DarkHorizon

I wouldn't entirely suggest a limit of pinned posts, just a removal of pinned material that is out of date and no longer relevant. If similar pinned topics can be combined, then combine them. Maintaining Pre-Alpha and Alpha content for the relevant backers would be a nice way to look back at the past. I'd segment content into its relevant subs once we reach the post release phase of Pre-Alpha/Alpha (sort of impossible since a separate Alpha section was never created but both are unified under NDA so it really only matters to a very small segment of testers such as myself) and Beta. I might also suggest a section post Kickstarter but pre-Pre-Alpha but that's likely a stretch. Historians can always flip back to the first few pages of the relevant forum sections if they'd like. I've brought this up a few times already to NQ but beta forums when? I think the 'Innovation Station' idea wouldn't hurt and would make a great addition to the discord gallery and even help NQ in finding good stuff for social media (although remember to put more time into game dev than social media). No opinion on themes present or future, I usually just go with what already exists and pick what I like. An 'Organization of the Month' selected by NQ would be... interesting. My only suggestion is to not pick from the top twenty organizations as they get enough eyeballs by the community already. Pick those diamonds in the rough, the ones that are developing and help them make a splash in the collective minds of the community. Also, hello Naunet. I'm probably one of the few that didn't say hi in the ATV server. If you'd like more of an introduction, you can find me moderating the DU discord from time to time. Even though I almost always display as busy, as long as I'm online and its not sleeping time here in the central US time zone, feel free to poke me.

If you're a miner, you're a pvper because there might be better miners. If you're a ship builder, you're a pvper because there might be better ship builders. If you're a hauler, you're a pvper because there might be better haulers. If you're competing against other players that might be better than you, you are engaging in PVP as far as I'm concerned. PVP isn't just shooting the mark and taking their stuff, it can also be you getting customers business while leaving the competitor high and dry. It's all about where other peoples resources go since PVP is not just what's taken, but what's also freely given. I'm also fine with calling 'combat', 'PVP', because that's what combat is, PVP. I think the main issue the OP brings up is the community using blanket statements. *shrug*

Bi-Weekly Update - November 1st, 2020 Two rescues were made over the past week, that’s 46 for Beta 1 and 184 overall! ---------- Here is some of the feedback from this past week’s rescues: ---------- Congrats to @Kaimorta for their first rescue. ---------- A touch of outlining work has progressed on the HQ. The rest of yesterday’s activity was mostly spent around figuring out what gate size I should have installed that would accommodate a medium construct. Likely one of the larger gates but I might just double up so who knows right now. Not much else to say as far as construction goes. I did back out however and just the scope of this project, it feels extensive already and I’ve only just begun. Gonna need a lot of resources and that’s just to get a shell. Who knows how thick the exterior walls will end up. More action happened on the Discord front. After some talk with @LittleJoe as well as with @Wykkyd and their partner @Anonymous, the latter is in the progress of some constructive discussions of cooperation which have been going well so far. Things are still being worked out but for now, I’ve opted to rest this weekend after a busy week and focus a bit more in-game. We’ll kick things off again tomorrow. ---------- Prior to initializing talks with the above persons, I had an internal discussion with the rest of the team about a possible cooperative agreement and over the course of such talks, we leaned into the topic of our collective earnings. Several members had expressed discomfort when billing customers knowing that they were taking something out of it. After further talks, four members volunteered to go non-profit and donate their earnings to the organization so we can fund bases, ships, and resources to help others. With the month of October now over, I too had even donated my earnings from my rescues and dispatch duties to further Eyes & Ears objective of helping the community. I’d sent out a mass DM to the rest of our members and so far I’ve gotten back an additional five responses in the time I’ve written this. To further this end I’m also adding a question to our application form where potential recruits can specify if they’d like to donate their earnings and push us ever further down the non-profit route. ---------- Beyond all this, I’ve done a few other minor things in the background. Further organizing a spreadsheet to keep track of organization income and expenses in place of an org wallet has taken up a majority of this time. After customer complaints, I've also removed the Victim role from our discord so there is no longer a step involving swapping the guest and victim role. Once a person joins, they can go straight to our dispatch center and fire off a ticket. No updates on Dual Universe Classifieds but I’m confident in pushing that public come this November. Oh and again, just another reminder that updates will be coming out on the 1st and 15th from now on. Take care, and fly safe! - DarkHorizon

