michaelk

Right, I forgot -- this is the place to talk ad nauseam about PvP, rollbacks, and exploits...stuff that really matters. Discussing how NQ treats their employees is totally less important than those vital topics with 5000 pages of people rehashing decisions NQ made about their video game, but employee treatment...totally "a waste of time". That you associate a discussion about how a company treats employees as "cancel culture" is a projection and says more about your perspectives than it does the actual topic.

Yeah, it's only two perspectives...years apart that say the same thing. It's odd that NQ is given a presumption of innocence while employee complaints are given a presumption of exaggeration or lies. This isn't specific to NQ; it tends to be how people view employee complaints in general. Most people have worked under rotten management. It is absurdly common. A lot more common than two people lying on Indeed years apart just because. Two accounts is hardly rock-solid proof, but that doesn't mean they don't count. Deciding that these complaints don't count is also a value judgement that is also based on assumptions. It's weird that when NQ deploys a change people don't like that's proof they are incompetent or malicious, but toxic workplace that actually affects livelihoods? Nah, we don't care about that.

I wonder about the morale at NQ -- the development velocity is mystifyingly slow despite years and years of foundations. I stumbled on these reviews about the (alleged) workplace culture: https://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Novaquark The second review is from 2016 and first is from 2019...well before the bandwagon of hating on NQ in these forums lol. How is it that the dev team is crunching (even in 2016) yet nothing is getting done...? The upcoming 0.24 patch is very big relative to past updates...but even then seems to be pushing very incomplete features relative to the time in development and size of NQ's team. I really feel for the devs at NQ...no wonder NQ has trouble communicating with players; they won't even listen to their own employees... I have plenty to say about JC's never working in game dev before NQ...but running a toxic workplace? No wonder production data got screwed up with the schematic prices and dev velocity is slow: why should the devs care...? Demoralized devs find a way to look productive while doing the absolute minimum. And if there's a perception that your ideas won't be heard? That you aren't really a part of the creation of the game...? You'll hold your tongue instead of offering good ideas. You'll never really go the extra mile or add your full potential to the project. Not like you really want the boss to be successful. Look....this is just a game for us. It's really not a huge deal if the game thrives or dies for us. We'll live. The devs at NQ have to go to work every day -- this is their livelihood and their lives -- and if they're facing toxic management and constant crunch, that's just not something I really want to support with my dollars. NQ could make every mistake with the game itself and I'd still probably be interested enough to maintain a sub, but not if they're running their employees into the ground.

Personally, I don't see the point in schematics if NQ is planning on implementing power. Power seems like a much more intuitive and realistic way to gate industry -- and one that would be easier for new players to understand and afford. As a design concept, schematics don't feel like they really fit -- it's a clumsy solution to the core problem. The point of alpha/beta isn't to have a balanced game. That would be an absurd goal that requires an extremely detailed plan -- game design discipline that most studios couldn't achieve, never mind NQ. I don't think 0.23 was "horrible" -- but I do think it was a major waste of time that could have been better spent on feature development. Schematics were a balance change, and balance changes don't really add anything to the game, they shuffle around the parts that already exist. Why spend time balancing a game that isn't done? You'll need to revisit as more features roll out, regardless...I get that they promised "no wipes" -- that doesn't somehow make it more plausible to balance an alpha/beta as you go. NQ is really slow at dev -- it might be a different story if they were faster, but they aren't. They should have invested the time it took to develop 0.23 into finishing features rather than trying to balance the very incomplete features they already have. That's why I actually agree with them ignoring the schematic price exploit -- they're slow enough as it is without distractions, their only goal should be finishing the game's core features so that the discussion of balance actually makes sense.

This is a classic Hanlon's Razor situation: "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" I think "stupidity" is too harsh a description here, but I don't think NQ is "corrupt". I think they're feeling the pressure more than anyone. There's always time to tweak the economy -- but very limited time to prove that they can push the product toward a completed state with new features. This bug is annoying and obviously unfair, but in their mind is less an issue than the mass-production that happened before schematics were rolled out. As has been said before, fixing this isn't as easy as it sounds -- it never is, but touching production data caused this problem and touching it again would just be risky. Sure, they "should have dev environments", but that isn't so simple, either. They have a dev environment, but likely not one with production data loaded. The cost of doing that isn't immaterial at scale. I agree it is unfair...but in the past NQ has knee-jerked to try to balance the game, and that really hasn't done much to move the game closer to release and the main complaint has still been "not enough features"...so it isn't a surprise that they'd focus 100% on 0.24 and let this ride. There will be exploits in the future, anyway -- if everyone thinks "DU is dying" I don't think spending the time to fix a one-off manual error is completely wise...?‍♂️

Xsolla supports a grace period field...has anyone tried logging in to an account that's been expired for months? Xsolla handles subscription status with webhooks -- it's always possible for there to be a bug on the receiving end that doesn't properly update the user's account, but it isn't a complex system. If you can log into an account that's been expired for a while, they might have temporarily stripped out the logic that checks for a valid sub on login (e.g. the webhook still works, but they aren't requiring a sub for now). Otherwise, it means the either the webhook is no longer working or there's now a grace period on failed subs.

Some of us take circle Js very seriously thank you very much.

