My testing of VU 16.0

JohnCapital

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John Teacher Capital
OK did my own testing (meaning I played, mined and hunted)

My standard gear: 3 weapons(main, tagger & finisher), "tool" (scanner or wood chipper, depending) 2 faps, finder, extractor, refiner, 3 ships, TP chip 1 & 2, sweating tool

I don't depo a lot. I also have never withdrawn. I'm a solid player who plays a lot, stays steady. But I've been a big advocate. I still wear my Entropia shirts and hoodie almost every week, if that tells you anything.

CRAFTING
Won't be crafting until this weekend, but since it's literally just standing still, don't expect any issues.

MINING
My mining style: 3rd person (over the HEAD, not shoulder)- run, drop, head back to dig claim
Was finally able to figure it out
Switch to extractor, turn around, find claim, move mouse to point cursor at it and interact/use tool (both seemed to work for some reason)
USED to be: Switch to extractor, select next target, auto-use. Automatically headed back to claim and sucked it dry. Simple. Didn't touch mouse.

HUNTING
My hunting style: 3rd person (1st under special situations)
USED to be: select next target, auto-use (changing weapons/tools as needed, often turning off auto-use real quick to avoid accidental misfire of previous weapon), loot, repeat.

Did methodical hunting starting small and testing different mobs

OVERALL
Looting - Have to click corpse to loot. IF it's the right type of mob (doesn't move too far down when dying, AND only one near ok fine I can use interact to loot. Otherwise.... impossible to avoid.
Action - If gun isn't "ready" your first shot is just pointing the gun, not shooting. This caused lots of "pause/stall" while I readjusted
I don't play other MMOs. I only play EU. So I don't have a basis for other games' play style. BUT I'm concerned new players be unable to play this game comfortably. I suspect you only tested on big mobs from long distance in open space. I hope I'm wrong, though.


MOB SPECIFICS

Punies (Icarus) - Get the basics figured out before wasting too much ped

Merps (Orthos) - (made sure to get mobbed by a few) Hard. Kept shooting next mob instead of looting. Couldn't get a rythem when I'm mobbed

Igni (Zychion) - oh HELL no. Even harder now than before. No thanks. Once you select target, you're connected to them more tightly then my 1st girlfriend. Too hard to move focus off of them. But can't shoot them while they impersonate gophers.

Sabakuma - (Corinth West Hangars) - small, but easy to shoot, since they don't move up/down much

Argo (New Switz) - They were ok
Molisk/Hiryuu (New Switz) - Hard to shoot the hiryuu consistently, and when they move into the air, I am now looking at them from an ant hole by my feet.

Feff cave - wasn't bad at all. Had no real problems, since they don't mob you and it's an open cave.

Argo cave - 3rd person hunting in that just. Sucks. Bad.
In the tight sections, I often "disappeared" just seeing a wall.
I really feel 3rd person playing in the tight caves/locations (or just trying to leave a service station at Naval station or elsewhere) is not user friendly at all. That forces 1st player view even for those that don't want it. That's a huge incentive to leave.

Rex/Saba/Tant/Allophyl (Naval station) - Allos? Are you kidding me? You never really tried to hunt these in 3rd person did you? POV slowly sinking to the ground as they move toward me



OTHER STUFF:
Over the shoulder sucks. Hard to navigate to/through a door or hallway unless you go 1st person

Double clicking = equip? Ugh. Gotta get used to that. A lot of simple actions now require complex button holding, opening inv. etc.

Flying - I used to use a fun technique: While flying, exit V-tol/quad, select ship (mouse on item bar) and pickup, thereby putting it in storage as I fall to my doom without it crashing to the ground. I had lots of FUN using that trick. Can't do that anymore.

Swimming - So I guess you haven't noticed that swimming looks odd when you can face east while moving north (meaning swimming in different direction than the swimming animation suggests I should be going)

Healing - Strangely, my fap would auto-use when I was focused on a mob, but if I was just standing there, it required clicking each time. Couldn't figure out how to auto-use fap if not targeting anything.

Motion Sickness - If this stays this way, my wife Winterhart can no longer play. She has health issues and already couldn't play as much as she wants to anymore, but now... I've banned her, knowing what this play style will do to her. I will likely have to transfer items to myself, absorb her skills and you have one less player that can depo.

F10-F12 were my tp chips and sweating tool (1 through "+" are taken) Now those are not avail. so don't have them on my keyboard again yet. Not sure where to put them.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
You intentionally removed a LOT of functionality. Functionality that many of us like. You made it harder for people to play, even after they get used to things. More interaction is required to accomplish the same action. Fact.

