Pity I didn't keep screen shots (or could remember my original forum account login from 10 years ago)
Here is my necromancer additions to the thread.
I came into the project entropia game pretty early. I mean REALLY early.
Here are things i remember and things I found.
1: on first logging on, 90% of the world had no creatures spawned in it - at least in the middle in remote places from cities.
2: I was unable to play for 6 months because i logged out in hadesheim and when I logged on, they had added a building where I was standing... and i was now stuck in the wall.
3: when running i was astonished that i could run through lakes.. and not drown.
4: One of the cities had a space port, with a platform up top with what appeared to be landing spaceship animations. Neither the building not the animations exist any more. You could also not get to the top of the building. (Port atlantis i think)
5: 6 years later I saw a similar graphical style in anarchy online. (game sorta sucks but it has the old original look of this game)
6: On the hill over over from that weird tower thing, (up and left from Nymph town) was another one, only there was no top- i never saw anyone mention that one. It appeared to be a space elevator, but the door didn't work. Had a logo but cannot recall what it looked like sorry. Tho the logo in itself suggests it was omegatron or one of the fictional companies property
7: There was destroyed vehicles next to a remote outpost i found while wandering. What was really interesting was the vehicle had ownership information if you clicked on it. This is 10 years before cryengine btw.
8: Voting terminals - they became decorations as you know.
9: Trade terminals, worked much like auction terminals do now. Player crafted clothes for sale.. blew my mind. Ironically newer players are requesting this type of terminal now to list their shop/shopkeeper items.. pfft.
10: The vehicles noted at point 7 became non interactive scenery; then later were removed entirely, although I noted in a later VU there was several of the same models used at the old Port Atlantis new arrivals "compound" for a while before they blew it all up and sank it into the ocean apparently.
11: There was an announcement of a special "scripting" system for crafters at one point. (ie you can to some degree program what you craft or your tools) This was linked with the "file upload" facility to also allow custom logos/designs/patterns on crafted items. Was also related to the New Oxford system to permit art to be uploaded. I thought cool, i should upload a logo and get it on my outfit. On examination I got the impression it was only for the fabulously wealthy players use only however. it was used for such things as club neverdie signs and the like. At some point this feature seems to have quietly disappeared - my guess is it was related to a similar "scripting system" having been added to Active Worlds, and then later Second Life (similar player customizable / content/building mmo games) and to avoid possible comparisons or IP suits was removed.
12: At one time when you crafted stuff it said your name in the "crafted by XX person" info page. This was a pretty cool little "ego" feature for crafters selling their wares. Also served as a free "Advertising" if a friend wanted to buy a similar item too - you could tell them who to ask.
13: A number of odd buildings were chucked on the island in the middle of Calypso, if you glitched your self (zoom out rotate camera) inside was some satellite dish looking thing. Mobs often spawned inside and could hit you but you could not hit them.
14: Rocky and Bullwinkle (New Oxford) there was an awesome underground shopping center under the moose - where I got all my current gear from under it; in a dug out cave system down there.
15: Biggest annoyance pre-cryengine for me was if you were on top of a mountain/wall/tree/building etc and attacked a mob - it could still hit you, even tho in some cases it was over 100 metres away. Even more annoying if you were NOT attacking it. Likewise if you were running around any sort of obstacle and sniping mobs, it would automatically flag the mob as unlootable. Now before anyone shouts "of course its an exploit" consider how you would play exactly the same mob encounter or PVP in any other FPS game, eg crysis.. why is industry standard FPS strategy considered "cheating" in this single game, unlike every other game ever made? Very early on i got the impression the entire games is a big over complicated "slot machine" from that.
16: Biggest annoyance post-cryengine - they deliberately broke all of the AI logic, and gameplay physics; followed shortly by objects and structures of what should have been the most awesome game engine ever for PE - to the point the game now only runs on a high spec PC, but still looks and plays with all the same illogical gameplay quirks that the old engine had.. so why bother changing engine at all?... oh look Vehicles.
17: I have been given a "free complimentary Avatar makeover" around 4 or more times so far.. which is good as...
18: ...At one point the game had realistic "avatar" physics, where your hair/beard/weight would keep growing, requiring that you occasionally located a "barber" player to trim it back again etc. and...
