Another happy hour - bugs or intentional?

[Eli]

strip clubs cheaper.

That' what I need, a great male stripper. Totally.

 

[Vizz]

That' what I need, a great male stripper. Totally.

Would an ok on a good day in the right light male stripper be ok... I know a guy... will work for PED

 

[jetsina]

What we don't actually know is the combination of hand and software, the 'why have none dropped for ages?' that becomes 'add some to the pool' in the typical bang that's quicker through the system than a dodgy curry.
There are things that happen that are not random that link in to server resets. If people are doing one thing, notice a drop and switch to a 'related' mob in terms of the drop type, then is that ok if one drop occurs? Possibly. How long should it take before the drop comes? We all know of vu chasing, hoping for this, that and the other. What needs action is this multiple stuff in relatively quick succession madness - months' worth of a drop before others have even had breakfast! What triggers that? Is there a very limited RND in place after a loot input, or dare I say, a cascade?

The problems we have had in the past is also with apparent insider knowledge, where the servers are hardly even up and certain people have been in the right place. The slippery slope and tangled webs are very mixed metaphors, but some people are able to slide too well too often. Enough ...

 

[UnaAlconbury]

If that response from 711 will keep standing as the only "official" word on this matter, that's just ridiculous and an extremely bad look for the company. It will only fuel raised concerns about communication and deplete trust levels even more by remaining silent.

Yes, it has always worked out for you in the past to stick your head in the sand. With this old, trusty and heavily invested playerbase, things have always blown over. Too much at stake to risk anything and the addiction is too high to be able to muster any form of strike to show discontent. We are all usually back to grinding again the next day.

However, you are now a listed company. With listing comes pressure of growth. If you have any aspirations of growing at all, bringing in new players and retain them, how you handle things right now simply won't cut it. A brand new engine will not do anything if the trust in the core system of loot is not there.

I am not even saying this as a bitter old player who rarely logs in any longer, we have plenty of those in these forums who take every opportunity to throw shade at the game. I have quite a lot invested. I sincerely want Entropia to succeed. But myself, and clearly many others by looking at this thread and ingame channels today, are greatly concerned with how things are run as of late.

 

[Eli]

This all day.

Honestly at this point you could find an NPC that just gives 1k ped stacks with every click and it's not worth reporting because they probably intended for it and we should just check our privilege and expect that these things happen because loot is dynamic so nothing is ever wrong with anything that occurs in game.

You just summarized 20 years in one sentence.

 

[Mac]

Hey MA, wen TWEN happy hour?

 

[Eli]

Would an ok on a good day in the right light male stripper be ok... I know a guy... will work for PED

Sorry, I have snobby high standards.

 

[caimen]

I don't normally post here or get involved in stuff like this, but I just wanted to add that I do find these drops deeply concerning. The way these drops are programmed is not good practice. At best it's bad programming and at worst it's favoritism. I'm choosing to believe it's the former. This erodes trust in the loot system which is the primary reason everyone is here. I do believe a community post is warranted here and a promise to do better in the future is extremely important for trust in the community.

If MindArk truly wants to be able to address the concerns of the community and move forward like a modern game company into Unreal, then it is time to hire a proper community manager. A community manager that actually streams the game on a regular basis and actually interacts with the community. A community manager who can filter the legitimate concerns of the community out from the rest of the noise and improve the product. We aren't asking you to give away the secrets, we are asking to be listened to. That's all I have to say on the matter.

 

[Ivo Jahrumble]

It is bad programming and the evidences are all around.

Someone already pointed before many other examples like rings and other rare loot. Any time something is added to the lootpool it drops really fast and without any balance.

This issue at this point should already be written up and being treated as a bug by developers, this last few ocurrences just prove the point.

Takes no skill to be on an admin discord, make a complaint about something and then reap the rewards when the "balancing" is done. Some might stumble on this unawarely, some others might prey on this loophole... you see where Im trying to get with a consistent set of core rules??

 

[ledja]

If MindArk truly wants to be able to address the concerns of the community and move forward like a modern game company into Unreal, then it is time to hire a proper community manager. A community manager that actually streams the game on a regular basis and actually interacts with the community. A community manager who can filter the legitimate concerns of the community out from the rest of the noise and improve the product. We aren't asking you to give away the secrets, we are asking to be listened to. That's all I have to say on the matter.

