le_souriceau

Yes the lore makes no sense. We are humanities last hope sent to rebuild a dying civilization. But on arrival we are just giving some basic tools to survive and let lose to run around like a flock of hens. And when NQ introduced tax they pretty much gave up completely on following the lore. The last thing you do when trying to rebuild a civilization, is to tax everyone to death.
 
And.. who built the markets that where waiting for us when we arrived?
 
And so we are now in a situation where the alternative community Lore where Aphelia is an corrupted/evil AI overlord pretending to be good, makes for a MUCH more interesting and sensible explanation.

DU setting is kinda dystopian nonsense.
 
Starting from fact, that while its all posed as players doing their own thing and choices, building civilization (hahah) -- in reality everyone slaving for omnipotent AI.

I think the craziest symptom of this oversharing is the way you used to be able to see all the tunnels inside the planet you were digging in, if you managed to clip your head through a tunnel wall (which wasn't as rare an occurrence as you might hope...). What's the point of my machine even knowing about things that are entirely outside my ability to perceive or affect.
 

the noticing part was was about landmark, as for DU, more than a few EVE players noticed, hoping for the sort of experience with bit more tinkering and creative edge to it,  we tried it, discussed it death for years on forums and discord but most of us just  shugged and moved on.

In Dual Universe, you can for example:
Build a giant space station the size of a moon with your friends Create an intergalactic political Empire Gather along with thousands of others in player-made cities Get hundreds of players inside space exploring ships Mass-produce your custom designed ships to sell them in-game Become a trader, a logistician or an industrialist Program complex behaviors for your constructions Live in a secret base 1km underground on a remote moon Make a name as a spaceship designer or outpost architect In other words, in Dual Universe, you can invent a new life for yourself in a world without limits, where almost anything is possible. We aim to make a massively multiplayer roleplaying sandbox on PC like never seen before.
 
- DU Kickstarter

I think actual plan is: once they have their metaverse bs (whatever it is) rolling, they will merge DU into it, using local builders as sort of advertising machine for whole thing. 
 
So, while DU obviously (at this point) non viable as stand-alone MMO, its still very useful asset to incoporate to any metaverse scheme to boost it credability as something working. Like look at all stuff we have, and its proven by time, blablabla, vibrant community, blablabla...
 
Eventually we likely see some abomination frankenstein of what left of DU, attempt to go Second Life again + some of this google maps selling metaverses scam. 3 in 1.
 
 
 

I think actual plan is: once they have their metaverse bs (whatever it is) rolling, they will merge DU into it, using local builders as sort of advertising machine for whole thing. 
 
So, while DU obviously (at this point) non viable as stand-alone MMO, its still very useful asset to incoporate to any metaverse scheme to boost it credability as something working. Like look at all stuff we have, and its proven by time, blablabla, vibrant community, blablabla...
 
Eventually we likely see some abomination frankenstein of what left of DU, attempt to go Second Life again + some of this google maps selling metaverses scam. 3 in 1.
 
 
 

In Dual Universe, you can for example:
Build a giant space station the size of a moon with your friends Create an intergalactic political Empire Gather along with thousands of others in player-made cities Get hundreds of players inside space exploring ships Mass-produce your custom designed ships to sell them in-game Become a trader, a logistician or an industrialist Program complex behaviors for your constructions Live in a secret base 1km underground on a remote moon Make a name as a spaceship designer or outpost architect In other words, in Dual Universe, you can invent a new life for yourself in a world without limits, where almost anything is possible. We aim to make a massively multiplayer roleplaying sandbox on PC like never seen before.
 
- DU Kickstarter

Well, I was in same boat like 3 years ago, but now I kinda fell out from deck in very salty waters.
 
Reality is, demographicly game is in clinical death state:
https://steamdb.info/app/2000270/graphs/
 
NQ currently likely seeking ways to integrate what left of DU into some kind of new "metaverse" project they lately intensified talking about. So, this why there is no solid roadmap, because its not about DU itself anymore as stand-alone MMO. Its asset to cannibalize.
 
