Captain Hills

I'm sensing a LOT of frustration from Blaze.  Believe he gained interest in the game in 2016 - 6 years ago now and still is not seeing many things originally promised.  Myself, I joined in early 2018, around the time one would take work vacation days to be able to play for 72 to 96 hours once a month or so.  Recall telling my wife "Have a great weekend, see you in a couple of days" when the first 48 hour test came out - and yeah, I played 32 of those 48 hours (with sometimes hourly server reboots, launching queues with 1000s of players, etc.). 
 
Blaze is VERY practical and has historically shown light on NQ finances he has scrapped together from public sources.  Like most things, dreams are great, but accomplishing those dreams cost money - something NQ doesn't have a lot of right now, so I think he is seeing things through those lenses - which is, well, realistic.  It is, after all, the FBI M.O. - follow the money, so as an approach is well founded.
 
I know for a fact (because I worked with him on a few efforts) that we have TRIED to help NQ, but JC in particular not only had a vision for the game, but had a specific vision for how the game should be played, and anything out side of that was simply ignored.  That made the game less and less a sandbox for many of us.  Just for perspective, in the early Alpha days, it was perfectly reasonable to have the goal of building a Stargate Universe class ship that could go around and build some future gate technology for use between solar systems.  That got nibbled away, piece by piece, often in thinly veiled excuses which translated to "current system eats too many resources, need to cut cost".
 
Personally almost choked on the first phrase of this thread.  NQ has been one of the LEAST transparent companies I've worked with in almost 50 years of gaming (started in 1975).  We love what DU started out as, and have watched that slowly be chipped away until its barely recognizable.  We have also tried, MANY MANY times, via Discord, via this forum, via tickets, via direct mail, etc. to help with suggestions, most often with little more than a "this suggestion will be forwarded" and no other word or action seen.  Sadly "this suggestion will be forwarded" is the most positive response personally seen - most of the time hours, days, and sometimes weeks of volunteer work behind suggestions were simply ignored.
 
Guess this is mostly a vent, but please do try to understand some of the history of our efforts.
 
edit:  Blaze posted his own reply above when I was typing this.

Well, have you ever wondered why people are playing Mindcraft? Some humans are more creative than destructive, that's all.

Here is my take on the points brought forward by NQ, it took a while to read through all the other posts and form my own reply. I have not been an avid responder on the forum but please consider the following:
 
On the premise that
NQ fixes known bugs and exploits. NQ actively prevents, punishes and reverts exploits in the future. NQ creates a somewhat stable and equal economy (we were getting there). We paid to PLAY the game. Our gains like quanta, ore and inventory should not be a given right. Persistence of our intellectual creations (blueprints) is preferable. Our real live investment (time, money) should be considered. There should be no more wipes from here on out. Make sure the game is interesting enough for veteran and new players alike.  
Factors under consideration
Removing unpopular things: I see no need to do this. Please keep schematics, they work fine. Fix things that need fixing Resetting the game economy: I can really see the benefit of this. Let us become industry moguls on a level playing field. The wealth created during beta is void. Experienced veterans: Please don’t take away our nice experiences, encounters and joy we had playing. Right start for new players: Sure, Let them do the FTUE and grind like we did. We can help them. Persistent blueprints: Sounds like a very good idea, please make them progressive: You can deploy them with just a core and then “fill” them with voxels and elements. Planet revamp: Please go right ahead and create something truly nice for us. Be generous in helping those who will be inconvenienced.  
Alternatives:
No wipe: An option, but it would create an immense balance problem. Unfortunately I say no. Partial wipe: Keep only voxels, remove elements. Do planet revamp and allow a one time magical blueprint for affected players. Help them relocate. Feels like a little of nothing on all ends. Legacy server: Double the cost, half the players. No. Full wipe: Starts to feel like the best option but you need to compensate players for the time and money they invested already. Keep blueprints for everyone, remove quanta and talents but give them something back for every month they played or paid, from those "rewards" we could buy back talents and/or quanta, at players choice. No idea how much this should be but somewhere between sufficient and all.  
Some possible perks for veterans would alleviate the pain for me:
We can claim a starting location before release (Aphelia claims a ring of tiles around a market so no one has that benefit) We get to keep one basic XS ship, think double pocket speeder allowance with space capabilities to start off with We get the old element textures (yellow containers, etc.) as skins to show our mark of veterancy We get some pocket quanta and talents to spend. That's it, thanks.

