Possible solution to the too many items issue

[GeorgeSkywalker]

What would happen when there are 100 PP's or indeed 1000 PP?

The number of items available would be colossal. Each PP having it's own set of armours, weapons etc. Would be quite difficult for us to keep track of it all and would probably hinder performance of the game.

Possible solution:
MindArk could create a Skeletal Item Database (SID). SID would be an imaginary set of items that do not exist on any planet. The purpose of SID would merely be to allow the transformation of an item from one PP to another. In essence SID would be a bridge. That is items would only be available on their home planet. Each item would be linked to SID. So that when we change planet the system will look up it's association on SID and transform it into it's planetary equivalent.

Issues? what if there is no planetary equivalent? Well the system could then keep the original i.e. allows that item onto another planet, or it could transform it to it's nearest equivalent. This would in some cases make the item slightly better or worse.

A side benefit of such a system would be to encourage PP's to have a complete and comprehensive set of armours, guns, tools etc.

edit:
Forgot to add in auction the name of item as well as it's SID reference should be shown. This would make it easier for us to compare as we would only need to remember SID.

 

[Xing Nu]

You do realyse that even whith the best marketing aproach EU will never get 100 planets if they get 10 it will be exploit.
Is not viable model it may look viable to you becose you like the game and becose over the years many players deposited lots of money thinking that they can get profit by doing so but the fact is where are those players to day ? How small is the player db (active players) to see always same names on the HOF board.
In general EU gaming model got realy bad rep amongst mmo's players and that probably one of the harder think to get rid of for MA.

100 PP will never happen even in wet dreams.

But i did understand youre point i just doubt it will be ever needed.

 

[mastermesh]

hmm... interesting idea... but why have multiple planets if the items you hold all work essentially the same on any planet, just having a different look to them? Why would there be any point to ever buy anything new? Planets are economies is the point I think?

 

[Bones]

What would happen when there are 100 PP's or indeed 1000 PP?

There would be 100 or 1000 seperate inventories to hold all the junk they add.



Bones

 

[Shard-Angel]

Interesting idea - but why would anyone wish to be a PP when all uniqueness is nulled out?

Why would any PP shell out millions of USD only to have their hand tied up even more?

 

[Art Jennifer]

Would never happen, Look what happened to Next Island....

Look what was happening to NI untill they moved ores so now massive MU ore is there...

look where cryene is going...




yeah


No issue here

 

[Skippie]

i have a solution: have less items.

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

Interesting idea - but why would anyone wish to be a PP when all uniqueness is nulled out?

Why would any PP shell out millions of USD only to have their hand tied up even more?

How is uniqueness nulled out? The idea does the complete opposite. Preserves the uniqueness of each planet.

Would never happen, Look what happened to Next Island....

Look what was happening to NI untill they moved ores so now massive MU ore is there...

look where cryene is going...




yeah


No issue here

I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at here and how it's relevant to the debate. Please clarify.

i have a solution: have less items.

That's a non solution because each planet needs to have their own look and feel and their own identity or theme so they need to create items to fit that theme.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

Would never happen, Look what happened to Next Island....

Look what was happening to NI untill they moved ores so now massive MU ore is there...

look where cryene is going...

I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at here and how it's relevant to the debate. Please clarify.

I believe Art Jennifer is trying to say that the failure of Next Island (which was flawed from the beginning) and the "failure" of Cyrene (which has even been entirely implemented yet) is an indication that the Planet Partner concept will not work at all, thus limiting the amount of Planet Partners.

However, as what AJ has posted is (as I clarified above) based on flawed (and/or severely limited) "facts and statistics", the opinion has little merit until it can be backed up.

 

[Magyar_Republic]

I believe Art Jennifer is trying to say that the failure of Next Island (which was flawed from the beginning) and the "failure" of Cyrene (which has even been entirely implemented yet) is an indication that the Planet Partner concept will not work at all, thus limiting the amount of Planet Partners.

However, as what AJ has posted is (as I clarified above) based on flawed (and/or severely limited) "facts and statistics", the opinion has little merit until it can be backed up.

The failure of Next Island has to do with 2 things.

1. The Vacation Concept - Cool, great idea. But the mechanics for such a concept that might appeal to casual gamers dont exist within EU. Where's the surfing? Where's the lounging on the beach? Where's the video based chat? What we had here was a bunch of island/fantasy oriented mobs and no supporting mechanics for the core concept of Next Island.
2. Lack of Storyline - The Elysium idea for Time Travel was pretty cool. But it was plainly obvious that the story was basically just an idea. It had not been storyboarded or fleshed out. There was no essential conflict. No driving plotline. No reason to have any events whatsoever. All we had initially was an island with a bunch of monkeys, one whom if you looked at from the right angle looked as if he had a giant erection. The fact that players found that out and amused themselves with it shows that Next Island was fundamentally boring.

