Hunting Zombie Mutant and Zombie Dog with Kinetic Attack Nanochip V UL on Calypso

I know I have zero chance to be in the first 15 players for the 2013 Halloween Mayhem Event and close to zero to get some lucky reward if I place exactly at position 100, but this event is worth participating not just for the prizes. This time Calypso team did really amazing job creating the instance for the Halloween Mayhem Event. The scenery is good – rain, fog, fires, graves, church, zombies, vampires, trees and scary sounds. It all really works together and makes some nice atmosphere. There is even text on the tombstones.

I don’t know why but it reminds me of the graveyard in Fable: The Lost Chapters – a game I enjoyed very much:

I used Viceroy Skullcandy Edition armor which is not good enough, but I am skilling MindForce healing so I don’t mind to get so much damage. The weapon I used is Kinetic Attack Nanochip V UL and later Kinetic Attack Nanochip VI (L). Not enough damage per second to win the event, but it was way cheaper than the laser rifles I buy for 200% during events (if I even manage to find good rifle at the auction). And with this chip I got 92.87% TT return including armor decay and healing. Not counting the Halloween Candy Box and Essence of Evil that I can sell for 200 PED.

So far I hunted in the Halloween Mayhem Event 7 hours and 20 minutes. For that time I collected:

58 x Rotten Halloween Pumpkin (1 point)
11 x Sickly Halloween Pumpkin (5 points)
6 x Damaged Halloween Pumpkin (10 points)
5 x Healthy Halloween Pumpkin (20 points)
1 x Mature Halloween Pumpkin (50 points)
0 x Fully Developed Halloween Pumpkin (100 points)
0 x Twin Halloween Pumpkin (500 points)
0 x Mutated Halloween Pumpkin (1000 points)

Or total 323 points.

Also I looted 2 Halloween Candy Box and 1 Essence of Evil with TT value of 1 PED and is now sold for 200 PED. You can loot Essence of Evil from the L 15 The Big Pumpkin.
So far I did 2 globals - 96 PED from The Big Pumpkin and 87 PED from Zombie Dog Mature

and used it to spawn boss mob named L52 Count Vamp of Boorum. From him you can loot a lot of pumpkins to help you win the event. If you are really lucky you can loot Vampiric Cloak that gives you 1% life steal.

Hunt details:

Date: 08 of November 2013
Duration: 1 hour
VU: 14.3.2
Place: Planet Calypso, Halloween Mayhem: Level 1
Land Tax: 0% Hunting; 0% Mining

Coordinates:
Team or Solo: Solo
Creature(s): Zombie Mutant , Zombie Dog and L 15 The Big Pumpkin
Damage types:

Minimum Global Level:
Mission mob: No
Killed Creatures:
Maturity: L5-L9
Professions:
Electro Kinetic (Dmg): 27
Electro Kinetic (Hit): 22
Evader: 14

Equipment:
Weapon(s)/Chip(s):
1.Kinetic Attack Nanochip V; MAXED; Attacks per minute: 24/24; Damage: 39.5-79; Damage per second: 31.6; Durability: Good

Armor: Viceroy Skullcandy Edition
Damage types:
Stab: 11
Cut: 9
Penetration: 0
Healing: Regeneration Chip V; Heal per second: 14.12 HP
Loot TT Value: 207.45 PED
Looted items: 0

Offensive cost:
Ammo: 204.60 PED
Kinetic Attack Nanochip V decay: 14.15 PED
NeoPsion 20 Mindforce implant: 0.32 PED
Total offense: 219.07 PED
Defensive cost:
Armor decay: 2.51 PED
Healing: 1.80
Total defense: 4.31
Total expenses: 223.38 PED

Loot - Offensive cost = 207.45 - 219.07 = -11.62 PED (94.70% TT return)
[Formula: return in % = (loot/offensive cost)*100]
Loot - Total Expenses = 207.45 - 223.38 = -15.93 PED (92.87% TT return)
(Formula: return in % = (loot/total expenses)*100)

Melee Amps are coming soon to Entropia Universe

The melee amps will be implemented in the game soon according to Kim from Calypso team. They will work a bit different than ranged amps. In addition to other benefits they will also absorb some of the decay of the weapon which makes them last longer which will be a big plus for melee users.

Currency Dilution - A Lesson In Economics

Here is a nice read from Homo Spacien who provide FREE PAINTING AND TEXTURING SERVICE:

A Lesson In Economics

For all intents and purposes, this is an economy that has activity equal to a small city in real life, There’s nothing ‘virtual’ about this world. Although it is no Eve Online with 400,000 members in our active economy system. It still suffers the same economic troubles of a real world economy, Inflation, deflation and even recessions can occur. Having a strong background in economics i find EU very interesting as it allows me to study concepts that rarely occur in real life. What troubles me is that being one of only a few MMO's that offer a real cash economy, MA has not hired an economist to their staff to balance our current problems out. Seeing as others like CCP, Valve, and a few more who do not even use a RCE model have done so.

Over the past few months i have run a very comprehensive study on the EU economy covering things such as currency dilution, labor markets, investor returns, arbitrage, equilibrium and participation. With a ton of data collected, analyzed, re-analyzed, and concluded i have found the following using basic economic principals. Please be fore warned, this is going to be a lengthy read if you chose to continue beyond this point. I will do my best to write this article in non-technical terms so everyone can grasp the concepts and failures.

Section 1: Currency Dilution

Definition: A reduction in the ownership percentage of a share of an item caused by the issuance of new like items.

Scenario:

Suppose MA has issued 5 of a particular item into the virtual world, for this instance we will use the UL CalyTrek BLP rifle from this point forward just referred to as “CalyTrek”. For the basis of this dilution model we will say that each CalyTrek has a value of 20,000 ped. With that we can say that the item, the CalyTrek’s hold an economic value of 100,000 ped. Now let’s assume that MA has a second issuance of CalyTrek’s in which 5 more of them are released into the economy. The increase in supply drops the demand, which lowers the items value. Now your base value of a CalyTrek is only 16,000 ped. It is true that there is now 160,000 ped of the asset in game after the issuance of 5 more of the CalyTrek and after the first sale of each of them MA has earned 160,000 ped into the economy, but on the flip side of that, these items will be sold several times and again diluted. So let’s get to the math. The original 5 owners of the first issued CalyTreks each lose 4,000 ped when they sell their item, so in theory MA just made 20,000 ped and 5 people just got a heck of a deal on a rifle. But now lets consider the effect. The sale of UL weapons and their value is based on the following data points. DPS, Economy, Range, and Tier. For this example we will use a number system, 1,2,3, & 4, 1 being the best gun, and 4 being the worst. The dilution of the value of gun 1 decreases the worth of 2,3,&4, meaning each time the item is bought and sold the amount needed to conduct that transaction is less, the amount of ped needing to be deposited is less, and MA’s returns decrease as a result of currency dilution. Yes they made ped off the initial dilution, but through residual sale of the item, the margin is down. Having a few dozen UL BLP rifles to choose from and all directly corresponding to their DPS, Economy, Range and Tier, by adding only 5 of one particular item to the economy for a quick profit you have essentially removed likely over 1,000,000 ped from the marketplace and can only hope to make it up with frequent use and decay.

