ColonkinYT

I do not agree with this statement. Automining generates ore (goods) and does not introduce quants into the game. Through ore, quants could only be entered into the game by bots to buy ore. This remark may seem unimportant, but it is not. After all, ore can be dug on asteroids and collected on the surface. In fact, none of these actions give you money directly. As a consequence, if ore prices fall, then all of the above activities suffer, not just auto-mining. Now only these direct actions give money in the game: 1. Daily entrance to the game. 2. Completing missions. 3. Complete daily missions in the surrogate station.

Science fiction differs from just fantastic nonsense in that it does not ignore the existing physics, mathematics and other sciences. It adds what is missing, what is not yet there (not invented, not seen, not developed technology). Relatively speaking, there are liquid engines with N thrust. And for the interest of the plot, engines with a thrust of 10N, 100N, 1000N are needed. And in science fiction, this is more or less justified (often authors use existing hypotheses that have not yet been proven, etc. Which, by the way, are strictly scientific (but may be erroneous. A vivid example is the film Interstellar. None of us have seen a black hole. But at the same time, it view, effects of time and gravity are based on scientific hypotheses.)). It does not ignore existing science. What we see in places in DU suggests that this supposedly "science" fiction was written by the humanities. Which of science only learned to subtract and divide (budgets). Because in some places the fundamental foundations of the universe are being violated (by the way, we still don’t know why exactly this is the case with us. We just see how it works). I already wrote about speed. Now let's talk about transmutation. Nobody is embarrassed by the fact that the weight of some things increases many times compared to the original substances? How is that in general? According to what everyday experience did we take 2 liters of plastic and get 2 liters of gold (we don’t take the chemistry of catalysis - there, purely theoretically, if you do not take into account energy consumption, you could get substances, but the mass of the starting substances can be more and not less). What is the weight gain due to? from what kind of black hole did something that doesn't exist fall out and add matter? And so periodically everywhere such inconsistencies. If we turn a blind eye to them, then let's replace the engines with horses, wings with carts, spacesuits with armor, and we will go into space on horse-drawn carts. After all, in fact, with such a quality of study, little will change.

From scientific to DU, only the setting. No more. I would call this genre - fiction for ignoramuses. Only the maximum speed limit, depending on the mass, is worth something. In what science can you find it? And there are plenty of other things that ignore the basic laws of physics. Not new undiscovered technologies (such as packaging of matter), but ignoring the basic science that exists now. This is more and more like some kind of [filtered]ing fantasy with a damn shitty plot (more precisely, with its absence). I agree that with JC there were many times more logic and connectivity. Since then, the game has turned into some kind of Frankenstein.

This game already had a normal mining design. It was based on digging ore by hand. You invest time - you get a reward. But as we know it is quite expensive. Therefore, there is an easier task. Quickly staked the tile and sit on your ass exactly. And the mining units will get everything themselves. Just keep paying taxes. If you take a lot of things that were buried by "improving" the gameplay in 0.23 and later, then this is essentially a different game. And this game is more and more like offline grinding in a mobile game. Sit and wait for your farm to complete the cycle. I remember how on the beta there were ships with multi-layered sometimes composite armor. Tried different combinations. And it consumed a lot of high-level resources. Not to mention the fact that the thrust-to-weight ratio also had to be kept in balance. And now there is actually no armor. No need for voxels, no need for engines and loads of fuel. Nerf, nerf, nerf... All they could think of was a nerf for the sake of a momentary gain in server power. But it's all like playing jenga. He pulled the element without calculating everything and starts to crumble in another place. Let's be honest. When a game goes down the path of cost reduction, it is about the end of the development cycle. And by the end of the life of the project. P.S. Regarding the possible awareness of the distribution of ores. As in Occam's razor, everything has a simpler explanation. In any normal game, before going into production, there is a closed test. (or pts test). If you have access to the test server, then nothing else is needed. It is unlikely that there will be different planets on the test and in production. And it is enough to know the tile numbers. It seems to me that this is the simplest and most likely explanation. THIS IS JUST MY HYPOTHESIS.

