DaSchiz

Thanks for blowing my cover .... geeeesh ... last two months of subterfuge and work all for nothing.  Now I'll have to create Yin Yang Confederation ......
 
OH SHI- did it again.

Lots of points already made but the simple test I use to determine P2W or not is: All factors in Pay to Win must occur. Paying is the constant but what exactly are you winning and how? What insurmountable advantage are you gaining by throwing rl cash into the game? Are you able to buy in game items (gear, weapons) that can't be gotten any other way? Those IMO are the most important questions when talking P2W if you want to be real about it and not just run around like chicken little the second you see any kind of RMTs.
 
In this game and many like it items must be produced by players. There is no NPC vendor you pump a bunch of credits into and get gear and weapons from. Resources still have to be gathered by players and items need to be assembled by players. There also isn't anything that can't be acquired by simply playing the game. At worst its pay to progress faster but again nothing you gain from buying a bunch of DACs and selling them in game will give an insurmountable advantage.
 
If gear was the end all be all then might have a point but its clearly not as skills, stats, attributes and such also play a role in character power. This is a sandbox game, not some arena instance grinder heck combat in this game isn't even the end all be all experience.
 
Besides if one is so strict and non-tolerant of paying for stuff in these games not sure what games you can play anymore nowadays. There a clear examples that are P2W, there a clear line that they shouldn't cross and honestly I haven't seen anything yet form this Dev and this game that comes anywhere close to that line.

We're still sitting at 441,396 euros and over 6270 backers that believe DAC will work.

I am bumping this because I am watching the Kickstarter Ask Me Anything youtube vid where JC is answering questions ( I know, "You are just watching it now???"    I have been a slave at work for the past month). 
 
At about the 13 minute mark the question about scripts being readable comes up.  What I mentioned in my first post in this thread looks to be true.  If you sell something that has a script then said script will be readable by the purchaser. 
 
I do not like this at all. Please tell me I am missing something and I am wrong.
 

WWWW...wait... Isn't the yin yang a little bit about double personality, so also two facets of one person, so double life?
Actually with that icon I thought your org was an org of spies.
 
note: I don't believe that image is you xD

There is no need to hide in the shadows.  Be confident in yourself.  Beauty comes from the inside, not what's on the outside. Show yourself and be proud. Don't be ashamed of what you are; everyone is special and has tons to offer the world. Don't lead a double life because that is no life at all.
 
I hope this post inspires you to feel free, to put away the cloak and be all you can be in the light of the world for all to see.
 
That is all.
 
Thank you,
Tony Robbins
 

My main on eve is DaStarra DaSchiz  if you still have some you "need" to get rid of .... I'm always willing to help out others 

OK, thanks. I think I'll change my pledge.  That's an extra €2 to NQ.
 
 

ZOMG I love your avy.   Brings back memories.

Well I have played many but the ones I played for any substantial amount of time was Everquest, SWTOR, and Eve Online.  Eve by far was the longest I played any MMO ... including 2 years straight not playing any other game ... now log on play for a bit and then take a break ... like I am right now with Eve. 
 
I have never played WoW. I'm not a Battlefield, Arma, or CoD guy but the first online game that I spent hundreds of hours on was Counter Strike back in the day.  More recently Ghost in a Shell got my attention for a while. Played many many FTP games to mention.
 
DU looks like it will be the game that trumps all in terms of longevity and consistently playing for me.

First ingame screenshot of Alioth.
Enjoy.
 

YouTube link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxYVJ52_wlI
 
  Hello everyone! You probably know that Alpha won't start earlier than in first half of 2017 and the fact you ended here means you are interested how to prototype your creations before we actually can do so in Alpha.   So, I did some research and forget Blender and other hardcore 3D editing tools. Let's grab MagicaVoxel and start prototyping fast. The result won't be as accurate as you want them to be in-game, but why wasting time with perfection now, right? You can use this tool to quickly plan ahead and use these creations as schemes for later.   MagicaVoxel: https://voxel.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=MagicaVoxel%20Editor&referringTitle=Home  
MagicaVoxel Renderer: https://voxel.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=MagicaVoxel%20Renderer&referringTitle=Home   ---------------   Interested in more guides and helpful community dedicated to Dual Universe? Join Alpha Academy and our Discord! More details on the DU website: https://community.dualthegame.com/organization/alpha-academy

Very nice, thanks for posting

While the feeling and the theoretical side of this is appealing, I think in reality it wouldn't work well.  People in Alpha should be focused on smooth gameplay finding bugs, not what cool thing should I build so it is an ancient relic in game release. 

