I am back

... after over a year of forced absence from Entropia, I am back. To make a long story short, first I had to deal with a lot of real life matters, some of them rather unpleasant (some very pleasant), therefore there was no time for play. Then, after I solved my real life puzzles, I tried to log back in to discover that my PC was not ready to deal with VU10 - Cryengine was just too much. Man, was I p***ed. Took me quite some time to get a better PC which is finally here.

Serendipity!

Shortly after getting Level 30 Laser Sniper (Hit), I got my 3rd unlock: Serendipity!

(see the full picture on EF)

I guess it will be quite a while until there will be another unlock (next one, Coolness, comes at Level 40 Laser Sniper (Hit)), a guesstimate would be another 2 years until MA changes the skill system seriously or I decide to eat some chips (which I most likely will not do).

Misson complete - 4k Rifle

There we are -- on a Tuesday evening on a slow going Caudatergus hunt near Twin Peaks Mall, the final shot with my Breer M3a on a Dominant gave me the final little kick in my Rifle skill to make the 4k complete! Took me quite some time but got there -- all natural, no chips eaten :)

Next mission is Level 30 Laser Sniper (Hit) so I finally unlock Serendipity... 4k took me almost there but not quite. So a few more Breer guns to burn (although I prefer Isis these days).

There we are -- finally a HoF, and a really nice one. See the full image on EF. I got it on Jan 18 already but did not want to share it before I secured my account with a so-called "Gold Card" that asks for a different code each login, similar to a bank-account... after all, this is more than 350$ and significantly increased my account's worth :).

What to do with all the money? Well, I am in process of getting a full Bear (M) armor, which should eat up the majority of the money... and what's left will go into a set of 5B plates. I have long pondered buying a set, mostly because they are overpriced a lot. I have learned a tough lesson on my Ghost armor, paying some 500 PED markup on it and watching it diminish to almost zero over time. Any crafted item will more or less end up at TT+ a little markup for the raw materials, if one waits long enough... and the crafting cost for a 5B currently is about 35 PED while it sells for +150. Even if one factors in the ~40% success rate in skilled crafting, the fair price would be +88 and not +150. So, first the Bear, then the plates ;)

...still on the way to 4k Rifle...

It's been a while that I posted here, mostly due to the real life. RL has been nice enough to reward me with a new management position that eats about 115% of my available time. It's getting better, slowly. A tough hurdle (external inspection of my area) has been mastered, therefore it's more than due to post something!
I am still not quite at my goal of 4k rifle. At about 3960 at the moment, so getting closer... my Avatar at Entropedia is not quite up to date. Thanks to my computer that frequently reset itself when playing Entropia I have only been able when my wife did not need her computer. As she works from home, this was not very often. But I think I figured out what the issue with my PC is and ordered a new power supply unit (600W instead of 350 W should do the job).
Oh, yes, in the meantime a did get a HoF, finally, but that is worth it's own post after I fetched the screenshots from my wife's PC!

On the way to 4k Rifle....

Working on 4k Rifle, my next step on the loooong way to Level 30 Laser Sniper. Started a fresh Breer M3a today (with A102) and wanted to note my stats to see how much it moves me forward on my journey. Was at Rifle 3744.4 (before last weekend: 3720) and Laser Sniper Profession 27.55 as I switched from the old to the fresh gun. Burned 2.36 PED of the Breer and ended up at 3746.6 Rifle skill. That makes about 1 skill point per 1 PED of Breer burnt. Or just about 5-6 guns to consume before I am at my goal. With about 5000 shots per gun and ammo usage of 5 (with the Amp) I end up at 125k to 150k ammo to burn. Not impossible but it should last me at least until christmas...

Mai Tai light

Aufgrund von Spirituosenknappheit folgendes ausprobiert und für gut befunden: Mai Tai "light" Variante, bestehend aus 2cl Apricot Brandy, 2cl Gin und 8cl O-Saft, aufgefüllt mit zerstoßnem Eis. Susanne sei dank!

Skills and Professions

For a long while, it has been mysterious how your skills affected your "professional standing". However, since December 18, 2006 with the Version Update (VU) 8.8, we have been given a new screen that shows all the professions of your avatar. Since then, the old thread "How to calculate pro standing" has been supplemented with the new "Skill Impact on Professions" thread, both on EntropiaForum (EF). The data in there comes mainly from people chipping in or out skills and taking note on their profession levels before and after.
I have been following a slightly different approach, as I have never, and probably will never chip skills. I follow the profession level using (L) blueprints on Carpentry and lately Tailoring. This is for two reasons, really: firstly, the skills involved are not commonly chipped and traded and thus little information is known (see e.g. a strange thread on Machinery). Secondly, I like to craft a little here and there and record my returns in order to come to a conclusion whether Engineering really affects the returns you get on crafting. (to be continued after I get this job done my boss just gave me)

Way to go...

A milestone on my way to unlock Serendipity was achieved today with the demise of an Atrax Young East of Jason. The combination of LWT and Marksmanship skill gains were enough to push me over the limit -- now it's "only" 4 levels to my next unlock. Way to go, I must say, as skillgains became quite slow in the recent past, something many people complain about.

Needless to say that as a hunter, this is my best profession, all the rest comes way after this. My little crafting hobbies will not do any good in unlocking, this is just to gain a few insights into the system.

Baseline

I thought it would be interesting to know where my Avatar Bredan "Gingko" Oraigg is at this point in time. So I took the screenies of all my skills and processed them through EU Companion to post the result on the pe-wiki. Got a total of 39k skill points at the moment, with Laser Weapon Tech being my best skill with 4076 points. This was built all "natural", i.e. without chipping anything in or out in my ~18 months of play. 108 HP show me that there is plenty of room for improvement. I just have not unlocked the skills that give the most HP. In fact, I only unlocked Marksmanship & Ranged Damage Assessment so far, as I am mostly into ranged combat.

(By the way, if you have no idea what I am talking about, take a look at the sidebar on the right, where you will find a few links that should get you started. At this time I have no plans to write an introduction to Entropia, but that may follow, I keep going long enough.)

So what about the interesting part of a real-cash economy game - money and profit? I am tracking my progress using a few tools and can say, that I have been breaking even just nicely over time. There has been a big dip during late last summer, but I have recovered in the meantime. Mainly thanks to other players that bought my stuff at some mark-up. So I guess overall, MA has made their profit on me. I have not looted many items, though, just the basic TT fodder everyone seems to get nowadays. I guess I will list my globals and items loots at some later time. Now I need to enjoy the nice weather outside :D