Observations from a returning "Project Entropia" era player

[English Stephen]

Hey,

So it's been about 4-5 months now since I returned to Entropia.

First of all - I am 28 now. When I first played PE i was 12 years old in 2002. I used to deposit using splash plastic which allowed me to top up with cash at any paypoint in the UK and then deposit. I am saying this because my experience may be different from most, because I couldn't just as easily deposit as some can (not a rich family either). I used to put birthday and pocket money into this.

I cashed out early 2007 - sold most of my skills and equipment and made a $580 withdrawal.

Anyway. I just thought it might be interesting for me to put into writing the things I have observed in the 4 months I have been back.

If you want evidence I am that old of a player, all I have is an old hof image post going back to 08-2006. I was a member of the society "Sterling and Moss" run by "Gabriel Aziphrazel Stone" which was a well known/trusted trading corp back in the day with small membership.


Observations:

• It's a lot harder to make a huge profit now. Everything seems weighted on initial investment and you wont get a rags to riches loot anymore. I can see why MA did this but it does take away from the excitement and experience I had back in the day.
• It's a little easier to break even/make a small profit. Especially if you go full eco on puny mobs.
• It feels like amped mining is a necessity if you want a global/hof now which is a big risk for players with a low bankroll
• The missions are a great way to add value to a hunt - some of the skillpoint gains i get from both the codex and missions are awesome and it's really good if your a laser gunner because you can pick blp/gauss/explosive gains and gain a huge amount of skills in that
• The spawnrates are ridiculous and they shouldn't be able to spawn within a certain distance of a player. I've had 2 mobs spawn right on top of me while i'm dealing with another one and it's just BS tbh.
• Very disappointed with the devaluation of old classics like the FireForge DAR 9300. I can imagine a lot of old players had stocks of original weapons and to see MA mismanage their ingame economy like this by shitting on their oldest players is sad. I understand the impetus for (L) weaps but there had to be a gentler way, maybe even an amnesty of sorts. I really feel gutted for players who saved good weapons only to be shafted by economy 2.0
• Auto-fire/aim is great, I love it
• Often your servers are laggy as hell and its unacceptable given how much money is involved. You're not Tibia - sort it out.
• You need to do better at incentiveising players congregate in different areas of the game. So many places are barren now, never a player around. This wasn't the case when I used to play, even the most backwoods tp would have a few people standing around. Now it's just a few hubs per planet and it ruins the immersion.
• On a network level, stop treating mobile service centres as separate places from their geographical location. The load in is ridiculous and will turn a lot of new players off.

I'm sure I have a lot more and I'll update it as they come to mind. Just figured this might be interesting to everyone.

Good luck!
Steve

 

[Fiona Simmons]

Thanks for your insight, its nice to read how returning player feel and on what area of intrest they focus. Im suprised you have problems with lag, i have loot lag on semi rare occasion but nothing close to unplayable state.

Please feel free to share more of your impressions and (a kinda late) welcome back.

 

[English Stephen]

Thanks for your insight, its nice to read how returning player feel and on what area of intrest they focus. Im suprised you have problems with lag, i have loot lag on semi rare occasion but nothing close to unplayable state.

Please feel free to share more of your impressions and (a kinda late) welcome back.

Thanks

Yes I have had complete connection drops where I am still in the game but cant change weapon/tool etc and then I relog and I'm about 2 minutes in the past. I have 500mb/s down and 100mb/s up connection so it's not me.

 

[~ Cirrus ~]

Everything seems weighted on initial investment and you wont get a rags to riches loot anymore. I can see why MA did this but it does take away from the excitement and experience I had back in the day.

All is said and done.

That's where the core of the game died.. So sad..

 

[English Stephen]

The frustration is we could still have that - they could pool the loot and randomly distribute. But they wont presumably to appease the 'high rollers' (big losers)

All is said and done.

That's where the core of the game died.. So sad..

 

[messi91]

they could pool the loot and randomly distribute.

Casino player much?This is not lottery mate.

 

[English Stephen]

Casino player much?This is not lottery mate.

PE/EU has always been a ninja casino Each mob/mining depo is a roll on a slot

The crafting betrays this mechanism.

 

[~ Cirrus ~]

Casino player much?This is not lottery mate.

No, we just played Project Entropia..

 

[messi91]

No, we just played Project Entropia..

