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What would $15 a month get you?
Votary
Member Posts: 32
Surprisingly, I just heard about EU and am intrigued, more from a study/research perspective.
I know it's a game that relies on cash transactions with in game item/money sinks. I also read a lot of comments about it being "gamble-ly" if you don't know what you are doing.
Traditional casino wisdow tells you that you don't try to win at the casino, but rather, just try to make your money last as long as possible, because the house always win. So my question is, how far will a $15 a month investment get you in this game (comparable to other monthly MMOs), given an average working adult:
- Average skill and reasonable amount of research
- Can play maybe 10-20 hours a week
- Do like this kind of social/economic games
Basically, what I am trying to get at is, can $15 a month buy you amount of "fun", comparable to another MMO?
I know it's a game that relies on cash transactions with in game item/money sinks. I also read a lot of comments about it being "gamble-ly" if you don't know what you are doing.
Traditional casino wisdow tells you that you don't try to win at the casino, but rather, just try to make your money last as long as possible, because the house always win. So my question is, how far will a $15 a month investment get you in this game (comparable to other monthly MMOs), given an average working adult:
- Average skill and reasonable amount of research
- Can play maybe 10-20 hours a week
- Do like this kind of social/economic games
Basically, what I am trying to get at is, can $15 a month buy you amount of "fun", comparable to another MMO?
Comments
Since the game is free, all you would need is a basic character with basic equipment. When starting I would just use a melee weapon ( as it does not need ammo), and just start hunting in the new area. After a while you can earn enough equipment to buy eqipment without having to pay irl. It will take a long grind tho so be ready to spend a lot of hours killing spawns. There also are no missions by the game. but I did here that some guilds and people are setting up missions.
Hope that helps.
Is $15 a month enough to bypass such thing, and let you have fun with that investment?
The only way to make smaller amounts last is by grinding.
$15 per month will certainly curb the need to go on a Sweat Gathering mission so much.
$15 = 150 PED - Deposit Charge %
So, this would easily get you started with say: The Trade Terminal Rifle "Opalo", Trade Terminal Heal "Vivo T1" and a set of Goblin armour which you would have to buy through P2P trading.
Once you have these items, you can then buy ammunition, find some low-level creatures/mobs and grind it
After having played EU for just shy of 2 years, .. i think i can honestly say that if you are looking for Action, and actually Doing somethign other than sittign around chatting, .. or spending countless eons in sweat camp getting sweat, dting Alot, and repeating that processess for forever and three days (Mainly due to sweat being worth practically Nothing except in Large quantities) then you arent going to get very far at all on $15 a mont, if you figure 30 days, thats $0.50 a day or 5 ped, for a whole day. ... doesnt seem like much, and Isnt much at all. As an example, .. (and for an accurate accounting for this post) i just finished a small hunt, taking about 2 hours, using a fairly efficient small ammo usage gun ( S-50 pistol) and traveled from Port atlantis (where you start the game at) to a TP site called "Jason Center" hunting pretty much whatever i came cross that can be taken down with that pistol. in the course of that trip, at 3 rounds per shot, i burned through around 3200 rounds of ammo (32 Ped, or $3.20 USD) and had (1.7 ped $0.17 USD) in repairs to armor and medkit ect. and that was on a fairly easy hunt, in a fairly short amount of time. so if you figure on $15 USD a month for playing, .. you can also figure on either (A) Not playing for the majority of the month, or (B) spending endless hours in sweat camp scrambling for whatever sweat you can get and stock up on so that you can sell it for ped so that you can Buy ammo to hunt again.. Sadly, for those that look at games from a Value perspective of knowing what a game is going to cost you and gettin alot of fun out of it, .. EU is Most Probably NOT for you,, .. the reasons for this are Numerous aside from the example i just gave. ... on a cost basis, it takes Alot of ped (and thus Real Money) buying ammo , (L) Guns (that Do skill faster than normal repairable guns) or mnaterials from auction to learn crafting, or whatever else to actually get your skill level to a point of Actually being able to Do anythign at all. Always plan on whatever your doing that it will Take alot more money to do than its worth in the end, (not uncommon to spend 20+ ped to craft a pair of shoes worth 3 ped Especially when your new or even fairly new), Skills are Expensive to gain, .. and theres a Bunch of shops and whatnot that have weapons that kick ass, .. and then you see the price tag and hope theres a paramedic nearby. as some other posts have said, .. Demand is HUGE, .. and supply and availability is Miniscule at Best, .. so if your Really wanting to get "Into the Game" be prepared to Crack open that Trust Fund, .. because you Are Going to NEED it. My End Conclusion, .. if money is in anyway a concern, or you actually Have a fiscal budget in your life, .. Entropia is most likely NOT the game for you. .. if however you Dont have fiscal restraints and can just Spend the money nessicary to Buy your skills, or can invest a couple years time, .. Or dont mind spening countless days sweating animals in sweat camp to supply you with ped for a short hunt, .. then go for it.
