fiddlybits

IndyHUD 1.3, now has DE and FR translations (Lua Parameters) thanks to @Ikara2184 and @EliasVilld 
 
### v1.3
- Added DE and FR language translations for menus and machine states
- Added a 3rd mode for Containers, "full" shows all names within range (screenshot 1)
- Added a corner highlight on machines that are set to "run forever" (screenshot 2)
- Improved the foreground highlight of boxes being hovered on
- Improved maintain levels when pending
- Improved max machine load (no limit found yet)
- Minor performance improvements

https://github.com/codeinfused/Indy-Hud
 
3rd mode of SHIFT+G

 
Indicator for machines set to "always run"

On this morning's stream I think they said it would be at the start of the month, Nov. 1st.

ahh sorry, late to the party, despite of ping. Frist of all welcome back 😀 yes the sheet has the current values and will be updated as soon as there are changes. Hope this will help you.
 

Are you trolling? If not, your post is grossly offensive and attention-seeking.

What people on Discord, this thread and the other thread clearly don't understand is that NQ literally created precedent for other people who have tiles connected to markets to do the same. It isn't about ArchHUD, autopilot or even missions, for that matter, it's just that accordingly to NQ-Rubicon's own words, the market rules are only enforced within Aphelia (market) tiles, nowhere else. So if players decide to build towers obstructing markets or spam screens with advertisements on their connected tiles, they are allowed to do it, based on what was said.

 
The precedent is now set, it's NQ's "official" statement about the subject, and honestly, I'm tired of that subject already. I already got my punishment by NQ for talking on the subject and don't want to get into that rabbit hole again, just to get punished again. So much hassle.
 
Anyways, let's see how long this holds up and this interpretation of the rule stays valid.

QoL - Improving the little things

Dissamble feature for player owned cores.  Some leftover voxel chunks cannot be found and the owner is not able to locate, it. It is forcing player to give up on their core or they need the help of an GM.

Thank you very much for your work and support of ArchHud. It has made my time in DU better and more valuable.

Hey, I've put out a video that covers setting up RDMS on constructs and individual elements with security in mind. I also cover how to target all the elements on a construct with Composite Tag rules.
 
If there's any interest, I'm thinking about doing a followup to expand on what else you can do with Composite RDMS. Thoughts?
 
 
 

I don't think so, but am not 100% sure - will try in a bit.  But a newbie to the game is not going to know that.
 
Update:  Carter on the forum proved it.  You can only compact items with an XS dynamic core.

Wondering if it might be possible to modify the blueprint deployment to to allow, in certain circumstances, a substitution of the core unit.
 
For example:
Increasing or decreasing the size of the current core (same type), where this does not cause overlapping elements or elements outside of the build zone. Swapping between space and static core. Though really I can't see any real need to constrain what core types/sizes can be swapped, as long as there are no overlapping elements or exceedances of the build zone. This would make the deploy blueprint tool even more valuable than it already is.

I do plan on doing some Lua videos for youtube soon as well. Instead of trying to compress that info into a graphic. I've thought about trying to get some collaborators and build individual infographics for tips on categories of the game.. such as [voxel tools], [asteroid mining tools], [rdms (maybe a video instead)], etc.

Although I'm commonly very understanding of NQ decisions and often try to look at the big picture, I am just not able to grasp this.  Not from any high level position, not even from space.   Schematics, I understood the need to slow the game progression down.  DU is designed/meant to be a long term game with long term goals. Fair.  I understood the need to reduce cores amongst the community, my org was only at about 1000 total (3 of us) and we managed to bring that down to 300 and felt that was fair. (though we wished for a "remove all to container function".  I understand the need for the screen/art changes. I understand the need for the voxel rebalance.  I understand the need for pretty much everything NQ has done from a "Big Picture" perspective. (even if I don't like them all  )

That said, you are pushing your subscription cost to play outside of many people's ability to pay it.   Yes some people are rich and can afford the hike, but many of the most "cherished" DU players are literally on Twitch begging for money to support themselves and their families.  There are many non streamers in DU that are part of this.  We have several players who have become homeless throughout Covid and managed to scrape together enough to play DU from time to time to make their lives a little better.  Because at the end of the day, DU wasn't mainstream, but its community could very easily turn a bad day IRL in to a fun happy day. (all the little happy builds)

I understand the need for money to keep your business going, and I understand the new cost projections you have for launching to a vast "spike" in players initially, with a gradual reduction over time due to normal projected forecasts of inactivity. (all games, literally every single one)  That said, I urge you to highly reconsider this new price point.

