Shadow

Hello Atmosph3rik and welcome aboard.
 
We don't cook so many things, but we have cookies.
Astrophil ! Come back here and don't try to keep them all !
 
Don't forget that part when they explode.
 
As Kiklix said: make sure to read the devblog, it's really interesting.
I hope you'll enjoy your reading.
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hi Ellegos,
 
You can already find some answers one this devblog : https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/21-devblog-from-barter-to-market-economy/
For the remaining, I guess we need to wait for Nyzaltar answers.
 
I'm also interested about currency.
In one hand, I would be please to manage ourselves the economy, but, in the other, having a centralized banking system which handles transactions is aslo a good thing and remove a lot of useless hassle.
 
Regards,
Shadow

I will probably do the same: live on my ship, explore planets and the far reaches of space, form a small dedicated group.
 
Else, this concept seems interesting.
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hi pilots,
 
Biggest ships won't be able to extract earth-like gravity (they could in theory, but fuel requirement would increase drastically, which will increase ship mass, which will requires more fuel... definitely not efficient).
So I guess Space docks are mandatory, indeed.
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello Atmosph3rik and welcome aboard.
 
We don't cook so many things, but we have cookies.
Astrophil ! Come back here and don't try to keep them all !
 
Don't forget that part when they explode.
 
As Kiklix said: make sure to read the devblog, it's really interesting.
I hope you'll enjoy your reading.
 
Regards,
Shadow

there was a similar topic where Nyzaltar gave a response, although quite some time has passed, and maybe the team has more to say now.
 here- https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/49-what-if-we-had-pets/
 
For me though I do not understand having 'pets' in games. You can't really cuddle or enjoy the company of your pet in any significant way, and if the team goes out of their way to create overly elaborate and flashy visual pets to try and be eye candy, it usually just upsets me and decreases my enjoyment levels.
 
I also think its funny to see an army of warriors with tiny tabby cats, puppy's and ponies charging onto the battlefield. or worse floating alien strobe light pets.
 
I would not be against either having pet areas or a module or something you can put inside your ship that lets your pet roam around the area.
 
Things about pets that really upset me at times
companies trying to make pets relevant, by making them involved with loot, salvage, selling items, ect pet pet battles pets giving stats or advantages overly extravagant pets, with lights or eye clutter in pvp being able to tame wildlife and keep them in a zoo like setting could be really cool.
If they were to implement battle fatigue or 'mind wounds' similar to what was in SWG, maybe playing or watching pets could be a relaxing thing that cures the fatigue / wounds. Kind of like recovering from post. traumatic. stress. disorder.
 
lastly, for me Id like to say that if its done in a good way I have no problem with pets if they dont conflict with any of the following.
Will adding pets detract or distract the team from making other content. Like more weapon, armor, clothing models.
Will pets significantly increase the size of the game?
Do they have any chance of causing stability issues, or overwhelming players personal computers cpu / gpu ...
 - would it mean decreasing the player model quality, or terrain / fauna quality.
No looting, extra inventory, stats bonus, no pet pvp against players or other pets.

I like this idea.
 
Also, we could have some kind of scanner to identify people, as long as the scan requires a bit of time and can only targets one person at a time.
That could lead to interesting "Bounty Hunter" gameplay where the hunter needs to identify the target.
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there,
 
Just a random thought : what prevents people to build mini-games ?
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there,
 
Just a random thought : what prevents people to build mini-games ?
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there,
 
I would tend to KISS principle : Keep It Simple, Stupid. Else, people will get lost and it will create faucet between players.
Also, the more complex building is, the more time it will consume.
Remember that, even if we all like to build cool stuff, Dual Universe is also PvP oriented.
 
I think that Space Engineers has the right compromise. If you have not seen it yet, I suggest taking a look at ships made in steam workshop which can be really sophisticated and beautiful, even if they are based on basic shapes (attention, some ships may also use mods).
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there,
 
I would tend to KISS principle : Keep It Simple, Stupid. Else, people will get lost and it will create faucet between players.
Also, the more complex building is, the more time it will consume.
Remember that, even if we all like to build cool stuff, Dual Universe is also PvP oriented.
 
I think that Space Engineers has the right compromise. If you have not seen it yet, I suggest taking a look at ships made in steam workshop which can be really sophisticated and beautiful, even if they are based on basic shapes (attention, some ships may also use mods).
 
