Question for MY|Mindark

Few Scars

Marauder
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Posts
7,328
Location
Arkadia
Society
Freelancer
Avatar Name
Bjorn Bjorn Longstaff
Hi My

I hope you are settling in well. I have a question dating back to 2014 where the following was stated;

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/content.php?231-Galactic-Transport

Developer Notes #10 - Galactic Transport

In the upcoming Entropia Universe Version Update 15.1 (currently scheduled for early December), planet-specific auction sections will be removed. This change will result in a single unified auction, something that many participants have requested and something that MindArk believes will result in a more efficient and dynamic interplanetary economy.

After VU 15.1, buyers will have three options when winning an auction that was listed from a planet that differs from that of the buyer:

Pickup at Origin - Items won from auction will be placed into the buyer’s inventory on the planet of origin (the planet where the auction was created). Buyer must then travel to the planet of origin to retrieve the items from storage.
Normal Delivery - Items won from auction will be transported to the buyer’s storage at the buyer’s current location after a specified period of time (TBD, approximately 1-4 hours). This option will incur a small transport fee, based on the weight of the items to be transported.
Instant Delivery - Items won from auction will be transported immediately to the buyer’s storage at the buyer’s current location. This option will incur the same transport fee as Normal Delivery, along with an extra convenience fee.


The transport fees collected for the Normal and Instant Delivery options will be held in a special transport fee pool. In a subsequent Version Update, transport missions will be made available that can be claimed by spaceship pilots via a queue system that incorporates the available transport fee pool, pilot skills, time limitations, and ship cargo capacities.

Those missions will take the form of cargo boxes which must be delivered to a destination in return for a PED reward funded by the transport fee pool. Cargo boxes are at risk of being looted by other participants in cases where the transporting ship is defeated in space combat; the looted cargo boxes can then be delivered to the assigned destination by the looter to claim the original transport mission reward. Note that the cargo boxes will correspond to the value of the transport mission reward rather than the actual items traded via auction sales. In this way piracy of cargo boxes will not negatively impact interplanetary trade.

It will still be possible to transport goods and resources through space in the current manner, though changes will be made in upcoming Version Updates to address currently existing issues and loopholes that allow for risk-free transport of goods and materials through space.


MindArk believes that this new Galactic Transport system will result in increased activity and efficiency in the interplanetary market for goods and materials, along with more accurate and informative market history data that will benefit participants on all planets. It will also make for a much more exciting and engaging gameplay experience in space and pave the way for further development of space systems including combat, hunting, transport and resource gathering.

Questions:
1. This was mentioned 6 years ago. That is an awful lot of Auction transport fees collected into the "special transport fee pool"
2. The playerbase would like to know why players are still not able to access the "special transport fee pool" and why the galactic cargo transport mission has not been completed.

A honest answer would be appreciated and if there is not to be a cargo mission, are the fees collected being put into the loot pool?

Regards
Bjorn
(Player since 2009)
 
Good question...
The Galactic Transport system is definitely not cancelled. Other projects took priority in 2018, but we look forward to completing this system. The money collected from auction transport fees will be distributed back to the community in one form or another.


along with this question about the loot pool for that part of it, what about the regular auction fees?!?

Over the years there have been conflicting information given about where the fees go... also about where taxes go..

Marco's old quotes don't seem to be accurate any more...

MA makes money on decay on item usage. All other monies are transferred back into the Entropia economy.

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...adly-(Not-Whiny)&p=92752&viewfull=1#post92752

No, MindArks revenue stream is from decay. So it is not an urban legend. All other areas (auction fee, ammo, etc) is cycled back into the economy.

Those quotes from him above seem to conflict drastically with what the now defunct affiliate website stated at one point in time... https://web.archive.org/web/20100418025815/http://www.planetcalypso.eu/en/node/71
How does it work ?
So, how does an affiliate program look like on a game concept that's basically free, with no download fee or monthly subscription fees ? How does the operator actually earn money ?

Each tool, weapon, clothes, basically everything a player can utilize has a specific basic value. This base decreases by a certain preset amount every time an object is used until it reaches almost zero value and has to be "repaired".

The correlating amount of the in-game currency PED and therefor 10:1 US-Dollars of what the item decays gets distributed 50:50 between Mindark PE AB as operator of the Entropia Universe and the planet partner where the participant has the account registered and pursuing its activities, in our case First Planet Company and Planet Calypso.

Another source of income are fees and commissions attached to the in-game auction and player's shops. Every sale on the auction and shops produces a sales commission that also gets shared 50:50 between Mindark and the Planet Partner.

If the auction fees are going 50:50 between Mindark and the Planet Partners, it's not going back in to the community is it? If so, how???!? 50+50=100%, or are you using some sort of convoluted math to figure that differently? If the info on the old affiliate site is wrong, why was it put out there in the first place?...

On places like Omegaton West Habitat that don't have an 'owner' an old support ticket response tells me that the tax there is going back to Mindark... Why not sell off all those types of places to the community so the tax goes back to the players, etc. Same for the LAs like the ones Mindark took back from Deathifier...

Also, when the hell are all of the estates the broker is holding going to be released? After all that is sort of a promise that never has been fulfilled since way back in 2007!

Post 221
Will there be more shops available at places like Genesis, Omegaton, Sakura?
Submitted by Violet

Yes.

On those taxes for places like the Treasure Island and Omegaton West Habitat, why doesn't the tax go to the CLD owners instead of just to Mindark? If those taxes are going somewhere else in some other pool of cash to be paid out to a future owner of those LAs and shops, etc. it'd be interesting, but it doesn't sound like that is the case?
 
Last edited:
Hello My,
as you can see, it is possible to go back quite a way with very specific information communicated by MA that simply didn't arrive. There have also been various undocumented changes over time as well.

On the plus side, I found the recent vu notes on tier/enhancer changes to be very good, however. It is also true, though, that changes have knock-on effects (good and bad) and can be part of further changes implemented later. While I can understand some further changes being kept quiet until the right time, six years is slightly on the long side for transport missions, don't you think?

I do have a question about an addition to vehicles and attachments, though, so it could relate to new space vehicle features. There is now a new weapon attachment for vehicles, which doesn't say what vehicle it is for, nor how the vehicles is going to find a use. There was a case, long ago, maybe also 2014ish, when a vehicle had a gun that could be used for pvp, but not to hunt mobs.

Can you please communicate to us if the new addition is for land/see/air/space vehicles, whether it is pvp only or also for mobs, and whether it has anything to do with features for a new attempt at a cargo transportation system?
Thank you.
 
I am also very interested in answers to Few Scars questions, many of us have invested heavily in ships and skills in space and these cargo missions would have solved a lot of the inconsistencies in space regarding skill/gear vs reward. I heard that this skill + gear were going to be of importance this VU, but may be delayed slightly. Can you please ensure this goes space wide also be implementing this (or similar) design.

I do truly hope that the transport fees have stacked nicely now to provide a new and exciting space profession whilst rejuvenating all of space.
 
Back
Top