Xarius

Daily Login is 150k. Rent is 1mil a week. 

Nice. 50k weekly profit. You might be able to buy something with that. Maybe. Someday.  Eventually. 

No, I want the ability to pay for the things I have, without having to play annoying mini-games, and own 36 auto-miners to run a simple factory. 

I want a mission system that can't be exploited by having 20 alts AFKing and VRing into missions by limiting the number of mission packages a core can hold.

I want the players building the "civilization" to define the economy, not have it sucked away by an invisible entity with no gain. 

I want the developers to listen to the majority of people who have said at the current rate of tax and ore collection, this is a bad idea and is going to lead to less people enjoying and playing the game. Rather than the two or three people that align with their idea of "We do what we want and you'll get over it".

I want a new player to be able to log in and not feel like they are stuck on Sanctuary surface mining, mindlessly clicking ores like it's Cookie Clicker and not Dual Universe, to be able to pay for the over-priced components to build decent ships, that don't look like works of art covered in brake stickers.

That's what I want.

What do YOU want? Besides paying a useless tax.

Dear NQ,
 
Please stop breaking your players! I'm not talking about physically breaking your players or even breaking the Dual Universe game. I'm talking about breaking the spirits of your customers (aka. players), killing their motivation to play the game, and then shredding any future potential chance to return to the game at a later time (without loosing most of their work/assets). This is mostly done by piling on change upon change, often just eradicating an aspect of game-play that people enjoyed or even started playing the game for. Even one major change to the game can decimate the player-base (0.23 for example) and that was only ONE such a major change. The currently proposed changes to Demeter are multiple major changes. Doing away with mining outside asteroids (especially when asteroid mining is in such an abysmal state), doing away with permanent ownership of tiles outside of ground conquest, introducing taxes on land ownership, redesigning ore distribution in a major way.
 
Now let's talk about changes on PTS that aren't going to be in the Demeter patch: brakes. I can understand that sometime in the future NQ wants to overhaul how certain elements work, in this case the brakes. This of course needs to be tested before implementation. I absolutely understand! But who's bright idea was it to do it at the same time when NQ asked all players to come test Demeter when it goes in test on PTS? Does this person lack any insight and experience with regards to customer interaction, response, and retention? I have no experience in game-development, but 20 years of IT experience in customer support, (migration) projects, and changes. Rule #1 Do not pile a bunch of changes on customers without an absolute (technical) need. And never ever mix testing changes. If you disregard that and push it through anyway, chance are that your internal customers will rebel and the business will force you to roll back, say bye-bye to any promotion oppertunities. If you're dealing with external customers, you'll still have to roll back and they'll go shopping for a different IT provider (possibly even having grounds to break the contract in place).
 
Next thing: Communication consistency or lack thereof. If people are seeing unexpected changes on PTS and then notice that Space Cores can't run factories anymore, people will panic! When we're asked to give our feedback on the forum due to NQ reading that and Discord being a pain due to how it's structured (I agree), I expect NQ to also communicate via that same forum with us. You have pins on those sub boards, is a top posted pin with a list of known bugs on PTS to much to ask from NQ? Now there are luckily some posters that have other sources (Discord?) that are sharing that info. That is not our job, that's NQ's job. Why is that important? Because players who initially read that have (in most cases) a negative emotion associated with your product, that just doesn't disappear when someone yells "It's a bug!" later in the thread. This doesn't solve bugs, people's exposure to them or their initial bad reactions to them. But at least they aren't stuck with the feeling that they are posting their findings/opinions on a forum that NQ wants you to use, but doesn't use it themselves in any kind of proactive method. Now, maybe there is such a post somewhere on the forum by an NQ employee, but I couldn't find it! I do get alerts of achievements (first post, one year, etc.), but I prefer alerts on bugs (on PTS)...
 