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there and happy new year.
 
My thoughts on this subject :
Backstory is necessary for role players but should not be automatic, nor mandatory. That way, it does not give potentialy sensitive data and will be more relevant. I think EvE biography (accessible to everyone) is a good starting point and may be customized to display more or less information depending on personal authorization. Also, it may be a good idea to let player share information on other characters so they can tell their "community" that X is a bad guy or Y helped them well. This could be done by a kind of "global network" which is accessible in the game from character, items, etc. and on which people can write notes and share them with their "faction" (like a personalized text display under generic informations or help). About character customization, it is important that each character can be unique and that it is possible to determine roughly their equipment at a glance for PvP (don't create an heavy armor looking like a mage dress please ).  
Regards,
Shadow

Hello there,
 
Nyzaltar may have an unofficial account arround here, who knows ?
 
Regards,
Shadow

7o,
 
Ryanis over there.
Feel free to pok.
 
Regards,
Shadow

I've been thinking about how explorers might be able to make a living in DU.  There is only one game I know of that has it right and that is Elite Dangerous.  Explorers fly out into the unknown scanning stars and planets with specialised scanning equipment.  When they come back to civilisation they sell the data to NPC empires for a price.  This works well for two reasons: E:D is huge so there is always something new to find; NPC empires always want to buy the data.
 
First I have to make a few assumptions because I can't really talk about the first aspect definitively as I don't yet have a good idea of how large DU is going to be.  Initially it will be a single planet and even after official release it seems it may be months before any player manages to launch themselves into space.  However, the territory control blog entry talks about a 30km planet being divided up into 1km hexes.  That would mean over 11,000 territory tiles to explore on the starting planet.  I think it is a fair assumption to make that only dedicated explorers are likely to see a sizable fraction of those hexes and that the vast vast majority of those hexes will not have players living in them.  Once players start venturing off into space, there will be other stars, planets, moons, asteroids, regions/bubbles of space, etc to explore, also with hexes.  So another assumption is that this space will also only be seen by players who make an active effort to go out and see some of it, and that it will largely remain uninhaited by players even once the game is in full swing with thousands of active players.  My final assumption is that the DU universe will actually be enlarged as and when the developers see fit and that ensuring explorers always have something new to, uh, explore, is a factor.
 
If a similar, true exploration system were to work in DU it would naturally need to be entirely player-driven, which means there must be a player demand for exploration data.  That in turn means that, ideally, players need to start the game starved of map data.  The most basic type of exploration data would simply be an image representation of a territory tile.  Players can fill out their world map by exploring the world, or by buying map data from people who have already been around.  This type of data will also have a "resolution" of sorts once space exploration begins - resolutions may be "solar system", "bubble" (as mentioned in the territory blog), "astronomical body" (i.e. star/planet/etc), "territory tile", and perhaps smaller if there are plans to split tiles up into smaller pieces.
 
Now anyone with feet can go out and pick up that kind of simple data without any kind of specialised equipment and it likely wouldn't sell for very much, or anything at all once a sufficiently large number of players have it.  A true explorer will have scanning and analysing equipment of various kinds to retrieve more detailed information.  A territory tile could be analysed in detail to provide a terrain map.  Other details might include information about flora and fauna, player presence and player built structures, yet more may include some mining information, and the most sophisticated triquarters might be able to give detailed information about the composition of the land and presence and size of underground caves and mines.
 
Now explorers have a reason to exist.  Players who want to move to a new, untouched area but don't have the time, resources or inclination to scope out hundreds of potential places for themselves can simply buy it from a professional.  Larger organisations may have the resources to employ explorers to search for specific things or specific areas, and during times of war or pre-war explorers may double as scouts and spies.
 
In order for this to work there needs to be a framework in place where exploration data can be reliably traded.  NQ have written about the market but exploration data can really only traded in a specific contract.  There might be a buy order contract for land within x radius that contains at least y amount of raw material A, for example.  I seem to remember NQ saying a contracts system is planned, and if it is anything like as flexible as the RDMS, tagging and organisation systems then it would probably be able to cater for this kind of trading mechanism without too much tweaking.  The other requirement is for different types of scanning and analysing equipment to made available or buildable.
 
