VandelayIndustries
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Posts posted by VandelayIndustries
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12 hours ago, Warlander said:
Its mostly just a compilation of suggestions I have made since I got here in how the game is currently and minimal things they could do and adapt like 90% to the areas to make the game more fun to play and add PvP in with just making PvP cores that adds some kind of value to the game vs what DU is currently.
Pvp cores would be cool. And weight factoring in the CCS. So hauling cores get bonus to CCS with cargo, and pvp cores if you have cargo drastically lowers your CCS. So carrying a little ore can put some negatives.
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For the love of God remove the glow rocks, and remove/altar the nebula. Using the nebula for "lighting" reasons Is lazy. It's OK to have the dark side of the moon a little dark and dangerous. Know your target audience NQ. It's 30+ we don't need all the bright shiney colors of fortnight to make our brains go Ooooooooooooooooo.
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14 minutes ago, joaocordeiro said:
To bad you can't understand that there are complicated problems that require complicated solutions.
The nebula does help me. But wont do miracles when the game simply does not render.
Use a radar. If you have a radar you can fly in pitch black but avoid them. Just because you don't like the solution doesn't mean there isn't one. Radar is a big part of gameplay. If you aren't smart enough to use one that's on you, vast majority use a radar just like vast majority think the nebula is ugly as shit. Also why NQ has already confirmed its changing in some capacity.
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21 minutes ago, joaocordeiro said:
The problem is "what"..
A simple limitation?
1000m? To allow for agg parking?
Below 1000m?
I dont see a big issue with tall structures, the issue i see is with poor rendering that leads to poor pilot awareness of those structures.
Structure stability could be a thing. Making tall structures require very large bases and eliminating floating blocks.
But this would require a huge ammount of new and hard coding.
Maybe rules could force players to make the structures with allot more width instead of 1 single voxel, that way rendering at a higher distance and being clearly visible.
All you have to do is use the light from the nebula and you will never crash again. Your words.
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7 hours ago, Anopheles said:
What is with space games and grind as gameplay? Elite Dangerous is just as bad and even Eve has only about four game loops of various grindiness.
I suppose it's the natural consequence of having engineers create a story, which works as well as a bunch of artists building a practical engine.
The writing in the wall came way back when they decided to limit the game to one solar system killing, at a stroke, any exploration and discovery gameplay ("we've hidden a...oh you found it already?)
And it's bad for newbies AND older players who spent money on doing what they enjoyed (which in DU is building things). I ddn't play to make money.
So, I can make the money to keep my modest four hex area active if I sacrifice one session (of my spotty amount of game sessions) a week hauling ore to the market and checking in my mu's.
This isn't play, it's work. Every time I log on, the urge to play something quicker rewarding gets stronger.
Improvements?
More more planets, with more geography
allow planet features to be named by whoever holds the most hexes on it
allow free for all scavenging on unprotected ships (and allow protection)
Build NPC cities run by npcs to begin with, replacing them with players with enough vicious ambition to do it and hold onto it
Pay (variable) taxes to those cities that control your hex
Allow PC cities to set their own tax
Allow independent hexes (with a downside because choices)
Rename everything with actual names for the sake of immersion.
Allow players to hold the reins more and not just be fleas on the horse
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Just off the top of my head. Nothing above is difficult to implement.
This really bugs me. For a so called player driven game, the players have basically 0 control.
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5 hours ago, Knight-Sevy said:
Why should we buy ore?
It's been 1 years now that we have been waiting for PvP. Just to start having fun and using our tens of millions of liters of ore stored for over a year.And PvP is still not there.
Now we are going to add tens of millions of liters of ore to our stocks every month.
And we still don't have PvP.
Who will want ore in the market? to do what ?
The people that will create cool looking buildings!!! That also have no function...that no one visits....because cities aren't a thing. PvP was obviously slapped on and not built into the foundation. Sucks too cause NQ has made more than 1 pvp trailer that advertises pvp, in a way that is in no way reality. And so here we are.
