How to Get more People to play this game? First Impressions from heavy gamer.

[SpikeBlack]

I've never had a loot above 1000ped either. Max I've had was ~740ped from an umbra. I knew people who it took two years to get their first global.

 

[Svarog]

I've never had a loot above 1000ped either. Max I've had was ~740ped from an umbra. I knew people who it took two years to get their first global.

I got my first global after 7 months in game, on the day when I stopped tormenting snabbles and the like and did my first run on Argos - although globaled not on them but on a random Exo while running back to Twins . After that, globals never were a problem (as long as I stayed on Argo and above and did at least 100+ peds runs).

 

[CozMoDan]

I've never had a loot above 1000ped either. Max I've had was ~740ped from an umbra. I knew people who it took two years to get their first global.

Whatever did happen to those umbras anyway? I liked to hunt them once in a while, liked the crack of the whip, reminded me of the good old days when my Dad would give me a good beating .

 

[Svarog]

Whatever did happen to those umbras anyway?

They never made it past VU10. Probably their computers couldn't handle the new sys.reqs, as it happened to so many

 

[JD RACING]

to keep player playing or depoing

on my list

#1 cost of play i dont mind give 100 to 200 dollars a month if i can play that long not 100 dollars a day

#2 get the game fix every time there a new update i cant log on or when i log on i get disconected often so if i get disconected its a real pain in the ass playing in a group of freind setting there waiting for me or them
when there no new stauff add for a month then i can play whit nor problem

now i put my few hundered dollars in other games

#3 get rid of space travel let us use a tp say 50 or 100 peds to planets and give all of it or a percent to ship owners they wont have to do nothing and get paid

#4 fix how some are exploting the loot fix it not a so only certain players always the gravy i like sauce also

if those can be fix i may start playing again

you can check my stats on loot from hunting and crafting now my money is better spent somewere else

 

[Black Widow iK]

The major problem is that MA saw $$$ and started selling ''virtual shares'' of total revenues, ie. new planets, and over expanded to rapidly. You can talk about making loot better but what made it good was when there was a community and everyone was cycling on the same servers allowing for more cash flows.

With the small community so spread apart on so many different loot servers, it takes more luck and timing to find any notable HoF's therefore a lot give up.

What one poster said was make auctions global, now I concur that this is a brilliant idea but realistically implausible as MA wouldn't want people leaving Calypso (one major reason why it's hard to populate the other places is a lack of auction market)

What another poster said is that it isn't about bringing new people in as much as player retention. I think this games to be simplified, meaning less planets, less servers, less items, less everything, in order to make the community what it once was. Once there is a community, and cash flows get circulating like they did from 2005-2009, you'd see a lot more people staying. I know personally one of the major reasons I stay is because of my Society

How this could be done is simple: Have a gigantic robot war in space and an Invasion of all the planets then say in the end the robots exploded a few of the planets but save Calypso, Foma, Cp, and Arkadia

 

[Rocket192]

The major problem is that MA saw $$$ and started selling ''virtual shares'' of total revenues, ie. new planets, and over expanded to rapidly. You can talk about making loot better but what made it good was when there was a community and everyone was cycling on the same servers allowing for more cash flows.

With the small community so spread apart on so many different loot servers, it takes more luck and timing to find any notable HoF's therefore a lot give up.

What one poster said was make auctions global, now I concur that this is a brilliant idea but realistically implausible as MA wouldn't want people leaving Calypso (one major reason why it's hard to populate the other places is a lack of auction market)

What another poster said is that it isn't about bringing new people in as much as player retention. I think this games to be simplified, meaning less planets, less servers, less items, less everything, in order to make the community what it once was. Once there is a community, and cash flows get circulating like they did from 2005-2009, you'd see a lot more people staying. I know personally one of the major reasons I stay is because of my Society

How this could be done is simple: Have a gigantic robot war in space and an Invasion of all the planets then say in the end the robots exploded a few of the planets but save Calypso, Foma, Cp, and Arkadia

THIS.

MA has expanded the universe to such an extent that it makes EU appear "empty". On top of that the player base has shrunk, not grown. This presents a problem that Widow addressed, a lack of community and too much upkeep/expenses for the multiple extra Planet Partner servers. EU needs to be condensed for the game to have a sense of community, as well as have the average return rate be mildly improved with less servers paying out loot at once. The same effect would be seen if the EU player base grew exponentially, but that's very unlikely the way things are going.

 

[SpikeBlack]

The community has certainly become more fractured in recent years. That may or may not be because of the new planets but EU has certainly become more of a single player game.