We the DU community, those who took the time to post here, are telling you this a "bad" plan for launch.  Many are sharing their own reasons but no matter the reason, we are telling you that this price is too high. Going to steam with a sub cost above $15 has never been accepted by the reviewers. We are also telling you to introduce "micro" transactions in the forms of skins that will supplement this increased cost.  Its much easier for people to "consider" purchasing 2x $10 skins in a month than it is to justify paying a "flat" $5.00 more for nothing extra.

Please if you DU anything NQ....If you were to listen to anything... you are pricing yourself out of a larger audience by being the ONLY MMO game to have a sub higher than WoW ($16.97)  in Canada.  This isn't any sort of "smart" logic.  DU this and watch the red reviews start on Sept 27th.... 

My orgmate's sub is till 2025, we plan to long term this and hope it survives more than anything.  Lower price = Larger audience. Larger audience + (skins) = longer term players (invested)
 

Nope, first was me.

RMT Here we come!

Thank you for the list, this is really useful. I noticed that the last several releases on discord no longer include the 'Known Issues' section. Perhaps a list like this can be included instead.

I haven't tried, but you should be able to do this with LUA. The engines thrust level and on/off status can be controlled through scripts.

Hi there, so I've only been playing for a little over a week and I bought a custom made ship after saving up a lot of quanta.  Today I saw a post on the Discord stating that ships with stacked elements are subject to deletion without warning or compensation.
 
After some research, I found that the ship I bought has stacked elements.  If that ship gets deleted, I'm screwed.  For veteran players, I'm sure this is just a mild annoyance, but for newer players who bought a ship from a showroom they could really get screwed over.  I realize that this is an exploit and it needs to be fixed.  Perhaps instead of DELETION WITHOUT WARNING OR COMPENSATION, you could instead just disable the ship so they don't function until the stacked elements are separated?  At least that way, newer players don't entirely lose their investment and they can learn how to use build mode to separate the elements and still have a working ship even if it's a little ugly.  It still also solves the problem of people flying around with an exploit to give them an unfair advantage because their ship won't function.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
EDIT:  Before anyone responds...  Yes I know how to separate them and I intend on doing so, and I know where some stacked elements are but I'm really new at the game and I might not catch them all.  What if I separate all the elements I know of and it still gets deleted because I missed one?  If they just disabled the ship from being piloted, at least then if I missed an element that I could still correct it and not lose out on my investment.

Monthly Update - September 1st, 2021
 
Nine rescues were made over the month of August, 112 for Beta 1 and 250 overall!
 

 
On August 30th Eyes & Ears secured its 250th official rescue. 16 months after we celebrated our first hundred rescues. It would appear that my prediction on this milestone being achieved did occur during Beta, even though we are celebrating our one year anniversary.
 
To say that Beta has been slow, especially if you’ve kept up with my updates here, well that's the usual understatement. Compared to Alpha, it feels like Beta has massively under performed, especially in the rescue department. While various competitors have since appeared and broken into the space, I’m of the opinion that we’re seeing traffic far below expectations and that’s including the prospect of our competitors.
 
Advertising hasn’t changed too much since Alpha. As the marketplaces have shifted I’ve since moved our advertisements from static screens into advertising kiosks, so perhaps we’re getting less eyes running across, but the solution of the kiosk has attracted more curious eyes. The recruitment post has gone through a few minor changes but it still pops up in the DU Discords org recruitment section, we even have a new spot in the discord where our service is displayed in the utilities channel.
 
The forums, we’re basically on page one and that’s with only monthly updates where I used to do weekly updates! Why do I do these updates, hey people, we're alive and stuff is happening! In the past, weekly updates were just barely keeping us on page one at all. Now having switched to monthly updates, we're still at the top of page one which, is kind of shocking just thinking about it.
 
 Just looking at the numbers, we’re about in line with New Genesis, a PVP organization where you shoot people and take their stuff, or at the very least on a surface level. On the contrary, we show up after the shooting is done, and how many people do you think find that fun compared to the looting and shooting part?
 
