DrDerp

You could try and play a session on GeforceNow. If the issues still occurs on the same spots, it might be server-/enginewise. If not, it might be your hardware

Legally speaking, this statement is simply nonsense.
 

I would like to specifically address the issue of a wipe.
It will have positive and negative effects, I'm sure, but if we want to be fair, a general wipe would be good for the game at the start, because all players can start with the same conditions and nobody has an advantage. I myself have built hundreds of constructs, earned millions of quanta and extracted even more ores from the ground and still think a fair start to the game includes a wipe. I have used my time so far to report many bugs in the game to get the game in a better state, you can assume that I have invested a daily time of more than just a full time job. Would I miss my achievements? Of course! But it's a beta and the game and a fair system come before individual enrichment. Means a complete reset of captured areas, available ores, reset of all Quanta, the skill tree - in short: everything.
What I could imagine as "compensation" would be a "special" colouring of the avatar, so that one is recognised as an alpha beta tester. Possibly there could also be "magic blueprints" that get great constructs in the game - BUT these are granted without the voxels or elements contained in them. Meaning, the players can only place these constructions once they have collected the material for them again. Remember - it's to stay fair for our gaming community, any voxel or advanced engine would be a huge advantage and only gives opportunities to cheat on top of that.
Why the reset at all? Because new players can't even manage to catch up in the current game and its progress. they would simply skip many Tier-levels and destroy the value of them. Likewise, there is currently a huge quanta glut due to testing out the missions, which have simply created a huge imbalance in the economic system. New players couldn't compete with this, couldn't even come close to surviving, because players already have billions in reserves to influence and control the market.
So if you really want a fair game, you should support a wipe. But those who are only interested in maintaining their own power will certainly decide against it. No matter what you decide, it is and remains a beta and the goal should be to find bugs and make improvements to bring the game into a great future. The alpha/beta should not be used to enrich oneself by exploiting bugs.
 

? I am interested in your definition of soon. Because eventhough things started moving again and in a good way it seems, I think it is still quite a stretch before I would call it a release quality game.

Dude quickly check your forum account it literally states U have received the backer title/are a "patron". I hope RL politics don't cause u as much stress as the game does.

When filling a curved area with glass panels, it would be so extremely helpful if we could rotate during placement the glass panels not just on one axis, but on a second axis as well.

Example: I connect one glass panel to the thin side of another glass panel. The new rotation axis would allow me to do what you can see in the illustration below.


The second image, a screenshot of my spaceship, show the problem that I am discussing here. the glass panels cannot properly close gaps when angled. Ugly gaps and height differences Therefore, a connection from glass panel to glass panel that also allows to angle that way, would be desirable, angling in more than just 8 different angles, too. A way to perfectionalize this amazing game.

The middle-column is a bit concerning- effectively transmitting the location people are at/heading to before the timer even starts. Pending that, not enough T1/T2 ore to help the markets- and T3/T4/T5 injection will help- but may not be enough. As in, there are not enough asteroids, and or they're not big enough.

Just fuzz the data of which asteroids are being discovered(like general area/planet vs which asteroid is being tracked), add larger asteroid generation, and make the timer for more roids random through the week and introduce them continuously or else there will be a gold-rush every week with pvp action that peters out... means players will be beholden to a games weekly timer to enjoy content, which feels like a big no-no.

Easy(ish) changes:
* More nebulous discovery data in the middle column
* Progressively add asteroids through time, add a "time of rumor" to each, so we know how much longer they'll stick around.
* Larger nodes of T1/T2 on asteroids, and or more/larger asteroids in general.

Those feel like "easy" fixes. Though there is one major glaring issue with  this entire system:

HURRY UP AND WAIT- to hunt down asteroids takes a chunk of time, and if there is a small crew on board that means several people waiting for an hour+(hunted 5 on PTS) hunting an asteroid takes a lot of time, and when found a small team has to HURRY to offload the ore. This entire timeframe is 5-6 hours- which is a play session length most cannot afford and does not lend itself to "fun".

