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Maxim Kammerer

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  1. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Roustabout in Mining Units: A weeklong in-depth review   
    Background / Summary
    I backed DU early on and have three accounts - honestly, I tried to give my beta keys away to friends, but no one wanted them.  So, I have a character dedicated to mining / refining, one to piloting, and one to industry.  All three have some combination of radar, gunnery, and ammo skills.  Each of them is around 50M skill points.
     
    My play time prior to Demeter could be classified into three categories, active, passive, and mindless.  The active playtime involved building, pvp, asteroid mining, or using the markets.  I’m sure most of you reading this know the autopilot time as you scanned an asteroid or traveled to a planet.  This is the passive; dare I say AFK time.   What I call mindless time includes digging around in an unclaimed tile, you could simply zone out, watch a video, or listen to music.  I liked this time, it was relaxing, easy, and still offered progression without any risk.
     
    Prior to Demeter, On average, I spent about 3 hours each day playing DU.  About half of this time was active or mindless mining and the other half was some mix of ship building, industry, or solo pvp.  Occasionally, I would spend an entire session repairing my ship because...well you dicks with the giant towers know why.
     
    On an average day, I would generate $46M.  About half was ground mining and the other half Asteroid mining.  This worked out to about $30M / hour of money making activity.

    With the advent of Demeter, the mindless playtime has disappeared.  My playtime has shifted to only two categories and the overwhelming majority of my playtime is now active and focused on three tasks - calibrating, hauling ore, and picking up ore from the bonus ground spawn.  The passive time is almost non-existent and involves flying 60km on the same planet.
     
    After playing the minigame 15 times, trudging out to some random spot to collect between 2 and 4k ore, and then doing my best impression of a garbage man picking up all the auto-ore from 14 containers, I generate on average $10M over 90 minutes or about $6.7M / hour.  I could probably generate $30M / hour asteroid mining again but that would be at an opportunity cost of the passive ore mining or I would have to fully dedicate my entire 3 hour play time to money making activities.
     
    The real takeaway here is that my money making active playtime has shifted from scanning and mining to babysitting autominers and picking up ground ore - both steps down in the level of fun and engagement. Sure, I could go back to asteroid mining exclusively and will likely get to that point but for the purposes of this dsicussion, I focused on really exercising the auto mining system.  
    Additionally, to keep the automiers at a reasonable level (not even optimal) I have had to set timers, reminders, and build a spreadsheet to track the decay so I’m hitting the right autominers at the right times and carefully balancing my calibration charges.  While I’m perfectly capable of managing all this, it is quite annoying and doesn’t lead to long term engaging gameplay.
    At the current market rates, I’m able to generate about $5M per tile per week.   My tiles are probably slightly above average but are all T1 and similar to most of everything else I have seen around Alioth - so nothing special here.  
     
    I have seen several posts of people complaining the taxes are too high and hopefully the next section will help show how to make automining profitable.
     

    Setup
    I put some of the refunded mining skills into the “on deploy” auto mining skills on my main mining character and had all three characters train to 4 4 3 3 (Calibration Charge Optimization / Efficiency at 4 and Improved versions at 3).  So, as far as investment into auto mining goes, I’m pretty deep but not outside of what most folks can do with a week of skill training.  This gives the three characters the ability to comfortably manage 60+ autominers across 14 territories.   A single character with 10 days of training can easily handle 7 territories - perhaps not at a perfectly optimal level but enough for a good profit margin.
     
    While I was fortunate enough to have some scanners already available, I haven't found many territories that couldn't turn a profit with proper management.  The tiles that had 500 of one ore are best as you can get 4 miners working that tile with no leftover.  But most tiles offered at least 3 full miners and some partial miners.  The proximity bonus is key so simply picking a spot that has 7 open tiles will almost always yield a profit.
     
    I currently have 14 T1 Territories with 7 being very bauxite heavy and the other 7 evenly distributed across all 4 T1 ore types.  There are 63 autominers currently running with the lowest base rate being 70 and the highest being 125.  With the territory bonus, the optimal rate ranges from 126 to 226 per hour with most clustered at 183 per hour.
     
    For production bonus purposes, the tiles are clustered around a center which means one tile gets a 60% bump and all others get a 30% bump.
     
    In order to maintain this, I do need to log in every day so I don’t overcap my calibration charges.  My characters generate 5.7 calibration charges per day and if I don’t use them every day, I lose 1.4 charges.  With current skills I can refill between 60% and 72% if I get lucky with the minigame.  If I don't get lucky, it's around 57% which means I need to calibrate when a mining unit decays to between 30% and 50%.  While I may over cap the 100%, I found calibrating when the unit is between 40% and 45% is the safest time.  The tracking sheet below highlight the units that need adjusting.
     