75 backers showed up to their open house LAST NIGHT and played the pre-alpha on a multi-player test server.
 
How much more open can you get?

Little plastic statues of hula girls that you place by the front screen of your spaceship and move while you are moving through space.
The corresponding bobbing head dog statue that goes by the rear screen of your spaceship.

Tribbles!
 
We need tribbles!

Hey there, community, here's what I got from asking questions at the meeting and playing the pre-alpha build. I will make no paragraph but only points as it is LONG, there's a lot, and even more questions than I had before then.
 
 
 
Creation / Exploration  
 
NPCs : there will be some at the beginning of the game (where everyone spawn) showing you how to use your powers (creation suit), how the economy works, and everything that will be added like for example the 3D map  
Ship creation: we have created our ship (little, single place ship) ourselves. What's needed: - a cubic unit you can make spawn that is the centre of the ship's creation (has to be one of the most expensive item) that allows one construction to be movable. (I don't remember the name of the unit)
- a cockpit
- structure (metal) you can make spawn by voxel (you know, the video)
- reactor(s) :
hover to use the vehicle on earth and hover close to the ground real reactors placed besides a plane object (for those we used), so that the reactors were on each of the ship's sides - a gyroscope unit (1/20th maybe the size of the cube needed imagine a cube like in minecraft but half the size) that points the way the cockpit is
- one rule : all of the component linked with direct or indirect contact with the make-structure-movable unit (cube)
- one other rule (not in the pre alpha) : physically it has to be possible regarding the size and so mass of the thing and also balance and aerodynamic proof of the ship
- Blueprints : you will have the possibility to get blueprints out of the ship you created with the prefabs, to manufacture it. You will have the ability to create (for advanced users it seems) more difficult objects and get a blueprint out of it (like a specific cockpit), though I'm not sure that last thing will ever be possible, it will bring the game to a realm of creation not even expected.
 
Buildings : same as ships without the mythic cube. Though you cannot make a ship out of earth, maybe you can do this with buildings or at least with hobbit-like holes... Massive ships or structures into space: - instead of a cockpit you have a control centre were you can command the ship if it is one, know where enemies or outside units are (radar-like)
- they talked about a drone you could throw out of the ship to make circle around the big structure and know what is outside in the command centre (with non-moving space buildings)
 Conquest : flag-like (as an idea it was said to me like that but well... You know a flag in a future universe is weird) anyway the idea is this one. You conquer, you put your mark, you deploy shields (let's say force shields like a bubble or between a gate), well at least buildings (and guys to protect) and that's all, it's like IRL  
Others: - Jet packs (for creation): there will be (I don't know for the fuel) only to construct things, I heard about using it only for this but not to travel, and with energy supply to recharge maybe...
- Painting ? It will be possible to do it at close range, though the build we tested was not capable of that
- Map : there will be one, a 3D one maybe, probably not in the pre-alpha as you can play without it to help debug the game (alpha is for that, don't expect to get pure pleasure, it's to test the game and help it being debugged)
 
 
 
Servers, players creations' economy  
Cluster servers The server as in game when it will be released as alpha were not used (I believe) when we played pre-alpha. We were basically using a small on-the-go server. So of course it looked like a pre-alpha build, the one they are using to work on as they say. See the videos on you-tube (Dual Universe channel) for more information on how the cluster server works: it's one server for all that charges round your player's location.
 
Scripting and blueprint economy Still a good question. The problem is the server allowance and processing duration. It will be impossible to have all your scripts into the server to sell them, and there is still the problem about the security. We had a big talk about it, like we thought of common scripts within a same group or society that still runs if someone is connected (this will be possible), but to sell a script without the buyer that uses it reads it... it's something else. Also how much scripts are being used at the same time (I mean for robots you make out) is a deal and one of the biggest challenge of all we came into in our discussions.
 
