Omfgreenhair

I am here to apologize for my misbehavior regarding my toxic post "How complicated can this game get?". I do believe that this is not an appropriate conduct; for that I am going to apologize; I am deeply sorry! I realized that there were no logic to my rants at all and that the game is on it's current phase of development (longer testing-periods will come on later development-stage of the game).
I don't have a better way to mend this but to express my sincere apology and regret to you all regarding my inappropriate behavior through this letter of apology. I am so sorry! 
Here today, you are looking at the new me, the new Eternal; I am adopting a new approach to change (by means of "change", I am not talking about Obama's concept of "change", but change of conduct for attaining improvements). As much as possible, I would like to have and maintain a positive relationship with you all (the Community) as well as the Developers. I want to work and I will work towards that goal of redemption!

And 5 minute later the whole DU will close with "MAINTENANCE" sign.

Id like to see it taken further than just static constructs, and expanded to include what i'll refer to as "defensive turrets" - i.e things that need to be operational constantly in order to do their job right, but that would be mind numbingly dull for a player to sit in and do.
 
For point defense chainguns or similar for instance - need to be able to respond at a moments notice, but will spend most of their time doing nothing. Sitting manning one of those would be incredibly dull most of the time.
 
"Offensive turrets" - things intended to attack other constructs, like cannons should absolutely not be automated, to stop solo battlecruisers being in any way useful.
 
As for limiting them, perhaps an ai control block to mount them on? Could have it with a significant power drain and cost to discourage spamming, and only have them compatible with a limited weapon subset.

Hi everyone!
 
A few quick answers:
 
@NovaPrime
 
The packs will remain available until we'll reach Closed Beta.
 
@RedalAndrew , @Vexare , @chevron:
 
You have now access to the Pre-Alpha forum section
(please keep in mind everything here are under NDA )
 
@Pantera:
 
The Supporter Rewards that haven't been gifted automatically to equivalent Founder Packs are the following items:
- DACs from Supporter Packs
- Beta Keys from Supporter Packs
- In-game and forum titles from Supporter Packs
- Name in credits as a Supporter backer
- T-Shirt from Patron Pack.
 
@Warlord205 , @Omfgreenhair
 
Error 500 can happen due to huge traffic happening on our website (as you can imagine, our database is a bit stressed at the moment ).
So if you get this error, please come back a bit later. Moreover, the issue has been identified and we are going to make a short maintenance tomorrow to improve the capacity.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.
 
 
 

Step aside folks! I need mine too.

Anything can be jammed..... 
 
 

The stories. The ones about corporate espionage. The ones about battles between corps. The ones about deep Space Exploration. But mostly to see how this microcosm grows. I hope any form of consumption is implemented, because that will have massive changes.

I'm excited to just experience the world. 
Nothing grand, I'll enjoy walking around and being a citizen and tourist of the virtual world. 
 

Sounds good, not easy to balance, but not impossible either.

Scripting market (trans)actions is not a good plan.

whenever someone on the internet says "I did the math", actual math-junkies come out the woodwork and will look at it with a microscope.
 
I think the conclusion of this thread would be that despite finite resources, we don't have to worry that the planet is going to run dry of resources anytime soon.

I admit, it was a weak counter argument on my part because I haven't found a good reason why this tech can't be rigged on something bigger. If we're talking talking capacity, then you do have a point. A rig could house more cargo capacity. Didn't I see the possibility to have a self programmed drone follow you around in one of these LUA videos? This could solve that problem.
 
Only thing I could think of that a rig with mining equipment has benefits is if the mining equipment harvests a higher quantity/quality.

Conquer my enemies, see them driven before me and hear the lamentations of the carebears.

This, right here. Although, automation or not, this is a faith bound to happen eventually. As I see it, we got three phases.
Phase 1, pioneer era.
This era is the closed Alpha up to open Beta part, where we explore the direct area around spawn and setup camp. Eventually around the full release of the game Phase 2 kicks in.
Phase 2, colonization era.
Creation of living areas inside orginisation controlled sectors, build permits, clean up of phallus objects and ugly square abandoned bases. At this point most of the resources in the direct enviroment of the spawn will have been picked clean of resources.
Phase 3, industrialization and expansion
The era after the first year of game release is likely when, if new players spawn, they either have to travel on foot or take a public transport (setup probably by carebear organisations) to transport you to outside the city area where folks can go pioneer on their own or perhaps stay in town to find an org to join for mining operations to earn a quick buck.
 
So yeah, during the end of the second and all through the third phase the experience and expectations are different for new player than for the first phase boiiz and grills. This isn't unfair or boring for new players. In fact I think it's a trip if you consider that you spawn in a virtual city completely build by hand and by people who came before you, as a form of inspiration of  what you can do outside there.
 