I really doubt the problem is the lack of a community manager, just take a look at My. I obviously don't have the insider knowledge to confirm any of this but anyone that reads most of her messages or has interacted with her in discord can see that she really does not have much room if any for communication. Anytime anyone asks a serious question its always "I'll forward this to the team" or something similar. She pretty much only has the room to answer obvious things that anyone could find out themselves.

Then take a look at what happens when we have something like this, she's forced to go offline and doesn't communicate at all. Maybe because MA told her to log off of discord and not a say a word about any of this?

There's no point in having a community manager that can't tell us anything without needing for it to get approved message by message, but its clear that mindarks stance is to sequester and keep everything regarding loot or game mechanics as secretive as possible.

 

[Yazuki]

I really doubt the problem is the lack of a community manager, just take a look at My. I obviously don't have the insider knowledge to confirm any of this but anyone that reads most of her messages or has interacted with her in discord can see that she really does not have much room if any for communication. Anytime anyone asks a serious question its always "I'll forward this to the team" or something similar. She pretty much only has the room to answer obvious things that anyone could find out themselves.

Then take a look at what happens when we have something like this, she's forced to go offline and doesn't communicate at all. Maybe because MA told her to log off of discord and not a say a word about any of this?

There's no point in having a community manager that can't tell us anything without needing for it to get approved message by message, but its clear that mindarks stance is to sequester and keep everything regarding loot or game mechanics as secretive as possible.

Same thing can be seen with Ludvig, he was happy to answer any and all questions related to the Nanocube change but as soon as this blunder happens, he's seen watching this thread but radio silence. MA just loves to sweep every mistake under the rug and hope people just forget about it and continue cycling away like they always have.

I think the way MA handles these mistakes is way more concerning than the mistakes themselves because they could at least acknowledge they screwed up and then maybe communicate the steps they're going to take to avoid these issues in the future. Instead we can now pray that we're at the right place at the right time to be the lucky person for the next time this happens again

 

[Krystan]

I don't know about you but i would not trust enough to invest my house and future in a company owned by a ukrainian parfume & cosmetics queen and that is runned like this by a swedish male fashion model. But that is just me.

 

[Krystan]

I don't know about you but i would not trust enough to invest my house and future in a company owned by a ukrainian parfume & cosmetics queen and that is runned like this by a swedish male fashion model. But that is just me.

I asked ChatGPT what it can predict it would happen in this scenario and i got this:
"While it's difficult to predict exactly what would happen if such a scenario were to occur, if a Ukrainian beauty queen and a Swedish fashion model took over Mindark, I imagine the virtual world of Entropia Universe would become a lot more glamorous. Maybe we'd see avatars strutting down the virtual catwalks in designer outfits, or hunting monsters with stylish weapons adorned with jewels and gold. Maybe they'll introduce an "extravagant loot drop" feature where only players who wear the most outrageous and flamboyant outfits get a chance at the best loot drops. Who knows, maybe even the creatures on the planet Calypso would start wearing trendy clothing and accessories. And instead of traditional loot, we might start seeing exclusive beauty products and high-end fashion items dropping from defeated enemies. It would certainly be an interesting and unique twist on the current gameplay!"

 

[mastermesh]

People have short attention spans and tend to forget things like this every few months when more marketing hype happens. It's definitely not the first time something like this has happened, and definitely won't be the last. It typically happens a couple of times a year, then there's some forum blowup about it, it's forgotten about, Mindark puts out some random hype for some new marketing thing or the other, and rememberance of these things goes bye bye... and eventually, of course mods may come and delete threads, move forums to new servers, etc. making it more difficult for those with longer attention spans than 3 weeks to find any record of any past such occurrence, and the vibe goes on. We didn't start the fire, but we've let it burn for 20 years...

Remember sharks? Remember scannergate? Remember avatar that crashed server when entire universe landed in it's inventory (of course at that time there was only one planet, and the digutal representation of the planet was actaully looted I think from what I've read of it)? Watch the forums, and grab some popcorn in a few months.... remember everything Mccormick has mentioned in this forum and in some other forums like uh, well... the list goes on and on and on, and on...

more drama drama llama llama to come as usual. It's still first quarter of this year...

