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http://www.entropiaforum.com/forum/calypso-general-discussion/199321-q-see-digital-studios-rebuttal-part-1-a.html#post2570149

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Originally posted this over at
http://www.entropiaforum.com/forum/calypso-general-discussion/199321-q-see-digital-studios-rebuttal-part-1-a.html#post2570149

Copying it here since I’ve come to the realization that like many other forums of the past (entropia-pioneers, entropiareality, etc.), even entropiaforum may not be here in a few years, like so many other other community forums, so the history may eventually wash away as people rewrite history in their own biased vision down the road… May come back and edit this later…

The Questions that were posted by the community are here:
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?205837-Q-amp-A-Thread-The-Next-Chapter[/url]

and the original Q&A session was first mentioned here:
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?205836-Planet-Calypso-The-Next-Chapter[/url]

The Answers that were posted are here:
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/content.php?150-SDS-Q-A-(Part-1[/url])

The Answers received from Mindark so far:
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?206302-Support-news-from-JWT&highlight=welter[/url]

According to the answers thread, Hanne says that SDS
[quote]have responded to[B] all[/B] Planet Calypso and Entropia-related questions[/quote]

Let’s do a question by question breakdown of the questions that were asked and try to figure out which questions were asked that were [B]NOT[/B] responded to yet…

Also, while we are at it, let us take a look at this old Q&A session from a few years back, and some of the related threads that have come in to existence lately about various promises from the past to it to see if we can figure out what answers are still not out there that have been hanging around from back then that still need resolution:
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?66126-Q-amp-A-Answers-%28May-07%29[/url]

Here’s a few of the threads tied to some of the older promises, some of which were never delivered (yet)
[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?200643-Marco-said-….&p=2597728&viewfull=1#post2597728[/url]

[url]http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?205880-Content-of-Oblivion[/url]

Then maybe that will give them something to be forthcoming with at a future date?… They promise better communication going forward. One way to help make that happen is to help identify where mis-communications have occurred in the past, figure out what promises from the past were made that were not honored, etc.

for quick reference, here’s a copy of the answers…
[quote]Support news from JWT
Statement from the CEO Jan Welter Timkrans concerning upcoming systems inside Entropia Universe

“We are currently prioritizing the systems necessary for the entire “Entropia Universe Concept” to function correctly. This includes getting the rudimentary space flight system that we had implemented in earlier versions up to speed. This is now our number one priority, which I am sure a number of current holders of hangars are pleased to hear. The new space system will permit flight from one planet to any other planet within the Entropia Universe and of course there will be opportunities for a lot of adventures along your travels.

We would also like to inform you that we have already employed about 20% new programmers who have started work in 2011 and we are aiming to employ about 20% additional programmers in the first and second quarters of 2011 so we can speed up the delivery of systems into Entropia Universe. Work has already started on the “Taming” and “ Mentoring” systems which will be back with a number of added features. Next in line is the “Makeup” and “Beacon “systems and mutants.”

Sincerely,

Jan Welter Timkrans[/quote]

[quote]Hello colonists!

We have taken a look at the many questions you shared with us regarding the recent acquisition of First Planet Company, and have responded to all Planet Calypso and Entropia-related questions. We greatly appreciate your interest and look forward to continuing to respond to your queries as we continue under our new structure as SEE Digital Studios. More great things to come!

*Please note that all questions pertaining to Planet Michael will be answered as additional information is made available.

Thank you for your patience!
Hanne

So, let’s start!

General
· How many full time staff will there be working on Planet Calypso?
The staff at First Planet Company has been retained and is now at SEE Digital Studios where they will continue to enhance Planet Calypso. Currently, the Planet Calypso team is focusing on continued post-launch development and updates.

· What can we expect in 2011? Can we have a roadmap?
We are not at liberty to disclose this information at the time, but we assure you that there will be many exciting new developments in 2011.

· When will we be able to sit down and lay down again?
This functionality is provided by the platform supplier MindArk, and will return.

· Have you given any thought to competitions for ideas, storylines, and new products for the players to help with development?
Yes, we plan on integrating in-game competitions that will involve the community in our efforts to continue rolling out new content in Planet Calypso.

· Where are the power fists? I am a level 43 Brawler (hit) without a power fist available to hunt or skill with.
SEE Digital Studios will continue to add new items throughout the planet, including new power fists.

· How much time does the design team have available to fix things like texture issues, bugs like when you can’t place items on pedestals, shop bugs etc.
SEE Digital Studios is working with the AGILE software development model, which segments each SDS content release into a number of sprints and milestones. The total development time is usually between 1 – 2 months depending on the release content. Due to the separation of platform and content, bugs are allocated to either MindArk or SDS. Depending on when SDS receives a bug report within our sphere of influence, its fix will be added to the current or next release plan.

· Is MindForce going to be Calypso-exclusive or are we going to SEE that on other planets as well? Like… Moonwalk Chip II (L)?
MindForce is an activity available throughout the Entropia Universe, and therefore can be used by all colonists on other planets. However, while the underlying system is generic, colonists may individually express themselves through MindForce. For example, magic can be used on a medieval planet.

· Is removing/adding event content always going to take weeks/months to change?
Adding new content and events takes time to plan, create, execute and finalize. Therefore it is difficult to put a time-frame on the process.

· Is it currently possible for things to happen in real time on the servers? Or must patches be applied?
Even though SEE Digital Studios has some access to real time parameters, most changes require a patch.

· Does SEE have plans to upgrade the Beacon system, providing different types of Beacons maybe, which yield different types of missions, in different types of location, against different creatures, etc.?
MindArk is continuing to develop the underlying Beacon system. They are enhancing the old systems and reintroducing them to give colonists new and improved quests.

· Will corporations be introduced into the game?
As we have stated in the past, we would like to develop the idea of corporations along the lines of factions.

· Any plans for new storage containers that aren’t so restrictive? Weight reducing containers that aren’t so rare?
This suggestion is being taken into consideration.

· Are the equipment, weapons, etc., going to be added too? Will any new gear be released and looted?
Yes, we currently have plans to add new equipment, weapons and gear.

· Will the additional funds now available allow for one or more additional developers working on community requests only?
Increasing communication with the community is one of our top priorities for 2011. We are working at establishing a stronger relationship between the community and SDS.

• Will there be more vehicles released?
Yes, we have plans to release many more vehicles, starting with the spaceship, which goes with the hangar system.

· Where are Simon and Emma?
Simon and Emma are still very much involved, but are now focusing their efforts toward in-game events and item parameterization.

Forum and Communication
· Will there be more communication with the end user (via forums, bulletin or email) to keep them updated on the future of development of both planets, due to the increased number of staff working on both?

Increasing communication with the community is one of our top priorities for 2011. We are working at establishing a stronger relationship between the community and SDS.

· Will this be the official Michael Jackson Forum?
No, Planet Michael will have its own forum at planetmichael.com.

· With new staff can we get frequent updates about what is happening both In-game and development status?
Yes, as mentioned, SEE Digital Studios is working toward increasing our relationship with the community. With that said, communicating in-game content updates and development status is at the top of our list.