When I first watched the "Inside Novaquark: Demeter Edition", I had this bad feeling, and I kept telling myself "Just wait and see the actual implementation...". I can see why mining on planets needs to go (from a cost perspective). I could life with that if another solution is found (I'll leave it for another thread my opinion if the in place solution is adequate, Spoiler: It isn't). But ontop of that major core game mechanic change, a couple of other core game-mechanic altering stuff is hitched, while imho those aren't necessary for the change.to happen, this makes the mining change feel far, far worse. But the participants of the video gave some hints for hope or at least just being so vague that I could file certain stuff under my misunderstanding the situation. No actual announcement of when the Demeter patch would go live on PTS was a concern, that concern became even greate when with very little notification Demeter went live on PTS, for less then three days... WTF! After all the pushing by NQ personnel to check the PTS test, how can it be live for less then three days with so little lead time? Another POSSIBLE test would be also less then three days... I wasn't able to test PTS yesterday, but I read the forums, more bad feelings. I was able to test today and the bad feelings keep getting worse, this killing the motivation to continue to play DU...
 
But that happens! You can't please everyone. People change, they might change their minds down the road, and come back to your game... But wait! That can't happen anymore due to tile taxes and people loosing the stuff they build on it, not to mention breaking most dynamic constructs due to continues construct breaking changes. We knew that the possibility of loosing your tiles outside of the core safe zone (Alioth/Madis/Thades) would eventually happen with the introduction of ground combat/conquest. Some of us took the long view and started making large infra in the safe zone and lesser infra on the outer worlds. No ground combat/conquest in sight, imho still years of. But we're loosing the ability to own the tiles we claimed everywhere (except the starter moon, which most of us haven't touched since we started over a year ago). So if I leave for six months or a year, I have almost zero motivation to go back because I either didn't build anything outside of the starter moon or I lost everything outside of the starter moon... If that's the case, many people will loose any motivation to play right now, because why start building when you're going to loose everything anyway to rent/taxes? It's not like in RL where you can't check out for a few months/years. The only way people check out of RL is permanently... We don't work for fun to pay rent/taxes, we do it to live, we play games to 'escape' RL to a different universe, and entertainment. We do not want another job to work in DU.
 
I currently run four characters in DU, not 'free' KS/promo accounts, but accounts I bought time for. Those accounts all run out at the end of the year, and with rumors abound these last couple of months I was wondering if I would extend my four characters for another year ($280). And currently, if those changes go live as is, that just isn't going to happen. Not even one account. I have many issues to a lesser or greater extend with the changes on PTS, but the one that breaks the camels back for me is the loss of tiles due to unpaid rent/taxes. I'm just not interested in playing DU for the next 15+ years on a continuous basis, there will be times when I loose interest (or hope in DU), but I expect to eventually return and resubscribe. We all know that a lot of inspiration was taken from EVE, a LOT of use played it or play it still. My main in EVE (same name as here) started in December 2005, over the years I've added many accounts and have taken many (long) breaks, but I always come back (you never quit EVE permanently). I was (until recently) convinced that DU was a similar game, you never quit DU permanently. But it seems I was wrong... Side-note: This year I've spent over $750 on EVE game-time and packs, because every time I come back to EVE I do not have to start from scratch...
 
NQ, please stop breaking your players, because after the Demeter patch, they'll never come back!

Hey there, here's my humble opinion on the upcoming Demeter patch.
 
I'm a fan of constructive feedback, and I don't say the following lightly. While I really respect each and every staff member of NQ, and their efforts of bearing the brunt on a daily base, and while there are also things I am really looking forward with the upcoming patch (and while some in here will even disagree with my personal opinion) ... I am not in principle against changes (on the contrary). But I am, like many others, very concerned for the future of DU - and that even before the official release. To say this as respectful as possible in regards to all your hard work at NQ: the upcoming changes are a sign of destruction, and DU may disappear into oblivion in early 2022.
 
(1) The terrain reset is necessary, yes. And I assume the majority of the player base is absolutely okay with that, considering the issues we've experienced since Beta start. Nobody cares, if they have to dig out their stuff again - it might be a great opportunity to redo some stuff around bases, that people were not really happy about in the first place. Same with those changes on how brakes work. Personally, I like the way they work on PTS now.
 
(2) The voxel changes are fine too. Technology is changing and evolving, so does the voxel tech. What I'm concerned of are the complexity limitations. While technical issues need to be prevented in the first place, I fear many detailed designs will no longer feasible in near future. DU will no longer be the game where everything is possible, and the own creativity is the limit - instead it will be the game where everything is possible within those complexity limitations. Please, don't cut the rope too short there.
 
