Lord_Void
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Posts posted by Lord_Void
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Resources gathered from mining will deplete. Eventually, after enough people have scoured a planet, it will be devoid of its mineral bounty.
One way to mitigate this is to have has some resources be renewable. The simplest example is trees. Having plantations of trees ensures that there will always be a supply of wood.
When people think of farming, they think of crops and livestock. When people think of renewable power they think, solar and wind. Can we do better?
What about mineral crystal farms? These might require the soil of a specific biome and through a process that requires quite a bit of time and power (with lazors!), constructs a mineral crystal which can be harvested. This mineral could be quite scarce if not rare to mine normally.
Another renewable resource could come from collecting the atmosphere of a particular planet. This gas might be difficult to find otherwise. Creating the elements to collect the gas might be quite expensive to create and require power of their own to run.
Renewable power could be thermal energy power collected by a specific element from heat deep inside a planet. Planets that do not have a hot core, will not be able to sustain these type of machines. Maybe a coolant would be required or the thermal power element overheats and shuts down.
If these renewable resources/power are spread over different planet types, it encourages trade from those high density points to places where there is less.
Can you think of more?
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.
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1) no, alpha testers at least start out with some higher tier skills to test later game mechanics with out the months of training
2)DAC's wont be in the alpha and beta edit: i dont have proof of this, but since alpha and beta are free they are useless
3)the servers will be wiped after each test phase and before the game goes live
4)see #2
5) kinda like dinkledash said, alpha is early 2017(best guess is feb), beta is early 18(again best guess is feb) and currently the goal is Dec 2018 for full game, but will probably be pushed to early 2019 because its a game and unforeseen things happen
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
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There's going to be a large city built around the arkship just by virtue of it being a completely safe zone. All the major organizations will keep stockpiles, R&D and civilian manufacturing facilities there, probably in skyscrapers. Since that is where all new players spawn, that's where you'll have the main recruiting centers. It may be that the rest of the planet is mined out but maybe by that time there'll be farming. Maybe the planet will be covered in solar cells or fusion plants to power the city. Those would have to be defended. And since it will be the ultimte respawn center, organizations will want to have outposts supporting travel from the arkship city to their own power centers. Mining will certainly move from the center outward but there will still be economic, energy collecting and military activity in the core worlds.
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.
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This is not necessarily the case, in the real world for example ground resources in Europe are pretty much depleted, but it is still a main hub of activity as it has stable governments, high population, a lot of infrastructure, and can easily import what it needs raw material wise from abroad.
If the right mechanics are in place, the same thing could arise in this game as well. As long as there is enough value in land and the infrastructure already built, and the cost of buying raw materials is not too high (depending on the ease of ferying materials from the ressource rich places to the resource depleted ones), people are not going to abandon depleted places.
If all the mechanics are well designed, having depletable resources could create different places specialized in producing different things, which besides making the game world more interesting would be a great thing for trade gameplay, as it will be profitable for merchants to ferry ressources from the fringes to the core, and on the return trip to bring back manufactured stuff like ships, weapons, components, food or whatever is in need on the fringes due to the lack of efficient manufacturing/farming there.
And more trade would mean more piracy, which in turn will provide a need of policing/protection of trade routes by government or mercenary forces, and the list goes on.
All this to say that places can still be important hubs of activity even after the depletion of their resources, if the gameplay mechanics are done right. And to be done right, the mechanics need to ensure that the cost of importing raw materials is not too high and that there are big incentives for people living in depleted areas to not move out.
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.
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Hi, I just wanted to get opinions about the stretch goals and social goals of the Kickstarter. We just hit 500k and it just keeps going up. I think we might have a chance to reach the 600k or get close to it. I also think and hope we'll reach the 8000 backers to see what this special kickstarter surprise is about. I personally think the 650k stretch goal will not be reached but it would've been reached with a bit more time. In any case, I'm really happy that the game was founded and it reached it's initial goal. You tell me what you think about all that !
I think we may hit 600k, but it would be close. I don't think we will get to 650k, but that would be great if we did! I think we may hit 8000 backers though. I'm just really happy that the game got funded!
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150K to go! It seemed close for a while, but we did it!
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Wooo! Congrats NQ!
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Will Orgs eventually be able to claim control of certain sectors of space? Could make for some interesting treaty violations/smuggling routes. Or free for all everywhere all the time?
According to NQ they would like to eventually extend the territory control system into space, but will not be able to have that done at launch. Even without a formal control system though, organizations will still be able to "control by occupation" regions of space, leading to the treaty/smuggling gameplay you mentioned.
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Personally i dont want resources or even holes in the ground to regenerate. It's all part of the story players will create. Keep in mind though that resources will be rare and common ones. As they already said the common ones will be very abundant and hard to dig completely on a planet. People will mine mostly specific holes for rare resources. Still it all depends on how resources are going to be spread over the planet, i dont think a planet will be uglified because of its size, but in that case will still be players fault, and part of the story.
Trees do not regenerate, but you'll be able to plant them probably in an expansion (jc said in a interview)
Very true, but even with abundant resources they will eventually be depleted. That's fine for most planets, but it would cause problems on the starting planet as new players would be unable to get started in the game. If you have ever played on a large minecraft server, you will likely have seen that the resources surrounding the starting point quickly get depleted and new players must venture ever farther away to find what they need to get started. The main difference being that in minecraft people can just walk to a new area, whereas in DU if they can't build a ship to go somewhere else, they're stuck. That's why I propose either finding a way to add in a trickle (very small) of new resources or to give new players (after the game has been established for a while) some basic tools/materials with which to get started.
