Shaman

This one I actually like.
 
But you probably want a little further out as a lot of big orgs have warp beacons and could make that a two jump trip and get a huge advantage over the others.
 
This would probably make the PvP crowd happy if you couldn’t warp all the way there, or more importantly for them you couldn’t use Warp to leave.
 
good to have it just for a month so PvP players have less to complain about, it won’t have to,be prefect as it’s not a long term planet, and they can try out some of their new planet generating systems on a disposal area.

Hydrogen and Oxygen should only be produced on Alioth with the Recycler.
 
Why:
Physics, mostly get this from water and atmosphere generated from plants. This only exists on Alioth.
Gameplay, centralized Alioth and encourages a different form of resource requirements. I suspect we will be doing fusion as one of the main power reactors, which will likely require hydrogen as fuel. I will assume you see where I'm going with this.
 

NPCs In my opinion, would be draining on a system like this, if they did NPCs im sure the subscribtion price would go up.
 
Players on One shard doing Countless Activities, then you add NPCs, thats alot of pressure in my opinion, im sure animals may be a future thing but only because Animals in some ways can be setup to be Dynamic Props, But an NPC would need Dialog and some sort of pattern
 

There is a "joke" suits this well:
 
A woman stuck on the top floor of a burning building prays for God to save her. 
Firefighters get some fall absorvers and tell her to jump. 
She says: "no, God will save me" and continues to pray. 
Airforce sends a helicopter. They trow a rope and tell her to grab it. 
She says: "no, God will save me" and continues to pray. 
The building falls down and she dies. 
When meeting God in haven and asks:
"Why did you not save me?" 
God answers:
"Who to you think that sent the firefighters and the airforce?" 

As your rehab councillor I strongly advise you not to keep that stash of meth under your mattress. 

I gave the whole ownership of my race track, a bunch of ships, 30 mil quanta and 5kt of inventory to someone who still wants to play and wants to keep working on that project. 
 
Do the right thing, cut away properly. Then we can start you on the 12 step program 

Awwwwwww. YOU give up? We had our differences too but I always thought you're here for the better of DU

Honeycomb is the Major game content of DU which pretend to let players build what ever we want
But as it is now, it is tooooooo constrained and limited, buggy, and never looking as we wished, specially in between updates where dev dont know which numbers to tweak for better render results
 
 
The resources needed for making honeycomb: Some honeycombs such as concrete / brick / wood / glass(panels) should require more simple recipes, not requiring mined and refined ores, but raw stone, sand or wood, directly from the planets grounds and trees
Those could be considered as construction material, mostly for static constructs, and their weight should be increased for discouraging players using them on dynamic constructs
 
The honeycomb weight: As for now they are 0.1 times the weight of their relative correspondents on earth
In my opinion the word HONEYCOMB is well chosen, and give this futuristic aspect of a 3D printed honeycomb material
But i think it is still a bit too heavy, since in aerospace, it wouldn't happen to build ships with thicker hull than 5 or 10cm
I also think some honeycombs shouldn't have this weight reduction, or less reduction
For example: concrete * 1 / wood * 0.25 / metals * 0.075
 
The diversity issue: Here is my most hatred part of DU, the numerous amount of different honeycomb colors and finishes
nightmare for industry managers nightmare for players to spawn blueprints, that have dozens of 0.5m3 of different mats filling hundreds of container and inventory slots (that must be a lot of data in back end, but also lot of data for everyone uploads and downloads on front end) All refined material should have 1 and only 1 raw honeycomb with a raw aspect, on which we could later apply the color we want and the shininess we want in build mode
 
