Q&A Answers (Aug-Sep 06)

[craw]

Marco responded to the following question:

Originally Posted by Marco|MindArk

* What is the average cost to play EU for an hour? average cost per month?

MindArk's business plan states that we aim for a cost of 1 USD per hour.

I'm sorry Marco, I do enjoy the game and am a long time player, but I really wish the cost of play were only 1 USD per hour. I just now returned from a Longu/Atrax hunt where the loot was really poor (which is more often than not) and lost over 6 USD in one hour. I keep precise records of gains and losses which I'd be happy to share with Minkark.

My calculation is based on this formula:

gain/loss = total loot - (cost of ammo + cost of decay)


Most of the loss is in "no loots" and frequent misses (when the mob couldn't be any closer).

I think Minkark needs to really evaluate the loot balancing if $1 USD/hour is a true goal.

Do you test this business plan aim?
If so, how often do you test this aim?
Do you test it on different levels of mobs or just beginner mobs?

I understand that Minkark is a business and needs to make a profit and I think $1/hr is fair. Unfortunately, I rarely see $1/hr in practice.

[TommyGun]

thx for the info. I CANT WAIT FOR MORE space travel and new planets. let alone new weapons.

[Egrator Smikel]

I spent all that time reading the Q & A and learn't.........nothing. I think my evade went up though!

Come on Marco, what was the point of listing all those questions you were not preparred to answer. Could you not have used some of the space you wasted on those questions answering those that you could in a little more detail.

Im going back to whatever I was doing before I was disturbed by a pointless Q & A....what was I doing?

has been kind enough to answer some of the many questions that us players have.

Isnt that Marco's Job as director of community relations, or am I mistaken.

[Deke]

Originally Posted by craw

Marco responded to the following question:



I'm sorry Marco, I do enjoy the game and am a long time player, but I really wish the cost of play were only 1 USD per hour. I just now returned from a Longu/Atrax hunt where the loot was really poor (which is more often than not) and lost over 6 USD in one hour. I keep precise records of gains and losses which I'd be happy to share with Minkark.

My calculation is based on this formula:

gain/loss = total loot - (cost of ammo + cost of decay)


Most of the loss is in "no loots" and frequent misses (when the mob couldn't be any closer).

I think Minkark needs to really evaluate the loot balancing if $1 USD/hour is a true goal.

Do you test this business plan aim?
If so, how often do you test this aim?
Do you test it on different levels of mobs or just beginner mobs?

I understand that Minkark is a business and needs to make a profit and I think $1/hr is fair. Unfortunately, I rarely see $1/hr in practice.

O.K. I'm not Marco, by any means, but I have learned that it is possible to control your costs ingame. If you hunt with a huge weapon (I.E. High Decay, High Ammo, High Damage, Long Range, Fast Reload) and wear uber armor (I.E. Shadow, Eon, Angel) (with a full set of 6A plates of course ) And your total skills are say 200K, then obviously, you'll want to hunt huge mobs (Spiders, Big Trox, Second Entities) If thats what you want to do, then It's going to cost you more to play per hour. However, if you take those 200K skill points and buy a set of Ghost or Vigi (with a full set of 6A plates of course ) use a Sollomate Opalo with an A105 amp and go out hunting, say, Exarosaur Stalkers or Berycled Providers, then not only will you (usually) not spend $1/hr, but, you may even profit. Just because you can take down a large Trox, doesn't mean you should (found this out the hard way) Keep in mind that the total available skill points is in the millions and some of these creatures that it is possible to hunt may have been designed for someone with extremely high skills to hunt effeciently. I have yet to (personally) meet anyone ingame with the skills to take down the BIG SPIDERS effeciently and economically (not including trapping of course, would like to feed those guys to a giant spider IRL) Hope I don't get Flamed too much for this post, keep in mind, opinions are like buttholes, everybodies got one and they all stink

[Vap0r]

Thanks for the reply Marco-
One thing to remember folks, Marco does NOT make all of the decisions here. Blasting him for a vague answer is like shooting the virtual messenger. Although people are a bit dissapointed, especially regarding clickers and bots, we do have to respect MA's position on not disclosing information on how the internals work. If your not happy, your not forced to play

[sloth]

atta'boy marco, having some questions answerd is like a breath of fresh air.

