Hades

I keep noticing you say you pvpers... yet I’m not a pvper? I just see things objectively I suppose. I’ll probably rage a few times when I lose a big haul, or one of my storages goes kaputz... and I will fight when I’m attacked, but that doesn’t make someone a pvper You can’t change an underlying dynamic of the game, and I understand that.

Seems like words to me, not a solution. What would that entail? Making ships ridiculously hard to take out? Great... now major battles will go on infinitely. Building is much cheaper than destruction? Yeah that’s not going to happen I honestly don’t think it will be much of an issue. The starting planet is huge... it will be hard to gank all the newbies who fly off of the planet. And once again, I tell you... the solution is by player directive as it should be. Let’s cry wolf when there’s an actual wolf... you have no idea what player dynamics will enter the game. Let’s see how the alpha plays out.

Then unfortunately outside of safe zones, I don’t think you will find a solution. I think NQ is being generous with multiple safezones to be honest. As for farming newbies, that’s almost always for kill boards which won’t be in DU I hope. Also, most games don’t have large travel times upwards of an hour

That’s another really good point. Why fly all the way back to shoot down a few newbies? I imagine most of the vets at the arkship will be recruiters. Shooting down newbies is a poor recruitment tool haha

So create a law enforcement agency of some kind. The whole point of this game is it’s player directed. So direct. I don’t think it will be much of an issue, but if you do... create an organization that enforces newbie protection around the starting planet. Would be pretty easy to accomplish... could create a terminal at the ark ship that someone can submit a claim to your organization. It would start it reactive, but once word spreads...

I think NQ understands this, and in the end that’s all that matters. NQ wants an impactful game, and we are going to get it :). The game won’t be easy, I think they’ve stated that in every single blog ever. Especially so for the single players, small packs. I’m primarily a small group player, and I understand what that means... it just seems these people don’t. Which is fine, they’ll find out for sure. When NQ says it’s a difficult game for single players it’s not because production times are higher. If that WERE the case, they’d say it’s more time consuming, not more difficult. The reason it’s difficult for single players and smaller groups is because they need to be novel when it comes to protecting their assets. If that worries you, just stick to safe zones primarily... as apparently there will be multiple. However, the most profitable adventures will require stepping out of that safety.

I took it to mean as already assembled, and discoverable. Curious how that will play out. Will there be pre-constructed areas as well? Or just a plot of land with an apparent invincibility to it?

Oh wow, that’s actually really interesting. And now that you mention that, I do recall reading that awhile ago. Can’t wait for the devblog.

Mmm, but there’s only one truly safe zone in DU and that’s the starting planet. You can’t arbitrarily create an invincible safe zone as far as I know. You can create a protection field that has a 48 hour counter after its attacked... but I imagine those will be extremely spendy to create. I don’t think we can make those conclusions at the moment, combat isn’t even in the game yet. Constantly killing newbies won’t be how organizations fund themselves... I imagine newbies will create the most basic crafts... why would you even want them? Furthermore, what’s stopping you from creating a law enforcement organization or coalition? Don’t like some behavior in DU? Change it.

A veteran would be wise enough to build the defenses first, then the construct. That would be my assumption anyhow

That is not the gist at all. The point we are trying to get across (or at least I am) is that PvP won’t avoid you... you have to avoid it. Create constructs with extra escape maneuvers and abilities (countermeasures, agility, perhaps a decoy? Etc). Put your assets in areas no major group would run by... put up a few turrets in a bottlenecked area. Build a base deep in space no where near a planet, or a path between planets. This base would have some type of radar dampening system and make it black with some white specs ^^ As I’ve said a million times, this game isn’t going to hold your hand just because you’re not into PvP. You can avoid pvp, but it’s on your dime. Honestly, I think some of the wealthiest people will never get involved in PvP... but they’ll be smart about it. Basically you want large groups to be disinterested, and defenses to ward off small parties. Disinterested isn’t really the right term. It’s more of, a large group wouldn’t be together where your base is. When does a large group assemble? When they want to take over major assets. So keep your assets scattered and small... located in obscene and unexpected places.

Thing is, that scenario should NEVER happen. It would be extremely unwise for a new player to create their structure in an unprotected area. Sure, (going back to your example) perhaps another nation state will come in and take over the city where the house resides and burn it down. Unlikely? Extremely. For one, it has to be worthwhile to take over the city. For two, it’s unlikely they will burn down the house. Why? It’s rather simple, why burn down the city you’re taking over? Unfortunately, as the game starts out these protected areas will be non existent. It will be our jobs to create them. I think everyone is in agreement that it should take roughly the same effort to build as destroy. However, the interesting thing is that there will be methods one group doesn’t think of and that puts the other at a disadvantage. The defender might have been cunning in their setup, using the natural landscape as a bottleneck into their assets. In another scenario the aggressors realized they could avoid the turret fire or some other defense due to the nature of their setup.

Idk man, it depends on what is allowed inside of these protections. Are you allowed to fire? Maybe? Are you allowed hand to hand combat? Maybe? Are you allowed to use construct weaponry? Probably not. It also depends on where the “shield generator” is located. Is it within the shield? Or is it external? If within, infantry will be invaluable. Even if it’s external, perhaps infantry would be recommended. Who wouldn’t want to simply take down the shields? And acquire them for yourself? Heavy machinery would end up damaging the unit during battle, I’d imagine. Similarly if you’re taking over an area with simply turrets that defend it, what if you wanted to simply take control of the turrets? Having to rebuild them would be costly My hope is that there will be EMP weaponry, disable the defenses while you take control etc. Taking too long? Oops, they powered back up Anway, that’s all speculation

Errr no, because the thing about defenses is that on top of circumventing those unmanned defenses you have to worry about the people as well. A group isn’t going to sit idly by as their defenses are taken. Also, structures have nothing to do with it. Most won’t want to destroy the city, as that’s a loss of future profit. Sure ownership changes hands but the underlying commerce and structure will remain. Welcome to PvP, if you can’t defend it... don’t have it all in one place. Or pay for others to defend it... Also, it’s almost ALWAYS the case. And I hope, and imagine, that will be the case in DU as well.

