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Ever tried Entropia? It's got the most rewarding Crafting & Economy on the market. You can even take yourself out to eat on a good sale :-D It's a total sandbox. I'm pretty new and a miner, but there is nothing comparable in any game I've ever played to finding a deposit of ore worth $5. Late game, people find/craft/kill stuff worth over $100. 

It's technically F2P, but like many F2P that simply means you choose how much money to put in and when. 

Mine won't win, but I'm voting for Entropia Universe.

Originally posted by willo248

One thing that intrigued me was when Donev said you need a : "strong understanding of high level math" to get a job in the game industry. i am not bad at maths, however i have no interest in continuing it on a as an A level subject as I need room for other subjects such as History, Chemistry etc. which I would rather do, would this mean that I would be unlikely to get a job in the game industry?  

I read right over this till someone quoted it. lol

In the US, the majority of schools require a Math Minor to get a B.Sc. in Computer Science. 

For games, you're going to need a strong understanding of Trig, Affine Transformations (Linear Algebra), Vectors & Matrices (again Linear Algebra) as well as a few other things you learn from various courses you're probably going to have to take before you get to Linear. Don't let the name fool you, Linear Algebra is one of the hardest math courses you're ever going to take. lol. At the school I went to, it required a Cal II Pre-Req. In the US you would be required to take things like History, Biology, (Not chemistry), etc. How much time you're going to have to dedicate to subjects like that is up to your school.... and country.

General programming (not games), is not very math intensive. Most programming requires little more than College Algebra.... if that much. Most of the time it's just simple Basic Algebra. Which is why I never understood the whole Math Minor requirement. I have a Math Minor and I'm terrible at math. That was by far the hardest part of my college coursework. I had to retake several math classes more than once. lol

I hate cinematic trailers and will generally click off it if I realize it's a cinematic and not a gameplay. 

I honestly don't get the point in cinematic trailers at all.

Thanks man. 

Yeah, I was reading the other thread here which was full of other people not liking the game for this reason or that and I could understand that aprehention(sp?) at thinking it's sort of scammy as a game, but MindArk seems to be a great company and the game itself is solid.

I mean, it did feel scammy when I tried in 2006, but here it is 5yrs later and 8yrs after the game was released.......... but where is the drama? Where are the news articles about MindArk running off with people's money? There hasn't been much, which is rare in a game with any sort of RMT. Second Life has drama DAILY with their devs and sketchy business practices, EVE online has been full of them since 2003. But in Entropia, you don't see that. The only thing I've really found that was semi-serious was last year when one of the players became a dev, but kept playing. 

If ppl can get passed the Real Cash Economy, which really isn't nearly as bad as most probably think, then I'm sure more would like it around here. When I deposited my money, I thought of it as if I was buying a game. I did the free trial, then basically purchased the game to see what it was really like. 

I'm not sure why alot of ppl think that OOP is a hard concept to grasp.

You make classes (basically files), you declare those classes as objects just like you would an int, float, or bool, you use what's in that object in whatever way you want much the same way you would use a function contained in your own class. There's OOP in a nutshell. 

The hardest part of C++ is pointers, not OOP. Once you understand pointers, they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Their limited use in C# is actually one of the few things I don't like about C#. Everything else in C++ is pretty straight forward and isn't any harder than any other REAL language out there. 

Hell....... like I said earlier. You don't even really have to deal with OOP in C++ if you don't want to. It's a feature, not a requirement. 

Originally posted by expresso

http://www.blitzbasic.com/ Great for beginners and professionals.

There is no reason to start wth C++ or the other high level languages, a good basic syntax based language will do just fine.

Would you teach a baby to curse like a sailor, because it was just easier to teach them to express their feelings?

No? It teaches bad habits that will be extremely hard to break and will get them into trouble, you say?

Well..... that's also why you don't start with Basic in programming. If you want to pick it up later, then that's fine, but starting with it learning all those terrible habits I'm seeing in the code you pasted here will be more detrimental to a new serious programmer, more than if he just didn't start programming till his teacher assigned him his first project.  

I wish I could count how many ppl I knew when I was his age that started with the BASIC language and ended up quickly dropping out of programming courses when they got older, because it was too hard for them to adjust. Their brains were wired completely different. It was quite a few of them, I know that. Not that they weren't smart, because one of them is just about to become a doctor and another went into some long physics field that I can't even pronounce.

