Is Entropia a game? Thoughts and debates about fun.

EU can be a profession, a hobby or casual entertainment or all at the same time.
Or a hobby this year, a profession next year and in five years maybe just casual entertainment.

Personally I dont like to view it as a profession where the single goal is to be self sustaining.
I have an rl job for that, and it's all I need grinding-wise.
With a hobby on the other hand you do it because you love it and don't do it to be self sustaining.

I still try and keep the fun side alive playing EU.
And that means trying to discover things myself.
And this was the game and community I fell in love with at start.
When people actually didnt have a clue and had thousands of ideas on why things worked like they did.
That was a fun time when most everybody was focused on discovering and get to know the Entropia Universe.

I dont feel that part is much alive, its like we already know everything.
And for every new update its just a *gasp* when it is the same thing but in a slightly differant package.

One thing I have always missed though from other games is a better physics engine.
Specially for movement and more real natural forces.
Look at Garrys mod for example. A physics sandbox which is just so amazing.
The physics in EU is just medieval.
Better physics would be more fun.

Same with the NPC Artificial Intelligence.
Also medieval. Why not breath some life into the mobs for example and actually give them a little more brain.
Better AI would be more fun.

Realism is not just about the looks of things.
 
Just a question. You say you love the game, what is it about Entropia that you love? I'm trying to understand what part of playing interests you other then the money aspect.

Im actually curious. :yup:
 
Just a question. You say you love the game, what is it about Entropia that you love? I'm trying to understand what part of playing interests you other then the money aspect.

Im actually curious. :yup:

I love the money aspect. I make it dynamic myself by doing methods to try to break the secret of the loot machine.

I do the same with sport bets with total success. It does not work with EU. That is a mystery I always loved and will always love and that makes me stay in the game.

I have no fun by clicking on my mouse and watching things happen, i really think there is no gameplay at all in EU. Id be glad to have fun doing things and not only for the money.


But again plz you are curious that's ok but it's not a thread about me. It's more about a general point of view of the gameplay of EU.

there are those people happy just by clicking and looting.

And I wanted to know if like me there were players who just dreamt about a much deeper gameplay for all the basic actions/activities the game offer to us.
 
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And I wanted to know if like me there were players who just dreamt about a much deeper gameplay for all the basic actions/activities the game offer to us.


There is. :yup:












And his name is Peezle! :tongue2:
 
There is. :yup:
And his name is Peezle! :tongue2:

comon dude don't do this to me !

I'm not a peezle boy telling some stories that world could be greater.

I want to offer real ideas of gameplay that could be implemented in the game without changing the core of it.

aiming on mobs wouldnt change it coz ammo is not anymore ocnsumed when you dont shoot at a mob.
why not no evade anymore for mobs then. it will just result in more armor decays for those not good at aiming.

why not fully automated rifles? just lower the cost of ammo and multiply the life of mob and there is no change in dps. easy change. awesome resulting pvp.

etc
etc
etc

now can we really start to discuss about this? the possibility? the probability? what would that affect?

other ideas?

cmon
 
I find the game fun. I don't enjoy watching soccer, but I still consider it to be a game.
 
as this thread tend to become ridiculous, mostly because of me being not clear enough, i edited the first post so there is no more reason to think this is a propheting thread or something mystic like that, and just an idea thread where everyone can put his ideas or explain why for him the gameplay in hunting, mining etc is a gameplay he really like.

thank you
 
Actually EU is all about racetracks and cars. Its the races. Its why we all come here together.

Eu is all about racing.

Awesome racetrack-onlinegaming-system :)
 
Actually EU is all about racetracks and cars. Its the races. Its why we all come here together.

Eu is all about racing.

Awesome racetrack-onlinegaming-system :)


I knew this thread would attract some trolls. But you are the true winner, congrats.

Now, as nobody seems interested in the theme of this topic, I please any moderator who see this to close it and delete it.

The pain has been long enough.

Cheers :yay: and may the HOF be with me :yay:
 
And I wanted to know if like me there were players who just dreamt about a much deeper gameplay for all the basic actions/activities the game offer to us.

A long time ago we had an event based around notes, these were looted and we had to work out from them where the next event was going to take place.

A nice idea, sadly it didn't come from MA but a Swedish company doing tv-show tie-in. This whole concept worked fine up to a point, players attention was caught and it generated numerous threads on at the time EF. Their were two problems either only a handful bothered to turn up and as the event was at one specific time not all could make it and where one part everyone missed it as the time got decoded incorrectly or it became a lag fest where it seemed every one turned up. But just for a while EU gameplay took a turn away from the click-click-click to something that engaged the players as a group to solve something.

