Dhara

I don't believe I've introduced myself here on the forums ever which is sad.  The name is PrinceChawmin, i go by many names but this name suits me just fine. I've been watching the forums every so often that i haven't really talked or replied to any thread here. But i tend on changing that. Dual universe caught my eye on kickstarter and was very interested, i haven't backed on kickstarter but i do tend on pledging here very very soon. Im very chill and tend to be open minded, so expect to see me in the threads cracking jokes, giving feedback, or just be outright boring that you'll throw me back in the catacombs of my mom's pantry closet .
 
I hope you guys accept me into your hearts, or for this case space ships, and become cool buds. Unless you want to become enemies for some odd reason then bring it! 

Hello all!  Been a couple of exciting weeks! 
I just wanted to pop in and welcome our newest member @PrinceChawmin to the Outfit!  We all look forward to getting to know you :-)
 

We are telling the story of the Outfit from the very beginning in our new comic book!  Introducing The Outfit - Beginnings - Episode 1

We also thought this would be a great opportunity to help advertise for the Kickstarter.  So please share freely as there are three different kickstarter ads in this episode and only ten days to go!!

Many of our members had a hand in creating this comic.  We hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.

https://goo.gl/zlJSlr
 

 

Thanks Dhara, I am looking forward to it as well... more like chompin at the bit... cant wait to settle in to a place and begin sculpting all kinds of statues and monuments, all i need are sketches to work off... Is it September yet?!?!?!

Hi guys,
 
We have a new member!  Welcome to the Outfit @Munney!  Looking forward to playing with you!

Hello everyone.
I just bought  A gold level pack and can't wait for the Alpha. 
 
 I love these types of space sandbox games with heavy emphasis on building  With some RP in there too. 
 I really enjoyed building  hi end  looking  luxury bases, and  luxury ships that have a kind of  Sports car  look to them. 
 I am excited to see how this game will work out for me, as I am basically blind with very  Limited usable vision  and only one eye. 
I hope to use this new platform to expand my creativity and perhaps one day make a name for myself as "that blind guy who builds the awesome ships and bases."

Hey guys, I'm a Gamepedia staff member and just wanted to throw some information in here. Player content does have a place on wikis, but it should be in a separate namespace and tagged as such, just so it's not confused as official game information. Here are some examples of how other wikis handle it:
Guilds on Wowpedia
Journals on No Man's Sky
Fan art on Ark
If you'd like to go this route, we can set up an "Organization" namespace, so pages will look like this "Organization:Terran Union". With that, you all will want to set up a template and some guidelines for people to follow as well. I'm happy to provide more examples or answer any questions.

Welcome Novarkian! Sounds like a great idea.  I wish you luck with it!

The Trans Regional Aether Network For Connectivity and Enterprise 
(TRANCE)
 
 

 
 
 
 
“And he took up his parable, and said, Jehuz the son of Nariel hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: he hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: the hills shall yet be fruitful, and the valleys shall be filled. The Eastern City shall yet return to the owners in peace. The multitudes will once again walk the passages from the East and the ships shall again dock at the Ports, bringing the wealth of the lands from the East and the nourishment from the West into thy gates.”
 
The Waves of Kings 54: 10-13 
 
 
Rivers are the most important blood vessels of nature. For through them flows water: the essence of life. In every productive society and the greater economy, transportation is of burning importance.
In every war, logistics are as important as the weapons employed in the repelling or vanquishing of hostile forces.
In every successful company, logistics towers over many aspects of business.
 
In Dual Universe, a place with thousands of players, how much more important will the seemingly trivial luxury of transportation be? A single journey from one point to another, can make any player a wealthy one, or be the nail in the coffin for the unprepared victim.
 
Consider TRANCE the bridge over an impassable canyon. Or think of it as the blood vessels bringing life to dormant parts of the Universe. Visualise it as a power grid, illuminating unexplored areas, or regard it as the road to your success. TRANCE is all of these and much more, if only you will so much as gaze at it.
Star Gates are required for the overall success and welfare of the Dual Universe Community, especially as the known territories grow. Take into account the need for cooperation, the importance of the shifting dynamics of power and the necessity of easily accessible transport routes for medium and long distances.
 
