JayleBreak

What I really like about how NQ is developing this game is that they are treating alpha much more like the way it should be treated, as opposed to some games that are released with "alpha" (or "early access") label. NQ reinforces the meaning of "alpha" with both the NDA and limited server availability as constant reminders that the game is very much under development. So I advise anyone who is looking to join the alpha with the intention that they are getting access to a game they can play just for fun to wait at least until DU enters the the "beta" phase (see: https://www.dualthegame.com/en/news/2019/12/04/roadmap-update/) . If you are like me, and want to both help in the development of the game while learning a game with some depth then by all means join in.

You should watch yesterday's podcast (its NDA free 😀):

You are touching on issues that should only be discussed in NDA forums.

Commodities are not the only thing that have value. Services also have value.

Of course it does. The same government that issues it requires that you use it to pay taxes. And if you don't pay taxes there are serious real-life consequences (thus the intrinsic value).

You should make your way directly to the NDA forums, and join the discord NDA sections. A good intro to voxels in DU is in the Alpha Feedback section titled: "Basic Voxel Behaviors and Techniques" by Destrin. It won't take you long to adjust. See you in the black 😉

I think the computation overhead caused by user designed oddly shaped ships, and large number of potential objects (and other contributions to server lag -e.g. internet) makes anything involving collision detection in combat a losing proposition. And as mentioned in one of NQ videos, orbital strikes were rejected because it wouldn't be "fair" - meaning people shouldn't be subject to death without any warning that danger is near or was inescapable.

I wouldn't say no way. A distributed datacenter based server based system (doing the physics) with high speed interconnects would work. Google is coming out with Stadia and frankly the only reason I can see for a PC gamer to subscribe would be if it offered big machines (say 1TB main memory) for use by multiplayer games specifically designed to take advantage of them.

This is great for single player games, but in multiplayer games the lost of synchronisation between multiple players observing (and acting on) the same scene brings nasty issues (I saw my enemy get crushed by a falling wall, but he saw the wall and dodged) which in today's games can often be ignored (no falling walls). So synchronisation cost and effectiveness is a much more important issue than more realistic physics to a multiplayer game.

To answer your specific question, you will only be able to play when the server is "up". See https://www.dualthegame.com/en/server-status/ for the current schedule.

I'm a new player, but I've seen some impressive plans others have posted (forums, discord) on constructs they will build (imagine Jabba the Hutt's palace). I can see players visiting/exploring these constructs, but in practice they will be lifeless most of the time (like the districts during the last test). Having NPCs occuping these constructs will present to the visitor a richer feel, and if they are player programmed they will provide another avenue for creativity.

Survivor of EQ Landmark here.