Bi-Weekly Update - October 26th, 2020 Three rescues were made over the past two weeks, that’s 44 for Beta 1 and 182 overall! ----------- Most of the past two weeks have been slower than usual on my end. I tore down the micro base that we’ve been working out of since Beta started. It was an XS core with just some industry and a handful of containers to get our member’s production started. Wasn’t much, nor anything fancy, but cute enough to blueprint. With just over 400t of supplies and equipment stowed, @Haunty took off with our cargo while I flew out in our light rescue and fuel transporter. We met on Madis at Tortuga City where @Anonymous was generous enough to get us started with four large cores. Manufacturing them was easy enough, placing them, well that took a while. Once we’d learned there’d be a wipe for Beta and that it was just on the horizon, my ambition for any big projects was largely squashed. I’d hoped to make use of my time in building out a system headquarters but after producing four large cores in Alpha 2 and laying out a single voxel thick base of concrete, the motivation had quite literally evaporated. I decided to narrow down things and build an outpost on a medium core instead. If you remember back in Alpha 1, I had a setup at the end of one of the marketplaces. While I was quite fond of that, it was a piece of my early thought process on how things would be handled which had changed as I saw more progress being realized. Stuff was similar in some ways but fairly different than others. What pushed the changes was @Duckimus Maximus commenting that I was building a prison, yeah, I wasn't quick to forget that observation. I didn't ask but aside from the dark and plain design, I think what spurred the comment was windows that extended outside the building looking down and up. Well if I could explain that the downward windows were to look down, while the ones facing up were to let in sunlight. With the previous structure built during A1, I used a fair amount of windows in the roof and I liked the effect so that was what inspired such a design. Anyways, the real meat of this A2 construct was that it was oriented in a less than desirable way with the front-facing away from the sun. While I did originally build this with absolutely no cares in mind, I took my time with positioning this time around. First, we had to figure out which way the sun rose and set, since the day/night cycle is pretty long, we had to do some stargazing. Geography came next, building at the edge of a ravine affords us nice views while spectators can get some cheap entertainment watching our heavier constructs rocket vertically off. While I initially wanted to build on a north/south flow, running parallel to the ravine appeared to give things a nicer, if more chaotic, pirate-like feel among Tortuga Cities inhabitants. Getting the right angle proved a challenge but with a bit of creative thinking, we were able to find something that worked for our end. Depth ended up being a minor issue as I’m still trying to consider future constructs. I would have been quite hard-pressed to get that exactly right, but in between our real-life commitments and my attention to detail, the eight days of work were worth it and we’re finally reaching the building stage. While things could very well change in the future once we get some official rescue constructs, many thanks to Anonymous for their assistance. ---------- Since we now have an extreme need for construction material, and not to mention that NovaQuark is taking our job lock, stock, and barrel, we are accepting any and all donations. If you'd like to donate, just stop by Madis and if I’m visible in Discord then we should be able to meet up. I’m not yet provisioning a large container for independent donations but that is coming soon. In the meantime, we should be able to meet around this general area in Tortuga City until I get that container set up. ::pos{0,1,81.0143,56.0790,803.0194} Feel free to contact me on Discord at any time if you’d like to donate and I’m not around and I’ll guide you through everything. Members, please check our servers #useful-info channel for more details if you haven’t already. --------- With the end of the month upon us, our first round of payroll is being pulled together. Since this was fairly unorganized at the start of Beta, not to mention a few calculator related adjustments and determining what we're worth, it's not as even and clear-cut as I’d like. This has prompted a few additions to how our rescue data and financial logs are kept. Since our finances are currently public on our Discord, I've been thinking about compiling a public spreadsheet on this but ill be talking with the team about it because as adults I do understand some might like to keep their income private. ---------- If you viewed our rescue logs and gawked at how much some of our rescuers have made from single operations, let’s put that into perspective. The following is the current lowest sale price for the stated ores as of me typing this very paragraph. One node of 4000 chromite (t2) at 15/L = 60,000 One node of 4000 acanthite (t3) at 100/L = 400,000 One node of 4000 cobalite (t4) at 650/L = 2,600,000 Right now, a lot of us are probably mining ore and selling our spoils. It makes the current base of our economy regardless of how shaky things are right now. Our members could easily be mining either for themselves or who knows what organization that might pay them. In some cases, maybe they’d be earning more for their time while in other cases less. What I’m trying to do is compensate for that spent time. Flying through space is boring and could be better-spent mining, but if you don’t have an alternate account, then you’re stuck flying through the void, better pick up a book. The tricky part here is answering how much is our member’s time is worth? Sure, 5,000L of Kergon may not cost all that much, but our rescuer made 363k off this particular operation. Another thing I’m trying to balance out is what’s reasonable? In the early stages of the rescue process, we’ll usually provide an estimate right around the same time a rescuer is taking off. If the person being assisted feels they won’t be able to cover the expense, then they’ll likely seek out another player or organization. No customers mean no business and that’s no good. People might say ‘what’s reasonable is whatever someone is willing to pay’. While I’d be inclined to agree with this statement, we are not in the business of extortion and an unfair price is simply unacceptable when those we’re trying to help just want to get back to enjoying the game. We enjoy the game doing what we do by helping you enjoy the game even after trouble shows itself. Quanta and greed should not get in the way of that. ---------- Finally, talk of an upcoming race is making its way through the DICE servers again. I recently talked with Urseus on Discord about E&E forming up an emergency response team and they were thrilled with the idea of such roleplay, under one condition… Supplying an image, the race follows a theme that they’ve asked us to stick by. I passed this along to the rest of the team and I may have gotten a bite, but we’ll just have to see how this turns out. ---------- It also just occurred to me as I was writing this, I've been so caught up in things that I haven't been welcoming our newest members in this thread! @Avatae - Rescuer and Supplies Manager @TheLyokoWarrior - Rescuer @AlacrityFitzhugh - Rescuer and Pilot @yafeshan - Dispatch, Rescuer, and Supplies Manager @NightSky - Rescuer, Pilot, and Programmer @QuantumKitty - Rescuer @Biglulu - Dispatch and Rescuer Of them, congrats to the following members on their first rescues: AlacrityFitzhugh NightSky Biglulu ---------- One final tidbit before we break. I’ll be pushing another update on Sunday and again on the 15th. I’d like to move from every Monday (now bi-weekly) as I did with our regularly scheduled Alpha tests, to something a bit more regular. Take care, and fly safe! - DarkHorizon