    Given the base rate of 125 for most of the miners, I can usually get 4 full miners on a tile and one partial. On the 60% bonus tile I see around 1.1KL / hr of total ore and my lowest tile currently generating around 500 L / hr.  Optimal generation is around 700 L / hr on average.  I have also found that unless the unit is on a 60% tile, a rate below 90 would be better deployed elsewhere as it relates to spending calibration charges - there is something to be said about convenience so I have a few mining below that rate, but they are lower priority to calibrate.
     
    Bonus Ore
    Each day I spend about 15 calibration points and get an average of 3k bonus ore which works out to 45,000 L in bonus ore or about $2M income.  Getting the bonus ore is relatively quick but tedious and feels like a chore.  The bonus ore makes up 20% of the weekly income so it is unfortunately required to maximize the tile.  Without the bonus ore, I would still see a profit but it would reduce down to $44M / week (still not bad).
     
    Sample Tracking

     
     
    Financial Analysis
    Initial Investment
    Territory Unit: $175k -> $2.45M
    Territory Claim Fee: $500k -> $7M
    Small Static Core: 12K -> $168K
    Basic Mining Unit L: $175K -> $11M
    Container L: $300K -> $4.2M
    -------------------------------------
    Total Investment: $24,800,000
    Time to setup: 8 Hours
     
    I should note I have a ship with two L containers that handles the logistics.  This ship costs about $15M.
     
     
    Maintenance Costs
    Nitron Fuel: $70,000 / week
    Scrap for those unexpected times:  $250,000 / week
    Territory Tax: $1,000,000 / week -> $14,000,000 / week
    -------------------------------------
    Total Maintenance per week: $14,320,000
    Maintenance Time: 90 minutes / day or 10 hours each week
     
     
    Income
    Raw Sales: $72,000,000
     
     
    Balance Sheet (Week to Week expectation)
    Expenses: $14,320,000
    Income: $72,000,000
    -------------------------------------
    Net: $57,680,000
     
    Given the initial investment of $24,800,000, I fully covered this investment in 4 days and had a first week pure profit of about $16,600,000.  
    This works out to a little over $1.7M / Hour of play time in the first week. I expect around $6M / hour of playtime next week
     
    Territory Summary

     
    Daily Log

     
     
     
    Bugs
    Can’t access the Calibration menu that tells me things like when it was last calibrated and the location of the surface ore pop if I have no calibration charges Tooltip on Adjacency doesn’t have a % indicator -  should be  “a 30% bonus” not "a 30 bonus" The small 50L of ore are physically much smaller than the normal surface rocks that only deliver 20L of ore The harvest time on the bonus ore is not scaled with the regular surface ore - it takes less time to harvest the 50L and 150L rocks than it does the normal 20L ore The bonus rocks are labeled incorrectly, they show up as their pure counterparts instead of the raw ore label; Aluminum Rock vs Bauxite Rock
    Improvement Suggestions
    As mentioned in the Q&A, the transition screens on the minigame are painfully slow.  Can we eliminate or speed them up? The current reasonable cap of calibration charges is 9.  You can get more by investing more skill points but 9 feels like where most folks will end up given there are far more interesting skills to train.  I’d like to see this cap at least doubled if not tripled (or removed all together, why cap it?)  If I decide not to play for a few days, I over cap and there is an opportunity loss. Where can I see my current calibration charges?  Or is the Autominer UI the only spot?  I’d like to be able to see the current calibration charges on some character screen. The minigame is prone to RNG which causes a reduction in income for things that are outside of my control.  Could we have some of the mining unit skills affect the size off the tools in the minigame so that if I choose to invest points in those skills, I see my efforts less affected by RNG? The bonus ore is nice for the minigame but it's a chore to go out and collect it.  Can we have it simply deposited into the container The surface rocks offer a performant way to create a small faucet and give new players a way to earn money.  However, the way they are designed is both tedious to gather and painful to look at. Could we instead have larger nodes that leverage the mining talents spawn on the surface and offer the same amount of ore just more concentrated?  We could even add a piece of equipment that allows me to scan my territory to identify these pockets or leverage the territory scanner.
     
  2. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Sabretooth in CURRENT DISINTEREST THROUGH YOUR WIPE STATEMENTS   
    Im sorry, but 10 hours to rebuild an m-core? I think YOU are trolling.
    Even with the ore present, you would still have to fabricate the elements. On a decent m-core that would be at least 10 L engines for atmo alone. Never mind the other elements.
    An L-core takes 3 days to produce and thats just the core.
    Impossible to do in 10hrs. I would say. I have lots of L and XL containers, please tell me the amount of elements you have and do a realistic calculation of how long it will take you to rebuild them. Your base, storage, ships.
    Im sure it will take you at least a month of subscription.
     
    So it seems you dont mind paying for a game and waste your time doing the same stuff twice. Thats not something for me to be doing. My time is precious to me.
     
