Open letter to CEO

Few Scars

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Bjorn Bjorn Longstaff
Dear Henrik Nel
CEO, MindArk PE AB

It was the 25th September 2018 when we last heard from you. 2019 has been an interesting year with a few tweaks to the system etc, but mostly the usual Mayhem events and a few new items.

I guess I write an open letter to ask about those legacy items, things that are still on the back burner that the playerbase wants to see completed.

Such things are
1. Space - when will we see new ships and upgrades to space its self to bring it up to speed with other space themed MMOs. EU lags far behind in the abilities for players to navigate space, skills to use certain spacecraft, space mining, player controlled warp gates etc etc

entropia_spaceships_jpg1named.jpg


2. Taming and stables - We have pets that do a few things and stables that do very little. Pets should really be given some functionality. Such as being able to spawn more than one at once, use them for advertising like in the old days, give them attack features to assist in hunting etc
Stables need a purpose. They went on sale years ago and still don't have much purpose.

3. Land plots - This is Calypso specific, but the development seems to have stopped. We build Snugs, grew basic crops. What happened to the bigger buildings? What happened to an economy where farmed fruits could be used in many blueprints?

4. Hangars - Again Calypso specific. They were returned to players, but have no function other than being pretty houses. Surely you could at least adjust the animation for Privateers to appear to enter the atmosphere like a quad, then pilot flies the privateer to their hangar and land it like a quad. This would at least allow a better planet based transport system

5. Items in loot. Crafters used to be able to craft and supply the EU population with a variety of goods. Unfortunately the drop rates for many ingredients for BPs is rare to say the least and crafters can't make anything.

6. Dead planets - Toulan, Next Island what is the plan? Rocktropia and Cyrene...what is the plan?

In your last letter to us you had indicated that for the rest of 2018 and Q1 2019 it would be a repair of certain systems, which you have been doing.

For the rest of 2019 and 2020, what can we as customers expect to see both in system content EU wide and in terms of specific planet legacy item repairs (Stables, Taming, Hangars, Land Plots etc)


Fellow players this is just an open letter, an open request to the CEO to reach out to the loyal playerbase to show us where the game is going over the next 4 quarters 2019/20.

Keep it clean and ask questions on what needs to be addressed that I may have missed.

Cheers
Bjorn
 
great points

I wish we would give NEVERDIE's plans reconsideration. His Teleport token woud have been a huge game develpment helping vehicles of all types become more usefull.

Really NEVERDIE spent years working on that plan as part of his Presidency. And everyone freaked out at the idea of having a small fee to use TP's. Or drive. Myself included. But giving it more thought on how the game is failing to progress without these changes. I kinda wish we could all give NEVERDIE a bit more credit for doing so much for our community. And trust his vision. Make Entropia Great Again :D

Maybe this TP coins system had somethign to do with the space changes. So in a way we created the log jam. We have only ourselves to blame for resisting changes.

It would be nice to ensure each planet has a shop area. With shops that are open. Or heck make a oil rig on every planet mandatory. And you will see people going to them I garuntee. Even a slow rig is better then nothing.

Im optimistic for the future of Entropia ! Miracle its gone on this long already <3
 
I wish we would give NEVERDIE's plans reconsideration. His Teleport token woud have been a huge game develpment helping vehicles of all types become more usefull.

It seems both you and neverdie are smoking the same thing. Please pass some along. :smoke:
 
Great post but in all honesty theres not enough purpose for the currently existing ships in space. They should focus on purpose before more ships. Again I hope huge space boss makes it into the storyline soon and well have a better idea of spaces potential. This will create demand and interest in both using ships and upgrading them. Also somehow fix the safe logout so there is reason to skill.

Space boss and remove safe logout will dramatically change space and should take almost no tie to implement!

Also fix quad logout.. revive at the last space station you were docked at or passed thru the safe area! Problem solved :)
 
I wish we would give NEVERDIE's plans reconsideration. His Teleport token woud have been a huge game develpment helping vehicles of all types become more usefull.

