Is Cyrene becoming dead? or alive?

[John Galt]

Hi
Let me start by saying I am a new player. 25k skill points, playing for 5 weeks. I hunt mobs with 100 to 300 hp. So my awareness is very limited. That said, I would believe I am the kind of player any planet will want to attract - "fresh blood" to the game, depositing 100-150 a month.

I arrived in Cyrene 3 days ago after spending my first month in Calypso.
The difference is shocking. I like the fact Cyrene is much smaller, therefore easier to get around. I came here for the sake of the Maze Hammer and the HEART VI chain.

After 2 days hunting mostly for my noob missions, I saw hardly any activity on the auctions, #cyrene and #cyrenetrade. Someone said something about Cyrene not having its "hard release" yet. So is this planet still in beta? Or is it a wasteland? It seems to lack the activity and volume of play other planets have.

I am having fun here but without an healthy market to sell my hunt loot or buy what I need, this is not sustainable. I fail to see the reason to stick once I get the HEART VI. Can someone counter my arguments please? I would like to find reasons to stay.

- marketplace is dead due to the very small volume of players
- ARC tokens are useless unless someone will stick long enough to get 200+ and even then it is questionable if the can be useful
- Cyrene tokens are useless since they can only be used on a 750 batch for blueprints or on a vendor that hardly ever has stock
- most stuff I mine and loot here has no use for the players (blueprints) based on other planets therefore the idea of hunting here and selling elsewhere is a flawed theory.

Can you help me like Cyrene more?
Thanks.

 

[jetsina]

Hello John and welcome,
I like your introduction post and yes, "fresh blood" is what needs to be attracted and held onto.

I also like your style in so far as you have discovered some negatives already, but appreciate that this may be because you have not found certain answers. You write:

Can someone counter my arguments please? I would like to find reasons to stay.
Can you help me like Cyrene more?

I would like to be able to provide good answers here, genuinely I would. The best I can do is to say that Cyrene moved from new birth to a sort of hibernation state many moons ago (several years!). It has almost become an urban myth that Cyrene is waiting for the EU platform to introduce player-controlled fighting mechanoids as the point in time at which Cyrene will undergo its "hard release".
What we do not know is how many of the currently not very useful tokens, key cubes and other Cyrene materials tie in with this mechanoid line. MA is also responsible for the balancing of loot drops and is notoriously bad at this. A few years ago they made sure that pretty much all item bps have a crafting ingredient which they can block if they want to limit the availability even more than currently. One result is that while one material (per bp) may command a potentially high markup (mu), it is generally not worth crafting the product (weaps/armour) when comparing with what items can be imported from elsewhere. The bread-and-butter bulk materials therefore do not sell much either.

In theory, I believe Cyrene is set up to be noob-friendly in that there are dozens of lowish-level mobs and daily missions for gathering specific materials and tokens which could in theory be sold on to higher players for a smallish mu, but enough mu to make running around on Cyrene worthwhile. Unfortunately we have neither the chicken nor the egg right now to make a success of this from the player side.

I hope you find the answer helpful, and that Kris and lilmc understand too...

 

[San]

A fellow who knows about Atlas Shrugged!

This game is my mental Galt's Gulch.

Cyrene is in a kind of pupa state, we're all biting our nails and looking forward to its re-birth. I knew it from before the big crunch and the image keeps me returning whenever I can.

As for the market or lack thereof, most folks work with regular trips to Caly for the time being. Actually that still applies to all outer worlds. The whole EU is in the middle of evolution, not at the end. I don't know what the threshold is for a self-sustaining economy, but every active participant gets us closer.

Cheers!

 

[Hec]

And just to add what others have already wrote.
I doubt the accurate of EL when it comes to Cyrene/NI/Toulan.
Cyrene rarely has 5 players logged into EU, +running ET, +on planet, to record any Cyrene globals.

Yet generally Cyrene has same number of players as Rocktropia!
Guessing Cyrene has fewer players willing/able to run ET, or fewer aware of ET???
Regardless ET won't record the globals on Cyrene until more players start running it and that makes it hard to gauge the economy using EL.

For chats/trade chats seen the same issue on other planets where there's no communications, but find some people advertising items on #trade and asking questions/chatting in #rookie.

Personally I find the economy closer to RT then to NI/Toulan/Monria, and like those planets most everything ends up in TT, or spending a lot of time in chat advertising, or risking ~0.54pecs to put on AH.

