Question: Should Calypso be rebuilt the same in Unreal Engine 5?

Should Calypso be rebuilt exactly the same in Unreal Engine 5?


  • Total voters
    121
gief the old argus back, with ring and all the machines out there. pretty plies. thanks
 
I long for the day when the woodgrain service centers gets wiped from existance and our harrowed memories so that we can finaly heal from that travesty.
 
It won't happen you won't see completly new map because all the shops will loose their value and there will be a lot of outraged investors if their shop is not in the same place as it was !

I never said that changing the map would mean that existing estates would not be re-created in one form or another... Of course existing estates need to be re-created, but they can look vastly different, be renamed and relocated on a brand new map.
 
I never said that changing the map would mean that existing estates would not be re-created in one form or another... Of course existing estates need to be re-created, but they can look vastly different, be renamed and relocated on a brand new map.
Wouldn’t be the first time either
 
Now is the absolute perfect time for MindArk to put trust back in the game by listening to the people that have invested into this game.

There needs to be a revamp of how land areas work. Give the owners options , such as giving them the ability to drop prizes/items into their land area loot pool. You could make it for just a scheduled event , or over a certain period of time , or open ended to drive traffic.

Give Societies an opportunity to build society halls where they are able to congregate and decorate , the options are almost limitless.
Just don't take it as an opportunity to !!!! them , but an opportunity for expanded use of resources and functionality.

Look back at the failed projects and notice how excited and engaged people were when they were announced
Taming was and still has been a passion of mine , but it like many other systems dead ends.
Give these pets a reason to exist and to be leveled further like maybe some hp buffs added on beginner pets , nothing crazy but something.
Revamp the pet stables to make them more attractive to owners and give them value again.

Entropia has always been a game that is driven by a dedicated gamer that enjoys community.
When I wish to draw someone to this game , I need selling points other than make money and withdraw it while playing a game.
There needs to be a way to keep people engaged other than loot 2.0 economics.

Vanity professions could be a huge part of revenue if there a reason for it to exist.
Allow higher level people in these professions to have access to tattoos / custom artwork on clothing and vehicles.
You already have a system for facemasks , so it exists.

Give tree harvesting a use and reason to exist , much the same as other PP have been doing with missions.

Most of all don't create new systems that don't use existing resources.

Give your audience purpose other than just making money to withdraw.
There are many here such as myself that have always looked to enjoy the game and could care less about just taking money from it.
Not that I don't enjoy making peds by playing smart , but it is not my driving goal to play.

Now is the time to give us , your ambassadors for 20 years , the ability to show your new players why they should stay , why they should deposit.
 
Now is the absolute perfect time for MindArk to put trust back in the game by listening to the people that have invested into this game.

Look back at the failed projects and notice how excited and engaged people were when they were announced

Entropia has always been a game that is driven by a dedicated gamer that enjoys community.

Give your audience purpose other than just making money to withdraw.
There are many here such as myself that have always looked to enjoy the game and could care less about just taking money from it.

Now is the time to give us , your ambassadors for 20 years , the ability to show your new players why they should stay , why they should deposit.


Bones, you speak the truth.
 
As Bones also shows in his contribution, the OP poll is just scratching the surface.
At a place nominally called Twin Peaks in the future: is there a combat ring for fun fights? Is there a stable with improved pet functionality? Is there a taming pen attached like the NI area for taming the laras or equivalent that are needed in a daily mission? Is there a guild hall that is home to one or more society guilds, with decorated halls and other more functional elements? Are there shops and other player-owned areas, taking up either physical space on the map, or as instances that could contain special environments such as mobs with special loots added etc.?
And - are there argos just out of town, of course, and will there be a 'market square' with improved local chats for better targetted WTS/WTB stuff?

Why will people be going to where they go? Will different levels of player crystallise out a bit, or will they mix together, such as both sweaters and hunters at an ambu centre? Will the name Neas live on to mean what it has always meant, or would it be essentially... in name only in a newly formatted Caly world?