I was one of the first people to consider this a great idea when it was initially suggested. But the problem remains the same - it's too progressive to be accepted my the masses. There are still people up in arms over the fact you can just pay a fee to TP down from foma and monria.

To the OP - the biggest change we had in 2019 was the absolutely essential, super critical new camera system. Which arguably has castrated some game functionality down on par with a typical mobile app. I mean really, can anyone name a single other game that's not on mobile where a press and hold mechanic exists for bringing up an in-game menu? :laugh:
 
Hendrik Nel. As jy Afrikaans praat tjom, dan moet jy bietjie nader skuif en lekker gesels met my hoor. :laugh:
 
Removing safe logout would result in my never carrying loot between planets.
 
Dear Henrik Nel
CEO, MindArk PE AB

1. Space - when will we see new ships and upgrades to space its self to bring it up to speed with other space themed MMOs. EU lags far behind in the abilities for players to navigate space, skills to use certain spacecraft, space mining, player controlled warp gates etc etc

entropia_spaceships_jpg1named.jpg


2. Taming and stables - We have pets that do a few things and stables that do very little. Pets should really be given some functionality. Such as being able to spawn more than one at once, use them for advertising like in the old days, give them attack features to assist in hunting etc
Stables need a purpose. They went on sale years ago and still don't have much purpose.

3. Land plots - This is Calypso specific, but the development seems to have stopped. We build Snugs, grew basic crops. What happened to the bigger buildings? What happened to an economy where farmed fruits could be used in many blueprints?

4. Hangars - Again Calypso specific. They were returned to players, but have no function other than being pretty houses. Surely you could at least adjust the animation for Privateers to appear to enter the atmosphere like a quad, then pilot flies the privateer to their hangar and land it like a quad. This would at least allow a better planet based transport system

5. Items in loot. Crafters used to be able to craft and supply the EU population with a variety of goods. Unfortunately the drop rates for many ingredients for BPs is rare to say the least and crafters can't make anything.

6. Dead planets - Toulan, Next Island what is the plan? Rocktropia and Cyrene...what is the plan?

Cheers
Bjorn
Yes please!
 
These are all well written and thought out topics that should be addressed.
I still go back to one of the first CEO's communication with us saying there would be more communication.
I was not shocked to see business as usual and hear from CEO or even any formal announcement with the same low and limited frequency as always. I don't know what is going on over there, but they do this all the time. They got all these plans and ambitions and then just total silence for months. Either way can we please get some communication from the company FFS?
 
It would be nice to ensure each planet has a shop area.
This is another place where there is plenty of room for improvement. Shops need visibility, and in a MMO game, that visibility comes first from being located where new players see them early, and situated in ways that make access easy and convenient. It also needs to be easy to clearly indicate what sort of merchandise a shop is stocked with, without requiring interested passersby to jump through too many hoops. At this time the only place I know of that meets those criteria is the Quarry on Arkadia. The old Bank in Port Atlantis also has potential, but needs two improvements to really qualify:
- Outdoor ledges to place shopkeepers, shelves etc on
- Port Atlantis keeps getting farther and farther from the natural stream of play for new players
My suggestion is to create ledges all around the walls of the Bank and divide those ledges into small sections ownable by many different vendors. Routing is a tougher issue because Port Atlantis' missions make a bit of a tangled maze, but it's our Capitol and we love it so imo the best answer there is let it be. CDF Outpost Charlie nearly fills that gap on its own, although South Swamp Camp could see major improvement (its missions are too grindy for many new players - not many of us enjoy picking all those cherries).
 
when will we see new ships and upgrades to space its self to bring it up to speed with other space themed MMOs. EU lags far behind in the abilities for players to navigate space, skills to use certain spacecraft, space mining, player controlled warp gates etc etc

Their technical debt is so very high and management is so messed up, that trying keeping up with recent trends on space MMOs will cost them their fortune. That's why development is very slow, and when the feature gets out, it's still years behind other space MMOs (in addition to bugs, etc.). Imo, their aim is to not compete with other MMOs, but just to get by with EU as long as it brings profit to them. How many mayhems do we have each year?