    Its these 'positive lies' of players like you that try to convince people that the game is still simple, easy and the same as NQ is advertising, while it is not.
    This mining system is only nice if you are into making money.
    If you entered this game a year ago to be an artistic builder, then the game has now changed for the worse. 
    That is a fact.
     
     
  3. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Creator in CURRENT DISINTEREST THROUGH YOUR WIPE STATEMENTS   
    I believe this community deserves some acknowledgement for those who have stayed through all the choices of NQ.

    Some here don't seem to get it and just call us "bitter veterans" but we knew what the game was like before some of these changes (the good and the bad), and though we may raise some hell, we do it cause we love the game.

    My major concern is that the number of players willing to sit by and wait for another few years dwindles with every stunt NQ pulls that shows their disrespect and disregard for the community. We have been placed in limbo on prospects of a wipe, which honestly I am pretty sure is going to roll out in 2022 at this point if they decide to rush to "launch" before 2023 due to funding issues.

    I speak from experience in development myself and I've never put a customer through this roller coaster. They have a community expectations management problem, because they themselves lack the ability to gauge of what they can and can't deliver on.

    "The era of trust us we know better than you" needs to come to an end cause we have some super smart people in this community.

    The developers need to be honest and state the reality of where things are at not a propaganda vlog/video/newsletter.
    What they are confident they can do before release. What they want to try but aren't sure if it will work. What we want that isn't going to happen before release. The conditions for a wipe scenario, and conditions for a no wipe scenario.
      Wipe or no wipe I don't mind as long as I have a relative idea what to expect (a deadline for when, what would be wiped, etc). This gives me as the player the ability to choose okay do I need to wait a bit, or how to play in a way I am okay losing all progress, or am I falling behind others by waiting?

     
  4. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Novean-32184 in Dual Universe: What the bloody hell happened?   
    100% this. Conflict is something that should grow out of circumstance and then it should never just have one single solution in combat.
  5. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Xennial in Maybe the biggest factor in the new mining system overlooked by NQ is ....   
    The highlighted bit right here is why DU fails to attract new players. This mentality that lone new players deserve to be chained to their sanctuary tile till they 'grind' enough low hanging fruit to deserve to get off it is ass backwards. Ya know what that new player in your scenario that should just sit on their Sanctuary tile for 1-3 months to come back in a 'proper hauler' will actually do? THEY QUIT. Join an org you say? So the new player tries that only to discover that majority of orgs out there are empty with almost no one playing. They go into chat only to discover people talking about aspects of the game they have no idea about while mostly bashing the game. Maaaybe some old guard takes pity on them and puts them under their wing to try and get them settled into the game. I have done this a few times, and it's extremely time consuming, and thats only if the new player is comfortable with voice coms. Most players just can't be bothered to throw these new players more then a sentence or two of what they should try next. 
     
    You don't win new players by gating them behind such a huge progression curve they never get to see what the game has to offer before they are bored with the lot they are stuck with. Old players that are used to the game, surrounded by other experienced players, have totally forgotten what a new player experience is like, and likely have no idea what it is like now. You have friends in game? good for you! The majority of people trying DU won't have anyone! Those players are stuck with , pick up some rocks, doing some boring missions, and don't even think about industry, the ore they would use is more valuable then the T1-T2 crap they can produce. I am sure many of us can say with certainty that if we had not happened to stumble into a good group back in the beginning of Beta, we wouldn't have stuck with the game even then. Now the situation is 10x worse for new players because it's not a thriving community of players all trying to get their footing in the game, it's just a small self contained group that still enjoy it in their own orgs doing their own thing, a small group of disgruntled vets, and a barren wasteland of nothingness. 
     
    Everyone that is comfortably in a group in DU and has played for some time is more then happy to layout the 'progression' some scrub newbie should go through. Why wouldn't they be? They don't have to do it. We all got EASY MODE start in the game. We were able to play with every aspect of the game at whatever pace we decided to. We could mine ore anywhere if we got the itch to do XYZ, we could dabble in or do industry to our hearts content (I had a fairly robust factory going in 2 days of heavy playing brand new), we could experiment with ship mechanics casually because chances are we all made the parts ourselves for only the cost of time to grab the ore. None of these are true now for new players. Everything is gated, time locked, or limited in some way.
     
    The hubris of vets in the game is amazing. Games are a business, and so help me if people can't understand the simple mechanic that if a new player is cut off from the game for more then a certain period of time without something to occupy them or progress in they will quit.
  6. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to WylieFox in Game concept works against itself   
    I agree with the original post completely.. resources need to be plentiful for this game to work. I thought I would have more time and freedom to actually make this game more fun for myself and everyone else with automated mining units, but instead I'm stuck on my same 5 tiles, playing the same mini-game multiple times every day to just keep things running.. I'm much more interested in doing everything I can to change the current dynamics here on the forums than play the game any more.. I love what DU could be, but we need resources to be plentiful, and not taxed away into oblivion, for us to be willing to loose our creations in actual fun PVP gameplay.
  7. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Novean-32184 in Maybe the biggest factor in the new mining system overlooked by NQ is ....   
    You are not getting the point
     
    In order to bring a scanner you must bring a ship as you can't carry one around in your inventory.
     