· Is this the beginning of a new and sustained dialogue with the community?
Yes, as mentioned, we are currently exploring different methods of ongoing community satisfaction within the areas of communication and overall development.

· Do you have the feeling, the communication between you and the player base is good or bad?
Following requests by the community we have certainly increased communication by hiring Hanne as our dedicated community manager, and taking over the Entropia Forum, rebranding it as the official Planet Calypso forum. We now we have a forum dedicated to Planet Calypso and a community manager with strong ties. With that said, we plan to continue enhancing our interaction with the community by becoming even more involved and listening to feedback.

· Are you concerned by all the hate topics in the forum, or do you think most of the players are happy?
User feedback is always encouraged as it helps us understand the wants and needs of the community. We pay close attention to the negative comments in order to make improvements and ensure that we’re responding to loyal players with the big changes they’d like to see implemented wherever possible. This is a game for the community after all.

· What will change about these forums with this take over?
Initially there will be no major changes, however, over time we will improve the overall experience and connect more with the game and our player base.

· Will you be the official community manager regarding the MJ forum?
We are not at liberty to disclose this information at this time, but we assure you that Hanne’s focus will continue to be on Planet Calypso.

· Will you (SDS) listen to what your community is telling you?
Absolutely, user feedback is constantly encouraged as it helps us understand the wants and needs of the community.

· How long before this latest spurt of interest in the player base wanes and it’s back to the normal wall of silence and no communication from anyone other than Hanne?
Hanne is the official community manager so the majority of SEE Digital Studios communication currently comes from her, however we are working at establishing a stronger relationship between the community and all of SDS.

· There is a wish list here on the forum that in quite a number of cases contains a huge number of great, and seemingly easy to implement, enhancements and ideas. Is there a staff member in your company that’s responsible for actually checking this thread and passing the ideas on for further analysis?
The forum threads are closely monitored and both SEE Digital Studios and MindArk are very well aware of the wish list.

· Can we get quarterly ‘state of the game’ posts, about which direction you are taking the game.
The suggestion will be taken into consideration.

Economy
· What will be done to the current sweat crisis as there is only one use for ME on this planet and that is Teleport Chips?
We’re taking a hard look at this situation to see what we can do in the near future.
·
With the constant introduction of more land without an equivalent growth in the player base the value of each plot keeps dropping. What are your policies on this? Can SEE/SDS release as much new land as they please or are there restrictions? If so, what are these?
SEE Virtual Worlds and SEE Digital Studios will continue to implement the platform restriction ratio of land areas to active users.

· What will be done to the Planet Calypso economy to ensure better return rates?
Return rates are a part of platform balancing, which is managed by MindArk. However, SEE Digital Studios is currently in discussions with MindArk about balancing matters in order to enhance the end user experience.

· Is it guaranteed that big yearly sales like Medusa will happen going forward?
No, like most in-game transactions, some years there will have larger yearly sales than others.

· Will there be more DNA dropping including new ones?
Yes.

· What steps will you take to correct the turmoil caused by VU 10.0 conversions of land areas and the introduction of iron missions for some mobs and not for others? Some of these changes were so drastic they reduced the value of some land areas by up to 80%. When if ever will you attempt to correct the remaining conversion issues, and at what point will you introduce iron missions for the remaining mobs to balance out the current imbalance?
We have been adjusting land areas since VU 10. It is our long-term goal to eventually have iron missions on all mobs.

· Will any land investment opportunities be added for smaller budgets? For example Land share market.
Yes, we are constantly looking at ways of expanding the economy for all budget sizes.

· What are your plans to address Squatters, in reference to Empty LA’s, Shops, etc., managed by inactive players?
SEE Digital Studios will continue to follow the terms set out in the Account Inactivity Policy, which will deem any account inactive if it has not been logged in to for a period of three hundred consecutive days.

Marketing
· Does this mean you now have a budget for some serious advertising?
We are not at liberty to disclose this information.
Concrete plan to attract a growing stream of new participants into the universe – is there one and if so what is it?
In very general terms, we intend to address retention and customer service, as well as acquisition.

· Are there any plans to have a more traditional marketing campaign, specifically television advertisements, on the scale of other major studios such as Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft? Or do you not consider yourselves in the same league?
Several media campaigns are being considered to increase exposure of Planet Calypso.

Planet Calypso Specific
· Will the storyline of Calypso be actively developed?
Yes.

· Are you going to tie up all the loose ends from previous stories? Using what functions?
Yes, we will be providing answers to any unsolved stories that will be sure to satisfy on all levels. For example, a major focus this year will be the resolution of the infamous ’Egg Story’.

· What is your vision for the future of Calypso?
Our main vision for the future of Planet Calypso includes streamlining, adding new opportunities and content, introducing events, and focusing our efforts on the overall colonist experience.

· When will the rest of Planet Calypso be developed? Server remakes and the rest of Amethera?
The development of Planet Calypso will be ongoing. Gradually we’ll address more of the servers and the development status.

· Will the Hangar system still be back next VU?
Yes, we plan on bringing the hangers back later this year.

· Where are Kerberos and Umbranoids?
Rest assured, Kerberos and Umbranoids will also return later this year once technical issues have been remedied.

· What about big story events for all professions instead of just hunters?
We have already included miners and crafters, but part of our long-term plan includes involving all player groups.

· When are we going to actually be able to travel to Akbal and/or Cimi?
We think this is a great idea and will take this into consideration. Thanks!

· What will SEE do differently to make me want to stay on Planet Calypso?
Some of the many changes will include increased product quality and communication, as well as better customer service.

· LandGrab?
We have no information at this time.

· Are we at war with the robots still or did we win?
As you know machines never give up but at times they need rebooting. This being said, the war is not over!

· And will the migration of Eomon be an actual migration or will they teleport from one location to the next every few hours?
We do want to get back to an actual migration feel and have received a few basic tools from MindArk that should allow us to achieve this.[/quote]

copy of the answers from 2007 Q&A
[quote]Q&A Answers (May 07)
Hello crew!

Here are the Balancing Manager’s responses to the Q&A. Any questions that were unrelated to balancing were omitted. Also, rather than respond “I cannot comment on the inner workings of the dynamics of Entropia Universe”, any other questions that required such a reply were also omitted in the responses.

Thanks to all who provided questions for this thread. A New Q&A will come later on, and with a faster time frame between Q:s and A:s.

Post 2
Are rare items expensive because they are rare or have they become rare drops because of inflation?
Submitted by Soundboy

It’s because of their rarity.

Post 5
What were the biggest/most surprising balancing mistakes ever made?
Submitted by Pirx Danford

When the loot during 10 seconds after a release contained 1000 times more shadow armor parts than there should have been.

Post 11
When am I going to get some decent loot or claims bigger than ample?
Submitted by dean

I actually don’t know and that’s a good thing.

Post 13
The question is would a hunter have the same profit with the same loot on different LA’s with different taxes?
Submitted by Raffaele Meiers

On a land area with higher taxes the hunter pays higher taxes.

