Cabana

With the Athena update we decided to hold 3-4 alien cores, the goal being to test our ability to defend multiple cores.

The harsh reality of alien cores
In response, our enemies have put our cores in lockdown ~fifteen times, sometimes 4 on the same day, forcing us to organize ourselves well to allow everyone to come home from work, eat, take care of their family or simply rest. For having a minimum number of people at the end of each lockdown, just in case.
The ends of lockdown follow one another and still nothing on radars, the regularity required by this feature prevents us from pirating on asteroids or pipes as we did before, but the various changes have not reinforced either the interest of them, the motivation is therefore less and less perceptible and it becomes a chore to come and defend...
So we come to this evening of May 21, 4 cores are in lockdown;
Gamma, Theta, Iota and Zeta
Theta and Gamma are respectively under siege at 18:24 UTC and 18:56 UTC, knowing that it takes 20 minutes to secure a core without enemies, the timing is tight but nothing can tell at this moment that our enemies will take advantage of it...

A well thought out plan
18:36 UTC, Theta in siege but without contacts, when suddenly the announcement falls: "CONTACT ON THETA"
10 to 15 ships on radars, the fight is easily managed but a large part of our fleet is therefore in combat lock for the next 10 minutes, preventing warp, and an attack on Gamma begins to grow in our heads. Taking advantage of the combat lock to loot some of the enemy ships, meanwhile another group forms, alerted by the first attack and start moving in direction of Gamma.
18:58 UTC, Gamma in siege and the dreaded announcement drops: "24 CONTACTS ON GAMMA"
We are all surprised and at the same time excited, @here and @everyone appears on the various discords to call Legion for mobilization, we've been waiting for this moment for a long time, impossible to miss it!
We get together in voice, we regroup in the same place in game and we jump into the fray. Focus announcements follow one another, but more surprisingly, there are not 24 contacts but 50... 70... 100... (we reached 150 contacts on the radar at one point, allies and enemies). Several ships are dummys, but the enemy is really numerous, we will have to be disciplined and use our experience in PVP but also as a group.
The confrontation was complex, the previous patch broke the radars and transponders, impossible to sort the contacts on the radar and even less those who change their name like ours (our entire fleet bore the name "WONDU" on its ships), but LUA scripts save us and maintain some semblance of order in this nameless mess.
The station sees its shield descend little by little, an alt left on it allows us to follow it live, protecting the core is impossible without killing all our enemies, it must get out of the 10 minutes of combat lock to recharge its shield. It ends up being core, we manage to regain control, the core itself is not enough, we have to hold these 10 minutes. Unfortunately the timer is constantly reset, even after taking advantage of the fight; the dead ships then repaired by our enemies, the incessant comings and goings of small fast ships and those bearing our tag, it's almost mission impossible to prevent them from approaching, the fight drags on so long as we almost destroyed the entire enemy fleet.

The Liberation
"30 seconds left" (combat timer on alien core)
Announced in voicecom, still no hostile contact... When suddenly a M core appear, rushing to the alien core.
"15"
Some of our remaining forces are concentrated on him, the burst is violent but it's not enough.
"10"
He is at 80km from the core, almost dead but he still represents the last threat of these long hours of confrontation.
"OHNO OHNO OHNO HE IS SHOOTING [filtered] MY LIFE"
...
"IT'S REPAIRED"
Nerd screams, phew of relief, Legion held on but not without difficulty.

A big GG to everyone, even if the game is clearly not the most pleasant for PVP currently, it's events like this that make the game live. Bravo for the organization, the execution and the destruction of the core. We had a lot of trouble keeping our precious plasmas

Some stats about those fight
The opposing forces: Legion vs "Empire, BOO, CVA, Penrose, CYT, IC, CRN, MSI, SB Nation, UA and I think another 1 or 2, just a handful from each, think IC had the most, but mostly new to PvP"
+/- 150 ships involved
~40 Legion members at the end
More than 3 hours of fight
45+ wrecks still close to Gamma this morning
Very very little amount of stasis
Too much ammo fired
Too much kills
Not enough transponder xD
 
 

Radar not working like before the radar patch.
 
