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Great memories, greater expectations

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Geralt

Guardian
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
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235
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tyires tyirepl tyirepl
Hi ya'all, I guess I need to blow some steam out but this rant will be most likely other than TT return/badloot. And it will be sadly long post.

I am no big fish in this EU bowl but I hunt and mine regularly, been plaing EU for about 5 years now but my account is much older - almost 11 years old (had a lot of breaks). The problem is that I cannot find anything interesting about EU anymore, even the rce aspect is dead for me since I don't care if I make 20 or loose 40ish some dollars. I am a regular depositor (not too much - on a monthly basis) and in general I oscillate around 110% tt return now (due to some really lucky shared mob events - killed some khal ferraks and najwirs and participated in 22k, and 2x 10k ped shared loot) but in general during normal runs I get back 85-101% of what I put in.

The problem is - the thrill is gone. Gone for good. I remember old good times when I was mining in pvp4 on amethera (it used to be a circle and smaller area) and I remember all the emotions, thrll and adrenaline shot in my veins when I was hitting blood moss. Maybe because it was about 2k% MU at that time. Recently I came back to pvp4 mining and hit blood moss also. Old times back? Not necessarily - I sold all BM to a occasional reseller for 200% MU. Nah.. boring.
I also believe all or almost all green dots in pvp4 which used to give me a lot of miex emotions are gone too. Where are you my friends? My beloved PK'ers? You don't want my belkar & dung no more?

I remember old port atlantis with yellow coloured walls, always full of people and traders. I used to have lots of trading connections, I was buying, selling, doing transactions with guys from India, Switzerland, USA - human aspect was huge - negotiations, talks, PED making, reselling etc. It was always a pleasure to do some trades & business stuff in PA with other players. Now PA is huge WTF for me, useless huge buildings and no lifeforms anywhere... no one to talk to, no one to trade with. I know, there are some players in Twin but trust me it's like 5% of the life and social aspect of what it used to be. Don't get me wrong, people are trading with each other but 10 years ago you could literally trade with other, wait for MU changes (it was so dynamic, prices where very much alive even on oil, you could analyze auctions, market and try to forecast future MU and make shieetload of PEDs on it). Now MU is dead to me and no one will convince me is any close to be ok. I will never again log to EU and be surprised in a positive way by the price of anything in EU.

This is what I feel internally, all the aspects I loved - thrill in PVP4, dynamic economy, trading, human aspect are all gone now. I sometimes feel like half of logged players are EP clickers, other half doing their stuff and putting all their loot to TT. People don't talk, don't negotiate, don't analyze the market because there is nothing to analyze. All is gone. 8 years ago I could squeeze out 2-3% MU and resell almost everything. I cry when I hear people saying that their loot is TT food now. Most of the times it is and its sad.

It's been so many years, playing, then making some break, than playing again and after every break I felt like i was coming back to some darker, more unfriendly place. I can not recognize my beloved game anymore (game? maybe entropia was for me more like social media that time or my man cave)

We have more planets, more stuff, vehicles, new guns, no ammo in loot but the spirit and emotions are no longer here. Entropia has become a simple buggy MMO to me with almost nothing to do. I'm so bored with looting shrap all the time, even swirls are bullshit to me now - there is no purpose, no goal. It is like falling into the void, like watching mindless tv shows that bring no joy.

There are so many activities out there in my life which drive me away from Entropia but to be hones I would give a lot to make this game great again. I've been playing some other games with great community and developers, one of them game launched in 2013 (pretty famous, now one of the best games on Steam and it' free to play), it was shiietty at the beginning but the bond that was developed between community and developers made this game really good, it wiped out pay-to-play similar games from the surface of the gaming earth.

I wish MA could develop such bond with us, listen to us, do weekly/monthly dev sessions with game-play and new ideas. Asking people what they want, introduce some good solutions... That game in 5 years made so much progress that it has millions players now, a the beginning there were few of us. We managed to make it great because we listened to each other, communication was clear and respectful. They wanted to do something big and they delivered! This will always be a benchmark for me regarding MindArk steps in area of EU development.