 

In Dual Universe, you can for example:
Build a giant space station the size of a moon with your friends Create an intergalactic political Empire Gather along with thousands of others in player-made cities Get hundreds of players inside space exploring ships Mass-produce your custom designed ships to sell them in-game Become a trader, a logistician or an industrialist Program complex behaviors for your constructions Live in a secret base 1km underground on a remote moon Make a name as a spaceship designer or outpost architect In other words, in Dual Universe, you can invent a new life for yourself in a world without limits, where almost anything is possible. We aim to make a massively multiplayer roleplaying sandbox on PC like never seen before.
 
- DU Kickstarter

Probably development has not halted but frankly, the old ideas section was also only for players as none of the proposals ever made it to the game. Illusion of listening is a great good

I have a random text generator which is more believable.
 
Two dead end technologies rammed together with word salad does not a product make.  You might convince some naive people to invest money, but then their expectations will be that you can turn nonsense into money, which is a hard expectation to meet.

Planets when?
end of missions when?
end of schematics when?
warfare when?
community page when?
All scrapped features return, When?
 
Revamp planets when? as they still all look like a 2000 mmo and nothing fancy
Roadmap when?
f2p when?
 
ooh wait, learned we need to add a smiley, here it comes:
 

I could live with the bugs and performance issues if there only would be gameplay. Currently the only reliable way to get cash for taxes are NPC missions. DU is a sub-based sandbox MMO with a main gameplay loop that would not even be sufficient for a free-to-play browser game! I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

At any rate, no serious MMO can be profitable with like 300-400 concurrent accounts online (totally not even people in DU case), no matter what monetization model it uses.
 

Game simply lack content for actual specialization. Sure, there is 2-3% who can somewhow always can make themselves busy with (usually) metagame and creative pursuits, but its irrelevant in larger picture. Majority of (more casual) players just doing same thing as everyone without any interesting niche in gameword or long term rewarding interaction. So they voting with feet after initial novelty fades.
 
 

Too little, too late.

Well, its somewhat larger issue, that game (as it is) gravitates toward disign, that presumes "ideal" player has unlimited time. Like, unempoyed, retired, who knows what. Its not unique for more hardcore MMOs, but DU kinda pushes it hard.
 
This why I argued back then with some retired boomers, who argued no one understands game economy, because its just takes 10 hours of flipping on markets a day to be rich.
 
So, not suprising, that casual retention is so deadly low. 

It was actually main "behind scenes" thing with whole "why 0.23".
 
24/7 players, outliners, lets call them that, at some moment hijacked whole internal/semi-internal discussion scene, doubling down on JC "no one needs to do everything", pressing JC and team with idea to actually go hard to reinforce it. I can call names actually, but don't want to go in jail again for "disinformation".
 
Anyway,  fixation idea of such players was in case 0.23 or something like that, that they FOR SURE will end up on top (because endless playtime, access to update leaks, sometimes exploits too) and will do disign, lua, industry and trading, "aristocratic" jobs so to say, while all casual plebs will be their mining slaves, buyers of their "hi-end" stuff. How nice!
 
But it backfired hard with majority of casuals just saying bye-bye, both to NQ and their planned "master race".
 
 

nope.
 
use the Trump plan: Lets build a Free2Play Model the let the dumb eve whales pay for it.
 
Problem solved.

one word : uninstall.

This game has been dying for a long time. Heck some of us started to see the patterns even before beta.
And the simple fact is that as long as NQ continues to behave like well.. NQ, then this game has no chance what so ever.
 
Or to quote Albert Einstein
Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results
 
And by now it should be clear that the lights have been turned off at NQ for a long time. And the few people still actually working on DU are just punching in hours to get the next pay check for as long as possible, and nothing more. Or to be more precise, when looking at how NQ operates is seems like they have been doing this for years and not just lately.

Dear NQ. At this moment the community could really do with the community page and it is and was also a great way to attract new players and show them what DU and organizations were all about.
Large Cold wars have been fought on the community page and news was broadcasted long ago.
Please reinstate this page as it is missed.

I wasn't going to write this post. It was also a post I never actually thought I would have to write, but events since release two months ago led me to this point. 
 
