TWEN Tokens, Thoughts and Considerations

The markup on TWEN tokens started out around 3 PEDs per, and now is basically down to 1 to 1.5 PEDs per... I do not know whether to expect the price to rise or sink further. But, one thing is for certain, if the markup crashes too far, then everyone will have a chance at the TWEN gear in the TWEN trader, which I don't think we will get that lucky. If the tokens become too cheap, all the big players will scoop them all up along with all the TWEN gear to flip later on. But with weapons averaging 50K to 100K tokens... Even if I could loot that many, I'd probably sell them and buy the older gear that is better than what I have now, and play on what is left. That is just me personally. 

I don't know that loot will be substantially different enough that the difference in cost between the TEN, FEN, TWEN gear vs the non anniversary UL's, that there will ever be any kind of a ROI on that difference in markup value. I know the specs and things like decay eco and efficiency should be different even if only slightly between all of those... But for me, DPS is efficiency and eco; more DPS means less hits to armor, less healing, more mobs cycled, more chances for good loot. In my own tracked runs, the indication is strong that this makes up for any gains you might otherwise have from penny pinching your damage per pec ratios. So, for me, anything that fires faster, may well be worth extra markup, i.e. Adjusted or Modified or Perfected over non modified gear. And indeed I've seen data that suggests modified gear is better to run than non-modified gear, hence, the extra markups seem to be justified. But. IMO... Whomevers paying five digits for any kind of Opalo, will probably never live long enough to see a return on that investment, you are saving a small fraction of a pec per shot over the standard Opalo, and to have to recoup five digits of peds at a fraction of a pec per shot, well... Just saying. If you are able to prove me wrong, then I congratulate you for doing that much low-stakes grinding. I just personally would never be able to. My time is valuable to me. So, I will only spend it at levels commensurate with how much I hope to loot for my time invested.

Ultimately, consider whether the TWEN items you like justify the price difference between the non TWEN versions that may be on the market and what the tokens will cost you for the TWEN edition. 

As for solo-grinding for 50K or 100K tokens... I have been running LootNanny to track my hunts. I have found a mob, which, I am not going to give exact details unless someone is willing to make a small donation to this blog, I mean lets face it, Adsense permabanned me for something I didn't do and I can't monetize my blog, everyone else is getting donations for all their other projects... But the results of my tracked runs on this particular mob have consistently been thus: Using my Tier 8 damage enhanced R-150 with Dante amp, (around 45 pecs a shot in ammo and decay if memory serves), 1K peds cycled reliably provides me with 40 TWEN tokens. And the occasional unreal token still drops too, which yes it surprised me too, they have been such a rare drop these days. Some of you may have better ratios or worse ratios, I've seen people kill thousands of small mobs for only a handful of tokens. So, I really don't know what is "average". I just know what I can personally observe and measure. Nevertheless, lets use this number. 40 tokens per 1000 ped cycled. That is win, lose, or draw, everything you cycle and recycle cumulatively. 

Upon doing the math here, it basically came out to 2.5 million peds needing cycled and recycled to have any expectation of me looting 100K tokens. Thats about 1550 hours doing one shot per second at approximately 45 pecs a shot to cycle 2.5 million peds, for me. With a ring and pills, I get about 60 shots per second, maybe a bit more maybe a bit less.

In 1550 hours of that kind of grinding, I would hope like hell a TWEN would drop in normal loot, though I've been skunked for TEN, FEN, and so far TWEN. And way to go, MA, for trolling us, by giving us all TWEN face masks ffs for easter was it? I forget, time is going by so fast everythings a blur for me right now. 

So is it a pipedream to try to grind for 50K or 100K tokens? I don't know. Of course if you are enterprising, you can probably trade certain loots with people who need them in exchange for TWEN tokens to speed the process up. But... For me, it is enough to hoard the ones I do get until the pile of them is large enough that if I sell them, I will have enough PED all in one pile that I can do something I need to do with them. Selling them as I go, what's a few PED... A few here few there doesn't really do anything. But a few thousand here and a few thousand there will.