(By the way, harvesting did have a function not just associated with the newer missions on other planets and novelty bps. The mats were used in the composite plank bp required for bidding on land plots and the building of the structures on them. That could see a revival I guess, depending on MA plans for own-build stuff.)
 
The map/s of all planets and locations, etc, should remain as they are but with the new UE5 graphics applied. To change the geography and locations wouldn't be realistic imho. The 'map of space' and how we navigate in space needs to be changed though, and real-life speed/velocities needs to be introduced.
 
I'd like them to rebuild the powerful city of Hadesheim in all it's former glory! The city we all loved and lost to the great robot war of 2009.
Them rusty tin cans may have been able to crumble our buildings but they couldn't break our spirits!
#RememberHadesheim #RobotWar2009CombatVeteran
 
The more I read the UE5 dev blog here, the more I feel like MA is telling us that Entropia will be completely reinvented in Unreal Engine 5. It scares me a little but I'm also excited for it.

To be clear, MA didn't say whether or not the world (Calypso) will be completely new or very similar to the existing one, I'm just reading between the lines and assuming it will probably be somewhat different. No one knows for sure and I'm certain that MindArk will not comment on this either, but it's interesting to think about.

I'm curious what you all think or expect from the transition to Unreal Engine 5; How much of Calypso should they keep while rebuilding it in Unreal? Or should they just forget everything and start fresh?

Do you want a completely new world map where even the TP names are different? Or do you want MA to stay true to the original as much as possible and not change a single thing?

Options in the poll are:

1. No! I want a completely new world map to explore!

2. Maybe keep a few important TPs by name but the map should be unrecognizable!

3. Can only recognize Eudoria and Amathera, the rest is all different!

4. Can see Eudoria, Amathera, PA and Twins, the rest is pretty much all brand new!

5. Only keep a dozen or so of main locations true to the original; make all the rest fresh and new!

6. Most of the main locations on the map should remain true to current form, but some changes welcomed

7. All of TPs need to be exactly where they are now, of course the vegetation and topography can be improved

8. MindArk needs to rebuild Calypso exactly the same as it exists today and not change a single thing

--
Please pick the statement that is the closest to what you expect or want to find when you first log into the Unreal version of Entropia.



PS: I think that when MA rebuilt Calypso in CE2, they kept it mostly true with some new areas, I think #6 is probably the statement that would fit best what MA ended up doing back then.

I didn't see an option for "Mind Ark needs to make Calypso the same as it was before Cryengine"!!! :'(
 
They probably have something in mind so we won't get a 1:1 rebuild of the current state. However, I don't want them to reinvent the entire wheel again. As for the various changes I found it too harsh when they nuked Hadesheim, moved Fort Pandora around and the Port Atlantis situation. Finding a few new places (again) is OK, but it shouldn't be the majority.

I just hope that they reconsider changing Port Atlantis that much. It was a decent place, crowded with many players and never quiet. Even Twin Peaks was more crowded before. They should make Port Atlantis more what is was and move the eye-candy area away a bit, e.g. with an elevator. A mission could guide newcomers through that part, but the experienced ones have their own plans when landing at Port Atlantis. Manoeuvring around there became a bit tedious. I also never understood why the newcomers had to land at Camp Icarus.

The new noob-missions were fine as they sent new ones around and let the mobs get stronger on the way. As I hope that the terrain will become more futuristic and artsy again (see posted screenshots above), that may also leave an impression.

Also I remember the talks years ago about nocturnal animals, weather having an impact, ... that never were done. Now would be a good time.

They should also polish the terrains (and textures!), have trees and stones be what they are, avoid flying mobs under ground, fix mobs' AI (not getting blocked), make the audio and animations synced more to the activity (like hunting with short blades; one animation = two attacks). So also keep an eye on the gameplay as such. My point is that it shouldn't all be just about the graphics and geography.

