iNFiDeL

PART ONE: REFINING OUR PROCESSES 
As promised last week, we would like to give you a glimpse at the changes, improvements, and additions we have in store for Dual Universe. 
We’ve learned many lessons since our beta began seven months ago.  Going from a backer-focused game in alpha, under NDA, to a public, wide-open beta with many new players gave us a lot of insight in several areas: processes, economics, and gameplay. In this blog, we’ll focus on processes with the latter two being the topics of subsequent blogs. 

THE LONG HARD LOOK
At Novaquark, we’re still a fairly small team. Given the ambition and complexity of this game, it can be quite a challenge to make the right decisions on how to make the most of our resources. To date, we’ve been focused on bug fixing, stabilization, balancing, scaling, and improving our server and database infrastructure - plus firefighting when necessary - to make the game work better. 
 
Not to say that this is all behind us; it never will be (such is the way of MMOs), and we know some bugs and exploits still need to be addressed - this is a beta after all. Still, we paused earlier this year to ponder what the next phase of development of DU should be, to stay the course of the original plan or adapt to how things have evolved since beta began. After taking a  long hard look at everything we’ve learned from the beta, we decided where we need to focus next, based on what we think will be best for Dual Universe and its community. 

“IF IT’S BROKE, FIX IT”
Maintaining a live game while we continue to develop it ended up being quite the leap from our tightly-controlled alpha environment. As much as we prepared for it, actually doing it was a whole different beast. That’s probably one of the areas where the reality check was the most brutal for us. The world of Dual Universe is a persistent one, and every time we introduce something, it impacts the player and the delicate balance of its economy. There’s no safety net, and player feedback often came once bugs or balancing issues had already impacted the game’s common universe. 

Let’s start with how we plan to improve our processes and quality control, because this is an area where doing something wrong can have a major impact on players. We have three goals in this area: 
 
 
Gather feedback from players earlier in the process, so that when new features and changes are introduced in the game, their impact on the persistent universe is properly measured.  Have a more flexible and collaborative development approach that will allow us  to take player feedback into consideration, modifying plans when we’re able.   Overall, improve the quality of our releases, which means fewer bugs and exploits, and less hot-fixing.
  When it comes to gathering feedback from players earlier, we are evaluating some options on how we might get feedback on game design ideas from players at an earlier stage before they have actually entered the production pipeline. We are already seeing significant improvements in this area since the launch of the public test server (PTS), which lets us test prospective new features, improvements and bug fixes in a non-persistent environment where it won’t impact players’ progress on the Live server. If enough players test features on the PTS, we’ll be able to prevent bugs and balancing problems from making their way to the persistent universe. 
 
When we deployed 0.24 on the PTS first, players gave us invaluable feedback, helping us to identify several issues that we were able to address before they reached the production server. Although  our PTS-to-production process isn’t perfect yet, we are still working to improve it and think it’s getting significantly better with each iteration.  In the future, we will expand the use of the PTS to testing prototypes of features, outside of regular releases, so that all players can give their feedback as early in the development process as possible. 
 
Another major improvement to our processes that we are addressing is flexibility. On our way to beta, we had a fairly rigid roadmap that was dictated by the necessity to lay the foundations for all of the gameplay pillars for beta as well as fulfilling our promises to our backers. While the overall plan and long-term goals for DU haven’t changed, we need to be able to adapt to the feedback of players along the way whenever it’s feasible. For example, if we decide to make a major overhaul of our mining mechanics, we need the flexibility to iterate as much as necessary until we find the right formula before we move on to something else. 
 
Although they may not be visible to players, there are many other things happening internally  that have already proven to improve our releases. First and foremost, our internal release process is undergoing a revamp, based on the learnings from our past launches. We’ve allotted more time for QA than we used to, and we will postpone a release if we think it’s not ready (as we did  with the 0.24 update.) These new processes are still being refined, but we’re seeing improvements already.
 
We remain steadfast in our promise to deliver the best game possible. We feel confident that the changes we’re making now to our processes are a big step toward making that an attainable goal. 

Ready to discuss part 1? Click here.
 

NEW UPDATE ON THE PTS!


