Entropia Universe

[disappoint]

Entropia Universe: yea or nay?

I haven't tried it yet, does anyone here play it? What's it like? Is it a money pit? Because if it's going to end up costing a lot to do anything useful in it I'm not interested. I heard it uses cryengine 2 and I have a good system to run that on so I wanted to know if it was worth getting into.

The kind of games I've enjoyed so far are:
Oblivion, Fallout 3, BFBC2, Dirt 2

I've done a search on it on here but not much discussion on it so far at least not recently so should I bother or not?

Thanks for your input.

 

[SunnyD]

If you want your pocketbook emptied out in a hurry... I give it a thumbs up.

My brief synopsis - I jumped on about 4 weeks ago before upgrading my machine and haven't been in a hurry to reinstall it... yet. That should tell you something.

It's looks pretty and ghetto at the same time. Those that are willing to invest the money into it can get decent returns (and when I say invest, I really mean invest).

Be forewarned - unless you plan on going into the game with cash in hand, you will be limited to doing two things in the game: Sweating and dying.

What is sweating?
- Sweating is taking the free "sweat collector" and collecting vibrant sweat off mobs in the game.
- Why? Because without putting your real world cash into the game, this is the only in-game method of making money, and even then it requires a very lot of tedium and interaction with other players as sweat is a player commodity and not sellable as vendor trash in the game.
- Furthermore, sweating isn't as easy as it sounds, as as a noob you have approximately a 1 in about 50 or so chance that a single round of gathering will work on a mob, and god forbid the mob or you move during the attempt.
- And, mobs can and will aggro on you during the process of trying, so you'll end up running or dying. A lot.
- And lastly, players generally only buy sweat in 1000 unit blocks for about 4 PED (in-game credits, which translates out to roughly $0.40 USD). The cheapest weapon in the game runs about 3 PED, plus you have to purchase ammo for it. The cheapest melee weapon runs about 10 PED.

Once you have some money in the game, you can actually buy a weapon and go kill mobs, which then sometimes drop loot which you can sell at a vendor terminal. Makes life easier, until you realize that each click with your weapon, hit or miss, causes durability loss, and generally repairs cost you more than the loot you get.

Oh yeah, did I mention that you do not start the game with any ability to combat critters? Yeah, that's right - you have to buy your first weapon. Until then, your only options in the game are sweating, exploring, dying, and using it as a pretty chat room.

But at least the world is huge...

The one thing they have going for them in this game is they designed a game that is truly a money sink. You'll be playing, thinking your doing well, and after a couple of weeks if you stop and tally up what you spent on the game you'll realize you could have paid for about 2 months or so of your typical subscription-based MMO.

 

[disappoint]

Thanks for the synopsis. That's what it seemed like. I downloaded the client and made an acct. I didn't spend any money on it yet, Just running around in the jumpsuit for now. This is probably not for me then. The graphics are ok but if I turn AA on then the frame rate is not so good. I've seen better. Looks like a money pit for no purpose. i doubt I'll get into it. Back to BFBC2 for me where I get weapon unlocks for the low low price of $0.

 

[Visaoni]

NEVERDIE mortgaged his home in Miami in 2005 to purchase an Asteroid for $100,000 USD. NEVERDIE turned the Asteroid into a NightClub dubbed Club NEVERDIE, which is now valued at over $1 million USD .

Is this for real? Some dude actually mortgaged his house to buy a virtual item? That is just incredible, perhaps more so than gaming for so many days straight that you just drop dead.

 

[SunnyD]

Is this for real? Some dude actually mortgaged his house to buy a virtual item? That is just incredible, perhaps more so than gaming for so many days straight that you just drop dead.

Yes, it's absolutely true. As in my description above, if you actually invest in the game, it can pay dividends. The owner of Club NEVERDIE makes about $100,000USD/year on his investments in the game. He not only owns the Club, but also now is an owner of one of 7 banks in the game, in itself a feat as it required purchase of a "banking license" in the game as well as $100,000 USD in capital to secure and insure funding (think FDIC).

As I said, if you have money to invest in the game, then you can make it pretty far. But associated costs add up fast, especially if you're just looking at it as a game.

I should also mention that you can pull money out of the game as well. The catch is you can only do so in amounts in excess of 10,000 PED, which equals $1,000 USD. As you can see, they do a pretty good job tying up your money.

 

[v8envy]

Entropia is nothing more than online gambling with a very, very poor payout. Every action (other than sweating and chatting) costs money. You are shooting pennies to dollars at monsters. When enough coins are inserted someone gets a payout.

There are a few people who realize this and are generally savvy and they make bank on everyone else thinking that if they pump enough cash in they'll come out rich.

Since it is all about RW money in that "game" the community is absolutely awful even by MMO standards.

Also realize it's a pyramid scheme -- the people who've been playing longest have much higher skills and higher odds of payout than you. It is highly likely you will NEVER catch up, no matter how much time or money you invest.

 

[SlickSnake]

The key to making money in this game isn't hunting, it's mining. You can get a a lot more PED by mining and selling the stash than any other way. Of course, you have to buy the probes and EVERYTHING takes decay damages, including mining equipment. And if you hunt or mine, hunt naked or in your clothes, not your armor. And use weapons only to kill agro if your attacked while mining. And if you can get guilded in an established guild, you might get some help like crafted improved miners, weapons or armor or they might take you hunting and let you keep the loots.

It's virtually impossible to get anywhere in this game quickly unless you are willing to put down a few small payments to get you started. I spent about $40 on the game a few years ago, and got enough PED to get me outfitted with basic armor, weapons and miners. I'm also sitting on a small stash of farmed goods in my bank, that if sold, would almost double my original investments.

If you want a free game, look elsewhere. If you expect to pay $15 a month to play an online game anyway, you might try if out for a few months. My biggest gripe about the game was the lack of anything resembling missions or quests to even get a new player started with junk weapons, armors or mining equipment. It's pretty much an open ended game with the player expected to make up all the content as he goes along. So don't expect an engrossing storyline, since there pretty much isn't any. Lots of pretty eye candy and not much else, unless you want to pay to experience it, like going to a space station.

 

[aka1nas]

I played Project Entropia several years ago, and it looks like this hasn't changed much. You're basically playing a slot machine with guns. The house always comes out ahead in the long run.