 
 
Environment  
Destroyable environment, the idea to find raw material being used then for ships is to have tools to scan where riches are. Day/Night system (possibilities): - Fake-sun (unreachable, that is a sunlight seen as coming from the sun) projecting realistically the light by moving on an axis : it's the one we saw being moved in god-mode, into a giant planet's ground. It seemed rather satisfying to see.
- fixed sun(s), planets rotating on themselves
 
Water, fluids? No water, it won't be in the alpha nor the beta (as far as I know), and most probably won't be in the final game (Dec. 2018). What is sure is that fluids spawning and fluids manipulating at hand won't be possible to make and won't be at release it's sure. But (I didn't ask), still water why not (I don't talk about lands under water yet or anything under water), you'd be falling and dying probably. Swimming, I don't know as for sea ships.. Still conceivable but it won't be in any beta. The idea is: no liquids, anyway the game will still be OK and hard to handle (I mean you will get busy by playing it) just by exploring, making business, a new society, war...
 
 
Questions in suspend For now the gravitation operated in the universe is still not a question developed within the team, or anyway I have not asked to the team directly (one might confirm me that). So the planet acceleration should be (at first) the same with no mind to their mass.
One point though considering the size of planets and what it results (you know, the smaller the planet is, the thinner and lower the atmosphere is, due to the gravity): to get out of the atmosphere, you can accelerate with your ship with one kind of gas (used within an atmosphere), and you use another type of combustion when into the void (turns automatically). So basically, the atmosphere seems (I haven't checked, sorry, not the time to do two lifts-off, and I would have had to count the seconds for that over all) graphically to be proportional to the size of the planet (anyway I don't consider mass). This is not a big problem here, I just want to expose anything I understood or schemed in my head.
Concerning weapons and combats system, we could access such things in the pre-alpha, but the team said there will be weapons (at least on the ships) and shields to counter (ships and buildings).
I haven't asked for the in-game "hacking a territory base" system as it was exposed in the kick-starter video, but it's still an idea.
 
 
All in all, we could see creation (god mode, for developers) and exploration by spaceship (the cabin already looks good btw).
Thanks for reading.

Hello everyone this is just a friendly reminder. As of this writing the kickstarter sits at 342.409 euro and 20 days and 10 hours to go.
 
Thats not bad but we arent there yet.
To reach our goal we need to raise around 7500 euro each day. And that is why I am making this thread. Unfortunately we didnt reach that goal the past 2 days. This is something that concerns me.
 
I know kickstarter has its own behaviour, people often say its the 1st and last weeks that count.
 
Though I am asking people to be a bit proactive. Engage on facebook, if you have twitter use it. Post on your favorite game site to promote the game.
 
For many of us DU is a dream come true.
And having lived through the birth and decline of mmo gaming my personal stance is that the community and the industry needs a game like DU.
 
Please concider backing if you havent already. Get the word out.
 
NovaQaurk needs YOU!
 
Thank you.

I just got back from the event held in Paris at Novaquark offices. I had to leave a little early, but still, this was quite an awesome evening.
 
I'd like to thank all the team members at novaquark for hosting this event, you guys rock ! 
Quick run down of events for those who didn't attend:
 
- Introduction to the dev build we would lay our hands upon a few minutes later by the man himself: JC Baillie
- Fool around with the dev build previously showcased in NQ videos with some members of the dev team to help us out when needed 
- QA session with JC again
- Little drink with the rest of the team and attendees
 
Where do I start ? 
 
First, we met very dedicated and enthusiastic people at NQ. At no point did I feel I've been fed some PR bull*hit, or that the enthusiasm or willingness from dev to talk about their game was faked.
These guys really want to push themselves to deliver the best possible experience with this project, that's for sure.
 
I viewed JC as a strong leader, with a clear vision for the game, an acute knowledge of the challenges ahead and how to overcome them. From what we've seen from the team, my guess is that this project is in pretty good hands.
 
As expected from a dev build, the control scheme and performance were not ideal, but it ran perfectly. The nice thing is that the game ran on a server, meaning that we had 5 computers running at the same time with people fooling around.
I gotta say, seeing people zooming by in a newly built ship (the first one was built within a couple of minutes), or vandalizing editing those already placed by the devs was really cool.
 
There was a lot to cover during the QA session and little time to answer all the questions, but the community managers who waited for us with the drinks were kind enough to answer all of the remaining questions. Thanks for your golden patience and, again, enthusiasm guys !
 