The Dual Universe Public Test Server (PTS) is online once more! This time, you can take a look at content from the future 0.25 update.
More specifically, what we would like our players to test are the following features:
The new voxel storage tech. We proceeded to large, fundamental changes in how voxels are stored server-side, optimizing and improving player bandwidth usage going forward. To test this, it would greatly help us if players could wreak havoc on planets' soils and dig, dig, DIG as much as possible!  Three new tutorials are available in the "Tutorials" tab of the VR Station: Gunnery tutorial, RDMS tutorial, and Advanced Construction tutorial. Make sure to visit them during your journey!
On a side note, the Screen Unit tech change isn't on the PTS just yet. You'll be able to test that in an upcoming version!
  You can tremendously help Novaquark by playing on the PTS. Not only will you have a chance to see content that’s in development before it’s released on the Live server, but you’ll also be helping to shape DU through sharing your insights and constructive criticism earlier in the development process. By testing on PTS and sharing your feedback, you will directly help improve DU.
  On PTS, you have some perks to help you speed up your progress and have an easier time getting the things you need: 
Dispensers that provide most items for free. A daily allowance of several billion quanta per day. Teleporters at the Market 1 of each major planet, allowing for free teleportation around the universe. For Alioth, the teleporter is located by the dispensers in the Institute District. Three additional teleportation platforms are deployed in space on the edge of the PvP zones Players can respec Talent points at-will.  The Fetch feature with no limit of range or cooldown.
Feedback and bug reports related to PTS should be posted in this designated forum, which we monitor closely as part of our commitment to improve the quality of the game and its performance. 

Please note that PTS is solely for testing purposes and may go offline at any time without prior notice. We are doing our best to keep the PTS online as long as possible, but we cannot guarantee that it won't be taken down if we meet a major issue. 
We’d also like to manage expectations that PTS updates may include feature prototypes and gameplay changes that might not ever come to the Live server. Moreover, there won't be any live Support on the PTS.

I've been thinking about the past few days and even the last few months, even back to .23. Some in the DU community including myself can be pretty harsh towards NQ. This last few days has been no exception. Sometimes it's all written off as trolling but that's not the whole story. The trolls are a small number of people. I think this is a huge learning experience for all of us. 

On the NQ side, know that you want us to build a civilization and that requires lots and lots of time. Lots of us have been grinding away at this for many many hours. If something changes and puts that all into jeopardy, we want to know. It's not like call of duty where the damage will change slightly. Changes here mean dozens, maybe hundreds of hours of work lost. In the extreme case of the game shutting down, people want to know they aren't pumping hours into nothing essentially.

On the community side, we have probably learned a lot about ourselves and how we fit into games like this. How sometimes we stop enjoying the game and worry too much about things we can't control.

I think that for a game to be the real life Ready Player One, the developer has to be serious about nurturing it's community and the community needs to be reasonable with their expectations from the developer. I've learned quite a bit here and It's been a fun ride.

Your post is spot on BTW.

You know this is an MMO right? The game isn't meant to have wipes its meant to progressively build upon itself and other than seeding issues there is no reason in hell they should wipe. A wipe would only benefit a tiny portion of the population who started playing later, and even then a couple months down the road when more new people come they will cry wipe again too cause anyone just starting out feels intimidated by the people around them who have been playing for months. Regardless with the economy already fairly on its feet there is nothing keeping a new player from catching up within a short few days. Mine a bit and you have millions to buy whatever you need to start your adventure. Also no one is crying about their stuff, he's explaining a very solid point that when you spend hundreds and thousands of hours building and creating you want to know that your creations are safe. They take a ton of your time, wanting them to be there tomorrow isn't too much to ask when the game is meant to be permanent. No one gives a shit about gold, they care about voxelmancy and designs that took weeks and months of planning to execute, but you probably wouldn't know that, you sound more like a fair whether fan that spends more time trolling in the forums than actually playing the game. Lastly, why the hell are you even in here talking trash? The only joke here is that you think the game is dying and you have nothing better to do than talk trash in apparently dying forums. 

I see you couped JC.  I would like to leverage an official warning too you. I see you are a ex finance guy.  Please I must warn you if you give into your base instincts and go for the money grab with pay 2 win elements.  We the community will bring this house of cards down on you very fast.  This is our world , welcome guest.
 