Now MA could tie in missions where you had to loot the starting object but I just get the feeling that most players now just want to grind away now rather than spend a few hours charging around the planet looking for clues only that may only result in a worthless item or nothing at all just as the case of the notes event.

The story missions we do have are usually extremely simple or players have given all the answers to them on the various forums so we don't have to do any work just follow the steps. With a bit of work MA could give us something that might be story driven but be truly individual to each player may help alleviate some of the issues players are having with EU. It might even help get some of the community pulling together again after the fragmentation that's happened over the past few years.
 
there are too many posts in this thread that are too long to read for the topic at hand! :lolup:

it is simple: Yes, EU is a game! :yup:

if you have some over complicated rationalization as to why it's not, you are delusional! :dunce:

for every one point someone tries to make as to why it's not a game, I can post a screenshot of my pet's newest trick, or a kill spree I did at noob rig just because, or a party on a dance floor someone built in the middle of Twin Peaks, or a fat hairy guy in his underwear with angel wings and a clown mask dancing at the auctioneer, or 50 people shooting a giant scorpion with laser guns dying and coming back to life and teleporting back to the battlefield, or a space pirate who shot down my spaceship with his spaceship and robbed me only to find out I gave him nothing but a lump of dung, or... etc. etc.

yeah, it's a video game, enjoy!!! :wise:
 
MindArk in the past were interested in going down this route of making gameplay more interesting. Here are some quotes from past:

I do have some ideas for mining as well but they would require a fair bit of new coding to implement.

For example I think it would be pretty cool to have volatile resources that are under pressure and must be extracted fast or the rig will explode.

Im very happy to share the following information with you that I think will greatly enhance the Entropia Universe experience.

Improvements to creatures and their AI!

The creatures will now be able to alternate between different types of attacks each with their own set parameters and animations/sounds/particles.

The monsters will also have the ability to do AOE attacks that strike all players within a specific radius. These attacks can deal either regular damage or damage based on a percentage of the avatars current HP.


Coming later:

1) Damage over time effects togeather with AOE application of the same.
2) Creatures using mindforce.
3) Creatures using projectiles that can be avoided.

Kim also made other posts related to hunting and real life skills...


The above posts are from 2011. They were considering making gameplay more interesting then so perhaps they've had time to develop something? or it got shelved for more important projects...
 
I knew this thread would attract some trolls. But you are the true winner, congrats.

Now, as nobody seems interested in the theme of this topic, I please any moderator who see this to close it and delete it.

The pain has been long enough.

Cheers :yay: and may the HOF be with me :yay:

No need for closure, but this thread could be just merged with one of the other 100 "define what EU is for you, what makes you fun inside xxxxxx"

All this " give a definition threads " make this forum a talked through boring place it would be more interesting if people post stories about what happened or what they actually did inside.

In a healthy and living society people dont need to define and describe all the time - they just do what they like and discover by taking action.

Why is the king kong in EU news all the time? Its a place of action. No need to death talk what the king kong is for everyone or if its fun. You see people there - the answer is given already. Go and try for yourself.

Is like opening a new thread in space forum "what could space be and what would you like to see there?" -_-
 
The thing with EU is any monkey can play it. I tried another space MMO once but the training was very complex and time consuming. In EU you just buy a skill implant and boom. I think MindArk just needs to allow players the ability to profit.
 
Its not really a game, its an Universe which is Virtual. Also not a Casino, its what you want it to be. Just like you won't be able to define Real World, you won't be able to define Entropia Universe. While some people see it as a place to earn money others just play it for fun or think it a nice place to spend PEDs. Its Virtual Reality.

You are victim of MA propaganda....Universe ? Come on, even EVE can't be named like that.
It's game like hundreds of other games....just with RCE addition which makes it more special, but still game.
 
Mining Ideas

I have a few mining ideas.....

The quake: Your probe creates a quake around you for some seconds radar jams and hells awakens

The bullete: Your probes wake a beast from the underground :p be prepared for this land shark, deeper finders have more probability of finding meaner and higher level beasts

False ground: you open a cave and find some loot/peds/whatever

Looting of special (L) items in finding: amps, finders, extractors

Your probes aggros the mobs around if you choose(higher chance of bigger loot around mobs or whatever)

Semi-repairable finders, extractors, amps (crafters/hunters get parts that you can change with a specialized refiner/repair terminal), so they are not totally broken but can be repaired 3 or 4 or whatever times before expiring to total scrap...

