What can we expect for 2016 and how far has Mindarks roadmap for 2015 been achieved ?

A subscription model for Entropia could work if the effect of such a system were only effecting things like MA stated in 2014, Auction slots, Storage space etc. If they ever decided to move it to the model of premium areas / anything to do with improved loot things would go down the drain so quickly that i doubt anyone would be laughing....

pontfirebird73 said:

I guess you didn't read the quoted text from State of the union address 2014. What improvements to space were made in 2015?

Click to expand...

Have a heart with him - he probably noticed that one patch where there was a 28kb file for space in the download - thats quite alot space development for a whole year

melander said:

A subscription model for Entropia could work if the effect of such a system were only effecting things like MA stated in 2014, Auction slots, Storage space etc. If they ever decided to move it to the model of premium areas / anything to do with improved loot things would go down the drain so quickly that i doubt anyone would be laughing....

Click to expand...

If it would come from a subscription funded additional lootpool and rare drops would be nice gimmiks like special clothes / 'shipskins' / realworld fan items which could be available as tokens in loot / things that dont impact the existing economy negatively but add to it - i think it could work very well.

There also could be subscriber only events additionally to all the events that are free for all - this would be a great opportunity to provide a fair event environment only for people where mindark knows there identity and can held them responsible if they cheat/exploit - it would allow much fairer and more trustworthy eventenvironments.

atomicstorm said:

Funds for development are limited.. we pay for that through our activities. In a subscription model game, they can hire tons of developers and support staff and all is wonderful. I don't agree how they are handling support, but we don't help by spamming them with support cases over frivolous things instead of the ones that matter. I've got 8 developers handling 51 applications and our output velocity is around 60 tickets a week... which is a miracle compared to other groups. The volume we give mindark requires a force they probably can't pay for with the turnover that we put in the game. Turnover from a volatile playerbase and especially ones that only show up during events.

So, yea the road map is a wishlist.. and if they needed to spend development time to improve turnover through ring decays or pets or strongboxes or even explosives to get the game on a path that allowed better investment.. then great. Now I hope for better things in 2016.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience. The one side of it I see though is that I believe many of these support cases are created by their incompetence in programming, managing player information and funds, lack of communication as a whole, and poor implementation in systems. They also already don't answer or respond to a large number of the cases anyways. Several times recently when I've made support cases they were responded to in under 1 week. I also believe the reason they can't pay for the work force you describe is their fault. CLDs were invested into with their "promise" as I saw it to greatly increase marketing and bring in more players, thus more dollars. I feel they have done less than minimal effort in this area and have done a bad job at retaining current players.

I currently play a subscription based game that costs $15 a month when I pay month to month. When I play this game I spend $100-400 a month at times, so in my mind my one month of playing EU is like 4 to five people subscribing to the other game for the entire year. I know there are wayyy less players in EU, but the ratio of players to dollars has to be wayyy higher than most subscription games.

That being said, I agree that people spam support and we can "help" by not being so quick to do so. I just can't ignore my belief that they bring it on themselves with their poor communication for one. I can't imagine the work load we give them is that great, although I lean toward your experience in the matter. What about withdraws? They still take months in this day and age, so it's not like they are working hard on those either.

I too hope for a better year in 2016 for EU - as I do every year. By in large it continues to expand and get "better" even though the basic issues that I see continue to stay the same. I stick around for the day that it gets to where I'm satisfied.... or I just win the lottery and could give a crap about blowing lots of money on a game

John B Knight said:

If it would come from a subscription funded additional lootpool and rare drops would be nice gimmiks like special clothes / 'shipskins' / realworld fan items which could be available as tokens in loot / things that dont impact the existing economy negatively but add to it - i think it could work very well.

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I can buy the idea of real world items, thats actually a cool thought(thinking limited edition shirts or the like) anything that will sell within the game though will by the virtue of it being only available to a select few force people to become subscribers to take part in looting premium items with higher then normal MU.

Basically it works just the same way as the current economic model when they switched to shrapnel, MU on loot adjust back to the same point of equilibrium( +/- people are comfortable spending versus need ) as before the change accounting for the new factors.
That same MU re-adjustment (Lower mu on old items) will happen if you introduce premium items the difference between the shrapnel and the premium loot is that one is for everyone so we all move with the wave whilst the premium route leaves people at the bottom of the wave whilst others reap the rewards in MU regardless of TT provided from the premium lootpool.

Cheers!
-Jonas

melander said:

I can buy the idea of real world items, thats actually a cool thought(thinking limited edition shirts or the like) anything that will sell within the game though will by the virtue of it being only available to a select few force people to become subscribers to take part in looting premium items with higher then normal MU.

Basically it works just the same way as the current economic model when they switched to shrapnel, MU on loot adjust back to the same point of equilibrium( +/- people are comfortable spending versus need ) as before the change accounting for the new factors.
That same MU re-adjustment (Lower mu on old items) will happen if you introduce premium items the difference between the shrapnel and the premium loot is that one is for everyone so we all move with the wave whilst the premium route leaves people at the bottom of the wave whilst others reap the rewards in MU regardless of TT provided from the premium lootpool.

Cheers!
-Jonas

Click to expand...

I actually dont see so much of an issue with it that people who subscribe would get opportunities in loot due to markup - its happening in the game everywhere that players who spent their peds in certain areas can gain special advantages that allow them to recoup their peds spent - like rocktropia making the missions to get in the dome and later on selling valueable pets - arkadia the ifn missions now working your way up in the hierachy to obtain special loots or even untradeable special items - etc. its a players choice were they focus in spending their money and which opportunities they gain from it.