I'm glad I was able to attend and meet the people behind the project, it really gives another meaning to my backing on KS.
 
Anyways, thanks again guys, and all the best for the things to come !

DUAL UNIVERSE
Invitation at Novarquark

Dual universe has actually a false reputation of being a mix between Space engineers and No man’s sky. It doesn’t helps.
I’ve talk about that with the team...
...They’re not only doing a building game, at all. It’s a complete game, with everything you may expect from it, made by players who play games alike and who want to create their ultimate version with their own concepts. They’re playing the same games as you and they’re not willing to make the same mistakes.
For now they’ve just shown their technology and they want to make a game as the same dimension as EVE online on which you’ve put some Minecraft mecanics in a ++ version

I need to tell you that I was sceptical before going to Novaquark. I've a huge videogames experience so I hade a lot of questions.

So, here's the interview. (It's my redaction, not exactly how they said it)

TECHNICALLY
- For Dual universe, you're seeking for a real big thing. Technically will it really be possible ? With how many maximum players visible ?
For now it's a technical demo. When we've started the project it was on a multiplayer basis and not a solo one on which you add things.

We're starting from a fresh new game, multiplayer in mind, we put the maximum and we adjust the things together.

- At what distance you make elements of the game pop ? And when it's too far away, it doesn't pop ? It's showed but in low poly ?

It will be in low poly. We're tweaking it as the project goes by.
 
- Will there be differences between orbital flying and space flying ?

For first the speed, maybe the vibrations, different motors will probably be necessary to control the player's progression. It will be luxury to have a ship who can do space AND planet flying. Our goal is more to have a ship carrying a shuttle to go on the planets. We'll also avoid big structures to go on the planets to don't see them crash on your little house without warning.
 
- Will there be wheel vehicles and their physics ?

It would make a lot of calculations so the size of the planets would be shrinked so no.
But we'll have hovercrafts who follow the terrain.
 
- What about aquatic vehicles ?

It's hard to do in voxels but we want to make innovations with the voxels.

CONSTRAINTS
- Dual universe'll have limitations with the things we can build ? What happen if I build a giant penis ?

Any building has a tag with the name of the person and you can report it. If it doesn't respect the rules of the game, the materials and buildings will be delete and the player may be banned.
Next to that, what you can build, can be sold on the game market. I think the players
will be more interessted to buy things with style, rather than the ones who don't match with the universe.
 
- The pre made parts of the ships are a very good idea for me and when I see a ship it gives less the feeling of : "There are only cubes in this".

We're putting these elements to inspire the players too. Some of them don't know how to build a ship, so we give some keys to them.
 
- What if I wanna destroy a whole planet ?

It won't be possible. The center can't be destroyed.
Mining deeply will be a real career to avoid lava zones who'll be more and more numerous as long as you go deeper.
 
- I'm a bad player so with 60 people I decide to build a giant cube around a planet, so no one can't go inside. How will you avoid that ?

A good player will come destroy it.
 
- How to control big groups of people that you can meet on games like survivals who are raiding or griefing anythings they find ?

We don't want to break the game balance in any way.
The start of the game will be safe to be able to develop yourself.
 
COMPETITION
- You know of course that there're others games who looks like yours in which I don't have to pay every month. Their first problem is their world is so big that we don't find any other player. How do you solve that ?

We want to create a game to play for years, so the subscription is here to have everything to build new content. We wanna give more and more possibilities to the players.
Dual universe isn't going to be another clone. We wanna do the ultimate sandbox game. We've played to the other games you're talking about and we allways thought that there is missing something, that's why we've decided to do our own project.
For what you can do in the game, we believe that the community will do a big part for that in Dual universe.
 
GAMEPLAY
- What planets will have to give me the want to explore them ? Today the sandbox games are mostly with empty planets and sometimes a cave. This is not very interresting. What is exploration for you ?

Exploration has to be not too easy and rewards you. It's hard to take off a planet to go to another one but there will be different ways to do it. You'll need players, materials, skills, fuel, make tests etc...
Next to that we're putting a lot of work in the creation of the biomes so they all have a purpose and goals for the player. They're not just skins of the terrain, they all have their materials, aquatic lifeforms, animals, etc...
You'll also can find wreaked ships, ruins and things that the players had built.
In space you'll find minerals in asteroids or a secret base hidden by a player in one of them.