(3) And now, let me point out my concerns for mining changes, scan results, and territory taxation: This could kill many huge community projects within the first one or two months. And while projects like the Alioth Spaceport by Infinity Corporation, Shamsie's Bazaar, and Obsidian Racing may be safe for now, many others will just disappear. Smaller groups or ambitious solo content creators won't be able to grind for millions and millions of quanta without spending the time of a full-time job each day, seven days a week, just to earn enough money from missions to pay their taxes on tiles they need for their project.
 
And if that's not enough, you would split the community even more by keeping existing scan results valuable. Both new and casual players won't be able to acquire enough resources by mining, and huge organisations with fully scanned planetary bodies are going to take each and every valuable tile for mining without any efforts and/or competition (within days, or even hours), because they already have containers full of planet-wide scan results.
 
I like the idea of having two different kinds of territory units, some people have already mentioned in other threads (e.g. in Hagbard's feedback thread): those, we already got - to just build and terraform. And mining territory units, with tax rates of those you plan to implement in Demeter. Plus, I'd prefer a full reset of all scan results - and I may not be alone with that wish.
 
Conclusion
The way you are going to implement all those changes +  territory taxation, many players will leave before Christmas (déjá vu), and many projects (race tracks, community projects, and other ambitious projects) will just disappear before the game has even been released. The players' base will shrink, and even PvP will suffer from those changes. To be precise, you break the neck of many content creators, that create amazing stuff for you and for all (existing + future) players. And when that happens, Dual Universe as we know and love it - a game that I, like many others, have waited for a long time, that I've followed since the first Facebook ad that NQ-Nomad has dropped, and that many of us value for the freedom of creativity and the great community within - will vanish.
 
Please, NQ, I ask you from the bottom of my heart, and even as an early backer of Dual Universe: overthink those changes you are planning to implement with the upcoming Demeter patch. I don't want our all concerns become a nightmare before Christmas (no pun intended!). We don't want a "Eve Online" 2.0 economic simulation - we want to play Dual Universe, a "continuous single-shard sandbox MMORPG taking place in a vast fully editable Sci-Fi universe".
 
Do not let those changes be Hades, do not let DU become Persephone ...

Daily Login is 150k. Rent is 1mil a week. 

Nice. 50k weekly profit. You might be able to buy something with that. Maybe. Someday.  Eventually. 

Demeter feedback:
 
Dropping the atmo-brake obstruction on us at this point is ridiculous. It should have been announced when you brought up element stacking. Let all the corrections happen at once. Also, why was there no obstruction on the brakes in the first place? What was the logic at the time and why the change of heart? Mining Units are TERRITORY WARFARE. The ore pools are spread across multiple territories and as such someone in a neighboring tile can set up a bunch of mining units and take all the ore out of the pool. What determines which mining unit gets access to the ore: First started? Highest concentration? Random? This is DISTRESSING as hell. Not only is there going to be mad rush to find tiles, claim them, pay EXORBITANT taxes, but someone else will see very clearly there's something good to mine, plop down their own TCU and start stealing from your pool. NO. I AM NOT PLAYING THIS GAME. Mining Units are BROKEN. I started a unit, performed the mini-game, and it was mining some ore -- it even ran an hour and put some ore in a container. Now I tested stopping it and starting it again.... and this is wear it broke. It's now producing 0L/hr. All the units in this pool are producing 0L/hr. Mining Units are a POOR subtitle for ground mining - the income that's possible for active game play is NOTHING -- compile that with the fact that missions running is still broken and crazy profitable as ever pretty much leaves the majority of the player base at an even LARGER DISADVANTAGE than before. Performance in general doesn't seem to have improved - but in fact, gotten worse.

QUESTION: 

Are you trying to punish PvE, New, and Solo players? First the miniscule number of PvE Asteroids, and now the taxes on territory that yield less ore per hour than you can mine per 5 second scoop currently. 


Comments on question.

