I wish we could have the old game back

[Stutoman]

A day of boredom and not having logged in for years has given me a nostalgia trip to the place I sunk many hundreds of hours during my teenage years.

This era was truly the peak of Entropia Universe, I wish I could relive this game as it used to be before the CE2 remake. Think about how smoothly it would run on the capacity of modern machines and servers!

A brief search for a video of the old game and seeing this video sent chills down my spine. Back then it was truly a piece of art and it felt good to play. It felt more like a game and less like a casino. I still grieve at what we lost - it wasn't just about graphics, or an art style, but the whole aura of the era.

I know the game will never be what it was, but hopefully the UE5 rebuild might reintroduce much of what was lost, from a UI that actually looked and felt good unlike the mess today, to game mechanics that felt balanced, and perhaps even a reversal of some of the decisions which caused players to distribute and make the game feel empty. Games like Entropia Universe are made what they are not just by what you can do, but by what you can't do which shapes how players interact with one another - which is the entire point of an MMO.

I hope the old game is mothballed in a digital archive somewhere, so that maybe one day it can be brought back online if not as a service then at least as a playable museum piece.

 

[Stutoman]

Heck you know what, I think I posted a VU10 video without realising, it's been that long! Gosh!

 

[TonySamTaler]

Heck you know what, I think I posted a VU10 video without realising, it's been that long! Gosh!

I NEVER was in Hadesheim before it was destroyed.

 

[Stutoman]

Some of these old places feel like being in the backrooms, they have an eerie atmosphere and energy of places once visited. A fever dream.

 

[Stutoman]

There were no vehicles, and these places all had a gravity to them as a result. You were an explorer, and these places were meaningful bases that you had to discover by foot to add to your map - usually through many hours of treacherous journeying solo or with friends. They felt like true outposts, and safe spots people gathered around.

Sure, the graphics were more basic, but if anything it just made you appreciate the art style. It was never supposed to be about true realism, but about the feelings it evoked. The colours, the UI, the brutalism of the architecture, the colour of the entire scene including the ground and sky was all part of the dystopian character of the game. I never minded the concept of upgrading the game engine - but it has to be said that the art style changed quite drastically alongside the change of game engine, which changed the entire atmosphere of the game.

 

[RandyGetz]

Imagien having a teleporter to memory lane

 

[True Juan]

Yes, Project Entropia was something else.

One of the best parts was exploring on foot, i dont think new players get much of that experience. If at least the use of vehicles was restricted to like LVL20 or something, so that you can get a sense of achievement getting a new teleporter. (I remember it took me 4,5 hours to get to Fort Troy from PA and it was one of the most frustrating and rewarding things - I still remember it like it was yesterday and it was 19 years ago). Or beacons, how fun they were with the various lvls and especially "the maze", not that BORING SH*T they are today.

The sky, the music, the overall atmosphere. Fight in rings, much more social events in-game. Game felt more alive.

Well, it is what it is. We either adapt or leave.

 

[E.K.x]

I tend to mute in game music and play this on loop, extreme nostalgia

 

[Lykke]

While I completely understand the nostalgia, because everything felt so new and exciting back then, but I honestly have to say that I LOVE the game even more today. There are so many more possibilities now, more places to explore, more missions, Codex, space(mining), and a lot more depth overall. Heck, I even love the AI

I truly loved those first years of playing though, because it was all still a new world to me, and I remember that time as something really special when meeting so many great people, and experiencing everything for the first time was amazing. But for me personally, the game feels much more alive today, and a lot more fun as well on all levels.

It's like some people stay emotionally rooted in the years when they were young or in their teens fx the 80s/90s (for us 'oldies' ), remembering that period as the best time of their lives. That is often just how the brain works. We tend to forget a lot of the bad parts and romanticise the good ones. Others remember the good times too, but they are more able to live in the present and just move with it.

I know not everyone feels the same way, but from my perspective, this game just keeps getting better and better

 

[AckerZ]

While I completely understand the nostalgia, because everything felt so new and exciting back then, but I honestly have to say that I LOVE the game even more today. There are so many more possibilities now, more places to explore, more missions, Codex, space(mining), and a lot more depth overall. Heck, I even love the AI

I truly loved those first years of playing though, because it was all still a new world to me, and I remember that time as something really special when meeting so many great people, and experiencing everything for the first time was amazing. But for me personally, the game feels much more alive today, and a lot more fun as well on all levels.

It's like some people stay emotionally rooted in the years when they were young or in their teens fx the 80s/90s (for us 'oldies' ), remembering that period as the best time of their lives. That is often just how the brain works. We tend to forget a lot of the bad parts and romanticise the good ones. Others remember the good times too, but they are more able to live in the present and just move with it.

I know not everyone feels the same way, but from my perspective, this game just keeps getting better and better

Yep for sure, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

However these old videos are super cool.

