And the race is on to see who gets to the Golden Door first, and who will have to make that all important decision to open it, or give up the Golden Key to the Archaeological Society who is offering 1,000,000 Arkoins for it. If the door is chosen, it will be interesting to see exactly what is hidden behind it, and whether it will be worth giving up the Arkoins. However, what follows is related to a different adventure that came about as a result of the generosity of Boardian “Chilix” Corunian who crafted and donated a set of Keys 1-10 to MindStar Media so that we can experience the instances and report on them. As we all know, whenever there’s an update, there’s always a rush to test everything out, or do what’s necessary to make discoveries, so we waited until later in the evening to give it a go, and invited Anhithe to join us. Preparing for the Instance Adventure (with a little exploring thrown in) Before setting out to the new Aakas teleporter, Syer and I sat in the upper lounge of the Yamato MS for a chat about what’s on tap for MSM while we waited for Anhithe to join us. Exploring the MS is an adventure in and of itself, and we were already on board from the night before after we ended our maiden piloting voyage – we spent the night taking care of a little business. We finally decided to make our exit from the Yamato and head to Arkadia. However, we were outside of the Arkadia Space Station, and we both wondered if we would run into any pirates. Anhithe was on TeamSpeak with us, and said that if we saw any pirates, we should move the MS into Arkadia air space. So was it Plan A or Plan B – definitely Plan B, and Syer moved the Yamato to a safer place for us to leave the MS and head to the planet – sorry space pirates. We met up with Anhithe at the Celeste Harbour main TP (I always want to give my respects to Professor Milton Lee and his efforts with the first Arkadian Fleet). Syer launched his helicopter and once Anhithe arrived, we were off to the IFN Supply Depot to check out the new Media Centre. What a brilliant idea this was, and I can’t wait to see what Syer is going to do with it. Anhithe and I had a little fun in front of the “green screen” – and I could see Syer’s wheels turning. On the way to the Aakas teleporter, Syer says, we’re going to make one quick stop so that you can get the outpost that you don’t have, which was awfully kind of him, but – remember my apprehension regarding him piloting the Yamato – words not needed. We finally arrived at the Aakas teleporter, and still Syer had to clip that command post as well while landing, but at least we made it in one piece and even ran into quite a few friends – including Mel Bosshart – owner of the Normandie Radio Station (with his wife Brownie) lookin’ all spiffy in his very colorful armor. And the Adventure Begins We were ready to begin our instance adventure, and standing in front of the entrance caused an excitement about what we would find, and if it would be what we anticipated, but certainly didn’t know what to expect. Once we stepped into the entrance and walked further inside, we saw the stairs that began to descend into what looked like corridors. There was definitely a corridor path with interesting things to see, but I don’t want to give too much away since Syer is doing a special video – this offering will only be bits and pieces of our first experience, along with first impressions. We finally reached the entrance into the circular room where all of the instance doors are, which was guarded by two large Defender statues, and a preview of what we would encounter later in our instance experience – although not that big – not yet at least. We also discovered where the Golden Door was, and could just stand there in awe of the detail and beauty of the surroundings. However, this was our first impression of pretty much everything that we saw – and just how much creative detail went into the design. We were ready to activate Key #1, and as we stood in front of the door, the tone on TeamSpeak was one of being excited to see what we would find. Since I had possession of the keys, I double-clicked on the door and received a pop-up dialogue box that gave me a message about the key being removed from my inventory if we chose to proceed – which we did of course. Once past the door and inside, we saw the revive, repair and TT terminals, as well as an entrance that looked to lead down yet more passageways. During the course of our instance adventure, we ran into a few unique creatures, but I will only post a few of them here, because I don’t want to totally duplicate what Syer is doing for the video. First we ran into a lot of snakes called Rakta, and while they were a low-level creature, they were definitely slippery and a challenge to lock onto. However, we made an escapade out of it and laughed ourselves stupid in the process – it was a good time, and – we don’t mind too much that they’re all over the place, because it takes you out of that aim, shoot, move on mode, and forces you to pay a little attention to what you’re doing – it’s the WTF moment of the event. Along the path of the instance, there are various levels and density of creature spawn, with a few surprises as you get into the higher number keys (we did Keys 1-3, which are the only ones operational at this time). At certain points after killing all the creatures in a room or particular area, a larger creature appears with higher health, such as the Magurg Female Young. Out of all the creatures that were presented to us in the instance, I definitely have my favorite – the Defender – which is a replica of the statues standing at the entrance into the main circular room where all the doors are. The animation of this creature cracks me up, but it’s also very cool. There’s a point at the end of either instance 2 or 3 where there’s a mob boss, I guess you could call it, that is larger than those you deal with along the path, and it’s fun to interact with them – for me anyway. As we made our way through the instances, we were mesmerized by many things that truly captured our attention, like the glass globe that had some kind of writing on it – we wondered what the message was – and the huge statue in the center of the multi-level balconies with doorways that led to yet more adventure, and waterfalls and bridges that added to the ambience of the environment, but – the statue itself gave pause to a solitary moment to give thought to its meaning, and what message we should derive from it. At the end of each instance experience, there are treasure chests, small and large, and the number of treasure chests to be opened is determined by the level of instance. With Key #1, we had one small treasure chest on the lower level, and the larger treasure chest on the upper level (I think). No global with Key #1, but there was with Key #2 and #3. I like that they give you a Summary of the event, I suppose just in case you want to keep track of something – the only thing I keep track of is the fun. Unfortunately, there were no armor parts. I think by the time we got to do the instances, they had pretty much stopped dropping, or at least that’s what I heard from someone who had done just about a gazillion instances throughout the day. All in all, we had a very pleasant experience, and managed to avoid what looked like a glitched area where I heard someone had fallen into and had to T-out to get free of it. I’m sure the A-Team will be on top of it and get it fixed soon. The general opinion from all three of us was that the creative detail that went into the making of the instances was nothing less than amazing, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We will do it again – several times I’m sure – and are looking forward to experiencing the adventure with the higher-level keys when the other doors are operational. Everyone approaches their Entropia Universe experiences uniquely, it’s a very subjective process, so perspectives and opinions are going to be diverse at the very least, but for us – we go for the fun factor and truly make it an adventure. It’s nice to get special drops, but if we can take what is presented to us and elevate the experience beyond the normal, then we’ve achieved our goal. We enjoy a creative virtual experience, and we think the A-Team delivered. Article banner created by Syer