Do not fret:
 
 
The Aether has decided to be the pioneering force behind the use and provision of stargates for the greater Dual Universe Community.   
 
 
 
 
What TRANCE Is.
 
TRANCE is one category of a larger group of services known within the Aether as LIGHT. Its primary purpose is to facilitate and simplify logistics in Dual Universe. Publicly accessible stargates, created and maintained by the Aether are for the good of Dual Universe. Complementary services are also available, but unlike the Stargate Network, these are not entities of their own and will be directly tied to the Aether.
 
 
 
 
What TRANCE is not.
 
It is not the Alpha and Omega of all Dual Universe transport systems. Stargates will be expensive to build, costly to protect and the system will be challenging to coordinate in its infancy. TRANCE will not get you thirty paces away from your start point – walk, sprint or use a craft for that. The purpose of TRANCE it to provide a dirt cheap way for people to travel over medium and long distances, reducing the risk and time spent in unstable or neutral territory.
 
TRANCE is not a plan hatched by Grand masters and occultists to take over your life and force you to do things you rather wouldn’t. TRANCE is not a government spying tool to gather information about your virtual transport tendencies and thus determine your real life patterns. Kindly get some help if you were thinking along that line.
 
Some might be sceptical about the idea of Stargate plans so early. For them we have this question: whose stargate system would you rather use: the one developed by a neutral organisation with plans long matured and an established clientele, or a system hurriedly set up by an organisation with questionable credibility and unstable plans?
 
 
TRANCE is owned and run by the Aether. 
 
 
Aether Eterna; 
 
Always and Forever 
 
 

Good Luck Shynras!  Awesome logo, BTW   Best org logo I've seen so far!

Welcome and don't worry!
 
There are already people from Landmark here. They call themselves "Landmark refugees" .
 
You will find some posts on this topic.

This looks like the best product out of a line-up ACME ARSENAL would come up with.

Hi guys!  The Outfit has a new member!
 
Please welcome Tollavigft as our newest Settler!  Happy to have you aboard :-)

Hope this idea works out for you!  Good luck :-)

All right, as this topic is turning into a flame war, and there is nothing constructive left to say, it's going to be locked as well.
 
@Bleep_Bloop:
 
Having some skepticism about the game is understandable and even healthy.
We took the time to answer to your questions several times.
 
However since you started to participate on the forum, you made posts containing only:
- Negativity about the game
- Negativity about the people who endorsed the game
- Negativity about the game monetization model
- Assumptions that you know how business works in video games (while your oversimplified point of view clearly shows the contrary).
- Assumptions that you know what will be the developer decisions on critical matters (and always imagining the worst case scenario).
- Disregard towards opinions different from yours.
- Not understanding (or feigning to not understand) why people start to feel irritated by your attitude and bringing the "fanboy" or "white knight" excuse to avoid questionning your own attitude.
 
There is nothing constructive in your attitude and everything inciting to conflicts.
Again, while being a bit cautious and skeptical can be healthy, your attitude is way beyond that stage and has nothing healthy in it.
So a friendly advice: whether you make an effort of being radically less provocative and a lot more constructive, or we will start removing your posts without a warning.
 
@all:
Please don't feed the troll.
 
Thank you for your understanding.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone,
 
@Bleep_Bloop:
Please keep a respectful tone when debating with other members of the community.
"Are you fucking retarded" or "read the fucking post" are not an acceptable way to discuss on the forum.
If you haven't already read our forum rules, please read it there: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/8-forum-rules/
Continuing with this kind of behavior may lead to removal of your messages, and, in the last resort, to a ban. 
We value the freedom of speech, as long as you are respectful while discussing with others.
We can understand that discussing with people not agreeing with your point of view could be irritating, but it's not a valid excuse to start employing rude/insulting words.
 