I am more interested in what exactly this supposed team of game designers has been doing all this time. Whatever it is, it is not showing in the actual game.

I have held back on my thoughts on this as a statement but this is how I feel. 
Unfortunately we are playing a Beta game. the developers did say there wouldn't be a wipe after alpha and there have been leaks and loose statements about a potential wipe since then. This has caused more harm than good. Personally what I would like to see is a very direct statement when its time. either we are not going to do a wipe or we are  and this is how. then list the reasons why technical reasons not social and List how this will help the game in the future. 
 
we all know sometimes in development wipes are important and have to happen. Some times when the devs them selves do not particularly want it to happen. while they are not public I know all of the devs do play the game and have invested leisure time into the game. Also I know the NQ staff are personally vested in the future of the game and its success as they rely on it for income and providing for themselves and their families. 
 
I do not think the developers want to wipe. If they did WANT to wipe it would have been a very clear statement from the beginning.  they would not have invested the time to help us save cores and dig out structures. Or give away warp beacons as rewards for events. While there has been post about pros and cons on wiping their actions  in game have shown that they want to world we have built to continue on. 
 
I think wiping for the reason of player balance is not a good idea. There will always be player balance issues. You will always have new players who have to catch up and old players who seem to own the stars. Its part of an on going universe. the difference is that in DU you have a community of people who want to help new players. Streamers who are here to support the game and help build up the player base. I think personally a wipe would hurt that. 
 
One of the biggest draws to du for new players is the creativity and seeing the things people have built and done in game. 
but to wipe because some players have to much is not a good reason. Every game has those who have more time and drive. Who will always do well. there will always be things that are exploitable.
 
Utilize those who have in game to help the game at launch. the existing server cleaning system is going to clear a lot of content when the server goes live due to players not paying for beta and alpha accounts monthly.  Let that aspect of the server do its job. That just provides more content for players. 

We as a community have to stop jumping onto what ever story we hear. Have a little faith in the NQ staff. Im not trying to fan boy them. But at the end of the day we have to realize. This is fun time for us. Its work for them. This represents their income and life. The last thing they want to do is to harm that. The developers are on our side. but first they are on the games side. And even though we might not like their actions at times. We have to acknowledge they will only do whats best for the game and company.  And if there is a wipe. In a few years it will be like it never happened. 
 
We will all be laughing about the stupid crap we did during beta while the nubs are looking confused

I'm not sure if I have the power to restart the Game in case of a wipe.
 
I'd like to share a possible motivation for me and maybe some others.
Scanning can be very frustrating, guessing that all fancy tiles are gone anyway, probably. There is too much pressure running for this.
 
Instead of Gems and whatnot once was planned ...
What about spread a little extra to all the MU gameplay.
 
a pure T1 Node also spits 10% T2 ore (random ore each time), plus 1% T3 ore (yep, random ore) - plus 0.1% T4 ore - and guess what, also 0.01% T5 ore
.. while a T2 Node spits 10% T3, 1% T4 and 0.1% T5 - and a T3/T4 Node just follows that row the same way
 
e.g. working with a Malachite T2 Node means you get tons of Malachite plus all sorts of ore in addition, but just those tiny portions
in the time it takes to extract 200L Malachite, you'll also get the sum of 0.2L T5 ore and 2L fancy T4 ore 
 
Not being able to get all sorts of ore, even in very low amounts was my personal frustration.
Especially after tri-scanning a total time of ~200h since the MU gameplay.

If concern about equaling the playing field with a wipe consider this.  If you leave territories with same minerals then veteran players won't need a scanner after wipe.  Players will just go to the previous scanned locations and reclaim.  No need to make the territory scanner.

This thread has already become so long that NQ won't read it...and if they do, the takeaway will probably be that it doesn't much matter because "some love the idea, some hate it". 
 
They'll see whatever they want to see in this thread if/when they skim through it. 
 
They should rip this bandaid off one way or the other and move on, because there's many more important things.
 
