[The market clutter is becoming a real problem for some]

Probably moot at this point. The game seems to be in a bit of a tailspin.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

11 minutes ago, smurfenq said:

I dont know if you remember, but this thread is about mission system, which would make warping cargo a very profitable career. And i never mentioned anything about billions not even close. And if you now slowboat so often and rarely/never get caught, why would slowboating hauling missions be a problem then? I'd be all for warping mission cargo when safezones are gone btw. It's just that at the moment, it would be just another way of making money compeltely inside the safe zone that is a problem.

Fair enough, but even the idea that mission rewards for merely hauling are going to be so profitable that warping will be economical is quite the speculation.  Slow boating is not a problem, I choose to do it. Having no choice but to do it because some 'pirate' finds it too hard to kill players would be a problem.  I don't think the safe zones are going anywhere any time soon. Certainly not the 'Triangle'.

 

You want money making outside the safe zone?  Advocate for Pirates being banished from the safe zone.  The mission board would be full of high value bounty missions that would actually be doable with pirates not being able to hide in them.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

12 minutes ago, smurfenq said:

I mean, you've said the solution to your problems "there is no example historically of pirates being in ships that could go toe to toe with top of the line military vessels", make sure to surround your hauler with these then, and exactly as you said, don't put guns on your hauler, that would be stupid, put a second ship, designed to have guns on it to protect you, make it a top of the line military vessel just in case there is a pirate around. 

Warping isn't the free pass you seem to think it is. I actually rarely warp to my destination as it would just be too expensive 800-1000 cells so like most I'm hauling 'off pipe' between planets.  So rather than crying to NQ for any 'easy button' to hobble warp, why don't you adjust your gameplay and hire a fleet of friends to scout for haulers who are slow boating?

 

Also, to address your other idea that haulers make billions by 'pressing 2 buttons',  I know of nobody who is making tons of money merely hauling.  At most, they are making millions transporting and selling ores that they spent hours and hours mining.  So if I'm mistaken, let me know and I'll promptly be changing careers. 

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

2 minutes ago, blazemonger said:

i think you're pushing it here.. by a lot. Frankly it's uncalled for as a compare IMO.

 

Pushing it yes. Uncalled for not really. Water it down to theft and leave a car door unlocked.  The logic still holds.  I find the idea that piracy is a legitimate trade or adds anything to the game dubious but somewhat understandable.  However, I find pirates crying that it is too hard to off someone in the game kind of funny.

 

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

2 hours ago, Moosegun said:

Sorry but the whole argument that someone who is a pirate is just a griefer or psycho is just complete rubbish, will pretty much completely devalues your opinion.  Pirates are just players, the same as you, who have just as much right to be in the game and to ply their trade as anyone else.  Where is the risk to the pirate? it should be the security you have brought with you, if you decided to travel alone and unarmed it is not the pirates fault, they are a pirate.  

I doubt "it's not the rapist fault he's a rapist". Or, "the pretty girl shouldn't have been walking alone" are very solid moral or legal defenses.

 

The idea that haulers need to engage in an arms race is also a joke. Both in terms of logic (there is no example historically of pirates being in ships that could go toe to toe with top of the line military vessels)  and in game where even in a decked out hauler, combat is basically predetermined by load out or at best a button pushing race.  So basically at best you have a player being forced to participate in an aspect of gameplay that is neither fun or profitable just so some bent character can get his rocks off. 

 

It's not really about choice of game play it's more about a poorly developed combat mechanic that doesn't really give players much choice.  As a pirate there isn't much choice but to be a murder hobo and as a hauler there isn't much choice other than to completely avoid combat.  

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

As I've thought about it, I've basically come to the conclusion that the mission system is too little, too late.  The destruction of industry in the last patch basically resulted in mining being the major activity in the game.  For me personally this means by the time the mission board drops I'll be sitting on about a billion quanta or so.  So, hauling some one else's cargo for a relative pittance  isn't going to provide much incentive.  Folk's building and selling ships at the moment also don't seem to be suffering much difficulty in sourcing elements or other parts for those ships.