And ... a beer delivery would be nice. Really.
New players land at Icarus now because they would get lost and disinterested landing at PA! :D
 
I want them to create a world more true to the sci fi theme.
If they use a similar ground plane as current, then fine.
Definitely this IMO. I am not partial to the look of the map currently, i much preferred the old Project Entropia style of map and cities. Simplicity is ok if they need to start like that just loved that authentic feel of a vast wilderness with settlements. I remember having to run back as a ghost countless times from pvp1 or the rig, and making it back to the settlement revive was a great feeling.. :D
 
I hope the new map is a a little more flat :)
 
I don't believe MA will throw away 20 years of work. Every rock may not be at the same place, but most of the places will be the same.
They can continue improving the existing world slowly.
You must not remember when they upgraded from the original engine to Cryengine 2. They remade things with a nod to the past, but other than the vague shape of the continent and the relative placement of locations to one another, they pretty much built the map from scratch.

They didn't even bother with Hades, they just nuked it instead. A real shame, because that futuristic citadel was a real favourite of mine, it really sparked the imagination. Imagine if they did re-build it though, maybe even bigger than before.

I was very fond of the original map, and before vehicles came along there was a real charm in having to explore the map on foot to discover all the locations along with all the associated dangers. Vehicles really destroyed that experience.
 
Id like a mix of new and old.

OLD SOUNDTRACK


OLD DESIGN OF VEGETATION AND SKY (But with power of UE5)
9011entropia_screen001.jpg


Project_Entropia.jpg
Entropia-Universe-008.jpg

CITIES
188320-entropia-universe-800x600.jpg

Hadesheim was a block of pixels, but still was interesting. There should be at least 1 or 2 "cities" on Calypso. Make them have some sense. Street for specific shops (Hairstylist, Colorer, Armor etc SOLD on Aution without a BO, with a clause that would be written on the deed that if monthly fee for this shop is not paid for more than a year (6 months, whatever) it is automatically put on auction for SB, and money put into that persons account - I think we need shops that are alive, not dead pixels - we have many of those already). Add several other interesting buildings, museum (maybe old pics of game), Entropia Exchange, where there could be real-time screens and shares visible (not everyone knows how to access shares). A catwalk, restaurant, some talking/walking, dancing, whatever NPCs... There are many options to make it ALIVE. Would also add quick small TPs like on Carnival Island on NI.

Hover vehicle from minute 4:38 would be nice :)

Make the game more SCI-FI again :)
Rings? Why not implants? :) Or WHATEVER ELSE :)

Beason missions? Lets do it the old way, how it was. These boring beacons are just waste of time TBH. Back then there was thrill of missing a box etc. Challange. Well all the misses could go into the pot. (Make it AGAIN a beacon of skill, where u need runners for each LEVEL, fappers, DPS etc) - Beacons were GREAT FUN with some THRILL back in the day :) Lets recreate that fun.

Remove all options upon character creation, let Hairstylist do some work, let hunters have some MU from hairspray etc. I remember when ppl were skilling to unlock the coolest new look, now? What is it? (Create a storyline around it, WHY the character cant choose any options - ppl who want to play this game will not quit over character creating - especially if it is explained) - (Have almost no skills in this profession, but I want to see ppl actually running busineses and also hunters to have some MU because of it).

I mean, yes some good stuff has been added, but so much great stuff was destroyed in the proces - and many times it just does not make much sense.

Lets get a little back to the ROOTS :) Where this game came from.

There is still so much potetial in this game...
We need to make it also fun, where people WANT to spend their money, not just trying to make peds :)

Hopefully UE5 will be start of something GREAT. :)

Wow!! That soundtrack brought back memories of the game I fell in love with. The image of Hades too!

I played CE2 for a good while before ultimately dropping out, it just wasn't the same game with the same charm anymore. They need to bring some of the charm and balance back to the game. By the time I'd left it'd stopped being as much of a piece of art with a well balanced loot system allowing you to play endlessly even on a low budget, to being more like a slot machine where the returns were set to minimum. It just stopped being fun, or visually appealing (even though technically/objectively CE2 supposedly look better, subjectively it doesn't).