We've got missions that encourage single player mentality, the loot system with item drops encourage players to solo it and we've got items that now allow us to solo mobs that we wouldn't have dreamt of a few years ago that have now become 'mid level'. There's no real reason to team up with other players any more, we've got enforced shared loot so that we don't have to talk to anyone just turn up and shoot.

Even miners have got it slightly easier as they now have vehicles to escape from mobs and wide open areas completely free of mobs. Sometimes they needed help from a hunter to clear mobs from a claim, not any more just drag them away with a vehicle.

We've got motherships encouraging afk repair skilling.

Crafters can just set it going and leave it. For those that didn't use auto clickers they could talk to other players now it's just an afk robot.

Most of these things we asked for to make playing EU easier. May be it got too easy.

 

[Tepes]

The major problem is that MA saw $$$ and started selling ''virtual shares'' of total revenues, ie. new planets, and over expanded to rapidly. You can talk about making loot better but what made it good was when there was a community and everyone was cycling on the same servers allowing for more cash flows.

With the small community so spread apart on so many different loot servers, it takes more luck and timing to find any notable HoF's therefore a lot give up.

While it might sound to some like heresy, it is exactly what happened. Hunting for that elusive good loot area/mob is now spread across universe...

In the rush to cover more themes, the game exploded in object complexity in the last 2 years - new weapons, new tools, new armor, new rules. A lot of FL contacts disappeared, RL is way too busy for them to be able to cope with the pace of the changes, from time to time I get "what the heck happened with this gun, or armor, oh I see - thanks, see you next month (if), goodbye"

Hard to explain to a new player if a gun is good for him or not, when you never heard of it and even entropedia starts to lag behind being a voluntary effort.

Yes, some dedicated players are enjoying the changes, or are not affected by them (have set-up gear since long), but many are wary to test new things on their dime.

Or they are tired... I spent countless hours reading entropedia when I should have concentrate reading docs for my ever-changing job, or spent an unhealthy amount on forum. Unless you're living from game or having a very relaxed RL with nothing better outside the house, spending so many hours around EU is a dangerous trap.

You can get more people in game, but you cannot make most of them to look for info for ever when all they want is to relax a couple of hours on evenings or weekend.

 

[Rocket192]

While it might sound to some like heresy, it is exactly what happened. Hunting for that elusive good loot area/mob is now spread across universe...

In old EU the idea was to figure out which mobs/servers were hitting and then masses of people would swarm there for acceptable returns, but as you've pointed out that's no longer possible with the vastness and complexity of EU in its current state.

 

[mastermesh]

Hard to explain to a new player if a gun is good for him or not, when you never heard of it and even entropedia starts to lag behind being a voluntary effort.

Yes, some dedicated players are enjoying the changes, or are not affected by them (have set-up gear since long), but many are wary to test new things on their dime.

The question is... WHY THE HELL AIN'T THE PLANET PARTNERS THEMSELVES PUTTING STUFF IN TO ENTROPEDIA OR SOME SIMILAR DATABASE THEMSELVES FOR PARTICIPANTS TO GET 'TRUE' INFO ON ITEMS outside of the actual game environment, etc? It's nice that some dedicated folks do work to put the info out there, but if the PPs could play a more active role in that sort of thing it'd help tremendously.

 

[Ember]

A bit off topic but needed question... Is EU dying?. All the people I knew have pretty much disappeared, either events in RL, bad loot, other games... Pretty much over half of my friends have vanished...

 

[CozMoDan]

A bit off topic but needed question... Is EU dying?. All the people I knew have pretty much disappeared, either events in RL, bad loot, other games... Pretty much over half of my friends have vanished...

I don't know but I do know that I see players getting globals and HOFs almost every day with names I don't ever remember seeing and I have been playing about 7 years now.

 

[Kitch]

You can talk about making loot better but what made it good was when there was a community and everyone was cycling on the same servers allowing for more cash flows.

This, I think is bang on... It's why people get wet for shared loot events for example.

But I really think it's more about economy than content in this game, I mean why are so many people restricted to activity on Calypso? I know there are at least two other planets I would rather be on if it was not RCE..

I mean a new player comes with big beaming eyes saying they want to be a miner, and you trying to break it to them gently that currently, a 75% TT return is normal.. Hmm.. Discouraging much??

Or they say they want to craft armour or weapons to supply hunters...

At some point they are getting the picture in there minds that this whole system is a bit broken.

Most people do not have the tenacity to make it in EU

I admire people who do, including non depo people who make it through sweating/trading or whatever.