-Yesterday destroyed a ship at an asteroid, when I went back to check it out it disappeared from the radar.
  Seems that below 50 km from an asteroid's surface radar stops working.
 
-Also when warping and getting closer to our Space Station radar shows many constructs but the icons in third-person view of Space Station and ships parked there are not displayed.
 
So approaching the base one can hit own ships. Please give us a checkbox that all constructs in the range are displayed with its icon. It is also needed for PvP to be able to evaluate ships number present on a large fight. 

The thing is, NQ is very inconsistent in how they "fix" things or where they make entirely irrelevant changes.
 
Radar obstruction is not in any way a problem in game. Hiding a radar inside a ship does not generate an unfair advantage of any kind, forcing it to have line of sight is only detrimental to players abilities to make nicely designed ships as the elements are eye sores.
 
This change adds _nothing_ to the game and really only is a detractor.

Hi, can we have different colors on dynamic construct in PVP?

By priority order:
NQ Staff > Green (like actually)

Transponder match, not a NQ Staff > Blue

Transponder didn't match BUT pilot is in friendlist/orgs and not a NQ Staff > White

Transponder didn't match, not in friendlist/orgs and not a NQ Staff > Red


It's the first MMO where I can't clearly see my ennemies/allies, I take 2 minutes for color them on GIMP, with 5 minutes you can have a nice icon for sure.

Change in an MMO is normal and in most cases welcomed if it is for a positive outcome. These radar changes were unasked for and force us to redesign our ships.
For me it's not much that now ships will be ugly with these radars sticking out but how battles will be from now on. Let's say we get a fight between a few Nanos and some Capitals defending an Alien core Shields are to go down very fast and the Capitals will start to Hull-tank until Venting is over, forcing radars on the outside will destroy these really quick because Weapon RNG goes straight to radars first as tested on PTS.
With the destroyed radars Capitals can't shoot back and this was really the final nail in the coffin for big ships.
NQ you really don't want us to fly big ships do you? 

Noveans,
 
First, we wish to thank everyone for all of your feedback and questions about the topic Shedding Light on a Novaquark Internal Discussion.
 
We wanted to let everyone know that the internal discussions are still in process and currently ongoing with all of the pros and cons mentioned in the thread above. This is a big decision and we want to do what is right for Dual Universe, as well as our current and future players.
 
We have been reading all of your feedback and questions, and they have been extremely useful in our internal discussions. As soon as a decision is made, we will pass that information to you. We appreciate your patience and support as we continue to explore and investigate the best possibilities for Dual Universe. Thank you!
 
In addition, we will soon have information about the Kickstarter Rewards, as well as DACs to share, so please keep watch for that!
 
 

 
New Community Podcast 
 
We know that you have many questions about many Dual Universe topics on your mind. Next week, we will be starting a new podcast where we will be bringing your questions to our Novaquark team for answers. 
 
How does it work? Good question! 
 
If you have a question about Dual Universe (game mechanics, lua, FTUE - these are just some examples of topics to ask about), then head over to our Community Questions Submission Form and enter your question(s) there. Once submitted, just listen to the upcoming podcasts and your question may be included there. We look forward to hearing from you!
 

Novaquark is releasing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for added account security for our Dual Universe players. 2FA is simple yet effective: it adds an extra layer of protection to your account. As Dual Universe moves forward, we want to reward those players who choose to opt in. On top of the benefits of added account security, players will also receive the following rewards in-game:


 
Talents: One million free skill points* added to your available pool. Money: Five hundred thousands quanta* of it, to be exact. Fashion: An exclusive skin for your programming boards to show off your commitment to security:
 
*These figures may be revised in the future
 
HOW IT WORKS

You can enable or disable 2FA in the ‘security,’ section of your account at www.dualuniverse.game/account/security at any time. Once you have enabled 2FA, your in-game rewards will be delivered to your account the next time you login.  
When 2FA is enabled, in addition to your password, you will be required to enter a one-time code that is generated by an authenticator app on your phone when attempting to log in.
We hope you’ll enjoy flying through Helios with added peace of mind. Share your thoughts on the implementation of 2FA here!
 

