Elias24

Hey there, Noveans!

As we ramp up for the next Dual Universe update, we wanted to begin sharing information about some of the interesting new features you can look forward to with the arrival of 0.24.
 
One of the key highlights of 0.24 is the Mission system, affording the movers and shakers an opportunity to, well, move and shake their way to a wealthier DU lifestyle. And who doesn’t love the delicious sound of quanta cascading in their coffers? ?
 
OUR MISSION

In listening to player feedback, we know that players have been looking for more ways to make money. The Mission system will provide those opportunities in a number of ways that suits a wide swath of playstyles and experience.
 
The intent of Mission system is to:
 
Offer new ways for players, especially new players, to make money. Allow merchants to focus on creating goods rather than spending time traveling to markets to sell their wares. Give those who enjoy traveling more than making things a lucrative reason to take to those beautiful, wide-open skies. Create more traffic in space, hence more opportunities for pirates. Help organizations to coordinate internal work.
  The long-term goal is to enrich the Mission system with more mission types, starting with “taxi” missions, SoS, and later adding PvP and various other “formalizable” activities. For now, we’re introducing the Mission system with transport-type hauling missions.

It all starts with the Mission Panel, a dedicated dashboard tab for job and hauling missions. It is equivalent to other dashboard tabs such as the organization dashboard tab. Within the Mission Panel, you’ll find the "Job Forum" section and the "Hauling" section. Each of these contains a similar page: a home page, a search page, a creation modal, etc.

THE JOB FORUM

The Job Forum allows players to create jobs with various specifications. (Please note that the UI for the Mission system is still in progress. The images below are samples of what it will look like.)


 
The upper part of the interface lists “Aphelia” jobs, which are created by Novaquark to provide information about game events, like discovering new wreck ships, etc.
Players can inspect job details in a dedicated window and engage in a conversation with the job issuer in a mini-chat integrated to the mission.


 
You will also find Aphelia (NPC) missions that will provide new ways of making money. And, lastly, issuers can limit their missions to fellow org members only as a way to keep transactions and missions in-house.

HAULING MISSIONS

These come with formal guarantees on the rewards, collaterals, time, etc. It is tightly-coupled with the possibility to create sell orders so that you can express your intention to sell a good on a distant market and simultaneously create a transport mission to arrange transport of the goods to the said market.
The definition of a hauling mission includes:
 
Start/end point + indication if this is in PvP zone or not. Collateral (lost by the mission responder if the mission is not completed). Time limit. Reward.
The game enforces these, picking the rewards and putting collateral in escrow when the mission is created. The content of the mission is to be retrieved either from a “mission container” (a new type of container dedicated to hauling missions, think of it as a mailbox) or from a market container. It is then stored as a package with the content hidden for the mission responder. (Opening the package voids the mission and the collateral is paid.) The package can be retrieved or delivered by interacting directly with the associated container (via context-menu entries) or within a 2km range by using the controls on the interface.

Failing a mission can occur if:
 
The responder does not deliver within the given time frame (including if the package is destroyed). The package is opened by either the responder or someone else (i.e. pirates). The destruction of the destination container does not fail the mission. Instead, the mission responder can keep the package and open it without penalty; however, this means the mission cannot be completed anymore.
  CAVEAT EMPTOR

What is important to remember is that negotiations about rewards, or even the job description and purpose, are entirely declarative and non-binding. It is there as a statement, made clear with various warnings and “Are you sure?” windows.
 
There’s often an element of danger involved when doing business. For some, the lure of pulling one over on an unsuspecting stranger has an even larger allure than the money to be made. Sure, you can scam sweet, trusting little lambs for a time, but eventually you’ll be the one to pay the price. Both the Job Forum and the Mission system have the possibility to rate the interaction for the issuer and the responder. Scores between 0 and 5 are attached to players as responders or issuers of missions (both formal and jobs), which will help to identify and potentially weed out scammers.
 
YOUR FIRST MISSION STARTS HERE

Your mission now, should you choose to accept it, is to head over to this section of the forums to share your thoughts about this devblog. Which do you anticipate doing the most: creating missions, doing missions, or pirating missions?

Join us in discussing the new Alpha 3.1 release with  NQ-Entropy, NQ-Nomad, JC and myself. Some of the topics we’ll be covering include: overhauling the first-time user experience, resurrection nodes, new HD textures, warp drives, and more. We’ll also be discussing the upcoming test, stabilizing the game, and addressing bugs, as well as recent community discussions. Listen to it now by following the links below, or by visiting us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

You can listen along here: 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/SXDoQXNkthI


We welcome your feedback below!

