Daphne Jones

Combat was more fun before shields.
 
First, let me say when I want to avoid combat, shields are great. Most of the time the shield gives me time to escape without taking any damage. But with shields, what is the meta? Solo L core or dual-boxed dual seat L core for more weapons. The meta sacrifices shield-down survivability in exchange for single player piloting/gunning and better acceleration.
 
What did we have before shields? You had to have armor which put a limit on both acceleration and minimizing cross section. You also had to have repair crew on board, so even if you're using a single pilot/gunner, combat was still multi-crew. Whether piloting, gunning, or running around trying to keep the ship from blowing up, the team play was just more fun than what we have now.
 
I suppose fleet play is also team play, but so far, I don't feel it the same way.
 
I don't particularly want shield removed from the game because most of the time I want to avoid combat, but I do want combat to be fun when I do want to do it.
 
Thoughts?

Combat was more fun before shields.
 
First, let me say when I want to avoid combat, shields are great. Most of the time the shield gives me time to escape without taking any damage. But with shields, what is the meta? Solo L core or dual-boxed dual seat L core for more weapons. The meta sacrifices shield-down survivability in exchange for single player piloting/gunning and better acceleration.
 
What did we have before shields? You had to have armor which put a limit on both acceleration and minimizing cross section. You also had to have repair crew on board, so even if you're using a single pilot/gunner, combat was still multi-crew. Whether piloting, gunning, or running around trying to keep the ship from blowing up, the team play was just more fun than what we have now.
 
I suppose fleet play is also team play, but so far, I don't feel it the same way.
 
I don't particularly want shield removed from the game because most of the time I want to avoid combat, but I do want combat to be fun when I do want to do it.
 
Thoughts?

There is one there, but I don't know if it's public. I expect there will be a public one when construction is complete.
 
I did find out that not all the cores are deployed yet, but most are. Actual building lags behind core deployment of course, but it's pretty big already.

Vertex tool looks great. Complexity limits worries me a little, but I rarely use reactors so I'm probably OK.

Voxels make up almost everything you see in the world of Dual Universe. Currently, most creations are made using the basic tools we provide with standard shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, wedges, and tetrahedrons. 
 
More intricate designs can be achieved through the art of ‘voxelmancy’ where players customize the shapes of voxels using a variety of methods and techniques based on how voxels react to each other when placed. This very advanced technique allows voxelmancers to place each corner of a voxel exactly where they want it. To do that, they use what is called a ‘voxel reactor’.
 

 
Voxel reactors, as amazingly useful as they are, have three major drawbacks:
They are time consuming to use. They are not very intuitive for beginners. They are laid out in a checkered pattern in all three dimensions.  
The last item on that list poses some technical problems. 

VOXEL COMPLEXITY
When we are effectively applying a checkered pattern of voxels of different colors or even air, it creates a relatively large amount of small surfaces. This doesn’t really pose a problem for a single reactor, but can be a performance burden for some voxel libraries that consist of thousands of reactors.
 
With more and more detailed constructs of complex design being built, it’s become problematic for the ‘mesh service’ system that generates the shapes that you see when not in build mode. On a few rare occasions, highly-detailed constructs may not render at all or their honeycomb will disappear. 
 
To prevent this from happening, we will gradually implement a limitation to the complexity that can be created in a single chunk of voxels. It will start with a simple complexity gauge in Demeter:
With the launch of Demeter, you will start by seeing a new feedback gauge while building which highlights the region you’re actively working on and will appear as a bar in the HUD that indicates the complexity level of that region as a percentage.  In a future update (exact update number still to be discussed), we will introduce the eagerly-awaited vertex precision tool (Known to many of you as the fabled vertex editor) as a way to ensure that the limitation to voxel reactors doesn’t hinder players’ ability to create amazing constructs in the game. (More on that below.) In a subsequent future (and yet undefined) update, we will enforce the complexity value limit to be 100% for any new voxel operations. As such, old constructs and blueprints will not be altered by this but may become unalterable if they are above the limit in a region. Rest assured that if you have an existing construct that’s above the limitation, you will still be able to use it as is.  
With all that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part!

THE VERTEX PRECISION TOOL
There is currently a bit of a gap between learning how to build using the basic tools and more advanced voxelmancy techniques, something we’ve wanted to address for a long time. The introduction of the vertex precision tool in a future update will allow you to take any vertex (a corner of a voxel) and move it to a new location on any of its three axes inside the vertex's moveable area at different resolutions. This will provide an intuitive way that fills that crucial gap between basic building and advanced voxelmancy to fine-tune your builds.
 
See the video below for a demonstration of how this works. Please keep in mind that the video only shows an early prototype, but we think it’s already promising enough to make you as excited as we are about the possibilities of this tool.
 
 

 

 
VENI, VIDI, VOXIED
I came, I saw, I voxeled 
 
We hope that these voxelmancy changes, along with all of the great new Lua functions added in the Selene update, will inspire and encourage you to make even more amazing things than you already are. 
 
Check out our Tutorials page for even more ideas and tips on using voxels to bring your creativity to life in Dual Universe. 
 
As always, we’d love to hear your comments and answer your questions on the forum. 
 

It would be nice if we could get planet positions and sizes too. Like a function that returns data about the most influential planet/moon atm (by gravity). Yeah, I have a script that has those hard coded too, but that's gonna be f-ing useless when the next system comes in.
 

