AzureSkye

Think more generic: an element that can DU deep space scanning. It's bulky and expensive so it makes sense to put it in ground based observatories or space stations. And eventually form a part of deep space exploration ships.
 
+1 on the idea.

The more risk and danger you introduce to the game, the more it becomes an "ultra-hardcore PVP game", which does not seem to be what NQ are aiming for.
 
There is an audience for that kind of game play in an MMO, but it's a small one. The design that NQ has shown us so far indicates that they plan on appealing to a wider audience. They probably need a wider audience, DU is a subscription game after all, and it's not going to survive with a few thousand players...

Quanta (and skills) are the only way in DU of "measuring" playtime and advancement / progression. A newbro won't have any skills nor quanta while a veteran player has lots of skills and (hopefully, if he's smart enough) lots of quanta. Those are the only two things that give players a sense of "I'm a longterm player - I can do stuff which a newbro can't do (that easily)".
 
Living in UA is already dangerous enough:
- you may lose your base at any time
- you may be killed and lose all items on person at any time
- you may lose your ship when you're offline
 
You may live far from the next ASA/MSA (several hours) because you want those sweet sweet rare resources and have absolutely no chance of hoarding your hard earned money there. A blob appears and kills your ships, your bases and loots everything you got there - possibly the whole quanta stack of your whole organization. After that many would leave DU - quite rightfully so imho.
 
And no, banks are no option there either. Every bank so far I've seen in Eve was a scam. Every. Single. One. It might work out for a month or 5 years - but in the end someone scams all the people. Be it because they changed leadership, accepted a new director (who was a spai and infiltrated them for years) or because they're fighting over some petty thing and someone gets pissed.
Don't get me wrong: scams should be allowed, such thing adds a lot of drama, gameplay and makes players think before they do stupid things (well, mostly....).
But I don't think ppl will stay to play DU when some bank director decides to run with all your money - or you lose it to some invading force.
When quanta are unlootable then you still lose EVERYTHING you have - but as a vet you can (more or less) easily replace most things.
Even EVE didn't go that route - quite rightfully so.
 
But I don't get why banks need lootable quanta to begin with - make it a thing not to store your quanta but (as in RL) loan ppl. Use the money you get to invest, trade, build and sell and then give it back to ppl with some interest. 
 
 

This will be a proposed solution to a problem that NovaQuark has thus far decided not to create: losing money (that is, in-game currency: Quanta) upon death of a player. Let's dive into it.
 

 
The Problem
If my sources are correct, NovaQuark has stated before that such items as DACs, Blueprints, Territory Control Units, Resurrection Nodes, and Quanta will not be lost upon death. Most of these items I have listed are justifiably non-lose-able; they are highly rare and valuable or, in some cases, unique items that would dramatically affect the total universal supply of these items. However, that last one, Quanta, seems not to belong on that list. Quanta will be as common as dirt, and the entire economy of DU will circulate around it. It is not rare, and it useful purely as a medium of exchange. So it seems to me that, like any other item, at least some percentage of Quanta should be lost by a player if he/she dies/is killed. A further incentive to encourage safe civilization building practices, of course. And a mechanic to facilitate looting of money, which is really the end goal of most looters. After all, in real life, should you be killed or rendered unconscious, any cash you may be carrying is easy pickings.
 
However, you might say, if a player dies of non-PVP causes, doesn't that create a currency sink? If a player were particularly deep-pocketed, it could even have a significant impact on the universal economy. Surely, this is a problem that we are better off avoiding?
 
The Attempt at a Solution
Allow me the privilege of tickling your economic fancies. We all know, of course, that NQ plans on implementing market bots/non-player-buy-orders initially, in order to inject some currency into the infant economy of the early game. Now let's take that a step further.
 
A player dies, drops random x% of Quanta. First, to facilitate looting, most of his inventory (including that Quanta) will have dropped. In most looting cases, looters will immediately snatch up these items and continue along their merry ways. If it is a non-PVP death (ex. taking too high of a fall, crashing a spaceship), presumably those items will just disappear after x amount of time. But wait! We can't just have Quanta dropping through a wormhole into another (triple?) universe. Oh the humanity economy! 
 
So here is what I propose: instead of vanishing like those other inventory contents, Quanta will be whisked away into one of those nifty market bots that will be present at the beginning of the game to inject currency. These bots will purchase items from sellers on the universal market, thus recirculating the money back into the economy. 
 
