nietoperek

I like that.

Yeah, like in case of WoW and EvE, the two smallest MMORPGs ever ;D

Hi,
 
I know that DU is not planned to be easy, and scripting will be irremovable part of game mechanic. It is something cool... but write hundreds lines of code can be bothersome task for non-programmer players; beside this, scripting is quite boring in form (you know - lines and lines of numbers and letters, nothing fancy).
 
So. Maybe we can made scripting mini-game itself and give it some interesting graphical interface, easier to understand by "normals"? Of course "text hard mode" will be always available as second option  and even "graphical programming" can have less options than text one, like "beginner" and "veteran" versions
 
I not talk about simplification of programming language itself, but more about some kind of GUI/IDE for that - with auto-complete and - most important - easy graphical interface like "blocks" of code for building apps. I know at last two projects, which use this kind of editors ; LEGO Mindstorm and Scratch. Here are pictures of programs build in them:
 
[sCRATCH]
 

 
[LEGO]
 

 
EDT: Here is wiki about this style of programming. And you can even use some like this for LUA, too!
 

 
In my opinion it will decrease "starting cost" for lot of people, and it can be even inspiration for someone for start learn "true" programming
 
Toughs?

Just noticed we're both in Michigan! ...just hit my Like limit too. ~laughs~

Google results for "single shard MMO", after I realize that in EvE I will not find all what I expect for a space game

From the info we have so far it looks like we'll have a set of skill trees that determine tech level and a set of basic pre determined elements to combine into ships and stations.
Maybe there will be ways to get higher tech elements of the same type through research? I remember someone saying something about levels of weapons in an interview but there isn't much to go on yet.
 
Personally I'm in favour of making the crafting system more sophisticated so that specialisations arise naturally among the player base instead of through arbitrary skill allocation. This strikes me as the sort of game where progression through player skill would be a better fit.
 
To that end I propose that the pre built functional elements be smaller components with set properties instead of full parts.
 
So for instance instead of just throwing on a single engine block that takes up a large amount of space you would build an engine out of smaller parts stuck together that function as an engine. 
 
To build a basic engine that works you'd only need a handful of parts. Say an ignition block, propulsion unit, stabilizer, vector cone and control unit.
But you could add more parts to increase it's performance in different ways, with the better ones made of rarer elements. Each component would add weight and energy/fuel requirements. Some might also need a certain amount of space around them to function correctly(eg heat sinks) or have interference with other more sensitive parts. After you'd built the guts of the engine you would then use standard voxel tools to give it a casing and incorporate it into the ship.
 
And this would be the case with every part that creates function. A cockpit would be a pilots seat(with control surface), computer, life support monitor, oxygen tank, heating element, hinged canopy etc. Extra parts could be holographic projector, rangefinder etc.

Some common parts would be found in multiple devices (like power cells) whereas others would be specialised to certain devices (matter transmitter coils). 
 
Each part would have multiple connection points so that they can be configured in various ways. The game would have a master list of devices and when the minimum number of parts are connected together via their ports for a particular device it would treat them as that thing when powered up. Or alternately you might include a way for the player to tell the computer which device they are building (perhaps by including a control chip in every device)
 
Technologies that the devs want to be harder to master (like FTL) could have a significantly larger number of more sensitive parts. And they could not include a standard template if they wanted to make it take real research.
 
The end result of this is that as well as ships and stations players could also become experts at creating ship parts and the complexity of the interactions would create genuine expertise in the player base. When your organisation's engineer tells you the reactor can't take it anymore it's because she designed it. When the ship takes damage, you would replace the destroyed components in a device to get it functioning again.
 
At launch the developers would have a no frills version of each device blueprinted up for each player to start off with so they don't have to become an expert just to begin building. The players who are interested in that side of things would experiment with all kinds of configurations. Later on people would buy device plans off the market if they want to build their own ship without starting from scratch.
 
You could create the coolest looking hyperdrive on the market. Or the cheapest. or the most powerful. And you could create your brand for advertising. 
 
The other benefit of this system is that you don't need weapon tiers or constant injections of tech from the devs. Make up a list of weapon and defence types that are interesting, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Break them into bits that make sense, with lower tech weapons like projectiles requiring less exotic materials for their components. Then let the players experiment with what you give them. 
 
I guarantee you a Blastcorp Annihilator Cannon is way cooler than a tech three plasma cannon. 
 
Just my thoughts.

We should start smuggling likes from sites like FB and sell them here for profit!

I love that the most active thread is the "please close this thread" thread 
 
So is this post off topic? or are all the others?  

I was actually just thinking about the limit on Likes here on the forums lol. I think the limit needs to be alot higher or removed completely. There's alot of things I would like to leave a Like on but can't because of the limit.

You go too far with such words, @Dragon. I hope that your post soon be removed. Please, focus on game related things, and keep your real-life opinons for yourself.