John B Knight said:

I actually dont see so much of an issue with it that people who subscribe would get opportunities in loot due to markup - its happening in the game everywhere that players who spent their peds in certain areas can gain special advantages that allow them to recoup their peds spent - like rocktropia making the missions to get in the dome and later on selling valueable pets - arkadia the ifn missions now working your way up in the hierachy to obtain special loots or even untradeable special items - etc. its a players choice were they focus in spending their money and which opportunities they gain from it.

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I imagine this is a topic we are going to have to agree to dissagree on.

Cheers
-Jonas

Serica, if you're gonna delete that much of my posts, I'll do you a favour, I've deleted all my 2016 posts.

There is no point carrying on with this forum really is there?

atomicstorm said:

Funds for development are limited.. we pay for that through our activities. In a subscription model game, they can hire tons of developers and support staff and all is wonderful. I don't agree how they are handling support, but we don't help by spamming them with support cases over frivolous things instead of the ones that matter. I've got 8 developers handling 51 applications and our output velocity is around 60 tickets a week... which is a miracle compared to other groups. The volume we give mindark requires a force they probably can't pay for with the turnover that we put in the game. Turnover from a volatile playerbase and especially ones that only show up during events.

So, yea the road map is a wishlist.. and if they needed to spend development time to improve turnover through ring decays or pets or strongboxes or even explosives to get the game on a path that allowed better investment.. then great. Now I hope for better things in 2016.

Click to expand...

do you actually get paid from MA for those things you write here on forum?

on topic:

I think we as customers can well expect that a company actually cares about all those things. A roadmap is completely useless if we treat it like a 'wishlist'.

regards

Montbertus said:

do you actually get paid from MA for those things you write here on forum?

Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing...


I agree and am thankful John is tring to motivate all these great things to be finished and completed as it will add more functionality to the game. Also it will draw more players which is good news for everyone.

Surely with the figures they have been releasing they could afford to put a few dedicated programs and artist on the payroll. If that is to much there is a list a mile long of programmers fresh out of college who would love to Intern on such a project just for the reference and actual out of class experience.



What I hope to see is simple,

• A working loot system for all players that is actually dynamic and adapts to different players styles. Not severely punishing those who do not understand the game fully yet. This has cost us countless players to date and undeniably more in the future.
• Many more success story's on this forum, see number 1 above. above that would be a great start.
• No more buy-able items that degrade everyones gear. So many players such as Mod, IMP, Adj Fap owners lost thousands of dollars of MU on there heal tools. Many UL gear owners have lost thousands on there gear due to flooding the system with Rings, Guns, and other stuff without the player base to support it. The selling section of this forum is full of people who have lost thousands on gear that will never sell at there prices. They just dont know it...

When they crashed the prices of gear. That caused the owners to lose thousands that they would have most likely sold and withdrew. Now the people who would have bought it, will buy it or something similar for half the price and all the PED they saved will go to there great loot system and we know where that leads. So they are profiting massively from this move. Win Win for MA I guess.

Have respect for your players and they will have respect for you.

Lets respect each other and watch this game grow to what it should be instead of what MA has made it today. A game like this should have 4x the people it does, if they pay a little attention they will profit and we will pay less, then number 2 above will happen.

The first major implementation this year is bound to be the compet app. I thought it was going into beta late December 2015, obviously time ran out just before the Christmas break. Maybe there's a delay added some portal allow EU pets in-and-out of compet...who knows.

It's coming though.

I used to enjoy hunting in space with a quad, when there was a fairer risk balance. When MA killed off the pressing "t" to get to Crystal palace, it just wasn't worth the risk anymore. It was already risky enough hunting in lootable PVP, let alone flying back to base with all the pirates that know how to cheat the system waiting for you.

I thought Space got its mini update anyhow, with the auction thing. You must be coining it on that mission.

To be honest space is only really going to get big investment, when there will be tons of new ships to fill it with loads of new avatars. The problem we have (the way I see it), is owners of very expensive ships are an exclusive club in space. I've said before MA has a habit of giving exclusivity for about 3 years on assets, then moves on. It's interesting that the MM bonuses out of the CLD pot were paid around 3 years after CLD issue. A coincidence? I think MA are waiting for the usual 3 years+ to pass, before introducing a ton of new ships with loads of new space content, this will undoubtedly have a impact on the cost of Motherships, so you need to think careful what you really want, and think about the impact it might have on your own space investments.

As an example I paid a lot of money for old school firestorm chip back in the day. The new mindforce was a massive success, but it killed the value of my chip, in fact it's almost useless compared to the nano-chips. I doubt a mothership would be devalued to useless, but just giving an example how MA introduce better equipment, and push older equipment down the ladder.

I'm sure development is very expensive unless the players are prepared to pay even more, but I think we're probably on the limit of what the current players are prepared to be contributing in playing expenses. Maybe John MA might sell off space at some point, to provide funding for future development....space mining/hunting etc.

One thing is for sure, pets will be first because too much money is invested in that already, with a much greater number of users that are spending money on pets. So I say again, if you want space investment, you will probably have to be prepared to accept the consequences that go with that. Interesting ehhh.

Rick

I expect compets and anything related to it within EU to be 'developed'.
Personally, I think this will include the land plots functionality and harvesting. I would love to see changes to space, but I cannot see it being on MA's agenda really.

What may annoy me most in 2016 is the 'usefulness' of our in-game currency, peds. I am already very seriously considering making a withdrawal so that I do not have to pay for shop-bought goods using fresh money. I am VERY on edge about whether peds are a common currency for EU and Compet and how we transfer from one to the other!