In case you missed it, THIS IS DUAL UNIVERSE!

Ever wondered what Dual Universe really is about? Our recent trailer is a great introduction to the vision we have with Dual Universe. It features tons of previously unreleased footage which highlight the various gameplay aspects of Dual Universe. If you were not part of our fantastic Kickstarter adventure, which started it all, this is an updated take on where we want to take this game, featuring fresh gameplay footage!

Watch now:

We welcome your comments below! 

Zellcore is looking for Star Wars fans to join!
We build Star Wars inspired fan art ships.
 
We design and provide Star Wars inspired ships to both sides, the good and to bad guys.
We offer all types of ships, such as speeder-bikes, fighters, L core ships, and everything in-between.
Our goal is to fill the world with Star Wars ships and fans.
 
If you want to join and work for Zellcore, you are very welcome. Zellcore is not a nation and is not political aligned. It is industrial corporation with shipyards, mining divisions and own armed fleet, presented on different planets. But nobody (except NQ) did ever found our HQ yet.
 
At moment we offer some vacant jobs:
- miners
- pilots
- guners
- designers
- scripters
 
Join Zellcore Sub divisions
Zellcore HQ
Zellcore Shipyard
Zellcore Mining Corp
Zellcore Fleet
Zellcore Black Troopers
 
https://discord.gg/FJ7Pwdc
https://community.dualthegame.com/organization/zellcore/#tab-applications

For details please contact Elias24#1785.
 

Alright.
 
Things are getting a bit out of hand here.
 
@xlDvSlx
@DvS_UK
 
Thinking that the DAC system is "Pay to win" is your opinion and it's your right to think that way, even if many people here disagree with you.
However, it's strange that you start a crusade right now on the monetization model as you claimed to be a long time follower of the game.
If you are a long time follower, then you know we never hid what the monetization model was going to be and said it right from the beginning (the Kickstarter Campaign in 2016). If you disagreed on the monetization model, it would have been perfectly understandable to not support the game. Why starting a crusade on this topic now? If you realized what the monetization model was going to be just now or recently, then maybe the real issue here might be "this game is not for you".  In that case, please contact the customer support at support@novaquark.com for such kind of topic. The monetization model has been debated many times, and the Novaquark team has already explained in length why we were going with this one.
 
For the record, this monetization model has also been adopted by some of the biggest MMORPG, such as World of Warcraft (through the WoW token system, which is exactly the same thing as the DACs) and as far as we know, there hasn't been a huge uproar stating this system is "pay to win". The original definition of "Pay to Win" is the following: it implies you have a system where you can get a specific advantage only by paying. If an advantage can be obtained by playing the game, then, by the original definition, it's not "Pay to Win". Of course all is question of common sense and equilibrium here: if the way of obtaining the said advantage is grinding an incredible amount of hours, making it virtually impossible or irrelevant to get it by playing then yes, it might be considered pay to win in disguise. But we are nowhere near this situation in Dual Universe (or else, you're welcome to give very specific examples, and not vague assumptions. The examples you have given so far are just too vague to be considered as such). On the opposite side of the spectrum, the expression "Pay to Win" have been used and exaggerated many times over the years. There has been excess on both sides. 
 
In any case, starting to say "some people should be shot down", for whatever reason it may be, is a no go and a direct breach with the forum rules.
Also, resorting to personal attack and/or provocations toward those who don't agree with you is just an invitation for trouble and another breach of the forum rules.
 
This is the first and last warning.
 
While your post started in an attempt to convince people from your point of view (which is fine), it quickly escalated in provocations and nothing really constructive. So we ask you to change the way you discuss with other community members on the forum (stop being provocative), or your posting rights may be removed (temporarily at first, and possibly in a definite way if you insist in this behavior).
 
This topic has derailed enough and will now be locked.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.
 

Hi guys, 
 
Following up the release of the third Alpha 2 DevBlog about Lua, we wanted to develop things further for the most curious, dedicated and skilled among you. The API has changed so you guys will have to redo a certain amount of stuff. This being said, you'll find below some documentation that will allow you to do pretty neat stuff so knock yourselves out!
 
Thanks to NQ-Arlequin for his help and for writing this! 
 
