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Entropia Universe: A Beginner's Guide to Planet Calypso
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com Entropia Universe expert, Arno Laurman, has written a terrific guide for players just starting out on Planet Calypso. He gives some starter advice and goals to accomplish when starting the game. Read on to find out the best steps to take in Entropia Universe.
Entropia Universe, like any other commercial MMO, will probably cost you money to play especially when starting out. The difference here is that you decide how much money you're willing to spend and, depending on your play-style, how long that money will last you. As you advance your skills and knowledge of the game, it might become possible to play for free and possibly even make profit. As a general rule, don't deposit more than you're willing to lose. When something stops being fun, stop doing it and try something else.
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Side notice : Your wallte should be huge ;-) Its kinda the luxury version of MMO. If you arent spending a lot of money (1000+ dollars), you wont be able to enjoy this game.
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Being a former Anarchy Online vets these graphics looks very similar to AO. Especially the 3rd one is almost identical to the starting area of Shadowlands. The 4th one also feel familiar to me.
While a huge wallet is always nice, it all depends on your definition of enjoying the game. If investing1000+ dollars is your thing that is possible, if you're like me and spend alot less while still enjoying the game that's possible too
As a real side note:
FPC (Planet calypso developers) introduced a separate newcomer area a while ago. Any new players will start there instead of Port Atlantis. This new area will provide several starting missions to try out professions like hunting, mining and crafting and you'll be given some very basic equipment. After doing all the missions there players who teleport to the mainland will arrive in PA and can resume this guide from there.
Has MindArk released a functioning installer yet?
The guide says "sweat is 4.5 – 5 Ped / 1000 bottles", which you can only get by "sweating" creatures. "Sweating" attempts can fail, so I guess you need to "sweat" 2-3,000 creatures to get those 1,000 bottles to get 5 PED?
According to the game's website, you can buy 10 PED per dollar. Ergo, those 5 PED would cost you $0.50.
This "sweating" does not seem like a viable option, considering even a third-world paperboy would find the "sweating" not worth the effort. Now, considering the auctions for items I found while looking into this cost hundreds/thousands of PED each, meaning you'll need 10s of thousands of PED, or thousands of real-world dollars.
And then I read that the gear you bought also degrades and costs PED to fix? It seems impossible to play without paying large sums of real life money. Someone correct me where I'm wrong here...
you are correct.
Just downloaded, and apparently they haven't fixed the installer after over a year...granted, i'm getting different error messages.
It used to be something completely cryptic that gave no hint why the client wouldn't install...now it tries to tell me that 34 GB isn't enough space.
Instead of writing "guides" trying to lure in suckers, how about a 2 week review, where the reviewer is not allowed to pay any real money to play? Then see if you can still justify MindArk advertising it here as "Free to Play".
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I put a few $$ into this and tried it out awhile back. Honestly it seemed like it could be really fun. Surveying for resources was fun and the world looks good. Combat was quite boring and your gear takes damage dishearteningly fast and yes it costs to repair it.
Even putting some $$ into the game it took only hours before I was already looking at running behind on everything. Out of ammo, dagger near broken, armor hurting and only able to recoup some of the costs incurred. If you are rich this game may turn out to be quite fun. But it is no normal MMO, not by any stretch of imagination, it will either take heavy investment or a masochistic commitment to winning at all costs. Even if it means spending days and days sweating just to earn enough PED to actually buy a weapon to use, that will run out of ammo and/or break and need repairs rather soon.
I would say this is worth giving a try for everyone, but it just definitely wasn't the game for me until I am a millionaire that is, lol.
For anyone claiming this game is too expensive and people looking for a rather objective first few months player experience i suggest reading:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/276057/4-Months-in-Entropia-A-players-story-from-beginning-until-now.html
yes its not really worth it, but then would you make a game and pay ppl to play it - it is away to say, you can play for free, but will be boring...or you can pay the 10 $ or whatever and get going with whatever you d want to do.
but yes everything costs money, weapons, tools, clips etc. and its easy to throw away those 100 PED if you play careless.
either way am not fond of their buisness plan either ;
I have to admit, there was absolutely nothing informative or useful about that guide. I played since CB 2 (on and off) and I know fine well that the game has a great deal more going for it, as well as against it than this 'guide' reveals.
