Leogradance

(Alpha 1 baker)
 
A few days ago I went back to DU to see the new update, Demeter, after several months of not logging in.
I warned all the friends I played with to go back to setting their territories before losing everything.
Nobody cared.
 
I have loved too much DU to lose it all.
So I logged in, set my three territories HQ (never gave a damn about owning land, I just wanted to make ships), looked around ... and logged out.
 
I don't feel any urge to play DU. No encouragement, nothing that entices me.
And with Demeter I also began to think.
 
To think why.

To think how it is possible that a development team, no matter how short-sighted NQ is, has introduced such a tedious, annoying and impacting mechanic on every game mechanic such as automining and taxes.
 
And my conclusion, which is as valid as anyone else's, so it's just an opinion, an impression, is the following:
Demeter adds a routine typical of free to play games.

You can do it all but if you want to play for real either you take the time or you put the money into it.
 
He's a suspect for now. Which could be confirmed in the coming months, with new declarations, or more in time. In the meantime, they have doubled the cost of the monthly subscription, making a calculation on their server costs, of course, but certainly also taking into account a forecast of lost users after Demeter.
 
Here many users are talking about the fact that they are in Beta, which is a masked alpha. Working in anticipation of the launch.
Warframe has been in beta for 10 years.
Star Citizen we don't talk about it.
 
They are not working in anticipation of the launch.
They are working to not lose their jobs.
 
And on free to play: it would also suit me. I would accept it.

If there was something to pay for.
If there was any fun to pay for.
If I have to pay just not to lose things, this is not free to play but moral blackmail.
 
My opinion.
Avoid salty answers

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

Each of us has a different reason for playing video games.
I can tell you why I played with it: to vent my creative vein, my need to build and see my aesthetic sense and inventiveness realized, my hobbyist design skills and amazed by the artistic solutions found by others.
Yes, I am from that part of the players who played DU for his creative ability. PVP and commerce have never attracted me.
I liked to build.
And I still do, in other games and even out of games.
I don't know what "all adults" are doing to play a video game. Everyone has their own reason.
There is no more valid or less valid reason. There is only how you perceive it, for yourself.
 
As for the rest, I am sorry to be "brutal" but no one who is going to close a game will ever tell you "in 6 months we are planning to close everything, in the meantime we will squeeze you as much as we can".
It's commercial madness.
You won't know.
If they tell you that everything will be fine, that they won't whipe, and that everything will go smoothly, it could be true, or a huge bullshit. It is up to you to decide whether to continue or not.
But what you are asking is ... naive.
Extremely naive.

That would result in players accepting NPC missions only and JC wondering once more why they don't use the system as expected.

That's definitely my plan.

Greetings Noveans! ?
 
Today I come to all of you with a very special feature! Please put your hands together for @Burble, one of Dual Universe's very own racing specialists.

As many of you are likely aware, the thrilling sport of ship racing has been steadily gaining popularity in DU. Players just like Burble have already created some incredible tracks, designed lightning fast racing ships and organized exciting events to entertain and delight their fellow players. What's not to love about that?
 
We sat down with Burble to gain some insight into what life as a DU racing fanatic is like! So grab a cup of something tasty and pull up a chair, because we want to share our findings with all of you now. ?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. When did you begin playing DU, and what were your first impressions? Have you always been a fan of this genre?
 
I started a few months ago before Christmas, I think. I had been following the game for years, but had not had the computer spec or the time to start playing. I've always liked sandbox games, voxel games, flying games and live communities, so DU was a logical step that was always going to happen at some point. My first impressions? I was overwhelmed and a little lost for three days on [the Sanctuary Moon of Alioth]. But after I was advised to make my way to Alioth, the game began and it's been superb ever since.

2. At what point did you decide to begin building a race track on Alioth?
 
It must have been around week two of playing. The voxel mechanics in DU are a cut above most other builder games I have played. I've always had a go at building races in other titles, but I knew for sure that the persistent world and [single-server universe], coupled with the interesting physics and excellent building mechanics would make DU the game where a really fun track could actually exist. We can design our own race spaceships and then explode them! How cool is that?