Isn't the current version updated called Entropia Universe?

 

[English Stephen]

Isn't the current version updated called Entropia Universe?

But this as a now vs then thread.....

 

[messi91]

But this as a now vs then thread.....

I am sorry then.I am kinda new 2013.Perhaps the game was casino back then no clue.Since I play 2013 until now Its not.
Good luck man

 

[English Stephen]

I am sorry then.I am kinda new 2013.Perhaps the game was casino back then no clue.Since I play 2013 until now Its not.
Good luck man

I can assure you it's still a casino. You may be winning, you may be losing - but it is still a casino.

And that's absolutely fine - as long as you are aware of it.

 

[messi91]

I can assure you it's still a casino. You may be winning, you may be losing - but it is still a casino.

And that's absolutely fine - as long as you are aware of it.

I do appreciate your assurance and your advise.I prefer to always win therefore I keep playing Entropia Universe even though I never step inside a casino in my life.
Take care.

 

[English Stephen]

I do appreciate your assurance and your advise.I prefer to always win therefore I keep playing Entropia Universe even though I never step inside a casino in my life.
Take care.

Ok good luck with always winning in a casino then

 

[messi91]

Ok good luck with always winning in a casino then

Works as intended since end of 2014 until today.I guess I'm just lucky! He he

 

[English Stephen]

Works as intended since end of 2014 until today.I guess I'm just lucky! He he

Everything seems weighted on initial investment and you wont get a rags to riches loot anymore. I can see why MA did this but it does take away from the excitement and experience I had back in the day.

Nothing you have said has gone against my assertion that you need to investalot to getalot now

Back in the day, a noob could walk south-east out of Port Atlantis (the initial spawn), hunt the snabble with the TT gun and potentially get a 200+ ped loot (FULL OF ITEMS TOO).

That will never happen today - because the loot is so clearly tied to risk/investment in a way that makes mobility between the strata almost meaningless (Unless you get ridiculously lucky)

 

[livius]

Nothing you have said has gone against my assertion that you need to investalot to getalot now

Back in the day, a noob could go out of port atlantis, hunt the snabble and potentially get a 200+ ped loot.

That will never happen today

This happen also today , still seeing +500 ped hofs on puny (.30 pec /kill ) , problem is that after loot 2.0 still exist big unbalanced returns , managing to lose 1500 peds on hunt in 5 hours shooting. If you have 3 days in a raw like this it’s impossible to take that back . As I saw in last 2 months big hofs are reserved only for 9-10 avatars.

 

[messi91]

Nothing you have said has gone against my assertion that you need to investalot to getalot now

Back in the day, a noob could go out of port atlantis, hunt the snabble and potentially get a 200+ ped loot.

That will never happen today

Because on the other hand the same noob who ask for a 200 ped loot sent so many support cases and constantly complained on forums that they want their loot to be more constant (towards their 90% whatever).You can't have both.If you want the thrill of seeing daily 20k + you have to accept that returns on small period of time can be as low as 60-70% whatever.
People enjoy good loots only when it happen to them and constantly complain when others get fat ones and they look into their pocket and see bad result.A weak mind will not understand and their first action is to complain , yell , demand, point fingers, scam , casino, choosen, poster boy, marketing avatar and 200 more other examples.People can't just handle the truth, truth hurts.
Everything you see today is the result of people complaining over and over.They demanded it now they have it.
Enjoy

 

[English Stephen]

Because on the other hand the same noob who ask for a 200 ped loot sent so many support cases and constantly complained on forums that they want their loot to be more constant (towards their 90% whatever).You can't have both.If you want the thrill of seeing daily 20k + you have to accept that returns on small period of time can be as low as 60-70% whatever.
People enjoy good loots only when it happen to them and constantly complain when others get fat ones and they look into their pocket and see bad result.A weak mind will not understand and their first action is to complain , yell , demand, point fingers, scam , casino, choosen, poster boy, marketing avatar and 200 more other examples.People can't just handle the truth, truth hurts.
Everything you see today is the result of people complaining over and over.They demanded it now they have it.
Enjoy

Whatever you say man - I know for a fact you could hit bigger hofs with less back in the day. As I said it's always been a casino but that seems to have struck a nerve with you.

Believe what you want about EU and more power to you (I clearly love it too) - I never came here to have this argument anyway.

