- Joined
- Nov 1, 2006
- Posts
- 5,356
- Location
- Australia
- Society
- Antipodean Army
- Avatar Name
- Harena Serica Turbinis
Serica was recruited to join EU on 23 September 2006 and first spawned on 26 September 2006.
(Why the 3 days?? I had to order and install a new graphics card before I could log in to create the avatar)
I joined somewhat reluctantly - and only to repay a favour owed to my brother who had been playing for about 2weeks, had created a society .. and needed one more person to join to reach the minimum numbers
As soon as I arrived though, I fell in love with EU. It wasn't just the look of the game that attracted me - I've usually done ok with 'economy' type games and the RCE in EU did sound fairly interesting.
But more than that, it was the players I met, and spent time with. I'd been living for about 7yrs in a small country town, with very few people interested in the same things as me, and joining EU was like a breath of fresh air.
I spent the first 3 days just walking around, learning the controls and looking at stuff.
From PA, I walked northwest skirting PVP1, passing thru the crater with the spiders and exploring blue zone west before finally turning east and finding my way to Hadesheim. Only after that did I learn to sweat, and saved enough for an Opalo (which I still have!) and a little ammo to take on TP runs with soc-mates. On one of those I met Tex who became my (unofficial) mentor, and gave me a better understanding of the game, and it's history. As an Aussie with a German mentor, I spent my days sweating and my nights hunting til the ped ran out I'm not sure I got more than 5hrs sleep a night during that first couple of months 
They were fun times, and I was very sad when Tex decided to take a long break not long after I 'graduated'.
A couple of months after that, my brother took on a RL project and he asked me to look after the soc for him for 'a few weeks' til he had time to play again. That left me as soc leader of a group of mostly very new players, which forced me to learn a LOT about the game. 'I don't know, but I'll find out' became a frequent response
Entropedia got a fair work out, and helping keep it updated since has only seemed the fair thing to do.
And then Hurrikane came up with WoF.
While I'd deposited a time or two before that for particular things, WoF gave me a reason to consider depositing on a regular basis. I've not missed a match of the Aussie team, even if all I could do was hang with the judges and pass on the scores to our team captain.
I've done a few things ingame to supplement my initial 'sweat' capital, and later deposits:
I rented a hangar from a friend on a profit sharing basis from about Nov07 > Aug09, and supplemented that with some minerals trading (more for something to do while standing around up on CND than any major profit). While the income was certainly useful, it did require being ingame for about 16hrs a day. What I most enjoyed about the piloting was the opportunity to mix with a much wider cross-section of the EU community.
After vu10 put a halt to piloting, I continued to run my CND shop for another year but became very tired of the 'all work and not enough play' and so stopped all trading.
When space first returned I did return to piloting for a while, mostly because old regular passengers would ask for flights - but when quad/thruster prices dropped like a rock and became affordable for everyone, I stopped that too.
Now I just 'play', doing whatever takes my fancy
Over the 6years, I've deposited a total of 6589USD; that averages out to about 21USD a week, though I didn't start to deposit regularly until late 2007 (ie at the end of the first WoF season). Since then, if it's Tuesday, it's deposit day. The amount each week depends on the AUD/USD exchange rate on the day.
Until CLD's were introduced, the TT value of all my stuff was ALWAYS more than my total deposits.
And if I were to sell the CLD's I own at their purchase price of 1kped, it still would be.
Nor will I be buying more expensive gear until it is again (that's going to take a while yet - luckily I'm patient and self-disciplined )
I keep track of all items in a spreadsheet - MU's in it are reviewed completely on Jan 1 and July 1 each year based on those in Entropedia and (since it became available) ingame MU - generally the lesser of the two sources, so fairly conservative values. I'll also update prices when I notice any significant changes. I don't assign any MU to blueprints though.
I keep my skill points and professions reasonably up to date on Entropedia, so I can see how they're progressing.
