Peregrin

Novaquark,

Have you even considered the fact that by recalibrating your game to your technical/ financial needs, you're also recalibrating our projects and our dreams ? Sure, you're faced with hard limits - straight from the board room, I'd wager - but could you please at least show some tact in your communication, spare a little mercy to your playerbase, show some empathy for our efforts ? Another radical Alpha-level change in a Beta state designed to ease the server load, this org core limit exposes leaders and designers to the whim of their members with a two weeks notice, random core abandonment, no fast-tear-down system and an incomplete RDMS, while cores are now mandatory for ressource gathering.
 
After promising us the new Oasis, back in the days where you needed our support, you took the Dual Universe away from us: every step you've made since Beta shows this world firmly belongs to you, not us. And you know what ? FINE, I get it, it is what it is, JC's Grandiose Vision was too expensive, welcome to Abu's Discount Metaverse.
 
But please be more careful as you thread on our dreams.

The day the planets ran dry
Memoir of a miner
 
 
<Recording started, datalog 2021112315311321…>
 
Ahem. This thing on? Good. I’ve been mining since… Bah. Delete the recording before this. Damn technology, anticipating needs I don’t have. Just do as I say and not...
 
<Recording ended.>
 
 
<Recording started, datalog 2021112315313512…>
 
I've been mining since the day I stepped off the Arkship. It was boring but I never got bored. That’s an old mining joke. Along with the one where we are all old enough to drink at bars. With the bad jokes out of the way I can get down and dirty.
 
Back on Earth we were lucky to have a jackhammer or a sonic destabilizer, but right off the Arkship we were giving nanoformers. Amazing bits of technology, able to detect nearby concentration of ores, vaporize the ground to get to the ore and pack the ores neatly into a container. The abuse of nano-fields and Calabi-Yau space at its finest.
 
Then came the territory scanners. Able to scan a square kilometer and give a read out of the ores in the ground. They were prospecting made easy. The big business scanner-heads went out in their tri-scanner ships and deployed arrays of tri-scanners to be able to prospect on upwards of twenty-four square kilometers at the same time. But before all that it was just me and my trusty ship with a territory scanner bolted to its side. That's all a miner really needed. 
 
Then Aphelia, the Arkships AI, made the Arkship fire its big beam deep into the planet. That can’t be good for the planet.  The Novark spat small ore rocks all over the planet's surface. Must have done it to all the planets and moons of the Helios system, because the rocks were everywhere. But no self respecting miner would waste time picking those up. The yields were simply too small, compared to the expansive nodes in the ground. And then there were the motherloads: the mega-nodes. Where one ore node held thousands of liters of ore, the mega-nodes held millions. I personally found and cleared out more mega-nodes than you can shake a stick of carbon at. Those were good times.
 
But just because a territory scanner said there was ore in the ground, it didn’t say where it was. It was still an art to find those elusive ore nodes, even the megas. My preferred method was walking the compass. Find your level, walk north or south whichever makes the blip get closer. Then east west. Once the blip gets no closer, you know the ore is right above or below you. But never dig straight up or down. How are they gonna get back up?  What if there is a giant desert scorpion or worse… ecologists.  But some did dig straight down. The well-diggers or shafters as I called them, wanted to get down to where the ore was quickly. And they didn’t waste time digging back to the surface either. Instead they would just kill themselves, trusting their resurrection nodes on the surface wouldn’t malfunction. But sometimes they did. That’s why the shafters were either desperate or psychopaths.
 
The proper way of mining was always just the miner and their trusty tool. No floating mining chairs, auto-mappers or follow-me container bots. Just you and the dark. And occasionally a miner would be treated to the midnight sun: the hallucinations of sunlight seemingly streaming through the surrounding rocks to illuminate the tunnels or caverns they were traversing. A beautiful sight but also a warning you might have been mining for too long. Maybe all miners were a little touched in the head.
 
<Evacuation order received. Ignored.>
 
If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed I kept saying “was”. Aphelia predicted it would take decades to empty the planets of a fraction of their precious ores, but it’s been a single year and they are all gone. We dug them all out. The purer ores anyway. But humanity always needs more resources. So Aphelia made mining units available, each capable of extracting the diffuse ores from the ground. She gave molecular quantum tunneling or some such nonsense as the reason. But I think it's something else: Nanites.

