Today I continued my journey on Calypso Gateway. I pulled out the old dusty orange and took it on. Kind of weird after so many years and yet somehow refreshing too. I even found some old axes, which havent been polished for quite some time! When I started I was a melee girl ... there is something quiet and nice axing around - but later on it was mostly swords and today I'm a Gunner! I ran around and it seemed even more busy today - with even more old players and not that many freelancers! Karadan Jorak Richsel from yesterday was still in the bar, kind enough to hand me over a Beer "Though I'm actually at work" he said with a smile and shouted out the news from the radio station he is DJ'ing for; Atlas Haven Radio. As an already set player, he was positively surpriced by the Gateway and told me that "Except for the lack of Beer in the bar, it was a great place", though some stuff could have been better, he beliefs and explained: "The equipment breaks before you are done with the missions. This is bad, because the tools are limited!". I agree with Jorak - it sertainly is very important for Mindark to fix this before the newcomers are stuck up here. In a few days the gate will close to the both-way travel to and from Calypso, and the tools cannot be repaired, so you have no chance other than to go to Calypso - but then you can't finish up your training in the Gateway. "Also" Jorak continues "Don't drop your bombs ourside near he buildings! For some reason those won't be added to the mission tracker... " Ouch, that's really not good - that warning is hereby given out, and I hope some people will read it and warn others as I also hope this will be fixed soon. Jorak do believe, that when the gates close for us old timers, Mindark will change this to make sure the newcomers won't have all these problems. "They probably don't want to hand away too much free stuff to us "veteran" settlers", he says with a grin - and perhaps that's it! And I really hope he's right about that. Jorak spends his time in the Gateway promoting his show on the radio "Yeah, I kind of miss old days where people was sitting around the PA teleport chatting. So I go here now and tell them about the radio and lurk around a little :-) ". You can hear Jorak (and his lovely aussie accent) in the Atlas Haven Radio 06:00 to 09:00 every saturday morning, MA time - right after RavenJade (EU's own Vampire princess) and Evey. (You can also put mms://entropiaradio.com/atlashaven into your favourite media player and always have nice access to the radio)! I thanked Jorak for the time he took telling me about his experiences so far, and grabbed the axe to go out for some of the new puny mobs around the island. "Remember to visit all the officers before heading out", Jorak shouts at me "Even that doctor lady at the window"! Oh yeah, I thought by myself, the lady with the fragments ... First thing that saw me out there was a nice looking berycled puny and I must say, it looked awesome. It wasn't really attacking me first - I had to jump on it a couple of times before it really saw me (lol) but then it hit me one dmg on my newly washed orange! One hit with the axe and it was done ... and so was my fragment mission ... that wen't pretty well. I ran all the way around the Gateway center, and when I reached the lagoon I was stunned by the view and the water. Everything there looks so crisp and fresh and I imagine the warm water and how nice it would be to be cooled down a little after the hunting. But then some caudatergus came along (also nice looking) and bam - one hit, and it was dead and more fragments hit my loot window! I kept running but now suddenly all the mobs were gone! I didnt find any other mobs! I would have wished for more mobs - even as a newbie, I suppose! Running back into the main center, after exploring the island, I met a guy named Darius Dare Toreme. He just started the game like Amanda from yesterdays article, but he already visited Calypso and now he was tp'ing up and down all the time. He also been at the Sweat Camp already - and was trying to get his things to work. In the chat window I saw people giving away their mining deeds because their tools died out - which is really sad actually ... Darius found out about Entropia through an overall gameforum called www.facepunch.com. He uses to play Half-Life and he felt for the similarities EU has. Also he likes the mining part and wanted to try it out, since it's free. To my question wether he found the Gateway to be a nice place to begin, he replied "Ya it's nice enough though my only complaint is it's rather slow to start! I want to be playing rather than grinding! Now I'm trying to decide between an ore-extractor and a pistol+ammo!" He rans out again, and I somehow admire the will and faith you have when you start a new game. I explore the inside of the Gateway Center again, and on second floor you find the huge spaceship, from where my guess is the newcomers arrives. In front of it there's a lot of suitcases and travel goods which is the last sad belongings from the Earthlings. On my way around I meet other players, not new to this Universe. One is very positive about the Calypso Gateway and tells me, that he was concerned if a new mentoring system would come up because of the old disciple farming, where mentors were standing in front of the gate from where the newcomers ran out, just to get new disciples in. "It wasn't everyone of course, some mentors did a lot for the disciples, but there was those few who took advantage of the gift system, who never helped out the disciples". It is true, that the new Gateway will help the disciples a lot. And the Officers around kind of works like first-days mentors. But when they reach the REAL Calypso, it is very nice we have some awesome guides to help them out, as we have Entropia Tour Agency, The Adopt a Newbie programe and a lot more as extra services and help. The same guy tells me, that he believes FPC should make more missions at the gateway, put in more mobs (and harder mobs) to expand the newcomers time spend in the Gateway area. Now too many goes to Calypso in a hurry and they miss out the missions and the easy way of learning things, you find in the Gateway. "I am not a quitter so I would carry on up here if I was a newcomer, but I am closer to age 70 than 20 and I am not sure that the Gateway will attract the younger player". He also tells me that it annoys him his (L) newcomer items broke already - he didn't finish pulling up his claim. His first weapon was fine and lasted into the third hunting quest, but overall he hopes they will have a longer durability for the newcomers sake. Darius tells me that he already tried joining a society - but he is not sure wether they accept him or not! I'm amazed about the newcomers I have met so far. Not only Amanda from yesterday, who I am now talking with regulary; She already have some ideas of what to do next. But also Darius already seems to be very well into things - knows about sweat camp etc. And I wonder if this place already, without being able to know for sure, is a success? Time will tell :-) Enough of me running around like a newcomer - I take off the Orange again, but before tp'ing back home, the guy from earlier shouts "Normally there's no Dwarf Nuns, tho ..." ... and I'm a little confused, and says "But I'm quite tall??" ... and he shouts back "sorry, that was a penguin ..." That is one thing I love about this game - the humour - even the bad jokes hahaha - and you see humour in all the officers around in the Gateway. One time I was asked to wait for a minute in a corner untill they signed my papers, and another time (as mentioned yesterday) they needed to sign 5 formulars before I was accepted :-D just like in Real Life. This was just a small trip to Calypso Gateway. If you hurry you still have time to visit this place - and I can say, it is worth the trip up there - and it's free ,-) Happy Hoffing
Fellow facepuncher over here! Most of the people over there said the game was too much of a money hog, they expected a free game... But oh well, the members are like, 14-22 or something.
Indeed. I don't mind spending like 15-20 euros a month. But nowadays it's not enough anymore. Nice article by the way ;) Can't +rep you yet :(
Ohh very excellent article >^.^< I too am very happy about the new gateway I played through everything (though I did not get even one find while mining) I really think this is going to be a super addition to the game and a real benefit to new players to get some play experience before being pounced on by the ravenous hordes hehehe
Agreed. I hope they will put up some additional pointers at PA for what the new Entropians are to do next, though. Imagine going from the serenity of that little island with puny mobs straight to the shouting-hub that is Port Atlantis.