I understand that MA wants deposits - of course they do - but trying to force customers who have peds into depositing just because the peds are not accepted is highly stupid. The roadmap which mentioned the very early stage of premium membership mentioned the possibility of a 'daily mission currency' to be able to buy in from within the game. Once again, no mention of PEDS! Ok, what I would accept I guess is shrapnel...... This is already used by various NPC vendors and has a 1% conversion bonus to UA if we wish. So yes, I would accept being able to pay for stuff from the shop in shrapnel....

With the compet deeds finally paying out (I expect) sometime in 2016, this also extends the range of having peds available from incomes. Not being able to use income to acquire things directly in game is the single issue I am observing most closely. MA, start getting it right, pleasssssse!!!!

jetsina said:

Not being able to use income to acquire things directly in game is the single issue I am observing most closely. MA, start getting it right, pleasssssse!!!!

Click to expand...

I've thought about that a lot.

I think it stops those that already have massive earning potential, building further assets without contributing to the system in some way. It forces people that just use the game for reselling to pay some sort of fee to MA if they want to pull peds out, and pay them back in again.

Personally I don't care, I'm on the pay MA list and have never been allowed to grow a ped card in game...EVER. If I get a hof the system wants it returned immediately.

So if I buy deeds, I deposit.

The only thing that annoys me is the web shop only accepts US dollars not sterling. I get charged extra fees from my bank for US deposits. It's quite annoying when investing big sums for deeds, actually it's put me off a few times.

I'm not paying my bank £6 fee for $20 of boxes either. Makes me angry. That's a RL bank issue though. I guess we have to pay for banks crashing the world economy,.....the people continue to pay for banks past mistakes.


Rick

RickEngland said:

The first major implementation this year is bound to be the compet app. I thought it was going into beta late December 2015, obviously time ran out just before the Christmas break. Maybe there's a delay added some portal allow EU pets in-and-out of compet...who knows.

It's coming though.

I used to enjoy hunting in space with a quad, when there was a fairer risk balance. When MA killed off the pressing "t" to get to Crystal palace, it just wasn't worth the risk anymore. It was already risky enough hunting in lootable PVP, let alone flying back to base with all the pirates that know how to cheat the system waiting for you.

I thought Space got its mini update anyhow, with the auction thing. You must be coining it on that mission.

To be honest space is only really going to get big investment, when there will be tons of new ships to fill it with loads of new avatars. The problem we have (the way I see it), is owners of very expensive ships are an exclusive club in space. I've said before MA has a habit of giving exclusivity for about 3 years on assets, then moves on. It's interesting that the MM bonuses out of the CLD pot were paid around 3 years after CLD issue. A coincidence? I think MA are waiting for the usual 3 years+ to pass, before introducing a ton of new ships with loads of new space content, this will undoubtedly have a impact on the cost of Motherships, so you need to think careful what you really want, and think about the impact it might have on your own space investments.

As an example I paid a lot of money for old school firestorm chip back in the day. The new mindforce was a massive success, but it killed the value of my chip, in fact it's almost useless compared to the nano-chips. I doubt a mothership would be devalued to useless, but just giving an example how MA introduce better equipment, and push older equipment down the ladder.

I'm sure development is very expensive unless the players are prepared to pay even more, but I think we're probably on the limit of what the current players are prepared to be contributing in playing expenses. Maybe John MA might sell off space at some point, to provide funding for future development....space mining/hunting etc.

One thing is for sure, pets will be first because too much money is invested in that already, with a much greater number of users that are spending money on pets. So I say again, if you want space investment, you will probably have to be prepared to accept the consequences that go with that. Interesting ehhh.

Rick

Click to expand...

The auction thing was a thing for the planetside players - nothing has been done for space yet.
So far we only had constant downgrades:
Ships have been sold and others converted in 2011 - features that got sold with them are still not delivered !
2011 - discovery that logged out stackable transport is possible and screws the whole concept mindark intended for space rendering shipupgrades that could have earned millions next to pointless as everyone can bypass space entirely by logging out and playing a different game while his/her avatar gets transported.
First game provider to unintentionally invent the 'concept' of giving gamers an 'incentive' (safe means of transport) for not playing (but even worse not fixing it for 4-5years).
2011 - relocating foma/crystal palace to be closer to calypso effectively reducing the needs for space transport
2012 warp animation in ships broken in a patch - never got fixed.
2013 shipinteriors (seats) relocated and not fixed for 2 years.
2013 thorifoid helmets and other means allowing secure transport of stackables even when logged in - not fixed for 2 years - now partially fixed
2014 - year of the equus - releasing the 'luxury class interceptor' which effectively was a 'premium transport provider' - secure flights due to thorifoid helmets/limitless cargo capacity due to weight reduction box stacking(etc.)/unlimited warpdrive making it the best profit warpflight provider for their owners and prime choice for vip flights ->making it even more pointless to spent money on shipupgrades of big vessels -> mindark damaged with that sale their future income possibilties from space quite abit (even less reason for other shipowners to upgrade now) and they will make another 25 players rather unhappy with their investments when they change it again (most players dont realise equus only have a lvl1 warp drive and will likely not make much use of their warp capacities when space really comes alive)
2015 - auction transport - effectively taking away even more bussiness from existing space transport providers claiming that the peds will go into creation of cargo missions and 'again' not delivering - infact later on stateing that 'a part' or the money will go in cargo mission...

Apart from that - it took mindark a whole year to sell 25 little ships - check other games when you want to see how easy ships sell when there is actual content to enjoy with them (people spent millions of dollars to fund space development in other games yet mindark doesnt 'allow' us to do the same).