Level 7 Amplifier Semi-Repairable (L) :wtg::wtg::wtg:
 
Its not really a game, its an Universe which is Virtual. Also not a Casino, its what you want it to be. Just like you won't be able to define Real World, you won't be able to define Entropia Universe. While some people see it as a place to earn money others just play it for fun or think it a nice place to spend PEDs. Its Virtual Reality.


Very good post and all very true. It's very useful to use the real world as a comparison to this "game". It can help to understand paths dev's may take and valuations of items. For valuations without using the real world to gauge against you'd be a bit lost, likewise when new systems are being developed it can be useful to think of real life. Although in game can often be very different nevertheless it's a good starting point.

Furthermore what we do in game and how we treat it can be like real life. Just as in real life you could do something really stupid likewise you can do the same here, there is no one to intervene. Conversely you could do something potentially remarkable again no one to intervene to congratulate or anything.

So no alarms bells ring when we do something stupid or something good. That freedom is what makes the "game" powerful and potentially cause disastrous consequences on upon yourself. The stakes can be high because real money is at stake.
 
Its slot machines with a different interface.... Every mob is a xx value slot machine..... Every activity is a slot machine.....just like every slot machine we all input and 1 lucky winner takes all....ever pulled up to a service station and decided to put a few coins in the machine and bam $100.....before you a lot of people tried you tried and it was pay up time. It calculated what went in deducted what needs and threw out the rest.......ever see that ath or big hof.... before you many tried you just emptied it as it was time to pay up only after it's taken its share and profit.....
 
Its slot machines with a different interface.... Every mob is a xx value slot machine..... Every activity is a slot machine.....just like every slot machine we all input and 1 lucky winner takes all....ever pulled up to a service station and decided to put a few coins in the machine and bam $100.....before you a lot of people tried you tried and it was pay up time. It calculated what went in deducted what needs and threw out the rest.......ever see that ath or big hof.... before you many tried you just emptied it as it was time to pay up only after it's taken its share and profit.....

And your point? But yes if you feel that you do need to put in those coins at a local service station or need to buy just that last lottery ticket because the moon is full..then yes you should not be playing this game. This game needs one to have a bit of control and if you have none will..

and well lets get back on topic.
 
And your point? But yes if you feel that you do need to put in those coins at a local service station or need to buy just that last lottery ticket because the moon is full..then yes you should not be playing this game. This game needs one to have a bit of control and if you have none will..

and well lets get back on topic.

The op asked a questions for everyone..... Is entropia a game? Everyone answered there answer I answered mine, i heard everyone elses answer im sure everyone else can hear mine.....i accepted everyone elses and didnt mock anyones reply..... so kindly stop being a cu** by forcing your bullshit opinions down peoples throats.....we all have a right to answer as we please.....that's my muthafcuking point.....

Now let's get back on topic shall we.....
 
Yeah it is.

Some people play competitively, some people play to enjoy themselves, and some people suck at playing.

No different than any other game.

Or are we now going to say that Basketball is also not a game because a few people that play it get to make a career of it too?

The money point is pure rubbish.
 
On start Project Entropia was sci fi addventure GAME without subscriotion but with possibility to deposit and do microtransactions buying ingame goods and unkomon thing to other games - with possibilizty to withdrawal.
There was no auction as we know now with exception of auction to buy MA shares.
And ther was no any kind of LA's, shops planet partners, CLD's ect.
There were few good traders trading and reseling "on street".
IT was a game with noone or wery few ppl able to take out some profit.
I played it as a game.
During years PE deviated in "race to profit and take out" RCE.
Is necesary that we have ppl playing it as a game if not who will pay LA's fees/taxes, shop taxes, resllers profiit, planet partners profit, CLD pay outs, MA expenses ect.
Problem is that MA exagerated with allowing so many investors.
If we continue on this path we soon will have only take outers ops i mean investors and nobody to play and pay.
We have so many investments that MA cant cover that if all decide to withrawal.
I still play it as a game.

Also about casual game with RL skills - PE/EU was ava skill and item based.
Better item - better performance.
Changing that rule in some kind of casual game with RL skills after 14 years of investments in gear and ava skills could mean fu..ing all old player base for few casual newcomers
 
the topic begins to be a bit more interesting even if too many people here just read the wrong title.

for this thread to be really interesting, you have to separate things in EU and not think about it as a whole thing.

you have the core systems of EU, which last more than a decade so they have not to be debated here
-RCE system
-Trading system
-Loot system
-etc

and you have the ACTIVE GAMEPLAY which is :

-shooting at mobs
-dropping probes
-etc

this is what I wanted people to debate.