I think the main problem is we need more players.

Though when I see sometimes I can't use the auction for 30 minutes when it's during peak times, and everything is going crazy when there are more than 20 people on screen :/ Not sure how that is going to work :/

 

[Tepes]

The question is... WHY THE HELL AIN'T THE PLANET PARTNERS THEMSELVES PUTTING STUFF IN TO ENTROPEDIA OR SOME SIMILAR DATABASE THEMSELVES FOR PARTICIPANTS TO GET 'TRUE' INFO ON ITEMS outside of the actual game environment, etc? It's nice that some dedicated folks do work to put the info out there, but if the PPs could play a more active role in that sort of thing it'd help tremendously.

Because they are lazy and have always relied on a handful of players to do this effort, like many other things (skill scanner, LBML tool, Entropia Tracker). When they saw players going along even with all this lack of info inside the game, why bother? If the last 2 tools can give some sensitive info for the observant, at least the exporting of skills should be as easy as sending a PM.

Now is even impossible to test the decay of some guns, like the non tradeable ones from tokens.

One or 2 more planets, and we will swim into a sea of items. I remember, again, Diablo II site (linked an example here, hopefully is not considered a competitor to EU) which I download it all for offline use. Nice, clear information, and if some parameter was changed to any item, the change was published into the release notes with a clear statement of why was done (balancing, mostly)

 

[Menace]

Pfft.... MindArk spend money on coding FREE TO PLAY content? Yeah right!

Between the greedy pricks that own the game and the greedy fkers that play the game there's absolutely NO room for FREE around here...

Not that I don't agree with the OP... it's just never gonna happen. Greed took over this game when greed manipulated prices thus advertising "Find virtual items worth stupid RL cash!" which then suckered the greedy gamers into thinking they could play and get something for nothing... which led to more price manipulation as the playerbase grew... until eventually the greedy owners had enough blood money to buy a castle (but not afford the utilities) and everything went to shit from there.

What really needs to happen is a larger company needs to take this general "idea" and expand/improve on it. There should be descent paying in-game jobs that allow a descent wage for a player's time. There should be useless things to do to inject PED into the economy. Billiards, games within the game, Juke boxes, beer, etc. that all cost minimal amounts yet go directly into the loot pool to help increase returns. bah... I'm not even gonna bother wasting a wall of text around here....

Menace

 

[SpikeBlack]

The question is... WHY THE HELL AIN'T THE PLANET PARTNERS THEMSELVES PUTTING STUFF IN TO ENTROPEDIA OR SOME SIMILAR DATABASE THEMSELVES FOR PARTICIPANTS TO GET 'TRUE' INFO ON ITEMS outside of the actual game environment, etc? It's nice that some dedicated folks do work to put the info out there, but if the PPs could play a more active role in that sort of thing it'd help tremendously.

As much as I can see your point of view it also means players would have to think less.

Someone could, probably have, created a routine that can generate a players perfect set of equipment for their skills to take on a mob.

Right now that's limited by information worked out by players, if they had exact information then EU becomes even less of a game where people have to think than it's already become.

As for free to play, well we had lots of that it was called tp runs, mob running and sweating. And when we'd done learned all that we helped out the newbies with tp runs, mob running and sweating.

Or even helping out other players who got stuck due to MA dropping us all at a random revive next to a spider spawn after a crash which they can't get away from. Or randomly healing someone who's about to die. Or wondering what's at a map location and going there to find out.

Or maybe that was just my idea of how to spend an afternoon / evening in EU

 

[Billy Jean Ruby]

The question is... WHY THE HELL AIN'T THE PLANET PARTNERS THEMSELVES PUTTING STUFF IN TO ENTROPEDIA OR SOME SIMILAR DATABASE THEMSELVES FOR PARTICIPANTS TO GET 'TRUE' INFO ON ITEMS outside of the actual game environment, etc? It's nice that some dedicated folks do work to put the info out there, but if the PPs could play a more active role in that sort of thing it'd help tremendously.

I was wondering the same thing from my first days.
I add to this question and make it more simple (because these data are available already to them OR it is NOT?!!!).
Why they don't making a simple items catalogue, with all the items that are in or going to be in game?
A simple information catalogue, that all we can use as a reference!!!
Is that something impossible?

I have a reason in mind but I don't want to believe it. Because if it is that.... I shouldn't be in here.

 

[jqkill]

Or even helping out other players who got stuck due to MA dropping us all at a random revive next to a spider spawn after a crash which they can't get away from.

