Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Universe

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

Interesting how the Gateway works. as I understand it we can't get there. Only new players?? LOL Watching the video, guys doesn't even know what the sweat tool is. Alot of zoom? I think the zoom sucks. Overall good work on the video.

Think share it on FB :)

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

One thing I have noticed about the wiki is I can never find the same page again without a lot of digging, such as this one. And no where in the url does it give a clue where to look again. So where would I have to go to find this page if I didn't have a direct link?

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

very good point. Many times I have the same problem.

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

I have to agree with this as well ... some things that are provided for us as a link in a post are nice, but ... if we want to get back to that page, it's extremely challenging to find out where things are. I've gotten frustrated at times and have had to find where the link was posted in order to get back to where I wanted to go.

I'm sure Tass and Razer could figure something out for us to make it easier, or maybe there is something in place and we just don't know what or where it is yet. :)

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

Hmm i could write some stuff in general and per profession on how to make peds (last?) when i do my next big afk crafting run. Can you put them in the wiki then tass, cause that is too hard for me :)

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

meh that fella forgot the most important thing, .... loot the mofo :D

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

I find it pretty straight forward. the wiki has a search function, in this example, if you type in joining entropia it's the first result, as its the only one with a matching title.

then come the articles that contain the words in the text itself. so if you have no clue what the title was, type in words that are in the article and browse. strings are also supported.

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

Well +rep to you........such a simple and obvious answer :)

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

OK first draft, will make the drafts complete and then recheck them for spelling and omissions. Feedback is welcome :)

"Making money in Entropia Universe"


A lot of newcomers to the game are thinking, “hey I can deposit and withdraw peds, that means I can earn a lot of peds ingame and become rich in real life”. So let’s start with a warning, all the planets are made by companies, with employees, with paychecks. Which also means that people have to loose/spend peds ingame. So the average player will loose peds (like a normal subscription fee, or a lot more/less depending on paying styles).

Does that mean it is impossible to make a profit from MA? Well the answer is no, nothing is impossible, but the chances that you do are really really slim. After all if everyone would make a profit the game would go bankrupt. The best is to play the game, enjoy the stuff you like and if in the end you manage to make some cash be happy.

• Making peds from the game creater

While it is technically possible that on your first day you drop a bomb and find something that is worth enough to withdraw a nice amount of peds in general you won’t be able to make it long term like this. Like I said before the planets are made by companies, with employees, with hungry children etc. etc. The way the planet partners make money is by making sure that for every ped you spend you will get less then a ped back. In general for every ped you spend you get back somewhere between 90-97 pecs, depending on how eco you are. So in the long term you will always loose peds.

• Making peds from other players

So if you will not make any money directly from the creators, where will you get your peds from then? The answer is simple: from other players. Entropia Universe simulates a real economy with supply and demand. This means that if you make/find something there are almost always players out there that want it, and will pay a little (or a lot) above the real trade terminal value for the item. So pay you more because they can use the stuff you sell to make even more peds for themselves, other pay you more because it are fun items for them to play with. And if the markup you get for selling your items is more then the loss you made collecting them you make a profit in the long run (which is a lot harder then it sounds).

Other possibilities to make peds from other players include providing a service for them, like being a medic, trade for them (risky), piloting them around, colouring and texturizing their items, owning a land area etc.

In every profession it is possible to make some peds, in some it is hard, in others it is nearly impossible. I will get into more detail about the following professions:

• Sweating & finding resources on the ground
• Mining
• Hunting
• Crafting
• Trading
• Healing
• Piloting
• Owning Land
• …

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

and the mining part:

"Making money from Mining in Entropia Universe"


So you want to travel the planet making a fortune while searching for it’s valueable resources? Well you are in luck, mining is one of the easiest professions to make a profit in. And that is for the simlpe reason that everything you find while mining you can sell to crafters for a markup.

There are a lot of theories about how mining works, some look at skill gains to determine if there is a big claim nearby, others always face a certain direction while dropping the bomb, others drop boms at specific times, or specific locations. And offcourse there are also who people who combine all of the above and add some stuff of their own. As long as one of the theories works for you, stick with it.

There are some things to consider while mining though:

• Decay

Stuff decays. But not everything decays at the same rate. You want to minimize your decay since that is lost peds. That means for a refiner the OT-105 and MT-105 are (in the long run) most effictive for you to use. For the oreminer and matterdriler you have to search for the ones with the fewest decay per stones pulled up. (Yes all the other miners/drillers are faster so it is a tough choice to make, how much is your time worth).

• Search Location

You can find stuff everywhere. The game is devided in areas, and per area there are different ores/enmatters to be found. As a miner you want to go and explore to find areas with a low amount of monsters, and with ores/enmatters that sell for a lot of markup. That is quite a (fun) challenge, there are maps around that might help though. But remember markups can change over time, so a good area today, might be a bad area tomorrow.

