Monthly Archives: May 2013

Planet Arkadia Star Tour

By Narfi Hungary Willem, Entropia Universe Elder

 Planet Arkadia Tour @OnRPG

Next week Planet Arkadia will celebrate its 2nd anniversary since launching on the 25th of May 2011.

Since launch Arkadia has seen a steady rise in population, and they continue to roll out updates and add content to keep their players happy on a fairly regular basis.

Arkadia is the fourth Planet Partner to join the Entropia Universe.  If you have not heard about Entropia Universe or understand how its business model or Planet Partner franchise system works, you might want to read the article I wrote here for ONRPG.com last month.

Planet Calypso – An Introduction to an Alien World

Each planet that joins the Universe has its own feel and theme. Planet Arkadia is focused around alien archeology and treasure hunting.

Planet Arkadia Mining

Treasure hunting is a new form of mining that is not available on any of the other planets.  You can still mine for ores and enmatter on Arkadia in addition to treasure. Treasure comes in different sorts of artifacts such as broken arrow heads or axes and pottery as well as other artifacts from long forgotten races on the planet.  Each of these may be refined and used by crafters for creating different tools, weapons or armor.

Planet Arkadia Special Armor Sets

When playing it is important to remember that this game is based on an RCE (Real Cash Economy) and you need to study the markets and understand what there is demand for and what is trash filler.  If you focus on what there is a demand for, then you will profit, if you mindlessly do stuff with no regard to the markets, then you will do poorly.

Archeology comes into play through a series of instances available by the use of different level keys.  The keys can be crafted or purchased from other players who crafted them to sell and will grant a team access to the underground ruins to battle monsters while exploring the mazes. Those skilled and coordinated enough to survive the various challenges can expect treasure chests filled with loot awaiting them at the finish line.

 Planet Arkadia Temple Run

I flew to Arkadia a week ago with the intent to explore and prepare for this article, but got caught up with the fun and different personal goals to accomplish. Honestly it took me a full week to shake off the addiction enough to jot down my thoughts on it all.

I had two goals I wanted to accomplish while there. The first goal was to mine for treasure quite a bit in order to gain some health points (HP) since this process is unique to Arkadia. Each type of mining has skills associated with it that increase your HP, and Arkadia is the only planet with treasure. The second goal was to complete the kill 75 and kill 400 Beladoth missions since the 400 mission reward offers knife fighter skills, and I have the perfect dagger I’ve been waiting to utilize once I acquire them.

I brought a bunch of mining amplifiers with me and started mining at the 8 Coins Land Area which is owned by Deathifier, one of the avatars from the early days of Entropia who has invested in land here to promote a Hunting and Mining paradise profitable enough to make a real life living off via the taxes he charges to visitors.

8 Coins was just the first place I tested for mining but since there was decent markup on all three of the ores, enmatters and treasures I was finding, I didn’t end up looking anywhere else, camping the zone for a few of days.  At the end of the third day I was met with a pleasant surprise in the form of my very first Drill Tower which is what you get for an exceptionally large mining claim.  Just under 10k PED (Project Entropia Dollars) worth, in addition to the 130% markup once sold, it will bring me over 12,000 PED ($1200 USD). Needless to say I was pretty excited and had trouble sleeping that night.  It was my first tower in over 5 years of playing the game on a daily basis and only my second ‘big hit’ worth over $1000 USD (the other was a hunting loot a few years ago).

 Planet Arkadia Hall Of Fame Mining

Since I was obviously ahead, I decided not to press my luck anymore with mining and put the remaining mining amps in auction while I headed out to take on the Beladoth missions.  After the tower, the hunting mission turned out fairly routine with a few globals and a couple rare parts that sold for 50-100 PED of markup each.  I was able to finish the kill 400 mission this morning before heading to work.

One of the evenings after mining I was at Celeste Quarry (which is where people gather to chat as well as a prominent meeting point for Traders and Space Transporters).  I met a new player who ended up becoming my newest Disciple.  The game has a system in place for experienced players to mentor new players with a reward system for each upon completion of the program. The graduating Disciple gets a full set of armor in addition to a Hummer/Jeep-looking vehicle, and the Mentor gets a random Mentor Edition item.

I flew him around in my Quad Wing Interceptor and showed him some of the planet, as well as some new teleporters, and then showed him where I had been mining, helping him get set up to do some mining of his own.  He has been at it a few days now and seems to be catching on pretty quickly. He is able to target the higher markup resources and is currently learning the best ways to sell depending on individual markups and quantities he has.

 Planet Arkadia Quad Wing

If starting to play the game for the first time, I would highly recommend you find a good Mentor to help you learn the ropes.  There is a steep learning curve, and having someone advise you will prevent a lot of needless mistakes.

There are a variety of mission NPCs where the new players start on Arkadia, and the typical player will spend their first couple of hours doing these in order to orient themselves with the game.  As you get more familiar with everything you will start choosing missions that are more detailed and take some time commitment to accomplish as well as start to get an idea of the direction you want to take for yourself in the game whether it be hunting, mining, trading, crafting, medic, etc.

The official storyline can be found here, and the missions and events you participate in tend to follow the story to one extent or another.  Knowing the story is not necessary for game play, but if role playing, or learning the lore of where you are is important to you, then becoming knowledgeable of storyline should help get you pointed in the right direction.

