Emptiness

Hello,
 
as things have developed since the last patches, the game seems dead. A lot of Player left and the activity has decreased. For a MMO this is as good as a buriel.
 
What makes me angry is just the fact that the real world is in a pandemic Situation were we are forced to be at home and have massive decreased social contacts. Something like a online game is one of the few things left to stay in touch with fellow humans. Something that keeps you sane and busy.
 
As a Developer who is offering a social plattform, the latest actions of Nova Quark are more than questionable. With the last patches the little activitys that the game had to offer were killed. There is not much to do anymore, but further a lot of frustration was induced in the player community. Instead of comforting the player, Nova Quark just slapt them in the face.
 
Maybe the changes are needed for the game, but there was no reason to do this before the real world is stable again. They took one of the few things away people had left to do and I just cant figure out why.
 
Of course those are subjective arguments. It is just how I feel about it and I want to share those feelings.

I think my argumentation displays that I´m not silly, my engagement in a online game that I´m not a extrovert and I´m pretty sure that I´m not running from my self. Further I do not blame Nova Quark, I just question the latest decisions and the effect they had on the game and the player community. 
 
What I cant understand is why a crowdfunded game were player, including myself, investet as much or more than a tripple A titel increases the grind factor dramaticly and pushes away player who were already engaged in the game. I was playing with people who I never saw again after the patch. Thats more than sad in times were the world is already stressed out.

What you fanboys totally miss is the fact the OP pointed out: During lockdowns more people play (online) games. NQ managed to "kill" their game in such a favorable situation, thus proving it was a shit idea they went with.
 
This is a fact that can not be argued. Lots of people voted "this is shit, I won't play it anymore", so stop this god damn cringe fanboying. The patch wasn't thought through at all, it was a terrible idea to do it this way and not even the math was correct, and I find people like you attacking anyone who spells this out cancer.

I'm here to share my voice and opinion.
 
NQ is dastardly and shameful for your responses. How dare you penalize other players and ban them for taking advantage of your blunderous buffonery. It's YOUR fault. What the hell?
 
"So the situation with the market is clearly covered by section 5.2 of the EULA: “You must refrain from engaging in any behaviour that could harm NOVAQUARK’s image and/or reputation, that could harm one or more other Users or have a negative impact on their gaming experience, or that is detrimental to the proper functioning of the Game.”"

Bullshit, you ruined your own image and reputation by screwing up and not having quality assurance and quality control and good tools. Your response is childish, and my stomach churns over this pretentious behavior given the sad state of your game currently masquerading as a beta which is really an alpha. How dare I support such a goofy group of greenhorn game devs who act like this.

NQ, you screwed up big time, and your response is indignant and telling of your emotional intelligence as an organization. Clearly you do not care for your customers or the money and assistance they bring in.
 
"Let us be clear, we will not tolerate this kind of behaviour during any phase of the development of Dual Universe."
 
Get good at game development. Your team doesn't play your own game, and you clearly don't have good development tools, and it shows.
 
"Now, this does obviously not apply to NQ-built constructs, which are designed to serve a specific purpose in the game."

Oh jesus christ on sale. lol Childish response from an administrative perspective. Banning players for doing things you allowed in game? Why don't you admin it back the way it's supposed to be? Or did you not think of that because you've never developed a game before? I'd think this and CS would have been top of mind for a game like yours.
 
Whining and complaining about how "bugs take manpower to fix" Yeah no shit, go fix them. It's your problem not ours. It's your fault, not ours.

You allowed this to happen. It's your fault. I do not approve of this action, and it's a real shame that you, NQ, acted and responded like this.

Excuse me? Are you saying no blueprints were made of those markets? 'Fixing' it should be as simple as deleting the old construct and replacing it. A task that would take a couple minutes, maximum, with the blueprints.
 
This is a reaction I would expect from children in a sandbox, not mature adults.
 
edit: Apparently the 'quick fix' is a reference to the market orders.
 
To which I have exactly one reply: What?

