ROCKTROPIA: Mining Advice

First... I am going to reconfirm what I already posted about the arctic:

All I can hit there is Oil and Lysterium, but there is such a high density of it all over the place that I'd say if you need lyst or oil, is safe to go there and drop a few probes! And there is a crafting terminal on the great big building next to the one with the hole in the floor that you drop down to hunt Things. I only say this because Lyst and Oil makes Standard Dampers and Basic Filters, and I have had great results crafting in the Arctic.

Second...

I average 1 hit for every 10 drops in Hell. And the smallest claim I get for Ore is a IX, and smallest for EnMatter is VII. I am working on bringing you a comprehensive list of ores in each Hell Mine, as well as the mobs in each one and what their levels are. The hofs and globals seem to be very deep here, with my 105 I was able to hit a blausariam global at about 1100M depth, and my depth enhancers only took me down to 600m. So I got lucky I think.

And Last:

Rocktropia ores and enmatters are incredibly shallow. All my big claims on the surface are between 200 and 600m. So while the Demonic Dector is a Hell blueprint, it doesn't work for crap in Hell, I surmise it might work good on enmatters there, but certainly not so great on ores. On the surface however, yes. You are going to do well with it, and it is pretty easy to craft requiring only Lysterium and Alternative.

But I Surmise that the Z5 and Z10 finders will work great, as will the 103's and 104's. I would love to try an F-211 or a eMine... With what I've seen so far, an F-211 might produce some awesome results! But this is mere speculation.

If you want some great areas with what seems to be high density of Alternative, I will reveal a couple of my choice locations: East of City of Dreams... The stadium construction site... And East and South of Mulholland Way TP.

I have hit Frigulite, Garcen, and Blues at the Construction site... I have hit Melchi and Lytarian along with the Alternative and Lysterium and Blues over by Mulholland. I have even hit Dianthus east of CoD.

FURTHER NOTES:

If you can't hit within the first 3 bombs, go to another area if you aren't seeing skill gains. If seeing skill gains, try a few more and then move if nothing.

If you are getting double and triple skill gains with a single drop, it means you are at the right depth for hitting what is there. 90% of the time I will usually global if I get double and triple gains, on the same finder that I got those gains.

Beware that the game is dynamic, which means everything is a variable and the system changes to fit those variables. I.E. It can't know where we will be mining or what we will be spending, but it can know where to put loot and what to put there for loot. I am beginning to understand more about how the claims spawn. There are certain mobs for instance, that won't respawn unless you kill all of them. Once the last one is killed, then they respawn. Since programmers like to recycle code to save production costs and time, I like to think of Mobs as claims but we don't know if they have loot or not. It is forseeable that before an area will spawn new ore deposits, all existing ones must be hit, or else it will automatically respawn and redistribute them every night during whats known as Lagoclock, since unless you are in a dome, it is unlikely every claim in a given area will be hit.

And if you are having bad luck mining still.. One more place I recommend trying is near London Blockade.

Also, Some days I hit better with combo drops, others, just doing ore or just doing enmatter. If you are doing something and it isn't working, change, and you will get different results, not necessarily better or worse, but different.

Hope this bit of information helps and will tide you over until I can provide something a bit more substantial..

There is quite a bit of info that I have not shared with you and will not until I feel the time is appropriate. A lot of what I have I am still verifying and doing more research.

If any of you wish to contact me or add me to your friends list, feel free to use the Player Register I posted about earlier inside the Entropia Universe and search for Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus. I will be glad to chat with my readers when I am online. I'd like to hear what you think and it would be great if you tell me anything you want to see me to add to this blog. It can be tough writing, because some days you just don't have any ideas, and others, like today, you are clacking away at full speed on a keyboard trying to write everything before you go insane and forget it all!

ROCKTROPIA: My Observations

I have spent quite a bit of time on Rocktropia now... And I am very pleased with it there. There are a lot more quests, and the quests are more rewarding than those on Calypso. Instead of Nova and Blazars, they give you things that actually have TT value, or things that lead to more valuable quests. And the quests themselves are not impossible, though it seems getting some of them to trigger is just about impossible.

Things to remember when doing quests:
If you must find an item for a character, lots of times it must be looted.
If you accidentally cancel a quest, some of them are almost impossible to get back because of how the system is structured.
The quests are location specific. If you get a Quest in city of dreams to kill trolls, killing trolls near say the Hyperplex won't count for your totals.

This is going to be a lot of just general information... More specific things coming soon such as what mines in hell have what ores and matters for instance.

The mobs are looting better and more often than I have seen personally on Calypso... It would seem that Rocktropia is geared more towards building a satisfied following of players than fleecing the flock and treating them like gamblers as Calypso tends to do... So safe to say I feel Rocktropia is under better management. I want to also note, that when Neverdie still owned the asteroid, my loots were never crappy. I mean, I would always hit say 5 or 10 claims in a hundred bombs. After Foma took over, I was lucky to hit one in 200 amped or not. And its not surprising now that I am getting good loots in Hell and RT. I might permanently move to rocktropia, who knows... But one things for sure, the mobs sure look a hell of a lot better :D

What I don't like about mining on Rocktropia is, just a small amount of Rocktropia ores is an immense amount of weight, so the only solution to mining for extended periods of time, is simply to build up your strength using Melee weapons so you can carry more.