The Solution:

Arbitrage, I know I said I wouldn’t use technical terms but there is no other word for it, so please google it if you do not know what it means.

The practice of Arbitrage results 100% of the time in Rational Pricing in the end game. Arbitrage is a fluid state in which can truly only exist for a period in time. At some point between buying low and selling high a rational price is reached, we will use the Herman ARK TT-R as an example. There is an unlimited supply of them in the Entropia Universe. Anybody who travels to Planet Arkadia can pick one up at the same fixed price which is lower than what they are selling for on Planet Calypso, even still the rational price for this item is around 4.5 – 5 ped. Every time a new one is generated from the trade terminal MA makes an additional 2 to 2.5 ped. Its been that way and stable for quite some time now. Granted this is minute amounts of ped, but the same principal applies on higher value items. Lets impose this scenario on the above mentioned CalyTrek, using this model which Eve Online already employs. Make a Blueprint for the CalyTrek, it requires X amount of whatever materials, these materials have X value, in gathering these materials, whether it is hunting for them, mining for them, or walking around trying to find them there is cost incurred, decay, ammo, probes, the chance of success, all stable factors. It does not matter if 1,000 of the item were crafted the bottom line is at some point you are going to reach a rational price somewhere above what it costs to make them, just like the (L) items in the game. With that you sustain stable profit in the use of time/decay/ammo/probes to manufacture this item, and you never have to worry about a diluted currency in game and losing your tail on vanishing in game funds.

The Lesson:

When you create a static item with a set availability, each time you add to the item quantity you dilute its value as well as the value of dozens of other things in relation to the item type, by setting a living economy principal of arbitrage leading to the establishment of rational pricing, your economy becomes stable, residual, and predictable. Even if some tool starts manufacturing them and selling them at a loss, as the platform owner ( MA ) you make some ped of his stupidity and when he goes broke the market re- establishes a rational price.

Vampiric cloak gives life steal

Yesterday I did 1 hour Pumpkin instance (I will post small hunting log soon), but today I realized that there is a way to loot Vampiric cloak that gives lifesteal inside Pumpkin instance. The formula for the success seems to be like this.

1.Loot Evil essence in the pumpkin instance.

2.Take it to some coffin in there.

3.Then spawn boss mob named Count Vamp of Boorum.

4.Kill vampire and you got a cloak.

Aperantly if you wear that cloak you get 1% life steal. Meaning if you do 100 HP damage you will be healed with 1 HP.

The cloak at the moment look like this, but the look will be changed later.

New planet/moon coming to Entropia Universe

Nope, I am not talking for Planet Toulan that must arrive next month. I am talking about another moon or planet or something. Apparently one of the famous Entropia players Skippie is going to have his part of the universe for now called Project Xenos . He made website for it and have affiliate link on Entropia Universe page. Looks like it is close to release. By close I mean somewhere in 2014. It will probably be something like Monria. There is not much more information at this point, so moving to the next news.

Oratan Exodus Has Begun

Location: Dehera Region, Arkadia
Date: 08 November 3010
Time: 0900hrs local

As the sun slowly made its way up from the distant horizon, Sergeant Jong watched as the last members of the training squad finished up their exercise in desert operations.

“Not bad Ben, you've done a pretty decent job with this bunch,” he remarked to Corporal Benjamin Rees,“Another week or two and they'll be ready to muster out to regular units.”

“Cheers Sarg, that means a lot coming from you,” replied Rees “I'm glad too coz I could really use a break to be honest…And some time with that nice little Intern over at the Museum in CH” he grinned.

“Yeah, well don't get too comfortable, and don't plan anything too cosy. I've gone and recommended you for the next Senior NCO course starting next rotation.” Jong said with a mischievous smile.

“Oh, what did you go and do that for Sarg? I was happy being a knuckle dragger!” Rees complained half-heartedly. Jong was about to respond further when a momentary flash across the other side of the plain caught his eye.

“Hmmm?” he grunted, reaching for his binoculars. As the he scanned the distant ridge line, he felt a cold hard lump form in his gut, “Oh hell…..” he muttered

“What’s up?” asked Rees looking round at Jong’s quiet curse

“Trouble…And a lot of it” he growled. Handing the binoculars to Rees, he reached for his communicator, “India Station, this is Big Dog Zero Six. Do you read?” Jong spoke into the microphone.

“Big Dog Zero Six, this is India Station. Go ahead.” the duty officer replied.

“India, Big Dog. Multiple Oscar contacts at the following Coordinates: 10397 9611. Repeat, Multiple Oscar contacts, large numbers moving north east."

“Roger Big Dog,” came the reply, “Be advised, we're getting additional reports of Oscars at Coordinates: 29110 29924 and 29110 29924. Looks like something’s got 'em spooked…..We haven't seen this many for a while,”

“Roger India. Will avoid the areas and RTB. Big Dog Zero Six out”

Grabbing his pack, he turned to Rees and said "Wind 'em in Corporal. We need to get out of here NOW."

Attention Arkadian Colonists!

IFN HQ have been receiving reports of large groups of Oratan moving across Sentosa. Numbers such as these have not been seen in many months and Intelligence is yet to figure out how they keep bolstering their numbers so easily.

At this time, we are unable to identify the intentions of the Oratan or what may have caused them to start relocating their forces in such numbers.

Commodore Harvir has ordered all IFN ground forces mobilised and Captain Chiharo is currently overseeing the reinforcement of all regional Firebases.

The ACA is issuing a request to all willing and able colonists to make themselves available for civilian militia duties during these trying times and to act as a further bolster to the IFN forces.

Colonists from all skill levels will find themselves useful in a number of roles and areas. If you are willing to help, the ACA are willing to accommodate you.

Oratan Forces have been spotted at the following Coordinates:

• 10397 9611 (Medium Difficulty)
• 29110 29924 (Hard Difficulty)
• 24937 22415 (Easy Difficulty)

Hold fast against this show of strength by the Oratan hordes.

We will not be intimidated by these wretched souls!

Yours in Unity
The Arkadian Colonial Administration

Monria Mining Bug

It all started with a bang. Monria launched on 5 of November 2013 (3 days ago). One day after the launch came the first big mining claim. Roko the Wolf was just mining Monria with Ziplex TK220 and level 5 amp when he got huge deposit of 40,126 PED Lysterium Stone. If you are not Entropia player that means he got 4000 USD for pressing the left mouse button. It was posted on Monria forum and I thought “that was quick” and gratz him with the message “Gratz, Roko the Wolf. That was fast.” I’m not hardcore miner, but it seemed fast to me to get 40k after just one day of Monria.

