Demonneo

Let's hope so. Just sharing my view on this subject because i actually lost interest when JC said the NDA will not go away. Probably it's the same for a lot of other people. 
 
And i know there are always projects being developed, but MMOs have been stagnated for quite some time to a point people even give a chance to asian free to play MMOs in hopes for it to be the next big thing, which obviously will not happen when such horrible business model is implemented. 2020 tho, it seems we will get a decent list of choices with actual some potential to be good unlike the last 5 years.
 
Edit: @ShioriStein, you can see it at 1:25 in the roadmap video

There's a free trial period planned at any time for new players. Even If you hop on 2 years after release you can test out the game for some days/weeks for free. It's Not only in the first month after release

I have to say that i'm very disappointed about the NDA not being removed for the alphas. The entire year of 2019 aswell the rest of 2018 without getting any news, updates and gameplay content will probably hurt this project since this is an indie MMO initiative and those desperately need the constant public attention to build a stable playerbase and not lose it's momentum. Even i that contributed a little bit to the crowdfunding lost my interest after this forum went desert and the game footage became rare because of the NDA.
 
This is an MMO and as such it's not usually the type of a game you can share with other projects from the same genre since it demands a lot of our time to be invested to achieve something and actually have some fun. The fear of players getting the "wrong impression" of the game from the alphas would probably be a better risk than going dark for one year and half and having players moving on to the next MMO in development, where we can actually see stuff happening. Unless the server still lags constantly and the PvP combat is completely underwhelming i don't see a reason to put the alphas inside a secure vault. Bad move in my opinion. But that's it, just my opinion. I hope i'm wrong.
 
 
 
 

Comments have been hidden to prevent this into turning into a flamewar and going off topic.
 
To answer your original question @boots_1588, the cost is unknown, (wether NQ releases information regarding server cost, is up to them) and no, NQ has not said it's "one" server, quite the contrary. The games "one shard" or one universe runs on a cluster server, which is composed of multiple servers and multiple systems, as Haunty mentioned above.
 
Single Shard does not mean single computer.
 
As a reminder to all, while yes, the question(s) may have been asked a million times, this does not mean that one should be rude or bait someone into a flamewar over what's already been answered. A simple post that answers the question or links to the answer, goes a long way.
 
 
Best Regards,
Meldrik
 
 
 
 

No, it does not. It destroys the value of effort and doing the work. What is the point of spending time to get to a position where you can reap the benefits of the work when Joe Bloggs can come around and just push your work down the toilet.
 
Games like DU will give you back what you put in, there's no free lunch here and if you want to be better than the other guy you'll have to work for it.
 
 
Small groups with smart members who manage to capitalize on what they know best is what will keep the bigger orgs sharp and focussed. That is not the same as ' it should be fairly easy to disrupt an industry'. Disrupting an industry does not come easy and is not simple to achieve. Not in RL and it certainly should not be in DU or any relevant game.

You can do it already - have an empire on your own with only 5 ppl or so. It just won't be defendable because everyone can just raid you, but you can try....
 
You seem to think that everyone should be able to do everything and that solo players who don't want to bother with politics, betrayal, emergent gameplay, logistics and socializing should get special treatment to be on equal ground with a larger org. Guess what, that won't happen.
You can play in a smaller group. You can play solo. But you CAN'T get the same benefits as larger orgs do. That's the thing with DU: make friends, socialize, get to know ppl and think of a RDMS structure that suits you while at the same time makes it very hard to betray. If you don't want to bother with strangers and big orgs, that's fine. But don't expect to be on equal grounds with them if you don't want to invest as much time and brain in the structure as they do.

That is actually very interesting. Dynamic events like that could suddenly turn a known low value zone into an hotspot, bringing new conflicts and interests into play. 

I would like to try all the options except being leader or having a special position within an organization . But i believe that exploring and searching for rare resources to mine them and later building something cool with the people from my organization will be my favorite part of the game. PvP might also be one of my interests but it will depend on how it's implemented. So far we have seen nothing about it.

Also 20 000$ medical expenses. That is your real problem.

There are no griefers, or do you mean aggressive players that you did not prepare well enough for?
 

Just my opinion on the subject xD

Just my opinion on the subject xD

When you die in DU you lose your inventory (half disappears and half is lootable) but keep your quanta and your master blueprints. (At least that was the original plan from NQ)
 
Lootablilty of DACs is a sticky topic. Originally NQ said they would *not* be lootable and there was a loud disproportional stink about it. So this has been discussed before...at length. You can wade though that topic here:
 
A point that was raised is that someone paid real money for the DAC and then it got stolen. Let's repeat that: A player paid for something and got no return for it. NQ is ethically and morally bound not to allow that. And no, crying "git good noob" does not somehow make that OK.
 