Based on the numbers from PTS, you need 20-30 territories and many more miners to yield a steady flow of resources

All this is going todo is assure is that the inflated ore market becomes more inflated, and that smaller orgs, solo players, and new players have virtually no chance to ever progress, and force people into just doing hauling missions, which in turn forces them to risk PvP Conflict, which with the new changes increases the chance of now being not able to replace what you lost.

I understand this is a civilization building game. To have a civilization you have to have groups, large groups, even nations or mega corporations. But if you remove the ability to make an impact as an individual, or even be able to function self sufficiently to a good degree, what's the point? 

What is the attraction for a new player?  "Welcome! Now pick one of 5 mega organizations to join, or spend the next month collecting your daily reward to build your first ship. By the way, if you want a Territory not on Sanctuary, you are going to need to find a way to make more money, because the daily reward won't even pay for your taxes for one territory."

Honestly I have rarely said anything about the game updates. Even schematics. I enjoyed the challenge of working hard to build something. But honestly, if these extraction numbers stay anywhere in the neighborhood where they are now, I honestly think my time will be better spent elsewhere. This is not a threat, or me generally just whining. I love this game, I truly do, but this will literally suck the enjoyment of the game right out of me. 

You have the ability to create and maintain what is likely the best MMO in a generation - Don't waste it on bad  decisions. Listen to your player base, what remains, learn from the many people who have left. When Beta hit, the first couple months were amazing, despite the bugs. When you looked at Dual Universe on a streaming site, it was loaded with people building, PvPing, exploring, and enjoying the game, with thousands of people enjoying watching them.. But if you look now, you see the same few streamers, with maybe a couple dozen viewers, if anyone is online at all.

Listen. Learn. Debate. Act. Do better.
 

QUESTION: 

Are you trying to punish PvE, New, and Solo players? First the miniscule number of PvE Asteroids, and now the taxes on territory that yield less ore per hour than you can mine per 5 second scoop currently. 


Comments on question.

Based on the numbers from PTS, you need 20-30 territories and many more miners to yield a steady flow of resources

All this is going todo is assure is that the inflated ore market becomes more inflated, and that smaller orgs, solo players, and new players have virtually no chance to ever progress, and force people into just doing hauling missions, which in turn forces them to risk PvP Conflict, which with the new changes increases the chance of now being not able to replace what you lost.

I understand this is a civilization building game. To have a civilization you have to have groups, large groups, even nations or mega corporations. But if you remove the ability to make an impact as an individual, or even be able to function self sufficiently to a good degree, what's the point? 

What is the attraction for a new player?  "Welcome! Now pick one of 5 mega organizations to join, or spend the next month collecting your daily reward to build your first ship. By the way, if you want a Territory not on Sanctuary, you are going to need to find a way to make more money, because the daily reward won't even pay for your taxes for one territory."

Honestly I have rarely said anything about the game updates. Even schematics. I enjoyed the challenge of working hard to build something. But honestly, if these extraction numbers stay anywhere in the neighborhood where they are now, I honestly think my time will be better spent elsewhere. This is not a threat, or me generally just whining. I love this game, I truly do, but this will literally suck the enjoyment of the game right out of me. 

You have the ability to create and maintain what is likely the best MMO in a generation - Don't waste it on bad  decisions. Listen to your player base, what remains, learn from the many people who have left. When Beta hit, the first couple months were amazing, despite the bugs. When you looked at Dual Universe on a streaming site, it was loaded with people building, PvPing, exploring, and enjoying the game, with thousands of people enjoying watching them.. But if you look now, you see the same few streamers, with maybe a couple dozen viewers, if anyone is online at all.

Listen. Learn. Debate. Act. Do better.
 

QUESTION: 

Are you trying to punish PvE, New, and Solo players? First the miniscule number of PvE Asteroids, and now the taxes on territory that yield less ore per hour than you can mine per 5 second scoop currently. 


Comments on question.

Based on the numbers from PTS, you need 20-30 territories and many more miners to yield a steady flow of resources

All this is going todo is assure is that the inflated ore market becomes more inflated, and that smaller orgs, solo players, and new players have virtually no chance to ever progress, and force people into just doing hauling missions, which in turn forces them to risk PvP Conflict, which with the new changes increases the chance of now being not able to replace what you lost.

