Sinjin

I still LOVE THIS GAME and don't want to see it die.  Here are some easily implemented suggestions to bring DU back form the brink:
Add some asteroids with mega nodes.  We miss those!  If you are the one who discovers it, you get double the amount of time before the roid gets broadcast. Unbalance some of the game.  Give our L-core ships some of their speed back!  Give some overall power back to airfoils and engines for getting off Alioth. No one was complaining loud enough about balance to keep some of the changes made in place.  The changes just made everyone mad. Schematics: You guys were solid until the .23 release when schematics came out.  I know it helps balance the game, but no one cared!  It was an improvement when you dropped schematic requirements off low tier items and introduced schematic containers, but everyone still hates them.  You said getting rid of them would be a tough job.  Ok, then drop the cost to dirt cheap and go back to only one schematic needed on a machine.  Needing repeated schematics in a machine is just dumb.  Who needs more than one set of blueprints to build things? Add something for us to aspire to.  DU really is my only game, so I don’t what that would be.  But there really is no purpose to DU.  I build stuff.  Then what? Bring back the bots.  The market is collapsing.  Bots in a limited form will help the small player.  There aren’t enough players in the game for me to sell enough things to keep afloat. Cut the weekly fee on territories by at least half.   Single players should pay no more than 100k.  You’ll have to figure out something else to deal with those to keep territories and don’t use them.  Perhaps set up a sliding scale based on your performance in the game.  But I can’t afford the weekly rate.  I don’t generate enough income.  I would LOVE to set up mining units, but the market is bottoming out bad.  It’s not worth the upkeep. Mining units… the upkeep is just irritating.  Simplify it and make the need to visit them less. Introduce clear voxels.  I have some weird window shapes to fill and the glass panels and canopy shapes just don’t cut it. Reconfigure the Large Dynamic cores for a 2nd style.   Don't need more voxels, just need them to be longer.  Make them thinner and longer would make A LOT of people happy. I'm hopeful these are easy things to do and could be a sign of good faith to the player base.
 
Many will call me naïve or foolish for trying, but I don't care.  What do you say NQ?

I still LOVE THIS GAME and don't want to see it die.  Here are some easily implemented suggestions to bring DU back form the brink:
Add some asteroids with mega nodes.  We miss those!  If you are the one who discovers it, you get double the amount of time before the roid gets broadcast. Unbalance some of the game.  Give our L-core ships some of their speed back!  Give some overall power back to airfoils and engines for getting off Alioth. No one was complaining loud enough about balance to keep some of the changes made in place.  The changes just made everyone mad. Schematics: You guys were solid until the .23 release when schematics came out.  I know it helps balance the game, but no one cared!  It was an improvement when you dropped schematic requirements off low tier items and introduced schematic containers, but everyone still hates them.  You said getting rid of them would be a tough job.  Ok, then drop the cost to dirt cheap and go back to only one schematic needed on a machine.  Needing repeated schematics in a machine is just dumb.  Who needs more than one set of blueprints to build things? Add something for us to aspire to.  DU really is my only game, so I don’t what that would be.  But there really is no purpose to DU.  I build stuff.  Then what? Bring back the bots.  The market is collapsing.  Bots in a limited form will help the small player.  There aren’t enough players in the game for me to sell enough things to keep afloat. Cut the weekly fee on territories by at least half.   Single players should pay no more than 100k.  You’ll have to figure out something else to deal with those to keep territories and don’t use them.  Perhaps set up a sliding scale based on your performance in the game.  But I can’t afford the weekly rate.  I don’t generate enough income.  I would LOVE to set up mining units, but the market is bottoming out bad.  It’s not worth the upkeep. Mining units… the upkeep is just irritating.  Simplify it and make the need to visit them less. Introduce clear voxels.  I have some weird window shapes to fill and the glass panels and canopy shapes just don’t cut it. Reconfigure the Large Dynamic cores for a 2nd style.   Don't need more voxels, just need them to be longer.  Make them thinner and longer would make A LOT of people happy. I'm hopeful these are easy things to do and could be a sign of good faith to the player base.
 
Many will call me naïve or foolish for trying, but I don't care.  What do you say NQ?

I have a suggestion to improve the "thank you's" for those of us who have supported the game for so long and are about to lose everything.  Give us one magic dynamic construct blueprint of our choice.  Being able to bust out my M-core ship to get started with would be a game changer for making me want to jump in and start over again.   