1 - Seconds into the video we already see dog fighting and close quarters combat.  You can only see this type of combat if you're less than 10km away from each other.  Can't really imaging a fight over an alien core being this close.  I don't see NQ showing off how true combat is.  Just this glorified dogfighting and close quarters combat that they keep peddling to us.
 
2 - Gives off the feeling that the alien core is going to be armed with weapons and a big crew is going to defend it from the inside.  Any PvP org wouldn't be using the alien core to shoot their weapons from because all the enemy has to do is shoot from one side and half the weapons wouldn't hit them.  Everyone is going to use ships to fight with.  I don't mind using the ships, just how the warfare is actually going to pan out.  Maybe give the alien cores some special gunner seat to allow more guns to incentivize that vision from the video
 
3 - The description says Deckard and his crew go into hostile PvP space.  Deckard is a true care bear and would never do such a thing.  Although I can see him losing the station pretty quickly so that's probably spot on.
 
The video had some good parts in it so I'll say that.  Although this is an RP video and probably shouldn't be taken very seriously, it does get shown to new people so I think there's some responsibility in showing how dual universe actually works.

(initially posted on the PTS forums, oops)   Thank you everyone who played the PTS version of the new FTUE and gave your feedback.    It really helps to have fresh eyes on this.
The new FTUE has been over a year in the making, so some of us Level Designers have tunnel vision when playing through it for the thousandth time  
 
A few of you ran into two big bugs:
Those of you that spawned in the middle of nowhere with no lander obviously did not experience the intended onboarding.   That you continued to play and took detailed notes was appreciated, however clearly this is not the path a new player should take.   This happened due to problems with the server, and always requires CS intervention to rectify.  Since server hiccups do happen, I may add a backup step that if players get stuck on the "interact with the pilot's seat" step, after a certain time Aphelia will recommend the Help chat.   That, or another backup. Many of you ran into an issue trying to deploy the Speeder, getting an error message "speeder too far".   This was a bug that has been fixed in the latest update (released today). Aside from that, the rest of you successfully played the golden path of the new FTUE and provided great feedback.
 
Here are fixes we have already implemented. They are live on Athena. (this list is not exhaustive):
Lander section: now no build mode possible, no suicide/force respawn possible Flatten/Blueprint deploy section: added "you can walk around using maneuver keys" F4 map section: added a step to unlock HUD at the end Objective Screen section: added a step to remove currently active tool (skipped if no tool active) Objective Screen section: Added a recommendation to take the Talent mini-tutorial Objective Screen: fixed crash when triggering mini-Construction Lander: infobutton removed Tutorial skip buttons (Shift-PgUp and Shift-PgDn) now have a confirmation popup, to avoid accidental skips Here are our next steps (this list is not exhaustive):
Golden Path: encourage players to join an organisation Golden Path: teach "H" button in screen lock mode and inventory Investigate if "playing with friends" is convenient enough, now that the bugs are fixed Outposts: balance outpost constructs and provide more information on the Outpost Picker page Objective Screen: create the missing mini-tutorials Objective Screen: make the objective screen persistent (hopefully) make the objective screen reactive to the player completing mini-tutorials Tutorials: sort tutorials in the VR Surrogate Station tutorials tab Tutorials: do a polish pass of tutorials in the VR Surrogate Station as many are out of date (btw Golden Path = all the steps from "player spawns in the lander" to the end where Aphelia hands the player off to the Objective screen)
 
The principle goal of the new FTUE is to avoid bloat of the "forced tutorial" by getting a new player to a point where they can have few hours of fun tinkering and exploring before they would need to learn more.  Some people will choose more tutorials right away, but that is their choice, others might visit a bunch of places using VR Surrogate instead, or harvest ore.   This is roughly the blanket answer to the feedback "you really need to teach the player XYZ".    The golden path ignores some DU features by design, hoping that the Objective screen and player discovery fills the gap.
I do agree, however, that getting a player to have a look at organisations as soon as possible is a great suggestion, which is why I'm planning on adding that to the golden path.
 
