Okay, I have had a couple of drinks so I will give posting a shot.
I will try to give you some insight into how I see the Job System and why I think its important.
First of all, I think most of the planets have repeatable missions. I haven't done them all, but for the sake of this post lets assume they reward a couple of ped daily in Universal ammo. Some of these missions require the player to have a weapon and ammo to complete the Mission, perhaps others don't require any hunting at all and could be considered a Job of sorts since there is no cost to the player to undertake the mission. The ped value cost of rewarding a player for completing a mission/quest is deducted from the Planet Partners gross revenue.
The AI War Mission - The Job system - works as follows:
A player ( an absolute noob, with no ped or weapon ) can visit the the Job mission Broker for the first time and will be given a pistol worth 50 pec and 1 Ped of Cheap ammo that can only be used with the Pistol.
The Broker then instructs the Player to hunt 40 Ai then return to get paid.
The Player then hangs around the parking lot outside club NEVERDIE on Rocktropia and when they spot an AI spawn they must be quick on the draw to kill it, before someone else does.
If the player does infact use the AI pistol to do this, then after shooting only AI mobs 40 of them nothing else, The pistol will have decayed by appx 0.25 Ped
The player will have looted lets say 95% TT return from the AI Mobs APPX 0.23 PED. upon returning to the Mission Broker the player will be rewarded for Hunting the AI with a Ped Card worth 2 Ped a receipt worth 0 ped and another 1 Ped of Cheap Ammo. They must then wait 24hrs before they can do the mission again. I think the AI pistol lasts for appx 2 Missions before the player needs to use the Loot from the AI Mobs to purchase a new Pistol from the TT.
SO the Loot covers the cost of buying AI pistols, The 1 ped of cheap Ammo is enough to kill 40 AI and the 2 Ped Card rewarded to the player each day is the Payment - Player is Paid for doing the Job. if they do it for 30 days that is 60 Ped in a month. Not Universal Ammo, that must be recycled but a Ped Card that can be TT'd for 2 Ped each day... SO basically the system gives players the tools Pistol and Ammo to do a Job and then pays them.
In addition to the 60 Ped a player can GET PAID monthly, the non tradeable reciepts can be refined with Sweat and Beer kegs, both free to scavenge, plus a few Rocktropia Records, which they actually need to collect via hunting into Ruxxnet codes - Ruxnet codes are required for spawning Big shared loot Mobs on RT - Market Price for Ruxxnet code fluctuates but averages around 6 Ped each.. The demand for Ruxxnet code should increase once MA start adding better loot to the shared loot mobs. It requires 3 job receipts to refine a Ruxxnet code, so if a player completes 30 mission in a month, they could with a little additional sweating and scavenging refine 10 codes in month and sell them for an additional 60 ped..
So Basically the Job system on Rocktropia guarantees $6 Per Month with an additional $6 bonus if they sweat and scavenge..
The cost of the $6 is paid by Rocktropia and over the course of a month it was a manageable expense for the planet as it supports an active playerbase..
On average the mission was completed 200 times per week approximately 10,000 times per year over 6 years = 60,000 completed Jobs.
I was very keen to test increasing the payment for completing the Job system to see exactly how much the planet could support, but because Rocktropia wasn't succeeding with retaining higher level players, I decided to give the planet up to Mindark as all my efforts to build the economy were futile and I felt that it if mindark owned Rocktropia then eventually they would balance it more competitively with Calypso and also they could freely integrate AI and prepare it for the Unreal5 engine... However I also made certain that the Job system on Rocktropia was to remain intact as It is something I wanted to be able to use to help market Entropia... I have seen so many youtube videos where people quit quickly, because they run out of free items fast and then think they are being ganked into deposting and Gambling...
Sweating doesnt seem to win the argument, but I believe Jobs, guaranteed income is a strong argument that Entropia is much more than a Zero Sum game.
For 20 Years we have been pitching Entropia as a Real cash economy, blah blah, blah and we are not growing right now..
So if we have a real cash economy, then in addition to the multitude of ways people can Make money by being entrepreneurial, we should also be able to have a few paying jobs for people who need that security to keep playing.
Okay... So That Brings me to the Howling Mine...
Im not a planet partner, Im not developing it. MA are. The Revenue to the Mine largely will come from the decay from Mining the asteroids and engaging in PVP.. Deducted from that revenue will be various costs include, starter quest rewards and Job payments.
Im hoping that Mindark will follow the formula for the Rocktropia Job system and even the gameplay style although this Job will hopefully be undertaken in a Noob micro TT starter ship (kinda like an AI Hunter Pistol, u can fly in) I'm hoping that they can balance it in such a way that we can bump up the payment and even bump up the Bonus potential or maybe a player will need to complete both a Quota of AI Mobs killed at the Howling Mine and then another Quota of AI killed on Rocktropia to achieve 200 ped per month.
either way Im hoping to get to the point where I can market Entropia not just as a Real cash economy ( that too many people just think is a code word for casino) but a REAL Economy that can sustain Jobs.... $20 Per month may not seem like a lot to some people, but to others its worthwhile... The Proof is the fact that this system is tried and tested on Rocktropia and quite a few people enjoy doing it.. In fact they prefer not to shout about it, so it doesnt get too crowded... I personally really enjoy it, you have to be really quick on the draw to tag the AI first and get your quota done fast...
