some newbie questions

Entropia Universe Discussion n00bs Corner
1

well, two questions from newbie. Im kinda experienced as player (others online games), now im thinking about PE. But before i decide to sacrife my time, i need to know some things, about game mechanic and economy.

Maybe about game. In every online game skills are important part. Everyone like to raise his character from zero to killing machine (in case of combat skills). Now i see one small problem. In this game, basically, hunting should be expensive. But cost should be similar at all lvls of experience. Its pure economy, ppl waste ammo killing monsters, players pay for it. If players waste sooo much as newbies, they quit game, if they waste to less being experts, they dont pay. Now about skills… does mastering weapon increase my ability to use it? seems its against MA economy. If i can deal twice damage with same axe just by improving skills, it means i pay half price for killing same monster. But, it also means less ppl paying for axes, as they can use them longer? So here is my question, does skills improve my fighting ability? or just allow me to use more expensive weapons? In other games extremely skilled player can deal 10, 20… 50 times more damage with same gear on. This is how skills works. But train months to hit 30% harder? So, from newbie point of wiev, is it worth to train in this game? Just “being on highscore list” is not worth sacrifing my time, also “ability to use better weapons” is not.

Other skill now, mining. Same problem, improving mining ability, in theory, should increase my profit. In, let’s say Ultima Online, difference between 30% and 100% of mining ability result in increasing profit even 100 times. But does it works here? Miner who is able to get advantages from his skills dont pay? Also same situation, extremely weak miner who pay alot for his bombs just quit this game, so from economic point of view difference between newbie and master should be small? From newbie point of wiev :slight_smile: is it worth to train mining skill? does it make difference after mastering it?

Same question for every other skill, but i think i explained my problem clearly enough. Now second one, game economy:

Ok, i can understand this game is free, but MA policy is to force us to buying things to gain advantages. After reading few topics (also on other forums), i have some doubts. Like, is there possibility to gain while hunting? In other games i can waste mmm.. 500 gold pieces in hour of funny hunt, then gain other 500 gold pieces in hour of boring money-making hunt. If one can lost let’s say 200 ped (i dont know ammo prices, so this just random number for this small example), well, 200 ped hunting one hour for fun, he should be also able to gain something doing boring hunting activity. Of course not 200 ped, if he decide to do no one would buy PED for real money. but 10%, maybe 5%… maybe even 1%, in other words, if one can gain 2 PED in hour of boring hunting acitivity to cover his losts, after 100 hours of this “work” he can waste 200 PED again. This is how hunting works in other games, but there is usually around 1-1 (1 hour gaining allow to 1 hour funny waste). I can understand and accept if in PE its 10-1, or even 100-1, but… is there way to gain just by hunting?

Same question for crafting, again about Ultima, one need to waste alot of material first to gain high skills, but he can also craft some junks, hours after hours, in order to gain some money. When he master his skill, he can gain alot, but he gaining all the time, whatever he do. I can understand if in PE one need to sacrife alot of money to create legendary item, but again, if he can waste 200 PED in one hour in materials for fun and fame, he should be able to gain some % of this in boring activity. In other games it is, again, like 1-1. But does it works here? Is crafter able to gain money in any way? Even like 1% as in other games?

ok, my 2 problems in simply, short words:

  1. Does skills affects my abilities in any way, or just allow me to use more expensive stuff?

  2. Is this game really free? Means, can i do anything (besides sweating) for free, and rl life bonus is just to speed up things? or i need to pay for any kind of activity (besides of course walking etc)?

btw sorry for my english, its my third language, hope its at least understadable :slight_smile:

2

[QUOTE=tomtom]

  1. Does skills affects my abilities in any way, or just allow me to use more expensive stuff?

  2. Is this game really free? Means, can i do anything (besides sweating) for free, and rl life bonus is just to speed up things? or i need to pay for any kind of activity (besides of course walking etc)?

btw sorry for my english, its my third language, hope its at least understadable :slight_smile:
[/QUOTE]

Firstly, welcome. You couldn’t have picked a better spot to come to learn.

