Dinkledash

The strech goal seems to be impossible by now sadly. Maybe NQ will continue the crowdfunding after the kickstarter for the CvsC feature. I think that is an important part of the game that should be tested at the alpha/beta stages!

Likelyhood is that unless some other media picks this up, it's not going to reach its stretch goal. I am glad however that we've made it this far. Only relief can come after this wait.

Seems to be a trent to tell all about " I've withdrawn my money from KS,"
 
I ewer been so trend'ish. So I did double my pledge.
-k-

The trouble with a game company trying to be really transparent, is that sometimes the unfinished pre-alpha looks like an unfinished pre-alpha.
 
This video is pretty much what I expected, except I wasn't expecting multi-player-construction to even be in their pre-alpha. It isn't pretty, but very effective.

The most important ships to build in the beginning will be prospectors designed for the home planet.  I don't know if we'll be able to mount scanners directly on ships or if we'll have to get out of the ships in order to scan.  The design of the ship will depend on the range of the scanners if they are ship mounted.  We may also be able to build drone-mounted scanners so you get to a location then you deploy your drones and they run a pattern around your ship and draw a map for you... a lot will come down to the instrumentation we can build, the capabilities of the elements and so forth.  I know that mining itself is going to be a human-only activity as they don't want to allow ships or drones do it since that would result in planet-wide devestation.  
 
If we have the option of refining ore using a ship-borne refinery, we may have a prospector-refinery design so we don't want to fill our inventory with unrefined resources.  I know that we store resources in our nanopacks but I don't know what the inventory capacity will be.  Maybe we'll have room for a whole day's mining on our back.  Maybe your inventory fills up after half an hour and you need to head back, in which case having cargo capacity on your prospector ship will be very valuable.
 
I've read that there will be different scanners for different materials.  If these can be mounted shipboard, it may be convenient to have the full array of scanners available in the ship.  It may be that a crew of prospectors need to work together, one on each type of scanner, which would result in a much larger ship.  Or maybe we'll be able to script the scanners together so they fire in sequence and we can build a scanner map showing different kinds of resources.  We may want a ship to run the scans then land and send out vehicles with their own cargo capacities that the miners drive to their targets while the ship moves to scan the next hex.  
 
It all comes down to the business rules are for scanning for, mining, refining (if needed) and storing resources, and what elements are available.  Will we know the depth of the resources when we detect them?  Will there be deep resources that we have to dig down to even be able to scan for?  Will we have to have ships that can drop off a mining camp with basic defensive systems, then run back to base to fill up with security forces, then return with a load of ore... so the ship may not be specialized at all.
 
Basically I'm saying what's important in my philosophy as a designer and scripter will be building vehicles that respond to rules, conditions, economic realities and the military situation.  I think it's important to consider what will be possible and come up with some basic ideas for a variety of conditions so that as we discover the rules, capabilities and conditions, we'll be in a position to come up with efficient and cost-effective designs.  I'm going to want to be able to quote a Return on Investment for the equipment I design, for example, so that people will know what they're buying. 

As far as visual stealth goes, camouflage paint will be the most basic type.  Spaceships in deep space could be painted black, for example, and tanks meant for desert fighting could be tan and brown.  We'd eventually be able to make active camouflage that checks the terrain you're on and changes color to match, and the quality of the camo will depend on the quality of the scripts (and possibly the quality of the computer the script is running on, how many scripts are running, etc.)  There's also just hiding underwater or underground.  Giving how easy it is to dig in this game, I expect subterranian warfare would be an especially effective tactic. 
 
For electronic stealth, it's dependent on the method being used to sense targets.  
 
Active sensors like radar and sonar send out a pulse and can tell you the size, range and direction of a target based on how that pulse gets reflected back.  Materials, coatings and even the angles at which the waves impact the target determine the detection range and accuracy of these sensors.  Countermeasures such as chaff (aluminum foil strips) can confuse or dampen these signals.  If you are using radar or sonar, you yourself are easily detected.
 
Passive sensors include infrared sensors, radio direction finders and hydrophones.  You look for electromagnetic spectrum and audio emissions of targets.  That's why your fleet maintains radio silence.  These sensors make no emissions so are excellent for remote, hidden observation posts and/or for use on stealthy vehicles.  They can be mitigated by low heat and quiet drive systems (which would generally be lower performance) and shielding of electronic components (which adds weight) as well as noise and light discipline (don't use flashlights at night, don't use your voice chat when you're waiting in ambush.)

In my opinion, there shouldn't be any game-mechanic penalties for murder, however there should be a chance of losing skills when dying so RNs aren't used as teleporters and folks don't Leroy Jenkins all the time.  Crime and punishment are typically handled by governments.  The issue is different than real life as people come back and can sometimes identify their killer; however there should be a game mechanic that allows the killer to be identified through analysis of the crime scene.  Perhaps the RN stores a video of the moments before someone is killed, but there's a chance that the image gets corrupted that increases the further the distance between the death and the RN.  There could also be black market tech that increases the odds that the image will be scrambled.  
 