This really lends itself to a 24 hour timer for asteroid discovery(or heck, a flexible timer based on asteroid location/rarities?! Force the conflict over more rare asteroids).  This allows players to break up their play sessions, and allows more people to enjoy the content. As it currently stands it'll punish those that don't have an entire day/night to play a game. And not saying DU needs to cater to the "casual" crowd, but it'd be nice to make content that people whom only have a couple hours to spare can jump on and enjoy.

Perhaps out of financial necessity, but beta was launched too early. The game was a tech demo. Only construct building was at a beta level (by beta level, I mean at a level which might interest a person for periods as long to keep playing into the actual release). Other fields were too mechanically shallow such that there were no opportunities for any sort of PvP or exploration.
 
It's still a fine tech demo. I hope it develops into something. If I designed this game with sufficient funds, I'd add the following and then consider it as a true beta state game where most of the job ahead is bug fixing;
 
- Construct building has great potential. Give almost all jobs done by the avatar tools to constructs (mining, digging, etc).
- Revamp industry so that one player or a few cannot obtain all the know-how, capabilities and resources to produce everything, so people specialize (skills alone aren't enough to ensure this, what's needed is game being deep enough so the ways to collect resources and build stuff differentiates).
- Revamp consensual PvP with better commitment mechanics.
- Revamp non-consensual PvP better cat/mouse mechanics, while balancing some of the frustrating mechanics (spy chars on ships etc.).
- Revamp mining to provide value to hexes via replenish mechanics (or ore can go deeper and deeper but with a daily dig limit, etc). Introduce other things that makes hexes valuable. Then introduce atmospheric PvP.
- Introduce asteroids and asteroid exploration mechanics in a way that can neither be monopolized by big groups nor is too common to be valuable. Introduce other things to do space PvP over.
- Introduce exploration by valuable respawning loot, perhaps minigames.
- Introduce NPCs. It seems like the server is offloading too much to the client to make NPCs possible in usual MMO numbers, but at least introduce a few ships roaming around between planets so people chase them and content arises.
- After all this, wipe everything.
 
At the current pace at least 3-5 years would be needed to achieve all this. Wish someone threw a decent amount of money at this game.
 
I'll keep following.

Frigates in real-life are warships that are built with endurance of 30 ~ 50 days (without replenishment) for deep-water (offshore) patrolling, hence their bigger size of 350 ~ 450 feet compare to a corvette. A dynamic construct that is over a kilometer in length is 10 times longer than a frigate in real-life! Suppose we build a frigate in this game the size of a frigate in real-life, what is the point of it's size if we barely even have any requirement for such capacity? In this game, we see only a maximum of around 4 people travelling on a large core ship! A frigate the size of real-life is already too big for only 4 people that doesn't need any accommodation at all, even more 10x of that size! If you are gonna make something big, there has to be a requirement for such capacity, and in this game, there is little requirement! The sh*t that we build are too big for their use! One person in this game built a 75-story building when just a unit in it is good enough for him! What is the use? It just looks abandoned to me! You are building something that has too much capacity for the requirement!
 
We are too ambitious and the game is too ambitious! You gonna limit the game, because at this point, it is just unrealistic! A 1 km (1000 meter) ship? For what? You are thinking too big! You will struggle designing that ship as there is barely any requirement in the game! Modern frigates in real-life can complement a crew of between 110 ~ 150 at endurance of 30 to 50 days without replenishment, hence the size of the ship. And you want what? 10x the size of this?
 
It's time we be a little more realistic!

Not only that but it really uses up your org core limits. 
 
TBH I would be happy with different shaped build cubes selectable on deployment:
 
1/4 height but twice as wide and long.
“Pizza box” suitable for landing pads and  low, sprawling structures. 
 
1/2 height and double length. 
“shoebox”. Suitable for most large spacecraft or general buildings. 
 
1/2 height and width but 4x as long.  
“tube”. Suitable for roads, bridges, gantries and mega structure spines. 
 
 
Also, for the love of all things holy, please give us the ability to deploy cores in build mode.  
 
and add an “enforce planetary level” toggle box while you’re at it, I’m fed up of all our buildings being slanted because the initial structure is 3km away and the planet is curved.   

although i really like the idea of asteroid mining in DU i cannot see how the current implementation could create interesting gameplay besides very basic risk vs reward.
 
