Regarding mining Monria

[David Joker]

Greetings! I thought I would come on here and toss around some suggestions and ideas I had for Monria and making it a more popular destination for mining. I have been a miner since 2006 and my favorite spot to mine indoors was Foma before it became a ghost town. Now that Foma is quiet I believe Monria could step in and be the #1 destination for mining in Entropia if you play your cards right and give it more of a mining focus.
First and foremost we need to mention what sets Monria and Dsec apart from any other indoor mining area that I am aware of. There is no indoor mining tax and that is incredible! The one thing to stand apart from even Foma, drag your miners in with not taking 5% from them right off the top! Monria also has the Calypso style mining Ironman quests for ore/enmatter types along with the npc to turn in and continue these quests, this isn't on Foma! Monria has really good daily missions for mining and they work for Monria specific resources!

However I do not think Monria is currently the paradise it needs to be because as a miner even though Monria is my current favorite spot to indoor mine it just doesn't "feel" like you all want me to mine there. The creatures are an absolute nightmare to try and mine around, especially the shoggoth. They are such a nuisance that I find myself preferring not to mine Monria all together sometimes just because I don't feel like a swarm of shoggoth on me every time I drop a probe. Sure, I could stop and shoot but then I would be hunting; I am not much of a hunter and I came to Monria to mine. Honesty the cultists and yog are way overspawned too but the shoggoth are much worse!!
Perhaps you could lower the spawns in the mining craters so it seems like mining won't be a pain to do it? The caves are already packed with mobs and the caves don't seem good for mining anways.

Also from my experiences so far in Dsec it makes me feel the same as Monria overall. You built a nice beautiful place for indoor mining and then shut the door on those who don't want to hunt or deal with creature swarms. I am not saying don't have hunting spots, but a several minute sleipnir ride to find a place to drop a probe while flying over a radar completely covered in red dots is excessive.

Some other random suggestions:
One month a year do a Mayhem style event but for mining (Mineria anyone?) where you minimize mob spawns as much as possible and make some unique mining quests and giveaways.
Make an npc who accepts the monria specific resources and gives back a choice of mining amp size relative to the amount of resources and types accepted. Make the npc like a daily where you can only do it once a day and potentially make the amps where they cannot be traded so we don't crash the amp economy every year. Also you could have the npc do some sort of mining thing where you have to earn the amps with a grinding quest.
Maybe figure out how to give out tokens randomly with mining claims like the Mayhem does with hunting. Get a vendor that sells insane mining gear and only accepts tokens.
I know this event will function best if we can get crafters involved, we need to get them up there clicking the resources that we find. Perhaps unique mining blueprints drop during the event and require ores/enmats we dig up on Monria?

Also you need a face on Dsec and Monria, someone people can interact with and who is also there to promote the area and make events. Perhaps figure out how to do the entropia radio thing that Neverdie had when he owned his asteroid? It was great to give shoutouts to the miners and keep the community engaged while promoting things within Entropia. I think we can all admit when Neverdie sold his asteroid it lost the magic because John Foma just wasn't a people person. You need a goofy inspiring person who is passionate and believes in EU to help Monria feel like a unique destination. Having someone the community can interact with goes a LONG way ... just look at when DME joins us in Toulan chat. It helps bring the magic and makes us feel closer to the people behind the game that we love.

OK I realize that was a crazy long rant and I hope someone actually takes the time to read it. I feel you all are setting on a real REAL gold mine here literally and figuratively! Thank you for the opportunity to post suggestions!

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Well, well, well ... it's about time you got your butt in here to post after all the talking you do in Toulan chat, and for that I give you a gold star ... I've been telling you that this is the place to post your ideas and suggestions because Ant does read every single one of them.

Thank you for your kind words about me being in the Toulan chat, but ... I'm also in the Monria chat as well because the full scope of my domain when it comes to Community & Media management includes Toulan, Monria and DSEC-9. Right now we have the monthly Monria event that does include a few mining prizes, and the event is this weekend on Saturday. I have actually mentioned to Ant behind the scenes that it would be nice if somehow we would be able to do a couple of other events on Monria, but this is something that would need to be sorted out because it would most likely involve MindArk.

