Since the game is free, all you would need is a basic character with basic equipment. When starting I would just use a melee weapon ( as it does not need ammo), and just start hunting in the new area. After a while you can earn enough equipment to buy eqipment without having to pay irl. It will take a long grind tho so be ready to spend a lot of hours killing spawns. There also are no missions by the game. but I did here that some guilds and people are setting up missions.

Hope that helps.

Originally posted by alvasten

  Since the game is free, all you would need is a basic character with basic equipment. When starting I would just use a melee weapon ( as it does not need ammo), and just start hunting in the new area. After a while you can earn enough equipment to buy eqipment without having to pay irl. It will take a long grind tho so be ready to spend a lot of hours killing spawns. There also are no missions by the game. but I did here that some guilds and people are setting up missions.

Hope that helps.

The only way to make smaller amounts last is by grinding.

$15 per month will certainly curb the need to go on a Sweat Gathering mission so much.

$15 = 150 PED - Deposit Charge %

So, this would easily get you started with say: The Trade Terminal Rifle "Opalo", Trade Terminal Heal "Vivo T1" and a set of Goblin armour which you would have to buy through P2P trading.

Once you have these items, you can then buy ammunition, find some low-level creatures/mobs and grind it :)

After having played EU for just shy of 2 years, ..  i think i can honestly say that if you are looking for Action, and actually Doing somethign other than sittign around chatting, .. or spending countless eons in sweat camp getting sweat, dting Alot, and repeating that processess for forever and three days (Mainly due to sweat being worth practically Nothing except in Large quantities) then you arent going to get very far at all on $15 a mont, if you figure 30 days, thats $0.50 a day or 5 ped, for a whole day. ... doesnt seem like much, and Isnt much at all. As an example, .. (and for an accurate accounting for this post) i just finished  a small hunt, taking about 2 hours, using a fairly efficient small ammo usage gun ( S-50 pistol) and traveled from Port atlantis (where you start the game at) to a TP site called "Jason Center"  hunting pretty much whatever i came cross that can be taken down with that pistol. in the course of that trip, at 3 rounds per shot, i burned through around 3200 rounds of ammo (32 Ped, or $3.20 USD) and had (1.7 ped $0.17 USD) in repairs to armor and medkit ect. and that was on a fairly easy hunt, in a fairly short amount of time. so if you figure on $15 USD a month for playing, .. you can also figure on either (A) Not playing for the majority of the month, or (B) spending endless hours in sweat camp scrambling for whatever sweat you can get and stock up on so that you can sell it for ped so that you can Buy ammo to hunt again.. Sadly, for those that look at games from a Value perspective of knowing what a game is going to cost you and gettin alot of fun out of it, .. EU is Most Probably NOT for you,, .. the reasons for this are Numerous aside from the example i just gave. ... on a cost basis, it takes Alot of ped (and thus Real Money) buying ammo , (L) Guns (that Do skill faster than normal repairable guns) or mnaterials from auction to learn crafting, or whatever else to actually get your skill level to a point of Actually being able to Do anythign at all. Always plan on whatever your doing that it will Take alot more money to do than its worth in the end, (not uncommon to spend 20+ ped to craft a pair  of shoes worth 3 ped Especially when your new or even fairly new), Skills are Expensive to gain, .. and theres a Bunch of shops and whatnot that have weapons that kick ass, .. and then you see the price tag and hope theres a paramedic nearby. as some other posts have said, .. Demand is HUGE, .. and supply and availability is Miniscule at Best, .. so if your Really wanting to get "Into the Game" be prepared to Crack open that Trust Fund, .. because you Are Going to NEED it.  My End Conclusion, .. if money is in anyway a concern, or you actually Have a fiscal budget in your life, .. Entropia is most likely NOT the game for you. .. if however you Dont have fiscal restraints and can just Spend the money nessicary to Buy your skills, or can invest a couple years time, .. Or dont mind spening countless days sweating animals in sweat camp to supply you with ped for a short hunt, .. then go for it.

The question is: how much PED did you make from the hunt?

From hunting you won't get any profit overall, ever.

That amount of deposit (15USD) is about enough if you are not spending too much time and playing with brain (means: skilling slowly and not going to the auction for the advanced weapons and shoot what you can). Yes, it will be somewhat boring and really not an instant action, but who knows, maybe you want that.

The money needed to play this game in a manner that is enjoyable, far exceeds the monthly rates offered by all other  MMO's.  You can play with $15 and have fun for maybe a week or depending on how much you play.  I played for 2 years and found that my dollar went incredibly farther playing  'pay to play' mmo's.

If you don't mind using it as a graphical based chat room, and thats fun for you, then I guess you could say its free.

$15 USD per month would not yield any real enjoyment in Entropia Universe. You would blow through that in about 1 week, even with the "beginner" equipment. So you could have a fun week, but not a month.

i would as far as saying you need to be lucky to be capable of playing a whole month pretty active with 15$.

And that is with the lowest equipment you can get in the game. If you at any time upgrade. Expect atleast to spend 50$ if your lucky,

I played 4 years. And yea i accepted the fact it was very expensive to have fun in EU. While it was huge fun. It was some expensive fun.

At a period i did PVP alot. It has no return at all. But for a night of fun with a gun that is capable of having a chance in PVP. Expect atleast 20$ / hour. And that if your dont blast all the time. Which you normally dont. But the gun to have a chance in PVP cost 1500$. So already there we exceeded your budget.

Sure its possible to play for 30-50$ with lowest equipment ingame with alot of activity in the game. If you play smart.

