Monday, December 9, 2013

How to remove blackscreen when taking screenshots in Entropia Universe

How to properly remove blackscreen when taking screenshots in Entropia and many other games
How to properly remove blackscreen when taking screenshots in Entropia and many other games:

The way to achieve this is simply by changing the Aero default theme to Windows 7 Basic.

Option 1:

You can do this by either going to:
Control Panel -> Appearance And Personalization -> Personalization

Basic and High Contrast Themes:
Change to Windows 7 Basic

OR

Option 2

Go to (where entropia is installed): C:\Program Files (x86)\Entropia Universe\bin32

right click and select properties on "ClientLoader.exe"

Select "Compatibility" tab

Under "Settings" press "Disable desktop composition"

press apply

Both settings does the same, but if you like Aero theme on your computer and you want to maintain it, you should go with "Option 2".

Friday, December 6, 2013

Cyrene TEN Event for December 20th 2013

If you are wondering what happened to the Cyrene TEN Event here is the latest info:

Proposted Cyrene TEN Event for December 20th 2013 - December 22nd 2013

Re-Introducing the Cyrene TEN Event!

This TEN Event will accommodate all play styles on Cyrene: Crafting, Hunting, Mining, and PvPing.

The prizes will be distributed the following way:
Two from PvPing
Three from Hunting
Three from Crafting
Two from Mining


Here's the breakdown:

1st Prize: Highest total PED earned in the Hub Arenas (excluding the Proving Grounds and 1vs1 Arena)

2nd Prize: 2nd Highest total PED earned in the Hub Arenas (excluding the Proving Grounds and 1vs1 Arena)

3rd-10th: Highest Global PED value from hunting, crafting, mining on Cyrene (placement determined by Global PED Value)

The PvP PED value will be determined directly by the PED earned:

1 kill in the 25 PEC Arena = 20 PEC
1 kill in the 50 PEC Arena = 40 PEC
1 kill in the 1 PED Arena = 80 PEC
1 kill in the 2 PED Arena = 160 PEC
1 kill in the 5 PED Arena = 4 PED
1 kill in the 10 PED Arena = 8 PED

Avatar kills across all arenas will be counted and totaled per avatar. In the event of a tie, the player with the most kills in the higher level Arenas will be the winner.

EX: Player 1 and 2 both have 100 PED of kills, player 1 got 50% of his kills from the 10 PED Arena and 50% from the 5 PED Arena. Player 2 got 25% of his kills in the 10 PED Arena and 75% of his kills in the 1 PED Arena. Player 1 will win the tie breaker.

Prizes for the highest single loot HoFs/Globals will be awarded to individual players (no teams) for the following professions: Crafting, Mining, and Hunting.

All Crafting and Mining HoFs/Globals must be on Cyrene Specific Resources / Blueprints.

Only The Highest Single Loot per Avatar across All three Professions will be Entered to Win… Only 1 Prize per avatar!

The Cyrene TEN Event starts at 00:00:01 on December 20th 2013 and ends at 23:59:59 on December 22nd 2013. (all times server time)

We are aware that some players are experiencing an issue with the Hub Arenas and the skill over ride, however, MindArk has informed us that they have been unable after months of testing to replicate the issue in order to solve it. We have decided to include the Hub for the ten event despite there still being a possible issue. It is out of our hands and we consider the Hub to be one the most fair place to test skills in Entropia for an event such as this.


Here's the Prizes:

1st Place - Chronicle Thigh Guards TEN Edition (F) + Armor Plating Mark. 10C (L) TEN Edition
2nd Place - Chronicle Helmet (M) TEN Edition
3nd Place - Chronicle Gloves (F) TEN Edition
4th Place - Armor Plating Mark. 10B TEN Edition
5th Place - Armor Plating Mark. 10C TEN Edition
6th Place - Arsonistic Chip III TEN Edition
7th Place - Paladin Thigh Guards (F) TEN Edition
8th Place - Paladin Helmet (M) TEN Edition
9th Place - Paladin Gloves (F) TEN Edition
10th Place - Arsonistic Chip III (L) TEN Edition

Item Info:

Chronicle Armor TEN Edition
Durability: 6200
Stab: 74 | Cut: 65 | Impact: 26 | Penetration: 18 | Shrapnel: 14 | Burn: 18 | Cold: 8 | Acid: 10 | Electric: 8

Paladin Armor TEN Edition
Durability: 2650
Stab: 8 | Cut: 15 | Impact: 16 | Penetration: 9 | Burn: 16