Originally posted by sPwn_DjFc

Originally posted by drbaltazar

adaptative in your nvidia or amd gpu must be turned on for this title ,cause it make a huge of difference if you arent or just cant ust super sampling.might also enable mlaa also ,why ?those laser thing color all around etc they re all transparent so if you use only msaa you see nothing of that .but wil at least adaptative on or mlaa (dont know witch is better)(but on test done by tomhardware mlaa seems to be the best since it work all the time but it is a bit demanding in ressource so carefull.me i enabled ss and this when i notice i was only seeing half the game look lolo now i know why they had to tune down texture!

 

Thanks. At first I was lost, but now I understand.

Originally posted by jybgess

If you where in the military and deploying for a year in Afghanistan without internet in about 2 months, what games would you bring with you on your laptop. So far I got Skyrim

I went for Co-Op games so we could play together. 

So I went for Diablo II, CoD4, Socom, Quake IV etc. And lots and lots and lots of movies. 

Full barrack gaming sessions were a blast. Just about everyone will have a laptop, so if you can get a copy for everyone **hint**hint** then it's alot better. 

Also, alot of guys will bring small TV's and their consoles and sent them home with their family, or brought them home on their 4day before shipping out. 

A PSP is the greatest invention for deploying soldiers. 

Good answer.

Although, I think this is a college course. I believe they start college at 16 in the UK. 

Python is just not a good language though, it's not widely used and the syntax isn't even hardly similar to the standard widely used languages out there. Plus, if you want to actually get a job in the game industry, you're going to need a VERY VERY solid foundation in C++ as well as a strong understanding of high level math. C++ is pretty much the defacto standard in game development. 

Yes, there is a learning curve.... but it's very much worth it. You don't have to dive directly into OOP with C++, you can work mostly in C type programs for a long time if you like. C is not OO. Though, I do suggest getting into OOP as soon as possible. In my first years of college, we didn't even start dealing with OOP till about my 3rd or 4th semester. 

They probably start in Java, Pyhton, C, or possibly C++. I just skimmed through it and didn't see anything language specific. The foundations are the same across a wide variety of langues. If you want to try learning C++ on your own, then go for it. It's not going to hurt you at all. Learning something like Visual Basic would probably hurt you, but not something solid like C/C++. Even C# like I mentioned above, might be good. C# really isn't much like C/C++ and is more like Java, but it's still a good language and by far my favorite. 

Plus, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at here. I'm American and I don't understand most of the acronyms. HOWEVER, be aware that unlike the rest of the world, the UK has a VERY high unemployment rate for Computer Science. I'm not sure why, but I've seen numbers that have showed people with Computer Science degrees in the UK to be among the top 5 hardest jobs to find with I think the 2010 or 2009 unemployment rate being somewhere around a whopping 17%. Compared to the US, where Computer Science is in the top 5 of highest college graduate employment rates, with the unemployment rate being somewhere in fractional %s (even with the current high national unemployment rate). You may want to check this before persuing your career and make sure it's something you will be prepared for. (and don't go strictly on my word either, I may be wrong and it may have changed.... I urge you to do your own research)  

Forget Python, my best advice is to go directly into C++. That's what I was started on in College and it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. With my foundations lying in C++, I can virtually pick up any language and read it and follow program flow. People who started in other languages, weren't always able to do that quite as easily as those who started in C++. Virtually every high level language that has come out since C/C++ was based on C/C++. 

If you want to jump right into designing 2D Games, you're probably looking for Flash and ActionScript 3. You're not going to be able to accomplish this instantly, as you are in AS3. If you want a little more of a solid language, then you could try C#. C# is a solid language with alot of function to it in the real world, as well as being extremely easy for a beginner. If you do C#, learn how to actually program things and not just add crap to forms, if you just learn to add crap to forms, you're really not learning anything at all. With both languages, learn to build your own classes and learn to use them in your other classes. Learn your data structures and variable types. Actually learn, don't just use the interface to do it for you. Do as much with handwritten code as you can, that's how you learn. 

Originally posted by Tacan

This game have good potential. 

Unfortunately, you can't play potential. I've been playing MMOs for a long time now and so many games I've played in the past have so much potential and I've really been excited about them. However, failure after failure after failure has made me jaded and I have come to realize, that Potential is just not a game and you can't play it.

