How to Get more People to play this game? First Impressions from heavy gamer.

I am sort of new overall here, but not gaming, I started a year ago for a month, quit and came back just a week ago, since my 11 year old wanted to play again.

I'm a big game player, Eve mostly, but can't wait for Star Citizen to come out.

I am torn on this game, and thought to throw a thread to see what the real story is for this game.

My First Impressions
1) Love the Hunting part, and even the Mining is interesting. Mobs are cool and the world in breathtaking for an older game.
2) Lonely as hell in some places, which is good and bad, but overall sort of sad. Reminds me of a retail store that just couldn't make it in hard times. Yet, it's nice at times to find a quiet place that is all your own to hunt or mine.
3) Don't mind spending money to play something, so I just deposit and do what I want... I'm 50, so not much time left, ....right! But, my kid plays too and that's a different story.


IDEAS for Building the Player Base.
1) Build a much bigger META game inside this one with non-trade items attached only to the character when earned. Allow players to do things in game that doesn't require RL cash in order to earn world tokens to buy these items from special vendors. They can do missions that already exist or just find token while exploring. Not saying change the current eco system, but it seems this game can't sustain a large player base unless they add more Free to play content.
2) Make it easier to get to other planets, asteroids with jump gates. Sure charge 2 PED or something, but space seems seriously lacking compared to games like EVE (don't like mentioning other games, but it does exist). It takes forever to travel and discourages visiting other places.


The way I see it = Getting more people to log consistently, means more shoppers when they fall in love with the game and want to do higher end content (real game stuff). As it is, it's obvious why the player base seems to have shrunk since I last played a year ago. Also, I want to help other publishers, but it's difficult to stay on another planet long due to the lack of market on these areas, so a jump gate would help = you could even make it so it is limited on the items that can fit through it, so as to not make import.export too easy.

Best wishes for this game, I will play it until Star Citizen gets released.



We need more Free to Play players.

Firstly, welcome back to EU . I tend to agree there should be more free activities - especially for new players. Newcomers should be provided with enough freebies to play EU for free for at least a week. And as you say, bind whatever is given to the account so it doesn't effect the economy. While the newcomer experience on Calypso has improved a great deal, I don't think it's fun enough - or lasts long enough - to retain the vast majority of players.

MindArk has a very big problem this year. Two very cool MMO space games are due to be launched with avatars and planet based environments. Though MindArk and the PPs have the planets sorted, space is in need of a major upgrade!
Suggestions for Space
1. Seemless transition between planet and space and vice versa
2. Make space 100 times bigger
3. Introduce xyz coordinate and wormhole routes
4. Functional jumpgates, which could be owned by players
5. More UL ships
6. Mining space
7. Make piloting skills have some bearing on what sort of ship you can pilot.
8. Take a good long look at what other big space MMOs are doing and reflect in Entropia Universe space
9. Allow space craft, big ships to enter atmosphere
10. Allow hangars a use

I agree with what you all say... MA seriously needs to drop its current plans and do a massive upgrade...

Few Scars said:

MindArk has a very big problem this year. Two very cool MMO space games are due to be launched with avatars and planet based environments. Though MindArk and the PPs have the planets sorted, space is in need of a major upgrade!
Suggestions for Space
1. Seemless transition between planet and space and vice versa
2. Make space 100 times bigger
3. Introduce xyz coordinate and wormhole routes
4. Functional jumpgates, which could be owned by players
5. More UL ships
6. Mining space
7. Make piloting skills have some bearing on what sort of ship you can pilot.
8. Take a good long look at what other big space MMOs are doing and reflect in Entropia Universe space
9. Allow space craft, big ships to enter atmosphere
10. Allow hangars a use

Click to expand...

Good ideas! One thing though. Incrasing space 100x would cause slow flights etc to take around 100hrs to get between planets making ships w/o warp useless lol.

Like the op mentioned the space is just a lost of time. Space only exist because one day a guy at Mindark thought that would be fun to have space pirates. Oh and also the fact that this way they could sell a "few" mother chips at 5K USD each!

For players with limited play time would be much better if we had the option to travel by teleport to other planets. Even if the fee was like 50 peds. It's stupid but you all now how MS/privaters works. At some death hours you need to wait till the next day or then travel by quad and lost 1 hour or more of gameplay and ped cycling.


It's impossible for this game to grow with the conditions that exist today! MA don't want to see that. Mother ships and privaters should have a automated system like a check in system at the RL airports. A terminal where you could go and check what ships are leaving or arriving every planet.


We also need much more players, there are now 5x more servers than when I started to play but not even 2x more players. The way the loot system works make it very hard to read all those servers across the universe so they can deliver the loot, that's why so much loot lag sometimes. And I think that sometimes some players don't even get checked properly and keep receiving the minimum loot till they log out. If not the system wouldn't let you reach so many lost peds each session.

