Belorion

I think you can avoid a wipe quite easily:
- Create a new Solarsystem - 75000 SU far away from Helios
- Add the new FTUE to this Solarsystem, on release new players can decicde in which Solarsystem they want to spawn.
- Add a longrange Warpbeacon/Jumpgates 3 Month after release to connect these both systems. The warping of assets would then be possible, but insanely expensive.
- Slowboating would take nearly a month with the new speed changes. This should ensure that veterans cannot immediately flood the market in the new solar system.
Pros:
- No wipe needed
- New players can enjoy a fresh world
- Give you a reason to implement solarsystems
- You can deploy new good looking planets without wiping something
 

Your delay in letting us know what was probably always going to happen is why the heart has gone out of the game for a lot of us and we need to digest this.  This will be my 3rd/4th but by far the worsed wipe.
 
In this beta we went from "no plans to wipe"to "wipe only if absolutely necessary" to "its something we are always discussing internally and no decision has been agreed" an now a post that obviously leads towards a total wipe!
 
Whilst you were leaving the bad news to the last minute knowing that a wipe was financially your best option, us mere mortals continued building bigger and better, trying not to let your indecision ruin the game.
 
There have been some amazing creations in this game that could be lost and even whilst building those we were constantly adjusting our ships to meet new build criteria. And training up skills so we could keep our cores. You even recently awarded prizes that will now be lost.
 
To cap it all, what about the original kickstarter promises? I wouldn't push for a pet but you stay silent on the rewards we were supposed to get In game. Ultimately I'm extremely disappointed in how we got to this stage.
 
You also have to accept that some long term players with good skills will leave but im sure you'll offset that with new paying players. But for goodness sake make the decision now so we can move on!!!! Don't delay this any more!

Although I could live with a partial wipe, I still don't see any reason for a wipe. The pros and cons given sound a bit contrived to me:

New player experience
If an MMO needs a wipe to attract new players, where are we a year later? You would need a wipe every year or so. The challenge is to make the game in such a way you can step in at any time I just did the new player experience on the test server, nice improvement. But I do not see how there being some big bases on Alioth or some rich players in space has any effect on the new players when I am setting up my base, start building and exploring. On the contrary: it gives something to explore and can be an inspiration to new builders in what is possible.
Exploits
Ok, so some players got rich using exploits. How does that effect other players?
The example I know of is the guy that bought 100 warp beacon schematics for 8mil each and was willing to sell them for 700mil. But my warp beacons (I bought the proper schematic) normally sell within two weeks and with a 1500% (15 times the production cost) margin. So it seems to have no effect at all that I can see. Ok, so they can buy more expensive guns. So what? the advantage of that is not great, and most of these cheaters don't even play anymore. Some other examples: gates have a >100% profit, advanced engines > 100%, rare engines 800%. There is no problem with rich people pushing out regular players. You can buy a Gate XL schematic with half a day of T5 astroid mining with 2 guys, you don't need exploits to be able to make it. If there is a problem with the markets, it is not because of rich players, but a lack of destruction. An element once made stays in the game forever, except in PVP and in players leaving the game. That is not a recipe for a healthy economy but exploits have nothing to do with it. It is rather naive to think there will never be an exploit again: people will find ways to cheat and exploit with every change to the game. Are you going to wipe every time that happens? Just deal with it and undo some transactions or kick some players, like other MMO's do. removing schematics will indeed resolve the market issue: there will be no market. The schematics where introduced exactly for this reason. Of course people will complain about the cost: new players are used to games where you are in the end game in 10 days and they don't want to invest time and effort for a 2 year period to build a factory (like I did). Those are exactly the players NQ should not listen too: they are on to the next game in a month anyway. You need to listen to the players that stick around and are willing to build long-term: those are your money-makers.
Partial wipe complexity
There are many ways to do partial wipes, and clean up the database. Not all of them sound complex to me:
You could let players mark up to 10 construct with a flag (like the headquarters) and then wipe the rest and reset the planets: the dynamics for planet reset and construct deletion are already there, and so is a 'tag construct' mechanism, so how is this complex? You could just remove the need for the schematics from the game and - like someone suggested in this forum - set up NPC buy orders for them. That makes refunding people real easy. And you don't need a wipe for that, could be done in a patch. You don't need to split communities if you want to start fresh and keep the current, you could make a gate/portal to a new solar system with its own currency where you can only take blueprints back and forth: that will be a bit more work I imagine, but only if you want new planets. you could also just copy this solar system and rename the current one 'legacy'. 
All-in-all it seems to me that part of the devs in NQ just want a clean database and are looking for arguments to justify a wipe.
 

Most important PRO's missed... 
 
Hundreds of paid accounts no longer paying.  Less money for NQ
Empty worlds with no constructs... sounds fun.
Many existing players offer help to new players in financial and advice... gone.

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

I have never read a bigger pile of one-sided bullsh*t basically advocating for full wipe in order to easily do away with schematics.  Just announce the decision and get it over with.

At beginning of beta it was announced "no more wipes except as required for updates" (like the mining update that was done).  So if NQ do decide to wipe, it would be yet another promise broken.  This also completely ignores that people have been paying monthly to play...

As for "removing unfair advantage" and "level playing field". These are fallacies to help people sleep better at night.  The players with the know how will return to the positions of abundance they have now in short order.   There will always be "haves" and "have nots".   All a wipe does is a slap in the face of the people that put time into the game after being told a wipe would not happen.
 
Make a system that creates schematics rather than remove them.  The problem with schematics, like the markets, is that they do not give player agency.  A player cannot make a schematic at all, they have to be bought.  Make science research a thing.