Could the point & click gameplay in hunting, be improved by taking example of FPS shooter games for example?
Would adding some features that makes the ACTIVE GAMEPLAY more active, break the core systems (RCE...) ?
Are there easy ways to NOT impact the EU's RCE systems AND improving the gameplay, and not only for hunting?
And finally and of course, are you interested in MA thinking this way or thinking only how to bring investors in the game and not more players from other games?

that's all, stop debating about how entropia is a game please this was a pure mistake, i did that to put the context of entropia being "something else" and yes the term universe is really true, some people will play it as a game, and others will not.
and then, i wanted to know if it could stay "something else" BUT with a better gameplay and not only point and click.

Thanks to Athal for his mining ideas, I really think the monster idea is awesome
 
this is what I wanted people to debate.

Could the point & click gameplay in hunting, be improved by taking example of FPS shooter games for example?
Would adding some features that makes the ACTIVE GAMEPLAY more active, break the core systems (RCE...) ?

ok, head shots would be an obvious addition where it does additional damage or even insta-kills. When I'm playing fps games I'd normally try for that anyway.

The other thing would be the ability to dodge an attack by moving out of range in the case of impact or by dodging to the side or strafing to dodge weapon fire, this could apply to both to mobs and player.

Removal of the point blank miss with either melee or shot based weapons would also have to be applied to both mobs and players.

But with those you could have players with no armor taking on big mobs and not being hit, to implement it though would need massive upgrades to the server in order for it accommodate the increased combat processing speed required.

You'd also have all those in expensive armour complaining that noob killed them in pvp or killed an uber mob because they were moving too fast and dodging all the time.
 
Back before they decided to add autoclick to auction (and anything else), and crafting was an elite profession with hard-to-get skills and useful products, and there was rumor of "factories" that would be introduced, i visualized an update to crafting that would require solving a simple puzzle (i.e. minigame) for each crafting attempt (there's a post about it somewhere...). A successful attempt would require a successful solution to the puzzle (and a skilled, fast solution would give greater chance of success). Obviously the final say in success would have to be the loot system, but both the player and the avatar skills would have an effect on it.

That would then make the function of factories obvious: allow a master crafter to employ workers to work on the assembly line, solving puzzles to mass produce items (this is also around the time the idea of manufactured ammunition was first mentioned... ironic that, years later when it was finally introduced, the manufactured ammo would be the death of manufacturing rather than a revitalization).

Of course, MA decided to take the other road: making crafting attempts easier and automated. They followed up with additional nerfs to the complexity and utility of crafting, and inflation of crafting skills with repairing. This obviously made sense from a short-sighted, "let's get more cycling of PEDs through crafting" mentaility, but decreased gameplay and long-term potential.
 
ok, head shots would be an obvious addition where it does additional damage or even insta-kills. When I'm playing fps games I'd normally try for that anyway.

The other thing would be the ability to dodge an attack by moving out of range in the case of impact or by dodging to the side or strafing to dodge weapon fire, this could apply to both to mobs and player.

Removal of the point blank miss with either melee or shot based weapons would also have to be applied to both mobs and players.

But with those you could have players with no armor taking on big mobs and not being hit, to implement it though would need massive upgrades to the server in order for it accommodate the increased combat processing speed required.

You'd also have all those in expensive armour complaining that noob killed them in pvp or killed an uber mob because they were moving too fast and dodging all the time.

Yes server load and stress is a problem.
We had some fun elements in past like we were so fast to be able to outrun most medium mobs.
Today evading a mob will be sadly considered cheating lol but we did that legaly in past and also we used terrian in our advantage, then we developed tanker as a team profession who had most hp and good fap as mob AI was different as is now.
We had fun to see fights between mobs to death like between trox and robot or trox and ara or ara and tantilions ect.
Well top was melee fight between umbraonids (pre orb umbranoids ) .
They used to side step, strafe, step foward, backward, block attacks, many different attack animations, they even tryed to run away if HP went to low...
Excuse to reduce avatar run speed and movement was to reduce lag and server stress.
Also mob AI was removed/replaced so mobs dont fight any more but they are probably more inteligent as VU when was announced improved mob AI we remember as additional mob HP and additionam mob hp regeneration lol.
I wonder how come that avatar run speed was too hard for MA servers even avatar clothes were server problem so we got taxed it and vehicles evidently doing fine with no server problems lol.

In other words, there are few posts with good ideas and more will come but dont expect that MA will do it soon.
 
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THANK YOU GUYS! Now we are talking :)

Dan yeah of course this is a "dream about" topic and we can't expect MA to move soon but this is not a reason to be skeptical and bored. it's always nice to share ideas about how better osmething could be, in a possible way.

ill share my ideas now we are on topic, mostly for hunting :

IMO, this is possible to improve gameplay, and of course it would be ALOT of work from the devs, but that also could be the biggest revolution ever for EU.