  1. You can use any item in PE at any skill level. However, your efficiency is much worse on higher level items with low skills. In my experience in PE, skills play a greater role than any other MMORPG. Skills are very hard to obtain and also are very slow to show a result in their application. More important to enjoying the game in my opinion is to try to reduce losses by playing within your means and enjoying the game.

  2. It is free to download and play. Sweating is free. A few other misc things are free. However, anything else will cost you PED. How you get PED is up to you. I will say a small initial deposit of say $10 will help you get an understanding of what you are in for.

Download it. Jump in and explore. Learn before you make any decisions.

DD
:evilking:

EDIT: Also, one more thing. So far there is no Mastering a skill in PE.

3

its downloaded on my HDD, now i need to install new graphic card :slight_smile: ordered it already, it should come tomorrow or in 2 days… of course i will try, just to check how many nice ppl i can meet here and maybe find some friends :slight_smile: but somehow i find your answer not complete, at least for me :frowning:

again about skills, here i saw information “you usually lost something on your first mining trips” (in this mining guide), on other forum (pioneers) i saw that every miner always lost. So, if newbie lost few, and expert also lost few… what is difference? just skill points that do not affect my activity at all?

about second thing, you said anything else cost me PED. So it means i always lost? crafter always pay for his work? not even most boring activity where he can gain very very little profit?

ah of course i do not ask for any spoilers, just if there are possibilities.

(edit as answer for edit - mastering in my examples is just having amazingly high skill compared to newbies, not reaching borderline, sorry for wrong word)

4

Another way to look at it is that MindArk, the company who makes the game, has to make money somehow. Therefore, most ppl lose over time. There are exceptions but very few. Skills do have a definite effect. Your efficiency increases allowing you to lose money at a slower rate.

You do always pay for what you craft, hunt, mine etc.

It is a WAY different mentality than any other MMORPG out there. Keep asking questions.

DD
:evilking:

5

[QUOTE=tomtom]

  1. Does skills affects my abilities in any way, or just allow me to use more expensive stuff?

[/QUOTE]

Weapon skills affect your ability to use a weapon more efficiently.
Every weapon has a max amount of damage it can make but you wont make that amount of damage very often.
The thing is that as a beginner you may only make ~50% of max damage on average.
If you are skilled in handling a specific type of weapon your average damage gets higher, say 60-65% of max damage.
(dont know the exact percentages , only an estimate)
So as you get better weapon skills you can use fewer shots / swings per mob and therefore hunt gets cheaper.

The skill-system is very complex and alot of different skills are used to calculate how efficient/good you are in Hunting,mining,tailoring etc etc
Noone (except Mindark) knows the formulas that are used :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=tomtom]

  1. Is this game really free? Means, can i do anything (besides sweating) for free, and rl life bonus is just to speed up things? or i need to pay for any kind of activity (besides of course walking etc)?

[/QUOTE]

Its free in the sense that it doesnt cost you to be online, chatting, running, sweating, dancing :slight_smile: etc.
But hunting,mining,crafting has a cost.
Tho if youre lucky you will get some good loot and make a profit.
For example if you are hunting with a rifle you must buy ammo, a gun and (if you want to) some armor.
If you shoot the rifle will decay. (If the value of the gun gets too low it cant be used)
If a mob hits you your armor decays. ( The more it decays, the less protection do you get)

and so on..
Hope I helped you to understand the game a little better.

And by the way, it’s a great game! :smiley:

Cheers!

