I just landed on Arkadia (3 days ago, but I am writing slow) and went right to Celeste Quarry in the building of Quarry Manager to get the Viceroy Armor Upgrade mission from Bill. Probably he is the Quarry Manager. Anyway bellow you can see the ingredients needed to upgrade the armor. I managed to buy cheap Canis (L) Parts for 124% MU and Lupus (L) Part for 123% MU from the nice Kikkijikki Defense Shop (Celeste North 5) in Celeste Harbour on Planet Arkadia.
But the big sock was the price of Nanites, You need 2 Adjusted Nanites for Viceroy Adjusted Upgrade, You need 2 Improved Nanites for Viceroy Improved Upgrade and You need 2 Modified Nanites for Viceroy Modified Upgrade. 3 days ago the price was 30 000% MU or 300 PED for one Nanites with TT 1 PED. You need 6 that means 1800 PED or 180 USD just for the Nanites. I decided that I will not pay that much and will hunt for Nanites myself. Rumors are that Nanites spown from mobs in Arkadia Underground. And different maturity gives different type of Nanites. Normal Viceroy Armor
Durability: 3000
Stab: 11 HP
Cut: 9 HP
Impact: 15 HP
Burn: 12 HP
Cold: 8 HP
Electric: 0 HP
Acid: 14 HP
Close: 35 HP
Firearms: 12 HP
Total: 69 HP
Set TT: 400 PED
Viceroy Adjusted Upgrade - 932 PED
1 Full TT Viceroy Part
1 Full TT Musca (L) Part - 40 PED TT + 0 MU
2 Adjusted Nanites - 2 PED TT - 600 PED with MU
100 Bismuth Plating - 60 PED - 260 PED with MU
30 Ospra Ingot - 30,6 PED - 32 PED with MU
Durability: 3250
Stab: 11 HP
Cut: 11 HP
Impact: 16 HP
Burn: 12 HP
Cold: 9 HP
Acid: 15 HP
Close: 38 HP
Firearms: 12 HP
Total: 74 HP
June 27 to June 30 2014
Here is your chance to get your hands on an Entropia Universe starter pack!
Starting your avatar's career is about to get much easier. With a selection of three brand new starter packs featuring the new Harrier Armor, Weapon, Fast Aid Pack and more, you will be ready to jump right into action.
The new starter packs, labelled Bronze, Silver and Gold, will be available for $5, $15 and $40 respectively. The Silver and Gold packages will also contain an amount of PED, the currency of Entropia Universe, so you can participate in the economy right from the start.
Starter packs will be available to new players at account creation. For existing players, the starter packs will be available in the web shop that will soon be launched at https://account.entropiauniverse.com.
To introduce the new Starter Packs, this weekend we will stage an event for all level of players with items from the starter packs as prizes.
Scoring
Highest single loots on Poison Swamp Lurker
Prizes
25 starter packs containing
§ One full set of Adjusted Harrier armor (the Gold level armor).
§ 50 PED of Universal Ammo
§ One Neurobiotic Booster A5 1mg - 1 Hour 50% skill gain increase
§ One H-DNA - Automated revival device.
Event Dates
§ Event Start: Friday, June 27, 14:00 UTC
§ Event End: Monday, June 30, 14:00 UTC
Spawn Locations
§ Outside Puny Beach Training Base: map coordinates 137805, 87937
The Poison Swamp Lurker a relatively low level mob but they can nonetheless be a challenge to new players. To counter this you can team up with other players and use different roles as riflemen, Healers (FAP) and even escape vehicle drivers. This way your team can build your own distinctive way of hunting and create loads of fun!
Teams are allowed in this event, but note that the highest single loot will be attributed to the avatar who scores the killing blow.
Limit of one prize per avatar account. Once selected for a prize, all subsequent globals for that avatar will be removed from the ranking list.
Any attempt at abusing any 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.
Pre-release event for New Starter Equipment on Arkadia
June 13th to June 16th 2014
Now is your chance to get your hands on an Entropia Universe starter pack before launch.
Starting your avatar's career is about to get much easier. With a selection of three brand new starter packs featuring the new Harrier Armor, Weapon, Fast Aid Pack and more, you will be ready to jump right into action.
The new starter packs, labelled Bronze, Silver and Gold will be available for $5, $15 and $40 respectively. The Silver and Gold packages will also contain an amount of PED, the currency of Entropia Universe, so you can participate in the economy right from the start.