Its not like they cant get money to fund space development, they would just have to realease some 'space deeds' and offer people 1% share on all peds cycled in space and they would have lots of money.
If they would spent some effort on communication towards players they could likely get alot of funding without giving any rewards apart from progress in development that benefits everyone.
Mindark already earned over a million $ just from space as pointed out earlier in the thread over the last close to 5 years - if they would budget their income and spent a part of it on the respective sections were they earn it they could afford developers/programmer to improve exactly those sections that players enjoy and like to spent their money in.
In the current stance of space it makes no sense for mindark to sell any ships - they will have an even harder time then with the equus or break space entirely and earn even less from it in the future.
But if mindark employs just one programmer to work on space full time they could get it into really good shape and within a years time sell alot more ships and shipupgrades.

RickEngland said:

You got what you paid for at the time, now the game moves on.

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Please read the post above again - none of the big ship owners got 'what they paid for' yet.

Infact space was delivered as a broken concept with many promises unfullfilled (shields, reactormanagement, torpedos, asteroidmining, total lack of mothership/privateer content in general)
and the main feature that would have brought sense to the way ships were designed and implemented didnt work because everyone was able to bypass space.
Motherships and privateers are 'multicrewships' yet you see most of them parked at stations sitting idle and those in use do most of the time provide 'taxi' services while being 'busses' / 'trains' - there is a reason why those ships in large operate with a minimum of crew and it certainly isnt a 'working' space environment.

But i see you tempt me to talk to much about space - this thread is not just about space its about the 2015 roadmap and the fact that close to 80% is unachieved as well as our expectations towards 2016.

At the end we all get what we deserve - everyone who doesnt follow up what was promised to be delivered - does not need to wonder when he gets something else instead.
Im quite sure that there is lots of players out there who check in the supermarket the positions they pay for more accurately then they have done within entropia so far.
Its about time we talk about what we hope for and that we remind each other and mindark were things get forgotten in the sands of time (and there is alot of things if you look through the roadmaps of passed years more closely).

John B Knight said:

[...] were things get forgotten in the sands of time (and there is alot of things if you look through the roadmaps of passed years more closely).

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this sentence reminds me of a nice little blog...
http://content-of-oblivion.blogspot.de/

John B Knight said:

Since 2015 is now over i thought i would have a look at the roadmap, since i know for sure that regarding space nothing has happened just like in previous years.
So we have Taming - yes we got some more pets, but additional functionality ? I would be gratefull if anyone can point me to were i might have missed that.
Then we have compet app to be released q4 2015 - think the new release is may 2016 as stated on the compet website - so yteah definately development ongoing and its what we get most news about.
Citizenship and Housing system - yep we have landplots and woodcutting tools - to bad that noone really needs the wood anymore as we have no housebuilding possibilties yet.
Space - its hard to believe but so far we had announcements for space in the roadmaps for 2012,2013,(2014 they skipped completely to even mention it until ->),2015 and so far all we got is an galactica mission were all missiondrops occur planetside and only quest npcs have to be aproached in space - this certainly doesnt count as space pve content in my book. One year has passed of accumulating transport auction fees to fund cargo missions - im really looking forward to see how much peds will actually make it to the funding part.
So no as usual still nothing in space since close to 5 years after motherships got sold and hangars exchanged for privateers with the promise of features still not ingame.
New Player Experience - someone else will have to update me if something happened here - i dont recall any great changes to starter areas/ missions.
EU Client - yes here some changes have happened but only minor adjustments.
Affiliate System - nothing visible has happened here.
Marketing - i couldnt really spot an 'agressive' marketing initiative.
Entropia Platform Third-Party Partners - some buildings were added (without functionality) and links to third party partners added on the website.
Planet Partners Toulan and Cyrene seem to have shifted their full launch/release to 2016.

Planet Partners Arkadia and Rocktropia seem to be the only ones who have kept their goals for 2015.

----------------------------------------------------------
What can we expect for 2016 with ~80% of the 2015 roadmap still due ?

Click to expand...

Well said JBK! Essentially nothing happened in 2015. For 2016 we need to see
1. Stables fully functional with actual buildings.
2. The ability to spawn more than one pet at once
3. Release ComPet for peats sake! Its a phone app not a new xbox game??
4. Space transport missions??? I agree and wonder how many millions of PED must be now ready for missions rewards??
5. Update space, seriously space is stuck in 2000 era game mode, when so many MMO space games now have space that surpasses the quality of EU space.
6. Gold card phone app, come to the 2016 era!
7. Cyrene, Toulan...time to put a full release out or close the planet
8. More UL spacecraft!

Ok John.

You're not ready to accept the way the game rolls. What about stable owners that own just a terminal and no stable?

My final word on the subject. Remember that big tax thread your misses posted.

Maybe it was a huge cash withdrawal after-all? Maybe just maybe MA might do some maths and decide everyone is now compensated in full.

I withdrew all my CLD money after I sold them. Go see my tracker and see if you can spot a loot greater than 1K in 2015. Strange game....I smile at how it rolls.

Maybe my final word. The more you chase it, the less chance you're get it. Gods do not like being told what to do....just saying.

Rick

RickEngland said:

Ok John.

You're not ready to accept the way the game rolls. What about stable owners that own just a terminal and no stable?

My final word on the subject. Remember that big tax thread your misses posted.

Maybe it was a huge cash withdrawal after-all? Maybe just maybe MA might do some maths and decide everyone is now compensated in full.

I withdrew all my CLD money after I sold them. Go see my tracker and see if you can spot a loot greater than 1K in 2015. Strange game....I smile at how it rolls.