 

[LordVoldemort]

Loot is, and always has been, dynamic.

Please define "dynamic" or explain the context of its meaning in regards to loot. This is the response we always get because it allows the subject to be completely deflected. Without definition or context it's simply left open to interpretation which shows just how much there is indeed an issue here.

This is not OK in any sense of the word. Define "dynamic" however you want it is utterly reprehensible that this happened. There is no way to justify or explain it away that is going to be acceptable by anyone with half a brain....and I spent 13 years as a spirit being in an Albanian forest.

If one of my Death Eaters did something like this and then tried to explain it away calling it "Dynamic" it would be Avada Kadavra without hesitation. Even if it was Malfoy.

 

[Legends]

I agree that stuff like this just makes people feel like the game is rigged and totally unfair... And it's the same story since forever, just to name a few:

Circa 2016 or 2017, messi gets like 9 seasonal rings IN A ROW!
Circa 2018, MA creates a crafting event, gives all 100 clicks to the first person to loot Combobulator BP, who then gets like 10 HOFs roughly 20k ped each (was supposed to just get 3 clicks as per event announcement)

...

It's like MA wants it to be that way for some reason, doesn't listen to players who clearly feel like this is totally unfair.

 

[Korin Dante MDe]

I say this game is put together with pieces of pixels. Pixels has real money value. And this game is a slot machine. Sell magazines and with that money depo in this game to skills up.

 

[San]

I just started trying the new instance event on Cyrene and gathered from folks who cycled some volume in there already that there is a fairly even distribution of rare drops now (only in the instance, that is.) If this holds true, it looks like a fix tested there first could be underway. Just a guess on my part, nothing official yet.* Interested parties might want to watch the chatter over there, community manager Shawna is online and answers questions as far as possible.

Edit: The above turned out a mistake or misunderstanding. There were a few pristine elements and renegade components dropping around that time which together created that impression. A connection to the new instance is not confirmed. Got a bit excited, it sounded too good to be true...

 

[robber]

I just started trying the new instance event on Cyrene and gathered from folks who cycled some volume in there already that there is a fairly even distribution of rare drops now (only in the instance, that is.) If this holds true, it looks like a fix tested there first could be underway. Just a guess on my part, nothing official yet. Interested parties might want to watch the chatter over there, community manager Shawna is online and answers questions as far as possible.

till next cockup

 

[Sulje]

I just started trying the new instance event on Cyrene and gathered from folks who cycled some volume in there already that there is a fairly even distribution of rare drops now (only in the instance, that is.) If this holds true, it looks like a fix tested there first could be underway. Just a guess on my part, nothing official yet. Interested parties might want to watch the chatter over there, community manager Shawna is online and answers questions as far as possible.

what rare drops ?

 

[San]

what rare drops ?

2023-03-25 05:38:14 [#cyrene] [*****] 1 pristine every 20 mins or so

Remember it's hearsay so far, and early into the event. We should know more soon.

 

[Haruto Rat]

On a tangential note, this "occurence" is yet another reminder one should pay for things only according to their use value, and never ever based on rarity.

Otherwise, you're going to experience quite some buyer's remorse when another 13 drop.

 

[S.R. Trader]

And it happens again..

Lotus armor parts, boosted BPs, 118 UE Tokens at once, Rare Pristines, Rings... etc And you call this dynamic ?

The only dynamic thing in this game are the aweSOME developers.

I guess we can wait few years more till game is out of beta. Its only been 20 years.........

 

[Guarana]

People do realize that current MA staff have zero clue on how the code works right? They are just tinkering. The result is what u c with these drops.

 

[Mika]

People have short attention spans and tend to forget things like this every few months when more marketing hype happens.

sad but true, and this is why nothing will really change

 

[MikeH]

2023-03-25 05:38:14 [#cyrene] [*****] 1 pristine every 20 mins or so

Remember it's hearsay so far, and early into the event. We should know more soon.

That's bs pristines gives rare hof if you don't have have one in inventory ..
If it was dropping we will see atleast some new names.

 

[jetsina]

People do realize that current MA staff have zero clue on how the code works right? They are just tinkering. The result is what u c with these drops.