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I think the standings issue also brings up the issue of being in multiple organizations. How do people know which organization people are in? In most games (EVE included) there is a sort of ticker name that is displayed along with the character's name, but that can't work if people are in many different organizations. Say someone is a member of a neutral trade group and also of a more combat oriented group, and that someone else (who is an enemy of the combat group but an ally of the trade group) runs into this person. How do they know which group this person is acting as? Are they the neutral trader, or the hostile combatant? And will that be the same the next time the person is encountered?
I suppose this might encourage a policy involving "follow the worst standings" but surely that would cause problems of its own (such as limiting the ability of neutral groups to function, or disincentivising membership in multiple groups ).
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I agree with Arisilde. While there will likely be plenty of established groups working to help new players get into the game and get started, new players shouldn't be reliant on that. If someone wants to come into the game with a few of their friends a few years after launch and play without ever interacting (meaning things like joining an org, trading or other such actions) with other people, they should be able to. They should be able to, in some way, accrue resources with which they can build their own stuff and get out to where there are more resources. If they can't do that, many people will just quit no matter how many other player groups are their to "help" them.
For this reason, I still think there needs to be some form of renewable resources or it is going to cause the expanding bubble of activity that discourages new players. Perhaps some sort of asteroids that have to be scanned down? Not enough to discourage expansion but enough that places will never be without resources.
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Like Schoff said, they have indicated that the RDMS will allow for people to interact with/transport items they don't necessarily own.
I predict that this will mostly be used by logistics divisions of large organizations or by a few specialized freight companies. I imagine it will generally be easier/cheaper for the average person to just transport their own goods, rather than having it shipped (depending on the location and cargo, of course).
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Folks,
Will there be a security system for script code that's enforced by game elements, like having scripts be sealed classes (if that's possible) or will people be free to modify and copy the code of any gadget they purchase? While stealing spaceships and all is something that could be tracked easily enough in-game by a law enforcement body (i.e. the ship is registered and has a serial number engraved on the hull in Kiberium) locking code held in scripts that have to have permission to run on the owner's computer might be problematic. And easy enough to crack with Reflector anyway.
If there's no way to even make it difficult to open up the code, I don't think it would be possible to prove that someone has infringed copyright law.
I understand that code written in the game will be community property as part of the EULA, is that right? So no actual real world legal issues could ensue.
Hmmm... are we being tricked into writing free software for robotics development?
>run conspiracytheory.exe
I believe they stated in an interview that all code in the game would be open source at first, but that they might implement ways to obfuscate it later on. While I, too, was a bit concerned about this, from what I have seen it seems the coding will be fairly rudimentary at first, and there will be plenty of people writing code that code stealing won't really have much of an effect. Later on, as they add more elements and more complicated things can be done with code, it will make sense to have ways to protect that code.
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I think nova-quark should think about pre-claiming the first 2-3 rings of tiles around the Ark and putting them into the care of a organisation that is there to serve the whole player base and be a neutral party. This is going to be the first thing people see when entering the game so its kind of important that its welcoming with facilities for people to get started in the game.
I like the idea but it is impractical to put it in the hands of "equal" organization, not to mention the disruption to the sandbox gameplay ... Instead, I think they should make the first 2-3 rings of tiles be unclaimable, so no one gets it.
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you my friend are an EVE player arent you lol
I am indeed an EVE player.
Like Warden said, please use punctuation. It's really hard to read without it, and that will lead to most people just skipping it.
Also, welcome
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No one has pre-alpha access (except a special event where a few people got to access it for a few hours). If you want alpha access you will need to back the project on kickstarter. And the alpha won't be out for another 6 months to a year.
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Actually, it says it here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/9994-open-discussion-dac-being-lootableunlootable/?hl=death
"Regarding character death, the current game design (it might change) is the following: When a character dies, it will loose all he has in his inventory. A part will be destroyed. The other part will be lootable."
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Also, your poll does not have a "yes" option
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I play EVE and I love EVE, but I don't want this to be an EVE clone.
That being said, EVE is also fairly similar to what this game looks to be (single shard, revolving around spaceships, sandbox game, player driven economy) so a lot of people use EVE as a reference point for how systems should/would work. EVE has also solved a lot of issues/ideas already, so there isn't a huge need to reinvent the wheel for some areas. In addition, many systems are being taken directly from EVE (skill system, market system, combat system, account structure).
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Why not
- Spanish
- Chinese
- Russian
- Joined Slavic language if there is one
- German / Frensh
The to first languages have a lot of people in them
I imagine that since the developers are based in France, the first language that support will be added for will be French. After that, I would bet either German or Russian, followed by Spanish. I doubt there will ever be a Chinese version as China does not allow access to MMOs (Hence why EVE Online has a separate server for China only).
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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.
I agree with this. Skill point loss is uninteresting and just plain frustrating. There is no way to earn that time back or prevent that loss, other than not dying in the first place. EVE used to have that system and they removed it for a reason. It doesn't make for good gameplay. It just discourages everyone from ever risking dying ever; pirate or carebear. As it stands now, you lose your ship, whatever you were carrying, and get sent to respawn somewhere else. That's already a big penalty. Plus, like Kurock said, they are things you can control. You control what type of ship you are flying (and if it's insured). You control what's in your ship. And you control where you are. If you want to risk it all with a super blinged out ship carrying valuable cargo through dangerous space, then you have a large risk. If you just want to fly around in cheap ships with your buddies and have fun, knowing you'll probably explode, you can, safe in the knowledge that your level of risk it low.
As to punishments for the killer, those should be player driven (with bounties or word of mouth reputation). There is no reason for intrinsic punishments for the killer. The game world is not watched over by some omniscient entity which punishes people who violate it's code of ethics (that would be religion and a whole other can of worms). It's up to the player's to provide consequences for people's actions in game.
[FrogSwarm BBQ] 6th Anniversary
in Org Updates & Announcements
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That looks like a great time! You guys are an inspiration.