How does it work
 
All ControlUnits (Cockpits, HovercraftSeats and ProgramingBoards) can display information on the screen when activated by the current player. CockpitUnits and PilotingSeats have predefined behavior that should suit most players. However advanced players can edit the ControlUnit LUA script to adapt the display to their needs.
There are different levels of customization possible:
 
 
Intermediate Difficulty: Show/hide the default widget of an element linked to the Control Unit. Advanced Difficulty: Mixing those widgets in custom panels. (New in Alpha 2) Expert Difficulty: Create custom widgets from your own data or existing elements data. (New in Alpha 2) Expert Difficulty: Create your own HTML code to display custom content on your screen. (Modified in Alpha 2)  
 
Default behavior
 
Cockpit view

 
Hovercraft Seat

 
Programing Board

 
Hovercraft Seat and Programming Board widgets do stack:

 
 
Adding/removing element widgets in Lua
 
API:
slot.show() slot.hide()  
Default Cockpit LUA Script

 
 
We can instead only show the Core Unit widget, and hide the Control Unit widget (shown by default):
core.show() unit.hide()
 

 
 
NEW - Reorganizing Element widgets within panels in Lua
 
API:
system.createWidgetPanel(title) → panelId system.destroyWidgetPanel(panelId) system.createWidget(panelId, type) → widgetId system.destroyWidget(widgetId) system.addDataToWidget(dataId, widgetId) system.removeDataFromWidget(dataId, widgetId) slot.getDataId() → dataId slot.getWidgetType() → type  
Instead of having all the fuel container widgets in different panels, I can create my own panel and add all fuel widgets to this panel:
fuelPanel = system.createWidgetPanel("Fuel Tanks") for i=1,container_size do widget = system.createWidget(fuelPanel, container[i].getWidgetType()) system.addDataToWidget(container[i].getDataId(), widget) end
 

 
 
NEW - Creating custom widgets in Lua
 
API:
system.createData(json) → dataId system.destroyData(dataId) system.updateData(dataId, json) slot.getData() → json  
You can finally write your own custom data, and display them using predefined custom widget types. 4 exist for now: text, title, value, and gauge.
 panel = system.createWidgetPanel("Panel")     -- Display “Hello World” widgetText = system.createWidget(panel, "text") dataText = system.createData('{"text": "Hello World"}') system.addDataToWidget(dataText, widgetText) -- Display a title “Title” widgetTitle = system.createWidget(panel, "title") dataTitle = system.createData('{"text": "Title"}') system.addDataToWidget(dataTitle, widgetTitle) -- Display a gauge filled at 60% widgetGauge = system.createWidget(panel, "gauge") dataGauge = system.createData('{"percentage": 60}') system.addDataToWidget(dataGauge, widgetGauge) -- Display “Weight  80 kg” widgetValue = system.createWidget(panel, "value") dataValue = system.createData('{"label": "Weight", "value": "80", "unit": "kg"}') system.addDataToWidget(dataValue, widgetValue)
 

 
You can now combine all those methods to create your own customized panels.
 
 
CHANGED- Customize screen using html code.
 
API:
system.setScreen(htmlContent) system.showScreen(1/0) You can write your own html code to change the appearance of the control unit screen. It will be displayed below the widgets, so if you want full control: you can hide all widgets.
 
html = '<div class="monitor_left window">' html = html .. '<div class="center window">monitor_left</div>' html = html .. '</div>' html = html .. '<div class="monitor_right" style="background-color: red;">' html = html .. '<div class="center window">monitor_right</div>' html = html .. '</div>' system.setScreen(html) system.showScreen(1)
 

 
Predefined style classes
 

 
class=”monitor_left”         defines the area of the left monitor.
class=”monitor_right”        defines the area of the right monitor.
 

 
class=”grid”         stacks all its child elements on an invisible wrapping vertical grid.
class=”center”        positions an element centered to its parent. Can be the viewport.
 

 
class=”window”        applies the Dual Universe background and border.
 
Well, that's it for this time! We hope you'll enjoy the info here to surprise us
 
Cheers,
Nomad

(this DevBlog has been posted on the website on April 30th, 2019)

Hey guys!
NQ-Entropy here today with NQ-Wave. 
 
We’ve been working on a significant overhaul of the game’s balancing and we’re going to do our best to explain the big changes we’ve been working on. The main subjects today are the major rebalance of inventory and container capacity, material transportation, crafting recipes, and almost every single step between mining and crafting. Saddle up.
 
Our starting point was the dialogue we had with the community about the issues with containers. We heard everything you guys said, from smaller containers not being useful and crafting times on larger containers being too long. This wasn’t lost on us; we also agreed that it was a little ridiculous at how weak certain containers were as opposed to the Nanoformer inventory, which held a staggering 64m3, the equivalent of a large container, or 64 extra-small containers. There was an issue.
 