It seems that a lot of experienced miner realized what this means, grabbed their mining gear and headed for Monria to mine hard. While the MindArk team was sleeping in their beds proud of the new stuff they implemented in Entropia Universe less than 30 hours ago, the miners mined their asses hitting global after global. Until yesterday ( around 48 hours after Monria release) one good person made a post on Monria forum that there is some mining bug on Monria:

“I hate to be the whistle blower here, but I'm now certain mining is bugged/broken on Monria. I don't know if this really is a bug or just an idea gone wrong. The result must be devastating to the economy. Or at least create an unfair loot distribution. Anyway, the problem is that it's way too easy to find deposits in some locations. And they seem to be amped, CND style too (I think that was the original intention though). But with the current distribution it is being exploited to the max. Just keep an eye on the global log and you'll see. And the mining towers. IMO, the servers should be taken down ASAP.

I think the problem is the distribution/spawn. At first i had miserable mining, but then got two globals and a couple of nice finds in a row. At first i thought "ah.. dynamic ". This was in the level 4 cave. Then i played later yesterday evening and got a massive and some other nice finds seemingly oddly close to each other. It kind of seems like many places are completely dry, but when you get a hit, you can drop probes close be and keep hitting more deposits. I did some testing (hope i don't get banned for it..), unamped, and ended up with 15 ample lysterium claims extremely close to each other. I'll attach a screenshot of the mini map so you can see what i mean. I see that others have made the same discovery and you can find people with large claim clusters everywhere. Stick a big amp on it and you'll most certainly get a few big ones, or towers. In the global log I’ve seen certain people getting endless floods of lysterium globals and hofs. But it's not only connected to lysterium, I think it's just that lysterium is a very common find on Monria and the globals reflect that. But when you see the same person getting 40 lysterium globals within a few minutes, something is indeed not right.

I'm sorry to say, this is the worst mining bug/exploit so far in the history of Entropia. I've done FOMA mining, been playing since 2004 actually. There are people who have probably made tens of thousands of PEDs over the past 24 hours due to this.

Just walk around a bit and you'll see people with huge claim clusters around them

To verify, i just did another test and basically could get 10+ claims by re-probing the same spot. I FOMA was like this I’d be a billionaire by now

It's odd that MA seem to take this so lightly. I submitted a support case this morning when I woke up and saw that the situation had escalated during the night. But they haven't even replied yet.”

When MindArk finally woke up and discovered the unpleasant situation they are in they had to act fast, take the server down immediately and lock some accounts for investigation what really happened.

“Due to issues affecting mining, the Monria server has been taken offline. MindArk's development team is working hard to resolve those issues and get Monria back up and running as soon as possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding and patience during this unexpected maintenance period.”

Other players also share their experience with the bug

“I started mining on Monria yesterday evening. First the return was really crappy, barely found any deposits at all. Then out of a sudden, i hit two globals in a row and a few considerable -> large in a row. When I came back later, i hit another dry spell, and then bam!, a massive and a few consecutive hits. So I started experimenting and found out that most areas are completely "dry", but where there is an ore/enmatter spawn, it would be incredibly dense. So basically you could drop bombs on the same spot and keep getting hits. So there was definitely something wrong with the distribution/spawn.

It was already late at night for me, so i got to bed, but in the morning i saw that things had escalated as people had found out about the bug. Of course, noone said anything, but there were people with huge claim clusters around them and of course some amped up and flooded the log with globals and hofs. So I created a support case to MA (which they haven't even replied to yet) and contacted the Monria staff and made a post on the Monria forum with an example screenshot and explanations.

I chose not to paste anything here, because I thought it would draw too much attention and there would be a huge influx of players exploiting the bug.

Also, it's no coincidence that the two biggest exploiters are soc mates and have a 40k and 5k lysterium übers on the HoF lis”

Message from MindArk's development team:

“An issue has been identified affecting mining activity in some areas in Entropia Universe. MindArk’s development team is investigating the issue, and hopes to have it resolved as soon as possible.

Some affected avatar accounts have been temporarily locked until the identified issues have been resolved. While we regret the inconvenience this may cause for some of our users, such precautions are necessary in rare cases to protect the real-cash economy of Entropia Universe. Affected accounts will be unlocked as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience while we resolve these issues.”

Now all this is really complicated. All this is MA fault. But there is rule in the game:

8. MindArk’s Rules of Conduct

j. You must immediately report errors and bugs in the Entropia Universe to MindArk whenever You discover them. You may not “cheat” or otherwise neglect to report errors or bugs, use bugs, slow connection, Internet latency, or other 'exploits' for own benefits or for the benefit of others.

It is obvious that those people weren’t supposed to hit so much globals in such small period of time. They exploited some bug. It’s hard to say if they are aware that they are exploiting bug or not. The game is dynamic and you can hit big anytime just by luck. Are you exploiter in those cases? If MindArk now takes the peds from those players, how can you be sure that when someday you hit big ATH they won’t tell it was exploit and take it all back? On the other hand all that money will have to be paid from the other players. Once the pure TT value that is probably more than 100 000 USD for all the players that exploited the bug. This money will be paid by Entropia Universe players. I’m not sure if only from players on Monria or from everyone in Entropia. And second this will bring down the price of all of the mined resources down to 100% which will make loss for all good miners and traders. I don’t have enough information to say what the right move in this situation is. May be MindArk will cover the losses from the salary of the programmer responsible for the mess.

Planet Calypso Content Release 2013.3

PLANET CALYPSO CONTENT RELEASE 2013.3
2013-11-05
***PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT IF YOU FIND SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY IN PLANET CALYPSO! IT MIGHT PROVIDE THE INFO YOU NEED BEFORE CONTACTING THE SUPPORT DEPARTMENT!***

Cape Corinth
The Cape Corinth area has received a major graphics and content overhaul, this is the first stage in a long term project to improve all areas on Eudoria. The following list is a summary of what has been done.

• Terrain and textures have been redesigned in order to create a more diverse and immersive landscape.
• Performance has been significantly improved.
• Resources have been redistributed to follow geological formations, adding more realism to the mining profession.
• New creature spawners have been added, including some intense grinding areas for many popular creatures.
• Added a lot of new points of interest, including a Maffoid Village .
• The various estate villages have been redesigned with lots more character to them.
• New wave spawner - The Warchief’s Sanctuary
• New wave spawner - Typhon’s Reach
• Re-designed wave spawner - Hadesheim Assault
• Corinth cities and outposts have been completely redesigned.
• New participants can now begin their life on Calypso in the Half Moon Bay outpost.
• Lots of wonderful new music created especially to fit Corinth’s new aesthetics.