NQ... please don't push this one out.  This feels like .23 all over again.  We got used to schematics.  Was anyone STILL complaining enough to really warrant this redo?   You keep talking about game balance, but I'm playing on my own and doing just fine.  You keep nerfing things (still ticked I had to add all those extra adjustors to my ship and junk it up).  Now your going make industry need regular maintenance.  I already spend the first 20-30 minutes a day playing checking mining units.  I HATE THAT.  This will only add to it.  Either dump the schematics altogether or leave it alone.  I don't speak up on the forums often, but I'm telling you... you push this one out, kiss your remaining player base goodbye.

We invited you to ask questions about 0.25 and 0.26 for a Q&A, and you did not disappoint! Here are the responses to some of the most commonly asked questions. 
 
The community also expressed curiosity about issues related to schematics and voxels. Those are both important topics that we think would be better served in separate, focused discussions. We’ll hit those for you soon. 
 
Big thanks to everyone who submitted questions. Let’s keep the conversation going! 
 
1. Will the PTS receive a newer image when the next iteration comes through?
Our most important consideration is to ensure better, smoother releases. (Can we agree that Hermes went pretty well?) Unfortunately, that means that migration to PTS is not on the priority list. Migrating the database from the live environment to the PTS requires a lot of work from our DevOps and Production teams, among others. These resources are scarce in the company, and, as usual, it’s about choices. 
 
We’d like to remind you, though, that playing on PTS comes with a lot of perks, such as dispensers with infinite resources, the ability to change skills at-will, millions of quanta, etc. 
 
2. Are there going to be any changes to nerf the ability to use multiple alts with the hauling missions?
We don’t currently have plans for that. We consider the cost of moving a package being the movement of the mass. You still need a bigger ship to move a larger amount of cargo. That said, we will consider the question of alts carefully for future mission types.

3. Will you be adding a way to identify which packages belong to which mission?
This is a great suggestion! We definitely see how it would bring quality of life for mission-takers out there. It seems quite doable although it’s unlikely we can include it with Apollo (0.26) since that’s already underway internally and should come to the PTS soon; however, we’re in the process of discussing how we can add it to a future release.
 
4. Are org changes coming with 0.26?
Following feedback from the community and discussions with some of the major org leaders, we announced this week that the org changes have been postponed. While we still need to address issues caused by nested organizations, we also want to make sure that we approach the changes in a collaborative manner with the players. With more options to consider and more conversations needed, it’s highly unlikely that these changes will come with the next major version, Apollo (0.26).

5. Will you please elaborate on what you mean by "PvP balance changes"? Will you be improving combat with smaller cores/stopping cube designs, etc., or just adding shields?
We’ll share more details as the Apollo release date gets closer. To give you a little sneak peek now, we can say that overall it will feature weapons changes (including cosmetics), PvP-related bug fixes, the introduction of shields, and quite a few changes to the overall balancing of PvP. We would like to manage expectations by stating that this will be the first wave of changes and that we will have more heavy PvP-focused releases in the future.
 
6. Is passive mining coming before asteroid mining?
Planet/passive mining is planned for the release after Apollo, codenamed Demeter. With Apollo, we are focusing on the introduction of asteroid hunting and mining gameplay. We’ll communicate more about it once Apollo is out of the way, but rest assured that these changes to mining are not too far in the future.
 
7. Do we get to have mining elements for ships?
With Apollo, we will introduce one new element called the DSat scanner, which will be used to hunt down asteroids and discover their location. Mining itself will work as it currently does on planets though. More info on Apollo features coming soon. 

8. Will asteroid mechanics still put a huge red arrow over your head by broadcasting the position through the universe, removing any need for PvPers to put effort into finding those who go out and find asteroids?
To clarify, some asteroids will be in the PvP zone and some won’t. Asteroids in the PvP zone will have higher chances of including higher-tier ore and, as such, will be more valuable. But asteroids in safe zones should be worth your while, too. 
 
There will be a countdown between the time an asteroid is discovered by a player and the moment when its location is broadcast to other players. (Currently, the gap is four hours but this may change once we get feedback from players.) It shouldn’t be enough to completely deplete an asteroid of all its ore, but it should be enough to mine all the good stuff first. Once the location is publicized, it’s up to you if you want to stick around to finish mining the asteroid or move away before the pirates show up. 
 
We think this will provide interesting collaboration mechanics (mining while others protect the miners, for example) and, yes, additional PvP opportunities. We don’t think it will become an easy targeting system for pirates, though, as there’s no guarantee miners will still be on site by the time they arrive after learning of an asteroid location. 
 
9. Will the asteroid system use the current land mining system, 400m manual scanner and hand-operated vein or will it be blocks of pure ore?
Yes, asteroid mining will use mechanics similar to the current on-planet mining gameplay. Think of them as mini-planets with valuable ores.