I'm all for a re-build in a new game engine. I'd give the game another look again if it happens. I hope the new team of developers can channel the spirit of what the game was in its first 6 years, and figure out how to bring players back together again.

A big mistake in the CE2 era was essentially too much replication of real life within the game. Previously you had to rely on others to get around. The map was extremely big because of how inaccessible it was and how much you had to invest yourself in discovering it, compared to today where (as from what I remember when I last played about 6 or 7 years ago) you even get given a free vehicle when you're starting out. All it did was make the world smaller and the mobs less impactful. Exploration was a challenge because of the mobs, but now you could just fly over them.

Everyone used to converge on market towns like Twin Peaks (especially) and Port Atlantis to trade, because you couldn't just use any old auction terminal and get whatever you wanted magically funnelled to you. As far as I remember (and maybe I'm wrong), but there were limitations on the auction system such as having to actually go and collect your item.
The game felt busier because the result was everyone converging in one place to trade, and those places getting around with word of mouth. It was a social experience and that was the real reason we were all there. So what were MindArk thinking when they decided to just go and implement all the conveniences of the real world within the game? The ability to trade anything with any auctioneer, effectively giving the game an Amazon styled home delivery system. The "rookie" chat channel, meaning players didn't have to rely on and interact as much with those around them. Vehicles again, meaning the vast expanse of the map became meaningless to conquer, yet at the same time the huge size of it just meant all the players were spread out even further than they were before which made the game feel even emptier than it already was. The same with additional planets, I'm sure they brought a small increase in overall player numbers (perhaps), but more than that they still just took some players away from Calypso and spread people out further.

So I really hope the developers really focus on improving the social aspects of the game, to be more like it once was. More people in fewer locations. Thriving and bustling trading towns, not ghost towns. Real trade, where you'll get a good price for something because the trade was local and the competition isn't so global that it's just a big race to the bottom because there's not even a travel price to collect your goods from auction let alone the fact you're trading on the thinnest margins the top few people in the game get to dictate because they've got too much commodity to offload. Or how about just the sheer number of extra rubbish they added to the market over the last several years? There's too many different components these days, it's pretty much made anything other than computerised trading obsolete just for the sheer amount of stuff. It's not even necessary.

We play games like Entropia to escape the real world, so it really sucks when the people who make the game think that progress is somehow making the game more like the real world in every way they can.
 
You must not remember when they upgraded from the original engine to Cryengine 2. They remade things with a nod to the past, but other than the vague shape of the continent and the relative placement of locations to one another, they pretty much built the map from scratch.

If I recall, most of the existing TPs were there when I opened Entropia in CE2, and major locations like Fort Troy were pretty similar to the original Fort Troy that I was accustomed to. But yes they released the CE2 game early, with many things not finished, even entire professions weren't done yet when they released the CE2 game. It took quite a while for example for Taming to be re-introduced back into the game, and many other things too. The map did continue to evolve afterwards and even more changes were introduced, like for example Half Moon Cove/Bay, Isle of Troy, Fort Victoria, and so many others. It's not because of the engine, it's just part of the natural evolution of the game and the map; these new places would have been created regardless of the game engine change or not.

They didn't even bother with Hades, they just nuked it instead. A real shame, because that futuristic citadel was a real favourite of mine, it really sparked the imagination. Imagine if they did re-build it though, maybe even bigger than before.

Yes, a lot of people have mentionned that one. Personally, I think I was there once and I thought it was a bit weird to have that city there but no one around, it didn't really make much sense. But I get it. Although I'm not sure of the exact thought process behind these changes, I imagine MindArk wanted to create a futuristic city for people to visit in the new game engine and I guess it just made more sense to them to build it at Port Atlantis, but this seems to have disppointed people's expectations somehow. New players who never saw the old Hadesheim can't really provide any insight into which is better. For us older players, it's possible that Hadesheim is just all tied together with our fond memories of when we first discovered the game and we are in some way just living in the past and not really looking to the future. Back in 2003 there wasn't that many MMORPGs out there, now there are tons of them, EU has to evolve with the market or it will forever just have the few thousand participants that it has and get nowhere.