They don't communicate often because if they give sneak peaks of future development, the market is going to be greatly affected. You can see that these days, they only respond to bug reports. Obviously, their close buddies get to know first before the masses to capitalize on that

E.g.
  • They will revamp taming and pets in the next VU? Price of pets, nutrios, whips, and related stuff will soar up.
  • New shops/apartments/spaceships? the reseller/investor groups are already standing by (in addition to big amount of liquidation)

Their AMA was very very tame and controlled (I wouldn't call that AMA). All responses regarding future development were given robotic responses without anymore follow-ups

Dead planets - Toulan, Next Island what is the plan? Rocktropia and Cyrene...what is the plan?

MA would probably tell you to just ask the planet partners. Hell if MA look like they fucking care
 
I want a working economy first,not this 80% of stuff with max 103% mu due to lack of demand..and that brings me to the fix the crafting part.Most of the BP's are so useless that ofc the maths for them have no my.
Please hire an economist for 1 year to sort out this mess of an economy....
 
They'll never have a smooth running economy until they properly balance the loots etc.. For example when im on rt hunting/crafting I expect to see at least 90% rt loots and rt bp's dropping cuz maybe I live there.. NOT.. 90% caly loots and bp's we could care less about there and need to bring back to caly to get rid of.

and yes they need to get rid of the logouts... logout to bypass ingame mechanics,time and fuel costs to get to destination is an exploit and should be bannable IMO like every other exploit..

Also safe logout make ship upgrades pointless really and skilling.. When any nub can grab a ship and operate as effectively(with logout inconvienience of course) as a pro that's been skilling and ship upgrading for years, theres an issue.

That's the case I wanna instantly buy a gun and be messi!!! lets do this!

** To add to my 1st comment the loot balancing I suggested would not only allow PP's to actually function but create the reverse demand... demand for caly mats. caly mats would be rarer there and create a need for them on RT and possible orders over auction with shipping charges etc.

What we have right now is an overabundance of caly sht on RT with nowhere to put it but TT and cant for the life of you get enough RT mats.

*** I should NEVER ever be hunting on RT and have any sort of need at all to goto caly because of it.
 
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This has always been the most naive and gullible community ever. I bet all my PED card nothing of this will be introduced in 2020 nor in 2021. Instead of that they will find a way to sell you another batch of "tokens", "deeds" or give any other "investment opportunity" at the same time ruining the economy with EPIV and UL items.

Stockholm syndrome anyone? :laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
Welcome to Entropia Universe :lolup::lolup::wtg::wtg::yay::yay:
 
They'll never have a smooth running economy until they properly balance the loots etc.. For example when im on rt hunting/crafting I expect to see at least 90% rt loots and rt bp's dropping cuz maybe I live there.. NOT.. 90% caly loots and bp's we could care less about there and need to bring back to caly to get rid of.
Try crafting components on Secret Island sometime... tons of useless time crystal blueprints that technically no longer have ANY function at all as the need to use them to get to Ancient Greece is long gone... so uh... yes, better balancing.... if nothing else give time travel crystals a use to do something... maybe some new bp or something that uses them as an ingredient?
 
About stables.... some stables have building and our stable in Port Atlantis is still missing even the building.
I hope reason is that buiding is just so big and amazing that developing takes few years more than others... :)
 
I would like to add my request to the CEO to look to sell this game to a more competent company. I have no faith or respect for the MA team. The fact you have to write this letter to begin with illustrates my point perfectly.
 
I would like to add my request to the CEO to look to sell this game to a more competent company. I have no faith or respect for the MA team. The fact you have to write this letter to begin with illustrates my point perfectly.