3. Do you belong to an Organization and, if so, how do your org mates feel about the track you created? Did they pitch in? (Feel free to shout out anyone and everyone you'd like!)

I am in a solo org [so that I can possess all] of the cores I need to build something on a large scale. The whole build was a solo effort until last week, when the course was finished and some new people came along and started taking an interest in building shops and housing their racers on the track and surrounding area. The last few days have been really fun, and the beautiful stuff people are now building on the track makes me really happy and grateful.
However, there were some really good people along the way who helped out with a little resources here, or a kind quanta donation there:
 
Rayder13 & Umibozu both found me early when the track was only a concept and helped me on my way with their generous spirits. Rogue455 gave me the location of an aluminium meganode for free to help sustain the millions of litres the track was consuming. Dangersnoot has been a lovely friend and kept me company on discord when I lost the will to live... deep underground chasing scanner pings. The two of us once mined a whole silicon meganode and shamelessly sold it all to buy more aluminium. Lunaprey gave me a bunch of XL screens and keeps me on my toes. Jokr shipped me 200,000L of crater soil from Madis so I could build the Madis Hairpin. (There is actually nearly half a million litres of dirt from other planets than Alioth in the track's construction, but that is hard to tell at full speed.)
More recently, other DU racing enthusiasts have reached out to me and have been very generous in donating to the track in the last few days. There is a thriving microcosm of racers in the game. I feel that racing can be a permanent part of the experience. There are a whole lot of really great people in the game and I cannot mention everyone. Just look at the support channel and everyday there are experienced players offering help and advice.

4. What's your favourite part about hosting races in DU? What about the process sparks the most enjoyment for you?

The crashing and exploding. The inevitable laughter and people flying around to rescue each other from the track, usually deep under water. The way the people who get involved interact with each other and all share the same idea of fun and creativity. Meeting people you would never meet in real life purely through a rendered location that does not even exist beyond our childlike imaginations.

5. What do you think the future of racing in DU could look like? Do you plan to host any major, recurring events?

The future in a persistent environment can only get better and better. More people are building tracks, I was not the first. There are plenty of other builders that have been here longer than me. There are LUA guys working hard to make lap time devices. There are smart traders taking care of the finances and supporting the efforts of the teams. The actual racing? The tracks all over the universe are all there and being built for the players to enjoy. Monthly events or leagues with cash prizes. Head to Head battles for quanta or to risk losing your ship blueprints to the winner. Gambling syndicates. Time trials. Laughter and drama. Exploding and fireballs.

6. What would you consider to be your top 3 sources of inspiration when it comes to crafting the perfect race?
 
The old Nintendo game F-Zero and any film or games where deadbeat rebels spend their lives speeding through canyons and exploding in fireballs. I jump out of aeroplanes for a living and teach people how to fly their bodies at 300kmh so anything fast paced and reaction based keeps my mind empty and happy. The voices tell me to do it.
 
7. Besides hosting races, what's your favorite thing about DU? How do you spend your time in-game?
 
I am not a very skilled block mover - I hardly know any voxelmancy stuff. But still, it is the building and ship design and the interactions with friends. Sometimes Dangersnoot and I spend a whole session just visiting all the incredible VR locations people have shared. What makes DU great is that what you build will be seen by others. It's not an ego thing. So many other voxel games you spend hours building something that you love only to realise you are alone, in a dead server, and there is no one to share it with. Even paradise is boring if there is no one to share it with.

8. If you had to offer one piece of advice to your fellow DU players, what would it be?

Get the hell off of Sanctuary. Immediately. Leave all your stuff there. Get to Alioth as soon as you can.