 

[Karmic]

I'll run it as soon as I'm back, lets see if there is anything in the VU

 

[John Galt]

Cyrene is waiting for the EU platform to introduce player-controlled fighting mechanoids as the point in time at which Cyrene will undergo its "hard release".

Regardless ET won't record the globals on Cyrene until more players start running it and that makes it hard to gauge the economy using EL.

I don't buy that.
I am not so sure it is good to assume a position of sitting and waiting for something from either the players or the developers.
Being the Mechs or people who run ET.
Regardless if there was or not an official hard release, the planet is out to be played on and this is not a beta. You all know that on a hard release there is a player/gear wipe after the beta. You all know full well that will not happen when/if that said second hard release happens, so stop treating this as a beta. It is misleading to the players and unfairly forgiving to the developers. Time to take some ownership, both us players and devs, and play with the cards we've got.

I would rather go along the harder line and saying that pretty much like Toulan and NI, Cyrene doesn't have enough people so that the low percentage (similar in all planets I guess) who runs ET does not reach those 5 players. The fact ET is not even picking our globals is a significant tell that the numbers are skew. TT may cycle PED but at a loss compared to a player who would give you some MU on top. It is up to us to start buying from one another, and boost the economy if we want more players to stick for longer than the time it takes to get the HEART VI.

Yesterday was Monday. I had 3 globals and none was tracked. and I do run ET myself. Economy and player base are weak. Whatcan we (players and devs) do about it? We players can buy and sell in planet instead of Caly trips that cost about 28-34 PED*. Devs... I won't pretend to know. But we all need to stop looking at the carrot and start chewing the stick shorter instead.



* I calculate the cost as: Summon up + mothership service (7 to 10 PED)+ TP SS to surface (7 PED) each way

 

[San]

But we all need to ...

These keywords make me stop listening, reliably. And are evidence that the original Galt wasn't at all understood. I do not question your good intent of course, please carry on.

 

[krasko]

Hi
- marketplace is dead due to the very small volume of players (Not true if you have some contacts)
- ARC tokens are useless unless someone will stick long enough to get 200+ and even then it is questionable if the can be useful (Not true I have obtained great stuff. Missions is obviously not for tourists, as it takes time to collect the badges)
- Cyrene tokens are useless since they can only be used on a 750 batch for blueprints or on a vendor that hardly ever has stock (Not true, can be used crafting and refines)
- most stuff I mine and loot here has no use for the players (blueprints) based on other planets therefore the idea of hunting here and selling elsewhere is a flawed theory. (Bad observation again).

Overall planet is not for crying tourists.
It takes time and dedication.

 

[Neo Jr XL]

Was about to write but then Krasko beat me to it, so I'll be a good cop ...

John Cyrene is not copy paste of Caly or Ark and yes if EU needs patience Cyrene needs double of that. Your 'call to action' make the economy bigger won't work as EU is sand-box PVP economics game disguised as shooter. And as in RL open economy you can't order 'people to produce' so you can't here. You have to incentivize them, and most of it is with developers. And C-team is the best as much as i'm concern and main reason i'm still here after 215k Tailor Mission 2k+ badges, etc. They do have their own problems, and at times feels one step forward two back, but i think they are started to get the message from the community lately as they used to do in the past. Recent events is good confirmation.. i wasn't there due to timing and RL, but i've seen ppl globaling on Cyrene after event i haven't seen in ages...

If you have patience Cyrene could teach you to develop and value social aspect as you can't survive alone in the small economy, start slowly building some crafting skills through dailys, learn loot 'waves', achieve reasonable tt return on low lvl mobs as they are (or used to be, can't confirm now) less overhunted therefore loot variance is much smaller. Can even loot good UL rifle from 80hp mob with current MU +70-90.

Practical advice: don't wear armor after 5 weeks in game, hunt for Cyrene high MU loot, tt the rest if don't have ped card or stack if can afford, collect the badges (even though you don't value current rewards, and you are wrong there, you never know what next VU brings), stay on N00b mission (three out of four mobs drop reasonable MU stuff and wraith can drop UL blades) and watch the loot.

There is more obviously, but hope it helps for starters...

 

[Skubahta]

Overall planet is not for crying tourists.
It takes time and dedication.