On beta, we could tear down a whole mountain just because it made it difficult to see the sunrise or sunset. Now we try not to do it. Due to the delay in loading new surfaces (even if they were in the cache). At this rate, Starbase will soon overtake DU online, given that they have not updated the game for 8 months. As for the topic. Falling through the floor, untimely braking, unloading of the terrain (by the way, it can also lead to a blow). All this is due to server delays. Have we received all the Kickstarter awards due? If yes, then we are waiting for the announcement that "We tried, but we could not." Or the more fashionable "We did everything right, but the wrong players broke everything." And then either another deletion or closing of the project.

I could quote by name because the forum remembers everything))). As many have said, the market will adjust itself and prices are about to find their limit. (this was still at prices of 18-20 quants per liter). I think the reality surprised even these people. But it would look like gloating. I have no malice. There is regret that we were right. I've been following your threads closely. And I largely agree. Although, on the other hand, if you see that a person sticks an iron bare plug into a socket, then it is predictable that he will be shocked.

Of course, it would be fun, but these bonuses will not solve the problems. There is one psychological factor of deflation. Because of him, people leave the game. When prices fall, you work more and get paid less. Nobody likes this either in games or in real life. And the reason here is far from Mining units. (Although in them, too, offline mining is such an idea.) The root problem is in game design and the lack of balance in the production of resources and their consumption. Much more ore is produced than can be consumed in the current situation. And when there were bots, it was possible to destroy excess ore for money. Now this possibility is not available. And surplus ore is putting pressure on the market. Space fuel is not able to greatly improve the situation. (Although the step was taken right but too late).

A month or so ago, I said that deflation is the path to the abyss for the game. They twisted me at the temple and said that I did not understand anything in economy games and was generally stupid. Although any market economy is essentially inflationary. What. Less than 3 months later to see where the deflation in ore prices has led. I did not expect such a sad outcome. It seems that one of the guys will be able to write a dissertation on the topic "How to kill the economy in 3 months. A quick guide for gamedev." I don't even know how to fix the situation without another erasure...

I thought that the matter was in dark matter, which was passed into the moonshine still during fuel processing. But I admit I was wrong. I did not consider this option! 😉

Since we are talking about fuel again. I have the same questions again and again. 1. Why space fuel weighs 6 times more than its ingredients. And in general, many times more than mineral ores and many refined ingots. Even more iron ore. 2. When we finally have ONE space fuel and not 4 different ones. If they add more cosmic fuel from T1, will there be 5 or 8 fuels? 3. If it doesn't work with recipes, when will it be possible to mix different types of space fuel in a tank?

That's the whole point. If there is a roadmap, then it is clear that people are at least planning. If you can't follow the map by months - do it for a quarter. If you can't do it for a quarter, do it for six months. If you can't do it for six months, do it for years. Regular failure to meet deadlines indicates that there are errors in planning (too optimistic deadlines). The absence of a map may indicate a lack of plans (but this is not certain).

You assume that the shift to the right in the calibration time is an error. But maybe not. This is a good way to reduce progress. Very often used, for example, with all sorts of battle passes and timers for all sorts of boxes with loot. Considering that calibration time is important for high-level ore, this is a significant nerf to your abilities. Let me explain. If once a week you miss one calibration due to a shift to the right, then you lose almost 15% of the possible high-level ore.

To move some cargo missions on the Aegis, it would be wise to make space stations near the planets. To have space-to-space transportation. In addition, such stations could be local aggregators of materials and goods near the planets. Given that space stations do not require payment for tiles to place (at least the first one), this would help to move part of the gameplay into space. Without the need for planetary landings. Well, it would be nice to do the processing of space mining. (Increasing the size of nodes on asteroids, increasing the number of asteroids. Ideally, abandon the tracker altogether and make an asteroid radar. But this does not fit into the strategy to make life easier in pvp and for pirates 😉 )

When I figured out the numbers on a napkin, I omitted a lot. But I think the order of costs is about the same. First of all, the salaries of specialists in server technologies and game programming should be increased by a factor of 2. Plus, there are not only programmers. Game design, forum support, office team leader. And no matter how many people work specifically on DU, everyone needs to be fed. If this game is used as a demonstration of technology, then we will never see global changes. As mentioned above, the main thing then will be maintenance and not development. I agree that external signs all point to a lack of resources. The pace of development was much faster during Alpha and early Beta. For web 3 and the dreams of the CEO, I don't mind if it goes the way KEEN Software does. But this is unlikely to happen. The last year shows the opposite.