I don't get why NQ thinks they have unlimited time to make these sort of simple choices -- it's like they think that release is so far away that they have plenty of time to [filtered] around with making more changes...when in any sane studio they'd be in "feature lock" and focusing on UI/UX, improving FTUE, fixing bugs, and making sure everything is scalable/performant. 
 
NQ has learned next to nothing from this whole beta experience and it shows. 

Agreed with both points.
 
NQ has had multiple opportunities and justification to test backup/rollback mechanisms due to exploits - and chose not to. They were either scared their system wouldn't work or there would be more fallout due a day of rollback than it was worth. Either way, they're unable or afraid to use these mechanisms and here we are.... wiping to "solve issues". Not a good sign. What happens at the next major exploit -- and there will be one, as there are in every MMO. I cannot fathom how we'll NOT be right back to where we're at today within a year. And as soon as that happens, another chunk of the player base gets fed up and quits.

you realize this is it, this IS.... the last wipe you will ever be able to do.....
 
and what you gonna do then, 2 years from now when we are in full release and loopholes have been exploited, the economy has been ruined Again, players have gotten rich thru exploits and we are back in the same position we are right now.
you wont be able to wipe it all away then, you will be stuck with it.
 
This tells me you don't foresee the game even lasting 10 years because you can only fix problems by wiping and after 10 years of release so many issues will have occurred, like another dev pushing the wrong price to live instead of PTS. players exploiting loopholes so much it will ruin the economy again, that you will have no option but to shut the game down or sell it or walk away or make it free to play and go all in on a cash shop because you are not learning
to fix problems.

learn to fix without wiping

Right... Where to start with this train wreck...
Talk about curing a head-cold with decapitation... People didn't like schematics when they were released because you just suddenly stuffed them in to the game after people had already established themselves and effectively kicked a lot of dedicated factory players just about back to square one with the only way to continue their chosen style being "go buy something only aphelia sells".
 
Advanced warning that you were going to do that would have taken some of the edge off, adding the schematics but not requiring them for a few months would have helped take the edge off, adding a research system that lets people make the schematics themselves (even if spending the same amount of wealth via material-costs) would still make them annoy people less...
 
Schematics were added in to cut down on the server and connection loading produced by everyone having their own private mega-factory. If you want to cut out the schematics for all the t1 stuff (since we already make that in our nano-packs) then go for it, but if you drop them all without a system to replace it then you'll be regretting it again later. 
 
Its' called a roll-back. You keep a copy of how things are right before a patch, and if someone finds an exploit in short order then you get rid of it and re-load that un-abused copy with a patch to fix the exploit. People generally don't mind losing a few hours of play too much if you have a good reason such as fixing an exploit that would destroy the economy.
 
Or if you kept a log somewhere, you could just quickly close the server down for a bit while you went through it and deleted the the resources produced by the exploit. 
 
Or you could have gone after people for abusing the exploit and kicked them from the game.
 
Or you could do another partial-wallet-wipe like you did back near the start of beta (without any forewarning to ensure people don't just move assets around to avoid it).
 
This whole fighting chance for new players thing is absurd, and if we're being honest here repeating it is a bit insulting to the people that have thought that one through and explained it a dozen times now.

-Someone will always have more money than someone else.
-If you wipe the server clean then the returning players will still have more money than any new ones you somehow attract five minutes after the server opens just because they will know how to get it faster (you point this out in your post),
-The power-players will still have more money than the casuals because they will be putting more time in to it,
-The people running mission-alts or playing cooperatively will still have more money because this is an mmo, and conservation of ninjutsu must not apply,
-Everyone will still have a lot more than any brand-new player, because they will have had any time at all to get it while the new player will not.
 
The only thing this gives to new players (and only the competitive ones that don't think too hard about the existence of beta-players) is the sense that if they want to compete then they wont start far behind anyone else for that first week or two. For all the rest of the new players all you are really doing is clearing the universe of anyone that is willing to give them a head start with free stuff, pay them to run jobs or perform tasks, or inspire them with grand and epic constructs that show them "players can design and build this themselves".
 
You left out the pro of keeping people's trust, and if you don't wipe and just drop schematics you probably wont lose as many players as you will by wiping the universe clean. If you want to be really nice about it you could even make Aphelia willing to buy the schematics back, (and before someone complains about the exploiters getting money by selling schematics they picked up during the exploit-sale, please consider whether or not that would constitute a significant gain for an exploiter's wallet, and the possibility that she could buy them back at a reduced price for the happy middle-ground between refunding lawful factory-wizards and throwing a few more quanta at people that already have exploit-cash).
 