I think there are lots of players, myself included, who love to go out and explore game universes, but it is always a richer and more rewarding experience when you affect the game and other players in doing so, while also making a little profit.  So with a little attention to ensure the game mechanisms support the activity, and keeping in mind my assumptions above, it could be workable.

Hi all,
 
First, I want to say "nice job" to the writer.
 
Then, a few remarks.
 
Don't forget that we would see the neutron star with 150 year of late (if it is at 150 ly, light would take 150 years to reach us).
Thus, the star has 500 + 150 = 650 years for arriving, which only requires about 1/4 or 1/5 of the speed of light (which is, still, a decent speed for a star ).
 
Now, if you try to compute the chance that this neutron star hit us... you just stop worrying about it  .
Or... maybe someone or something directed it right on top of us...
 
Never underestimate fans. After all, they even know Dagoba's gravity (https://what-if.xkcd.com/3/).
 
Regards,
Shadow

Thank you all for the welcoming.
 
... and another EvE player it seems   (I read a bit of your blog).
 
Well... the quest was hard, but I've found it ! Now, it's time to be patient... at least, I have my nickname reserved   (which is a miracle in itself)
... and we probably forgot... "likes to destroy things" too  .
 
Yes sir !
 
Regards,
Shadow

- Colonist M0099, logbook entry 001 -
 
I woke up from cryogenic sleep while the Arkship was landing on the planet. Actually, the term "crashing" would be more exact. As you can guess, awakening went brutal.
Fortunately, my body wasn't smashed to pieces.
 
After railing against the AI and her creator - who had thought that waking up someone in the middle of a crash would be a good idea? -, I began to listen to her instructions and slowly stood up from my hibernacle.
 
Having beta-tested the nanoformer and associated nanostorage, I had no need to run the AI simulation. Thankfully, I had not forgotten that part of my memory. "It's like bycicle, you never forget how to use it" said the engineers. Well, they were true, except that I didn't recall any blueprint outside of basic shapes. Whatever, it was no big deal.
 
I had a precise idea of what I wanted to do: build a versatile ship and go out explore our new galaxy.
I had no idea where I was. I cannot recognize any constellation in the sky. The AI wasn't either. While some were affraid of this idea, I was pleased to have a challenge to measure to. It was the opportunity to forge our own path, our own new civilization... and, why not? forge a name that may be remembered for ages.
 
But currently, I didn't feel like aa hero... My body was incredibly weak and and frail, my thoughts were so slow, and my memory was shredded.
But, at least, I was able to stand up and walk a bit without help. I was moving myself with caution. The Arkship didn't land perfectly vertical so the ground was not really horizontal.
Eventually, I got to my suit.
 
I struggled for nearly half an hour. But finally, I activated the main systems and locked my helmet.
Exhausted, I stood there a few minutes while my personal AI - I named it "Mia" - was checking every system.
Even after ten thousand years, there were still all operational. I don't know who designed them, but anyway, good job guys.
 
Like in a dream, I opened the Arkship airlock, got shocked bu the environment beauty and strangeness, eventually went out, and began writing my story.

Good afternoon adventurers,
 
I answer to many pseudonyms, but here you can call me Shadow  .
I like playing RPG, strategic and sandbox games. My favorites are Space Engineers, EvE Online, Baldur's Gate and a lot more.
 
In day to day life, I'm a french pentester (IT security) and developer during my free time.
Someday, I also decided to write a novel which I'm still working on (don't ask me where I find the time to do it, I don't know myself, but I clearly don't have enough of it).
 
Like what seems to be a lot of people these days, I feel a lack of gameplay and innovation in current games.
While searching (deeply) for a good sci-fi multiplayer game, I found Dual Universe which looks like very ambitious, but also very promising.
It's also an old gamer's dream for me too and I especially like the ideas to explore the universe, gather resources, PvP with ships I've created myself or create AIs.
 
I think that the only way to create a good game is by using all realist (and good !) ideas from everywhere, be it "copying" other game mechanics or listening to players.
Thus, I will probably make a lot of comments or critics based on my experience and my imagination. I always try to be constructive, but my imagination can get carried away sometimes. So do not hesitate to say "stop"  .
 
As we say in EvE, Fly Safe.
 
Regards,
Shadow