19: ...Last time i logged in so much time had past that my Avatar was now an overweight long haired elephant
20: Body Sculpture terminals.... erm.. where did these go? Last one I saw was in someones estate, in a very broken condition, several years ago now.
21: I once logged in after a 5 year absence, and another player did also, I pointed out that his once cheap nasty gear that he was currently wearing was now quite rare and expensive, (UL version of what is now L armor, and a fire-something gun) he checked the sales graphs and nearly died of shock.
20: A player accidentally got a HOF when he dropped a probe in error while lagged inside a building. You normally cannot drop probes there. Everyone ROFL'd
21: what happened to sitting down!
22: Gangnam style dance option now... really? REALLY?
23: Prior to one of my extended absences I logged out of a quaint but generally abandoned city called hadesheim... when i logged in again, I was in the middle of a large mostly empty crater with a number of scary robots spawning in a generally random and erratic manner all around.
24: After another extended absence, there is now a scary industrial plasma refinery looking thing in that crater full of 100+ level impossible to kill mobs
25: That map builder glitch (the big black ball) me and everyone trying to jump or climb up and touch it, or get screen shots with their head in it.
26: Logging in after an update, and discovering that the skill progression and ammo burn had been scaled so high that it was almost impossible to gain skill in anything.. and that my passable sweating skill was now considered sub par as my success rate was now 1 in 50 instead of 1 in 5
27: Logging in and discovering the teleport implant i had scraped so long to get and install, had now been uninstalled and i was not given the tool to reinstall it. Apparently was meant to have been "compensated" the cost of a tool.. but somehow i missed that..
28: My mining skill was now no longer high enough to even fluke enmatter finds anymore and the probe burn went from 3 to 30 anyway.. so id not be able to power the chip anyway!
29: Discovering a large portion of the population has left the game.. where before all the cities were popular, with up to 50 people.. or sweaters.. there is now at most 2 - 4 people at any one place.
30: Investing in a land deed, so far it hasn't paid out my 4 ped
and the promised land selection linked to the deed seems to have been sidelined... maybe i need more deeds.. then again the price continues to go up..
31: Houses in what is left of Minopolis are still unobtainable.. but by an amazing coincidence they would fit exactly in my 100^2 land deed space well within 99.blah anyway.
32: Promises that land deed owners can built a house in their chosen spot.. seems to have been .. forgotten as well.
33: Lootable PVP in space.. really? Isn't that like putting up a curtain around the hallway between the slot machine and the cash out desk in the casino, and saying - "go ahead kill/mug/maim any people after they get a jackpot who walk down here to get their win - we wont report you or stop you. It makes the gambling more exciting dont you think?"
34: Island girl shrine.. she died.. (sad face)
35: The (story / plot device) legend of old Ithaca city ruins. (Sounds very much like the port atlantis ruins plot device) - other than a few humps and blocks never found anything East of Port Ithaca
36: .... Color blending?
37: Where did the Club Neverdie building go on FOMA... (guess it was deleted but all the signs were left behind)
38: Where did the Nymph Town catwalk go?
39: Player XX investigated an alien space craft and found loot worth XX peds... er, i found one once, you press a button and.. presumably this counts as "investigating" unfortunately as soon as you get near the button, it spawned (for me) a high level robot which coincidentally killed me before my "operate" click registered.
40: ... Vague memories of a brief instance of people running around north west atlantis sweat camp trying to sell "tamed animals" and wondering wtf
41: spending a week trying to get enough ped to buy a t shirt from the real world terminal.. then forgetting all about it for so long the terminals were removed
42: The original and hilarious sweating animation and sound.. (some Didgeridoo sound and a tribal looking dance)
43: Auto retaliate - if you are attacked you would automatically attack back with equipped weapon.. not seen it do this in nearly a decade? Used to be handy where you got disconnected.. you had a small chance of not dying!
44: Correct me if i am wrong, but wasn't their an offline messaging system too.. so if you told someone something and they logged out before you hit enter, it would come up as a notification message next they logged in..
45: .. There used to be a player (or a clever AI) or a Mindark employee(?) stationed at the new arrivals compound in port atlantis, round the clock, who answered new player questions.
... more to come maybe if i can remember them ;o)