Danger

@Cremora Thanks for answers, exactly what I've been looking for. I also hope that there is more interest in them re-adding on-the-planet mining. And maybe you're right and it gets more players back to it as MMO, but I'm not sure if I would play it again. No one I know and want to play with is interested in such game, but they are all up to trying myDU where we tinker with the setting to achieve very good survival/harvesting/building game experience. Our time is limited, we have also a list of co-op games we are replaying after updates (and time to time trying something new), but we expect this game to have a special place on the list. While we usually set up servers for few weeks, I think we will make permanent private server for DU. I will surely write a lot of feedback (kind of a patch notes style) once I get my hands on myDU. I'm pretty sure it will mostly be low hanging fruit and QoL where NQ can make us very happy with very fast to make changes. I'm also sure that players will make and upload mods (Nexus Mods for example) with their private server configuration and tweaks, providing hand-crafted experience for those looking for playing just in their closed small group. Just look how these games are popular nowadays (Palworld, Valheim, V Rising, Conan Exiles, Soulmask and so on...). Anyway, thanks again for answers and let's see how it goes when it's out. I'm cautiously optimistic:)

First of all I want to say, I spent nearly 2000 hours over the beta and earlier alpha versions, much more than I spent in the game after release. With mining disabled on planets, factory changes (forcing me to trade instead of being able to build everything myself) and lack of people to play with, I lost interest quickly, I was just logging in to set up training queue for another year (since I have lifetime account from kickstarter). Hearing about myDU is a great news for me and many friends, some who I played with in beta and some who are new to DU. We love to play various co-op games and with this transformation I think DU just got on our long-term playlist. 1) Will there be a dedicated server? So we can just rent one and pay it for a year, so any of my friends can hop in whenever they want to? From the answers above it's not clear, but it looks like that. 2) Can we enable mining on planets again? 3) Can we set multipliers for all important game elements? Skill training speed, crafting time, resource cost, several multipliers related to mining aspects, etc. 4) Can we set custom talent point reward for various activities? This would really improve game experience for many of us who are looking for more active and rewarding gameplay instead of just waiting for the points. Since this would be optional, I don't see the reason to not add it. And if it won't be added, I think it will disappoint a lot of newcomers. Model that worked for MMO won't work for many people coming here from survival/crafting/building co-op games. And I think that DU is about to see a lot of them and with nice story behind, setting up a great example that such transformation of game is not only possible, but very profitable. DU has a lot to offer and I welcome it. 5) Fast travel, respawn and death penalization settings. For example, not losing items in the inventory, or being able to define what kind of cores can be compactified, so we can not just compatify small shuttles, but also big ships if we want to just have fun on a friend-only server where we build and then make private battles. Also, if we have only 2-3 hour long windows where we can play over evenings, it would help to have few options for fast travel so we don't speed 2 hours getting to each other:) Setting for jump cost would help, but maybe devs can think of other options too. Let the players choose if they want it realistic or not. 6) I think that even the values for flight simulation should be configurable if anyone wants to make less realistic / more arcade simulation. I'm sure there will be a lot more, but for start, this game needs to have rich configuration and let the server operators choose. I'm also sure that this is the first nail in DU's coffin as a live service game but it's also a huge win for players and DU's journey to be one of the best self-hosted games around. If this works, it will basically promote itself just by the word being passed around. I really hope the devs will embrace and double down on this approach and listen to the feedback and take a good care of community server support. Because if DU has any future, it's in the community and private servers. Of course, the devs need to live from something and in the case that game sales are not enough, I wouldn't really mind if they simply sold some cosmetic stuff (will work on all servers where you link your account with your NQ account) or provided some fair licencse (% of sales going to NQ) that will allow existence of servers that handle their own communities and payments from players (basically servers made for commercial purpose). Players will do it anyway so embrace it instead of fighting it. And I'm saying this as one of those who pledged a lot of $$$ on the kickstarter and still has over 30 DACs unused. I can't simply wait to play this with my own setup:) Anyway, gj:) Funniest thing is that I was telling this to friends over last two years... that DU would be much better as self-hosted game with custom settings, mining on planets re-enabled and factories reverted or modified to be closer to the original freedom of building. And now I found this... cool:) PS: As another Ruby founder above said.... you don't expect me to buy it again, right? I have 30+ DACs unused on my lifetime account and yet I would have to pay for a steam key lol:) It would be nice to have it on a steam and would really appreciate if founders had option to display a key in account settings here, so we can add the game on steam.

I didn't read all posts, only the OP and few more, but I think that in "single shard universe" it should stay as one world. Always. Instead, why don't just: - implement waiting queue (that's going to be there anyway) which will control the flow of players into the world - while players are in the queue, they will be in special virtual world that's lore-wise the tutorial for Arkship landing; this is tutorial meant to teach player basic controls and stuff as well as to give them tips how to continue; this shouldn't take more than 3-5 min to explain the basics and can be skipped (you just can't while you are still waiting in queue, which you can see on the display) - the tutorial should also explain some of the lore... it should all feel like when you are awaking into new world and getting some guidance by AI - this tutorial should be repeatable anytime and in the case you are still waiting in queue, at the end of tutorial you can just use it as playground, where you can try some building, mining, crafting or other prepared activities - after tutorial and waiting is gone, player should have some idea as what to expect (other awakened players), how to settle and what to do + one additional feature might be handy... if there is still too many players, it's worth considering allowing one-time travel from arkship to any location in arkship range using escape pod or some automated flying vehicle

Alpha access is going to be granted to: - people selected by NQ based on community activity and contribution (the lists/waves you've seen) - backers who got packs with "Alpha Access Key" If you are in any of those groups, you have nothing to worry about.