Extension
Of course, this all hinges on NQ's willingness to spend development time on this feature, and how to manage the balance between immersion and practicality (there are no market bots in the real world, but there are institutions installed to regulate the economy). This competes against the benefits of such a feature to the game: reality (it makes sense that you should lose money upon a death, even if temporary), the ability to loot money (for all the pirates and scavengers and outlaws), and indeed, the possibility of banking (who would bank money that is perfectly safe in a wallet, save for interest on deposits?)
 
 
Therefore, discuss.

Industrialists will have billions of quanta 'on them'. Pretty sure loosing that would put people of playing DU, i know i would rethink being in game if it was so.
 
Now if you think of quanta as digital, not physical, like most money is today, then having no quanta drop makes sense.

Only people that can be very unhappy about it are cowards who are afraid of attacking manned bases. Those that can only succeed by abusing the fact that it's a game, and other people have real life outside of it.
 
IMO FFU should have proportional cost (both initial and maintenance) to the protected area.
Something like 1s of mining for day worth of 10m2 protection. So for 20m radius shield you need ~2 minutes of mining fuel per day. For 200m -> ~200 minutes.
It would still make bigger shields more economical, because protected volume rise to the power of 3, while cost to the power of 2.
 
There will be enough opportunities for unexpected attack: against ships, miners, explorers, fields (if they'll have realistic sizes shielding them won't be economical), ect.

Not entirely correct, there is no "barrier" you cross to enter a construct, rather the construct you are attached to is determined by raycasting from your character downwards. The first object that the ray hits determines what construct you are attached to. That's a simplistic way of looking at it, but you can see it illustrated in the video I posted above. 
 
With that, the engine can determine what frame of reference your character should have relative to the construct that it is attached to.
 
Technically everything in the game is a type of construct, from planets to asteroids to ships, they just operate differently (i.e. you can't move an asteroid by pushing it through space). 
 
 

I quite like this idea, however I'm a strong believer in the "First Sale" doctrine. Once an object is sold, it should be freely modifiable by any further purchasers. 
To wit: I love the idea of having Deltas, however I hate permissions preventing modifications.
 
I think Blue Prints only need to have a Master/Copy designation. Masters can produce both Copies and more Masters. Copies can only produce the construct.
 
Additionally, Deltas should be able to be made from any other Blue Print, but should still be dependent upon the original. The dependency should nest for each Delta made from another Delta. If someone has several Master Deltas, they should be able combine them together to make a new Master Delta. If someone has both the Original Master and Master Deltas, they should be able to combine those together to make a new Master.

I actually like that idea. Use them to survey the sky to get positional data about new planets.
Planet bound telescopes could be easier to build, but only yield ridimentary data about those planets like type, radius and possible moons.
Spacebound telescopes could yield way more infos like the whole solar system, asteroids, possible resources and much more.
Also ppl could use ingame skills to enhance the telescope or speed up the process, or a guy with certain skills could also solve a minipuzzle/minigame to find new planets.
 
:+1: for that idea, it could really be a good an emergent way for surveying the sky

Yeah, that's the usual response: "The game must be very "realistic", except it mustn't have the boring parts of RL that make up 90% of our daily lives"
 
Cities in RL exist for reasons that cannot be duplicated in an MMO. In RL, people live in cities because it's the most likely place to find work (within a reasonable travel distance) and/or a mate. Neither of those needs exist in an MMO. The need to socialise in an MMO is easily met by a voice chat channel, there's no need for physical proximity to other players. Global chat takes the place of going to a bar and chatting to strangers.
 
In RL, industry clusters around cities mainly because it's the best way to gain access to a big pool of labour, and because there's some economic benefit in being closer to the dozens of other industries that supply them with things they need. None of those reasons apply in MMO's.
 
That's why MMO's have to provide specific (usually artificial) incentives to encourage players to concentrate together in the game world. Players are usually highly mobile, and they're playing because they want fun action, not because they want to RP an office cleaner on nightshift.
 
In MMO's, players don't need to commute to work every day, or sleep 6 hours every night, or worry about freezing to death if they can't pay the heating bills in winter. In MMO's, players don't go home every night and watch some TV after a hard days questing... 
 
In MMO's, cities are mostly the equivalent of RL shopping malls, players go there briefly when they need to buy stuff. Then they leave.
 

Who says we can't create a themepark in the sandbox? Let's DU it.

