Hades

I think the idea is to give solo/small groups a safe place to store their assets while they are offline. Just because there is a MSA, does not mean there will be a large city there.

NQ clearly outlined that alpha would not start out 24/7. I didn’t even question that the servers weren’t up 24/7 when pre-alpha launched. Once again, this was discussed many times before alpha due to the French labor laws. If your goal is to simply play the game. Do NOT buy into the pre-alpha access for sure. Heck, if I were you... I would wait until the servers come up online 24/7 before even putting a cent down. Since that seems to be your desire. These packs are solely for people who believe in the vision of the game. The patron pack is for those who wish to help NQ stress their servers so we can break stuff, and NQ can fix it. Thus allowing us to get closer to the 24/7 servers. There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back, and seeing how things shake out. And if the game is in a state you can get behind... then you should hop on It’s also important to note that you get quite a bit with these packs. 12 DACs is equivalent to 12x15 euros? So you’re not just buying early access. You literally get the equivalent in game time. Addressed to all: I cannot be more abundantly clear than the following: If you don’t wholeheartedly believe in a project... do NOT back it. It’s best for both parties. You don’t feel ripped off if things don’t go as planned, and the development team does not have to deal with unsatisfied backers. So many crowdfunded projects become a cluster fumble because backers expect more than is promised. NQs promise is to do their damnedest to make the best space exploration/civilization/building/conflict MMO in existence. Could the project completely fall apart for some reason? Sure. But when you look at the track record of NQ and the amount of heart and soul they’ve put into the community and the game itself... I don’t think that’s likely at this point In the end, I hope you stick around (whether or not you buy a package or not). The community of DU is truly unprecedented in many areas. And I’d say this is mainly because of the team behind it, they are responsible for cultivating this community.

I don’t think it’s illogical to assume at all. The packs have always contained the lower tiers. It’s how they work, and this includes access. If you have pre-alpha, then you have alpha and beta. I also wouldn’t consider the server status to be “scammy” at all either. The server tech clearly works, as outlined in the devblogs about various tests. The reason they are not 24/7 is because of French law that doesn’t allow people to work for extended amounts of time. The majority of the day is spent fixing bugs and implementing new content. And as such, they work as a team. They just aren’t at a point where they can do anything else. In order to implement 24/7 they either have to leave the tech completely unattended... or they need to hire more staff for shifts that cover the entire spectrum. I could speak more on the topic, but I believe I would infringe on the NDA. Do I think this will be implemented by beta? Yes, is it a scam if it isn’t? No.

As far as I can tell, there are no limited number packs this time around. That seemed to only be a Kickstarter thing Hope you can get it figured out in a timely manner... I’m sure NQ is being slammed with requests

Hey buddy, the previous program simply stated alpha access, but we also get beta access. So it’s safe to assume pre alpha gets alpha, and beta as well

All of the packs do, as far as I can tell. The patron has a cryogenic pod as well... which I think is another exclusive skin

Oh wow, interesting. Thanks! NQ is extremely generous, wow. Definitely can’t say they haven’t been kind to the supporters. Feels good for a change

*I was wrong hehe Also, I love the packs and extras... well done NQ Edit: Also, the pets are different between old packs and new I imagine?

Also, it depends on how the economy is working as well. Perhaps it will take a day for an org to get off planet on launch day... but months down the road? I imagine most people won’t want to grind the basic materials for crafting and will pay (or trade) for a large amount of it. And as such, you may be able to purchase a ship fairly “quickly” depending on the rates and whatnot. Once everything is setup and running, people will be trying to spin a profit off of “grunts” on Alioth. If it costs x to make a ship, someone might sell a ship for 1.5x, allowing you to circumvent the need to have the infrastructure readily available to make the parts. This all depends on how factories work and whether or not you need one to build a basic ship.

I’m not sure an attacker would follow someone for hours on end just on the off-chance they MIGHT have something worthwhile. If an attacker doesn’t catch up to you in 10-20 minutes, I imagine they will branch off. If the universe is truly vast, I think it will be fairly simple to slice out your own stakes far off the beaten path. Meanwhile conflict would be occurring at points of high interest. But yeah, it IS possible for that attacker to follow you. And that’s something you always have to keep in mind. DU isn’t inherently safe.

