His Master's Voice - Update

[Eugenio Anhithe Wilde]

It has been a few days since our release and I wanted to take a little time to reflect and give an update on some of the things introduced. There's been a lot of fundamental changes in this and the previous release. To give everyone an idea of the scale of effort to get this done I've been working on these changes for at least the past 18 months. It takes a long time to get things through the development pipeline so I need to plan well in advance and put a lot of time on the details to get all this done. Some of these Version Updates will appear to be quite sudden because I don't like to set unrealistic expectations and prefer not to give dates as so much can change. They are very methodical and planned though. I've already been working on the next release for the past 6 months and at some point that will magically pop out

I'll probably go on a slight tangent now but I feel it is a good time to reinforce some of the things we're trying to do. A big goal of ours is to be a positive contributor to Entropia Universe as a whole. Partly through content and fun events but also through bringing new players into Entropia Universe. This is why I make no bones about the fact that our chat is moderated and so is this forum. I realize this decision will bring me some haters but I learned very early on in this role that I will get haters no matter what I do, in fact I got some before I even made any decisions whatsoever . So I choose to stick to my convictions. I spend more time than people realize communicating with players from new to veteran. It turns out that there is a significant amount of our player base that doesn't want to be in chats where their questions are called stupid, where profanity is ripe and trolling is rampant.

Today we have more players signing up to be Monrian Born than ever through both referrals and our marketing campaigns. Our retention is also much higher than it was 12 months ago. New players are far more likely to stick around now than they once were. A big reason for this is the fantastic community we have and how welcoming you all are to new players. This is something we need to keep hold of as we grow because we'll all regret it if this changes for the worse. These are the reasons why I felt that it was the right time to remove the part of the mission chain that sends players to Calypso. This and the fact that it has caused a lot of frustration for our Monrian Born.

I've been doing some testing and getting feedback on the forum, in game and through PMs and wanted to cover a few things here:

Audio Changes

It's fair to say this didn't exactly drop how I wanted it due to some issues:

• I have licensed a number of tracks to refresh the in game music, unfortunately there is an issue where not all of the play list is being played so anyone who is listening to the game music (not the stream) is hearing just one track from the list for that area.
• The tracks were picked to reflect different 'moods' within different area zones with our storyline in mind and possible future mission quests. The caves and caverns are dark and somber, DSEC forensics has a slight spooky story feel to signify the beginning of a quest, DSEC mining industrial grinding and DSEC Military reflective and moodful as it is a place of historic battles where loved ones were lost.
• The audio stream was updated but is not intended to be played in the outdoor areas and is supposed to be restricted to indoor areas (apartments, shops in the towers and main hub). The music was updated to a 1920s/1930s playlist as a tip of the hat to HP Lovecraft and the original era of the Cythulhu Mythos.
• The music has had a mixed reception, some of you love it and some don't (including a particularly disproportionate rant from a good friend who despises it). I have reduced the frequency of the tracks and will tweak.
• Music taste is personal and will likely never be enjoyed universally but the reason for the changes are that I think it opens up a whole world of possibilities for us in the future. For example we will have Irish music during St Patrick's Day with some traditional music combined with a few personal favorites, we have christmas music, dance music for parties, audio adverts for the shop keepers are a possibility, etc.
• There are technical challenges with how I want the broadcast system implemented so I'm not sure at this stage where this will end up but I'd like to see this all implemented as intended before I do anything too radical.

Mobs

• We fixed the low global threshold bug on the Yog Broodmother and introduced it for the new maturity Yogs (Kyghis The Tormented, Yithyggi The Departed, Ghirus The Elder) :banghead. I've been assured that this in no way impacts return but is merely the trigger for the global message, it is still frustrating though and is being looked into.
• Some of the wave spawners interfere with normal hunting in the caves. There is restricted space which makes this a challenge but with all the spawn changes made there are likely to be tweaks going forward.
• Some bosses may be spawning a little too frequently which again may be tweaked.

Pets

Firstly congratulations to Juicy for the Epic taming of the Yog horror and to Hitman, Mike, Risen and XO for the teamwork involved to get this done. I'm not a very experienced tamer but have been reading and chatting to tamers to get some feedback. The Yog Hatchling and Yog Horror are intended to be a challenge to tame with a unique buff. It seems that the consensus is that the Horror in particular just takes too long to tame. I have passed on this feedback and we expect some re balancing to be done. I still expect the Horror to be difficult in terms of skill but hopefully not quite so time consuming in the future.

When the first pets were introduced to Monria my intention was to make it so that they are exportable only at level 7 to all planets including Calypso. At that time due to the way Monria is implemented that was not possible but it looks like we now have a way to achieve this and it is my intention to have this implemented in the future.

I think it is important for the Monria local economy that our pets are skilled on Monria before they can be spawned on any planet. This should drive more use of the regeneration buff in the stable, increase the consumption of nutrio bars and provide the opportunity to have tamers skill the pets and sell them through their shops or p2p trade.

Any bug fixes won't be in time for St Patricks Day because there is a bit of work involved and it is too close too risk any kind of impact to our event but hopefully most of these items will be addressed in the near future.

Thanks
Ant

 

[WangXiang]

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Really great update Ant, thanks for taking the time.

 

[Risen Ra Oh]

ooooooook ; )

 

[Count Cristo]

Thanks for the update Ant, it's good to have some background information and again we appreciate all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.

 

[Zarnia Foxtrot]

Ant, it means alot to be kept in the loop of things. I think most reasonable people just want to know what to expect and consider it a matter of respect to themselves that they are valued enough to be included in what knowing what will happen next by you, DME and other people in Monria administration.

Just a note for any people who don't talk in chat because of not wanting to appear stupid...I do and ask stupid questions all the time and there are probably alot of people who would admit to this but they are very polite not to do so....Only people who look down or put down others are those who think they know everything and those people are the ones who find out the hard way they don't know everything at some point. People who come across as knowing everything are usually not hard to see, lol..just hard to avoid at times. I would ask for those of you who don't spend much time chatting in Monria chat to realize that there are probably other people who have the same questions you do and who also don't want to appear stupid also. Truth is, somebody needs to ask the "stupid" questions otherwise everyone would be making the same wrong decisions and choices in game. The Monria forum helps alot with the general information a player needs but there are always the detail questions that a player discovers as they play the game that are not always well known. Those are the questions that need to be asked by you, me and anyone who wants to do well in EU and be a highly valued contributing member of Monria and EU. Just some food for thought...

Whether you choose to chat or not, its your choice. Personally, I like to see positive, helpful and uplifting conversation in chat. Anyone can find negative in anything if you look hard and long enough. It's a personal challenge to step above that and be a supportive contributor whether you chat or not in Monria chat. I just hope to see some of you that have been holding back share with us on chat. I know I would love to hear from you..

 

[SachemUrsa]

Princess

You are quite correct about chat. The friendly helpful nature of our chat vs channels like Rookie chat is very clear. I am glad the Admin here keeps an eye on the chat. We had an issue the other day and DME jumped in and resolved it with no bad feeling on any side.

Like you I am glad Ant and the rest of the staff are so engaged with the players and keep us informed. This is seldom seen in other games, and gives players a real sense of belonging.