Post 14
Why do you not “raise the bar” with SIB tools and weapons that require skills higher than the current “maxed” skills (~10k average) to give ubers something to aim for instead of destroying the chances of anyone new becoming uber (without an uber bank account)?
Submitted by Doer

We are doing that.

Post 17
There are certain items that have disappeared completely from the game, or are stuck on old avatars not active anymore. I think it’s a shame that those items will be lost in history (and in some cases, all we have is pictures to know they existed). Not only talking about equipment, but rare clothing-pieces. We all know clothing doesn’t drop anymore so getting it back seems rather hopeless unless you plan to do something about it.
Do MindArk in any way plan for these items to have their “return” on Calypso?
Submitted by Skam

We have no plans to return these items.

Post 18
Sometimes fairly common types of loot stop dropping completely, like Fine wool a few weeks ago. Is this on purpose or by mistake?
Submitted by Darkaner

There is always a natural variation cycle in drop rates on all items.

Post 22
Is the promised MindForce update coming or have you given that up?
Submitted by nisse

It hasn’t been given up on. It will be done.

Post 26
Does EVERY one in Entropia have the same programmed or instilled “luck”?
Submitted by jak

Of course everybody has the same installation there is no such thing as luck.

Post 31
Why are rifles so plentiful and seemingly encouraged, with few options in melee weapons?
Submitted by Spud Striker

We are starting to introduce more now, with many more planned for.

Post 32
Was the almost 20k ped HOF of Rugaritz a regrettable mistake?
Submitted by strakkan

No, but very rare.

Post 33
Can we expect more L weapons to fill the incremental SIB equipment void soon?
submitted by The Nightbird

Yes.

Post 42
As the balancing manager how do you determine when you can release more Land Areas/Asteroids/Space Stations/etc without severely impacting existing owners and their profit?
Submitted by Vap0r

Time, statistics, and a pre-planned release strategy.

Post 45
Will there be unlimited (!) melee amps, or improvement of melee generally?
Submitted by Alice

Yes to both.

Post 48
Will you ever actually release a list (sort of a ‘Heads Up!’) in regards to HOW and possibly WHAT drops certain new items?
Submitted by Sunab Naverith

We have no such plans today.

Post 50
What is the effect of the new auction fees on the general market transaction balance?
Submitted by helena

No unnecessary transportation sales, no display entries in the auction, an overall growth of the use of the auction and finally a growth of the use of participant owned shops.

Post 52
What role do the commercial ads play with loots, ATH and HOFs?
Submitted by Haxtor moogle

They add money to the system by being watched.

Post 55
When will you update with something not only MA is gaining on?
submitted by SODERD

We have done, and do so with every release – sometimes small things, sometimes whole systems. To take some examples: sweating, land areas, participant shops, auction system, real world and participant commercial system, Event system.

Post 56
How many people are in the balancing department, what are their responsibilities and what is the process to balance a VU (loot changes, new features, etc.)?
Submitted by fluke

I cannot go into details here, but there is a group of more than five people involved in all balancing.

Post 62
Will there be any amps for faps in the near future?
Submitted by Omega

We have no plans today to introduce them.

Post 63
Why does MA make things better for crafters and worse for miners and hunters.
Submitted by bigdeal

We don’t, there are always ways to find opportunities in all systems.

Post 64
Can we expect to see more frequent events and story lines that actually have both a head and a tail?
Submitted by JackFree

Yes.

Post 69
What makes an item balanced?
Submitted by Dunn

Many parameters determine balance, here are some of them. An item is balanced when:
It fits the user’s skill interval and current state in EU, meaning that it is fun to use and lets you interact with fun and intriguing events or mobs.
It doesn’t cost too much to use and its owner knows it.
You cannot drain the system with it.
It can be found in the way it was meant and with the right frequency.
The owner knows it’s expensive to use, but its fun to use or it has an interesting and unique advantage.

Post 78
How many in game data points are you able to balance?
Submitted by Gazza

There are millions if you mean when items and rules are created. A lot fewer when the systems, items and Entropia are running. The goal is to sit beside the universe watching the nature of Entropia take its course.

Post 79
I believe that the return rate (the “cash/ped” that the users are getting from the system as loot) should be increased. Why shall I play this game and not play on a casino where the odds are much more for me to gain some money?
Submitted by Niovara

I agree, everything we do aims for a better return rate for the users, but must still pay for the systems and us at MindArk. I think you should participate in Entropia because it’s a virtual universe and nothing else.

Market prices are at work, services are up for trade, socializing and training pays off. Opportunities are there all the time for the observant and hard working participant and not just at the same place everyday.

The universe isn’t static and predictable instead it’s built on natural laws and the goals of the users in it and that’s what makes it intriguing and full of possibilities.

Post 80
As far as I know only CEO and balance-manager know exactly about and set the parameters of the loot-system.
Since this is the most important part of the whole RCE-game: Is some 3rd person/team checking their work or do they just proof each others work?
Submitted by Agnus Dei

There is a bigger team working with these questions today.

Post 87
We’ve heard the term “Balancing Manager” ad nauseum, but there’s been no real description of what that position entails. Please describe exactly what you balance.
Submitted by AlphaGeek

Firstly, there is a whole team involved in balancing work. The team analyze every new system from when it’s only an idea to when you all are using it.

What will the system affect? What will it give and what will it take? What should the cost be to use the system and the items connected to it? Who will use the system, who are the real life users of system and who are the in world users? How will the system affect the performance of the hardware and the software platform and what will it cost to solve possible bottlenecks?

And of course the team continually analyze how a system works long after it has been released.

Post 93
Does MindArk have any plans of rekindling the past staples of our economic growth, or is their vision purely of advancing into the future?
Submitted by Stryker

We are constantly working with both new and old systems. It’s just a matter of time and the point of view of the beholder.

Post 94
Some time after VU with amp nerf has passed. Now what were impacts of it on “balance” (maybe reallocating part of loot from opalo users to high-lvl hunters etc.)?
Submitted by Denis

There is now a point in constructing, finding, selling and owning amplifiers other than just the best type. This has boosted the whole economy regarding amplifiers.

Post 99
Why do some mobs loot a large variety of items while other mobs loot only 1 or 2 items?
Submitted by Chilly

All creatures have different benefits and drawbacks.

Post 105
Is it balanced to make it better for low and high level players and worse for the mid-level?
Submitted by habanero

All users can find opportunities no matter what level they are at.

Post 112
Today my hit ability is for example 3.9/10, 6.1/10 on EP-10 and the same up to EP-50, shouldn’t the hit ability be higher on low guns and get lower on high guns depending on your skills?
Submitted by Rapido

You have to use skill interval dependent tools to get what you ask for.

Post 113
Is MA’s plan to keep going the actual process: Universe drain investor through big PR that deposit a lot of cash to buy “asset” and parasite gamer with tax and fee to use the new universe feature (examples: malls, CND, Land areas)?
Submitted by Etopia

We want to have many types of user groups. Investors with possibilities to enhance the experience of Entropia are one of those groups but certainly not the only one or even the biggest. Remember that they in many cases do important work with their areas and it’s voluntary to enter their areas.