Good old Krasko hits the nail on the head once again... haha


The title of your post says it all. You have not been on Cyrene for long enough to know anything about the planet. All I can say is that 2-3 years ago you would find 5-10 players on the WHOLE Planet (if you were lucky), now you find that number of players at Rookie TP alone. So yeah planet is no doubt more alive, question now being made is what kind of players is Cyrene attracting and how they impact the economy and the rest of Cyrene. The goal is to have a planet full of leeches or have a planet with a healthy economy? You want 10 people camping an NPC or 10 people hunting/crafting/mining/buying/selling? And is the planet moving towards the right direction? I.e. personaly I loved the fact I could hunt for hours and not see a single person, whilst now I global two times and get a horde of people trying to jump on the wave...etc.

Like Neo says above and IMO very well this is a game of patience. It takes time to get to know the planet, the economy, to forge alliences. You need to position yourself well in this game and define clear goals and stick with them. Neo gives some very nice tips if you know how to use them.

All I have to add is do your research, research items, armos, guns, materials, what drops what and at what MU. You say there is no point at gathering 200 badges when there is potentialy a 4-5k gun to claim from an NPC in exchange for 100 ped in shrapnel. There is also a nice L gun and armor that I used for some time before moving on to ARC Patrol in the next stage of the ARC badges. Cyrene is great for getting money for nothing (hence the intence leeching), good MU items droping from puny mobs. You just need to research where to look and whats worth keeping, what is not and what sells on Ah or to players. Understand the game and the planet you are at and create your strategy for it. Or you will fail at every planet in this game. Remember what might work for me might not work for you.

Information is power, in this game good information leads to making ped. Dont just expect to turn up and be like "Hi im here now so tell me everything you know about Cyrene so I can stay and make ped". Would that work in RL? Then why would it work here?

 

[Hec]

Regardless ET won't record the globals on Cyrene until more players start running it and that makes it hard to gauge the economy using EL.

I don't buy that.
I am not so sure it is good to assume a position of sitting and waiting for something from either the players or the developers.

I'm sure accidentally clicked on my comment when you replied, because I never joke about ET.

ET does NOT record Cyrene globals
+ if there is not at least 5 people Logged into EU
+ and on Cyrene
+ with ET running!​

ET is not run by the PP or MA, it's run by a 3rd party and vetted (fully approved) by MindArk.

http://www.entropialife.com/about/MindArkVerified.aspx
http://www.planetcalypso.com/planet-calypso/community-sites/tools/


The reason for 5 people needing to run it at the same time is for independent verification and to stop the potential of any faux globals from being uploaded (false data uploaded into) ET probably for the extra 2 free gift points per global, or for a lark (not the bird).
I do hope this makes things crystal clear and will prevent any further misunderstanding of ET.

Yours Truly

Captain BA Honeycutt in a white wine sauce, with shallots, mushrooms, and garlic.​

 

[AxeMurderer]

Not dead, but in coma You can wake up from coma or not who knows.
Cyrene had great potential, but I don't see anything done for the last 4-5 years except 1 picture of the team working. I want to believe, but I need more. If the planet is not abandoned it will be top destination in the universe.

 

[krasko]

Not dead, but in coma You can wake up from coma or not who knows.
Cyrene had great potential, but I don't see anything done for the last 4-5 years except 1 picture of the team working. I want to believe, but I need more. If the planet is not abandoned it will be top destination in the universe.

Tourist speech again.
Good stuff a berried deep in the ground.

 

[Kris | Cyrene]

I'm actively following this thread, all the information provided from player perspectives is really important.

 

[John Galt]

I have to say that my opinion about Cyrene did change after a week here. And for the better.
I have to repeat that I am new to the game (6th week) so my point of view is narrowed.
Nothing changed (yet?) about how I see the "too" small player base and therefore weak economy I mentioned on the OP, but the rest I have to admit it was down to simple lack of knowledge.

Missions:
Two experienced locals understood what I lacked was sound advice (which I had in Calypso from a fabulous mentor) I owe them a word of gratitude. Blaz Prosojnik Proso, Neo Jr XL and Tor Ted Hovi pointed me towards the arc and token dailies, mentioned their uses, and helped me understand how to survive the local scarcity economy.
After a week, I now have 26 badges and 46 daily tokens, which I think is acceptable since I don't have weapons better than a level 6 Ozpyn LPX - P6 (L) which limits my options.
Maybe the daily target could change. Always the same collectors/weeds/lurkers/panes becomes a daily chord not a daily mission.
I would also suggest to rename the "A.R.C. Faction Mission - Stage 1 - ..." missions. They all have such a long prefix that it is not user friendly to browse them in order to find something. Yes, I know the alphabet, but it still doen't look good in the mission log. Maybe just "A.R.C stage 1 - Muchjaw" would show the full name.

