Entropia Universe

This is a futuristic massively multiplayer online role-playing game with a real cash economy.

Story:

Set somewhere in our near future, curiosity and greed made mankind set their sights on the vast open space. Having depleted all the resources on Earth, they proceeded to colonizing the rest of the planets in the solar system. Even then, that wasn't enough. They needed more...and eventually, eyes were set upon a distant planet...that planet was called "Calypso".

Initially, robots were used to tweak the ecosystem of Calypso so that it would be fit for humans. The robots did their jobs very well in fact. They quietly and faithfully served the humans. That was until one incident, one lost probe...the Odysseus probe. Whatever happened to the probe was unknown, but what it did would permanently engrave itself onto the history of mankind. The encrpyted messages sent by the probe, after it was found, turned the faithful robots on Calypso wild. Reactors were overloaded and huge plumes of radioactive fallout contaminated large areas of Calypso. That marked the start of an eternal struggle by human settlers against powerful robots and radioactive mutants.

Gameplay:

First and foremost, Entropia Universe is a free mmorpg. You can download this game, join and play for free. No there isn't any monthly fees so do not worry. 

The ingame money, called PED (Project Entropia Dollar) can be exchanged to real money and vice-versa.

10 peds equals to 1 US dollar

You can deposit any amount of money I believe, however you will require at least 1,000 PEDs before you can initiate a withdrawl. Processing of withdrawl will usually take up to around a month or more before it successfully reaches your bank account or pocket. In addition, there is some kind of "process fee" which they will charge you with for withdrawing. There is also a charge for depositing I believe, so if you deposited 10 USD, you will not get 100 PEDs ingame.

Quoted from the official game website

"The minimum amount you can withdraw from your Entropia Universe account is 1000 PED (100 USD)"

"The withdrawal fee is 1% of the amount you wish to withdraw. The minimum fee chargeable is 100 PED (10 USD). Your own bank might charge additional fees."

*The currency deposited/withdrawed is in US dollars.

There are no "job classes" to choose in Entropia Universe. Avatars have a skill system instead. Although there are no "limits" to the amount of skills nor the number of skill points you can have, however, as the players progress, gaining of skill points will become slower and slower.

Avatar skills

There are no restrictions in terms of weapons, armor or equipments that you can use, but to use them effectively will require that you have an appropriate amount of skills. For example, without the proper skills when using a weapon will result in missing monsters more often.

The numbers underlined in red is your current ability to use the weapon while the one underlined in cyan is the max ability of the weapon

Three major choices of gameplay are available to players, hunting, mining and crafting. Each of them are complex in their own ways and will need to be explained indepth on their own. In general, what the hunters and miners get from their hunts or mining will be used by crafters in crafting. The crafters will then use those raw materials to make equipments that will be used by the hunters and miners.

Graphics:

The graphics are amazing in my opinion. However, all this requires that you have a good computer.

Pictures speak a thousand words....so I'll let them do the talking for this part.

Extra info:

Publisher: MindArk
Playerbase: Medium
Filesize: ~ 7,000 to 8,000 MB

Entropia Universe was formerly known as Project Entropia when it was first developed in about 1997. The first public version was released in the early 2003. This name change took place, in 2006, because the developers felt that it isn't a project anymore and would no longer justify calling it that.

Entropia Universe now consists of two planets, Calypso and ROCKtropia. However, there are plans to expand this virtual universe to house even more planets for adventurers to explore in the future.

Planet Calypso has 2 continents, Eudoria and Amethera on it. Orbiting the planet is an asteroid called "Club Neverdie" (CND) and also a space station called "Crystal Palace".

Planet Calypso

ROCKtropia on the other hand is an online virtual planet built around music.

Rocktropia

Commuting to and fro between the planets, asteroids and space station requires paying of some peds for the tickets.
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***Next Island is another planet that is currently in the making and not available yet. ***

The plan is to make Next Island a Time Travelers Tropical paradise. Not much details is available on how soon it will come to Entropia Universe though...only time will tell.

Next Island

Summary:
Since real money is used, the question of whether it is possible to make money in the game becomes vital.

The simple answer is yes. It is possible to make money in the game, however it can be really slow and hard especially if you are not willing to deposit at all. To earn a living will be hard to achieve and it will be advisable to keep this game as a game. As just focusing on trying to get enough peds to finance your playing ingame is already a tough job.

Playing Entropia Universe is possible without any deposits to the game account. At the same time, it is possible to lose money in this game if you do not have the necessary knowledge of how the game should be played and "ability to control yourself".

Caution is advised if you are planning to deposit and play the game. My advice would be to do research on the game first.

Some useful links related to the game
Entropedia
Planet Calypso Forum
Peauction

Posted in: Entropia Universe