Maybe my final word. The more you chase it, the less chance you're get it. Gods do not like being told what to do....just saying.

Rick

Click to expand...

Aye stable owners are in a similar boat like shipowners, just they are only in their first year of unfullfilled promises were shipowners are in the fifth with continuous 'downgrades'...

Gods may not like 'being told' but even gods are not dumb and can see when doing something would be in their own best interest aka good for the progress of entropia into the future - especially when going public with presidency and player 'rights'.

John B Knight said:

Aye stable owners are in a similar boat like shipowners, just they are only in their first year of unfullfilled promises were shipowners are in the fifth with continuous 'downgrades'...

Click to expand...

Lol every time i get depressed of negative returns of the stable, i just think to myself, at least i'm not a mothership owner.

But it is sad that MA has a tendency not to follow up on promises, and has a general rule not to do any communication. I sometimes wonder if they even have internet in MA headquarters, how else can they ignore all the feedback here?

Harmony. said:

Lol every time i get depressed of negative returns of the stable, i just think to myself, at least i'm not a mothership owner.

Click to expand...

Aye! and as a land plot owner I think to myself - at least I'm not either of the above.
It's a strange world were people can be thankful of what they are not

While on twists in sobriety... JBK is my winner (so far) of the 2016 insight of the year award with the short comment on negative advertsing.
This is when people download the game, maybe with the idea of doing space - and then quickly give up and tell others not to bother with it either.
Word of mouth is free - when it's positive it is great free marketing, when negative you just have to hope as few people know as possible (maybe until a time when more people will stay).

So, in one way I hope people do not talk about compets or EU out there in RL at all in 2016!

Problem is that MA often seems to mix up what their vision is with the road-map for future development. They have lot of visions of functionality, but it either get implemented very late or it get implemented less impressing than the first vision they had, or it never get implemented at all. But overall, the did not promised much in the road-map and have delivered some of it.

John B Knight said:

What can we expect for 2016 with ~80% of the 2015 roadmap still due ?

Click to expand...

The things that were tried in 2015 and more or less worked will be replicated on a bigger scale etc.:

• more s**t in webshop,
• more "upgrade" missions,
• more pay-to-access missions,
• combinations of the above.

I don't want to go into detail out of fear of giving them ideas

atomicstorm said:

Funds for development are limited.. we pay for that through our activities. In a subscription model game, they can hire tons of developers and support staff and all is wonderful. I don't agree how they are handling support, but we don't help by spamming them with support cases over frivolous things instead of the ones that matter. I've got 8 developers handling 51 applications and our output velocity is around 60 tickets a week... which is a miracle compared to other groups. The volume we give mindark requires a force they probably can't pay for with the turnover that we put in the game. Turnover from a volatile playerbase and especially ones that only show up during events.

So, yea the road map is a wishlist.. and if they needed to spend development time to improve turnover through ring decays or pets or strongboxes or even explosives to get the game on a path that allowed better investment.. then great. Now I hope for better things in 2016.

Click to expand...

Funds wouldn't be so limited if the top few people never siphoned off 80+% of all the cash to their own personal bank accounts as paychecks. Or if in the past they would have spent money wisely instead of on RL purchases on castles and such. As a gamer I expect a game company to spend the money on game improvements and expansions to the game not some wild horse crap totally unrelated to the game. Their budgeting team is absolutely horrible to say the least looking back at their history, they have/had the funds and resources to make things happen they decided on major risks and losses that never involved the game at all. It is their fault not ours the game is in this condition, as players we have given them crap loads they just never use it right to improve the game.

I'm my opinion any move to create a subscription or premium account feature would create a two tiered community and diminish EU. I would rather see a tax system for everyone perhaps like the British value added tax. For example if one manufactures something worth more than it's original components then one pays a tax on the value added. If those peds were then reintroduced into the economy (perhaps to remove some of the arbitrarily randomness of the loot system and add more consistent "realistic" looting e.g. why do some exa's drop hide and others don't when they all clearly have hide!?) or allows MA to get some extra staff, i think this would be a good thing. For me this would complement the economy rather than just "pay sub for bonus features" which seems a bit lame.

I would say MA just needs to focus on polishing what it has this year before moving on to many new things. I am interested to see how the whole crowd funding with share returns works out with compets, so we sit back and wait a bit longer . I wonder if MA will allow a land area to be split in similar ways with some voting and non-voting shares in the future...

In all MA/PP's need to follow through promises in timely manors if not investor confidence will fall and the economy (which is essentially built on player and MA/PP trust) will be harmed e.g. with under delivered stables, motherships and CLD's, it is hard to have confidence to invest in the next thing (especially for new outsider investors) as it might not deliver within the required time frame.

Also it is hard to measure the growth and size of the economy without proper statistics such as player numbers... At the moment i like to look at how many auction pages a planet has and how it grows over time but a more sophisticated model in 2016 would be nice. If i am going to invest in something on another planet it would be nice to know these things, at least to be able to track population growth/decline.

I dunno about all this stable complaints, I really want to buy one from someone and honestly don't expect it to pay for itself for at least 6-8 years. Maybe 4-5 if compets really has nice features for them.

Venture Bros said:

I dunno about all this stable complaints, I really want to buy one from someone and honestly don't expect it to pay for itself for at least 6-8 years. Maybe 4-5 if compets really has nice features for them.

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I've tried to think of some kind of RL comparison as to what owning a stable must be like, but I'll spare you the craziness.
I think it is safe to say that making money they ain't right now, coupled with the experience that the feeling of 'oh, no!' could go on for seemingly years of agony. On the plus side, yes, they might actually make money, even quite a lot, depending on how central a role stables end up playing.
What can we expect from 2016 really is an important question for stable investors, and comparisons to the development of space will not be making them happier for sure!