Solutions: 
The EvE system to bank PLEX is one solution but will take precious dev time. Another that was suggested is that DACs are unlootable until they are sold for the first time. The effect of this is that hoarding in-game bought DACs carry an inherent risk which I have no issue with. A player can pop them immediately for time or accept the risk of keeping them.

All right, this topic is going to be locked.
 
Surprisingly all these "TheSlaxx" defenders are fresh new accounts.
Apparently some think it's okay to create accounts just to try to strongharm Novaquark's decision, even if this was already discussed and explained in private many times.
Making it public will NOT change Novaquark's decision. If someone opens another topic on TheSlaxx to try to change Novaquark's mind, expect your account to be banned permanently from the forum without further notice. We don't have time to waste on this topic anymore. This practice of coming back again and again on a decision made by Novaquark will only make the situation worse.
 
TheSlaxx hasn't been banned for the shady practices regarding the Organizations.
He has been banned for what he did after.
"He has changed now" will never be a valid argument to rehabilitate him.
If we make an exception for him, we will have to make exceptions for everyone else that has a toxic behavior. 
That's not gonna happen.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.
 

Nope, that's not what happened lol
 
That's not NQs problem. If that's true then he's better off WITHOUT the game anyway and should see a psychiatrist.
 
 
 
Also strange that this is brought up.....by three different ppl. Who only ever posted in this thread. Quite the "coincidence"

If you get into an earlier test you get the later tests "for free". 
Pre-Alpha -> Alpha 1 -> Alpha 2 -> Beta -> (this is not a test) Release
So those in pre-alpha will be able to play in the Beta.
 
 

Thanks for the link to the interview!
 
Since the interview is one hour long and there's no transcript, I've tried to make some notes. Mostly it's things we have already heard before. Note that English is not my first language and I may have misheard something.
J.C. really likes EVE Online. There will be multiple wipes before the release. Construct blueprints will be preserved. "Information is sacred". If your ship gets destroyed and you had no blueprint, you still get a snapshot. Everything is in first-person (for immersion). Third-person view may be introduced later. There will be mysteries in the world to discover. Everyone starts at the arkship. 20 km (minimum, may be expanded) safe-zone around the starship. No artificial content (bosses or pre-built challenges). Emergent gameplay, meaningful experiences. No quests. Organizations are expected to provide player-built quest/job boards. NPC life (to hunt, etc) is challenging to do right. Will start with something simple. Tech can handle 100 people on one ship. They can move and do things while the ship is moving. The goal is that one person can't run a 500 m long ship alone. 20 cannons = 20 people. Pre-alpha has one system with 12 planets. Will expand that later on with more systems and unlock technologies to build stargates. Exploration won't be easy ("a journey"). Planets are real (giant balls, not flat). 65 km in radius at the moment. Everything is editable. If you have several months, you can dig out a mountain and see that it's not there from space. The game client downloads parts that are modified. Estimate: 1000 players, 8 hours/day, 19 years to dig out 1% of the planet. There will be prospecting gameplay (scanning to locate minerals). It will be possible for players to organize and defend themselves. Biggest overcome challenges: server tech, recruiting people and building the dream team, financing. Often can't use off-the-shelf tech. Started with Unreal engine but couldn't do what they wanted. Switched to another engine. Building not just a game, but a whole set of game technologies. Marketing is important and they'll work on that in the coming months. There's lots of great games out there and no one knows about them. They're trying to revolutionize the MMO genre. You can "paint" by changing voxel materials. Elements (engines, fuel tanks) are static, but there may be multiple varieties later on. Construct and avatar weapons are preset (not customizable), but come in many varieties. Maybe in a few years they'll think about customizing. There will be a skill system like EVE Online (offline training). Still working on that. No offline mining, but some industrial jobs will be running offline. Anything that requires interaction with the world will require you to be connected. Mining will not be automatic so that beginners can have something to do and be competitive. If you are touching the ship when it is destroyed, you die. In principle, you could escape in a smaller ship before that or just float in space with proper equipment. Bases will require power (power generators) for certain parts. Not for lights. Food is intended to be added later. Everything is scriptable in Lua (for advanced players). Can automate a lot of things. You can play games inside the game. For the moment, no underwater bases. Would like to add a bubble that creates a water-free area. Just a matter of time until they find a way to make underwater bases happen. No boats ("water ships"), hovercrafts instead. Territory units will be expensive and there will be lots of gameplay to regulate how often you can claim territory. 1 km in diameter. The only way to get anything is to craft it or to buy/get someone to craft for you. Subscription allows you to get and enjoy the whole game (10-15 €/$ per month). There will be a free trial period. There will be a PLEX-like system.   Microtransactions: no pay-to-win, maybe cosmetic items only. In-game money is called "quanta". One aspect of the game that's not talked about enough: interactive elements (pressure plates, lasers, detection areas, force fields) allow you to make puzzle games (like Portal). You can invite friends or make a business out of it. Puzzle game are expected to be co-op (since there's no cube you can drop).

