Friday, February 28, 2014

Pictures of MindArk Office

It seems it is good to work for MindArk. At least it looks better then my office.


































Controlled Mobs

In the last release, a new feature was introduced which allows MindArk and planet partner official avatars to morph into one of the many creatures found in Entropia Universe and interact with participants. This new system creates possibilities for interesting events and unique content. In the patch deployed on Wednesday, support for shared loot was also added so that participants of all levels can take part when controlled mobs are used in special events.

MindArk has provided strict guidelines for the use of these special controlled mobs to ensure that our participants’ enjoyment of Entropia Universe is not affected in a negative way. This includes avoiding interfering with participants located in shop containers or revival areas, or who are crafting or interacting with auctioneers or terminals.


Please note that officials have no control over the loot received when controlled mobs are defeated; the normal loot calculation for the mob is performed in all cases. In future partner releases, mobs created especially for this new system will be introduced and may include special event-oriented items in their loot. The distribution of such items would also be handled by the usual loot algorithm, not by officials.


We hope you enjoy this fun new feature of Entropia Universe and look forward to our partners employing it the create more engrossing and exciting events. Ultimately we plan to extend a skill-based version of the controlled mobs system to participants which could also be very interesting.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Largest Arabian Mythology MMORPG Ever

Planet Toulan Is The Newest Planet In Entropia Universe

AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- /Beladcom/ – Beladcom, the Jordan-based game developer and regional pioneer in the industry, and Entropia Universe AB, the largest Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy (or MMORCE) game, announced today the launch of Planet Toulan. Planet Toulan is the largest-ever MMORPG inspired by rich Arabian mythology and culture.

"Created by a Jordanian team, Planet Toulan marks a milestone of achievement in the emerging Arabic gaming industry," said Talal Asfoura, Beladcom's General Manager. "We've taken the mythology we grew up, mixed in new ideas from science fiction, and can now share it with the world."

Toulan is an ancient Arabic word that means extremely mystical and captivating. This MMO puts players in morbidly hot deserts, swamps teeming with unthinkable creatures, mountains blanketed with perilous sheets of snow and all 600 years after an apocalyptic war. Gamers will help colonize the inhospitable lands and rebuild the nation to its past magnificence. Along with a plethora of professions and skills to choose from, players will be able to follow quests, hunt mythical creatures and explore magnificent landscapes, all the while discovering Toulan's history. The amazing game soundtrack was created by international composer Tareq Al Nasser. For more details on Planet Toulan please go to www.planettoulan.com. This new world is the latest edition to the highly successful Entropia Universe platform created by MindArk.

Entropia Universe is the largest Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy (MMORCE) game in the world. Players have no monthly costs, but deposit and withdraw real funds for their adventures on any planet in the Entropia Universe. For more information on Entropia Universe or to download the free game please visit www.entropiauniverse.com.

About Beladcom

Beladcom is a Jordanian game developer, committed to transforming the regional and international gaming landscape by utilizing its unique position in this ever-growing industry to develop sensational titles with global appeal. With the help and support of our strategic global gaming partners we are building a solid High-End game development house, that is able to sustain and adapt to current and future gaming trends and platforms.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

State of the Universe Address 2014

State of the Universe Address 2014

Greetings Entropians,

MindArk is happy to report great progress achieved in many areas of Entropia Universe in 2013. The MindArk team spent much of the year improving the user experience and upgrading infrastructure to improve performance and accommodate more simultaneous users.

2013 Highlights
Entropia’s 10 Year Anniversary
2013 began with MindArk celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Entropia Universe. Special events were held, and hundreds of special TEN Edition items were looted throughout the year to celebrate this exciting milestone.

Infrastructure Upgrades
A series of major infrastructure upgrades was performed during 2013. These upgrades have helped to improve server capacity and stability, and allowed for faster and smoother deployment of Version Updates, patches and hotfixes. These upgrades also help our developers and partners to more efficiently develop new content and systems by streamlining the internal development pipeline.

Marketing
MindArk vastly increased its marketing efforts in 2013 resulting in a more than 110% increase in the number of new participants compared to 2012. Those marketing efforts also resulted in a very encouraging 57% increase in the number of new depositors. By all significant measures such as average simultaneous users, new accounts, and daily economic turnover, overall activity in the universe was at an all time high during 2013, due in large part to the MindArk’s latest marketing efforts.

