Underhook

Yep. I only just found out they have a test server. I don't want to cast a shadow on any players that are selected to be on the test server as I'm sure the majority of them don't even use the information for their own benefit. But it would seem that on the balance of probabilities there is a leak there somewhere.

1st of heard of it, was this recently announced? Its going to be very harsh on new players.

Things can change very quickly. Never say never. I heard JC (in Markee Dragon interview) saying he thought they would probably make one side of Alioth open to PvP and one side safe to allow fighting on the fringes. One week later its announced that the entire 3 planets will stay in their safe zone. The thing is, if they really need to wipe they might do it.

Sooooooo, your saying it will happen then Just having fun, your post made me laugh.

I joined the game on 24th of Sept. They have very generously given me an extra month too. Whilst I'm frightened by the new patch I definitely believe its necessary. I also believe that the game will need more massive rebalance patches in the future especially once PvP gets going. The way I see it the game is still in an alpha state. Its been sold as beta so people have beta expectations. IMO it wont be out of alpha until territory atmo warfare is launched. Which if le-souriceau post is right wont be for 7 or 8 months. That is when I think a lot of players would return or join for the 1st time. I don't think there is much point getting people back before then. To sum up, the player base has dropped because people were sold beta but got alpha, so no point getting them back until its in a beta state. Lets hop the money does not run out before then

Interesting topic. I guess for most people its important to have a decent size player base whilst its also important to clean up some of the stuff that's in problem areas. I started playing about a month after release. I have a couple of bases and few ships and 2 space stations. I'm still deciding as to whether or not I will continue my subscription. I was thinking I might stop for 3 to 6 months. Give them a chance to finish the game and them come back. Maybe there are quite a few people who are feeling the same way? Anyway my concern is. If all my stuff is gone ....... I probably wont come back and give it another go. I'd be OK if they compacted everything or even if they just converted everything to quanta at market rates.

Recently been listening to some history podcasts about pirates. Mostly they took the ships and or anything light like spices. Gold silver etc were too heavy and of no use to pirates who needed to be fast.

Good point

Its how I stay thin

Yes, I think trashing engine etc is spiteful behaviour. Disabling build mode sounds fair but not trash. As I said. I think throwing away your cargo is a legitimate tactic and could (and has been) be employed in real world to discourage pirates. So taking away that ability would be taking away players rights IMO. However, cargo thrown overboard, should be overboard somewhere. That, is probably going to be hard to implement.

It seems to me that you have invented a new currency that only works in your system. Your description of RP's could be the exact same description as quanta. Personalised factory just means that it does not offer as much as a market. The horrible marketing makes me want to throw up. That said the game is supposed to switch to player run markets at some stage so well done. I imagine that player run or org run markets will become necessary in the future as market owners begin to refuse service to certain competitor orgs.

Yes, maybe disable build mode. However, throwing away your cargo could be considered a legitimate tactic to discourage pirates. Which appears be working on you? With that said the cargo should probably be hurtling through space with a possibility of being picked up.

Ideas: 1) For new players: Mission requires stealth. Player must be low renown. No access to people with above blah blah skill points. Some people will create new accounts to access it but that will make NQ more money so this should be an easy sell. 2) For new players or PvE players: MIssion requires peace envoy: Character must have zero PvP skills 3) For PvP players: Mission requires Mercenary: Character must have PvP skills above blah blah skill points or possibly blah blah number of kills. 4) For orgs that limit org membership: Mission requires loyalty: Character can not belong to more than one org. 5) For open orgs: Mission requires diplomat: Character must belong to at least 5 orgs. I could go on and on but I hope you find this helpful. I'm not used to MMO's so maybe my ideas are easily exploited? I dont know. I think it is important that some of what is available to new or solo players is valuable or even vital. So, for example lets say DU has an ongoing saga that requires heavy research and co-ordination. Something only a biggish org could pull off. Something that also probably requires knowledge gained in alpha (like the 1st one) and/or knowledge gained from completing the 1st one (probably the next one). Well, that vital next clue ........... make that something only a new player or solo player can complete. Any major content should involve all players. The only way that can be done IMO, is by restricting some players.

Great discussion. Thanks to those who have contributed. I built my bases underground. I just figured that if eventually we can shoot at bases with atmo ships those weapons might not damage ground blocks in the same was as honeycomb.

Thank you for starting this thread. I live in Australia so I sort of expect events to happen when I'm asleep. I logged in at 9.30am this morning and began scanning. I thought I'd watch a youtube video and there I see a video about an event. The video went live at 2.30am. I watched the video and thought to myself ..... well that will be all over by now. Then I thought, why wasnt there a message waiting for me in game to let me know there was an event? So 1) was there in game notification of the event, perhaps directing people to the video? 2) If not, thats pretty bad. We already had the 1st event which was pretty much for alpha backers only (since special knowledge was required). I was fine with that but we should not require inside knowledge or heads up from devs for future events. Also, after watching a video of a clan participating in this event, they seemed to be indicating that knowledge gained in the previous event was assisting then in this event. Which kinda made me think. Is there any point in participating? 3) If there was in game notification ant the time then woo hoo well done. Please add a notification for people who log in later.

I saw it as a deliberate tactic to reduce the number of mega factories. After thinking about it, I dont know what advantage there would be in doing that.

The impression I got from interviews was that who owned the tile next to you was not important (so long as they are not the attacker). The idea being that being in the centre of a city is a pretty safe place and it would be a huge undertaking to take a city. However living on the fringes is less secure.

Agreed. We would burn too many potential players. Its better to wait until the game completes it alpha phase (currently called beta)

I have noticed that some youtubers have icons on screen for ships etc. Seems to be enabled by having radar. I have radar but cant work out how to get icons to show up. Would be great to avoid hitting stuff on Alioth and avoiding PvP fighters in space. Can anybody help please.

Thanks ...... but ..... I'm going to assume you never built a space station within a planets gravity. I built 1.2SU from Alioth. We can come to a complete stop but gravity will just pull the ship down as soon as you get out to place the core

I recently built my 1st space station. I didn't know anyway of keeping my ship stationary whilst placing the core. Nobody on support was able to tell me either. So, I logged out to get my ship to stay still. Is there currently another way?

I have to agree with many posts I have read here that say. You really should not be implementing these changes when the game crashes as often as it does and has far more serious bugs and mechanics that need attention first.

Interesting discussion. Regarding the OP's post: I'm still enjoying the game but can understand the way you feel. My general feeling is that the game is still in an Alpha state. Since there is apparently not going to be any server wipe it means that the mistakes made will take a long time to iron out. My only issue is ....... do I want to keep paying a monthly fee whilst waiting for the game to develop.

Thanks for the reply. That sounded like a cool project. Hopefully mine issue will auto correct at some point

Hi There, fellow ship building interested person I have recently completed a couple of space stations and have built a space only cargo ship to travel between them. To save weight, fuel and expense I have not fitted any ground engines (no verticle boosters). Its better IMO because the booster make it harder to land on a station and for take off I can just slide off the station landing pad. Anyway I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. My ship has 4 legs, to forward and 2 rear. The rear of the ship is much higher off the ground than the front. I decided to shorten the rear legs so that the engine will be angled down a little. This in theory will allow smoother take off from the pad when the ship is fully loaded. However, after shortening the legs by 2 voxels (tried 1 initially) the ship refuses to rest on the rear legs. They just sit with 2 voxels of air (space) underneath. Its as if they were still there. Even if I tilt the ship back with the tool or get in and use adjustors to push the rear down the ship just acts as if the legs were still there. Anybody encountered this before, is there a solution?