 

There needs to be more to do in the game.  At this point the only feature I see is an over haul of the combat system to something that doesn't completely and utterly suck and to give it a meaningful purpose like territorial conquest rather than just a means for some wanker to get his jollies ruining someone's day.

 

 

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

11 minutes ago, smurfenq said:

Well if people decided to haul cargo with ships instead of paper airplanes and do some planing and use escorts like you would if you wanted to make sure your valuables arrived intact in the real world. Then it would be a lot harder for pirates to steal your stuff, it makes no sense that hauling should be done using a ship with the structural integrity equivalent with a can of beer. Valuables needs to be protected, you can't just mindlessly wander around with millions of dollars in your pockets and tell thieves to stand back because they should have some risk attached to robbing you. Also I would love the challenge if carebears started to build ships that took a blow or two, and have someone protecting them, it would make pvp and piracy fun and exciting. I can't wait.

Quite a lengthy non-answer to the question of where exactly is the risk to pirating?  Right now pirating is the most risk free activity in the game.  Just the typical name calling and denigrating of other players as one tries to justify their psychopathic tendencies. Very hard to take pirates that operate out of bases in the safe zones seriously.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

3 minutes ago, smurfenq said:

There is no way hauling missions can be warpable, that would kill the whole point of it, no risk yet high reward, that doesn't seem fair does it? Us pirates would like to have a piece of the cake you know. If hauling missions are warpable, people will just warp, go next mission, warp, rinse and repeat and all the sudden you're now rich, for pressing like 2 buttons, there's gotta be some risk, otherwise we'll just have the whole playerbase warping across the system all day doing nothing else and for real, there is nothing fun with that. Make it fun, make it fair.

So where's the risk for 'you pirates'.  You go out and mug a freighter and then return to your 'pirate base' which is 'under police protection' in the Safe Zone.  I have to laugh at a pirate complaining that a player can get rich by just 'pressing two buttons'.  There is no activity in the game for which 'getting rich by pressing 2 buttons' is a better description of, than it is for piracy.  Make it fair... indeed.  

[[Discussion] DevBlog: The Mission System]

Overall, this is great news a mission system will potentially give players something to do but with the game as it is it may not be enough. 

 

I don't know about pirating missions. There is no pirating in this game just murder.  The combat mechanic is so horrible that basically once you've been targeted/scanned and your warp drive is reset, you are done.  The balance of risks is terrible you can lose weeks of work mining ore and getting a large hauler just to lose it to some guy who slapped some guns on a box.  On the other side, killing another ship is basically just getting into range and button pushing.  The only real purpose of "combat" in this game is basically just a harmless outlet for psychopaths.

 

[Continue playing or quit the game (after 0.23)]

20 minutes ago, Ahzzmandius said:

This poll is rife of self selective bias. Until the devs release internal stats on unique logins by day we won't know how many truly "quit" and how many are voting "I'm gone!" as a means to pressuring NQ into reverting to the Easy Mode. 

 

My guess is that it's a small minority of no more than 5% want to actually quit. The rest are just using it as leverage to force a reversion to 0.22 because they don't want a complex sandbox.

Nope, don't want a reversion of 0.22. I want content.  You don't seem to understand that there is a dearth of content in the game and the patch torpedoed a big chunk of that.  So, I've logged in I tool around with the account for a bit then I log off.  Player counts right now won't tell the story.  I started at the beginning of Beta.  My sub runs out on the 27th.  I've clicked off the auto sub. So, I'd expect the end of December is when we'll see the real story.

[Continue playing or quit the game (after 0.23)]

Can you imagine being a new player? Every hex that isn't a 25km flight to the nearest market is claimed or mined out.  Testing the cargo limits of whatever ship you've managed to scrape together you hit the lagfest aka markets and crash your ship.  Your little xs core is destroyed and you need to buy a new core.  Just as you are feeling lucky that the market you've crashed at actually has one in stock, the price of the thing comes into your field of vision.  You stare blankly at the screen for 30 seconds before hitting the escape key and punching the exit to desktop.  The only bright spot is that they've probably quit the game before seeing the price of a schematic.