Now not to deviate too much from the main topic Automating, I guess the game is too early in development yet to judge what type of automatation is good or bad.
 
Also we don't have to worry about the new guy. It would be in the community's best interest to take good care of the new guy to keep the game alive. Again, trust the community to take care of these things. The new guy who arrives one year after release won't know what'll hit him *grin*.

That might be a little discouraging. It wouldn't make much sense in a SciFi esque game to do a lot of manual labor. Automation in the refining process would have a logical place in the order of things. It could be immersion breaking to not to.

This made me want to jump out of my seat and yell "Amen!"
 
You will likely not be able to play this game without being shot at or shot down or vaporized on occasion, even if you pursue a path that tries to avoid combat. Frankly, I see no problem with it. If you generally want to avoid it, you will have plenty of options over time - maybe not initially as there is nothing beyond Alioth (or not much), but eventually, such as more safe zones. If you just do it right, you can even have said options initially - it all depends on who you associate with and who can back you up, no matter if right away or later on.
 
Judging from some comments or what has been implied in other games and communities about this over time, I personally feel that some might be overly nervous about "being griefed", however they want to define this. I don't see an issue in a game that will attract many types of players including those who'd rather focus on an economy, industry, entertainment, events, socializing, science, etc. You can find your group or "bubble" over time and mostly do what you want to do - at the always looming risk of overlapping conflicts or simply enemy encounters if you travel out there in space or just walk down the wrong alley in some giant town where combat would be possible due to the rights system or lack thereof.
 
I think that abstract risk is acceptable and in the end, primarily YOU can influence how real it becomes or how abstract it remains by your choices.
 
And if some person, group or faction decides to view you as enemy and pester you constantly, there are also some options to pursue in order to fight back. There are whole industry branches making money of that, I'm sure players facing a persistent opponent will find other players willing to do something about it and help - for a price or not. This also mostly depends on how you react, thus, your actions. Do or don't, basically. But if you lie down and just give up or only complain (without counter-action or evasion), nothing will change.
 
In other words: Relax, it likely will not become that bad on average, some level of order or safety will establish itself due to the safe zones or controlled territories that will also find patrols and so on. I never played EvE a lot or not much, not beyond high sec mining for a few months (yeah yeah, throw stones at me). But the stories I heard so far, over time, basically tell me that the controlled nullsec space saw huge alliances (-> many people working together) that patrolled their own space, and so far we already see police-type or defense force-type groups in various factions. Like, you can later probably call the cops or military and have them investigate or protect, instead of having to solely rely on your buddies depending on where you go.
 
How interesting is that?! Call 'dem space cops! Or bounty hunters! Or assassins! Or the army...well, navy, if it's in space.
 
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On another note, just in general, I would like to suggest that "griefing", aka hostile action against you, can have many forms and shades. In a way, I'd almost argue that you should not worry about the random pirate or bored kid shooting you down or harassing you in some area temporarily just for crossing paths. Like, wrong time in wrong place. That usually ends eventually. Especially as not so combat oriented player or, rather, in any branch you can think of, competition can exist and does not necessarily need to engage you with weapons or blow you up.
 
Sabotage, influence operations, cloaks n' daggers, backstabbing, waltzing over you without any use of arms (or little use of them)... can destroy or set back your "in-game existence" just as well as some kid blowing up your vital cargo in some part of space.
 
And some of them might decide to simply aggressively attack you all the time, whenever they can, to build up pressure, to take your idea or company out of the picture.
 
Anything might be and should be possible, as long as we also get to see hubs that are relatively safe so that it is not total chaos and preventing players from engaging the game long-term, which is in NQ's interest and in ours, too. So far, that appears to be the case.
 
And this is why I can look into the future with a relaxed stance and not worry about (random) "griefers".
 
I'd rather worry about a really zealous opponent that might be after you at one point, whether the reason or spark for the conflict was trivial or not. Given the insights I get about possibilities, it's scary. Or can be. To me, again, more so than a random person blowing you up or annoying you for a bit.
 
But alas, all of that can be seen as part of 'emergent gameplay' - in the end, the players drive the content primarily and let 'Empires' (or other entities) rise and fall. Always in motion, never really boring, never really unexciting. But with risks anyway.

I think it -should- be possible.
 
 
Now now, hear me out: Big projects require massive amounts of resources and high tech research & development. From this alone we can conclude that it's not a one person job, it's highly time consuming and will require a huge amount of currency/resources that also require a massive amount of time to collect. 
 