Edit: I’m sorry, I saw that I’ve written stuff that others had already mentioned..When I started writing noone had answered :slight_smile:
Watched TV at the same time :silly2:

6

hmm questions… biggest fun is to discover myself :slight_smile: still there is difference between speeding up game with paying (like making gaining at 1% rate as in other games, so you save 99% time) and making it impossible to play without paying (gaining below 0%). Paying rl money is no problem for me, it was just curiosity if words “to speed up 100 times” are true, or maybe one should use “to make it possible” :slight_smile:

still i cannot understand how miner can say “skills definitely affected my work” if his effectivity changed from 80% to 90%, maybe we missunderstood each other here. Anyway thanks for your time, seems all my questions are answered :slight_smile:

Dolph, while waiting for my new graphic card i browsed some forums and basically i know how this game works (at least from side of economy, as 90% posts is about this case), but about your words "your damage will increase from 50% to 60% so you can hunt cheaper", well, i dont really care if this is cheaper or not, what worry me is this 10% difference between skilled person and newbie.
7

You never have to pay (IRL) to do anything. Think of it this way, just about everything in PE costs PED to do. There’s two ways you can get PED, ingame, and by infusing your account with real money. If you don’t deposit you can sweat and find fruit and scrounge for dropped items or work for other players and slowly get some PED to spend, or you can deposit and have money right off the bat to buy a weapon and some ammo or mining equiptment.

Depositing money into the game dosen’t speed up anything but the gathering of ingame PED. It frees up your time for other things, if you will. I could have spent a long time scrounging for freebies at the beginning to get enough money to start skilling up, but I deposited instead and was able to start building my character right away.

8

tomtom:
Well, one shouldnt play this game expecting to make money. :slight_smile:
Like many other mmorpg it costs money to play.
The difference (one of them) with PE is that you can choose how much money you are willing to spend and, as your skills get higher the cost will be less and you may even make a profit.
So my answer is yes, the difference between 50% average dmg and 65% average dmg can be the difference between losing&winning.
But if you win or lose have also alot to do with what kind of equipment you use, what mobs you hunt and also where you hunt..
Skills are a big part of PE but its not all :wink:

9

Just see it this way:

If you out money in the game you speed things up.

10

[QUOTE=Skam]
Just see it this way:

If you out money in the game you speed things up.
[/QUOTE]

That’s what I’ve told all of my disciples. Starting off PE with a simple $30 will go a long way to jump start you into the world and prevent you from falling into the holes that many new players find themselves in.

11

[QUOTE=Skyrider]
That’s what I’ve told all of my disciples. Starting off PE with a simple $30 will go a long way to jump start you into the world and prevent you from falling into the holes that many new players find themselves in.
[/QUOTE]

Very true. As a newcomer myself, you need to infuse some cash to really get going. Running around sweating is a huge waste of time IMO.

But be careful. I talked to a few of my society buddies and they told me they dumped $100-$200 in the FIRST TWO MONTHS! Apparently, you can get really hooked in the game, and to keep playing you’ll need cash/PEDS.

I’m pulling back from the game recently because my skills/rank keeps getting reset to Newbie in specific skills (something is buggy with the skills system). I would love to play, but I keep losing my hard-earned experience. :frowning:

12

guys (and girls), you answer questions i did not asked, and evading ones that exist (like, how comes jump from 80% to 90% is great advantage, but i found answer at my own). Whatever, as i said already, seems all my questions are answered, no need to create your own and reply to yourself :stuck_out_tongue:

13

[QUOTE=tomtom]
guys (and girls), you answer questions i did not asked, and evading ones that exist (like, how comes jump from 80% to 90% is great advantage, but i found answer at my own). Whatever, as i said already, seems all my questions are answered, no need to create your own and reply to yourself :stuck_out_tongue:
[/QUOTE]

I hadn’t replied to this yet, but now I will…

They were all trying to help and from what I read, they answered your questions multiple times and in many different ways…
(no need to be rude about it, this is the best place to get answers and the best people are here to help and answer your questions)

To sum it all up…

Everyone has different opinions on how to succeed and/or do well in the game.
While the possibility to make a profit exists, it seems that very few people can do it.
Skills are what make the difference, different skills help you with different things.
Everyone has theories on how you get those skills and how they help you, only MA knows the real way, and the same goes for loots and pretty much everything else in the game.
Since the game is always changing, and it’s a “real-world” economy, you can’t get exact numbers on anything you do.