Missions

• Daily Missions - Five new daily mission groups, three for hunting and one each for crafting and mining. You can pick up a random mission from each group once every 16 hours from Daily Mission Terminals found in Cape Corinth, Port Atlantis and Twin Peaks.
• Daily Tokens - These new tokens can be obtained by completing the new daily missions, and can be used to purchase non-tradable items from the Daily Token Trader NPCs located in various cities. Token broker item prices, stock and availablility are subject to change at any time.
• Combat Tokens - In addition to being offered as rewards for completing regular missions these new tokens are meant to replace the old Mission Token items, and can also be found as loot on certain shared-loot and boss creatures. The old Mission Tokens can be converted into the new Calypso Combat Tokens by interacting with the Mission Token Converter NPC in Cape Corinth. Token broker item prices, stock and availablility are subject to change at any time.
• New Iron Challenge Mission Chain - Oculus . Mission NPC: Servion at 32974, 37913
• New Iron Challenge Mission Chain - Gokibusagi. Mission NPC: Professor Elon Surs at 68308, 79038
• New Iron Challenge Mission Chain - Hispidus. Mission NPC: Gerard at 74216, 85845
• New Iron Challenge Mission Chain - Maffoid. Mission NPC: Josh Erland at 61740, 88037
• New Iron Challenge Mission Chain - Feffox. Mission NPC: Major Joseph Edwards at 75565, 92635. Large Feffox herds have been reported in northeastern Eudoria.
• New Mining Challenges - Mineral Resources: Lysterium, Belkar, Blausariam, Iron, Zinc, Narcanisum, Frigulite, Cumbriz ,Copper, Caldorite, Pyrite. Visit a Mining Guild representative in Port Atlantis, Cape Corinth or Twin Peaks to register for these rewarding new missions.

Changes

• The Aurli bosses in the cave on Crystal Palace no longer spawn automatically when a server is restarted.
• Increased the view distance of the oil rig.
• Missions that formerly awarded mission tokens now award Combat Tokens.
• The Wanted: Bloodclaw (Daily) mission now offers 6 combat tokens as reward.
• Updated the attack animations for the Kingfisher and Allophyl creatures.
• Updated the graphics of the following creature classes: Combibo, Cornundacauda, Cornundos, Jamraider, Kingfisher, Sabakuma, Snablesnot Female, Snablesnot Male, Turp
• Removed the former Mission Token trader NPCs from Fort Victoria, Ringhorne and Chug’s Hideout.
• Increased the maximum stack size of Berycled and Caudatergus trophies.
• Iron Daikiba Challenge - Daikiba Cubs now have a 50% chance of increasing the mission point counter by one point.
• Iron Challenge: Harbinger. Mission Broker Colonel Sam Garcon has been moved to 60470, 85213
• Iron Challenge: Eviscerator and Longtooth. Mission Broker Fritz Feldgast has been moved to 61719, 88012
• Removed the Atrax Stalker spawn from the field north of Camp Icarus.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several broken exploration achievements in the Corinth area.
• Fixed the land area controls on Vermillion Fields.
• Fixed an issue that caused doors in Cyclops Depths to open and close improperly.
• Iron Challenge: Mind Reaver Stage VI - Skill rewards are now accurately reflected in dialogue choices.
• RX OpTac x1 Thigh Guards (F) now have the correct protection values.

Known Issues

• Several previously discovered teleporters may not appear in the map locations list. These teleporters will need to be rediscovered in order to use them.

Planet Arkadia Update 2013.3 - 5th November 2013

The following are changes that come with Planet Arkadia Update 2013.3. This information is provided to the extent that the IFN and ACA are at liberty to discuss at this time. Log in today and check things out for yourself, to discover how the changes affect you!

NEW CONTENT

Mutated Mobs will no longer spawn in the wild

• The IFN Science Division, with help from volunteer colonists and squads from the IFN Commandos have managed to successfully cull the recent spate of Mutated Mobs. As a consequence, Mutated Mobs will now only be available with the spawning of Mutated DNA on one of the private Land Areas.

New IFN Base

• In support of current and future operations, the IFN Engineering Corps have established a new regional IFN base near the site of the old Valiant Firebase. This replaces the previous Firebase, and so the existing Valiant Firebase TP has been moved accordingly.
• Major upgrades to both the base structure as well as colony support facilities have been made, along with ample landing facilities. All colonists are advised to make themselves familiar with the new base in case of emergency.

Oil Rig Operational!

• The IFN Engineering Corps have finally managed to get the Arkadian Oil Rig working. It is now operational and pumping out a steady supply.

New Land Areas Available!

• ACA surveyors have finished their planning and land allocation fieldwork. As a result, the remaining deeds for Land Area ownership have been made available and are currently held by the Arkoin Broker at the IFN Supply Depot. If you want to own your own private piece of Arkadia, now you have your chance!

Viceroy Armour

• Bill has altered the patterning of his customised and highly sought after Viceroy Armour. From now on, he will no longer be providing the special "SkullCandy" edition to people that speak to him after today. Instead, he will be offering standard Viceroy; it has the same stats, just not the blue skull on the shoulder plate.
• If you have already spoken to him regarding getting a set of the SkullCandy version, he has agreed to supply it to those people that still have the mission active.
• Bill has further agreed to accept unwanted sets of the Skullcandy version in trade for its TT value (full set only).
• In addition, you may trade in either the full set or separate pieces of the standard Viceroy in exchange for its TT value. After doing so, you may once again take Bills mission in order to get a new set or new individual pieces if you wish to search for better tiering rates.

Mining Missions

• The ACA and IFN have organised a number of Mining missions in order to issue some challenge to the illustrious Miners of Arkadia.
• To begin with, a variety of Ores and Treasures have been initialised.
• Subsequent updates will add further Ores/Treasures/Enmatters.
• These missions will be available from the Quarry Managers Office.

New Wave Spawns

• Five (5) new wave spawns have been detected in and around the Celeste area. These spawns seem particularly suited to our less experienced colonists and as such may be utilised for lower level training and skilling. However, even low level creatures can be a handful in large numbers, so watch your back and carry plenty of ammunition!
• The locations of the Wave Spawns have been added to your map.

Smuggler Activity increase

The IFN have expressed concern at rising levels of Smuggler activity. Items were recently stolen from an IFN storage and investigations are underway. The IFN reminds all colonists that the Smugglers are dangerous and are to be considered a threat to the stability of the colony.

*********************************

Additional Information

Bug Fixes

• The development team have bought a fresh can of bug spray, a new swatter and a rolled-up newspaper. As a consequence, several annoying bugs have been fixed. Among these was the bug affecting the correct display of Riptor Leather Texture.

Known Issues

• Some armours still have a glitch causing the right eye to melt and droop down to the ground. We are hopeful of a resolution to this issue soon.
• The new Valiant Firebase has some graphical issues with how it loads. A number of changes and improvements have already been made with the upcoming mini-patch due Tuesday next week (12th November).
• Some armour parts and shops are experiencing item visibility issues.

