Asteroid
General
Club NEVERDIE (or short CND) is an 'asteroid space resort' in the MMOG Planet Calypso on the Entropia Universe platform. CND is named by its owner Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs after himself. Jon Jacobs bought the property in October 2005 for 100000 USD.[1]The Asteroid Space Resort was added to Entropia Universe with Version Update 8.0 on Dec 19, 2005.
NEVERDIE claimed to have recouped the original investment of 100,000 USD by a total of 82,270 USD from taxes, 11,340 USD from sales of apartments and 6,340 USD from the sales of shops by August 18, 2006 - not even 8 months after launch.[2]
On from the auction in 2005 Club NEVERDIE held the record for the "most expensive virtual object" until "Buzz Erik Lightyear" bought Crystal Palace Space Station for 330,000 USD in December 2009.[3]
Club NEVERDIE features:
- 20 large Biodomes for hunting and mining activities
- a circular shopping area with 66 shops, each capable of holding 220 items
- 1000 appartments in 3 different sizes located in two 16-storey towers
- 58 Teleporters to travel between the different properties
The most expensive virtual object
The sum of 100,000 USD was breaking the former record for most expensive virtual object held by Treasure Island which was bought by "Deathifier" for 26,500 USD.[4] Consequently CND was included in the Guiness Book of World Records 2008[5] as well as the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2010.[6] Unfortunately the latter was published in January 2010 when the record for the 'most expensive virtual object' was already broken by the sale of Crystal Palace Space Station to "Buzz Erik Lightyear" for 330,000 USD in December 2009.[3]
Club NEVERDIE Revenues
The current receipts of Club NEVERDIE are generated by taxation of hunting and mining activities in the BioDomes. There is some misleading or even contradictoy information regarding the numbers of those revenues.
- An official press release by First Planet Company (the planet partner operating Planet Calypso) mentions that Club NEVERDIE generated over 50,000 USD of income in its first five months.[7]
- In August 2006 a Miami New Times article based on NEVERDIE's answers mentions a monthly average income of 10,000 USD.[8]
- Also quite in line with the 10,000 USD monthly income is the press release by NEVERDIE later in August 2006 that claims a total income of 82,270 USD (from taxes) about 8 months after launch.[2]
- According to Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs the approximate tax revenues of Club NEVERDIE add up to about 64,000 USD for the 1st quarter 2010 :[9]
- January 2010 - 170k PED (=17,000 USD)
- Febuary 2010 - 160k PED (=16,000 USD)
- March 2010 - 170k PED (=17,000 USD)
- April 2010 - 140k PED (=14,000 USD)
- Tax revenues of CND Biodomes on daily basis:
Club NEVERDIE Sale 2005
In October 2005 the Asteroid Space Resort was put on the Entropia Universe auction system by MindArk:[10]
SPACE RESORT FOR SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION 21 Oct 2005 The ownership deed to an as yet unnamed commercial SPACE RESORT under construction amidst the treacherous but Mineral Rich Paradise V Asteroid Belt has been placed in the Project Entropia Auction. Designed as a Pleasure Paradise the Resort built on an Asteroid is a monumental project aimed at being a primary... | ||
destination for Entertainment in the known Virtual Universe.
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The asteroid was bought by Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs for 100,000 USD making use of the buyout option.
The original press release by MindArk about the sale of the virtual asteroid stated the following:
SPACE RESORT SOLD! 24 Oct 2005
The ASTEROID SPACE RESORT was today, 24th of October 2005, bought by avatar "Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs" for a sum of 1,000,000 PED (100,000 US Dollar)!
The public auction offering the Space Resort started Friday 21st of October at a staring price of 1 PED, and with a buyout price of 1,000,000 PED. The response to the news of the Space Resort was immediate – just during the weekend eight parties approached MindArk expressing serious interest in purchasing it. Just three days after the launch, the buyout price was met by Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, before the competition.
We congratulate him on his purchase and look forward to a grand opening around Christmas time! (ref?)