Of course if the person who gets killed got a look at the killer before the resurrect, then they can report them to the cops or put out a bounty on their own, but if we're responsible for building the civilization, it's basically the wild west until we get players who are willing to be the government and law enforcement.  Government and law is what make civilization possible... say you kill someone in the Lunar Republic and you hop over the border to the Solar Empire.  Is there an extradition treaty?  Will Lunar authorities raid across the border to grab the criminal?  Will they hire a bounty hunter?  Will the victim hire a bounty hunter, or perhaps register a grievance and seek to settle the score personally (and legally according to the law of the Lunar Republic?)  

You'll have two things in our favor, One, this is a voxel based game on a MMO scale and thus building will require a lot more resources or, probably rather, gathering time making it inefficient to trying to "troll" someone.
 
Secondly you may purchase/craft a Territory Unit and simply claim a Territory Tile as your own and set rights and duties accordingly - deciding who may build on your tile. This will most probably be the goal of every lone wolf or small group of people wanting to set up a place of their own.

I only did that because you called me son while acting like a brat.

You can probably build a space station right next to it for defense/social aspects. And keep in mind that stargates are going to be introduced later into the game (like 3-6 months, maybe longer) so the existing orgs will have lot's of resources to spare to build them. They will be expensive but well within the budgets of decent sized groups. This initial confinement of everyone to the same system for the first months of the game will help to boost the economy and let people get on their feet before the mad dash to new worlds.

How do you think I know your age?  I'm not clairvoyant either.  I checked your profile.  I object to being disrespected and you turn that into me trying to belittle you by referring to your age?  That is just so internet.
 
DU is a game where content will be player-driven, EVE is not, and the alpha team is going to have a fair amount to say in the business rule development as DU progresses.  We're 2 years out of general release at this point.  Nothing is set in stone except for voxel technology and the backstory.  There are actually some benighted people who don't like the EVE skill system.  If we get to create our own equipment don't we have to be able to create the skills to use that equipment?  If people want to have in-game education, to be able to build schools, to have a training skill, that does not make them wrong.  Or braindead.
 
So you think that the transfer of the experiences directly to the brain is the same as actually doing something?  Fine.  I don't like that, but you're not wrong to like that.  I'm not suggesting grinding unicorns, I'm suggesting spending 10 minutes a day using a skill in order to increase your learning rate. 
 
How does one automatically learn when offline?  Are you teleported back to the arkship so you can plug in?  What if you're on some far off planet?  How do you access the arkship library?  I can see how you might learn a skill that's been downloaded to your brain and needs to be processed, but how do you access other skills that you want to learn?  Are skills just being broadcasted through the universe?
 
If you have to buy expensive implants, that's fine, but does that have to be the only way to learn a skill?  Can't you also learn by doing?  Or by being taught?
 
This is a roleplaying game.  If you want to minimax every game mechanic, you are free to do so, but the point of any game is to have fun.  If you think that achieving maximum exploitation of a game is the way you express your intellect, go for it.  If that's how you have fun, good for you.  I think that having good relationships with other players, creating a beautiful environment and writing cool code to make SLI products the best on the market is where I'm going to find my fun.  So good luck, we'll see how the rules actually get written over the next two years and hopefully be part of the greatest game in history.  

I don't think we're getting off on the right foot here.  I'm twice your age, so please don't call me son.  And asking if someone is braindead for making a suggestion in a thread about making suggestions is kind of rude.  I'm not being a jerk for you.
 
Perhaps the training system is inspired by EVE, but that could just be the starting point.  The business rules for skills training haven't even been written, so I'm pretty sure the alpha team will be in a position to make suggestions.  I've seen several organizations with mission statements that include education.  Unless that education is entirely devoted to player skills (how to build stuff, for example) then I am fairly certain that people will indeed want to apprentice to the master roboticist so they can learn how to build and repair higher tech mechs faster.  Personal interactions in order to get training create roleplaying opportunities.
 
I don't like the idea of training that is so passive that you don't even have to be online to train.  Uploading a skill directly to your brain is like reading and watching videos about blacksmithing and then claiming to be a master when you've never lifted a hammer.  You don't know the feel the hammer in your hand, the sound of properly tempered metal, the smell of forge, the heat on your face... there's a lot more to a skill than book knowledge.  But that's just me.  Maybe you want training to be fully automated, just plug your brain in to the ark and magic happens Demolition Man style.  That would certainly be easier to code, but it would shut the door on folks who want there to be a value in experience and effort.
 
So... when you're training, do you set up a queue for training?  Get all the level 1 and level 2 skills you want queued up, log off for a week and come back and you're as skilled as people who played 80 hours.  I just don't care for that.