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16 minutes ago, Sabretooth said:
Get ready for my rant.... 3.. 2.. 1..
Hi there, I am wondering if the community has changed.
From artistic builders to people who only want to make money or destroy things.
I see a lot of chatting going around, it only is about how much money you can make with the new mining units. Nobody talks about a building project or anything. New players come into this game and I only see them chat about how to make quanta. Its all about which tile brings in the most quanta, not even if it has a great view, a nice river or anything. They might as well just have flat surface planets because people dont seem to care. I have NEVER seen anyone chat about how this unlimited ore can help you with your giant build project.
Its all about quanta, quanta, quanta. People who are making billions, and for what, retirement?
This is a voxelbuilding game with superior voxel-tools and lots of players are only talking about how to make quanta.
And what will they do with all that quanta? Nobody knows
With all this unlimited free ore, sanct should be looking like coresant in a few months, but Im sure that will not be the case. People will only sell ore, it is not meant for building anymore.
Talking about making money so much, that NQ is even considering a wipe now, and lots of peeps are like: no biggie, as long as i can keep my bp's (and with bp's, they mean a bp for a hauler to make money). NQ can consider a wipe, because the majority dont seem to care about builds.
In that perspective, NQ was right to implement taxes. If that is what the majority of the community wants to do (make money), then NQ has given those players a purpose.
And this is a voxelBUILDING game, so whats this complaining about PVP? Why do people enter a building game, only wanting to destroy things?
Because it is not about building or design, its about assembling the most powerful destroyer possible. Not even the best looking or anything, just to be useful and destroy as much possible.
And that is, for me, the reason I cancelled my sub. Not just because of how demeter or NQ changed the game, but also because I do not feel at home between these money grabbers and destroyers. This is just not my kind of game anymore. Im sure that if I come back and take a peek after 8 months or so, there are less builds then there are now! And thats a very amazing trick that NQ has pulled of in a persistent voxelbuilding universe!!
No offence to anyone, we are all different people.
Maybe talk to NQ, as their marketing strategy was to get people who "like to destroy stuff" in the game. All their big flashy promotion videos have pvp. Same with the recent one about asteroid pvp. That video had 100k views. All over QnA videos have like 4k.
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3 minutes ago, Warlander said:
There is a difference in the saying "Keep it simple stupid" and NQ's method of "Keep it simply stupid".
Considering the game went into pre-alpha testing in sept 2017 they have had plenty of time over the last 5 years to make some kind of game with the budget they had.
Instead:
- They spend way to much time remaking/removing core systems they make that are just as broken as the systems they replace that are less frun and tedious then the system before that is supposed to add performance and make it less tedious.
- They make basic systems full of loopholes and exploits and then updated them with new loopholes and exploits with incentives.
- They spent a majority of their time focusing on PvP and still failing to actually balance or impliment it properly in a supposed PvP game that just needed PvP based cores and pushing top tier industry manufacturing into Pvp static cores to slow down industry and remove items from the game.
- They want to do everything manually for some reason instead of developing simple tools or giving the players tools to do the same thing in the instance of removing dirt from cores for the Demeter update if they just gave us a cloned version of the add/remove voxel tool and let us remove dirt ourselves rather than having staff waste hours on the clock doing it.
- They spend more time coming up with punishments vs gameplay features to actually open up gameplay rather than preventing players from experiencing the game since they dont know how to impliment PvP and the building community not wanting assets destroyed in a PvP game.
Its like NQ cant stop chasing their tail with all the problems they created with bad game design that forces them to keep running aournd in circles trying to fix what they broke or failed to impliment if they just thought about what they create for more than an initial "you know what would be cool.." brainstorm without diving deep into the system mechanics they want to create, how it can be exploited by players, and actually making it entertaining at the same time.