At the time of the auction, Jacobs lived in Miami, Florida, where Hurricane Wilma was creating havoc. He decided to buy out the asteroid before his power went down. After the purchase, he left a message to the Entropia Universe participants from an Internet Cafe:
Hi Everyone,
I haven't been able to log in because hurricane Wilma Knocked out almost the Power in miami. Also 2 huge trees in my yard. It was an auspicious Day! I was actualy standing in the middle of the hurricane recording a special message 2 u all on Video re the Space station when the huge tree in my yard toppled.....! When I get the power back at my house I'll... | ||
edit it and post it somewhere.
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Controversial discussion within the EU community
Due to the relation of Jon Jacobs and Mindark -the developer of Entropia Universe- and the order of specific events (like for instance news articles where Jon Jacobs identified himself as a spokesperson or ambassador for MindArk) the purchase was considered to be controversial by the Entropia Universe community. Adding fuel to the fire was that several other parties were close to get their bank transfers finalized which would have allowed them to place a bid at the buyout price, when suddenly the Project Entropia servers went down. When the game came up again, the estate deed for the Asteroid was gone from the auction and Jacobs was announced as the winner. Below is a timeline of the earlier articles, identifying the titles Jacobs used to identify himself with during interviews, and some of the statements he made in there.
- 29 Sept 2004 Jon Jacobs appeared as "US Spokesman" of Entropia Universe at a panel on Digital Hollywood conference. [11]
- 30 Dec 2004 Jacobs is referenced in an (French) article discussing the Treasure Island sale. In it, he is identified as "Jon Jacobs, qui officie aussi comme porte-parole de Mindark", which translated into English means as much as "Jon Jacobs, who also officiates as spokesman for Mindark". [12]
- 09 Jan 2005 - Article published on telegraph.co.uk where Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs is cited: "I'm negotiating with the developers to build the greatest virtual nightclub ever". [13]
- 08 Feb 2005 - Article in gamespot.com where Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs is referred to as "Jon Jacobs, US 'ambassador' for Project Entropia". [14]
- 11 Oct 2005 - Domain clubneverdie.com was created. [15]
- 21 Oct 2005 - Mindark announced the sale of the Asteroid Space Resort. [16]
- 24 Oct 2005 - Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs bought the Asteroid Space Resort, Mindark updated the announcement. [17]
- 24 Oct 2005 - Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs appears on a radioshow as "Jon Jacobs of MindArk". The interview is no longer available, but during the interview Jacobs never got a chance to say anything, due to the hurricane disabling the power. It is therefore possible the DJ and the article misunderstood the role of Jacobs in this. [18][19]
- NEVERDIE commented on the discussion as follows:
NEVERDIE's last word on the subject!
Guys and Girls, You all want to know Neverdie’s secrets, some of you are angry and demand an explanation… You want an official explanation. Why did Neverdie buy club NEVERDIE.com on OCT 11th? How Did Neverdie succeed in using the Buyout feature one hour before Deathifier? | ||
Well you have to look back in time for the answers… You have to look back to the time that I wrote I song called Gamer Chick and sent it to Mindark… who could have hated it and thrown it in the trash, but instead they liked it… At the time I sent it to
them, they were not hosting competitions offering thousands of dollars worth of Equipment for a player made movie to promote PE, nope they were doing none of that, yet here I was making music to celebrate virtual life and project Entropia…. When I sent them the song I included with it an Idea, “hey guys you could make the Juke Box cost a few pec to use and I could make money every time people listen to my song…” nothing wrong with that idea, that’s how juke boxes work in Reality…. Unfortunately Paying Juke Boxes was not very High up on their list of development priorities and they declined… I said hey what the Heck, you can just put my song in there anyway if you like it. Maybe later I could buy a night club or something….