9. If you could have ANY feature in the game (to support your racing ambitions or not), what would it be?
 
A little more smoothing in close proximity player to player desync and player position lag. The smoother we can make the game feel while flying around at 500kmh just above the water and sand, the better the racing experience will be for everyone. I don't know anything about code but if that is a possibility then I think we all would like to have it please!

10. And lastly, the big question on everyone’s mind is: what are the coordinates to your track!? We're dying to visit!
 
In the hot sandy paradise around the equator on Alioth at a Lake we call "Melanuma Beach". Please, anyone come by and explode yourself into whatever you feel is best at the time!

::pos{0,2,0.1646,108.9371,5.1948}

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We sincerely hope you enjoyed our interview with Burble! Thank you for reading! 

If you know of a player or Organization that's doing something you think we should feature, drop us a line! To do so, you can:

1) Send a DM to any of our Community Managers here on the forums
2) Send an email to community@novaquark.com
3) Post your recommendation right here in the comments

Please be sure to supply us with the following details:

1) The name of the player or Organization you'd like us to feature
2) A point of contact so we can conduct an interview
3) A few sentences to let us know why you think this player/Org deserves their 15 minutes of DU fame ✨
 
 

in my language "+ 5% ore extracted" means that what I get is more than those who don't.
 
Or is a bug - talent dont works correctly.
 
Or is it an impression (possible ... I hope ... a ninja nerf to a basic mechanic is already wrong and a very unpleasant thing).
 
Or whoever wrote it really meant a speed boost and the description needs to be changed (and lost 2kk of talent points and 2 weeks of subscribtion for something different).

I played with a new group of players who joined DU for the first time after the release of 0.23
Just one / two days later.
I felt their fantastic enthusiasm die a little at a time crashing into bugs, optimization completely absent (one of them has a PC for work with which he runs Cyberpunk at ultra and fixed 60fps: DU snaps them ...) countless ships destroyed by docking mechanics, lethal manouver tools, endless loading and handling of game problems ... nonexistent -> impossible to reach markets.
When the technical assistance put the umpteenth ticket of one of them on hold indefinitely (after a week they still have not said anything) they started to abandon the game.
And the same thing happened to 2 other groups of players in the last year.
The problem with DU is not 0.23.
DU's problem is NQ.
Contradictory communications, advertising bordering on deceptive (we all know how they presented the game for the launch of the beta ...), lack of communication with the community.
I understand that they are short of breath and that they are trying to save the shack.
But they are doing it bad.
Really bad.

I played with a new group of players who joined DU for the first time after the release of 0.23
Just one / two days later.
I felt their fantastic enthusiasm die a little at a time crashing into bugs, optimization completely absent (one of them has a PC for work with which he runs Cyberpunk at ultra and fixed 60fps: DU snaps them ...) countless ships destroyed by docking mechanics, lethal manouver tools, endless loading and handling of game problems ... nonexistent -> impossible to reach markets.
When the technical assistance put the umpteenth ticket of one of them on hold indefinitely (after a week they still have not said anything) they started to abandon the game.
And the same thing happened to 2 other groups of players in the last year.
The problem with DU is not 0.23.
DU's problem is NQ.
Contradictory communications, advertising bordering on deceptive (we all know how they presented the game for the launch of the beta ...), lack of communication with the community.
I understand that they are short of breath and that they are trying to save the shack.
But they are doing it bad.
Really bad.

Quote from the kickstarter.
So the problem isn't that players are trying to force the game into something else, and more that the DU roadmap is changing into something that looks less and less like what was promised.

you are absolutely right.
I think...
This is not the problem though.
The problem is that I, and many like me, am a gamer, not a mathematician.
If I read "+ 5%" for every time I activate the talent, for me it is a sum, not an equation.
I'm not incapable: it is NQ who expects me to understand, without explaining it, that I have to make a calculation that has nothing to do with the gameplay.
Like many other things in this game, the way of communicating is done by programmers to be understandable by programmers, or other people with math / logic mind.
Only this is a game.
Always assuming it's not just a bug.
Ps: all players I've played with have understood that + 5% ore extracted at level 5 = + 25%.
Either we are all idiots, or NQ has to explain himself better.