I was very fond of the original map, and before vehicles came along there was a real charm in having to explore the map on foot to discover all the locations along with all the associated dangers. Vehicles really destroyed that experience.

I keep hearing this, I have read this exact comment so many times in this forum, and yet, when polled against 18 other possible reasons for having fallen in love with the game, it comes out with very few votes, even when you allow people to pick all that apply. You can see that poll here.
 
If I recall, most of the existing TPs were there when I opened Entropia in CE2, and major locations like Fort Troy were pretty similar to the original Fort Troy that I was accustomed to. But yes they released the CE2 game early, with many things not finished, even entire professions weren't done yet when they released the CE2 game. It took quite a while for example for Taming to be re-introduced back into the game, and many other things too. The map did continue to evolve afterwards and even more changes were introduced, like for example Half Moon Cove/Bay, Isle of Troy, Fort Victoria, and so many others. It's not because of the engine, it's just part of the natural evolution of the game and the map; these new places would have been created regardless of the game engine change or not.



Yes, a lot of people have mentionned that one. Personally, I think I was there once and I thought it was a bit weird to have that city there but no one around, it didn't really make much sense. But I get it. Although I'm not sure of the exact thought process behind these changes, I imagine MindArk wanted to create a futuristic city for people to visit in the new game engine and I guess it just made more sense to them to build it at Port Atlantis, but this seems to have disppointed people's expectations somehow. New players who never saw the old Hadesheim can't really provide any insight into which is better. For us older players, it's possible that Hadesheim is just all tied together with our fond memories of when we first discovered the game and we are in some way just living in the past and not really looking to the future. Back in 2003 there wasn't that many MMORPGs out there, now there are tons of them, EU has to evolve with the market or it will forever just have the few thousand participants that it has and get nowhere.



I keep hearing this, I have read this exact comment so many times in this forum, and yet, when polled against 18 other possible reasons for having fallen in love with the game, it comes out with very few votes, even when you allow people to pick all that apply. You can see that poll here.
I feel the same way about port Atlantis, a dead empty city. Every building should be real like the apartment “cities” but in a real useful location
 
I feel the same way about port Atlantis, a dead empty city. Every building should be real like the apartment “cities” but in a real useful location
Yep, very dead and empty. In the 1 year and 4 months I've been playing, PA has always been like that and imho much of the game is dead. The game needs a few incentives to say the least.
 
Yep, very dead and empty. In the 1 year and 4 months I've been playing, PA has always been like that and imho much of the game is dead. The game needs a few incentives to say the least.
Problem is they tried too hard with certain things. I think the focus was wrong. They wanted to increase player retention, so created the tutorial zone. The result they got was the exact opposite. We expected better marketing, but their marketing continued to be piss poor, and somehow it still is today.

The game's biggest problem has always been, at least from around 5 years after its inception, that the people responsible for running it never seemed to understand their own game. Or seemed very happy with just being very very mediocre. Truly a shame.
 
Fundamental unimportant things ... a host of small things that on their own don't kill something if taken away, but take away too many and people lose the will, the enjoyment, the challenge, the satisfaction etc.. This can also be partially economic, such as spending time and peds learning a new mining layout. It may seem like a small thing, to oh, just move this and that to somewhere else, but every time it eats away at what we had spent resources on learning and removes our past efforts from the equation. Yes, our avatars continue to build up skills, but not always knowledge when stuff gets regularly taken away or 'reorganised'.

I don't think the devs have been happy with just being v v mediocre, they really haven't realised that that is the case so much of the time. The sentence before is more charitable, they never seemed to understand their own game (those that came to EU later).
 