If your comment or feedback is not listed above, I haven't missed it.  All feedback has been collected and is being considered.
Thanks everyone again for your help.
Cheers,
NQ-AntiGravitas
 
PS. For those who pointed it out, the lander -always- lands safely.  Its geometry and light weight slows it down in atmosphere and it has an autobrake at the very end.  it's impossible to crash (I tried many times).  Well, I'll say "nearly" impossible to crash because I'm sure someone will find a way one day (and no, that is not a challenge to you, dear players).  

Hi,

There has been a change in the HP value of shields to align them with voxels
=> It's a good thing
 
But when I try to see if it is relevant to use voxel to be able to play with the venting function. I can't find anything conclusive.

I made a small table to see if it is interesting to use an M shield and the voxel. Or if it is more relevant to go directly to a L shield :



The M shield is 30 Tons.
So I have the right to use 95 Tons of voxels before reaching the weight of the L shield.

At the resistance level, I decided to go with the average values. The fact that the shield has a dynamic resistance management function is an argument in its favor. Keep it in your mind.
 
From what we can see on the table, the best armor that gives us the most hit points is the T1 plastic voxel.
Average: 6,666,000 + 8,750,000 = 15,416,0000
In 2nd and 3rd position we find the Al-LI and the SC-Al.

The shield L has 13,333,000 life points.
Which is slightly worse than plastic shielding.
But now we must remember that its resistance values are dynamic, which will certainly make it pass in real condition.
You should also know that during the venting phase, you take the risk of losing elements and seeing your combat capacity reduced.

Analysis :
If you can upgrade your shield size, you should. This will always provide you with much better protection than that offered by the voxel.

Problems to be solved:
- The values of % of resistance do not correspond to the tier of the voxels, we end up with a plastic of tier 1 always clearly more efficient than the others. Tier 5 was particularly lagging behind.
- Venting phases are currently unplayable if using XS, S, and M size shields.
- The TTK values of weapons seem unbalanced when comparing the hitpoint values which seem really low for elements and voxels. Kiling all very faster.

I think it would be nice if the game designer could chime in on this thread to clarify how he sees the use of these shields and the venting phase.

See you later,

This update made all my L core ships seem a lot heavier    It feel slow, sluggish and boring!  I liked the whole way much better.  I dont mind having the XS and S core go much faster but why make it so boring to pilot heavy ships? especially with a 20000 km/h speed limit   im pretty disappointed about that!
 

Ok, the mission nerf means new people coming into the game right now will have an extremely hard time getting schematics.
 
Now if you wipe the game I think someone needs to look into possible price changes for the schematics.  Not sure what they could be though.

Until you guys finish  your internal discussion on whether there should be a wipe or not you guys should stop taxing us. 

Seeing honeycomb when placing a blueprint is nice, but there's still no fine control over the placement.
If you are trying to place a static, such that what you're placing will seamlessly integrate into a larger structure, it's still impossible to do that with blueprints. If you just turn a few pixels to the side, the alignment will be off. The borders also constantly ends up being a fraction of a voxel either inside or outside the voxels of nearby cores.
Edit: Not to mention that blueprints seem to move 2 voxels when you use the arrow keys. Wtf.
 
Blueprints need to be able to snap to the grid of an existing structure, just like static cores do. When expanding a structure with static cores, it's easy to position a core on the existing structure by just moving the mouse over it, and then keyboard-move the core into place, because it snaps to the existing grid.
 
Make blueprints able to snap to existing grids that same way.

Playing = Pay to Win. 

OK, I'll give you that one.  Although it's paying a lot to win a bit, which is the kind of P2W I don't mind as much.

