Vyz Ejstu

Update:20/06/2018: Clarification about Necroposting in section III
 
Smalll update on the forum rules about Necroposting.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

With the recent E3 trailer, it might be a good time to discuss the topic here. And since it might just be a year away or closer.
 
 
Long story short, who's waiting for it? Or hasn't heard of it at all so far?
Who has reservations?
Who likes the general style and might want to copy things in DU?
 
What do you want to accomplish or play in the game?
 
I'm personally looking to get involved in the cop or corporate world and see where the journey takes me.
 
And you?

I'm still waiting for a Barry White cover!
 
Great episode as always! Keep the updates coming

For the month of May, it's finally here. Here's your "monthly" update from Ark Central, with a high volume of community created content showing this month.
 
 

Greetings,
 
this time the staff behind Oz had a chat about a topic that many hold dear. DAC, should they be lootable or not?
For your convenience you can follow this link. As always we thank you all for your time. 
 
Oz Team.

Notice: This primarily refers to the Tortuga project team - as such, employment or primary focus would be for that particular city project
 

»www.metropolice.agency
 
 
Hello there,
 
While not much has been going on, we still aim to fulfil our obligations to our partners once the time is right. But we can hardly do it alone.
 
Do you want to play a cop and maintain stability¹ in what will become a large urban environment, a sprawling city? Do you want to take responsibility? Do you want to contribute to a bigger project and society? Do you want to experience a job where you may never truly know what could happen next?  
Then all you have to do is express your interest here or via PM. A list will collect all willing participants and once more progress is made or when full recruitment or training may begin, you will receive a letter informing you about the next steps.
 
The best thing is that just like the Tortuga city project we intend to support, this idea is open to the public and not player organization exclusive, meaning that you can generally contribute despite having primary membership in another organization - as long as you are willing and able to commit time to the duties that will be expected of you on a weekly basis on average.
 
You can make it a full time job or a part time job. It's up to you. You are in control.
 
Other potential benefits² could later include:
 
Preferred selection (or discounts) in obtaining certain permits for shops, housing, etc. Tax reductions A stable income Diverse career options And more!  

The future awaits, but it does not wait for you forever
 
 
 
¹ The regulations and range of enforcement options - what you will be permitted to do on duty and what duties we will generally be given - will primarily be permitted and set by Tortuga city management - as such, they will likely be specified later on. How much personnel we can employ and what divisions will be created will depend on this first and foremost.
² Lists possibilities, not guarantees, as integration depth, (financial) expectations and potential benefits will be later decided by city management. If feasible, all employees will receive salary through private efforts of backing Corporations or if city tax funds are granted for paying personnel. For other aspects, see ¹

Stealing DACs (in the context of looting in the game) is not a real life crime. I've seen a lot of people say this and it's just plain false.
 
DACs are not cash equivalent as they cannot be converted back into real life money. If they could be converted back and forth then, yes, they would be considered currency and stealing them would constitute a real life crime. The in game economy would also be subject to all sorts of international currency laws which would make everything super messy (nothing like having to report your earnings in a videogame for real life taxes ). Once the customer pays for them, they turn into virtual, 'fake' property that is not covered by any real life laws. So long as the rules laid our in the game's EULA are not broken, people can do whatever they want with them with no consequences, including stealing or "scamming" them. They can be used for dollar-to-ingame-money comparisons based on their in-game selling price but that figure would just be for comparisons sake. 
 
As to whether or not DACs should be lootable, I say yes, but not immediately.
 
They should not be lootable until a system like EVE's redemption system can be implemented. Like many people who backed the kickstarted, I would be spawning in on day one with a nice fat stack of DACs and I don't want to lose them all the second I step out of the safe zone. 
 
In the long run, though, they should eventually be made lootable like PLEX in EVE. I don't think any of the arguments against this have much merit to them. With the redemption system in place, people who buy them could spawn them directly into the market where they were going to sell them with zero risk. Likewise, people who wanted to buy them for the gametime could buy them and activate them on the spot with zero risk as well.  Only the people who want to haul them around would have risk, and that's fine. DACs are going to very expensive in game by their very nature (that's worthy of an entire post in and of itself), so anyone who does DAC trading between the various trade hubs is going to be making obscene amounts of money off even small percentage differences in prices. Why wouldn't we want those people to have risk? (And if super rich players were smart they could still use arbitrage to avoid the risk of transporting it.) As to the argument that having DACs be lootable will lead to them only being traded in safe zones, and, possibly, that this will cause all the trade hubs to be in safe zones. Again, why is this a bad thing? For starters, safe zones will probably end up being major trade hubs anyways, depending on market destruction mechanics. It doesn't matter whether it's a billion dollars in ore or a billion dollars of DACs, if I'm trading high value items of any sort and market security is really such a concern, I'm probably going to do it in a safe zone. Additionally, the developers have stated that there will be multiple safe zones spread throughout the galaxy that would allow for there to major safe-zone market hubs in every region (region is kind of a loose term here but you get the picture).
 