Zenzile said:

Good ideas! One thing though. Incrasing space 100x would cause slow flights etc to take around 100hrs to get between planets making ships w/o warp useless lol.

Click to expand...

Spaceships without warp ie quads / sleip's should be restricted from deep space travel, this will give a meaning to the the unused Privateers & Motherships!!

Zenzile said:

Good ideas! One thing though. Incrasing space 100x would cause slow flights etc to take around 100hrs to get between planets making ships w/o warp useless lol.

Click to expand...

I bet that he have a privater or MS. lol

Space need to be reduced not increased. How can you spend 1,5 or even 2 hours to travel from planet to planet with a quad wing? If at least we had a automated system to make the MS / privater really work!!!

Just tell me how should I look ingame for a warp flight at 5 am Europe time?

xWandererx said:

Spaceships without warp ie quads / sleip's should be restricted from deep space travel, this will give a meaning to the the unused Privateers & Motherships!!

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Agree! But then give us a system for that! Without a need to use external tools to find a warp flight!

Imagine the old twin peaks pilot line but in a automated way with the most info possible about times, routes, SI of ship, prices, destination planet etc.


To restrict quads/vtols from space or to increase space size won't change anything. In fact it will even make players travel less to other planets. We need a all new system to space travel!

Fanan said:

Agree! But then give us a system for that! Without a need to use external tools to find a warp flight!

Imagine the old twin peaks pilot line but in a automated way with the most info possible about times, routes, SI of ship, prices, destination planet etc.


To restrict quads/vtols from space or to increase space size won't change anything. In fact it will even make players travel less to other planets. We need a all new system to space travel!

Click to expand...

Just join #space_travel - if everyone does you wont ever have an issue finding a warp flight when you need one

In honesty I think to attract more players is not the issue, it's keeping them.

I think to fix that you need to fix the loot system primarily.

As too many low depositor people feel hopeless. I think the retention rate is pretty terrible and the ones that stay are ones who are happy to deposit.
And as for people who never deposit, well personally I don't care about them, they can struggle for a while at the noob rig or sweating then inevitably give up. The game isn't about them so I don't think it should spend too much time trying to help them out with free shit to keep them interested for another week or something... Correct me if I'm wrong?

Regarding PP's and space I think the auction should be universal. Is anyone happy with the space situation as it is? Some PP's are struggling purely because people won't stay there because they will need to go back to caly to get their gear again soon so that system is not working is it? Well it works for Caly but I don't think that's the point. Maybe if you can pay an AH fee to have your stuff transported over, or maybe have Caly in the middle as someone suggested. Or wormholes or whatever. I don't think cutting them off works even though it may have seemed a good idea at the time but now we seeing that it probably wasn't.

Performance and stability, is also an ongoing issue.

My Summary

If you ask yourself what is important in an RCE, well as it requires an investment, the main thing is confidence, that your investment will be safe and hope, that you will be able to someway somehow make a profit. Slightly less important is the game play and virtual world.

So with the dwindling population and poor retention rate, you need to ask which of those three points is EU failing on. And personally I think all, but mostly and most important it is on the financial confidence part. Because for the average depositor, who is a mid level hunter or miner. They are not going to keep mining when they seeing:60%,65%50%,70% etc... And same type of problem with hunting. So it may feel safer for the people at the top but that's not enough is it? You need a larger, probably the largest player base to be low-mid level depositor grinders..

-k

As kitch said the problem is keeping players and really you need more things to do for free for when that ped runs dry other then sweating etc.

Cyrenes got a daily mission you can take to get imperial tokens, its an assault course. You could easy do something along lines of this and say give tokens out for free planet entry. Of course this would have to be account bound but its more then likely going to get a few people to log on most days to collect tokens for free entry's to planets etc for their events etc. Sure theirs a few people that can come up with more ideas.

As for space theirs a lot to be done but you need certain systems in place first before space can really be developed more. You might agree or disagree but id like to see a contracting system and universal auction.

Contracting system if developed right opens up alot doors.

Ability to create courier contracts. I want my 1k animal oil i bought from --- on --- planet and will pay --- amount if completed by ---.

Creating contract to an avatar, say you sold your armor but the person buying it is completely different time zone this feature would be handy.

Renting feature. Again not sure about this as only one thing comes to mind, renting something stupid like a mod merc for the day but without paying the collateral. Ofc the owner doesn't lose out as the system autos gives back after certain amount time. Would also be handy to have a tt extractor so you can suck these items dry after use etc.