(lets not forget this was the early days, No land ownership, no taxes, Bars were empty, the most valuable items were mod faps… What the hell would be the point of a virtual Night Club? Well some of you may know, I was producing and starring in a movie called HEY DJ! Featuring cameo appearances from many world famous DJ’s and I thought there might be a market for a virtual Night Club… Anyway that was that… I did however ask for permission to use a clip from Project Entropia in my movie HEY DJ!... Why? coz I love it, Coz I play it all friggin day and Coz my girlfriend loved it too…. So I put a scene of Tina and I playing project-Entropia in my movie… Hey and you know what else… I was distributing a lot of my own movies on DVD as well and I thought it would be cool to have the PE Movie on my DVD’s as extra content in the special features sections. Mindark had no problem with it… Free Publicity for them and I liked it too, I thought it was Cool and Hey after all MA was just a small company and an indie game developer, and I’m an indie Filmmaker… I also offered to appear at a couple of conventions in Los Angeles, since MA had no one in the USA to represent them… By this time they knew I loved PE and I loved the whole concept of a Real Cash Economy, so they approved… Of course I had to provide some details to the people who ran the convention for their brochure so I said I was the US spokesman and people could ask me questions about marketing and business development, of course I would be referring interested parties to MA…. Was I paid by MA to do this ? No? was I employed by MA? Nope…
So how does this tie in with Club NEVERDIE? Well when Treasure Island was added to the auction, I thought cool I will buy it and turn the castle into a Night Club…. I sold My mod fap, my shadow armor an imp fap, almost everything to the point that I no longer had the tools to Play PE…. I amassed a warchest of $20,000+ largely from in game profits… still concerned it wouldn’t be enough I started pre-selling housing lots on the forums….. I wanted to take money out of my Real World House But Tina Was fragile and I felt it would be too much of a risk… Well I thought I would win Treasure Island, I was already planning my Club NEVERDIE, I told many other gamers that I would like to have a club… I even mentioned it to MA That I would want them to make some changes to the castle If I got it, so I could make a nightclub… Anyway Auction time came around I had $26,000 in PEd, I thought I was going to get it for $10k, almost everyone else thought it was mine… And Whaddya know? Deathifier appears with a formidable war chest put together from a group of private investors outside of PE and he wins the Island…. Do you think anyone else in PE was as affected by that more than me? I was the sole underbidder? I had sold the rarest, coolest equipment to buy this place, I had all kinds of plans that were now put on hold… What you think the first thing I did was? I asked MA to put something else in the auction, I’ll buy it? C’mon, I got $20,000 in cash here? Did they? NO!!! it wasn’t on the agenda… not a priority…I watched like everyone else as the Treasure Island generated lots of publicity and I knew that I had helped make that happen if it were not for both Deathifier and I fighting for Treasure Island It would have sold for maybe $5k and the world might never have noticed…. SO I just lost the greatest PVP event in PE, and what did I do? Quit? Well Nearly…. I mean Tina died soon after, MA built a memorial, for the beautiful Gamer Chick, some players bitched and cried favoritism, I ran into financial difficulties, sold my pre-gold IMP MK II, etc etc… People flamed me for using Island girls Avatar to buy out one of Neverdie items… Heck I even warned people on the forums I was withdrawing the item, before I did it… Yes I thought about quitting, but I’m a passionate Person and I wasn’t going to let anyone… ruin my plans…. Nope I knew Mindark was gonna need to make another splash, sell off some wonderful virtual Real estate and this time, I had nothing to Lose, my life was already in ruins, girlfriend dead, Income dried up, resources tied up in a friggin DJ Movie… Hell this time I would sell the House IF I had to…. I was ready to pounce, and while you all were busy hunting and crafting I was refinancing, I was plotting, I was buying Web Domains, I was telling everybody in the Dance scene that I was gonna start a virtual night club and I would want them to spin there… I was actually getting ready to buy the piece of land above memorial Island, lots of people knew that I wanted it… It was gonna be a virtual Ibiza, it was only slightly smaller than Treasure Island… But then Mindark decided it was time to show the world once again the Value of Virtual Real estate and they chose to create a space resort with a nightclub, Of course they knew I wanted a nightclub, maybe they had me in mind, they knew I was hungry to get back into the game after my defeat at the hands of Deathifier And Hey guess what, they knew it would generate a #%$^@ boat load of publicity if it sold for $100,000, maybe they figured If someone were to really put that kind of