I've read this thread from top to bottom now (ending at this point, whose to say what's happened in the time I've taken to write this), while my take is nothing special and has been said several times already, I'll offer it anyways: I'm inclined to agree with this statement particularly. Was it in bad taste, I agree, it was. I don't think anyone would disagree with you on that point. The decision to leap straight to a permanent ban has me taken aback. I haven't seen anything personally, but I've heard plenty of reports about people's entire bases being stolen out from under them, even live right in front of them. This blight went on for nary a time before NovaQuark finally gave us some guidance on the subject. People stealing your construct due to misconfigured RDMS is on the construct owner, and that such theft would not result in any action on behalf of NovaQuark. Okay, I can understand pinning the blame on the player tester for misunderstanding the system or handing out permission willy nilly, or even setting perms to 'all', which now has a window advising players testers of the potential hazard. This, to me, is reasonable. The player tester needs to clean up their act and take it as a learning moment no matter how bitter the pill is to swallow. I can even understand NovaQuarks position relating to interference with the game test. One of the marketplaces on Alioth was destroyed, and some player's testers orders were interrupted. What I fail to understand here, is how NovaQuark can tell players testers who had their constructs "stolen" from them on account of faulty RDMS be given no action, only to turn around and permanently ban players testers for taking advantage of faulty RDMS on NovaQuarks own constructs. It was also laid out a few days ago to that theft as a result of bad RDMS will not be actioned on by NovaQuark. Did people's orders at the marketplace get interrupted, yes. Did a marketplace get destroyed by some players testers, yes. Did stuff get stolen and sold for profit, yes. Did some people get inconvenienced, yes. Guess what: Come atmospheric PVP and player-run markets, this kind of activity will be a daily fact of life which we'd all best get used to it. Maybe for laughs, they even wrote out "Plz don't ban" in voxels when the crime was finally done. All right, perhaps it wasn't a new person that stumbled upon this but someone with experience that knew what they were doing, and the profit-seeking crime is premeditated. Instead of a seven-day ban, make it a thirty day one. Sure, the beta experience got sullied, I agree. And while it was an NQ marketplace that got the wipe, it's not like it's the only marketplace on Alioth. While I do agree the destruction was overboard, I think the response to this from NovaQuark was equally so. I believe NQ should take this as a learning experience, the players testers too, but more so NovaQuark. The players testers learned that no one is immune from bad RDMS, and NovaQuark probably learned a thing or two about marketplaces that should come in handy for the future feature of player-run marketplaces. Dare I say we should celebrate this moment in Beta as "Hey remember that one time in Beta where a bunch of people tore apart a marketplace?" and we can all laugh around our campfire years after release... Instead, what are we watching? A two-tiered justice system; rules for thee but not for me. I don't like it, not one bit. Don't get me wrong, I still think something should be done in the end, but I think the justice served here outweighs the crime. Meanwhile, the justice other testers are seeking for the constructs that got stolen from them is being delayed if not denied entirely. If that was the case, we'd have a month-long backlog by now (to clarify, on that issue alone on top of everything we already have) sadly, NovaQuark is in no way treating equal actions with equal outcomes and consequences as far as this particular topic of theft goes. If we're being honest with ourselves, then scoopers, dupers, and exploiters would have already gotten the boot before this event even happened. No great Quanta reset, no publicly nerfing the ice cream scoops, just bans. The fact that this scenario played out the way it did, it makes me question what is safe. If I'm questioning what is safe, that doesn't exactly make me want to test anything out of fear that I might end up in the same fate. Maybe the only winning move is not to play test? In most circumstances, I can see and understand in NQ's favor on crime and punishment, but this is not one of those times. Sorry to say, but you do not have my support in this, and I've also been given some things to think about as a result of this. I don't think this topic has met its end, which is what I'm waiting for before I come to my definite conclusion. Know that I'm still just a user like anyone else commenting on this thread. I can't sway NQ's opinion in any manner, and that is not my intent with this post. You have my thoughts and I'm curious to see what the future holds. Oh, and I'm not joining anyone's protest or movement on any communication medium. I'm simply offering my opinion on the matter which is what these forums have allowed me to do.

Or you can contact me and I'll send someone out to do it for you, at a cost of course. o/

I love this community. Glad to have been a ks founder, I would have never enjoyed moments like this. Kinda sad though that I just moved to Madis... :c

A good first couple steps would be limiting weapon sizes to core sizes but maybe that's too much where as expanding upon the idea of a power system beyond mere buffs would be more agreeable to all? Based on all I've seen so far, the stalking is the only fun part of PVP. Once you've found your prey, it's simply a matter of getting into range, loosing a shot with a button press, then repairing the wreckage and scooping the loot. One shot, where's the fun in that for either side of the hunt? Here I was always thinking engagements between single players would be more drawn out from the first shot to the kill, but that is simply not the case here. I'm not entirely a fan of the fighting segment of PVP in general, but I eagerly anticipate a rework of the current mechanics.

That aside, a-hecking-men. With the advent of Beta, I was expecting to get a massive windfall of requests for help so much so we'd be having to do bulk runs where we load up on a dozen or so people going to one planet, then fly around and hit them bing-bing-bong-bong-bing-bing-bong. Our number of requests was fairly nominal as we became more well known through advertising on the forums, in the DU-scord, and from advertising at marketplaces. We're not yet advertising at the markets because DU Classifieds isn't yet fully operational, and I don't want to plop just a lonely screen there anymore. Instead, what have we gotten, barely a trickle. It started out good early on with a high of 26 in the first two weeks, then it fell to seven in the next two week period, and for the previous two weeks, only two rescues. I watch the troubleshooting channels, and I just feel dissapointed. I want to help out, but that would likely be interpreted as unwanted advertising with how the rules are set up. All in all though, I really feel like support is playing a game of twister with one player, itself. They say it's exhausting and stressful at times, I've asked if I could help in-game and I'm in a queue for discussion but my confidence is fairly low at this point. In the event of legitimate problems, I can see the need for GM's to assist, but if this is something that another player can do, then a player should be required to do so. While I can understand the issues regarding favoritism, I do believe that NQ needs to turn off easy mode support and tell these players to get their feet wet with the community, because the response I've received so far has been not very appetizing. When NQ (hopefully) stops this come release, a lot of people are going to be stuck and not know what to do. If they quit, it's unfortunate, but this pre-"release" state is where organizations can really grow their roots, and I feel like I'm being hamstrung. I don't like waiting in this queue to hopefully get seen by NovaQuark, but that's what I'm left to do for now. Come to think of it, wasn't this supposed to be a more of a player driven game? Wasn't that puzzle supposed to take years to solve, and here we did it in a couple weeks? Yes there was stuff before beta involved, but I think this player base has been vastly underestimated. And no, I'm not here to pick on NQ. I'm pointing out a problem, in fact, I knew this would be an issue a long time ago which was why I started E&ESAR to begin with. I'd like to solve it on my own as a member of the community, but I'm not being allowed to, so we're here with support because this was allowed to happen. Like a lot of people, I would have blazed a different path than NQ did, probably starting in Alpha 2. I'm not a developer though so the best I can do is offer my support, well wishes, and hopefully this can be taken as somewhat constructive feedback.

