Lorna_Sicling

The future of DU.... I really hope that there is a future. It has lots of potential, but really is lacking players. It needs player numbers to increase dramatically to hit a critical mass where there are thriving markets on other planets.... not just Alioth District 6. It needs player numbers to contest the alien cores, to get involved with some of the amazing projects out there, to push NQ to develop more content. Thing is, the monthly sub is just too high to attract these players. The lack of player numbers puts them off (catch 22, I know). Why are there fewer planets now than there was before "the wipe"? Why haven't NQ expanded monetisation options to include vanity items like skins? Why isn't there reasonable character customisation option? Surprisingly people like creating and dressing up avatars. Why aren't there seasonal events? It may cause some pain to start with, but dropping the sub cost by a significant amount, say 50%, and adding some form of cash shop for skins and customisation options (and DAC in that store too!!!), will increase your revenue. Many more people paying less is much better than a few people paying the current sub and lamenting the loss of players, one person at a time.

I don't think it should be a demo - I think it should be you get 1 month free playtime on the main server when you buy it on Steam, and then you are given discounted options for subscribing after that, say 3 months sub is 30% off, 6 months is 40% off, 12 months is 50% discount. The community, from my experience of returning to the game very recently after previously playing before "the wipe", is very accommodating and almost falls over themselves to help new players, which is the best way to get into the game. Offers of interest free loans for a ship to be able to go asteroid mining... invites to corporations to get involved in PvP or other group activities... Lots of other advice and warm welcomes.... it's all there on the main server. Why put new players into a cold, uninviting environment where progress is meaningless, when there is a community ready to welcome and help new people, and lots of existing constructions and ambitious projects to inspire those people to stick around?

Also, territory scans should be able to be viewed on the map from a linked container, not just your own inventory. Definitely some nice ideas here. Especially the compact at market and then can only be uncompacted on the same hex, or maybe even an "impound" hex 2 or 3 away from the market, so you have to go there, pay a release fee (dependent on core size and maybe ship weight too) and then it can only be uncompacted on THAT impound hex, no other hex in the entire game.

At the moment, the PvP aspect of the game, from my point of view, isn't even really in existence. Ideally, there would be "safe" areas for newer players to explore and build on, knowing that they can't be shot. There would also ideally be areas where you can get shot both in space, in the atmosphere, and on the ground. However, realistically with ground bases, unless the ground bases have the option of either being invulnerable at certain times of the day (when the owner(s) are probably offline and so not able to defend it), then they need to be able to deploy things like shields and surface to air weapons. Let's face it, if I fly to Thades and mine, I'm not stealing anything - nobody owns what I mine, unless somebody has claimed the hex and set access for anybody to mine, in which case that's their own issue. PvP in its current form seems beyond dull, and very much like a terrible MMO where you just click on something, click on something else and then do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and repeat. DU gives the ability for skill and design to play a huge part in how ships and ground constructs are made, and I'm hoping that when the PvP update hits, we will start to see that same variety of design and skill play a huge part in how PvP actually works. For point and click PvP, there are other things like Eve online for space games, or WoW for characters - both essentially involve clicking on something and then just pressing the number keys in sequence.

Oh - sign me up!

Thanks for this - very helpful and I will try it when I get my ships back on the same planet. Another easy solution would be to have some sort of tether module which works with either landing gear or another tether module - sort of like the connectors do in Space Engineers, so you can set them through Lua to have an attraction strength, or be locked or unlocked etc. for automated docking systems when approaching space stations or whatever. For now, I think I'll put some steel plates down on the floor to act as elements for your fix.