Based on my personal experience from thousands of hours spent at the Oil Rig and thousands of PED collected there, I have a clear picture of how the area currently functions and how the proposed changes might affect it.
At present, the oil spawn averages around 10–30 PED per hour, with bad days as low as 5 PED/hour. After the proposed update (tripling the drop), the most very optimistic projection could reach around 90PED/hour. The average daily population is about 5-6 players, and most of the time there is no sustained PvP — players tend to wait for someone else to spend ammunition on newcomers, if they come at all, and only occasionally are mobs brought into the area.
From an economic standpoint, attempting to “lock down” the rig is unprofitable in all scenarios:
- At 5 PED/hour (worst case): Even a few kills cost more than the total oil value.
- At 10–30 PED/hour (typical case): Eliminating a well‑equipped regular can cost 1–2 PED in ammo and decay per kill. If that player respawns and returns every two minutes, you might kill them 30 times in an hour, costing at least 30 PED — and that’s just one opponent. With multiple regulars, the cost can easily exceed 100 PED/hour, while the oil collected is often closer to 20 PED/hour.
- At 100 PED/hour (optimistic projection after changes): Eliminating three determined regulars in a loop would still outweigh the potential gain, as combined costs could surpass the total oil collected.
This is why most experienced players do not attempt to control the rig — most simply collect alongside others. The proposed changes (tripling the drop and removing mobs)
will likely increase the income of existing long‑term collectors and attract more of them, but will not create sustained PvP. Most regulars have high HP, strong armor, and healing tools, making them expensive to eliminate and difficult to dislodge.
Any initial surge in fighting will probably fade within days, once larger players realize the high costs and low returns. Without adjustments to the reward‑to‑cost ratio or mechanics that actively incentivize combat, the update risks increasing passive collection rather than fostering meaningful PvP.
Although I personally collect oil, I would actually prefer if the Oil Rig did not exist at all in this form, and if the estimated roughly
$1,000 USD per month Mind Ark's lost on the Ashi Oil Rig was instead invested into real marketing campaigns. The same applies to Twitch giveaways, I recently won 200 PED myself again, but from what I see, these streams do not attract new players at all! They mostly feed existing ones. While that was a short‑term profit for me, I would much rather see a thriving in‑game economy than occasional extra PED.
Based on my own calculations, MA is spending around
$300 USD per month on Twitch promotions that bring little measurable benefit. A better approach would be to target large gaming channels on platforms like YouTube, with hundreds of thousands or millions of views. However, to make that effective, the game itself must first offer engaging gameplay experiences. Speaking frankly, if Entropia Universe did not have its RCE aspect, I would never have played it, the grind is repetitive, and the gameplay loop alone is not compelling enough for a mass audience.
Before launching large‑scale advertising, the game should be made attractive purely as a game, something that could prosper even without RCE. If a major campaign promotes a buggy, grind‑heavy experience with a stagnant economy and toxic community, that will be the lasting first impression for many players, and it will be difficult to change their perception later.
For this reason, increasing the Oil Rig drop is, in my opinion, a mistake same as twitch campaing.
Those funds, roughly $15,000 USD per year would be far better invested into development and new projects that improve the core gameplay and make the universe appealing to a wider audience.
If MA proceeds with tripling the drop at Ashi
and adds Orthos Oil Rig,
the total monthly loss could reach $4,000 USD, or $48,000 USD per year. In reality, this would not create any significant PvP or sustained fighting, the rig would continue to generate substantial losses. From my own observations, there are periods of several days where no one kills anyone, and weaker players are removed by mobs rather than other players. I do not see any realistic scenario where this change suddenly triggers large‑scale battles; instead, the rigs could end up producing even greater losses.
If MA does have data showing that PvP in the Ashi area generates them profit, it is likely not because regular riggers are fighting each other, but rather because other players occasionally come to the area to fight for fun nearby, while the riggers themselves still collect all the oil from the spawn.
That is a significant amount, potentially equal to an entire year’s profit for the company in some periods. If such funds are to be spent, it would be worth reconsidering whether they should go into giveaways, or instead into development and effective marketing that can grow the player base.
Alternative PvP approach: Rather than tripling the drop, the drop rate should be three times smaller than proposed, combined with a PvP token system where rewards scale based on the strength of the opponent. Tokens could be exchanged for unique (L) PvP items. Additionally, a partial ammo refund per kill, similar to lootable PvP, would encourage players to engage in combat without worrying as much about losses. Even with a refund, other costs such as healing, armor decay, enhancers, and the portion of ammo not refunded would still generate revenue for MA, while making PvP more attractive and sustainable.