- A universe with 30 planets and people rather than a universe with 250 planets with no one and allways the same things to do sounds more interesting for me. What do you think about that ?

Our universe will expanse as players come in the game. The more player are in Dual Universe, the more we will add elements to, then we'll give access to stargates who'll bring you far away in the universe.
We also want to implement safe zones to encourage people to regroup.
 
- Will there be aliens ? NPCs ?

The game is about the humans who're searching a new planet. The game has a story. So we're just thinking about humans and animals. But you'll have elements to make alien looking ships.
For the NPC if by that you mean : The magician standing in front of his house, you won't have that.

- But a city without NPCs walking by will make it look dead, no ?

What will be constructed will be at the scale of the player population of it. So like in real life in the street, you're not allways seeing people, you'll not see players if they're not using their colony. But it will take time and investment to build these colonies so there will be players in.
 
- The players' ships and buildings will be saved ? Tradable ? What happen if my ship is destroyed ? Can I make it again with a saved blueprint or will I have to do it again from scratch ?

Yes, you'll have all of this and the ability to build back your ship if you've saved the blueprint.
 
- What about the character creation. What will be the options ? Will we all have the same look ?

There will be a character creation : man, woman, face details, haircut, nickname, logo, etc...
 
- Will you put ranged combat on foot ? Melee combat ?

The combat will be a lock and fire system. (Nok : Not a Tab + skill, I asked) The goal is to have a tactical combat more than a reflex combat and also because of the technical issues a too fast fighting system may create latency, etc... (Nok : So it would look like a Star wars galaxies system on its end)
 
- How will be the space combat system ? Simulation ? Arcade ? Shields / Armor / Pilot (dead) like in most of others space games ?

We're looking for somewhat of a realistic lock and fire space combat. A tactical combat. You'll have to hit the shields, scan to find where are the important parts of the ship to destroy them, etc...
 
- In a multi crew ship, what are doing the other players ?

A ship will need a lot of things to work. You'll have to close doors to take off, people in the turrets, others who'll make the power go to the speed or the shields, etc...
 
- Someone is boarding my ship. Is it more interesting for him to destroy or hack a door or make a hole in my ship ?

It depends of your ship construction. The ship will define its weaknesses. If you've put a strong door, they'll hit the shields. If you've strong shields, they'll hit the door, etc... Following that idea. It's up to you to enhance your ship structural after that.
 
- Will there be any fuel ? Will I have to eat, drink or sleep ?

Let's take an example. A player wanna explore a cold and far away zone. He'll have to equip himself with clothes to go there and have the supplies for that kind of expedition.
In that way the more you're prepared, the more you'll be rewarded.
 
- What happen when I die ?

For now it's a respawn, after there'll be penalties, but it's still in the works
 
- How will be the economy ?

We're looking for something close to EVE online for that with markets that players can make. There can be different markets next to anothers and who compete.
In these markets you'll be able to sell materials, objects, constructions, DAC (Subscription tokens).
At the beginning we'll put bots, as it was on EVE online, to have a working market since the start. When it'll be working, we'll delete bots as more as players will come in.
We have knowledge about the economic systems, so we'll make sure it's never blocked.
 
- What are the careers planned ?

You can see that on the Kickstarter
 
- Will there be a criminal system ?

We want the community to control that. For example if this group is know to be agressive, the communty will see if it has to be stopped or not. It may create police players group to stop them.

 
Other things to notice :
- They'll put free extensions to add specify content like : Stargates or Weather system (I mean tempests, etc...) and so on.
- When you're in the cockpit, you can see your body in full 3D. It will be improved.
- You'll be able to tweak your ship. With the LUA system. So it will really be your ship and with that you can expand his value on the market
 
Now it's up to you to decide.
 
Thank you to Alexandre Moufarek, Ludovic Serny, Jean Christophe Baillie, Berjamin Berteau and all the persons who've answered my questions. They were passionate players and very easy to speak with.
In case you forgot, link to the Kickstarter : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949863330/dual-universe-civilization-building-sci-fi-mmorpg

Thank to all. It was Kendan for whyshouldiplay