VandelayIndustries

Those are LONG EXPOSURE photographs, mostly made with Hubble Palette (which BTW is not how they really look like, the hubble palette uses false colors).
To get faint nebulae and galaxies to be visible like in those photos you need to do long exposure photography (I usually do 4 x 4 hours) in order to gather enough light to actually be able to SEE anything.
With your naked eye all you would see is BLACKNESS.

Why do you still have the nebula when vast majority say it looks terrible, and is so cartoony.  Everyone in alpha loved the old skybox.  Should stick with that but then work on your actual lighting problems, not some blanket greenish hue all over my screen.  

Why is "Deckard" writing this in Discord and not here? ...
And, btw, that is a RED HERRING what he is doing.
And to answer his question: Yes, I have looked into space without light pollution - I am an astronomer and an astrophotographer. And space is dark, really really dark - in fact, mostly pitch black.
He KNOWS we are not talking about having a completely black space as in: no stars and so .... but he is playing dumb, and that is, quite frankly, demeaning.

A+ on all your points,  The shitty skybox is the easiest thing they can change but knowing NQ i very well doubt it.  I cant believe they changed it in alpha.  There is no way someone could think the nebula looks good compared to the old skybox they had.  
 
As far as civilization building game, ive said this for a long time, its not.  There is no civilization when everything is done by yourself.  No reason for cities, no reasons to explore, no reasons to take precautions or have risk traveling to an outer ice planet looking for rare ores.  Everything is safe, your avatar never dies.  All around just terrible.  NQ really needs to watch this video.  But the only actual hope we have in reality is if NQ loses the rights to DU and another company steps in to develop it and make an actual game.  NQ has proved incompetent time and time again.  As shown with something as simple as fucking up the skybox. 

Space looking like space.  Game use to look so good.

A+ on all your points,  The shitty skybox is the easiest thing they can change but knowing NQ i very well doubt it.  I cant believe they changed it in alpha.  There is no way someone could think the nebula looks good compared to the old skybox they had.  
 
As far as civilization building game, ive said this for a long time, its not.  There is no civilization when everything is done by yourself.  No reason for cities, no reasons to explore, no reasons to take precautions or have risk traveling to an outer ice planet looking for rare ores.  Everything is safe, your avatar never dies.  All around just terrible.  NQ really needs to watch this video.  But the only actual hope we have in reality is if NQ loses the rights to DU and another company steps in to develop it and make an actual game.  NQ has proved incompetent time and time again.  As shown with something as simple as fucking up the skybox. 

Space looking like space.  Game use to look so good.

Space looking like space.  Game use to look so good.

A+ on all your points,  The shitty skybox is the easiest thing they can change but knowing NQ i very well doubt it.  I cant believe they changed it in alpha.  There is no way someone could think the nebula looks good compared to the old skybox they had.  
 
As far as civilization building game, ive said this for a long time, its not.  There is no civilization when everything is done by yourself.  No reason for cities, no reasons to explore, no reasons to take precautions or have risk traveling to an outer ice planet looking for rare ores.  Everything is safe, your avatar never dies.  All around just terrible.  NQ really needs to watch this video.  But the only actual hope we have in reality is if NQ loses the rights to DU and another company steps in to develop it and make an actual game.  NQ has proved incompetent time and time again.  As shown with something as simple as fucking up the skybox. 

I delayed this as long as I could ....
 
 
 

Any solid, realistic strategy to re-populate game?
 
Nothing really matter without critical mass of people to make sandbox interesting and interactive place for old players/newcomers.

Exactly. For me it was the first trip to the moon.  Then landing and looking out at all the stars and darkness of space.  And seeing alioth glowing there.  It just had a feel to it that wasn't cartoony at all.  It just felt "right". 

I also think a lot of people currently playing the game were also not around back during Alpha 2 when we had the old amazing dark skybox and no glow rocks scattered all over the surface.  It was one thing that hooked me instantly.  The "feel" was just damn good for a sci-fi space game.  Like you said, its really such a small change that would have only positive effects for the game, and the immersion. 
 
At the very least, put it on the PTSD server so people can see.

Full wipe or no wipe at release? It's the only question that matters and you need to stop dogging it.

