Rokkur

I honestly am going to give Dual Universe till live launch to try to stop this madness. If development continues like it has for the past half year though, I am going to have to tap out, and honestly this game won't last too long anyway if post launch goes anything like development has during 2022.

I appreciate the clarification, and I also think it is worth clarification that I am not new, I have been around since Kickstarter, my forum account is new. My projects were ruined several times from the updates, thus all the negativity. I used to peacefully create in DU, quietly, happily, working and sharing what I made. It was really my favorite way to spend every evening. That said I feel this year has really stripped that away from creative/builder players like myself. The negativity in my opinion is extremely well earned. NQ was warned about consequences and outcomes so so many times, and they chose to march head long into development choices that has really killed any incentive and motivation for players to continue community or personal projects at this time. So when you tell me the devs will quickly tune out negativity, they already tuned out positive feedback and suggestions since around update .23. There are SO many games and I have mentioned them by name in this forum before where I sank hundreds of hours, and despite bugs and lack of polish found them to be amazingly enjoyable experiences. That said none of them were what DU used to be, and what DU used to be was something I was willing to sink thousands of hours into happily. When I commit to an online game/mmo, I do so in a dedicated sense for 5,10,15 years. That was my dream for this, and I believe that was the dream of many players during the first few months of "BETA" launch. No one here is asking for perfection, we are asking that this game be able to host at least some basic functionality that has been done time and time again in nearly every MMO since the early 2000's. When we BEG!!!! for basic quality of life features that have been around for 15-20 years, then what else are we going to do besides feel negative? Cause asking, begging, and pleading with them just all gets ignored. As also said before more positive things would be expressed if positive things were happening. Instead what we need is ignored, and we continue to have things we absolutely don't want force fed down our throat if we choose to stick around. To me it is so very very clearly apparent, and I am not at all alone in my views on the issues I have listed. I voice my opinion the way I do, cause it is the only way I know how to communicate it, NOT cause I am some EVIL VILLAIN OF DU here purely to ruin the day for everyone.

P.S. with the whole disrespect thing, I point out problems, but I am not name calling anyone. I am though 100% saying that I feel that NQ as a company is withholding information from the community cause they have a misguided belief it benefits them to do so. So I do have a huge fear, that if it doesn't then actually suit them what type of impact to the community would happen if they spoke openly today about the date and details of wipe? I believe that is an EXTREMELY fair and curious question after months of nothing, one all of us should be asking. In my personal experience I have never EVER seen anything good come out of people hiding things or keeping secrets.

Msoul, did you ever think that if maybe they just gave us info on the wipe, and fixed a few huge pain points rather than throwing things at us we never asked for, that maybe we would stop posting negative (ahem... disrespectful) feedback? I can't speak for anyone else, but I never logged into the forums to complain, until projects I loved were destroyed, cause I was too busy loving the game until that point.

Just going to fire this back at you based one how I interpret what you have said to me in this thread, and see if we are on the same page. 1. I have a reached my own conclusion, and you feel I am using it to manipulate the community. 2. You think I am too dumb to grasp point 1, cause you used some psychology terms. No one with your level of intellectual superiority would reach my conclusion on NQ. 3. Due to lack of information provided by NQ or some how discovered myself, keep my perception on the situation to myself, cause only those in the know should have a voice. 4. Would you rather be eaten by a bear or wolf? Don't both result in the death of the community? My expressing my feelings is no less harmful than NQ witholding info on wipe after announcing it. They should have never announced it until they had the details figured out, or been transparent immediately after announcement, simple. 5. Many of us have done this already, and it gets ignored. Additionally I have started attaching proposed ways to remedy the situations in my posts, which also gets ignored. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again knowing it won't work. 6. I think still being here pointing out problems is effort, otherwise I would just abandon the game like so many others have been told to do if they don't like NQ's lack of community transparency, and won't be a relentless cheerleader. 7. Resistance is futile, and any negative criticism of all mighty NQ is blasphemous fodder. (You do realize pointing out what is broken and what isn't working doesn't automatically = disrespect right?) 8. What is less than nothing? nothing. That is why pressure should be applied. Cause they have had MONTHS to be forthcoming with information on wipe, and they haven't. Plus as said before they set this ball in motion when they made the wipe discussion announcement whilst being unprepared to give us the details we need. 9. The relationship with NQ/Dev Team, etc. hasn't been healthy for a while now, and that is why they are catching negative feedback. Cause people are tired of trying to make suggestions, be ignored, and have things we never asked for shoved on us. The environment created by NQ's information vacuum is like trying to grow plants exposed to the vacuum space with current technology. They are in control of the environment, and thus killing the community by refusing to provide the tools (oxygen), and information (nutrients), and support (water) the community needs to thrive. But thanks for blaming for blaming our dying community on a single person making negative comments... I am 100% sure my forum posts are why no one is enjoying the absolutely thrilling pre-wipe in game content at the moment. If I could only stop posting then thousands of players would return and none of the issues from the last 20 updates or bad game mechanics would even exist... geez.

