Lots of noob questions

Discussion in 'Next Island' started by JustJohn, Mar 31, 2011.

  1. Hey, just started playing a few days ago. Sweated a bunch of mobs, got a pistol from someone so I finished the boar quest and got my blueprint. Now I would like to sell that stuff and possibly try to "play" a little. So:

    1. How do I sell the sweat and blueprint when the trade channel is completely dead? (I'm scared to use the auction because the listing fee is .54 PED and I only have .63)

    2. Selling to trade papoos
    I'm not sure I understand the markup numbers, or at least, not why the longer term ones are always higher. My guess was that anything over 200% means you're wasting a lot of money if you sell to the papoos, so I've only been selling them stuff closer to 100%. Is that the right idea?

    3. What's my best bet for a non-deposit career? What is needed on NI?
     
  2. red

    red

    A non-deposit career is fine, as long as you keep your expectations reasonable. on NI you don't really need anything. however, practically, it's handy to have a few things.

    outside of sweat gathering, you also look for fruit and stones. they'll appear near you as you walk around the countryside.

    realistically, you should have a weapon. it's your choice as to what you want. in a minimalist world, one single one is enough. I know a guy who started with only the trade papoo knife and refused to use anything else until he had about 2K skill points in shortblades.

    the other thing that's handy is one of those vivo t1 healing kits. it's not necessary, but most people don't like waiting around to recover after being chewed on my a hoard of monkeys.

    you can't sell sweat on the auction, and selling the blueprint there is not a good idea due to the fee. those are best sold to other players. just look for where some are mulling about. the crystal resort or club neverdie are a couple of the usual hangouts.

    many people sell to the trade papoo items that are in the 100-110% markup range. mostly because they don't want to wait to find a buyer. what you do is up to you. generally, the auction is good for larger quantities of things. there are, however, buyers who will give you a decent price for things (and smaller quantities) and save you the auction fee and wait time.

    good luck, and enjoy your time. remember, it's not a race, and you're really only in competition with yourself - regardless of how others behave.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  3. Meg

    Meg Next Island : Game Content Designer

    Well said, Red. Great advice for any new players!
     
  4. Olivia

    Olivia Time Travelers

    Answers for new players...

    Hi JustJohn - remember me? I flew you around in my Sleipnir! I know - I am a horrible pilot!

    Red gave you some great advice there!
    It's true that you cannot sell the sweat on the auction... unless you combine it with a mined resource called Force Nexus (it's an enmatter). For this you will need to mix 1000 sweat with 1000 Nexus. The result is Mind Essence, and that can be listed on the auction.
    That may be TMI when all you wish to do is play the game and have4 fun! PM me when you have 1k sweat...

    In the mean time, many say trading is the best way to make PED to support your play, but here on Next Island, the planet is so new, and the players are few compared to other planets in the universe.

    My suggestion is to buy a game card to deposit 20 - 50 dollars US. This will give you 200 - 500 PED! (minus the Mindatk deposit fee...)

    Many players in the Entropia Universe have been able to support their game play through trading on the auctions. This is harder said than done on a new planet, and learning the value of everything takes time.
    Fewer players up here means less demand for items, and although players on the other planets can buy what you list on the auctions - they will have to pay an additional transport fee. (They will most likely opt to buy from someone on their planet - so only list what you believe will sell on Next Island.

    I have been in this Universe for 5 years and still, I have much to learn!
    When the blue prints native to NI are released this summer, we will all learn the new value of our loot as many of these items will be used to manufacture other items, thus the loot will be worth more! :yay:

    Oh, and I personally recommend a Sollomate Opalo as your main weapon of choice, to start - at least until you have maxed out your skill on it,
    Then keep using it - I love using mine Opalo gun up here!
    You can buy one from the trade papopo, and yes a Vivo to heal comes in handy
    .
    Remember that your skills are actually worth real money in here! They can actually be sucked outta your brain through an extraction process and put into a chip! That is for5\ another day...