Removal of the "voxel replace tool" => replacement by the "voxel paint tool" I dont think anyone using this voxel replacement tool at all, it has its equivalent when copy pasting using the select tool
A paint voxel tool could use a popup window, around the bottom of the screen, same as the scanner does for the ores filters. In which we could select our
desired custom color from a palette the shininess we want from matt to glossy an optional bump map (stripes / screws / holes / galvanized etc...)    
The finish name "galavanized", change back to matt Galavanized is an anti rust coating process for iron, using zinc
From PTS server the "galavanized white iron", is the only correct color and aspect (the texture is pretty nice btw)
So :
galvanized only applies to iron, certainly not to aluminium, copper and others iron can be painted aswell with anti rust paint, but galvanized wont be galvanized is more of a raw finish texture, more than a color or a shininess (which could be added as a bump texture in the paint tool options)  
Textures scale New textures are gorgeous but they arent scaled properly (official and PTS)
Texture edges blending is also necessary
 
 
So Novaquark, if you desire to optimize, reduce lag, reduce loading of containers etc... the diversity issue should be your concern. If you desire to really let players build awesome creation, just unleash the constraints and give us more freedom of choice
We are not paid for testing, and for taking time developing our feedback on the forum after years of testing, so it would be nice to have a better reading of the gold mine for the game development that this forum is (taking notes, and putting them on a big white board is an idea)
After all, WE players are creating the content of the game, but if we dont have at least the few main features of Minecraft, which is gathering wood to make wood, not mining coal to make wood, that aint gonna work
 
Cheers

Well, if you look on the website it seems to suggest that they will sticking to a player-only world for now, but who knows.
I am sorry to hear this game isn't turning out to be what you want it to be. Perhaps Dual may be the first game to pull a player-only world off, though, who knows.
 
personally i'm kinda the opposite, I would prefer if their were no NPC's and just focused on players and player interaction.

Let's get back to discussing the blog please, less personal attacks please.

Gas clouds? Asteroid scanning? SPACE TERRITORIES!?
 
Count me in!
 
I just hope that when you mention the "rebalancing of weapons" in PvP you will balance the damage difference between core sizes, as it is way to OP right now.
 
Also, how are you going to stop haulers which are mining ore from just warping away as soon as pirates approach them?

A lot of you guys have been asking for NPC enemies in space to fight against. I see why you would want that added, but in my opinion they won't be worth the dev time. Here are some counter arguments:
 
Novaquarks intentions with the game is to have a "common, shared virtual world, controlled by the players." Adding a second party of aliens / other humans breaks this rule. Unlike in EvE, movement is (relatively) much slower, which means that escaping danger is a lot harder, especially if you don't have much thrust. That may be good for PvP lovers, but could be an unescapable death sentence for unlucky haulers, which brings me to my next point: Having enemies scattered in space further encourages players to warp to their destination, making pirating (and counter-pirating) even harder since there will be nobody to fight. Even if NPC's are restricted to certain areas like asteroids will be, most haulers would rather warp than risk bumping into one and dying. With the way that PvP works, NPC's would have to match the damage of L cores if they want to have a chance against them, meaning that <L cores will have a hard time fighting , if they don't just simply die in one shot. The cost of running, fueling, and repairing L core constructs can cost in the millions, and so unless every NPC is carrying 10kl of gold nuggets or something it will be a net loss trying to fight them, not to mention the 50-100 million paywall to get a good L core in the first place. Unless you are in a specialised org, you will be mining for many hours to get a good PvE ship in the first place, so what's the point?  
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

A lot of you guys have been asking for NPC enemies in space to fight against. I see why you would want that added, but in my opinion they won't be worth the dev time. Here are some counter arguments:
 
Novaquarks intentions with the game is to have a "common, shared virtual world, controlled by the players." Adding a second party of aliens / other humans breaks this rule. Unlike in EvE, movement is (relatively) much slower, which means that escaping danger is a lot harder, especially if you don't have much thrust. That may be good for PvP lovers, but could be an unescapable death sentence for unlucky haulers, which brings me to my next point: Having enemies scattered in space further encourages players to warp to their destination, making pirating (and counter-pirating) even harder since there will be nobody to fight. Even if NPC's are restricted to certain areas like asteroids will be, most haulers would rather warp than risk bumping into one and dying. With the way that PvP works, NPC's would have to match the damage of L cores if they want to have a chance against them, meaning that <L cores will have a hard time fighting , if they don't just simply die in one shot. The cost of running, fueling, and repairing L core constructs can cost in the millions, and so unless every NPC is carrying 10kl of gold nuggets or something it will be a net loss trying to fight them, not to mention the 50-100 million paywall to get a good L core in the first place. Unless you are in a specialised org, you will be mining for many hours to get a good PvE ship in the first place, so what's the point?  
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

This is all very nice sounding. Progression.. gameloops... these are the things we wanted to hear. Thank you! I hope you guys keep talking to us rather than having an unnecessary veil of secrecy going forward. Transparency goes a long way. 