Armor Plating Mark. 10B TEN Edition
Durability: 3160
Cut: 10 | Impact: 14 | Penetration: 4 | Cold: 34

Armor Plating Mark. 10C TEN Edition
Durability: 3160
Impact: 9 | Shrapnel: 39 | Burn: 14

Armor Plating Mark. 10C (L) TEN Edition
Durability: 14320
Impact: 9 | Shrapnel: 39 | Burn: 14

Arsonistic Chip III TEN Edition
Range: 55
Ammo: 60000
Decay: 0.10500 PED
Req Level: 19.5
Delay: 1.3 sec
Cooldown: 11 sec
Damage Burn: 300

Negativity on Entropia Universe Forums

When I see someone talks bullshit about Entropia Universe my first reaction is to comment his post showing him where he is wrong. And seconds after that I wonder if I am just a fanboy who can’t see the truth. And maybe I am. May be I like the game so much that I see only the good stuff. So don’t trust everything I write here. You may lose a lot of money if you blindly trust me and deposit to the game.

First I want to say that you must have balls to start developing Entropia Universe in 1995. Most of us were probably still using Windows 3.11. The online games were played by email. And to think of such expensive game – both to make and to play. A game that will last forever and will use real money that you can deposit and withdraw. A game where you can buy shares and make money from it. Just one persistent universe with no subserver, shards, instances. Excuse me but making Eve Online, Second Life, WOW or Battlefield is child play compared to what it takes to make Entropia Universe and run it for more than 10 years. It is the most difficult game to make on Earth.


Some people complain about the support. They killed a big mob. They know it can loot big ATH or it can loot small. It can be no looter. And by all statistic and probability laws there is some sucker that hit that no looter. Then they write to support to want refund. And they get no reply. And now they start talking how bad the support is. I also had few support cases. Every time there was quick response. Once item in my shop was bugged – they moved it quick. I asked them if a name was forbidden for society name – they answered fast.

Some players complain when you need skills to win an event. At the same time other or even the same people complain that skills mean nothing in this game. The same is for expensive gear. Some are complaining that they have no use for their uber armor and guns, while other complain that only those people will win all events.

A lot of people complain about the taming system not yet implemented. They can’t understand that reimplementing the old taming system will be fun for a day and then no one will care about it. At the same time developers time and money will be lost for taming instead of something that will be way more fun and useful like mechs for example. Or new space feature, or new profession, or new planet.


Recently there is a lot of negativity about the planet partners not doing very good. Next Island is in no development mode and Rocktropia is probably reducing the servers soon. Some planet partners run away even before started their planets. But starting new planet in Entropia Universe is like launching mission to mars. It is hard, it is risky, it may succeed or it may fail. One little mistake and everything bites the dust. You can’t tell before you try. Like every other game. And most of them are really terrible games. Yes, here is little different, because you can buy land on those new planets for a lot of money and then lose them all. But again if you were investing in any other game as an investor you got the same risk. And if you are buying land here you are doing it as an investor to make money, not as a 20$ per month player.

A lot of negativity against Rocktropia and Neverdie. While there are some bad things about it, I enjoyed few months there. Really cool mobs, cool music. Hunt the thing is one of the best mission chains in the game. He was working with Universal Studio to bring new players to the game. While I was there I was expecting that Rocktropia will be doing very well few years in the future. But it still needs more players to be fully functional planet. May be now it is more like Monria – getting new players to the game or old players go there for few months, but not really a planet where you can live permanently.

What else people complain. Bugs. Yes there are bugs. It is impossible to have game without bugs. But I think they are a lot less than in most games and also are quickly fixed. Ok, I know some will say this is not right. Let me rephrase. Important bugs are fixed quickly. If your armor is little less black than black and you want it black – you may wait few years.


Another complains is the slow development of the new planets. Cyrene is taking years to move from soft launch to hard launch. Planet Toulan is like Loch Ness Monster – it may be there or it may not. We may never found out. Not really. The goal is Planet Toulan to come with the next update this month. And MindArk usually keeps the best content for the end of the year so I am looking forward to the next 2 weeks. I also want the planets to come more quickly, but people must understand that making of new planet takes 4-5 years. And it took 10 years for Planet Calypso to be where it is now.

I’m sure there are a lot of more things people complain. For now I will stop here and may update the post later when I see more complains on the forum. Good luck hunting and if you see me in the universe stop and say HI. Sometimes I wonder to make new posts or not, but when someone in the game tell me that he learned a lot from my blog I think I should continue. And there aren’t many good Entropia Universe blogs around.