Terrain design issues:
I have yet to build resilience in order to not let some stuff affect my play experience in a negative way.
Have a third of the Collector XT bots getting temporarily unreachable is a big headache. It is a mission that players may do daily, and in the level range of those that come here for the Maze Hammer and HEART VI, so this issue has high visibility.
Or spending half a clip of ammo and having your tide claw impaled by a tree, never to recover from, which actually means PED loss due to a technical issue. (Support Case ID 338211)

I like the overall theme and feel of the planet, but it does feel somewhat unfinished, which I don't think should be acceptable after years and years.
On the tide claw again, I would like to suggest that the hitbox is enlarged. Given the wide movement of this mob, at close range we waste half a second between shots to re-aim since the hitbox moves with the swing of the claws. I use pistol/riffle. Unless this is by design as a penalty to close combat, I believe this should be looked at.

Crafting:
Another shortcoming is that there are not many Cyrene crafting options, when compared to ark or Calypso.
As a new player I am continuous exploring. Everything is new, whichever direction I look. I picked up the cube component BPs and that was nice. Let me praise devs for having something for us low levels to dump out loot piles from local monsters on. On the other hand.... entropedia shows a couple dozen attachments BPs that an Arkadia or Calypso resident can work on without importing goods. In Cyrene there is only Enkidd Red-Back (L) Blueprint (L). Is entropedia incomplete? Or is Cyrene? One of both sure is lacking, wouldn't you agree? Same with weapons where ark shows over 200 and Cyrene less than 15. Can someone justify this state of play after years? There aren't players because there isn't content besides some hunt content, is what it suggests to me. I may be wrong, tho.

Overall I am happier in Cyrene than when I originally posted. I found a long term goal (Ecotron v.15e Prototype) which may turn me from the tourist I am (came here for the Maze Hammer and HEART VI) to a long term resident.
But as a jack-of-all-trades that I am, I may struggle with the lack of use for mining and crafting besides cubes since everything else feels like a dead end.
Suggestion: The planets theme is connected to robots right? they deal burn dmg right? Why not add a burn armor plating BP on top of the cold BP in the terminal? Maybe something with multiple tiers or whatnot, that requires Cyrene loot and Ozpyn components. That would add further use to the local loot, minerals and ozpyn basic components.


PS: Mood changed from worried to curious ^_^

 

[krasko]

I have to say that my opinion about Cyrene did change after a week here. And for the better.
I have to repeat that I am new to the game (6th week) so my point of view is narrowed.
Nothing changed (yet?) about how I see the "too" small player base and therefore weak economy I mentioned on the OP, but the rest I have to admit it was down to simple lack of knowledge.

Missions:
Two experienced locals understood what I lacked was sound advice (which I had in Calypso from a fabulous mentor) I owe them a word of gratitude. Blaz Peosojnik Proso and Tor Ted Hovi pointed me towards the arc and token dailies, mentioned their uses, and helped me understand how to survive the local scarcity economy.
After a week, I now have 26 badges and 46 daily tokens, which I think is acceptable since I don't have weapons better than a level 6 Ozpyn LPX - P6 (L) which limits my options.
Maybe the daily target could change. Always the same collectors/weeds/lurkers/panes becomes a daily chord not a daily mission.

Terrain design issues:
I have yet to build resilience in order to not let some stuff affect my play experience in a negative way.
Have a third of the Collector XT bots getting temporarily unreachable is a big headache. It is a mission that players may do daily, and in the level range of those that come here for the Maze Hammer and HEART VI, so this issue has high visibility.
Or spending half a clip of ammo and having your tide claw impaled by a tree, never to recover from, which actually means PED loss due to a technical issue.

I like the overall theme and feel of the planet, but it does feel somewhat unfinished, which I don't think should be acceptable after years and years.
On the tide claw again, I would like to suggest that the hitbox is enlarged. Given the wide movement of this mob, at close range we waste half a second between shots to re-aim since the hitbox moves with the swing of the claws. I use pistol/riffle. Unless this is by design as a penalty to close combat, I believe this should be looked at.