The question is: how much PED did you make from the hunt?
From hunting you won't get any profit overall, ever.
That amount of deposit (15USD) is about enough if you are not spending too much time and playing with brain (means: skilling slowly and not going to the auction for the advanced weapons and shoot what you can). Yes, it will be somewhat boring and really not an instant action, but who knows, maybe you want that.
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The money needed to play this game in a manner that is enjoyable, far exceeds the monthly rates offered by all other MMO's. You can play with $15 and have fun for maybe a week or depending on how much you play. I played for 2 years and found that my dollar went incredibly farther playing 'pay to play' mmo's.
If you don't mind using it as a graphical based chat room, and thats fun for you, then I guess you could say its free.
$15 USD per month would not yield any real enjoyment in Entropia Universe. You would blow through that in about 1 week, even with the "beginner" equipment. So you could have a fun week, but not a month.
i would as far as saying you need to be lucky to be capable of playing a whole month pretty active with 15$.
And that is with the lowest equipment you can get in the game. If you at any time upgrade. Expect atleast to spend 50$ if your lucky,
I played 4 years. And yea i accepted the fact it was very expensive to have fun in EU. While it was huge fun. It was some expensive fun.
At a period i did PVP alot. It has no return at all. But for a night of fun with a gun that is capable of having a chance in PVP. Expect atleast 20$ / hour. And that if your dont blast all the time. Which you normally dont. But the gun to have a chance in PVP cost 1500$. So already there we exceeded your budget.
Sure its possible to play for 30-50$ with lowest equipment ingame with alot of activity in the game. If you play smart.
This is just how the game works. and as i said. Accept it or dont. If you can't simply dont play it. because it won't change. And since there is still alot people that accepted this and blast tons of $ away each month. The developers got no reason at all to change this.
I had some funny and great times in EU while i played activily. But i did pay 100% for them if not more. And sure i accepted it. I Got out of the game with maybe a small profit. But only doing to the "Suplly and demand" kept rising and the items raised alot in value.
Read "New players - a bad joke?". Thread to get and idea about the prices in this game if you want to advance to a higher level at a point.
Want something refreshing and fun. try age of conan. Dont waste your time and money on EU. It was affordable and fun at one time. But today its expensive as hell and nerfed so much its impossible to advance cheap. It was truly a great game. But sometimes that changes. Look at star wars galaxies. It became a big failure with time.
Check back on the game when they implement Cryengine 2. Atleast it will be a beatifull chat room.
Win... or lose...
If you consider the average MMO player and the time devoted to such games, $15 doesn't you get you a full month of fun. EU or project entropia as it was once called was my first MMO. After playing for 2 years very cautiously I discovered that I was limited on the full enjoyment of the game because I was not willing to invest more than 25-30 dollars a month. When I finally got bored and switched to a p2p mmo (lineage 2) I was floored at how much more game time and fun I was having without the restriction or worry of money. In fact I sold my L2 character/account when I left to a guildmates friend for what my subscription cost me during the time I played. So i actually played the game a ton for almost 2 years for free, and had a blast..
If you consider the average MMO player and the time devoted to such games, $15 doesn't you get you a full month of fun. EU or project entropia as it was once called was my first MMO. After playing for 2 years very cautiously I discovered that I was limited on the full enjoyment of the game because I was not willing to invest more than 25-30 dollars a month. When I finally got bored and switched to a p2p mmo (lineage 2) I was floored at how much more game time and fun I was having without the restriction or worry of money. In fact I sold my L2 character/account when I left to a guildmates friend for what my subscription cost me during the time I played. So i actually played the game a ton for almost 2 years for free, and had a blast..
Considering that the average quality of the new mmorpgs are way higher than back when you started on lineage 2. EU is very dated considering the price to play. For example i find Age of conan to be very entertaining. With a combat system. Thats like EU is manually controlled. Which was one of the factors as why i liked the combat in EU more. And the fact that the envoirement in Age of conan has alot of spirit.