Then there’s word of mouth, and I’m sure we’ve only spread further since then of the little rescue group that could.
 
I don’t think it’s so much a matter of getting the word out that hey we exist and we’re a thing, but it’s that activity has fallen over the course of Beta as I'm sure everyone reading this knows. Sure, it was a buggy, fun, exciting launch, but that’s it, it’s been downhill since. Think it’s pretty obvious in myself and how much I’ve been playing hands off for a good four to five months or so now. It’s been years now that I’ve been testing and the engagement just isn’t there anymore.
 
It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of people hanging around, everybody is either in standby, or they’re off playing something else. Even my own rescuers are largely inactive aside from less than a handful, and we’re just shy of forty members. It wouldn’t be surprising if they attributed it to a lack of rescues, and there’s likely to be a lack of rescues because there’s a lack of players needing said rescues.
 
I’ve again reached out some feelers to many whom I know in the rescue field and the sentiment is largely the same. That of disinterest, and inactivity.

@Starsz the leader of Special Tactics and Rescue Service shared with me the following graph illustrating their logged rescues on a monthly basis. Keep in mind that STARS is tight knit with Empire, they mentioned that 90% of the above stems solely from Empire alone.
 

 
In the above nine months that transpired there were:
44 SOS
46 Transports
2 Other
92 total.
 
Something that was particularly noted was the decline after January, Starz took the helm of Empire as its leader.
 
Curious, I looked through Eyes & Ears' own logs and formulated the following graphs:
 


 
Late 2018, still starting out, I'm getting word around, it's pretty much just me. Alpha 1 sees slow growth as word spreads. Come the middle of Alpha 2, October of 2019, 25 rescues and just over a dozen members and we're building reputation. Following the 2019 holidays, people are returning to work and whatnot, but things kick back up again once Alpha 3 arrives. They hover around the mid-teens as the world wide lockdown takes effect until Beta drops. Yup, for those wondering, the 33 rescues in September 2020 were attributed to the Beta launch on August 27th.
 
October sees another crash to single digits for the first time since May (which tbh feels like an anomaly, if not then we'd have to go back a year) but it picks up again due to the holidays.
 
Finally, the first half of 2021 has been largely depressed. The beta hype has worn off, small spike in June probably because of summer but overall things are largely flat. The only reason in the last month we've picked up more than a handful was because Starz mentioned they were redirecting them to us since they had no one themselves available.
 
It's interesting seeing all those logs put into data that we can now see and explain away. The change from DU's small closed NDA-Alpha community to public-Beta where new players seem to not be retained (or not getting into accidents more often) while alphas are becoming burned out.
 
Never would I have thought we’d be here 150 rescues ago. I was expecting a complete HQ, right now it’s just walls, and a roof. Outposts on each planet, which are right now non-existent. We should have branded ships in those outposts, but as of now it's still ideas on paper.
 
We’re a year into Beta, and it feels like DU is behind the curve I thought it’d be on. Am I disappointed, yes, do I feel disappointed, no.
 
-----
 
Congrats to @Tonvor for the 250th rescue!
 
-----
 
No major changes to report for the month of September. Aside from some work on the invoicing calculator.
 
With still no inspiration to continue work on the HQ, I’m back on Alioth and had zoomed around the markets collecting data in preparation for the great market cleanup, which is currently in progress, and switching focus largely to DU Classifieds. Don't worry, I'll still be connected to Eyes & Ears, if something comes up, I'm not far behind!
 
In less game related news, I underwent a surgical operation earlier in the month and have largely spent time healing but that doesn’t mean I’m not still active on Discord. A post op check by the doc last week says everything is doing well, and I’ll be going in for another check in a week or two. Another minor operation will hopefully be commencing next week to take care of a separate inherited condition from my mothers side of the family.
 
Not looking forward to it, I'm actually quiet panicky internally since its to do with my toes, but both of these operations really should have been done years ago.
 
-----
 
That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!
- DarkHorizon

PART THREE: FINDING THE FUN 
 
In this third and final segment of this series, we’ll take a look at Dual Universe gameplay and how we’re aiming to improve it. There’s a delicate balance to strike between staying as true as we can to the original vision, making smart design and production choices, taking players’ feedback into consideration, and creating more opportunities for community engagement. The game needs to be challenging but, most of all, fun. It can be a tall order sometimes, but not an impossible goal. 
 