I immediately wrote that my calculations are OPTIMISTIC. 😉 Probably very optimistic in terms of salaries! Again, you need to understand that in some countries the tax legislation heavily burdens business in terms of deductions. In reality, the cost figures are 3-4 times higher. But I didn't want to count on the upper limit. The goal was to show the fact that if we consider DU as a standalone product, then tens of thousands of subscriptions are required to keep it afloat (not to mention profitable for investors). After all, investors look not only at the average check per month. They also look at growth dynamics. Even if the product is still unprofitable. But imagine a situation where you have a net subscription delta around zero (subscription renewal + new subscriptions - not subscription renewal). Or even negative. Here, even without a calculator, it is clear that the chances of a return on investment are very slim. Moreover, we do not forget about such a value as the lifetime of projects.

The fact that there are few people in the support team explains a lot. But it does not eliminate the need to feed everyone else. One option would be a third party project that is in development. In this context, the prospects are even worse. This means that when the situation with the alternative reaches the finish line, DU will simply be closed as a passive asset.

Everything is actually more than it seems. It is ungrateful to count other people's money, but we have been talking about our faith investments since the beginning of the Alpha test. To some extent, we are also investors without ownership of the product. So. What happens below is a very optimistic scenario, but still. NQ is positioned as a small studio (more than 50 people in the profile), but we will count on the lower limit. Let it be 50. We also remember that the developers are not in Africa and require a good salary. Let it be 2,000 per person per month (before taxes). This is not much (I would even say a little). We have a figure of 100,000. Providing an office, servers, renting premises, commissions for systems like Steam and others who accept payments, renting servers, etc. Again, optimistically double the amount. We have a total of 200,000. The cost of a monthly subscription for 1 character - let it be 15 dollars. In total, we get that it takes 13,300 active accounts to keep everything afloat without third-party investment. I am sure that people close to the gaming industry have figures of retaining projects that are close in spirit. Now on Haven (where you MUST land and automatically order the tile 21,000 territories occupied). Usually in the project after the first month of subscription, at best, one of 4 remains. Many of the occupied territories are alpha and beta players with paid subscriptions. This money has already been spent. To somehow talk about the future, you need 13,300 * 4 = 55,000 (with rounding) tiles on Haven. Then you can hope for some time of the life of the project. We are not even close to those numbers. I will not even rely on the numbers online in Steam (they can only be judged by the trend). The danger is that if there is a cash gap, then with an insufficient number of subscriptions, any project very quickly slides into sunk losses. For example, if there are 5,000 active records out of 13,300 required, then it turns out that someone should take $125,000 out of his pocket and put it on the table. Otherwise, the servers will turn off, there will be no light in the office or there will be no office. In the first month you have -125,000. In the second -250,000, and so on. Investors are not altruists to throw away such amounts every month. With such losses, the project cannot live long. As I wrote - the figures are more than optimistic. Comparing with Sean Murray, you do not forget that a lot of people bought NMS pre-orders. Wikipedia says about 700,000 copies sold at launch. This is an unprecedented level of funding compared to what we have. Hello Games just had the resources to keep working hard. Of course, I really hope that everything will be optimistic with DU... But my inner pessimist and paranoid says no. Even with meager open numbers and a calculator, I'm scared for the future of the game. PS. To anticipate objections. At the moment, there is no cosmetics store in DU to have other sources of funding other than a subscription.

Yes, probably Alpha 3))) But to be honest, neither in alpha nor in beta did I have such an oppressive feeling. It's like I'm stuck in groundhog day. Or the rat race. Remembering my first experience in Eve, I just yearn for those times. But you cannot step into the same water twice. I was hoping DU would have something similar. But we have had all the pleasures of exploration killed. Surprises and joys of finding or finding (starting with mining, ending with structural finds during the construction of ships). All that's left is disappointment. Naturally, this is not the case for new players. And for a while, they will be enthusiastic. But we (who were on alpha and beta) understand what they lost... Yes, let these mechanics load the servers. But it was still more interesting than what is now. Our psyche is an interesting thing. We will always find our "golden" age for us. But even if we step aside, take a piece of paper and write down what we gained and lost, then I think that the result will be with a minus sign. As for the speed of the "failure" of the economy. Now it has fallen much faster. Much faster. Even my pessimism was surprised.