As for the M tokens, I feel bad using the ones I used, but the piece of armor I got with them sold for enough I was able to correct a past mistake as a critical piece of gear I'd regrettably sold long time ago came back on the market for less than I sold it for. The difference here though is... The M token stuff is a straight up grind, there is nothing tradeable about them except for cashing them in for something that is tradeable, and I don't know if, when, or what MA will decide to restock the M trader with... All I know is the gun I really wanted is sold out, so it made the decision easier to use my rare M token to at least get my old gun back. The M-Tokens not being tradeable, means that I set myself back at least a year in the occasion something else epic I do want IS put back into the trader. But the benefit of having my reliable looter with satisfactory DPS for what I want to do with it, without having to pay markup on any decay, allows me to grind better and hopefully recover the lost ground quickly.

Any token you loot in Entropia has some kind of use or value that is different to all of us. It may have more leverage trading for other forms of loot than just selling outright. It may function better as a reserve currency, where, you save it until you can't afford to save it any longer and using it serves a greater purpose than anything else you would have needed it for. 

But I do caution, with TWEN tokens, there is no clear view of a timeline as to when these tokens will cease being valuable. Hoarding them will only be a benefit for so long, after that, they may become a liability. I don't know what MA will do for those of us who inevitably have leftover tokens, if anything. They just might turn into being another collectible in our storage terminals like so many other things have over the years. Many of us older players could probably open museums with the things we've got laying around, and who knows... That might even be a trend that catches on some day.

So, I do wish all of you good luck for whatever you are trying to accomplish. Its not so much there isn't opportunity in Entropia, there's just a lot of overlooked opportunity. Thinking about things differently may be just enough to make a difference. 

Merchant - Trader as a profession.

 The world is hurting. The paradigms are shifting. The world pre-2019 is not coming back. I am sorry but it isn't. It cannot. It is outmoded. Why do I say this?

1. Can you do everything your job required, on your own, without your employer? Yep, thats right. people are going into business for themselves saying to hell with their bosses, in droves!

2. During covid, people were working from home and enjoying it! After covid, they weren't willing to go back to their dreary cubicles. You get a taste of working for yourself at home you don't go back.

How is this all related?

I actually want to help and encourage people... So consider this my contribution to society. Everything you do in Entropia, as far as trading is concerned, you can do in the real world, and to greater effect. 

Lots of people have things they do not want and will sell cheaply. Lots of people need things they do not have and will pay greatly. The difference, if you can bridge the gap and make it happen, is your profit margin, which is not theft, or screwing anyone over, it is simply a reward for helping the supply reach the demand.

I AM writing a book on my real life experience as a real life merchant trader, and I won't ask much for it, but you see, there are so many people who are so happy working, that they don't want to trade, or work for themselves, I don't understand it either. Why work a 9 to 5 and make someone else rich, but ok. Someone has to flip the burgers, and haul the garbage. But even if you are a garbage worker, you could buy your own garbage truck and offer your own rates to your own route of your choosing? There is opportunity everywhere!!!!

Anyways... My blog isn't monetized, Adsense permabanned me because someone clicked my ads too much, allegedly, and no ones donated to my blog... I've given a lot of valuable info and no appreciation... But I am still willing to sell my expertise cheaply when I publish my book. 

I've spent the last three decades of my life taking care of the WWII and Vietnam veterans in my family. The government wouldn't, so I did and am. I don't care that it isn't a paying job. What am I going to do turn my back on family AND veterans? Nope. But I've HAD to make my living in a non-conventional way.  A 9 to 5 is NOT something that works for me. And I am willing to give everyone the opportunity to access my sum total of my experience, so that anyone can replicate what I've been able to do. I've had successes that people in general would never understand. 

The reason I can share my secrets, is because I can't be everywhere at the same time. A million of you could all do your own thing and never put a ding in my bottom line. It does me no harm for you to do what I do in your part of the world. 

You are all experts in something and you might not know it.. You are all good at something. You all know something the other doesnt. There is a lot of money in say, 3D modelling, but not everyone is going to go into 3D modelling. There is a lot of money in coins, but not everyone is going to be an expert in every coin. Not everyone is going to be an expert in every stamp. Not everyone is going to be an expert in every antique. There are literally so many niches we can all carve in any sector of the economy, that we can be our own experts, and really make things happen. But there are a lot of people with money, and you aren't going to get it from them unless you decide to find something they want, that you can provide them with. 