This is far from being a comprehensive list of everything we’re working on, but we think it’s a good starting point for sparking conversation with the community. You’ll also notice that we have intentionally stayed away from precise timeframes. We would rather stay flexible and give ourselves the opportunity to revise our plans based on the feedback of players. 
 
Now, let’s get to the good stuff!
 

BREAKING THE MONOTONY 

Even if the main pillars of the game aren’t quite finished yet, the launch of the beta allowed us to see how the various systems work together, how fun they are, and what actually works or sometimes doesn’t.
 
Analyzing data on player behavior and reading the copious amount of feedback we receive (thanks for that!) have pointed to two main objectives we’ll be addressing in the coming months (in addition to continuing to fix bugs and balancing issues). These are: 
 
First, emend gameplay loops that are tedious for some players. We call it “fixing the player routine”, so that playing DU doesn’t feel like “going to work”. Up the stakes, adding meaningful opportunities for conflict so that the in-game economy, social components, and building aspects come together. 
  Some elements of gameplay are more fun than others in Dual Universe. Mining can often be seen as a must-do for many new players, and because it is perceived as mandatory it can rapidly feel tedious. Earning quanta is fundamental. When we launched beta, it seemed like mining was almost the only way to get money, especially for new players who didn’t have much in the way of resources or allies. 
 
To make it more interesting with a real sense of progression over time, here is the high-level plan:
 
Make it easier for newcomers to gather resources from the surface of planets without the need to dig; Then, transition players to deploying mining units once they’ve claimed a territory. Mining units will supply a steady stream of ore, depending on the specifics of the tiles the player has claimed. These mining units come in tiers and should add a sense of progression even to early mining. There will also be a production optimization gameplay if you want to use several mining units. For players who want to specialize in mining, we will introduce asteroid mining. Think of asteroids as epic mining with high reward potential. Asteroids will be spawned in the universe. Players will be able to scan clues in space to discover where they’re located. Some asteroids will contain not just regular ores, but also rare and valuable ones. Once discovered, there will be a delay before their location is broadcast to all players. This is an opportunity for explorers who find these asteroids to reap their resources first or monetize their location. The control of valuable asteroids will also create opportunities for combat, information trading, and collaboration between players. Please also note there will be asteroids in safe zones with lower-value ores.
  THE QUEST FOR QUANTA   
Another way for players to earn quanta is the previously-announced Mission System, coming in version 0.25. It will include two components: a job board to facilitate interactions between players (for example, “I need gold delivered to this location”), as well as a secure framework for player- and NQ-created hauling missions. We hope that this will kindle the game’s economy with increased specialization and proper tools for exchanges between players. The upcoming introduction of in-game challenges will also add fun ways for players to earn cash. 
 
On that note, we plan to revise the way the markets work, considering different ways to improve connections and making it less painful to trade for goods. This should make markets more accessible and fluidify trade.
 
We are looking into how we can rebalance the industry. The reaction to changes introduced in 0.23 told us that there is more work needed here. The role of schematics is definitely one of the areas we’re looking at; whatever we do with schematics, we are particularly sensitive to making a fair move for players who have invested in buying them. 
 
Builders haven’t been forgotten. We just delivered new tools for them in 0.24, and we are already working on new ones that should let builders enhance their artistic arsenal to create more amazing constructs. We’re pretty excited about them, but should forewarn you that it may be some time before they appear as higher priority changes will take precedence. 
 
The first-time player experience will get a full overhaul to facilitate the onboarding of new players. We’re doing away with the long monologues from Aphelia and the length of time it took to get into the action. The tutorials will be more contextual, and the experience of new players should get them into the core gameplay faster. As it is now, new players sometimes need to travel long distances to find a tile free of neighbors and suitable for future expansion. The redesign will allow these new pioneers to start with their friends in a location of their choosing in a more streamlined fashion. They will also be able to select an outpost design and receive startup resources. 

STOKING THE PVP FIRES 
We know a lot of players want to hear about PvP. Once we’ve fixed the main gameplay loops, this will be the next thing we’ll tackle. Our goal is for space warfare to be one of the driving forces of the emergent gameplay, fueling the economy of the game, including for players who don’t want to directly partake in combat but might want to provide ships, ammunition, and services for those who do. 
 