    Red forgot to mention while looking for fruit and stones, you should be walking, not running. To toggle between the two - press 'Q'. Also, you may find dung as well! That's right - poo! (Only game I know of where poo is worth something! :palm:)
    Every now and then, you will notice a clump of brown stuff at your feet - it will have flies buzzing around it. Right click on it and select 'pick up'. It is an ingredient to make fertilizer - which is invaluable to land owners.

    Hope this info helps you JJ!

    Keep sweating and then PM me when you have 1k sweat... :monkey:

    Liv
    :nana:
     
  5. My rule of thumb when I started was if the markup was anything greater than 103% I would save it and try to sell it by interacting. Overall this led to long down periods where I was working to find trustworthy players who wouldnt try to tell me that the markup figures on the item I was trying to sell were wrong. Its alot harder than it looks -- most traders out there will try this tactic as a way to pressure you into giving them a better deal. Whenever someone said this to me I said no thanks, closed the trade window and talked to someone else.

    The thing to keep in mind is if you are using the TT for a majority of your interactions you are going to be hit harder by losses. Depending on the play experience youre going for this may or may not be acceptable. EU is meant to be played through interaction with others in the community.
     
  6. Thanks very much for the advice everyone. Much appreciated. What is the TT?
     
  7. Excellent. Thanks again everyone. :)
     
  8. Great advice for new players. May I just add my 2 pecs, take your time and don't deposit till you know what you want out of this game.
    Plan ahead if you intend staying in game. Even sweating is good just for the bonus of the skills.
    If you do deposit some odf us have made profit by sitting in auctions and buying low then sell high. :)
    live long in game.
     
  9. That was uncalled for. You have no idea what hes putting as the markup. He could just as easily be buying from people who are just going to TT items, and then selling them at their correct markup.
     
  10. narfi

    narfi Lost

    You are absolutely wrong.
    This game IS a complex economics simulator wrapped up to look like a pretty mmo.

    You can play as an mmo, you can play as socialite, or you can play as a market analyst.
    If you play it like a normal mmo, you can expect to pay for your entertainment.
    If you play as a socialite, then you can expect to play for free except for what you deposit to look good or to participate in group activities.
    If you play as a market analyst, you can actually make a few ped. (or loose if your bad at numbers)

    The trick to enjoying this game is to balance your real life budget of time and money allotted to entertainment with what you consider to be entertainment within the game. (personally I have chosen to be heavily active in all 3 aspects of the game)\

    The great thing is that there is so may possibilities for everyone depending on their personalities and concepts of fun.

    I hope you find yours.
    GL and have fun :)
    narfi
     
    • Like Like x 2
  11. narfi hit the nail on the head

    sorry boost

    you still need to retake EU 101
    i suggest u start by understand naf's post
     
  12. Calin

    Calin Due for an Ultra-Uber Loot.

    Some great information has been presented here, but I feel I need to say that I think Narfi really got it right. EU is wide open to do what you want, but you need to balance that with the time and money you want to put into it.

    There are so many combinations of what people do in here it's amazing.
     
  13. If the price is too high (4x or 10x) like you say, the consumer simply don't buy it and look for cheaper price from other sellers, hence comes the equilibrium of the market price (marco&micro economic fundamentals).

    Saying about trading platform, I hope you come to TwinPeak and see how many successful traders there. You can even trade and earn profit in NI. Simply deposit 5000USD, and buy all TT food from hunters, then travel back to calypso and sell for 102~105% even 110%. Earning 2%~10% on your capital monthly is a real business. Business in real life may have ROI about 15~20% annually.
     
  14. Quick update: learned to use the auction thing more or less (seems like it takes a huge cut but i guess my options are low with not many people to sell to), and have been swunting boars.

