I have played now for around 2 years and deposited over $900 dollars,no matter what i do i can not make ped i usually do 50 ped mining runs and rarely ever get a profit in trade terminal returns or mark up and if i do its is quickly followed by an extremely bad run,this has only been going on for the past year the first year i was playing as a noob i was doing better lol i was able to get 2 full pages of auctions and constantly cycle ped but as soon as i started to invest more money in the game it seemed to punish me for it and my losses began to get bigger and bigger and now i am totally broke this month i have deposited $130 and lost it all without a single global or hof every single mining run was a 10-20 ped loss with low mark up ores so i decided to stop mining and started hunting and my returns was identical no matter what i do in game i am constantly losing ped a pattern seems to be emerging where it will rob me non stop for an entire month without a global or hof no matter how much i deposit then the following month it will give me one or two hofs that is a tiny fraction of what i deposited the month before, I know its not my game play that is causing this it is like i am restricted from ever making a profit i feel like mind ark are keeping me down so i continue to deposit it is really starting to piss me off having to deposit every other day and never getting a return to the point its driving me away,getting ripped off non stop for 8 month is a complete joke I even ticketed mindark about it and they wont even reply. is anyone else doing extremely bad in game? and my advice if you want to do good in game don't constantly deposit thinking you will be rewarded for it or have a better chance because its the exact opposite they will rob you dry.
First of all, welcome to the forum, second if would make reading your post a lot easier if there were a few points and comma's in there at the right locations. About your returns in game, well I hate to say it, but the game is Dynamic and bad runs do happen. But if yours is already lasting for that long, you might be doing something wrong, like mining or hunting above your level. You might want to try gear that is a step lower then you are using now and hunt creatures that are a bit lower level. This will cause you to spend less money anyway (less ammo used, less decay) and your money will last longer. In general your return should be around 90%, but that is in the long run and will not be so after 1 or 2 runs. In the past I did a test on Halix and with economic gear and without armor I got to that 90% pretty close, was around 85% I think, so just 1 or 2 bigger loots would have gotten me there.
Lots of people are doing bad in the game. The reason why you are doing badly is mostly this phrase: "I know its not my game play that is causing this" Because even if it isn't your gameplay that is causing it, it could be your gameplay that could change it around. But you'll have to start doing things differently. If you're not willing to do that you'll rage quit in a few weeks. Add me to friendlist ingame if you want to change it around, if not please ignore this post.
I understand the game is dynamic and stuff changes i also try to be dynamic with it i try all different types of mining techniques and try different areas or even planets to no avail. I am like level 23 in prospecting and level 20 in surveying i never mine above my level the highest level finder i use is a Terra master 4 but those seem to be quite expensive so i also use the emine FS or F-105 if i am running low on ped. And I sometimes use level 1 Terra amps but not very often so it is nothing to do with amping why i am losing either. as for hunting i am a level 20 laser sniper hit and always use guns that have 10/10 hit ability and 10/10 critical hit like the piron-12. the mobs i hunt are only like level 5-10 like oratan nusuls bokol and hadra I never bothered with halix as i kill them in one shot and only get a few pec loot. and i don't just do a few runs and expect 90% returns i have killed almost 5000 oratan and very close to 1900 nusuls. how dynamic does mindark expect you to be i have bombed the entire ark map and killed every mob in my level range then gone to toulon next island and rocktropia still with no luck and always the same out come.
Basically you can't get TT profit in the long run, what makes you profit is from markup. Sadly there are basically no markup in hunting so unless you are super lucky or with a great mentor, otherwise just forget about profiting in hunting. About mining, find a mentor maybe? From your tracker you are not mine for markup. Here's a easy way to determine if this area worth to mine is to see if you can get above 120% Average markup in this area. As the magical 90% TT return you need 112% average markup to profit in the long run which is quite easy in mining. Mining is all about using the right finder in the right area to get good markup stuff. Also try to do a longer run might improve your return %. As you probably know if you are logging your return, your hitrate would be about 28% in the long run, so longer run tends to have more balanced return. I don't like to giving away specific mining location but it is quite easy to see where to mine as we have little big mining log, so just go take a look and do some research, it's still quite easy to profit in mining.
I do search for all the high mark up ores and used to find them quite frequently but for the last 8 months i find the majority of my runs are zinc herb and kaz it is impossible to turn a profit. and i do use different finders ranging from the trade terminal terra master to the F-105 and emine FS and the best one i can use is a terra master 4. The only other people i know of who have done as bad as me is people who get all time highs they say the game becomes unplayable without taking a loss every run and it totally ruins the game for them. that is the exact same problem i have only i have never got a all time high. and i graduated disciple last year i am not a noob i am well in sync with the game it has just decided to rob me regardless of what i do.
mining went the way of the do-do after the new engine. the crafting market also went heavily down which meant the MU on everything you got went to 115%. useless mining and why I left many years ago.
The other way could be to invest money and bring up your skills to a decent level. I was a melee hunter and was hunting Atrox all the time. Everybody told me how stupid I was: 1. melee hunter 2. medium Atrox (Dominant to Old Alpha) Well, at least I bought an unlimited Genesis Niflheim, a set of female Lion armor and reached Archmaster swordsman (wich is level 87 or something). This was a serious improvement. My return was than 95% on the long run. Without MU items in loot and without one single ATH during more than eight years (highest loot ever for me was 2800 PED way back in the past before EntropiaLife started tracking). 95% return was good enough for me because I never had the intention to make profit. I just pay for entertainment. But Entropia Universe changed dramatically and was no longer entertainment for me. So I left the game a few months ago. But the loot was NOT the reason.
I have invested close to $1000 and i am not will to deposit over $1000 and i am not hof chasing or trying to make a profit i would just be happy to get some of the ped back i lost but if it does give me a hof it is a tiny fraction of what i have lost and it will rob it all back off me asap by giving me constant no resources found or no loots.
Feel free to have a look here, regarding your "bad luck" =) http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/all-possible-loot-cycles.11694/
Clearly you are not trying to play it right at all, adopt or die man. You have various of finders and use them doesn't mean you use them correctly. Find a mentor is what I can give to you. Good luck