While there are PVPers who are in it for the thrill of the pirate’s life, there are others who aren’t pirates so much as protectors who enjoy defender-type PVP scenarios. In its current state, PVP can be seen as gratuitous, devoid of reasons to fight beyond pillaging a bested ship’s cargo. The current PvP mechanics will be modified with the addition of construct shields and a rebalancing of weapons, among other things, as well as introducing territory control in space and, later, on planets. Controlling space territories will give players benefits such as the ability to acquire highly-lucrative space resources (i.e. rare gas, singularities) and a worthwhile reason for organizations and solo players to fight. Not only that, but you’ll be waging war in style with an array of new, unique cannons and skins. 
 
GLITZIER GRAPHICS
Admittedly, graphics improvements have been on the back burner for a while in favor of building the main gameplay systems. Upgrading the visual immersion has now taken a more prominent position in our priorities, the goal being to give more “life” to Dual Universe. 
 
This ongoing process began in 0.24 when we overhauled many of the assets used in world generation (i.e. trees, rocks, ground textures, etc.) We’ve also undertaken a big push on visual effects, with a slew of new and improved visual effects planned for gradual release in the near future. Continuing our efforts with the recent addition of new voxel textures for builders, we will freshen up many older elements in the game to bring coherence between older and newer assets, as well as between voxels and assets.
 
We are also investigating longer-term visual improvements. For some time, we’ve been working on prototypes for a new planet generation technology to make sure that our planets are interesting to explore. Before we can roll this out, we will be doing an overall pass on the existing planets, like Jago, with improved terrain and more varied environment assets. There is also a project to improve lighting with the inclusion of global illumination.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Again, please remember that all these changes will be tested first on the public test server. The final versions of these features may vary depending on your feedback and our own thought  processes. In terms of timing, most of the “player routine” fixes are planned to be gradually introduced before the end of the summer while the space warfare and PvP revamp should begin rolling out sometime after.
 
As you hopefully see, a lot of these changes are based on your feedback and a more grounded, pragmatic approach to game design. We realize that many of these topics require additional explanations and that they will probably trigger more questions. We will answer them in due time, as we’re able, in future devblogs. Until then, we look forward to hearing your thoughts in this discussion thread. See you there! 
 

Calling it crap does.

In consideration of player feedback, we’ve been investigating the best possible solution to address a situation in public markets where parked ships have been causing clutter and performance issues. 
 
To address this, we will be creating additional landing pads in those areas, then moving ships to them, taking care to spread them out so that the end result will be a better “feel”, aesthetically and performance-wise. 

The first phase will begin today in Districts 6 and 7 on PTS where we will try out the tool to make sure it’s working properly. If so, we’ll announce when the operation will happen on the Live server. That will require an extended downtime, so we want to do it when it will be the least disruptive to peak playing times for the community.
 

I try not to speculate on reasons or intentions behind changes, but yes interaction on the forums has gone down over the last few months. Social media posts on twitter/facebook are still fairly active. There has been a wreck event and share the love contest this year as well. It seems that the more interactive forms of communication (forums, discord/support, and interviews) have gone down while the less interactive more curated content (social media posts, events, devblogs, tutorial page) has stayed the same.

I ain't too proud to beg. Puuuuuuhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't change the the colour of the Feli black crater soil! The black crater soil on Feli  is now a flaccid gray on the PTS. I have been collecting the black soil and paving my territory and runways with it because it looks awesome compared to a sheet of voxels. I even imbedded Medium cores into my runway and laid down luminescent glass voxels for the runway paint and leveled the ground with the voxels near perfectly.
I'm being totally selfish. Please don't change the color/texture if it isn't too late.
::pos{0,2,6.5905,78.4976,19.0512}
 

There are 10 base tools for free and build modes, but only 9 slots.  Please just expand it by 1!  That's all we need just one more little box for a quick and much-appreciated little QOL implementation.  Thank you for your consideration on this!

Unfortunately for XL the mass and volume do not scale in line with capacity. As mentioned in the original post the only good use for them is when you need the extra capacity connected to a single hub. On ships they are generally not worth the extra mass and on static constructs they are less space efficient.

Here's how they scale:
L = Large container
XL container - Capacity: 2*L    Volume: 2.8 * L    Mass: 2.98*L
Expanded XL- Capacity: 4*L    Volume: 5.6 * L    Mass: 5.96*L