For the other arguments, that lootable DACs will result in hatred or people quitting the game, I think that is unfounded. As NQ has said, we are all adults here (or at least we should be) and we should be able to manage risk. This is not a game for children. I'm reminded of the ever present argument in EVE over the concept of suicide ganking. Many people insist that ganking is driving people away from the game because they can't handle the danger. And yet, when CCP ran the numbers, it turned out that new players who were ganked within their first week of play had a much HIGHER retention rate than those didn't! The sense of risk gave value to the experience. Now I'm not saying that everyone start ganking each other all the time, but there is a difference between reasonable protecting people from unreasonable risk and unreasonably protecting people from reasonable risk. It makes the game boring and people go play something more exciting (like getting ganked in EVE haha).
 
DACs should be unlootable until a proper redemption system can be implemented. After that, I see no reason why they shouldn't be made lootable.
 
 
 
EDIT: In response to some other points I have seen made in this thread.
 
1) When people are talking about "looting" DACs they seem to use the words "steal" and "loot" interchangeably, and I think this is causing some confusion. What people are talking about with have "lootable" DACs doesn't mean that someone can just come a long and yank them out of your pocket, or steal them from your account while you are offline. What it means is that DACs would be treated like any other good in the game. If you are carrying them in your ship and it gets destroyed, people can loot them from the wreck along with whatever else you were carrying. Whether you are for or against lootable DACs, we all need to be on the same page about the specifics of what we are arguing over. I support lootable DACs but not the ability to just "steal" them from anyone.
 
2) Some people have argued that, in order to solve the DAC Problem, other items be made more valuable so as to "distract" people from DACs. This isn't really feasible since all high value items will still follow the same laws of supply and demand that DACs will. Some will trade them, some will use them, and some will hoard them. The main difference with DACs is the fact that they are tied to a real life currency value (although that does not make them a RL currency equivalent as some have suggested). Since they are tied into a real life value, they are less vulnerable to price manipulation on a global scale. In addition, the value of DACs will naturally rise with inflation rate of the in game economy, making them a good option for long term investment.
 
3) Some people have stated that since DACs are intended to be a way for people to pay for membership by playing, or skip grinding by paying for a DAC and trading that for in game money, people should only be able to trade them once or some other limiting factor that would prevent people from actively stockpiling/trading DACs. What they don't realize is that this would create huge problems for precisely those people who want to use it for its "intended purpose". Imagine if people could only trade DACs once, so the person who bought it in game had to use it. If more people bought DACs to sell than there were people trying to buy them, the people who paid real money will have essentially wasted their money as they won't be able to sell the DACs, or they will have to sell them so cheaply that it won't be worth it. Imagine the other way around, for some reason a bunch of people try to buy DACs off the market at the same time and there just aren't enough DACs to go around. Two things will happen there: first, prices are going to skyrocket, and second, no matter how high prices go, not everyone who wants one will get one. By having a market that can resell DACs, both buyers and sellers are protected. Sellers know they can always sell their DACs when they want to, and buyers know that they can always buy one when they want to. The price will also be kept in check by the supply/demand and will remain relatively steady. Again, look at the PLEX market in EVE Online. This isn't really an argument for or against lootability, more an argument against putting a limit on how many times DACs can be traded.

i had a funny feeling i would regret involvement with this topic.  it really does bring out some very strong opinions and emotions which is understandable but I don't recall anyone being attacked.  I think I'm the newest person here and I certainly don't know how things should work, but I do enjoy reading (and sometimes taking part in the discussions) regarding the early evolution of this project.  There's a lot of knowledgeable and experienced ppl in here (much more than myself) and its interesting to see all the different viewpoints.
 
i'll elaborate on a couple things then i'll excuse myself from this topic forever more.  How do you justify DAC's existence if you want full emergent gameplay?  You don't.  We are discussing how we deal with DAC's being in the game (as a done deal) and how it should be handled.  That is a decision by NQ, for better or worse.  I would like to think that no one associated with this forum would be using the DAC shortcomings for stealing.  Maybe there are scumbags among us but personally I have had a very positive experience with everyone I've met in here so far, but here was the point regarding a lootable DAC:  No one wants to take anyone's lunch money so they cannot play DU next month.  Jeez, at least I hope not.
 
Buy your DAC, put it safely away (NQ needs to ensure this is possible), and use the dam thing to cover your monthly fee.  End of Story right?   However....  if you are going to use the DAC for another purpose (actually I can think of many) such as transporting a bunch of it somewhere so you can make a huge profit with another corporation or player... then yes, imo it's fair game.  
 
I hope that no one gets too stressed or assumes the worst regarding gameplay ideas and opinions.  If so, then I will bet that was not the intent.  Have a good evening everyone.  