Bi-Weekly Update - October 12, 2020 Two rescues were made over the past two weeks, that’s 41 for Beta 1 and 179 overall! ---------- 16,000L of Nitron, that’s how much @Adraenor and @Cthulhu741 needed when they landed just short of a marketplace and out of fuel, here was what they had to say: ---------- Work has been fairly slow in-game. With NovaQuark taking up the bulk of teleports and repairs of players in the Dual Universe Discords support channels have left us fairly lacking in the way of rescues. Hopefully, people realize that this is still a beta testing period and that this support will not be a permanent fixture. To fill in the time, I’ve been doing a little offline work and setting up relationships that will hopefully prove fruitful later in Beta and beyond release in the years to come. First up, I know I left off the last update mentioning Tortuga City which is being developed on Madis by @Sylvia and the Band of Outlaws organization. After some back and forth with them and an advisor, we’ve moved closer to an agreement on the construction of Eyes & Ears Helios System Headquarters. A location suitable for the development of four large cores has been plotted out and I took a day to preview the space. The spot looks nice but I was hoping for some more elevation change as the spot on the map which gives the impression of a raised location along the edge of a cliff overlooking much of the city when in reality it’s more like a bumpy ride down a hill on the way to a creek. Hopefully, NovaQuark can roll out that planet update sooner rather than later as more serious elevation changes seem like a must. Thades is a good start. While the location isn’t on one of Alioths moons which would have been prime, or on the Sanctuary moon, the two-thirds lower gravity will make taking off with a fuel-laden medium hauler much easier than having setup on either Alioth or the Sanctuary moon itself. Flying into either location with a full load, perhaps we should load up on brakes or ailerons. One thing that would be almost as good as rotating engines, retractable wings. Speaking of a medium fuel hauler, that’s primarily what the System HQ is meant to store. I’m still thinking up the overall design and how I’ll work those constructs into it, but I’m thinking I’ll have parking spaces above and below the entry and exit points since I don’t want anyone to be having to rotate or reverse in. Just an easy in, easy out, no need for turning inside the structure (darker grey). Gates will occupy the diagonal portions while small constructs will be parked in either wing. I want to imagine that it should serve two medium and four small constructs fairly easily. The floor should be clear (in any proper garage space) and plenty easy to navigate. Maybe I’ll sprinkle in some wells for easy access to the underside like in a maintenance shop and some pushed aside decorative debris, maybe some worn-down flight elements. Yeah, there’s a real lived-in feel! While the main structure takes up three of the large cores, the fourth core will consist of a blast-pad (lighter grey) for quick vertical deployments up and out of the city without needing to navigate any traffic. It should provide a fun sight for any spectators that just so happen to be watching. The blast-pad won’t take up the entire cores space so I’m thinking of leasing it out to some small shopkeeps or use it for some other way to make some supplementary income. Still got some other details to work out with Tortuga and while I was thinking of reducing our profile to an outpost, I think I’ll take a risk here and go bigger. I’m placing a lot of trust that we’ll be able to operate effectively as Tortuga has that stigma attached to it that it’s run by pirates. Whether or not that trust can be maintained, we’ll wait and see. ---------- Some other relationships that have been kicked off over this period: @Starsz with the Special Tactics Rescue Service. While operating primarily within the Empire’s space as a military element, STRS will be making up an important security branch of our operations which has been a topic of some internal discussion. @Grixis with Mineral Co. Working in the industrial space, these folks will be key for refining mined material and sourcing crafted material. ---------- I did work on finishing up the inside of the transport that I posted an exterior shot of in the last update. Added some support structure at the expense of a couple of seats on each side of the aisle. It looks nicer than it did before, but something about it still feels incomplete. Going to be experimenting with some decorative elements like cables and such and see if I can get something I like. It can comfortably lift 9,520L of both Nitron and Kergon (19,040L total) in its fuel stores up from Alioth which is something I intend to expand further with additional skills. Seating has been reduced from 40 to 35 although realistically speaking, I could probably squeeze in another 40 seats and make it look sorta good? It would sort of ruin the look but I’m not exactly going for aesthetics. Remember, I’m a function over form (but just enough form to still look good while doing it) kind of person here. 2,600L of storage space for scrap is available, although double stacking it is very much doable. I could triple stack but then the containers would be inside the voxels which feels sort of meh. Would also probably be a hazard when it comes to banking and other fun stuff. Behind the screenshot is two medium fuel tanks for the engines, and one small space tank for the vertical boosters. Also, an easy lift fully loaded at 207t, 111t with the reserves empty, and 85t when fully empty. On the starboard side is a recessed pilot seat with fairly good observation angles above the construct, landing it will be fun however, that will probably just be a skill to develop over time as you get a feel for the craft. On the port side across from the pilot’s chair will probably end up a gunner’s seat for purposes of radar observation. The whole thing would explode with one hit from a large gun and leave nothing left. If the fuel tank explosions had any actual effect on their surroundings, then it would probably still go up anyways with a hit or two from a small gun. The best offense is a good defense right? It probably won’t be a part of my final rendition unless I can make it look half nice, but will two rocket boosters help? I think I’ll try that out for fun tomorrow. Got some tanks on loan from an org mate, only got space for two extra smalls however which makes it the emergency type use case which is all it’s intended for. Still got work to do, of course, don’t know how much, but I do know it ain’t finished yet. ---------- Further work progressed in my other pet project, Dual Universe Classifieds. Lots more advertisers at the markets now so I contacted them all and got a dozen more curious eyeballs interested and in the roster while one organization went live. Still waiting on two other organizations from the original group to link their pictures, then I think with that said and one peculiar exploit fixed, it’s about time this be pushed to the masses. The markets, let’s just say that they look awful. Can’t wait to see what impact we have. I got an idea that I’m bouncing around in my mind that could very well solve this, but it’s on the back burner for the time being. I’ll probably discuss it with some of the advertisers and get their take on it before investing in the idea. ----------- Well, I think that’s about everything. A couple of days late but I hope you enjoyed the read nonetheless. Take care, and fly safe! - DarkHorizon

"Oh it's you..." "Fenton..." Doesn't DU have an in-game achievement for that? So you're saying the moment an unborn human starts consuming its mothers resources, that they've entered PVP space? Damn, and here I was thinking 16 to 18 years old (or in some cases younger) was where PVP began... Actually, come to think of it, Mum can get PVP'ed out of the game world before your unborn self starts consuming her resources because they're already inside the PVP space. It's almost like there is no natural or truly safe space in the real world. The only temporary safe spaces are the ones we create ourselves in the form of housing, when we bear arms to protect ourselves from others (yay 'murrica!), and when the people of society abide by a set of rules. Such rules are of course made to be broken and they frequently are, just watch the news; how many arsons, thefts, shootings, assaults, etc happened today, last week, last month? Of course, those are the most flagrant examples, but lets go by what you suggested. I'm inhaling oxygen which is useful to me, and exhaling carbon-dioxide which is a waste and not useful. This simple act of life, breathing, is PVP according to you. Drinking water, something useful to continuing my own life, is PVP according to you. I haven't met a single person in my neighborhood or local community that doesn't breathe air and drink water. With this knowledge, I can deduce that breathing air and drinking water is a normal function of society, both acts being PVP. I could go on and on and on for the next hour and hope that the last bit I quoted was an argument of some kind, if it wasn't, I'll be somewhat dissapointed. PVP is everywhere, and while there's a lot that needs fixing, remember that this is still beta. Organizations will get cleaned out, and people will get shot. I paid $500 for a lifetime subscription, so it sure shit better not stop me or that is money not well spent. I came here to be entertained and have fun, if you're seeking the same thing but not having fun, then what are you doing here exactly?