I would agree with you if not for one but. The beta was needed in order to get the data, balance the parameters and catch the main bugs. It is not correct to say that at the release they should hone and balance the main game mechanics. In that case, let's call a spade a spade. It's not a release, it's Beta 2. I understand that a lot of what goes on in the NQ office is hidden from us and it is possible that management is facing serious pressure from investors. But you know. I don't care what happens in the bakery behind the wall. If I was sold bread, I have the right to demand that it be of high quality and not cause health problems. A low-quality product should not leave the walls and remain on the table at the quality control service. Difficulties and lack of data do not justify such serious omissions. And diverse statements, for example, on MU and market bots, indicate that there was no final opinion on these issues a month ago. The fact that alpha and beta players are less active is explained by the fact that the release does not meet the expectations of old players. And this is one of the most patient and loyal parts of the audience ira. Moreover, after the disappearance of market bots and nerf calibration, it also made it much more difficult for new players to start. Understand. This is not criticism. It just hurts my soul. Otherwise, I wouldn't post on the forum at all. As do many of us.

In fact of the matter First, the prices for schemes and taxes were balanced at the rate of 25 quantum/liter. And then it was cancelled. But since the cost of the schemes was not a percentage of the price, but had an absolute cost, we have a chain reaction of imbalance. It is very stupid to take out the key stone from the foundation of the whole wall))). Especially not having made efforts to the general strengthening. By analogy with construction - before global changes, you must first make temporary structures for support. So that the building does not collapse during the repair (by the way, I saw similar things in my professional activities).

When I spoke about the danger of deflation, many "experts" told me that this is correct and you should not be afraid. Now, when the cost of T1 ore makes senseless not only its extraction with the help of units, but even more senseless its extraction on asteroids. It's just not worth the time. So what do you say "dear experts" now? Or are we waiting for an equilibrium price at T1 around 5? It is clear that over time the price may rise. A little bit. After that, it will again be driven into the corridor of unprofitability by over-accumulated volumes. Did we want such a "player-controlled economy"? And which of you now "regulates" something in it? We have a day left to see what they will do with asteroid mining in patch 1.1. P.S. By the way, we now have a clear example of what happens to the economies of countries when it is controlled by amateurs and supporters of the "free" market. Correctly. Nothing good. The advantage is that, unlike RL, people will not go out the window here. They just stop playing.

Great job! Particularly pleased with the second tab. But the rest are cool too! I tried working with Power BI and I can imagine how much work has been put into it. The only question is where are you getting your data from? After all, NQ, as far as I know, did not give us an API for sites. For those who want to prove that changes are good - look at how the markets reacted to certain changes. Very interesting to see this!

Actually, even this patch (with the exception of skins for characters and other cosmetic improvements) is also a "patching holes". I'm not saying that many girls and guys are hard at work on the game. For which special thanks to them. The heated discussions on the forum are not about whether the work is going on or not. We discuss, argue about what exactly is being worked on. )) Skills for schematics should have been introduced along with the revision of the schematics (it would be right) and not after 2 months. The disassembly of the elements has also been requested for a year now. Another announced change in the asteroid tracker and the asteroids themselves. Finally (but we'll see what happens there). Everything else is cosmetic. Yes, she needs it. And many players, like myself, believe that this could attract additional funding for development. But most of all, we (the players) are worried about the lack of information about the future. Or at least a clear understanding of what to expect in the next 2-3 months. P.S. Yesterday I looked at the market and saw T1 ore there (excluding coal) at 6-8 quants per liter. Who said 2 weeks ago that the price of T1 found its balance?

Yes. Wipe was needed. But the question is not in the wipe as such. The question is that erasing the data did not fix anything. Therefore, it is quite natural that the same problems appeared after the release of the game. Nothing new has been added. For two months, the developers have been working not on new content, but on patching up the next holes in the gameplay, which were clearly visible after 0.23.

Good plan! Player expectations. We will get NQ's attention and they will add other gameplay elements. Reality NQ. Let's not introduce anything new! Disable half of the missions. The rest of the missions are limited in use and reduce the reward by 2 (3-4-5) times.