Calypso Rescue Team (www.euforces.com)

 

[Billy Jean Ruby]

removed*
posted here by mistake

 

[Kitch]

Short of giving people free ped what can you do? What they absolutely shouldnt do is move away from the original vision of what the game is supposed to be. The more diluted it becomes the less power it will have over a participating group of individuals.

So my summary: Improve on what the game is, not what it isnt. If people can't hack it then, and pardon my french, fuck em.

 

[trance]

I see only one problem. It cost too much to play this game, when you get mid level player, or an uber skilled player, to play at your skill level. I play since more as 8 years now, but i saw always the same. People quit, when they get mid level, about they can't longer pay so much, just to be able to play on the level they have.

An other point are things like combat tokens, why we should hunt for them, when the trader only have 5 F parts of armor left. That was only a example of a lot such things.

Also it should have more free to play parts, so more new players stay and don't leave the game after a week. More funny things could help also, i mean things don't cost much!

An idea about funny things could be an only vehicle pvp, or vehicle races organized by MA and such. Except for traveling, the vehicles are most useless, but would have more potential to use it.

 

[CozMoDan]

I was wondering the same thing from my first days.
I add to this question and make it more simple (because these data are available already to them OR it is NOT?!!!).
Why they don't making a simple items catalogue, with all the items that are in or going to be in game?
A simple information catalogue, that all we can use as a reference!!!
Is that something impossible?

I have a reason in mind but I don't want to believe it. Because if it is that.... I shouldn't be in here.

I have asked this time and time again. Why is everything a secret Why will MA not publish a catalog like you mentioned ? I do not understand. What is the big deal.
One suggestion for a part of a catalog:

All the info on mobs including: total HPs, type of damage, amount of damage, hits per minute, and most of all position, spawn density and items dropped. Why should this be a secret, this would really help players IMO.

All of the above is in EP except this is dependent on user input and may or may not be correct or could be missing information. I think EP is mostly correct and thank havens someone realized early one that this was need very badly and everyone needs to update it as much as possible but for mob info going to the source would be the absolute best way.

 

[Svarog]

I have asked this time and time again. Why is everything a secret Why will MA not publish a catalog like you mentioned ? I do not understand. What is the big deal.
One suggestion for a part of a catalog:

All the info on mobs including: total HPs, type of damage, amount of damage, hits per minute, and most of all position, spawn density and items dropped. Why should this be a secret, this would really help players IMO.

I know it's not a popular opinion, but I like things as they're. If all information is available to anyone without any efforts, it all comes down to simple pew-pew and luck. As things are now, you either do your research and have advantage, or are lazy and pay for it. Have no time for research? Well, it's the good old "time vs money" - those who lack the former usually can afford to spend more of the latter (otherwise they do something seriously wrong).

There are no secrets, almost everything is measurable and testable for anyone who bothers to do it. Sites like entropedia make things easier, but even then it's in your interest to check everything yourself. Watching the #rookie for past weeks, I really amazed by the level of ignorance. People in all seriousness keep recommending to newbies to use Opalo, or even Justifier Mk.II or similar, which means they don't even bother to check the information already available to them. Why make their life easier at expense of those who do bother?

 

[aia]

Spaceships without warp ie quads / sleip's should be restricted from deep space travel, this will give a meaning to the the unused Privateers & Motherships!!

Then, make "Deep space ships" availible to average depositors at a reaonsable cost...

I just speak for myself, but at least with my economy, 30-50 ped for a single trip from planet A to planet B is a bit pricy, in case there is no fitting scheduled ride (imagine the case there is an event on planet B you want to join).

At some times there aren't much pilots free either. Either none on my FL is logged in, or if there is an event on planet B (typically arkadia), most pilots already have parked their ships there.

I should add main reason I go between planets by myself is to get there myself. If I need to move a large amounts of stackables I can use a scheduled ride using Kronan or Normandie (as long as there still is a reasonable amount of scheduled rides to/from planets like NI and Monria) (scheduled=can be "on call", just not charter rides).

 

[CozMoDan]

I know it's not a popular opinion, but I like things as they're. If all information is available to anyone without any efforts, it all comes down to simple pew-pew and luck. As things are now, you either do your research and have advantage, or are lazy and pay for it. Have no time for research? Well, it's the good old "time vs money" - those who lack the former usually can afford to spend more of the latter (otherwise they do something seriously wrong).