And when I say this... Legal money is easy enough to make. I've taken $1K up to $180K in one month of manual day trading of cryptocurrencies. No looking over my shoulder, no feeling guilty about it... But, I was exhausted, took a weekend off, and came back to see the bottom fell out of the markets, so, my 180K turned into $10K which I cashed out, few days later cryptopia got "robbed" probably an inside job, you know how that goes, a big enough piece of cheese and the cat thinks he's a mouse... SO.. had I not rage quit, I'd have lost it all anyways... SO I used that money to go into making my handmade coin rings and etc. 

I seriously am writing a book telling all. I will announce it here when I publish. You guys are doing well trading in Entropia, or in games that don't even run on money. But those same skills work in real life too... I am going to show you how and why. And you won't have to feel guilty about your success.

Yes, ive spilled a few beans in this post. But stay tuned. We can shift the paradigm, and we can, as Johnny Paycheck sung, tell our bosses to "take this job and shove it." There is nothing no one does for someone else they can't do for themselves AND keep 100% of the profit doing it. We don't need employers. We don't need to be wage slaves. I haven't been in so many years, out of necessity, but the average person can't wrap their head around it.

People have made tens of thousands of dollars trading in Entropia. Actually, credible reports of some old players actually paid for their college by trading in Entropia. Anyhow. Regardless... Imagine doing it in the real world. THAT, is the way to freedom.

My luck is so bad that a full time job would only put me in debt. I at least break even working for myself. But seriously, I cannot afford to work a job. J O B... Just Over Broke. And for me, not even. 

Unreal Tokens, Now Tradeable, & My Forecast

The Unreal Tokens are now tradeable. This means they have become lootable in space and PVP4. So. Here's my forecast.

I forecast that there will be an increase in piracy and pvp runs in the contaminated zones. Why? Many of us have a dozen containers or more on our avatar. We stash all kinds of things in them, especially things that weren't lootable. Well, some of you may not get the memo in time to relocate your now lootable tokens. So, I suspect there is a sizeable amount of tokens people simply forget they have, that are on them, in a container, free for the looting. In the long run, it isn't the loot we know we have that is at risk. It is the things we forgot we carry that probably are the mainstay of the pirates.

I forecast the trading range for these tokens will be anywhere from 5 to 30 peds for the forseable future, but probably will not drop below 10 nor rise above 40. Eventually its possible, but probably not very soon.

The biggest inhibitor to any shares in anything in Entropia being a realistic investment, is the ROI... Right now if you aren't getting 5 to 10% per year, you are losing money to inflation. But, as a "savings" method, if you are saving up for a real goal, you want a set of this armor or you want that UL gun, or whatever;, or if you are swing trading the shares and stuff, this is the real value of these shares. And, there are people with more peds than money and they don't want to cash out so they are happy to put the peds they aren't using into shares so that something is being earned until they need them. 

I must hereby disclaim that none of this is investment advice nor should be taken as such. It is merely me presenting things as I see them for you to consider when making decisions or deciding what your priorities are. But it is common sense if your ROI is far less than inflation, you will lose money unless you are taking profits on the swings in value, or otherwise trying to avoid losing your money through genuinely blowing it before you can achieve a very important goal.

A Message to the Miners of Entropia Universe

 I've been here in Entropia for just shy of 15 years now. I've seen a lot of the good and the bad that has happened inside of the game. A lot of what goes on, if its out of sight its out of mind. Some things you just maybe don't notice anymore because everyone you associated with has either passed on or quit the game... So you keep your nose to the grindstone and keep grinding.

In a strange twist of luck, I ran into an old school trader. From way back. He got me thinking in the few minutes we chatted. I thought I'd make a little bit of an address here to the miners of the game. Why the miners? Well I will tell you. You have the power. The power to do what? I will tell you.