Could go on but rather not. But i just feel theirs a lot systems not here which needs to be here.

shaun

Robert Saint said:

IDEAS for Building the Player Base.
1) Build a much bigger META game inside this one with non-trade items attached only to the character when earned. Allow players to do things in game that doesn't require RL cash in order to earn world tokens to buy these items from special vendors. They can do missions that already exist or just find token while exploring. Not saying change the current eco system, but it seems this game can't sustain a large player base unless they add more Free to play content.
2) Make it easier to get to other planets, asteroids with jump gates. Sure charge 2 PED or something, but space seems seriously lacking compared to games like EVE (don't like mentioning other games, but it does exist). It takes forever to travel and discourages visiting other places.


The way I see it = Getting more people to log consistently, means more shoppers when they fall in love with the game and want to do higher end content (real game stuff). As it is, it's obvious why the player base seems to have shrunk since I last played a year ago. Also, I want to help other publishers, but it's difficult to stay on another planet long due to the lack of market on these areas, so a jump gate would help = you could even make it so it is limited on the items that can fit through it, so as to not make import.export too easy.

Best wishes for this game, I will play it until Star Citizen gets released.



We need more Free to Play players.

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Game as it is, gives a lot of free stuff to a new player, if he is willing to find out where to get it. This game has been here since 2001 (beta). It is still here in 2014. So when you are 52, and you are bored with starcraft and waiting for the next big thing, we will welcome you back with another thread that this game needs more free to play players.

It doesn't need more free to play players. This game is a niche game and it attracts an older audience who have money to spend and want to read entire forums and guides to be able to get ahead of the competition. Free to play players do not contribute to this game, they have always tried to break the game down. When you read things about entropia on other (non) entropia forums, it's always the same thing. Their gun broke and they didnt have any more bullets to shoot, yet they still had 150 bullets! they will yap on how this game is a rip-off and people who made it are nothing but frauds and how this game is a pyramid scheme. and its pure gambling and the bank always wins.
And ofcourse they are right. Because truth is in the eye of the beholder

But they are also very wrong. Free to play players that want all gameplay for free lack a few skills. These skills cannot be gained by playing the game. They have to be inside the gamer. These skills are perseverence and patience. The reason why a player leaves this game when all the freebies are gone or decayed is simple: They don't want to read entire forums and guides to make their own capital from nothing, they don't want to sweat until they drop. They want everything for free and they want it now. Without the before mentioned skills these players will fail, every time. There are players here who made it, without depositing.. because they had perseverence and patience and a nose for trade and opportunity.

The reason why some places are lonely is because you are there alone, Because unlike most games out there.. this game has the most explorable terrain which give the player an immense feeling of freedom. A feeling of freedom that even gta 5 cannot match (there's no police here). We do not need players who don't pay to play to fill up these places.

About your ideas:
- player bound, non tradeable items. There are many in this game already. You can almost finish the thing with these items. For free. or the newbie experience on arkadia. or the gateway (thule)
- tokens.. they are here already..mission tokens, daily tokens, combat tokens. They are so popular, that the combat token broker doesn't even have items left to give you.

Some questions:
- does a free to play player not gain any skills? or do you want their skills to be non-tradeable also?

The way to keep people to isn't to offer them the most features, it's to get them to make connections with other players.

Although we have the big shared loot mobs it doesn't encourage people to build connections with other players, they turn up and just shoot away and then moan about the poor loot they got.

Honestly it feels like the RCE has been given up on, how many of us bought things from players we didn't know because one of friends did know them? If we don't feel connected to a place we can walk away any time. Ask yourself why are so many of the old players stuck around for so long with so few of the features we have now?

It wasn't for boss mobs and it wasn't for huge ath's (although we all wanted one).

Right now Mindark seems to be doing it's best to drive this out of EU.

If all you've got is gameplay, which MA isn't very good at, then no wonder people leave after a while.

Good points and very interesting comments.

I agree with one of the posts that say this game attracts older players, like myself, who have a little extra money to spend.

I also agree free stuff in abundance is not a good thing but some is not a bad thing. There is free stuff out there as was pointed out and I think that is sufficient at this time.

If I were one of the Planet-Partners I would be a little irritated that it takes so long to get to my planet and that the AU is not universal. When I first started there was a fee to buy from RT or CP but is was way too high and now you can't get anything unless you go to the planet which is BS IMO and unfair to the PP.

The connecting with other players is also good thing and I am in a soc and have made good friends there.

This is not a game for a person that is 18 or less with no job unless he/she has rich parents that are willing to pay for him to keep him off the streets, which by the way I think would be a good thing. Moreover it is not for some young people that have a family to support and are barely getting by. This game is expensive and if you don't know that you should not be here.

This is also a game, kind of like golf, where you don't go out your first time and get lucky and shoot par golf. Now I know that there have been some that did get lucky, like the new player that found a Furor eye and sold it for a 125K. Also the guy that got 330K ATH, but he also said he was a depositor and from what I heard a fairly big one.