This ^. It isn't about legality, it is about them not being open on their plans due to fear of losing subscribers. That is the issue. NQ needs to poop or get off the pot, and if they can't give a solid and viable answer by now, I then worry what their plans are if they are so keen to continue to hide them. When you have months to decide, on top of the years you have had to gather data points, then why did they choose to announce vaguely with no plan to be able to clearly answer the questions they had to know were coming? The only motivation I can see is retain subscribers, but it feels like they are hurting the community with their "strategy?" Like I say, for all the criticism I offer it is cause I want to see this game succeed, and I feel their cloak and dagger avoidance of the wipe topic after months of opportunity can only be bad for NQ and the community both, so much it becomes negligence abuse of the communities trust and only serves to further widen the gap between even the most loyal players and NQ. There is just nothing logical about witholding info like this from us. I hate seeing the game this empty, and so many people now gone.

I feel the time from the date wipe discussions were announced till the wipe happens, subscriptions should be refunded, or credited as DAC. Knowing that a wipe is on the table, NQ has a responsibility to deliver and execute this in a timely manner whilst they are being actively paid. It is moralistically inappropriate for them to expect players to play and pay for time/progress that will be wiped in the near future. There is no good option for a player at the moment other than to unsubscribe, and some have subscribed for a longer term that cannot simply be paused or put on hold. It is down right wrong that players be charged during such a time that the in game player base is so massively disrupted and inactive due to coming events. What will NQ do for subscribed players that are paying pending the wipe to compensate them for such difficulties?

My previous feedback in this thread seems to have disappeared, must have been a bug. - A second star system will probably have the same negative impact as a second server, further diluting the lack of active players. - Question #1 about new player advice, honestly shows a problem, which is lack of motivated gameplay past FTUE. NQ's response shows they don't get it. - New buildings don't/won't fix the lack of fun factor in Dual Universe. - Allowing us to move/restore sanctuary tiles closer to each other would allow the community to build it's own more impressive show case. - The "question" about new buildings in the market response feels way more shameless plug/promo then actually anything we care about with a wipe incoming.

1. So are we there yet? 2. How are the ongoing discussions going? 3. How many hours a week do you spend discussing this topic? 4. What % of development effort is spent deciding on wipe vs. doing other tasks to prep for launch? 5. Will these questions be excluded from ask aphelia because they are related to wipe? Which you refuse to discuss in your podcast? 6. Do you have an date set for wipe yet? 7. If not an wipe date an you give us a list definitive of what will and won't be wiped? 8. Will you wipe again after launch, if the problems that lead to this wipe re-occur?