It comes as no surprise that everyone here is a fan of "sandbox" games, lol
 
However, history has shown us that "sandbox" games just don't appeal to the vast majority of players. Everyone of us will have their own pet explanation for why that has been the case in the past, and why it will be "different" with DU.
 
But I don't think it will be any different at all, actually. To thrive in a sandbox, you have to be creative and self-motivated. You cannot sit back and just consume the entertainment provided by the devs. The vast majority of gamers want just that: they want to be entertained and given clear goals to attain. And it mustn't take too much time to get there...
 

I'd imagine that power needs (i.e. electricity supply) can quite effectively be used to organically create settlements and eventually cities.
 
If a large power generator is much more efficient to run than a small one, the economic benefit will naturally draw people together.
 
Money talks...

To have a somewhat imersive experience in Dual Universe we definitely need to see cities. But why exactly would people create cities in DU if just use a vast amount of resources without any real benefit except for showing off?
 
Normally city planning depends on  a lot of different factors, like the environment, available resources, especially food, the condition of the ground, expected industries etc. Those are mostly things that wont work in DU. On the other hand, building cities in DU has quite a lot of disadvantages, like being target for raiders, warmongers or just griefplayers. So without any real benefit or need to create cities we will at most have very few large organization building and maintaining a city as HQ and maybe one or two trading hubs. Mostly we'll see well hidden factories and bases which are statistically placed across the planets with nearly no clustering.
 
There are two possible ways to facilitate cities. One is giving artificial benefits like production bonus or similar things, i wont advocate that as it is unrealistic and just shows a lack of creativity in the game design. The second way is giving realistic incentives. The only incentives that work on larger scales in a mmorpg are economic or security benefits or needs. Social or educational facilities can be mostly ignored (there could be University-Type elements that increase the speed of accumulating xp for the first 20% or something of the skilltree, with which organizations can cater to new players, but that wont be a real incentive for creating a city).
 
In my mind there are three mechanics which would directly create the need for clustering buildings on a small area:
 
1. Powergrid
The first suggestion is, that all functional elements (Doors, electronics etc.) require electricity. Standard, small sized elements would need a marginal amount of power so, that a small generator that can easily be installed in every ship/building is sufficient to support them. More advanced facilities like factories, Elements with strong supporting effects (something like the University for example, or greenhouses), military elements (planetary turrets, shields, sensor units ...) however should have an exponential increase of the power required. Factory units for example should require enough power, that no stacking of small generators can support them.
To support those power hungry elements players can build power plant elements which are extremely large on scale, like 64³m³. They would support buildings within a certain radius with a set amount of power and to increase that radius you could create power-relay stations. What does this do for city building? If players want to run a factory or other facilities they need to create a power plant. If a single power plant generates enough electricity to support several factories, then the economic way of action would be creating enough factories within the vicinity of a power plant to  effectively use the generated power. A large cluster of factories in turn needs military protection as it is a nice target for raiders, thus we have some kind of city growth. At the same time owners of those power plants could rent space in the effective radius for players which can afford to create a factory, but not the required power plant.
 
This can be extended to every kind of large scale element which would be nice to have in a city, for example if we want a space port in the city. The simplest way would be to just create some flat areas for ships to land on. But what about quality of life services like refuelling or rearing constructs? Those actions can take ages. If we had large scale elements like a repair Dock, which repairs damaged ships in the vicinity if activated or refuelling stations, those can save a lot of time to players. Elements like that would also require a lot of power, thus the need for a power plant in the vicinity.
 
In short, if every advanced element has a big size and a large power requirement, coupled with the need of power plants, we would by default see clusters of buildings which can be called cities.
 
2. Resources
We can see in some videos how the ground is removed with a tool, its fast, efficient and effortless. if we can mine resources in this way, then DU players will be like a big locust swarm, run across the surface of a planet, scanning and within hours mining all interesting resources. But a big influence on city-building is the need to create a permanent structure in specific places, thus mining resources should definitely not be near-instant. Optimally mining out a big underground ore vein should take years if done by hand or several months when done with elements for mining. If we have long term mining then locations get a certain economic and strategic importance. If an organization finds a large vein of a rare metal it can't just mine it and go away, it has to defend this place against other players. Thus they need to create defensive structures, which again need power plants. If you have defensive structures and power plants on a mining base and some power surplus due to it then its economic to just continue and create the needed refinery elements etc. too, which in turn leads to clusters of buildings again.
 