The failure of NI has nothing to do with a flawed Planet Partner concept. It has to do with a flawed Planet Partner. David Post was apparently following the NEVERDIE model of Planet Building: Throw a bunch of crap on a landmass, toss out a few HOF's, and wait 2 years before putting out anything worthwhile. Oh, and make all the new stuff ridiculously ugly because you couldnt/wouldnt hire a decent graphic artist.

What we ended up with on Next Island wasnt a Planet. It was a glorified land area chock full of miscellaneous crap with no use and no clear relevance to the game environment at all, like boars hearts, Transformer Helmets, and a person who visited an empty building once a week to talk about video dating.

I hope Next Island gets sold to a developer that actually recognizes the need for an actual independent game (with a driving story, unique features, and a real reason to have NI attractive as a social destination), and works with MA to create features unique to the Next Island environment, and not just a bunch of crap loot ala ROCKTROPIA.

The failure of Cyrene hasnt been set yet. Perhaps they have something up their sleeve and are waiting for key items to be delivered by MA. Time will tell. I have noticed a dearth of information and actual, relevant pieces from the writing staff there lately. A beta is supposed to be a period of frenzied activity, advertising, and promotion. Not silence. I hope this lack of information is not telling.

The Planet Partner concept, as it stands now, has still not been realized. There are no truly separate environments. No real rewards for remaining on one world vs another. Even Arkadia basically just stole the Planet Calypso concept in whole, adding in 1 profession that uses the same tool as a standard one (so is really just an additional resource). The entire Arkadia shtick seems to be to try to evoke the Pre VU 10.0 feeling of EU for old guard individuals, IMHO.

When we start to see specific features and modes of play existing on only one of the planet partners, then we will have an actual working model. Until then Jennifer is right from her respective standpoint. Nighthawk however is more right, in that reserving judgement should be the name of the game right now.

Note: It was not my intention to bash Rocktropia. I'm not a ND hater or any of that jazz. I however have seen some things there that just seem lazy to me. So I am going to pick on them. I hope RT also gets alot better. It probably will. There is some really fun stuff there, and the cheeky nature of the quests is unique to EU.

 

[SpikeBlack]

When we start to see specific features and modes of play existing on only one of the planet partners, then we will have an actual working model. Until then Jennifer is right from her respective standpoint. Nighthawk however is more right, in that reserving judgement should be the name of the game right now.

if there was a way for a PP to add new elements through plugin support then we'd see a lot of new features but atm they're all reliant on the dev team of MA and the costs involved. I'm sure MA is not doing new feature support for free and remember once it's in game then any PP can use a feature added by MA. So why would they pay for a entirely new system to be developed only to see the other planets use it.

I think might see some changes when the new in game browser appears at which point the other planet devs might be able to use it in some new way but essentially if MA don't want to add it then we won't see any really differentiation between planets.

Arkadia is as it is because we have a player who liked the pre vu10 EU so it's not really surprising that his planet is designed like that.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

once it's in game then any PP can use a feature added by MA.

Not quite true.



Sources:

There is only one treasure hunting system and its been finished for over a year, ever since that button appeared in the mining finder. It's on hold because Arkadia has choosen not to implement it. The rest of the planets will be able to introduce it later after Arkadia has had exclusivity for a while.

/Kim at https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?227510&p=2940206&highlight=#post2940206

Yes we can do that, but can we use Cyrenes PvP system or Arkadias treasure hunting system? No we can't.

/Kim at https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...other-planet&p=2939725&highlight=#post2939725

 

[SpikeBlack]

That goes against what MA have previously said in interviews. Which said that any feature added to EU could be used by any PP and would be allowed on each planet by MA unless the PP asked not to have it and that MA agreeded to this request.

It's in an interview with David Simmonds a couple of years ago.

http://www.laudanumonline.com/drupal/content/mindark-interview-0

If i understand correctly planet partners can request features/systems to be implemented into the platform by Mindark, can you describe how that process goes, like how requests from different planets are prioritized etc?
Correct, once we receive the system request we look at the viability of add this to the Entropia Universe, one of the main questions is how will it interact in the economy and how it will affect game play.

Once a system like vehicles is implemented by Mindark, will it automatically be available to all planet partners?
Yes, we give the PP a template of say the vehicle system and then they can build upon that.

Does mindark design/implement systems on their own and that are not directly requested by planet partners?
Yes, we are continually adding new systems to EU that all PP's can use if they wish.

I think it was mentioned in another earlier interview as well but this was the one I could find from memory but this is vearing away from the topic of the thread.

It would be easy to implelement the system if the PP could reskin each item. No need to have an extra entry in a database just a new texture in the planets model data that would override the original but it could also lead to far more issues just like we had with the RT weapons earlier in the year where it could cause a player to crash if they brought them to Caly.