NQ is crazy. And your right with all that pvp stuff they did the one element we got was a shield. Big whoop. Should of also made it so L core weapons can't hit anything with a velocity greater than 0 so that makes them the perfect siege weapons for station pvp and territory warfare. Give them a unique role. And M and S would be main pvp ships. Oh well
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They are the red headed step child of orbital bodies. Shit ore. Asteroids respawn and have better ore. If you want to live in space, a space station is better now because you can evade taxes. New idea.
Remove tiles from the moons. And once every 2 weeks respawn the ore, reset the terrain. Unless that digging is still to much, you would have Madis moons and thades for safe zone. Outer moons would be pvp zone (eventually) and a good way to get some more mid tier and t1 ore. Resetting the terrain and random ore should be easy and doable they do it weekly with Asteroids on smaller scales. Give moons a purpose. Could also in a round about way add to TW and another point of interest later on, as people will try to put space cores near them and mine em all out as an org. Good for pvp and points of interest. Come on NQ shake things up, not everything needs to be a damn tile.
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5 minutes ago, Warlander said:
NQ just likes to take the easiest dev solutions with no forethought of what they are creating or the impact on the game it has.
And that's why the game will never "take off" because they are incapable of developing fun things, and unique things. Always least amount of effort and it shows.
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29 minutes ago, Sevian said:
Right? If I do manage to claim a tile and the former-owner is absent for 2 weeks: I'm only taking the items and then unclaiming.
If NQ thinks everyone is just going to wipe clean the tile, then they're in for a surprise.
If they made it a free for all after say 1 month of unpaid taxes you would have higher chance, as even newbies would pick at the scraps and voxels. If NQ is going with this salvage for unpaid taxes just have some fucking balls and abandon all static constructs, make it a free for all. Unless someone "wants" to claim it.
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39 minutes ago, Creator said:
The issue overall for me is time... this week has been a rare exception as I have the week off as I transition between work.
- Autominers, at a scale to earn any income require significant time to optimized/maximize returns, which I don't/won't have.
- Roids take significant flight time, are limited to a weekend availability for best mining, and risk being emptied out when I usually can play later in the week.
- Selling designs was my primary source of income, however, people aren't really buying designs as the economic shock and adjustment has everyone hoarding quanta/resources.
- The best mission on Alioth takes about 30 minutes round trip for 170kh.
- The better pay missions off of Alioth take even more time that I don't have.
Additionally I can't industry on any tile that I choose build on if HQ'ed not paying taxes which means raw material is useless, and must be shipped from my Sanct tile which only provides me 300L hematite, and 86L of quartz... and hour. Plus I have to fly between my Sanct tile and Alioth, which takes time significant time. So either I have to pay people with money I am not really earning to haul it, or I have to haul it and it means I lose my time to build, plus more time surface harvesting rocks for fuel, cause I don't make the money to really buy a lot of fuel.
Plus the surface harvesting is very hard on my hands, and painful physically rl.
So when I don't have time, it is a reality for me personally, and others that play casually, or only really want to build that we do lose 50% of our income. Otherwise we lose our precious time we have to build. The new update has punished builders and casuals, and those with limited TIME.
This is a very real problem for Dual Universe, as this game won't scale if it is only accessible to those who can play every day, or play all weekend. The demographic it attracts is generally 30+ meaning most of us work, have families, and other obligations, etc.
If I had 200L of every T1 on my Sanct tile, and could relocate my Sanct tile to collaborate with other like minded builders, then you would no longer see me on this forum, cause I would have what I need to play like I did before.
I don't really want or need much, but what little I need and want, I cannot get, and what I had has been ripped out of my hands.
My building project which I was forced to tear down was a stress coping mechanism for me, not just a game. It is how I managed my anger and stress so I could actually function like a normal person. I respect that for you this is just a game and a bunch of pixels, but for me, this is my zen garden... right now that garden is on fire... and I have no alternative method for keeping in balance.