Problem is they tried too hard with certain things. I think the focus was wrong. They wanted to increase player retention, so created the tutorial zone. The result they got was the exact opposite. We expected better marketing, but their marketing continued to be piss poor, and somehow it still is today.

The game's biggest problem has always been, at least from around 5 years after its inception, that the people responsible for running it never seemed to understand their own game. Or seemed very happy with just being very very mediocre. Truly a shame.
What you say here echoes much of what's wrong with EU and one thing you mention in particular begs the question, are the people running the game the same as the one's that created it, or at least the original PE version of it? My take is that the originators and the management team that took it over aren't going in the same direction. If they want to increase player retention, then either more opportunities needs to be available from the start, or the numerous restrictions that currently exist has to be removed.
 
Fundamental unimportant things ... a host of small things that on their own don't kill something if taken away, but take away too many and people lose the will, the enjoyment, the challenge, the satisfaction etc.. This can also be partially economic, such as spending time and peds learning a new mining layout. It may seem like a small thing, to oh, just move this and that to somewhere else, but every time it eats away at what we had spent resources on learning and removes our past efforts from the equation. Yes, our avatars continue to build up skills, but not always knowledge when stuff gets regularly taken away or 'reorganised'.

I don't think the devs have been happy with just being v v mediocre, they really haven't realised that that is the case so much of the time. The sentence before is more charitable, they never seemed to understand their own game (those that came to EU later).

Indeed, everything kept on being changed for no apparent reason. Like the chat system, it was completely fine but they decided they just fancied changing how it worked one day and released a buggy incomplete system that just didn't have the same charm at all.

Same with all the button mappings. I'd spent hours over months and years mapping my ideal setup, then one day I log in and they've just wiped half of what was there or done a UI overhaul, or changed a random default button for no reason. It really doesn't take much for people to just decide it's not worth investing any time into this game anymore when they essentially just wipe what you spent so much time on. "Progress" for nothing.

The problem is people come in with new ideas, having never learned the game for what it is, and just chop and change everything to probably make it like other games they once played. Anyone working on the game should be required to play it full time for at least 2-3 months before they get any kind of decision making power, and before they even get to see the back-end componentry. UI and UX are the most important part of games and tech in general, but MA never treated it that way.
 
UI and UX are the most important part of games and tech in general, but MA never treated it that way.
I'd rather say that there are more companies that don't treat it that way than those who do. UX gets always treated like "We make it better! Again!!!1!" while all customers simply have to deal with the changes.
 
You forgot a option to rebuild calypso like it was in NetImmerse 4 graphics engine so I will not cast my vote, but cool thread, I am gonna read all now and eat some memberberries :cool:
 
I believe other places on planets have also been reworked this vu, so is that a sign that this is UE5 compatibility and a copying of many locations/objects we already have? Are those functioning outside terminals I see in the image, in the same way that pockets of terminals are outside now in quite a few places on other planets?
 
T
I believe other places on planets have also been reworked this vu, so is that a sign that this is UE5 compatibility and a copying of many locations/objects we already have? Are those functioning outside terminals I see in the image, in the same way that pockets of terminals are outside now in quite a few places on other planets?
Pictured is a revival terminal!
 
Ah, ty. I suppose a revive outside makes it a bit faster to return where you were if killed by a mob, but I read that the insides of redone buildings download now even while outside, so loading will slow people down again for vehicle spawns.
Or will we be able to set dynamic distancing to 5m for whole libraries of coordinates? You know, programming our own freedoms and settings tools to make the unplayable playable again?
 
I don't really understand why Mindark is modifying the graphics in the current engine, too. I mean we were playing for many years with the same look&feel, new things always looked different (the different looks of the various pop-ups and all), something was changed with the lighting at some point and now that a new engine is somewhere around the corner, the visuals in CryEngine also get updated (mobs, animations, textures).

Yes, it looks better, but why now and why hasn't that happened sooner?

I assume we will see more of those changes, maybe they will even change the HUD, so most likely in the end it won't look much different in UE5. Then the graphics' quality and rendering will be different.
 
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