Don't get me wrong again, I think I can recognize potential in a project. I recognized it back then and I've always seen huge potential in EU. But after all these years I feel that it has been wasted. Almost all things failed. Can we do something about it? Move forward? Organize our thoughts about EU and introduce them to MA? Will they listen like earlier mention dev did to make their product not only acceptable but really great? Can you imagine MA making such step forward? Can we shake off all disappointment form that MA has put on our shoulders, learn from all the failures and help them make EU experience that we would really appreciate?

I do not know to be honest, and despite I am doing "good" in EU, I will probably withdraw again all my money and give up for another year or two. I feel like MA has let me down, I feel bad when I think about this project. It just makes me sad. I don't wanna be sad and envious. Envious you ask? Jealous? Yes I am! About what? About other MMO players, mostly... I am jealous that other communities in other mmo's out there are being listened and their wishes mostly come true. I feel bad when I see other projects being developed in solid pace and that community and devs fin enjoyment in their cooperation and joint effort.


I want my Entropia back MA, God damnn you I want it back. We want to help, we are grown up community. Let's make our thoughts sharing more efficient, let's talk, let us help. Let's treat each other fairly. Is there any account of MA representative registered here? Can someone somehow response?

I hope so. If you reached here, thank you. Share your thoughts, doesn't matter if you have had avatar for 10 years or 10 days. All input is welcomed!

11 years, time flies...
 
MA just provides the sandbox.
How we play in it is up to us, not MA.

Name me some games that enjoyed you for more than 5 years.
There might be a few, but they're sparse.

Personally I like the new entropia sandbox more than the old one. So I wouldnt want to go back.
But that's just my opinion and many wont agree.
Sure, i liked the playerbase and player interaction better in the old project entropia.
But is that MA's doing or just the natural flow after 15 years being online?
 
I agree with almost everything you said.

MA has spend many developer hours in re-designing PA, the rig, AH and many many more. And it did not make EU better.

Yes it looks fancy when the newly-hired developer presents his creation to the board meetings, but the huge buildings did not raise the game-feel and community-bounding aspects.

Yes PA used to be the fun busy hub.
Yes the old rig was tons of fun, plain and simple.
Where is the lovely strange minipolis?
etc, etc

Also, the sci-fi theme about colonists getting stranded in a distant universe was way more clear in the old settings...
But for all those who are here for the long run, do you care how fancy or how high a building is, especially those without real functions?

Imagine all those developer hours not spent, instead to slightly higher returns for the mid-lvl players. Many of our friends would still be in game...

just imho


P.S. We all make mistakes, it is not about how deep, or how many times you fall, it is about how fast you can get up again.
 
One thing that kills a city is not allowing vehicles to enter.
 
@Geralt
100% agree. the game has changed. I also do not like it but I have adapted and changed my game. i play less than 2 years ago. To trade, the trade with normal loot is death. 2 years ago I was able to sell 70-80% of my loot. now 10-15% if I ever meet a dealer
 
If not Marco, someone like him needs to be at the helm of this game for it to have appeal to the customers.
 
Geralt said:
Hi ya'all, I guess I need to blow some steam out but this rant will be most likely other than TT return/badloot. And it will be sadly long post.
.
Click to expand...

You are wasting your time.

First you get all emotional, because you care.
Then you give them one last chance for about 50 times of last chances.

Then you stop caring altogether.


I said to myself when I logged in this afternoon, surely on the first day of Mayhem they won't clean me out, especially as my last deposit of £100 (1200 ped) was less then a week ago and hardly had many globals to shout about.

I had one global for 4.5 daily stages on the MM mission today and 2 globs as I approached the completion of that stage to stage 5, then almost zero peds left as I just ticked over to stage 5. That's just day one of Merry Mayhem......lol.


I stood there thinking to myself, I've not had a ESI drop for so many years I can't remember.
Where was the shiny L items to keep me entertained?, What about a FEN L gun in the loot to keep me shooting? or even tempt me to depo because now I've got an eco weapon worth shooting?