Having said all of that this is the best game I have ever played and I have been playing games since Castle Wolfenstein circa 1984 . Just the splendor of the settings still amazes me to this day and I have been playing almost every day for seven years (I am retired so this is my job, hehe not one that pays much, in fact not at all). Oh and reason that you can find yourself alone in an area is the vastness of game. I still find places that I don't ever remember seeing before.

Its a great game but it cost money, like every other hobby and it is not a really cheap.

In concurrence with what Kitch said, the problem of player retention should be a #1 focus right now, and the solution is to figure out what is causing players to leave and not come back. From there MA can make adjustments/improvements to the game even if it's at a cost to them. A large mid-level depositing player base will yield more money for MA that trying to "stimulate" deposits from low-mid lvl players through 50-70% return swings. I think MA is hoping that they smaller depositors (such as myself) will make larger investments in order to get through the low-swings.

If this happens to be correct I pray for the future of EU, because 1000-1500 large-depositing players will not keep this game alive, and most of the smaller-depo players view this as a "game", not an investment, so they limit their deposits most of the time, resulting in either less play time or these players leaving EU for good.

MA has a bottom line to meet and checks to write... therefore: more Players = more MA revenue = better average payouts for players. Most of the universe-wide low-swings I've observed occur when player activity is substantially lower than normal. This is potentially because MA needs to stimulate deposits from players in order to meet their bottom line.

Several questions spring to mind.

The first question should be is if the player activity lower because they're throwing events all the time, people are throwing everything at it and then not logging in for a long time. Or because people just don't find it interesting enough.

If people spent the same amount over a longer period then activity would appear to be greater and MA would get the same revenue. So is it because they've given what a vocal group of players wanted that's resulted in this quick burn?

Have they lost focus on the RCE? Have they focused it on the higher level mobs rather than spreading it out more so that people feel like they can progress whether they're depositing or not. Do new players see people globaling and hoffing on mobs that when they find out how long and how much it will cost to be able try those mobs themselves do they get demotivated?

Do the low level but massive, in comparison, HP mobs motivate or demotivate new players? Stumbling across a lvl6 mob and then using most of a tt weapon to kill it watching one pixel disappear from the HP bar after a hit only to get fragments at the end?

A 50-70% return was not uncommon when I started but we all used UL items, maxed or not, and could loot equipment upgrades. Plus as mobs were a lot lower in HP we'd kill a lot more and our ped appeared to last a lot longer than it does now. There's a thread on PCF from a few years ago where a pair of well know players are complaining they lost about 1000ped in a week.

And I find myself in areas I don't recognise but that's usually because they rebuilt it since I went there last. I often explore areas of planets even in vu8-9 could end up in places where most never ventured simply because I wanted to know what was there and that's still the case now.

you will never ever ever atrackt huge crowd in EU.

First the game model is not for gamers.

what gamer look for ?

1, good grafics

2, exating game play

3, good story line if is RPG

4, cost

Now days the gaming industry moved for FTP model, the devloping and the cost is founded by vash shops. Belive me those games make so much money that EU even never seen.

You can seasy drop 50/100$ in FTP game, new weapon, new caracter slot, new gear and so on and so on as simple example i probably spend over 300$ on world of tanks in gold just to mention that game as i play lots of them thus my inactivity in EU.

What is there in EU realy think about ? What make ppl play if is not there dream to get ATH ? The problem in that is that it tend toward gambling crowd well gamers are usualy noit gamlers....

I personaly play EU to loot items but as time go by and i never loot any well i get bored and play something that cost my 19,99 months and where i loot shit tons of stuff.

EU is not game and thus will not atrack huge gaming crowd it just wont hapen.

Now EU will slowly go toward gold shop items ( i will not be surprised to find hunting packs MM + sup armor + mod fap rented for 100$ month) that kind of buiseness will bring back lots of players that just want to hunt but dont want to spent gazilion peds in gear. the system will actualy bring money to MA and the peds fired in ammo decay will go in the economy.

Something like that will hapen sooner that we think about, the last sell of that doa RJ show dangerous movemant crash in the economy as we know it is now ppl simply will not spend gazilions on gear and honosly that how it should be.

Xing Nu said:

you will never ever ever atrackt huge crowd in EU.

First the game model is not for gamers.

what gamer look for ?

1, good grafics

2, exating game play

3, good story line if is RPG

4, cost

Now days the gaming industry moved for FTP model, the devloping and the cost is founded by vash shops. Belive me those games make so much money that EU even never seen.

You can seasy drop 50/100$ in FTP game, new weapon, new caracter slot, new gear and so on and so on as simple example i probably spend over 300$ on world of tanks in gold just to mention that game as i play lots of them thus my inactivity in EU.

What is there in EU realy think about ? What make ppl play if is not there dream to get ATH ? The problem in that is that it tend toward gambling crowd well gamers are usualy noit gamlers....