I've never chipped skills in or out. It's not that I have any particular prejudice about doing so, I just enjoy the skilling too much to want to take shortcuts.
And I've never been in any particular hurry. I hunt, mine and craft every day. Til I kept a blog for a while in 2011, I was mostly hunting with a bit of mining along the way. Keeping records made me much more aware of the return I was getting, and since then I've mostly been mining with the hunting side being more about clearing mobs as I go.
Except for WoF hunts ofc
My theory is that EU is NOT random but is a mathematical dynamical system. To put it a different way 'loot comes in waves'.
It's been said that if "we can't distinguish it from random then the distinction is irrelevant to everyone but the people who code the system" (that's quoting JimmyB, but others have said much the same thing in different workds)
To this I'd say: RL has many examples of chaotic (ie dynamical) systems - a useful one to use as an analogy is the weather. While you may not be able to predict exactly what the weather will be like tomorrow, you can certainly learn to look out the window and notice if its raining or sunny. And as the old Scandinavian maxim says 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing".
At the start of each day, I make a note of ESI% (since 2009), net skill value per Entropedia and net profit on items.
I dug out my old records to come up with this:
No towers, no hunting loots over 1kped and my last crafting global was over a year ago even though I craft some most days.
I've played every day since I spawned - except Xmas Day 2006 (my family have got used to my laptop coming with me for visits since then), and while the servers were down for VU10 ofc. So much has happened in RL since this time 6 years ago - my daughter is now married, and I have two beautiful grandchildren that keep me on my toes. But while RL always comes first, EU comes a close second.
I have no plans to withdraw. I expect to be around here for a lot more years yet - there's still so much to see and do
And most of all, I love being with my friends - those in my soc and others. The community here has a richness and diversity that I find compelling, and I can't ever imagine wanting to leave.
(Why the 3 days?? I had to order and install a new graphics card before I could log in to create the avatar)
I joined somewhat reluctantly - and only to repay a favour owed to my brother who had been playing for about 2weeks, had created a society .. and needed one more person to join to reach the minimum numbers
As soon as I arrived though, I fell in love with EU. It wasn't just the look of the game that attracted me - I've usually done ok with 'economy' type games and the RCE in EU did sound fairly interesting.
But more than that, it was the players I met, and spent time with. I'd been living for about 7yrs in a small country town, with very few people interested in the same things as me, and joining EU was like a breath of fresh air.
I spent the first 3 days just walking around, learning the controls and looking at stuff.
From PA, I walked northwest skirting PVP1, passing thru the crater with the spiders and exploring blue zone west before finally turning east and finding my way to Hadesheim. Only after that did I learn to sweat, and saved enough for an Opalo (which I still have!) and a little ammo to take on TP runs with soc-mates. On one of those I met Tex who became my (unofficial) mentor, and gave me a better understanding of the game, and it's history. As an Aussie with a German mentor, I spent my days sweating and my nights hunting til the ped ran out
I'm not sure I got more than 5hrs sleep a night during that first couple of months They were fun times, and I was very sad when Tex decided to take a long break not long after I 'graduated'.
A couple of months after that, my brother took on a RL project and he asked me to look after the soc for him for 'a few weeks' til he had time to play again. That left me as soc leader of a group of mostly very new players, which forced me to learn a LOT about the game. 'I don't know, but I'll find out' became a frequent response
Entropedia got a fair work out, and helping keep it updated since has only seemed the fair thing to do.
And then Hurrikane came up with WoF.
While I'd deposited a time or two before that for particular things, WoF gave me a reason to consider depositing on a regular basis. I've not missed a match of the Aussie team, even if all I could do was hang with the judges and pass on the scores to our team captain.
I've done a few things ingame to supplement my initial 'sweat' capital, and later deposits:
I rented a hangar from a friend on a profit sharing basis from about Nov07 > Aug09, and supplemented that with some minerals trading (more for something to do while standing around up on CND than any major profit). While the income was certainly useful, it did require being ingame for about 16hrs a day. What I most enjoyed about the piloting was the opportunity to mix with a much wider cross-section of the EU community.