• Search Depth

As you look at your finder you will see that it has a search depth. Depth can be very important, but contrary to popular belief the more deeper isn’t always better. All resources can be found at a certain depth (another fun challenge to find out), but some resources that are found at deeper location have lower markups then the resources you can find at 10 metres depth. So you need to find the location where the resources drop, and use the right depth finder to maximize your profits. This off course Will take a lot of research.

• Search Range

One commonly overlooks statistic of the finder is the search range. The further the range the more often you will find a resource. For example finder 1 has a range of 54 metres and finder 2 has a range of 55 metres.

With finder one you will cover an area of 9160 square metres and with finder two you wil cover an area of 9503 square metres. Which means a 3.7% increase in number of finds.

• General advice

-Run twice the range of your finder before you drop another bomb/probe or else your search will cover a part that you have searched before.
-Areas respawn in a few hours (if not almost instant).
-Don’t run behind another miner

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

I wrote this guide ages ago, but I still think that most of it is a good read before you start.

Paths of Entropia Universe

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

Good idea there Tass, that will create more realistic expectations amongst new-comers, which can only be good imo. To give an idea of what i think should be included (tho feel free to cut out things that aren't fact / agreed player-experience):

EU is regularly changing (it may need a new video card, or a whole new computer to keep playing).
EU is regularly changing (whatever 'investment' you think you will make, might be worthless after the weekly update, this has happened again and again).

EU is NOT bug-free (bugs that we ask MindArk/FPC to fix keep re-appearing, especially if they cost the players money)
EU is not free of bugs that will cost you money (and MindArk/FPC doesn't compensate for such losses).
EU can be very laggy when there's a lot of people online on that server.

EU doesn't make sense: a gun that you max (10/10 hit ability) still has you miss a lot of shots (or 'fail' when your connection isn't optimal).
EU is not rich in content (there's no real storyline going on, or at least wasn't for years, apart from the basic frame humans on a new planet Calypso vs. the wildlife / mobs and vs. the robot threat, they are working on improving that recently with the addition of missions, but they are still too much grinding - feel like shooting 16600 of the same mob? - , no real story and developments like in other games).

EU is not a place to try and make money (maybe 20 people do make some money, 3 maybe make a living off it, BUT from my 5 years experience in EU i'm fairly confident to say that you canNOT make money from EU, and if you can it will be a few $, a lot less than the costs to play EU and infinitely less than the time you spend to get them is really worth, also if you want to keep playing you'll loose them back).

EU deposits: it will cost you more than 1$ / 10 ped (bank charges a fee, ...).
EU withdrawal: only possible if you withdraw 1000 ped or more (again, a fee will be charged, this time also by MA; and it will take up to 30 working days iirc - think security and they need to check where you got the money from - tho sometimes it's within a week)

EU is very addictive (to me, but have heard this from many more ppl, once you start to like the thrill of looking to find something worthwhile in loot or skilling up or ... it's hard not to log in each day).

EU promises equal chances to interesting items in loot to all players, but after 5 years i would say "some are more equal than others" is closer to the truth.
EU claims to be no casino, yet i've seen ppl loose 50k peds.
EU has a RCE, but sometimes it seems there's not much of an economy at all, things don't sell, nobody's buying, ...

EU has a very mixed community, there's quite a few scammers trying to steal your peds (using old and new tricks), pk'rs (will steal your peds in lootable pvp-zones if you risk going there, it's allowed, you agree when entering such zone, but still stealing to me), there's ppl of all ages, some very rude, some very friendly (made some friends, but have seen more friends leave after too big money losses or frustration/boredom with the game/MindArk)

EU is an amazing virtual place to just explore (look for fruit, stones, sweat, those are free, but it would take you a lifetime to get enough peds selling those - if you ever find enough - to get enough peds to withdraw) and have fun, or a small hunt or mining run once you gathered some peds (or deposited some) with people from all over the world.

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

and the hunting part:

"Making money from hunting in Entropia Universe"


Hunting is one of the most popular professions in this universe the way to make profit here is to find creatures that loot items you can sell for enough markup to cover your costs. These items can be oils, components, limited guns, resources, armor parts and many other things. It's a matter of research to discover which creature drop which loot and if that loot has any markup at the time. But the key is to start thinking of huning loot instead of hunting creatures.

Other things to consider are:

Weapon economy
Some weapons are more economic then others, meaning that with some weapons you'll spend less peds to kill the same creature. Needless to say the more economic your weapon is, the better your return will be. Some weapon damage amplifiers can greatly increase the economy of weapons

Armor and FAP-decay
It is important not to use too big armor or faps since it will greatly increase your costs of the hunt. If you spend 10 peds on armor decay in a hunt, and someone else will hunt the same creatures unarmored, he will do a lot better. If you want to hunt eco try to keep the armor&FAP decay at about 2% of your total hunting costs. Note that the using (up to medium level) armor is cheaper then using a fap, as long as you don't use too much armor. You will however not gain any medical skills

Range and killspeed
If you shoot at mobs from a long distance it will take some time for the creature to reach you, that will greatly decrease your armor decay. Same thing goes for killspeed, the faster you kill a creature the less time it has to hit you back. While the eco of the weapon is easy to discover, range and killspeed have quite an impact on the real economy of the weapons you use.

