossible to move forward without losing some of the past, and for me moving forward has been well worth it, but if any of that old atmosphere can be woven back into the new fabric, I'll take it.



Miles

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Eloquently said; I understand and agree.

I don't see version 8.12 as an option so i won't vote.

Miles said:

Late to the party here. but I started in VU 8.x so I played about evenly on both sides of the VU 10, and I prefer 12.4 to 9.4 - but I've loved it all along.

(For me the worst period was from VU 10 until I was able to upgrade my PC - I couldn't even access most of my inventory for those painful weeks, and I still played every day)

There was an intangible quality that is missing from some places that has been mentioned in this thread, and I agree. On the other hand, a lot of the old magic was the promise of the future - much of which has come to be.

It is impossible to move forward without losing some of the past, and for me moving forward has been well worth it, but if any of that old atmosphere can be woven back into the new fabric, I'll take it.



Miles

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I asked the MA several times to speak out in time When the VU 10.0 Would come so ppl have a time to buy a new computer or upgrade the old one Because of VU 10.0.

MA announced the VU 10.0 7 days before it came out .....-> nice work like allways.

trance said:

I would like to see back the city of culture --> NEW OXFORD <-- I cant see any Culture there, since VU10. It just have a outpost, a catewalk, a deer mall and a bank. Is a outpost a city ? Where is the cloth shop ? where is the gallery?

This city need the atmospheric back! Oxford could be a really nice place on amethera.. more as just to be a outpost!

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As far as I know; Vexed Generation (the clothes company that sold jackets etc IRL) has been out of business for years.

VU 9 fucked up clothes and other stuff, I miss the VU 8 option...

Konve said:

As far as I know; Vexed Generation (the clothes company that sold jackets etc IRL) has been out of business for years.

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Another casualty of lack of participants.... and that's because they can't afford to spend hours and hours playing, and if you can't have fun on small PED for ages, many people feel... 'what's the point.'

AkiranBlade said:

Another casualty of lack of participants.... and that's because they can't afford to spend hours and hours, and if you can have fun on small PED for ages, many people feel... 'what's the point.'

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Lack of participants? It was a RL company that made products no one wanted to buy. I expect because they weren't exactly cheap to begin with. Entropia was at a height when they launched in New Oxford but it didn't take long before you couldn't actually buy their RL stuff if you tried. At least that's so far as I remember it.

Konve said:

Lack of participants? It was a RL company that made products no one wanted to buy. I expect because they weren't exactly cheap to begin with. Entropia was at a height when they launched in New Oxford but it didn't take long before you couldn't actually buy their RL stuff if you tried. At least that's so far as I remember it.

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I understand what you're saying, but I think they got a kick-back from the virtual items that were sold too. But if no-one is buying the items, they had no revenue stream, certainly not anything to write home about. I'm also assuming that to get their brand into Entropia they probably had to pay MindArk for that, which they would need to have seen some ROI on... all that depends on people playing in large numbers.

The art side of things would've have been the same. I may be wrong on the fee, it is an assumption, but when we're talking all things Entropia, then it's not too wrong for me to assume this!

For things to thrive, it requires 'people.' If most people are unable to play for a small amount of money for sustained periods of time, they stop playing, because the whole 3D chat engine element loses it's lustre over time.

I dare say many that have gone would really enjoy all the missions etc that are available now, but then its convincing them to come back. When they know full well that to get anywhere... requires significant amounts of money. In a global economy that is far from affluent... 'dynamic' needs to be applied to the amount it costs to play aswell as the content!

I also voted for 9.4 despite the improvement in graphics and atmosphere.

(I'm too lazy to read ALL posts here, even forget if I posted here already but I need to get this off my back).

I.m.h.o, one really crucial element missing from 12.4 that we had in 9.4 is the TP Run. It bonded players and gave new players hand-on experience and the "unknown" at least kept the players here for a few weeks while trying to get all TPs. For the TP Run Leaders it was just simply fun to watch new players discover their new environment.

It is now lacking because of new players hitchhiking with vehicles (often also for free). These days, I never see anyone TP running anymore, they're either morbidly stuck in some remote outpost conjuring up strange thoughts (i.e. slowly going "wtf") or hanging around PA molesting other players. That must change.

That vehicles replaced TP Runs is however probably not directly the fault of the EU designers but an unforeseen side effect.

I have one suggestion on how to bring back TP Runs but without prohibiting new players from using vehicles if they want to: Simply prevent a new player from acquiring new teleporters when he has entered a vehicle on his last
TP Run.

How could this be implemented?

As soon as a player attempts to enter a vehicle, the following message pops up:

If you enter the vehicle, you will not be able to discover new teleporters and outposts.
If you enter the vehicle anyway, you must return to any teleporter on your list before discovering new teleporters

Enter the vehicle? Yes / No

and of course, most importantly of all:
The checkbox with the "Do not display again" label.

... and of course the code to go with it (just one boolean variable per player to implement this code ). MA, see me for workflow if you have any questions.

GravillionL said:

As soon as a player attempts to enter a vehicle, the following message pops up:

If you enter the vehicle, you will not be able to discover new teleporters and outposts.
If you enter the vehicle anyway, you must return to any teleporter on your list before discovering new teleporters

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That sounds a wee bit draconian. How about players get a small reward if the discover a new TP on foot? The principle remains the same.

GravillionL said:

I.m.h.o, one really crucial element missing from 12.4 that we had in 9.4 is the TP Run. It bonded players and gave new players hand-on experience and the "unknown" at least kept the players here for a few weeks while trying to get all TPs. For the TP Run Leaders it was just simply fun to watch new players discover their new environment.