You might've played EU 2 years ago. But do a login today and see at prices. Try a hunt with a noob gun and notice the crappy loot you get when your done. So unbalanced and so damn silly all the way through regarding prices and returns. Its unbelivable how some people still keep playing it. And most new players have a one night stand with EU today. Because just looking at the prices on the items makes them quit already there. and i dont blame them. If you just like to chat. its auctually a funny chat room. Other than that. The quality of the game is drasticly falling.
On the other hand. Exept the Cryengine 2 that soon will be implemented. Eu's gameplay will not keep people very long when such good mmorpgs are slipping out every year. And good graphics will attract alot to try it. But great graphics with rest being without reason to pay for. It won't keep any players. only a little % will stay.
2 years ago it was more affordable. i was there myself. 4 years ago i was there as well. and it was very affordable. The gameplay havent gotten better. Auctually it just got alot more expensive to get any gameplay.
Very soon i will have to say R.I.P Entropia. it might last a few years if lucky. But the developers vision about it will stick around forever is unrealistic if they keep going the way of gameplay they got right now.
Win... or lose...
If you consider the average MMO player and the time devoted to such games, $15 doesn't you get you a full month of fun. EU or project entropia as it was once called was my first MMO. After playing for 2 years very cautiously I discovered that I was limited on the full enjoyment of the game because I was not willing to invest more than 25-30 dollars a month. When I finally got bored and switched to a p2p mmo (lineage 2) I was floored at how much more game time and fun I was having without the restriction or worry of money. In fact I sold my L2 character/account when I left to a guildmates friend for what my subscription cost me during the time I played. So i actually played the game a ton for almost 2 years for free, and had a blast..
Considering that the average quality of the new mmorpgs are way higher than back when you started on lineage 2. EU is very dated considering the price to play. For example i find Age of conan to be very entertaining. With a combat system. Thats like EU is manually controlled. Which was one of the factors as why i liked the combat in EU more. And the fact that the envoirement in Age of conan has alot of spirit.
You might've played EU 2 years ago. But do a login today and see at prices. Try a hunt with a noob gun and notice the crappy loot you get when your done. So unbalanced and so damn silly all the way through regarding prices and returns. Its unbelivable how some people still keep playing it. And most new players have a one night stand with EU today. Because just looking at the prices on the items makes them quit already there. and i dont blame them. If you just like to chat. its auctually a funny chat room. Other than that. The quality of the game is drasticly falling.
On the other hand. Exept the Cryengine 2 that soon will be implemented. Eu's gameplay will not keep people very long when such good mmorpgs are slipping out every year. And good graphics will attract alot to try it. But great graphics with rest being without reason to pay for. It won't keep any players. only a little % will stay.
2 years ago it was more affordable. i was there myself. 4 years ago i was there as well. and it was very affordable. The gameplay havent gotten better. Auctually it just got alot more expensive to get any gameplay.
Very soon i will have to say R.I.P Entropia. it might last a few years if lucky. But the developers vision about it will stick around forever is unrealistic if they keep going the way of gameplay they got right now.
Funny you mention trying the game again. I did. And it was exactly as you described. When the game first came out there was some hope to breaking even or possibly making some money, but now, forget about it. I admit that I made a few friends online which made it fun, but thats all there was. I am also playing AOC and I can say enough how much fun I'm having.
then i tossed my character only 50 $ total i was able to get a suite of shogun armor and a good laser gun and ammo and a heal pack, since then i have not added any money to my account ever and i can go out hunt for 30 min and loot money to repair and buy back the ammo used in the hunt.
some days i get more others i would not make as much but would still have the money to fix and reload my ammo supply
i do no play this game every day or even once a month now, so i can't tell you what 50$ would get you at todays prices
it has had a graphic upgrade and characters looked real nice now with new skins and i hear there going to do same for there MOBs so i might go back and see how the game will be changing over the years.
Seems like you play smart. But profit everytime is pure luck. Most of the people i know / known in EU exept the real old ubers with the max skills and max efficient weapons mostly do not profit. To have winners there must be looser. And frankly. Since they love to hype up new players with gigantic All time high loots on 100.000 peds. Most of it goes to one. While maybe 1000 players do not reach to break even.