This is the best game I’ve ever played, I’ve been playing for 4 months now.
I’ve lost more money than I care to admit in the game, but that’s ok, I’m having fun, and I’ve met great people.

There were no new questions asked or answered here, I don’t think…but if you have any more questions, please continue to ask, BUT, please also be sure you understand that we are all trying to help, even if we don’t answer your questions the way you think we should…we aren’t evading the questions, we are simply giving you our opinions based on how the game has been for us.

Sorry to get snippy, (first time I’ve done that here), but I have had help from most of these wonderful people before, and I hate to see them insulted for just trying to help. :slight_smile:

Runt

1 Like
14

so, now i insulted them? where is this insult?

facts are, i said “ok i got all answers i wanted, thanks alot still i disagree with your opinion”. Yes this is fact. I said “thank you i heard enough”. Another fact is, i did NOT asked if i should invest money or not. And third fact, like… 5? yes, 5 persons replied to question “should i use my credit card”, question i never asked. Maybe i overreacted? then big apology from my side.

ok to clear everything:

  1. i got all answers i asked for, and its no need to reply here anymore, unless you want to discuss some things

  2. BIG thanks to everyone who sacrifed his time and helped me

  3. still, yes STILL i cannot understand how 10% advatange from high skills is “really big” in this game, when in other games advantages are like 1000% at least. But this not really question. Its just opinion, you should say “no, skills dont affect your avatar at all”, seems i clearly explained in first post what “big advantage” means for me.

  4. no, i did not asked if i should use my credit card, no need to write this 6th time.

and finally, apology if i was rude lately, its all after death of pope…

15

Well, i think where the lines got crossed is the skill issue…

Like someone said earlier, there’s no Mastering your skill, you can get really good at something, but there’s no guarantee on success EVERY time.

The known skill “levels” are currently in the 19,000^ range I think, and it keeps going. So, if you use that as an example, a 10% skill increase is HUGE.

I’m excited right now, because I’m getting close to 1000 or already above 1000 in most of my chosen skills.
There are times when skilling slows down, and you take more time to get to the “next level”, but that time is worth it and you improve…so if you want “raw” numbers, that increase is a definite advantage over what I can currently use, hunt, etc. right now.
The reason everyone kept mentioning depositing and all that, is because the best way to get skills quick and improve yourself in the game IS too put real money into it. They go hand in hand, yes, the game is free, but if you want to see improvement, even to that 10% increase, you’ll see it quicker if you deposit.
Depositing or earning PED goes hand in hand with earning skills and getting better in the game. You can’t separate the two, that’s why they all kept bringing up money. They go together.

I’m done, I’m sure, if this post is finished, MB will lock it.
Here at EF people tend to go off topic, which is why we keep posting on this topic, your post brought up other things, and while only 5 people responded right away, there are about 500 people who read these forums, and everyone has different ideas on how things work, so you’ll get more posts and hear many more opinions. We aren’t forcing them on you, we are just trying to help and also add to the discussion. :slight_smile:

I hope I was able to clear some of it up. But I’m not an experienced player like most of the others here, so they prolly have a better idea of what’s going on. :slight_smile:

Hope to see you ingame!

Runt

16

:grouphug:

Ok, now that we all feel loved :smiley:

One more thing I would like to add, if I may, is that my own personal veiwpoint is that skills DO NOT matter and all of the physical things of PE DO NOT matter. That is not to say they don’t have an effect. I am saying the do not matter to ME.

I beleive that you will enjoy the game much more, as I have, if you clear your mind of trying to be uber-economical-business-make-money-on-MA-guy and just play for fun.

Anyhoo… Can’t wait to hear your thoughts once you get ingame!

DD
:evilking:

17

sure, it can be closed now. Just to correct one small misssunderstanding, im asked for skills not because i want to become super hiper economic who doing everything for low cost, it was just because i like feeling of improving my character. Like, becoming pvp killing machine, or mastering any other activity. Its kinda hard when after 6 months of training im 30% better than newbie.

close it please.