Why T1 ore has been removed from Jago, Lacobus, Symeon, Ion?
By doing this, you prevent people from having their base on these planets.

Are you playing the game?
I ask that because a lot of small improvement could be done to improve the player experience.

Have you tested the "new player" experience of the game with the new patch?
Testing that take ~3h, because you will see very fast that after 3h you have nothing to do but harvesting and waiting that your MU give your ore.
We want to have new player in the game, this is a way to keep the game alive. If someone that have 5h a Sunday afternoon to test the game, don't enjoy it, he will not play it anymore.

What will you do to improve Org management? 
The game is missing a lot of feature if you want to manage correctly. With Demeter you have not added anything for the orgs.
No ingame calendar, taxes on mission for orgs, only 3 type of member, etc...

Why I can subscribe an account for 6 month and put only 13 weeks in reserve for my tile?
This is absurd, if I pay for an account I should be able to protect my assets for the time being.
I am not saying that it should be automatically protected, but I should be able to put enough money for the upkeep. 

When the Lua API for Mining Unit will be implemented?
There is no data we can get from the Mining Unit, would be nice to be able to track the status via Lua.

Why there is no way to track the calibration charge we have without a Mining Unit?
The only way to know how many charge we have is to activate a Mining Unit. We should be able to know that without having to activate a Mining Unit.

I'm so glad I'm not alone in this!
 
I hope that someone from NQ at least reads this. And if they do, I'd love it if they replied just to let us know where they're at. I know that this is probably a minor change in the grand scheme of things, but since the engine supported this type of lighting at some point, I don't think it would be too challenging to revert it, at least internally to try it out.
 
We're all human, and these simple artistic changes can make a massive impact on players, far larger than one might expect. I truly believe you guys would attract more players from this. The world you're creating is meant to be emergent in its nature, with no set form, for the players to define, and to hold as diverse of a playerbase as possible. In theory, you'd want a skybox that compliments that — one that is beautiful and compliments any scenery (because it's black and realistic). Yet, as it is like a blank canvas and is open to interpretation, it doesn't push for any specific style, leaving a more organic and natural style the universe and its planets emergently develop if that makes any sense. Plus, it would draw in those who look for realism in games.
 
I think this skybox would compliment any scene, enhance immersion, be consistent with Dual Universe's vision and wouldn't even affect gameplay. I think it's one of those things that a lot of people want, but never actually ask for because it's purely aesthetic, so NQ never really knows the community wants it in the first place.

The people have spoken, Old sky box must be returned.  

What's wrong with that, in the first few weeks / in the first week. The s in weeks was missing in the translation.
Think about it, a new player does the tutorials for a few days, the first of which alone takes hours of play time to get to the area unit on Sanctuary. 
Accordingly, there are also quanta and skill points there when you have gone through all of them. so the first week goes by really fast. The 5 MiningUnits S also don't take long in the nanocrafter - you collect some ground ores anyway and slowly get into the game. 
For new players, the problem is not so much whether you can afford MiningUnits (L) after one or after 2 weeks, but that there is no game content besides that.

Completely agree, seems like a no brainer.
 
They also need to add some complexity, things like stealth, jamming, slowing mechanics.
 
 

Thats why pvp is in such a bad shape, that and lack of actual pvp content.  So for starters NQ could make these simple changes quickly.
 
L core max speed 20km
 
M core max speed 25km
 
S core max speed 28km
 
XS max 30km
 
Make shields restricted to their size of core like guns. 
 
Make it so L guns cant hit XS core.  (find another way). 
 
Make it so detection of higher tier Engines will increase a cores speed, but only slightly. So XL rare engine on a L core might push your speed to 23km.  Still slower than M but a nice bonus for using expensive engines.
 
All these varied speeds will give reasons again to use other cores.  Its just a start, but adding in bonus's and restrictions to core sizes gives them a unique reason to use them, and reasons to have varied core sizes in a fleet.  

I can respect what you are saying, and I would almost agree. I am 100% bitter about the changes as I see what it is hurting players, especially new ones that never had a chance to hoard away millions of quanta or liters or ore. That said I feel after the last vlog they aren't the advocates for the players they once were. I don't feel they are being thorough in their work, and in some ways I feel they themselves have given up on doing the proper checks and balances needed for an update like this.