Teaming
Try to find some people you can trust to team with, it greatly decreases your armor and fap decay.

Creature damages
Some creatures will decay your armor a lot more then others. The more different types of damage a creature does, the more the armor can decay. Atrox for example are notourious for doing a lot of armor decay, while Allophyl on the other hand can be a lot more gentle on your armor.

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

Maybe some of the info in this thread should be used for "considerations before joining EU" as well:
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/foru...scussion/3898-how-real-real-cash-economy.html

 

Considerations before joining Entropia Universe / Making money in Entropia Univer

I get this question a bit from new players. My favorite reply:

"Not at your level, not without some creativity."

However, I do think the possibility of profiting is far more common than you might suggest here.

Entropic Economics

Firstly, from an economics standpoint. Yes I know Entropia has massive costs. However, they still have a marginal cost and a marginal benefit (like any normal firm) per unit of transaction. Their units of transactions are bombs, ammunition, and craft attempts respectfully. Austrian (and all accepted economic theory) teaches us that they will examine and utilize these marginal activities up to and including the point of 0 net marginal benefit (meaning they maximize their profit). So, presumably, they are never at a loss for having a bomb dropped, and even of the most inefficient bomb dropping, their marginal benefit to marginal cost ratio is 1:1.

However, for each preceding unit, until that ratio, the ratio would have been something like 1.2:1; 1.1:1; or 1.05:1 (until it reaches zero). They are a firm, and they are in it to maximize profits. What I'm trying to establish here, is that they make more than just what they require to remain operational. They make some for capital expansion, research, and to insure against unfortunate happenings.

The game is not a potato field however, when they reach a mb to mc ratio of 1:1; their capital expansion is in the form of advertising. Thus, they take that profit money, and put it into advertising. What I dare say, is that, if they are work logically, some of their best advertising, might be word of mouth. Even someone with little or no financial literacy can open a bank-account with 3% annual interest. With a little mathematics, you can correlate this 3% (or a portion of it) to a certain skill level. Then, you have an excellent tool for increasing retention and possibly for advertising.

A player who has invested a large amount in skill gain, now profits, and thus has economic incentive to stay in the game. Not only was his previous capital used to create a current asset, but he has then become an asset himself. Now he tells his relatives of how he makes money playing a game. He stays in game, telling other that 'yes, you can' and thus they stay in game (so he is a bonus to both retention and recruitment).

It literally comes down to how financially literate the people at MA are. I know this works. That isn't to say at the start of the game, that a player with 0 investment will be made to profit, but rather that skills become both a measure of in-game competency, and something concurrent to equity in the investment made with part of the capital that you've given the company.

However, if your only goal is to make money. Invest that money in the bank yourself, you will make more. However, if your goal is to play a game where you can get paid, I'm saying its technically possible that they do this. I'm undecided if they are currently practicing such a model though.

I know this is possible, because I'm designing/testing a web-based browser game that is doing something similar.

And Secondly,

Item X

The A3 Justifier Mk II Improved was last on auction in March of 2010. It sold on a final bid of 12,000 USD (not PED, USD). Its got good statistics for its level of weaponry, but nothing outstanding. So why is this? A simple view in Entropia shows that it is one of the most economic item in the game. Thus, people seem motivated to buy it for personal reasons, usually fully aware of its economic capabilities.

Yes a reseller could resell it for some profit, and I would argue that some do. However, there are a few reasons why this item is meant for operator-level purchase over resell purchase. A) Those with the money to spend on this weapon, will do so knowing exactly what their ROI will be. The Reseller may be able to push up the price of the weapon (based on the individual desire), but each player will be acutely aware of what they are willing to pay. B) Its too rare. A reseller may make 2000 USD upon its sale, but won't likely reproduce this. C) Its unlimited. Therefore there is no need to worry about it decaying to uselessness. A reseller could use it for a while, and then sell the remain + MU, if they wanted to.

But I think the biggest thing that says to me that this weapon makes the game profitable (or at least allows more mobs to be profitable), is the price. Who would spend 12,000 USD on a virtual item, without it being a significant investment. Or is the average EU player far more vain than I give credit for?

Conclusion

I'm not saying if the game core system is or is not profitable. There are many creative ways to profit from the game outside of the game itself. I'm just saying that its technically feasible that a 'level of profit' could be implemented. And as well, that this would be the level at which you would increase to match inflation. As if you increase it, it automatically accounts for inflation that year, and so forth.

Check out my Entropia Blog

-Kalis (Death Lords)