Ant has full control over development when it comes to Toulan and DSEC-9, which is actually Monria's expansion dimension, but when it comes to Monria, it's a different story. Monria is where we first started, and it's not a planet, but a moon, and Monria is also on the Calypso server which means that we have to work with MA's team in order to make any changes, and that requires a time factor, so not an easy thing, but ...

I'll continue to talk with Ant behind the scenes to see if there's anything we can do at all to create additional events. However, currently, he and Kendra are eyeball-deep in building the 3rd section of the DSEC-9 map, as well as more things for Toulan. Each section of the DSEC-9 map is built from the ground up, and it takes a lot of effort and resources ... Ant doesn't do this full-time either, so you can imagine with all he and the team have been able to do over the past year, it amazes even me, but I know what he's capable of, and I also know that he loves this universe and our community as much as Kendra and I do.

Ant rarely responds to threads like these with the suggestions and feedback, but he loves that the community continues to post them because it inspires him with the development. I know he wants to give as much as he can within the limits and balancing restrictions, and he will continue to implement as many of the ideas as he can that he thinks have merit and will fit with the vision, but ... now and then he throws in a surprise, because that's just how he rolls.

BTW ... Ant is quite a decent miner himself and did quite a bit of it before he got involved in buying a moon and adding a planet to our virtual family, but know this ... he will do whatever he can within reason to accommodate what can be done to elevate experiences. He has proven this over the past 6+ yrs now by implementing community ideas, and he'll continue to do it.

PS ... if I don't see your ass at the Monria event this weekend to try for the mining prizes, there will be consequences.

Just sayin'

 

[David Joker]

Thank you for the quick reply DME, I read it before bed but didn't have time to respond. I will definitely be there for the event!! When I was typing those suggestions I was flying back to Monria and trying to think of reasons I left it in the past. I will admit my face is red with shame for two reasons.

1. I had no idea the monthly Monria event had a thing for miners too. What I heard whispers of from other players was bosses and waves of creatures and thought "there goes the mining neighborhood." That is what I get for not spending time on the forum (currently trying to change that and be social here too). I was curious if mining on Dsec counts for the event though.
I am excited to compete tomorrow before and after work, I already split my ped funds in half and stashed 500 in storage just for tomorrow!

2. I was quite surprised to see that some of the spawns had already possibly been reduced or maybe I am here at a good time and just unlucky with mob density in the past? Either way, it was nice to mine and be harassed by the Monria denizens a little less. If you all did reduce the spawn already I greatly appreciate it!

In regards to me mentioning needing a tangible person on Monria/Dsec for events and motivation. I know that VS is very limited in that they can do in game, you all get to make the toys and watch us play. You aren't able to have an avatar that runs around on Monria/dsec interacting, promoting and helping the player base in a physical way. What I mean is when ND owned his asteroid it seemed like he was still able to play with us. He would go out hunting and mining his own land, compete in events he made too and overall made it feel like the owner was a player like us. He was there to be the face of CND and he did a great job at it, lots of good motivation and vibes from him when times got tough on CND as the ped card was melting; he would even be there to help drag daspletor off your claim too. A better analogy is you write the script but VS doesn't get to perform on the stage, you know too much that goes on behind the curtain. I realize there is nothing stopping me from being the Monria/Dsec "crazy guy" and thinking I might just see what I can come up with myself but funding events on my own ped is going to hurt.

I know you all don't have full control on Monria as you would like, that is why I didn't suggest anything too insane like expanding it for a 4th crater and whatnot. Hopefully they give you a little control on developing some really interesting mining stuff and events up there. Just make a flashy PowerPoint with a lot of confusing graphs that make it seem like a great financial idea to dazzle Mindark lol.

It would be really really nice to see something drag in the event numbers and people for mining like the mayhem does for hunting. I don't know if we would be crashing our own mining economy and ruining our % on resources though. I suppose it is better that the hunting mayhem is mostly shrapnel.