Sell the game or sell the company? Since EU is their only real IP and primary source of income, I can't see them selling the game - they would need to sell the company and its assets. Depending on the shareholder agreement, this may be tough to do. Jan Timkrans and C-G Bothen own just over 51% of the company, I'm sure that is no accident, and so you'll need to get the idea through them first.


Even if all the chips were to fall in place, you have to imagine this whole business model has got to be a tough sale to any sane investor.


Investor: Ok let me get this straight. It's a free-to-play MMO, but instead of any of the well-tested income models, you are basically saying that all of the money put into it can be given back at any time so is on your balance sheet as a huge liability?

MA: Yep

Investor: LOL next
 
These are all well written and thought out topics that should be addressed.
I still go back to one of the first CEO's communication with us saying there would be more communication.
I was not shocked to see business as usual and hear from CEO or even any formal announcement with the same low and limited frequency as always. I don't know what is going on over there, but they do this all the time. They got all these plans and ambitions and then just total silence for months. Either way can we please get some communication from the company FFS?


I agree.

A little communication would go a long way. MA know this from the really positive response from the community when they did the AMA, so I don't know why it's all gone quiet again. :dunno:

A single 'community manager' as a point of contact for the forums would be invaluable IMHO.
 
I would like to add my request to the CEO to look to sell this game to a more competent company. I have no faith or respect for the MA team. The fact you have to write this letter to begin with illustrates my point perfectly.


I think that's a little unfair.

Yes, the previous management really made a mess (I personally think we were close to a point of irreversible decline), but new management have shown to be working hard to fix the damage done by their predecessors (scrapping the insane side projects, starting to deliver on some of the old promises, delivering updates people actually want, etc).

Such damage can't be fixed overnight, but I'm confident we will get there. :yay:
 
ah the lost space update...

...i quit the game when i saw mindark doing nothing regarding this... if they ever move the lot, i probably give it a login again but their nose is longer than pinoccio‘s...

alot would say man the way you piloted in the past and all the time now passed by you could be lvl 200 captain by now.. jaja, all you ever needed against stagger‘s pirates was to navigate and rotate correctly.

can still remember having guests like James Jimmy Stryker or the lads from cK full of loot on board, those never logged off while travel xD

cant even make a list of passengers, i would miss to write down way too many of the great people we met.

Starfighter XXIV and the crew of entropiatransport in Orbit, warp with us and drop the warp price to 16pec per head xD


all you need is stardust...
 
This is another place where there is plenty of room for improvement. Shops need visibility, and in a MMO game, that visibility comes first from being located where new players see them early, and situated in ways that make access easy and convenient. It also needs to be easy to clearly indicate what sort of merchandise a shop is stocked with, without requiring interested passersby to jump through too many hoops.

In Star Wars Galaxies (RIP) there used to be a BAZAAR system that listed both, the Auctions, and anything sold by Vendors/Shopkeepers residing inside Player Housing ANYWHERE across the galaxy of many planets.

Regardless of WHERE these vendors were located, whether deep inside entirely player-built CITIES, or that remote cliff overhang volcano waterfall house that you fell in love with and set up shop in - these were ALL searchable via this terminal.

Function: Player types in and searches for what they're seeking. Once an item is located, player creates a waypoint with the planet name, and x,y,z coordinate location and heads on over to the location and purchases it directly from player shop/vendor. :)

LISTING: Once a player places an item in a SHOP or SHOPKEEPER, it automatically gets LINKED into the EU universal database at the next game "tick". This LINKING into the network is automatic - so all existing SHOPS + SHOPKEEPERS are are linked in and thus do not require any interaction from any abandoned player shops either.

Having all vendors/shopkeepers on a universal database would be amazing and would certainly revitilize the economy and make it easier for MU% bargain hunting. :) This would also prevent stagnation of player vendor/shopkeepers since they will always be visible from anywhere in the universe. :)

Here is a very nice guide as to how it worked:

Devs, if its ONE thing you aim for in 2020, please make this happen! :)
 
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...
1. Space ...

Agreed.

2. Taming and stables

Agreed.