Overall good, realistic. Likely meaning new Roadmap and 2022 release.
 
Still, as I said before in Discord, we badly needed such clarity 2 years ago (this why in terms of disign direction this time feels wasted), then now we all be in bit better spot. But better late then never, right.
 
Looks like JC "retirement" was beneficial thing for process.

This is the encouraging part. I'm ok with no planetary PVP anytime soon because I do understand that the the game is being developed on a shoestring budget. I'm happy to hear about mining units. I'm happy to hear about rare resources in the PVP zone. I'm ok with there being absolutely no mention of NPCs, because I would be quite satisfied if the things in this blog were delivered. I'm particularly happy to hear about second thoughts about .23 industry. ?This whole blog makes me feel quite a bit better about things.
 
Overall this then comes down to execution. Can you feed us enough content while you spin up and finalize your back end server stuff? Or is this a, "Come back in a year when its finished cooking," situation?

Frankly, that was the one thing I thought made sense for NQ to amend from the original plans in this blogpost.
 
Territory warfare will be very complex to do and NQ needs to get that right or at least pretty much right from the get go in a live service game. Inserting a cycle to test the core mechanics on space based "territory" (which I guess will be space stations) seems to me to be a sensible compromise as it's probably easier to "fix" any issues in a relatively isolated setting like that.
 
I get that there's many trigger happy players but I also expect NQ needs to minimize the risk of running into big issues with many variables that can cause it to go wrong. In the end combat PVP is supposed/expected to serve a purpose and not be a goal in itself in the context of the game so this seems like a sensible step to me.
 

This is the game post I was hoping for in the beginning, the steps laid out sound fantastic and I am very excited to see some of the grind and monotony removed in favour of active and engaging gameplay.
 
I am also very hopeful that the rocket engines will see a rebalance to make them more balanced for their cost as part of the element development since right now they are about 2% as efficient as stacking large atmo engines for the same power values.

-Surface harvesting has its place, but the rocks seriously clutter things visually, it may be advisable to cut their number down (say to a tenth) while increasing the time to collect them and their payoff. 
 
-Mining units will be a welcome addition for those of us that find mining tedious, but care must be taken as to their implementation lest you either end up with wealthy players immediately turning a hex with "good stats" in to a money factory that craters the value of materials gathered by newer players, or cause the existing player-base to go grab-happy and claim every tile they can afford to drop a TCU on (thus risking locking new players out of mining if too many tiles are either un-minable or stripped clean).
 
-Shields will be appreciated for people with visually complex designs and people that find repairs tedious, but it will probably need to come with a sizeable nerf to voxel if you don't want people to abandon it entirely when they realize they probably can't carry enough ammo to kill a shielded cube under current voxel stats.
 
-I look forward to finally having more/variant skins for weapons. It would be nice to get them on other elements too (not even major re-shapes, just alternate colors on the main color section so we aren't only stuck with bright red space engines, yellow containers/hovers, and grey everything else).

-Visual improvements to planets are appreciated, but there must also be care taken to ensure to doesn't slow loading things down, most pilots and explorers tend to appreciate the visual appeal of the terrain a lot less when they need to worry about the ground suddenly deciding to jump up and swat them from the sky, or shifting up slightly after they landed but before ship physics unload and breaking their ship.

Great dev blog, very articulate and well written. Thanks for your work NQ team!

Mining Units  = Good.  Plus talents needed to use more shows maybe everyone can get 1 so thats handy.  Steady stream of gold?
 