I logged into entropia life to check the measly amount of globals I got for the last £150 deposited, and just said to myself.....nahhhh this 12 year old ava with 380K skills, and level 40 looter has had enough.

I'm not paying another £200 "this month" for this.....I can't justify it anymore.

No moans, no emotions, just log off, f**k it then.

So as I said, you're wasting your time. You will change nothing.

Rick
 
RickEngland said:
You are wasting your time.

First you get all emotional, because you care.
Then you give them one last chance for about 50 times of last chances.

Then you stop caring altogether.


I said to myself when I logged in this afternoon, surely on the first day of Mayhem they won't clean me out, especially as my last deposit of £100 (1200 ped) was less then a week ago and hardly had many globals to shout about.

I had one global for 4.5 daily stages on the MM mission today and 2 globs as I approached the completion of that stage to stage 5, then almost zero peds left as I just ticked over to stage 5. That's just day one of Merry Mayhem......lol.


I stood there thinking to myself, I've not had a ESI drop for so many years I can't remember.
Where was the shiny L items to keep me entertained?, What about a FEN L gun in the loot to keep me shooting? or even tempt me to depo because now I've got an eco weapon worth shooting?

I logged into entropia life to check the measly amount of globals I got for the last £150 deposited, and just said to myself.....nahhhh this 12 year old ava with 380K skills, and level 40 looter has had enough.

I'm not paying another £200 "this month" for this.....I can't justify it anymore.

No moans, no emotions, just log off, f**k it then.

So as I said, you're wasting your time. You will change nothing.

Rick
Click to expand...

Cant agree with you more Rick.
 
Originally, there was only one planet... then came continents, asteroids, planets, a system to create new planets, and then planetoids called moons... then Mindark went and started a bunch of crap outside of the game, trying to use the game to pay for it... only now is Mindark starting to realize it got too darn big for its britches. So... compets died, Deep Token died... planet entry fees died... they are starting to scale back but not enough... to get it back to what you are talking about when there was one planet and avatars all over the place on it would require jamming all planet servers in to one planet again, and just making each planet a different continent on that planet.... even then, it'd still feel sparse I suspect, unless all of the servers on each planet did a downsize like what Rocktropia and Cyrene did... (done in large part since Mindark rents it's servers to the Planet owners for a fee way too high for them to sustain mostly)...

all comes down to Mindark getting way too far reaching in the original 'project entropia' idea.... scaling back will likely continue... but we'll see how far the push it...

many, many, many promises and hopes have been smashed over time... more likely will continue to be... until Mindark and the Planet Partners get it to the scale that they can actually manage... which it isn't yet... more downsizing likely will be a coming I suspect.

Since Mindark is finally starting to listen just a bit....

Political system CLDs promised never got delivered yet... (despite the Virtual president that never was president of anything)

Promised release of all apartments, shops, etc. on each planet hasn't happened yet... (and management of those properties still is meh.. still got weeds in old Omegaton basements, a bunch of apartments there and in other places both on Calypso and elsewhere not sold yet )

Look at that: a broken promise from 2007 still unfulfilled, how quaint:
Post 221
Will there be more shops available at places like Genesis, Omegaton, Sakura?
Submitted by Violet

Yes.
Click to expand...


No shop directory in game, despite our Community liaison actually making that suggestion prior to taking on that role... https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...op-directory&p=2354487&viewfull=1#post2354487

Pets... well, compets is dead, but making pets worthwhile to have in Entropia itself is still in need of severe help... before compets died it had some interesting ideas like gems that could be used to create trinkets for the pets to wear to give them permanent buffs, not just this temporary crap you can buy in the stables... adding something like that in game could give some usefulness to pets, stables, taming, etc.