What happened in the following weeks was us going down a massive rabbit-hole where we started pulling different strings and unearthing a lot of inconsistencies in our global balancing on almost every level. We decided that we wanted to start over on solid and healthy ground, and make sure that we knew what we were doing, how, and why. We are now at the finish line of the first major pass, and we’re ready to talk to you about it.
 
One of the initial issues excavated from the wreckage of our investigation was the difficulty of transporting materials while in atmosphere. As it turns out, in a realistic physically based system, it's really hard to transport hundreds of cubic meters or potentially tens of thousands of tons in materials. Who saw that one coming? It was a learning experience to see some of you try and transport raw material, only to end up with about 20 large hover engines to lift a couple of containers, which amounted to no material at all.
 
So this is where we began. No matter what happened next, we needed to drastically reduce the amount of weight that a player would have to reasonably move around; even in the context of large transports. As previously mentioned, the main culprit was our overly common use of cubic meters, which artificially drew upwards the volume and weight of everything we did. We globally changed our main volumic unit from m3 to liters. We now had finer control over volumes and had a more human-level metric to base our foundations on. Your inventories will now have a capacity of 4,000 liters; goodbye cubic meter, it was nice knowing you.
 
Having said that, we mostly liked the ratios we had in place for how fast players filled their inventories when mining and made sure to adjust everything so that it remained similar to how mining was done previously.
 
Continuing up the chain, we reached crafting recipes. We were also generally happy with the feedback we received for the crafting mechanic, but our first recipes were more for functional testing than any sort of real balance. Now was the perfect opportunity to take a look at it in more detail.
We want you guys to discover this without too much of a heads up, but there's a couple of cliff-notes we can mention here:
Global rebalance of item volume and weight across the board. Conservation of mass during crafting across materials, parts, and elements during crafting (some exceptions apply). Rebalancing of all ancillary materials recipes (honeycomb, fuel, products and scraps).
  The end result of this is fairly significant, and we’re not quite sure we fully grasp all of the implications at this point. What we are confident in is that we have all of the tools in hand to effectively make adjustments and deal with any issues that arise; something that we couldn't quite say to the same degree before. 
 
In terms of clearer changes:
 
Parts are generally more coherent in weight and volume with less outliers. Smaller parts will generally take up more space in your base inventory while larger ones will take less. You can still expect large parts to take up significant space, but not multiple base inventories worth.
  Elements operate in the same ballpark of weight and volume as before, but we have less outliers. Smaller elements are not so small and larger elements are not so huge. 
  Generally speaking, honeycomb materials will require more ore to make. The amount of honeycomb material you could acquire previously was a little too high and we wanted to rein that in a little. We don't want you to feel constantly limited by honeycomb material, but we also don't want to make acquiring large quantities of honeycombed materials trivial. It's worth noting that we fixed a bug which changed honeycomb mass; honeycombed material will likely be overall heavier than before.
  Fuel cost and weight have been drastically augmented, but as counterbalance, we reduced both fuel consumption for engines and fuel tank capacity. Hopefully, this ensures that fuel is more difficult to acquire and weighs more, but you will need a lot less of it for similar performance. The end result is that you’ll be able to fly for longer while retaining a similar overall cost per distance traveled as before.
  In regards to scraps, the first thing we did was add scraps for all ore. You can now craft equivalent level scrap from level one to four using any ore that you’d like. Secondly, we had previously done a quick fix adjustment on scrap repair, making it less painful to repair your elements. The new scrap recipes will allow you to make more scrap for less raw ore than previously, hopefully addressing said pain points of having to mine for ages just to repair a single element. It should now be more efficient to repair an element with scrap than to craft that element from scratch.
  Finally, containers. Containers haven't changed at all. Not one bit. An extra large container is still 128m3 of volume. But in a world of liters, 128 cubic meters comes out to just about 128,000 liters of capacity. That’s roughly 32 times the size of your basic inventory, and frankly, that's a hell of a lot of storage.
  Additionally, there’s been a significant revamp of the information displayed in the inventories information panel. We won't go into too much detail here as we hope the new information should be easily understood and explain itself well enough.
 
This was a huge undertaking and we’re confident that we’re going in the right direction, but we expect there to be issues. We’re looking forward to you guys testing everything out, hearing your feedback, and hopefully providing answers.
 
NQ-Entropy and NQ-Wave