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DarkHorizon

Alpha Team Vanguard
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Everything posted by DarkHorizon

  1. Monthly Update - May 1st, 2021 Two rescues were made over the last four weeks, 89 for Beta 1 and 227 overall! ----- Very little has happened over the past month, emphasizing how complete the burnout is in myself, the organization, and from my impressions, the game overall. Things are still happening and plans are still being made, but the silence is absolutely deafening. To fill the void left by DU, I’ve taken to writing fanfiction and making some forrays into the Halo franchise. I’ve seen videos and its stirred memories of my early teens. On my old Xbox 360 there was a Halo 3 ad that was factory installed, this was from the time when I didn’t have the internet at the home. Things were so easier a decade ago, don’t you remember? ----- HQ Work: Most of the roofing is done with only a small hole that needs filling. I’ve been doing some mining and refining but its been tepid and slow. Sometimes I look around and visualize what I want things to look like in the future, where constructs will be parked, how elements will be placed, ‘paint’ on the floors. The sun is getting higher in Madis so I’ll be placing windows ‘soon’ and seeing how things look. I don’t want to say that I regret my choice in Tortuga, but I’m really wishing that we’d built upon one of Alioths moons like I was initially sold on. If there’s a wipe in the future as NQ recently made a hot topic about, I hope the move is made. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears ripe for teasing? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. If you’ve heard something you want shared, let me know! Is a wipe on launch really in the cards or is NQ just stirring the pot? The further we progress into beta, the more I seem to want one. With everything that’s happened since then regarding bugs, exploits, everything that is ‘unintended gameplay’ and the likes that NQ should have corrected, it rubs me the wrong way and sets a bad precedent. At a minimum, magic blueprints for all deployed constructs should be in players’ inventories afterward alongside retaining talents, talent points, and queues. Retaining quanta as well as container and nanopack inventories might be a massive stretch due to ill-gotten gains but it would be appreciated from the perspective of myself who never took advantage of unintended play. Many suggest it would be a way to help boost the launch population by pulling in new players who didn’t buy for the purposes of testing an incomplete game or don’t want to be left behind, as well as allowing old players who may have stepped aside a chance at a fresh start. I’m optimistic as always but tempered in my expectations. ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  2. Bi-Weekly Update - April 1st, 2021 One rescue was made over the last two weeks, 87 for Beta 1 and 225 overall! ----- A largely quiet period again. Yet another handful of calls came in and were either handled independently, with our written guidance's, or via a friend. In talking with some of our partners in the rescue scene outside our org, things have been noticeably slow for them as well. It would appear that some of the sentiments I expressed in the previous update were shared by players across the field and seemingly across the game in general. The .23 update seems to have bitten off more than the community could chew. ----- HQ Work: I’m going to keep this short but I’m confident that our doors are now squared away which allowed me to construct the top storage area. While I did have a medium core outline, I’m not entirely satisfied and stopped after the initial build was done. I’m planning on expanding the internal volume and height to allow for larger walking surfaces on all four sides as even three meters seems too cramped. I think some life in the form of small storage spaces will make their way into this area alongside some windows for lighting as well as access doors on one or either side for the purposes of roof based landing pads. It’s looking increasingly convincing that seasons are indeed a thing in-game as I don’t remember the last time I saw the moon at Madis' north pole. Every time I’ve logged in it’s just been perpetual night. The skylights in the roof have been filled in and I’m waiting to see how the daylight turns out with windows in the walls instead before placing them around the entire structure. I'll be looking to finish additional work on the roof and upper portion in the coming weeks when the motivation strikes. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears ripe for teasing? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. If you’ve heard something you want shared, let me know! Gold is nice, but silver makes rice. It also makes warp cells and the silver needed for such has seen a market run which could be having an effect on prices. As organizations and players burn through their stocks or ration their remaining inventory, will PVP players be able to gorge themselves on slower spacers? One recent change NovaQuark made that I think should be expanded upon in time, destroying cores in a crash now means everyone on that construct dies. If this was applied to PVP where the cores destruction would kill everyone onboard, what implications would that have? While this shortens combat significantly in the event that it happens and forces people to respawn elsewhere, would it be a good thing? How would this change how people play outside of PVP? ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  3. Bi-Weekly Update - March 15th, 2021 Zero rescues were made over the last two weeks, holding at 86 for Beta 1 and 224 overall! ----- Welcome the following member to our team! @NovumAurora - Pilot, Rescuer ----- Not something totally unexpected but I think this is the first instance we’ve had where no rescues were successfully completed. Had a handful of calls but all of them either helped themselves faster than we could arrive, simply didn’t want to wait, one even thought that we were NQ support and that they were opening up a support ticket. It’s been a quiet week, quieter than most and that’s not really saying something. October 11th, 2016. It was a nail-biter, but we pulled it off in the end, Dual Universe was successfully Kickstarted. 1,616 days, that’s almost four and a half years, or just over 53 months from now. September 30th, 2017. It’s been a difficult year of holding our breath. Pre-alpha was supposed to happen during the spring, it got pushed back, but now it’s finally here. 1262 days, three and a quarter years, or 41.5 months. Those first steps, looking out the pod room glass the first time, looking back up at the arkship, learning the ropes, seeing the first major bugs of mass testing (I still got that screenshot saved somewhere for those in the know). Pre-alpha was great, then it wasn’t for several months. Stow the tissues, I’m not leaving. November 29th, 2018. Alpha 1. 