    So for a new player, they really have no chance to ensure they start spending millions on securing a tile that is worth the money unless they invest a _lot_ of money upfront.
     
    A territory scanner
    A ship able to transport it
    A Territory Unit
    a XS static core at least
    somevoxel material
    5 basic L mining units
    1.5M Quanta to secure a tile and pay first week of taxes
     
    That's probbaly a good 12-14 million at least before you ever even make a cent
     
     
    EDIT: more like 4-5 million currently.. does not really change the point though
  8. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Novean-32184 in Dual Universe: What the bloody hell happened?   
    Excellent points made in a solid, wel presented video, some are a bit over amplified but valid nonetheless. @NQ-Abu and @NQ-Sesch should really be sat down and watch it.
     
    The problem is that from NQ's perspective you "just do not understand".. /s
     
     
    The part about the PVE content which in turn becomes a PVP opportunity where the reward from the PVE content is valuable and serves a purpose in the game overall. That is what sets a game like EVE so far apart from its competition since _everything_ in EVE has a meaning, a purpose and value, it may not be much in some cases, but it does. Everything in EVE matters in one way or another, _that_ is why EVE is still such a varied game appealing to many different player types nearly TWENTY years after it was released. The total lack of it in DU is why the game really is boring and pointless.

    Oh, it's also why EVE, as a F2P game, brings in about €5M in revenue each month.. Just to put that out there.. Players understand and see the value in spending their money on the game, even when a LOT of them never actually do and pay their way with in game currency entirely.
     
    I think basic survival mechanics would be fun, but I think not a requirement. I absolutely agree that immersive and engaging PVE content will be a requirement for DU to even stand a chance.
     
    The Talent system in DU is pretty much a half-baked copy from EVE but there, it goes hand in hand with using your ships fitting, the availability of boosters and drugs and most importantly gaining actual EXPERIENCE playing which will make the learned skill meaningful. In EVE, you can compensate to as good degree for not having skills by using modified/faction modules which are more expensive but will offer some benefits otherwise available through skills. 
     
    Industry in DU uses schematics but for the game, schematics really have no purpose but being a money sink. In EVE, basic tier 1 blueprints (which is what they are called there) can be bought yes, but you can also find them in the game, you can research them, improve them, boost them, invent better versions, and sell copies of your modified versions for others to use.
     
    I do not want to turn this into a "make DU more like EVE" argument as that is not the point. The point is that NQ clearly draws "inspiration" from EVE but so far has failed to both understand and capture the essence of what they are going for.
     
     
    I asked this question in the Q&A:

     
     
    The answer that came back, really just shows NQ has no actual clue about where such a question come from and just gives a pretty stock answer

     
     
    The answer shows that NQ has no eyes on the discussions going on in the forums (or if they do, the message is not transmitted internally), does not understand what is driving us to ask these questions nor do they show any interest in actually engaging with it.
     
    It's just a bland, boring and lifeless response. Which unfortunately aligns pretty closely to the state of the game
  9. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from vylqun in Game breaking for new players   
    Yes, but he needs to scan for ores first - just to find out that all valuable T2+ tiles are already taken.
  10. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Xennial in DU progress feedback   
    Feedback is simple, your update is poorly thought out. I'm not sure what the dev meetings must be like over there at NQ but let me make this KISS for you folks:
     
    Currently:
     
    Zero reason to build anything period outside of a ship. Especially now with your well thought out brutal tax on any grand building ideas creatives might have ever had for POI's. 
    PvP that most hate and even the PvP'ers have to admit sucks in it's implementation, never mind completely broken risk vs reward balance
    Player based economy is a joke with your constant meddling with bots & refusal to let players setup markets
    Industrial gameplay that was put out of reach of all but groups or highly dedicated no lifers with endless time on their hands
    Gigantic game world that is so sparsely populated deserts in the real world seem to team with life by comparison
    Asteroid mechanics that defy game design logic in their implementation (I mean really is it THAT hard for you to spawn roids randomly and continually like literally every space game with mining ... ever?)
    Completely broken organization tools that make managing any group harder not easier. 
    Mission system that could have be automatic and really helped the game world when it comes to posting / payouts , instead is a hot mess of must be present hand shaking nonsense. 
     
    I could go on honestly, but EVERY single time you people do an update you overcomplicate everything and make it a nightmarish chore, rather then simply go "here are auto miners, enjoy". Asteroids same darn thing, couldn't just create a asteroid belt in the game and have rocks spawn randomly for period of time, part in the safe zone part out? OH NO , you had to make even something simple like digging a rock the most arse backwards design of all time. 
     