So on Rocktropia one of the reasons that the AI spawn frequently is because the shy vixens drop Gears that have a good mark up. At the Howling Mine the AI spawn should be tied to Asteroid blasting which might be popular if there is a demand for intergalactic teleportation.
So space mining, interplanetary Teleportation will create Job Opportunities.. And if I can interest new people to come check out the Howling Mine... Then they will have as much time as they like to keep playing before they venture away from the Mine and chose to deposit because they want to invest in their avatars.
Now having said all of this please understand it aint easy to get peoples attention today, not easy to get the press interested .. $20 Per month is not exactly headline news, unless Entropia Universe were to become the #1 Metaverse platform, #1 MMO, then we would be talking alot of people with paying jobs...
Youtube pays 55% of its income to USErs who upload content - they are called Creators and they are paid Billlions per year.
Roblex pays Billions to Creators who make games on the platform
Facebook and Instagram pays billions to influencers
The Big difference is the entropia economy doesn't have to just pay Creators in can Pay players. Because its a Hunter gatherer economy.
I have been here from the beginning and I always imagined Entropia was going to have millions of players then WOW came along and did have millions, but Entropia is more complicated and its taking longer to be ready for that kind of exponential growth, but I believe its still possible, with AI and Unreal and Jobs and better pipelines etc, etc
I am not ready to give up on that dream, I was ready to give up being a planet partner,(which I wasn't good at) but not ready to give up my job system and not ready to walk away from the Dream...
Perhaps I would have walked away if Mindark hadn't agreed to give the Howling Mine a shot, but they agreed and so here we are...
There is no guarantee it's gonna be great or the gameplay is gonna be fun or that anyone will pay the premium to Instant TP from planet to planet or that anyone wants to engage in heavy PVP in space or that I can even successfully market jobs or space mining.. BUT if all these things were actually cool and I did a good job, then we might start getting a few more players and I might be able to scale up my marketing.
Bottom Line is if anyone can get more new people playing Entropia, its good for the whole Universe, because they will gradually explore and play everywhere.
I would be very happy if some of you would find ways to get new players... I've been trying for over 20 years, I've had a couple of ATH's and some very long dry spells. So if you do decide to give it a shot, be in it for the long haul.
Final note: I am excited about space and action in space and space mining and upgrading ships and pirates and crafting, so I'm rooting for MA to be excited themselves to do a great job. Even if you hate me. Encourage them to do a great job, because it will add more fun to the game, create more opportunities for everyone..
in my honest opinion, mindark need to go back to the old PE road, todays game got nothing to do with the old magic.
yes we need "jobs" but rewarding people with universal amo is not the way, it just delays the point where you quit, @ some point you question ur self if its worth it to spend ur time for 6$ a month, then you wake up and start to understand that the 6$ dont even cover the electricity costs in india.
we need "jobs" who give market oportunitys, lets imagine mindark gives (just a example) sweat a reason of consume again by rewarding 1 15mg pill for 1K sweat, you place the npc in a lootable pvp zone.
this will have impact in :
1.mindessence because of teleportation
2.weapons because of people hunting down each other
3.armor because of people defending
4.healing tools because of people healing
5.vehicles because people will hide in them
6.oil consume, because people will use them
7.vehicle weapons because people will use them
8.crafting because those weapons need a crafter
9.materials consumed in crafting
10.sweat by it self because now you can transform the sweat to a consumeable that is gone after 1 hour of use
it actualy delivers a endless supply and demand chain by the fact that the consumeable is "easy to get" and get consumed
you dont sweat 1 k within one hour
@mindark, gz i solved your problem why new people quit this game, now pay me what the balance manager gets for 1 year in ped pls
i dont try to bash mindark by that, but its a easy example on how to fix things.
the old entropia had a lot of "jobs" people culd do what ever, sh.. there where crafters deticated to craft furniture in order to climb the neverdie bank.
it was a floating economy and a game that everyone loved
nowdays we have a cripple version of a event runner, the only purpose you log in is to runn the mayhem events in order to pull a weapon, thats the only market.
back in times you did login to:
chat
roleplay
climb things with stacked items
go to a party on a asteroid
go to a party in a apartment
player events
fashion events
become a taxi driver
become a full time sweater 5-10 ped per K
teleport runner
hunting hofs globals and chacing MU
and probably a million other good and funn reasons that made people build a relation with the game
today you download the game, shoot your 20 ped of amo and uninstall after 1 day because who the .... want to waste 1 hour of his live for almost 10 cent sweat while there are A class games you can play for free
recharge the magnet mindark, hit me up if you need help i am happy to help you for the love to the game
