A Strange Game. The Only Winning Move is Not to Play

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if you keep loosing a significant amount, reconsider from scratch your play style.
You just have to be doing something wrong..

There are some very good "blogs"here on forum, where people show how to play sucesuflly on low budget.

I would probably recommend starting from low level again, so you learn how to play.

Biggest mistake people are doing is that they go and kill something they can barely kill.

The fact you can kill something, does not mean you should hunt it

Then small runs is another common mistake.. Bigger the mob , bigger the bankroll you need.

Stay away from crafting!

Do not TT stuff like idiot.

Track your returns and share with us

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KullXP said:

Just figured I would make a thread for the player base that is sick and tired of this madness, pumping in big amounts and only getting little back.

GL guys and dont be afraid to comment, only if we speak out can we be heard... Alot of people are speaking out behind the vail of the community but its time to raise awareness. And hope the game starts the new year out with a proper setup so that all of us can enjoy the game.

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Mind sharing what kind activities you do, and if you are hunting, what kind of setup you use, what is your proffesional level , and evader and what mob you hunt?

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KullXP said:

Not all of us have the time to do long grinds because we work etc.
**** We would still like to play the game

Not all of us can roll a big bank roll
**** We would still like to play the game

You cant hof big on a small mob, meaning we will never hof to get a small 3k or so to make a dent on lose.
**** We would still like to play the game

Hunting only small mobs because we lack time or bankroll means we can play the game to the fullest. It becomes very boring and no one wants to play a boring game. So they have made a winning combo if thats how it works.

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Now you answered my question, you are that type of person chasing big HOFs...
You apparently have not figured out how to play Entropia after the 3 years you are here.

My advice then stands, learn how to play from scratch.

Chasing big loots will never ever yield you a success. Maybe in extremely big corner case, but well, that's like winning RL lottery

i really do not understand why is it so hard for people to figure out that Entropia is not working like your regular RPG.

Where you take biggest equip you find, and kill biggest creatures

This is not normal MMORPG , so do not apply this game style here...

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Im no hunter but it seems to me if you match a mob to you hp (heal less), take into account the average TT loot value (before MU) from that mob versus the cost to kill (weapon choice) then youre on the right track. Chasing MU with excessive cost to kill (even smal mobs with the wrong weapons) for the average loot seems to be a big mistake many make.

For example right now i am experimenting. I found a small mob averages x tt loot 99.9% of the time (highly unlikely i will ever global of this mob lol). I found a gun that kills it for less that the average loot and no need for healing. When i repair armor and gun im always up at least a few ped every time (yes chump change on this mob). Im almost convinced you can do this up the mob ladder if you match it all correctly for each (depending on your level, hp, evade etc)

How far off the track am i with that ?

Edit : Forgot to mention all the greenlines too.

All down to wrong mobs, I use a spreadsheet for logging kills and such, this way I can see costs to kill and defensive costs, anything with defensive costs above 4% is clearly above my lvl or im overprotected. I don't push myself, I'm only lvl 55 pistol with 27 evade, and I tend to go no higher than rex or feffox, so all mobs are within my lvl.
Another way is to learn which mobs drop what, if muscle oil is higher mu than normal, go collect it. Output components, go get them instead
This way with nearly 100k cycled in 10 months I'm sitting at 95%~ TT and 99%+ MU.

Note my highest global is under 400, with 2 HoFs in there too.

Want a change, go to Cyrene and hunt lvl 2 sea wraiths, try to loot a rsb s1x1 or lvl 10 paneleons for a xent x3

KullXP said:

All MMORPG reward players for pushing the limits and challenging there selfs. This one rewards you for shooting a opalo and keeps you beat down.

What sense does that make?

Play a game that you get kicked in the nuts for pushing the limits and leveling up?

GG

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This is not a regular MMO god, go and play WOW if you are after that ;d

btw, you are not hunting at all according to tracker, do you even play or just troll forum?

We can help you out, but you have to be willing to listen.

Stay away from hunting and crafting Though some small mobs like the Halix on Ark can be profitable, so if you MUST hunt, find which ones drop the best loot and hunt them as eco as possible. The only two activities that generate a positive ped flow for me are mining and providing warp taxi service. You'll need a big bankroll for either though Both crafting and hunting have been ped sinks for me.

