Question to A-Team about the way planets work

Hi,

This is something I'm very curious about. I know there's bit's and pieces of information out there, but it's hard to put them all together. And it would be very nice to have one post we could use as a reference.

So my question:

Dear A-Team,
would it please be possible to give us a short summary of the way EU works now, concerning the relation between Planet Partner and Platform Provider?
I realize that there's a lot you're not allowed to tell us, for sure, accepted. But would it be possible to help, for instance, with the following questions?

• Can you do any changes on-the-fly on the planet for yourself, without having it been done by MA? And if, what?
• Have you any possibility to "prepare", try, test new game mechanic changes for yourself, i.e. do you have access to the full developer tools?
• How does it work, and how long does it usually take to get a minor change implemented, for instance changing the drop rate of a certain item?

I'm not asking to answer exactly these questions, for sure - I don't know what you're allowed to answer at all, there's an NDA I bet. But I'd very much appreciate if you could enlighten us about this topic!

It's not urgent, don't hurry. But if you'd be able to answer, and if you'd find some spare time to do so, we'd be very happy about it!

Yours sincerely

Xandra


Should I have forgotten important questions, I'm sure you, you less forgetful participants, will come to aid & post them.

Thank you, and have a good time!

Disclaimer: I searched, but didn't find a sufficient answer yet. Should there be one, I kindly ask for a link & for closing/ deleting this.

 

Some good questions.

I basicaly asked the same as "Can you do any changes on-the-fly on the planet for yourself, without having it been done by MA? And if, what?" back on EF about Kim spawning mobs on demand and Kim said No planet partners can't do it.

 

Hi,

actually the idea to create this thread came while writing this post on EF.

I see a big imbalance among the planets, and it hurts me to see one after the other Arkadia born newbie leaving for Calypso, because "they have all the good stuff there".

But it's hard to argue against sentences like "the pp's are just too lazy, Caly is plainly superior", when not being able to prove why it is this way.

Tbh, I have no idea if this might be helpful in any way even. Maybe the A-Team would like not to be quoted, I'd fully understand, and respect.

EU is in an endangered state meanwhile, IMHO, one more PP falling (RT/ NI?) would inevitably crush any remaining trust in this business model, and MA is fueling the fire with the way they handle Calypso.

I'd love to have better insight to the ways the EU works, to be able to have better arguments, but I'd happily accept a "Plz keep your hands out of our business".

Let's see what we'll hear from the A-Team. I'm very confident they'll surprise us once more!

Have a good time!

 

Thanks for the (again) very fast feedback. We are not used to such a speedy answering time, it will surely be one of the factors which keeps people on Arkadia !

And once you start dropping some UL bp's for Aquila (or even Perseus), I'm quite sure that Calypso will face a considerable emigration towards Arkadia

 

i dont think the good stuff is on other planets and i dont think thats the problem. The problem is the lack of buyers for materials.

Only fix i can see for this is to keep getting new players to stay which i think Dave is addressing with next update.

Second though we need some Low TT items kind of like our TT items but a bit better to be crafted and consumed by these new players so that crafters will need to buy materials from hunters and miners to make items that those new players will want to buy from them.

What we basically need to see is hunter/miners trading materials for items.

 

I live on Arkadia and her I shall stay! :hail:

 

I have seen some pilots convincing other players that the grass is greener on the other side just to pay their own trip. Once a newbie is lured away it will be hard for him/her to travel back.
I hope when we get more BPs there will be another demand for Arkadia looted resources. I sincerely hope that there soon will come some clothes BPs that uses Arkadia specific resources.
Even though my loot sucks I try to mine and hunt as much as possible and then craft textures and Arkadia weapons, and then put that stuff in to auction. My small contribution filled 3 auctiuon pages last time I checked Unfortunatly all goods doesn't sell...

 

I agree on this, it's the bigger playerbase and bigger planet that are the main reson why players goes to Calypso. And to be honest, the overall look of Calypso is still a bit better, but they also have had some years to make it that way. A second smaller continent or big island on Arkadia would be good to improve the look of the planet, it's look too much like a "square" now.

 

Considering the talks about more BP's ingame David mentioned in the interview that there will be about as much BP's that come out when treasure hunting comes out as there currently is on Arkadia +~400

 

Nice quick reply David. Look forward to see what is coming up and also to see what the A-Team will accomplish to keep enticing us older eu residents to visit as well.

Cheers Jung

 

Hi,

thank you for the quick reply!

This is great news, can't wait!

This is why I moved here, with all & any of my stuff - my storage on my former home planet is empty now. You guys are doing an awesomely good job, and I can't wait to see what you have in the pipeline for us! ;-)

This "good stuff" thingie was told to me by a newbie that suddenly was on Calypso. There's a lot of stuff meanwhile that is unique for Calypso, wave events, a huge number of different missions, fort PvP with 1/10th of the usual costs, the huge land mass etc etc.

I don't want to be there anymore, regardless, but for a new player this seems to be very attractive.
And so Calypso is sucking away quite some of the new players that spawn on one of the other planets. This leads to relatively low populations on these planets, thus to a low demand, and a weak economy. Arkadia seems to do by far best of all the new planets, but even we lack buyers for materials, as you mention. (I really fear for RT and NI, according to the auctions they are almost dead meanwhile, especially NI?)

I really hope for the new player experience update, and the following marketing boost (Link), it could change a lot. Arkadia has any prerequisites to become a huge success within the EU, IMHO.

Fully agree, such would be awesome. "Herman LAW-101 Adjusted (L)", for instance, crafted only, stats between the TT gun and the jungle/ desert/ arctic versions. And this for all the TT weapons & gear. Slightly better then the TT versions, crafted only, same low TT, "consumables". To be made in huge numbers.

