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TannhainRP

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  1. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Wanderer in LAST PTS WEEKEND OF BETA HAS STARTED   
    Dear Noveans, if you want to try the Dual Universe launch build before everyone else, now is the time 👇
     
    The PTS is now open with PTS 1.0 Release Candidate 1 and the client is available for download, it will remain open until 09:00 UTC on Monday, September 5th. 
     
    We invite you to take a look at the planet revamp, new blueprint features, pioneer packs and more!
     
    The full list of changes can be found on the Launcher, and on the forums at:
    https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/25186-pts-10-release-candidate-1-change-log/

    The PTS launcher can be found here:
    https://www.dualuniverse.game/account/pts

    Feedback thread:

    Bug report thread:
     
  2. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to Underhand Aerial in Hyperion - An der Spitze des Möglichen   
    Seid ihr Bereit für den Release?  
     
    Neu in Dual Universe und auf der Suche nach Anschluss? Dann kommt gerne vorbei. Wir nehmen gerne Neulinge auf und teilen unsere Erfahrung und Wissen mit euch
  3. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Developer team reply to Core Slots limitation v2 Community feedback   
    Dear Noveans, 
     
    We took the time to look at all the feedback you gave us during this weekend and the past few days. We understand there are still concerns and that the second version is not the perfect solution to all potential problems. That doesn’t mean we are just going to deploy this version and be done with it. As mentioned previously, our goal has never been to punish players and we don’t want you to feel pressured to destroy/abandon/remove some of your current constructs.
     
    Therefore, while monitoring how things will evolve (reminder: we are still in Beta, and things are bound to change or to be tweaked. Nothing is set in stone yet), we are going to act on two aspects when we will deploy the core units limitation with the Panacea release:
     
    Extending the time period during which the automatic abandonment feature for core units in excess will remain inactive (1 month was previously announced but we now aim at 2-3 months at least). This is  to make sure everyone has enough time to reach the amount of core slots needed through queued talent training focused on specifically construct slots.  
    In rare cases where it wouldn’t be enough, the Novaquark team is willing to help players who have large community projects, assuming they don’t gain any particular profit from them, and they’ve been in the limit of “one player personal cores + organization cores limit of one organization (which is 275 pre-Panacea)” and for whom the limit of 200 cores per player is not enough. We know those cases will be quite rare as there are currently less than 40 organizations going beyond the 200 Core limitation.  
    If you are a player in charge of an organization with more than 200 constructs and you have a genuine issue about keeping all your Constructs, please reach out to NQ-Deckard or NQ-Nyzaltar on Discord or on the forum by private message and we will see how we can assist.
     
    Again, the goal is not to frustrate you, our players, nor put you in panic mode to reduce the amount of core units you may currently have in your organization(s). We are not applying limitations with a light heart, without caring for players. We do know that these measures are frustrating for many of you, but at some point, we have to think also about the long-term sustainability of the game. All the restrictive measures already deployed, going to be deployed or activated in the coming months, have been all decided with this main goal in mind.
     
    We do acknowledge the first version of the core units limitation was way too low and too much based on metrics that weren't detailed enough, not taking into account many edge cases. To show our good will, we decided to approach the problem from another angle: what could be the highest limitation of core units we could give to the players without endangering long-term sustainability? The answer is what has been suggested in the second version. Even if we wanted to go further, it would be unreasonable.  What would be the point of keeping the "no limit" policy if we find ourselves unable to sustain the model one year after its release? Dual Universe is meant to become a MMORPG and as such we have to do our best to design it for the long term.
     
    You might ask:
    Why didn't you set the limitations sooner?
    Why is it just now you talk about long term sustainability?
     
    Those are legitimate questions and here is the explanation: 
    We had, of course, from the beginning, some rough estimation regarding long term sustainability. But as you can imagine, estimation on paper (or even simulations with a massive amount of bots) can vary quite significantly from actual metrics we get from running a live server with a massive amount of real players. To have accurate numbers, we needed to have two things: having all the main gameplay mechanics implemented in game, and enough metrics about player habits once all the main gameplay mechanics have been implemented. Those are things we didn't have yet before Beta launch and we could only guess before for some of them. Player habits are, for example, a parameter no one can predict perfectly in advance. Even after reaching the Beta stage, it required quite a few months to accumulate enough data to have an accurate idea of what could be the real cost per player. So yes, ideally, we should have set the limitations much earlier, to prevent players from going wild in creativity beyond what was technically reasonable and sustainable. However, this would have been a decision with just "gut feeling" (which is always very risky) and not based on relevant metrics.
     
    Now to reply to the many suggestions and concerns you’ve mentioned in past few days:
     
    Isn't there a risk of seeing the organization slots weaponized by opponents infiltrated in the organization through Alts?

    Weaponizing organization slots - if someone ever does that - will have a very limited impact. There will be no way of catching by surprise the legates of an organization:
    - Legates of the organization are all notified when a construct check has failed for the first time (opening the two-week period before random abandonment), in order to check what happened, take immediate action and handle the situation before the next check.
    - Once lent, construct slots cannot be taken back for 30 days, which limits the possibilities for immediate negative actions and allows for anticipation.
    - Organization legates can know from the list of active slots whether a donator is part of the organization or not (and how many slots are lent), therefore caution should be taken not to rely too much on 'external' slots to deploy new constructs, especially to the point where it becomes critical to pass the construct checks.
    - Deploying a construct is restricted to legates and via RDMS, so people actually using the slots are assumed to be trustworthy.
    - The log keeps track of every movement in the slot count (who gave/took back slots, how many and when, what happens to the amount lent by this player, what happens to the total amount for the organization)
      Will you give us more control ( show the values ) of : 
     - how many cores do you have free?
     - how many org slots cores do you have free?
     - what is YOUR org potential limit?

    The org related numbers are visible in the new UI elements, we will look into creating better insight into your personal construct counts however this will not be available in the initial release of Panacea.  
    Why chosing core units abandonment randomly?

    We understand it might seem a strange decision at first glance, but we think it's a necessary measure to prevent some players to abuse the system (like inflating temporarily the number of core unit slots before a war and fill them with junk or "can afford to lose" ships). We did consider ways of selecting which type of constructs should be abandoned first, but in the end we found none exempt from loophole.   
    Why not go with “constructs are not abandoned when the limit is not high enough? You just can't place new ones (otherwise many constructs will be abandoned long before the players will have leveled the skills for that)

    This would in fact result in a situation where an organization could get players to temporarily increase their slots, deploy a very large amount of constructs, and then remove the slots to leave the constructs in place. This in fact does not meet our requirements.  
    Suggestion: assigning automatically 10 organization core slots to each organization the player is joining? If he joins the organization, he must participate in the group effort.

    While we definitely agree on the idea (each member of an organization should participate a minimum to help an organization to achieve its goal(s)), there are a lot of edge cases if we enforce a hardcoded assignment. What happens if the member doesn’t have 10 organization core slots available? Can he still join the organization? What happens to those who are already in organizations and don’t have the required slots? Moreover, if someone really doesn’t want to share some organization slots, he might just quit an organization if we try to force to assign organization slots to a player. In every case, whether it’s enforced or not, it’s up to an organization leader to convince their members to assign some organization slots to the said organization. Last but not least, enforcing an organization core slot assignment shouldn’t be a prerequisite: not all organizations have a purpose of sharing constructs, and we want to let the organization system be flexible in this regard.
      Suggestion: putting a maximum amount of organization core slots being assigned per member to one specifically organization? (beyond the 10 automatically assigned, like 25 max)

    Limiting organization slots assigned per organization will just have the same effect as the suggestion above: if a player wants to keep organization slots for personal use, they will still find a way to do so by creating several organizations for personal use. Beside, as some of you may be wary of potential opponents infiltrating an org, letting the option of having the maximum amount of organization core slots assigned to one organization should be useful to make sure that even in big organizations,  you might have a significant amount of organization core slots with just a small team of trusted people.
     