The vast share of markup has always been involved with ores and enmatters. Not counting the oddball high markup item that only a select few seem to loot while hunting. Even the greediest trader can only steal so much on an animal oil trade where its just a couple percent over TT value. But when you are talking ores and enmatters, its a whole nother ballpark.

There are some not so scrupulous traders taking advantage of the sheer need for selling ores and enmatters. It doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter why, where or how. What matters is this.

It is the miners who control enough of the good markup materials, to make an honest trader, or break a dishonest one. It is up to you to keep the traders you deal with in check. If you don't like the deal they offer, press them for a better one or find someone who can do better. This will cause them to tighten up their ship, or else see it sink into the abyss. Trading only works if you have the volume, and can move it. It is you, miners, who control who gets your supply.

The harder something is to sell, then yes, by all means its ok to allow for enough of a difference that the trader isn't sitting on that stuff for months only to make nothing. And you will probably get a better deal from traders who already know a customer who is waiting for what you are selling. But not checking the numbers, and not understanding what an acceptable offer for what you are selling is, allows for traders to be sloppy and loose on the numbers they give.

How many trades have you done in a year? Have they been reasonable? Or have you been forced to take a bit too heavy of discounts in order to close the deal? If you do 500 trades in a year, and if only you get one more ped per trade, thats $50. Thats $50 more that you won't have to deposit, or sweat for, that contributes to everything you have to do to try to survive.

Everyone complains about markups. Well, we can start doing something about that by keeping the traders honest. It doesn't mean cutting them out of their profit margin, but you don't have to let them destroy yours either. And always double check the pile of peds dropped in the window against what you are selling. Does it look right? If something seems wrong, it very well could be. I know of a couple massive trades that went horribly wrong for one particular person. But once you push the button twice, it's done. MA doesn't fix that for you if you didn't notice something and approved the trade anyways. And the more a trader gets away with this sort of thing, the more they will continue to do it. 

I am primarily a miner, and I used to do quite a bit of trading. I don't anymore, because, well, real life trading opportunities far exceed what I am able to make in Entropia by trading. I much rather enjoy the game mining. But if, as a miner, you are taking abuse from the people you rely on for your returns when selling loot, you can either do something about it, or not. If you do nothing, things could worsen overall. A lot more rides on keeping traders honest than we even can think about. We all know MindArk is against us, and the only chance we have against them is to strike the best possible deal for both sides of a transaction. And not all trades have a 1 to 1 ratio, either.

Sure. I sold a Mayhem harness for less than I would like to have got. But I needed the peds. And I didn't have to wait. The loss of some fairly substantial markup on the deal, is the price I paid for the convenience of having the peds sooner than later. BUT. This worked to my advantage. Something I've been waiting for to hit the market for a long time, at a bargain price too, finally went on the AH. I was able to buy it and had some peds left over. In all honesty, in a face to face trade, I'd probably have traded straight across for the item. So, you see, taking a loss is advantageous if the timing is right. It is all about leverage, and timing, and I think I just got lucky on that working out the way it did. 

I think this is probably all I have to say. Just, the traders will be as honest as we can keep them. If something is wrong and they can't explain why the discrepancy, that would be a problem maybe.

So good luck, happy mining, and I hope theres something in all of this for you all to think about. 

Tips for New Shop Owners

 I notice a lot of shops and properties have changed hands over the recent years for whatever reasons. Some of you, I am impressed with how far you have expanded, for I have watched you start with next to nothing and end up living the dream, land areas, a shop in every TP (almost), yep. 

Many of you know what you are doing and need no advice from me. 

But. A lot of new players will come into the game as they always do, and need some advice. There really are a lot of people in the real world too, who want to start a business and have no clue why their efficiency is down or why customers are frustrated. Inexperience is no ones fault, we have to overcome inexperience by doing. And we can compensate for it by seeing what others have to say about what it is we are trying to accomplish.