Although usually not very active on the forums, I just wanted to take a moment to send out my regards to the ATV team and NQ wishing you both the best of luck this weekend. This test marks a significant milestone in dual universe’s development, and the whole community is praying for your success.
       In particular to the ATV team, remember you represent all of us, the players. We share the same hopes and dreams for dual universe but the responsibility to help make them happen falls on your shoulders. How you conduct yourselves over the next two days and the months to come will influence both the quality and timeline of development. For every bug you find, for every concept you critic, you are paving the way forward towards our dream. To my surprise each and every ATV member I have interacted with has been a commendable individual worthy of respect, donating both their time and expertise towards promoting the game. The time has finally come for you to contribute in earnest and show us what you are really made of. I know you will make us all proud.
 
I invite others to comment below and offer their words of encouragement to our first group of pioneers.

Are you referring to pre-alpha, alpha-1 or alpha-2 ?
 
DU will not have damage from collision between constructs. Crashing a construct into the ground or into an asteroid will cause damage though. There will obviously be no combat damage until the PVP mechanics are implemented.
 
Pre-alpha will basically be a "creative mode" where players get given unlimited resources to experiment and build whatever they want. Players will also be able to create blueprints of their constructs, which they'll be able to keep permanently. Beyond that there are no other game systems implemented yet AFAIK. However, constructs built in the alpha stages will be lost, because there will be server wipes between the development stages.
 
During alpha 1 and alpha 2, more systems will be added incrementally, such as scanning, mining, markets, skill training, etc. We don't have a roadmap as yet, so it's not clear yet what is planned to be added at each stage.
 
Once the basics are reasonably stable, NQ will probably start on the PVP implementation, which sounds like it's planned for late alpha-2.

Hi Folks,
 
I had some time on my hands to do my hobby. And I have to say this, it is fist time in my life I decided to share with you some tunes I've created being inspired by this game. Even created account on soundcloud, yay!.
 
I really like the music behind this project but I was trying to add more diversity. You know... some faction related stuff
 
Here it is, faction anthem.
 
Hope one day all my friends from Organisation will fly to it together
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-wasilewski-4/homeless-march-of-giants
 
And this piece.. I would imagine yourself in deep space, out of oxygen, resources, energy but...
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-wasilewski-4/homeless-never-give-up
 
Apologies for some glitches, levels out of balance etc... This is very rough material, still trying to figure out how to record this properly from my moXF6. 
 
And if you got inspired, created some music, art, please share it with us!
 
Here is the link to entire collection I occasionally updating with new song:
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-wasilewski-4/tracks

The DU gameplay at Gamescom was really amazing. I learned so many new things from talking to JC and actually playing the game that I would like to share them with you.
I’m very surprised no one else started a topic about the Gamescom jet, as there were people who spend much more time at the NQ booth then me…
 
Disclamer: None of this information is official! It’s just my interpretation of the conversation I had with JC. Also none of the features are final! I got the impression that a lot of details are not fully thought out and will be changed during development.

I hope we can freely discuss features “as seen in the Gamescom” without violating any pre-alpha NDA… I just think this will be interesting for those who were not there.
 
Orbital mechanics:
In space there are actual physics calculations like in Kerbal Space Program! I managed to catapult my ship into orbit with atmospheric engines, but it was pulled back in a parabolic curve by the gravity.
JC said that atmospheric engines are actually a bit overpowered, as you could reach escape velocity with them and fly straight into space… without any control… because the engines only work in atmosphere… xD
I have to say that I really liked the atmospheric flight mechanics; they felt very realistic just like a real airplane.
 