After vu10 put a halt to piloting, I continued to run my CND shop for another year but became very tired of the 'all work and not enough play' and so stopped all trading.
When space first returned I did return to piloting for a while, mostly because old regular passengers would ask for flights - but when quad/thruster prices dropped like a rock and became affordable for everyone, I stopped that too.
Now I just 'play', doing whatever takes my fancy
Over the 6years, I've deposited a total of 6589USD; that averages out to about 21USD a week, though I didn't start to deposit regularly until late 2007 (ie at the end of the first WoF season). Since then, if it's Tuesday, it's deposit day. The amount each week depends on the AUD/USD exchange rate on the day.
Until CLD's were introduced, the TT value of all my stuff was ALWAYS more than my total deposits.
And if I were to sell the CLD's I own at their purchase price of 1kped, it still would be.
Nor will I be buying more expensive gear until it is again (that's going to take a while yet - luckily I'm patient and self-disciplined
)I keep track of all items in a spreadsheet - MU's in it are reviewed completely on Jan 1 and July 1 each year based on those in Entropedia and (since it became available) ingame MU - generally the lesser of the two sources, so fairly conservative values. I'll also update prices when I notice any significant changes. I don't assign any MU to blueprints though.
I keep my skill points and professions reasonably up to date on Entropedia, so I can see how they're progressing.
I've never chipped skills in or out. It's not that I have any particular prejudice about doing so, I just enjoy the skilling too much to want to take shortcuts.
And I've never been in any particular hurry. I hunt, mine and craft every day. Til I kept a blog for a while in 2011, I was mostly hunting with a bit of mining along the way. Keeping records made me much more aware of the return I was getting, and since then I've mostly been mining with the hunting side being more about clearing mobs as I go.
Except for WoF hunts ofc
My theory is that EU is NOT random but is a mathematical dynamical system. To put it a different way 'loot comes in waves'.
It's been said that if "we can't distinguish it from random then the distinction is irrelevant to everyone but the people who code the system" (that's quoting JimmyB, but others have said much the same thing in different workds)
To this I'd say: RL has many examples of chaotic (ie dynamical) systems - a useful one to use as an analogy is the weather. While you may not be able to predict exactly what the weather will be like tomorrow, you can certainly learn to look out the window and notice if its raining or sunny. And as the old Scandinavian maxim says 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing".
At the start of each day, I make a note of ESI% (since 2009), net skill value per Entropedia and net profit on items.
I dug out my old records to come up with this:
| Date | ESI% | Total Skills | Net Skill Value | Net Profit on Items | Total Profit |
| 26Sept07 | - | 46334 | 4021.03ped | 536.15ped | 4557.18ped |
| 26Sept08 | - | 83260 | 10888.62ped | 19856.60ped | 30747.22ped |
| 26Sept09 | 596% | 107559 | 12164.92ped | 34653.51ped | 46818.43ped |
| 26Sept10 | 501% | 123689 | 8735.39ped | 40620.13ped | 49355.52ped |
| 26Sept11 | 585% | 139131 | 10274.74ped | 40098.55ped | 50373.29ped |
| 26Sept12 | 643% | 153636 | 8968.43ped | 48041.38ped | 56853.28ped |
I've played every day since I spawned - except Xmas Day 2006 (my family have got used to my laptop coming with me for visits since then), and while the servers were down for VU10 ofc. So much has happened in RL since this time 6 years ago - my daughter is now married, and I have two beautiful grandchildren that keep me on my toes. But while RL always comes first, EU comes a close second.
I have no plans to withdraw. I expect to be around here for a lot more years yet - there's still so much to see and do
And most of all, I love being with my friends - those in my soc and others. The community here has a richness and diversity that I find compelling, and I can't ever imagine wanting to leave.