I'm optimist, so let's have it on my birthday, May 3rd. It was the last day before force began to be cool.

Multiple options would be nice:) I can't wait for: - building & designing & scripting - exploration - markets - ship battles

Join Alpha Academy. No long term commitment as this group existence will last until release, just engineers playing together in alpha/beta and then deciding what to do next:) A lot of great engineers already there.

Every single item in any bundle has some specific value and the number of items you get is balanced across all bundles. Some of the packs have also Lifetime subscription, that is equal to 80 DAC (this is ratio set by developers). Now, the physical vs digital: Ruby Physical has extra physical items. Ruby Digital has no physical items but same price, so the difference in price is balanced with 20 DAC. If you get the math, physical items for Ruby pack are equal to 20 DAC. And it's only your choice if you pick physical items or virtual currency. If you are still not happy with answer, I'm pretty sure that if you asked developers after game launch that you want to get your lifetime subscription replaced with 80 DAC, they would do it for you :-)

So, after reading about the Novawrimo contest, I decided to join it. I have to say I didn't read any of the existing stories yet, only the base lore by NQ. I also have no writing experience and english is not my native language. But I had some ideas in my mind and decided to write this story that fits into existing lore but adds waste new future possibilities (opened doors) to the DU universe :-) What you see is Chapter 1 that I started to write 4 hours ago. We will see if I can get up to required 5000 words before the contest ends. So far it's only 1200+ words across 4 pages, but I didn't have much time and can't be sure if I can finish it before end of the contest. So there is no reason for me to hold it off and you can enjoy it right now. Hopefully you will like the idea behind as me and let me know if you are really interested in what would follow ;-) Novaquark: If this doesn't get updated to required 5000 words and you don't lower your requirements, feel free to remove this from the contest. I'm not doing this for rewards :-) Thanks. PDF is attached below. PS: If anyone wanted to co-op and continue developing the story, just send me PM and ask me what plans I had, I'm opened to that option too to see how far we can get it :-) The Last Arkship - Chapter 1.pdf

I think that they will allow automated turrets in the end as everyone wants it. It just needs to be well balanced so it's always better to control it manually. And that can be done by penalizing the turret performance when used by AI. Making turrets operate at 20-40% of performance compared to player-driven would be quite ok. Some of you can oppose that players could create solo-crew ships with many automated turrets, the quantity would beat quality. Well, yes and no. You could mount many turrets, but those have weight and energy. You can only mount limited amount of those depending on your ship size and power capacity. And if you really want to do that and encounter ship of similar size, you are going to be fish food. Not even slight chance to beat similar-size ship, it's simple math: 20-40% vs 100% firepower. In other words, simply penalizing automated turrets performance would be perfect balance between those who want to have full combat capability with full crew and those who still want to build and enjoy bigger ships but have incomplete crew.

I wouldn't be worried with the "ugly" wastelands. You must realize that the world will be huge and there will be many areas. One of those will be industrial and same as in real world, you will see huge craters from stuff that was mined/harvested out. It's ok. Many areas will transform into wasteland, but many things will be built on top of it and there will also be areas terraformed into something beautiful. People will create those landmarks, cities, whatever. And it will also help the economy. Once the materials are harvested, companies will have to relocate to build another bases and continue the harvesting. And they can sell the old bases cheaply or keep them for any other purpose:-) I want this world without regeneration, where every change is permanent.

I think that we need to do this: Before Collision = Aladeen After Collision = Aladeen Yes = Aladeen No = Aladeen Maybe = Aladeen Now seriously, it's a nice idea :-)

As Shynras (and previously JC) said, the game will be easy to learn, hard to master. From pre-alpha videos it seems to be easy enough for anyone. Actually, building tools look already nice and with some improvements they have on the roadmap it will be really easy to start playing. Now, the second part. While Twerk is right about the technical informations, I must agree that some players are overthinking it and posting various ideas. And tons of them are simply wrong (during development you have to filter thousands of bad ideas to get few good ones). But don't worry, the devs have clear vision and they are making logical decisions WHEN they are needed.

No idea how they plan to do it, but I prefer whatever that will allow us to play without lags. Some tasks can be very consuming and I seek many things, but absolute realism isnt one of them. I mean, it would be nice, but not when it would render the game unplayable. Also instead of focusing on cutting ship in half, you will more focus on destroying specific parts which is easier to handle for devs than being 100% realistic with all the floating debris. No matter how damaged, ship will still be one object moving at once. And if you severely damage it, it will be big piece of floating debris:-) Its ok.

Forget the promises made for distant future. If you have alpha/beta access, join Alpha Academy, org where you can play & test with others as soon as alpha starts and decide what exactly will you do much later. No promises, no commitments, no limits. After release you can keep playing with those you met or just do whatever you want.