Also, when it comes to balance I hope they try to make it as BALANCED as possible. If it takes a month to create defenses, it should take a “month” of preparation for an offensive raid. However, what takes 1 month for one group to accomplish, another may take a week. Thus the quotation marks. The same effort to build should be required to destroy. Mmm, with some caveats of course. Shouldn’t take hours to destroy a ship that’s not taking considerable evasive maneuvers Similarly we have to remember there will be hacking and circumventing protections IIRC.

Precisely. Protecting a base doesn’t have to be with mighty defenses. You can hide it in an obscure asteroid, create a base deep in space off the beaten path that has some kind of protection against radar or something. An even better idea is to not have all your eggs in one basket so to speak. Scatter your assets. As a small time player, these are play styles I’m well familiar with.

1 month:1 day is wishful thinking imho. Pretty sure it will take rigorous effort to protect an installation/city with adequate defenses. Most bases/installations will probably have to settle for a couple of turrets and hope it scares off a few raiders. This is all coming from someone who plays on the down low with just myself and perhaps a few friends. I understand that I won’t be able to create some invincible barrier to protect my assets. Similarly, ships will not require some ridiculous amount of resources to destroy... if a passing group thinks I’m a tasty target, I better get those engines burning. It would be ridiculous if you had to spend 2 hours to take out a single ship. This game is not for those who want an easy-coasting type gameplay. You will have to work to keep what’s your own. Whether this is by using extreme might, or incredibly cunning behavior... that’s up to you. You don’t have to take part in conflict, but if you want to avoid it you will have to be cunning. NQ isn’t going to put some arbitrary special protection in game for those who want an easy way out.

Yeah, fortunately DU isn’t the real world. Yes there will be consequences for ganking every poor chap who comes across your path. However, that’s entirely dictated by player organizations and whatever committees are formed. Furthermore, large organizations will be more likely to be at odds over territory than in the real world. Thinking that “nations” won’t turn on each other because that’s how the real world works is pretty misleading. Arguing what the heart of DU is is pretty subjective, and I think you brought that up just to be argumentative. Conflict and building go hand in hand. When you build a city it invites conflict, people who want the wealth provided by the city may fight for it. Obviously building is required for this game to get anywhere. It’s like arguing which feature is the mitral valve or the ventricular valve of the heart. If you think that the DUniverse is going to be full of sunshine and dandelions you’re in for a rude awakening I think. Conflict is what keeps the gears turning, and that’s the point I’m trying to get across. There will be times where you are forced into conflict, it’s just the nature of it. The cool thing is you can build a construct efficient at escape or diversion.

The entire game isn’t about war and destruction. But major components of it are. If you’re in unprotected space and get shot down by a solo bandit, it happens. If you’re in a seemingly protected space, but an equal or bigger fish has conflict with the city owners and raids... it happens. You can go your own way and avoid conflict as much as possible, which can become a fun past time in and of itself. Since you won’t be needing combat abilities, try and implement the most efficient construct for escape. There is open PvP in this game, there will be people who kill everyone on sight, there will be people who attack anyone with a semblance of wealth. As I’ve said before, you will be able to enjoy DU without seeking out PvP... you might even become one of the wealthiest players because of it... however, DU has combat at its heart and that isn’t going to change.

Nothing to be sorry about, best of luck

If you’re in a protected area, yes. Many people will say if you aren’t into PvP, this game isn’t for you. It’s come up in countless threads prior, but I honestly disagree. Major cities/installations will HAVE to be protected... stay within those limits, and do what you want... build new designs to sell, create fancy scripts... whatever. Alternatively, fly to some obscene expanse of space and do your own thing. The only truly contested areas will be between organizations over major resource veins and whatnot. Yes, someone can come up on you by chance... but the universe will be vast. PvP is a major component of the game, but it is not the end all be all.

If so, I deleted the comment. I can also understand why it would be, as requirements change over time. However, I do think it should be public knowledge what people are running the game on. Not my call though, I can see why it would be considered game experience. There’s a point and time where the NDA becomes too restrictive, and I just hope NQ doesn’t reach that point. I’ve been away for a few months, but perusing it seems like things are on a tight leash. Once again, not my call... but I wish they’d do things differently.

People really seem to over-exaggerate the requirements of the game.

NQ is fair in not wanting support the vision that you seek, however, unfortunately it would also be impossible for a player to create a "mod" that would allow for single player. The server tech behind DU is one of the things NQ has put the most effort in order to make DU unique. It's unlikely that they'd just hand that over to anyone who wanted to use their own server for single player. Furthermore, the payment model doesn't really support single player, and I doubt single player would get a special payment option. Have you ever heard of a single player game costing $15 a month? On a brighter note, I have a feeling playing alone inside of DU will be much more viable than people seem to make it out to be. Yes, you won't be creating cities or anything like that... but there's a spot for you inside of DU, and I hope you will still give it a try

Sounds to me like he just wants information as to why it's not possible to have a single player version. I think that information would be nice for the public to have, as this question arises quite often. Right now we are just saying "because", which isn't always enough for everyone.