Post 121
Rare Items/Ores and especially Blueprints in inactive accounts are a huge balancing problem, because they can be reactivated.
Limited Items avoid this problem.
But what will you do to balance the existing rare Blueprints (etc) in inactive accounts?
Submitted by schnups

The inactive accounts are eventually purged and the items go back to Entropia open market. All this is taken account for in the balancing.

Post 126
Are we all dealing with the same virtual world, insofar as odds/rules/chances?
Submitted by Amanita

Of course.

Post 127
Will Houses ever have the option of selling items when a player is off line like a shop without the need of a shopkeeper?
Submitted by TotalTwist

You need to have a shop or a shopkeeper.

Post 128
Is Land Grab no longer existent?
Submitted by Mercury

It definitely is existent and will return, in a different way though.

Post 136
When will respawn rate of mobs be fixed during events?
Since kinda hilarious to try to host nice events for community if there isn’t any mobs left after 5-15min of shooting in LA. No problem with Big mobs and 10 or 20 participants, but above 20 participants LA will be wiped clean.
submitted by Zap

The mobs will re-spawn faster after the next release.

Post 148
In a previous support case I asked if there will ever be any whip better than my Cobra ME. The reply was NEVER. So if there will never be any whip with more damage – how can the taming system work with bigger mobs?
Submitted by Sneaky B’stard

Of course there will be more whips that do more damage.

Post 158
The transferring of skills as it is now seems to be very confusing for most players. Will we see a system that is easier to manage, like just entering i want to fill a chip with 10 PED worth of skill x, then it shows how many of your skills that would take away and you press ok?
Submitted by Snakecharmer

No plans for that now.

Post 176
What is the prime motivation in your balancing?

To create a sustainable intriguing world with indisputable natural laws that can host a vast number of users and activities.

Post 192
I’m wondering if MA is going to introduce more mobs that use firearms as their
combat mode? There are currently 96 mobs in Entropia, of those only 5 are firearms.
Submitted by m0000

Yes.

Post 212
Whilst this isn’t strictly speaking a balancing issue, it does have a relevant impact for crafters. The lack of knowledge of what these attachments (scopes and lasers) actually do quite possibly subdues the market for them thus having a direct impact on the cost of crafting such attachments for crafters. Can MindArk provide a little more clarity as to the function of laser sights and scopes?
submitted by Jimmy B

More information has been delivered to all items, we are just not ready with all items yet.

Post 218
Now that players will be able to upload content of their own in form of pictures, ads or videos, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to upload your own musical compositions?
Submitted by Glyphan

Yes.

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

Yes.

Post 270
Are there any plans to introduce farms in the game, or farming licenses?
Submitted by Dusk

Yes.

Post 271
Will we one day have the ability to take one melee weapon in each hand?
Submitted by ufcfl

Yes.

Post 272
Does MA has an “inferior loot list” for avatars that have been annoying?
Submitted by Micheva

No.

Post 281
Will an item appear on market by re-looting it after it was TTed (used up)? Is the rule applicable to any kind of items?
Submitted by Auktuma

I’m not going to give details, but it works something like that.[/quote]

Here’s some of the questions that were posted that were not responded to that I’ve located.
[quote]Exciting to see all these new planets popping up.
There is thread about cost to travel between planets but can you throw some highlights on what am I paying 40ped for each way between planets?[/quote]

[quote]Will hangars and their spaceships be offiacially tradeable then?[/quote]

[quote]Will the teleporting between planets allways be available?[/quote]

[quote]Will every planet ( including Michael) bring additional hangars which serve as launching platforms for their pilots?[/quote]

[quote]What happened to the Harbinger event? I mean it never had a conclusion? Will it have one soon? What about our diplomas? [/quote]Answer was that the war is not over, but nothing about this particular question…

[quote]How about some skill bonus event again?[/quote]

[quote]How many full time staff will there be working on Planet Calypso?[/quote]20% is not really an answer as it’s not a real number…

[quote]How many staff on planet michael?[/quote]

[quote] In the development of Calypso what do you plan to develop?[/quote]Question is a bit vague, but I think the intention is to ask what the roadmap is for 2011, and what the priorities are. They did answer this by more or less saying they don’t know, I think?

[quote] In which order will these parts of calypso be developed?[/quote]

*** DOWN TO #4 IN QUESTIONS SO FAR… WILL ADD MORE LATER. FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE BEFORE I DO IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.

Also, can anyone find the original 2007 question list to see which ones were passed over?
***

of course… what’s the point, lol…

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another post about Calypso’s various lies and half-truths in Entropia Universe…

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Posted this on facebook too, but it’s being put here in case it gets somehow deleted over there… Posted it to facebook since the mods on planetcalypsoforum recently gave me a temp ban from their forum. The reason for that was that the mod there did not like that I was bringing up stuff like this in various posts over there. He did not mind me mentioning this stuff sometimes, but not often… and not daily… Since these are ongoing issues that need to be mentioned or else they’ll continue to be swept under the carpet as they have been in the past, I don’t think I did anything wrong. Support tickets don’t help in matters like this since they simply say they send the issue off to another department – and then they never follow up on the issues much… If we can’t speak our minds about this sort of stuff in a forum, there’s not many other places to discuss the ongoing wrongs that need to be righted… so here and facebook are sort of my backups in that regard. Also, here the message might go out to the masses that don’t play the game yet. Most in the forums are only those that are already in game… so already know what’s going on, even though they may not be aware of all of the gory details…

This info should not be considered against the eula since it’s not spreading rumors… it’s revealing truths that most don’t necessarily know unless they have been a part of the community for a while. It’s about the folks running Calypso in Entropia Universe. They are the same folks that will be running Planet Micheal, a planet based on Micheal Jackson, at some point in the future.
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Look how many broken promises there have been:
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?205880-Content-of-Oblivion

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?200643-Marco-said-….&p=2597728&viewfull=1#post2597728

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http://www.neverdie.com/neverdie-studios/4273-planet-partner-avatars-prohibited.html – how come Neverdie was still playing after that statement came out for a little while as indicated at http://twitter.com/#!/nevereverdie

actually… he’s STILL PLAYING as of today as Banker Banker Manager, his second avatar that owns Bank Neverdie at PA, which allows him to be on both Calypso and his other planet that he owns WITHOUT paying tp toll fees like the rest of us…

… so he’s got this contract saying he can’t continue to play after he’s a planet partner that he breaks and is allowed to break for 9+ months… then he’s still got this second avatar that he’s allowed to use too… which actually lets him be on two planets at the same time while others have to pay toll fees to move between planets… fair and balanced… all avatars are equal and treated equally? … uh, sure, whatever….

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not a game?
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?207500-Celebrity-Avatar-NEVERDIE-Banished-to-Virtual-World-Prison&p=2686099&viewfull=1#post2686099
If it’s not a game as they advertised a few years ago, why do they keep treating it as one? … false advertising… ?