I understand this is a civilization building game. To have a civilization you have to have groups, large groups, even nations or mega corporations. But if you remove the ability to make an impact as an individual, or even be able to function self sufficiently to a good degree, what's the point? 

What is the attraction for a new player?  "Welcome! Now pick one of 5 mega organizations to join, or spend the next month collecting your daily reward to build your first ship. By the way, if you want a Territory not on Sanctuary, you are going to need to find a way to make more money, because the daily reward won't even pay for your taxes for one territory."

Honestly I have rarely said anything about the game updates. Even schematics. I enjoyed the challenge of working hard to build something. But honestly, if these extraction numbers stay anywhere in the neighborhood where they are now, I honestly think my time will be better spent elsewhere. This is not a threat, or me generally just whining. I love this game, I truly do, but this will literally suck the enjoyment of the game right out of me. 

You have the ability to create and maintain what is likely the best MMO in a generation - Don't waste it on bad  decisions. Listen to your player base, what remains, learn from the many people who have left. When Beta hit, the first couple months were amazing, despite the bugs. When you looked at Dual Universe on a streaming site, it was loaded with people building, PvPing, exploring, and enjoying the game, with thousands of people enjoying watching them.. But if you look now, you see the same few streamers, with maybe a couple dozen viewers, if anyone is online at all.

Listen. Learn. Debate. Act. Do better.
 

As many as it takes for NQ to realize that the way this is currently being implemented is a bad idea and will likely result in more people leaving the games already dwindling player base?

1: The numbers are way too low. They need to be upped significantly to be viable even without taxes. To make up for this you would need to up Asteroid Ore Nodes a lot, and greatly increase the number of safe zone asteroids, and start including rare ore spawns into the safe zone. There is a problem if you can mine more ore in less than a minute by playing cookie clicker surface mining then what using a powerful technological mining marvel can pull out in an hour.

2: The ore Market is already inflated, and that's with the ability to mine more Ore in an Hour Currently than you could in a couple weeks with a mining unit.  As it stands with current values, you will continue to wreck the player economy and market.

3: What's the point of adding adjacent territory bonus of 10% per territory, if you have to pay a heavy territory tax for that small boost to ore extraction. As with point 1, the numbers are way to low to justify this.

4: While I am a fan of using some elements in ship design to give them that rugged Sci-Fi look, forcing people to have to show every single element on a ship is just a bad decision. Some elements it makes sense. Hovers, Boosters, Engines being obstructed, makes sense. But when you need 50 brakes, and 100 wings to make a large ship flyable with cargo, not being able to hide some of those elements is just dumb.

5: I am glad the Space Industry not working is a bug. Taxing PvE Space Industry/Activities is another way to drive off more players. 

It is NQ:s game designers and their weird believes about what is fun is what will kill this game.
 
- Call To Action – Say NO to territory taxes - 

Been on PTS now for 15 hours testing while collecting my thoughts. A lot of these changes will force players to /work/ to keep what they own in game... right now with rough calculations it looks like about /half/ of the ore dug may have to go back to paying taxes on the tiles, and thus players will need to work... to keep their land... to keep working to keep their land.

I say work, because these new loops, for many- will turn it into active work/tedium to manage. Plus, potentially half of your ore income is spent on the hexes... now you'll need to take a cut for fuel to transport/logistics. After the end of it, you're left with very little to build/expand with. For new players, it will be muuuuch harder to solo while getting a foot-hold.

So I ask, is this a move to slow players down and reduce overall server costs? As it stands this a soft-wipe of sorts, as many with "fun" projects people work on a few hours a week may now be forced into grinding to keep it going- or loose it... and if players don't come back, as it stands... you loose a tile, as it is on PTS... you also loose all the static constructs owned on that tile. 

So is this a change to reduce quanta/inflation? if so than look at the source, missions-alt runners to curb it vs creating a huge sink via land. Is this change for... data inflation? as more ore enters the game, more constructs are made- and in live(more data due to tunnels on top of that)  so more ore = data costs.  And I dare say this is the real reason for these changes, otherwise NQ will let up on them as player outrage seams to be more so than 0.23, and it hasn't fully sunk in yet for most players what these changes even mean... and while this post covers some core issues, it does not cover the ninja-changes to ship elements/flight mechanics or other core complaints.
 