Mindark, with it's contracts it makes the Planet Partners sign has potential to enforce some interesting stuff, like making them keep domain registry fees paid up... keeping viruses off of their servers that community visits, etc. https://entropialoot.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/monrias-cyrenes-forum-are-both-down/

Instead... we have crap all scattered around the internet on different sites run by different folks all over the place as it it now, occasional domains disappearing, wikis disappearing, unreliable servers letting viruses in, etc. When it all was on one main page and one planet things were a bit more family-like... Mindark went in to too many tangents and the community drifted in different directions too, so now having more than a few avatars in one spot is a rarity. In some ways this is good since the server behind the avatars cannot handle too many in one spot, but from a community perspective, meh... I think somewhere a few years back someone indicated it was Mindark's goal to get something like 60-80 percent of all avatars in an solo type instance on any server at any time... in part to help with lag, but for some other reasons too... could be they are actually heading in that direction a bit too much?

There's many, many things those in upper development could do... Community gives them hints at some steps to take, will they listen?
 
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Copy Old School Runescape

Maybe if MA just copy everything Old School Runescape staff does, they would make the game great again.

Also in developing new skills and activities, exactly like in old school runescape 07, listening to the community and making weekly changes voted by players in polls inside the game. Runescape is running for 20 years now, with a daily playerbase of 100k+ in both versions of the game.

I also see great potential in EU, but it must be being managed by some old and tired guys.
 
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I can agree with most of your post. My gaming profile is kinda similar to yours. But my opinion is, you as the many, comparing two different things when you remember PE or EU 7-8 years ago, with todays situation. Yes, thrill is gone somehow, because we getting older, we used to so many things in game but also and mainly because there are so many other planets in the universe now. I played as newbie on Ark about...6 years ago! and later Calypso, Next Island, ROCKtropia, Cyrene. All those planets gave me pleasure and surprises, despite which planet I choosed to spend most of my time in the end. There are people around still and some of them are great and realy care about the game. I can spell a dozen of them without thinking. Planet Partners also care alot.
This...game, platform, universe (as I like to say) is huge and need way more people to invlolve in the game, not necessary investors but GAMERS most of all!
Also, I think EU need a small "push" from the company who own the platform. Like, fixing all bugs that are out there for ages, removing many BP's that are useless in reality and making new ones for tools, weapons, accessories, that can be produced only from players. No more UL shit! Everything that looted must have a place in crafter production!
Last but not less, thay must think serious to put Entropia in the most successive portal for gamers. STEAM! But should be prepared for the waves of "new blood", that will be come! By offering a smooth and pleasent experience! Like that we (I) experienced when first time logged in.
I can write many more details, but I think you got the main idea.

Personally I'm realy happy that I'm daily login, in a "growing" economy, with a big bunch of good people who care about it. That's RT :)
 
Here's the reality: EU is just like an Indian Casino.

We know we're gonna lose our ass, we know we aren't gonna win, the food is crap and we always complain.

As long as we keep giving them our money, NOTHING is gonna change.

'cause they don't have to - 'cause we keep giving them our money anyway.

Simple corporate math:

if customer = $$$
and customer + complaints = $$$
then complaints = 000
 
Naverith said:
Here's the reality: EU is just like an Indian Casino.
Click to expand...

Your reality.
You meant poker player tournament.Some see it as casino some see it differently.You can lose in both but there are more chances to win in the second.
 
wizz said:
MA just provides the sandbox.
How we play in it is up to us, not MA.

Name me some games that enjoyed you for more than 5 years.
There might be a few, but they're sparse.

Personally I like the new entropia sandbox more than the old one. So I wouldnt want to go back.
But that's just my opinion and many wont agree.
Sure, i liked the playerbase and player interaction better in the old project entropia.
But is that MA's doing or just the natural flow after 15 years being online?
Click to expand...


What you said is truth... hmmm... errr....

You seems to be a new person here :laugh:
Probably you are still on the benefiting side now :silly2:
 
I went through this nine months ago. The game is worth few bucks to try meyham or some caly event to realise nothing has changed.
 
Maybe the relation to EU is like a to long childless marriage.
Maybe we would benefit from reading up on a few articles on how to spice up our sex life (erm, Entropia life).

Or another analogy. It's like getting a summer cottage. At first all you see is the open landscape, all the possibilities, the freedom, the fresh air. But after 10 years all you see is the clutter of garbage on the yard, in the house and in the garden, all the unfinished projects, and all you smell is cow dung which you earlier thought was the smell of fresh air. But you really can't blame the cottage, it is all you.