History Repeating Itself: I just feel if something like this was in demand by the community, the community could have or already has built it's version of it. It is just a repeat of the shipyard they had on display via VR essentially. Which by now is mostly forgotten and rarely visited. It isn't supposed to replace player content, it just does by design, because it is an NQ featured build that should be left to the community. NQ overall directs the player's path and where they go during the first time user experience, in which they could make this a pitstop or will advertise it with unfair advantage. That said many of us have stated that this is unwanted, but NQ never asked us before they dropped it on us, and when we complained they went ahead as per typical NQ approach. This is history repeating itself, and NQ is just showing they don't learn, cause they don't listen. NQ's Mentality for Forum Management ='s How they Are Trying to Curate Player Content via In Game: BTW waiting for this thread to be locked because it isn't the NQ controlled version of discussion. I feel the fact that nearly half the front page of this forum section is filled with NQ controlled/posted threads is reflective to their approach on development. "This is a community forum! locks tons of player threads, forces everyone into an NQ created thread." Therefore the Alioth Exchange feels a lot like a repeat of that mentality. If a thread has truly run it's course then wouldn't it fall of the first page onto page 2 or 3? That is how most forums work. So I guess by NQ logic player built show rooms and markets have just run their course... The Constructive Feedback for NQ: 1. Stop trying to curate existing in-game content and what is scene. 2. Start creating more for the player to do in the game world that functions well. 3. Give control of the "community forums" back to the community, instead of taking up half the front page with NQ created/curated/controlled threads.

Damn everything about this post is just SO on point Blundertwink!

Wanted to talk about some of the missing ways that would help build community interaction if the game draws attention at launch. 1. Better Chat System 2. Player Mailbox for Offline Messages 3. Event/Location Search Directory for player based community locations/events. What are your thoughts?

I look forward to a completely fresh progression, because I am emotionally detached from everything I have. Especially since so many of my previous designs were ruined by updates, despite the fact I didn't abuse the game I just hid elements cause I hate how fugly they are. Nothing at this point really has value anymore with a dead community, and it makes it far too depressing to play at this point and time. I am also still very sour over the fact that weeks and months roll on and we still have no deadline for wipe and no better details.

It is really disappointing to see, and I feel Haven was also a bandaid again by NQ. When they could have instead designed a solution that allows the tile to restore itself to its original state and for us to move our Sanctuary tiles. I feel when they wipe they must wipe Sanct and Haven and that it would be better to only have a single Sanctuary style planet as there is already too much between Sanct, Haven, and Alioth. This is necessary because I am certain that 30,000+ of those players are never coming back and they hold some of the best territory that will remain forever dead/vacant, and lack their true potential to the community. We simply don't have the player base. If they want to have multiple planets, then reduce the planet sizes by 50-70% to make atmospheric travel less boring, as there is only so fast you can go without burning up. But this bring up another issue in which space travel is also very boring. I think this highlights a positive/negatives space balance issue. Positive space ='s tiles/territory where something interesting exists. Negative space ='s where there is nothing of interest, purely extra space that increases travel time. I also fear even if we could bring everyone closer together, then the servers would also not be able to handle so many players in active proximity to each other which we have seen time and time again. It seems any time you manage to get more than 20+ people in one area then server errors and desync start to become disruptive to gameplay. Especially if flying, building, or surface mining is being done by all those players.

First I wanted to say I really liked your post and what you had to say on the communication issues. There are probably so many other threads about this because it has continued to go unresolved for years now with no light at the end of the tunnel. Additionally, the Nay-Saying may be sickening, but not anymore sickening as the failure of NQ to address the issues stated in the OP of this thread, and there are many and the list only grows each update. Instead of working on these pain points they throw something at us that we never asked for, that is itself broken, or breaks more things, and then the list just continues to grow. It is a vicious cycles that has led to attrition in the community due to NQ's past performance showing they are either unable or unwilling to change.

Isn't that they NQ way though, to lock anything where the narrative starts to turn against their favor? We see it time and time again, the effort to control the narrative, and if they were smart they would stop. I have always felt if something is repeatedly said it is important to that person or the community. If they are up in arms about it and showing passion even in a negative way, then it is important to that person or the community. My constructive feedback for NQ is stop trying to control the narrative and what we post... essentially treating the symptom, and start focusing on the cause(broken game play/mechanics) of the symptoms (complaints). Yes there will always be unhappy people, yes there will always be problems, but when things are in alignment then conversations change. When there are new positive things that the community ACTUALLY wants/requested/need being added is when you see positive posts and celebration. The current forums, lack of players in game is a very clear communication that NQ is failing to meet the desires/needs of the community they have attracted. Until NQ understands this, I fear things will never change, and they will simply continue trying to bandaid the community's pain points with other things even worse that we never asked for.