Rest sounds ok.  I think for obvious reasons a timed roadmap helps a lot.
 
Honvik
Premier of the Empire

If you make at least 50% what's written there in coming months, you saved your game.

Call me impressed, if you guys can pull this off I'll be staying for sure. Proof is in the pudding though. I'm rooting for you NQ!

For a long time before Dual, I was on a constant search for good 3D multiplayer vehicle building games. Unfortunately, these types of games were very sparse and rarely any good, either being PTW like Crossout or dead like Robocraft. At the time I was also interested in eve online, and wondered what it would look like if the two genres were combined (I think you can see where this is going), so when I saw Dual Universe I instantly fell in love with it. At the time the game was still under NDA, around the time of early alpha. I'm pretty sure I watched every video on the official channel, and couldn't wait until it released. At the time the estimate for how much a sub would cost was like 20$ (and I was too poor to buy alpha access) so I was unsure if it was worth buying.
 
I lost track of the game, until the first few months of beta started when I saw it again. When I found out that the price for a sub was 8$ instead of 20, I decided to buy it. However, since my computer was below minimum spec, my game tanked as soon as I opened up the game. My starting moments were a slideshow with constant crashes, which made me concerned that I might not be able to play the game. However, my determination to play (and not wanting to waste the 3 month sub) made me persevere. By looking at the ground and facing away from the many ships that were parked there, I was finally able to make it to the shuttle service and escape to sanctuary, which was a lot smoother. For some reason I would never get lag on that scale ever again, even when returning to the very market I spawned on.
 
I would say my best moments were going across the ground with my speeder, which I kinda miss nowadays because I usually just fly. Seeing all the other bases , factories, and ships that other people made when speeding across the desert to my house was really cool, and it is kinda a shame that flying is the way to go nowadays. Maybe making ground hauling safer and more economical could make that experience viable, but who knows.
 
my other highlights were taking the longer-than-expected slowboat to thades where I landed on an asteroid and mined on its moon, when I used a warp drive for the first time to haul everything I had to Jago, finding my first meganode (mining it was another story), , and when I dramatically flew a few meters past a moving hauler on my way to escape the atmosphere.
 
(sorry for the long post)

For a long time before Dual, I was on a constant search for good 3D multiplayer vehicle building games. Unfortunately, these types of games were very sparse and rarely any good, either being PTW like Crossout or dead like Robocraft. At the time I was also interested in eve online, and wondered what it would look like if the two genres were combined (I think you can see where this is going), so when I saw Dual Universe I instantly fell in love with it. At the time the game was still under NDA, around the time of early alpha. I'm pretty sure I watched every video on the official channel, and couldn't wait until it released. At the time the estimate for how much a sub would cost was like 20$ (and I was too poor to buy alpha access) so I was unsure if it was worth buying.
 
I lost track of the game, until the first few months of beta started when I saw it again. When I found out that the price for a sub was 8$ instead of 20, I decided to buy it. However, since my computer was below minimum spec, my game tanked as soon as I opened up the game. My starting moments were a slideshow with constant crashes, which made me concerned that I might not be able to play the game. However, my determination to play (and not wanting to waste the 3 month sub) made me persevere. By looking at the ground and facing away from the many ships that were parked there, I was finally able to make it to the shuttle service and escape to sanctuary, which was a lot smoother. For some reason I would never get lag on that scale ever again, even when returning to the very market I spawned on.
 
I would say my best moments were going across the ground with my speeder, which I kinda miss nowadays because I usually just fly. Seeing all the other bases , factories, and ships that other people made when speeding across the desert to my house was really cool, and it is kinda a shame that flying is the way to go nowadays. Maybe making ground hauling safer and more economical could make that experience viable, but who knows.
 
my other highlights were taking the longer-than-expected slowboat to thades where I landed on an asteroid and mined on its moon, when I used a warp drive for the first time to haul everything I had to Jago, finding my first meganode (mining it was another story), , and when I dramatically flew a few meters past a moving hauler on my way to escape the atmosphere.
 
(sorry for the long post)