Great advice daisy

Another thing to concider is timing, I've noticed that in a typical year my avi has 2 months or so of good "luck" 2 months of decent "luck" and 8 months of garbage regardless of what I do or how I do it. So to combat this, I chill out during those bad cycles. Pick oil, hunt puny with weapons I don't usually use to skill up on, do the daily token missions, etc

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i also have an unl cb19 you should be doing fine with that gun, loose the lasers tho no point if ur maxed, with that gun go after mobs you can kill in 10 shots or so and you should do better, make sure your not over killing on the last shot as the extra decay/ammo might be killing you

Nice setup there. At the present the only hunting that I'm doing is the 60k Kerb stage on Caly (using an UL Thorifold Mace) and the IFN Ostelok chain on Ark using whatever mindforce chip I happen to have. I'm relatively low skilled in clubs and mindforce so the aim is the get them both up closer to the other combat levels. But I'm not grinding them all the time, just when I have time and a few peds to spare. Its more fun that way.

And by the way, I've been a non-depositor ever since I bought my ship. The key is investment - you could have bought a LA for the amount you have depoe'd

(Biggest solo hof just over 1k peds - Kiana on Arkadia)

ramble ramble ramble ... I guess sometimes it's just nice to blow off some steam.

I find it very frustrating, it's part of the challenge, sure but also part of the allure, that you can't just rush ahead banging out the most damage you possibly can and trying to get ahead.

To be honest, I waste a ton of peds doing small runs, or gambling on a big mob here and there. But I know what I'm doing, and try to take it in stride. Last time I went out to mine with 30 ped worth of probes and my rookie finder, I got about 40 drops in and was like "screw it" and dropped the rest with my 105.

So a few drops in arkadia underground and I'm going home with something like a 15% return. No reason to complain, as you see what the responses to those sort of complaints are, blame the player. So, I'm one who knows better and I keep my mouth shut. But that doesn't mean that I don't find it incredibly disappointing.

This game had ("back in the day" lol) a very particular demographic, and an uncommon enough allure with the RCE that certain patterns were set, and they still manage to persist. The game was designed from the beginning (or at least since CE2 conversion) to support a small player base playing at high turnover. That's the nature of the beast.

On the one hand, it seems that could be clearer than it is in the advertising, tutorials, new player experience, etc... Having players give advice like "avoid 2 of the three professions int he game and only do (whatever works for me)" to new players after they've wasted whatever their starting resources were and come to the forums upset doesn't really do anyone any good either.

I think that if they want to continue in the same vein, they need to start advertising it as a premium experience, and work to attract the right kind of player, instead of the current evony-imitating ad campagn that I'm sick and tired of being blasted with all over the internet.

Speaking of which they really need someone to manage their ad dollars a lot better I suspect 80 - 90 percent of the PPC ads are being shown to existing players.

So, when I hope to play and spend a long time at it, I'm relegated, after nearly five years, to a rookie miner, or a looted noob gun and hunting mobs from the starter missions on caly. Maybe some low end stuff on arkadia. Don't even get me started on the incredible imbalance of mobs on RT. If neverdie actually understands how the loot engine works, it's a shame that he has balanced many of the starter/low end mobs there (mostly humanoid types) to basically !!!! low level players of their peds.

That's it though, that's the deal. If you want to play on a low budget or seriously try for that (fabled IMO) consistent 90% you have to learn the rules of the game engine, and work with them. Even then it's not easy, and yeah it discourages tons of players from the game.

Crafting is my favorite profession, and I can't even stand to walk up to a construction machine any more. It's ridiculous to talk about long runs and cycling high budgets if you just want to take a shot at the 8 click (L) BP you looted.

I used to have a better budget, and I spent some money on property. The apartments are basically useless, but I bought 10 CLD in the initial sale, and later sold them for 1400 ped each and bought a shop and a booth. After some very long breaks, that's what brings me back, logging in and seeing that I have a couple hundred peds to play with, or at least should take some time to restock the shops so that it can continue. The last time I came back (just in october) I saw a lot of new stuff so, I've been playing again, a little bit. But I find that nothing significant has changed for the better, and small budget/short playtime activities are being penalized at least as bad as ever.

Might just stock up the shops and wait another year, to see what it's like.