    *sighs* I am not sure what your grand vision for DU is anymore , but it certainly does not contain the word 'fun' for most people. Every update makes the game more grindy, more work, less reward. The only joy people seem to have anymore is sitting in Discord / Forums talking about game theory of what DU might have been if it wasn't what it is.
     
  11. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from JohnnyTazer in Game breaking for new players   
    That means you admit that your claim above (5.726.000 Quanta for a "Beginner" in the first week) is wrong. And if you extend it beyond the first week you will realize that the previous claim (develop much further than before the patch) is wrong as well. New players will be trapped on the Sanctuary tile with just a single halfway valuable T1 resource for a very long time. I guess most of them will never leave it because they will leave the game first.
  12. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to CptLoRes in Did We Really Free Up Land With Taxes?   
    And that most likely means players leaving the game.
     
    So once again like with 0.23, NQ has managed to drive away players with their "game saving" features. Makes you wonder how many more "features" this game can survive..
  13. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to joaocordeiro in Game breaking for new players   
    Don't worry, NQ will screw up that too, just wait.
    Sooner or later they will come up with some kind of restriction to what you can do in your sanctuary territory.
  14. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from JohnnyTazer in Game breaking for new players   
    NQ always favoured the well established player population over new players. Demeter is just another step in this direction. This continuity suggests that they are well aware of the consequences in game. But it seems they do not understand the consequences irl. There are not enough established players to pay the bills. DU and NQ will not survive with a lot of new players. Designing the game to keep them out makes no sense.
  15. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to CptLoRes in Game breaking for new players   
    Not that long ago everybody was saying get out of sanctuary as quick as possible because it is a dead end. And now suddenly it is supposed to be the solution?
    DU was already a brutally hard game for new players before Demeter, and to me this only highlight how NQ is not fully understanding the consequences of their actions.
     
    Remember that while on this sanctuary tile, the new player is not only supposed to mine enough resources to buy a ship (that may or may not work properly once NQ nerfs the brakes), get a TCU, a scanner and buy a tile somewhere. But he is also expected to have enough free resources to experiment and learn the game mechanics.
     
    Oh.. And as a new player he/she is also very likely to crash a lot, so he will need resources for that too..
  16. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Aaron Cain in I think it's time for NQ to downsize.   
    I have to admit i laughed very hard when reading this.
    Now just go search the kickstarter info and all the info from alpha and you will see the current version of DU is already a downgraded version of the promise made. Any additional downscaling would be to pull the plug, but since they still hold two offices in not the most cheap locations and have a full staff to think about stuf as mining for 400L per hour is best for DU I would not worry to much, all the latest changes were to cut costs for servers, however it is called, added more monthly pay per person, so the future is bright. except not for the features in DU. The only people who will like these changes are those who exploided to the max and were never handled.
    At launch we are all to get 3 alts per character, probably that is the next thing killed. Organizational owned Territories was the latest although its not called that way, a million tax a week is effectively killing all small organizational claims.
    Downsizing is well underway, do not be mistaken.
  17. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from Talonclaw in Territory Scanner shuts down when you get too far away - Intel vs AMD   
    Was flying away for more than 10 km and scanner is still running. As I have an AMD Ryzen 9 it is at least not a general AMD problem.
  18. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Vhaeyne in Alt Universe 2.0 - Launch (Tomorrow)!   
    It is extremely simple. This is a mechanic that incentives players to buy more subs.
     
    Such practices make the game by definition pay to win. If they wanted calibration charges to be in the game, there should be a way that you earn them by playing the game. This should be done in such a way that it is just as beneficial to have one account as it is to have unlimited accounts. The bottleneck should be how much effort you as a human can feasibly output into a play session, not how many accounts your disposable income can handle. 
     
    There is an infinite number of ways they could have changed mining so that there are fewer holes in the world. They chose to change it in a way that makes paying for more subs and attractive option. That is a problem for me as someone who does not like p2w and did not support DU in the Kickstarter thinking they were buying into a pay to win game.
  19. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from kulkija in One of the clear reasons why NQ will wipe (at leat once, shortly before releaase)   
    And most players would stop playing and cancel their subscription until launch. That's not in NQ's interest.
  20. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from Novean-32184 in One of the clear reasons why NQ will wipe (at leat once, shortly before releaase)   
    And most players would stop playing and cancel their subscription until launch. That's not in NQ's interest.
  21. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to miaminice in How to progress after Demeter?   
    I am a new player choose my frist tile on the sanct moon last week. With the today update i run into serious problems. Can someone please explain me how to progess after the demeter update? 
    The mining units just produce 20l/h and with my charges i can substain 4 units (6 hour chage cooldown and the units need a calibration every 24 hour). Thats 80l/h, 200L every day on T1 ores. Can someone explain my how to progess with this kind of yield?
     
    Before Demeter i mined around 20 000 ore per day. I see no way to get into space with just 200l every day. 
     