Cyrene November 5th 2013 VU Notes

New Additions - Planet Cyrene

- New Dynamic Upgrades
- Imperium Orbital Strikes
- The Imperium has razed many of the large mountains on Cyrene with an orbital laser to harvest massive amounts of minerals for an unknown project.
- This has significantly changed the landscape of Cyrene and released a new creature from the depths, the Vlanwing, a bat like creature andone of thefirst mammals on Cyrene.
- The robots that the Imperium sent out, Protocores, to harvest the new craters have become unstable due to an electrical discharge remaining from the orbital strikes, and have turned hostile.
- The Turrelions have stepped in and offered to solve this problem for the Imperium and have set up bases and teleporters near all the major craters (which need to be discovered).
- Garvers
- The Empis Wasps that inhabit this area have swelled in population. Something is definitely buzzing about in this area...
- 0x101 Supply Depot

- Five noteworthy players have been immortalized with statues:

- Agis, a master hunter who has hunted and documented his hunts of Cyrene creatures.
- non, who goes above and beyond to help many new players and offer suggestions.
- Remy, who has discovered many blueprints on Cyrene and has helped with feedback to improve Cyrene.
-Thanatos, has found, pointed out, offered suggestions on how to fix many bugs that were not made public.
- TunerS, who has compiled and shared all the data he has gathered about Cyrene from combines to creature loot.
- Each of these players has helped not only in shaping Cyrene, but helped other players who have come to call it home.

- Puny Beach

- Aside from being a great place to hunt Puny creatures, there are now many simple missions available to help new players get started on Cyrene from the following:
- Miner Salazar
- Weaponmaster Aron
- Weaponmaster Rob
- Medical Tech Godfrey
- Fashion Adviser Robuck
- John Fhartly

- New Creatures

- Vlanwing, a fearsome creature from the depths of Cyrene.
- Protocore, renegade mining robots that have turned on their masters.
- Acidic Jellyworms, mutated by toxic environments.

- New armor sets:

-I.S.O.R. (Imperium Orbital Strike Reconnaissance), a mix of Zekkonian and Imperium technology.
- A.R.C. Hazard, a combination of A.R.C. and Zekkonian design.
- Improved B.E. Armor, a combine of B.E. Armor and other materials into a new and improved armor set.

- New Blueprints:

- New Plastic Components using many basic ingredients.
- New First Aid Packs designed by the Ozpyn Corporation.

- New Tools:

- The Imperium Refiner is finally available from the Trade Terminal.
- New Detectonators along with New Mining Amps.
- New First Aid Packs (aside from those crafted ones) for levels 30+.

- New Quest Reward

- In addition to the BLP Pistol from the Stage Two Epic Chain ( Ozpyn BLP S1X4) there is now a Laser Rifle (Ozpyn Replical HK S1X4).

- New Clothing rewards from the Proving Ground and Arenas that can be worn outside of the Hub.

- New Quests

- 20,000 Kill Point Challenge is now available for the following creatures:
- Tide Claw
- Dire Weed
- Crystal Pede

- Weekly Kill Point Missions for the following new creatures:

- Vlanwing
- Protocore


- Daily Kill Point Missions for a wide variety of players from the Faction

Ambassadors just south of Puny Beach:

- Meet the Tahnok...
- Meet the Zyn'Kimbro...
- Meet the Turrelions...


- The Turrelion Tailor at Base Camp Gamma has more missions for players who have finished "The Ultimate 'n00b' Challenge"

- Test of Faith - Stage 1 - Pants
- Test of Faith - Stage 2 - Jacket
- Test of Faith - Stage 3 - Boots
- Test of Faith - Stage 4 - Goggles
- Test of Faith - Stage 5 - Coat

- In Following Stage Two Epic Missions are now fixed and available:

- Stage 3: The Zeladoth Pandemic (part 2)
- Stage 4: Right Outta the sky
- Stage 5: Cleansing the Sea
- Stage 6: Into the Tamangon Fires
- Stage 7: Yes, All the Skulls...
- Stage 8: Stalking the Stalkers
- Stage 9: We Need a Bigger Boat
- Stage 10: Bevis and the Gang
- The culmination of the Stage Two Epic is also available:
- Stage 11: Stage 11: The Senator Speaks!
- Stage 12: The Empis Queen

New Additions - The Hub

- Many new clothing items (shirts, pants, boots, jackets, coats) have arrived and are available to buy from vendors with your Reward Tokens (White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Red, Lime Green).

- The Proving Grounds items to engage in PvP have changed: now to enter it takes 5 Vibrant Sweat, and per kill you awarded 4 Reward Token (Lime Green) used for special clothing that can be worn either inside or outside of the Hub.

Changes - Planet Cyrene

- All creature hit boxes should work correctly.
- The Following Quests have been rejiggered to work more smoothly and stop certain exploits:
- Craft an Ozpyn Filter!
- Craft an Enkidd Dire S1 (L)!
- Craft a Pattern Shirt Series 1 (L,C)!
- Craft an Ozpyn Cold Protector (L)!
- Craft an Imperium Key Cube!
- Mine Up Zorn Star Ore!
- Mine Up Yellow Crystals!
- Mine Up Kaisenite Stone!
- Mine Up Blue Crystal!
- Mine Up Iridium Ore!
- Hail Lazidol, The Great Sea Beast!
- Getting Battle Ready
- Summoner's Gambit

- The following items have had their materials and over all PED value reduced:
- Imperium Cube Component 1 (1 PED -> 10 PEC)
- 150 Crude Oil -> 15 Crude Oil
- 150 Lysterium Stone -> 15 Lysterium Stone
- Imperium Cube Component 2 (1 PED -> 10 PEC)
- 150 Zorn Star Ore -> 15 Zorn Star Ore
- 150 Yellow Crystal -> 15 Yellow Crystal
- Imperium Cube Component 3 (1 PED -> 10 PEC)
- 150 Zorn Star Ore -> 15 Zorn Star Ore
- 150 Lysterium Stone -> 15 Lysterium Stone
- Imperium Cube Component 4 (1 PED -> 10 PEC)
- 150 Yellow Crystal -> 15 Yellow Crystal
- 150 Crude Oil -> 15 Crude Oil
- Imperium Cube Component 5 (1 PED -> 10 PEC)
- 75 Zorn Star Ore -> 7 Zorn Star Ore
- 75 Yellow Crystal -> 7 Yellow Crystal
- 75 Lysterium Stone -> 8 Lysterium Stone
- 75 Crude Oil -> 8 Crude Oil
- Imperium Key Cube (5.25 PED -> 52 PEC)
- 150 Imperium Token -> 15 Imperium Token
- Imperium Cube (5 PED -> 50 PEC)

- Crystal Pede Hide (50 PEC -> 5 PEC)
- Crystal Pede Leather (150 PEC -> 15 PEC)
- Crystal Pede Leather Texture (50 PEC -> 5 PEC
- Jellyworm Hide (75 PEC -> 7.5 PEC)
- Jellyworm Leather (225 PEC -> 22.5 PEC)
- Jellyworm Leather Texture (75 PEC -> 7.5 PEC)
- Tree Dragon Hide (75 PEC - 7.5 PEC)
- Tree Dragon Leather (225 PEC -> 22.5 PEC)
- Tree Dragon Leather Texture (78.3 PEC -> 7.83 PEC)
- Sea Wraith Hide (80 PEC -> 8 PEC)
- Sea Wraith Leather(240 PEC -> 24 PEC)
- Sea Wraith Leather Texture (88.3 PEC -> 8.83 PEC)

- The follow weapons had been altered as well:
- Ozpyn RSB S1X2
- Previous damage: 13 Impact / 26 Cut
- Fixed damage: 22 Impact / 36 Cut
- Ozpyn BP S1X2
- Previous ammo burn: 4000
- Fixed ammo burn: 400

- Many grammatical and typographical errors have been fixed.
- Several world holes have been filled in.
- Tamangon Volcano PvP areas have been fixed to not be larger than they appear.
- Global threshold as been adjusted and no more "silent" globals should happen.