    Will we have a way to disassemble or deactivate easily and quickly a Construct to avoid taking hours to just remove the Constructs in excess of the Core slot limitation? (for example, an ability to compactify a larger variety of constructs in a way that retains their mass and volume, so you can basically box away ships - or even buildings - not currently in use to avoid the core count cost)

    This kind of feature is on the roadmap. While we’ll try our best, we cannot guarantee it will be delivered before the activation of the automatic abandonment feature for core units in excess owned by an organization.  
    Will there be in-game assistance from GMs in deleting or dismantling the constructs?
     
    As we plan to extend beyond 1 month for the inactivity of the automatic abandonment feature as mentioned above, we aim at developing a tool to make it easier to disassemble or deactivate Constructs using the Core Units in excess. We’ll keep you informed on the topic once we’ll have more information about it.
     
    What do you think about limiting to each player to be a member of 5 orgs maximum?

    That could be an idea, but being aware of how frustration is accumulating after many limitations, we don’t want to push more limitations than the ones really needed.
      How long would it take to train all the talents to max them and reach the maximum limitation?
     
    Currently we estimate to maximise all the talents from nothing, will take approximately 6 to 7 months.
    However there is a curve, the last few talents take the longest:
    - In 30 days, you should be able to reach around 60 slots total.
    - In 60 days, you should be able to reach around 90 slots total.
    - In 90 days, you should be able to reach around 130 slots total.
    - In 120 days, you should be able to reach around 170 slots total.
    The remaining slots will take considerable time.
    Remember you will also have a partial refund of talent points, which should speed up quite significantly your training in the new talents.
     
    If cores were tokenized will they count towards the cap? So if I was to tokenize 90% of a HUGE station? that might save it? Technically they wouldn't be my core right? Might be a legit way to save larger projects. Then hand out tokens to people who buy / already own... These tokens expire after 3 months or something. Tokens are always inactive, so server wise not as much load? Boom, in game tradable property token market aka NFT's (without being able to buy these with USD but they would be considered as "Non-Fungible Tokens"). 
     
    While tokenized, constructs still count towards the organization they belong to until the token is claimed. And transferred ownership is to another owner.
     
     
    That's all for now, but if you have additional feedback on the upcoming changes, let us know in this discussion thread!
     
    The Novaquark team.
  4. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Wanderer in DEVBLOG: PRECISION IN BUILDING   
    In the upcoming 0.28 Panacea update, we will introduce the Vertex Precision Tool (VPT), which adds a whole new way of bringing detail to your creative designs.
     
    This all may sound quite complex initially, but once you get used to the tool it’s quite intuitive. If you’ve been holding back because voxelmancy seemed too complicated, now’s the time to give it a try. By allowing you to simply equip the VPT and move the vertex around on a changeable grid, the process of designing with voxels is greatly simplified and far more user-friendly.
     
    Here’s a brief demonstration of what the VPT looks like and how it’s used:
     
     
    Heads up! The information in this blog leans heavily into the extremely technical side of things. Those who are into voxelmancy will probably dive in with unfettered joy. If building isn’t your jam, you may wish to stop here and get the TL;DR from one of your builder buddies later.
     
    VOXELS DEFINED
     
    Much of what you see in Dual Universe was built by players using voxels. The term “voxel” is very generic, a shortened form of “volume element”. Voxelmancy is an advanced form of building that can be quite complex, and there has always been a gap between building with standard geometric shapes and fine-tuned designs. The VPT aims to bring a game-changing  bridge for the gap between these building styles.
     
    How exactly the voxels are implemented depends a lot on the software that’s being used. In DU, a voxel contains two things: material information and a vertex position information.
     
    The material information is pretty straightforward; it is exactly the same as in a pixelated image where there is a material (think of it as a synonym of “color“) for each little square. We use what we call a uniform grid, meaning that voxels are put next to each other in a 3D grid and all have the same size. For example, on a planet voxels are 1 meter long (1m x 1m x 1m) whereas they can be 25 centimeters long (0.25m x 0.25m x 0.25m) on a user construct. It’s exactly how pixels work in 2D images, and you may already be familiar with these kinds of voxels because they are present in games like Minecraft.
     
    VERTICES POSITIONS
     
    Let’s drill down even deeper into the well of technical stuff.
     
    As stated above, voxels contain material information and a vertex position information. The Vertex Precision Tool doesn’t touch materials, so let’s talk about vertices.
     
    3D geometry is composed of vertices, and those vertices are linked together to form faces that will be rendered on your screen. For instance, take a simple single voxel cube. It is composed of one material, but has eight vertices on the eight corners. Since our voxels in DU store both a material and a vertex position, our “single voxel” here is composed of eight voxels because it takes eight vertices to form a cube!
     
    This is where it starts getting complicated. We can consider that there are two voxel grids, one is the material grid and the other is the vertex position grid, and the two grids are shifted, dual to each other. There are eight vertices around a material, and there are eight materials (we can consider the void as a special kind of material) around a vertex.
     
    So what are we talking about when we talk about a voxel? A little bit of both, depending on the context. Confusing right? We’ll try to be specific and talk about vertices, but remember there is only one vertex per voxel, although one voxel cube is composed of eight vertices (and thus is in reality eight voxels: one with matter and seven without matter.)
     
    Take a look at this picture. It is in 2D because it’s easier to understand (and to draw), but this is the same thing in 3D. This image represents a voxel sphere (more like a circle since we are in 2D).
     

      The dotted lines are the uniform grid that represent the voxels. At the intersection of those dotted lines, you can have a blue dot, representing a material. So, we have our material grid: either emptiness or a blue material. Inside of all of those cells, there may be a vertex. There is a vertex if and only if all four corners are not the same. If one of the corners is blue and another one empty, it means we have some material change here and thus something to see. So we need a vertex to know where we see the surface. On each of those cells, we have a vertex represented. The vertices are then linked together to form the surface.
     
    POSITIONS VALUES
     
    Before the Panacea update, you could only get such a sphere with the sphere tool, but with the VTP you’ll now have the opportunity to change the vertex position manually. This raises the question: what coordinate system do we use?
     
    In theory, we could use an infinite range of values. For example, we could say that the vertex should be at one third (on a given axis) in between the two materials as shown in the grid, so its value (on this axis) could be 0.333333333. It could also be 0.1415926535, or whatever we want.
     
    However, we need to store those vertex positions, and we want to be efficient so that we don’t take too much disk usage so we encode the vertex position (on a given axis) on a single byte. This means we only have 256 different possibilities for a vertex position, but we don’t really need more. A vertex position is a coordinate with three numbers (for the three axes) where all of these numbers are integers (with a maximum 256 different possible integers).
     
    So what are those possible values? Before answering that, we need to consider where a vertex can lie. On the sphere representation drawing, you can see that vertices are inside the zone defined by the four surrounding material points. This is indeed where a vertex should be most of the time, although we may sometimes want to overflow a bit, reach a little further than the vertex is supposed to. This will encroach on the zone of the neighbor voxel, but it does not have to be a problem. We decided that a vertex could lie on its one zone, but also the zone of its direct neighbors. On the 2D schematics above, it means that a vertex can be placed anywhere on the nine squares around it.
     
    A vertex encoding actually encodes three vertice’s positions. We want to have an encoding for all the important positions, the middle of each of the three voxels and their borders. This means that we need a multiple of six. We’ll use 252 as it is very close to 256. Now let’s see this coordinate system in a picture. The picture below represents four simple cubes in voxels (yellow, red, blue and cyan).
     
