Lord_Void

I believe there is an element of chance to it, affected by skills, so that there is always a chance of missing. Other factors would affect it too such as the size of the target, the distance and the radial velocity. Big guns like those mentioned here will probably have horrible tracking speeds so they would only really be able to hit big and slow ships, or stationary targets.

1. There are a number of mechanics to help protect your items/base. These include safe zones, protection bubbles (which when attacked have a 24-48 hour reinforcement timer) and territory control units, as well as just having someone there to protect your stuff. They all have varying advantages and costs. The truth is, however, your stuff is never going to be completely safe, not because people want to "ruin your day" but because that is how they make their living in the game/protect their interests. 2. There is no solo mode. If you saw anything referencing solo play, they were talking about gameplay styles that don't involve groups of players. 3. It is a single shard mmo, meaning no instances or separate servers. Everyone is playing with everyone else. And you are right, there are a lot of different groups with a lot of different political ideas, some of them directly at odds with each other. If you look around you can probably find some that align with your views, and if not you can always start your own. It's a sandbox game and no one can tell you how to play.

That sounds exactly like how it goes when I play cities: skylines. I normally end up having to demolish whole sections of the city just to redo the roads. I reall hope we don't have traffic jams like that in DU or the highest paid career in the game will be road construction.

You all have really gotten deep into this. I'm loving all these ideas. Dyson sphere for the win! Even though I can see why they can't/won't implement a space elevator, it'd still be really cool.

I really like this list. Number three might be a bit difficult to implement, especially if they visually move, but I would love the gameplay possibilities they would bring. Also, as an EVE player, I'm obligated to put in a request for an in-game spreadsheet program

You make some good points. I think a key factor as well is the time it would take to build the various weapons systems and the ships that are capable of transporting them. Even if construct vs construct combat was included at launch, that process could easily take a month or two, if we go by what the developers have said. We will see. Regardless of the reason, I agree that the initial period of peace (or at least limited hostilities) will help people get settled and the game world get on it's feet. There will still be avatar vs avatar combat and that will keep things interesting.

Welcome to the community, Onill! The questions you asked are the topics of many debates here on the forums, so I encourage you to jump in and help shape the answers.

This will be a defining day for months or years to come. Heroes, villains, and memes were forged. Some will forget, some will cry foul, and some will claim victory. In whatever case, this is a defining moment for the history, and the mythos, of the Dual Universe community.

Agreed. As long as it is properly balanced, there is no reason why big guns shouldn't be added in. I think timing would also be important. They should be released well down the road so that they don't overly affect the beginning stages of social development.

Hello Mox o/ and welcome to the community!

It will be very challenging to balance all of the various mechanics. That is what the alpha is for. I suspect that a lot of the current design plans will shift once the alpha starts.

TU's will provide a method for managing who can build. And central planning will probably won't start to happen until later in the game, when people know what they need and have the resources to build the city basics quickly. Like Warden said, the larger organizations should be able to handle city-building wit ha decent level of efficiency.

I agree. Since things are all vulnerable in this game, it should be rather difficult to find hidden bases and such. I always hate when you take the time to build a hidden base and someone finds it because they see your name through the ground.

We do not start with TUs, they have to be built by players and will take some time to build (maybe a few weeks from launch for the first ones). They will also require resources to support, so you cannot just drop one and leave it forever. They are also siege-able, with a 48 hour reinforcement timer, so you will also have to have the manpower to defend the TU.

You can probably build a space station right next to it for defense/social aspects. And keep in mind that stargates are going to be introduced later into the game (like 3-6 months, maybe longer) so the existing orgs will have lot's of resources to spare to build them. They will be expensive but well within the budgets of decent sized groups. This initial confinement of everyone to the same system for the first months of the game will help to boost the economy and let people get on their feet before the mad dash to new worlds.

I agree the use of bots at the beginning is a good solution for the beginning, but that isn't a long term solution. Once the flow of new currency into the game world ends, deflation begins. As more material is mined and put into circulation, the currency becomes worth more and more (assuming more currency is not being produced). This isn't such a bad thing at first, but eventually it would result in currency being so valuable that it is hard to trade with. Imagine buying a planet for 10 spacebucks and then trying to sell a few boxes of stuff; they'd be worth maybe 1/10000 of a spacebuck, which is basically impossible. Like you said, having permanent npc sinks would be a bit inconsistent with the lore, but there needs to be a long term solution or it just won't work.