money together, they would need a buy out feature to keep the transaction clean… Nevertheless they timed the auction to end, December 19th around the same time Treasure Island ended a year before… that’s a sure sign they thought it was gonna be a long and fun affair… They added the Resort News to the main page the day before Memorial Island N LA auction was due to end…of course I decided not bid for it… Jenna Star Mercury Spent a lot of time on that Friday trying to talk me and Deathifier into joining a consortium to buy the resort… He told me that Deathifier wouldn’t join the consortium,,, What did that tell me???? Deathifier was going to go Solo, he already recouped most of his dough from TI! Jenna wanted it because he knew it would make History… … I had a friggin Hurricane Bearing down On me in MIAMI!!!!!! I was already READY, this thing had my name written all over it… Do you think I was gonna get my ass Whooped Again??? Come On People are you NUTZ?????? Deathifier was thinking the same Thing.. HE moved Money from down under like a friggin magician!!! HE was ready too!!! His investors were ready!!!! The same two People who duked it out the year before already had their fingers on the Button!!!! That aint Rocket Science!!! And whatdya know there was a few other smart folks breathin down our necks, but lets face it, they weren’t nearly as ready, they hadn’t already paid in blood Sweat and tears!!! So What happened??????? NEVERDIE came back from the dead, of course he never really died after all, he was just licking his wounds… And you know what Else NEVERDIE had his shit together, his domain names, his business plan…. And what happened… The Story Landed on the Front Page of the BBC News 3 times in 10 days… “Virtual Night Club to Rock pop Culture!!!!” I haven’t stopped working since the auction ended, just telling the world how incredible Project Entropia is and how Virtual reality is the future…. I just had a TV crew in my house for 2 days and I bared my soul to share with the world my virtual dreams… I’ve been bleeding cash for a while now, web design, mortgages, domain names, I got it all riding on Club NEVERDIE. And many of you may think well man that’s insane, you can’t do any better than that… Well think again… Did you watch the VGA (video game Awards) there were a million Stars there… all the great games… any mention of PE? Nope. Was Deathifier there? NO? Was NEVERDIE invited? NO! You wanna know why I called my club NEVERDIE? Because if you wanna really crack the mainstream… you gotta Brand your ass… You wanna get on Oprah, you gotta make a million bucks in virtual Reality not Spend $100k…. That’s where my head is at everyone! Im going for Oprah, Im going for the front cover of Rolling Stone. Im going for the front Cover of Time Magazine… Coz that’s when people are really going to take notice, that’s when our little virtual universe is gonna Explode that’s how high the stakes are… And that’s all your gettin’ from me on this subject, I got a shit load to do, I got a bunch of crappy mobs to exterminate off the face of my Space Station… I got a 6 year old boy with no mamma, that needs to be read a bed time story and I got a party to start at the greatest virtual Night Club in the Universe!!! |
Club NEVERDIE Sale 2010
- 17 May 2010 - Club NEVERDIE is for sale. [20][9] According to Jon Jacobs he wants to sell CND to concentrate on his other EU ventures RockTropia and Next Island and to raise funds for those.
- 30 May 2010 - Club NEVERDIE is now officially for sale. NEVERDIE has put it in auction. The auction will run for 6 days. A buyout bid was not expected.
- Start bid = 5.000.000 PED
- Buyout = 7.500.000 PED
- 5 June 2010 - NEVERDIE has removed CND from auction because he received an offer from somebody that is not able to get the funds needed to buy CND in game before the auction ends. This leds to believe that the offer is the buyout bid. If somehow this deal will not work out NEVERDIE is planning to sell the domes in pairs of 5. Before this it was not known this was possible.
Club NEVERDIE in game
Travelling to Club NEVERDIE
Although orbiting around Calypso the asteroid space resort (as well as Crystal Palace Space Station) is technically dealt with like a planet of its own. This means:
- Storage Facilities are seperated. You cannot access items you have put in a Storage Facility on Crystal Palace or any other planet like Rocktropia. Keep this in mind before you go to CND.
- There are transportation fees if you retrieve items from Auction that have been placed on auction on Crystal Palace or any other planets. The other way round someone not on CND retrieving an item from auction that has been put on auction on CND has to pay a fee too.
- You cannot easily teleport to Club NEVERDIE or back from CND.