- please replace fixed spawn times of asteroids by random ones for singe asteroids until maybe a max number is spawned in the system
- please replace the scanning system by something that involves player skill ( the real one)
    - scan results should only give a rough estimate of direction to asteroirs ( or other objects) forcing miners and pirate to triangulate asteroids by moving their ship and scanning again, 
       maybe implement a tool to display scan results inside an ingame 3d map of the system
    - distances of scanned asteroids should only be roughly available when the scanned object is close and the signal is good
- please remove the broadcast and centralised access to an asteroids database
    - asteroid positions can be really valueable trading goods
    - you never know if the asteroid you are just scanning is already empty or just beeing mined
 
- despawn asteroids either by total living time or by them beeing empty for a certain time to make place for new ones
- if a pvp hotspot is needed add an area where its more likely to find asteroids like an asteroird belt ( no need for a artificial density in asteroirs, they can be out of sight of each other)
 
 
 

My only thing with this is that we are barely at 'start game' in many ways. I agree end game should be thought about but we seem so far away from that.

That's a good question. I am not a game designer. so I can just give ideas. Due to complexity and interaction of different mechanics and possible restrictions of the core/engine/db it is hard to say. I would suggest a layered natural limit. So definitely per player. But also  per tile. Also I would favour a soft limit. Not saying 300 per tile, as hard limit, rather you could have 500,  but the energy consumption would make the players consider doing so. So the 200  more would require a lot more power, needing more powerplants. Those factors could interact. So if the tile is crowded it adds to personal inefficiency. Then the player could consider: producing in the center at higher cost or hauling stuff to the shop in the center.  About cities I don't know, that might be organic...hopefully :). So industry on the outskirts trade and exchange and showing off in the center?
 
Also energy management is not the single solution to all issues. I think there should be an increased focus an active gameplay (In all subniches; industry, mining.. )

That's what I meant with baseload. For example 25 industry units connected to the grid 500 megawatt as baseload plus consumption for running units, 50 then 750 l, 100 2000. That way upscaling endless wouldn't be that lucrativ unless u own the market and can dictate the price. That might leave room for industry outside megacorps/seasoned players

I for one hope that you will keep mining as it currently exists as an option. Passive mining, mining drones, etc ... Sure, add them. But also continue to allow us to mine as we currently mine. 

I'll say it again....THIS GAME NEEDS PvE...DESPERATELY! PvP has failed. Now it's a resource gathering/building game. PvE is badly needed!
 

This has almost zero development in it, apart from remove schematics and improve FTUE (which is in the current roadmap), this is literally a marketing plan?!?

Absolutely please. Voxelmancy is like when coming home, throwing my keys in the letter box, climbing up to the roof, enter through the chimney down into the cellar. then go up to my flat, realize I left my keys in the letterbox, kick down the front door, rip out the letterbox, get my keys and then realize I m in the wrong house.

Absolutely please. Voxelmancy is like when coming home, throwing my keys in the letter box, climbing up to the roof, enter through the chimney down into the cellar. then go up to my flat, realize I left my keys in the letterbox, kick down the front door, rip out the letterbox, get my keys and then realize I m in the wrong house.

Absolutely please. Voxelmancy is like when coming home, throwing my keys in the letter box, climbing up to the roof, enter through the chimney down into the cellar. then go up to my flat, realize I left my keys in the letterbox, kick down the front door, rip out the letterbox, get my keys and then realize I m in the wrong house.

For starters, Congrats NQ for trying to communicate and doing it.

Right now you(NQ) have got yourselves  some room to move. Most of us will wait for a while before falling hard on you again.
And, It is quite important that we see some problems of the game being pointed out as "problems" by you.
 
The main change yet to see in communication is: When S hits the fan next time, and it will (bug, patch, priority, ban, exploit), will you remain communicative as we see right now? Or will we see more of that silence that we know so much?

About this part 3, some ppl have said it already and i agree:
Reducing pain is part of the task, but its not worth much if there is no fun at all.
 