A high energy beam is used to inject nanites deep into the ground. They suffuse the surrounding rock and gravel through Brownian motion. Each nanite is specially calibrated to search for a specific group of molecules and, once found, they construct nanotubes to pipe their payload towards where they are densest, eventually up the beam. The demonstrations that show diminishing yields within 48 hours seems to collaborate this theory.
 
Either way, the side effect of preparing the ground is the liquification of the rocks that then fill in most of the caves and tunnels already dug. Some might think it’s like turning the rock to magma but there is no heat involved. Just a dark grey sludge that quickly settles back into natural rock again. The mining shafts will be the first to go. Followed by the engulfing of any underground structures. You would think that a solid box of iron would prevent the rock from flowing in. No. This ‘quantum’ rock that flows right through everything contained only by the gravity of the planets. And moons. The moons will be receiving the same treatment.
 
<Evacuation order received. Ignored.>
 
Us Noveans that have served for years as extraction experts have been relegated to asteroid harvesting duty. But Bert, they say to me, Bert, Mining is mining, right? No, I say. Besides micro-gravity leaching of muscle and bone, Asteroids are the turds of the Helios system, attracting pirates like the flies they are. Asteroids just don’t have the same, heh, gravitas of planets. 
What if this is how the dinosaur fossils were made: Subterranean creatures caught in a planetwide rock liquefaction event. Heh. That’s a thought.
 
<Warning. Warning. Approaching anomaly.>
 
Ah. Here comes the grey ooze...
 
<Recording ended.> 
            - Contents of databank found 6km below the surface of an icy planet.
 
 
Want more? www.spaceshipdrama.com

I came to realize I am more of a NPC in Dual Universe; so "stay a while and listen !", I guess ?

DUSleepers has been put to... well, to sleep for good and I mourn the loss of my entry position within the community back in 2016.
 
More texts will be added soon to the Grand Bazaar's library, at Briggenti's request. Go check the place, it has an amphitheater !

AC splitting and Legion forming has brought a bit a fresh ink into Lexikon's pages, come read about it.
 
Want to share ? Need a copy ? Let me know.

Dear Novaquark,

If only you had a solid playerbase. If only you had a functionning beta game with a budding economy and a satisfyingly-growing  game loop. Then you could afford to act with such corporate arrogance and casual disregard for the community that has been supporting you for almost 6 years.
 
But as the guys who pledged us "total transparency" back in 2016 and are painfully toiling today on a stumbling prototype supposed to deserve our business, you can't chalk it all up to us being unruly peasants that do not need to know of their lords' decisions and I bet your investors get no such "rules are rules" or "let-them-know-in-due-time" contempt in the board room.
 
Still... I have faith something good may yet emerge from all your hard work and feel JC taking the back seat in favor of a businessman could prove beneficial in the end. I just wish you wouldnt' be... like this.
 
Live or die, it all makes for a nice story anyway. See you in Lexikon, I need to rewrite the "Vision Challenged"'s ending now.

Well, how about "None of the above", for starters ?

I have a relatively "roleplay" activity in DU and as such, I have no inclination towards any of the egotistical figures above and do not feel I have to in order to be "RP".
 
(Plus my personal inclination would not go to "Leaders in Roleplay", it would go to "Roleplay in Leaders")

Would you say - as I think, seen from the outside - that BOO has the perfect balance of "IDGAF" and "Let's DU IT" ?

Would you say - as I think, seen from the outside - that BOO has the perfect balance of "IDGAF" and "Let's DU IT" ?

I feel people saying "hah you leave because of Discord" just do not understand how much Moco invested himself into making the largest community-then-official server a fluid and collegial option of communication for the whole playerbase of Dual Universe, of communication with themselves and with NQ.
 
Yama started it, but Moco made it go on despite the tremendous conditions and stakes, and some opportunities he created were not given the chance to blossom.
 
As a Discord mod and a Novean, I understand his decision but I'll miss him.

I feel people saying "hah you leave because of Discord" just do not understand how much Moco invested himself into making the largest community-then-official server a fluid and collegial option of communication for the whole playerbase of Dual Universe, of communication with themselves and with NQ.
 