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free access?
Why did rocktropia originally lie by saying there would be UNLIMITED FREE Access to all the planets, when there is a toll fee to go between any of the planets?.. false advertising…?

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ownership?
Why did the estate deeds used to indicate that things in game were “owned” but later changed their story on that and the wording after other mmos started seeing legal battles — false advertising…?

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https://i0.wp.com/www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/1/5/2/5/2/offline2.jpg
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?206302-Support-news-from-JWT&highlight=welter
How can all systems be online when taming and mentoring system are not even in game? … false advertising in client loader..?

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Taming and other systems have been offline for about a year and a half so far… Planet Calypso and/or Mindark, it’s time that if you are not going to fix this stuff, or even if you do that you start compensating some of these people that bought in to the lies and believed what you were telling them so many weeks, months, and now years ago… you took their money and it’s making you interest in a bank somewhere. Maybe you should start paying them back with some sort of compensation for the time and money you have stolen from so many people with your lies, false hopes, and broken promises…

After all, several years ago, you handed out shopkeepers, an item worth roughly 3k ped, i.e. $300.00 USD, to those that had the problematic booths that were acting up in Hadeshiem when they finally were fixed, and that problem was nowhere nearly as long as the 7+ months booths have been unusable since vu 10…
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?124918-B-Shopkeepers-5k#post1514504

and you paid owners of the personal revive 5k ped, i.e. $500.00 USD to make right a mistake you made several years back that you wanted to fix through balancing…
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?15104-Removal-of-Personal-Revival-Terminals

It’s time to fix the mistakes and pay up for the massive unbalancing that has been going on since vu 10!

I do thank you for removing rent, as do many other estate owners. However, booth owners, and house owners who had free rent prior to the time Medusa Head was created now have had their asset’s markup demolished by this move since booths and other estates used to have a major advantage in that free rent when everywhere else had rent… so your removal of rent has unbalanced the items people have already bought.

The recent mix up with the excess loots on Rocktropia is only one tiny piece of the problem and is the only tip of this iceberg you have acknowledged… there are many, many, many other problems, and only a few are listed here….

Please fix the problems ASAP! Please give us ETAs on when the fixes will be if you cannot fix them immediately. Please do something to save this virtual world we bought in to because of your hype.

The truth will set you free!

Entropia Universe’s many broken promises…

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Look how many broken promises there have been :
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?205880-Content-of-Oblivion

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?200643-Marco-said-….&p=2597728&viewfull=1#post2597728

and the latest fiasco caused many long time players hudreds if not thousands of dollars, but they say it’s all nice and balanced…

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?207591-Information-from-MindArk-Balancing-Team

Entropia Universe may have some good sides to it, but right now there’s many bad sides to it. It may be the worlds most expensive mmo, and may have gained some who were favored some of their money back, but the real truth it is a huge skam, and it’s highly unbalanced and there currently appears to be much favoritism involved in this game which actually uses real money as virtual money.

These are the people that will be creating the Planet Micheal soon that is a themepark type of planet based on Micheal Jackson. If they can’t turn their act around, I suspect MJ is going to be turning over in his grave really soon!!!

New Forum…

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Entropia Forum’s database got bought by Mindark, so the new location of the thread my shop in Entropia Universe is http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?183967-Delta-Discounts-Calypso-s-TRUE-Bargain-Shop-Omegaton-West-Habitat-Delta-Tower

http://piratesfootlocker.tk/

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http://piratesfootlocker.tk/ – Mr. Pirate’s Foot Locker is a website that lists the trading rates for Mike Pirate Vic, a full time trader in Entropia Universe. Mike has fairly good rates, and updates the rates regularly.

http://jdegre.net/pe/unlocker.php – Entropia Universe Chipping Optimizer

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http://jdegre.net/pe/unlocker.php – Entropia Universe Chipping Optimizer.   This tool gives you a rough estimate of how much it will cost for you to chip up your avatars skills to the level you want to be at.

In Entropia Universe, unlike other MMORPGs, your avatar’s skills can be implanted and extracted so you can buy new skills or sell off the ones  you have.  It’s very similar to the way that Neo learned Martial Arts skills in the Matrix Trilogy.

Maria’s Blog 4/18/2010

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Over the weekend Maria bought a few QR 100 blueprints, and also outright bought some blueprints from both with high qr and low qr from a crafter that was doing consignment deals in Maria’s Shop, Delta Discounts. Maria has started to craft a little now too.

I used Bob the Builder’s website http://www.candyman.se/pe/bobthebuilder/v2/ as a guide to help me figure out which blueprints to buy with high qr. I’m focusing on low cost materials to skill upon. Basic Auxillary Socket is what I’m crafting tonight. The ingredients for it are 1 lysterium ingot, and 2 oil. That is the same cost as standard dampers, but dampers are only TT food, like Basic Filers. I can sell Basic Aux. Socket in the shop, even though the markup on it is low… and also can sell whatever residue I get from it.

Before now, my high qr crafting was mainly filters and dampers, which is costly and not good since it’s all TT food, that is useless for any other thing in game, even though it is listed as a component – it’s not a component of anything. Aux sockets are a component of something..

A long time ago I had the dream of Maria skilling up on longblades and crafting to eventually become a longblade engineer. Right now, she’s up to level 2 in that profession… She can’t hunt much these days because slow computer graphics card gives her lag… but crafting machines don’t need fast graphics cards since no one is around much, and speed does not matter as much as with hunting… so hunted up til now, but now the focus on skilling side of things will be in crafting… When not doing that, I’ll be continuing to buy stuff as cheaply as possible and selling it in the shop, as I have been up til now.

If you ever get in to crafting in Entropia Universe, it’s costly but tools like Candyman’s site can help you figure things out a bit. Right now Maria only has a hundful of qr 100 blueprints, but they are the ones that are use cheap ingredients so that she can get lots of skills cheaply. She also has a LOT of blueprints in various books from the blueprint consignment deals she’s been doing with the shop, so she’s well on her way to becoming one of Entropia Universe’s best crafters in a few years. The shop ownership is only the first of many long term goals. The blueprint collection is part two of that. Now it’s time to build some skills in crafting!

p.s. I really love auto-crafting in Entropia Universe since it lets me type posts like this while also doing something in game. Very nice being able to multi-task.

Maria’s blog: 4/16/2010

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I’ve not put a lot in to blogging from Maria Mesh’s perspective for a while. I think now is the time to start doing that. I type a lot on Entropiaforum, so sometimes get lost over there instead of typing over here…

Today, Maria sold her apartment, Omegaton West Habitat – Delta Tower, Apartment 1D to a society mate. Eventually, she may get the chance to buy it back at the same price, but only time will tell. The apartment was sold to free up some PED. Maria also sold a lot of empty books she had in resettlement storage when she was running the “lost library”… an idea that sort of fizzled because a lot of people did not seem interested in buying blueprints, even if they were TT priced. What bps she has left she’ll either sell in the shop or sell to friends at a good price.