Market orders should be stored in the database and no removal of market constructs should EVER affect those.

As a new Player:
 
Get rid of Blueprints for all Tier 1 and everything you can build in Assemly Line M and lower.
Give the new Players some aire and possibilities.
I would not mind buying Blueprints for advanced Stuff.
Right now it is even hard for me to go to the next Market.
And all i see is "You need the Blueprint".
So i cant experiment.
I want to build a smal ship as i statet in another Post. But how?
The Tutorial wont work. I have no clue what i need.
And for everything i need to travel to the market.
What if i forget 1 wing or 1 brake is not enough?
Waste another 15 min for travelling to the Market?
 
 
And to those who are saying "You can build a better Ship with what you have", plz consider, that new Players dont know how and cant try stuff out, because we cant build stuff!

I've heard that way back in Alpha, ship design actually involved paying attention to the interaction of Center of Thrust and Center of Mass. That kind of challenge? Because it's something I really wish was still in the game.

Camping asteroids was the thing I was most concerned about when I first heard about them. Just look at how things are done here, if that particular asteroid with T3/T4/T5 ore is going to endlessly respawn where it is then the first thing that will happen is orgs walling that rock with L cores and that's it, no more asteroid.

This is exactly the imbalance that exists with PvP. I'm not going to volunteer to put my ship at risk to fight some gunboat just sitting in space waiting for a hapless victim. There is no way I can defend such a ship because the gun boat doesn't have to bother allocating resources to entering the atmo , cargo hauling and just packs it with weapons and armor. Now I will grant you that the warp past PvP mechanic is stupidly carebear and prevents any sort of emergent PvP like me needing to bring combat escorts to prevent my armored hauler from being destroyed before it reaches safe harbor.
 
Right now I hear the "make them come out of warp in unsafe space". Maybe this helps, but what reason do I have to put in that risk? Just to go get some higher tier ore? I dont' 'need' those high tier weapons / engines , they are just a convenience. PvP needs to have a purpose and right now really there is not much is the realm of purpose other then to gank someones ship parts whoopidy do. The flip side is also true that higher tier ores are woefully underutilized in crafting.

Oh, are we doing religious greetings here? Alright.
 
Happy Sol Invictus, everyone.

Let's make all "interesting" honeycomb T1 and the T2+ variants just a black brick but with meaningful stats. Deal ?
T2+ is not a "waste" it's supposed to give you a performance/durability boost, who cares what color it is.

Honestly, I think that all ore tiers should generate in equal quantities. The increased mining time already prevents their acquisition very fast (although I would not be adverse to higher tier ores mining time greatly reduced), and if someone wants to use a massive quantity of t3/t4/t5 for honeycomb for a creative project, the cost is prohibitive. 400kl of a t1 or even t2 for a lot of honeycomb? No problem. 400kl of a t5 for honeycomb? Currently, that's a colossal waste. Builders should not be punished for wanting to use interesting honeycombs.

This is what happens when game dev insta cave when adding elements that provide challenge. They couldn't even get element destruction in for a full week before insta cave to whining.
 
If they allow themselves to get caught in the age old trap of shoveling out "content" to the solo/casual ADHD crowd you can just kiss the game vision goodbye. Next we will be shooting bunnies that have magical $$ or drop super spiffy engine +5. 
 
Keep on caving to those whom came to a unique game only to cry for mainstream 'features'. We will end up with generic sci-fi MMO with an indi short on funds end product.
 
Make the game hard. Take the training wheels off and let those that can't hack it go back to whatever SP game that will spoon feed them do X to get loot Y quests and other nonsense.
 
Frankly same goes for a wipe. If its needed to reset the progression curve after a few major feature let the "omg! I paid money so you can't wipe" crowd go away. Bring it back from such a wipe with hard mode on, no bots , pull the safe zone buffer outside of atmosphere from the outter planets, drop the link range , the whole 9 yards. 
 
