Entropia Universe Roadmap 2013

20 December 2012
Part of State of the Universe Address 2013

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2013 ROADMAP

Entropia’s 10 Year Anniversary

As mentioned earlier, Entropia will turn 10 years old on January 30, 2013, and MindArk will celebrate this historic milestone with some wonderful universe-wide events beginning on the anniversary date and continuing throughout 2013. As a token of thanks for the support we have received from our amazing community over the years, special anniversary edition items will be introduced in loots and offered as event prizes. These items will have enhanced stats and can be identified by the TEN suffix in the item name (Tenth Entropia New year).

Also in celebration of ten years of Entropia, there will be a major estate announced for auction at the end of January, with a completely new management/revenue model. More details will be released as the anniversary date approaches.

Veteran Appreciation

As another show of thanks, MindArk will focus lots of development time on improving the Entropia Universe experience for current participants and Entropia veterans. Many of the most common requests and wishlist items received from our participants via support cases and community forums will be addressed in the first two version updates of the new year. Issues that will be prioritized include:

• Fixing bugs
• Reducing cost to play / increasing average TT returns
• Lowering the volatility of returns for many activities
• Increasing UL item tiering speed / lowering UL item tiering cost
• Removing the UL armor equipping fee
• Lowering the minimum usable condition of many items

Many other interface improvements and game system upgrades are also planned for the second quarter of 2013 and beyond, including items such as PVP combat, mission system functionality, vehicle system, removing exploits, expanding crafting, interface enhancements, bug fixing, and much more.

Infrastructure Upgrades

Major upgrades will be performed on the Entropia Universe platform infrastructure beginning in January. These upgrades will result in improved server stability and faster development and deployment times for future version updates. While these upgrades will require a few months for full completion, participants can expect better performance, fewer unexpected server outages, and much shorter VU downtimes.

In addition, refinements to the development and release procedures for MindArk and its planet partners will help improve client stability, reduce bugs and other unexpected system behavior, and generally improve the overall Entropia Universe experience.

Taming

Many of our more patient participants will be happy to hear that a completely redesigned taming system will be developed in 2013. The new taming system will include many of the features from the pre-CryEngine system, along with many new and exciting features that will expand the utility of tamed creatures. Additionally, one of the upcoming new Entropia Universe planets will make extensive use of the new taming system as a core aspect of the planet’s theme.

Space

In the State of the Universe Address 2012, we mentioned plans for expanding and improving space. Several other projects received higher priority in 2012, resulting in the plans for space development being pushed forward to mid-2013. The early focus will be on addressing several issues that currently allow for practically risk-free travel between planets. Space combat and weapons will also be adjusted to improve hunting space creatures and ship to ship PVP combat. Towards the end of the year, we hope to implement several completely new features to space, perhaps even space mining.

Financial

Several new payment provider solutions will be introduced early in 2013, including Paypal and Paypal’s mobile payment service, Zong. MindArk is also researching opportunities for supplemental credit card processing solutions, in light of the recent disuprtions and issues experienced with DIBS.

New starter packs will soon be offered on the Entropia Universe and planet partner websites. These packs are designed to provide new participants with a full range of appropriate starter gear at a reasonable cost, and help them start their Entropia Universe careers off on the right foot.

CLD Estate & Political Systems

Concept design of the Calypso Land Deed estate and political systems is already in full swing. While many of the core concepts are already in place, we believe it would be worthwhile to gain valuable feedback from the community on several proposed aspects of these new systems. Therefore, we will be contacting CLD holders with a survey early in the year to get their input. Once the design plans are finalized, actual development of the estate and political systems is scheduled to begin after the summer. We are very excited about the potential of the political system especially, and look forward to working together with the community to make it something truly amazing and unique in the computer game industry.