3. Land plots

Honestly it felt to me like the fruit farming came as an afterthought, just something to squeeze in to appease some of the investors who dumped cash on their plots. The development of buildings should be revisited.

4. Hangars

While I would not be opposed to hangars having more uses, the majority of hangars are now separated from the owners of privateers - so I would be very concerned if they coupled them.

5. Items in loot. Crafters used to be able to craft and supply the EU population with a variety of goods. Unfortunately the drop rates for many ingredients for BPs is rare to say the least and crafters can't make anything.

Here I have to disagree with you. It appears to me that MA intentionally adjusted drop rates on components for old weaponry to make them obsolete. The system was replaced by the ArMatrix system without forcefully removing the old blueprints from the player base (which I commend). The consequence is that now we have a vast collection of obsolete blueprints which many players have not accepted as obsolete.
Under the old system you had rare unlimited blueprints for high demand weapons which could be (and were) monopolized by a few crafters. The new ArMatrix system allows literally anybody to go grab a blueprint and start crafting. It has opened the crafting profession to lay persons, and provided much needed improvements on markup stability for hunting loot (primarily oils).

6. Dead planets

My understanding is that the planets largely work their own development, and so I don't know how much control MindArk has over their development. I question whether they should be heavily involved, as I think it would be best for the more creative teams to handle their own planets (look at Arkadia).
That being said, no matter how great their development teams may be, MindArk seems to have structured their platform in such a way which directly competes with their planet partners. Since MindArk has the final say in everything, it is painfully difficult for the planet partners to stay afloat when MindArk is continually providing content which directly competes with their own planets.
For example, Mayhem instances being put in the Global Events list seemed like a great step forward, until you arrived on Arkadia and found out that the repeatable missions with highly attractive rewards are exclusively available on Calypso.
When Mayhem isn't going we've got Hogglo Diablos, Mutant spawns, Big Bulks, etc.
Rather than make plans for other planets, MindArk should make plans to stop directly competing with them continuously.
 
What the game needs is a larger player base. They need to make the game more affordable. The changes to teiring is a good step forward but we need more and fast.
 
What the game needs is a larger player base. They need to make the game more affordable. The changes to teiring is a good step forward but we need more and fast.

this whole universe is such a crash site, that it needs more than only a larger player base. we had that already, and 99% learned that EU isn't for everyone. that said, what changes exactly are you talking about? what is the longterm vision, but demotivated players, or pissed item tierers, or early (and maybe disappointed) risk investors of all kind?

EU needs a new grand vision, and for the fucking fucks sake of it .... improved communication finally :hammer:
 
That being said, no matter how great their development teams may be, MindArk seems to have structured their platform in such a way which directly competes with their planet partners. Since MindArk has the final say in everything, it is painfully difficult for the planet partners to stay afloat when MindArk is continually providing content which directly competes with their own planets.
For example, Mayhem instances being put in the Global Events list seemed like a great step forward, until you arrived on Arkadia and found out that the repeatable missions with highly attractive rewards are exclusively available on Calypso.
When Mayhem isn't going we've got Hogglo Diablos, Mutant spawns, Big Bulks, etc.
Rather than make plans for other planets, MindArk should make plans to stop directly competing with them continuously.

The idea behind planet partners was for them to bring in their own players to the game. They have not done too much of their own advertising instead they continue to leech of the existing player base
 
The idea behind planet partners was for them to bring in their own players to the game. They have not done too much of their own advertising instead they continue to leech of the existing player base

Well, tbf, I think if you are new and you search for Entropia Universe, it automatically refers you to start on Planet Calypso. This is an unfair advantage Calypso has over other PPs, imo.

IMHO, when you download and install Entropia Universe, before, after or even during your avatar creation, you should be given an option as to what planet (or moon) to start on.

It should be less of a competition a more of a Partnership, that is not so one sided.
But that’s just my opinion and probably conflicts with PP contracts or agreements and potentially other factors.
 
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