Especially recently (past couple years), I've subbed to one game after another under the presumption that the game has had worlds of potential.... but do you know how many of those games have even began to reach it? None. The only game I have known to actually reach it's potential and keep going, is EVE Online. That's 1 game out of probably hundreds that have tried. The game was able to reach it's potential, because they had a solid team with proven corporate experience (they were a company before they were CCP) and had solid investors. MO on the other hand, from what I understand, is abunch of Sub-30yr old rich geek kids who have had no real world experience what-so-ever. 

I've only been playing about a week, but I think I can answer most of your questions.

Co-Op seems to be very important in the game. The player base is very friendly and it's very helpful. I've been playing mostly solo, because I'm not into combat, but the guys who do combat seem to need Co-Op just like any other game. 

Vehicles aren't that expensive. Space ships are pretty expensive. I don't know how cheap you can get them, but the 2 that are currently on the Calypso Auction House cost 55000 PED or $5,500 USD. I'm sure you can get them cheaper, because the markup on those ships is insanely high. However I do have an Airship. It only cost me 35PED or $3.50. It's really invaluable to have. I had a helicopter at one time, which I liked better, but I sold that and bought my Sleipnir Mk1. The fuel consumption is twice as much as the Sleipnir. Not that fuel is very expensive, especially for me because I find most of my own fuel, it's just better to not worry about being in some remote place and out of fuel. :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA6LyHtBfUA

That's what I own. That one is colored though and colored ones cost a little more. Mine is just solid grey. So no, vehicles aren't that expensive. There are fighter jets and things like that which cost more, but the basics aren't. There are player ran services that will take you from planet to planet if you like. From what I've heard, the average price is 5-10PED for a 1 way trip to another planet. That's not too bad, imho. I have a mentor who owns a spaceship and he's offered to take me to any planet for free, but I haven't hit him up on that offer yet. 

I've been enjoying the game for about a week on $10. I recently put in another $10 and capped out my monthly limit to buy my airship. 

I have no idea about the exact population, but it's healthy. I live on Calypso (the main planet) and as a miner, I spend alot of time trying to get away from people and it's easy to do, but I see more people roaming the world than I did in WoW. I try to go to some pretty remote places.

While I was researching mining, I learned that there are over 3000 people who mine every month. I have probably only seen a handful of miners in game. Most of the people I see are combat oriented. 

I'd say give it a shot. The game has a tutorial island where you run missions on hunting, mining, healing, and I believe even crafting. It lets you experience the basic aspects of the game before dropping a dime. Then after that, you can go into the world and check out the population. You will end up in Port Atlantis, where there are probably 100 people at any given time. 

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** Disregard Spelling Erors :-D (I don't feel like check it in another app) **

I've known about Entropia Universe/Project Entropia for quite some time. I first tried the game back in 2006/7 and never deposited anything, but quickly got tired of Sweat Gathering. Last week I picked it up again, seeing as how they updated the graphics since I last played and I was just looking for something to get in to.

This time however, I deposited money. I first played the game for about a day doing the tutorial missions, gathering sweat, etc. etc. Basically just to get a feel of the game. After about a day of playing, I made a small deposit of $10/USD and bought 96.xx PED. I used this PED to first buy me an airship to get to some of the places around Calypso and Amertha(sp?). I kept it for a while, but I ended up trading it back to the Auction House for a small profit of 2PED I might add  (ofc that's not including fuel... I still think I may have made a profit) to buy mining probes. 

So far, this $10 has kept me afloat for a week and I haven't added up all my stocked up materials, but I think I'm still at around the same amount in the game.

I am a miner, I put the $10 in to mine and that's what I like doing. My combat skills are very low and I spend most of my time dodging them or trying to drown them. I think I've been lucky, honestly. With my Rookie Finder (how you find ore/liquid deposits) I found a spot worth 30PED ($3). From there, I upgraded to a better Finder and on my first run with that I scored a Global (I guess that's what it's called?) worth 50PED ($5). I've found several other 30PED deposits with the Finder F-101 and am thinking about upgrading to the F-102 soon. 