I personaly play EU to loot items but as time go by and i never loot any well i get bored and play something that cost my 19,99 months and where i loot shit tons of stuff.

EU is not game and thus will not atrack huge gaming crowd it just wont hapen.

Now EU will slowly go toward gold shop items ( i will not be surprised to find hunting packs MM + sup armor + mod fap rented for 100$ month) that kind of buiseness will bring back lots of players that just want to hunt but dont want to spent gazilion peds in gear. the system will actualy bring money to MA and the peds fired in ammo decay will go in the economy.

Something like that will hapen sooner that we think about, the last sell of that doa RJ show dangerous movemant crash in the economy as we know it is now ppl simply will not spend gazilions on gear and honosly that how it should be.

Click to expand...

Not sure about all that you said but the part about renting, I think, is a good idea. The problem is would be a deposit on the items rented. The deposit is usually the cost, with MU, on the item. MA could fix this by having the rental agreement go through them as suggested above.

When I first started there was at least one if not many HOFs of 5 digits each day. I hit a 13K HOF on a Argonaut guardian (that is a L10 mob today) and didn't even get first place in the list and as a matter of fact I think I was 5th or sixth by the end of the day. What I am saying is you can not do that today. When was the last time you saw a 5 digit HOF on a Feffoid outcast ? They were common when I first started and I am sure the players for 2006 forward will attest to that fact.

It is my understanding that MA has Capped all the smaller mobs so that is no longer possible and I think that is a big mistake because no low level player can even hope to get a big HOF. Moreover back then an uber was above 30K now its above 1K. I remember the forum saying they want to get rid of the big HOFs and get a bunch of smaller like five 5Ks instead of one 25K and MA accommodated by taking away most of the 25K+ HOFs but forgot to add in the five 5Ks. Without shared loot HOFs and the events when was the last time you saw five 5K HOFs in the list. I then this is sad and dis-hearting to a lot of players including myself.

CozMoDan said:

When I first started there was at least one if not many HOFs of 5 digits each day. I hit a 13K HOF on a Argonaut guardian (that is a L10 mob today) and didn't even get first place in the list and as a matter of fact I think I was 5th or sixth by the end of the day. What I am saying is you can not do that today. When was the last time you saw a 5 digit HOF on a Feffoid outcast ? They were common when I first started and I am sure the players for 2006 forward will attest to that fact.

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Yes, back then argos, drones, atroxes and feffoids dropped 10k+ at least every second day. But do you remember what people mostly did hunt back then? 9/10 of the playerbase did hunt exactly those mobs - argos for iron, drones for gazz, feffs for Korss'es, etc. Do you remember how the argo pasture north of Twins did look? Or drones land east of Jason? Dozens of green dots on radar with 2-3 people squabbling over each mob.

Yes, MA capped loot on those mobs and we'll never again see 5k+ hofs on argos or drones, but the people are still here, they just don't grind all the same mobs anymore. First removing iron/gazz/korsses made the most popular mobs less interesting and people began trying something else. Then we started traveling to other planets, while newly introduced missions spread us even more evenly over different mobs. Furthermore, over different planets.

A little cozy next-door shop has turned into a huge multistory hypermarket and we can't see each other behind the shelves and too busy to raise heads anyway. But we all are still here and still spending the money

Meta games are key. A while ago I proposed fishing. I'm not the only one who has done this, but my system involved tokens and tangible rewards. Lots of folks thought it was a good idea, including development staff. We may see something like that ingame.

We should not stop there, though. Social games, everything from chess and board game related activities to no-charge competitive laser tag arenas that are not skill based, but twitch based come to mind. Things that players can do to compete and earn rankings. Those rankings act as prestige, and the games provide things to do during down time that keep a person engaged with the single product, so that they dont lose interest.

The problem with any game, including this one, is when you stop logging on for a period of time your life does not stop. You explore other interests. If those end up engaging you more, than lesser interests naturally fall by the wayside.

Engage the playerbase. All the time. Players will be retained.

Yes, we need the free players. Free players provide a social experience. The social experience helps retain paying players.

Svarog said:

Yes, back then argos, drones, atroxes and feffoids dropped 10k+ at least every second day. But do you remember what people mostly did hunt back then? 9/10 of the playerbase did hunt exactly those mobs - argos for iron, drones for gazz, feffs for Korss'es, etc. Do you remember how the argo pasture north of Twins did look? Or drones land east of Jason? Dozens of green dots on radar with 2-3 people squabbling over each mob.

Yes, MA capped loot on those mobs and we'll never again see 5k+ hofs on argos or drones, but the people are still here, they just don't grind all the same mobs anymore. First removing iron/gazz/korsses made the most popular mobs less interesting and people began trying something else. Then we started traveling to other planets, while newly introduced missions spread us even more evenly over different mobs. Furthermore, over different planets.