@blazemonger I looked through it all and there are some names, but what about the person that took the screenshots outside the inventory?

Damn dude, I'll take that fuel and scrap off your hands if you want to drop it off on alioth. Also, @blazemonger, probably not going to work without their in-game name. Forum accounts don't link to the DU discord so you'll need this person to willingly spill the beans on their ign for this to be effective. I would like an api though. Throw it up in the suggestions board!

Bi-Weekly Update - September 28, 2020 Seven rescues were made over the past two weeks, that’s 38 for Beta 1 and 177 overall! ---------- Here is some of the feedback that we’ve received: 9/25 - Eitrius I entered atmo way too fast, burned up on re-entry. Needed a ride to my ship .8 su away. Service was great, got someone to my location, and they helped me get my ship down to the surface. Price was fair for the service. ---------- The only major change to our discord server actually happened while I was writing this up just now. The discord bot which handles our tickets had gone down due to rate limiting reasons. I’ve added a new announcements channel managed by the bot’s owners which will advise on the status of the bot so if there is ever a time when it is not working, the ticket-tool-status channel should explain why. There is a premium version of this tool that explicitly states increased uptime due to fewer users purchasing said version. I’m debating the merits of this and all the other extra features that come with this against the $60 yearly price tag. Another change will include our Dispatchers occasional cleaning out of persons with the Victim role. It would appear that not everyone seems to replace their victim role with the guest role once they close their ticket. A message prompt has been added to the dispatch-center but our dispatchers will still take manual action as seen fit. ----------- An issue cropped up with our pricing calculator over the course of a more recent rescue. Up until now, everything had worked out fine assuming no major purchases had to be made. The rescuers would split the income made off the rescue, half of it going towards the rescue team, the other half going towards the organization. So far we were just doing fuel and scrap deliveries along with transports to crashed ships, things were kosher. 14 warp cells at just over 200k total had exposed the current version of our pricing as flawed. After our setup resulted in our rescuer being put in the red, the organization forfeited its half of the earnings so the rescuer could turn a profit again. This resulted in some revisions which are as follows in update v9/27: Pricing changes: - Multipliers added for distance and atmospheric entry/exit - Rescuers and organization equally split distance and atmospheric transfer income - E&E purchases supplies (rescuers will purchase supplies from the nearest market and be reimbursed by E&E upon conclusion so we can keep things fast as we are not yet storing materials) Cosmetic changes: - Atmosphere/Distance split metrics added for user reference - Atmosphere/Distance non-split metrics hidden for ease of use and to prevent confusion if checking results via paper. Only multiplier shown. - Organization expenses along with organization and rescuer profit shown and color coded While this culls the organization’s income since we are now covering for the cost of supplies and not our rescuers (they shouldn’t have been paying out of pocket to start with, how could I be so blind!) rescuers should no longer incur any sort of debt as a result of going out on a rescue operation. Of course, this does assume that the rescue mission is completed and that we are paid in the end. Eyes & Ears willingly takes on a debit in the expectation that payment will come. Maybe not right away (especially where new players are concerned), but that our books will be black and at the very least, balanced. I’m not exactly a fan of this as we are now operating on a proper ‘margin’ of sorts. And there’s always that risk that our rescuer gets blown up out in PVP space and the mission is never completed. That’s a straight 360 loss, period. For the time being, we’re collecting at the end of the operation when the customer is all good to go, but if the mechanics are ever introduced, however, I hope to be able to invoice customers so we can receive payment ahead of time (with the deposit into an org wallet) before the rescue is launched as security against a variety of threats. Right now most of our income is coming off splitting the distance and atmospheric transfer costs as well as the additional 5% tax on the final bill along with whatever donations get thrown in. 5% is tight in my opinion and just looking at the numbers, I’m feeling encouraged to bump it up to 10%, just to keep us in the black and help with expansion. I mentioned donations and I’ve always said it. Donations are never expected but always appreciated. Even if you’re not rescued but just want to throw some quanta our way, donations are not used for any individual profit but go straight towards the organization to fulfill its needs so we can go out and help the community whenever and wherever they’re in a bind. ---------- As far as in-game activity goes, the only stuff worth talking about is that I’ve mostly gotten finished on my first small core rescue craft. Below is a picture along with a tidbit of history. ---------- Finally, Tortuga. More details on that in the next update. That's all for now, until next time, take care and fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon

Patience is something that is in short supply, especially among the more *fingerguns* types. You know what also is in short supply that's been teased for years?