    We will be talking about the vertex shared by the red and blue cubes. There are actually two of those vertices in 2D, one top and one bottom; let’s talk about the top one. We state that the position it is in in the picture will be 0 (it’s a convention, the one chosen in the Vertex Precision Tool), and above the cubes we showed all the position values this vertex could have
     
     
    So 0 is the position of a vertex in a simple voxel cube. If we move the vertex into position 42 (both the top and bottom vertex of this red-blue junction), then the red rectangle will now be 1.5 times bigger, and the blue rectangle will be half its current size. If we move the vertices to -42, it would be the other way around. Note that all the values between -42 and 42 are the values where the vertex is supposed to be without overflow. This is the zone we described earlier.
     
    If we were to move the vertices to value 84, then we would enter the territory of the vertex shared by the blue and cyan cubes. This becomes a little dangerous and could result in strange results. In this example, it would lead to the blue surface to completely disappear and be replaced by the red one. The blue voxel would still exist, it would just have a null volume.
     
    And, in the example of these four cubes, if we were to go to a value above 84, it would result in an ill-formed shape because the blue shape would have a negative volume. This would probably create visual artifacts, and we may prevent this situation in the future.
     
    ENCODING CHANGE
     
    One last note for those who are familiar with voxelmancy. In Panacea, we use an encoding of 253 positions (from -126 to 126), which is different than it has been. We used an encoding of 255 positions (it was from -128 to 128 but previous -128 = actual -126). Since there is no exact mapping between the old encoding to the new one, this means that vertices in your constructs may be shifted up to 1mm (vertices at position 0 will not move, but those at extreme values will move the most). This will probably be unnoticeable, but we wanted to err on the side of caution and share this information.
     
    You may wonder, why 253? It is for the reasons explained before, to have those nice -126, -84, -42, 0, 42, 84 and 126 values. The 255 system did not allow for that. We could have chosen 193, so that you could split a voxel in 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64, but that would have meant a huge loss in precision and significantly deformed most constructs. So 253 it is, and you can now split a voxel in 42!
     
    USING THE VPT
     
    There are exactly 253 positions on a single axis including zero that a vertex can be in due to it being divisible over three voxels. Negative 126, 0, and positive 126. As such, the width of one voxel is exactly 84 positions. And each vertex can be moved exactly 1.5 voxel away from the center position.
     
    Thus, the grid on which a vertex is moved is adjustable to a size that covers 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 21 or 42 positions, 42 being the size of half a voxel. This allows the accurate placement to the finest detail or to quickly scale up and move a vertex by a half, a quarter, a sixth, or a twelfth of a voxel.
     
    See the image below to get an idea of the different size grids available to the VPT.
     
     
    Once selected, the vertex cursor can then be moved with:
    The up, down, left arrow and right Arrow keys for the x- and y-axis.
    The Page Up and Page Down for the z-axis.
    The Home key to send the cursor to the current position of the vertex.
    The End key to send your cursor to the last confirmed coordinates.
    (This also happens by default when you change vertices.)
    The Alt+Home key combination to send the cursor to the centered 0,0,0 coordinates.
    Holding Control+Scroll will adjust the grid size between the available sizes.
    Left-click confirms the placement and moves the selected vertex to the cursor.
     
    The VPT will give you the finest precision possible, no more complex voxelmancy of copy-pasting things around to get a specific shape. You may not use this tool all the time, but when you do you’ll find it exceptionally helpful for fine-tuning.
     
    WHEW, THAT’S A LOTTA INFO!
     
    Still with us? We know there’s a lot of information to process, but we felt it was worthwhile to share the details with our voxelating community members that would appreciate seeing how the sausage is made (so to speak).
     
    We can’t wait to see the cool new stuff Noveans build with the Vertex Precision Tool. As always, we encourage everyone to join the conversation on the forum in this thread. If you have questions about the VPT or want to share your thoughts and tips about voxelmancy in general, that’s the place to go.
     
     
  5. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Wanderer in DEVBLOG: PRECISION IN BUILDING - discussion thread   
    Greeting Noveans. Let us know what you think about our latest devblog, Precision in Building!
  6. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to JayleBreak in PANACEA UPDATE ADDED TO ROADMAP - discussion thread   
    I'm pretty sure that was in the context of a game expected to have 10's of thousands of active players. Not the handful of players who think they should be able to build a megalopolis by themselves (with an alt or 2 and maybe a friend) which has to be effectively subsidized by a relatively small player community.
     
    NQ has to make this game profitable, and it seems they have a business plan (finally!) based on a realistic view of the number of players they can expect to have. It consists of revenue increases (raise the subscription price) and cost cutting (reduce server and network resource usage - still in progress).

    The removal of the legacy mining system in favour of the mining unit, and territory taxes are clearly motivated by the need to cut costs. The mining unit change eliminates a whole slew of direct costs. The taxes do not, but do have secondary effects on costs associated with resources that are reserved by players, but unused (especially by inactive players).
  7. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Wanderer in PANACEA UPDATE ADDED TO ROADMAP   
    The Dual Universe roadmap has been expanded with the Panacea update, which is currently in production and brings with it a plethora of new features, tools, and improvements that will be particularly interesting for builders, scavengers, and Lua aficionados.
     
    WHAT’S IN IT
     
    A follow-up to the changes introduced in the Selene and Demeter updates, the Vertex Precision Tool will provide a powerful, intuitive way to fine-tune your builds. Particularly for those who are new to voxelmancy, this tool will be invaluable. Watch this video to get a taste of what it can do.
     
    The introduction of shipwrecks in space will open a variety of lucrative opportunities for players who seek them out. Sell them as-is, salvage them for parts, create missions for other players to bring you the ship or its parts, or simply fetch a handsome price by selling the location information.
     
    Other new features and improvements include: 
    Camera Lua API: get access to information about the in-game camera Talents UI improvements: a more efficient way to view Talents RDMS UI polish: a cleaner interface for the management of RDMS  
    To reduce clutter and keep Alioth beautiful, we are implementing inactive constructs requisitioning, an automated system for the abandonment of constructs owned by unsubscribed players and organizations to aid in keeping overcrowded public market areas clear.
    Organization construct ownership (construct slots): a new way of assigning available construct limits to organizations. Disabling element stacking or overlapping: the final step in preventing the element stacking exploit.  
    WHAT’S IN A NAME
     
    Choosing the name for this update, Panacea, the goddess of remedy, is a reference to our renewed dedication to taking player feedback into greater consideration.
     
    In reflecting on the aftermath of the Demeter release, we recognized that we fell short in this area. We read your feedback but did not make the adjustments we could and should have. We pledge to be better about working hand-in-hand with the community by implementing a plan to increase two-way communication and making some important tweaks and balancing to the game that will address some of the pain points as much as we’re able.
     
    As a first step, beginning January 12th, we will postpone the next territory upkeep pay period for two weeks. This will allow the Design team time to revisit the tax rate, which many community members said was too steep. The purpose and functions of the upkeep system go beyond limiting “landgrabbing” and are more complex than they may appear on the surface. Many factors and interdependencies need to be taken into consideration.
     
    WHAT’S NEXT
     
    A series of devblogs will be published soon to reveal more information about the Panacea update. Additionally, we will be sharing a new roadmap soon. We hope that you’ll like what you see, and we encourage you to share your constructive feedback about our ideas as you read each article. 
    Let’s chat! 
  8. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in TERRITORY UPKEEP KICKING OFF SOON   
    If you haven’t already, we highly recommend that you read the Territory Upkeep devblog before reading this. It’s okay. We’ll wait. 

    ……….

    ….. =^-^= …..

    Back? Cool! Now we want to tell you about what’s going to happen next.

    In the devblog, we wrote that “the first tax payments will be subtracted from the territories two weeks after the Demeter release date. Once the update is live, we will announce the exact date and time the first tax cycle will begin.” 

    This is that announcement: the first tax cycle will begin on December 7th at 09:45 UTC. 

    If you have claimed your territory, designated your headquarters, and primed your wallet with enough quanta to cover the taxes (1 million per week per territory), you’re all set and don’t need to do anything further to prepare. Still, you may want to continue reading in case you’d like to know how to benefit from situations where territories have unpaid taxes.
     