Edit - Ok maybe I was a little too heated with my OP sorry for that.  We the community are invested in this game and are a pack of growling wolves guarding over it.

Ok.. as a new player i finally understand why o.23 killed the player base..
 
"Specialize and use the markets" *boot to the head with schematics*
 
I came in after schematics so I didnt get what all the fuss was about.
 
Ok.. I have been specializing and have some t4/t5 refining and smelting and basic parts lines up.. I mine ore, refine, produce low level parts from t3 and t4 ores and materials... good mid level products...time to start using the market
 
What? The lag is so bad its basically unusable? It would take riddiculous time just to go around and put my stuff for sale
 
What, all the high level stuff is built by god like tychoons with full production lines that dont buy anything but ore?
 
So I'm left thinking.. 

I FINALLY GET IT!!
 
I was defending this game and arguing that people must have been cry babies overreacting, cause I was making progress in specializing... I just hadn't got to the point where I was ready to sell yet....as soon as I tried to "take my wares to market" I realized instead of creating an economy of specialists.. all they did was creat an economy of elite industry tycoons and ore mining peasents
 
At least before 0.23 I could have said...oh well.. if the markets and economy are unusable I'll just make my own stuff and have fun

ItsIts a public forum, everyone can Post wherever he wants. Smh some ppl
 
Official NQ statement still missing but I guess they will write something on tuesday. Or a week later. Or never. Who knows

Automated? In what way is the forum automated? 
 
Also...if she is leaving the company, she is likely finishing out the week, so could still have forum access. 
0.23 was bizarre move motivated more by JC's arrogance and pride than a real game design or business rationale -- don't get me wrong, industry was getting a little crazy, but people were having fun.
 
Instantly flipping the off switch on all those factories is a textbook "bad idea" in game development.
 
Beyond the specifics of 0.23, I think it was symptomatic of NQ's lack of experience and their arrogant leadership that couldn't be bothered to understand the game from a player's perspective. The only perspective that ever mattered was JC and his weird "ready player one" roleplaying. 
 
So I don't think NQ has "given up" on the community -- I think they never really cared to begin with. DU was always an expression of vanity and pride for its founder -- who was always going to do his own thing no matter how many voices in the community (or in his own damn company!) told him otherwise.
 
That won't ever change, 0.23 just made it more obvious. 
 
If you think DU's issues are obvious to us, they're even more obvious to the devs doing the work and vast majority of NQ's staff...hence the high turnover, low morale, and glacial pace of dev. 

I'm not trying to be a troll or overly negative but the interaction has fallen off of a cliff. Before .23 there were interviews pretty often, staff would communicate, Questions were answered. Perhaps we were spoiled and this new level of communication is just standard. I'm new to developing games but I actually wonder what's going on. 

Happy that it's helped you

Hello everyone,
 
Anyone who uses tokens certainly has a few broken ones in their inventory.
And you were certainly like me very disappointed not to be able to delete them.
 
Here is the solution to get rid of these broken tokens.
 
You need:
Surrogate VR station Surrogate Pod Station Container (any size)  
 
And here's how to do it:
Put all broken tokens in the container Connect to your pod using the pod station Move the tokens in your nanopack Exit the VR by accepting that the items in your nanopack are deleted.
  And that's it.

I hope it will help you.

Leniver#4309
https://wheelchair.leniver.ch

(To NQ, if you feel important to fix that bug .... DU it)

RIP DU RIP Naunet. she tried..

RIP DU & RIP Naunet

I've had just about enough with DU, Naunet leaving is just another cannonball to NQ's face.

And so, Statues of Naunet will be erected all over the Arkship circle.
I'm reaching out to everyone with a tile touching the big purple arkship circle, or very close to it. Want access to a few key permissions on your tile:

Deploy Core unit on construct
Deploy dynamic core unit on territory
Deploy Item
Deploy Overlap building zone
Deploy static core unit on territory 

Set the perms for SpiceRub, and send me coords to the Territory in question.
 
Statue in question, 2 L cores tall.




Looking to put as many down as I can, will work to create a sparse circle around the Arkship and then continue to fill in the gaps.

Before you ask, no I will not be giving out free copies of the statue.