When visiting Hunt The Thing, or the Arctic as it is known... You can mine, but bombs can't be bought there if memory serves correctly... So you will have to bring some with you. Only stuff I've hit there is Oil and Lyst, though when you get to the refueling base where you engage The Things, there is a construction terminal next to the supply shed on the bigger building. My crafting has been lucky there in the arctic.

Also, I want to point out, that the shotgun from the Arctic is very cheap and effective against the Rocktropia mobs, mostly. But for the bigger mobs, you want a bigger shotgun!

I am going to call it good for now, but I will be bringing you a great deal of new information that is specific to various issues within the coming days. Happy 2012 to all of you!

ARCTIC Part 2: The Thing Conclusion... Tips

Well... After many hours I finally made it through The Thing quest, and got my arctic helicopter.

I am still not an expert with this quest despite how long it took me. Here are the following issues I ran into:

1. I cannot find any storage terminals in the Arctic. So, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICLES SPAWNED WHEN YOU LOG OF. They get returned to storage, and NOT to Rocktropia storage either! So I had lost my Arctic Truck to storage. Without it, you are going to have a hard time getting through all of the things gathered along the path to the exit point. It quite possibly may take a trouble ticket with MA to get your truck back if you lose it.

2. When you enter the refueling base, you basically keep to the right, and there is a large building, and a smaller building kind of close to the satellite receiver. Don't worry about fixing this satellite, theres no terminal on it. Instead, you have supply and repair terminals on the side of the buildings there. Inside the smaller building is a hole in the floor that you are to drop down and you will find underground tunnel with Things all over.

3. It does appear that your Armor works from Calypso. My shogun was doing an admirable job, but that could just be from my defensive skills who knows. Supposedly only the arctic armor should work, but who knows really. In any case, the Things are very tough despite being level 7. These aren't the 1 shot 1 kill level 7s of Rocktropia. It took about 20 shots with my breer M3A to kill one. The shotgun you get from the supply terminal is powerful, but it was a 50/50 if I died or not while killing one. And if you get more than one attacking you you are better off to run for it unless you are uber. So if you plan to do the thing, BRING SOME POWERFUL WEAPONS AND THE APPROPRIATE AMMO!

4. You must reach the escape point from underground. There is no way to complete the mission above ground, believe me, I tried. Upon escaping you are at the surface next to a base. You will receive further instructions by Radio, and then it just gives you your Helicopter and says thank you for playing, and more episodes coming in the future. So it does appear that they will be expanding the Arctic.

5. MINING IN THE ARCTIC: You cannot buy bombs there. BUT you can drop them! Though all I found so far is Lyst and Oil but I did use the crafting terminal in the refueling base, and ran a small profit on standard dampers with the mined Lyst and Oil. Just bring everything you think you need and maybe even some things you don't think you need.

If you are not wanting to spoil the spirit of The Thing, and juse use all Arctic gear, that's fine, and I can respect the ambition of that, but you might want to go with friends since it will be helpful to have a team in dealing with all the Things.

Please see Arctic Part 1 in case you missed it for tips on getting through the first half or so of the mission.

ARCTIC PT 1: I Begun The Thing Quest: TIPS

I just wanted to give you a few tips for starting the Thing Quest...

1. You get to be either a Scientist or a Soldier. The Soldier gets to use the Assault Rifle to begin with, and the Scientist gets to start with the 9mm pistol. It's not as bad as it sounds though... Even though the weapons are weak, the mobs aren't very hard to kill.

2. You have to do everything in the proper order or you will confuse the Quest system. It's not too bad.. But for instance when going to the first satellite receiver, don't TP chip or otehrwise cheat, actually walk down the road to it!

3. When you arrive at the next base after getting your vehicle, you have to turn on the power generator. This requires a level 1 access card but I have not yet found it. I do not know if you have to loot it from a mob or actually find it... However... You can right click and operate the parked vehicles in the bases. Some of them will have things stashed in them to find like Ammo and etc. There is one vehicle that is locked, but I do not know if it is possible to break into it or not, and part of me thinks that the access card may be found inside it, but I dunno if they put that much complexity into the quests to where they would make you pick your way into a vehicle to find something.  UPDATE: Continue south through this base, almost to the next satellite dish, you will see a vehicle. THIS vehicle has the access card.

4. The freebies you get amount to a couple peds probably, including the fap, weapon, ammo... But you may purchase the shotgun, assault rifle, and additional pistols at the terminals attached to the various buildings.. And the ammo.. The shotgun is fairly powerful to be honest, it packs more of a punch than the sollomate opalo...  But they are limited so you can't repair them. So if you like them, and leave, stock up while you can.

5. What is the sequence for the power generator?
Reduce power to Beta.
Increase power to defenses.
Increase defenses again.
Increase cooling.
And you want the 13/20 split on last one.