I am going to check out more Dsec mining this time on my Monria vacation. Dsec is very pretty so far and I like the layout of the land. I did notice the lotus temple section is a little more miner friendly so far and I appreciate that! The lotus invaders riding inside their little mechs were a nice touch, it reminded me of the pigs in their mechs from Duke Nukem and my childhood.

I am probably going to spend a good solid week up here if the mining doesn't ruin my card, it will be nice to see the Toulan globals scroll by and feel like I am closer to home!

Best of wishes to all my Toulan people!

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Hey Dave ... I was actually a big part of the CND activities with my original avatar (MindStar9) and worked with Neverdie before and after the launch of CND on Dec 19, 2005. I did event planning for him and he actually opened a few doors for me with regard to my media endeavors, so I'm grateful for that. The CND era was truly a vibrant and exciting time with lots of community activities, and the social environment was pretty frenetic at times but in a good way, those were the days indeed.

The VS team as individual players were friends back in the day from early on, so we've been close for a long time and we're on the same page when it comes to community. After taking over Monria on 11/26/15, Ant and Kendra and I all engaged with the community and had a great time, especially during our events, but after Toulan was added to our virtual family on 8/19/20 and DSEC-9 on 6/1/21 with 4 map sections to get built out over time, it severely limited the time that Ant and Kendra could join in the fun and are only able at certain events to be present in the community.

However, with the expansions, it also increased my work load as well, so my time is somewhat limited, but I make an effort to get in the game and connect with you guys as much as possible. I know how important it is for there to be a connection, and this is something we thought about for a long time for how we wanted to build our community. We wanted to bring back the social vibe from back in the day as much as we could, but I will tell you that the community has played a huge role in helping us to evolve this part of our vision. It was important to us to build the community from the ground up with a focus on new players (Monrian Born), in addition to all the changes and additions we made, and that focus still stands today, but that too has evolved over time.

Here's a fun thing though ... usually during our special events like St Patrick's Day Event (March, and our biggest event of the year), Halloween (Oct) and VS Team Anniversary (Nov), there are extra activities, and Ant and Kendra will engage in some Monria Boxing Ring shenanigans with a few of the locals (usually Ant and Shadow beating the poop out of each other with both claiming victory -- it's truly a fun thing to watch -- our Monria Boxing Ring is the only PvP). The reason Ant and Kendra can do this is because they opted not to have their avatars converted into official ones with immunity. They're hardly ever in the game anyway and don't "play" the game, so at least during these 3 events they somewhat engage with the community and it's fun ... they are also cool in chats, Ant is a crazy man.

Just wanted to give you a little bit of insight and why things are the way they are now, but when I'm not super involved in projects and other work (you don't want to see my every day to do list), you can count on me being in the game when I can and fully engaged. I will answer questions the best I can, or get up with Ant if I need info from him to confirm or verify something, but as most will tell you, I am not able to talk about future development or what's in a VU until the day of the VU after Ant posts his release notes.
This doesn't preclude me from teasing ... and some do their best to get stuff out of me, but fail miserably.

We love our community across the spectrum at all 3 of our locations, and we will continue as a team to bring you everything we can to elevate your experiences, but we ask for a bit of patience (Hally has none of this ), and eventually things will roll out. Ant and Kendra don't do this full time, so that limits how much can be done every quarter too ... there are variables behind the scenes that play a role.

We appreciate community members who are proactive and create something of benefit for the community, but there are far too many to mention them all here. You just need to see who's posting what and who's contributing to our Community Initiative Programs (CIP), or doing things on their own. We couldn't be prouder of our community.

So, back on topic with Monria events ... I can't promise anything, but I'll talk with Ant to see what's possible.

BTW ... when we have our monthly Monria events ... we actually add increased mob spawn locations because the population increases, and we also have the 3 hour Boss Waves side event, but that's in a secluded area. These are shared loot and anyone can engage.

Let's see how well you can deek the mobs and get some mining done for a chance at a prize. If anything, the chat will be fun.