I look at this game as MMO Gambling. Much like any online casino but with more thought, strategy, and research involved.... as well as having skills attached to your account just like any traditional MMO. Every time I press the button to look for deposits, I am essentially paying a little over $0.10 (1PED) to MindArk (the company who runs the game) for the probes I'm using. Sometimes, I find deposits back to back to back and I'm making my money back for the probe drops instantly. Sometimes, I can go through 50PED worth of probes and not hardly find a damn thing. Other times, but rare, I find 1 deposit that is worth more than all the probes I'm carrying on me. 

And you know what? If you look at it like that, as MMO Gambling, it's alot of gd fun! I would have never thought this game would be as much fun as it is. I have played many many MMOs during the past 10 years or so, but this one is pretty impressive. It's exciting to find something worth alot of in game money in a regular MMO, it's fucking amazing to find something worth real money in an MMO! Every time my scanner pops up with a deposit found, I get happy as hell. No matter if I'm finding them back to back to back, or it's just one in a run where I've wasted most of my probes. I get excited and out of all the MMOs I've ever played, I can honestly say that I've never REALLY been excited to find something like that. Even with the little bit of combat I have done, it's actually exciting to kill a mob and see what's inside. In Entropia, there is very little "junk" as there is in most games. There is some, but virtually everything has a purpose and virtually everything has real world value. 

Not only is it about the excitment of finding stuff, but the game itself is a solid skill based game with an AMAZING community. Every time you fire your gun, it costs money. Virtually everything you do in the game costs money. Earlier this morning, I got stuck at an Outpost where I couldn't get out at all. As much as I tried to dodge the mobs surrounding me, I couldn't get out. So, I called the Combat Resue Team (CRT) and those guys were amazing. For free, they came in with about 6 guys and blasted their way out of the massive fairly high level mob spawn to get me to saftey. These guys used their money to get me out of a bad situation completely free of charge... I'm pretty sure they ended up with a small profit from the ordeal because they ended up scoring a global in the process, but initially they didn't know if they would make a profit from it or not, they simply do it to help out fellow Entropians. It's a rare thing to find people like this in games in today's market. But here these guys are, doing this since 2005, helping out their fellow players free of charge. 

Added to those type of people in the game, you know how probably 75% of the time you spend in games in well populated areas with "good communities" or not, you find people raging, cussing, and just generally acting like children? I have YET to see that in Entropia. I've been to some of the most populated cities on Calypso (the main planet) and I have yet to see someone acting childish, trolling, or raging for some unknown reason. I've seen people joking around in somewhat immature ways, but that's fine and most of us do that. 

I honestly think that if more of us old schoolers could get over the fact that ingame money is directly related to real life money, I think more people would play this game. The population is healthy don't get me wrong, with over 3000 people mining per month and hardly anyone seems to be a miner, but I think it could be much larger and could be home to alot of us who've been looking for games over the years. This is a GAME, not a chat program like Second Life. As a matter of fact, the game isn't even really similiar to Second Life at all.... other than the RMT system. SL isn't a game, I played that for awhile just messing around, but it's not a game. Entropia is a game and it's pretty damn fun. You don't have to make the news and put in $300,000 to buy a space station, who cares about that? If you just want to play, it doesn't seem any more expensive than any other MMO out there and you have the potential of hitting the Jackpot and actually being able to buy yourself a nice dinner with that Ore Deposit you found. I don't think you're not going to make a living playing Entropia, unless you put up considerable investments. But you don't need to make a living to have fun playing the game. 

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by korent1991

I don't get it what graphics has to do with game mechanics... It's like comparing roses to condoms... Graphic depends mostly on the graphic engine which is used and how well they can make the textures when the core of the game (it's mechanics) has to be developed as in any game. The relationship between those 2 isn't strictly determined or somehting.

 

But to a certain degree that are related, because the more money you spend on graphics, the less money you spend on creating and honing gameplay.

Eve and WoW are both  pretty good examples of graphically limited games that have game mechanics which people seem to like.

When EVE was released, it had the best graphics on the market of any MMO... and actually has continued that way for quite some time. They were the first DX11 and DX10 game when they converted and they are continuing to update the graphics. 

I remember when EVE was in beta in 2003. It required a 128mb Video card, which would be the equivelant to a ATI HD 6970 now. 

Fundamentally and mechanically, Wurm Online is probably the greatest game I've ever played.

Graphically....... I think it may be the worst. 

My perfect game would be Wurm Online with a better graphics engine.