Most of the rest of the empty books have the Technician bps in them, so I need to manually unload each and then sell them and the books themselves to the trade terminal. The Lost Library has served it’s purpose, it allowed me to “save” my peds that were tied up in all of these books up until now… I spent the money on them all so that I could basically waste my time moving stuff around in books and organizing them in a nice and neat way instead of wasting time in game doing other junk that would be throwing the money away, such as hunting, buying overpriced stuff I don’t need, but wanted, etc. It was a bit of a way of making the peds last instead of blowing them all at once. Now I have a clearer vision of what to do. I’m going to keep buying stuff at TT prices off of the auctions and selling in the shop. That way I can keep playing the game safely and not loosing a ton of money in high risk investments… so the need to have that many books to mess around with is not there as much any more. Each of the resettlement containers has around 100 books in them, each priced at 1 ped, and a good bunch of them had 2-4 blueprints in them at 1 pec each, bought from the technician… so each resettlement container had about 10 US dollars worth of peds in them… not a lot of money, but enough to make my need for peds now want me to sell them so that’s what I’m doing. It was also, in part a bit of a test on the servers to see how many items an avatar could hold. I discovered that an avatar can hold an almost unlimited amount of items if they are stacked in books, boxes, and other containers… you are not limited to the 200 item slots in inventory and 500 in storage for each planet as some may believe…

Since the apt. sold, Maria is left with two estate deeds – The Shop at Omegaton West Habitat, Delta Tower, Block A, Shop 1, and one of the booths behind it, Omegaton West Habitat, Delta Tower, Booth #3. She also bought a shopkeeper and manniquin a few days ago, which is part of the reason she’s in need of peds… and sold the apt. Shopkeeper cost her 3k, that is 300.00 US Dollars… and Manniquen was only 30.00 US Dollars. I thought you could sell items the manniquen wore as he wore them, but apparently I was wrong on that, so it may be a bad buy. I sent a support ticket in about it since I could have sworn I saw a manniquen do that a few years ago in one of the malls.

Out of the 100 books that were in one of the resettlement containers, only 25 are left that have blueprints… I’ll unload the other resettlement container later that has the component II books and other books later. Luckily, the technician and Trade Terminal don’t let you sell books to them that have blueprints in them, which makes it a lot easier to sell the empty books than it would be otherwise… I just throw them all in the sell tab and if they have blueprints in them they bounce back in to inventory.

A lot of crafters tend to throw away low level blueprints, that is sell them to the trade terminal, or hand them out to anyone on the streets. The idea behind the Lost Library was to gather up those throw aways and re-distribute them to other folks in exchange for other blueprints, etc. That worked up to a point, but it got to be very difficult to organize, so I eventually sort of gave up on the idea, and just started selling on consignment in my shop. With that I paid Trade Terminal prices to crafters, tried to sell the stuff, and then if we got profits I gave them profits back. There was a lot of work involved in keeping the google documents. I still have several things on consignment with several people, but will slowly either sell them back to them at TT value or outright buy them so I’m not left holding a lot of people’s stuff, where I could eventually get accused of being a scammer.

In Entropia Universe, your reputation is EVERYTHING… if you ever get accused of scamming, you might as well forget about playing the game for a year or two… it’s not really that bad, and I’ve never been accused of scamming because I never have scammed… but some people aren’t so smart… you are not as anonymous as you may think you are in a virtual world… I could write a lot of topics on that eventually.

Well, my hands are a little sore from typing this and moving all those blueprints from the resettlement boxes to inventory, and then to the sell tab of the technician, so I’ll write more at a later time. Have a nice day.

Now Open – Delta Discounts – Calypso’s TRUE Bargain Shop – Omegaton West Habitat, Delta Tower, Booth # 3

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Now Open – Delta Discounts – Calypso’s TRUE Bargain Shop – Omegaton West Habitat, Delta Tower, Booth # 3. This new shop is located just around the corner from the Lost Library Blueprint Consignment Shop. You can read more about it over at http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/shops/183542-delta-discounts-calypsos-true-bargain-shop-omegaton-west-habitat-delta-tower-booth-3-a.html#post2358473

Maria’s getting another apartment. Loooong history…

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This post is a lot longer than I thought it would be… what’s sad is a lot of details aren’t in here… a lot has happened in the last couple of years in Entropia Universe for my avatar… there’s enough plots and stuff in here and all that’s been going on with the NBK on the forums at Entropia Forum to make an entire mini-series or 19 of them, lol…
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Maria mastermesh Mesh is about to purchase a second apartment again. She previously had 2 of them… but sold off one a few days ago. Now she’s getting a second one since it’ll be on the same floor as the one that she already has.

There’s a lot of history… now here a little back story for those of you that are in to reading about that sort of stuff…

In the Pre-Maria Days, I had heard of Entropia Universe, via Slashdot.org. However, it sounded like a crazy idea… then… there was this one post about some guy named Deathifier that had spent a lot and earned it all back… and another guy named Neverdie that had spent even more, and earned it all back… so then Maria came in to being…

Yes, the hype was mostly hype, but it was an interest way to spend time and some small amounts of money as I was home on weekends as my wife worked then… and a few months prior to that time, a casino had opened a few blocks away from where we lived… At the casino I could blow through 30 dollars in less than 20 minutes. IN Entropia Universe, I could survive on 30 dollars hunting snablesnots for a month, so it seemed like an interesting thing…

Maria started out her life in Entropia Universe as a poor homeless citizen, like all avatars are when they first begin the game, with nothing more on her back than an orange jumpsuit.

Then, Maria sweated a lot and finally got a little income through that. She also shortly got an income from a deposit from an Earthling and took up hunting. She axed her way across two continents with a few 2×0 axes that got bloodied up pretty fast and needed repair. Maria found that the axes were not very economic weapons eventually (no Skill Increase Bonus – SIB)…

Then, Maria took up hunting with a rifle. Her trusty rifle accompanied her everywhere. Her favorite hunting spots were, and still are locations that are not real busy spots. Prior to the recolonization of Calypso (Version Update 10), she hunted a lot around Fort Argus, Fort Zeus, North of Fort Ithica and radom other spots on occassion.

She no longer hunts much to the east of Argus since it is now a Player vs Player (PvP) Zone. She does still travel north of Argus on occassion. She’s also found a new hunting location that did not exist prior to the recolonization – EOS. She loves hunting Foul in the hills between EOS and Athena Space Base.

Back in the early days, Maria loved trading, and joined the Entropia Forum Dollar Growth Fund (EFD Growth Fund) Smart Trade Terminal Solution (STTS), and thought about joining Entropia Investment Fund (EIF).