Over on NI it did look as if they tried to change the waves and drops over several vus and patches, and calling it tinkering would not be being too unkind, although playing around/experimenting could also be used.
As some mobs were not always being hunted, it was possible to get insights into the drop mechanics to a significant level I believe. There was enough time to develop a theory from test runs, then go out and repeat them. It is true that people often see patterns where none are really there, but if you don't know what a pack of cards consists of and you shuffle and deal a bit, and repeat, you get a good idea pretty fast.
Tinkering can be fine tuning or it can be a wild stab in the dark of "what will happen if we change this? - oops!"

The best tinkering resulted in drops over about 30 mins per wave for a low-tt mu loot, which was at least close to being no waves as such.
I also discovered an interesting phenomenon with what seemed to be what I'd describe as digging in a rubbish tip for 'layers' of loot in the loot pool that hadn't been 'dug up' in previous waves, as well as other curiosities. It got me thinking about why MA might want to see rare stuff drop quickly once it has been added, so that it cannot sink deeper and deeper over time and never be looted by people going through the 'rubbish'.

If we look at the new items of the day over at the Cyrene event, once more we can see the discoveries roll in right at the start within minutes, before the official start time even, so that it's a safe bet that the instance was actually switched on slightly early. Of course, the early birds were there to grab not just discoveries, but possibly multiples of initial goodies, plundering the initial wave. We've seen it so often. The only saving grace might be that the start time was finally at an atypical time, possibly giving other players around the world a chance without having to specially set their alarms. I'm still almost disgusted by the system, though. Epic fail.... again!

The new stuff is only 5 pecs tt, so if it is given drop priority, of course it'll drop on every mob for however many seconds until the pool is depleted. But there is also a RND (or similar) additional factor that allows loots such as mission bones, pleak wings etc to drop on average every 7 kills or so over and over. USE that ffs, to at least spread drops over minutes not seconds!!!

But no, I guess they don't understand what their formulas do and have to tinker. If they played the game they would get a better idea even without 'dev insider' info available...

 

[messi91]

Circa 2016 or 2017, messi gets like 9 seasonal rings IN A ROW!

Somewhere January-February 2017 I looted 3 x Christmas 2016 rings, not 9 not 8 not 200, just 3 and one of the reason was that I've open more strongboxes in a month that you and your whole society probably open in a year combined.Not a bad thing , not a good thing, just the nature of the game.You buy lottery tickets or however you want to call them , you increase your chances to get the good stuff.You do nothing, you get nothing.
Also I wasn't the only one who did that , I suppose others open a lot of boxes.
Tracker still works if you want to verify information I guess.

 

[Mika]

Somewhere January-February 2017 I looted 3 x Christmas 2016 rings, not 9 not 8 not 200, just 3 and one of the reason was that I've open more strongboxes in a month that you and your whole society probably open in a year combined.Not a bad thing , not a good thing, just the nature of the game.You buy lottery tickets or however you want to call them , you increase your chances to get the good stuff.You do nothing, you get nothing.
Also I wasn't the only one who did that , I suppose others open a lot of boxes.
Tracker still works if you want to verify information I guess.

But, did you open more than every person at that time combined opening boxes, that was not you?

Comparing you to any random person is not a valid thing to do, but in this example, you should compare yourself to the entire playerbase at that time who also opened boxes, that is what they likely were pointing at.

If you open 10 000 boxes, but the community as a whole opens 100 000, and that means 110 000 in total gets opened, if one player in a row then gets 3 seasonal rings, its, lets just say very improbable.

Those numbers are of course pulled straight out of my hiney, but lets just say there are players, who are not you messi, who on more than 1 occassion, opened several seasonal rings, in a row, multiple times. Its a bit hard to believe in any logical manner that you open more than the entire playebase does alone (and we can track it, isnt that just great? ). And you simply saying it is not believable as you've hidden any and all info and refuse to give any insight. for all we know, you might just at this point be a well known player everyone thinks is rich, and in reality barely cycle 50 ped a month, only you will ever know that.

 

[San]

That's bs pristines gives rare hof if you don't have have one in inventory ..
If it was dropping we will see atleast some new names.

You're right, it should and I forgot to double check. http://www.entropialife.com/rareloot.aspx and "pristine" in search box, result doesn't appear to justify the claim.