Crafting:
Another shortcoming is that there are not many Cyrene crafting options, when compared to ark or Calypso.
As a new player I am continuous exploring. Everything is new, whichever direction I look. I picked up the cube component BPs and that was nice. Let me praise devs for having something for us low levels to dump out loot piles from local monsters on. On the other hand.... entropedia shows a couple dozen attachments BPs that an Arkadia or Calypso resident can work on without importing goods. In Cyrene there is only Enkidd Red-Back (L) Blueprint (L). Is entropedia incomplete? Or is Cyrene? One of both sure is lacking, wouldn't you agree? Same with weapons where ark shows over 200 and Cyrene less than 15. Can someone justify this state of play after years? There aren't players because there isn't content besides some hunt content, is what it suggests to me. I may be wrong, tho.

Overall I am happier in Cyrene than when I originally posted. I found a long term goal (Ecotron v.15e Prototype) which may turn me from the tourist I am (came here for the Maze Hammer and HEART VI) to a long term resident.
But as a jack-of-all-trades that I am, I may struggle with the lack of use for mining and crafting besides cubes since everything else feels like a dead end.
Suggestion: The planets theme is connected to robots right? they deal burn dmg right? Why not add a burn armor plating BP on top of the cold BP in the terminal? Maybe something with multiple tiers or whatnot, that requires Cyrene loot and Ozpyn components. That would add further use to the local loot, minerals and ozpyn basic components.


PS: Mood changed from worried to curious ^_^

Welcome to Cyrene looks like your days as a tourist are over.

-Regarding unreachable mobs - Is the game mechanics EU wide.
Anyway to damage a mob it has to be able to reach you, so next time just go closer and take a hit.

-Terrain is crappy, but we are currently playing on a relocation area and terrain will expand based on player activities (Check dynamic upgrade map).

-Crafting Very very friendly to fresh crafters.
There are several scout missions that will reward you with clothes, weapons and vehicle blueprints (I can mail you the waypoints in game).
2 Boffin Npcs on 101 can sell you bp's for daily tokens (Armor and weapons).
You can utilize plenty of your loot to end products with decent MU.

 

[John Galt]

-Regarding unreachable mobs - Is the game mechanics EU wide.
Anyway to damage a mob it has to be able to reach you, so next time just go closer and take a hit.

The obstacles in the way of the Collector XT bots who use ranged attacks make them stuck, not anything from my part.
And the Tide Claw got impaled while walking towards me. I came closer and was able to get hit but not hit back.

-Crafting Very very friendly to fresh crafters.
There are several scout missions that will reward you with clothes, weapons and vehicle blueprints (I can mail you the waypoints in game).
2 Boffin Npcs on 101 can sell you bp's for daily tokens (Armor and weapons).

Yes I am working on those. After my 1st month in Caly I spend a few days on Kronan mothership to get my BPC. I have the vehicle missions done and plan on working out the rest. that email information will be welcome, krasko. I think the daily missions with skill rewards are a good way to give and incentive, since short term gratification is easier to acknowledge even if the benefit is really small like a couple PEC size skill pump. Well done, C-team.
Regarding the Boffin set, 750 tokens sounds like 15 weeks to me which is something that sound really really long and don't have information at this point how worthy those BP may be, effort (PED+time) versus reward.

 

[San]

The obstacles in the way of the Collector XT bots who use ranged attacks make them stuck, not anything from my part.

Just happened across them again. They have so few hp, even with a tt gun they are down faster than they can become unreachable if you target one behind a structure. At least to me this has never occurred to be a problem.

 

[krasko]

Just happened across them again. They have so few hp, even with a tt gun they are down faster than they can become unreachable if you target one behind a structure. At least to me this has never occurred to be a problem.

Very annoying. Those have to be on a flat ground.

 

[Hec]

I would also suggest to rename the "A.R.C. Faction Mission - Stage 1 - ..." missions. They all have such a long prefix that it is not user friendly to browse them in order to find something. Yes, I know the alphabet, but it still doen't look good in the mission log. Maybe just "A.R.C stage 1 - Muchjaw" would show the full name.

I've suggested much the same and a number of others did too.

add a burn armor plating BP on top of the cold BP in the terminal?

Looking at entropedia.info it shows 10 armor plates that have cold (including Cold BP)
And 38x Burn, 19x Acid, 12x Electric, 8x Shrapnel
Some of Cyrene's mobs do shrap and electric in a unique way so armor plates could be of interest.
Maybe armor plates should be in their own topic to discuss further???