STTS only existed for a short time and now no longer exists. EFD Growth Fund still exists on the forums at Entropia Forum. If you are a regular over there, you might think about joining the fund since the only investment requirement is Entropia Forum Dollars, not real money – although it is possible to buy or invest real peds to get EFD in that fund…

Luckily, Maria never joined EIF since they sunk a lot of money in to investments such as Land Areas, a mall shop, and a hanger, all of which have zero Trade Terminal Value. If Maria had bought in to that fund, her money would now be gone with little to no way of getting the money back since the EIF still exists but has no plans on ever selling out for any time in the near future it appears, so all peds that went in to those investments are now gone… The investments are bringing EIF some money, but it’s arguable how much since it’s likely that the original investment money is gone unless they ever sell their invested money, which they have no plans on doing… so until they get that money back, they have lost a lot of cash… Unfortunately, sometimes, to get ahead on Calypso that it is required to make big investments like that. I still think the EIF is extremely risky since there is no such thing as multiple owners of an asset in EU, and everything is based on trust. If the Fund manager dies or something, the assets he holds can be considered gone like the wind, along with all the Project Entropia Dollars (PEDs) that various individuals put in that invested in that stuff through the EIF.

Maria also thought about joining MMA Bigshow in his quest to create Entropia Holdings at one point in time. However, MMA is no longer in game, so Maria is glad she did not do that. MMA’s cockiness got the entire community irritated at him in the forums at entropia forum, even though he really probably had some ok ideas… I guess if you are martial artists that fights all the time, you might get too aggressive sometimes… and that may reflect in other areas of your life…

Maria jumped around to several different societies in the beginning of her journeys. For a while she was in The American Soldier (TAS), where she met some nice friends, including big Dodge Ram, and Fillipe Castanhas, among others.

Later, TAS was disbanded, and Fillippe talked Maria in to joining Entropia Asia Cadets (EAC), which was a cadet society for Entropia Asia. Maria was not Asian but joined anyways because some of her friends were there. Shortly thereafter EAC got blackmailed a little – one member of the society (I won’t name names here) bought a dot com for the Entropia Asia… and did so without consenting with anyone… in part because he ran an ISP… it was a nice site with it’s own forum and things… but wasn’t that great… Later, the higher ups in the society were asked to pay for that domain or something (not sure about all the details since I was a lowly cadet)… and the leaders of EAC broke off to start Zoku instead of staying as a cadet society for EA. At that time Cadets were given a choice – either stay in a dead cadet society, join Zoku, join EA, or go off on their own way. Maria decided to join Entropia Asia because Vortezy, Bryon, and some of the other folks over there were nice, and helpful.

Shortly after that, Maria went silent for 9 months because all deposits and activity from earth that powered her dissappeared (VU updates caused me not to be able to log in for 9 months til I got new hardware… could not even get past the login screen with the ol ATI-All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro and pentium III…).

When Maria awakend from her 9 month slumber, she was still EA, but it was a nearly dead society at least for her part of the world… There were still Asians in the society, but being located in the States, I could not see people in my society unless I stayed up til 3 am… which was a bad situation…

Maria decided to change directions if she was going to continue to survive on Calypso… so I started reading the forums… and I read them A LOT… Over time, I started thinking it’d be neat to cut some deals with shop owners, so I started studying the entropia forum and looking around at various shop owner’s avatars and visiting various terminals in game to see who owned what estates, etc. As a result, Maria met a lot of folks that owned shops in the Port Atlantis Mall and a few other places and befriended quite a few of them. She started trading things at Trade Terminal (TT) Value to some of those folks, including Nihilist, who happens to run EFD Growth Fund. Nihilist sort of became Maria’s mentor in the ways of running a shop successfully in game. He ran, and still runs a consignment shop called Dead Man’s Plunder… He buys things at TT value, trys to sell it in his shop, then pays back a percentage of profits…

Maria bought tons of things off of the auction for him, paying TT value for it. Some got accepted, others rejected. The rejected stuff, Maria did not know what to do with it… so she started trading it. Around this time, Vortexy, which is one of the leaders of EA started handing Maria lots of blueprints to sell too since he was crafting a lot… so she’d go sell his blueprints at Port Atlantis near the TP… and would also sell whatever else he handed her… she was a pretty good scounger in those days. She cut a few deals and met lots of traders… She actually started a non-society guild called United Buyers Exchange Resource (U.B.E.R.) and traded things to and from a lot of folks at TT values back then. It was fun and games, and no losses really since TT value was always growing, or getting traded off for something else to sell. STTS took that idea to a new level, but Josh Edwards (who ran STTS) only sold via auction, so he actually lost a lot of potential profit… and cost people that worked with him 100% of auction fees + 30% of the profits on top of that… pretty steep cost, but it was all junk people normally sold to the TT anyways, so it was not a bad deal… Maria eventually got in to that as an investor, and urged Josh to stop using the auction and get in to using a shop or something… He never listened, so she sold off her investment and moved on… There is still a massive void in EU that STTS filled that should be filled by someone, but is not currently being filled by anyone, so stuff gets sold in to the TT and avatars in the entire community get poorer and poorer because of that…

Around that time, NBK Entrepreneurs was formed by Hardwrath, someone who used to be leader of NBK, but had also been in a deep slumber, like Maria. Maria liked the enticing sound of being in NBK E, since she wanted to change her focus towards running a business and not being a ped loosing hunter the rest of her life… so she joined NBK Entrepreneurs… it got active about a year, had lots of great people in it – several shop owners (some of which Maria had brought in due to her U.B.E.R contacts, including Nihilist), an Land Area owner, and lots of traders… and some of the best crafters in all of the virtual universe…

Eventually though, a lot of the crafters wanted to do their own thing and focus on cutting deals with miners, so NBK Miners started, and NBK E was more or less abandoned by all but Maria and a few other dedicated folks. After that NBK E was forced by NBK leadership to become NBK Otium. Otium means “at ease.”

The idea from leadership is that Otium should be a place for the retired avatars to go that don’t fit in any other NBK society… a while before then, Nihilist quit because the promises that Hardwrath had made with a steady supply line being created when NBK E. first started out was never really brought in to being – it was, but only to benefit skilling crafters and miners, not shop owners… This and a lot of other things going on caused Otium to exist. I still am not sure I like otium since it sounds an awful like like Opium… but it’s started to grow on me a bit… sort of nice to not be under pressure to skill or cut business deals all the time even though I’m still doing some of each…

Anyways, at some point in time, prior to the recolonization, Maria purchased an apartment in Treasure Island. It was Apartment 10A in the Silver Building. The “Stack Exchange” was there, which was a service Maria ran to trade stacks of items among a lot of different individuals. Maria also had 2 shopkeepers that more money that magically appeared on her pedcard from a transfer from earth allowed her to buy. The real purpose behind the Stack Exchange was to get people in to the apartment to look at the shopkeepers and buy things. A few events were done with the NBK (Maria’s society)

Eventually, Maria bought a booth in the basement of the Delta Tower at Omegaton West Habitat… and bought Apartment 1A in the Delta Tower too… Those funds from earth helped her to make that happen…

and the Stack Exchange became the NBK TT shop… when Maria bought out the old NBK TT shop’s inventory and moved it in…

Then a few months later, the Treasure Island Silver apartment deed was traded for a deed to Apartment 4A in the Delta Tower… so Maria had 2 apartments and a booth all in the Delta Tower… 4A, 1A and Booth #3. She moved the NBK TT Shop and shopkeepers to the 1A apartment.. but that business never took off since the booth and shopkeepers were hidden away and not visible… then Maria moved everything out of the NBK TT shop apartment and converted it to a blueprint shop since NBK folks and others were continuing to TT Maria blueprints along with other things…