Give us more ore via auto-mining - more charges, more ore to pull from per hex and... some way to skip the lame mini game.. please? minimum efficiency of 25% vs 0? Nobody wants to login once/twice a day to hop around auto-mining fields to play a stupid mini game. Least while mining traditionally I can tune out and watch Netflix, with autominers- it requires just enough attention you cant let your mind easily wander... but not enough satisfaction to make it.... enjoyable. 2x more ore may not be enough, 3-4x may hit a sweet spot for most. More Roids - All safe zone roids get mined out within an hour of discovery already. fix discovery timer of 20 minutes/middle Colum! Likewise, PTS seemingly won't spawn in asteroids in time for us to check the new spawn rates.... This change will /encourage/ more people into PVP space. Lower the taxes for tiles. This is a game that people pay monthly for- not a second job. 
  So say we all.

BlindingBright
-MTI Superlegate, Lodestar Chancellor

Ok, usually i am not negative but the balance of Demeter on the PTS server has some severe problems.
 
1. Territory costs of 1m per week:
this will lead to almost nobody claiming any tiles any more outside of the sanc moon unless the territory can produce some serious income. so all "player made content" will disappear after some time
 
2. Scanning results do not get deleted and show l/h for mining units
this will lead to ALL really valuable tiles being claimed within the first 24h after demeter goes live, as it is really easy to identify  the most powerful tiles for mining units if you have containers full with scanner results.
so after day 1, the fun is over and the "mega tiles" will be claimed by those players/orgs that have all the existing scans.
 
NQ, as demeter is balanced on the PTS, it would kill the game if it goes to the live server
 
- New players some days later would not have a chance to find income opportunities despite missions.
- earning quanta will be a lot harder, so people would stop spending.. this would kill industrialists workflow.
- the imbalance between experienced players/orgs and new players would get worse and even more players would demand a wipe or simply not enjoy the game

please reconsider your decisions.

Hagbard.


 

i agree as well. I also believe although asteroids are a viable ore source as well as a viable pvp generator, at the same time right now the whole demographic is set up so any good safe zone roids are mined instantly, and the non safe zone higher tier are all blanketed by space roaches. why cant the non safe zone roids be further from warp pipes and safe zones so people can actually mine them before 12 roaches show up like clockwork? why cant we have more, so many in fact that a group of 20 people cannot monitor them all, I understand that pvp is a player generator, but at the cost of all your pve players it is not sustainable to not have options for non pvp and getting the same stuff, the trail of dead MMO's is long with pvp games that only "catered" to the pvp crowd. After all this is a game not a 2nd or 3rd job. if its not fun and or seemingly fair you can bet people will leave to something that is.

I agree with this post.

Dual Universe has the potential to be the greatest MMO in a Generation, and change the industry forever.

IF they can stop making bad decisions from good ideas.

QUESTION: 

Are you trying to punish PvE, New, and Solo players? First the miniscule number of PvE Asteroids, and now the taxes on territory that yield less ore per hour than you can mine per 5 second scoop currently. 


Comments on question.

Based on the numbers from PTS, you need 20-30 territories and many more miners to yield a steady flow of resources

All this is going todo is assure is that the inflated ore market becomes more inflated, and that smaller orgs, solo players, and new players have virtually no chance to ever progress, and force people into just doing hauling missions, which in turn forces them to risk PvP Conflict, which with the new changes increases the chance of now being not able to replace what you lost.

I understand this is a civilization building game. To have a civilization you have to have groups, large groups, even nations or mega corporations. But if you remove the ability to make an impact as an individual, or even be able to function self sufficiently to a good degree, what's the point? 

What is the attraction for a new player?  "Welcome! Now pick one of 5 mega organizations to join, or spend the next month collecting your daily reward to build your first ship. By the way, if you want a Territory not on Sanctuary, you are going to need to find a way to make more money, because the daily reward won't even pay for your taxes for one territory."