A little cozy next-door shop has turned into a huge multistory hypermarket and we can't see each other behind the shelves and too busy to raise heads anyway. But we all are still here and still spending the money

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I do remember all of those things. My goal on argos was 700 iron stones in one run which then was a 50 ped run or now it would be a 500 ped run. The best I got was 697 iron stones, I was so heavy that it took 10 minutes to walk back to twin. Then a bud of mine told me about the "T" key, Duh what a noob I was. Once I got 5 Korss'es in 4 runs on feffs. Yep that really was the good old days for me anyway. I still like the game though but it is a lot different and I am not sure if its better or worse.

I have played the game for many years and what keeps me regularly logging in and depositing is the new content. Something different is appearing regularly. I am happy to come across the occasional bug if MA keeps including more content. (well done to Toulan, I played there on full resolution with zero bugs

quick ideas....
I agree about space being clunky, I wish you could take off from different land areas and fly into a different section of space.
I would love to hunt more in space but it is time consuming. Some way to repair the Quad while still in it would lead to more space activity.
Definitely and absolutely more non pvp zones for hunting/trading/exploring in space.
more types of UL spacecraft that can be improved/upgraded??
In game booking for spaceflights??
space thrusters for all vehicles

I really like what Ark has done with the shops (creative facades) but I do think the business side of things needs an upgrade.
I would love to see the universal auction available to anyone (for a fee).
I would like (again for a small fee) an optional section for advertising on the auctions. With so many items it would be useful.
How about an in game computer for research and businesses?

Big picture...most important...MA, keep searching for the best people for planet partners!

Good ideas have come through this forum but with limited money and resources I understand how you have to make decisions MA....With all of our investments, I hope you make the right ones

Spawn said:

These skills cannot be gained by playing the game. They have to be inside the gamer. These skills are perseverence and patience.

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I don't really agree that they can't be learned and/or at least improved by playing the game
That is why it may be good to let your kids play this game.

If they end up geting better in terms of patience and perseverence it acomplish an huge goal to an educator.


P.S:most games eventually learn that perseverence grants them advantadges no matter what game they play.

CozMoDan said:

Not sure about all that you said but the part about renting, I think, is a good idea. The problem is would be a deposit on the items rented. The deposit is usually the cost, with MU, on the item. MA could fix this by having the rental agreement go through them as suggested above.

Click to expand...

It will hapen simply becose it will bring EU more friendly toward what the market is to day.

Every big compagny falow the trend it will be surprised that MA don't pick up on this it will be marketing error.

There is no MU on rented items you buy them whith gold (new side curency that will be introduced directly linked to youre account it wont be tradeble).

You will just get X gold by buying it from MA web site and then use the gold to buy temp hunting packs (usualy rentals are 30 days).

When 30 days expire the items simply wanish from youre inventory.

You cant trade them as they are taged 'rentals' and thus cant be droped in trade Windows or on auction.

They will comme at TT value of 0 and to use them you will need to rep them at the and if there is litle TT left before the and of the rentals the amount will be transfered in youre inventory.

System like that exist in many of to day games.

A very nice post, indeed ...

Thanks to the OP for this nice and constructive post. This is not that often happening here

Anyway, all the ideas mentioned are really great, and I fully agree with the principal premise that more players would add something invaluable to EU, namely a touch of reality in which one does not feel alone, ignored or a passive bystander. Well, that is to say, re-add, because some 10 years ago we had a higher player density (surely because Calypso was the only planet back then, and much smaller than it is now). Just remember the old Swamp Camp, or Twins ... people stepping on each other's toes ...

... anyway, coming from the old text-based MUD community, I think that there is a lot to learn from these ancient games as well. Here are my 2 cent worth of suggestions:

(1) Someone mentioned fishing. What a great idea, indeed! Extend this to seeding, growing and harvesting crops or plants. Growing bushes or trees with fruits, harvesting them and selling them for food production. Growing animals (no, I am not talking about taming). That would establish a whole new industry, namely that of food production. Now imagine, so far, when you are hit by a mob, your health increases back to full each 20 seconds or so by 8 points. That seems to be true for all players. Of course, we have the heal-tools to speed this up. But what about food? As an effect over time, the health could increase faster, like in the good-old MUD (or most text-based multi-user) games. That could also hold for drinks: Imagine you can buy a beer, or a vodka, or a Guinness in-game, and it gives you some advantage on the health (or whatever) skill side as an effect over time. It could even go that far that too much alcohol will make your ability of aiming worse ... the sky is the limit of possibilities there, and I am not only talking about being able to pay for a round of drinks in a virtual bar for your friends. Party-time, everyone?