People act like $70/year is some sort of blood contract to have the game cater to their every impulse.

well guess what. they rush content now. 
 
no probes to build
no actual search for another system
no actual sending that probe there first
no "build a stargate on this side now"
no "one time jump" to the probe once it arrives there
no "build a second stargate on the side of the probe if you want instant travel"
no defending and selling access to that stargate
no actual fun, engaging and interesting gameplay
 
just instant gratification and a premade stargate because "muh DU needs more content"
 
laughable yet hilarious how they change the vision on the go

You are jumping the gun with your conclusions. Your company craves PVP now and I respect it. After 2-3 months, and after enough losses, one side will seek alliance. After getting enough allies, they might become a threat, and you will counter that diplomacy by making your alliances, its only logical. Result, for a solo bystander is exactly what the man who you replied to said. One big blob to which you are KOS, or other big blob to which you are KOS.
 
EvE was an excellent teacher to human behaviour - in space:)

The following is strictly my opinion. I hold absolutely no weight inside NQ nor do I believe I have any influence over their decision making. I also do not claim to know about what goes on behind the scenes as far as decisions are made. Alpha Team Vanguard is the furthest extent of my knowledge that could be considered outside the public eye.
 
TLDR at the bottom.
 
 
No wipe until after beta and before release or unless there is something seriously holding the game back from further development. Those are the only scenarios where I see it acceptable to perform a full wipe and planet reset.
 
I also maintain my position that a subscription beta was a terrible idea and that whomever put it forward may have put Dual Universe and by extension NovaQuark in jeopardy. I don't say it to be dramatic, but if we were still in an alpha like state where people simply bought into the testing phase and with BIG LETTERS told to expect things like bugs, glitches, incomplete content, and the occasional wipe, I feel it would have better set expectations and people would be way more tempered in their opinions.
 
We should be beta TESTING, a 'soft launch' should have never, ever been in the cards regardless of the financial situation. When I heard NQ stating that we'd be 'soft launching', I immediately questioned what happened to NQ's interoperation of the alpha and beta phases being proper test phases and not things like steam early access where the game was basically 'released' while not actually in its release (v1.0) state.
 
How NQ handles its ATV team is regrettable. I don't feel like an advance tester with an opinion that will be considered along with fellow ATV testers. Suggestions for how these test s should be handled in various instances have gone unanswered for months or are given some half solution that doesn't do much in the way of assisting with the testing process, hence my involvement in said testing is minimal.
 
If I was not leading my own organization.
If I was not a lifetime subscription holder.
If I was not ATV.
If I was not a moderator of the official discord.
 
I don't think I'd be here right now. Yeah, weird flex on basically the entire community I know, don't tell me.
 
All of that (somehow) fell into my lap because I was here for the kickstarter, and every time I log in, I wonder 'why me'? All I saw was a great game that I really wanted to be a part of. You beta testers that just plopped $20 down probably see those four things as a lot to loose and to some, maybe it is. Now flip that view and see things from my perspective, for all you beta testers with only $20 on the line and nothing to loose except enough for dinner for one, a few months time, and even some hopes and dreams, I'm surprised more of you haven't left already. If I was a new tester and was VR'ing around and looking at all the amazing stuff people have already created, forget the economics of it all. If all that was subject to a wipe from players that felt like they were behind the curve, I wouldn't bother subscribing until after release.
 
Ever since beta launched, we've been bumbling and stumbling around like drunks after last call.
 
I am forgiving of all the bugs we're experiencing. Alpha has sharpened me on that. Beta has not turned out how I thought it would. To be fair, alpha didn't either, but we're beyond that now... aren't we?
 
Am I dissapointed, yes. Am I still here though, yeah, I am. Do I have my complaints and grievances, I do. Will I air them, sure, if NovaQuark wants to hear them, most definitely. Do I think they'll listen, to me or anyone else, no.
 
Hope yall enjoyed my word vomit, that's all it probably is anyways. Cheers.
 
