Content Release Sept 27th!

We've confirmed the 27th as our next content release date!

It looks really solid, we are working on a couple new items, a couple blueprints, and a couple quests. Storywise, this introduces the framework for the quests and characters in the next 2-3 releases.

If you're following the development side, too, I've got a new post on the dev blog discussing what we're working on in the blueprint department.

 

LOL you beat me to it this time. Posting the link that is :) Like I said on FB, hopefully this release contains some of those BP's.

 

Hurray! Please please please make the items/BP's uniques so they cant be used anywhere else, otherwise they will all get taken straight to Calypso!

 

umm, the way it is worded, this will not be in the next update.... seems more like just picked it up.... time will tell.... waaay past tired of the mushroom treatment... info and less excuses about cash econ will save your planet... looking at the calender people are making their decisions on where to go, and what event/release to take part in... your next actions will determine the outcome of this rock... meh... more than enough other things to do out there on Caly, and Ark....

 

If you read very closely, there are two acknowledgements on the blog that the NI staff is not happy with the state of the game either.

We’ve had a gorgeous planet for a long time...

Our planet went live without blueprints and crafting profession options...


I think the Next Island company has internal problems. We don't know the name of the developers, we don't know why NI separated from NDS, we don't know why there was no content for so many months.

 

Its funny how people perceive things differently. I took it to mean they are acknowledging what we have been saying and that there is still work to be done.

Whether they are adding the bp's and other things mention now, or just adding more eye candy I guess we will find out soon.

I think this update will test the faith of alot of people who are still here sticking it out.

 

Yippie, no "word soup" for me this update :) Good to hear the updates are comming, and good to see crafting aimed at new players. Perhapse crafting related quests could help introduce crafting to new players.

 

New quests, yay! New crafting, yay!! May they pleeease involve some of the tons and tons of refined crystals I've been sitting on. (Well not literally sitting on, that would be painful.)

A use for animal parts, a use for NI crystals, would be awesome. Could even...use some cyclops and mino parts to encourage people to hunt in AG. (Since the one existing quest chain is about getting people to go there.)

Even one new quest would be a big increase percentage-wise. Unless you count every individual step on the main storyline quest as a separate quest, there is really 1 story quest and one killing quest on the whole planet. Same with AG. (One to get you to run around for Crion with a busted sword, one to kill 999 enormously powerful cyclopses.)

I wonder if anyone has yet killed 333 of each named cyclops with a blade and no armor. I'd be fascinated if that quest has been completed by anyone. Supposedly the big ones have 4k or so health points. Saw someone post on another board that it took him 6 swords and 1.5 herb boxes to kill one of them.

 

I hope they fix the Enchanted River water surface on this release. Hint hint hint. Say no more.

 

I think they admit there is work to be done, no question. But between the lines, they imply the original development was bad and (I hope) that new staff or a new studio is repairing that.
I have a background in Public Relations so the mysterious end of the relationship between NDS and NI, followed by no comments on the horrible game state, followed by no content sets off flags. I don't think they released a bad product and were unaware of that fact until reading the player forum!

 

I personally think NDS stretched too thin taking on two planets at a time, when NI launched, RT(owned by NDS) was in a sorry state of development aswell, 9 months after it launched. NDS becomes no longer involved with NI for whatever reason and RT gets one good update after another and is now a serious competitor in EU. As I said somewhere else in this forum, having the programming being outsourced is just too inefficient, Now that Harold and his team have had some time learn EU and do some catching up, I think we might see some very nice results to come.

 

Well if I had crafted NI I'd be proud too, it's a tropical paradise (at least the low starter part I haven't left yet.) It's the filling it up with things for paying customers to do part that's slow to roll out.

Second Life is pretty, but...it's touristy. What to do? Oh look, another house. Tacky furniture, gothic bed with poseballs. Ride the poseballs, LOL taking screenshots of yourself riding the poseballs, wander off....oh look, another house....

Ancient Greece is kind of Second Life-ey, take Thebes for example. Lots of pretty buildings, no reason to enter them as 99% of them have no interior detail. Not counting the trade and repairbots standing in the marketplace, there are 4 npcs in that whole city that you can interact with: gate guard, head of the guard, Crion and a jailer whose jail has nobody in it. Add some poseballs so I can make funny screenshots or something ;)

Both NI and AG, there are creatures to hunt. Those sort of come with the landscape. Things drop, tools wear out, sometimes someone with a spaceship drops down out of the sky, asks if anyone within earshot has this or that, checks the auction, then returns to orbit. That's an exciting day at Crystal Center!

Player content overshadowing official content. The first Next Island Race, most fun I've had since install. Seriously, the act of going around collecting TPs, it's a quest equally engaging to the actual...quests.

the 26th should breathe some more life into the place. Papoo Parts and Refined (pick one) Crystals better appear on one of the new blueprints. And a new NPC with a quest line!

 

Just to be extra clear, we're working towards unique items and blueprints based on Next Island loot, but we do NOT expect this release (or the items / blueprints we're working on for the next content release) to create a full planet economy. These are the first steps towards building interlocking blueprints for our planet.

 

Another update on the dev blog today!

 

Thanks for the update :)

 

OK, so I'm confused, I confess. Granted, the NI update is in a week. But today, there was patch activity. On the launcher, the "Support" button on the little crossbar says servers are back up with the 12.0.5 EU release and planet partners update. Yet the first button, "Highlights," which displays by default when I start up the launcher, has release notes for 12.0.1 back in July.

Granted, this wasn't a NI-specific release but surely some of the mechanics or patches apply to all planets? Will generic patch notes not appear on the launcher unless NI-specific?

It just makes the launcher appear out of date.

 

Lykke just posted this over at EP

 

Gretchen, it can be a bit confusing at times. From what I've observed, updates can consist of planet partner items (in this case NI developer things like new mobs, buildings, locations, missions, etc.) content AND updated content from Entropia Universe (that controls over-all game dynamics, loot mechanics, movement controls, etc.). So exciting.

That update window you see at the beginning I think is for the planet, however sometimes it updates and sometimes seems dated. Any clarification from the NI folks/players?

I also believe patch notes come directly from the Entropia folks, so if you see any Next Island specific stuff, its items are listed first on the release notes post on the Entropia site, because ultimately the Entropia team dictates (or more so manages) ALL content that goes out to the players.

 

Hmm, well its unlimited and repairable based on that picture. I think I have to lean towards clothing rather than armor based on that. But it is possible it may be an unlimited armor piece. Here's to hoping :)

 

So many eye candies and big words talk, for being an long-time player in this game, I need to tell you, Dev Team, plz learn about the game 1st and recognize what we, players, ACTUALLY need. New colour ? New 'just one piece of armour", from an "outdated movie" ?

While Arkadia is focusing on releasing new more powerful weapons + BP, While RT providing new hunting places like The Thing, you guys are introducing new colour and one piece of armor ~.~

How many more players would come because this update? 50 or 100?
Should people visit RT/Arkadia 1st, then visiting NI or going back to Calypso?

Creating a fully working economy, with weapons/armors looted, crafted, is that hard when you already have Calypso / Arkadia / Rt as EXAMPLES?