The ultimate question - would I want to buy a stable if I had the chance? Hmm, actually, possibly I would - but those angels sitting on my shoulders would be fighting and shouting at each other something aweful!

Anywone up for a real challenge.. here's what we should do..

Alright it's time for myself to jump into this mess, and in fact I'm going to break it down from the original post, and take it apart step by step.. So Strap yourselves inm,It's gonna be a bumpy ride..:

First off.

John B Knight said:

So we have Taming - yes we got some more pets, but additional functionality ? I would be gratefull if anyone can point me to were i might have missed that.

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John, I do agree with your observations here, Sure we have Taming and new pets, but like you said, where is the Funcitonality here? I am in agreement here in taht there is right now no real funcitonality.. and here's why..

Can we ride our bigger pets (like the atrox? ) No..

Can we use the animals as "Pack animals" (Any size from a nusul to a combibo or a snable? ) No.. And there's not even an ability to craft backpacks for these guys (and thus be able to slip them on.. So definite no there..

Passive Defense? I would say this is more of an experiment as this is probably going to be in the Commpet idea.. and other than that, the real fuctionality really isin't there..

Overall Vidw: Taming might be complete, but fuctionality for the animals (Either ridable or being used as Pack animals.. Are not..So final verdict? No.. they are not complete..

Next Up,

John B Knight said:

Then we have compet app to be released q4 2015 - think the new release is may 2016 as stated on the compet website - so yteah definately development ongoing and its what we get most news about.

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In regards to the Compets, the whole thing really hasn't bore any fruit.. and now with the item pushed back for another 5 months, well, Compets I feel while good, with their battle arenas, and other items, could be made in a more timely manner. In short, they could do this as Early as April, God willing they don't slip more bugs into the game (The last update left me out of game for over a month, while they sorted that one out.)
(And lost customers due to graphic bug glitches means less people depoing, and thus more reason to get this resolved as soon as possible.. (That's their bottom line there. If it affects them, then it gets a much higher priority than say a thing like a new system.. But then we want a gmae that is free of bugs and exploits..(and this will be brought up on later in this post).

John B Knight said:

Citizenship and Housing system - yep we have landplots and woodcutting tools - to bad that noone really needs the wood anymore as we have no housebuilding possibilties yet.

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Now This is a real tough call here, John, and in fact We have no House bulding as some of the people have their land lots and are waiting for hte latter, as for the wood cutting?. well they could expland on this immensely and in fact there could be a great use for the wood shavings, (Provided they used it such that the wood shavings would go into the furniture.. and thus that way you can get rid of it.. OTherwise you are right about this.. Until they do get this fixed and the houses builtand more landlots released.. This is a NO in my book.. So Next up.. We have..

John B Knight said:

Space - its hard to believe but so far we had announcements for space in the roadmaps for 2012,2013,(2014 they skipped completely to even mention it until ->),2015 and so far all we got is an galactica mission were all missiondrops occur planetside and only quest npcs have to be aproached in space - this certainly doesnt count as space pve content in my book. One year has passed of accumulating transport auction fees to fund cargo missions - im really looking forward to see how much peds will actually make it to the funding part.
So no as usual still nothing in space since close to 5 years after motherships got sold and hangars exchanged for privateers with the promise of features still not ingame.

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John, I'm going to speak my mind here about space, and in fact while the Mission Galacica ideas are good, Your coments actually speak the truth here, and in fact MA could do a BOat load more than what they have at the moment.. and this has been what? 5 years now?

Let's look at what we know... First off as you pointed out, let's hiope that they do get thosemissions for Cargo Flight out there, and the sooner the better, the thing is, People are still Not thinking with all their cylinders fiting, and this includes the players (who still have the bright idea to move goods through space when they could pay from 2-6 ped, and get the product from Instantly, to up to 12 hours, and even if they wanted to they could go pick it up.. (that's their choice..) But MA with their auction system set up this madness to help one group of people, and that is not only the mother ships, but rather all the pace pilots out thee, be they pirates, or regular travellers through space... In short, that's why the auciton was set up back in 2014.. and in fact I'll go a bit further..

First off the whole idea with Explosive proectiles being removed from the loot and being craftable was a good idea.. to a point.. But without ways to use those explosive projectiles (Cough* Craftable Guided missles *Cough*) Then the whole Thing about the explosives is in fact a farce, a sucker bet if you will, and in fact the way MA suckers these explosive dccrafter in (which I call 'Explosive Monkeys') is really amazing.. Making people actually craft explosives for no real purpose other than use them in grenade launchers/ Not really a great idea...

Then there's the fact that without these missile systems (and the anti-missile systems) there's hardly no crafting using decoys, or use of said decoys..(heck if you go back and read the logic I ladi down in my 5 part space program), the idea of explosives and decoys wer ein fact to actually produce a new market.. one that MA hasn't capitalized iin.. and in fact we've even still got the first generaiton vehicles (heck all the Eqqus is is in fact, a first Gen Quad with a mine warp drive attached to it.. The real thing is that with that MA hasn't produced a new vehicle that could carry missile ore even differnt load outs (Sure lasers are okay but where's the particle beam weapons and the rail guns? Well.. It's still waiting. After all MA is losing 3 ways here..

1. No craftable weapons and missiles means lost clicks on the crafting machine.. which means each click MA doesn't make means that they don't get any returns back to cover their costs..