New Player Experience
Additional improvements to the new player experience were implemented in 2013, carrying on the focus given to this area in late 2012. These efforts have synergized well with the marketing efforts described above, and have contributed to the improvement in conversion rates and participant retention. A series of player-contributed YouTube tutorials were also created in cooperation with MindArk, and new participants were encouraged to view those informative videos to get off on the right foot in the Entropia Universe adventures. The new player experience is an area that will continue to have MindArk’s attention moving forward, as it is an essential component of the growth of the universe.

Payment Processing
Many participants were thrilled with the addition of Paypal as an official Entropia Universe payment processor in the second quarter of 2013. In addition, new participants have the option of purchasing special starter packs via Zong, Paypal’s mobile payment solution.

Avatar Graphics
A major overhaul to the avatar graphics and creation system was implemented early in 2013, resulting in incredibly realistic looking avatars and enhanced avatar customisation possibilities.

Moon Estate
A new type of estate management opportunity was offered in 2013. A group of participants pooled their resources and bid 1.5 million PED to acquire the rights to manage the first such estate, which subsequently was launched as the Monria moon estate in May 2013.

New Systems/Features
Several exciting new exciting features were introduced to Entropia Universe in 2013 which have been widely approved by participants. Those features include mission and skill progress trackers modules, as well as new types of consumable items that buff avatars in various ways. In addition, weapons and other items introduced in 2013 sport interesting new abilities, for example: life leech, faster reload speed, or damage blocking. New convenience items were also introduced toward the end of 2013, including portable trade and repair terminals and auto-loot pills.

Veteran Appreciation/Cost to Play

  • As promised in the 2013 State of the Universe Address, MindArk implemented several changes and features that helped to reduce the overall cost to participate in Entropia Universe, including:
  • Average TT returns were increased across the board for hunting, mining, crafting and other activities.
  • Removal or lowering of many unpopular fees, such as the armor equipping fee.
  • Increased the unlimited item tiering speed.
  • The minimum condition of most items lowered to 3%, freeing up a large number of PED, especially for owners of older UL weapons.
  • Reduced the volatility of many activities, especially for lower level avatars.
  • Decay and ammo consumption were removed when using a weapon not aimed at a valid target.


2014 Roadmap
MindArk has ambitious plans for the development of Entropia Universe in 2014, with planned primary focus on the following areas.

Systems Development
Social Interface - A completely overhauled and improved social interface has been under development for the past several months, and is getting close to implementation. This upgrade will bring several long-desired features, including offline messaging, custom chat channels and much more.

Affiliate System - An affiliate system is under development which will allow participants to earn PED by referring new Entropia Universe participants.

Premium Accounts - Still in the early design stage, MindArk is planning to offer premium account upgrades for a small monthly cost. Benefits of the various premium account types are still being decided, but may include such features as increased storage limits and increased number of simultaneous auctions. We are also considering making premium account upgrades available via daily mission tokens as well as special lootable items.

Citizenship & Housing System - Development of these systems was unfortunately delayed in 2013 due to the critical infrastructure upgrades taking quite a bit more development time than anticipated, along with several other projects receiving higher priority in the second half of 2013 and early 2014. This project now is now tentatively planned for release in Q4 of 2014.

PVP - Lots of improvements and enhancements to player vs. player (PVP) combat are planned for the second half of 2014. More information will be made available in a future Entropia Buzz developer notes article.

New Player Experience - Among MindArk’s highest ongoing priorities is improving participant conversion and retention, and one of the best ways to accomplish that is to continually find ways to improve the experience of new participants. As such, we plan to continue working closely with our planet partners in 2014 to implement systems and features that make Entropia Universe as exciting and user-friendly as possible for new participants.

Legacy Systems - Progress is ongoing for the reimplementation and refinement of various legacy systems.

New Systems - Several other interesting new systems are in the early development stage, and are planned for release in Q3 and Q4 of 2014 depending on prioritization of the other projects mentioned above. More details and teasers will be released throughout the year, so be on the lookout!

Marketing
MindArk plans to continue to expand and refine its marketing efforts in 2014 in order to maximize the number of new participants joining Entropia Universe. As outlined above, our marketing efforts in 2013 were very promising and we plan to become even more aggressive in 2014.