As a beginner, the world is your oyster and you can break even eventually. In fact it's a challenge many people set themselves and surprisngly, it can work.
I know you seem to be a lover of this game mate, but why couldn't you have filled your review with the same passion you have as you do for the game?
I hate to be so negative, but, sadly it's true!
Lots of Entropia stuff popping up on the front page recently, it seems...
For a 'game' like EU to work, they need to keep pulling in more and more people to the bottom of the pyramid in order to feed money up to those at the top.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Exactly. If they dont have any more people at the bottom, the system wont work.
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Sorry to hear you didn't like it. I'm always open to suggestions for improvements though so what kind of things would you like to see in a guide like this and consider them useful and informative? Also, since you've been playing off and on since CB 2 (Closed Beta 2?) i'm quite curious as to what you'd say are the biggest things going for and against it.
Like someone said above it is a pyramid scheme. You need all those young players at the bottom feeding the ones at the top.
Personally I think any pyramid scheme should be illegal as they prey upon the masses to make the few wealthy.
Like someone said above, it is a struggle to break even in this game and you need luck on you side too.
So anyone thinking you can play this game for free, you are thinking wrong, you can't. Kind of like that roll of nickles you get in Vegas. You are gambling free for that 10 minutes it takes to use up the roll, but after that is completely pay to play.
Remember most of those advocating the game want you to invest because some of that will end up in their pockets. So yes you can make money in this game eventually, but most of you will be feeding those above you in the chain.
i seriously think this game should be removed from the listings, or at least have a warning attached to it. its not a free to play game, seriously though, MMORPG should be warning people away from this blatant cash grab of a game, so many things about it seem to be borderline or worse. i would question the authenticity and the motives of anyone who actually recommended it.
When you turn your back towards the sun you'll be faced with your own shadow.
Some internet definitions on pyramid schemes (http://www.google.nl/search?q=define%3A+pyramid+scheme&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&client=firefox-a) . All of them have a few common themes but none apply to EU:
Active recruitment, in a pyramid scheme there's a direct link between the people you recruit and your personal income.
In EU there's no such link, i could recruit 1000 depositing players and all that income could go to a person that did no recruiting at all, in fact it could go to one of those 1000 newly recruited players.
In a pyramid scheme money only comes in at the lowest level and goes out at the top.
In EU money comes in and goes out at all layers, newcomers deposit and might withdraw. High-rollers mortgage their house to buy a nightclub in space.
Pyramid schemes are non-sustainable business models
EU has been around for more than 8 years, it has improved alot over those years and still is improving with every regular update. I'd say it's business model is sustainable.
Pyramid schemes don't offer any products/services.
EU offers a virtual world to play in. There are several examples of people playing without depositing. There are ways to participate in EU without investing money, can you say the same about a pyramid scheme?
I've said it before and i'll say it again. EU is not a simple MMO to play, you'll have to learn the market, understand the patterns and adopt to any changes to be succesful. If you can't do that you have several options: One is to accept that fact that you're paying to play a game and like me set a limit for yourself on how much you're willing to spend. Another is to post every chance you get that it's all a big scam/casino/pyramid scheme while blisfully ignoring the fact that when you turned your back on it you were only faced with your own failure.
Amazingly disingenious and, with just a little more spin, could make for an exceptional campaign. Bravo!
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Nice tilt at windmills. When the masses feed the few, it is a pyramid scheme. When it looks like one, sounds like one, feels like one, it is one.
Next time you want to rant about pyramid schemes, first find out what they are. Try Amway or Mary Kay Cosmetics, both are obvious pyramid schemes and they are obviously quite economically sustainable.
Amazing the disinformation some game proponents can put out.
I imagine the game could be fun if you have enough $$ to put into it. But it felt a little like playing a gambling game to me. I mean buying stuff to survey and fight with then just crossing your fingers and hoping to make a little bit of $$ back somehow.
Yes you can sweat, I will grant that. But you might as well be being paid per hour to watch paint dry, it is around the same level of fun and profit as sweating.
Well i have played the game off and on since it was in alpha stage. While the game does seem like a slot machine it is possible to make money. I personaly cashed out once for 5k usd and as a guild we cashed out over 20k usd. this was way back when it first went gold. Lots has changed since then but it is still p[ossible if your really lucky you can kill or mine and hit a nice jackpot.