You said this was to help point EU to the direction you intend to go.

You just made a BIIIG gamble. EU better be worth it soon.
 
Thanks for a real test away from fanaticism and excessive flattery. :clap:
 
Great summary, both comprehensive and concise.

I think where it shines right now is for highly attentive, competitive playing in FPS style. It punishes or outright disables the casual grinder, a culture which had been nurtured and developed away from the old game. The looting hassle can be worked around with auto-loot pills or tools, but the extra cost is cause for protest.

I find it counterintuitive to assume that all of these were actually design goals in the spirit of "benefitting the greatest number of players" and expect amendments shortly. The greatest progress to me so far is the improved performance and, of course, the final resolution of targeting issues dependent on hitbox shapes.

The only thing which puzzles me is the obvious nudging to use 1st rather than 3rd person view, as if it was the developer's wish for Entropia to be more like the great FPS games out there, whereas birds-eye view comes more from aged turn-based simulations which tend to look a little amateurish now. I always liked that we had the choice and used both, depending on mood and situation. And the "greatest number of players" is always the one that comprises more than one group.
 
EU once was the best game out there considering freedom of camera adjustment and movement.

now its one of the worst in that regard.

if this is what happens when they put all development resources back into EU id rather have them fail some more compets and deeptokens...
 
I didn´t even dare to login the first day after I saw a few streams but yesterday i did login.

Its horrible if you ask me, i did not even want to try to spend the time needed but i rage logged out and started up another game instead.

Everything feels and looks slower, its made to be able to easy use a bot or something to autohunt, but manual hunting now is horrible to do.


(My though after ragequit after 10 min, and yes i know i will need more time but i didnt even want to spend it at this point)
 
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I didn´t even dare to login the first day after a saw a few streams but yesterday i did login.

Its horrible if you ask me, i did not even want to try to spend the time needed but i rage logged out and started up another game instead.

Everything feels and looks slower, its made to be able to easy use a bot or something to autohunt, but manual hunting now is horrible to do.


(My though after ragequit after 10 min, and yes i know i will need more time but i didnt even want to spend it at this point)

lol, same here.

I tried for about 15 minutes and decided I really don't feel the need to relearn the game again after 14 years.
Maybe when I got a holiday I might log in again and learn to walk again.
 
I didn´t even dare to login the first day after a saw a few streams but yesterday i did login.

Its horrible if you ask me, i did not even want to try to spend the time needed but i rage logged out and started up another game instead.

Everything feels and looks slower, its made to be able to easy use a bot or something to autohunt, but manual hunting now is horrible to do.


(My though after ragequit after 10 min, and yes i know i will need more time but i didnt even want to spend it at this point)

Capital thanks!

And Xpl0jd you summed up how I found it also....
 
The fact is sad, crazy, but clear..
MA staff simply don't know about the game.

Some players know the game so much better than MA.

Anyway, they will continue doing stuff that they decided and nobody asked for.

They think that making the game looks like all others games is the key to success..
They made alot of mistake in the past, but this one could be the last one.. :(
 
The fact is sad, crazy, but clear..
MA staff simply don't know about the game.

Some players know the game so much better than MA.

Anyway, they will continue doing stuff that they decided and nobody asked for.

They think that making the game looks like all others games is the key to success..
They made alot of mistake in the past, but this one could be the last one.. :(

this is not their final move...
They have done this to implement better systems...
They have introduced a new system that brings its own bugs as MA has always done...

They plan to build from this new system better gaming mechanics, they have said as much in the AMA

I assume... (HOPE!!!!)
VU 16.0.1 will be bug fixes
VU 16.0.2 Will be reactions to feedback
VU 16.1.0 building on the system that people are now comfortable with introducing better game mechanics...
 
...(HOPE!!!!)...

Yeah.. Me too.. Or not..

I can see very well where they try to go whith the game..
And I know it's a mistake.

I have to admit that my hope is reducing..
People seems to focus on their keyboard map, and to forget the main problem here;

The next target that don't select mob out of screen.

They reduced visual field alot and added this... thing.
To me it looks like they try to change the core of the game.
It's not the same game now..

Either this, or as I said, nobody at MA's knows what hunting is about in this game..

If they change this back, well nice.

If not.. Then I'm not even angry or whatever.. Just truly sad. :(

For sure, I already said, there is also alot of very good stuff in this VU..
PvP is better now, and that's great cause I love that.

I wonder.. I really do wonder why they didn't add new stuff as OPTIONS only ?
Is it harder to add options in a game than to change things ? :confused:

If someone can answer this question I would be happy.
 
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