Sleeping = Pay to Win

1- Nice skybox & new map ✔️
2- Better lighting & glossy voxels - better visuals ✔️
3- Colliding passed ! Only moved 3 elements out of 20 ships ✔️
4- Blueprint preview awesome ( just needs the alignment thing for static or space megastructures ) ✔️
5- Nice new containers ( needs rethinking on stats ) ✔️
6- Exotic parts & engines ✔️
7- New shields ✔️
8- Alien Cores ✔️
9- FTUE & Awesome outposts ✔️
10- Speed nerf = Missions nerf ❌
11- Warp graphics too dizzy ❌
 
9 out of 11 for ME ONLY

Only after wipe/launch...

ok sorry,
talent points = pay to win

Sleeping = Pay to Win

Hello, Noveans! We’ve teased graphical upgrades coming to Dual Universe in Athena across our social media over the past couple of weeks, but we also want to present them to you now together to give a clear picture of what’s changing ahead:
 
 
NEW SKYBOX
A stunning skybox is essential for enjoyable space flight in games, and Dual Universe is no exception. Whether you’re hauling outside the pipes, hunting within them, or trying to claim an Alien Space Core Unit, you’ll fly in the new skybox coming with Athena.
 
 
BLUEPRINT PRE-VISUALISATION
 
The ability to see your blueprints visualized in the game before placing them, and to finely control their placement using keyboard keys will improve our player’s quality of life when deploying constructs.
 
IMPROVED WATER VISUALS
Living under water in Dual Universe can be more meaningful with the upgrade to our water VFX. Whether you want a sub-aquatic factory, to loop your racetrack below the water line, or simply have an internal pool, we hope you’ll like the way water looks now in Dual Universe.
 
NEW WARP VFX
White streaks are part and parcel of space games, they mean we’re moving fast! But, with the graphical overhaul to our warp travel, we hope you’ll enjoy the feel of spending a warp-cell or two roaming Helios.
 
-----------------------------------------
 
We’re always carefully reading your feedback. Do you like the new warp vfx, or the new skybox? Please share your thoughts in this forum thread.

guys sop focusing on multi account!!!!
1) its pay to win "time", pay to progess faster
2) it doesnt hurt anyone
3) this is uncontrollable by NQ, and it brings them more sub/money, so there is no chance they regulate it
4) in so many other mmo out there its also the case

so main problem there is dual client for multi account users
dual client = 1 player can play 2 accounts at same time on same PC using regular client + a geforcenow client
and where does that hurt DU the most? in PVP
because in pvp give those players advantage to control 1 ship with 2 pvp seats, so double number of guns, so double fire power, controled with 1 single hand

so there is no chance to remove geforcenow, too many regular players rely only on that

PVP mechanics must be improved by NQ to rebalance dual clients and give EVERYONE same chance in PVP
 

Hey everyone!
 
We wanted to let everyone know that the internal discussions are still ongoing. We have been reading your feedback (all of it - really!), and we wanted to express our sincere thanks to everyone for joining in the discussion.
 
We have also been gathering your questions (please continue asking them if they haven't already been asked in this thread) and we'll do our best to have some answers for you as soon as we can.
 
Thanks again, we really do appreciate all of the feedback. ❤️

I don't disagree with your take on that it's some form of p2w.
 
How do you feel about me taking a week of work to play DU, so I'm 'paying' a weeks salary to play more DU and get an advantage. Now I totally see people actually arguing that when you don't get something, you don't pay for it... So let me take the correct approach: As an employee I would get a bonus in money that I could get payed out to my bank account or buy additional vacation days with (this is quite common here). If I buy those vacation days, and use them to play more DU, is that p2w?
 
Now also think about the situation where multi account isn't allowed, that would impact the people who care about what NQ says is allowed and what is not. But the people that don't care about that, would totally have a huge advantage then. Just like what is now happening in pvp, people who cheat have a huge advantage over those that can't.
 
But imho this discussion is totally MOOT, because during the KS it was already apparent that NQ was going for a p2w model, with DAC. Even if multi account isn't allowed, people still can buy DAC and sell it for ingame stuff. That is direct p2w! In a game like EVE Online that really doesn't matter. Does it matter in DU though?