That said, I still don't think you should drop most schematics from the game, I don't want to have to pick my tile claims based on how many mega-factories other people have deployed close enough to lag my game out when I'm just trying to build, fly, or work my mining units.
 
You left out the pro of keeping people's trust, again.
You forgot the con of the loss of non-factory-players ability to use an established market to advance.
Also, you've done resets of planets before with things like magic prints and admin-construct excavation. so I must ask that you please refrain from inferring people now need to choose between keeping their stuff or having good looking planets.
 
This will annoy the market-players, and the factory players, and the ship-sellers, and the wipe-monkies because someone somewhere may still have more stuff than they do, and a lot of other players because they'd be losing some of their stuff. In short, this will probably annoy the most people, but you'll still be able to claim that you didn't negate the whole "beta is soft-release" claim made way back when beta was starting, and people will be willing to see it as a reasonable compromise.
 
As for old bugged constructs, try opening a thread and listing the specific bugs, I'm sure players would gladly offer input on potential fixes (could always add an "old" tag in the code of old constructs and prints that prevents operation/docking/BPO creation until all elements are moved with the move element tool or picked up with the deploy element tool).
 
Just be sure to not warn anyone if you decide this, otherwise people will just shift their assets around to try and avoid it, and don't forget to make sure people have something to keep their taxes paid and their fuel tanks full for a bit while they get the economy running again.
 
On one hand, if you simply didn't apply any new patches to the legacy server then most people would probably eventually migrate over to the new stuff on their own as you enticed them with cool new features (assuming you come up with said features).
 
On the other hand, such division of population would initially be potentially quite substantial, and would risk making the game seem "too empty", and you'd need to re-run procedural generation of ore distribution so that people don't just pull ore-coordinates from one server to be used in the other.
 
Of course you could probably take the 3rd option people have presented here where by the two eventually become linked as the previously promised extra solar-systems, but that would probably entail eventually allowing old resources in to the new system, at which point we'd be on the same track as having never wiped, so you'd probably be better off just not wiping if you did this so that old players could still help uplift new ones.
 
I've already been over the schematic and planet points in this post, but until you make missions have a random start and end location for each and ever person each and every time they take them, I'm going to say this wont fix that particular "economic loophole". 
 
As far as cons go you forgot:
-Loss of the trust of a lot of people that believed NQ wasn't going to full wipe after beta-launch unless it was absolutely nessicarily for the integrity of the game, 
-Bad pr along the lines of NQ being willing to nuke the entire universe to make their job easier in dealing with a few exploiters and/or patch implementation, 
-Temporary loss of old players' ability to uplift or inspire new players,
-Loss of established-market use by non-factory players to advance in to doing what they want to do without waiting for factories,
-Temporary loss of established player's ability to identify/test mid/late-game loopholes and exploits in a time-frame that would still allow rollbacks or "targeted maintenance" to limit the damage they could cause.
 
 
 
So, what's it going to be NQ? The longer this debate goes on, the more people are just going to get frustrated at it all and question whether or not they should just go else-ware, and the worse DU will look for it. Time to make final call quickly and stick to it, you don't want the pr from all this fence-sitting on something as major as a universe wipe still hanging around when you get to full release.

I just wanted to throw my two cents in. I have made money in the game by doing commission work. Someone wanted something made that they didn't want to do for themselves for whatever reason they may have had. I had to give these people DRM-free blueprints so that they could use the item I made in whatever way they wanted. If there is a wipe, and people are allowed to keep their blueprints, a player like myself will be at a severe disadvantage. People are not going to pay me again for something they will already have after the wipe.
 
I would not mind having to make these things again for them, it is not about that. It is that there would be no reason for it. And I understand their point of view (I have this thing already, why would I pay for it again?!?). So, I would have to hope that there is a large part of the new community that would be willing to pay for commission work, I will have to prove myself to them without having the resources/foundation to show my existing work, or I will have to do the things I don't like to do, which I was able to bypass before.
 