In my humble opinion, MA's game engine is prepared for all of that (it would only take a few minutes to code this kind of stuff on an old MUD-server, and I don't think CE is worse than these): We have already effects-over-time, we have the impact-over-time of certain items on skills, etc etc. Growing stuff? Well, these are just objects whose properties change over time. This functionality, as well, is already used in-game.

MA would get far more people interested (sure I would farm and fish and grow a couple of cows), because not everyone likes hunting, mining or crafting. More importantly, it would open up a whole new chain of revenue (if this is what MA looks for): People need to rent a piece of land for farming, need to buy tools for that, need to process the raw materials into food, sell food etc etc.

(2) I like hunting - and primarily I am a hunter. But what I miss dearly is some privacy, a place I can call "home". Sure, you can buy a flat somewhere, and I had one a long time ago (during my first life in EU). But this is not the same as owning a piece of land and modifying it the way you want it. Imagine, you can buy/rent a piece of land, put some potato field there, next to a little wooden hut you just build. I am talking here about actively adding content (in a controlled way, that is), instead of just renting a pre-designed flat in a huge empty tower on Treasure Island and so.

That, as well, should be possible with the CE. The added changes are stored in a temporary database, and with regular VUs each Tuesday they become part of the core game-database. That's how it worked in text-based MMO games.

But now, let your imagination roam free: You have a nice place, design it to your liking. Your friends and soc mates will join in, creating their homes nearby. After some time, you would have a village, created by people. A newcomer to EU would wander about, and find these villages, created by people just like in real life. A truly dynamically changing world, created - in some part - by the people who live in it. If this idea doesn't attract many people, then I don't know what could.

And the best (for MA, again): revenue increase. After all, people need tools to build their stuff, you need to buy land from the planet-owners, etc etc. That is - in my humble opinion - a far better way to "sell" the planet than overpriced land deeds. I have a very small stash of them. OK, they give me some PED each week, but do I own actually a concrete piece of land? No! But even if I would, can I modify it? No! And for LAs: yes, sure, one can buy one (for insane amounts of PED), or "grab" one (not really, anymore, so it seems). But seriously, I don't want to own half an island. I don't want to put mobs there and live off the tax I decide upon. I just would like to have a small patch of land where I can build a little house with garden ...

(3) Space: The distances which are right now seem OK, at least to me. 40 mins from Ark to Caly is not something which pulls me off. On the other hand, one thinks twice before entering space around Ark to go to Caly, because it still gives the impression of a big distance. So, I would vote for no changes in this direction ... it's a good balance. But, I am fully onboard with changes which involve lowering the PVP area size. What about non-PVP area routes through space: Tight pathways in genuine 3D coordinates. One would need a map to get these right, or an add-on to your ships navigational computer (MA, revenue opportunity!). Of course, you can take the risk and travel just like that, through pirate-infested area ;-)

The maps could also hold singular positions for wormhole travel, with a space station at both ends to get a fee for using it. DS9 comes to mind here! Then, being a long-time player of the good-old Privateer game: Reputation points. I know, these do exist, so maybe let's call them differently then. In Privateer, once you attacked friendly merchants or space patrols you became a "red dot", meaning your reputation went down, and everyone attacked you. What about this in-game, with low-reputation people (most likely the pirates) not being allowed to pass the "immigration" to another planet using the wormholes. It would make people feel more safe, and give more choices. Also, it makes it feel more real, because that is what actually happens (in a boiled-down version: criminals are not really allowed to pass through immigration to another country).

Also, I liked the idea of more different ship types, each serving a special purpose. And what about add-ons, like shields, navigational computer upgrades, more thrusters, larger cargo space etc etc. Just take a look at Privateer, and you'll see what I am getting at. Besides, MA: revenue opportunity!

(4) and I will stop right after: I fully support the idea of individual items, bound to your avatar. See, we as humans are a species whose members strive for individuality, meaning, we love to have our own stuff. You have an iPhone: It's yours, personalized down to the background showing your kids or dog or cats. The same holds for your computer, your car etc etc. Give people something they can identify with, something they can change to their liking, something which only belongs to them ... and they will be happy like children (hehehe, I was giggling like a child when I got my Vic armor from Ark, which is mine, and I can't ever sell it). And no, MA, you won't loose a single dime, because - as said in a post before - such items are created by mere keystroke. But they will act psychologically: People will feel special! Imagine you would allow to change the color of the Vic armor, or put some painting on it etc etc? You don't loose anything, but I would get to say: Look here, this is MY armor!!!

Anyway, I will close for now. These were only some suggestions from my side, in support of the OPs initial post, which shows that there are still people genuinely interested in EU (I count myself among them). There is nothing which cannot be done with the current CE technology. But the player base is the rise and fall of EU ... so let's work on that, shall we!