you are absolutely right.
I think...
This is not the problem though.
The problem is that I, and many like me, am a gamer, not a mathematician.
If I read "+ 5%" for every time I activate the talent, for me it is a sum, not an equation.
I'm not incapable: it is NQ who expects me to understand, without explaining it, that I have to make a calculation that has nothing to do with the gameplay.
Like many other things in this game, the way of communicating is done by programmers to be understandable by programmers, or other people with math / logic mind.
Only this is a game.
Always assuming it's not just a bug.
Ps: all players I've played with have understood that + 5% ore extracted at level 5 = + 25%.
Either we are all idiots, or NQ has to explain himself better.

in a week the new group of players that I have found and that I am comfortable with have blown their ships, S / M-Core, about 10 due to the lag, the docking and the stupid way in which it has been changed maneuvering tool. Even I, who have a good gaming experience, managed to detonate one of mine because I hit the ground with my bow while using the manouvering tool (WTF !!!).
One of the players had just bought 20kk of stuff at the market and the ship exploded while he was standing still, making everything he bought disappear.
A year ago I met a group of compatriots. In love with the potential of the game, they got tired of the game after a month for reasons unknown to me.
this summer at the launch of the beta I found another group: disappeared after a month for lag, killer industry, bugs, lack of content and insertion of superficially thought mechanics (broken docking just to name one).
Now how long will these new players last before they quit?
Easy to say "it means DU wasn't for them".
You can tell me once.
Twice.
From the three times no: it is not DU who "is not for them". It is the game that is mismanaged and thought with the breathlessness of someone with water in their throats and has no idea how to fix the huge holes he has created.
No idea apart from one: don't listen to the community. Absolutely never listen to it: never let them propose something too intelligent and then we make them feel important.

in a week the new group of players that I have found and that I am comfortable with have blown their ships, S / M-Core, about 10 due to the lag, the docking and the stupid way in which it has been changed maneuvering tool. Even I, who have a good gaming experience, managed to detonate one of mine because I hit the ground with my bow while using the manouvering tool (WTF !!!).
One of the players had just bought 20kk of stuff at the market and the ship exploded while he was standing still, making everything he bought disappear.
A year ago I met a group of compatriots. In love with the potential of the game, they got tired of the game after a month for reasons unknown to me.
this summer at the launch of the beta I found another group: disappeared after a month for lag, killer industry, bugs, lack of content and insertion of superficially thought mechanics (broken docking just to name one).
Now how long will these new players last before they quit?
Easy to say "it means DU wasn't for them".
You can tell me once.
Twice.
From the three times no: it is not DU who "is not for them". It is the game that is mismanaged and thought with the breathlessness of someone with water in their throats and has no idea how to fix the huge holes he has created.
No idea apart from one: don't listen to the community. Absolutely never listen to it: never let them propose something too intelligent and then we make them feel important.

The suspicion that NQ does not play their software as a player (but only in godmode, perhaps on a separate dedicated machine) is becoming more and more a certainty ...

The suspicion that NQ does not play their software as a player (but only in godmode, perhaps on a separate dedicated machine) is becoming more and more a certainty ...

Since the 0.23 nerf of AGG, everyone is putting up a 1000m tower to build a landing platform for their AGG ships. It's getting damned hard to fly at low altitude on Alioth because of all of the single voxel wide spikes that render right in front of you and kill you ship.
 
I have a solution... let the AGG work all the way to ground.
 
There really isn't any conceivable justification (in lore) for AGG magically not working under 1000m above an arbitrary reference altitude. How does the AGG know that it's OK to land on Thades and Feli but it insists on hovering above all other planets?
 
Considering that AGG can land on those two planets, I doubt there's any compelling game design reason for this restriction either... it just makes the planet hairy - which JC said he didn't want.
 
Please let AGG fly to the ground so I don't have to move my 1100m long runway up to 1200m altitude to have clear access to it. 