- Many creature spawns have been increased:

- Empi

- Swamp Lurkers by Tanhok Gardens

- Empis Wasps

- One area has been decreased in creature density:

- Imperium Air Base

- Teleporter cost to go from n00b base to Puny Beach has been removed

(however you still must go from n00b base to Puny Beach).

- Shopping booths have been normalized in their placement.

- Teleport areas have been added to A.R.C. Head Quarters thanks to a donation by Senator Calvin Neff.

- Removed many of the dynamic lights to improve overall playability.

- Fixed an issue causing any text with a "%" to only display "???".

- The I.R.V.M. Instance has been closed while bugs are being worked out.

- The disappearing quest objectives should now be fixed.

- The no loot and no loot message bug should now be fixed.

Changes - The Hub

- The overall speed boost in the Proving Grounds and the Hub has been reduced from 55% to 35%.

- The Proving Ground now no longer spawns Entry Tokens, but now instead spawns Reward Token (Lime Green) which have a much smaller PED value and are used to buy special Proving Grounds clothing.

- The entry fee of 10 sweat to go to the Proving Grounds as been removed.

- The Proving Grounds now cost 5 sweat to enter (down from 10) and now reward you 4 Reward Token (Lime Green) per player kill.

- The Trade Terminal PvP weapons have been altered to not only "feel" different from each other, but not enough to make the token weapons not feel underpowered.

- There are many sets of clothing available to wear inside or outside of the Hub that can be purchased for different types of Reward Tokens.

- The Proving Grounds will now heal players when they enter.

- The number of spawn points in the Proving Ground has been increased.

Known Issues

- Support weapons are not currently working properly, this is a platform issue.

- The Spear MK. III is difficult to maneuver, this issue will be fixed A.S.A.P.

- The Spear destroyed model becomes invisible, this issue is being looked into.

- In the HUB there is an issue where the stat over ride does not work correctly, this is currently being verified.

- All Cyrene vehicles (P.I.G.V., Spear, Lancer, Dragonfly) have default sounds, this will be addressed in a future patch.

- Ravenous Swamp Lurkers disappear sometimes, this issue is still being looked into

- Some Quality Ratings information in blueprint book: A.R.C. is incorrect, and this issue is still being looked into.

Lastly, as always, please give adequate time for all the new loot to be added and new missions to be activated.

Entropia Universe 14.3.2 Release Notes

Monria Moon Released

Mindark has worked closely with the team behind Monria to implement their vision for the moon estate.Monria stands out as the first Cthulhu Mythos inspired Sci-Fi Horror MMORPG. To check out Monria, visit monria.com where you can register an account and download the game.

Quests
Monria new arrivals will spawn on Thule where they can try out the Calypso beginner’s tutorial. Speak to Mr. Yoshida to start the tutorial quest chain. All new Monria arrivals will receive a Monria shirt which will flag them to travel to Monria after completing the Thule tutorial quest. The Thule tutorial quest can be skipped by speaking to Mr. Yoshida or Lieutenant Smith
Four hunting Iron missions, one for each unique Monria creature, are available at the Main Crater outpost.

• New crafting missions: speak with NPC Tobie in the Monria Hub.
• New arrival mission chain. speak with NPC Hank Powers near the teleporter in the Monria Hub.

Quests that will be enabled after next week’s patch:

• Find the missing chapters
• Mining Challenges

Entropia Universe Platform
Fixed Issues

• Loading time for client has been improved.
• Issues with the 32-bit lighting has been fixed.
• Auction orders will now buyout items with the buyout markup set to 100%
• Fixed an issue where the last attempt of a limited blueprint failed
• It should not be possible to get lower than 5% strength on AEOT anymore
• Client freeze when equipping or opening an inventory with a tool with attachments is fixed
• Hitboxes for many planet partner creatures have been fixed

Known Issues

• Collision detection on some terrain models is missing causing avatars to become stuck in some situations. Press T when stuck to revive at the nearest revival terminal.
• Monria shops are labelled with wrong numbers. This will be corrected in the patch and shop deeds will then be delivered to the moon manager.
• Monria Hub teleporter room area incorrectly displays “String 0”.
• Some quest dialogue locations are reversed. The quest givers on Thule appear to be sending Monria players to Calypso before sending them to Monria.
• Sort columns in the auction interface are not functioning.

David from Arkadia on Bound items and Game Economy

The Viceroy quest will remain permanently, it's the Skull Candy edition that is short term. As of this coming update (due Tuesday) players will be able to hand in their armor to get the TT value returned if they so wish (we do listen to your feedback hey!)

The Viceroy quest gives a very good example of how these types of quests for bound items work. Needless to say that the stats on the Smuggler armor make it obvious that it will be a much more costly and arduous quest than the Viceroy. People speculating that this armor would be introduced at half the cost of Angel or even 2500 peds is simply way off the mark.

These quests are not designed at all to appeal to the players who want the cheapest option (as is highlighted by the Viceroy quest, a budget conscious player will always choose the Gremlin armour).

The benefits to the economy by creating a broad base of demand on many items that otherwise have little value is a key consideration.

These quests have a major part to play in the story development of the planet and especially in developing the identity of the players who undertake the quest. Simply put, if you see someone wearing that armour then they are a genuine Smuggler, not someone who purchased the armor from auction.

The quest for the Smugglers will be much more involved than the Viceroy quest. It won't simply be a matter of collecting resources, but rather a broad mix of story driven missions, instance raids, resource collection, task completion etc. It is being designed to take a considerable amount of time to complete with a variety of rewards that are focused on developing the players identity as a Smuggler.

Quests that include bound items are by no means designed to become a major part of the Arkadian nor Entropian economy. It is anticipated that these quests will appeal to a portion of the community but not all. So if it sounds like it doesn't suit you as a player, then likely you are not who the quest is designed for. We want the game to have a broad appeal with different options of gameplay.

Arkadia has a great many quests in development (some of which you will see in the update following next weeks update).

I would encourage people not to jump to conclusions about the doom of the Real Cash Economy, that is definitely going to remain as the central tenet of Arkadia and EU.

I hope that has helped clarify our position and I look forward to bringing you lots of exciting new gameplay involving the Smugglers of Arkadia.