Starter packs will be available to new players at account creation. For existing players, the starter packs will be available in the web shop that will soon be launched at https://account.entropiauniverse.com.
To introduce the new Starter Packs, this weekend we will stage an event for all level of players with custom starter pack as prizes.
Scoring
Highest single loots on Oratan Slasher Thug
Prizes
25 starter packs containing:
One full set of Adjusted Harrier armor (the Gold level armor).
50 PED of Universal Ammo.
One Neurobiotic Booster A5 1mg 1 Hour 50% skill gain increase.
One H-DNA Automated revival device.
Event Dates
Start: Friday, June 13, 14:00 UTC
End: Monday, June 16, 14:00 UTC
Spawn Locations
Steadfast Firebase: 20000, 13700
Implacable Firebase: 28000, 21400
Resolute Firebase: 30743, 16617
Repulse Firebase: 14719, 14684
Refinery: 25992, 19320
Refinery: 27682, 19382
Paint Factory: 18557 10576
Rules & Notes
Teams are allowed in this event, but note that the highest single loot will be attributed to the avatar who scores the killing blow.
Limit of one prize per avatar account.
Once selected for a prize, all subsequent globals for that avatar will be removed from the ranking list.
Any attempt at abusing any 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 ones Entropia Universe account.
Each of the Avatars listed below will receive the Starter Pack prize items in their inventory by tomorrow afternoon (June 10, 2014).
A big thanks to everyone that participated and for the many kind responses we have received regarding the event.
Place Avatar Name Loot Value
1 Eliana Daarja Schneider 297
2 Frank JJ The Greatest 278
3 Kassandrea Kiryou Kell 277
4 Neuro NeuroNet Net 268
5 John Gordian Doe 265
6 Chantra TheProfit Moneymaker 264
7 Teora Donte Schaub 263
8 Cornelis Kees van den Akker 258
9 Martin Martin Petersen 258
10 Kyo Fire Master Kusanagi 257
11 Luke Szalu Ace 253
12 Jack Wuzi Daniels 252
13 Scott DoctorH Joel 241
14 Jyoti Nisha Rahasya 240
15 Mattias Head Hunter Hedman 235
16 Max HardWrath Mayhem 226
17 Johnny Heroman Kaos 86
18 Spike TheDragon Spiegel 86
19 Beckka Javelin Jolliff 83
20 Michal Dorki Dorcak 82
21 Dan Danny Mata 81
22 Arakur Anadroxas Sedias 79
23 Henrik Bengha Bengtsson 78
24 Angel Lizzy Storm 77
25 David Doer Falkayn 77
We are working hard to get the new webshop up as soon as possible, and offer Starter Packs and other interesting packages for current participants. New participants will have the opportunity to purchase Starter Packs starting on June 10. Please note that the items included in the Starter Pack are not tradable or transferable between accounts.
Here is your chance to get your hands on an Entropia Universe starter pack before launch!
Starting your avatar's career is about to get much easier. With a selection of three brand new starter packs featuring the new Harrier Armor, Weapon, Fast Aid Pack and more, you will be ready to jump right into action.
The new starter packs, labelled Bronze, Silver and Gold, will be available for $5, $15 and $40 respectively. The Silver and Gold packages will also contain an amount of PED, the currency of Entropia Universe, so you can participate in the economy right from the start.
Starter packs will be available to new players at account creation. For existing players, the starter packs will be available in the web shop that will soon be launched at https://account.entropiauniverse.com.
To introduce the new Starter Packs, this weekend we will stage a pre-release event for all level of players with items from the starter packs as prizes.
Scoring
Highest single loots on Argonaut Scouts (a somewhat smaller sibbling to the creatures seen above)
Prizes
25 starter packs containing:
One full set of Adjusted Harrier armor (the Gold level armor).
50 PED of Universal Ammo
One Neurobiotic Booster A5 1mg - 1 Hour 50% skill gain increase
The Argonaut Scout creature are a relatively low level mob but they can nonetheless be a challenge to new players. To counter this you can team up with other players and use different roles as riflemen, Healers (FAP) and even escape vehicle drivers. This way your team can build your own distinctive way of hunting and create loads of fun!
Use the chat channels to find new friends or to create your own teams private chat channel. See http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/beginners-guide/desktop/ for more details on using the Chat system.