Honestly I have rarely said anything about the game updates. Even schematics. I enjoyed the challenge of working hard to build something. But honestly, if these extraction numbers stay anywhere in the neighborhood where they are now, I honestly think my time will be better spent elsewhere. This is not a threat, or me generally just whining. I love this game, I truly do, but this will literally suck the enjoyment of the game right out of me. 

You have the ability to create and maintain what is likely the best MMO in a generation - Don't waste it on bad  decisions. Listen to your player base, what remains, learn from the many people who have left. When Beta hit, the first couple months were amazing, despite the bugs. When you looked at Dual Universe on a streaming site, it was loaded with people building, PvPing, exploring, and enjoying the game, with thousands of people enjoying watching them.. But if you look now, you see the same few streamers, with maybe a couple dozen viewers, if anyone is online at all.

Listen. Learn. Debate. Act. Do better.
 

1 charge every 6h means that to remain above 50%, you can only have what, 20 mining units? you will lose money after that due to taxes vs your lowered efficiency. Unless you have alts. Looks like that might have been the plan. 

Even with alts.. What kindof gameplay is that? rip

Voxels make up almost everything you see in the world of Dual Universe. Currently, most creations are made using the basic tools we provide with standard shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, wedges, and tetrahedrons. 
 
More intricate designs can be achieved through the art of ‘voxelmancy’ where players customize the shapes of voxels using a variety of methods and techniques based on how voxels react to each other when placed. This very advanced technique allows voxelmancers to place each corner of a voxel exactly where they want it. To do that, they use what is called a ‘voxel reactor’.
 

 
Voxel reactors, as amazingly useful as they are, have three major drawbacks:
They are time consuming to use. They are not very intuitive for beginners. They are laid out in a checkered pattern in all three dimensions.  
The last item on that list poses some technical problems. 

VOXEL COMPLEXITY
When we are effectively applying a checkered pattern of voxels of different colors or even air, it creates a relatively large amount of small surfaces. This doesn’t really pose a problem for a single reactor, but can be a performance burden for some voxel libraries that consist of thousands of reactors.
 
With more and more detailed constructs of complex design being built, it’s become problematic for the ‘mesh service’ system that generates the shapes that you see when not in build mode. On a few rare occasions, highly-detailed constructs may not render at all or their honeycomb will disappear. 
 
To prevent this from happening, we will gradually implement a limitation to the complexity that can be created in a single chunk of voxels. It will start with a simple complexity gauge in Demeter:
With the launch of Demeter, you will start by seeing a new feedback gauge while building which highlights the region you’re actively working on and will appear as a bar in the HUD that indicates the complexity level of that region as a percentage.  In a future update (exact update number still to be discussed), we will introduce the eagerly-awaited vertex precision tool (Known to many of you as the fabled vertex editor) as a way to ensure that the limitation to voxel reactors doesn’t hinder players’ ability to create amazing constructs in the game. (More on that below.) In a subsequent future (and yet undefined) update, we will enforce the complexity value limit to be 100% for any new voxel operations. As such, old constructs and blueprints will not be altered by this but may become unalterable if they are above the limit in a region. Rest assured that if you have an existing construct that’s above the limitation, you will still be able to use it as is.  
With all that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part!

THE VERTEX PRECISION TOOL
There is currently a bit of a gap between learning how to build using the basic tools and more advanced voxelmancy techniques, something we’ve wanted to address for a long time. The introduction of the vertex precision tool in a future update will allow you to take any vertex (a corner of a voxel) and move it to a new location on any of its three axes inside the vertex's moveable area at different resolutions. This will provide an intuitive way that fills that crucial gap between basic building and advanced voxelmancy to fine-tune your builds.
 
See the video below for a demonstration of how this works. Please keep in mind that the video only shows an early prototype, but we think it’s already promising enough to make you as excited as we are about the possibilities of this tool.
 
 

 

 
VENI, VIDI, VOXIED
I came, I saw, I voxeled 
 
We hope that these voxelmancy changes, along with all of the great new Lua functions added in the Selene update, will inspire and encourage you to make even more amazing things than you already are. 
 
Check out our Tutorials page for even more ideas and tips on using voxels to bring your creativity to life in Dual Universe. 
 
As always, we’d love to hear your comments and answer your questions on the forum.