    Regards 
  22. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to Koriandah in Quality of Life Changes for Building   
    This is my first post on the forums, so forgive me if my formatting is off or I posted in the wrong place. TL;DR Included but please read the post.
     
    Hi All,
     
    Over the past year, I have mainly been a builder and creator. For the longest time, this has been my only source of income and as so, I have plenty of experience with the DU building system. I had a few ideas on the Quality of Life improvements for building in Dual Universe that would make everyone's life just that little bit easier, and so I want to post them here to be discussed. For every idea, I will outline what it is and why it is needed. Building is the best part of DU and it should not be forgotten about. Please feel free to discuss and reply!
     

    Selection Zones - Suggestion 1
    We all know that the size of the zone we can select is limited by size. While this is annoying most of the time, I'm fairly sure it is there as a technical limitation of the build mode. However, some improvements are warranted (mainly to voxel selection/placement tools):

    What:
    - Do not let us select a larger area than is possible. I have spent many a time trying to find the maximum selection size or over estimated the max selection size when building, making the entire selection area red with the only fix being to re-select the area again.

    - If possible, increase the size of the selection area.
     
    Why:
    - This saves us time and effort, as, if I wanted to select the largest area possible, I could just click to a corner and the system will automatically select the most volume that it can. I will no longer see a "selection size area is too large" message, saving me time in finding the max selection size. This can also be a toggle if people find it necessary

    - Convenience and makes building mirrored areas on L/M cores much easier.
     
     
    Mirroring - Suggestion 2
    The pain of having to perfectly line up elements on the other side by remembering / writing down element positions or copy/pasting voxels in little bits on an L or M core is all too known. I propose we are given two things: 

    What:
    - A mirror mode or a mirror tool, that would place the selected element on the other axis facing the same way. Could also group elements together, so that when one moves, the other mirrors this movement along an axis.
     
    - A mirror axis (or multiple) that automatically places any voxels onto the other side (if you've ever played Space Engineers you know what I'm talking about). 

    Why:
    - Speed up the process of placing elements and thereby speed up the process of building by removing the need to memorize locations of elements. 
     
    - Incredibly increase the speed of building mirrored constructs or large sizes, as the largest time waste is copy-pasting bits of an M or L core around from one side to the other every time one side is updated. 
     

    Painting - Suggestion 3
    Replacing voxels in order to change the look or material type of a ship's armor has always been a pain. For one, it wipes out complex patterns unless it is done perfectly and is, at least in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to the ability of individual creators to release multiple paint schemes of ships larger than an M core at an efficient rate. To remove the pain in re-painting a ship, I propose the following:

    What:
    - Allow me to replace certain types of voxel with another type of voxel with a single right-click option. I see this working as follows: Select an Area > Right click > Replace Voxel> Select Voxel X (to be replaced) > Select Voxel Y (to replace with). There most likely are other  more efficient ways of doing this but this is the most basic I could see.

    - Could limit the suggestion above only to the same materials, aka can only replace steel with steel or aluminium with aluminium.
     
    Why:
    - I, and many others, have spent hours replacing complex patterns on our ships just to end up not liking the new  colour scheme and starting again. Not only that, when voxels are replaced currently, it creates a multitude of voxel errors and wipes any complex patterns that are then a pain to replicate. This change would allow for much quicker colour scheme changes and make it convenient to change colour.

    - This change would be kept to keep actual armoring work (say for a pvp ship in a changing meta) as a time-consuming thing that is rewarded with gains in PvP.


    Destroying/Removing Voxels - Suggestion 4
    Just yesterday, I have spent around 30 minutes trying to find 0.14 cubic meters of luminescent glass on my ships which were invisible. I had to select a max size voxel cube and alt-paste it around until I got the last bits of the glass. This is an area that could be improved as nobody should have to spend hours finding one micro voxel in their construct in order to get back the core. I propose the following straight-forward solution:

    What:
    - Allow the option to remove the last big of voxels from a construct with a simple right click. For example, if the core has less than say 5m^3 (value could be changed or different with core size) of voxels left, one could right click the core in build mode Right Click > Remove Remaining Voxels. This would only work if the voxel volume is low to keep the work associated with actually disassembling a ship.

    - Add the ability to change the last little bits of a voxel to another type, say I have a ship made from Voxel X, Y and Z, but Z is only 0.1m^3 and I can't for the life of me find where it is. I should be able to just right click the core and remove/replace it with another voxel.

    Why:
    - This saves innumerable hours for everyone in the game, as I can guarantee I'm not the only one who spent hours trying to find tiny voxels on an L core only to give up and abandon something worth half a million quanta. This change should have been available from the start.

    - This change allows builders to clean up their blueprints and not make someone get 15 types of voxels just because there's 0.1m^3 of each in an L core blueprint.