Hunting with "Adjusted Harrier Assault" armor and a "Z12 Barbarella" carbine.
Rules & Notes
Teams are allowed in this event, but note that the highest single loot will be attributed to the avatar who scores the killing blow.
Limit of one prize per avatar account. Once selected for a prize, all subsequent globals for that avatar will be removed from the ranking list.
Any attempt at abusing any 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.
MindArk will start offering starter packs as some other games do. There will be Bronze for 5$, Silver for 15$ and Gold for 40$. With the twist that items offered in the Starter Packs will be non-tradable. As it can be expected most players don’t mind the starter pack, but half see problem with the untradeable aspect of the items.
As most things about Entropia Universe there are a lot of angles you can look at it. And there maybe diferent reasons why MindArk are introducing Starter Packs. I think that the best explanation is to get more new players and more importantly keep them for few months until they can see what great game this is. Entropia Universe is the greatest MMO out there and will be for many years to come. It is the ultimate sandbox game. Even the word game is not correct because t is more than a game. A lot more. The problem is to explain that to someone that never played it. If you try to explain it with words it doesn’t sound as good as the game is. And the other problem is that if you start and try to play the game without depositing money it seems boring. I am a mentor and if I have disciple that don’t want to deposit and ask me what to what can I tell him? Trade this and this, hunt that creature with that weapon and that armor, mine at this land for that resource, craft this blueprint? Nope. All I can tell him is go and collect sweat for few days and come back so we can hunt for 20 minutes. Now if he buy starter pack for 15$ this will be enough to keep him in game for a month. This will be enough time so he can try the different part of the game and decide if he likes it. I think starter pack idea is good and will keep more new players in the game. Sure some will leave. Some people like other type of games.
It seems the items in the starter pack will be limited weapon and healing tool and unlimited armor Default Harrier Scout.
You can’t trade those items, but for me this is not a problem. The weapon and the healing tool will break when you use them anyway. And the armor is not very expensive. And actually is one more reason new players to keep playing, knowing that they have something in the game that worth money.
There is also improved version of that armor named Default Adjusted Harrier Assault Armor .
This armor has nice boost of 8% to your running and walking speed. The effect is called Metabolic Acceleration. If this armor is also in the starter packs, probably that for 40$, I will surely buy one and most of the players will.
In the end I think this is good for the new players, good for the old players and good for MindArk. Everybody wins.
Starting your avatar's career is about to get much easier. With a selection of three brand new starter packs featuring the new Harrier Armor, Weapon, Fast Aid Pack and more, you will be ready to jump right into action.
The new starter packs, labelled Bronze, Silver and Gold, will be available for $5, $15 and $40 respectively. The Silver and Gold packages will also contain an amount of PED, the currency of Entropia Universe, so you can participate in the economy right from the start.
Starter packs will be available to new players at account creation. For existing players, the starter packs will be available in the web shop that will soon be launched at https://account.entropiauniverse.com.
We plan to release the starter packs for new accounts in early June and the webshop for existing accounts within a couple of weeks.
-Note that the Starter Pack items are non-tradable, i.e. its items can not be transfered between accounts.
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.
Planet Arkadia Update 2013.2 (18th June 2013) brought tons of new content, but the most interesting and made some people happy and some people mad was/is the Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor. And not only the armor, but also the mission associated with it and the effect on the ingame economy and the impact over crafters. The impact is on so many levels it is still hard to say if it is good or bad move for the game. Or let's say everyone has his own opinion about this. If you don’t know why is all the noise let me explain.
Planet Arkadia introduced new mission where the reward is The Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor. This new type of quest requires colonists to trade resources to Bill now located inside the Quarry Managers office (moved from just outside) in exchange for unlimited armor parts that are bound to the player's account and cannot be traded.