[craw]

Originally Posted by Deke

O.K. I'm not Marco, by any means, but I have learned that it is possible to control your costs ingame. If you hunt with a huge weapon (I.E. High Decay, High Ammo, High Damage, Long Range, Fast Reload) and wear uber armor (I.E. Shadow, Eon, Angel) (with a full set of 6A plates of course ) And your total skills are say 200K, then obviously, you'll want to hunt huge mobs (Spiders, Big Trox, Second Entities) If thats what you want to do, then It's going to cost you more to play per hour. However, if you take those 200K skill points and buy a set of Ghost or Vigi (with a full set of 6A plates of course ) use a Sollomate Opalo with an A105 amp and go out hunting, say, Exarosaur Stalkers or Berycled Providers, then not only will you (usually) not spend $1/hr, but, you may even profit. Just because you can take down a large Trox, doesn't mean you should (found this out the hard way) Keep in mind that the total available skill points is in the millions and some of these creatures that it is possible to hunt may have been designed for someone with extremely high skills to hunt effeciently. I have yet to (personally) meet anyone ingame with the skills to take down the BIG SPIDERS effeciently and economically (not including trapping of course, would like to feed those guys to a giant spider IRL) Hope I don't get Flamed too much for this post, keep in mind, opinions are like buttholes, everybodies got one and they all stink

I certainly agree that there are more economical ways to hunt, exarosuars for example, as you mention. I've still had cases where I drop several dollars an hour hunting exarosuars using no armor, opollo, a103 and fap. The major cost is in ammo and amp decay. If you get a long streak of no-loots, you are hosed.

The game is supposed to be fun (which for the most part is can be). I can't envision EU holding my interest by only hunting exarosaurs and berycleds.

Don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of HOF's. But when factoring the gains vs the loses overall, game play for me is well above $1/hr.

I don't get 20 hours of hunting play for $20. Do you?

[Ken "KD" Dei]

I have to say I'm 50% pissed, 30% amused, 20% interested, and 100% unsurprised by the responses. To key on a few:

Part of the experience is to gain personal knowledge about how things work. Some data is presented as is, some is up to the participants to figure out. We believe this aspect quite fun and entertaining, stimulating curiosity and cooperation with other participants in order to gain knowledge

This is just f-ing wrong. It is. How can you maintain a really cash economy if 3/4 of the people in it don't know half of what anything does? You can't it's a damn script for disaster. In the long run, don't come at me with this "It's working right now." It's not.

I cannot comment on In-World balancing matters. It has been the policy for years and it still stands, sorry.

What an absolute crock. He'll say this about anything at all that might help us make market, or economic decisions (i.e. give smart people a chance to make money) and then turns around and answers the same style question about something from which only MA would profit. Who do you think you're kidding Marco?

It would be more interesting to see participants providing jobs and needing services that could be fulfilled by newcomers. A system like the Entropia Universe has so many possibilities. Again it’s a matter of time, resources and priorities. It’s also worth remembering that MindArk is in fact a business with all the normal responsibilities and commitments of a business operation

This was in response to the question about other jobs like sweat gathering for newer players.

I have to say this.

DO YOU REMEMBER RUNNERS?!

Huh?! DO YA?! You know those intelligent newbies who were making a meek living helping hunters? What did you do? You increased mob speeds, you effectively killed the job for the most part. Don't gimme this crap, if someone finds a cheap, effective way to make any money other then one you ordain to be permissable, MA is going to kill it, directly or indirectly.

We don't publish that figure for business confidentiality reasons

This was in response to a question about the number of really active players. So wait, what, now our player activity is a hinderence? Wth? Maybe they want to hide that number because of the flipping high rate of addiction this thing has?

And now, the number one, most important, Marco's gonna kick himself for saying it later, quote of the whole thing...

Never say never, but we don't intend to change it any time soon. MA owns the virtual items, but the participants own the value of them. It is a necessary step as long as MA is the one actually making the items and storing them in our databases.

Take the above quote, save it to a document, print it 15 times, put it in a virtual and real folders marked "MY ARGUEMENT TO GET MY MONEY BACK IF MA GOES UNDER"

We all know that the odds are against such an occurance. But in that event, that quote will serve as the most lethal weapon any participant, depositer or not, has to get every scrap of value of the stuff they have.

[Jag Ly]

" Q : Marco, how much decay the FAP 21 ?
A : We currently are working on improving the EU experience ,and we aim to grow the growing Universe sometime in the future.
Q: ummm....but i was asking about that damn FAP ?! Can you answer my question please ?!
A: 1 player, 1 question, 1 answer. Next please."

[Deke]

20 hours of hunting play for $20 would be hard to do, but, i mix it up. I hunt and mine at same time, I craft what I mine, I sell what i can't craft. I think i break about even once you figure in the value of the skill gains. And there are ups and downs some last longer than others. We all see it here in the forums...Haven't globaled for a month, then I hit these three tonight. Right now i'm down, but, as long as i keep playing my normal game, i'll be up again in a couple of weeks. I usually get 3 Globals in the course of one week, then nothing for about a month.