2. No craftable missiles and anti-missile (Decoy systems ) means that MA again loses more clicks and in fact more revenue..

and 3.. with a gult of Explosives, unless we have people crafting grenade launcher , then teh whole explosives idea is a dead horse, which is the only way that MA is winning because they're sucker punching the playes and geting people to play this like it's a 2 dollar roll of the dice.. Great for MA, lousy for the players who will eventually stop crafting when they realize.. that they are indeed "Explosive monkeys', just hammering out the explosives for the benefit of MA's pockets.. But hey if the people ar that gullibele, and the company doesn't want to take advantage orf a new idea, then they really should lose their revenue.. click by click of the crafting table..

Moving on we got:

John B Knight said:

New Player Experience - someone else will have to update me if something happened here - i dont recall any great changes to starter areas/ missions.

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Well as for this one, I have to say "No Comment" as well, as I am not a new player.. However.. I would like to point out something herre with Arkadia, and this is that they are actually trying to give players an option and are in fact offering new player experiences..(Like the Passport/Military missions that give you a rank..).. Heck I'm not a sargent fo the fact I gave that title.. I earned it.. by killing mobs every day, and I would still do it, (nd now tht the Arkadia group has an Incenti (Call a "Drop ship" It gives me more rerason to keep trying.. and improve my rank.. So yeah this one in terms of Calypso.. No Comment, but in the case of arkadia, it's wroth it..

John B Knight said:

EU Client - yes here some changes have happened but only minor adjustments.

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Agreed. Sure we get a new splace scree, but what abot Client Stability? Some players are still being kicked off the servers..(and some of them are actual players who are trying to play.. the ones that should be penalized are the ones who stand around and just look at the auction boards.. That's where you major bandwith wasters are.. and it's the active players who are the ones who suffer here.. And yes while the stability has improved (doue to now sechedules Maintenance, on a semi weekly bgasies0 the game has been improving.. but it's only superficial.. THy (MA while giving us a new splash screen is one thing, geting us a stable log ina and solving issue where players don't have to log in multiple times during a gaming session? They'v got a long way to go on that one..

John B Knight said:

Affiliate System - nothing visible has happened here.

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Well.. YOu gotta take into account the wwebshop and tha's about it.. other than that.. Another agreement. Nohign really visible. but then agian, it might come down to where MA might have to change their business model altogether if they are going to lure players in.. other than that? Status quo.. No change.

John B Knight said:

Marketing - i couldnt really spot an 'agressive' marketing initiative.

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Agreed, though... The planet partners have been trying to make an effort, most notably Rocktropia and Arkadia .. and they are trying.. But because of the bad press, and the bad comments playes make about this game, well , players can't blame the Planet partners themselves.. They're trying.. MA could be a bit more agressive, but it's the players here who have hurt the game.. and for good reason.. All the negtative talk, all thecomplaining about bad loots, and all the major rants saying how bad this game is, is really not helping marketing, it's hurting it.. So I think bfore players really give a negative comment maybe they should go voer what other people say.. After all this isn't 2003, ro 2008, or 209.. This is 206.. and in fact The rules have changed.. and you gotta adapt here, change our play style, chane you outlook on this game, and above all don't focus on the ped card.. You do? And you might as well go play someother game..This is where the players should help, and not hinder the marketing.. cause if they want better loot, they (The players0 better realize one thing, It's what comes out of their moths about the psotive or negative aspect of this game taht determines their loot returns..(Oh and to those Negative speakers.. every time you open your mouth and say anything negative, you just cost yourself at least the loot pool if there wer e11 more people playig this game and depoing.. And even if it is a 2 ollar dep.. that bosy down to a 20 ped loot return.. not too great if you ask me..

Entropia Platform Third-Party Partners - some buildings were added (without functionality) and links to third party partners added on the website.[/QUOTE]

I feel that in this case, there could be more third party content that is more functional.. but then again we're at the mercy of Mindark.. After all someone could submitt someting really good, and it could have a negative effect as it could affect MA's pocket book.. But then MA really hasn't done many upgreades of older buildings or redesigned either.. Twin Peaks? Still small and cramped.. Port Atlantis/ Too big and spraweld out and tsome of the malls are looking a bit outdates and even in need of overhauls.. and the apartment locations? Need I say more? After all if youa re an Appartment owner, you want smething fresh and new, so I feel that it's time for MA to "Repaint the houses and get some new investments in..(Also they should contact the players who have left ansd ask them if they could actually give up their apartment deds if they're not going to play.. Afte rll if you're going to just ake up space, then you are wasting space.. and time .. and bandwith with an empty (or full) apartment that is earning the players who bought then, and who hav eleft the game, no revenue.. and with nO revenue, that means MA won't be making auction transactions as players don't sell off their apartments.. So MA , do the right hting, Get in contact with the playes who have abandoned the game, reclaim the apartment deeds and spruce up the place.. After all Sakura city is starting to look a bit more like Harlem rather than Sakura city..


and finally the last two..

John B Knight said:

Planet Partners Toulan and Cyrene seem to have shifted their full launch/release to 2016.
Planet Partners Arkadia and Rocktropia seem to be the only ones who have kept their goals for 2015.

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Now in this case John, You're right about Rocktropia and Arkadia.. They're making their quotas for new content releases for the plaers on a timely basis, and are in fact helping improve the game..

But as for Cyrene and Toulan? Well they need to have MA allow them to have a bit more creative freedom, and to allow players to actually try these planet sout and try to convice ththe players To stay..

and in fthe cas eof Next Island? Well even though the owner defaulted and MA now has control, shouldn't iti be time for Mindark to actually take this world and generate a little revenue and get people to play on it? Give them some incentive to have people stay.. heck if need be, put the planet up for sale and let someone else develop it..