[Update and my concerns]

28 minutes ago, Shynras said:

 

 

DU isn't just a building game for creators, NQ wants to create an actual society that in a way works as a self-sufficient ecosystem, and it relies around the equilibrium between all parts and entities that take part in it. This change is one of the first that goes in that direction. 

That may be the problem.  I'm here for entertainment.  I live in an actual society.  So factories have been crippled.  Well, ok it was interesting to expand my factory and be able to create new equipment to expand my capabilities in the game but, babysitting a factory was getting a bit stale and probably wouldn't have held my interest for too much longer.  So now that has been hobbled and I'm supposed do what instead of managing my factory?  Mine?  No thanks.  Make screws and schlep them 30 km to the nearest lag fest that pass for markets?  Again, no thanks.  Maybe, take what little wealth I've accumulated and piss it away on PvP.  That could be fun but, the current combat mechanic is pretty much at the level of being a graphical text adventure.  There is so so much that needs to be added content wise before worrying about forcing specialization. 

[Dec 7 Twitch Q&A - Let's Discuss!]

23 hours ago, NQ-Naunet said:

Hi everyone! ❤️ 

I promised I'd be in here to answer questions, but the list grew A LOT! I'm having the entire team pick at the questions to ensure I'm delivering the best answers.  (Just so you know why I'm delayed.)

NQ-Pann is in the process of writing a stream recap as well, so please be on the lookout for that in the coming days.

I take it you've been too busy updating your resume and Linkedin profile to get to the questions?  Probably a good idea.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: Rebalancing the Universe]

4 minutes ago, Captain Hills said:

 

I'm not sure if a wipe would keep me playing, be careful with such decisions.

The Idea to limit factories and attract the market is basically okey, but not via the schematics because it will solve the issue only for the moment and kill lonely wolfs and smaller orgs.

If the game is a sandbox then a wipe probably isn't needed but this game has a PvP focus and a wipe at official launch is the only way to properly level the field (and yes I would suffer a big loss in a wipe).  Just because the British invented modern football it doesn't mean they get to start with  a 2 goal lead in all international competitions (no matter how bad they need it).

 

[[Discussion] DevBlog: Rebalancing the Universe]

13 minutes ago, Mornington said:

there are so many other aspects of the roadmap that should have come in first, before this can even work

 

you said you were going to employ someone who actually knew anything about economics at a degree level

 

I'm guessing you have not done that, because they should have advised you against this

They did hire an economist. Where do you think the free 100,000 daily quanta idea came from?  Classic Keynes.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: Rebalancing the Universe]

8 minutes ago, BiGEdge said:

Of course it needs the Mission system, but it was never intended for the final game that a single player or a small group can build anything on theyr own, but have to cooperate with many other players and orgs to archive anything

 

The markets will be useful as soon as not everyone will be able to build anything on theyr own.
And afaik its planned for later after release, that the players will be able to set up theyr own markets, so the NQ markets are not needed anymore.

Won't players just eschew the Markets and keep everything 'in house' within their org?  Trying to force 'cooperation' with out incentivizing the player won't work.  It would have been far more interesting for industry if they had forced specialization. A better approach would have been limiting what combinations a static core will allow.  For example, placing down a refiner would mean that a, metalworks, assembly line or electronics industry unit would not be allowed.  It would be more realistic as even a Tesla Gigafactory doesn't have raw ore come in the front door.  

 

Forcing a vision in a game by increasing the grind or time sinks at the expense of the fun isn't going to work out well.  I get paid to work. I'm not going to pay to do work.

[[Discussion] DevBlog: Rebalancing the Universe]

Soo, I need significant capital to buy these 'recipes'.  Ok, how does a new player get quanta ah yes they mine and mine and mine some more.  Well, that's not exactly engaging game play is it?  I guess it could be worse.  NQ could do something monumentally stupid like nerf mining.  Imagine if someone at NQ was off their fckng rocker enough to propose something to make mining even more tedious like perhaps slaughtering the linked container range?  Only a complete imbecile would contemplate that..... right??

[EVENT - TOTAL PARTICIPATION - PVP - END OF THE WORLD]

Somewhat symptomatic of the state of the game and the  PvP combat mechanics that a post touting an in game combat event has to use a picture from a different game/franchise.