Social Interface Preview

The promise and they deliver:

Over the last several months, MindArk’s design and development teams have put lots of effort into developing a new unified social interface to improve the communication and social features of Entropia Universe. Some of the top features the new social interface offers include offline messaging, item linking, and custom chat channels.

See below for an overview of the new social interface features that will be implemented in the forthcoming partner release, scheduled for Tuesday, March 18. (Please note that this is a quick overview of the new social interface and does not cover all of the new features and functionality that are planned to be released, or that will be added in future releases).

Guess whos avatar is on the picture. Little hint below:

Message Center
The new Message Center component is where all of your messages and conversations with other avatars are stored, as well as various system messages. The filter buttons along the top of the Message Center allow you to control the types of message displayed in the main content section. The Message Center can be collapsed to edge of the screen at anytime, and will display a small counter to indicate the number of unview items.

Conversations
The new mail interface is accessible from the Message Center. In it you will be able to send messages to multiple recipients as well as to offline avatars. Like many popular modern mail interfaces, it will also display longer message exchanges in a single conversation thread.

Contacts
The Friends List is now known as Contacts and includes all of the former functionality as well as several exciting new features. For example, you can now set your availability status, such as available, busy, or do not disturb. You can also add a note with information about yourself that other avatars can see, and view more detailed information about avatars in your Contacts list. Like the Message Center, the Contacts module can be minimized to the edge of the screen.

Chat
The chat interface has been entirely reworked, with many new features added. The chat module now supports multiple tabs and the ability to create private or public custom chat channels. You can also configure each custom chat tab to only display the information you wish to see in that tab, such as society chat, global messages, system messages, private chat conversations and more. The chat interface now also supports linking of items in messages to other avatars.

All chat tabs can either be docked in the main Chat module, or dragged out individually and placed anywhere on the screen.

Finally, a new default Rookie channel has been implemented which will serve as a place where new arrivals to Entropia Universe can seek help and advice from more experienced participants.

HOF Ticker
Located above the Chat module, the new HOF ticker scrolls through the latest large loots, Hall of Fame and Discovery messages. The same information is also available in the Message Center if you wish to take a closer look at recent events that appear here.

EU Avatar Before & After Contest

My avatar:

Before:

After:

Avatar Update 2

Feedback received through support cases and community forum discussions indicates that several issues related to the new avatar creation system have resulted in many participants finding it difficult to create their desired avatar appearance.

MindArk wishes to do everything possible to assist participants in achieving their desired avatar look. As such, it has been decided to temporarily allow participants to go through the avatar creation process as many times as they wish. This offer will be enabled when the mini-patch is deployed early next week, and will allow participants to use the avatar creation interface an unlimited number of times for a period of approximately one week.

Below is a list of currently known avatar system issues. Please do not submit support cases on these issues, as they have already been identified and will be addressed in the VU patch next week. For other issues not listed here, please make an effort to include as much description and information as possible when submitting support cases, so that the support and development teams can better prioritize issues and implement fixes.

Known Issues

• Locked movement can occur for Body Sculptor Designers after closing the Body Sculpting UI. In such cases a relog will correct the issue.
• Locked movement can occur when trying to enter avatar creation areas that are full. In such cases a relog will correct the issue.
• Due to last minute integration issues, makeup masks will not be available in this release. Makeup masks will be activated in the release patch, expected in one week.
• Makeup masks created during the avatar creation process are not visible in the Start Room, but will become visible again once your avatar arrives on a planet for the first destination.
• Female makeup masks appear fully decayed when arriving on a planet for the first time. This is a visual bug only, the masks are not decayed.
• Performance issues with certain graphics cards in areas with many avatars on screen.

We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work on resolving these issues in the coming days.

New Avatar System Info & FAQ

The upcoming Version Update 14.0 includes an exciting new avatar system. Before the release, we’d like to share some information about the new avatar system to prepare participants for the upcoming improvements and changes. Some of the info in this Entropia Universe Buzz article was shared a few days ago in our press release, but we have included it here for those participants who may have missed it the first time around.