In fact, take a look at that we have.. 3 worllks that are doing their work, two that are not or are delaying their release / start up dates, and one that is now Defunct (thugh I will say Monria is thriving..

But then Here's ntoehr thing..

Where' new Planet Partners? The answer is.. There aren't any at the moment and thir won't be any time soon, and the reason is simple.. Again I go back to the bad advertising here, and the negative feedback from the players.. Afte rall Yes I agree that MA doesn't listen to the players, and in fact one of their cheif goals for 2016, is to make bettetr customer servie and better opporitunities to listen to players who have great ideas on how this game could go.. (The space ideas I threw out are a wonderful idea indeed, and would generate a ton ofrevenue.. (So why is it that MA hasn't jumped at this? The answe ris simple.. They have too many powker sin the fire..

MA needs to focus on a plan and right now their plan is scatterbrained at best, and at worst is just downright deplorable.. what they need to do is organize the problems.. and solve them..

First up.. fix the bugs and the epxloits players are using to gain that financial advantage.. (That's where this comment comes in..

K-Max said:

Funds wouldn't be so limited if the top few people never siphoned off 80+% of all the cash to their own personal bank accounts as paychecks.

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This.. is the damaging statement, and in fact take a look at what he says...

This isn't an MA problem.. it's a player problem..
(I'm glad to see someone is realizing this.. 1 down about 300,000 more to go..)

Te pomt is this.. some players see this game as a way to make a quick buck, some people see this game as a pay check, some people see this game as a lottery or a casino, or whatever, seeing it as a way to make big money (which they turn around and spend on other things, like Dinners for their wife/girlfriend, or a night out on the town to watch the latest movie ina series.. And others see it as game as a way to survive a little longer.. in their 2nd or 3rd world country.. And some see this game as a way to bully, coerce, control, and corrupt people.. and others just want to cheat, lie and steal.. I mean in a way, my axiom about "Life Imitates art, which imitates life", rrings very true here.. Sure we're all part of a global community, sure a few of us are wealthy and a few are just your average joe on the street, And some people are in eed of a helping hand..

It's knid of funny I'm going to end on this note.. There's a big differnce between wanting and needing.. The rich don't Need the m onty, they want it.. the ones who are aveerage joes, well they would like or rather want to have a bit better life, but they only sacrifice when they need to , and for the lowe end folsk, well some of them need the money to stay in this game, to enjoy it a little longer..As for myself? Why do I stay in this game? To have the fun, and to observe everyone.. how they act, react, and even talk, about certain things, How they are cruel.. or kind.. whether they cheat or not.. (and by cheat I mean using multiple accounts, using bots, speed cheats, whatever..), I want to see who's honest and who isn't.. and in the end, when all is said and done, I'm taking notes.. and observing that Human nature is the status quo here.. That tplayers WANT a better game, but in order to do so, MA NEEDS more develoerps, More programmers, and even More ideas, and yes, they also need to litsten to the people who are funding this game.. The players.. But if the Company doesn't want to listen to us, it's a very good reason indeed.. "We've helped hurt this game.. by taking from them what they need the most.. and that is money.. ..

"You want a little better game play in thisgame? You want to make this game enjoyable for everyone? You want to be happy? and feel good about helping not only the company but also to help the game get better, I'm going to make two simple suggestions.. and one ois to MA and the planet parners.. the second is to us..

For MA and the Planet parners.. The best way to do this is to start a Patreon account.. and expalain wht you want to do.. After all Patreon is and was designed for artiist and programmers to develop new content.. To show how good their product is, or how well they can produce a product.. Some planet partners like Rocktropia and Arkadia might not need these as they are developing their worlds quite fine..

Others like Cyrene and Toulan? They need to actually open one of these to actually show wwhat they are tring to offer... and what content they could have..

(And for anyone who wants to develop say Next Island? Open a Patreon account to show what you would do with this world..how you would improve it, and how it could help benefit the overall commuity as wa whole..)

Now as for the players.. the asnwer is simple.. now that I've given MA and the planet partners the idea of a patreon account, why not just donate a dollar or 2 to it? And do so every month (and yes you big which who siphon off the cash, why not donate a little more? After ll you got money to burn, why not invest itinto helpign develop this game even more. After all, you want more outof this game, Then help develoip the content by having MA hire those new Devs and people they so desp[erately need..

So what does 2016 hold for us? Well consideirntg that John said that only about 20% was finished, the other 80% needs to be finished.. and in fact Maybe MA shoudl start looking into the PCF forums more often.. and start hearing some of us out.. Because some of us players have great ideas, but first, I think some of us want the problems solved.. No more bugs, no more new content until bugs are fixed, and above all, new ideas..(and yes, I state this as I don't see myself anymore as a debugger, but more along the lines of a person who wants to be a person whodevelopes and improves the game, a game designer, a game developer. A person who has a ton of ideas on how to improve your revenus.. after all I may be one person, but there are a few of us, who would like the game to be a world where people don't ahae to complain.. or to be negative.. Maybe this game should be developed on a differnet game engine, where it's easyier for programmers to spot bugs and fix them.. give the players more experience.. after all, it would be fun how far this game could be developed.. and yes, it's a challenge, but it's aup to all of us, the player, the planet partner, and the company, to work together to make the next year better than the lasdt.. after all, 20% down, 80% to ggo.. and let's do one thig.. okay? Let's all help build a better game.. that's the least we can do can we not?

(Sgt), Benjamin Ben Coytoe, IFN Maries, Arkadia Sector
A.K.a "The Blind Sniper (and) "His_Dog_Spot"