A large part of the storyline centers around the humanoid aliens known as Oratan, who are a primitive race able to utilize technology but unable to create it themselves.

“The Oratan are believed to be the race warned of in The Signal, intercepted by the Celeste Space Probe, which would mean this species inflicted genocide on the Ancient Arkadian People.”

As time has gone on and players have worked to explore and colonize Arkadia, the Oratans have grown bolder and stronger and have been recently seen riding animals and wielding weapons believed to have been pillaged in raids against us.

 Planet Arkadia Local Ruffian

I mentioned the Aakas instances earlier so I will end the article with a video of what can only be considered a gamer’s wet dream.  Svena, the avatar in the video, is just finishing a run in the Golden Door instance which is the highest level possible.  The parts to create the key are looted from lower level instances and cost 1000s of PED to craft for a run in the Golden Door instance.  So she put a lot of work into collecting and buying what was needed to prepare for her runs behind the Golden Door.

Some of the highest level armor in the game can be looted from the Golden Door instances and she has had some really nice offers for the different pieces. ($1500 USD for one of the pieces).

 

 

The Lore, the landscape, the community, and the personal drive to succeed are all great reasons to try out Planet Arkadia. As a mid-level player already in the Entropia Universe, I enjoyed my time there and would love to have been able to finish some more missions and meet more of the local people. It has a growing population even after two years, so they are obviously doing something right, and from the new players I talked to, they are having fun as well.

Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar

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Experience hundreds of hours of open world quests and adventures. Explore dungeons with fellow adventurers and defeat your enemies in explosive, co-op action combat. Master the eight virtues and become the Avatar of Renown.

Trion Thursday: Rift F2P Thoughts

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Trion Expert

 

Rift is going free to play.

 

Even though I heard about it right away I needed a bit of time for it to sink in. I’ve been watching all the news from Trion, and reading comments on the forums judging player’s reactions. All of this so I could figure out how I feel about it. Now, this is by no means my first F2P conversion. I was just as unsure that first time as I was about Rift’s announcement. The announcement came as a complete shock to me.

I’ve been playing since beta when a friend of mine who is now OnRPG writer Sephorus wouldn’t stop talking about it. Back then I was happy to just play City of Heroes and nothing more. I got a beta invite so I figured, what could it hurt? From the first rift I was hooked. Back around the launch I made a friendly prediction with a friend. He said Rift would go free to play within 2 years. He’s a huge advocate of the F2P system and someone who has worked in the MMO industry for some time now. At that time I was completely against F2P, you may as well have told me it was going P2W. Now, in the end I won, though I think at 2 years and 2 months its close enough we call it a draw.

 

I’m ready for the F2P conversion.

shop

I’ll be honest with you, for about the last year I’ve been using Rift more for roleplay than actually completing quests. I love the world, I love my characters. I worship the ground Trion walks on for giving us Dimensions. But I’m not a raider, I’m not the sort that needs the best gear no matter what. So, I say Rift F2P? Bring it on.

 

It might seem a bit scary right now. There is a ton of information out there and it can be a bit confusing. Luckily, Trion is doing an amazing job. They’re extremely active on the forums, releasing dev diaries outlining themes like the Loyalty program, and every week they’re taking to Twitch to broadcast something new from Rift while usually taking a few questions while they’re at it.

 

If all the activity on the forums isn’t enough to convince you that this won’t be terrible then go ahead and log into the Public Test Shard where you can check out the changes for yourself. The PTS forums already have discussions on the store and of course we can’t forget that 2.3 will also be released which means all new content for long time fans.

New Outfit

The next planned broadcast that will go over details of the F2P conversion is next week. They’ll be talking about the new currency called REX, the Loyalty program, and how gifting will work. That will start at 1:30PM Pacific time on Friday May 31st.

 

For anyone who plans to continue being a subscriber, nothing is going to change. The worry about the quality of people won’t matter. At worst you’ll group up with people who aren’t as dedicated as you are. But you might just make some new friends too. The events we know and love will still be there. Getting an in game store means we will get new things more often, even if we do have to pay for them. It will be up to you if they’re worth it or not. And in turn Trion will take in more money than they do now, which again means more things for us. In the end it’s a win for us.

OnRPG Shotgun News 5/23: FFXIV Launch Date and New SmashMuck Champions Modes

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG European News Editor

 

 

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Launch Date Announced

We’ve known for some time now that FFXIV: ARR would be launching sometime this summer. But today we’ve learned the ever important date is August 27th. But you can pre order it right now. Anyone who pre orders is in for a treat as they’ll get a head start, a Cait Sith Doll Minion non combat pet, and a Mog Cap. And if you buy the collector’s edition you’re in for even more awesome including an art book, music, and a few awesome in game items as well. Have a look at the second tour of Eorzea.

 

SmashMuck Champions Goes Competitive

August seems to be a popular month for things to happen in today. SmashMuck has announced they’ll be releasing Custom Games and Spectator Mode then. And to get ready for it throughout June and July they’ll be holding contests to give players a chance to try out the new modes and other content in development like the fan created Platimus. More details about this will be released on Facebook.