I already don't agree with a lot of the decisions made, and they almost all had a negative impact on my play style, or the things I wanted to build. The screen LUA changes will in essence break my idea of making cartoon ships with expressive eyes that moved and made several expressions. The HTML method, mainly the PNG abilities, allowed me to use gradients and morph objects from one thing to another on the screen. The new method overly complicates this type of animation and effects to make it extremely unappealing to a player like myself. The voxel complexity changes are really strange. The things that should be triggering it (Like the crazy fonts that I make, or other wild things I have done to voxels, and the many uses of "checkerboard" patterns I have all over my place) don't seem to trigger it. But, literally using one material, and only plain square voxels, to make two walls that meet in a corner, a roof and a floor, will light up at 75% complex MINIMUM. So, if making a literal room size box already sets me to 75%, that doesn't leave me any room to do much to it beyond that.
 
I don't want a full wipe, including blueprints, because I would not like to lose all the blueprints for my own things I have put several hours into making. Nor would I want it for anyone else. The reason I am bringing these subjects up is to show why I will probably (never say never) not return if there is a wipe. I don't like the current state of mining (Which is more of a chore every 3 days to click something and just stand around waiting.), so I will don't really want to have to do that to make money to even get to where I was.
 
This is not about the items I give out for free. Those were my choice to give out for free. I am specifically talking about hours and hours of build work I did in private, for others, that they paid me for. Just to clear up any confusion on that.
 
If there is a wipe, no matter which type of wipe it is...  Please don't wipe talent points. That is 100% a game killer to me.
 
Well, that's it for me. Just wanted you to at least hear a point of view I did not see represented.
 
Thanks for reading, if you did!
 
-Me.

Let's preface this: I'm a scripter, I own minimal assets in the game, and my main enjoyment comes from scripting. The wipe has a very small affect on me, but that won't change my opinion on how terribly reasoned it is here and terribly unnecessary. 

Kurock's post says it all. They were so, so clearly biased in that post, it's like they already made their decision, and if our response is lukewarm, it will go through.

They ignore major, major points on the pros for the no wipe and partial wipe, and they put the full wipe with the most pros, but they all say the same thing: Simpler. 
Based on how they did the other pros and cons, all they should have said was:
 
Pros:
Simpler for us to do
Schematics are what caused so many people to leave, and they have left. Your comment on schematics probably revolved around the idea that removing them would somehow bring those people back. Newsflash, it won't. They have moved on to other games. Personally, I don't own a single subscription game where I would return to subscribing after so much time has passed. BS you say about a wipe is somehow required for removing schematics. They're just an item.
Complete BS that you say you can't revamp planets.
Even greater BS you say you can't rebalance the economy... do you even look at your in game economy? One update and 10,000 m^3 of honeycomb goes from 100 million to 10 million. That is where it should be. The economy is perfectly, perfectly fine.

As Kurock said, leveling the playing field is a temporary concept that will disappear quickly. It's an MMO. You think someone who plays the weekends or once a month will somehow be on the same level as someone who plays several hours a day, every day, who knows the game already? Don't be delusional, please.

DU is not like a game where wiping should happen. You've already implemented plenty, and many will say too many updates that make it so wiping is completely unnecessary. HQ tiles, tile tax and construct abandonment over time, just to name the ones that come to mind.. Those are systems that work.
DU lives off player content, which is essentially what you're advocating to remove with a wipe. It's like saying: I let you build up my limbs over the last two years so I can crawl, and now walk. Now, I will chop them off for you so you can rebuild them better this time.
Your post is not an unbiased opinion on pros and cons. Fix it. It is misleading. Some people who read it will not think critically about what you just wrote. Who the hell thinks no wipe will only satisfy "some" long term builders and traders... are you... actually dumb? A significant majority is a better word there. You wanna know something? Your wishy-washy response mostly advocating for a wipe is why some people don't want to invest time into this. And it is because you even brought up a wipe. You sour the waters and poison the air with having the idea about, even more so by your extremely biased post. 

You wanna see what I mean by a biased pro/con? Here's a great example:

 
As you can see, depending on where you cut the cake, you can say a lot and steer the narrative, bloating reasons and diminishing others. 
This is, essentially what NQ have done with their entire post.

This is all I have to say in this, post, I've spent enough time writing out the obvious. Kurock said it in a neater package, but felt I should elaborate.
 