Then Maria did something radical and traded the two shopkeepers and booth in for the Shop 1 in Block A in Delta because the guy that owned that place, Rufwon, had been trying to sell it for a long time… Maria felt sorry for Rufwon and also found the idea of being visible from outside of the building to be nice…

So the Lost Library was established in Block A, Shop 1 of Delta Tower in Omegaton West Habitat. Maria owned Aparment 1A in the same building and 4A as well..

about 2 weeks ago, she sold 4A…

and now one of the folks that is selling blueprints in the Lost Library, who sniped 1D from Maria in an Auction at time when Maria was a little poor, is wanting to sell 1D…

So going Forwards, Maria mastermesh Mesh will own Apartments 1A and 1D, as well as Block A – Shop 1 in the Delta at Omegaton West Habitat. There’s also potential to eventually buy the booth back or buy another booth too, leaving lots of room to expand the shop at some point in the future, both horizontally, and vertically at some point in the future… The costs of expanding looks way too pricey right now, but I’m going to hold the deeds because that price may not look so bad in the future… I never thought that 2 years ago I’d join the NBK, much less own an estate… or three estates!!!… You never know what will happen in the virtual universe… the future is bright now that I have 3 estates in the same building… lots of potential room to grow eventually, even if the costs aren’t justified for that growth yet… Hopefully I can find a way to make that justification change and get profitable at the same time! 🙂

Mapping out Entropia Universe…

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I started a google document… it might be a little easier to maintain than text formating in some Entropia Universe Thread or here in the blog, or on entries in Entropedia or something. It’s open to editing by anyone so it should be easy to keep things updated.

url to the new spreadsheet is
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AppC9Gwr9zBIdGhNY0FBdHhjdm1MYUxWT2hjWHBMbWc&hl=en

url to the html web page format of it is
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=thMcAAtxcvmLaLVOhcXpLmg&output=html

Almost nothing’s in it yet… but soon I’ll start using what info is available on Entropia Forum, Entropedia, and in game in the estate terminals to start making what info is in there accurate. I invite you to do so too. This is a huge project and I cannot do it alone.

There is a place on there to put the name of the TP, name of the continent, name of the planet, name of the service, a link to the service’s website or entropiaforum thread, and a link the the shop owner or estate holder’s avatar in entropiaforum… as I said, huge project…

I wanted to do this project about a year ago, but lots of things got in to my way due to lack of real world time, etc. I’m hoping that others will join me on this crusade to map out our virtual world, and make it easier to access the estate owners of various places, and make it easier to see exactly which shops are active and which are now.

We CAN make this the best darn resource on how to contact shop owners over time! 🙂 😉

Entropia Tips – Buy from Shops!

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When you have a few peds on your avatar’s ped card in Entropia Universe, it is a good idea to price around and window shop a bit before doing any buying. The global auction system, accessed from the auctioneer npc is one of the main markets in game, and it is what is used to determine market value of item. However, in game shops in the malls and outlying areas are where you can sometimes find some spectacular deals. Actually, some “resellers” that sell things on the auction get their stuff from shops around the countryside where they can find items cheaper than they can in the auction. Sure, there are some greedy shop owners that want to price things way above where they should be, but there are also lots of shop owners that price things well below the auction values on a regular basis.

At my shop in Omegaton West Habitat, Delta Tower, I try to personally keep things below market value when possible. I can’t do it on everything since the minimum markup on items is +1 ped, so minimum total price is 1.03, which is the +1 Ped + 2 pecs for taxes that is automatically added to the pricing. Tax is approximately 2% in most shops in games currently.

The reason I, and several other shop owners, can keep our prices so low is that we deal directly with crafters, hunters, and others that get us the goods in direct deals, or bulk buying deals. That keeps things cheap, and keeps those that we buy from having a steady income instead of a sporadic income they would otherwise have if they only used the auction system to sell everything. Additionally, the auction costs them more in the long run since the auctioneer will take a fee from the seller of items regardless of whether the item sells or not.

Shop owners like myself, who set up consignment deals, usually pay Trade Terminal value to those we buy from, then we try to sell the items in question, and if we get sales, we share profits back to the original item’s owner later. If the item does not sell, we contact the original owner after a specified time period and offer the item back to them at trade terminal value. That keeps them having some peds on hand, us having something to sell, and keeps the general public happy since they have interesting items to look at in the shops that are always changing. We can afford to change the inventory out and swap things around that don’t sell since we are not paying markup for the items until a sell is made in consignment shops.
Other shops pay markup on everything, and then they get stuck with items they might not be able to sell. That’s sometimes the right way to do things, especially if markup climbs later after an item is acquired, but many times, it’s silly to pay full markup for items that you might not be able to sell, especially if you are just buying it for the purpose of reselling it.

When you double click on an item in a shop, you will see the item screen that explains more about the item. There are several tabs in the item screen, including a little popup window you can access that shows the market history of the item, which lists the price that the item was sold at in the auction for the day, week, month, year, and decade. That history screen is very important when you are checking prices on things since you’d otherwise have no reliable way of knowing exactly how much an item is worth. Before that window came along, buying things from shops was hard to do since it was difficult to know how much the stuff you were looking at was really worth. The same thing happened on the auction sometimes before the history window existed. Be glad it’s there and use it. It could save you a lot of peds over time.

Not all items in shops and booths are for sell. You can tell what’s for sell or not by seeing how much the markup is on the item in the main item screen (left most tab). Items that don’t have a markup are not for sell, and cannot be purchased. Usually items that are not for sell are there just for decorative purposes to give the shop a theme or specific look that the shop owner wants the place to have.

If you do window shop, be sure to look around at all of the malls and shops. There’s a bunch of them. Many don’t have their rent paid, so you cannot access them, but the active shop owners do keep their rent paid, and keep prices marked up, usually at descent levels because they want you to buy. Pricing around at various shops, just like window shopping in the real world, can sometimes get you some spectacular deals you would have otherwise missed.

In a future post, I will go in to details about what it is like to be a shop owner in this virtual universe.

In another post in the future, I might try to list all of the shops in game that I know about. There’s a LOT of them. Remember there’s 3 mall shops in game (Port Atlantis, Twin Peaks, and Emerald Lakes) so far, lots of various shops in the countryside and in apartment basements (Omegaton West Habitat, Genesis HQ, Sakura City, Treasure Island, Minopolis, North of Fort Argus, and a several other places too), a really big shopping area on Club Neverdie, a few booths on Crystal Palace, and several other places people can sell things since shopkeepers enable ANY estate in game to become a shop… including but not limited to any apartment, any hanger, and any Land Area. Additionally, shopkeepers can be used to add more item slots to already established shops, making them even bigger than they once were.
There’s an entire virtual universe to window shop in!

When new planets come in to play there will likely be even more shops elsewhere.

Have fun.