It would be nice if we could get planet positions and sizes too. Like a function that returns data about the most influential planet/moon atm (by gravity). Yeah, I have a script that has those hard coded too, but that's gonna be f-ing useless when the next system comes in.
 

On top of that, it negates any "battlefield literacy" a non-advantaged player may have.  Consider this:  an experienced Pilot sees a M core ship inbound. This experienced pilot has been playing a long time and he knows very well the capabilities of each core size and the risks associated with engaging each one.  With the "unbalanced" elements, his battlefield literacy is 0.  He has no idea what could be on that M core.  He knows what is on *his* M core,  but without a fair playing field this player is not just potentially disadvantaged at a technical level; But he is also disadvantaged at a tactical level because all of his information, which should be accurate, is completely unreliable because the rules of the game are not clear.   Even if the ship he is facing DOESN'T have any unbalanced elements, the fact that it persists in the game means any engagement is done blindly without anyway to know what you are actually going to encounter.    

@NQ-Pann - This is important question. This needs to be defined in rules before they will get effective. 
 
 

This is great news. Thank you NQ
!

Great, it takes a long time but finally there is what most of the community wants.

My reading is that the 2km rule is about airspace. It isn't clear exactly how far "XL screens and screen arrays" have to be, but it does sound like they can stay if on your own tile. I'd like to know when a few screens becomes an "array". 

It's for a good cause though! More than excited and happy this is being done.

The real question is... if someone owns a tile next to a market, can they use XL screens on the tile still- or is this not okay?

Finally some decent actions to try and get perfromance up and clutter down.
 
It would have been better though if this included a one time removal of all player constructs on markets, retunrned to player inventory as magic blueprints. So many junk at markets from players who left the game. A virtual wipe of the markets would be a good idea IMO.

Goodwork! I like the changes. This will significantly help the newer players get use out of the markets. You guys have been doing some good work lately. LeeRoy Corp approves!! 

This is AWESOME!! Thank you.

ABOUT TIME!!!!!

FINALLY!!!  TY!!!

Lack of content From all appearances, upcoming content promised to suck. (And that's been born out as far as I can tell) I did install the updated game. Haven't bothered to log in yet. I might get there soonish.

Point 1 - nonsense. You can have a perfectly good player controlled world with a few PVE enemies.
 
Point 2 - nonsense. We already have to be prepared for attacks by griefers and if any players ever take up piracy, them too.
 
Point 3 - nonsense. We're already going to avoid player threats because the game is structured so that only dedicated war ships on L cores using at least advanced weapons have any chance in combat... NPCs won't change that dynamic.
 
Point 4 - nonsense. Among other things, NPCs would probably be flying less than meta ships... various core sizes... various levels of weapons and radars. Why? It's called game design... an element that's completely lacking in PVP... players lack good game design so they make horrible content. Sure, griefers in meta ships are going to find NPCs in non-meta ships boring, but the rest of us might find them an interesting challenge to take on in non-combat oriented ships.
 
 
 
 
 
 

They can't properly implement billing system when there is only 1 character. Let's them not focus on trying to make it work for 3 now...
I fear for the linked container if they touch it.

Noobs sometimes have great ideas. Don't listen to the OP. Yeah, we long ago thought of and discarded 99% of what a noob can come up with, but that 1% may have eluded us (and NQ).

You are mixing stuff.

Everyone has the right to give their opinion, informed or uninformed, in this forum.
Even if they haven't played a single second of the game yet.

It's up to the readers to READ and THINK about what they are reading.
It's up to us, to counterargument if we have a different opinion.
 
That's how free speech works.

How would you feel if i said that non alpha players should not give their opinion?
Or someone even older (in the project) than me said that only pre-alpha ppl should have an opinion?

But more importantly, the new player's opinion is very valuable.
It gives a 1st hand view about how the game is "currently" to a newcomer.
It gives us a good record of the misconceptions that new players have..

And even more importantly, Any new player can go and make a trash YouTube video to give their opinion, undisputed and unmoderated.....
Don't we prefer that he gives his opinion here? Where we can counterargument?

That's the whole point of having backers with no equity position - don't have to pay them back.
 
I knew that's what I was signing up for and I'm OK with it. But if they're going to kill it, I wish they would stop wasting my time.

Here's the thing... 
 
Unless JC got fired for a scandal or health/drugs issue then he got fired because they think the game is failing.  So one of two things will happen.  They shutter it, or they 'fix' it.  Lets look at the latter. 
 
If a VC is going to fix a failing restaurant they don't just come in and change the wallpaper and add a dash more paprika to the chili.  They reevaluate the entire business because whatever is there clearly isn't working.  That means major changes, and since the biggest issue is lack of customer interest they will focus on appealing to more people.  A broader appeal to a more mainstream audience. So anyone who uses the term 'casual' to denigrate suggestions they don't like are in for a very rude awakening.  When a game is failing, you don't double down on niche appeal after firing the guy who designed it.
 
As a newcomer it doesn't bother me but I suspect most of the people who consider themselves fans of the game will be writing a lot of angry forum posts in the near future.  
 
(The only other possibility is they are keeping JC and just giving him a boss, but I wouldn't hold my breath as it was his 'vision' that caused the subscriber count to tank in the first place)