Pre-VU 10.0 travelling to CND was only possible by spaceships. Players owning hangars offered their service to fly other players between CND and Calypso for fees. Usually you met those 'pilots' in Twin Peaks and a common fare was 20 PED one way. A spaceship had 4 seats for travellers and started and landed from its hangar planet-side and the docking stations on CND. After VU 10.0 the piloting system has not been re-implemented yet but is expected to be back "before the end of the year."(to-do:ref)
The interim solution replacing spacetravel is plain teleporting. Every teleporter in Entropia Universe supports this option. Depending on where from or to you want to teleport there are different teleportation fees.
To CND | From CND | |
---|---|---|
Calypso | 25 PED | 25 PED |
Crystal Palace | 17.5 PED | 17.5 PED |
ROCKtropia | 50 PED | 50 PED |
With the upcoming implementation of the Vehicle System we might see spacetravel by manually controlled spaceships (threatend by Space Pirates). There are several statements by EU officials supporting this assumption(to-do: ref) and also flying vehicles are a feature of CryEngine 2 - Entropia Universe's game engine.[21]
Club NEVERDIE Overview Map
(This is an ImageMap. Move mouse arrow over the map to get more information. Click to browse to the page of a specific section.)
Terminals, machines, facilities and services on Club NEVERDIE
- Around Control Room 1 TP you can find 2 Trade Terminals, 2 Repair Terminals, 2 Society Terminals, 4 Construction Machines and an Auctioneer.
- In the control room between Control Room 1 TP and Control Room 2 TP you can find a Trade Terminal, a Repair Terminal, a Society Terminal, a Construction Machine, a Storage Facility, 2 Broadcasters and the 4 Land Area Configuration Terminals for the Biodomes.
- Around Control Room 2 TP you can find 2 Trade Terminals, 2 Repair Terminals, 2 Society Terminals, 4 Construction Machines, a Shopping Booth and the 2 major Revival Points of CND. Usually this is also the place for PTP trading.
- Storage Faclilities can be found next to the Main Complex A, B, C, D, E and F Teleporters around the shopping area.
- Around each the Main Complex North and the Main Complex South TP you can find 2 Trade Terminals, 2 Repair Terminals, 2 Society Terminals, 4 Construction Machines, an Auctioneer and a Technician. (The same setup can be found in each of the other four branches -northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest- of the Main Complex/Shopping Area, there's just no TP close by.)
Hunting on Club NEVERDIE
There are some creatures that can only be found on CND:
Creatures on Club NEVERDIE
Overview table of creatures to be found in the Biodomes and information about Biodomes settings
Mining on Club NEVERDIE
Minerals found at Club NEVERDIE
Shopping on Club NEVERDIE
Max nr. of guests | 30 |
---|---|
Item poins indoors max | 200 |
Item poins in display area max | 0 |
Item poins in additional area max | 0 |
Additional owned area | No |
Monthly maintenance fee | 25 PED |
Club NEVERDIE Shops Map
(This is an ImageMap. Move mouse arrow over the map to get more information. Click to browse to the page of a specific shop.)
Living on Club NEVERDIE
CND contains 1000 apartments.
Partying on Club NEVERDIE
CND also had a disco pre-VU10.