Exactly. The non-cemented structure makes the organization much more robust and adaptable. People will work together on projects on an as needed basis, with the structure for each project developed by necessity. People will specialize by nature, and emergent scenarios will be handled by people available at the time. Even if significant portions of the "leadership" are not present at any particular time, operations can continue unhindered. This sort of system has worked well in EVE for almost a decade and a half. With formal structures, things are much slower and reliant on specific people. An attack is happening? Better hope the generals are there. Crimes taking place? I really hope the police aren't on vacation. Need to build new ships? I hope the guys who have permission to use the factory machines are around. It is all a matter of taste, and there is no 'right' answer. To the OP, welcome to the world of MMO's, particularly single shard mmo's. It's cool that you are inspired by real world history, and that will serve you well, but I caution you against being wholly reliant on that. People have different incentives in the real world vs in games. For instance, in the real world people are mostly motivated by the need to survive: eat, sleep, not die; whereas in videogames people are predominantly motivated by fun. Fun, of course, means many different things to many different people but tit does encourage different activities than survival does. Another key difference is the relative ease of movement between groups. In the real world, if your government is not performing the way you want it to, it is very difficult to leave, thus making democracy and other forms of representative government so important. On the other hand, people in mmo's can and do leave groups all the time so they are a lot more comfortable with "non-representative" forms of governance so long as it serves their needs, since they know that if things don't go the way they want, they can just leave. I encourage you to look into the histories of other MMO's for inspiration. The is a book on EVE Online (if you don't know what that game is you should read a bit about it, it is a similar game to this and people here reference it all the time) called "Empires of EVE" by Andrew Groen. It covers the first 8 or so years of the game's history and does a very good job explaining about the politics of the various societies. I read it and loved it. If you want to go for the hardcover version, you won't be disappointed (I heard the eBook version isn't great because it lacks the diagrams and pictures that help explain things. Idk about the paperback version). Also, welcome to Dual Universe! EDIT: Here is a link to the book I mentioned: https://www.amazon.com/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online/dp/0990972402

This is a question that, in my opinion, has not been properly addressed by NQ. They have stated there will be market bots which will help seed the markets and introduce currency into the game at the beginning, but they have said those will go away over time. As to long term plans for currency management, I do not think it has been properly addressed at all. I am hoping they will stick to the tried and true method of sinks and faucets, even if it affects the "lore" of the game a bit.

It would be boring, but isn't that what you guys in Cinderfall are planning too? As for goals, I think Lethys summed it up pretty well.

That looks like a great time! You guys are an inspiration.

I like the idea, and I have been promoting something similar myself. This would help keep depleted areas "active" and prevent them from just falling into disuse and desolation. I especially support renewables that require a decent amount of set up and infrastructure which will make them valuable, and allow them to compete with/trade on equal terms with the non-depleted regions.

1) Yay! Hadn't heard that but that makes sense. 2) I think that is a pretty safe bet. DACs have no purpose in alpha/beta 3) There may be additional server wiping during alpha in particular, when significant new features are added they may wipe the prior stuff since the purpose of alpha is to test during active developement, not to "play" the game. 4) Agreed 5) In the interview today, JC said a more realistic expectation for alpha is march/april, maybe even may

I guess a lot of it is dependent on the mechanics that are added over time to the game. I'm sure you're right that there will be recruiting centers there forever. Other than that, I guess we will just have to wait and see. Any issues like those I predict would happen many years down the road from now, so I guess it is pointless to worry about it now. I'm going to make a mental note to come back to this topic in 2023.

This video has me super excited! I wish they had released this sooner; it probably would have drummed up a lot more attention for the kickstarter. One thing I wish there was would be is things like doors/cargo elevators, but I'm sure those will come in time.

You are right, although I think there are a few key differences between the game and the real world. In the real world, we are constrained to a single planet and as such the maximum distance that resources must be moved is limited. In DU, the potential distance is unbounded, and will continue to expand indefinitely. We don't yet know much about the exact nature of hauling stuff, but it will cost something, even if it's just time. So at some point, the price will become too great to justify living in depleted regions. Also, in the real world, there is a conservation of material while in the game there will be a gradual loss of material which will simply vanish into thin air by being destroyed. These things mean that eventually all resources will have to be imported from farther and farther away, with ever rising prices. You are right that the central areas will remain important areas for a long time, but what about 5 years after launch? Or 10? Even if those areas are still hubs at that point, prices will be very high. With no resources in close proximity, new players will have no way to earn the money to buy the goods they need unless they join an organization or are dependent of charity. Neither of those options are reliable enough to stake the new player experience on. That's why I think that there should be some form of basic safety net, at least in the long run, that allows for new players to have a chance to get on their feet. Perhaps not the asteroids I had suggested, but something else. Maybe there will be other arks on the periphery that people can spawn at in later years? I'm not sure. Anyways, like you said, the core will be a perfectly viable place for at least a few years.