837 days. Two and a third years, or just over 27 months ago. I’ve been here a while, probably not long in comparison to people who were following before the kickstarter, but longer than most. We used to run on a schedule where we’d only test at certain dates and times but that eventually went to 24/7. I forget when but I think that’s when the passion began dying. No longer was I forced to enjoy DU intermittently, I could have it whenever I wanted. I think that’s what got me. Enjoyment in moderation, oh you can bet I was there and waiting the moment the hour hand turned I was pressing the login button screaming into the server with everyone else who wanted in. Sure we were just testing and we paid for that privilege in exchange for a better game in return at some point in the future, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I had fun while doing it. I see you headless spaceman shadow. Our HQ is a very simple design. Four large cores (donated), six faces at right angles, two dynamics making up the 1:1 diagonals, and pretty much an open interior. A softshell taco with no meat if you will. August 27th, 2020. It’s only been two-hundred days since Beta 1 started, since the mystery of a wipe on release was mostly lifted and we were told that we’re likely playing for keeps now. Sure a good lot of that was spent on mining, but a couple mega nodes and some very generous contributions from the rest of the team really sped things up. I got the materials (although crafting is more expensive now thanks to schematics), the ore, and a team at my back, so why are we 200 days in and I still feel like I’m only 30 days in? Why hasn’t this thing been finished yet? Yeah, I could knock out a medium single-core back before schematics and even before industry. Well, again both were garages that were successively enhanced, but I could do that over the course of a week or two by myself. If I could do that then, why can’t I do this now? Burnout, that’s what I think it is. I’ve played DU pretty consistently ever since we went for all-day access. Took a break for XCOM 2 last year but I think that was only a couple weeks at most. Mining is meh, and I’ve built a good bit by myself. Industry isn’t interesting anymore and simply a means to an end. PVP, while I haven’t touched it yet, I’ve seen plenty of videos. In all honesty, it seems like it’s more fun for whoever is piloting because you got trajectories to manage, distances to obtain, and speed to watch. Gunners, push a couple of buttons, watch the spinny thing, seems boring but so is watching that mining sphere grow. Looking around the half-complete HQ, I just feel a sense of disappointment, there’s no enthusiasm anymore. Logging into the discord server, it feels like a constant stream of negativity and any positives get drowned out which doesn’t make me want to play at all if I’m being honest. Then there’s NQ and I’ll be frank, being a community moderator and member of ATV offers me an extraordinarily privileged position of seeing them from a particular vantage point. It sometimes feels like watching them is like an adult bumbling around in the kid’s room and every lego brick stepped on was a bug that should have been squashed last month, or a feature that didn’t quite turn out as intended, broke in some amazing fashion, and caused even more bugs because of it. Okay, just imaging that is making me chuckle. Maybe everyone can see that as regular testers, it’s just different from my angle. Even in recent history, I’ve seen good folks depart, both from NQ and the discord team. Some of the diehards that invested way more than I have vented their burning frustrations and stepped back. The community in general that I fell in love with back in the early days has apparently gone silent while the new blood sours. All of this has made the game unplayable for long periods and is in stark contrast to the raving lunacy at the gates when the servers used to come online every Thursday. It’s all becoming a drag and the now iron ball and chain of a community is becoming insufferable. I'm starting to seek out other games and returning to old ones and legitimately enjoying them again. Perhaps I'll even pick up my writing again. Anyone who knows me here knows that I can write and write and write when it comes something I know a thing or two about (looking at you TU), but I'm actually a small time fanfic writer and have written over half a dozen one-offs during my tech school years and I also have a 30k draft I started back in 2016. Its actually still sitting in the document creator I used and... oh god, do I go back? I've been kicking around a new idea. I mentioned XCOM earlier and... well I'll just leave it at that. I still love DU, don’t mistake that, and I’m still happy to help the community both in discord and this organization. I don’t want to admit it, but I think this is what burnout is like. It’s why I don’t have any motivation like I used to, why I don’t hang around the discord as often as I probably should. Release (based on the current roadmap, the end of the year) is so close, yet it feels so far away. I want to be ready for release so I’ll probably still be grinding it out, but it will remain slow going, and I don’t see my enthusiasm picking up any time soon with how things are currently playing out. Hoping that these are just growing pains, but I think there needs to be some top-down changes in NQ going forward. The community (myself included) lectured them in the communication department long ago and we’re not making a big ask here. You can fit everything in a standard forum post on a 1080 screen. I wrote these three paragraphs in ten minutes, our devs can probably do a heck of a lot better, in fact, I’m even confident that they can. NQ needs to take the mantle seriously going forward and run with it like the floor is lava. Dual Universe is the passed-out train conductor over their shoulder, better start saying some hail marys because our hype train is melting all around us and we still got one car to go before we reach the end. I hope we can make the jump. Yeah I ripped that off a movie, no I'm not apologizing. Again, not going anywhere at all. This is just me acknowledging something that's probably been here since Beta and I'm only just realizing it. I'll still be on our server and popping up in the community server the same as I always have. ----- HQ Work: In more topical news, I hoped to have the top section done today, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The front and rear doors were misaligned due in part to several misalignments that I presume had built up over the course of the initial design phases. All voxels were torn down and replaced. All that remains of the initial construction phase is replacing the roof. Speaking of which, I’m likely going to move away from the afore-planned skylights for the entire roof. Tortugas placement at the pole of Madis renders very shallow sun angles so I’m looking to wall placement instead. I’m also planning some potential landing pads so it’s not like the sun would shine through those anyways even if it was at a high angle unless of course, I want our constructs landing on ‘super strong’ glass. Got some installed last night and I’ll be observing it over the course of tomorrow. I’ve worked out a lot of kinks in one of the garage doors and it’s becoming increasingly functional and ready for use by the team. Going to be needing some design elements and lights, but those will come later. I have more important things right now. Once the roof and top section are complete, I intend to plot out a lower storage section and fill in a basement working and parking area for our members when they come in for rescues. One puzzle piece at a time. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears ripe for teasing? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. If you’ve heard something you want shared, let me know! Nothing to speak of, consider my rantings at the start sufficient. I would drag that down here in keeping with past order, but it’s relevant enough to be at the opening of my post that it deserves coming to the fore of our discussion today. ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  4. Bi-Weekly Update - March 1st, 2021 One rescue was made over the last two weeks, 86 for Beta 1 and 224 overall! ----- Welcome the following member to our team: @Dedalous - Dispatch, Pilot, Rescuer ----- HQ Work: Two medium doorzillas were installed as a separate entrance and exit point in the central core. What I’m told should have taken a day ended up taking ten. Between permissions being problematic, not having a complete list of materials, living on opposite sides of the planet, and both of us having lives resulted in this unfortunate slog. I hope the experience has helped ODY streamline its process further so future installations don’t end up like such. It also goes without saying that these doors are a fair bit more complex than they look. Not only do they go up and down, but perhaps the most interesting feature is that if out of alignment on the z-axis (outside its designated slot), it can automatically realign itself with no grabbing and dragging the construct on your part. With my plan set on this for future system headquarters, and the doors a full 64m long, I’m not limited in width, only height of the medium construct that these gates were purchased to accommodate. With that in mind, I’ve started work on the upper storage area where we’ll be parking said constructs. It’s a rectangle at 45 degrees, that’s about it. Thought about doing the basement spot first but why hold off? Height shouldn’t be an issue either, we’re working with no diagonals so adding on more height is simply a matter of copying, pasting, and moving elements upward. I intend to have this upper space mostly barebones complete come the 15th. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears ripe for teasing? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. If you’ve heard something you want shared, let me know! Read up a bit of an argument that happened on discord a while back about what development phase the game is in. Some say beta, others say we still haven’t left pre-alpha. While I wouldn’t dare compare DU to any sort of triple-a game in progress, development isn’t being based upon how ready the game is for release in so far as being a polished and good-to-go product. It seems more like it’s based on the features that are supposed to be present, even if they are first iterations. Looking at the current roadmap, which I argue needs updating, this interpretation seems true from my perspective. Below I’ve posted the section of the roadmap in question along with some bits on how I’m seeing progress from the user perspective. While many of us are questioning what is going on behind the scenes at NovaQuark, myself included, I maintain expectations that we are still on course as far as beta is progressing. Are there bugs, yeah, there are hundreds, and not all of them will be squashed before the end of this year. Will the game release this year based on the current map, no, at least not in my opinion. I’m hearing and seeing things in private channels which I can’t disclose. What I can tell you though is that the wheels are indeed turning, we’re just not seeing the results yet. Another side thing, I think I’m burned out on DU. We’ll see how these next two weeks go. ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  5. Not to drag this off topic but I think this is what a lot of us, especially kickstarters have started to loose sight of. When I plonked my fifteen freedom bucks down it was like a convergence of everything I wanted that I didn't know I wanted to begin with. Now, years later, I see all these other games that have picked up steam and powered on by while DU seems stuck in dev hell. Sure things are coming out, but I don't feel the same excitement as I did in early pre-alpha. Now we're in that one phase where an update didn't come out for a couple months then before we knew it A1 had arrived and things were rolling. Maybe that's why beta isn't proving nearly as exciting as I thought it'd be. Probably all the bug fixing that's going on, I wonder how much better things are than when beta started. Maybe that's why the end of PA was so long. Stuff like this takes time and while it seems like we're going nowhere, we're only players seeing the surface of what's happening. For now, color me skeptically optimistic.
  6. Bi-Weekly Update - February 15th, 2021 Three rescues were made over the last two weeks, 85 for Beta 1 and 223 overall! ----- Here is some of the feedback from the rescues that were made: ----- HQ Work: More work regarding roofing and the installation of skylights went down. Both wings are now more or less complete roofwise with just some additional windows being crafted. @Haunty has been real instrumental with the creation and supply of windows for this endeavor, 500 larges of them so far. While this is mostly a matter of copy/paste, that’s not to say that it’s been as quick going as I’d like. Keeping things at a-round ten meters, everything should be nice and lined up once the initial design is set, right? Well, that wasn’t the case, it appears at some point that I had made a mistake and trimmed things a meter short in the width plane in each wing which needed straightening out which meant entire faces had to be adjusted down two large cores. Also, cores being a voxel short on one end due to NQ's technical constraints has created a few.. oddities, but I’ve hidden those the best I can. All this leaves now is the central section which has two primary duties; storage of medium constructs, as well as entrance and exit points. Since speed is the key in deployment, our medium constructs will be parked below ground level or right above it while small and extra-small constructs will be in either wing. When needed, medium constructs can hover up to or lower themselves to ground level and accelerate forward to reach the landing pad. This in conjunction with the front and rear exits does not necessitate pilots of these constructs to either reverse back in or rotate the construct when inside in order to park. It also makes swapping from medium to smaller constructs all the faster when the situation demands it. Parking constructs above ground level however requires either an increase in the height of the building across its entirety or only in the area where it’s needed. In this case, I decided to opt for the latter to make things less cuboidal than they already are. I’m hitting a bit of a snag with this however since A, I’m still going to be without those medium constructs for a few months, and B, I’m still waiting to hear back on the installation of two doorzillas. I’m working with one of them getting one set up right now so we’ll have to see how it all turns out. ----- Discord: I’ve been messing around with the statbot for a couple of hours yesterday. I’m getting the hang of things but sometime this week we should have a running stats channel with various bits and bobs of info. Nothing too major but it’s something I hope is helpful. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears ripe for teasing? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. If you’ve heard something you want shared, let me know! If you’ve kept an eye on the official DU discord, or read the news, it’s been quite the up and down week hasn’t it? With NovaQuark pulling back their support to tickets only, I’m anticipating an increase in our activity once the ticket queue backs up and wait times become too long for players whose ships froze in the skies above them. While I’m waiting for other things to get rolling, I’ll likely be shifting priorities to either DU Classifieds and expanding the ad network to other planets or working on the basement which is still an empty hole in the ground. ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  7. Don't even bother with mentioning it, just report and move on, don't feed into it. Moco, sucks to see you leave after so long. While it's not the hill I want to die on, I've come close to it plenty of times over the years. Since Beta started, I've largely pulled back from both the game and Discord in pursuit of other things to enjoy new interests. I still keep up with everybody, but I'm not as engaged as I was in Alpha. With the rise of the unholy masses (see above) and NovaQuarks retreat to more official support tickets, I get it, and it sucks. I ain't no vegetarian, but I hope you find your green grass.
  8. Since the ticket queue is bound to be overwhelmed, this is just a friendly little announcement that Eyes & Ears Search and Rescue is ready and able to accommodate players requests for situations that do not fall outside another players ability to assist. Aside from the typical rescue, repair, refuel, and transport situations, this non-exhaustive list of situations include: Crashing and respawning Surrogate sessions swapping places with your avatar Someone leaving your space station unaware your ship is docked to theirs Constructs getting stuck up in the air This does not include: Respawning inside your friends construct with no way out Glitching under someone's base Adjuster locks (get out and back into the pilots seat) Disobeying the rules and NQ teleporting you to some moon 1,000 SU away with no ore/resources/constructs. For any requests, we ask that you join our Discord server and submit a ticket and our dispatchers will help you find a rescuer to get you back up on your feet. While NovaQuark is pulling back in support, Eyes & Ears is stepping forward as a player run solution to fill that void.