Yama started it, but Moco made it go on despite the tremendous conditions and stakes, and some opportunities he created were not given the chance to blossom.
 
As a Discord mod and a Novean, I understand his decision but I'll miss him.

I feel people saying "hah you leave because of Discord" just do not understand how much Moco invested himself into making the largest community-then-official server a fluid and collegial option of communication for the whole playerbase of Dual Universe, of communication with themselves and with NQ.
 
Yama started it, but Moco made it go on despite the tremendous conditions and stakes, and some opportunities he created were not given the chance to blossom.
 
As a Discord mod and a Novean, I understand his decision but I'll miss him.

Welcome back, Porco, long time no see. We missed you.
 
Careful though: as you can see, your ego is not without equal anymore around here...

Welcome back, Porco, long time no see. We missed you.
 
Careful though: as you can see, your ego is not without equal anymore around here...

By all means, please do: connect to Surrogate Pod "Lexikon", elevator down to platform level, leave through the hangar, go in the building on your left (west).
 
I just might set a Pod right there someday...

There's an art gallery and a reading promenade now, both under construction.
 
All contributions (writings, voxel arts, uploaded images) welcome !

The art gallery, now named "Eikona", has been built then rebuilt because why not.
 
In the aftermath of this clumsy, dumby-clumsy 0.23, Lexikon is currently enjoying an average weekly number of visitors of 0.0 (zero dot zero).
 
It doesn't matter. It remains here and so do I.

There's an art gallery and a reading promenade now, both under construction.
 
All contributions (writings, voxel arts, uploaded images) welcome !

Lexikon is open for visits, with 27 books currently available for reading (on demand, since I'm having technical difficulties displaying them all at once); come discover "The Riddle of Kyrium", "Mutations and Directions", "The First Days", "No Territory for Old Men" and more !

Welcome !

Beta officially started today so I made a new introductory text for DUSleepers.
 
Now for my two cents:
 
Beta is finally here, "with all its glory... and all its horror".
 
Although I am delighted to finally see the game blossom from one development stage to the next, I now experience a feeling of disappointment at certain decisions in notable divergence with, almost in betrayal of the Kickstarter era: in 2016, "Dual Universe" was promised to us as a game where players - and ONLY players - could "rebuild civilization" and I think everyone who participated in the Alpha was ready, determined even, to build everything from scratch, to remake a world in their image and give it to the newcomers, with its faults and its qualities, its pettinesses and its virtues. Harvesting resources, founding an industry, leaving Alioth and reaching the Moon, planting one's flag and imposing one's mark on the universe were to be pioneering challenges for us. In two words: "Emergent Gameplay".
 
We woke up in a world filled with already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income: WHO built all this Eden ?! Not us. We weren't given the occasion.
 
Beta was to be a simulation episode too, with a last wipe before the Release's awakening; instead we have a “soft launch” where player-produced content can be seen as “fraudulent” - in a game still plagued by bugs, exploits and unbalances - but will nonetheless be the permanent basis of their upcoming empires. The Sanctuary Moon was to be a protected place but devoid of resources: there are now minerals on the surface and soon underground, one less reason to make the effort, to take the risk of launching into space. And finally, the Arkship was to defiantly bury itself into the ground, vertically erected like a colossal beacon, the conduit for a signal of hope. We get an oversized laser pointer.
 
I know. It was a matter of facilitating the arrival of new, more casual players not necessarily won to the cause of the first Noveans' pioneering spirit, therefore encouraging subscriptions and finally opening up a source of regular income for NQ in this delicate period for start-ups and private investors. It was about presenting a "suitable face" to the streamers, lured in with a provend of beta keys and camera-robots to promote the game. And we had to be kicked out of Alioth early to spare the server load, even if the corresponding technology has been the spearhead of NQ's promotion since the beginning.
 
No worries: the game is not done and if there is much work left to do, it is on tracks thanks to the incredible efforts of Novaquark's teams. The long awaited Beta is here, it's great, we are now launched more or less "for good" after years of waiting, I dedicate all my best hopes to this game and I'm even certain this lore discrepancy will be assuaged in time by NQ; I'm also confident they'll know how to monitor and maintain this complex balance; mistakes are made, mistakes are mended.
 