Uh oh, mistake alert! Hang on, a team of highly trained monkeys is on the case.
 
There, done, now people can tell us apart
 

 
Oh, right, welcome to the community, have fun, Warlden. I also played SWTOR a bit but at one point, it stopped really drawing me in.
 

Hi everyone!
 
Here is the dedicated thread to discuss about the June DevBlog that has been posted today on our website here.
Let us know what you think of the upcoming changes!
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

True, its different because we can assume the press being consistently the same people/ships.
I agree I think such a sign would potentially be a lot more dangerous.
 
If I was a warlord I would blow up them convoys. 
Why take the chance? Why let traders pass with goods to a planet and potentially weaken my position of power in the conflict? There are many good reasons to respect a "red cross" but there are just as many good reasons not to respect it. 
 

I see a potential issue with execution of the idea.
 
It is painting symbols. On ships. We do not seem to talk about livery or or color pattern but something even less visible on a ship. We are not talking about more slow paced warfare on the ground where the target may be in good visual range.
We talk about space where engaging or spotting distance may be vastly higher with space often being the background.
 
In addition to the potential ineffectiveness comes aforementioned abuse, potentially, and people (some) being wary of this.
 
So what might make vastly more sense or be more effective in more encounters without or in addition to a fitting symbol?
 
The right ID tags or group affiliations you can or may see or scan for later on. Perhaps without the need for visual confirmation.
 
So what do you think about that? Easier to verify and spot.

How about this symbol then, placed on the hull at the closest point to main reactor or equivalent. (not mine, found on google)

I just found out about this last week and I'm really interested to see where this goes.  I've played a game that appears similar to this but it is older and quite a bit slower in development.  I'm looking forward to how this game progresses.  My last two major prebuys have been major disasters but they were full releases.  I really am looking forward to third time is a charm situation.

'
Calling all Hauliers. 
The Heimera Trade Xchange will be servicing a growing demand for logistics in Dual Universe with progressive updates to the game. Heavy and express delivery; refuelling services and personnel transport within and outside of Band of Outlaws are the current responsibilities of our logistics team. If you believe you have the piloting skills to fly a variety of crafts and enjoy flying in general, send in an application and join our dedicated squad of Alioth freighters on our Discord server and in the game.
 
Until then, you are welcome to our server here to ship your goods or register your location with the HTX for simplified gameplay. 
 
 
Spirits, Lavender or Onyx? 
 
Take that Step.
'

'
Calling all Hauliers. 
The Heimera Trade Xchange will be servicing a growing demand for logistics in Dual Universe with progressive updates to the game. Heavy and express delivery; refuelling services and personnel transport within and outside of Band of Outlaws are the current responsibilities of our logistics team. If you believe you have the piloting skills to fly a variety of crafts and enjoy flying in general, send in an application and join our dedicated squad of Alioth freighters on our Discord server and in the game.
 
Until then, you are welcome to our server here to ship your goods or register your location with the HTX for simplified gameplay. 
 
 
Spirits, Lavender or Onyx? 
 
Take that Step.
'

Are you a creator? Let us together!
 
 
Our Service branch is responsible for a broad spectrum of tasks, including urban design and construction work. In service to the general public, we create and maintain vital urban infrastructure - and provide many other services in the areas of Security and Science on that note. As not everyone has to always try to invent the wheel anew, we bolster existing projects such as »Tortuga City and stand ready to support it in the future. We have successfully done similar work in the past by connecting areas - and thus, people.
 
We are currently looking to bolster our ranks. If you look for a big challenge in an ever changing international workplace and small team and do not mind taking on responsibility for various projects or people, then contact us at your earliest convenience so that we can create together.
 
More information:
 

 
 

Thank you. 

'Clear the cache on your web browser. That might explain why you can view it on your phone, but not on your computer.
Cheers.
'

I'm kinda happy again to have picked a "Corporation" as organization entity.
 
While a lot more is possible and feasible, I think it was a good decision even though it could be considered "semi-dictatorship". What the board says goes, but you can still implement "democratic aspects" on many levels without necessarily being "slow" or "complex" by design. In the end, what may work or be good in reality does not necessarily have to do so in this game - even if intentions are noble.
 
I currently like what I have. Dynamic and shifting; be your own "gov" or work under one (on their turf). We also do not have to cover many positions or expectations you'd see or need in a classic democracy, depending on how you define it and whatnot.

Dual Universe Withdrawal Symptoms.
 
They are real.
 
Send help.

It happens every single time: the ship leaves the atmosphere, the engines go from roar to purr, all become dark except for the lights of the controls and the stars over the windshield... And then I hear it.
 
Space.

Singing to me.
 
I have a fever and the only prescription is more Dual Universe.

Thank you for this colorful news, I'll make sure Ark Central and DUHS also know about it.