I agree with most people here, so I will just add to some points instead of writing everything in detail...
 
A very important question: What becomes of the thoramine? The Thoramin should not disappear under any circumstances. That there will be other ways to get to it later is okay, but the current one must not be disbanded. (Is that already discussed @NQ-Wanderer?)
 
Talent Points: These should be saved or if necessary reduced by the same percentage for all. It should not be the case that all players start with the same points. That would be more than unfair.
 
The beta was intended as a soft release and only partial wipes should take place if absolutely necessary. That was YOUR PROMISE, so if you break that promise and do a full reset, many will demand refunds. You cannot afford that financially.
 
Including blueprints from Alpha/Beta in the finished game was a promise from the beginning, so this should be fulfilled too.
 
I wonder what happened to my missing blueprints from the PreAlpha? There was the first space station built by players... 
 
So my conclusion: 
A partial wipe is possible. A full wipe is not. (Unless you want to kill DU)
 
Furthermore, I fully agree with Kurock.
 
 

Basically any form of wipe after telling us no for 2 years, and id walk away. I don't see any path of fair restitution for ripping out of my hands everything i worked for without using exploits or shady bullshit since beta start when NQ told us no further wipe. i didn't like schematics at first, but its a reasonable mechanic that i work well with for my usage/needs now and could be handled by throttling them like using industry skills. but taking away what I've built in 2 years, which with current systems would take nearly 3 years to replace. And honestly wiping to give a level playing field will only make a difference for a month at best, before the knowledgeable people are back in a position of power
 
I'm not unique in my opinion, and NQ will have to consider how many people will continue to play, or just give up and walk away because they were lied to. I backed in alpha so i haven't paid money monthly, but i would of been happy to of for all this time to aid in the games support. 

A wipe would literally solve nothing as people would just abuse the new mechanics in the same way. 
 
You are doing literally nothing but a complete flusher of an idea. 

Except historically a game wipe has never brought in any substantial amount of players. You're saying that they'll see a 2000% increase in player base when they add the "1.0" and "Release" moniker to the game and do a wipe?

New World, for example- lost 80% of it's player base when going from Beta(and wiping) to release. It has since lost a further 80%.... and that is without a monthly subscription. https://steamdb.info/app/1063730/graphs/ The other difference, is with DU the player base largely makes the "game content"... paired with it being subscription based. it's a unique balance no other game has, and there is nothing to say wiping that content in the game would bring in more players.

If you have any data to back up your claims, I'd love to see it! Math is nice, big numbers are big, but numbers mean nothing without data to give them meaning.
 

How many new players does NQ think the release would attract and, if so, how many will stay? Many players are like a plague of locusts, swarming from hype to hype and leaving behind empty, destroyed servers. 
NQ should focus on real regular players who are loyal and devoted for many years.

Imho you're wasting your time (yours to waste though). NQ has promised systems that after years of development are still not in place. There are enough ideas at NQ, just not enough manpower/skill/focus to get that done.

Also please understand that wiping a persistent building MMO like DU, is VERY different from a normal beta->release transition wipe in a regular MMO with traditional mechanics.
 
So any numbers showing that lots of people join at release in some other game that wiped. Will be skewed by the fact that most "other" games are wiped by default, simply because they have a completely different structure where that makes sense.
 
And I am playing DU because of this, since DU is not like all the other MMO's (at least not when it was sold to us in the beginning).

that all is just a one way road
it wont succeed with a wipe nor without one
 
to many fellows lost on the road :\

Why are they empty threats? If 1.5-2 years of progress and subscriptions goes POOF!(tm), why would folks that find that problematic start over from scratch? Especially if that is just the last straw for many of us. How many of those that already left over the last year and a half do you think will come back if there's a wipe? I suspect very few.
 
Look, I understand the whole mining wipe that happened (something is being removed and added), the scans wipe was a bit iffy though. But a complete wipe-wipe... That is just... Unacceptable and, at least for me, totally destroys ANY credibility NQ had left. NQ without any credibility (for me and others) sets the whole future of persistence for DU on loose screws and that makes it unplayable for me. A wipe-wipe is DU in a failed state (for me), maybe even worse then closing down the servers due to NQ insolvency...
 