    Copy Paste Changes - Suggestion 5
    Copy-Pasting was improved so much when the ability to change paste priority was introduced by pressing SHIFT when pasting. The change I'm proposing is minor, but still important when one is working with low quantities of voxels. Currently, if you need to paste , say, 10 cubic meters of a voxel but they are spread over a large area, you will need up to 300 cubic meters of voxel to paste it anywhere, because the system calculated the area of the selection and not the actual amount of voxels in the area.

    What:
    - Change the calculation of copy-paste voxel amounts so you need the exact amount of voxels that you are pasting instead of the entire selection area. 

    Why:
    - Allows builders to work with less amounts of honeycomb and makes life easier. Also helps when working with expensive honeycomb or limited supply, as you can use it to a more efficient degree.
     

    Element Blocking - Suggestion 6
    I have seen many times my elements were being blocked. Through scrolling through the element list I could see how much they were blocked, but it was time consuming. However, I could only guess as to what exactly was blocking them. Would be nice if you could tell what is doing the blocking.

    What:
    - Highlight the elements that are blocking the element in question or highlight the area that the voxels that block said element occupy.

    - Allow to mouse over the element to tell how much it is being blocked by instead of scrolling through a menu at the top of build mode.

    Why:
    - Allows builders to quickly tell why their creations are being blocked instead of guessing and constantly changing voxels to fix a problem they can never know the true cause of.

    - QOL change that exists for saving time when building.


    DRM Change- Suggestion 7
    What:
    - Please enable DRM protection on constructs by default. Why is this even turned off in the first place?

    Why:
    - Allows new builders and experienced ones not to lose ownership of their constructs and scripts because of a simple oversight.
     
     
    Element Talents - Suggestion 8
    I, like many players, have wondered what exact talents are currently affecting my elements. The only workaround as of right now is doing the annoying math to sort-of get the right value. Currently, there is no way to tell what element has what exact talents affecting it as you can in the industry view.

    What:
    - Allow the option to either mouse over an element with a tool and see all the talents affecting it and their rank, or, Right Click Element> Show Effective Talents on Element

    - Ability to remove all talents from an Element via right click or the ability to remove all talents from ALL elements.

    Why:
    - Allows ship builders or industry builders to quickly tell if their elements could use boosting with higher level place-down talents or if they are maximized. Also allows to see if all elements have the same talents, although this is not so much of a problem with the apply all talents button that we have now.

    - Allows shipbuilders to gauge the performance of their ships as someone who does not have any piloting skills and build for those people. Currently, you need an alt or be in VR to do this.

     
    CSS View - Suggestion 9
    The CCS is a big part of building a PVP ship. Perhaps not in the current Meta that we have know, but in case it gets buffed it will be very important. I propose the following:

    What:
    - Ability to see the CCS value of a ship in the build mode when building a ship.

    Why:
    - This change will allow ship builders to gauge the performance of their ships without having to rely on Excel or other external tools.
     

    Element Preview - Suggestion 10
    Elements conduct the vast majority of voxel sizing and other dimensions. Most creators work either around or with elements that are in their builds. It would be great if we could see the size/outline of an element without actually having it.

    What:
    - Ability to select any element in game and place it in the construct as a "hologram". This hologram would only show the size of the element, so that a creator can plan ahead and work with elements they may not have (for example, L AGG). 

    Why:
    - This allows creators to plan ahead and construct their voxels around elements that they may not have at the exact moment, saving time and effort on everyone's part.


    Blueprint Preview - Suggestion 11
    Blueprint deployment is one of the many things my customers encounter and find problematic for many reasons. For once, static blueprints can be placed in the wrong orientation and once placed cannot be moved. Additionally, the same situation can be applied to dynamic blueprints when using them as statues or ornaments. 

    What:
    - Blueprints should not be displayed as a transparent cube right before deployment but as an approximate hologram of the final structure/ship. Even if the extra calculations on the client-side will take time, this should still be prioritised.

    Why:
    - This will allow players to properly foresee the structure and alignment of the blueprint that they are placing and not have to spend 20 minutes of their time dismantling the structure if they place it in the wrong orientation without knowing (and then flying back to buy another, losing precious quanta and time). This feature will make creating cities and bases with precision made from other people's creations a lot easier for everyone.


    Blueprint Alignment- Suggestion 12
    Stacking static blueprints together has always been painful for everyone. Having to fight the curvature of the earth and even the fact that the blueprint outline is not the same size as the outline of the core building area has been a significant barrier to many players' ability to build cities and bases in an orderly fashion. Personally, I wish this feature would be around now so I can continue work on the MTI City Project for my organization.