    ABANDONED TERRITORIES

    Territory owners have a two-week “offline territory” grace period to pay. They still own the territory and the constructs on it, but any mining units or industry on the territory will be forced offline, only returning to service if the taxes are paid. 

    When two weeks of unpaid taxes pass, the territory enters an abandoned state and becomes available for another player to claim. Once a territory is abandoned and claimed by a new owner, it’s for keeps. The previous owner can’t swoop in, drop some quanta and take it back.

    REQUISITIONING CONSTRUCTS

    If there are static constructs on the territory, their ownership does not immediately convey with the territory to the new owner. Rather, the new territory owner must requisition ownership from the previous owner via the construct context menu. The previous owner then has two weeks to retrieve the construct content by disassembling and removing them. If the original owner does not retrieve the constructs by the due date, the new owner can take ownership of them by confirming the requisition.

    As much as we know some players would enjoy Fireflying around salvaging construct content from abandoned territories, it’s not possible without claiming the territory first. This can only be done by the new owner of the territory.

    THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

    Here are the important dates to remember: 
    First territory taxes are due for pre-Demeter claimed territories: December 7th at 09:45 UTC Unpaid taxes result in industries and mining units going offline on pre-Demeter claimed territories: December 7th at 09:45 UTC The first requisitions will potentially go through on December 7th at 16:00 UTC.  Pre-Demeter claimed abandoned territories are up for grabs: December 21st at 09:45 UTC Potentially, you can lose ownership of the static constructs that were deployed on YOUR territory that you owned pre-Demeter starting from January 4th Post-Demeter claimed abandoned territories are up for grabs: December 10th at 16:00 UTC  
    Dates for when new owners may requisition for ownership of abandoned constructs and when ownership will transfer will vary depending on when the requisition is submitted. But since the requisition takes two weeks, you cannot lose the ownership of your static constructs before December 7th, 16:00 UTC . And if the construct is still on territory claimed before Demeter, it cannot be lost before January 4th at 09:45 UTC.
     
    READY, SET, GO!
     
    If you’ve had your eye on an abandoned parcel of profitability potential, it could soon be yours. Save the date and ready your fastest ship to make sure you get there first to claim the prize. 
    If you have questions, we’ll do our best to answer them. Hit us up in this thread.
     
  9. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in DEVBLOG: TERRITORY UPKEEP   
    The Dual Universe Demeter update is fast-approaching. In addition to the geometry reset and the introduction of mining units, Territory Upkeep will also be part of the package. 
     
    Territory upkeep presents two benefits from a design standpoint: it should help prevent infinite land grabbing by introducing a constant financial constraint to massive land owners as well as provide a resource sink to help keep the economy in check. 
     
    We looked at different options to bring some form of balance in the control of territories. For example, the current setup for organizations, that allows infinite nested organizations, ruled out a progressive tax system, as nested organizations with one territory each can be created to only benefit from the lowest tax level. 

    OFFLINE, ONLINE AND TAXES
    For now, the cost of claiming a territory will be at a fixed price of 500,000 quanta. After the Demeter deployment, the territory will be free from taxes for three days, which is the equivalent of having a tax break for the first week. 
     

     
    Accessing the Territory interface through the Wallet menu will show you a list of your territories and their stored funds. Here is where you will add quanta to the balance for any of your territories. Taxes will automatically be withdrawn from this balance at a rate of 1,000,000 quanta per week. Each territory can hold up to 13 weeks of quanta.
     
    Territories with unpaid taxes will go offline. Once funds have been added, you will be able to activate the territory once again and it will come back online, allowing mining and industry processes to be restarted. If the territory was online before the tax was successfully withdrawn, industry and mining will simply continue to run.
     
    In the event that the territory successfully pays its tax, and the balance is reduced below the point that the next taxation cycle will have insufficient funds, a notification will be sent to the owner or the legates of the organization that owns the territory.
     
    If the territory does not have enough quanta to cover the week, the territory will go offline and cease all mining and industry operations and a reminder notification will be sent to the territory owner or legates of the organization that owns the territory. During this period, the affected territory will not contribute to the adjacency bonus of the mining units.
     
    If a territory remains offline for two consecutive tax cycles (two weeks in total), the ownership to the territory is lost and it becomes abandoned, unless that territory is flagged as a headquarters from the territory interface.

    HEADQUARTERS
    Each player will be able to assign five territories as their headquarters. These territories do not lose ownership when offline and remain in the players' ownership even if taxes are unpaid for longer than the two week grace period. This feature is only available to player-owned, not organization-owned, territories. We will monitor how this develops; in the future, these territories may be subject to the loss of their headquarters state if the account in question is unsubscribed; however this will not be the case in Demeter. 

    TERRITORY EXCHANGE
    To allow for the transfer of territory ownership to another player or organization, a territory can now be tokenized. By simply right-clicking on the territory unit, a token can be generated similar to the way constructs can be tokenized. Once tokenized, the territory will be frozen, preventing the deployment of new static constructs and terraforming operations. Mining and industry units placed on the territory will continue working as intended so long as the upkeep taxes are paid. 
     

     
    The token itself will contain information about the territory and the static constructs deployed on it. Although it can be used to take ownership of that territory, this does not grant ownership of the static constructs on it. The quanta balance of that territory will transfer with the territory to the new owner.
     

     
    If the token expires, it disappears and the territory will be unfrozen and remain in the token creator's ownership.

    REQUISITIONING CONSTRUCTS
    While territories can be lost by remaining offline due to unpaid taxes or they can be traded to other entities, static constructs may still be present on those territories.
     
    The new owner of a territory can requisition any static construct present on his territory. Requisitioning will start a two-week window where the new territory owner must allow access to the static construct for the former owner and where the former owner of the static construct is able to remove that static construct by dismantling and removing it from the territory. If the static construct is still present after two weeks, its ownership will automatically be transferred to the new owner of the territory. Constructs on abandoned territories that haven’t been claimed by a new owner can’t be requisitioned though. 

    STARTING WITH DEMETER…
    We understand that players will need some time to adjust to the new Territory Upkeep system. In order to allow time to prepare, the first tax payments will be subtracted from the territories two weeks after the Demeter release date. Once the update is live, we will announce the exact date and time the first tax cycle will begin. 
     
    CAVEATS AND COMMENTS
    As with most new systems, many things are subject to change, including UI, naming conventions, tax rates, etc. Your feedback has already made a difference as the system was being developed, and we’ll continue to look at our players’ input to see what further adjustments need to be made. Share your thoughts in this forum thread. 
     
  10. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in VOXEL COMPLEXITY AND THE VERTEX PRECISION TOOL   
    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. 
     
  11. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in 0.25 & 0.26 Q&A   
    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.
     
  12. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in Look back at 0.25, look ahead at 0.26   
    The three-part devblog series we published in April, “The Future of Dual Universe”, addressed the cost of doing business and our plans for the ramp-up to launch. We took the first steps in delivering on those changes in May with the incremental 0.25 updates, adding more gameplay content and improving both performance and visuals.
     
    Our 0.25 updates brought players:  
    Voxel compression  Constructs LOD  Hauling Missions The Job Forum The first of a series of Challenges The integration of PopcornFX for visual effects And, of course, many bug fixes and additional improvements  
    If you haven’t had time yet to check out these changes, we released some videos showcasing them. Watch this video for a closer look and missions and challenges and this first look at the new visual effects. 
     
    About the latter, It was fun to watch the real-time reactions from our Twitch streamer community as they saw the changes for the first time. 
     
    Now that 0.25 is wrapped up, development is underway for our next big milestone. Codenamed Apollo, the update centers around the first phase of a major mining revamp. The addition of asteroids will provide rare and precious ore, which in turn will create opportunities for conflict as the hunters become the hunted. To that end, PVP will receive a first wave of balancing changes and the introduction of shields. Keep an eye out for devblogs on these topics! 
     