But we have pills now, isnt that great?

The old visioneers from the early days are probably all gone. Shit got sold out more times than anyone can count to. And all MA do is treat us all like an iron mission, but the differance is that we are the mobs.

Stop treating us like mobs, and start treating us like fellow human beings, and start communicate. :wise:
 
Pretto Loco said:
Maybe the relation to EU is like a to long childless marriage.
Maybe we would benefit from reading up on a few articles on how to spice up our sex life (erm, Entropia life).
:
Click to expand...

well, make the ANY marriage, kids or no kids.
My wife was more attractive 15 years ago as she is now and our life was far more exciting and wild.
(this example does not go for men of course, as we men grow more attractive as we age :wise:)
But that doesnt mean I love her less now then I did then.
 
wizz said:
well, make the ANY marriage, kids or no kids.
My wife was more attractive 15 years ago as she is now and our life was far more exciting and wild.
(this example does not go for men of course, as we men grow more attractive as we age :wise:)
But that doesnt mean I love her less now then I did then.
Click to expand...

I just hope for you your wife doesnt secretly check your forum account :laugh:
 
Some of your points are good, others can be safely pinned to routine.

That being said, the measure in which MA keeps distance from its own game is always amusing me. On every other example out there (Path of Exile and Eve being the best examples), the game's website encompasses everything. Forum, wiki, (in our case) planet partners etc.

The root of evil was the original management's idea of making MindArk the owner of the platform and the planet partners sort of milking cows. That's how SEE deal fell on its face, where MA tried to distance itself from its own original project, Calypso. We don't know the details of the fail itself because they're not and they'll never be public, but the philosophy behind is clear. When you try to get investors but tell them that "daikiba" and "allophyl" are trademarks, things will end up where they're now. Each planet in its own schizofrenic direction, with races, stories, missions, items, resources, blueprints, NPCs etc which have absolutely no business one with each other. Not even basic common notions, something to give the universe a sort of unity and consistence.

Any of the planets could just aswell be and independent game.

Then, there is the lack of consistency of Calypso itself. Here, any other planet is far ahead. On any other planet, the story is coherent (even on that gathering of pot-smoking hippies and metalheads which is RT). On Arkadia, you have that scientist killed by oratanas, so there's a damn statue in the plaza of the biggest city, and there's a tp with a meaningful name. On Caly, there are all kind of "commanders" and whatnot invented characters which just pop up when needed, never to be seen again and never represented ingame in any meaningful manner or logic.

In the same time, there have been undisputable upgrades. I am also nostalgic about old time PA, but the newcomer experience right now, with missions and that tutorial is another league, is much more decent.

My personal impression is that MA changed alot of personel, with a high turnover and as such there might be a number of projects which are only remembered by the players, but nobody in person in MA HQ. Also I would believe they are heavily understaffed. Or, alternatively, that the Swedish labour market is one of the most primitive on the face of Earth, without quality programmers, technicians and creative people. Something which incidentally I know for a fact that is not the case, due to my IRL profession.

If I were to suggest something to MindArk's management, there would be two directions:

1. Dust off and clean your own internal yard. Get in 2018 (or, even better 2019) in terms of corporate policies, employee's happiness, satisfaction, reward, appreciation and engagement. Try to evaluate your employees from the pov of their personal sentimental positioning versus the game. Try to see which is everyone's vision for the future, even the housemaid's. Set in place solid and transparent practices of performance evaluation and reward, if you don't have such. If you're understaffed in something, either get more people, either cut that activity/target and redistribute resources. Where needed, get back to basic and simple things, you first need a core solid viable activity and only from that you can divert, grow and ramificate. If conceptually you are caught into vicious circles (e.g. old components cluttering ingame storages, useless old blueprints, databases unnecesarly complicated etc) better cut the node, revamp and simplify (like the original crafting engine got ditched with a choice of three compensations). Generally speaking, fix the resource leakage where that might occur.