 
TLDR:
I think I'm a sepshul person in the community? (atv, discord mod, lifetime sub...... somehow)
Beta is a catastrophe
I'm unhappy with NQ and ATV
Things would be different if we were still testing and not a paid beta
NQ said alpha and beta would be proper testing phases and not early access

May be because you very experienced, early-start, relativly in game wealthy and lot-of-play-time player? 
 
This why you not in demographics that were hurt most by this so called update. 
 
 

From my perspective, you seem to be defending its poor performance. I say, its poor performance is inexcusable.

It erks me to no end that the ATV people outright TOLD NQ the problems of the patch. Said what needed to get addressed and NQ didn't listen, and went ahead with their plans anyway.
 
Then AFTER the community said "Fuck this shit" and started mass exodus the game
NQ back peddled on the stuff ATV said to back down on. Like NQ:
 
WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU LISTEN THE FIRST DAMN TIME?!?!?!?
 
Then pushed out a statement saying "We heard you".... no they did not.
NQ only listened when people started to unsubscribe and NQ started to lose money.
 
The sequence of events unfolding couldn't be more "Bass Ackwards"...
 
Like seriously NQ is only listening to the things they want to hear.
Catering to a niche carebear crowds when the larger portion of the community stays silent because they don't feel like writing full length articles on what sucks and why.
Thinking the game needs to be made harder and BARELY HAVE A GRASP ON HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY MAKING A GAME FUN.
If you wanted a true simulator then put that into your description in the game so that you draw in the crowd that buys into a simulator.
 
The PvPers... the THOUSANDS OF PVPers who want to spend money on a game that offers fun and challenge (NOT TEDIOUSNESS) will go to games that are WORTH spending their money on.
 
OTHERWISE, save your game by adding shit that will draw in the crowd and make them want to play the game.
T4 - T5 mega nodes in Asteroid belts PVP space only AVA - STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM LOCK AND FIRE, you will lose sooooo much interest if you do it that way There's barely much PVP going on now, applying AVA by way of lock and fire when the server is barely getting stressed out from ANY PVP in space today is just a cop out. Quit trying to take the most challenging path for NQ to develop for AVA and do it the same way it's always been done. A physical projectile being shot from one location and landing at another with AvA. All this calculation based AvA may seem nice on the beginning but by making the game less enjoyable/fun there will be less and less of it happening over all.
Or
If this is TOO much of a complication then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE find a better alternative to lock-n-fire shit. As it stands so many people are turned off by the way PVP is now. Having lock-n-fire first person shooter is just only going to add to one more reason to NOT play this game. Tractor beams and Harpoons and Interdiction for Warping ships Space anomalies to encourage exploration More wrecks rather than the crumbs we have today Ability for people to develop their own schematics to sell on the markets ( A FUN WAY TO MAKE THEM, instead of some overwhelmingly complex implementation that is AIDS to even bother getting into) 2 - 3 NEW SOLAR SYSTEMS If NQ does this, then it will be the defibrillator NQ needs to bring the crowd back to the game and more money to be generated. HANDS DOWN.
Because there's nothing to do, people see no need to subscribe. It's causing less cashflow to get into the game and more people to walk away because they're pushing shit that makes the game worse and less fun.
 
Instead make shit that energizes people to play the game not want to gag on a baseball bat at the thought of having to mine to craft to indi to build to fly to .... ugh... fuckin hell ... to just do anything at all.
 
If there was 2 or 3 new solar systems in the game with exotic planets to check out, I'd happily command my people to gather the fleet for a "Great migration" to the new system. Fight anyone for the new elements and happily mine and craft and all the crap just because Flying for days and weeks just to explore somethign new is a LEGIT reason to stay in DU.
 
With PvP? I'd love to board someone else's ship at 5-10,000km/hr with harpoons and tractor beams. Pulling someone out of warp to kill the crew and take their stuff.
 
With exploration? IF WE HAD deep space probing abilities and better notifications about random celestial events to give us a better heading of where shit is so we can explore it then yeah. I'd gather a crew to go explore the new thing.
 