 

[Lykke]

Yep for sure, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

However these old videos are super cool.

Indeed, they are super cool and so was the time

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

Heck you know what, I think I posted a VU10 video without realising, it's been that long! Gosh!

The feels.... I miss this place a lot. The clothes shop was such a cool thing to discover for the first time.

I think its good that the vendor was removed, made the clothes a bit cooler, more rare, more valueable. A blast from the past.

 

[Stutoman]

It's like some people stay emotionally rooted in the years when they were young or in their teens fx the 80s/90s (for us 'oldies' ), remembering that period as the best time of their lives. That is often just how the brain works. We tend to forget a lot of the bad parts and romanticise the good ones. Others remember the good times too, but they are more able to live in the present and just move with it.

I know not everyone feels the same way, but from my perspective, this game just keeps getting better and better

I think my perspective is not to detract from what it is today, I'd like to get back into the game as it is and have another look around (I think my account might have been deactivated from years of inactivity, hopefully the support get back to me on that), but it's more about the idea that these are places we've truly lost and can't go back to.

For me, Entropia was about escaping into a vast and different world with a different atmosphere - the ruin and gloominess of it were part of the appeal, and I think a lot of that appeal disappeared. I saw a 2022 screenshot of the HUD they were developing for the UE5 rebuild and it looks like they're taking the game further and further away from those gloomy brutalist cyberpunk roots and towards something ever more bright, airy and "polished".

In the UE5 rebuild, I want the game to be gloomier than ever. I don't just want to grind mobs on the Windows XP wallpaper all day, I want to feel like I'm in the barely inhabited ruins of a cyberpunk Kowloon Walled City. The capabilities of modern game engine efficiency and the sheer power of the average PC these days makes for so much possibility in what can be built and rendered locally, the scale of detailed environments can be huge.

 

[RJ-Rob]

All these videos would have been perfect for you to add to the Entropia Museum.

I added them though but please help contribute to the museum - this is why I built it in the first place to preserve these memories!

https://www.entropiamuseum.com

 

[Lykke]

I think my perspective is not to detract from what it is today, I'd like to get back into the game as it is and have another look around (I think my account might have been deactivated from years of inactivity, hopefully the support get back to me on that), but it's more about the idea that these are places we've truly lost and can't go back to.

For me, Entropia was about escaping into a vast and different world with a different atmosphere - the ruin and gloominess of it were part of the appeal, and I think a lot of that appeal disappeared. I saw a 2022 screenshot of the HUD they were developing for the UE5 rebuild and it looks like they're taking the game further and further away from those gloomy brutalist cyberpunk roots and towards something ever more bright, airy and "polished".

In the UE5 rebuild, I want the game to be gloomier than ever. I don't just want to grind mobs on the Windows XP wallpaper all day, I want to feel like I'm in the barely inhabited ruins of a cyberpunk Kowloon Walled City. The capabilities of modern game engine efficiency and the sheer power of the average PC these days makes for so much possibility in what can be built and rendered locally, the scale of detailed environments can be huge.

It reminds me a bit of when I played the very first Zelda game (yes, I was alive when the Nintendo was released) ... Many years after I tried a newer version of Zelda and was like wtf happened? Was very disappointed by the newer look tbh. A few years back I got a mini-retro Nintendo with the old games on it, including the old Zelda and ofc I played it. YES ... lots of happiness because of nostalgia but fuck, the game actually sucked compared

 

[mihaimnb]

Th

It reminds me a bit of when I played the very first Zelda game (yes, I was alive when the Nintendo was released) ... Many years after I tried a newer version of Zelda and was like wtf happened? Was very disappointed by the newer look tbh. A few years back I got a mini-retro Nintendo with the old games on it, including the old Zelda and ofc I played it. YES ... lots of happiness because of nostalgia but fuck, the game actually sucked compared

That old Zelda was one of the best and most coziest games ever

 

[Lykke]

Th

That old Zelda was one of the best and most coziest games ever

Yes, at that time I did love it. Like I loved (and actually still enjoy) Metroid ... but dunno ... my brain is just more used to faster games and games where I am not looking at big pixels, I guess . The old music is still stuck though on all the retro games I played - also the first Super Mario games, that I got my 13y old to enjoy too untill she got bored ...

 

[Vondur666]

"In the UE5 rebuild, I want the game to be gloomier than ever."

I hope too!

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

"In the UE5 rebuild, I want the game to be gloomier than ever."

I hope too!

ray tracing so i can see my beards individual shadows reacting in real time to the beam from my marber bgh

https://imgur.com/FisO69U

 

[Stutoman]

ray tracing so i can see my beards individual shadows reacting in real time to the beam from my marber bgh

https://imgur.com/FisO69U

Imgur is censored in the UK

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

About wanting the old game back:

I understand what you mean.

However, giving it some thought from my end...

I'd have to say no. I think Entropia is better now than it was back in the day.