First, a quick overview of the new avatar system and then some answers to questions that existing participants may have about how the upcoming changes will be implemented in VU 14.0.

Overview
The new avatar system will bring Entropia Universe to the forefront of graphics technology in an MMO with highly detailed and fully customizable new avatars. The new avatars are significantly enhanced with over twice as many polygons as their predecessors for surprising fidelity. All character textures have been heightened as well, with faces becoming four times more detailed. Bilateral asymmetry is now a key factor in making distinctive creations as tattoos, scars and makeup no longer need to be even on both sides; and even hair has been improved so that it now moves and bounces naturally. Additionally all avatar animations have seen improvements so they move more fluidly, with clothes and armor redone to better fit the new models. This all allows for a much richer user experience as players' in-game representations will now be much more engaging and realistic.

To add to the gameplay the avatars not only look better, but they have been optimized for better performance on all machines as well. While overhauling the creation system to introduce the high-fidelity models the developers also took the time to work on the basic user interface. They made it far easier to customize a unique character so players can explore the world as anyone they wish. The new system also improves the handling of different races to better represent players and their backgrounds. The team also included pre-set appearances to allow for faster entry into the game if a player doesn't want to spend the time on their avatar. Upon release of the new avatar system all existing users will get a chance to re-customize their look for free.

FAQ
What are some of the best features of the new avatar creation interface? The new avatar creation interface has many useful features to help you create a huge range of avatar looks. The most useful feature might well be the history slider, which allows you to undo recent changes and revert to an earlier version. Also, the large number of built-in presets for each customization section offer great starting points for creating amazingly detailed and beautiful avatars.

Will avatars look the same after update? No. Upon logging in after the VU 14.0 release, every avatar will be presented with a dialog box allowing them to enter the new avatar creation system. If a participant declines the avatar recreation offer, a random avatar look will be generated and used until the participant chooses to define their own custom avatar look.

Will all beauty options and hair styles be available in the new avatar creation system? Yes, initially. Many participants are very attached to their Entropia Universe avatars and it’s important to give active participants an opportunity to recreate their preferred avatar appearance in the new system. After exiting the new avatar creation process, however, any further alterations or refinements to one’s avatar will need to be performed by skilled body sculptors and hairstylists within Entropia Universe.

Will new avatars created after the VU 14.0 release have access to all beauty options and hair styles? Yes, but only for a short time. Some of the more advanced looks and options will be restricted in a following release.

Screenshots of the New Avatars in Entropia Universe

Here are some screenshot of how the new avatar system will look. It is sheduled for 22.01.2013 - just 3 days left. This new system will bring Entropia Universe to the forefront of graphics technology in an MMO with highly detailed and fully customizable new avatars.

The new avatars are significantly enhanced with over twice as many polygons as their predecessors for surprising fidelity. All character textures have been heightened as well, with faces becoming four times more detailed. Bilateral asymmetry is now a key factor in making distinctive creations as tattoos, scars and makeup no longer need to be even on both sides; and even hair has been improved so that it now moves and bounces naturally. Additionally all avatar animations have seen improvements so they move more fluidly, with clothes and armor redone to better fit the new models. This all allows for a much richer user experience as players' in-game representations will now be much more engaging and realistic.

To add to the gameplay the avatars not only look better, but they have been optimized for better performance on all machines as well. While overhauling the creation system to introduce the high-fidelity models the developers also took the time to work on the basic user interface. They made it far easier to customize a unique character so players can explore the world as anyone they wish. The new system also improves the handling of different races to better represent players and their backgrounds. The team also included pre-set appearances to allow for faster entry into the game if a player doesn't want to spend the time on their avatar. Upon release of the new avatar system all existing users will get a chance to re-customize their look for free.