Club NEVERDIE Media
Club NEVERDIE videos
Videos featuring Club NEVERDIE
Club NEVERDIE promo video (January 2008) |
<youtube>YGjJ4JnVfc0</youtube> |
Club NEVERDIE images
Images from Club NEVERDIE
Pre Version Update 10.0 / CryEngine 2 migration
Post Version Update 10.0 / CryEngine 2 migration
Club NEVERDIE articles
Press releases, news and magazine articles featuring Club NEVERDIE
2005
- October 24, 2005: Virtuell eiendom solgt for 650 000 kroner (Norwegian) on dagbladet.no
- October 25, 2005: Gamer buys virtual space station on news.bbc.co.uk
- October 25, 2005: Project Entropia Sells In-Game Property For $100K on gamasutra.com
- October 27, 2005: Online property sells for $100K on gamespot.com
- October 31, 2005: Project Entropia sells non-existent space resort for $100K on dailytoreador.com
- November 02, 2005: Virtual club to rock pop culture on news.bbc.co.uk
- November 02, 2005: Man buys imaginary building for $100,000 on blather.net
- November 10, 2005: Man pays $100,000 for virtual resort on news.cnet.com
- November 10, 2005: Man Buys Virtual Space Station for $100G on foxnews.com
2006
- May 09, 2006: Entropia Universe Famed Avatar "NEVERDIE" Becomes "The First Virtual World Millionaire" press release by Jon Jacobs himself on marketwire.com
- May 17, 2006: Will you be paying with Project Entropia Dollars or pounds sterling, sir? on guardian.co.uk
- Jun 07, 2006: Entropia Universe Holds the World's First Live Legal Virtual Wedding on the Surface of an Asteroid press release by Jon Jacobs himself on marketwire.com
- June 23, 2006: Club Neverdie Presents 2005 Best House DJ, Junior Jack, Spinning Live From Entropia Universe press release by Jon Jacobs himself on marketwire.com
- August 03, 2006 Megabyte Millionaire on miaminewtimes.com
- November 14, 2006 Who is the Greatest Online Gamer in the World? press release by Jon Jacobs himself on marketwire.com
- December 12, 2006 Club Xanadu on escapistmagazine.com
- December 13, 2006 Expensive Virtual Boys' Toys Are the Next Big Thing! press release by Jon Jacobs himself on marketwire.com
- December 20, 2006: Nobel Prize Laureates Danced the Night Away in Virtual Night Club, press release by Mindark on marketwire.com
2007
- September 18, 2007: Entropia Universe Enters 2008 Guinness World Records Book for "Most Expensive Virtual World Object", press release by Mindark on marketwire.com
- September 18, 2007: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/09/entropia-sets-g.html Entropia Sets Guiness Record for Most Expensive Virtual Object] on virtualworldsnews.com
2008
- January 11, 2008: Making millions from virtual worlds (Video) on guardian.co.uk
2010
- May 19, 2010: Club Neverdie Up For Sale on massiveonlinegamer.com
References, Links
- ↑ ftp://ftp.mindark.se/pr/October-26-2005.pdf US FILM-MAKER PAYS US $100,000 FOR VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE IN THE LARGEST VIRTUAL PURCHASE EVER, original press release by Mindark as of October 26, 2005)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Champion Gamer NEVERDIE Rakes in $100,000 USD in Virtual Reality, official press release by NEVERDIE as of August 21, 2006
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 [http://www.entropiaplanets.com/forums/news/794-crystal-palace-winner.html Crystal Palace - And the winner is...], article on entropiaplanets.com
- ↑ [ftp://ftp.mindark.se/pr/December-15-2004.pdf 22-YEAR-OLD GAMER PAYS US $26,500 FOR VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE IN LARGEST MMORPG PURCHASE EVER], original Mindark press release as of Dec 15, 2004
- ↑ [ftp://ftp.mindark.se/pr/Guinness_World_Records_Book_2008.pdf ENTROPIA UNIVERSE ENTERS 2008 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS BOOK FOR “MOST EXPENSIVE VIRTUAL WORLD OBJECT”], original Mindark press release as of Sept 17, 2008
- ↑ gamers.guinnessworldrecords.com, official website for the gamers edition of the guiness book of records
- ↑ PR: Planet Calypso Announces Online Auction To Acquire Massive Virtual Space Station - UPDATED, official press release by First Planet Company as of December 8, 2009.
- ↑ Megabyte Millionaire, Article in Miami New Times as of August 3, 2006.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Asteroid Auction Details, Additional information on the sale from NEVERDIE himself
- ↑ Space Resort for sale by public auction (on archive.org)
- ↑ Jon Jacobs at Digital Hollywood conference
- ↑ (Mise à jour) 100 000 dollars, le prix d'une station spatiale virtuelle ']
- ↑ "Real profits from virtual worlds" article on telegraph.co.uk
- ↑ "Real cash for virtual goods" article on gamespot.com
- ↑ Whois clubneverdie.com
- ↑ Space Resort for sale by public auction (on archive.org)
- ↑ Space Resort for sale by public auction (on archive.org)
- ↑ http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/5545 article announcing a radio interview on AppleLinks
- ↑ iGame Radio Show Tonite article announcing radio interview on insidemacgames.com
- ↑ Asteroid 4 Sale!, NEVERDIE's announcent
- ↑ CryENGINE 2 Features Document, Vehicle Editor on page 13.