I think if they want to expand the player base, they need to rebalance again, and make it so that global/HoF means something again, put an 80% return on basically everything as a baseline (mob returns 80% of offensive cost to kill on a dpp basis, crafting click returns 80% of material TT in one form or another, probe returns 80% in some form of mining shrapnel/residue at least) and build the HoF pool out of the rest.

That would be a huge start, and you could do a lot more in the game, people could try and push their skills/limits without being absolutely destroyed or needing 100k on the pedcard.

For a casual gamer, someone who wants to spend $10 - $50 a month on this game and isn't already established in some way, the whole game is a big turnoff. There is no such thing as playing "properly" when you have 1 - 3 hours of play time per week, and it's a shame that there has to be a super specific way to play what's supposed to be a "sandbox" game "properly".

So they either need to learn how to reach out to the right crowd, and perhaps explain things a little better at the official source, or change they way they are balancing things drastically for the general sense of disgruntlement to go away, IMO.

In the meantime, I love the game I just wish that I had the time or money to do it the way it needs to be done on a regular basis. I miss the days of being in a good soc and able to have fun, hunting levi or whatever for hours in a large team on just 200 ped. It makes it awfully hard for me to be satisfied "grinding" on puny maffoid.

Sorry it's a disorganized post but just some of my semi-random thoughts on the matter. Like OP I have gear in storage to easily solo hunt at least stuff like big argo, levis, or many other mobs but I don't ever ever do it because (not sure about OP on this one) two crappy mobs and a no looter and my monthly budget is blown.

So I play when I can, wait for peds to 'cycle' in the shops, and think nostalgically about the good old days while, mostly, I just watch the forums for about 10x the amount of hours I'm in game (Can't afford excitement? The drama is free!) and get on with my day.

Not really whining here, just sort of explaining where I'm at with it. I suspect there are a lot of players in the same or similar boat. Obviously though, not everyone is as accepting of the whole "that's just how it is" status-quo. If it ever changes for the better, I'll probably still be here checking it out.

Though some days I do wonder if I could get "the right price" to just sell out and move on. It would take a very ah, enthusiastic offer to get me out of my ark properties though

PW3CKA said:

if you keep loosing a significant amount, reconsider from scratch your play style.
You just have to be doing something wrong..

There are some very good "blogs"here on forum, where people show how to play sucesuflly on low budget.

I would probably recommend starting from low level again, so you learn how to play.

Biggest mistake people are doing is that they go and kill something they can barely kill.

The fact you can kill something, does not mean you should hunt it

Then small runs is another common mistake.. Bigger the mob , bigger the bankroll you need.

Stay away from crafting!

Do not TT stuff like idiot.

Track your returns and share with us

Click to expand...

Yes. Absolutely true. Better to do 1000 clicks with a cost 1 PED, than 100 clicks with a cost 10 PED

If you have not enough time for 1000 low-cost clicks - just do not play.

Do not be greedy!

Do not click EP IV BP's!

Always do several tests before start big grinding session.

All runs must be calculated and analyzed. If you are not satisfied with results - stop doing it and search for something more profitable.

And only then you'll be satisfied with EU.

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Gewitter said:

Yes. Absolutely true. Better to do 1000 clicks with a cost 1 PED, than 100 clicks with a cost 10 PED

If you have not enough time for 1000 low-cost clicks - just do not play.

Do not be greedy!

Do not click EP IV BP's!

Always do several tests before start big grinding session.

All runs must be calculated and analyzed. If you are not satisfied with results - stop doing it and search for something more profitable.

And only then you'll be satisfied with EU.

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This should be some kind of sticky.
Only thing I want to add, you can ofc try shorter runs, take "random stabs" at something (mobs, mining areas). It's not a guaranteed loss - u can lose, you can win. The point is, this is where the game becomes a casino.
Don't like casino, don't run this game in "casino mode"...

(This is not the whole truth ofc. If u imagine u can read one forum post and know it all, u wrong. There's more factors in play than this. Still, the quote above is quite enough to keep you safe from the worst pitfalls.)

KullXP said:

After 3 years and a HUGE pile of peds I have finally figured this game out

If *the game played itself, it would break its self?

IF * you play for years and have deposited a HUGE pile of ped and never seen a decent loot, should you continue?

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IF * you deposit HUGE do you create a psychological expectation of HUGE loots?