Things like needing T3 ore to have the equipment to get T3 ore are a prime example. That was a fundamental thing that was no complex issue. Something here is broken, and what really drives the angst for a lot of us is the silence in the forums, lack of response, and overall absence of the dev's in engaging with us. 

I don't hate them as people, but I do believe their ability to do the job well is deteriorating with each update. So much so that I spend more times on the forum than I do in game now. I used to be a pretty peaceful builder, was excited and happy to try to create community focused builds cause I believed in this game's potential.

That said when you have issues like ship engines not turning on reliably with the default scripts after 2+ years, and you can't switch containers during trade? These are actionable fixes not complex matters being neglected. So they do absolutely deserve to be called out for ignoring the community, shoving updates down our throats that destabilize the economy, gameplay ecosystems, ruin community projects, etc.

They were warned about the outcomes and the impact on the players, we pleaded for them not to make the update in the current state and they shoved right through and said "we know better than you"... which is why they are getting our angst.

The writing is on the wall, if they continue course the game we love will be dead before the end of next year if not sooner.

Saying "Feature" would mean they added something to the game rather than shifted around the poo

Update: So I did the things recommended....

- HQ'ed tiles I wanted to keep
- Moved to Space
- Tried going back to Sanctuary.
- Reduced My Expectations
- Even used a Beta Key to try restarting new...

I can no longer enjoy this game in the current state. There are jobs I have hated that were more exciting then the daily logins to Nanny your Mining Unit. Until the developers change the Mining Units or implement a new way to progress in the game there is no point in playing. I gave this update a try, I took all of the advice, and the progression rate which was already abysmal is now unbearable.

I love this community and the people in it, even those I disagree and fight with but I just can't DU it any longer. Not until they fix things, which is unlikely, cause they don't care if players leave.
 
Original Post:
I will be taking an extended and potentially permanent break from DU.
If you see me log in, it will be to kick (calibrate) mining units, post a haul mission, and sell things so I don't lose tiles. 

It is clear the developers don't respect the players or their time, and if the tax situation doesn't get fixed with the falling ore prices, no point in owning tiles to earn a little more than break even.

Also Sanctuary sucks...

( will be placing everything of value on HQ tiles to ensure no one scalps my stuff.)

I believe that the nebula skybox should be replaced with a realistic, dark and starry skybox, akin to the old one prior to Alpha 3. Here are my arguments,
 
The nebula was originally introduced as an immersive way to increase ambient lighting in Dual Universe, making it easier to see at night. This is mentioned in NQ's Dev Diary on YouTube. However, this was nullified in 0.24 with the reduction of ambient light brightness.
 
This is personal preference however I believe many will agree; the ambient light level does not have to match the skybox's brightness. For example, take this image of Pre-Alpha Thades. Its dark side is heavily illuminated, as I'm sure it would look on the surface as well. You'd be able to see. Compared to current Thades, I think most of us can agree that it still looks far better, and it could be taken down a notch if it's too bright. Additionally, with the introduction of the nebula, the atmospheres were changed to the same blue color we're all used to. I'm guessing this was done as a result of a technical limitation relating to the new skybox. So, think; If I'm right about this, we could have a Thades that looks like this, for example:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Current Thades, for comparison:

 
You see where I'm coming from?
 
The way I see it, removing the nebula would provide so much in the way of fidelity, immersion and polish. It wouldn't affect gameplay either. Furthermore, I believe this change would solve many, many of DU's lighting glitches and "rough spots," at the very least making them look far better, and would provide much more polished lighting, both on ground and on a planetary scale. I simply don't see what the nebula adds other than style, but it sacrifices fidelity in a lot of key areas. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots to back up that claim, so you're gonna have to take my word for it as an Alpha 1 player who knows how lighting used to interact with the old skybox.
 
The nebula may be beautiful to some, but honestly, changing it would add so much in the way of polish — which I believe is far more important and is what this game needs right now. Not to mention, many people were dismayed at the release of this nebula, and I'm taking a wild guess by saying that most players would like this change. I know my friends and I would.
 
Please consider this, Novaquark.
 
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