    Question:
    I've got an opalo and a pistol. Looks like the boars are 10hp and the opalo does 3.8-6.4 damage or something like that. For the cases where I can't kill the boars in 2 hits would it be better to switch to the pistol for the 1-2hp finishing shot (since I think it's "cheaper" to use) or stay with the opalo (because that's the main skill I want to build up)?


    Also:
    Regarding mob variants, a few questions. Do harder variants drop better loot, or do they all drop the same? I know harder variants hit harder, but it seems like they have the same HP. Is that true? Also, is there a list somewhere of what old, alpha, forager and all that mean as far as difficulty? I think I've got a couple figured out, but it would be nice to know for sure and have some reference for types I haven't encountered much.
     

  15. It's a good idea to switch to a finisher weapon for the last shot. As you go after bigger mobs this will save you a lot of PED overtime by not overkilling on the last shot.
    Also since your Hit skill will lvl faster then your damage skill most people train pistol to balance that.
    Higher maturity mobs have a chance to drop better loot, although that is only a chance, not a guarantee.
    Mob maturity are;
    young
    mature
    old
    provider
    guardian
    dominate
    alpha
    old alpha
    prowler
    stalker

    Sometimes a maturity level hits high for it's ranking but has low HP instead or vice versa.

    entropedia.info is the "wiki" of the Entropian Universe. Sections regarding Next Island need some work though.


    Also try to avoid using the auction system if you can. One because of the AU fee, second because players on other planets will have to pay an import fee of 1ped + 23% of the TT value of the item and thus will buy local if at all possible.
     
  16. Outstanding info. Thanks very much.

    To make sure I'm getting this: So maturity level normally scales how hard they hit, HP, and loot. However, within a maturity level hit and HP may be scaled inversely in one direction or the other. Overall "difficulty" and loot drop stay the same for each maturity level.


    P.S.
    But does anyone buy the time crystal blueprints on NI? Seems like there would be no market for them, and given the already sparse population will I ever be able to sell them?
     
  17. red

    red

    (disclaimer: red is an idiot. her advice should not be followed blindly. always complete your own research and remember to balance your meals with snacks from all three food groups)

    hello john,

    many people actually use the opalo as a finisher due to its low damage. you might discover that as you progress. personally, I don't tend to like mixing modes. that is to say using both a rifle and a pistol (or a shortblade and a longblade). I think it's more effective to stay with one or the other. if you feel you hit ability is "too high" in relation to damage, you can always chip some out and sell it.

    you could try using that kiwi rookie carbine as a finisher. it's pretty light.

    the easiest (and cheapest) way to deal with the auction is to post your items at a fair market price where the initial bid is the buyout on a 7 day term. you'll pay the minimum fee that way and it'll likely sell because the price is fair. look to see how much competition there is for they type of goods you wish to sell. and, only auction things for which there is an actual demand.

    remember, as corey mentioned, off planet sales incur a transportation fee, so you'll need to account for that, if you believe your likely buyer is not on next island.

    talking to various people hanging around will help you determine what sorts of things are in demand. on next island, we're a little restricted as we don't have an industrial (crafting) base economy yet. most resource oriented goods can still be sold, though.

    when you're out talking to people, it's always handy to befriend a crafter (if you run across one). find out the basic materials they're interested in and collect or hunt for those. you'll both save on fees and minimize reseller gouging. selling directly to a crafter will give you your best price, as the reseller middle step is removed.

    by spending time talking to people, you can find out what they do and if their activities are compatible with your own. most people are pretty good. however, like anything else, there are many who take perverse pleasure is trying to cheat you as much as possible. after a while, you'll learn how to identify these people.

    patience and common sense are your friends.
     
  18. Okay thanks. How about those time crystal blueprints. Best strategy for them is important to me since my income is basically that or sweat right now, and sweat apparently has little value here.
     
  19. If you can, hold onto them until Greece is fixed(presumably with the big June update). When Greece was first released and everyone expected it to be working those BPs where selling for 8-10ped each.
     
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