Actually trying to seek mental health resources because, I didn't realize how much I crutched on this stupid game to keep myself together.
Because my work is working with victims of violent crimes, sexual assault, and domestic abuse. You can only hear so many stories of rape, and molestation and other heavy things without some sort of outlet, a person really isn't meant to deal with that level of trauma on a daily basis. Right now the worst part of it is, like I can't go out and socialize with friends cause when I try I am having trouble regulating my stress, cause my zen garden is gone.
But that is all me and my crap, and I am trying to work it out, but you know like I am not the only person that needs this game to keep solid, to hold themselves together, some people are disabled, have health issues, unemployed, isolated, whatever is going on in their life, so they come in here to their own builds to escape and forget for a moment the stress.
Now our stress relief has been turned into a chore by Devs with a weekly timer...
I would be happy to go back to sanct if the tile had just the little resources I need to quietly build and not be on here angry on the forums, hurting because I had something goodI get your complaints, but im sorry you lose all credibility from me when u try to bring your real world issues in it. This is a game.
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12 minutes ago, Xennial said:
And you help to validate my point about a pain-of-loss here. In DU unlike in EVE we design our ships from scratch and choose all system etc in said ship. Also in DU the ship has to be functional in relation to flying on a planet. If making a ship in DU was nothing more then picking what was on a few hardpoints / upgrade slots then it would be a different animal. Balancing a freeform ship design system in any sort of PvP environment is a massive undertaking in and of itself that I don't see NQ ever really pulling off. At least if the cost to build/replace said ship was much lower people could focus less and picking up rocks, and more on using said ships, again here DU fails because gathering resources is basically the only activity besides building artwork.
sure there is difference i get that. But the BP system alleviates that a lot. And S cores with way less elements, and small sizes, and less voxels do make it easy to plop down another BP quickly once you did your inital time. If there was no BP then ya id agree. But with BP's its just the initial part. And ive also spent HOURS upon hours fine tuning fits in eve for min/maxing pvp or C5 wormhole sites. That time does factor in similar to the intial build phase. And also not everyone is hell bent on making the best looking ships. Some are ok making it look decent and functional. So peoples mileage vary. And someone like me i usually buy ships then build my own. So that doesnt really effect me at all. I buy tokens when i can, or if not BP's. I absolutely hate the building in this game. So i skip it.
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3 minutes ago, Xennial said:
That still won't do it, as core size cost is relative to player progression curve. You might not think a S or M core is a big deal to lose, but to newer/smaller players that may have been a major time investment or monetary investment to build and operate. I agree that L core is always better is a fault, but even balancing in this regard is not going to change how valuable a ship loss is to a player. The base cost in time/effort for a player to build/operate a basic ship is just to high. The pain-of-loss extends even to travel times for example. If someone spends 2 hours slow boating just to get destroyed in a couple of minutes they have 'lost' 2 hours of their life. This particular issue goes to what le_souriceau was saying.
not saying its the only thing, but it actually is a big deal. And the 2 hour time thing can be anything, that shit happens in eve all the time. people invest tons of time resources to get it blown up in pvp. But what eve has is smaller ships that have defined meaningful roles. DU does not have that. Anyone who has played eve for even a short time, can buy literally hundreds of frigates and lose them over and over. DU does not have that.
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13 minutes ago, Xennial said:
But honestly thats more surface issues compared to the underlying fault of DU continuing to make pain of loss higher and trying to 'force' group play.
They were hell bent on doing core sizes, so if they could figure out how to make S cores and M core and elements the go to and not just always L it would help a lot with that pain of loss. Anyone who plays this game quickly realizes bigger is better and faster, even with hauling. That's gonna be an on going issues. L cores should have a role. But not be best at everything. Defines roles is what we need.