But my awakening to Alioth, my first non-virtual steps as a Novean will forever leave me with a lightly bitter aftertaste.

"And They Shall Know No Bugs" (they probably will, though...)
 

Beta officially started today so I made a new introductory text for DUSleepers.
 
Now for my two cents:
 
Beta is finally here, "with all its glory... and all its horror".
 
Although I am delighted to finally see the game blossom from one development stage to the next, I now experience a feeling of disappointment at certain decisions in notable divergence with, almost in betrayal of the Kickstarter era: in 2016, "Dual Universe" was promised to us as a game where players - and ONLY players - could "rebuild civilization" and I think everyone who participated in the Alpha was ready, determined even, to build everything from scratch, to remake a world in their image and give it to the newcomers, with its faults and its qualities, its pettinesses and its virtues. Harvesting resources, founding an industry, leaving Alioth and reaching the Moon, planting one's flag and imposing one's mark on the universe were to be pioneering challenges for us. In two words: "Emergent Gameplay".
 
We woke up in a world filled with already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income: WHO built all this Eden ?! Not us. We weren't given the occasion.
 
Beta was to be a simulation episode too, with a last wipe before the Release's awakening; instead we have a “soft launch” where player-produced content can be seen as “fraudulent” - in a game still plagued by bugs, exploits and unbalances - but will nonetheless be the permanent basis of their upcoming empires. The Sanctuary Moon was to be a protected place but devoid of resources: there are now minerals on the surface and soon underground, one less reason to make the effort, to take the risk of launching into space. And finally, the Arkship was to defiantly bury itself into the ground, vertically erected like a colossal beacon, the conduit for a signal of hope. We get an oversized laser pointer.
 
I know. It was a matter of facilitating the arrival of new, more casual players not necessarily won to the cause of the first Noveans' pioneering spirit, therefore encouraging subscriptions and finally opening up a source of regular income for NQ in this delicate period for start-ups and private investors. It was about presenting a "suitable face" to the streamers, lured in with a provend of beta keys and camera-robots to promote the game. And we had to be kicked out of Alioth early to spare the server load, even if the corresponding technology has been the spearhead of NQ's promotion since the beginning.
 
No worries: the game is not done and if there is much work left to do, it is on tracks thanks to the incredible efforts of Novaquark's teams. The long awaited Beta is here, it's great, we are now launched more or less "for good" after years of waiting, I dedicate all my best hopes to this game and I'm even certain this lore discrepancy will be assuaged in time by NQ; I'm also confident they'll know how to monitor and maintain this complex balance; mistakes are made, mistakes are mended.
 
But my awakening to Alioth, my first non-virtual steps as a Novean will forever leave me with a lightly bitter aftertaste.

Beta officially started today so I made a new introductory text for DUSleepers.
 
Now for my two cents:
 
Beta is finally here, "with all its glory... and all its horror".
 
Although I am delighted to finally see the game blossom from one development stage to the next, I now experience a feeling of disappointment at certain decisions in notable divergence with, almost in betrayal of the Kickstarter era: in 2016, "Dual Universe" was promised to us as a game where players - and ONLY players - could "rebuild civilization" and I think everyone who participated in the Alpha was ready, determined even, to build everything from scratch, to remake a world in their image and give it to the newcomers, with its faults and its qualities, its pettinesses and its virtues. Harvesting resources, founding an industry, leaving Alioth and reaching the Moon, planting one's flag and imposing one's mark on the universe were to be pioneering challenges for us. In two words: "Emergent Gameplay".
 
We woke up in a world filled with already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income: WHO built all this Eden ?! Not us. We weren't given the occasion.
 
Beta was to be a simulation episode too, with a last wipe before the Release's awakening; instead we have a “soft launch” where player-produced content can be seen as “fraudulent” - in a game still plagued by bugs, exploits and unbalances - but will nonetheless be the permanent basis of their upcoming empires. The Sanctuary Moon was to be a protected place but devoid of resources: there are now minerals on the surface and soon underground, one less reason to make the effort, to take the risk of launching into space. And finally, the Arkship was to defiantly bury itself into the ground, vertically erected like a colossal beacon, the conduit for a signal of hope. We get an oversized laser pointer.
 
