Kurock

So now skill loss on death is now meant to curb mass suicide runs? There are much better ways of handling that. One is by having the rez nodes take a while to charge up which was mentioned somewhere before. Though what I would find funny is if JC reveals that they are adding skill loss on death. I will have to eat my proverbial hat. I simply do not see the need for skill loss on death. There are much more elegant solutions that actually encourage game play rather than stifling it.

I have no problem with injuries. That would be thematic as all hell. Injuries could be sustained before death and carry over through death. This very much adds a medic/healer element. Also an attacker could just leave the person they just attacked broken and injured in the corner. Rez node spammers without proper medical attention will also be severely hampered. You say sloppy. I say valiant last stand against the evil empire. They are having their last stronghold wiped off the face of the planet, nullifying their org AND you want to take away their skill points. Ok, I am over dramatizing it but you get the picture.

Like when a group is desperately trying to defend their town against invaders and they have working rez nodes in town that they are somehow managing to defend? This kind of system would hurt defenders the most. So no. Still not a good idea.

Yes, there will be parts outside of the safe zone as well. We do want our privateer friends to feel welcome somewhere after all. And there will be bars and other "entertainment". (But not at release)

I am advocating no skill loss at all. Quibbling over how much is lost is meaningless. An automatic system that attempts to divine intent is doomed to fail and be abused. How will such a system know the difference between a pirate mowing down miners and a security force preemptively destroying a group of pirates on the way to a juicy vessel?

The city of Emberstone is planned as a neutral city for newcomers and experienced players alike. It is currently planned to be on the edge, but still inside, of the safe zone, so it will be safe from pirate raids in that sense. It will have a presence of any major organisations that are interested as well as markets selling their wares and advertising their quests. Interested? Drop me a PM. Kurock CSYN, Chief of Development

Sure. You can steal a ship. You can steal equipment. But it does not give the same triple punch death does of losing ship AND equipment AND being rez'd somewhere far away without said stuff. Thing is, any automatic system that "punishes" a killer can be turned on its head and used to target "non-killers" by tricking the victim to do a killing and then hitting them with whatever system is in place. The bounty system is an example. Nothing prevents a pirate from putting bounties on a victim they attacked but then the victim killed the pirate while defending themselves. I hope bounties have a time limit. I have played other MMOs that do have the skill loss on death built in. It didn't add anything to the game. Players took the same risks and otherwise played the same. Skill loss adds no value.

So modular weapons shaped with voxels? Where do I sign up?

These are answered in the FAQ at the bottom of the Kickstarter page at least partially. 1) It is a physical real world card with your characters name on it. The name is also booked for you to use in game. The digital version does not book your name in game. 2) Early bird specials are exactly the same as their non early bird counterparts except the early bird ones are cheaper. Welcome to DU Note: I believe Kickstarter backers will get an (additional) name booking because the Kickstarter has reached over 6000 backers.

Death is already bad: 1) loss of ship 2) loss of some maybe all items and equipment 3) locational disadvantage: it will take time to return to the location the death occurred at which may be many systems away. To get back a player would need to first get a replacement ship, and equipment and then spend the time traveling. Time is money. So this alone is a large setback. Why the above are a good design is that they can be mitigated in some way e.g. Insurance on a ship, or a large org that sponsors your ships. Same for equipment. Or your good equipment is stowed while entering dangerous territory. The location setback is potentially the largest penalty. If you need to go from A to B, getting killed before reaching B means the journey needs to start all over again. A large org could have closer rez nodes but they will be expensive so not everyone can afford it. But this is also not always a setback since if you are returning from B to A, being killed teleports you to were you want to be. There is nothing situational or interesting about skill loss. Since everything is only slightly less efficient with lower skills, large orgs will recruit hordes of new players that have nothing to lose, equip them and ship them to war zones. Pirates will have to do the same. Gone are the ace pilots. There is no incentive to be an ace since the horde can get the job done better. Any that try will find their skills resetting to that of the horde. Let there be ace pilots, say no to skill loss on death.

The short answer is yes, there will be gambling halls. What form they will take is unknown at this point. Feel free to drop by CSYN for further discussions on the topic

The bonus a city provides is proximity to markets, services, Rez nodes (house), production facilities, and entertainment (arena, bars, hovercraft tracks etc). Time is money and cutting down on travel times is a big bonus. The owners of the territory will decide on a layout if any. We will have chaotic cities and there will be well planned ones and those inbetween. That said no one is being forced to build cities in a certain way or at all. Emergent gameplay. What works will work.