Will probably be able to finish this before the servers go down. ta x
 

So the question is... is this intended behavior or is this a bug that NQ will label as an exploit?
 
I vaguely remember NQ saying they removed skills from bloops.
 
personally, I think it should be a check box. Keep or remove handling skills when creating the blueprint from the core bloop and the creator the option of creating vanilla ships or “premium” ships. 

I'll reserve my right to comment for when Frozenbyte finally decides to show us their game in public.. Until then, while not wrong this is rather presumptuous and sets expectations..

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt.
 
 
NQ: "We're listening!"
Other devs: So have we but we have been doing something about it.
 
Seriously now, what exactly are you expecting?

Hello to everyone,

I decided to make this post so people know how create a core blueprint and being sure that all the handling will be applied.
The handling on a core blueprint is a bit weird, it seems NQ doesn't have test every case.

The blueprint system is separated in 2 different kind of blueprint:
"Core blueprint": it's a schema that will allow you to create "single time blueprint" "Blueprint": it's a single time use blueprint
How the handling works when placing down a blueprint?
When you create a blueprint from a core blueprint it takes the skill saved on the core blueprint.
If the player that place the ship has higher skill, he will apply the player skills. 
If the player that place the ship has lower skill, he will apply blueprint skills.

How the handling works when creating a core blueprint?
When you create a core blueprint the handling skills are not saved correctly.
If the player that create the core blueprint has any handling skills, the handling is reset (It's the bug!)
If the player that create the core blueprint has no handling skills, the handling skills are saved in the core blueprint.

The tips:
To be sure that the handling skills are saved in the core blueprint you need to have a character without skills.
To make that, thanks to NQ that remove all the skills through VR, you need to use a VR station and create the core blueprint in VR.

Example of setup:
1 container 1 Surrogate VR station 1 Surrogate Pod Station
Put down the container, surrogate station and the surrogate pod.
Set a name for the surrogate pod and activate it. (wait ~5 minute that the surrogate pod is registred by NQ)
Use the surrogate station and search for the name you have entered.
Once you are in VR, go in build mod on your construct and create a core blueprint.
Put the core blueprint in the container (so you don't loose it when exiting the VR)
Exit the VR and you are done.

I hope it will help you.

Leniver#4309
https://wheelchair.leniver.ch

(To NQ, if you feel important to fix that bug .... DU it)

Or just maybe... BOO spams phrases like this near endlessly. Boo should just rename to Band of Salt Spam even comes with a cooler acronym. Your welcome.

My post has nothing to do with NQ cool story guy. Someone else said it best, if I play a pick up game of basketball in a park and you come in and kick the ball yelling Soccer, doesn't mean you did something illegal does it? No of course not, but what it does mean your a special kind of jerk off. BOO is an org of trolls and jerk offs apparently, but it is what it is. Please though don't hesitate, tell me more about how its all NQ's fault. NQ didn't make BOO act like like the autistic kid who hates basketball so I don't know wtf your talking about.

Good for you, and sure lets blame NQ for the actions of players how can you expect someone to have control over themselves can't believe I never thought of that...
 
Of course not every single member of BOO is a troll, but enough are that I feel safe in calling them out as a group for it. Read Demlock's post in the other thread and tell me again how not trolly they are. I know who Sylva is, I don't have to cry to mommy to call these clowns out. Yeah it happened, yeah its over but they wasted my time, why not waste some of theirs? Eye for an eye.   

Theres nothing to defer away from guy, everyone here knows BOO was clearly allowed to do what they did I don't think its a god damn secret this game is an OPEN WORLD PARTIALLY PVP GAME, that aside most people complaining are complaining towards the integrity of the org who seems to think its cooler to crash the party then to be a part of it which is counter productive to the community. Sorry I called you trolls out for being just that. No one watched and said "hey I wanna pvp now because of what BOO did" all you did was turn more people off in the community to the thought of trying it because people like you make it a toxic experience, I'll stick to my warp drive till Starbase comes around thanks. To those of you in the comments bringing up EVE, no one cares that you pvp'd in EVE. Being good at pvp in this game or EVE is like being the fastest guy in fat camp. No ones impressed enjoy your sh*tty trophy and stfu.

What a joke XD dude must of been violated by a toy lightsaber I swear.

2nd friendly reminder