Thanks in advance for your comprehension.
 
Now to answer to your point of view: 
 
- Some members of the Novaquark team have worked for years on F2P games.
The F2P model (or the B2P model, which is nothing more than the F2P model with an initial sale of the game at the beginning) isn't the shiny and perfect model often perceived from an external eye. This model has a lot of drawbacks, and the fact of diverting artists from doing content for all the players is not a minor one: while they work on cosmetics, they don't work on the global visual improvement of the game, and this has a real impact of development speed of the game, especially when the team behind it is still relatively small.
 
- Relying only on cosmetics on the long run is like playing casino a bit with the financing of the game. You can win a lot... but you can also loose a lot (regarding the ration "cost of making cosmetics"/"income brought by the said cosmetics"). Any financial manager having a good head on his/her shoulders would tell that, in order to properly budget the investments for a MMORPG in the coming months or years, the ideal situation is to be able to predict more or less the amount of income you will get during this period. With a model relying only on cosmetics, this part is a bit unpredictable, because all the income relies only on the artists shoulders and mishaps can happen. What if a batch of cosmetics doesn't appeal to the players who usually pay for them? What happens if a few key artists leave the studio (which can happen even in the best companies)? In that case, during this period (even if it's temporary) you might have a serious drop of income that could generate difficulties, and even if in the same time the game programmers deliver amazing gameplay features, it won't help, because they can't bring any income. The subscription model is a lot more resilient in this regard: if there is a period where the artist can't provide the same amount of content as usual, the programmers can still deliver new features and the players will still have new content for their subscription. The subscription model can also enable the different teams from the studio to alternate the type of content released: game features for one release, visual/graphic content for the following one, giving more time to each team for each content release (Side note: these are possibilities that only the subscription model make possible, but that doesn't mean all things mentioned above is necessarily how the content releases will be managed for Dual Universe after release).
 
- Saying subscription is "a monetization model from another age, very few games use it nowadays, so it's a proof that doesn't work anymore" is oversimplifying the situation. If we look at the bigger picture, as in many other sectors, a lot of investors (not all, fortunately) to make quick, easy money with minimal investment/effort and pressurized publishers to find an adapted solution to this request. In this situation, the Free to Play model is the most adapted one. With this model, you can't be (or a lot less) accountable for not having high-quality services, for not listening to your community, etc. This is the perfect model for short term ROI (Return On Investment). It makes big profit in the first years. However, in the case of MMORPGs, if no significant investment is made to update the game, the profit crumbles in a matter of a few years and cosmetics alone won't prevent that. That's fine for a lot of investors and publishers and that's fine too for a lot of players that don't spend more than a few months on the same game. But all players expectations aren't the same far from it.
 
- Among gamers who have played MMORPGs for a long time, both F2P and subscription-based ones, a lot have realized that the F2P/B2P model isn't the best answer for every time of games. A growing number of these gamers would now prefer to pay a subscription fee than having the inconvenient of a F2P/B2P Model. So yes, the Subscription Model may be not very common at the moment, but this model might make his comeback in the years to come, when enough people will be fed up of having F2P/B2P MMORPGs on the western market (as F2P model is originally born - and fully accepted - from the eastern market). 
 
- Funny thing: as we speak, former developers from EverQuest I, II and Next have launched a new project: Ashes of Creation, which seems the spiritual successor of EverQuest Next. It's a subscription-based MMORPG... 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1791529601/ashes-of-creation-new-mmorpg-by-intrepid-studios/description
Well in 48 hours, they founded their original goal of 750.000$ and are now at more 870.000$ with more than 4.500 backers. In 48 hours. Does it looks like the subscription model is dead/inappropriate? 
 