Since this was NOT the same long ago. Where an all time high was like what. 3-5000 ped. It was alot easier to play cheaply. EU never been cheap to play. But it been cheaper to play.
Im not overreaction saying an All time high often is in the area of 50.000 ped - 100.000 ped. This is 5000 - 10.000 $ and it meens alot of players must lose ped in order to finance this big loot.
Its the way Mindark wants it. Get alot of new players in. Hype them up so they spend tons of cash on expensive gears and shoot off with too low skills. To they find out all their lost money goes to a lucky guy. They quit. And the cycle starts over again. There is milliards of people on earth. And they do not care about if they keep their new customers or not. Atleast this is the impression i get. If they cared about keeping them. They would do their best to balance it so its cheaper to play. They do not try to reach that. Big big loots and break even for most does not go well together.
But if you got so much luck. I can't see why you aint hunting some more. Build up alot of skills and sell them over time. if you break even with repair and new ammo the skills are basicly for free.
And i might mention again. But i played long. And i watched EU develop. I been there when it was alot different. Back when it was called Project entropia. When there was one continent and a crappy graphic engine
. But man it was fun. and man i could afford it. even if it was not cheap. But that was because i did choose not to play smart. But no matter how i wanted to play. I would gain the exactly same amount of skills. So building up your avatar dident take years to get somewhere. But on the other hand this was misused by autoclicking with cheap guns and a massively cheap running medkit in the middle of a ring. also you could stuck animals at certains places. And then just autoclick a huge one with a low gun to death. and even get some loot in the end.
Win... or lose...
And yea the graphics is not bad anymore exept from the terrain is still a bit dated compared to the avatars. But its because of the implementtion of cryengine 2 which will problaly change that.
But as i said. If they did more to make the game more appealing in the length. This game would be "the shit". But it has a bad reputation and that doesent come from no where. Its never been as bad as it is now regarding the reputation. And its because none of what i said is lies.
But maybe its going to look Really really good. Im excited to see
Win... or lose...
I would advice the OP to try out EU and if you can afford it, deposit 15$. Give it a month by you going around the world exploring, chatting and socializing. Get the feel for the "game" and buy yourself some low level equipment just to try it out. Do not expect any great returns in term of loot in the beginning, but appreciate the community that brings (almost) everybody together. The first thing to do if you wanna play smart and make your $ last the longest, is to read up on every guide and charts you can find regarding skills vs equipment, fair prices, what to buy when and things to keep away from. EU is a game that takes time to understand how everything works, and since real money is involved, there is bound to be scammers that will try to fool you.
A little about me: Have played EU since 2005, have depoed all in all around 300$ and I am a low-mid level player that manages to have fun without depoing every month. Usually playing a couple of hours each day and a fairly average player I guess. I still play EU, so my opinion is probably biased, but so is some of the other answeres in this thread from people that has quit for some reason or another.
Oh! Somebody mentioning buying melee so to save ammo. It doesn't work like that. Melee weapons decays everytime you hit a mob, so basically you spend ammo that way.
Have fun whatever you choose to do
This is a great example on how EU should be played. Great advices
. Playing low end is auctually the best way to play EU. The hunting is as fun as it is for medium players. Only difference is the size on the animals and your guns. Hardcore hunt with low end gear. Which gives you alot more hours for your money of blasting away monsters for fun. and buy yourself a better armor and a better gun and put it into your storage. and go for a Medium and bigger hunting session now and then when you feel for it. and as your skills develop with time. you can move into the medium hardcore part of the game and move up from there. 
Win... or lose...
I started 5 days ago. Did a lot of reading up beforehand and while playing. It was pretty clear that sweating is no way to get anywhere in this game so i decided to deposit.
50$ Deposit for first month just like buying a game with first 30 days free. After that i will limit myself to 15 Euro, maybe 20 if i really love the game, that will give me 225-305 PED a month.
So with my initial deposition and with almost 500 PED in the bank i decided mining is my profession of choice and as i need to travel the vast continent to get all the teleport locations i might as well try mining on the way.
After 3 days i had the most important Teleports found a Mentor and only lost 12 PED on mining. I might have been lucky but i rather think that it is important not to waste the seismic bombs in areas where you do not get any indication of a resource field and rather walk 500-1000 meters and try again.
I decided i should maybe bring at least a bit of armor and a gun in case there are mobs and i could skill mining and hunting at the same time. So i bought a Goblin armor (Acid protection against the first mobs you grind [snablesnots and other snotties]) and the cheap Oopalo Gun from trade terminal.
