Taking over the world, one sweat bottle at a time

Some initial context

The above image should be treated as a joke and is just a reference to one of my all time favorite TV series, not actually calling anyone with the "b" word. Anyway, the idea is that I just returned to the game and I decided to resume logging my activities, just in case they can inspire any other casual, free to play, low-level player, like me. Initially, I wanted to post in my old thread, but since that one kinda died more than one year ago when I had left the game, I decided to just start a new one.

In the past I deposited a total of about $200, then when I sold out and quit the game I managed to withdraw about $250, so I thought that I should just put back the extra $50 that I previously booked as profit from the game, which together with the few leftover assets I had left on my account (pretty much small avatar bound items) which I valued to another $50 or so should make my return a bit easier. So, while technically this makes me a depositor, considering that the money came from previous profits and that I don't intend to make any other deposits (or withdraws), I still consider myself (almost) a free player.



So... how would I describe my game style?

- free-to-play (well, as previously explained, technically I'm a depositor, but consider the specifics I think I'm as close as free-to-play as possible)
- casual, spending a total of only about 60 hours per month in the game (so a total of about two hours per day)
- low-level, sticking with newbie activities (and enjoying them!), so not really aiming to "grow up" and "outgrow" my current activities
- generalist, not specialist, or how they use to say it I like being a "jack of all trades", trying to do a bit of everything, instead of focusing only on a specific profession
- "single player mode", trying to limit interaction with other people to just chat and nothing else (like, for example, grouping or trading)
- "hardcore mode", like revive terminals would not exist, so for me, death isn't free, but it costs me one H-DNA every time I would have to otherwise meet Mr. Mayhem



So.... where I'm starting from?

Starting inventory: pastebin.com/PUKXAqvy
Starting skills: pastebin.com/9y3gsEfL



So... what's the plan?

My five golden rules: pastebin.com/pCidQNMA
My general plan: pastebin.com/31KA8ezf



The exact log entries can be read by scrolling down or clicking here (the most recent post will also be included in that summary post).



While I definitely appreciate a lot any feedback you might give me via a private message, please try to keep my clean thread and don't derail it - I want it to remain a log and just that, not a place for debates and discussions; any off topic posts would be reported.

 

So... how would I describe my game style?

- free-to-play (well, as previously explained, technically I'm a depositor, but consider the specifics I think I'm as close as free-to-play as possible)
- casual, spending a total of only about 60 hours per month in the game (so a total of about two hours per day)
- low-level, sticking with newbie activities (and enjoying them!), so not really aiming to "grow up" and "outgrow" my current activities
- generalist, not specialist, or how they use to say it I like being a "jack of all trades", trying to do a bit of everything, instead of focusing only on a specific profession
- "single player mode", trying to limit interaction with other people to just chat and nothing else (like, for example, grouping or trading)
- "hardcore mode", like revive terminals would not exist, so for me, death isn't free, but it costs me one H-DNA every time I would have to otherwise meet Mr. Mayhem



So.... where I'm starting from?

Starting inventory: pastebin.com/PUKXAqvy
Starting skills: pastebin.com/9y3gsEfL



So... what's the plan?

My five golden rules: pastebin.com/pCidQNMA
My general plan: pastebin.com/31KA8ezf

 

Log entries

To make it easier to find the actual log entries through the potential comments and discussions, I will link them all here.

#1 June 1st, 2017
#2 June 5th, 2017

 

Reserved for later use.

 

Reserved for later use.

 

June 1st, 2017

I'm weird, I know it, everyone kept telling me that ever since I was a little child. I'm so weird that the thing I actually enjoyed most in Entropia Universe and that made me return to the game was sweating... sweating and chatting... or better said chatting and sweating... well, sweating while chatting... you probably got the idea far now. It's relaxing and it allows me to either zone out and be alone with my thoughts or chat with the (very few) people I actually like and practice my social skills (which, truth being said, are lacking quite a lot). But not group sweating... that one can easily turn in a mess and end up causing more stress than relaxation... also for group sweating you have to rely on other people and I don't like that.

So I had to decide on a good mob for solo sweating... I considered Haters and Forum Trolls on Rocktropia and Paneleons on Cyrene, which would have allowed me to focus more on the chat than on the mob itself (being high hp, low damage mobs), but since Arkadia is not only my favorite planet but also the planet that I call home, I decided to remain here and swunt Caraboks instead. I know, not the best mobs for sweating, but I hope that the gained defensive skills would justify the extra effort. And, if my memory is not failing me, my two hours per day should give me just enough time to sweat 50 Caraboks, though reaching my 500 sweat bottles per day quota. Maybe worth mentioning is the fact that since I want to finance the killing costs exclusively from the sweat selling, that means I’ll actually kill only half of the sweated mobs and just turret the others

One activity worthing serious consideration for any low-level player like me is the newly introduced AI War mission on Rocktropia, since it is one of the very few activities in Entropia Universe guaranteed a profit (missions costs are lower than 80 PECs, while the rewards are sitting at over 3 PEDs, basically guaranteeing a 2.2 PEDs profit per day, even before counting the loot). However, I eventually decided to pass on it - spending two hours cherry picking the quest mobs in a crowded area where more than a dozen other hunters are trying to do the same thing is definitely not my definition of fun and, at the end of the day, this is a game, not a job, so we all should better focus on what is entertaining and/or relaxing for us, not necessarily on what gives the biggest profit.

 

June 5th, 2017

Finished my first five days sweating Caraboks, tracked my costs and returns, made some math and I have to say that I'm really happy about the fact that I'm actually a weirdo and enjoy sweating because otherwise, the numbers look quite depressing.

First of all, it seems that my memory still serves me well and indeed, my two hours per day give me just enough time to sweat 50 Caraboks and reach my daily quota of 500 sweat bottles; considering the fact that, as previously said, I want to finance this activity exclusively from sweat selling income, it means that I’ll actually have to kill only half of the sweated mobs and turret the others. That means 25 Caraboks per day, 750 Caraboks per month and since I still need to kill 15,000 of them (since I restarted the 5,000 quest to have a fresh restart), a simple math operation tells me that I'll need 20 months to reach this goal. So one year and eight months just sweating Caraboks; so yeah, it's definitely fortunate that I actually enjoy sweating because otherwise, I would have all chances to die out of boredom before finishing this.

The big problem for the moment though is the lack of liquidities to get me through the first month since I started with no PEDs and I'll only meet my sweet buyer at the end of the month. I still have 495.46 PED worth of ammo (out of 500 PED which I had when I started) and I'm still on my first (out of 60) [Pistol (SA) (L)] finisher, so there shouldn't be any problems in this department. On the other hand, my amp already took 2.43 PED damage, while from selling the looted weapon cells I only managed to make 1.24 PED which I could eventually use to repair it, leaving me with a 1.19 PED damage deficit. Multiply this three times (since I still have to kill Caraboks for 10 days) will mean that nothing changes I'll end up with a 3.57 PED deficit, which would leave me with 1.63 PED value on the amp, so I should be fine, but it would definitely be a close one. Well, worst case scenario I think that on the last few days I can shoot with the naked pistol, without the amp; a little bit less eco, but, well, have to work with what you have.

 

Good luck on your quest!

 

Considering some of the recent negativity I encountered here on the forum (not in this thread) I decided to take things to the next step and move these stories on my own site and youtube channel, where I'm in full control of posted comments. I will post here the links once the move is completed, but other than that the thread will no longer be updated; I hope you'll continue to follow me over there.