    In the meanwhile, we’d like to invite you to post your follow-up questions about the changes we introduced in 0.25 in this thread. In turn, we’ll take the best questions for an upcoming Q&A. Your insights and constructive feedback go a long way not only in helping us identify any lingering issues that should be addressed but are also helpful in how we can make things better in future updates. 
     
  13. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in Upcoming Organization Changes   
    We’re making some changes to the way organizations work. 
     
    Currently, organizations can cascade within themselves thus making it possible to create a near-infinite multitude of sub-organizations. This poses a problem from both a design and cost perspective as it removes any form of scaling limit to the amount of constructs and organization that can be in the game. It also leaves the door open for various ways to circumvent limitations needed for balancing. 
     
    These changes will address these issues as well as clear up a number of anomalies that are affecting some existing organizations. They will be included in the 0.26 update, which gives you more than a month to reorganize as needed. 
     
    New regulations for organizations will be:
    Each organization must have a player as its super legate. An account can only be the super legate of one organization. Nested organizations will still be possible but will require a player as super legate of that organization, and that player cannot also be the super legate of the parent organization.
      To ensure a smooth transition and have things set up the way you prefer, we encourage you to restructure your org(s) accordingly. Organizations that have not been updated will undergo an automated modification process. This will be done in a prioritized order as described below. 
     
    For players that are the super legate of multiple organizations:
    One organization will be selected as the player’s primary organization according to the following parameters: The number of players in the organization. The number of constructs in the organization. The age of the organization. The player will become a designated legate for any other orgs to which they belong.
      To address situations where an organization is nested within another so that there is no player designated as super legate, these are the solutions we’ll pursue: 
    The legate with the most seniority that is not already a super legate of an organization and has connected over the past month at the time of the change is promoted to super legate. If no legates exist, the oldest member that is not already a super legate of an organization and has played within the past month at the time of the change is promoted to super legate. The oldest legate that is not already a super legate of an organization is promoted to super legate. The oldest member that is not already a super legate of an organization is promoted to super legate. If none of the above apply, the organization will be disbanded.
      Constructs and territories for any properly structured organizations or organizations that are assigned a new super legate will be unaffected and remain in ownership of that organization. The constructs and territories of disbanded orgs will be reassigned to the first former super legate in the chain of organization parenting. Any other construct will be abandoned, and territories will be unclaimed.

     
  14. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Nomad in Beta 1 Release Notes. Last updated on September 8th   
    Hi Noveans, 
     
    Today, we release the 0.25.8 version of Dual Universe. We named it the "Hermes Update" (which is codenamed after the Deity, messenger of the Greek gods). You'll see why with the changelog below: 
     
    New Features
     
    Mission System: Thanks to community feedback, we know that players have been looking for more ways to make money. The Mission System will provide those opportunities in a number of ways that suit a wide swath of playstyles and experience. Intent: Offer new ways for players, especially new players, to make money. Allow merchants to focus on creating goods rather than spending time traveling to markets to sell their wares. Give those who enjoy traveling a lucrative reason to take to those beautiful, wide-open skies. Create more traffic in space, hence more opportunities for pirates. Help organizations coordinate internal work. The long-term goal is to enrich the Mission System with more mission types, starting with “taxi” missions, SOS, and later adding PvP and various other “formalizable” activities. For now, we’re introducing the Mission System with transport-type hauling missions.
     
    It all starts with the Mission Panel, a dedicated dashboard tab for job and hauling missions. It is equivalent to other dashboard tabs such as the Organization dashboard tab. Within the Mission Panel, you’ll find the "Job Forum" section and the "Hauling" section. Each of these contains a similar page: a home page, a search page, a creation modal, etc. More details about this new feature are available in this devblog: https://www.dualuniverse.game/news/devblog-missionsystem 
     
    Hauling Missions: These are repeatable hauling activities that allow players to earn some quanta. To access these missions, you will need to find the Aphelia Mission Hub on every planet. From there, you’ll be able to access missions from an NPC (Alphelia) or other players via  the Mission System UI.  These missions adhere to a particular list of parameters that includes specific locations, time limits, and collateral.Some will be easy, requiring you to simply carry light and small packages across a planet, while others will be more difficult, asking you to transport heavier and larger packages across the darkness of space.  Challenges: In the VR surrogate station, the “Challenges'' tab now has the Air Delivery Challenge. Players can earn quanta by using the provided vehicles to complete a series of deliveries from ground constructs to a floating airbase.  
    New ART assets and VFXs: Tool modes VFX New FX for the tool. Every specific tool mode now has unique FX on the tool itself and on the object targeted. Uses for tools in-hand will be more intuitive.  In addition to all of the new  FX, we upgraded some textures and recalibrated some global colors in order to closely follow the global AD to make it more immersive and fun. Industry VFX Added new 3D creation FX for our Industry family. These visualizations for printers, assembly lines, and metalwork units will bring some life into the crafting process. We also took the opportunity to upgrade the previous state FX with some subtle adjustments. Element VFX New FX on Bac Deco plants, with a new light system and subtle fogger activated in order to maintain their green value. New FX on the famous bonsai with some magnetic greenfield to make it levitate. New subtle engine/beam FX on the little Arkship model. New FX for all in-game hologram projections with some top notch, high-quality improvements such as signal interferences and air dust, boosted by a bigger and more accurate light projector. New FX for the resurrection node. New FX when the hatch is opened. New FX when the industrial door is opened. New FX when the interior door is opened. New FX for the elevator. New FX for the VR station with the text rotating around the pod when connected. New engine variation texture skins (military/safe/freight/maneuver). Fixed a bug where the landing gears icons were the wrong size.  Fixed a bug where the material on plantdeco 01 was incorrect. Fixed a bug where the airbrakes textures weren't displaying correctly. Fixed a bug on the bonsai where the LODs weren’t displaying correctly. Fixed a bug on canopies, especially glasses, where the opacity was too low and VFX couldn’t pass through. Fixed a bug on canopies & metal canopies triangles where the contact surfaces weren’t placed correctly. Fixed and updated the elevator glass & emissive settings to better opacity and VFX visibility. Fixed a bug that was affecting the collision for space radar/gunner seat/transponder unit/canon laser L&S /cannon railgun L&S.
      Improvements
     
    Reduced bandwidth usage in PvP. This should improve performance while pewpewing. Improved digging in multiplayer scenario. Added a new setting to activate more voxel logs to help us debug invalid version issues. It can be found in the game settings, in the ‘general’ tab and its ‘support’ section This setting should only be enabled in the event of voxel issues such as ‘Invalid Cell Versions’ and ‘Unknown Server Errors’ while working with voxels following a request to enable and reproduce from our Customer Support Team.
      Gameplay Balancing/Changes
     
    [IMPORTANT] Organization votes will now pass if 2/3 of expressed votes are yes. This will allow deadlocked orgs to be unstuck due to absent legates. Updated the roadmap on the login screen.
      Bug Fixes
     
    Fixed light unit shadow artifacts. Fixed a performance regression in HUD rendering. [Industry] Fixed the metalwork industry unit lights staying white.
      Known Issues
     
    [VFX] VFX can reappear on destroyed elements after a reconnection or after moving out of render distance. [VFX] Assembly line VFX may not be synchronized with model animations. [VFX] Assembly line VFX can sometimes remain active when the assembly line runs out of material. [VFX] The projected light of small holograms can become larger after repairing the destroyed hologram element. Since the 0.24.4 release, you may notice that there are materials (textures) that have a different look or they might appear less shiny (or shinier). This is due to changes that were made to standardize the materials to bring more consistency for those material types. Metals should look and behave like metals. We’ve also dialed down the glossiness so that it’s not as aggressive. Due to these adjustments, some players may find that textures they’ve used may appear ‘broken’ (though technically they aren’t) or that they are no longer aesthetically pleasing. You may want to spend some time reworking areas of your constructs where this is an issue. Some improvements have already been made and we’re still working on fixing this. Numerous French and German localization issues have already been spotted. A random rendering crash may occur under some conditions due to low GPU/driver resources. Setting shadows to ‘Low’ and disabling Volumetric Clouds in Graphic settings may help. Voxel crashes may occur due to low disk/memory. [Industries] The collision model of the recycling industry is incorrect [Industries] Talents that impact ingredients of schematic products are not displayed client-side, but the schematic updates with the server schematic when starting. [Industries] Some inconsistencies in schematics and tiered elements. [Screens] Transparent screens display as solid white when loading in close proximity. [Screens] High-frequency text updates on screens cause text to not display or flash. [Elements] In certain situations, elements unload at high speeds. [Crash] Triggering a detection zone after maneuvering the construct it is attached to leads to a crash. Various lighting, shadow, and reflection issues might be seen due to ongoing rendering rework. A large amount of industries may cause the sound subsystem to run into a sound emitter limit, causing major performance issues. Logging off or Exiting to Desktop uncommonly triggers the crash reporter.
      We know you've been numerous to anticipate that update and we're eager to have your feedback about it.
     