Planet Toulan
MindArk was excited to bring its newest planet online last week. Though still in its beta release, Planet Toulan promises to bring exposure of Entropia Universe to a previously untapped sector of the online gaming audience, and add a unique Arabian theme to the existing planet partner roster. Full release of Planet Toulan is expected mid-2014.

Cost to Play & Balancing
Continuing with the improvements made in 2013, MindArk plans to further improve average returns for many activities. One example would be the removal of the clothing equip fee in an upcoming platform release.

Infrastructure & Development Tools
Additional improvements to the Entropia Universe infrastructure and development tools are planned, which will allow MindArk and its planet partners to more efficiently develop and deploy new features and content, while minimizing server latency and downtime during patches and version updates.

Deed and Estate Management
Several new deed and estate management opportunities are planned for 2014. One of these will be announced in the upcoming planet partner release scheduled for early March.

Entropia Platform
Several major public and private organizations have expressed interest in making use of the Entropia Universe platform and collaborating with MindArk for future projects.

In conclusion, MindArk is looking forward to an exciting and productive 2014 for Entropia Universe and hopes all our participants will enjoy the improvements and efforts we have planned.


Best regards,

David Simmonds
CEO MindArk PE AB

Friday, February 21, 2014

Skill Bonus Weekend

Dady need some CLD payout to increase so go out there and shoot.

Starting now and running until Monday morning the frequency and maximum strength of the automatic triggered skill bonuses have been boosted significantly for every planet in Entropia Universe.

Enjoy the skill bonus weekend!

Fort Troy under attack

EBN Breaking News: Fort Troy Resistance

Earlier today Fort Troy was blindsided by a surprisingly fierce robot attack. Though small in number, the attacking robots were quite resilient and exhibited what the CDF has described as "alarmingly intelligent behavioral characteristics".

Colonial militia forces are engaged in ongoing skirmishes with robots in the immediate Fort Troy area, primarily to the north. Reports of increased CDF Combat Tokens in circulation hint at how seriously CDF High Command are regarding this latest robot incursion.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Proposed / postponed tour to planet Toulan

The first part of the title of this post is a joke but you have to read planet Cyrene forum to get it :P

The topic of this post is planet Toulan launch yesterday. The planet looks awesome as you can see from my last post showing screenshots from Planet Toulan. I got home yesterday, downloaded the new update and the planet, spawned my quad, filled it with fuel and then I remembered what happened first day on Monria launch. There was a bug and some avatars were locked. And then I remember all planet launches and always there are some bugs, mission don’t give you reward, revival is missing, you get stuck or locked, returns are lower, loot is bugged.

So before you decide to go to planet Toulan now, you must know that it is in BETA state now. If you go there go on your own risk and don’t get angry if something bad happen. I will try to warn you for some of the bugs that are known now, 24 hours after the planet release:

  • Guardian Village Teleport is not listed upon use – that means that if you discover it now you will have to do it again in the future. 
  • The TT armor (Mawlood) cannot take plates.
  • Hunting loot is only Animal Eye Oil, Animal Muscle Oil, Animal Thyroid Oil and Ammunition
  • In crafting you can’t loot blueprints until next update or patch. 

And something that some people are happy some will avoid the planet – most of the planet is no vehicle zone. That mean you can’t use vehicles to get where you want. You have to run or use teleportation chips to go there.

Another thing that might make you leave the planet is that it is only 1 game server. For example Cyrene has 4, Arkadia 9, Calypso is like 33 or something. You may get bored fast. On the bright side this means you will meet other people more often than on the big planets. I am sure the land area is just temporary thing and the planet is actually huge, but it will be unlocked with time. The bad news is that sometimes that time is measured in years.

There are not many missions now but they will add them slowly with every update as usual.

In short this Planet will be awesome, probably the best looking planet so far, but as every planet it will take some time until it can offer the gameplay Calypso can offer today. I recommend waiting for the first patch probably next week and then go to planet Toulan. And when you go be prepared that it is not the full planet yet.

Screenshots from planet Toulan

As you know planet Toulan launched yesterday. I looked at the screenshots from the planet and it looks amazing. I think this is so far the best looking creatures and weapons in Entropia Universe. The concept art and the actual ingame implementation are on really professional level. The weapons are very detailed and interesting looking with some color variations. Creature design is on Hollywood level. Something you can see on ads for 3D software. And the places look interesting and different. I will enjoy playing on this planet. But just see for yourself.

In game

















Creatures




















Weapons