I have changed, the internet has changed. What was new and amazing to explore back then, was amazing simply because it was all new. I had never experienced anything like it, and it was completely unheard of an open world game like Entropia back then, where we had to explore everything, learn the coordination system, find the different outposts by having a more experienced player take us there... by foot.

Having to go through all that today, again, would not be as fun as it was back then because I know what can be done in a game. I've seen so much things on the internet, if my mum knew about half of it I'd get a proper a*s beating. And I am old enough to have played Entropia back in 2004-2005. I remember being at Crystal Palace back then killing Kreltin with the shitty marber and/or mann mph. Yeah, it was wild.



Since those days I've seen so many games and what they can do in a game... going back there would honestly(probably):
1. ruin the nostalgia/memory of the game.
2. make me uninstall it as fast as my high speed m.2 nvme can possibly wipe it.

What would be even more awesome and important:

new milestones, new things that break records like they did back in the day. What could we possibly suggest, that would make people drop their jaws when they heard about it being possible in Entropia?

That's what I want. I want more events like we have had recently. Things that make me feel things, it's what hooked me to the game, and it is what is keeping me here.

Great job to the devs for last past months work, I've seen a will for change that honestly makes me feel so hopeful.

And that makes me throw my money at it, just like it did back then.

https://imgur.com/eFfmdb3

 

[ChairmanEdgewise]

Imgur is censored in the UK

Opera browser, use the in built vpn.. Its just a short video of a guy drawing an absolutely perfect circle on the rear window covered in snow.

 

[Stutoman]

I have changed, the internet has changed. What was new and amazing to explore back then, was amazing simply because it was all new. I had never experienced anything like it, and it was completely unheard of an open world game like Entropia back then, where we had to explore everything, learn the coordination system, find the different outposts by having a more experienced player take us there... by foot.

Having to go through all that today, again, would not be as fun as it was back then because I know what can be done in a game.

Spinning up an archived copy of the old game as a museum piece, perhaps with fake currency and many features disabled, would not detract from your experience of the modern version except for perhaps some players going to visit it. For me, it's about the art and the emotions it evoked as a sense of place. It was a place to escape to, not about the record breaking even though that did add some buzz.

Having to explore everything by foot caused the world to be big and it was part of the charm. The faster you can travel, the smaller the world becomes. Not having vehicles was actually one of the game's main differentiators from the real world. There's no reason they couldn't introduce a planet without vehicles though, or build areas that are true to the original art style/concepts.

I saw one of the UE5 progress videos on Port Atlantis and can see they're keeping true to the CE2 rebuild style rather than the more brutalist cyberpunk roots of the game which is a shame, because visibly a lot of the CE2 art style was just about the convenience of what that game engine offered off-the-shelf (you could see many of the similarities with Crysis games for example). I believe places like Hades were destroyed simply because the time it would have taken to rebuild it was too long, months of dev time. These days it would probably be more feasible to import and convert those old assets somehow, using AI tools if necessary, into UE5 assets.

What would be even more awesome and important:

new milestones, new things that break records like they did back in the day. What could we possibly suggest, that would make people drop their jaws when they heard about it being possible in Entropia?

That's what I want. I want more events like we have had recently. Things that make me feel things, it's what hooked me to the game, and it is what is keeping me here.

Yeah but what milestones? The quality of the UI and the balance of the loot system were always the main things that drove people away. The UI lost its polish and the loot system just started rinsing everyone which also pushed people away, whereas it had been way more balanced before VU10. The focus shouldn't be on cheap headlines, it should be on player retention - because without retention all your attention-seeking efforts are wasted. I don't know what it's like today but retention in the early 2010s was dogshit, and the unbalanced grinding nature of the game caused it to gain a negative public reputation with big name streamers like Asmongold.

The key strength of a game like Entropia is its social environment - it's escapism from the real world where you also have in-game friends you can do things with and keep up with - like you say, and exactly the same with me, we came to the Entropia Universe to "feel things". As long as the social aspect is strong, people aren't rinsed too much for just playing the game, and the environment and things to do are genuinely creative and entertaining without being too repetitive (always one of the game's biggest downsides), then that will positively impact retention.

Funny how the conversation has, just like it did 15 years ago, come back around to what the game needs in order to succeed. I hope I do get my account back to take another look in but I suspect by the forums it's as sparsely populated as ever if not worse than before.

The world has increasingly come online over the last 10 years, especially in developing nations, and the developed world is about to see mass layoffs like never before with the advent of AI. Those people will all need a place to go - and virtual worlds are a likely destination for those souls searching for something to do. The focus needs to be on creating an environment where people happily spend their time, where they feel like they're not being rinsed for their money so that they stick around and invite their friends to join them in-game. Like, I like that the PED is tied to the dollar, but the entire point of hunting with virtual weapons is because real ones are too expensive.