    Cheers, 
    Nomad
  15. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to NQ-Deckard in DEVBLOG: DOCKING AND BOARDING REVAMP   
    Space can be lonely, and, if some adages are to be believed, no one can hear you scream out there. You may want to bring along some friends, maybe not so much for the screaming but for sharing fuel and good times. That’s where docking and boarding comes in. 
     
    Previously referred to with the blanket term “parenting”, breaking them off as boarding and docking clarifies what they are and what they do. Just as the name implies, boarding allows passengers to come aboard your ship. Docking makes it possible to have ships connected to other ships, even when both are moving. This boarding/docking relationship basically has the same functionality and behaviour as before but with the added benefit of rights management.
     
    In its original design, boarding or docking a construct was not consensual. Neither the player who owned the construct being boarded/docked nor the player whose construct was being attached to another could decline. They may not have even been aware it had happened in some cases, it simply occurred due to their proximity. 
     
    This was a problem for a few reasons, most notably that it opened the door for bugs and exploits. In addition to negating those, revisiting the feature also gives us the opportunity to make it more intuitive and purposeful. 
     
    ASSIGNING RIGHTS
    Owners can use the Rights & Duties Management System (RDMS) to assign Right to Board or Right to Dock to their constructs that will let others board or dock, or to forbid such requests. 
     
    Dynamic constructs have the ability to move, as opposed to static constructs - like buildings - that are immobile. With the necessary rights, avatars will be able to board dynamic constructs, and smaller dynamic constructs (let’s call them shuttles) will be able to dock with bigger ones (aka carriers). When boarded or docked, the player or the shuttle moves with the carrier, and their mass is added to the carrier’s physics. 
     
    A player or a shuttle will need to be near the carrier in order to board or dock, it can’t be done from a distance. The distance is commiserate with the size of the target vessel, the minimum distance being 32m and 128m being the maximum. 
     
    BOARDING
    Players are able to board any inactive dynamic construct. This makes it possible for them to tour constructs on display in a marketplace or the like. The construct will go into the “active” state when the owner or someone else with piloting rights jumps into the driver’s seat, and unauthorized passengers will be automatically ejected.
     
    If a player enters a dynamic construct with the proper rights or when the construct is inactive, they will become boarded and can move freely around the construct. 
     
    The UI display may look something like this: 

    This is a sample of the UI that is still in progress 
     
    If the construct is active and the player attempting to board does not have the necessary right to board, they will be repulsed. The effect is similar to hitting an impassable barrier with no damage taken. The UI display may look something like this:

     
    DOCKING
    Once shuttle pilots with the necessary rights are within range, they can manually dock to a carrier. This is done through a contextual menu that is accessed via right-click. The shuttle will then be invisibly tethered to the exterior of the carrier. 

     
    Without that clearance, the shuttle will be repulsed.

     
    Authorized shuttle pilots will receive an opt-in confirmation to signal when they are within docking range. 

     
    The “Docking” widget in the piloting UI informs the pilot of the shuttle when they are in docking range through this small open chain link icon.
     

    This is a sample of the UI report to show a shuttle’s docking status.
     
    PARENTING ADVICE
    The owner of the carrier is considered the parent, and those who are granted boarding or docking rights are children.   
    Just as real-world moms and dads, construct owners can give their “kids” the old heave-ho when it’s time for them to leave the nest and fly solo. This is done in a Build Helper’s submenu where all boarded players and docked shuttles are listed.
     

     
    Buh-bye! Boarded avatars can be ejected at any time directly through the carrier’s Build Helper interface. 
     
    This results in ejected players suddenly finding themselves adrift, possibly in deep space. Here, they have two options. Jetpack to a safe place. Depending on the distance, this could take quite a while; however, it’s safe (they can’t be attacked) and they will arrive with the inventory in their nanopack. The second option, suicide, will get them on terra firma faster, but they will lose whatever they were carrying. Probably a good idea to stay on the good side of the carrier captain to avoid being in this predicament. 
     

     
    With a few simple clicks, the carrier pilot can easily de-dock shuttles, too. 
     

     
    TAKE IT FOR A SPIN
    These changes will be featured in an upcoming release on the public test server (PTS). We highly encourage our community to explore it when it’s available, then let us know what you think about the ease of use and convenience. Until then, feel free to join the discussion on our forums.
     
  16. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to DarkHorizon in [Announcement] Support transitions fully to ticket system.   
    Since the ticket queue is bound to be overwhelmed, this is just a friendly little announcement that Eyes & Ears Search and Rescue is ready and able to accommodate players requests for situations that do not fall outside another players ability to assist. Aside from the typical rescue, repair, refuel, and transport situations, this non-exhaustive list of situations include:
     
    Crashing and respawning
    Surrogate sessions swapping places with your avatar
    Someone leaving your space station unaware your ship is docked to theirs
    Constructs getting stuck up in the air
     
    This does not include:
    Respawning inside your friends construct with no way out
    Glitching under someone's base
    Adjuster locks (get out and back into the pilots seat)
    Disobeying the rules and NQ teleporting you to some moon 1,000 SU away with no ore/resources/constructs.
     
    For any requests, we ask that you join our Discord server and submit a ticket and our dispatchers will help you find a rescuer to get you back up on your feet.
     
    While NovaQuark is pulling back in support, Eyes & Ears is stepping forward as a player run solution to fill that void.
  17. Like
    TannhainRP got a reaction from ShinyMagnemite in Show your banner, emblem or the like   
    hello community,
     
    I thought to have such a small gallery to present and rate his planned banners for Dual Universe would be very practical also because of the feedback.
    So let's see what you got! ?
     
    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
     
    My emblem for the game in the future :
     
    I like it a little simpler  what do you think?
     
     
  18. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to Morand in Tutorial: Voxelmancy Essentials   
    Tutorial: Voxelmancy Essentials
     
    This tutorial was made for Landmark. I didn't make the tutorial or play the game but, since it's based on the same technology, we can assume that it will work pretty much the same.
    It starts with the very basics and ends with some more advanced concepts.
     
    Whether or not you have already tried Dual Universe, this tutorial should be able to help you to understand this awesome (but very difficult to master) technology which is the Voxel.
     
    As a voxel beginner, I think I am not the only one who yelled at these crazy little voxels, "WTF happened?! I didn't ask you to do that!"
     
     
     
    The Inner Space of Voxelmancy
    Voxel Characteristics
    First of all…and this might hurt your brain a bit…a voxel is NOT a shape. It’s not the 1x1x1 cube shape you add with the smallest ADD brush.
     
    Actually, a voxel is a point. The different points (voxels) are connected to each other by lines (vectors). Those vectors form the outlines of the “cubes” that you see in the world when you use the ADD brush. (In other words, it takes many voxels to add enough vectors to make a shape.)
     