This is just how the game works. and as i said. Accept it or dont. If you can't simply dont play it. because it won't change. And since there is still alot people that accepted this and blast tons of $ away each month. The developers got no reason at all to change this.

I had some funny and great times in EU while i played activily. But i did pay 100% for them if not more. And sure i accepted it. I Got out of the game with maybe a small profit. But only doing to the "Suplly and demand" kept rising and the items raised alot in value.

Read "New players - a bad joke?". Thread to get and idea about the prices in this game if you want to advance to a higher level at a point.

Want something refreshing and fun. try age of conan. Dont waste your time and money on EU. It was affordable and fun at one time. But today its expensive as hell and nerfed so much its impossible to advance cheap. It was truly a great game. But sometimes that changes. Look at star wars galaxies. It became a big failure with time.

Check back on the game when they implement Cryengine 2. Atleast it will be a beatifull chat room.

Originally posted by Votary
Surprisingly, I just heard about EU and am intrigued, more from a study/research perspective.

I know it's a game that relies on cash transactions with in game item/money sinks. I also read a lot of comments about it being "gamble-ly" if you don't  know what you are doing.

Traditional casino wisdow tells you that you don't try to win at the casino, but rather, just try to make your money last as long as possible, because the house always win. So my question is, how far will a $15 a month investment get you in this game (comparable to other monthly MMOs), given an average working adult:

- Average skill and reasonable amount of research
- Can play maybe 10-20 hours a week
- Do like this kind of social/economic games

Basically, what I am trying to get at is, can $15 a month buy you amount of "fun", comparable to another MMO?

If you consider the average MMO player and the time devoted to such games,  $15 doesn't you get you a full month of fun. EU or project entropia as it was once called was my first MMO. After playing for 2 years very cautiously I discovered that I was limited on the full enjoyment of the game because I was not willing to invest more than 25-30 dollars a month. When I finally got bored and switched to a p2p mmo (lineage 2) I was floored at how much more game time and fun I was having without the restriction or worry of money.  In fact I sold my L2 character/account  when I left to a guildmates friend for what my subscription cost me during the time I played. So i actually played the game a ton  for almost 2 years for free, and had a blast..

Originally posted by rvjones10

Originally posted by Votary
Surprisingly, I just heard about EU and am intrigued, more from a study/research perspective.

I know it's a game that relies on cash transactions with in game item/money sinks. I also read a lot of comments about it being "gamble-ly" if you don't  know what you are doing.

Traditional casino wisdow tells you that you don't try to win at the casino, but rather, just try to make your money last as long as possible, because the house always win. So my question is, how far will a $15 a month investment get you in this game (comparable to other monthly MMOs), given an average working adult:

- Average skill and reasonable amount of research
- Can play maybe 10-20 hours a week
- Do like this kind of social/economic games

Basically, what I am trying to get at is, can $15 a month buy you amount of "fun", comparable to another MMO?

If you consider the average MMO player and the time devoted to such games,  $15 doesn't you get you a full month of fun. EU or project entropia as it was once called was my first MMO. After playing for 2 years very cautiously I discovered that I was limited on the full enjoyment of the game because I was not willing to invest more than 25-30 dollars a month. When I finally got bored and switched to a p2p mmo (lineage 2) I was floored at how much more game time and fun I was having without the restriction or worry of money.  In fact I sold my L2 character/account  when I left to a guildmates friend for what my subscription cost me during the time I played. So i actually played the game a ton  for almost 2 years for free, and had a blast..

Considering that the average quality of the new mmorpgs are way higher than back when you started on lineage 2. EU is very dated considering the price to play. For example i find Age of conan to be very entertaining. With a combat system. Thats like EU is manually controlled. Which was one of the factors as why i liked the combat in EU more. And the fact that the envoirement in Age of conan has alot of spirit.

You might've played EU 2 years ago. But do a login today and see at prices. Try a hunt with a noob gun and notice the crappy loot you get when your done. So unbalanced and so damn silly all the way through regarding prices and returns. Its unbelivable how some people still keep playing it. And most new players have a one night stand with EU today. Because just looking at the prices on the items makes them quit already there. and i dont blame them. If you just like to chat. its auctually a funny chat room. Other than that. The quality of the game is drasticly falling.

On the other hand. Exept the Cryengine 2 that soon will be implemented. Eu's gameplay will not keep people very long when such good mmorpgs are slipping out every year. And good graphics will attract alot to try it. But great graphics with rest being without reason to pay for. It won't keep any players. only a little % will stay.

2 years ago it was more affordable. i was there myself. 4 years ago i was there as well. and it was very affordable. The gameplay havent gotten better. Auctually it just got alot more expensive to get any gameplay.

Very soon i will have to say R.I.P Entropia. it might last a few years if lucky. But the developers vision about it will stick around forever is unrealistic if they keep going the way of gameplay they got right now.

Originally posted by nobion

 

Originally posted by rvjones10

Originally posted by Votary
Surprisingly, I just heard about EU and am intrigued, more from a study/research perspective.

I know it's a game that relies on cash transactions with in game item/money sinks. I also read a lot of comments about it being "gamble-ly" if you don't  know what you are doing.

Traditional casino wisdow tells you that you don't try to win at the casino, but rather, just try to make your money last as long as possible, because the house always win. So my question is, how far will a $15 a month investment get you in this game (comparable to other monthly MMOs), given an average working adult:

- Average skill and reasonable amount of research
- Can play maybe 10-20 hours a week
- Do like this kind of social/economic games

Basically, what I am trying to get at is, can $15 a month buy you amount of "fun", comparable to another MMO?