There are a few things that would be so amazing yet I haven't hardly seen anyone attempt to do:

90% of my runs through shops, are looking for things that are not available on the Auction. This can be a UL Weapon, or a full set of UL armor, or a Fi/Ra/Co amp of any configuration. Some are rarer than hen's teeth. Some aren't. Sometimes I want to see if theres any good deals on estates. I know there usually aren't any super bargains falling through the cracks, everyone runs a pretty tight ship on markup, but... There are many other games where you can see what is for sale in what shop. Entropia doesn't do that, I wish they could do that, but who knows maybe MA will implement something like that in UR5, who knows. It would be smart if they did. Idle gear is not making MA money, and no ones going to buy it if they can't find it. 

I once seen a UL gun, priced insanely cheap, I thought about buying it. After an hour or so I decided you know what, I wanna go buy it. I had forgotten what shop it was, and by the time I got to the shop I know it must have been in, it was already gone, someone beat me to it. But I didn't even know it was there if I wouldn't have been bored enough to stroll through the mall one day.

The point I want to make here is... If you are going to offer rare items, UL items, anything that has any significance, make it as conspicuous as possible. This may mean putting a giant sign over a shopkeeper that says "RARE ITEMS SOLD HERE" or something. Some people I see, have put UL's amidst shelves of L items... When I see a bunch of L items and no clear indication of UL's, I book it out of there, and maybe other players do too, I don't know. 

I am not telling anyone how to run their shop, but just highlighting the importance of making your important items stand out so they are easy to spot. People can't buy what they can't see or find.

Hunting Skills and What I'd have Done Differently

 It is easy to think unlocking a new skill is no big deal. I thought that. Until I spent months trying to finish the next few levels to reach level 70 BLP so I could unlock commando skills. Whats the big deal about Commando skill? Well. Every 200 points is 1 health point! That is huge! But also, it makes levelling go much faster, too, and really, once you reach level 100, all those level 100 weapons that are TT food or low priced because by the time people can use them they already have more expensive UL's that they use, you can use anything you want to use.

I spent the first portion of the game skilling laser. At some point I switched to BLP, I just found laser annoying. BLP, for me, at least, tended to be quicker and sound better. But, had I decided to go BLP from the beginning and only skill that, I might be much closer to level 100, and that is probably one of the biggest things I'd do differently.

If you want to build your strength so you can carry a lot of stuff, melee probably is the way to go. It is unclear to me the full extent of which the strength attribute impacts gameplay. Intelligence tends to help crafting and mining, stamina seems to improve overall survivability against tough mobs. The attributes tend to operate in ways that are different from the other skills. I always figure the hardest to get attribute, or the hardest to get skills, might be the most important. If something is really helpful, I figure MA won't let us have much of it at one time or at all. I've done some limited testing along these lines and my results are encouraging.

I suppose the other thing I regret is not maintaining a record of every run, the cost, the loot, everything. I know it doesn't sound like much fun, but if I had that data for the 15 years I've been playing, I might be closer to figuring certain things out. And, the most successful players tend to track everything. I suppose there's a reason MA doesn't give us an ingame pedflow statement. It would be nice, but something tells me they would never do it. Sort of why they never put a clock in a casino, they don't want people aware of the passage of the time... Similarly I feel MA doesn't want us aware of the passage of our peds.

Having a clear goal, and focusing on the goal. It can be many goals. You can have a goal for every profession. But focusing on them is probably better than jumping around randomly hoping something works out. 

Lootable Zones in Space Changed?

 Some of you may be aware already, its probably a year or two old news by now, but I haven't really been in the posting mode for some time. The last few years as you well know have put everyone into different funks and what not.

But it does appear now that we have safe passage from Ark Moon to Arkadia, and from FOMA to Calypso, etc. Which, really, they needed to have done from the begining... Let's face it, who WOULDN'T pay the 7 peds to beam down to the planet from the moon or asteroid if you had loot to safeguard? So its not like the pirates lost out on anything, save for a few stones or fruits or things we forget we have in our inventory, or may purposely keep in it just to insult and infuriate the wouldbe looter if he got us.

And, as for pirates and people who otherwise waste my time forcing me to revive and cross large distances once again when I was almost to my destination... I probably won't buy anything from you ever, that you ever list on the auction, no matter how cheap it is or how badly I need it. If piracy is only business, well, not financing the war against me is only business, too.