    When you use the building tools to change the shape of the cubes you see in the world, what you’re actually doing is dragging one (or more) of those voxel points into a new location…and then all those connecting lines move too, thus changing the outline of the shapes you see.
     
    There are only TWO voxel characteristics that matter to builders.
    The position of the voxel The material applied to that voxel’s cube space Also, for the purposes of this document, there are only four terms that matter:
    Voxel : The point in space that is the end point of one or more vectors. Vector : Any line connecting two voxels together. Shape : Any collection of vectors that outline an area thus creating a contained shape. (The default shapes are cubes, but voxels are easily moved around to create almost any shape. See below.) Cube space: In game terms, the natural "cube space" around a voxel is the same volume of space used by the ADD brush when you place a 1x1x1 cube into the world. Voxels *usually* live within their cube space, but can also comfortably live outside of it. However, the voxel is *always* associated with that cube space.    
     
    What data is in a voxel?

    Imagine a grid of dots. (Each dot is a voxel.)



    Now imagine that each of those dots is connected to its neighboring dots by lines (vectors).



    Now, stack that up so that it’s in three-space. Voila. You have a decent representation of the voxel points in their natural “healed” cube-like state.


    NOTE: The positions of the voxels, in the rigid formation shown above, is the natural “healed” state of the voxels. The resulting shapes created by the vectors connecting them are what we normally see as “cubes” (and which, erroneously, we all have been calling voxels even though those shapes are actually composed of voxels instead.)
    When you move one of the voxels, the vectors connected to it also move. Thus, you change the shape of any cube seen as soon as you move a voxel.



    So just remember…everything is connected. You can’t move one thing without moving another. All the different welding, recopying, and smoothing tricks you may hear about are just different techniques to get these dots to end up in positions that make cool shapes.

    Last but not least: Cube space. The world is gridded out into cube space. (NOTE: Cube space is the same size as the smallest ADD brush when in cube mode.) By default, voxels live along the edges/corners of these cube spaces and the resulting vectors connecting them look like cubes.

    Normally, voxels need to stay within their cube space. However, there are building techniques that let a voxel wander out of its normal cube space. This is how shapes that are bigger than a cube are created. Voxels can also be smashed down into the center of that cube space, which allows the creation of smaller shapes as well. Roaming vectors let voxels wander WAY outside their normal cube space, but that gets pretty hairy to explain so we’ll discuss it some other time.
     
     
    What Material is on the Voxel?

    Material, in this case, is the material you chose from the Element Tray. (Example: Red Lumicite is a material. So is Hammered Gold or Raw Iron.) When a material is specified for a voxel, that changes its appearance in the world.

    That’s it. There’s only two special cases that might not be immediately obvious:
    Air. Yes, air is a material. Air voxels act *exactly* like regular voxels. They are just painted with a 100% transparent material, which is air. Default terrain. Everything in the world that has notbeen changed by a player is designated as “default terrain”. It has less data than a user-changed voxel so that we can optimize the heck out of stuff that players haven’t changed. The important characteristic about this default terrain is that it cannot be copied. (Its data structure is simpler and doesn’t have all the dots/vertices described earlier.) The other important thing to remember is that HEALing a voxel returns it to this “default terrain” material. And that’s why you can do nifty stuff with healed earth. These latter two special cases (Air and Default Terrain) cannot be directly selected with the selection tool. So the only way you can “grab” them is by also grabbing another nearby shape that’s painted with any of the other materials in the game.

    Side Note: What is a Roaming Vector?

    When we added Roaming Vectors to the game (6/26/2014), we increased the precision of lines and shapes quite a lot. This was done by “borrowing” nearby voxels and letting them “roam” outside of their normally allowed cube space. This means that nearby shapes sacrifice some of their own definition so that another shape can get one or more extra voxels added to it, thus providing more possible vectors, which enables that shape to have more detail.
     
     
    Pasting Dominance

    There is one thing to keep in mind as we go through the rest of this doc. Any item that you are pasting into the game is dominant. All the voxels within that copied area will keep their relative positions. This means that any shapes nearby are likely to change shape slightly as their voxels reconnect to these new voxels, and the vectors connecting them are changed.

    This “dominance factor” can be very useful when fixing any warpage that occurs, because any current data is overwritten by a paste. That lets you “re-weld” voxels and vectors by pasting in small bits that are the desired shape.
     
     
    Voxelmancy Techniques

    Okay. Now let’s talk about the various building techniques the community is using.

    Micro-shapes & Anti-shapes

    NOTE: Players have been calling them microvoxels and antivoxels, but that makes this discussion harder to follow when talking about voxels in conjunction with these shapes, so we’ll refer to the microvoxels as micro-shapes, and antivoxels as anti-shapes. (Sorry for the switch.)

    Both of these kinds of shapes are really just normal shapes that appear to be different. (It’s still useful to give them names for easy reference, but the point is…they’re still just normal shapes composed of voxels and vectors.)

    When you smooth a regular shape down into a micro-shape, you’re essentially just taking all the voxels the cube was composed of and squashing them down toward each other so that the resulting shape is a very small cube.

    Side note: Just to expand your mind, you’re also enlarging the air cubes around your brand new micro-shapes because you’re dragging those connected voxels away from the center of those shapes. Right? Everything is connected.

    Still, it’s cool, right? That voxel *looks* smaller and that make it useful for lots of building stuff.

    So what’s an Anti-shape? It’s exactly the same thing as a “micro-shape”. But its material is “air”. So it’s (currently) tricky to make, but it behaves in all other respects exactly as a smoothed-down (micro)shape. You just can’t see it or select it directly, because it’s made of air.

    Why do micro-shapes warp other nearby shapes?

    Remember how the voxels in a micro-shape are squished toward the center? Well, when you copy that micro-shape, you are really selecting the positions for the voxels that constitute that micro-shape.

    When you copy that shape into place near another existing shape, the vectors of the existing shapes are forced to attach to the voxels in your micro-shape. The game knows that what you *want* is for the thing you copied to paste as true as it can, so it connects the vectors from other nearby shapes toward the voxels you smashed into the center of your shape and this can cause warpage on the neighboring shapes. Make sense? Again, everything is connected.

    “Strings”

    So now let’s paste several of those new micro-shapes in a row, one cube space apart from each other. What happens? They stretch into strings! So cool!

    But no, that’s only what it looks like. What’s actually happening is that you pasted one micro-shape down (composed of a bunch of voxels and vectors) and then you copied another identical micro-shape in the cube space next to it. When you did that, the vectors from the previously pasted MV stretch out to connect to the voxels in the new one you pasted, and the resulting shape looks like a line. (Remember, the last shape pasted is dominant and everything else warps to it.)

    There is a convoluted process that force the end points of the string to align to the normal voxel borders. This technique creates “Antivoxel strings” and is Example 4 in the section below.
     
     
    Warping vs Non-Warping Shapes
     
    There’s a bunch of techniques designed to create objects that don’t warp neighboring shapes, but ultimately, there is only ONE way to avoid warping.
     
    That way is to ensure that the voxels in the shape you are pasting are aligned in such a way that they don’t cause the vectors of a neighboring voxel to move.
     
    That’s it. Just don’t make the vectors move and your shapes won’t warp.
     
    To make that seem simpler, here’s a few images. These images don’t show all the voxels. They show the shape instead and the normal “cube space” that the voxels for that shape live within.
     
    Ex 1: Micro/Anti voxel
    Regular “microvoxel” or “antivoxel”: This shape lives in the very center of its normal cube space. It will warp EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES because any neighboring voxel will extend its vectors out to reach the voxels in your micro-shape.
     
     
     
    Ex 2: Microvoxel strings
    Any “string” that is created by pasting two of these centered MVs together will still cause warpage everywhere it touches because the end points of that string are in the center of the cube spaces they represent.
     