It's not as if there aren't other sci-fi games that will scratch a similar itch (nothing is like DU), but if it's playing DU with so much frustration and disappointment (not to mention spending money on subscriptions) vs. playing another, similar game, the question quickly becomes mood for me...

Key word here being decent rate. And when you consider what we have now is the result of almost 8 years of development, and most of that has been left unchanged in a "first draft" state for years. You begin to understand why veteran players are so frustrated with NQ, and hold very little hope for the future of this game.
 
I.e. 6 months is the time NQ usally needs to change the skybox texture and tweak some parameters in a 3rd party SFX library, not make radical game play improvements.

A wipe makes no sense, other then to give some very ultra competitive players an small edge (in a game you cannot win no less) for maybe a month at most until the game stabilize back to the same old. So by that rationale there would have to be a regular wipe every 3 month or so, to make the game "fair" for new players. Or maybe that is not really what the pro wipe players are actually looking for?
 
A wipe will not improve the economics, a wipe will not fix missions, a wipe will not make pvp better, a wipe will not bring content to the game and most importantly a wipe will not make this game fun. The only thing a wipe does is remove experienced players who are desperately trying to make a game that is worth playing and content..
 
And also.. Judging by what NQ says is to be the final patch before release, this game will be far, far from feature complete. So from that perspective a wipe at release makes even less sense, since there will/must be rather large changes made to the game later on like territory war, proper missions, player controlled markets, PVE etc. etc. if there ever is going to be a game worth playing in the long run. So what will be the excuse for a second wipe even after release in a so called persistent MMO where players are paying a subscription for the content?
 
 
 
 
 

I've seen this statement often, please explain.
 
Because from my perspective, if there's a wipe-wipe, I won't be returning. Actually, I would strongly advise people against playing DU if it happens.
 
A wipe-wipe, won't change anything for 99% of the players in a month. As the same dedicated players with too much time, corp players, RL money, etc. will be in the same top positions. New players won't have a chance in hell to compete with that. In the mean time, getting started in DU for new players will be HELL! As nothing will be available that's player made, at a low price (as it is now). So leaving Haven/Sanctuary will be virtually impossible as people can't build or buy a territory control unit...
 
Look, I loved getting started with beta, but it was a completely different game then. For one, Schematics, for another planet mining or surface ore respawning. You looked at what some of the Alpha players where doing in the first weeks/months and you got inspired. Doing that again under the current restrictions wouldn't be much fun (for me) imho...
 
As for current new player being left behind? They can sell their ore, and it will be bought. Just look at the current ore sell prices, see many Sanctuary sell orders or small sell orders? Would certain people have the quanta to buy that from new players if there is a wipe-wipe? No. New players can/could often pick up nice BPCs from builder characters like Hagbard, would the be able to now? No! Because Hagbard can't produce a dispenser after the wipe-wipe, he wouldn't even be able to buy one...
 
So new players wouldn't be able to get the much wanted resources like specific tiles with ore, that's just for the big dedicated corps. Hell, 99% of the current players wouldn't be able to get to them either, unless you are a highly placed person in one of the big dedicated corps. It didn't happen with the last landwipe, it won't suddenly happen now. Scanning for a new player sounds like a good way to get started, but how exactly would you get that scanner? Those Schematics are expensive! No big corp would sell their scanners before they are done scanning themselves...
 
And if you think that there will be no new player due to the 'inequality', what would happen to new players six months down the road, a year, two years? The only similar MMO i'm familiar with that has a similar concept (of persistence) is EVE Online. When I started EVE in 2005, I was already late to the party by two years. Large corps ruled Null Sec, many have risen and fallen since then, I have never been part of that (by choice). What I have done in the last 17 years (often many years off) is control certain items on the markets or even the market in a certain section of space. The big strength of EVE is imho that even if I've taken off years, I can always get back and pick up my chars where I left them. Doing new things, trying the old things in a different environment, etc. NQ has already pretty much said that if no subscription, then everything not on Sanctuary (and I expect Haven) will go POOF!(tm) eventually. The problem is that people are not trusting NQ enough at the moment that even the Sanctuary/Haven space will be save from deletion (eventually), people are not trusting NQ because they might wipe-wipe again. There goes the whole persistence concept...