You seem to giving no value to the fact that Gremlin can be sold and therefore the funds withdrawn in the future. I contest that we have players who do value that and hence there will always be demand for tradable items like the Gremlin armour. I am also saying that there are players who don't value that as highly as many think and are therefore willing to complete a quest for a bound item/items. Of course the quest presents a challenge which is enjoyable to complete and the fact the item is bound adds value because it shows everyone you as a player undertook and completed the challenge. You are right in saying that with the Viceroy quest in place the likelihood that Gremlin will ever cost 10,000 PEDs has been reduced to almost zero, but I'm not sure you'll have too many players who think the prices should ever get that high anyway. The existence of Limited armours also plays into this mix, and I believe is currently having a much greater impact on the price of Gremlin than the Viceroy quest.

What you have stated yourself is that the Viceroy quest has put an effective floor on the value of an armour set. The biggest risk here is for Arkadia; in that if the balancing of the economy is managed in such a way so that there is oversupply of tradable armours so that no one undertakes the quest. This would simply mean our investment in development of the quest and the armour is no longer used by players. It does raise a question neither of us can answer, that being, if the Gremlin was selling at 101%, would anyone still undertake the Viceroy quest.

The benefit of the Viceroy quest was never expected to see massive price increases. It's about having a benefit, about seeing a MU rise by a couple of percent here and there. Viceroy is also a relatively small quest PED wise and as such will never create a total shift in value across the universe.

What is more relevant here is the current problem of a centralized auction history which means it's quite difficult to ascertain the impact of a single quest.

I really don't see the link here, the Chelydra armour is not even remotely similar to the Smuggler armour? As I said the Smuggler quest will be a very arduous quest that will be costly, so unless all players have an infinite supply of both funds and time then you won't see an infinite supply of Smuggler armour entering the game.

Like every new addition within any economy it will have an impact, I'm not denying that it will have an impact. I'm saying it's a positive impact and not a negative.

You are right that the management of Arkadia is very focused on the economy of the planet and is not out to mess with the economy to have short term activity increases that have long term negative consequences.
As I pointed out above, a quest such as the Viceroy Quest has the effect of setting a floor on the value of items. ie the value of Gremlin will always be compared to Viceroy, in essence I'm saying that gremlin is a relative bargain right now due to it being both cheaper than Viceroy and being tradable.

I think a bigger discussion that may develop here is how much value does the playerbase place on an item being tradable and therefore giving the option to withdraw the funds at a later date. It's always been assumed that it's a highly valuable trait and yet the Viceroy quest demonstrates that it's not the main driving factor for every player.

Halloween Mayhem 2013 Event

Get ready for the most terrifying event in Planet Calypso history!

Before you read it all here are some FAQs:

Anyone can enter whichever Halloween Mayhem instance they want, the Pumpkin drop rates have been adjusted according to mob difficulty.

The points are based on the Pumkins you've handed to the mission NPC.

The pumpkins are non-tradable

If someone does 20 hours, abandons the missions, accepts its again, and hunts another 40 hours will be disqualified.

The Halloween Mayhem event token items (Halloween Pumpkins) will be distributed in a way that is more balanced than was the case in the Feffox Mayhem event. To clarify, "The Halloween pumpkins have been distributed in relation to creature difficulty" means that the likelihood of looting event tokens is a direct function of the time and cost of killing each of the different event creatures and bosses.

For example, if Creature A has 100 HP and Creature B has 200 HP -indicating that it takes approximately twice as long to kill Creature B- Rotten Halloween Pumpkins (worth 1 event point) will be roughly twice as common in loots from Creature B than from Creature A.

The scaling used to calculate the relative loot frequencies of the event tokens includes several factors: creature health, threat level, damage distribution, regeneration and alpha damage.

Thus, assuming that a hunter can kill both Creature A and Creature B in a reasonable amount of time compared to other participants, the choice of which creature to hunt should not have a significant impact on the event outcome.

This system should result in participants being able to hunt in any of the instances while still having a proportionate chance of looting each of the various event tokens.

It's true that the top hunters have an advantage they're by no means guaranteed to win. The luck factor involved in looting the big pumpkins makes it possible for a lesser hunter to be propelled into a prize position.

Even if you "know" you can't win the event there are still many lootable reasons to participate.

Fight your way through hordes of undead as you compete for the prizes in this year’s Halloween event, featuring...

• A spooky haunted graveyard instance
• Two creepy new creatures and two new bosses

Special loot, including Halloween Candy, a consumable booster item
… and lots of great prizes!

In this Mayhem style event, similar to the Feffox Mayhem event, you will hunt in a solo instance and score points by looting and handing in Halloween pumpkins. The Halloween pumpkins have been distributed in relation to creature difficulty, so that hunters in all five instance levels have a fair chance at scoring points in the event.

The Halloween Mayhem event starts on Thursday November 7th, 00:00:00 UTC and ends on Sunday November 17th, 23:59:59 UTC.

Are you ready for Halloween Mayhem?

Where do I Enter?

The Mayhem Entrances are located in three locations; Fort Ithaca, Fort Zeus and Nyphtown. The map and screenshot on this page should make it is easy to locate.

There are five instance entrances for various skill levels, ranging from 1 to 5. Choose the entrance that suits your current level for fighting mobs of the following levels:

Entrance Level 1;

• Zombie Mutant Outcast (LVL 5)
• Zombie Mutant Bandit (LVL 9)
• Zombie Dog Young (LVL 3)
• Zombie Dog Mature (LVL 6)

Entrance Level 2;

• Zombie Mutant Guard (LVL 13)
• Zombie Mutant Raider (LVL 16)
• Zombie Dog Old (LVL 8)
• Zombie Dog Provider (LVL 10)

Entrance Level 3

• Zombie Mutant Warrior (LVL 20)
• Zombie Mutant Berserker (LVL 25)
• Zombie Dog Guardian (LVL 13)
• Zombie Dog Dominant (LVL 15)

Entrance Level 4

• Zombie Mutant Hunter (LVL 32)
• Zombie Mutant Warlord (LVL 39)
• Zombie Dog Alpha (LVL 20)
• Zombie Dog Old Alpha (LVL 24)

Entrance Level 5

• Zombie Mutant Champion (LVL 51)
• Zombie Mutant Clan Warlord (LVL 57)
• Zombie Dog Prowler (LVL 30)
• Zombie Dog Stalker (LVL 34)

Point Reward System

The following point reward system has been offered for those assisting in the retrieval of Halloween Pumpkins:

• Rotten Halloween Pumpkin (1 point)
• Sickly Halloween Pumpkin (5 points)
• Damaged Halloween Pumpkin (10 points)
• Healthy Halloween Pumpkin (20 points)
• Mature Halloween Pumpkin (50 points)
• Fully Developed Halloween Pumpkin (100 points)
• Twin Halloween Pumpkin (500 points)
• Mutated Halloween Pumpkin (1000 points)

Mission NPCs

Mission NPCs have been placed in the following locations:

• Cape Corinth
• Fort Ithaca
• Fort Zeus
• Port Atlantis
• Twin Peaks
• Nymphtown

Recovered Halloween Pumpkin should be submitted to the one of these Mission NPCs

***VERY IMPORTANT***

Be sure to turn in any recovered Halloween Pumpkins to one of the mission NPC before the event ends! Any Halloween Pumpkins remaining after the event end time will not be included in your final event score.