There are no secrets, almost everything is measurable and testable for anyone who bothers to do it. Sites like entropedia make things easier, but even then it's in your interest to check everything yourself. Watching the #rookie for past weeks, I really amazed by the level of ignorance. People in all seriousness keep recommending to newbies to use Opalo, or even Justifier Mk.II or similar, which means they don't even bother to check the information already available to them. Why make their life easier at expense of those who do bother?

I don't disagree really with what you have said. Two things though. One, we are depending on others for the info and two, testing takes a long time to do it correctly ( I have many "Notes" that I have accumulated but that has been going for a long time, like years). The depending on others is not so bad because I can't imagine that someone would put something in EP that they know is wrong. The research is another story (remember my suggestion is only on mobs) and it would impractical, if not impossible, to gather all the info on all the mobs by yourself.

Just a last comment I don't think I can remember when MA gave out anything about anything other than a list or prizes or places about an event. That is what I mean about secret. When the missions first started I was relatively new and it was just awful for a new player. Just a small post about what order you would use to do a mission in order to complete it would have been a great help Tell me what that information would have hurt.

Anyway that is the type of things I am talking about and like I said I really don't dis-agree with you that much. But one real big thing, and I know this is a what if but, what if we didn't have EP. I truly believe that this game would not exist. I have never ever played a game that doesn't come with instructions and this one just started with tutorials in the past couple of years and what I have seen there are some, but not a lot, of help. This game is way too complicated.

 

[Svarog]

But one real big thing, and I know this is a what if but, what if we didn't have EP. I truly believe that this game would not exist. I have never ever played a game that doesn't come with instructions and this one just started with tutorials in the past couple of years and what I have seen there are some, but not a lot, of help. This game is way too complicated.

I said nothing against EP, sharing of information within community is great. If there wasn't EP (not sure do you mean Entropedia or EntropiaPlanet's wiki by EP, though I mean them both), it would be created by someone else. All I said is against oversimplifying the game itself. Even such a little thing as mobs' levels seriously affected people's playstyle - instead of experimenting they now know beforehand when attack and when better to run away (and then they're screwed when they come to Toulan and meet a L5 mob with 1000hp and 80dmg such a forgotten feeling of real unknown).

 

[Kitch]

Anyway that is the type of things I am talking about and like I said I really don't dis-agree with you that much. But one real big thing, and I know this is a what if but, what if we didn't have EP. I truly believe that this game would not exist. I have never ever played a game that doesn't come with instructions and this one just started with tutorials in the past couple of years and what I have seen there are some, but not a lot, of help. This game is way too complicated.

Entropedia?

What about entropialife? Without el. the game surely would not exist. The tracker is a huge, fundamental part of the experience and it's not even part of the actual game lol

 

[Svarog]

Without el. the game surely would not exist.

Somehow it did manage without EL for over a half of its existence

 

[Spawn]

I had another thought about player retention.. and why everything was better in the past.. (old grumpy man speaks).

Today I hunted some snablesnots because there was some easy mission at camp phoenix for them.
180 male snablesnots and 90 female snablesnots. I went to fort argus, because that's where the alphas and dominants live. Not a single snablesnot gave anything that means something to a player.

See a new player wants to hunt mobs because there is a chance there is something nice or valuable to this player inside the mob. Like a pixie armor part, a low level gun, or a healing tool. Snablesnots don't have this anymore and neither do a lot of low level mobs. To get player retention Mindark should focus on this aspect: The thrill of finding something nice inside a mob. They did a really good job with the puny mobs. The noob weapons are fantastic and there's even a noob amp doing one damage. They should roll out this program onto lower level mobs like snablesnots, argonauts, small robots, cornundacauda, cornundos, snarksnots, berycleds, molisks because currently as it is.. there is no reason to hunt them... Because they drop next to nothing in terms of lower level gear.

To give some examples:
Snablesnots used to drop: 5 different pixie armor parts, some goblin parts, fap-18, s30[L] and some brawler thingy.
Argonauts used to drop: ewe ep-21, freand alpha, beta, masks, nemesis shins
Molisks used to drop: king rifle, loads of different shogun parts

I am not saying start dropping a shit load of unlimited gear, it could all be [L] with some rare UL item. But let something drop so a player actually wants to go out and hunt something.
A player gets the adjusted pixie set when he graduates. But all the time in between there should be other options. Other planets do a much better job at this. Piron weapons at ark, Ul gravis weapons, A.R.C. Guardian armor at cyrene, etc.

This game could be soo much more fun, if there actually was a reason to hunt. This also goes for mining.
remember the rare finds where you could find a robot ship and had to push a button? stuff like that is the icing on the cake. Get it back!