2. Give a couple more people to Ludvig if needed (even a temporary team might work, say like a limited 1 year project) and get community feedback & suggestions. Taming, space travel, whatnot. There's bound to be an immense ammount of "where are my hofs ffs" crap, but there's also bound to gather in the end a solid roadmap. Rework your website, get everything together, cooperate with your planet partners, be yourself a family and generate that feeling with the community too. Maybe get Charlie to post some more, it was nice having him around.
 
Kerham said:
Some of your points are good, others can be safely pinned to routine.

That being said, the measure in which MA keeps distance from its own game is always amusing me. On every other example out there (Path of Exile and Eve being the best examples), the game's website encompasses everything. Forum, wiki, (in our case) planet partners etc.

The root of evil was the original management's idea of making MindArk the owner of the platform and the planet partners sort of milking cows. That's how SEE deal fell on its face, where MA tried to distance itself from its own original project, Calypso. We don't know the details of the fail itself because they're not and they'll never be public, but the philosophy behind is clear. When you try to get investors but tell them that "daikiba" and "allophyl" are trademarks, things will end up where they're now. Each planet in its own schizofrenic direction, with races, stories, missions, items, resources, blueprints, NPCs etc which have absolutely no business one with each other. Not even basic common notions, something to give the universe a sort of unity and consistence.

Any of the planets could just aswell be and independent game.

Then, there is the lack of consistency of Calypso itself. Here, any other planet is far ahead. On any other planet, the story is coherent (even on that gathering of pot-smoking hippies and metalheads which is RT). On Arkadia, you have that scientist killed by oratanas, so there's a damn statue in the plaza of the biggest city, and there's a tp with a meaningful name. On Caly, there are all kind of "commanders" and whatnot invented characters which just pop up when needed, never to be seen again and never represented ingame in any meaningful manner or logic.

In the same time, there have been undisputable upgrades. I am also nostalgic about old time PA, but the newcomer experience right now, with missions and that tutorial is another league, is much more decent.

My personal impression is that MA changed alot of personel, with a high turnover and as such there might be a number of projects which are only remembered by the players, but nobody in person in MA HQ. Also I would believe they are heavily understaffed. Or, alternatively, that the Swedish labour market is one of the most primitive on the face of Earth, without quality programmers, technicians and creative people. Something which incidentally I know for a fact that is not the case, due to my IRL profession.

If I were to suggest something to MindArk's management, there would be two directions:

1. Dust off and clean your own internal yard. Get in 2018 (or, even better 2019) in terms of corporate policies, employee's happiness, satisfaction, reward, appreciation and engagement. Try to evaluate your employees from the pov of their personal sentimental positioning versus the game. Try to see which is everyone's vision for the future, even the housemaid's. Set in place solid and transparent practices of performance evaluation and reward, if you don't have such. If you're understaffed in something, either get more people, either cut that activity/target and redistribute resources. Where needed, get back to basic and simple things, you first need a core solid viable activity and only from that you can divert, grow and ramificate. If conceptually you are caught into vicious circles (e.g. old components cluttering ingame storages, useless old blueprints, databases unnecesarly complicated etc) better cut the node, revamp and simplify (like the original crafting engine got ditched with a choice of three compensations). Generally speaking, fix the resource leakage where that might occur.

2. Give a couple more people to Ludvig if needed (even a temporary team might work, say like a limited 1 year project) and get community feedback & suggestions. Taming, space travel, whatnot. There's bound to be an immense ammount of "where are my hofs ffs" crap, but there's also bound to gather in the end a solid roadmap. Rework your website, get everything together, cooperate with your planet partners, be yourself a family and generate that feeling with the community too. Maybe get Charlie to post some more, it was nice having him around.
Click to expand...


this last update speaks volumes to MA listening to us. it really appears to be good now with that new ceo...hope they can undo the damage made by the leftist social justice crowd and the rightist politically correct crowd.
 
Naverith said:
Here's the reality: EU is just like an Indian Casino.

Not true at all, this is what some make of it because this depends on their way of playing

If you want it to be a casino, then play like that but remember the house always wins

If not and you want to play without or a just small amount of depo's, use your brains.

There are many playstyles, just see what is best for you.
Click to expand...
 
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