It is now lacking because of new players hitchhiking with vehicles (often also for free). These days, I never see anyone TP running anymore, they're either morbidly stuck in some remote outpost conjuring up strange thoughts (i.e. slowly going "wtf") or hanging around PA molesting other players. That must change.

That vehicles replaced TP Runs is however probably not directly the fault of the EU designers but an unforeseen side effect.

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TP runs by running are virtually impossible for a new player now due to the speed of all mobs in-game. I cant outrun an Exo young with 90 agility so how does a player with 5 or less outrun one?

Dont believe me? Try outrunning anything - I think about the only one you'll be able to do it with is a Combibo Young.

Helicopters are the new "TP-run" vehicle carrying up to 5 passengers.

I prefer things as they are now to a great extent, vehicles, wave spawns, missions, space, planets, etc..... way more content.

The thing i do miss though are old style tp runs, lack of social/trade hub at Port atlantis and old swamp camp, special places like the tower in the desert south of pandora and other places of interest..

Maybe just the "better in old days" nostalgia though.

I MISS the excitement and chance to log in and make money... playing a video game...

now it is a constant drain everytime i log in i know i will lose 50-300$$$$...

and now there are no more big hofs from hunting... so it is even less exciting to play...

an 8 year vet... who has played the game religious is finally giving up on the game... the loot system has gotten too greedy and CONSTANT 20-50% returns are too much...

funny thing is all the people who are down 50k+ peds now have to hit 50+ ubers instead of 1 big uber
no real reason to play anymore...

if there was no soc... or LG (lame excuse for LG) i wouldnt log in at all

people want to play something they are good at...
everytime I and many of my friends log into entropia... it is a total Fail... people dont like to lose... and after constant losses people will give up...
i know you gotta pay... but when people feel totally RIPED OFF... or duped... it really generates negative feelings...

MA has to create a winning environment and stop eating ped cards soooo quickly... in 8 years it has never been worse...

and MAYBE it is just melee... maybe its not all of hunting... and Melee hunters are just a small minority... it could have definatly been over looted by the balancing team

and i dont want to bring the game down... i want to bring awareness to the huge issue that we face today as entropians... and make a positive change... so that the rest of my $20,000 left in game is worth something next year...

I'd like to thank everyone for the +REPs.
The thread brought back some memories, comparisons of each VU of eu, and some suggestions on how to make this version better. Well lets hope that Kim read some of it and took notes.

So far 9.4 seems to be winning, and imho there are at least 20 people from the voters for 12.4 that didnt even play 9.4

TJ

True Juan said:

I'd like to thank everyone for the +REPs.
The thread brought back some memories, comparisons of each VU of eu, and some suggestions on how to make this version better. Well lets hope that Kim read some of it and took notes.

So far 9.4 seems to be winning, and imho there are at least 20 people from the voters for 12.4 that didnt even play 9.4

TJ

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To be fair, I actually chose not to play 9.4. The graphics were not up to snuff for a modern MMORPG. I saw them and decided I would rather play something else. I build premium computer systems with the intention of using them. So my 12.4 vote is frankly just as valuable as anyone elses 9.4 vote, which is to say all votes are a bunch of hot air. 12.4 is in fact where we are, and we should be occupying ourselves with moving forward. Not turning back the clock.

Mega said:

Dont believe me? Try outrunning anything - I think about the only one you'll be able to do it with is a Combibo Young.

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Hrm, actually... Combibo now run like 5-6x faster than they did before... I have sent a support case about this as it seems to be a bug.

However, I can outrun a few mobs (for example small Armax I think) with 70 agility as long as I do not get caught in a steep uphill

Magyar_Republic said:

To be fair, I actually chose not to play 9.4. The graphics were not up to snuff for a modern MMORPG. I saw them and decided I would rather play something else. I build premium computer systems with the intention of using them. So my 12.4 vote is frankly just as valuable as anyone elses 9.4 vote, which is to say all votes are a bunch of hot air. 12.4 is in fact where we are, and we should be occupying ourselves with moving forward. Not turning back the clock.

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I always thought you were Dar Es Balat who posted on mmorpg he started playing jan 2 2010. That isn't you?

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/...A-players-story-from-beginning-until-now.html

I honestly think If you haven't played both you shouldn't vote, and that doesn't make your vote as valuable as anyone elses.

I too miss 9.4

I thought MA missed a trick when they introduced the "new" planet in giving everyone the TP's ( pre-vehicles ). The old TP run connected you to the planet, you gained a good idea of where which mobs were and the general planet as a whole. You even learned to judge aggro-range remarkably accurately. Of course, it probably wouldn't have worked given that Atrox are now a pest like Merp used to be, so I doubt many noobs would have gotten far.
( Even with vehicles, I'm now TP-flying on Arkadia and I'm already learning loads about the planet - I still don't know half of where mobs are now on Calypso )

The (L) introduction effectively caused the high-regen mobs as otherwise they were too overpowered, and for all their worth, they decay FAR too quickly - you go on 4-6 100ped hunts and you have to lash out another 200-400 ped for a new gun ? Those of us on limited budgets just cannot afford that for long, whereas in the old universe, you might be losing, but you still used to get some steady returns that kept you going for a good long while.

I reckon that the most players lost were those who eked out a living with small deposits. Once L and high-regen came along, it felt like MA was actively trying to discourage anyone who didn't deposit A LOT. Fair enough, maybe they only see big amounts as relevant to their bottom line, but I'd say it all adds up and those people added life, flavour and turnover too.

And finally, because 12.4 messed up my "home" - I used to base myself at Fort Zeus, but now they stuck a dirty great big mountain in the north ( where did that come from ? ) so you can't just head out northward anymore. ( Sometimes it's just the little things It sucks. )