Sunday 3 March 2019

News: Catch up on 2019 (First Quarter)

Entropiazine News Update
Entropia Universe News Report

In this issue:
> Deep Token Project Dropped By MindArk
> Swedish Loot Box Laws
> Announcement Of Crystal Palace Deeds
> User Interface Update




Deep Token Project Dropped By MindArk



Earlier this year MindArk developed and promoted DeepToken, a type of crypto currency token offering with the ambition of raising funds to create an intellectual property and digital asset bank, as well as improving Entropia Universe.


With time it has become evident that the ambitious project of DeepToken will not be able to be fulfilled. Therefore, the MindArk Board of Directors has decided to suspend the project and refund all the investments made to MindArk related to DeepToken.



Swedish Loot Box Laws


On the first of January 2019 a new Swedish law which affects lootbox systems that is used in many computer, mobile, and console games will go into effect. MindArk’s legal representatives has advised them on this new law and therefore MindArk need's to take the necessary steps to comply with this new regulation.

The consequences of the new law will be that users located using Swedish IP will no longer be allowed to purchase Strongboxes or Strongbox keys in the Entropia Universe web shop from this date.

It will still be possible for anyone in Entropia Universe to find boxes within Entropia Universe, but users with Swedish IP will not be able to open them unless they have Strongbox Keys acquired prior to January 1, 2019.

Strongbox Keys acquired prior to January 1, 2019 will continue to function even for users in Sweden, but they will not be able to purchase new Strongbox Keys from this date.

If you do not reside in Sweden or use a Swedish IP Strongboxes and Strongbox Keys will continue to work like previously, this change only affect users in Sweden or with a Swedish IP.


Announcement Of Crystal Palace Deeds


A hardly mentioned announcement was made back in December by MindArk, that a possible  500,000 available shares equal to 100% of the Crystal Palace's land area and will be sold for 10 PED or $1.00 USD each.

The now 13 year old Crystal Palace consists of four different dome locations, featuring two unique creature to hunt. When the Crystal Palace was originally sold to the current private owner in 2009, it was one of many times a Guinness Book of Records title holder. Shareholders will get a proportional cut of the total loot collected across all four domes. in 2018, the Crystal Palace earned an approximate return on investment of 17% for its current owner.

Buzz Erik Lightyear the current owner of Crystal Palace has made a public statement on the matter,
"In the beginning of 2018 I had been thinking about the idea to sell Crystal Palace. It has been a great honor and it has been very exciting, fun and rewarding to have owned it all these years. But it was on my mind that perhaps I needed to move on from Crystal Palace, as owning such a large investment didn't make as much sense anymore for me due to real life issues."

Buzz continues to talk about his interaction with MindArk,
"I asked Mindark again about this issue and what can be done. After these discussions they suggested to me the idea to turn Crystal Palace into a Deed sale. I felt very optimistic about this new idea! A new evolution for Crystal Palace. It was not only a great solution to selling Crystal Palace as I had been thinking about all year... But it really felt like a win-win situation."

Buzz also shared his vision for the the future of Crystal Palace,
"This would give many players, hunters, and investors the opportunity to own a part of Crystal Palace! I love the idea of that. The future of Crystal Palace could be great. Having large amounts of people who invest in it would mean more would want it to be successful. This could bring new opportunities for events or other exciting things that could happen in the future. And all of these positive things would increase the revenue for all of the future deed holders."

Buzz even goes on to say what we can expect,
"Mindark would be taking care of the deeds, sale and everything they need to do in order to implement and make this a reality. They have valued Crystal Palace and they will share the sale revenue in order to accommodate this change and costs associated with such an endeavour. After the announcement many people have been asking me for more information about it. I hope MA will be able to give some more details for all those who had questions about it all in the near future."

User Interface Update


On the 19th of Feb, version 16 was one of the most major updates to Entropia Universe's user interface since version 10, the CryEngine update in 2009.

This update introduces a number changes and enhancements to the controls, the movement, the camera and the targeting systems. To anyone picking up the controls for the first time will quickly handle the new controls, but older player will find it a struggle.

One of the major improvement to the system is the abilit
y to quickly access the auto use tool, threw a mouse click or a single key press, with no need to toggle. The auto targeting, auto using tool and the auto move to targets have been highly improved and has been stream lined into one simple process.

Camera movement and manual WSAD movement with the camera is still something that needs a little more attention, MindArk in following updates addressed some of these concerns, adding more camera control in the options window.

Older players instantly notices a number of useful feature and control have also been removed from the action library, one of which is the ability to grab someone or something status/health bars. Auto use tool has now been replace with interact or use tool and vehicle up is now jump.

Overall the update has been received well in the community among the newer players, the older players are still adjusting with a mixed bag of opinions.

Two updates have been briskly released by MindArk with more updates to be expected soon speculated to be focused more around the camera controls and movement.


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