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7 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:
Yeah, I am all for that as well. I was more thinking of a need for shelter (for example from weather conditions), thus a place to rest and refill the energy, which in turn can be boosted by some food or drinks. And then maybe medicine as well (say after you fall down some 10m and are injured), which in turn needs ingredients to produce, and so on - just as I said, it would then all tie together nicely ...
In those regards I try to look at what would be fun gameplay in the immersive world they trying to go for. So boosts I like, but don't like that if I don't eat I could die or huge penalties. I also like some element survival mechanics (need for different types of suits) or i do lik things that could kill our avatar outside being in a seat of a ship. Some sort of oxygen needed in a space game makes sense if done correctly and not tedious. These types of challenges can he fun for groups even doing pve stuff like planning mining missions on a hostile planet.
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6 minutes ago, Kobayashi said:
I have been here since it was all fields, was in early alpha, was at the 30k stress test and many other early events. I am also well aware of what development costs, I work in the industry (condescension seems to be a common trait on here). So lets do some maths 25m for the first 6+ years = about 4m running cost per year. Which means that the 4.5m they 'recently acquired' should mean they will be running for at least another 12 months. Taking into account, the initial costs would have been lowered but they have been very open about saving being made in the last 6 months or so and they have been getting some income from subs.
In my experience, most independent development companies live hand to mouth, that is the way of the world. The fact the game hasnt been dumped onto Steam for me is a good sign that they are not desperate for money, as that would be the first thing I would do as a cash grab if they were. I totally agree that launch is what will define whether the project lives or dies, they need to get key additional features finished and then send a good few months polishing the game before they let the masses in. Would be interesting to know what level of subs they need to break even.You just said everything I did. I never was one of the people that said they were "broke" and only a few outliers have said so. But 25mil for 7 years is very little in the gaming industry, especially for a company that has more costs (they pay for he servers) as oppose to other games who pass that onto the player. And ya anyone who has looked into it shows they probably have another year of funding left. But what people are really concerned about and the game "dying" Is, what kind of product will we get that NQ calls release, and how much income can they really get. And will it be enough to sustain them for many many years plus continued development at a reasonable pace. Can't deny the odds aren't good. Sure, 36 months from now DU might still be a game, but my guess would be under 50% chance of that happening.
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Also keep in mind during alpha they had those numbers public on the website. You might not have been around during alpha, but they only raised 2mil over 6 years from kickstarter and pledges. Everything else came from investors. Investors who want a RETURN. Which means at some point the player will have to make NQ profitable. It's really not looking good in that regard.
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17 minutes ago, Kobayashi said:
So it is a guess then..... you have no actual idea. I have been hearing that NQ were out of money for ages but they seem to keep on going? So not going to pay any heed to further speculation.
Also if they did RECENTLY get 4.5m and they had 20m for the first 6 years, basic maths says they should still have some money in the bank. Unless they have had a massive increase in overheads.It's not a guess to say 25mil or so Is not a lot for video game. Especially one of DU Scale and scope they going for and their servers. It's not people saying the flat out broke, it's people saying they have money on the extreme low end for trying to achieve what they are wanting to do. You can do simple math on average salaries for devs and such. They aren't getting paid minimum wage. Those salaries cost in the millions alone, not to mention everything else I've listed. Yes the probably have enough money to make it to release, but everything after will have to be them turning a profit, which they obviously haven't yet.
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25 minutes ago, Kobayashi said:
Just wondering how you know NQ's financial position. People have been claiming NQ were broke for over 6 months on this forum, when JC left the whole company was going to be sold off according to the sages.
Has anyone ever thought that they might have the money to get to launch regardless of player count and subs?Those are of public record, they only had 20 some million total before beta released. they probably havent even made 500k from subs. Because so many beta keys exist. Lots of people have 10 alts and not a single one pays a sub. Second, they did recently gte 4.5mil investment i saw someone link. So people are correctly speculating that that 4.5mil is being used to get them to a "release". But beyond that, once they release, the odds of people continue to invest will probably be 0. So it will be up to NQ to actually turn a profit with subs/dac/cosmetics. We don't know their exact monthly nut, but they own 2 offices. Rent cost money. Electricity cost money. 60-80 employee salaries cost a lot of money per month. The servers they have cost money. And on top it all they have to make SOME profit for their investors. So ya, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out NQ's financials are not great and long term doesnt look the best. It will depend on what money they can make post release. Which is coming quickly.