Cons for wipe have already been mentioned:   As I said, the "NQ thoughts" are heavily aligned to a wipe disregarding promises and small details like leaving an empty world, avid supporters of the game just leave, and paying customers just get their stuff removed.  

What a wipe also does is remove the history of DU such as it is... like Thoramine.  Deleting a piece of DU history like that is unforgivable.

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

I would like to add a point of view to the discussion:
Imagine we are in 3 years from now. The server has been life all the time. There have been hardcore gamers and casual players for the whole time. There will be a big difference between the players depending on the how they have been playing the game.

Imagine you join as a new player in 3 years.
 
What will be the difference beteen the new players now and new players in 3 years?
 
What will a vipe improve in the long run? I can't imagine that you wipe the server every few years.
I think that you have to find a way to do ballancing on the run.

You want feedback NQ.
I am against a wipe.
 
The current player base gave you feedback, paid for their accounts and created the current status of the game. This should be worth a lot and should be more important then some potential player which played 0 hours.  I might get the feeling you are willingly risking your current player base for new potential players, where it is not even safe if they want stick to the game.
--> Most importantly. You told us, that a wipe would have technical reasons otherwise there would be no wipe
 
 
Even if you still consider to wipe entirely, then please remove any sell and buy order on the market, exept schematics. Add also player markets  (Please don't consider to remove schematics entirely!).

 
 
 

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

I think it is a great pity that my proposal at the time is not on the table.
You should let the game run without a wipe, because this is exactly what was promised to many, as well as the beta players should have already built a society and structures for the "new players". This approach is completely ignored here.
Back to the proposal:
A smaller solar system will be created that will be created for new players. This solar system is "hidden" in our solar system and only becomes "visible" when new and old players have assembled a huge dimension gate in their systems. (Community event) For this, a lot of material must be donated to NPC drop-off stations and there must be a great technological progress on both systems.
Once the gates are built on both solar systems, the new solar system will be visible in the old one. All players can then play together.
This way, the old players can leave their progress alone and continue building there, new players start fresh, so to speak, and later come to the point where they meet the old players.
On the subject of "Wipe".
A wipe would only make sense if it was a complete wipe. Everything from the beginning, no exceptions - because every exception is an unfair advantage - an advantage that you now want to destroy with a wipe.
Even blueprints would be an advantage for builders, because these "designers" get to keep their plans, while an industrialist or an asteroid collector goes away empty-handed.
By the way: The Quanta hardly play a role, because even with a wipe, there will be very rich and very poor players again after days-week-months. The problem is only reset and shifted in time.
So if a wipe is coming: please NQ be fair and tell us when it will come, that is, when do you plan to release the game? This year or next. If there is a wipe, I would pause my subscriptions accordingly, as it makes no sense for me to continue playing. Then I'll wait until the release....
 

I don't really understand the need for a wipe, other then that NQ would like to clean up their database. The 'Pros' listed sound contrived to me.
 
Any permanent MMO where a wipe is needed to make it attractive to new players is doomed. Are you going to wipe every year then?
The challenge of an MMO is to make the game is such a way that a player can step in at any point.
 

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Why do they want to remove the schematics again? That is one of the only reasons why we got trading in this game <.<

Juvenius Drakonius made this suggestion on the Discord:

Can we get some kind of static URL to an image that we can upload a replacement for, or that we can use as a redirect to a different approved image?
 
The idea is that we can do things like news banners or event notices where we just update the source image, and the screen code across the verse stays the same. So we could have people put a screen with a quick image on their ship to Juvenius's news site, and every time he uploads a new edition, he could just update the static link and everyone's screens would be updated. Or if AngryDad wanted to have an image that showed some details about a race night prize, or some upcoming event, or a running tally of how much money has been won in that death sphere thing of his, one link could always show the most up to date info.
 
Seems like a good simple low-hanging fruit change that would give some cool abilities to spread information in game, and given that the images would still have to go through the approval process, it wouldn't be a bypass for the approval process.

Dear NQ,
 
We in SVEA run an element shop, recently featured in The Helios Bulletin. We've developed a system to centrally update the screens for each of the 600+ dispensers so that our customers can see the price and batch size without having to click on the dispenser, in addition to making the shopping experience nicer.
 
Although updating all screens centrally saves a lot of time, the dispensers still needs to be manually updated with price (and batch size if that is to be changed). We did get a nice update to the UI for the dispensers a while back but that only helps with the initial setup, not the long-term management of the only way a "player market" can be created in the game right now.
 
Can we please have a word on when a LUA API for dispensers will be a thing?
 
These are the most important API functionalities the dispensers are missing:
 
SetPrice(price) - sets the price. GetPrice() - Returns the currently set price  
These are extras I thought would be nice to have
Activate() - Disables purchases from a container without having to go through the RDMS system, much like the VR Pod station needs to be activated via RMB. Deactivate() - Opposite of Activate(), obviously GetContainerId() - returns the ID of the connected container, or 0 if not yet connected. HasBatchContents() - returns true if the dispenser has any configured batch contents. BatchesAvailable() - returns the number of batches available in the connected container.  
At first I thought that a function like SetBatchSize() would be good, but instead of that, lets change the dispenser such that the buyer can enter the number of batches they want to buy (up to whatever total the seller has configured)
 
You already know that there are other similar shops out there and while I don't speak for them, I think they too would appreciate the above proposed improvements.
 
Br,
 
Yoarii
 
PS: Not sure if tagging NQ like this actually helps in getting their attention, but here goes. @NQ-Deckard