With T4-T5 mega nodes on Asteroids? OMG would you see some heavy activity in the community.
but with what they've done? there's literally ZERO reason to play... ZERO reason to fight... ZERO reason to even bother doing anything in the game.
 
Those 7 points above = CONTENT that the community is unable to and unwilling to try and create themselves. NQ needs to do it or people will trickle out the door more and more.

0.23 was the feature that made the game excessively difficult for many but not all. My personal view is that NQ needs to be focusing on adding features to the game that make it fun and enjoyable for the community to even have the energy to get involved in.
"There's no where to go but up from here"

I'm going to make this claim:
If NQ doesn't push to make this game fun, to offset the difficulties they've created it will not survive long after launch.
Many people don't like coming home from work to do more work. It's what won't make money for NQ's DU to survive as a game. The only thing left to do would be to sell the technology and close up shop and move on to the next project.

From my perspective, you seem to be defending its poor performance. I say, its poor performance is inexcusable.

From my perspective, you seem to be defending its poor performance. I say, its poor performance is inexcusable.

At this point the NDA is a mood point as we are already talking about it, so here it is.
NQ didn’t listen when people told them to remove the bot orders from the get go, they left them on soft beta release. This in conjunction with leaked information on the location of wrecks (very unbalanced and unfair) and leaked information to a selected few on other matters, including but not limited to ore locations and prices, lead to an unprecedented rush that made a few people extremely wealthy by day 2 of soft release. Now, NQ claimed that some of us where exaggerating the amount of wealth and made a vague statement claiming it wasn’t much and everyone was going to be reset to 50 million. What NQ didn’t say was that they only accounted for the Quantas and not the assets (and that I can prove, as my assets weren’t touch), couple with, yet again, more leaked information to a selected few, made some stack up on billions of hard assets by day 4-5. So they took the money sure.....they didn’t touch the assets, meaning some had enough factories, equipment and everything you can think off to play the rest of their lives without a care. Add that money was also moved prior to the cap to alts and players (50 million a piece), and some people having 6-10 alts, well, you do the math.
 
Now, with that say, I could care less about the above statement and if I can say it or not, at this point it doesn’t matter cause NQ can’t penalized me for breaking anything when they are completely back peddling themselves. So, consider this my last meal before I jump ship for better seas.

There are at least two types of players.

Those who like pvp and will engage in different stages of pvp and write stories.
Those who dont like pvp and want to build and create cities and read stories about those who are living outside safe zone.

We need them both for the game to be complete And bubble is needed. This wont be Rust or Ark 2 with no safe zones, etc.

I'm pretty sure 0.23 was a mortal blow for the game.  I worked hard (12+ hours a day for 3+ months) to get to the point of being able to build a Warp Beacon.  Towards the end, it was a real drag - basically spending the entire day doing 15 minute scans in hopes of finding a single vein of T5  Niobium ore, knowing it takes several veins to make the alloys required (plus all the T1->T4 ores).  Still, I did it, since my goal was in sight.  I've gone from the 4 yard line to the 99.5 yard line now - the game didn't nudge me to something a bit harder, it tackled and plowed my head into the ground and claimed "Gee that was fun, get up and lets do it again, and again, and again".
 
I can't understand the lore (and yeah, lore is important) behind not being able to duplicate schematics some 10,000 years into our future.  In fact, with industries so relatively cheap, not sure why each has a schematic box.  Each industry can only run one thing at a time.  There is no LUA code that would allow cycling between them, and even if there were, the 10 input links would severely limit that usefulness.
 
Suspect I'm going to have to hear something like 0.25 will be both a wipe and bot free to bother to come back.  I've been logging in daily for the bonus, but the impulse to do that is fading quickly as well.
 
Have we seen any of the rollbacks promised yet, beyond the income change and schematic price change?  If so, I missed the announcement of the damage change rollback and the like, much less any compensation for cores blown post 0.23.