My experience at the Camera Test Workshop.
Hi!
First, I want to thank MA for giving me the opportunity to attend the test workshop.
Second, it was great to meat in person all the other players there! Saphira, slupor, Rocky & Darkaruki posts above have said loads already, and I agree with each of them, MA were very welcoming and understanding and listening. As each of them has said, we all got the feelings MA care and our game is moving in a good direction! Wish I could have taken each and everyone of you through the entire day with me, you would feel the warm and good feelings we all got while we were there!
Enough, here is my story of the events:
I started this game in June 2003 and I've loved the game ever since. So when I seen MA inviting players to this thing I sent my application in instantly, think I might have been the first applicant! So I was very happy when I got that confirmation email.
Things started at 10am, I met up with "Saphira Amethyst Star", "David Westmoreland", and Darkaruki little before going into MA's headquarters, we had coffee and talked. Great people!
We went up to a conference room MindArk had set up for us where "William Will Last" was an early bird and already sitting down waiting for the meeting to begin. We were joined by slupor shortly after making 6 of us players in attendance.
(I didn't see them but I was told there were dials on the walls in the conference room for adjusting the loot.)
We all were very well greeted by MindArk-Kaj (CRM Manager) MindArk-Dennis (Grphic Engineer?) first, Dennis was conducting the test workshop and was the one with each group of us when we were doing the actual testing of the new system.
I was jet-lagged so not sure when but somewhere in time we all got a fast tour of the MA offices, spending the most part of the tour on the roof seeing the awesome view of Sweden!
MindArk-Henrik (CEO) was with us from the start and with us through the entire day! He showed he really cared about us and the game and went above and beyond to show anything we cared to mentioned was noted down for consideration later! I honestly couldn't feel more secure with him at the helm of our Entropia Universe! As a person he is seriously likable and his questioning and listening ability to what really maters is awesome! after-hours I was able to play a few games with him, and I'll only say he almost broke the punching/kicking game! his scores were insane! I'll not get into a fight with him, even if he doesn't look very intimidating!
So, the better part of the morning three of us (David, slupor & myself) were sitting in-front of MindArk-Henrik, MindArk-David, MindArk-Magnus, MindArk-Justin, MindArk-Kaj spilling our guts and anything and everything we had to say about the game. I'll admit I did a lot of talking since I had a lot on my mind. but we all contributed something in our opinions of how the game was and ideas, etc. The MindArk staff listened and asked us lots of questions about things we brought up. Most of the things we brought up the MindArk staff knew about and I could feel there own broken desires to change the very things we mentioned. Due to the NDA I can't bring up every little thing we spoke about but I can say we didn't get any secrets about the loot system nor did any of us ask for any. It was mainly about little things that erked even the MA staff and they wanted to do something to fix but the system and priorities hindered them. Time and again the new camera system, or better described as the "changes and simplified version of the camera and targeting system" was mentioned as a fix needed to fix most of the things we brought up. From my understanding there is so much complexity in the ways of using the camera and targeting systems that any time MindArk tries to fix something they get too many problems and bugs. This new system is aimed to help fix that and make it easier for MindArk to fix bugs and issues with the game.
Okay, During the morning Darkaruki, Saphira & Will were off with MindArk-Dennis on test computers playing around with the new system.
Then it was lunch time, we all went out for a great lunch at a local steak house. The food in Sweden is almost a good enough reason to move to Sweden!!! And as slupor said MA were following the FEN thread through lunch. As we left the MindArk staff huddled up and were talking about something, I can only imagine it was about FEN, they do care about the game and it was very obvious!
When we got back from lunch our teams changed places. myself, David & slupor were on the test servers with MindArk-Dennis testing the new system! The others were in the conference room doing what I imagine we were doing when we were there.
So now I'm on the test servers as a guinea pig, as I love PVP I wanted to test the system with PVP, but could not as the test server didn't have any pvp zones. So I ended up testing other things I wanted to test.
First, let me say the new "system" is NOT much different than what we all use now. The camera still does everything we were able to do in the old system. You can still zoom in and out, still do a form of OTS. (though not for left handed in beta). To me the camera system was not changed in any major way! It was more the targeting and method of aiming and targeting and such that is changing. And by changing I mean it is made more simple!
With this new system you use less button pressing to do the same things. However with the new system you will have to move your mouse more. No more one button hunting.
Even looting is made more simple, you press the same key you use to do everything, F key was the key that would find a target (in front of you), start action on that target, stop when mob is dead, and loot. This simplified the entire hunting experience. Oh and part of this new system is fancy visuals on the targets, enemy is outlined in red and a mark over it when you are aiming in it's direction or next to select it.
All in all I enjoyed the new system, I hate change but the changes were not that big even if they must feel big on the programming side.
After we were done we all went down for happy hour. This is were we first met up with Shiva and then Rocky. And where MindArk-Henrik and MindArk-Magnus and few others spent most of the evening with all of us talking and having fun.
We all had a great time and MindArk definitely rolled out the red carpet for us. I'm sure some of our visit was of good value to MindArk in making Entropia Universe better for all of us.
p.s. I didn't get any secrets and doubt anyone did. But the CEO jokingly said he turned all of our loots to full blast!
And based on 5k hunt yesterday he was definitely joking!
gratz your first time in Europe , i went to gothenburg a few years ago in winter, it's really a pretty.
. It was simply nice to meet and talk face to face.