Good luck

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqFeCCuwW0

 

[Spawn]

"You need to do better at incentiveising players congregate in different areas of the game. So many places are barren now, never a player around. This wasn't the case when I used to play, even the most backwoods tp would have a few people standing around. Now it's just a few hubs per planet and it ruins the immersion."

You do realise there is a lot more landmass now (different planets, space, etc). Even calypso is almost three times the size the old pe calypso was.

 

[Divinity]

Hey,

Observations:

• It's a lot harder to make a huge profit now. Everything seems weighted on initial investment and you wont get a rags to riches loot anymore. I can see why MA did this but it does take away from the excitement and experience I had back in the day. Agreed. Also by your own admission this makes it a less casino environment today then earlier. Think about it.
• It's a little easier to break even/make a small profit. Especially if you go full eco on puny mobs. Agreed. Point 1 again applies.
• It feels like amped mining is a necessity if you want a global/hof now which is a big risk for players with a low bankroll. Agreed, same as 1
• The missions are a great way to add value to a hunt - some of the skillpoint gains i get from both the codex and missions are awesome and it's really good if your a laser gunner because you can pick blp/gauss/explosive gains and gain a huge amount of skills in that Agreed
• The spawnrates are ridiculous and they shouldn't be able to spawn within a certain distance of a player. I've had 2 mobs spawn right on top of me while i'm dealing with another one and it's just BS tbh. Agreed
• Very disappointed with the devaluation of old classics like the FireForge DAR 9300. I can imagine a lot of old players had stocks of original weapons and to see MA mismanage their ingame economy like this by shitting on their oldest players is sad. I understand the impetus for (L) weaps but there had to be a gentler way, maybe even an amnesty of sorts. I really feel gutted for players who saved good weapons only to be shafted by economy 2.0 Agreed but i do not see another way how MA could do it besides keeping it all L which in my opinion is what they should have stuck to , to begin with.
• Auto-fire/aim is great, I love it Agreed
• Often your servers are laggy as hell and its unacceptable given how much money is involved. You're not Tibia - sort it out. *Disagree. The amount of money in EU unlike other games is not profit for MA but a liability. Unless you are ready to lose all the money deposited, which i am sure if everyone is then MA can use that to fund way better servers.
• You need to do better at incentiveising players congregate in different areas of the game. So many places are barren now, never a player around. This wasn't the case when I used to play, even the most backwoods tp would have a few people standing around. Now it's just a few hubs per planet and it ruins the immersion. *Agreed
• On a network level, stop treating mobile service centres as separate places from their geographical location. The load in is ridiculous and will turn a lot of new players off. *Agreed

We can always agree to disagree on the casino bit as our perspectives might be different but in your own admission this is less of a casino today then it was before. Which personally, i think is where MA should be headed. Focus on the game with an RCE element as an addon rather then focus on just RCE with a game put on top of it.

 

[LavaSparks]

I know for a fact you could hit bigger hofs with less back in the day.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqFeCCuwW0

Everyone knows this. The problem with big HOFs was the volatility. MA still need an income. A few players got 10k ped argo/other low HP mob, the rest of the bunch had 50-70 % return (I played PE back in 2006-2007). Why do you think a few persons could LIVE off withdrawals from PE? A lot of people had to go broke/lose a lot - they're just not around anymore to tell the story.

In short, you needed a bigger budget back then to not risk ruin.

EU 2019: Volatility is lower. If I kill 10k + mobs, I know I won't hit more than ~1000x input on a single mob, but I also know I will have at least 90 % of spent peds in return (on average more - even +100 % at times). I also know I need a bigger budget if I want to chase those 10k+ ped HOFs to not risk ruin, but I can also just spend say $100 a month on huge mobs if it'd give me a thrill, regardless of not having the budget to back the play style up. In short, I can tailor my spending much easier now than before.

What you are missing also is that in PE you couldn't cycle 1500 ped/hour like you easily can today with buffs and SIB weapons. Mobs did not have that much HP. With the volatility you had back then, a lot more people would go broke and whine whine whine. not good for player retention.

 

[Haruto Rat]

Observations:

• It feels like amped mining is a necessity if you want a global/hof now which is a big risk for players with a low bankroll

You still can global unamped. Well, not every day, but certainly more often than in 2013...2014.

 

[LavaSparks]

You still can global unamped. Well, not every day, but certainly more often than in 2013...2014.