3. Dependencies
Similar as all functional elements require electricity there can be other dependencies which make it necessary to create several constructs at the same place. In the new content update we learn about market Bots, where resources can be sold for quanta and elements can be bought (probably very limited after crafting is implemented, but maybe some of the most basic elements can still be bought). Those Quanta and elements aren't created from void and the sold resources can't spontaneously vanish. So if someone wants to place market bots in his base, it would make sense to require a trading hub element in the vicinity. There are quite some heavy industries which are dependent on water as coolant, so some refinery elements could actually need water purification plants in the area, the same plants could be used to support greenhouses or other buildings with water. If several buildings depend on each other there is a huge potential to incline people to gather together and create cities. Especially as everyone has a limited amount of cores available.
 
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I really think that those three points are absolutely necessary for a good experience in DU and will lead to some pretty interesting results.

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

NQ has something up their sleeve in mind for space stations. In response to the FB comment they said that the cores would be dynamic but would be a special case in building a space station. But as of now I think they're still static.
 
Edit: and shit i should probably start using multi quote

You cannot buy a Patron pack if you are a Founder. This is expected to be changed later. 

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

After the rather poor reception of my propose sleep mechanic and more research into combat, I feel I can offer a unique spin on the idea of Food.
 
First and foremost: Food should not be required to survive. This is not a Hard Core survival sim (though I wish it were, sometimes).
 
My proposal is thus:
Food will give bonuses/maluses to stats. These bonuses/maluses will be in the single digit percentage ranges and will cover a few skills at a time, with one primary. (+5% shooting, +2% reload, +1% crafting, +1% dodge) Food items can be combined to improve their "taste" and the bonuses given. (For example: Raw Wheat will give a small malus, raw flour will give a malus, but a cake will give a bonus.) All food items will have "taste" profiles and modifiers. The profile determines what "taste" is added when combined, while the modifiers alter the "taste" of the other ingredients. (This will probably be best displayed as a radar plot) All players will have a randomly generated "palate" that slowly and randomly evolves over time. This "palate" determines how much of a bonus is gained from the food. "Tasty" foods give bigger bonuses, "nasty" foods give maluses. It will take years before a "palate" noticeably changes. This will be shown in the UI when a food is selected. (General Bonuses * Palate modifier = Actual bonuses) Bonuses will last for 3-4 hours, with a slight increase during the first hour and then a steady drop off afterwards. Maluses will only last for 30 minutes and quickly decrease. Every food has a "satiety" value. You can only eat so much before you are full. Once you are full, further eating adds Maluses, rather than stacking Bonuses. The more you eat, the longer the bonuses last. Spices will exist that have small "satiety" levels and limited "taste" profiles, but they will have large "taste" modifiers. (Don't like savory foods? Add cayenne pepper! Make it spicy!) Finally, all plants will take months to grow and harvest, however between planting and harvest, the plants will require minimal supervision. They'll require more supervisor the less friendly the climate is to that plant. Harvests will produce a great quantity of food. (Farmer's should be able to explore the universe too!)  
The purpose here is many-fold:
To encourage economic activity by creating an intuitive category of good. Most people understand food and how good eating is good for them. This idea is focused on organizations as the primary producers and consumers. A solo pilot isn't going to mind being a few percentages slower at mining, or reloading, or crafting. But on the industrial scale of large organizations, these foods will be very important to squeeze out every Quantum. Wars have been fought over spices and I see no reason DU can't be the same. I've always disliked games where plants grew very rapidly. To gather a large stockpile, you were constantly running from plot to plot, planting and then you only have a few hours before you need to go harvest everything. Plants take time and care. Insta-plants aren't fun. The random element to the food is because a) everyone likes different things, and b ) this way there will be no "best" plant. What's in demand will change with the seasons and the years.  
(P.S: Wooo! 100th Post!)

We could call it a banana cream pie.  Who cares?
 
But if we call all the phases Beta it would be a bit confusing wouldn't it?
 
It's just a name that indicates that it isn't the first alpha.  And it's also not the last test stage (or Beta).

Sundies can't spawn vehicles, only infantry. And for that we have spawn room.
 
I'd rather have all short-distance travel conventional. Wan't reinforcements? Bring carriers full of fighters (so your downed pilots can fly something again). Retreat and repair larger units. Protect those carriers by either placing them in safe distance (at cost of slower reinforcement) or escorting them.
In general pay adequate price to tactical advantage.