OP should spend more time either selling out or analyzing game play and working on improving.. less time on snarky/intellectually lazy threads.

I think most people, including myself, would help if OP really cared to help himself and less of the cursed avatar wahhh BS.

Play like a boss or stop crying like Calimero (http://www.calimero.com/nuovosito/apertura.asp)

KullXP said:

I used to then I changed my style and still was loosing hand over foot. I chased eco for a long time and still getting returns that kill. I haven't chased a hof or anything in over a year, and still loot is the same.

But even when I was chasing hof's and not getting them it means no matter your gear or how hard you chase it wont come. The only reason I chased hof's was looking for taht bump back to 90% like everyone preaches.

Damned if you do damned if you dont, then everyone says you damned yourself. Its true then the only winning move is not to play at all. Killing nothing but punys and Lvl 12 mobs day after day is not playing game but simply wasting time because its not a game if its not fun?

I can watch paint dry, and have as much fun and have as much fun. Theres a reason we play games.

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I couldn't agree with you more KullXP. I couldn't make this game fun even at $50 a month. Yes it is possible to play 8 hours a day hunting and mining. recycling those peds but you will need about $500 bankroll reserved to not have to deal with traders and hunt the lowest mobs in the game like punies, dakaiba, and exos. In the end though, as teh days go by, this game is ultimately watching you're peds go down little by little. It's like your playing against self control and eco using spreadsheets vs having fun. I am thinking how much money each bullet fired costs me and become frustrated when a mob has 4 misses in a row and I'm calculating how much money I just lost on that mob. Or keeping hunting run logs for what? In the end we know the house wins. It's just how slowly you lose. The more boring the game is the slower the loss. You want fun hunting challenging mobs = waste of money.

People make it sound like their is so much to do in this game that doesn't cost much but are deluding themselves. Running aound for TP's is only fun for so long. Looking for rocks and dung = fall asleep at computer. Sweating is slave labor when you calculate how much you can make an hour on average. Free events are extremely rare. Quest rewards aren't nearly worth money put in. This game is barely fun when spending peds. Without peds you feel like the low life poor scum of calypso with nothing to do. Yay I can spam dance emotes in a group while convincing myself this is fun gaming.

I check in every year or so but haven't played in probably 3. I vendered all my crap and left peds laying on the ground for whoever. I've probably spent 2k on this game over the years. Had some really fun times but no where near that amount. Until this game is considered fun and affordable at the same time, I won't be logging in. We need a way to earn credits in game to supplement deposits. Sweating is a poor excuse because sweat prices just get lower and lower each year. God forbid people actually play this game for extended periods of time unless you're forking over wads of cash.

I know someone will be saying I play for cheap, a lot of hours, and have fun. I say you're an anomaly.

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KullXP said:

@ Torrentula81, yes exactally

I work alot and dont have a big chunck of time to make and decrypt logs, IF I spend my time * NOT BEING LAZY * crunching numbers instead of making a hour hunt then my little time to hunt is reduced greatly.

That is my very point, from what I gather from people here you need all these factors to play this game

* A Big Bank Roll
* Alot free time to hunt for hours of time to make a big cycle in one run
* Keep logs and make many test to improve them
* An immense amount of knowledge of trail and error you have to decrypt to improve

That rules out 70% or more who play this game

As the title of the thread says and now stands true to a massive amount of us
A Strange Game. The Only Winning Move is Not to Play

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Its really not hard to keep some spreadsheets. it takes 2 minutes at the end of a hunt

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KullXP said:

* A Big Bank Roll
* Alot free time to hunt for hours of time to make a big cycle in one run
* Keep logs and make many test to improve them
* An immense amount of knowledge of trail and error you have to decrypt to improve

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Not all of the above is needed just these:

* Keep logs and make many test to improve them
* An immense amount of knowledge of trail and error you have to decrypt to improve

But you see you need this in the RL as well if you want to make it big. If the game was any different sorry to say MA would have been out of business long ago. But I do support some of what you are saying but most posts like yours are from people who really don't think what they are doing but just to have some fun. Well sorry again that is how you can loose big in this game sorry to say -- again as in the RL.

I'm in this game to loose it all really. I'm playing within my budget (blood pressure really) and if I loose it all then so be it. If you are not playing within your budget and you feel the lose then yes maybe you should stop playing.

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