- Another point who is quite important and specifically tied to Dual Universe: our game will use cloud technology. To buy our own server cluster(s) at the beginning is absolutely unrealistic regarding the cost. That's why we are currently considering a partnership with a Cloud Computing Provider such as Amazon or Microsoft Azure. This means the game will have a cost per player, and going for anything else than a monetization model proportional to the number of players (hence the subscription model) is just taking significant risks in terms of financial viability (at least until we are in a position to buy our own server cluster(s)). So yes, unless we are in a case where we already own the server infrastructures, going for any other model other than the monthly subscription one while you don't know yet what size your gaming community will be (and how many gamers in it will be willing to pay for cosmetics), going F2P/B2P is not the safe road. It's the risky road. If all the points above didn't convince you, this one should.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

When you're tired of playing the same ole sub-par games with zero innovation, then you might want to consider paying a fair price to game companies so they can afford to make better games and provide ongoing support.  If these guys can pull off only half of what they are planning, this will be one of those game companies.

I know that hosting my own servers for the three games I play is costing me a small fortune.  If this one is good, then I won't have to pay for my own servers to play with more than a few people at a time. From my perspective, it could be a big cost savings - and a lot less of a pain in the butt.

I'll literally melt his heart with this, my most fierce assassin:
 

Thanks Dhara Great to see you too

Nice to see ya again GMA, welcome back

Hmm, mercenaries, eh?  The Outfit might have some work for you some time in the future.  We'll be in touch when that time comes

The Freelancers

 
"So, you've come looking for The Freelancers, eh? Heard the stories, maybe? No? Well, pull up a chair, and get me a drink, and I'll tell you..."
 
Alrighty then. As you might have already guessed, I'm the leader of "The Freelancers".
 
Who are we?
 
We are an elite band of mercenaries that will work any job, no matter how "illegal", "Shady", "Mind-Numbingly Dumb" some might deem it.
 
We live to be free to do what we want, when we want, where we want, and have the ability to get paid for it too.
 
(We're a buncha friends who wanna do what we want to, and have some laughs.)
 
"Now you know who they are. Tell me, why are you looking for 'em? To buy, or apply?"
 
"Looking to buy, huh? How much are you payin' ?"
 
-Insert link to inquire for services-
(Will be open sometime in September)
 
"You want to apply to The Freelancers? Huh. You got spirit kid. What's your name?"
 
Wish to apply to The Freelancers? Simply Click on this link to join our discord, and state your intent.
 
Of course if you're just visiting, that's fine too. Unless there's a bounty on your head...
 
"I hope I've put yur mind at rest Young'un. Now, I'd best be going if I were you, or some of their more... unsavory... clientele might... well... I'll let you figure it out."
 
 
 
 
 
 
Freelancer Logo designed by DU's very own, Comrademoco

Well some news for The Outfit,   We are still running strong with our Conan server, everyone is welcome to visit us there if you want to play a game together.  We are also still recruiting members getting ready for DU, with the delay of the Alpha, it is giving us a little more time to grow before getting into the game.  
 
Our web site will be getting updated to help with the other games we are currently involved with, since our server is growing we are going to be giving the forums area its own section, as we have done on our discord.
 
Happy Gaming,

I don't really get why people always think it's the most important thing to have huge numbers. Numbers alone never make up a good org or a successful one. It's the people who make it good at certain tasks.
Even when you're talking about pvp/military/tactics huge numbers don't change that much because of several things:
- people are stup....special. Half of the people online will not get the commands (fly there!) because they're rambling or not focused enough
- many of them don't even have pvp experience and just can't handle all the information, commands and chaos thus making them slow and/or not effective
- you'd need huge amounts of bandwidth to handle such numbers on teamspeak or any other server. Or you split all those people but then you need some to pass information to others which confuses many and they then can't fight effectively
- Timezones and playtimes. Lots of people think that 1000 people is a huge number for a military for example, while the truth is: it's not. Considering playtimes and timezones you probably have 50-100 people online at any given time
 
Smaller orgs can be way more effective and fun to play in because you don't have to deal with bloated inside-politics, such orgs consist of friends with similar playtimes and no special snowflakes.
 
I need to quote the kitty here:
"Everyone always wants to play a leader or a soldier. No one wants to play support"