Precisely. There’s nothing stopping you from playing solo and seeing how it turns out. I’d imagine it’s easier to be on the down low while solo, so hiding your bases and assets might be easier. Not to mention safezones, where you can own land

Depends on what you mean, and the defenses you incorporate. If you’re not in a safezone, you’re fair game. There’s been a few large threads on this, if I have time I’ll link you to them... but I’d go search for them if I were you Most importantly they have snippets from NQ

Ooh shiny... I hope we can add some of these things to our old packs It does say exclusive, so maybe not. Only time will tell

Did they say something about days in the comments? Facebook seems to want me to have an account to view the comment stream

On top of all that, the whole (my assumed) point of the arkship is that we (the collective playerbase) all spawn in one area. Being able to work together and shoot for the stars. (Sorry for the cliche). There’s nothing stopping you from finding an untraveled area of Alioth and enacting a 45 day solo survival... just to see if you can. Otherwise NQ could just spawn us at random throughout the protected areas on alioth. This would be more forgiving on the server tech I am sure. A shorter “instanced” tutorial would be something that I think is viable. But not a forced 45 day survival instance, just enough to get a player acquainted the tools and layout of DU. Furthermore, it should be optional.

DU will very much so be a “survival” game. Whether it be from other players, or the environment (they wish to implement food). Similarly it would be interesting if we had to implement heat generators and whatnot imho. Too cold? RIP. Maybe your friends can thaw you out? I’ve never gotten the gist that things will be quick in DU, not sure if I’m in error there. It’s hard to determine if NQ means it will take a long time out of the gate, or when a strong infrastructure is in place as well.

I imagine we will also be able to make smaller bombers as well, that aren’t as successful against regular fighters. So theoretically you could scrape by with bombers and fighters, but ideally large orgs will have all of the above I’ve always likes bombers > cap ships > fighters > bombers. It’s a nice balance, and it’s a pretty common occurrence so I imagine it will be in DU as well. But who knows

I almost imagine it will end up being a vanishing system. I imagine having to calculate the position of every single player while they’re logged off would get intensive. Just vanishing allows the server to know where you are, and store that for when you log back in. Is this a problem if the ship you were on moves? Yep, but that’s why you need to secure yourself before logging off. I like the idea of your body being persistent, but that just adds unnecessary clutter and computation.

I remember a post like this a long time ago as well. My opinion remains the same, food/drink etc should have temporary boosts when consumed (if implemented at all). They should not be necessary to survive. Will I throw a hissy fit and throw the game out if they are necessary for survival? Nah. Just would be a little disappointed.

I don’t remember that at all, but like others have mentioned... I’d definitely support it, just doesn’t seem like it’s NQs vision

It really depends on how they implement it. For example. If it’s still “twitch” in that the projectile needs to be within a cone of 30% then it enters the percentage based system. If it’s completely tab target combat, then they could make gunners have various shot types that they can utilize. With different effects with each shot type of course. Just because its not point and shoot doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. Is wow combat boring because you don’t have to aim?

Eh, not entirely true in this case. Can’t kill someone and take their safe plot . It’s actually pretty funny, just watched chronicles of riddick last night. Large organizations dominating safezones is an issue (one that I don’t think is necessarily bad). However, I do believe organizations owning large swaths of a safezone can be a GOOD thing. Not every single player needs an entire plot of land, they simply need a place to lay their construct to sleep at night ^^. Perhaps someone will offer a place to land for a small weekly/monthly fee. A bunch of single ad hoc players owning land pretty much means there won’t be any system order or infrastructure for the area. They’ll simply implement what they need for themselves... and nothing more as they don’t have the manpower to open up a market, or anything of that nature. And the fact of the matter is, many would remain barren I think it’s more important for large organizations to own chunks of the safezone than it is for someone like me to own such.

Ah I see, if you weren’t following the conversation that’s an easy error to make. My apologies. I should have clarified, that by past it... I meant quite literally you’re past it, you’ve walked through... but it’s still up. When I think of a shield, I think of a barrier... once you’re past the barrier you can do damage. That’s why I think shield is an improper name for the device. Although I can’t really come up with an alternative so.. meh, shield generator is still good with me. Edit: I was just giving an example of how someone could be confused (initially) about a shield generator... I don’t think it’s much of an issue whatsoever. Anyone who DOES make that error, will figure it out quickly enough.

“most large ships in other games only need one person”. Which I disagree with, but we probably play different games... and it’s irrelevant. I answered most of that in the post. Larger ships have to be multicrewed in DU due to “1 man = 1 gun”, right? Well, larger ships can stick on a T5 turret since their power supply can support it. Unfortunately, the tiny frame of the fighter can only fit a T1 power supply and can only attach a T2 weapon if they sacrifice in some areas. All values hypothetical and not representative of the game by any means. It’s a really common system, not sure why NQ shouldn’t follow a similar pattern.

I think the balancing is the same as every other space game in existence. T1 lasers and turrets are equivalent. As your ship increases in size/power supply you can accommodate higher tier turrets/lasers. However, with a larger ship your captain is probably going to have other things to worry about than protecting his flank. Better invest in some turrets for manual protection. A small fighter wouldn’t be able to accommodate a cannon. However, if someone puts a bare frame around a huge power supply? I suppose they can use higher weaponry on their fighter... unfortunately a stray shot might make them explode, fashionably None of this is from NQ, just how I think it should be... if it works, why break it?