FoolsFolly

Terrible. I was willing to accept a reset and move on, if a problem could clearly be stated, and an explanation could be given as to how the reset would address that problem. This announcement did neither of those things. The 'problems' you described, some people having more money than others, old bases and constructs existing, those aren't problems they are game features. These factors do nothing to impair the experience of other players, and the reset does nothing to prevent them from happening again. Let's face it, NQ have no idea what they're doing. With each update they backpedal, reversing course on previous decisions which were themselves reversals on longstanding standards. NQ are just throwing every idea at the wall to see what sticks, and since nothing is working this is their last desperate attempt to wrangle some subscriptions in hopes that they can keep Dual Universe running a little bit longer. What DU needs is a clear picture of a fun gameplay experience, and a structured pathway for getting there. Most subscribers signed on to DU with the expectation of exploring alien worlds, staking claims, becoming part of a bustling active community and going to war with other communities in a perpetual struggle over land and resources. The creative ship and structure building was just the icing on that cake. What subscribers actually got was a hollow shell of a combat engine and economic system, both of which actively discourage any sort of conflict and provide an entirely unsatisfying experience when combat does occur. Not a single thing NQ has done over years of development time have moved us any closer to that vision; this reset certainly won't.

No matter where NQ sets the cost, an infinitely recurring fee WILL eventually cost industrialists more than a single up-front fee. This change hurts any dedicated industrialists. Meanwhile, the costs of industry machines and just time invested learning about industry make it impractical to simply dabble in industry, even with the reduced costs of one-off schematics. The idea that this change will allow new players to easily build parts just for their own small ships is a fiction. You have to go all-in with industry if you ever hope to make it cost effective compared to just buying parts on the market. So, there are still no small-time industrialists with this patch, and the big-time industrialists will only suffer because of it...who exactly is supposed to be better off after this change?

All the people comparing game economy to real life economy. Real life economy works that way because limited resources mean it has to work that way. Nobody plays a video game with a dream of working all day just to barely earn enough to buy the essentials so that they can come back and work all day again tomorrow and never get anywhere. People play video games with dreams that their efforts will yield wealth and power beyond what they would ever find in real life. Stop trying to create a virtual dead-end job.

This is honestly one of the most ill-conceived ideas to ever hit DU. Just get rid of schematics. That's the end-result that you are going for, but you're trying to get there in the most needlessly confusing way possible. Cut out all the nonsense. Look at the goal you are trying to achieve, and the most fun and satisfying way you can deliver it to players. That way is to just get rid of schematics.

"Balance" is only important for healthy competition. DU is not competitive right now, so balancing it will not help anyone, only hurt people. Even if updates manage to give DU meaningful competition, a wipe will only "Balance" things in a very temporary sense. A week or a month later, you will have some people with a massive advantage, and all the people who only joined for the "Balance" will be quitting. If you really want balanced competition then you need to come up with a plan to keep things balanced long-term, and a wipe is not that.

A few rich players in the economy will have absolutely no impact on the experience of new players, just as they have no impact on most players right now. If this was a competitive game, where most players engaged in pvp regularly, and there was some sort of win-condition that players really wanted to achieve, then it would make sense to wipe so that everyone was on a level field. In fact you would want to wipe regularly after each season so that nobody ever got too far ahead. But that's not the kind of game you've created. You've created a game where most players focus on grinding and creativity. Your wipe will hurt those players, to improve the competitive scene that doesn't exist.

I feel somewhat the opposite. There is not enough destruction fueling demand for production because people are exceedingly cautious with their ships; and they are cautious because replacing their ships would be too expensive, due to not enough production. If anything, we need more production flooding the market with cheap ship parts so that people can start to think of their ships as expendable. ...also, more incentive to participate in PvP. People should get out more than they put in, so that they have money to spend on ship parts to replace those they are losing.

This idea of a massive horde of potential players just waiting for a wipe is purely imaginary. When was the last time you saw a game and thought, "That looks interesting. But it has a lot of established players already, and I don't want to be a noob, so I won't play that interesting game. But if they did a wipe, then I would start playing." I'm not saying that would never happen, but it's exceedingly rare. Most people who see an interesting game just start playing, and give little concern to other players who were there before them.

Would players reaching endgame in a matter of weeks really be a bad thing? A game has to be balanced between accessible gameplay, and impactful gameplay. You can have ships that take years to build, and make people feel pride when they are used and disappointment when they are lost. Or you can have ships that take minutes to build, so people can carelessly throw themselves into combat, destroy and get destroyed, enjoying the activity but not feeling the consequences of their actions. Personally, I feel that leaning towards accessibility would attract a much larger audience, and create a more active and enjoyable world. But I'm just speaking from my gut here; I haven't actually polled the masses or anything.

A wipe will not make the game significantly more appealing to new players. A wipe will not get rid of bots and exploiters mass-producing resources to skew the economy. A wipe will not accomplish any of what you hope for; not in any meaningful way. I would be willing to accept a wipe, start over and continue playing DU if I honestly believed it was for the best. But right now, there's really very little to gain from a wipe, and a lot to lose.

Please fix the patcher so that it downloads to the same location where the game is installed, like literally every other game ever. The patcher currently downloads and extracts updates to the C drive, which is a game-breaking issue for people with limited space on that drive. I'm about to lose everything to the recent tax system, because I can't even log in until this is resolved.