I actually wonder how many spies from other corps we have onboard. Nothing seroius, of course, but some Eve-inflicted paranoia

Hi all new guys and gals! I am happy to see how our coalition grow up to be biggest powerblock in game (so far )
 
BTW, with such influx of buliding/scripting oriented people we should change our name to "Coalition Of Programmers and Constructors"

Hi all new guys and gals! I am happy to see how our coalition grow up to be biggest powerblock in game (so far )
 
BTW, with such influx of buliding/scripting oriented people we should change our name to "Coalition Of Programmers and Constructors"

I had started a thread in the Arkship pub forum about this, but in hindsight I realize that was the wrong place for the topic.
 
Rather than repost everything, I'll just link that thread here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/976-collaborating-on-fanmade-music/
 
 
Here is some ambient music I was playing around with tonight in Ableton, set to the flight footage from the latest gameplay video:
 
 

 
 
 
I'm eager to find anyone who wants to work together on some more fanmade music :-) 

...buy seriously, I love all sorts of pure cosmetic customization items - hats, ship/gear skins, clothes, dyes, fancy shaped decorative items (and maybe voices for you guiding AI too) and so on. So long such items do not give any mechanical advantages, I am perfectly ok with cash shop and even can buy sometime something for myself. 

Close, but not quite We have less polar beers and better vodka, but pretty everything is like in Mother Russia, metaphorically speaking
 
Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszyie! - this is my country traditional greeting, I think that is enough hint
 
To stay on topic:
 

All empires that have risen must fall eventually

If you plan it correctly and everyone plays nice then they could expand indefinitely. Players splitting off and taking parts of an empire with them would be really the only cause of an empire breaking up or something, possibly a war as well, but its totally up to the players and planners of an organization.

Things are moving faster than I anticipated. I think a private place will be good for us, but at the same time I think it is important for the rest of the world to see positive activity on the official Dual forums as this helps to educate new people to Dual especially because Dual is such a unique game. I have absolutely no issues with an offsite forum but I think we should be careful to that and not remove ourselves from this forum.
 
I think I would prefer that for now, if we need to talk as a guild that we get people into chat of some form. Give a weeks notice let say,  on x night at x time or something. Probably a Friday night or weekend or a time when most might not be working due to our many EU members. Most "official organization" chat is going to be dealing with internal stuff anyway.
 
That being said. As the days count down and we get closer to alpha, then beta, then launch and especially at launch I think a guild only site that is locked down to only members will be a good thing to do exactly what you described with style guides and coordinating some of the larger projects...but due to our nature this will not be forced on anyone and only a suggestion for those who want to work on larger projects.
 
I have had a number of offers today for web hosting and team speak hosting and I would like to have a  meeting with everyone at some point to ensure we are all on the same page before I commit to anything, we are in this together.
 
I am glad so many of you are taking up responsibilities to help get this ball rolling. As I have said to many, right now I am just waiting to see what happens but these offers and suggestions will be accepted and moved upon soon.
 
I'll tell ya what I really want right now, an online editor for people to make their own signatures in our format. I love working on these, but I am going to have to make them a bit more generic as the days go by due to how many I need to crank out. Outside of the fact I would like to see personal builds from inside dual on the signatures in the future. I think its the most honorable thing to do, to showcase the work the individual as done from inside Dual Universe.  I don't know if such an online editior is possible and I am sure it would be a boat load of work, so really its more of a dream than a desire.
 
Anyway, I am ranting now. I need to eat. Be back in a bit.

Close, but not quite We have less polar beers and better vodka, but pretty everything is like in Mother Russia, metaphorically speaking
 
Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszyie! - this is my country traditional greeting, I think that is enough hint
 
To stay on topic:
 

By gun.
 
And more probably constructs will have some kind of privileges to set, for example privilege to manipulate elements of construction; any unwelcome visitor would only have option do destroy it by hand, and it will not be so easy and fast.
 
BTW: I Post this same video in fist post of this topic

I'm in the middle of building my own site where I will post my builds and such.  I am also adding  forum so we can start talking style guides and upload images and such.  I would be more than happy to open it up further so we can talk about a lot of other things too, if you guys want.  Should be done by the end of next weekend.
 
Or maybe I can just start a new one just for COPS instead?   If you guys want to do it, I can host it on my server and all I would ask is that someone get us a domain name so I can get started.  Take me about a week or so.
 
What do you think Kik?

Interesting idea, but there're much easier options. They're called Skype, Mumble or Teamspeak. We use them for the last 15 years for online games. Hope I got you covered.

By the way, Kiklix, I will seriously think about some communication channel, like private forum, slack, discord and so on. Maybe it is preemptive, but we grow fast and we soon will need something to discuss in more comfortable (and more private!) conditions
 
EDT: I can help with that.

A couple of things:
 
1) In most games planets are static.  They don't use real world physics to place a planet in orbit around the sun, basically they tell the game where the planet resides and you need to go to that specific location in order to get to the planet.  There is no ability to move a planet around in the game it's position is usually hard coded.
 
2) Planets will be up to 100Km in diameter, and the surface is a voxel environment down to several hundred meters.  I haven't done the math but that would be an immense number of voxel units to render, so only parts of it are rendered within the game that are close by your position.  So basically what I'm saying is that you can't have a ship the size of a planet, it's just too big. 
 
3) Small asteroids may be different though.  I'm not sure how those will be handled in the game engine, it may be possible to mine one until it is hollow and attach engines to use it as a ship or portable mining colony.