I don't post a great deal on these forums, but I'm an avid reader and professional lurker since joining at the Alpha stage. I try to keep my finger on the community pulse and to keep up to date on updates and the general buzz. I've played since Alpha and mostly enjoyed all the time I've spent. There has been many times when DU has fought against me and attempted to break me down. However I was always sold, like many others, on that potential carrot on a stick of "What if?".
 
Over the DU development since 0.23 and beyond, the community was gutted due to the introduction of schematics. As updates and patches were introduced to the game, I've watched with dismay the amount of players with high standing in the community, slowly turn on NQ and Dual Universe when they get that stark realisation that this game is never going to live up to that perceived potential. Some go quietly into the night, others announce their vitriol for a few weeks before quitting with much fanfare. 

Being a player since Alpha affords me an ability to see the bigger picture of what I perceive has been going on:
 
If you look at all the updates since Beta started and outside of some balancing updates to PVP and visual upgrades, everything else has been implemented to cut costs due to what I believe as woeful inadequacies at the design and concept level. The vision of this game and what was perceived could be done, didn't match the budget available and the technology. In short, the game that NQ wanted to make didn't match what they could afford to do. Hence, I believe, this is why JC was ousted and the company is now ran by the main investment company (who I feel wants their investment back). The game has had its life and soul gutted out of it, and with every "improvement" it takes another little piece of itself away.
 
When the announcement came that this game was going to be released, I'm pretty sure we as the community, were in the unanimous agreement that it was way too soon. The game was undercooked and needed a lot more time before it was ready. Any development company who wanted their undercooked product to survive would of released it as an early access product. However, Novaquark is a business ran by an investment company who wants to recoup. Keeping the game in another few years of beta or early access wasn't going to make them anywhere near the money needed to recoup. With no new investment, there was only one possible course of action, throw it out the door and see if it sinks or swims. Unfortunately they forgot to teach it how to swim or provide any floatation aids.
 
I don't want to be one of those doomsayers who, when they're not happy with the state of the game will immediately declare "zomg, this game is dead!" But It saddens me to say that, that is what I now believe. It died sometime ago when Novaquark realised that under the budget they currently have that there was no way they could afford the server costs to make it work as intended. It just took some of us longer than it should to see it for what it is.
 
So what is the immediate future? If you look at the current lack of content and updates, all that we're really getting is the completion of the supporter goals that should of been ready on release. Beyond that, as of writing this, nothing, no road map, nothing. No enthusiasm from Novaquark, no excitement, nothing. 
 
Can the game be saved? In short, no. To do this, the game would need a large, fresh influx of money, coupled with a long protracted development time to essentially re-release and reinvent itself. We are at the point of no return though. NQ, I think are running on fumes and they know it. Releasing the game, wiping and increasing the subscription prices and then going essentially dark speaks volumes to their future plans. 
 
I do wish it wasn't this way, and I am kicking myself a little for having to write one of these posts, but I felt it needed to be said. I know this game will still have its staunch defenders (I was one of them) who will go down fighting to the very last day. But this week the game broke me. As I logged in and did my busywork and realised I was barely able to cover my costs to keep the lights on with no real goal of progression any more, my love, passion and perceived potential for the game melted away. 
 
I appreciate my rantings here are purely opinion and conjecture, but if you take the time to take a long hard look at the past few years of this games development, the clues are there. Many of us already know it and made their comments known on the various channels. The tone and overall feelings of the community are at an all time low right now and that should tell you everything as to what the community is currently feeling. 
 
I'd love to be proved wrong, I still want the game to succeed, but my joy and passion, like many others past and present in this community, is gone and it would take a truly Herculean effort on the part of NQ to get it back again. However, judging by recent efforts I won't be holding my breath.

Cynical reality, that there is nearly no enough "old loyal players" to make game financially viable. They were only useful to keep game alive (to extent), so NQ not clearly told them that they planning to wipe, nurturing false hopes (i'm sure plan was there since pretty much Beta start). All this "we discussing it iternally" wiggling around.
 
So now any pretense is dropped, NQ (ultra predictably) decided to gamble in attempt to make game more attractive for new wave of players. If it work or not -- another question. This tho makes old people "disposable" (in relative sense of risking to wipe their progress).
 
I was trying whistleblow and explain this NQ long-term plan of "use them, then wipe them" for years for folks around here, but gathered only hate.