Bi-Weekly Update - September 14, 2020 If you may please, a moment of silence for the fallen in the September 11th attacks… 412, that’s the number of emergency workers who perished that day. Over fourth-fifths of those were firefighters, many of whom rushed into the buildings to escort the able-bodied out and carry the injured. They didn’t know it would be their last day, only that a fellow citizen needed their help, and that they had the tools and training to provide such. Present in the towers at the time of the attack was Welles Crowther, if you haven’t seen the story of the man with the red bandanna, I’d recommend it. To all those serving in the role of a first responder, and to everyone that keeps us safe, you have our utmost gratitude as we look back on this harrowing date in American history. Huh, SAR is orange (others say yellow). I always identified E&E with the coast guard which apparently falls under red. I am conflicted... ---------- Now, onto DU related things. 26 rescues were performed over the past two weeks, that’s 31 for Beta 1 and 170 overall! ---------- I could throw in a few stories here, but, for those not in the loop. I’ve given up on working on the current website, the back end design software I’ve used for over two years now has just too many problems and I’ve moved on for my sanity. The additional restrictions that have been thrown in over the past year also didn’t make much sense so I’m out. Instead of the drag and drop template work I’ve become accustomed to for quick and easy deployment, I’ll be taking a much more fine-grained approach to site design where every element will be hand placed. Just so long as my brain juice flows fast enough, I should have something out later this year, no guarantees though. Most of the content will be recycled but I hope the new deployment will make things feel ‘fresh’. It’s still not pure code, but its more involved than I’m used to. To make up for the lack of stories, I’ll just be pulling feedback straight from reviews that are submitted. 8/31 - Sophilautia I ended up stranded on the ground on Sanctuary Moon after my ship spiralled out of control and got stuck in the air on relog while trying to get to another of my ships. I contacted Eyes & Ears and they immediately responded, sending someone to help transport me asap for a very modest fee. I was very pleased with the service! It's great that Dual Universe has emergency services like this available. 9/2 - Malkazaar I had this amazing idea while was mining at Sanctuary.. lets try my luck on this moon..seems close.. patched up the dragonfly and godspeed... after a while I was staring the Moon4 from my base at Sanctuary in despair.. most of my newbie efforts are crashed up there... In this despair with no real knowledge of the game.. "Deus Ex machina" Eyes & Ears Search & Rescue advertisement on discord.. They do fulfill their services and more! Solidarity! 9/6 - Barneylee I did not have enough Kergon after a server restart to get back to Alioth - i was about 8 SU out. Wolfpilot - responded: I did not have to wait long - 45 mins at the most. He kept very good patience amognst all the internal errors/inventory errors/rights of transfer errors etc (we tried everything to get my fuel) - once the servers came back on - i had access to his tanks - took enough to get back - realized vertical boosters needed kergon but i was dry again - Wolf once again came to the rescue. I paid a total of approx 48K (with a tip on top) I would recommend Wolf to everyone who needs rescue - Thanks again bud! 9/7 - KernelBeep All around brilliant service, the response was quick, my rescuer (DarkHorizon) was amazing, both patient with the DC's and i even learnt a few things on the journey. Well worth the money, will use again and highly recommended! ---------- Some more changes hit our discord server since the last update. We now have a channel (#emergency-role-assignment) where non-members can exchange their ‘Guest’ role for another role designating them as a victim. The ‘Victim’ role grants access to our ticket system for filing emergencies that are privately handled by our dispatchers and disseminated to our rescuers. No longer do you have to venture through our website for a special discord link, just join our discord, swap roles, and file your ticket! The Victim role restricts access to all guest accessible channels in an attempt to streamline communication and notifications from our discord so that way players only get a notification when our dispatchers have communicated with them inside their ticket. Swapping back to the Guest role hides the ticketing system and restores access to the previously hidden guest channels. ----------- With the launch of Beta, I mentioned in a previous post that we were switching over from free service during the alpha phase with wipes, to paid service during beta with more or less permanence. The previous pricing structure was a bit of a hassle since we intended to use a custom Lua script present in each of our ships. This script is designed to log our mileage and gas consumption among the more dynamic trip-based aspect while other things like scrap, elements, and fuel sold, rescuers involved, players rescued, and so forth could be input manually at some point during the trip. Work on this script has progressed and it’s very much barebones, but it hasn’t been deployed, nor to my knowledge has it been tested by anyone in the organization. After some discussion on the issue of pricing, I decided to simplify things. 6,000 quanta would get you one rescuer dispatched who would bring you whatever resources you needed to get fixed up and rolling again. Since most of the quanta was going towards the purchase of materials and only 6,000 was profit plus whatever tips, this was obviously not going to get us anywhere, but my lowballing was deliberate on this. After seeing what the team came up with and a bit more discussion, we implemented an improved pricing strategy and put it to work. Now our prices are starting to feel somewhat realistic for the time and effort involved on the part of our rescuers, especially with the current UBI taken into consideration. --------- While this is good, I wanted to improve this somehow and while back of the envelope math was suggested, I knew we could do better. With no Lua, I fell back on a previous suggestion of implementing a pricing calculator vis-a-vi google sheets. It’s still a work in progress but this is what we’re working with. How it works is very simple. The cost of something, say dispatching a rescuer (10,000) is built into the calculator. Input two rescuers, output 20,000 quanta. Other variables of which are mostly trip-based like transitioning from an atmosphere to space, cargo mass, player transport, and the need to stop (yes it can happen more than once in a rescue) are all factors that can influence the final total. Yes, even our dispatchers have a fee associated with them, they need to be paid too! All these factors have a set price, a rescuer just needs to add in the variables and presto, a total is provided. ---------- As a part of an update to the calculator, yesterday I rolled out a similarly basic payroll system. Take the final total, and break it down between dispatch, a 5% service tax, and everything that goes to the rescuers and pilots. Divide the rescuers and pilots portion in half, half goes to the rescuers, half goes to the organization for future expenses. To tighten things up a smidgen further, I included a variable that would divide the rescuers and pilots portion equally among them all. If only one was involved, they got the whole pool, if three were involved, they’d get three equal shares. This will probably further evolve over time, but for now, it’s what we’ll work with. If you’re interested, the calculator is public so feel free to fill in the gray boxes and see how things add up. --------- For those of you that are seriously and completely out of the loop as far as Eyes & Ears goes, a bit of bad news. PVP caught up to us quicker than anticipated but this was not something unexpected, it was simply a matter of when it would happen, and it turned out to happen one week after the official Beta launch. While flying between planets, one of our rescuers got caught with their proverbial headphones on and the music cranked. While the destruction of this member’s ship was disconcerting since the antagonist in question could clearly see ‘RESQ’ in the video that they shared, it did shed light on some necessities and changes that would need to be made should something like this ever happen in the future. All rescuers are encouraged to have radars equipped to their constructs. While our current constructs are all privately created and run by individual rescuers, official constructs will sport such measures to allow us to identify potential threats from a distance and take steps to evade any hostilities intended on us by a third party. Secondly, and perhaps most abruptly, all rescuers are required to record their rescues from start to finish. Even if nothing is going on, even if you’re in a safe space, even if you’re stopped at a red light. Outside the game, the police wear body cameras to protect themselves from false accusations, this also protects the public from undue or excessive force by the officer. The mandate to record rescues is in the same vein as the mentioned real-life counterpart. This has of course the unintended consequence of cutting down our rescue team somewhat as not everyone has a powerful enough computer to both play Dual Universe and record at the same time. While unfortunate, this is a needed measure as this experience has readily proven that even in a virtual universe, being a universal good doesn’t grant you universal protection. The day after the incident was made public, I had a small showing of support from some members of the community. One organization offered us safe harbor (the second of two in a weeks time) while another offered quick revenge. The latter was immediately turned down, not only does Eyes & Ears not publicly call for revenge, we are more of the mind in letting karma do its thing. While a public blacklist of players who are barred from our services (we will have a blacklist, public or private is the question) might go against the whole ‘revenge’ thing, that does not mean we will tell people to simply ignore those who find pleasure in attacking the unarmed without provocation. I know the Fuel Rats experience the same thing in Elite Dangerous, it wasn’t a matter of if, only when. We’ve taken our knocks and learned a few good lessons from it. We appreciate and thank everyone that’s shown their support for us during this bump in the road. ---------- Previously I had mentioned that two organizations had approached me with interest to host Eyes & Ears bases and outposts. While I do drive a very hard bargain, I’m always open to talking and might even reconsider past rejections with a few remittances on my end. Hit me up in Discord or here on the forums and we’ll discuss. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon

I could use more explanation for the first two images but overall the knowledge shared here is quite useful. People, especially new ones, should really take note of the fourth image. As a rescuer, I've encountered many situations where many new people just aim for the moons and went splat like a bug on the front bumper. Thades is also a fun location where 'the ground came up faster than I thought and couldn't stop in time'. It's much better to miss a planet and be forced to correct your construct in space rather than wreck and be forced to correct your thought process on the ground. Time in orbit isn't time wasted, it's time taking in the beauty of the game.

Well, for starters its technically not a game. It being a game would imply that its a finished product by most accounts, but we apparently decided to nix beta testing for beta soft launching. We're still in a testing phase because that is what NQ told us to expect alpha and beta to be, a test with bugs, incomplete features, balance issues, etc. As for why NQ decided to release beta in such a buggy state (assuming I read you right) I can't entirely say. We've had various bugs that have greatly impacted life. Report them, work around it, and wait for its resolution. Given that we still see bugs like the current blueprint one is a strong indicator that indeed, this is still a test, not a game, and should be treated like such. Why things happened the way they did, I don't know, but I reasonably trust have faith in NQ's judgement since its brought us this far since we started pre-alpha testing a couple of Septembers ago. Why do I say this, well given the timing of how some of the past roadmap elements have rolled out along with the pushing back of others, we are 3.6 weeks behind schedule. Not great, not terrible.

Payment Structure: With Beta now official and some permanence in the game, it's high time to announce that Eyes & Ears has transitioned to a payment structure for its rescue services. The following costs are now in effect: Dispatch of rescuers: 5,000h/rescuer Fuel: Actual cost based on purchase from nearest marketplace at lowest cost Element replacement: See above Scrap repair: Varies based on amount used and tier, tier affecting overall speed of repair. Rescuers, are asked to use their own judgement and be fair here. Player rescue: 1,000h/player Note: Dynamic fees will be added in once some new Lua is in place for things like fuel consumed and distance traveled. (please go to our discord server linked in the OP and check the #price-list) During the initial construction phase while we're getting a base and outposts setup throughout the system, I don't expect Eyes & Ears to be majorly profitable. Rescuers will be given the dispatch fee, supply fees will not be profitable until our suppliers are online and a flat fee is decided upon between our organizations, and a 5% general service fee is also in discussion which if approved will be applied at the very end when the bill is rendered to the player on the receiving end. Any major changes on this will be announced.

Alpha Wrap-up Weekly Update - August 27, 2020 And just like that, Alpha is over. Four rescues were made between August 11th and the 27th, bringing our Alpha 3 final total to 83 rescues, and our then total to 139. --------- One of this updates more interesting rescues was done by Haunty who assisted @Biglulu. The latter found themselves stuck on Alioth and needed a ride either to Lacobus or simply up into space so they could get to Lacobus under their own power. Yup, 'under their own power'. There's no ship involved here, Biglulu jetpacked their entire way from Alioth to Lacobus. This was the first time I've heard of someone doing such a thing since I've started testing Pre-Alpha back in September of 2017. I don't know if this caught on or anything because I heard about someone doing it a second time shortly after Beta started. I really hope that this doesn't become mainstream, because that idea is totally out of left field and not something I would have come up with on my own. Leave it to the community I guess. ---------- Alpha ended rather unceremoniously on my side of things as a family incident had come up which required immediate intervention on my part. The End of the World event was held which I decided to contribute to at the very last minute. Digging through some of my blueprints, I found a copy of one of the several revisions my light rescue craft went through during the Alpha phases and left it behind at the event with a spot of organization lore. Beta Release Candidate testing was held in the final run up to Beta on the 27th. While still technically considered Alpha, Eyes & Ears took advantage of this period to help jump start our work into the official launch of Beta. While I was out of the picture for a majority of this period, some of the team took to task of gathering resources and before Beta was officially launched, we had a microbase of sorts with most of the required industry to get us started before our suppliers came online. ---------- Beta 1 Weekly Update - August 31st, 2020 Four rescues were performed in the first four days of Beta, bringing our total rescues up to 143. The first four days of Beta have been exciting to say the least from my standpoint. We've been working with some of our affiliates behind the scenes and I have some initial plans for how I want to expand the organization once various things are in place. Our initial expansion will bring us a tri-core base on the Sanctuary Moon in the city of Tortuga, currently being headed up by @[BOO] Sylva and the Band of Outlaws. From there, a single outpost on each remaining planet will complete our expansion in Helios. ---------- With work on the microbase complete, we'll be moving on to our private rescue ship construction before progressing into, other things, ship development wise. I don't expect much in the way of expansion until more safe zones on planets are established and many organizations are truly up and running. ---------- The launch of Beta brought about a handful of changes. While many things happened behind the scenes and on our discord server, on the visible side of things there are three major items: We are now charging for our rescues (see the post below this one) The in-game 911 channel has been moved to our Discord Navigating to our website and clicking on the EMERGENCY button in the upper right ties these changes together Since we are now taking payment for our services, the above linked page serves as a disclaimer that fees do apply to a rescue. If the player accepts this, then they can click on another button which will take them to our dispatch section in our discord server where they'll be able to communicate with our dispatchers. While we no longer use the 911 channel to connect players with dispatchers and rescuers, we are still monitoring the channel and redirecting players to our website to ensure the proper process is being taken and that no surprises are afoot. We've been doing this for going on two years now, I'm sure our alpha players wouldn't appreciate the sudden surprise and being put in a tough spot. ---------- Work on the advertising organization Dual Universe Classifieds is going well. Once NQ launches its image hosting server and Beta specific forums, I'll be moving this segment of discussion into its own topic. For now, ad stations can be found at Districts 5, 7, and 8 on Alioth. One new reconstruction is planned bringing the station from its three terminal design to four is already planned and will be conceptualized soon. With a full roster of 9 live advertisements, the roster has been expanded to include slots for an additional nine organizations. Further development on the underlying code is planned, but for now me and lead programmer eldrake are working on other projects. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon

My work took a pretty solid hit during the summer time, we're supposed to be coming back on the upswing with the end of the season but things are still in flux so it remains to be seen if I'll remain on my sudden and extended break, or if I'll be returning to work again in the next few weeks. I've considered getting a mask with a... particular statement about my feeling on the whole mask wearing thing in general. The eyes are a susceptible gateway too so why people don't wear goggles along with their (who wants to bet they're probably unwashed?) cloth face masks is beyond me. Aside from runs to the grocery store and a multi-state journey to wrap up my late half brothers business (unrelated to C19), I've mostly stuck to staying home and working around the house. Aside from the warm temperatures, this summer was a bust, gonna hate it when winter comes again and I can't go outside unless its to either leave the property or shovel the drive!

I myself have something fairly mid-range to lower high end as well (37x and a red devil 57xt) and my FPS is pretty much like everyone elses. Aside from volumetric clouds, all my graphics are down low is 30 to 40 FPS is as good as it's getting on the surface. We've only just begun Alpha Beta, give it some time since this is supposed to be a performance uplifting phase.

Note: The 911 channel has been moved. It can be accessed by clicking EMERGENCY in the upper right corner of the screen. After going through the disclaimer, you will be sent to our discord where our dispatchers will be present. Hi everybody, For those unaware, I head the organization Eyes & Ears - Search And Rescue. Without going into too much detail, we refuel stranded players, pick up the lost, repair people who crashed. All in all, we’re a good guy group of volunteers that just likes to help others out of a tight spot. With 135 documented rescues throughout Alphas 1 - 3, this need has already proven itself, and its a niche we intend to fill in Dual Universe. As a part of our work, we instituted and publicized the use of a ‘911’ emergency channel through the tests chat feature as the primary way of contacting us outside of entering our discord server, knowing a member directly, or asking for help and our members just chancing upon you. While the 911 channel has proven its usefulness over time, there is still room for improvements to be made. While there have been changes that are encouraging and showing NQ is listening to our feedback, it’s not enough to make us remain within this current system of in-game communication. Here are some of the most significant cons: The need for online and real-time in-game monitoring (this means a computer or cloud service able to meet the games hardware requirements) Limited visibility of new messages No identifier for general activity/online status; victims don’t know if there is a rescuer online and vice-versa unless they are communicating Having to handle multiple requests can require opening separate private chat channels for each individual. Access for all players Moving things over to Discord highlighted some notable benefits: You don’t need to be in-game to view requests. Dispatchers can respond anywhere at any time, even on mobile. New messages are readily apparent and can send notifications to mobile devices and desktops. Online indicator readily viewable Able to handle multiple emergency requests at a time in automatically created separate channels assigned by a bot Quicker assignment delegation Active record-keeping / paper trail On Thursday, I released a meeting agenda and asked for feedback from the rest of the team. Of the feedback I gathered in the past couple of days so far, one problem that was on my mind appeared to be a shared concern. Moving our communication from in-game to Discord would cut off the population that doesn’t have/want to join Discord. Now, this has me in a bit of a puzzle. On the one hand, I’d like to implement a new feature on the organizations website that allows visitors to submit a request and for it to pop up in our server without them ever needing to join. I’ve looked into webhooks for Discord, and it seems like something doable, although I’ll admit to being challenged when it comes to the coding aspect. If you’d like to help me help the community, feel free to PM me here or on Discord (DH #2530). As this is a community thing, what are your thoughts? Should we reign things into Discord, or should we remain in-game and hope for the best? Feel free to share what’s on your mind. I’m eager to hear it.

Weekly Update - August 10th, 2020 Six rescues were made this test, that’s 79 for Alpha 3 and 135 overall. ---------- A pound of feathers vs a pound of rocks. Transporting your desktop in the back seat or the trunk. Moving cargo in your inventory or in a container. @Fynn_Reiher found this out the hard way that it doesn’t matter where you store your goods, what matters is that your speeder can carry them. One early test transport down, probably many more to go. Stranded on a planet, how about outer space, on an asteroid, maybe a moon? @Rub3n213 was out of fuel on one of Lacobus’ moons. Luckily @remdawg12 was around and was willing to fly out 11KL of kergon to get one of DU’s more… spicy players back in flight again. ---------- Only some light building work was done on the outpost this weekend. Intermittent web connectivity issues on my end were stifling things a fair bit so playing wasn’t much of an option when the internet kept cutting out every five or ten minutes. It’s something with the receptacle that the barrel plug goes into that’s causing it to be very sensitive, even rotating the plug in the socket will trigger a power cycle. Then again I’ve had this router-modem combo since connectivity was first installed in this residence almost a decade ago. I’ve had a standalone router now so I really only need a new modem and with DOCSIS 3.1 now pretty much standard, the 3.0s are fairly cheap. Current setup still works, its just another thing on the list I got to manage now. This also played somewhat of a role in pushing back an intended meeting that I hoped to have over the weekend. Then there was a PVP event also going on. Lots of discussion and drama in that sector in other servers. I’m hoping to get this all done and taken care of during the final A3 test this Friday, more details on that hopefully by this time next week. The rest of my attention went to the whole advertising gig I have running. Two organizations are now advertising, two others are searching for something to put up, while the other dozen or so that are interested got sent an update the other day to drive some more activity and I’m waiting to hear back. Still not ready to go public but there shouldn’t be much more of a wait. I and the person coding this are kicking around some ideas on how to improve things once it’s public. It will still be pretty barebones first coming out, but it will improve over time. ---------- That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone! - DarkHorizon