Lets say you have a beam-weapon. Just the beam-weapon alone will do base amounts of damage. Implementing an enhancement module will draw extra power. Extra power requires extra power generation, which means more fuel, which-you know I can go on. Point is, you will have to do a hell of a lot of work for a giant boomstick. I don't know about you, but regardless of how big this game is, you're not gonna hide a Death Star. 
 
Now, take in account that the secrecy of said project is pretty thin, a counter project could be started by rivalling parties not wanting the enemy to have such a weapon
 
All in all I just find it quite sad and disappointing that the community is not trusted to solve this issue internally. Your city block destroyed because a doomsday device? Yes please! Murder my base so I have reason to build good defences or join a good faction. Destroy my ship so I can learn when to leave harbour and when to stay home. Beat me down so I can get up stronger. 
 
 
 
Besides these things, consider the following the thing though: why would anyone want to undertake a massive project with the risks mentioned above and the investment "just to blow up the world for lolzies". They won't. If they do it's because they want to be the dominant force in the galaxy, which is simply not sustainable in a GAME (see EvE territorial time lapses via youtube). It would hurt their own user base in the same way as the current modern Western society benefits from NOT going to war with one an other. 
 
Again, trust the community to solve this issue. 

Actually, now you mention "ugly terrain". I know what every multiplayer games with a building sandbox looks like at the start:
- ugly square huts
- drawings and sculptures of penises
- a big mixture of half finished, half arsed projects.
 
That's something that you'll have to get used to for the first three months until the area control units go up. When sectors get claimed, the owners are likely going to clean house. I foresee that after a year a city is constructed around the Ark ship, sectors with buildings with connecting streets and lushious parks perhaps to seperate districts. HOWEVER! This will only exist if corps and orgs are dedicated at making this work.
 
Outside the Safe Zone there's likely a lot of litter. Destroyed hoverships, ruins of fortresses or bases, more half arsed/finished projects. It creates a perfect area for bandits and pirates to hide and ambush your ass. This will be in any direction outside the dome for perhaps a KM before you reach untouched flora and founa. You might encounter a sector here or there belonging to a large corp that can hold it's ground against griefers or have their forward base of opperations there. Large shipyard, research stations, militairy outposts or mineral factories. You're likely to be held by patrols making sure you're not a corp-spy or griefer.
 
From there on, your out. You are at the corner of the map with the dragons and clouds. The unfilled areas on the map.
 
There's also a different type of griefing which I fear the most in the Safe Zone. You can't demolish each other's creations, so you know what, I build a box around your base and will ask you to hand over all your resources or the lock-code to your storage before I demolish my box.
 
Also, there's a thing I learned from World of Warcraft when it comes to griefing. I've rigorously tested this on many servers because the phenomenon was quite baffeling. There's a LOT more grieving on PVE servers than there's on PVP servers. Realise that DU will be one big PVP server. For some reason I've noticed that people on PVP servers have the freedom to slaughter your low level arse right there on the spot. But they risk this danger themselves as much as you do. Most of them are busy with their own thing that they, for the most part, ignore your presence. They are, however, very alert. This, because they know the danger is there. The awareness that it creates also causes players from both sides to, sometimes, chip in and help each other with dangerous mobs.
 
This detail is in stark contrast to the PVE realm, where you more likely expect friendlier players to populate the server. If you wonder around, flagged as PVP, you are garaunteed to be ganked 7/10 times. 1/10 times the player of opposing faction will scope out the situation and considers the risks before deciding not to. And this is in a setting where the possibility to grief each other is lowest.
 
Novaquark will cut it's own fingers if they try to stear and guide too much in a sandbox in what can and can't. Obviously it's their game and they can do with whatever they damn well please, but limiting potential based on the assumption it might hinder others will result in what I've previously mentioned. Trust the community to solve these issues amongst themselves. I'm confident with a community such as this, we're ingenuitive enough to ostracize the bad apples and providing peace to less pvp capable players. You can bet 10 to 1 that orgs and corps know how toxic it can be for their growth having grievers around, so they'll be sure to flush them out root and stern.
 
Jesus, I need to learn to type simpler answers...

Praise be praise be. Would you like to join me in building a temple for Klang to sooth his anger in order to protect those using rotors and pistons?
 
 
 
U-wings anyone?

LORD KLANG BE PRAISED!

We call this place... The Badlands

I'd love the idea of people having to create their own maps. One can use LUA for a lot of things. While mapping the planet might be interesting, mapping astroids for resources could be big business. Information has value. Map making or cartography can help with expanding mining operations and other adventures.
 
Translating coordinates to a 3D image is child's play if you know which spot is 0,0,0. The more detail you put on the map the more value it has. Afcourse there's also the matter of how accurate this information is.

You don't know, but JC secretly always wanted an Arcade hall with penny munchers.

This is beyond beating around the bush. This has evolved into beating off around the bush.