Hey you need to stay positive there Bobbie! Be POSITIVE that we are running out of tiles due to all the players leaving other games to play DU.

Don't know if anyone listed this or not, but you can no longer use the vr pods to run the daily challenge mission for 300kh.

Exactly! It just makes it all seem so disconnected and arbitrary the rational behind development choices. In the military they talk about "need to know". But nothing about DU is a top secret military project that could result in loss of life. So why all the cloak and dagger with the community? Refusing give us solid answers to things like a wipe for months can only come off as either dishonest, indecisive, or timing things for NQ's own interest at the expense of the community, and it is not a good look for NQ at all, regardless the intent.

Second Life had a directory system with filters where you could search by event type, shop, art installation etc to find player driven content that fit your interest. I feel a community search event management system would be much more of a service to the community than the exchange. I agree with many here that this seems like a poor use of developer resources, when NQ should be focused on tools that connect players vs. being the gatekeeper to featured content. Imagine if Google tried to curate the web with only 64 featured websites vs. building a search engine, just saying.

I had a boss that was perpetually in a cloud of obscure "busy". He would set on projects for months, months meant for me to do my job. Then get to me in the final week before a due date and assign 2 months of work that needed completed in a week. Then he would get angry when we are two months late delivering the product to the client. He was also French, and I wonder how much of this is kinda a French centric cultural difference, or approach to working on problems and communication?

Oh snap! I am giggling a bit, cause I have pointedly accused of being just a troll, with nothing constructive to say because of my communication format by NQ. I want to see this game succeed, I want to see everyone win, and we simply cannot do this by burying our head in the sand. We have to talk realistically about communication failures and the damage to community morale and expectation management, just as much as we have to restore lost dynamics that really super charged or love for DU. Just cause you don't like what someone says or how they say it doesn't make them your enemy. I do think if you ignore someone, make them feel unvalued, or treat them like an advesary then you will definitely create enemies or just lose those community members. One of the reasons I jokingly say that forums are the ultimate PVP now. Though and super unfortunately it feels more like CvNQ (community vs. NQ)

So I felt NQ had this during the Golden Era between Beta launch and .23 update. It was so amazing even when things were problematic. You had a community of players like a bunch of crack addicts during downtime waiting to rush the server gates. The main reason I feel we lost it is that we are all building sand castles on a beach (Dual Universe - beach), and then each wave (update) from NQ is like a wave from the ocean and starts eroding/erasing both individual player projects and community projects that were developed. The big one for me was the tile taxes, to "open up more territory" for all the players, that was paired with the removal of mining/megas. They should have never been done at the same time. The worst thing about this situation is you had dozens and dozens of players warning NQ about the devastating impact this would have, and it is exactly what happened, and NQ pretty much dismissed us and decided to do it anyway. The economy and value of all things was destroyed within just a week, while a burden was placed on the player with weekly taxes. Also the value, purpose of so many ship designs became pretty much obsolete. This removed incentive to play, and forced players to abandon thousands of tiles to make room for others, when the community suffered a population loss not boom. Players don't want to spend 100's of hours playing only to have their projects removed/wiped/destroyed/broken,obsolete. This instability, and Alpha approach to development choices in DU is stifling to motivation and creativity.

The problem for pvp in Dual Universe is at the very least the ratio of risk vs. reward is very out of balance and unpleasant for the player.

Catarix, I respectfully disagree, I think splitting the population between two servers would be Death for Dual Universe. I saw another company try to do this and the game died within 6 months. The game "Xsyon" actually had many of the same development problems/patterns of Dual Universe. Seeing so many development Red Flags is very concerning for me.