NQ, ask yourselves  as players, not as devs.
Where is the fun part of the game? Is that "fun" durable or repeatable? Or restricted to the weeks 1 and 2? Or only for late game? Is this "fun" available to everyone? Or just big org members? Or just pirates? Is this "fun" enjoyable by most kinds of players? Or only grinders, builders or PVPes? Is this "fun" paid with a heavy sadness from other players? To me the game is not fun at this point. And I have all the quanta and resources I will ever need. 
 
Sure its fun to build a XS core. But above that, either I'm just joking around or it becomes complicated and not that fun.
This building fun will not keep me in a joy state for the next years to come.
 
Same as mining. 1st week of mining its actually not that bad. I found my self learning about how tools work and took pride of finding nodes faster than other ppl.
It was also a joy to receive my 1st paycheck from selling my ore. Knowing I could build something out of my earnings.
But can this joy fulfill me for years? Of course not.
How will automining increase my joy? 100% better than grinding all day, But by it self, brings no joy, just reduces pain.
 
How about the economy? Well, wining in the economy can bring some joy, sure. But at the expense of several others losing. While it brings diversity and an alternative way of playing the game. it is quite neutral in joy creation.
And with few big orgs doing most of the profit, joy is very limited...
Those big org members are working hard to be perfect. This is not that enjoyable. And competition is being squashed.

PVP is much like economy, quite neutral, or even negative for joy. For any winner there is a loser. For every loot gained, there is a huge frustration generated by loosing allot.

Again, cutting down on pain is Very Positive, and thank you.
But you still need to generate fun.

So here are some "easy" to implement suggestions for fun creation:
PVP duels/arena. Some place where ppl can go and shoot each other, with (informed) consent and with little to no consequence.
With both players being able to bring back their ships after the fight
  Directional voice chat. RP is very important for sustainable fun. Being able to say some words to the surrounding ppl, or to your ship, is quite important,
  NPCs and NPC loot is a must. No way around this. The only way to have a "positive joy balance" is to transport most of the sadness to NPCs.
I know this is hard to program. But start with dummy stuff. With little or zero AI, Like:
A Static station with just auto-firing turrets that will shoot at anyone in range. With a loot box inside.
Or a Non Voxel ship, simply a custom-made 3d model that will have an HP bar and will shoot at ships. When it blows up, a container with loot is spawned.
Or simply spawn loot boxes and clues to those around the map.
  Make it easier for ppl to move around. A good amount of joy comes from social interaction and team gameplay. But its quite hard to have team gameplay when someone needs 3 hours of millions of quanta in warp cells to come joy the team.
Fast travel is needed. In a way that it can only be used for avatars and never for cargo.
One idea is to UnNerf the surrogate.

You said:
"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"

I say: Screw the original vision.
Most has been proven to be a sad failure:
Players don't give a damn about building any kind of civilization, they just want to fulfill their joy or close DU and run another game. Player exclusive economy is making every little guy being squashed by big orgs. Player made content made players quit because of lack of content. Instead, do what you must to make this work. To make us feel joy.

Good luck.
 

"Deploy a ground unit on your tile and it generates ore" sounds a lot more like the sort of income generation gameplay you'd expect from a mobile game like Clash of Clans (Gold mines, etc) than the sort of thing I'd expect on a AAA PC MMO.  I hope there's going to be more to it than just dumping down an item on a structure and the ore magically appearing in a container that has to be emptied by hand regularly ...
 

Can we please, pretty please, just be able to pull/push vertex points? This is all voxelmancy really does but in a painful and round about way and it is just plain annoying.
 
I feel like I am back in Landmark and I don't want to be there again.

Schematics was never a bad idea, just the time and way they was implemented was TERRIBLE. However now that the backlash has come and gone and dust is settling with the missions and other economy injectors finally coming in to play schematics are finally making sense. My only change would be to have schematic injection happen through a more variety of ways and different exclusivity rather than just checking them on market bots.
 
Exotic sheild schems only found on wrecks in pvp space? or RNG chance from doing a certain alphelia mission? etc etc

Energy management could do the job. But it is not on the roadmap.