  9. Ahhh so that's why you lost. You were conned into wearing no pants?
  10. Bi-Weekly Update - February 1st, 2021 Two rescues were made over last two weeks of 2020, 82 for Beta 1 and 220 overall! ----- HQ Work: Further work has been completed on the HQ, most of it centered around the acquisition of two medium gates which has really allowed me to smoothen out the intricacies of sizing the building for the constructs it will be storing. Of course, this does limit the size of the medium constructs that we’ll be flying so this might necessitate an upgrade to a single large gate which while fiscally desirable, not only adjusts the sizing of the midsection of our HQ, but also the constructs as well. Here’s how those numbers turn out. single large ----- 8x160x80 single medium - 8x120x80 double medium 8x120x160 Now, these gates are on their sides to maximize the height along the width of the gate, then doubled to provide the needed width. This is just one example of why I’m a proponent of customizable height/length/width for some elements like gates, but that’s been discussed a few times to my knowledge and I don’t think any traction was gained on it. The static nature of elements is also why I advise people to think about the elements they want to build with as it will affect hulls, buildings, voxels, the amount of voxel material needed, etc. As this will limit the constructs we’ll eventually fly, I’ve been considering a voxel-based door similar to ODY’s ‘doorzilla’ (you can view this in VR). While this allows a lot more customization, it requires two cores (front and back entrance) and is supplemented by the fact that gates are simply more expensive than a voxel-based door system. It’s something I’m going to ponder before purchasing the rear doors. Last thing regarding the HQ, skylights! I’ve been watching Helios in Madis’ skies and will be positioning a multitude of openings in the roof and perhaps even down the walls to let in natural lighting while maintaining (or trying to) a cold and mechanical look. 100 large windows are all ready to be placed, with I believe another 300 in production. Let there be light! ----- Organization Partnerships: Since the previous update, Eyes & Ears has established two new partnerships: The Adventurers Guild by @Sofetios will assist Eyes & Ears in work on Alioth. Anytime there is an abundance of work in that area, we’ll send requests their way. They’re geared towards new players and I thought it only well to give them and new players an additional point of connection through our networking. Securion by @AstonAir will be helpful to the organization in a multitude of ways. They will be running security for Eyes & Ears, carrying weapons so we don’t have to, which is something I’m a stalwart fan of. In addition to security, we’re also being offered residence onboard their stations that will be in orbit above each planet. This will significantly accelerate our response times once we get official constructs as, despite my modest effort, work on our HQ as simple as it is has proven much slower than I anticipated. Their generosity is also being extended through financial aid and repair services as a result of unprovoked PVP action against us. This has granted them a spot on our website’s “Sponsors” page and allows us to move into dangerous territory ever more confidently. We will also be sharing intelligence between each other on potential hotspots throughout the universe as well as testing out a sort of insurance program. These last two bits are a little more on the scarce details side but it is something that should prove all the better as time goes on. ----- Tidbits: Have I heard bits and pieces of info from around DU or is something brewing in Eyes & Ears? I’ll post it here in my ‘Tidbits’ section. I hope readers find it a curious bit of information to wrap up these posts. I’ve mentioned ‘official constructs’ several times over the course of this entire topic. By that I mean constructs specific and recognizable as belonging to Eyes & Ears. We will not be creating these internally but contracting them out to various ship designers in the form of a contest. I’m going over the specifications for each core size ship and have been adjusting things as DU unfolds. When will this contest happen you ask, we’ll find out as soon as I hear from NovaQuark. ----- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  11. Bi-Weekly Update - January 15th, 2021 Three rescues were made over last two weeks of 2020, 80 for Beta 1 and 218 overall! ----- HQ Work: Raise the roof, or at least try to! It was a fairly quiet period since our last update, all work was spent on adding a roof so now we’re somewhat like a house and enclosed on all six sides. Some additional work will go into filling in the supports crisscrossing the roof and I’m thinking of some possible arch supports but that will likely take a good bit of voxel work. I’m also partial to the idea of natural lighting so I’ll be looking at placing some windows facing the sun, just need to figure out if I want that to be an extension from the roof, or somehow integrated more flatly into the roof. I still think the place is big. I would likely try to see if I could hear myself echo, but I’m probably only thinking this because it’s still so empty. Once we get some constructs parked, it should appear more filled in. not necessarily ‘lively’, but purposeful. Four large cores, it’s just so much bigger than my single large core that I’m used to working with from back in alpha. And I thought that was spacious, it feels small in comparison. Small but deliberate. I think I’ll enjoy working on the planet outposts more than the current HQ. I know, a roof, what joy is there in that, but that’s all there is for now. Not only was it slow for the org, but also myself. As an American, the changing (and ‘firey’ might I add) political landscape has stolen my attention from the game, Discord, and much of my online life in general. I’m still around popping up every now and again, but things have been pretty quiet as of late. ----- I mentioned in the last update that there was work happening on the sidelines. Stuff has deepened on that front with stuff being discussed in more detail. Whether or not it’s being formalized and written down is yet to be seen as all agreements have been verbal with no signed documentation. Stuff is happening and I should really get my butt in gear as it relates to other organizations and E&E, but for now, real life is the priority so I’ll let the opportunities find me for the time being. That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  12. Oh wow, something we agree on. Send their scrap back to the...... scrap.. yards? JK but I'll take any extras you guys dont want. You'll probs have to deliver it though. Could always use the extra scrap for repairs.