Rome wasn't built in a day. I fully expect, as time goes by, more elements will become available which can be used to make a city function more efficiently or provide additional services or luxuries. Even planned cities will have to have modifications done to make use of these new discoveries. Will a city be more efficient if everything was planned in advance? Yes. But there will always be unforeseen and unexpected additions as players gain more mastery over the system. As for zoning, I hope that the RDMS is powerful enough to give rights to allow construction in a designated (3D) area. Regardless it is up to the players to decide how they want zoning to work. Placing arbitrary limitations on a zoning system (unless those limitations are game technology limitations) does not dovetail well with all the other systems in DU which allow a large degree of freedom. Players decide where they want to build what. We can plan a city into districts or have a city that has everything mixed together with no logical districts, or something in between. RDMS could be used to create districts by specifying which elements can and cannot be built there. Ultimately the concept of a district and what that means is for each city builder/planner to decide. Emberstone, as a neutral city targeted at new and experienced players alike, will have designated market (open to all), industrial, and residential areas (among others). Some will be built by CSYN for those that don't care to build their own, but hopefully, RDMS will allow others to build their own accommodations. If you want to be part of Emberstone in any capacity (even just to book a "lot") drop me a PM. Kurock CSYN, Chief of Development

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that unclaimed territory tiles inside safe zones are just free for all areas. So ships can be parked there with no issues or consequences. As soon as the tile is claimed, the tile owner (or the one with the correct rights) can tow any unpowered ship on that tile. As for disconnects, it depends if you log back in where you left or respawn at a rez-node. Both have negatives.

There are a multitude of positions still available in CSYN. Among these we are looking for: Researchers Developers Geniuses Engineers Builders Designers We will be working on projects of a massive scale, among the first will be designing and building an entire city and creating all the infrastructure in it. Join to be part of many grand initiatives.

I really like the systems planned for DU. They have commonality in that if a player is not interested in something, they can skip over the fine details and still get a decent result. But for those that are interested, there is great depth to explore. The map system outlined here is a good example. For those not interested, a players own star map could contain only planets with some pretty graphics with lines between systems indicating star gates and maybe setting some POI automatically based on maps purchased. For those that are more interested could do things as laid out in this thread. With POI being added by actual scanning and exploration or just manually and then some or all of these POI being sold as separate starmap data.

While these are perfectally acceptable solutions, I prefer mechanisms that create emergent gameplay I.e. That allow players to resolve these situations without GM intervention. The solution for griefers may be as simple as placing a bounty on their heads, but this does not get rid of the eyesore ship. The towing idea could work but only with towing rights in a TU. I am starting to think that unclaimed safe zones will just be unmaintained until they are claimed.

Towing would solve the problem, but it is also a bit abusable. I like the idea of players towing away "illegally" parked ships and placing them in a pound but this also allows a griefer to pick up ships in a parking lot and move them outside the safe zone to destroy them. Or just hold them ransom. TU owners could enable or disable towing but unclaimed safe zones might still have an issue.

Please feel free to send me a PM. (It appears your inbox is overflowing). Emberstone will be no small task, so the more aid in its creation the better it will be for all.

The assumptions that the following is based on is: 1) Ships stay in world, even when all players near it and/or own it have logged out. 2) Ships cannot be added to or destructed but can be destroyed. See here[\url] for official confirmation. So now the question becomes, what do I do with my ship when I want to log off? This has been covered in other threads and answers include 1) player run parking lots 2) hide it 3) park it in a safe zone. My issue is the safe zone. In a safe zone a ship is effectively indestructible. So when a troll parks a suggestively shaped ship in an otherwise beautifully crafted city, what can be done to remove it? Some ideas that have been put forward elsewhere include: 1) when its power runs out, it can be destroyed as normal even if it's in a safe zone. 2) if it is derelict for too long it becomes publicly owned so that anyone can fly it away. 3) nothing can be done. It is now part of the scenery. Thoughts?

While not necessarily a space station, Emberstone will be a collective cooperative endeavor by all of the member organizations and citizens of the Cinderfall Syndicate. Emberstone is planned to be a newbie welcome area on Alioth beyond the scope of the Arkship Secure Area, where new players to to Dual Universe will be able to orient themselves, find their bearings, and generally learn how to DU. In addition, markets areas, residential districts, social plazas, and other facilities will provide plenty to do while players take their first steps around Dual Universe. Plans have been drawn up to prepare for the construction of the city. This will be a completely neutral, but high security area where anyone (even those not part of the Cinderfall Syndicate) is free to enter and peacefully use the city's services, but will not be able to engage in aggressive behavior outside of designated PVP areas. Don't hesitate to contact us with a PM or at Cinderfalls Discord server with questions or concerns! We're always happy to chat. Kurock CSYN Chief of Development

The firing is not the issue. Its the aiming part that might be difficult. But if they are all fixed guns, like a broadside, I don't see why not.

If there is LUA there is a way. Maybe.

A group of 4 people would not gain much out of building a city (except the satisfaction of building a city), they would do better building a ship large enough to do everything they need to. A city is more for many players to get together and buy and sell wares, create/do quests, or just hang out at the local bar. A city outside a safezone will also have more security (or less if you are a bunch of pirates). A city can also provide parking services for your vehicles which don't log out when you do. Players can make homes near a city so that they spawn near the services it provides. All the above can be applied to space stations as well.