I see a game where players take their biggest gun, buy some big medic tools and go on a hunt.
Then its a true feast, people shooting like devils at the heads of mobs, because they love how they explode and the feeling of the rampage they are able to do.
True skill game : headshots, aiming, evade, skills etc.
Bigger gun is still a must to kill bigger mobs, just as bigger armor and bigger faps.
Ammo is free, decay is not.

And you pay a fee when you loot the mob.

Bad players wont be able to kill bigger mobs, and thats all. You have to be good, and have big stuff to kill them, but if you manage to do so, then you can loot it if you can pay.

People who just gone broke can choose to not loot the mobs. They still pay decay etc but for the fun of fighting.
That means someone who is broke can still play for fun until he's ready to pay again, instead of quitting the game.

this way you can do a real true skill game fun, exciting, etc + a looting part based on many factors etc just like now.
 
As for hunting gameplay, there are a few problems to making what at first seem logical and easy improvements to the gamer experience (believe me, i've been down this cognitive path before):
  1. Interface preference and capability. For years I used first person aim mode exclusively while hunting. It made hunting more of a game (in my book) than third person, drag-the-healthbar-and-click-it mode. I was shocked when i discovered that some serious players (e.g. Skippie) used the latter. Because the RCE is the primary feature of EU, limiting hunting to first person aim mode is not practical because it eliminates a significant percentage of the potential player base that either won't or can't (due to physical disability) play it that way. Unfortunately, since the "fix" to the hit boxes, i don't do much pure first person aim hunting now, either. It's simply not practical with such broken hit boxes.
  2. Varied hardware and (more importantly) network performance. Along the lines of the first point, it would be cool if you could get a slight bonus to hit rate or damage from "aiming better". Unfortunately, flaws in the software and the very inequal experience different players have due to their distance from the servers make this a non-starter, at least until a lot of work is done on the game platform. It also excludes a certain percentage of current players (as in #1): those whose computers are not performant enough to make precise aiming possible. MA exacerbated this issue when they switched to CE2. They lost some of the player base as it was because some could no longer even run the game. If the game experience was more closely tied to computer (and network performance), even more would stop playing. A similar problem arises due to the control users have over their own computer. I thought that when they introduced "night", it would make for more interesting gameplay, but rather than welcome the prospect, players whined and cheated and made night just another broken cosmetic feature of EU. If it were possible to ensure that every player had the "correct" gamma to make night dark, a lot more interesting game play options would be possible. But these are pointless if people can cheat... and the same goes for using vegetation for enhancing gameplay. Stalking unknown radar blips in tall grass can be quite exciting, but if you can turn it off by switching to LOW GFX then it's not a level playing field... and this can't be enforced without making EU unaccessible to some low hardware (back to beginning of this point.)
  3. Delicately balanced return. I find it amusing (or annoying, depending on mood) when the perennial complaint about "missing shots and the money it wastes" for maxed weapons is reopened over and over. Whether maxed weapons miss 10% of the time or 0% of the time does not affect the returns of players. If the miss rate was changed, the return would be adjusted accordingly. The point is that the potential efficiency of a hunter has to be relatively tightly regulated to avoid huge discrepancies in return rate. If you could get any significant advantage in damage by "headshotting" a mob, it would require everyone start headshotting mobs to not see their returns diminish, and because of the two previous reasons listed, this is not practical. The RCE nature of EU really limits the degree to which you can see traditional RPG or FPS mechanics in tactical combat.

Now there are some ways gameplay could be improved that are not subject to these limitations. IMO FPS PvP is by its very nature already only really possible for those with good ping and fast systems, so PvP could be improved a lot without running into the same issues. Furthermore, PvP does not generate returns from the loot system in the same way as the 3 main professions do, so adding complexity doesn't create the problem with screwing up returns for segments of the playerbase.

I think PvP should use hitboxes to modify damage, and cause specific handicaps: a strong legshot can cause a temporary decrease in running speed; an arm shot could affect hit ability.

Mob AI could also be improved without running into the main three issues above. I wrote about this parenthetically in my fictional implementation of explosive weapons (before they existed) linked in my sig. Herd mobs should act like herd mobs. Pack hunters should behave like pack hunters. Etc.

There are other things that could be done to make hunting more interesting, but most of the truly big gameplay enhancements are ruled out by the issues above.
 
Your opinion only matters IF i care what you think. Till then It's what I want it to be !


OEvoVXT.jpg
 
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