  13. Bi-Weekly Update - January 1st, 2021 Twelve rescues were made over last two weeks of 2020, 77 for Beta 1 and 215 overall! ---------- Welcome to our newest members: @rexsilex - Pilot, Rescuer, Programmer ---------- Congrats to rexsilix on their first rescue. ---------- HQ Work: Ground-level has been mostly filled in with space still open where I hope to park a medium construct, it will likely get expanded once I have an actual construct to stick there. Work still feels slow but it’s progress nonetheless. Stopping short of working on the basement, likely until I know what construct is going to be stored, I looked up and saw that we were still open to the sky. This is likely going to make up the next bulk of work since I’ve run the numbers on the material that we’ll need and let’s just say that it’s a project within a project! With some carbon supplies leftover from building up the walls, all we’re searching for is iron ore. Then there’s the whole crafting process which seems like it will take up a lot of time. I’m working up some skills right now to reduce both that and the resources needed so work should begin in earnest sometime next week. Aside from building, I’ve been floating around my small transporter inside the space and, let’s just say that it feels like it’s bigger than it needs to be. Depending on how our official small and medium constructs come out, I might shrink-wrap things a bit. Not worried about having any extra material on hand, but the whole aspect of size just seems to be escaping me right now. How big should I make everything for stuff that I don’t have? Once I have that stuff, how will I need to adjust what is already in place so that way our space is used realistically but effectively? ---------- Calculator: Some more changes were made to our invoice calculator in the 12/19 and 12/29 updates. Of particular interest to the community is likely the recent price increases: Dispatch fee raised from 5,000 to 20,000 Warp Base fee raised from 35,000 to 50,000 Warp now takes into account distance but at a half rate Distance - Planetside: 5,000 > 10,000 Cargo transport: 500 > 750/t Player transport: 10,000 > 15,000 Our Dispatchers now receive a more tangible income for the communication efforts they provide. Rescuers and Pilots may wonder why their fees didn’t go up. That particular fee is really just supposed to cover the cost of fuel for you to fly a xs/s construct to our bases and outposts, it does not entirely take time spent into consideration since the distance covered is usually not expected to often be more than a few SU between the planet and any applicable moons. This closeness is attributed to the fact that as rescuers, you are not centralized in any single location, and our objective to have an outpost on every planet means our supplies should be fairly close at hand. We previously didn’t count distance in with warp since it removes the time associated with normal flight and was considered unfair to players who wanted faster service. After working with this for a while, I identified a few scenarios where warping ended up cheaper than normal flying under our current pricing. Relatively speaking, this was unacceptable due to the additional research, hardware, and initial costs involved, among other things associated with warp. While it isn’t fully brought in line with how I’d like, the addition of half the distance for normal flight plus an increase to the base price has come closer to my expectations in this area. ---------- There is also something else being worked out on the sidelines, more on this will likely come in the next update. That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  14. The following is strictly my opinion. I hold absolutely no weight inside NQ nor do I believe I have any influence over their decision making. I also do not claim to know about what goes on behind the scenes as far as decisions are made. Alpha Team Vanguard is the furthest extent of my knowledge that could be considered outside the public eye. TLDR at the bottom. No wipe until after beta and before release or unless there is something seriously holding the game back from further development. Those are the only scenarios where I see it acceptable to perform a full wipe and planet reset. I also maintain my position that a subscription beta was a terrible idea and that whomever put it forward may have put Dual Universe and by extension NovaQuark in jeopardy. I don't say it to be dramatic, but if we were still in an alpha like state where people simply bought into the testing phase and with BIG LETTERS told to expect things like bugs, glitches, incomplete content, and the occasional wipe, I feel it would have better set expectations and people would be way more tempered in their opinions. We should be beta TESTING, a 'soft launch' should have never, ever been in the cards regardless of the financial situation. When I heard NQ stating that we'd be 'soft launching', I immediately questioned what happened to NQ's interoperation of the alpha and beta phases being proper test phases and not things like steam early access where the game was basically 'released' while not actually in its release (v1.0) state. How NQ handles its ATV team is regrettable. I don't feel like an advance tester with an opinion that will be considered along with fellow ATV testers. Suggestions for how these test s should be handled in various instances have gone unanswered for months or are given some half solution that doesn't do much in the way of assisting with the testing process, hence my involvement in said testing is minimal. If I was not leading my own organization. If I was not a lifetime subscription holder. If I was not ATV. If I was not a moderator of the official discord. I don't think I'd be here right now. Yeah, weird flex on basically the entire community I know, don't tell me. All of that (somehow) fell into my lap because I was here for the kickstarter, and every time I log in, I wonder 'why me'? All I saw was a great game that I really wanted to be a part of. You beta testers that just plopped $20 down probably see those four things as a lot to loose and to some, maybe it is. Now flip that view and see things from my perspective, for all you beta testers with only $20 on the line and nothing to loose except enough for dinner for one, a few months time, and even some hopes and dreams, I'm surprised more of you haven't left already. If I was a new tester and was VR'ing around and looking at all the amazing stuff people have already created, forget the economics of it all. If all that was subject to a wipe from players that felt like they were behind the curve, I wouldn't bother subscribing until after release. Ever since beta launched, we've been bumbling and stumbling around like drunks after last call. I am forgiving of all the bugs we're experiencing. Alpha has sharpened me on that. Beta has not turned out how I thought it would. To be fair, alpha didn't either, but we're beyond that now... aren't we? Am I dissapointed, yes. Am I still here though, yeah, I am. Do I have my complaints and grievances, I do. Will I air them, sure, if NovaQuark wants to hear them, most definitely. Do I think they'll listen, to me or anyone else, no. Hope yall enjoyed my word vomit, that's all it probably is anyways. Cheers. TLDR: I think I'm a sepshul person in the community? (atv, discord mod, lifetime sub...... somehow) Beta is a catastrophe I'm unhappy with NQ and ATV Things would be different if we were still testing and not a paid beta NQ said alpha and beta would be proper testing phases and not early access
  15. Bi-Weekly Update - December 15th, 2020 Ten rescues were made over the past two weeks, 65 for Beta 1 and 203 overall! ---------- Here is some of the feedback from the rescues that were made: ---------- Welcome to our newest members: Tiramon - Rescuer, Programmer @Rhapsody - Rescuer, Pilot @Pupperr - Rescuer ---------- Congrats to Tiramon on their first rescue! ---------- Dig dig dig, scan scan scan, mine mine mine. Turn it into pure ore, process it into voxels, place voxels down. That has been the bulk of my work for the past two weeks. I filled in the framing for the exterior walls, in addition to interior and exterior support columns for said wall. With only one voxel thick in place on the exterior walls, I realized a mistake in the voxel material I was using, iron instead of steel. The material will not go unused I'm also debating keeping it in place on the exterior since the look has its appeal. At several points, various members from the organization donated raw materials to help speed up the process. @TheChargent also located a carbon mega-node, and I stumbled across a separate larger than average carbon node. In posting a screenshot of the excavation, I noted 56kL pure and 40kL waiting for refinement. Going to be hitting up the Swap Spot near Tortuga to get the iron I need instead of mining it out. Now with the walls nearing completion, all that is left is the floor, roof, basement floor, and basement walls. What joy! I mentioned in the last update that “the hard work has only just begun. No one said bootstrapping civilization would be easy.” Hoo-boy, did I ever under-estimate how the .23 update would affect things. While our normal operations aren't affected, the base building and general construct building have lengthened their time to completion somewhat. Finishing the HQ won't be easy, but it won't be impossible. ---------- More cosmetic additions to the invoice calculator were added in the 12/4 and 12/12 versions: Two dynamic pie charts breaking down the total cost of each component of the final cost, and breaking down overall profits and expenses were added at the bottom. Reminders will display in non-calculation areas when specific details like names, payment status, and the rescue number are left empty. These additions have made the warnings area long, and I'm debating arranging them into a group instead of a column. Finally, a summary of the income received if the Dispatcher, Rescuer, and Pilot are all donating their private income to the organization. These changes should all make financial accounting on the back end easier and less time-consuming. I keep saying this privately, but organization wallets and invoices can't come soon enough! I’m anticipating further changes, additions, and even some price increases in the next update. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  16. Dual Universe Classifieds - Clean, Crisp, Concise, Advertising Discord: https://discord.gg/chef9Yc Community Page: https://community.dualthegame.com/organization/3975/ CTRL+F the bolded text to jump What we do and the benefits we provide: We centralize many advertisements onto a single construct. This provides you with quality leads, consumes fewer cores, reduces overhead, improves everyone's game performance, creates fewer obstacles at the marketplace, and makes for a cleaner game world. What is and isn't allowed: Just a few rules and limitations when advertising with us. Pricing: Completely free, for the time being. Setup: Instructions on how to start advertising, the intro steps are simply setting you up in our discord, mostly for my sanity. Future Plans: Where the future may lead along with our next big step if this is a hit. Final Thoughts: Wrap up. What we do and the benefits we provide: Dual Universe Classifieds (DUC) seeks to improve advertising inside Dual Universe through the consolidation of individual advertisements into bulk platforms on a single extra small core. Unless you've already seen our construct at the ten marketplaces around the Arkship (against the marketplace near the onramp and elevators), you can watch a quick 2:37 tech demo of the platform we're currently working on. The design and code are a work in progress and not final. Inspired by advertising that occurred during earlier Alpha testing phases, DUC's methods of gathering in-game ad's onto a single platform solves the problems we've identified: Quality Leads: Players that specifically search for your advertisement are more likely to be interested in your offering over random players. Fewer Cores and Materials Consumed: When every construct counts, having additional core slots for advertising forces a choice to be made; either get your name out there or have more constructs available to your organization. Offloading your advertisements onto us frees up these cores and materials so you can build more constructs. Reduced Overhead: No one wants more work to do. By letting us handle your organization's in-game advertisement distribution, we take some of that burden off of running your organization so you can focus on more important things. Better Game Performance: Everyone knows that fewer constructs lead to improved game performance on all player's systems. With fewer screens and individual programming boards running, Dual Universe's servers have more resources for what counts while players can enjoy cooler and quieter desktops. Our platforms can combine a large number of otherwise separate constructs with screens and Lua, into a single construct, with a single programming board (one per terminal, up to four on a construct) that runs on demand when a player wants to interact and view ads. To view the ads at any of the four terminals on the platform, a lower touchscreen functions as a menu while an upper screen displays a selected advertisement in the form of an image or text, accompanied with any Lua for animation, custom font, etc. Lastly, at the top of the construct is a group of screens that flips between random ads every time a player deactivates the terminal below it for a total of 12 screens. (the above benefit is theoretical and based solely on my perceptions both on and off the game, I do not claim to know if this actually has any perceivable impact on either the players or the servers) Fewer Obstacles at Marketplaces: From ship shops to fuel stands, Lua pitches, and resource dispensers. It all takes up space in the game world, in particular, where players will frequently travel. Marketplaces are already victim to abandoned ships, advertisements shouldn't be making the situation worse, but they do by the simple act of taking up more space. If ads were all neatly organized on one construct, landing at the markets will be a little less scary. A Cleaner World: While subjective, a cleaner gaming world feels more immersive than one filled with jarring advertisements competing for attention. Better Reputation among the Community: Organizations that advertise with DUC and our more appealing solutions might gain more favor with other players than organizations that don't. With all of the above in mind, the more advertisements our organization hosts, the more visible impact our efforts will have. Already over half a dozen organizations are running live ads with us. Eight might not seem like a lot, but would you rather have more constructs to navigate at the marketplace? ---------- What is and isn't allowed: Getting set up with advertising on DUC's platforms is easy. Before we do that, however, we need to specify what is and isn't acceptable. AD REQUIREMENTS: - For pure images, just a link to the image. Players are viewing our advertisements up close, so upscaling will not be a problem. assets.prod.novaquark.com/### - Complex advertisements with both text and associated images may have Lua code included with them. - Purely text ads may feature text with or without Lua formatting. AD RESTRICTIONS: 1. Ads can be plain text, images, or both with Lua code. Additional support may be added as NQ allows. 2. Links can be included, but they must be DU relevant. Links will be checked before going live. 3. We are a neutral platform. Friendly banter is allowed with the other organization's or players consent, but do not use your advertisements to antagonize them. Above all, use common sense when submitting an advertisement. If you think your ad will pose a problem with other players or breach any rules enforced by NovaQuark, it probably will. If you think you've landed in a gray area, please DM @DarkHorizon for clarification. ---------- Pricing: Currently since we're only drumming up interest and cleaning up the marketplaces is a major objective, our service is entirely free with no surprise charges. With so few advertisers running live ads and a couple dozen orgs indicating some form of interest, applying a cost to our services doesn't make sense unless we're massively successful. Once we reach that point, I may turn this into a monthly subscription with perhaps a couple of purchasable options like an instant update where if you change your ad, for an additional fee, we can send someone around to have the update applied right away as opposed to some point during the month where the monthly bill is sent out and all queued updates will be applied. Again, this is wholly dependent on our success, this isn't something I saw myself doing so we'll see where it takes us. ---------- Setup: Now that we know what is required and what isn't allowed time to start advertising! If I haven't messaged you about this, it may look like a lot, but I assure you that the first steps in the first spoiler are only done once so I can get you set up in our discord server as long as you advertise for the same organization. Changing old ads for new ads is easy as it only requires the final two steps in the third spoiler. Step One: Join our discord server since it will serve as our communication platform for any announcements or discussions. We will not be DM'ing announcements. https://discord.gg/chef9Yc Step Two: Direct message me on Discord with the following: If I have previously DM'ed you and linked you to this topic, I likely already have the info I need and will fill it in unless directed otherwise: If you have an advertisement ready: ---------- Future Plans: I'd previously stated that for now, we're just doing an initial run of ten platforms at each of the ten central marketplaces on Alioth. Further expansion around the planet and eventually other planets and even spaces like player cities as demand grows. I'm working with my partner, @eldrake, to update the underlying inner workings and UI. What you currently see displayed on the terminals is still a work in progress, and further updates will come in due time. A couple of those ideas are: Pagination Categorization (Recruitment, services, sales, twitch streamers, etc) Scrolling through the ad menu with key presses. Submitting multiple ads while retaining a single space on the menu. A random ad might come up with each press from the menu, or you might be able to