Facts about this armor:
1.The Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor is bound to the player's account and cannot be traded – here is probably the most controversial part about this armor. The concept of Entropia Universe as a sandbox real cash economy (RCE) with withdrawal option is that everything you own you can sell for ingame money and then withdraw into real world American dollars. Making an item that cost 40 USD TT value and around 70 USD ( 700 PED) with markup and then u can never ever sell it, or if you sell it to the trade terminal you will get 0 USD is kind of against the idea of RCE with withdrawal option. And many players wonder what is next. If more and more item becomes bound to the player's account this game is going to lose the one thing we all have in mind – that someday when we are done playing we can sell everything and cash out. But don't be afraid David from Arkadia assured us that this is not the way the game is going. This is just one untradable armor in the sea of many many tradable armors and items. On the other hand it is obvious that this armor is not for people thinking of withdrawing, but for people playing for fun and have nothing against giving 70 USD more for some more fun. Like you pay 70 USD to go to the beach that day or to Disneyland – you don’t expect your money back after you had day full with fun when you exit the place. The reason why when you sell the Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor to the trade terminal you get 0 PED is not that MindArk or Arkadia team are greedy, but because they use the system that is coded for the free gifts new players get and this is to prevent someone to make many avatars to get many free gifts and then sell it to trade terminal and gain some free money. If you decide that you want to get your money back from that armor one way is to stop repairing it until its value drops to the minimum.
2.Arkadia team wanted people to actually do the mission to get the armor and be proud showing they did the mission by wearing the armor, instead of just going to auction and buy it. The problem is that now you can just go to auction buy all the resources needed to finish the mission and get the armor as reword without killing even 1 creature.
3.But even if you buy the resources you still have to go personally to planet Arkadia to trade with the NPC to get the armor. So it will help planet Arkadia get more players from the other planets even if just for a month or two. It will boost the space travel, helping mothership owners, space taxi services and even space pirates.
4.The NPC - Bill located inside the Quarry Managers office that gives the quest and the armor wants 600 PED of resources without the MU for armor that has TT value of 400 PED. Looks like a rip-off at first, but when you think you get cool looking unlimited armor for 150% MU. If it was normal armor that you get from the auction the price will probably also be around 150% MU.
5.Limited edition armor. The Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor parts will only be available from Bill until Planet Arkadia Update 2013.3, expected in September. After this, Bill will be producing standard Viceroy armor which will have identical statistics to the Skullcandy Edition. So actually this is one of the few, if not the only one at the moment, armor that is kind of rare and limited that you can get easy. Everyone that joins the game after September 2013 won’t have the chance to get that armor. So when you see someone with the Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor in year 2020 you will know he has started playing Entropia Universe in 2013 or earlier. And if you get a piece of that Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor some day you will be able to say to your grandchildren: "I was there!" And 70 USD for that is good bargain.
6.Impact on the economic and crafters. Since this armor has almost identical statistics as the Gremlin armor with 2 more defense points for Cold damage and 2 more defense points for Acid damage, but 2 less for Electric damage, 50 more durability and less TT value most probably the price of the gremlin armor will fall. That depends on how many players will decide to get this armor and sell their Gremlin Armor. Since Gremlin armor is not crafted but looted this won’t do any damage to armor crafters. And as Snake Slither Hellfire pointed out Gremlin has higher tt so you'd assume this is better, but Viceroy has higher tt harness where more hits occur and lower tt in gloves which don't get hit as often etc. May be that Viceroy is more effective even with a lower tt.
On the other hand this armor will help increase the markup of the ingredients needed to get it.
7.The bug. It is not so important to write about the bug with this armor because it will probably be fixed in today’s update, but I have to warn you if you decide to buy the Viceroy - Skullcandy Edition armor and equip it. Currently there is a bug that makes you crash if you wear that armor so don’t equip it until you are sure the bug have been fixed. Update: The patch just released has fixed the armor, people now running around in it.
Stab: 11 HP
Cut: 9 HP
Impact: 15 HP
Burn: 12 HP
Cold: 8 HP 6
Electric: 0 HP 2
Acid: 14 HP 12
Close: 35 HP
Firearms: 12 HP
Total: 69 HP 67
Durability: 3000 2950
Set TT: 400 PED 484.2 PED
In conclusion I can say that for me this is great way to bring variety of options for the players in the game without hurting players that don’t want to get the armor. It is increasing the demand for some of the loot as well for space travel. Bringing more fun to people that can afford it and rewording old time players with items that can only be possessed if you are … well old time player (from future point of view). The armor looks cool with awesome stats and for sure I will fly to Arkadia to get it. The question is to fly now and get the Skullcandy Edition and pay little more markup for the resources, or to wait and get the normal edition after September 2013 hoping for MU to drop and get the armor little cheaper. The only difference between the two versions of the Viceroy armor is the logo for Skull Candy on the left shoulder.