Damaging system:
Functional parts get damaged on impact and are supposed to lose their function until they get repaired by hand. (currently tweaked as it’s a little bugy)
 
Lua Scripting:
We already know about the minigames you can create in DU, but what about the multiplayer capabilities? Interestingly enough it’s already possible to connect multiple programming units together by just using global variables, which are shared inside one core unit.
Thereby multiple sup-components on a big ship can be interconnected and exchange information between each other.
In theory it could also be possible to communicate to another construct using the same mechanic, but with a growing distance the update rate of the data would be decrease…
They are thinking about creating a component that can be accessed “globally” by any programming unit in range… but the whole topic about distributed systems will be another milestone that has not been considered jet.
Another thing I asked was if we could use an external IDE for programming, as the ingame one was kind of limited… JC said in theory you could import an external library in the ingame interface, which should access the Lua scripts directly from your PCs hard drive.(not sure about the Lua limitations inside DU though)
Or you just copy the code over to the game for testing.
The Lua development is also tied to the ingame IDE as each connected component actually provides predefined event-function-blocks that are triggered by certain events (e.g. a switch has an on, and an off block) and you have to place Lua code in the corresponding function blocks.
I’m sure in the long run NQ will develop a fully fledged IDE for the game, so this will become no issue at all….
The breakout minigame was also simply some code executed in the “start” function that was able to receive keyboard inputs and generated svgs that were displayed on the screen-unit.
 
Rendering/Performance:
Ok, the game is not the prettiest rendering wise.
All vegetation and functional components get only rendered up to a certain distance (few 100 meters) than they get de-spawned. Also all lighting and shadows are only active up to this distance.
Further away voxels also get simplified a lot… I honestly don’t care about the visuals that much, but I’ll admit the space station looked kind of squashed from far away.  But JC said they are working hard on improving the rendering.
On the flip side flying around was very smooth! In god-mode I flew to the moon of Alioth in 2 seconds without any noticeable frame drops!
 
 
So, that’s all that was new/interesting about the game for me. Maybe most of this was already known, but it wouldn’t hurt to share it here…
I actually did not have enough time to cover all my questions. But others are probably able to share a lot more insights from Gamescom, so feel free to post them to the rest of the community!

Oh get off your high horse. 
 
We all understand how important this moment is, and we are all excited. Just because not everyone is taking off of work doesn't mean we are "not true fans". No one, not you or anyone else has a right to try and tell people that they aren't good enough fans, or aren't "real" parts of the community. We are all working hard to build a better community. 
 
I am going to be participating as much as possible and no one will be able to accuse me of not being there, but unless NQ wants to pay my bills for me then I'm not taking work off for alphas and betas. Over the next year there are probably going to be 3 or more alphas and 1 to 3 betas, plus launch. Taking two weeks off for each means 7x2 = 14 weeks off. I wish I had that much vacation time, but I don't.
 
Dual Universe is a marathon, not a sprint and I'm here for the long haul. 

I think the biggest takeaway from these interviews is the better impression we're getting on JC's idea for how the game should expand and grow. Specifically this quote:
 
 
We've all known about stargates and FLT drives for a long time, but this seems to be saying that those things are going to be deliberately designed to be unreachable for years, and I don't think most people realized that.
 
This is a really big deal because it completely changes how people imagine the gameplay, and how we need to pitch DU to others. If we sell people on the idea of exploring a massive universe like No Man's Sky (man do I hate that comparison), then they're going to be extremely disappointed when they get in-game and realize they can't do that for years. If the game's not actually going to become functionally interstellar for a long time, then we need to understand the implications of that ourselves, and make sure we market the game appropriately to our friends. 
 
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely and completely agree with this sort of long-term thinking (if this is actually what JC meant by those comments). One of the most significant problems for open world building games is that they always feel empty and lifeless, because everyone and everything is so spread out. By forcing players to remain in a concentrated area (first on Alioth, then the starting solar system), the players will be channeled into building a living and active world, instead of just scattering all over the galaxy and never seeing each other again. This is a great idea, and shows a great level of forethought and long-term planning.
 

I believe those options will be eventually applied later in the game. It would be nice if we had some customization already available at launch tho, since I'm also a big fan of fashion in MMOs xD
Anyway, the priority should always be the gameplay and server stability otherwise it's pointless to even have char customization.

First, there's this new article on MMORPG.com

http://www.mmorpg.com/dual-universe/interviews/checking-in-with-novaquarks-ambitious-space-sandbox-1000011963
 
 
And this one by pcgamesinsider.biz 

http://www.pcgamesinsider.biz/success-story/66074/another-mans-sky-novaquarks-vision-for-ambitious-mmo-dual-universe/
 
 
It's likely more articles are forthcoming this week too, as Gamescom has just begun