toggle through ads the same way as menu pages. As far as more physical ad constructs go like ship shops, dispensers, Lua presentations, and everything in between, I'm planning to further expand things into a center that I'll run in my territory on the Sanctuary Moon. Advertisers would be able to place their constructs just like they currently do at the markets, and they'll be allowed to edit their constructs without needing DUC's consent though it remains to be seen if the player will still retain the core, or if ownership will be transferred with edit permissions given. From there, players will be able to VR or walk into the center to observe and interact with these constructs in the same way as they would now. Since only one construct is advertising whatever the advertiser is pushing, the same benefits apply here as they do at our terminals. If the current idea is a hit and interest shows up, then this may very well come about in the future, and that should help out at the marketplaces even more. I'm excited just thinking about it. As previously stated, I may monetize things in the form of a monthly subscription, but that all depends on how things turn out. Removals will cost less on demand but likely be free if not. Again, I might even do updates strictly on a once a month basis to keep things under control. It depends on how many advertisers we get and how far we spread. Who knows, when the mission system finally drops, updating these terminals would be an excellent side quest for random players. Unless and until I start charging, donations of quanta and materials will always be appreciated, especially if/when I start working on that physical advertisement center. ---------- Final Thoughts: You do not need to be a member of the organization to advertise with us. It will likely be limited it to the staff anyway. Joining won't accomplish very much and be more or less an association and show the extent of the organization. Especially with the limit on the number of organizations you can join now, I don't expect anyone to anyway. Advertising might not be a problem now, but I don't want to see this become one in the future, which is why I'm acting now to ensure it doesn't happen. If you like the idea and wish to advertise, CTRL+F 'Setup:' and follow the steps. If you have any questions or suggestions, I encourage you to comment down below. If you want to collaborate and join in on the project, let me know, and I'll do what I can to arrange things. Updates and announcements will be posted here as they arise. I can't wait to see where this goes!
  17. Bi-Weekly Update - December 1st, 2020 Five rescues were made over the past two weeks, that’s 55 for Beta 1 and 193 overall! ---------- Here’s some of the feedback from the rescues we’ve made: ---------- Welcome to our newest members: @Tonvor - Rescuer, Pilot @TheChargent - Rescuer Congrats to both members on their first rescues. ----------- The past two weeks have been spent digging out the basement portion of our system headquarters at Madis. I’d go out on a limb and say that 350,000^3 of dirt was removed based on soil that I did and did not put up for sale at one of the nearby markets.10+ quanta is probably an exorbitant price for a jar of dirt, but that didn’t stop Jack Sparrow. With that out of the way, more work is going to wire-framing and exterior design features. I visited a couple of the more detailed bases via VR for some inspiration and may have a few ideas, I’ll have to put more thought into it and test it out before I settle on anything. One of the mistakes in building that I think many people are going to make (as evidenced in the bases I visited) right off the bat is that they are just going to design things a voxel thick. As many a hauler probably knows by now, one voxel just won’t cut it. Buildings are like onions and that they have layers. Looking ahead to projections I cannot make in any real detail, all I can say is that it will be taking a lot of voxel material before this place is anywhere close to finished. Again, at its heart is nothing but empty space, but we're still making a fair amount of use in the extremes of three large cores. Mind you, this is all a one-man effort, for the most part, especially construction-wise which is why it's taking so long, but that is a me problem that I am fine having right now. Org members are donating materials, plus a public donation box has been positioned at the below coordinates on Madis if you wish to assist us in having materials ready and on hand. Steel is likely to be in very high demand, so if anyone wants to drop off steel, that would be most helpful. The voxel materials we’re using are the following. Polished White Steel Polished Light Gray Steel Galvanized Light/Dark Gray Steel (leaning more towards dark for bulk due to reflectivity) Galvanized Red Steel Waxed Black Brick ::pos{0,1,81.3314,55.6311,799.6990} While these would be the most useful construction materials, anything donated will be accepted and put to good use in furthering Eyes & Ears mission, and our commitment to the Dual Universe community. ---------- A few minor cosmetic changes were made to the calculator we use to tally up the cost of each rescue (that is unless your account is less than a month old and the bill is under 175k, then it's free) to make it easier to use and understand. Comments were made on each space accepting input that further instructs and details what data goes in that space so we don’t confuse things like putting the number of players transported in the space where the amount of cargo transported goes. Sure a player could be treated as cargo, but they’re a special type of cargo. Flags brought up by the calculator now have their own ‘Warnings’ section in the calculator itself. These warnings highlight the final total to bring attention to something that could be amiss and needs double-checking. The last change was a small pair of indicators near the top of the spreadsheet indicating payment status. The sheet itself takes a couple of seconds to load up and freezes at the top. This indicator should assist our financial accountants. ---------- Eyes & Ears New Player Protection Program (NP3) saw its first use since its introduction. @ZerqqV, quoted in our feedback for rescue 190, crashed on Alioth and respawned. He and I met by chance at one of Alioths marketplaces as I was going about my business and asked if I could spare a moment to bring them back to their wreck that was a short way north of the districts. I obliged, dropped them off, and that was a wrap. Based on their comments in-game and the feedback received, it sounds like we made a good impression. I hope to see further use of E&E's NP3. Dual Universe is a game built by its players. We should make those first steps as easy as possible and not let one screw up lead to hours of frustration. Looking back on my past experiences in Pre-Alpha, Alpha, and now the start of Beta, starting was easy, but every time we’ve had to do that, it has gotten harder. Like it or not, it will only get harder the way I see things going forward. What used to be achievable by one player now takes a tight group, and what could be done by that group needs a more formal organization. I’ve heard some curious bits of discussion saying that this is the beginning of the end. As an American, I heard that a lot over the past five years in political circles. What I learned there as I observe here, we’re still not even to release, yet the hard work has only just begun. No one said bootstrapping civilization would be easy. ---------- In my aforementioned wanderings at the marketplaces, I was looking for more organization advertisements that had popped up since I first left for Madis. I collected a few dozen names and will be contacting them all soon. If you didn’t notice, Dual Universe Classifieds now has its advertising stations at the main ten districts on Alioth. They’re on the platform right beside the on-ramps and just a few steps away from the marketplace elevators. I stuck it out of the way on purpose and hope it creates a stark contrast against the fraudulent dispensers and more brute force advertisers. While a dedicated topic hasn’t been made on this just yet, one will be coming soon, perhaps even later today if I can find wherever that document was that I typed up a month ago for the occasion. More details on that will come when such a topic finally drops. All discussion about DUC will also no longer occur here. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
  18. For everyone that seems to be making an issue about instability and crashing their ships (yes I do acknowledge that this is very good for people like me in the business of rescue and repair) some player able mitigation techniques are to carry scrap on you and better yet to have a friend that can access your pilots seat in the event you are pulled out of the game. I know its not the best solution and if its not broken don't fix it, but its what we got right now. Adapt and change or get left behind. The current repair system we got is an easy catch all, lord knows how much that might change in the future but the current three lives thing is actually a bonus compared to what we used to have prior to now. You drive with a doughnut in the back don't you? Why aren't you flying with scrap as well?