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12 minutes ago, FryingDoom said:
"The only case of a wipe will be if NQ sees no other option."
Rather says it all doesn't it. There are a lot of other options than a full wipe.Exactly, meaning we will keep our BP and skill points, but every thing else wiped. Look, in end it doesn't matter much what NQ says,because they will do what they think is best for them and will make them the most money, or highest chance at game suriving. Whether that's to wipe or not. But only NQ decides that. Some people may say wiping will hurt the game but all that matters is NQs view on that, no one else.
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It's funny people posting where NQ said they don't "plan" to wipe. Shit changes, just like pre beta where they planned to wipe all along after beta. Is what it is.
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8 minutes ago, Jake Arver said:
That will not happen just like a full wipe will not happen.
People trying to argue against a wipe really need to stop holding on to the non-existent commitment from NQ of a no wipe promise or even a "if all else fails" scenario.
- NQ has not once said there wil not be another wipe
- NQ has at several times mentioned there might be another wipe prior to release
- All NQ has said is that there were no plans for a wipe AT THAT TIME
You lot really need to stop talking yourself into believing NQ made any commitments they never did. And some of you are so stubborn in clinging to these completely fabricated expectations you actually believe them to be true.
The argument that "you would lose everything" is simply not true. You'd keep blueprints and it would be highly unlikely that talent points accrued would not be refunded to the pool. If you start in a wiped universe with tens of millions of talent points and a backpack full of blueprints you will have a _massive_ advantage over those that come in fresh, if you at the same time group up and work together to rebuild even more so.
Now, if you want to argue that NQ would need to have some tools in place to make it easier to rebuild in a new situation where you may not have access to all the raw material or industry to rebuild, I certainly will agree that that is a fair point. As an example, I could see there would need to be an option to replace one voxel material for another when you rebuild from a blueprint and have the ability to exclude elements from a rebuild you do not have the need for or do not have the materials for. I would not prefer to see "magic blueprints" as they would allow much of the reasons for a wipe, such as remaining gains from exploits, to be recovered and the same goes for schematics, on a wipe these need to not be retained.
The two are not linked. Obviously on a wipe, you lose what is on Sanctuary.
What's funny is, not long before beta it was ALWAYS PLANNED to wipe after beta. It was always that way. The real anomaly here was when NQ switched up and decided to start their sub at beta. Everyone knows this reason was because they needed money. But you can bet your ass behind closed doors they had conversations saying "well if we wipe after beta how many people are really gonna pay?". So obviously they realized not wiping or announcing that would stand to make them the most money. What they didn't plan for was just how bad their beta launch was, and how bad 0.23 has been. And how fucked up the exploits been. But I suspect deep down they knew they would probably wipe. I mean, JC sat there 6months into beta and lied to our faces saying there were "no red flags" for them approaching release. If he lie about that, than not a stretch for them to lie about not wiping to keep as many subs as they could.
UNSUB PURGE: The Many Benefits of Territory Abandonment!
in General Discussions
Posted
I dont see how atmo pvp will happen over crappy territories. all the tiles run too close together. Most times one is good than the next. You gonna wage war next to your neighbor because he mines 20L more malachite then you per hour? Sure there are some t4/t5 ones. We need other built in reasons. Like rare/exotic industry not even working in the safe zone. stuff of that nature. Or if your org has X - % of the tiles owned on the outer planets, anyone else pays their 1mil taxes to that org. Something different besides ore. We arent gonna wage war over shitty ore.