     
    Ex 3: Any shape with a “normal border” flat edge
    This shape would not cause warpage *if* it is pasted onto something along its bottom side. (Example: If you pasted it onto a flat floor.)
    It would cause warpage if it was situated next to any shape above, or to the left/right of the shape, because those neighboring vectors would be forced to extend outward to connect.
     

     
    Ex 4: Antivoxel strings
    This is the shape that many people call an “AV string”. This is a useful shape because it still looks like a thin bar, but its ends are exactly at the “normal” cube space border and is in the center of the shape. Because it’s situated properly, any normal cube connected to either end of this string will not cause warpage of the block it’s touching.
     

     
    So What’s a MegaShape?

    Honestly, it’s just the exact opposite of a microvoxel or antivoxel. Players have been calling this a Megavoxel. (And again, for the purposes of this document, we’re going to start calling this a “Megashape” instead to avoid conflict with “voxel” conversations.)

    Instead of crushing the voxels in your shape down toward the center, you’re stretching them outside the normal cube space borders of your voxel instead. (In other words, you’re making all the neighboring air voxels smaller so that your current voxel can seem bigger.)

    That’s it.

    But the shapes are still useful because they create the appearance of behavior that you normally can’t achieve.

    So how on earth do you go about stretching the voxels of a shape outward? Answer: You don’t really. Instead, what you do is you crush in the voxels of a neighboring shape, thus dragging the voxels outward in the shape you want to enlarge. That’s why people create a megashape by pasting micro-shapes nearby. They are forcing the voxels to drag outward toward those micro-shapes.
     
     
    Warpage in General
     
    Isn’t it annoying that you can create a really cool shape, it looks totally awesome, but then it deforms the heck out of stuff when you paste it near anything?
     
    Well, the truth is…you’re just *seeing* the warpage for the first time when you paste it in next to the new shape. That same warpage was occurring originally also. You just couldn’t see it because when you made the shape, it was surrounded by air. Those nearby air shapes *did* warp, but you couldn't see them.
     
    Voxels always connect to other voxels via vectors. When one voxel gets dragged outward or inward, it tends to drag neighboring voxels along with it slightly to smooth out the “curve” of a voxel face as much as possible. And that’s just about it. But it’s happening on EVERY voxel all the time every time you smooth shapes or paste shapes or even when you remove shapes.
     
     
    Inlay Technique

    The last major building technique to cover here is the “Inlay Technique”. This is probably the coolest trick that any builder can learn, as it allows you to do a ton of curvalicious detail that's not possible to do otherwise.

    We won’t take the time to describe applications of this (there are many player tutorials), but here are some details of how the process works:

    Step 1: Select any-sized area of non-air shapes as long as that area is only one cube space thick.
    Step 2: Take any other area of any design and paste it once above your object from Step 1, and then once again below it.

    This forces the “sandwiched” object to realign its vectors and voxel positions to match the object that was pasted above and below.

    Why? Because the game is trying to preserve the data of the object that you are pasting. It’s NOT trying to preserve the shape you created in Step 1. Thus, the sandwiched object in Step 1 gets all its voxels realigned to match the object above and below and when you copy that slice out of the sandwich, you’ll see that it has been transformed accordingly.

    Make sense?
     
    Sources : Smokejumper, forums.daybreakgames.com
     
     
     
  19. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to DarkHorizon in Company registration Novark: your place for the presentation of your company, small business or economic institution!   
    I'll reserve myself a post here for an idea I'll be putting forward in the very near future.
  20. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to MookMcMook in Feedback - registration Novark   
    Good idea here, just a bit early for me to be touting for business atm, so I'll hang back.
  21. Like
    TannhainRP got a reaction from Zamarus in Feedback - registration Novark   
    Thanks for letting me know. Organizations are probably synonymous with guilds and alliances. This thread is intended to introduce individual companies, i. e. companies run by individual players or smaller groups of players. No matter which organization or faction they belong to. Seen that way, a land register.
    @Moderators: please delete this post and those of Mr. Kurock, if he doesn't want to use it for Ontopic.
     
  22. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to huschhusch in Company registration Novark: your place for the presentation of your company, small business or economic institution!   
    categories : administrations
     
    Sammelbecken
     

     
    introduction :
    Gemeinschaft deutschsprechender DU-Spieler.
    Hier kann man sich bekannt machen oder für seine Organisation Mitglieder suchen. Während man wartet gibt es die Möglichkeit ein verjüngendes Bad zu nehmen.
    Link: Sammelbecken
  23. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to Croomar in German speaking Members around? :-)   
    Der allgemeine Begriff für alle Arten von Gruppierungen wie Nationen oder Betrieben in Dual Universe ist Organisation bzw. Org als Abkürzung.
    Betriebe und Firmen werden in der Regel als "Company" zusammengefasst. 
     
    Erst letzte Nacht hab ich mir überlegt, wie lukrativ so ein Job werden könnte in dem man z.B. verlassene Basen plündert und abbaut oder eben wie du meintest Schrottsammler spielt. Alte Schiffswracks oder Stadtruinen könnten unheimliche Mengen an Rohstoffen bieten, das mit ein paar Leuten zusammen abzubauen und auf dem Markt zu verkaufen könnte sogar profitabler sein als die Ressourcen direkt auszugraben.
     
    Aber ein Truckstop ist auch eine verdammt coole Idee, in Dual Universe hat sowas sogar einen Sinn. Gerade mit Bar und Tankstelle kann man hier Bedürfnisse bedienen, die auf größeren Reisen von vielen Spielern vernachlässigt werden würden, immerhin braucht man in DU Essen und Treibstoff. Das ist auch eine Idee, die ich bisher noch nirgends gesehen habe und wie ich finde besonders kreativ ist. Ich würde mich freuen sowas sehen zu können, auch wenn es sicherlich schwierig wird derartige Dinge in dem riesigen Universum des Spieles zu finden.
  24. Like
    TannhainRP got a reaction from Croomar in German speaking Members around? :-)   
    Ich denke, das das anfangs auch einfach gemeinschaftlicher und übersichtlicher ist.. wenn deutschprachige Spieler (die in einer deutschprachigen Gemeinschaft unterkommen möchten), einer einzelnen Corp. (bzw. wie nennt man Gilden hier überhaupt? ) joinen.
     
    Wenn diese Sammelgruppe dann später zu einer großen Gemeinschaft heranwächst, die viele verschiedene Interessengebiete (Militär, Ressourcenförderung etc.) vertritt, bietet das gleich wieder eine Fülle an Features, sowie für Neulinge einen einfacheren Start ins Spiel. Denke das hier Zusammenhalt großgeschrieben werden sollte.
     
    @Phil: Eine eigene Gilde wollte ich jetzt nicht unbedingt gründen, da ich eher der Casual-Gamer bin, aber ich möchte nach und nach einen fiktiven Betrieb gründen. Je nachdem wie es sich im Spiel umsetzen lässt, will ich die Ökologie betreffend, umliegende Galaxien säubern (Schrottsammler etc.)und den gesammelten Schrott wiederverwerten.
     
    Aber mein eig. Ziel ist es ein Anhaltspunkt für Trucker und Reisende zu schaffen, mit 'nem Club, ner Bar und 'ner Tankstelle (Natürlich trifft man dort alle Schichten der Spieler an; Grundvoraussetzung : Wer zahlt, darf sich im Rusty's wohlfühlen.) Bis dahin, muss ich dann nur mein Englisch verbessern!
     
    Back to Universe *wushh*
    SpacemonkeyCongh!
  25. Like
    TannhainRP reacted to Croomar in German speaking Members around? :-)   
    Ok, verzeih meine Aussage, das musste noch präzisiert werden. Erst einige Stunden vor meinem Post habe ich noch ein Forenmitglied angeschrieben und gemeint, es gebe keine große bzw. aktive rein deutsche Organisation.
     
    Trotzdem, viel Glück euren Plänen, vielleicht schafft ihr es ja sogar die Lücke zu schließen.
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