  19. Yet another subtlety long awaited change from my perspective. I do have to ask though, what is the distance at which another player needs to be at in proximity to the construct in order for its physics to reactivate? I imagine someone being in a PVP related situation where they are leading the chase and log out which causes their ship to stop, but how close would the tailing player need to be in order for it to return to its previous trajectory? If this distance is too short, it could cause people following behind to crash into the ship before the server and client have a chance to update. Since physics based damage is applied to the construct moving faster, this would result in the person following to have their craft likely be destroyed so what should have been a net gain possibly now a net loss or break even at best.
  20. Yeah, good luck with that. Hype's members find a lot of bugs, some of them I hear are pretty egregious from the man himself but you won't be able to pry any knowledge from them about it. Besides, if it is something that's harmful to game play like an exploit, then let the exploiters exploit while they can. You can tell them that they shouldn't do it and report it to NQ, but as NQ has already said, don't take to doing it yourself or you're just as much of a rule breaker as they are and subject to similar sanctions. Don't press 'B'. While I'd like to hear of and understand these bugs myself as a fellow tester, humans being human will take any advantage they can get, including unintended game play. This is just one of the reasons why I advocate for a wipe on release and why I think a paid beta is such a bad idea. You submit your side, let them submit theirs, do your job as testers, and all the players that will come after us will be better for it.
  21. Wow, first NQ ends indiscriminate teleportation, now we're getting element destruction 'soon'? My org is becoming relevant again! I am naturally for all these changes as it relates to element destruction. When I read about container destruction loosing all of its goods though (in the final instance), I was initially skeptical but I can see that this would add a benefit to PVP gameplay overall. Now instead of indiscriminate shooting on sight, haulers might be given somewhat of a chance and be ordered to surrender their cargo before the killing begins. Lootless PVP is exciting to a degree, now all we need are some big ass explosions when fuel tanks are punctured. Do you really want to shoot my fuel haulers? Maybe they got scrap and elements for some big lad stuck in the middle of no where, or maybe the job is already done and we're returning home? Cargo scanners when, container obfuscation when, rotating engines when?
  22. Bi-Weekly Update - November 15th, 2020 Four rescues were made over the past two weeks, that’s 50 for Beta 1 and 188 overall! ---------- Here is some of the feedback from the rescues we made: ---------- Work on the HQ had to be temporarily put on hold after I came to the realization that the cores were indeed not placed deep enough to accomplish what I would set out to do in the future. Once redone, I restarted my outlining work. Four large cores, three of which will feature the main structure while the fourth acts as a launching platform. I mention this again because, due to how the build zone acts, I had to expand the building into the launchpad area. With the gate placed in the corner of the build zone on the diagonal section (see an image in the previous post), the element is not allowed to extend beyond the build zone the gate was placed on. This resulted in a smaller launch area than I would have liked, but it opened up the idea of parking space for rescuers as they come and go from the location on operations. Looking at the current framing, I feel very much in over my head here. These large cores are just that, LARGE. I decided to place a small construct inside to get an idea of how things are sizing up, but it looks like it can store twelve small constructs instead of the eight I had intended. A maintenance area will likely spring up in one of the wings behind the constructs while the storage of rescue supplies will occur in the other wing. Living and work quarters are still going to get positioned under the roof, and with our build zones depth, we have a basement to work in! Most of this is still in my head, though, with lots of work to be done with more detailed wireframing, then comes the godly task of filling it all in. Some might ask me how I can be so aghast at my work when all I am making amounts to a garage and a launchpad. Yeah, the bulk of the space is mostly unused, but this is also my biggest project yet. I haven't touched large constructs since creative mode ended in early Alpha, and the two buildings I created in Alpha 1 and over both 2 and 3 were single medium cores, and now I have four large cores, so this is where some of my thoughts are stemming from. I got a great team backing me up, and of our 37 other members, many of them have contributed to these efforts. We have a glut of silicon, but it will all get put to use, all of which I am very grateful for! ---------- Some more changes made their way to our Discord server. The most noticeable was in the dispatch center, where players will go to start the initial ticket. The disclaimer text was slightly modified in word choice but has overall remained the same. One thing that I will point out, however, is our just-released New Player Protection Program (NP3). Under this program, Eyes & Ears will send out a rescuer for free if your account is under 30 days old, plus the bill for rescue falls under 175,000h. These stipulations accomplish two things in defining new players. It specifies age and resources. It mainly separates players that have a certain amount of expected knowledge and ability beyond what one might classify as someone that is new to the game and might not know what they are doing. Everyone will progress differently based on our lives, interest, and responsibilities elsewhere. Dual Universe does have a subscription, however, and I doubt a vast majority of people would start a subscription, leave, then come back 31 days after and crash their speeder. I might extend this to 45, 60, maybe even 90 days, but at that point, the instances seem pretty rare. We will have to see how things go, and I am sure that this program will change as we gather data. Beyond the NP3, tickets are getting divided into four primary categories based on what defines the rescue. Those are refueling, repairing, transporting, and towing. A PVP category is also available if any of the above were as a result of PVP. This category would indicate to us that special care is needed as this could be a hot operation with threats and dangers present during the rescue and that any Rescuers should use increased vigilance when working. I don't anticipate this to add any confusion to the process of opening a ticket, but I will be keeping an eye and looking for feedback. I already had one positive review so far. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon
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