What if they covered the entire hex with a single landing pad, made a 3 hex purple buffer around each market and made a no fly “burn zone” a 100m or so around the central building with “elevator” pads dotted around the hex to zoom players closer to the central building instead of having them walk?
 
that would solve short term cloggage. Then just add a dash of “core unlocks after a month parked on a purple hex”
 
 

NQ has no idea how to solve this and has not acknowledged any of the many, many suggestions and ideas posted here and on discord over the past years about this.
 
 

@NQ The markets are turning into an abyss that worsens noticeably each week. Your goal was to create an economy driven by players that was centered on the markets, however the physical markets themselves are an abomination and are causing great frustration for players, both the customers at the markets as well as the industry players.
 
The number of constructs at the markets far exceeds the number of players at the markets. Some simple advertising would be one thing, but we now have a maze to navigate to even get to the elevator. There are hundreds of containers, massive ships, scam dispensers, disco lights, huge gas stations, etc. at most markets and especially the Alioth district markets.
 
The district markets in particular are a big problem. There is insufficient parking at these markets. Ships are scattered in the trees around the markets. As you attempt to take off, new ships are attempting to land, creating dangerous situations. I know many players resort to parking at the maximum container link range to avoid this risk of collision altogether. Parking on the pad, with even the smallest ship, is almost impossible due to all of the permanent detritus that liters the "landing pad". 
 
Possible Solutions
This situation is quite frustrating, but I did not come to only vent and not give some possible solutions. 
 
First, there needs to be some limitations on the length of time that a dynamic construct can be left at the market. Also, please limit the lua script that is allowed to run on my PC from a dynamic construct that is left at the market by another player. There are far too many of these constructs at the market and it creates a great deal of lag. At least allow for an option to toggle this.
 
Secondly, this entire idea of mosh pit of flesh and metal is silly in the first place. An advanced civilization on a huge mesoplanet wants to trade potentially gigantic items on the market and our best solution is that we all go to the same location, roughly the size of a pharmacy, with a parking lot the size of a grocery store? And that is to service the entire planet? 
 
The real life planet we live on uses distribution centers to distribute the load of something like this. There is already a great deal of land set aside for Aphelia. Please consider adding more parking and additional market stations in this space to spread out the load for the district markets. Consider doing the same for the other markets while there are still empty hexes available. What possible benefit is there to force all this traffic into the same physical location? Our own real life society is already leaving brick and mortar shopping behind and Noveans have decided that not only do they love it so so much, but they all want to smash into only one store on the planet?
 
Thank You

From what I've seen this past year in DU and from my 30+ years of gaming and 10+ years of game development, I can say that:
 
- NQ is inexperienced with game development and more generally with software development. They're learning both as they go making a lot of mistakes.
- The game is clearly not designed from the ground up to be a game. Like some other projects out there, notability No Man Sky, the starting point wasn't a video game but some cool computer technologies. For DU it was dual contouring voxels combined with classic 3D models (the elements). For NMS it was their adaptive procedural generation system. Usually games are designed the other way around: you plan your gameplay systems and then invent, create or reuse computer technologies to implement these systems. So basically the 'game' aspect of DU is not yet fully designed and finished and they're sill iterating based on what their tech can do it. For short: "we have these cool techs, what game can we make with them ?" instead of "let's make this cool game : which techs do we need to do it ?'.
- the beta is at best an early alpha
- the alpha was a PoC/tech demo
- they clearly don't play their own game, at least not like a normal player would (playing with cheat codes like spawning infinite resources/money or instant travel to anywhere doesn't give you the actual "feeling" a normal player get but rather a distorted one. Designing and iterating the game with that distorted feeling is a very bad thing to do. All seasoned game designers know that. Same for metrics/Excel based game design decisions.
- they don't clearly know what their target audience is.
 
I think at least 2 more years are required to have a real beta. Doing this in the open with paying customers will not be a good journey.