Event Prizes

• 1st Place - Modified Hedoc Mayhem
• 2nd Place - Improved Hedoc Mayhem
• 3rd Place - DOA Slugstorm
• 4th Place - Omegaton M83 Predator
• 5th Place - Emik Enigma L4
• 6th Place - CalyTrek CR Spirit Mk.I
• 7th Place - Genesis ArcSpark
• 8th Place - Adjusted Hedoc Mayhem
• 9th Place - Omegaton Igni L1000
• 10th Place - 10 x Calypso Land Deeds
• 11th Place - EWE LC-100 Frontier
• 12th Place - Isis Project Zero-Three
• 13th Place - Castorian Xeno-Dagger Scratcher
• 14th Place - Kilic Rex
• 15th Place - 5 x Calypso Land Deeds
• 25th Place - 1 Calypso Land Deed
• 50th Place - 1 Calypso Land Deed
• 100th Place - 1 Calypso Land Deed

Rules & Notes

Each participant is limited to a maximum of 40 hours in the Halloween event instances. This 40 hour limit applies to combined time in any of the Halloween instances, not each individual instance level. Event participants must keep track of their time spent in the event instances, since the current instance system unfortunately does not track time spent across multiple login/instance sessions.

This event is intended for solo hunters. Any attempt at abusing team mechanics or any other Entropia Universe systems or features in order to gain an unfair advantage over other participants will be grounds for disqualification from the event, forfeiture of any prizes, and possible sanctions imposed on one’s Entropia Universe account.

Do not abandon the mission! If you abandon the mission for any reason, either intentionally or accidentally, all points earned up to that point will be lost forever. Support cannot and will not restore points for abandoned missions, regardless of the situation.
Happy Hunting!

Happy hunting and Happy Halloween!
The Planet Calypso Dev Team

Developer Notes 7

Manufacturing Returns and Success Rates
Several participants have recently expressed concern over manufacturing success rates in support cases and on various community forums. Our design team has investigated these issues and has determined that the manufacturing system is functioning as intended. Please keep in mind that many aspects of the Entropia Universe system are dynamic and that drawing conclusions about "success rates" or "TT return" based on relatively small sample sizes collected over short time periods can be very misleading or unnecessarily alarming.

Once again, we would like to assure all participants that the manufacturing system is functioning properly and as designed.

Sneak Peek - New Social Interface
Since before the summer, members of MindArk's development team have been hard at work creating a completely new Social UI which is expected to be released later this year. The new Social UI will include a boatload of new and improved features, here are some of the highlights:

• Offline Messaging
• Custom chat channels with optional passwords, data feeds
• Tabbed chat interface with the ability to arrange or dock/undock individual tabs
• User-defined thresholds for global loot messages
• Completely redesigned Contacts List with custom user status settings (Away/Do Not Disturb/Invisible/etc.), user notes, and much more.
• Completely redesigned Society interface with new features such as message of the day (MOTD), Society alerts
• Looking for Group (LFG) functionality to facilitate the creation of teams.
• Custom Avatar thumbnail images that appear in other participants' Contacts Lists and chat channels
• Integration with Entropia Universe Auction in the form of detailed alerts relating to offers and orders.
• Calendar displaying upcoming events, EU system notifications, etc.
• Much, much more!!

Below is a screenshot of a current prototype of the new unified Message Center:

Notice the various types of information in the feed: auction alerts, private chat, personal notes. Also note the filter buttons along the top which allow quick filtering of various types of messages.

Our design and development teams are working hard to make sure that the new Social UI will provide Entropians with a vastly more effective and user-friendly platform to communicate and connect with friends, society mates and other Entropia Universe participants.

More preview screenshots will be shared as the exciting new Social UI approaches release.

Infrastructure Upgrades
The infrastructure upgrades discussed in the previous Developer Notes #6 continue moving forward, though several unforeseen issues have resulted in the 14.3 Version Update being delayed by several weeks. As our engineers and devs resolve those issues and a more firm date for VU14.3 becomes clear, we will update the community here on the Entropia Universe Buzz.

Thanks for your patience!

Developer Notes #6

Greetings Entropians!

We hope that all of you have had an enjoyable and relaxing summer. Despite the lovely European weather, lots of work has been going on behind the scenes here at the MindArk offices this summer.

With this EU Buzz article, we intend to provide a quick update on what the MindArk team has been working on, along with a roadmap for the next couple of releases.

VU 14.3 - Platform Release
The next Version Update, also known as a platform release, is scheduled for early September and will contain many back-end infrastructure upgrades and maintenance (see below for more info). While this update will not contain any new systems or features, it will contain a large number of improvements and fixes to existing systems. Many of the more frequently reported issues have been corrected in this update, including:

• Fixed an issue with camera shaking and restricted movement when avatars revive at a revival terminal.
• Disciple progress is now updated correctly when the disciple kicks a mentor and gets a new mentor.
• The Friends List now updates correctly when adding or removing friends, without requiring a relog.
• Many issues affecting vehicles and spaceships have been corrected.
• Lots of clothing and avatar display issues have been corrected.
• The tiering cost formula for items with cooldown or upload timers (mainly MindForce chips) has been adjusted to bring the costs in balance with other types of items such as weapons and tools.
• Dozens of other issues have been corrected and bugs squashed.

As usual, a complete list of fixed issues included in the VU will be posted in the Version Update Release Notes on the day of release.

Planet Partner Release
Scheduled for early October, the next Planet Partner release promises to bring lots of exciting new content to your favorite Entropia Universe planet!

Infrastructure Upgrades
Over the past several platform releases in the earlier part of this year, the first components of a major upgrade to the Entropia Universe infrastructure have been implemented. Much of that groundwork has taken place behind the scenes, without much immediately noticeable impact on the end-user experience. Over the summer, the MindArk dev team has been working hard on building and testing the next phase of the infrastructure upgrade project, both software and hardware. Those improvements will be implemented into Entropia Universe in the upcoming platform release, and the final stages will be deployed in the subsequent platform releases during autumn and early winter.

The benefits of this major infrastructure upgrade are many, including:

• Greater server capacity (simultaneous users).
• Improved server stability and expandability as the Entropia Universe population grows.
• More frequent Version Updates.
• Ability to deploy small hotfixes to clients very quickly.
• Much shorter downtimes when new Version Updates are released.

In addition, the new infrastructure will allow our developers and partners to spend much more of their time working on new features, systems and content, and improving existing systems, rather than on packaging and delivering Version Updates.

In short, what this means for Entropians is more frequent, feature-rich, and stable updates to Entropia Universe with less downtime and faster implementation of important fixes when needed.

We appreciate your patience and dedication to Entropia Universe over the past few months during the infrastructure upgrade process, and we look forward to completing the final stages so that you can enjoy a much improved Version Update process in the future.

Monria coming 5 of November 2013

It seems that Monria is scheduled for next Tuesday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VtxomZcj9U