    What:
    - Aligning blueprints together with other deployed cores should be made easier. There should be options to align it in the centre of the core its being placed on and align it either with the orientation of the or the curvature of the planet at the place.
    - Additional tools to align blueprints and be able to see the build area around the new blueprint before it is placed.
    - Ability to use a blueprint on an EXISTING empty core to place the elements and voxels around it automatically while retaining the DRM rights of the BP creator. (alternative but easier-to-implement option)

    Why:
    - This change will allow the precise building of blueprints onto other cores and their alignment that much easier for every player in the game, not only those building cities. This results in cleaner looks of bases and more orderly placement of cores.


    Core Alignment- Suggestion 13
    Every organization and practically every player has encountered the pain of aligning multiple static or space cores in a fashion that allows for grid structures, be it for bases, airports, cities or space stations. Currently the process involves moving a lot of cores around with CTRL+Arrow and then building voxels to the edges of the cores. Note that such a process doesn't even guarantee similar alignment of cores in terms of their direction (for static cores)

    What:
    - Ability to align cores next to each other automatically or only through several clicks. Either by right clicking on a static core and selecting "Attach Static Core" or another method.
    - Ability to select core alignment and ensure it is in the same direction to allow building of core grids much easier.

    Why:
    - This will allow players to properly place static/space core grids and not have to spend 20 minutes of their time re-aligning the core if they place it in the wrong orientation without knowing. This feature will make creating cities and bases easier due to the simplified way of aligning core grids (and save lots of time)


    And that's it! Please reply to this post if you like the changes and if you think they should or should not be added to the game. Lets hope NQ sees this and implements some of the ideas (please just implement them all and save us all so much pain). I personally think these changes will make the life of many people so much easier and will encourage more people to enjoy the building aspect of this game - the strongest aspect of it as of right now.

    Stay safe out there,
    Koriandah.

    TL;DR:
    - Bigger / more manageable selection zones
    - Mirror tools like axis mirroring and element mirroring
    - Painting tools to easily replace voxels and keep their complex shapes
    - Tools to easily remove the last pesky micro voxels from construct
    - Copy paste required voxel quantity optimization
    - Element blocking info, what is blocking said elements and how much
    - DRM enabled by default
    - Show talents on elements, ability to remove all talents
    - CCS View
    - Element Preview
    - Blueprint Preview
    - Blueprint Alignment
    - Core Alignment
  23. Like
    Maxim Kammerer got a reaction from Doombad in Demeter=DU has failed in fundamental game design requiring either a full rebuild or re-kickstart   
    That's sad but overdue. It was clear for years thast the original vision is out of reach. Considering the finnancial situation all NQ can do is putting on the emergency brake, picking all working pieces together and turning them into a game that can be sold on the market. If they manage to return the investment, they might start a new attempt with advanced technology and this time with experiences in game developement.
  24. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to XKentX in Why removing scans is the correct choice by NQ   
    They will wipe at release. You will keep your talent points and (non-magic) blueprints so you can recreate them.
    Wealth, mats and constructs will go poof.
     
    What 100 people that are still playing DU think about this is irrelevant. They are not enough to make the game sustainable anyway.
  25. Like
    Maxim Kammerer reacted to JoeKing in Took a break and....   
    I first played DU at the beginning of the UKs first lockdown, so around 18 months ago. I was drawn in by the promises of the marketing: that I could forge out any path I wanted - I could be a builder, trader, explorer, be part of an org, or go it alone. My experience was off to a shakey start with a buggy intro, but I knew it was a ‘beta’ so I persevered and was hooked. I became obsessed... I loved it.
    After a disgusting amount of time playing non stop, I started to make progress, bought my first warp drive, built a space station and some little bases dotted about, life was sweeeet. Then #23 hit. Massive bummer. 
    I took a break for a couple of months, and came back, none of my mates did. I assessed the damage, regrouped and started again.
    It quickly got really boring - really not into PVP - and dont have the funds for it anyway, but kept going with the promise of the new asteroid gameplay (thought I might risk some super-fast prospecting). Turns out, this isnt for single, newish, resource-poor players either, but nothing in the promo material indicated this would be inaccessible outside an org with deep pockets  (or, of course, an early player whos taken advantage of the abundant ore, bugs and exploits). The new announcement of the features of Demeter frankly spells the end of the downward trajectory for newish players like me. Theres no way to really amass the resources to access interesting play outside joining an org - which wasnt the reason I signed up. No doubt the game will continue to have draconian brakes applied through money & time sinks to curtail the large orgs and mega factories, but it feels like the game has shifted to cater to these, whilst simultaneously trying to save server resources. There needs to be a realistic and honest disclosure of what the gameplay is for new players, ie. join an org if you want to play beyond a few weeks.
    I tried to play today for the first time in months, the new warp drive speed seemed like the perfect, sad metaphor. Warp Cells are ridiculously expensive, DSATs are beyond ridiculous both in scale and cost - the game feels joyless now, where it used to feel alive, vibrant and full of possibility.
     
    Its a huge, huge shame the direction the game has gone in, it could've been so good. But thanks DU for a great experience while it lasted,  it was a great escape for me, for few months at least...
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