I know. It was a matter of facilitating the arrival of new, more casual players not necessarily won to the cause of the first Noveans' pioneering spirit, therefore encouraging subscriptions and finally opening up a source of regular income for NQ in this delicate period for start-ups and private investors. It was about presenting a "suitable face" to the streamers, lured in with a provend of beta keys and camera-robots to promote the game. And we had to be kicked out of Alioth early to spare the server load, even if the corresponding technology has been the spearhead of NQ's promotion since the beginning.
 
No worries: the game is not done and if there is much work left to do, it is on tracks thanks to the incredible efforts of Novaquark's teams. The long awaited Beta is here, it's great, we are now launched more or less "for good" after years of waiting, I dedicate all my best hopes to this game and I'm even certain this lore discrepancy will be assuaged in time by NQ; I'm also confident they'll know how to monitor and maintain this complex balance; mistakes are made, mistakes are mended.
 
But my awakening to Alioth, my first non-virtual steps as a Novean will forever leave me with a lightly bitter aftertaste.

Beta officially started today so I made a new introductory text for DUSleepers.
 
Now for my two cents:
 
Beta is finally here, "with all its glory... and all its horror".
 
Although I am delighted to finally see the game blossom from one development stage to the next, I now experience a feeling of disappointment at certain decisions in notable divergence with, almost in betrayal of the Kickstarter era: in 2016, "Dual Universe" was promised to us as a game where players - and ONLY players - could "rebuild civilization" and I think everyone who participated in the Alpha was ready, determined even, to build everything from scratch, to remake a world in their image and give it to the newcomers, with its faults and its qualities, its pettinesses and its virtues. Harvesting resources, founding an industry, leaving Alioth and reaching the Moon, planting one's flag and imposing one's mark on the universe were to be pioneering challenges for us. In two words: "Emergent Gameplay".
 
We woke up in a world filled with already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income: WHO built all this Eden ?! Not us. We weren't given the occasion.
 
Beta was to be a simulation episode too, with a last wipe before the Release's awakening; instead we have a “soft launch” where player-produced content can be seen as “fraudulent” - in a game still plagued by bugs, exploits and unbalances - but will nonetheless be the permanent basis of their upcoming empires. The Sanctuary Moon was to be a protected place but devoid of resources: there are now minerals on the surface and soon underground, one less reason to make the effort, to take the risk of launching into space. And finally, the Arkship was to defiantly bury itself into the ground, vertically erected like a colossal beacon, the conduit for a signal of hope. We get an oversized laser pointer.
 
I know. It was a matter of facilitating the arrival of new, more casual players not necessarily won to the cause of the first Noveans' pioneering spirit, therefore encouraging subscriptions and finally opening up a source of regular income for NQ in this delicate period for start-ups and private investors. It was about presenting a "suitable face" to the streamers, lured in with a provend of beta keys and camera-robots to promote the game. And we had to be kicked out of Alioth early to spare the server load, even if the corresponding technology has been the spearhead of NQ's promotion since the beginning.
 
No worries: the game is not done and if there is much work left to do, it is on tracks thanks to the incredible efforts of Novaquark's teams. The long awaited Beta is here, it's great, we are now launched more or less "for good" after years of waiting, I dedicate all my best hopes to this game and I'm even certain this lore discrepancy will be assuaged in time by NQ; I'm also confident they'll know how to monitor and maintain this complex balance; mistakes are made, mistakes are mended.
 
But my awakening to Alioth, my first non-virtual steps as a Novean will forever leave me with a lightly bitter aftertaste.

Greetings, fellow explorers, builders and settlers !  
   
 
Dual Universe Sleepers is a fansite presenting daily infos on your favorite game, along with (soon to come) fan productions such as an illustrated timeline and themed wallpapers.  
 
   
 
When the game goes live, D.U.S. will also form an informal network of observers within the galaxy, bent on collecting and recording knowledge and history. You can even join it right away without leaving any organization you already belong to.  
 
   
 
This is all in the "humble beginnings" stage, but will flesh out over time; any advice and participation is welcome !  
 
   
 
You'll find a weekly roundup on this thread every sunday, feel free to comment and suggest, as all of this is just taking shape.  
 
   
 
"As we go forward without hope of return, we sleep. And we dream."