Aye. Not long ago I had a 157 ped lyst global unamped. And I am not mining that much.

One can also get Mining strongboxes unamped (and on Ark Mah'ketta parts when looking for treasure afaik) - so unamped is still a good way to mine. (There's also talks about rare finds have capped multis, so that's not going to be a problem unamped).

 

[Kerham]

Hofs were alot lower back then. Oct 2005 biggest ATH mining was 5k, hunting 25k, crafting (iirc) some 30k.

No mining amps, no indoor mining, deposits sized halfway, tt dependant of skill, way bigger hitrate etc etc On hunting, of course, other differences.

"Rags to riches" meant to have in that 500 ped hof a few pieces of nemesis and a weapon which you would use yourself and slowly work your way up.

This is simply impossible nowadays, you need first to deposit to buy the weapon which to enable access to some margins. And per comparative firepower, nowadays you need to drop in 400-1,4k$ for weapons which would have costed a few hundred peds.

More industrious in nature, more gambly in absolute values, less gambly in % values, less skill dependant, less atmosphere, way more scamming going around as "trading". That's how is now vs then.

The main difference is that nowadays you absolutely need to deposit some 10k$ at least, and deposit that upfront, if you want to grow. Back then you could start from zero. Conceptually, EU is the exact opposite of what PE was.

 

[English Stephen]

Thanks for the replies -

Like I said, not posting this to shit on the game - I have a big soft spot for EU (obviously if I come back after all this time). I just think MA are far too happy to rest on their laurels instead of actually putting some effort into making the game enjoyable.

They kept adding planets but really this was just to sell LAs and deeds as well as outsider investment. They could have kept it as calypso and its moon and focused on making those planets fully developed and realised before spreading the experience out over 6 planets in the most boring way possible.

They haven't done or inspired anything notable since the last sale of virtual property. It seems like that's the only thing they have ever done for PR - had someone buy a virtual asset for a huge amount of cash. Not saying that's bad PR but what else does the game have to offer for people who don't have that kind of bankroll?

I really wish MA would start treating this game as the living world it sells itself as rather than a portfolio of assets valued by a virtual currency.

Why don't they start selling gigantic floating ads in high traffic areas for RL companies for example (4 orbiting billboards at twin peaks tp)? All they have to do is prove the viewing for analytics (easy on an engine level), it needn't be too obnoxious. And have some of that income trickle through in loots.

I just don't feel they're creative enough, they're far too comfortable and the game will stagnate eventually.

This is a game designed by risk-averse businessmen rather than people who actually play games. And no - you can't have it both ways.

 

[Aloisius]

Thanks for the replies -

Like I said, not posting this to shit on the game - I have a big soft spot for EU (obviously if I come back after all this time). I just think MA are far too happy to rest on their laurels instead of actually putting some effort into making the game enjoyable.

They kept adding planets but really this was just to sell LAs and deeds as well as outsider investment. They could have kept it as calypso and its moon and focused on making those planets fully developed and realised before spreading the experience out over 6 planets in the most boring way possible.

They haven't done or inspired anything notable since the last sale of virtual property. It seems like that's the only thing they have ever done for PR - had someone buy a virtual asset for a huge amount of cash. Not saying that's bad PR but what else does the game have to offer for people who don't have that kind of bankroll?

I really wish MA would start treating this game as the living world it sells itself as rather than a portfolio of assets valued by a virtual currency.

Why don't they start selling gigantic floating ads in high traffic areas for RL companies for example (4 orbiting billboards at twin peaks tp)? All they have to do is prove the viewing for analytics (easy on an engine level), it needn't be too obnoxious. And have some of that income trickle through in loots.

I just don't feel they're creative enough, they're far too comfortable and the game will stagnate eventually.

This is a game designed by risk-averse businessmen rather than people who actually play games. And no - you can't have it both ways.

o gawd...if there's ONE thing i hate about our 'civilization' it's advertising. why don't you wrap yourself in said advertising and mail yourself to the moon?

 

[English Stephen]

o gawd...if there's ONE thing i hate about our 'civilization' it's advertising. why don't you wrap yourself in said advertising and mail yourself to the moon?

k but -18% on combibos.

 

[English Stephen]

 

[Mega]

And no - you can't have it both ways.

I'll give it a try.

(WB)