Hunting is a real ***** as you have no chance to break even, the drops are just horrid. But combined with my now better mining skills it was working out ok. I had one good day with 5 Sizeable (XI) Lysterium fields and actually made nice profit.
Yesterday at my 5th day i hit what i would call a jackpot for a new player, a Massive (XX) deposit of Calderium (or whatever it is called) worth 975 PED. I mined it and it sold instantly for a total of 1300 ish PED.
Now, don't get me wrong, i might have been extremely lucky. I do still believe you can play this game for 15-20 Euro a month if you play sensible. It is hard to lay off the habits of other MMORPGs where money basically means nothing, in this game i spend an average of 1hour at the broker comparing prices/item stats/quality/repair cost etc.
This game is like a casino or Poker, you have to know when to stop wasting money and lay down a hand. Money not spent is money won. If i have a bad mining run and don't find anything for 10 bombs (10 PED) i stop and either move to a completely different area or go hunting and see how that goes.
Just my experience so far,
KJ
I tried this game years ago and did not like it but at that time I suppose you could say I was looking at the game incorrectly.
This is not a game where you rush to the top or max out your character in a few short months or even years, in fact I do not think there is such a thing as maxing out your character, ever. Those who play that way will lose money quickly and likely have an bad time.
I downloaded the game a couple weeks ago again because I heard they upgraded the avatars as the old ones were pretty bad.
Anyway, the OP asked about $15 a month and I just wanted to say that I have met people in this game that never made a deposit and have been playing for years and have some nice stuff.
Sweating animals is indeed a very slow way of making game money. There are two sweat camps, one north of Port Atlantis where you begin and another called Nea's place. Once you collect 1k sweat which would take a new player about 8 hours you sell them to a player for about 5 peds. That is enough for a rifle and some ammo.
One aspect of sweating animals that was not mentioned is that as you sweat animals you also gain skills. In this game skills can be sold and sweating earns some very nice skills like evade and some others.
If you play this game looking to beat it within a few months and move on then don't bother downloading it. This is the type of game that one should consider thinking of in years, maybe many many years.
The OP asked about $15 a months and I would say you certainly could enjoy the game for that because as I mentioned thousands of players are active and they never have made a deposit at all.
After 6 months or a year you can always sell some of your skills and then use that money for the bigger upgrades in gear.
I wrote some rather nasty remarks about this game after I first tried it years ago but at that time I came from games like Diablo and EQ and Earth and Beyond. This game is very different, you should pace yourself and watch where you spend your peds very carefully. At $15 a month and some patience, I would say your character would be in very good shape 3-5 years from now.
Add to this that those gamers that played years without a deposit have financed their game mostly on Raising item prices and because a few years ago the competition in the trading market (selling high buy low). Was much easier. I traded myself the first ½ year which was the first ½ year of 2004. and managed to scrab in 1700 ped without a single deposit. If say i did buy a Meckel and loch for 1500 ped which was the price back then. and kept it to today. i could sell it for problaly easy in the range of 15000 - 20000 ped. Through time you might also buy a certain item. Use it a month or 2. and sell it for a good profit since items kept raising. = Money to play for.
Starting now. Trading buisness is very popular. This meens very high competition and bargains are hard to find as others pick them up first. The good contacts to suppliers to sell for are mostly taken. Sure its possible. but i knew a few guys and girls trying to start up trading or sweating or anything similiar. And they dident succes alot. But sure they profitted. But we talk maybe 50 -100 ped on 2 months active work. 1/2 hours a day minium. On that time you could make way more back in time.
Look at the post before yours. Hes a example on how you profit in this game today. Deposit 50$ and Cross your fingers + You simply play smart as he does. If you dont get a deposit in your first 10 bombs. Chances are its not giving out much there simply. Its not because your "Global or HOF" might be around the corner.
I just had to add that what was possible a few years ago is not possible today. Also back then most sweaters was hanging around S for Camp phoenix ( i were myself) In the bee camp sweating. They dident attack or move. So you simply kept sucking sweat out of them all day. When one was dry you moved on to the next one. and kept circling around. You can't compare back then and today at all. And sweat prices was 2 pec / bottle if i recall right (anyone around here remember exactly). You got a bit less amounts anyhow. But still it was more profitable since the monsters was standing there and not attacking or moving
.
Win... or lose...