Astrophil

Ay ay ay! More *fascinating* developments (both NQ and otherwise) this month (July!). Get your popcorn ready.

For the month of May, it's finally here. Here's your "monthly" update from Ark Central, with a high volume of community created content showing this month.

AC CAREERS: As an organization dedicated to diversity, Ark Central is looking for a motivated and confident female to join the Production Team as a correspondent, where you will have the opportunity to have your voice heard and to be part of a dedicated team of people equally passionate about Dual Universe. Please send Astrophil a PM via forums or Discord if interested!

Well done ???

Scandalous times indeed as DU's shady political sphere bleeds over into the real world. But there's also good news. Fortunately, Ark Central is here with the facts in this month's April news update.

This will be a proposed solution to a problem that NovaQuark has thus far decided not to create: losing money (that is, in-game currency: Quanta) upon death of a player. Let's dive into it. The Problem If my sources are correct, NovaQuark has stated before that such items as DACs, Blueprints, Territory Control Units, Resurrection Nodes, and Quanta will not be lost upon death. Most of these items I have listed are justifiably non-lose-able; they are highly rare and valuable or, in some cases, unique items that would dramatically affect the total universal supply of these items. However, that last one, Quanta, seems not to belong on that list. Quanta will be as common as dirt, and the entire economy of DU will circulate around it. It is not rare, and it useful purely as a medium of exchange. So it seems to me that, like any other item, at least some percentage of Quanta should be lost by a player if he/she dies/is killed. A further incentive to encourage safe civilization building practices, of course. And a mechanic to facilitate looting of money, which is really the end goal of most looters. After all, in real life, should you be killed or rendered unconscious, any cash you may be carrying is easy pickings. However, you might say, if a player dies of non-PVP causes, doesn't that create a currency sink? If a player were particularly deep-pocketed, it could even have a significant impact on the universal economy. Surely, this is a problem that we are better off avoiding? The Attempt at a Solution Allow me the privilege of tickling your economic fancies. We all know, of course, that NQ plans on implementing market bots/non-player-buy-orders initially, in order to inject some currency into the infant economy of the early game. Now let's take that a step further. A player dies, drops random x% of Quanta. First, to facilitate looting, most of his inventory (including that Quanta) will have dropped. In most looting cases, looters will immediately snatch up these items and continue along their merry ways. If it is a non-PVP death (ex. taking too high of a fall, crashing a spaceship), presumably those items will just disappear after x amount of time. But wait! We can't just have Quanta dropping through a wormhole into another (triple?) universe. Oh the humanity economy! So here is what I propose: instead of vanishing like those other inventory contents, Quanta will be whisked away into one of those nifty market bots that will be present at the beginning of the game to inject currency. These bots will purchase items from sellers on the universal market, thus recirculating the money back into the economy. Extension Of course, this all hinges on NQ's willingness to spend development time on this feature, and how to manage the balance between immersion and practicality (there are no market bots in the real world, but there are institutions installed to regulate the economy). This competes against the benefits of such a feature to the game: reality (it makes sense that you should lose money upon a death, even if temporary), the ability to loot money (for all the pirates and scavengers and outlaws), and indeed, the possibility of banking (who would bank money that is perfectly safe in a wallet, save for interest on deposits?) Therefore, discuss.

Ikr, or like some kind of monthly news broadcast *cough*

No I think television networks are a far better idea than newspapers, though I would love to see both in game. I seem to faintly recall that video broadcast was already a planned if not implemented feature.

Supporter packs, EVE developers at NovaQuark, and a wave of new projects and organizations floods the community. Dual Universe sees new life as March rolls past.

Definitely very Passengers-esque. Can't wait for Part II!

Love is in the air as Dual Universe seemingly calms down with drama and continues to mature. Also, supporter packs are coming back. Here's your February briefing from Ark Central.

Now if we could just get space weather xD Love me a good solar wind.

space whales

Alliances, terrorists, and spies to start off 2018. Here's your January briefing from Ark Central.

Hayyyy (sadly the gif didn't work)