I was just watching the devs build an underground area and was toying with the idea that an attack from an enemy org underground could be way more devastating because would you even think of being attacked from below like that?
 
Then those fusion reactors would, for the most part, be only protected by small infantry turrets.  Game over! 
 
 
 
 
But on the topic of renewable energy, I agree that using solar power for military installations would be terrible but for low-end farming and mining perhaps more beneficial.  Just gotta protect em with the right amount of defenses!

One thing all these organizations are going to have to agree on is a method for identifying members of organizations, such as personal or vehicular transponders.  We'll also need to create a forum for negotiating multilateral agreements to govern commerce and warfare, and to create a framework for dealing effectively with pirates.  Basically, an non-aligned militarized space patrol who will stay out of registered conflicts between organizations and will focus on violent crimes in unclaimed territories and deep space, funded by a fixed percentage of organizational income.

I NEED TO HAVE A CAPE LIKE LANDO CALRISSIAN IF I'M PART OF A TRADE ORG THO!
 
 
 
This wasn't part of the deal...

For the love of god, please tell me that we wont have to wear those droopy wraps around our right forearms, and left boot as seen in the character creation video from kickstarter update # 18. That just looks stupid on a space uniform ... it's something some fashion nut has put on it ...please let us remove it.  These are "Space Uniforms" , not some new fall fashion review.
 
Thanks
 
 
Oh, and no, I'm not gonna threaten to pull my kickstarter pledge if I don't get my way   LOL

It would be best if we were able to engineer components out of subcomponents each of which have particular properties, methods and interfaces. For example, a rocket engine could consist of a fuel tank, fuel pumps, high pressure piping, fuel injectors, a combustion chamber, an afterburner assembly, a nozzle and control actuators. Without each of these sub components, you can't build an engine. But if you developed a superior fuel injector, you'd have a superior rocket engine, perhaps one which is more fuel efficient, while a superior nozzle could improve manuverability, a superior combustion chamber could improve acceleration, superior tanks and pumps could increase the pressure at which you store fuel and that increases range, and superior piping could reduce weight. That way you'd have more than the Mark 1, Mark 2 and Mark 3 engines. You could have a company that makes rocket engines that are lightweight and high maneuverability for combat craft while another company makes engines that are fuel efficient and reliable for long haul cargo ships. The new Zykos-V fighter is equipped with a Motokrafwerks F-300 rocket motor with the highest vector-thrust capability of any commercially available engine! Subcomponents for major components could greatly enhance the individuality of the designs produced by players. It wouldn't be the coolest looking starship is the best, it would be deeper than that.

I have increased my pledge to include an alpha key as my reward. 

I have begun learning the LUA codding language that will be used in Dual Universe for scripting/coding of AI.  I should be fluent by the release of the game.

About the only thing we can do is create transponders so we can recognize our own organization's ships.  I think IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) may be one of the most important things on the interstellar agenda to keep trigger happy Imperials from vaporizing incoming unarmed traders.  And of course, stolen or hacked transponders would be used by smugglers, spies, possibly even entire fleets flying a false flag.  Like they could be in real life. So yeah, we're going to want to have in-game databases with registered ships, verified transponder codes for those ships that may be changed periodically (if a ship gets stolen and you change codes weekly and the pirates don't know it, they'll have the old code) personnel and passenger manifests... there'll be people who's job is security making sure you are who you say you are.  And if you can fool them, you get to make the Kessel Run in three parsecs in order to get the spice smuggled past the Navigators Guild blockade or whatever.

1) CvC
2) Survival - colonization without a survival element seems rather less of a desperate situation than it should be
3) Alien/hostile biomes which require life support/terraforming
4) Animals - livestock, alien and bioengineering
5) Weather - very difficult but would greatly enhance immersion
6) Moving parts in elements
7) Player customization
8) In game voice
9) Emotes and gestures

I think the standings issue also brings up the issue of being in multiple organizations. How do people know which organization people are in? In most games (EVE included) there is a sort of ticker name that is displayed along with the character's name, but that can't work if people are in many different organizations. Say someone is a member of a neutral trade group and also of a more combat oriented group, and that someone else (who is an enemy of the combat group but an ally of the trade group) runs into this person. How do they know which group this person is acting as? Are they the neutral trader, or the hostile combatant? And will that be the same the next time the person is encountered? 
 
I suppose this might encourage a policy involving "follow the worst standings" but surely that would cause problems of its own (such as limiting the ability of neutral groups to function, or disincentivising membership in multiple groups ).

Why does it even matter? I hate the idea of a standings system that players don't make themselves (a.k.a Intel and Communication Units).
 
***Just roleplay it***
 
It's an RPG first before it's a FPS or 4x Grand Strat, and emergent gameplay before that - NQ isn't meant to be doing your work for you.