2 other proposals:

• The ladder in the grinding missions doesn't fit. It starts with Oro, then, next, are Madana. This doesn't suit newbies at all.
  Oro are ways too tough for a newbie, and Madana are ways out of reach for them. There should be at least 3 smaller mobs before Oro, and at least 3 between Oro and Madana, IMHO.
  Yesterday I tried to help a fresh newbie that had started the Oro mission, this just doesn't work. I had to heal constantly, and it burned about 1PED for every single young Oro, with an ARK-10 L. I sent it to the punys then, with my last BLP ammo ...
  .
• Sweat. A use for sweat, that makes sweating worthwhile, that creates a demand and at least sufficient prices! Fuel for basic vehicles, ingredient in above mentioned crafted beginner gear, anything - imagine on Arkadia the newbies could sell their sweat, actually!
  Sweating is a social thing, it's what close to every Entropian has started with, it has proven to be an excellent way to keep fresh players busy for long enough to learn about the hidden beauties of EU.
  Wisely balanced a working sweat market could be a unique selling point for Arkadia ...

Have a good time!

 

I agree in most parts of your post Xandra...but the sweating thing is more difficult than we believe now. Imagine a good using for sweat on Arkadia..and buyers who need it...instantly a lot of people would come from Calypso to sell their sweat and take advantage...I guess millions of bottles of sweat are hanging around in storages and would overflood Ark with hundreds of seller.......price would go down again and Arkadia newbies stay again there with empty hands...

 

Yeeeharrrrr!

Looking forward to the new development fruition!

 

I am a bit tired to read the same statements of lack of material buyers over and over again tbh. Its not that we crafters dont buy enough - but players dont buy enough to keep us busy I have 'invested' roughly 1500$ the last 2 month to buy material and craft away, find newer prints etc. Result: stuff sticks in auction and players simply dont buy. The lack of Ark mining-finder BPs made me craft lots of shared finders and other tools as well - which actually sold better than the arkadian tools despite being worse.

Regarding sweat - it is being bought. In my short time alone i have bought as much as roughly 100k sweat from local players. I introduced the natural stone buying etc - but a market is not only one side buying constantly. A market is a circle where money has to flow and not just spend by one party mainly.


P.S. regarding Milenas comment: You are absolutely right about that - i denied to buy from certain players already which i know make trips from Caly to Ark to sell the sweat here.

 

I agree. Early on and even to this day I will buy sweats and natural stones from the local population. I have a ton of sweat and I sold up most of my stones to Dwiss. The market is getting better and better all the time. Patience is key.

 

your totally right crafters on Arkadia have gone above and behind the call of duty for us. It's truly the other way around hence my suggestion above that crafters be supplying more newbies equipment.

which has actualy been a problem lately i've found is that crafters are all making higher up stuff. When i goto look for the like next finder up from the TT one there isn't any in auction or shops. the other problem is we dont have a constant stream of newbs either and the whole 20 disciples only sucks too.

I think in a perfect virtual world we'd have lots of newbies comming in always and lower end crafters supplying the like next level up from tt equipment to them. Maybe Mentors and Crafters need to work together cause i know i've had a hard time with getting the right equipment for disciples.

WHile i'm thinking about it what about arkadias version of the rookie finder being craftable?

 

I am hopeful that people are now getting an idea of who the local crafters are. If you cant find what you want, consider contacting them. Or post a request here on the forum. Crafters love guaranteed sales.

Regards,
KikkiJikki

 

The problem with lower finders has been that the BP for terra master 2 hasnt droped so far - not to my or any other crafters knowledge. The equivalent finder from shared books would be UL finder f-101 or F-102 or limited Ziplex Z5 (L) seeker.

What i tried to express is that in the current stage of the market people have to think before using their peds. Anything bought outside planet will suck peds away from arkadia and not gain it at all. Same goes for material - i actually buy mostly from people i know that are actually living on Arkadia and not just taking a mining trip here to us

Every crafter on Arkadia has a very unique situation actually - we can craft ALL stuff on ark - not just the arkadian things. So every crafter will probably also deliver items that are not arkadian as they can be crafted locally as well.

 

There are still many holes in the economy and I hope these issues will be addressed, and they need to be addressed very soon.

To re-highlight the issues, and likely many have already been mentioned by other posters ---

There are still many missing BPs from the loot pool. A lot of them are basic TT+1, TT+2 level BPs. Terra Master 2, Pulsar Armor plate 2, 3, 4, etc. This may seem to be a minor issue for advanced players, but it does place a road block for a growing Arkadia based player that wishes to explore the game using Arkadia items, such as myself. At current state, I am stuck with TT, then off-planet items for many of the more advanced stuff. I hope this issue will be resolved soon with the "higher local BP drop rate" change.

Lack of player base is still a major issue for Arkadia. While our AH has been steady at 100+ pages, it really hasn't grown much since Oct when it started hovering around that 100-110 page mark. While this is not a true indication, it is still an indication on the size of the economy.

The two recent major events of Caly and Hell sure hasn't help much either. The effects of these events hit Arkadia quite hard, having muscle oil being sold at >120MU when it was at <110MU pre-events is not a laughing matter. I just recently started crafting weapons, but having the same gun not being able to sell on Arkadia AH for 120MU and sells on Caly for >125MU within 3 days makes a huge difference on my playing ability. Quick PED turnaround is necessary to help to sustain the player base and allows these players to be more active, and this is even more true for new and low level players that does not have a massive PED bankroll yet.

The planet has came a long way in the past 6 months, but we aren't there yet. So we need to keep reminded of these issues so the planet can become better with every VU.

jc