Now for the pyramid scheme... This game does take a % of whats put into the game and gives back tot he loot table,but it also has advertising in game that also puts money into the game. There is also sales of property for large amounts of money that put money into the game. So the pyramid scheme is just not true. I would lean alot more to it being more like a slot machine.
I would have to agree starting out sweating is extremely boring. But if you make it to the high levels you can make enough to support a habbit of hunting or mining. I would advise to not craft at all and just sell all resources. As to all that money we made it was all made mining and selling the resources... we never crafted to make money.
Now there are some big time crafters that have sunk 10's of 1,000's of dollars into the game that are now turning a nice proffit that can support them where they dont need a rl job... Well the game becomes thier real life job.
just look up SMC in game and you will see we are the oldest guild in game.
I dont play alot but i do log in from time to time just to check out the new things they have added and the changes they have made. The game has come along way since the early days i can say that much.
played M59,UO,lineage,EQ,Daoc,Entropia,SWG,Horizons,Lineage2.EQ2,Vangaurd,Irth online, DarkFall,Star Trek
and many others that did not make the cut or i just plain forgetting about.
You're grasping at straws, there are better definitions out there than the way things look,sound and feel to you. I do know something i'm ranting about and if i'm not mistaken Amway was acquitted from being a pyramid scheme a few years back, do you claim to know better than a court judge? Besides that, MLM has even less to do with EU because there is no product/service players sell/provide themselves. Yes from a skill level view EU's playerbase is probably shaped like a pyramid as in most MMO's but money therein moves in all directions not just up and it comes in or goes out at any level too so it's not just the masses feeding the few. If you consider that a pyramid scheme you might as well consider every organisation/society/country a pyramid scheme.
"Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless." -Don Quixote.
Maybe we're all fighting our own windmills
I enjoyed the post, and see it as a great introduction to a series of in depth articles. Whether Opticron is working at this angle himself or not Im not so sure of, but thats how I would approach it.
Regarding my post "4 Months In Entropia" I havnt updated it in some time, but that should not indicate I have given up on the game. Far from it. That post was written back in April, it is now 4 months since that post and I am enjoying the game as much as ever. Part of what enables me to enjoy the game is taking the mistakes I made and translating them into successes for other players. Nothing makes me feel a sense of accomplishment more than watching other players succeed where I failed, and knowing that I had a hand in showing them how to do things well ingame.
In my opinion Entropia Universe, while it is technically free to play, it is not something that should be considered free to start. To enjoy the game to its fullest you should do the following things:
Find a group of people who you can hunt with to start. Hunting is the most productive way to play, and you have full control over how much you spend, and how long that money lasts you. By hunting in a group you mitigate your own costs while building skills, and can take on bigger mobs with better potential rewards.
Forego the sweating. To be honest, though sweating is a great way to supplement income as a newbie it is not a way to make money and never was intended to be. Very persistent players make a living out of this, but it is and was always intended to be mind numbing and unattractive.
Deposit. Entropia has a system where if you do not verify your bank account you are capped at spending $20 a month. After you find a good group that actually helps you (and does not just talk about it) youll be able to live on $20 a month through hunting. No, you wont have a car. No, you wont be uber. You might not even have armor your first few weeks. But you wont need any. The numbers of the group are protecting you, and your job at this point is to gain skills and knowledge.
To those who say this is not a free to play game --- youre wrong. It is. But it is also a game that tests your patience often, and tests it early. Its not some game that lets you play for free up to level 90, and then suddenly changes the entire system on you like this game. Its also not a game that suffers hackers and cheaters like many of the other free to play MMOs. To get that level of service there is a cost involved, but what that cost is the player has complete control over.
I find myself constantly adjusting my playstyle to suit both my characters current economic situation and the current happenings in the world. There are lots of utilities out there to help players, utilities that do live tracking of trends throughout the world, not just with your character. My point is, you are not blind and you can make educated choices.
This game is deep. It is definitely the cadillac of MMO's. Of course there are other MMOs out there that are also luxury models offering different experiences. But as a player of Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Darkfall, Shadowbane, Age of Conan, etc..... this game could very well be the best game I have ever played.
If they would only ad mob behavior like Ryzom has this game would be unstoppable, and worth every penny.
Laudanum - Romance. Revenge. Revolution.
Crappy, petty people breed and raise crappy, petty kids.