Being impolite and disrespectful isn't great. I've done very poorly with being positive at times, but have tried to improve -- I haven't commented much recently beyond an extremely long and boring rant about GDPR and privacy. You don't have to like DU or NQ, but if you're going to criticize, at least make a reasonable point. Don't direct anger at the poor CMs who probably definitely don't get paid enough to deal with a bunch of misplaced anger. For real, Naunet is doing a great job -- she might not respond to every post, but she reads a whole mess of negativity all the time and is still polite and positive. Give her a break. At the end of the day, it is just a game for us. It's Naunet's job and no one should be talking crap about the job she's doing. So maybe if you want people to be more positive you should resist the phrase "neck beard circle jerk"...? Just saying lol.... People are entitled to an opinion, especially about a freakin' video game they've paid for...there's nothing "entitled" about expressing your thoughts on a public forum where the whole point is to collect feedback and opinions. Actual entitlement is treating people like a jerk and acting self-righteous about it. Anyway....looking forward to 0.24 lol.

Yeah I agree 100%, I hope it is clear that my post was aimed at the people calling it "tin foil hat wearing paranoid" And yeah, it isn't like any of this compliance is optional....NQ made the API, they have an obligation to understand and abide by GDPR (and CCPA, etc.)

I don't understand why people think that data governance is paranoia. Don't be naive! "Oh that's not important, no one can use that for harm!". Yes, they can...and the law doesn't let you decide that case-by-case. It's baffling because part of NQ's job is game design -- understanding how people exploit systems for personal gain is kind of their wheelhouse? You think the situation I've outlined is obscure and unlikely? Great, so do I...that still means it is a viable attack vector. There's a long list of companies that have learned the hard way that even obscure vectors eventually get exploited...how many cases have there been where corporations have been warned about an insecurity well before it was exploited, but didn't bother to do anything...? They probably thought it was paranoid, too -- that the risk was so low it didn't matter. A lawsuit or exploit from a game API like this will materialize at some point. It might not be with DU, but it will happen.

No data that can cause harm...? ?As NQ has no doubt discovered, people are creative when it comes to exploits. It currently isn't possible to block these methods -- it isn't about being smart, it is about what API methods and settings NQ makes available. You could use player names to match against social media handles and emails Most people don't use the same player name as their social media handle or email. As a scammer, I don't care about "most people". If I have a crapload of records, I'm looking for gems. It's a numbers game with exploits and DU is protected because the numbers are somewhat low. If DU had 2 million players, this would be a no-brainer. Take every player name. Add common TLDs like "@gmail.com". Easy. You could phish by impersonating NQ If I have a list of emails/social media handles (even a small list), I can create a targeted phishing campaigns to try to compromise your account, other PII, or financial information. If you receive a random spam email, you don't even look at it. Receiving something that looks like it is from NQ? It speaks to you because it is personalized -- even a tiny amount of context is valuable for scammers. Would you fall for it? I don't care, it's a numbers game and I have thousands of records. Someone will fall for it. This is exactly why laws like GDPR exist -- people are damn creative when there's a buck to be made...and it means being vigilant against every cybercriminal on the planet. Also (and I hate to pitch this philosophy) but it doesn't really matter if the data can cause harm or not -- GDPR still applies to EU citizens no matter how worthless it seems...so long as it falls into the criteria of PII (which I've already talked way too much about why a player name does count). TLDR: don't use a character name that is remotely similar to a real life email or social media handle

Sure, but there's a big difference between baseless conspiracy and concern over data privacy and governance. That there are bad actors lurking everywhere eager to abuse and exploit data isn't a conspiracy, it's a fact. GDPR is really clear about what data is protected. There's been multiple explanations written about how it applies to game data, including player names. No court would buy the argument that these data are "not related to natural persons" because it is logging the activities of an "avatar" vs. a person. That's not what the law says and various entities that specialize in collecting game analytics agree. There are actual reasons to keep this data protected...beyond it being the legal requirement for EU citizens where GDPR applies. I'm sure no one will care and most people think it is paranoid. I'm also sure that someday an API like this will be involved in GDPR lawsuits or fines or brute force attacks that further compromise PII.

I'm a bit confused by the section that says that rewards are non-binding. So...does the reward get put in escrow too, or only the collateral? That makes it seem like there's mechanics that enforce and require collateral, but nothing for rewards...? I don't understand the design rationale behind that. How? What price will be paid beyond having a poor review...? If someone runs 10 legit missions then 1 scam, that hardly makes them "pay a price", it just lowers their average. There's also no incentive to leave honest reviews -- if I rate someone highly and they rate me a zero, can I then change my review...? What's to stop people from weaponizing this system...? Or farming out a bunch of very easy jobs to org mates to inflate their reviews and burry negative ratings? "Business has risk" isn't really a design, it's a random thought. Haulers will already face risk from piracy and are already investing time...anyone that's played an MMO knows that time is the most precious investment. It seems like they are codifying a way for people to create scams because they think it will be fun...but there's no real way to retaliate, especially as a new player. The risk seems extremely lopsided -- the employer seems to risk very little (guaranteed collateral) while the hauler risks everything and has almost no recourse if they get scammed or ambushed. Just better hope that your one review is seen? Maybe I'm not understanding the design, here?

https://www.dualuniverse.game/news/devblog-missionsystem I'm sure most of y'all have seen this already... I'm doing what has been asked, which is to go to the forum and discuss ? It seems like this answers a lot of questions I've seen related to how the mission system will work. I'm curious what else might be coming with 0.24 or if it is mostly just the mission system. It sounds like missions will launch with only hauling missions. I wonder if there will be enough people hauling to make it worthwhile...I mean, it isn't mining, right?

As if having some extra threads is such a freakin' inconvenience. Not like there's a mess of activity around here anyway. In other words, he should quit and work for Newsmax? ?