-Starbuck-


So life's a bitch. What do you want to do, cry about it?
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been playing/exploring since 2005 and decided to be depositer from day one, after doing my research and taking the step to make an account. The one thing that makes it easy to take extended breaks is the fact of never realizing the dream to loot something nice. Never any nice UL gun, fap or armor part, not one tower. And then event after event seems to be the same names taking the nice prizes. So it is easy to take a break, just for a week or so, but then one week turns into two, two weeks into three, etc. Each week is another regular depositor awol.

if the biggest problem with user base growth is player retention then maybe a change in loot 'dynamic' should be looked at. each avatar could have 'hidden' triggers in 1. skills (natural not chipped), 2. deposits (negatively affected by withdrawals) 3. reputation/promoter ratings (lot of time in game activity to help player base by mentoring/event management)

the triggers do not guarantee nice loot, just change your 'luck bit' so you have increased chance of looting nice item

hopefully then no one avatar could go years without a decent loot to encourage continued depositing, skilling and advancing their avatar to need better armor, weapons, faps etc.

CozMoDan said:

When I first started there was at least one if not many HOFs of 5 digits each day. I hit a 13K HOF on a Argonaut guardian (that is a L10 mob today) and didn't even get first place in the list and as a matter of fact I think I was 5th or sixth by the end of the day. What I am saying is you can not do that today. When was the last time you saw a 5 digit HOF on a Feffoid outcast ? They were common when I first started and I am sure the players for 2006 forward will attest to that fact.

Click to expand...

Actually that was pretty uncommon for a 5 digit loot when I started. It only became common when the high tt L stuff appeared in game. I remember when a 22k spider dropped and everyone was surprised and congratulated the team when they arrived back in Minopolis.

The fact I still remember it 6 years later should tell you something as I just happened to be in Minopolis when they arrived. I had no friends on the team, I couldn't even tell you who they were but I remembered the loot because it was out of the ordinary.

MA set the value of the L stuff and the decay rates which they then used as their excuse for the big leap in loot to allow it to drop. For me the change was almost over night, one day the loots maxed in four digits then a vu and they went to five and the loot system went nuts.

121105 said:

been playing/exploring since 2005 and decided to be depositer from day one, after doing my research and taking the step to make an account. The one thing that makes it easy to take extended breaks is the fact of never realizing the dream to loot something nice. Never any nice UL gun, fap or armor part, not one tower. And then event after event seems to be the same names taking the nice prizes. So it is easy to take a break, just for a week or so, but then one week turns into two, two weeks into three, etc. Each week is another regular depositor awol.

if the biggest problem with user base growth is player retention then maybe a change in loot 'dynamic' should be looked at. each avatar could have 'hidden' triggers in 1. skills (natural not chipped), 2. deposits (negatively affected by withdrawals) 3. reputation/promoter ratings (lot of time in game activity to help player base by mentoring/event management)

the triggers do not guarantee nice loot, just change your 'luck bit' so you have increased chance of looting nice item

hopefully then no one avatar could go years without a decent loot to encourage continued depositing, skilling and advancing their avatar to need better armor, weapons, faps etc.

Click to expand...

Good post and the thing about triggers would be nice. One guy posted on another thread that he had been playing about as long as you and had never had a global of 1000 or more. I thought he was telling a story so I checked EL and sure enough he had not. That to me is a bit sad. Maybe he doesn't play that much or whatever but length of time in the game should make a trigger fire for him or something.

Also in regards to the nice items. What would be wrong with MA saying (secretly) ok we are going to make sure at least one good item will be looted each month. Armor, weapon, FAP or whatever and not looted from a mega-mob. Some mob that most all could kill, like Argonaut and above. I see that the A106s have been dropping again along with other amps and that is a good thing but I think the reason is not because MA is loosing up but because of mod and improved amps. Very soon you may not even be able to get a regular amp above A104 or beast.

Of course there are those that will say "Oh no that will ruin the market" and I say BS. How many uber items are there and what percent of the players have them and how many have more than one or more than 5, like guns, FAPs and uber armor. That is BS IMO. We should not have to kill a spider stalker to get one. Nothing against the uber players but come on what about those of us that depo should we not have a chance for something nice ? I would like to know how many of the ubers depo, when they need ped, if they ever do(ped for the game not for a living or RL circumstances) they just sell a few skill and there you go instance ped. I read that there are only 6 sets of POE armor and less for some of the others. Why ? Should not all players have a chance to accumulate a good set of armor over time. I have played for 7 years and I have looted exactly one UL uber item in all that time and it was Opt helmet and I am not a PVP player so I sold it (And not for anything like 10K like some of the pieces armor has). This is a sore subject for me since the SGA event and one of the ubers looted an SGA mod-merc on the first day from a spider stalker as I recall, a mob, which I don't think I will ever have a chance of killing and that is the BS of the whole uber item thing in a nut shell. to me at least.