Dygz_Briarthorn

People who wish to never interact with others in an MMO is exceedingly few. Lots of people love to solo in games - rather than adventure in a group. Just because they don't want to form formal groups, doesn't mean soloers never want to interact with each other. All kinds of players like to play MMOs. If an MMO wishes to be successful, the devs need to support a wide variety of playstyles rather than cater to just one. The DU devs aren't planning to cater to people who never want to PvP. They are planning to provide opportunities for players to create safe zones that are protected from PvP combat. Because the devs aren't planning to to cater to players who always want to PvP. I dunno about disincentives, but it will already be extremely challenging to build multi-crew ships by yourself. As far as I know, it won't be possible for one player to man all the stations on a multi-crew ship. Should be possible to pilot a multi-crew ship solo. That doesn't mean one player will be able to defend and attack while piloting a multi-crew ship. People can talk all they wish about wanting to running a massive fleet by themselves - doesn't mean it will be possible. IIRC, DU will have some survival mechanics, they just won't have the level of impact as the survival mechanics in a game like H1Z1.

You are misinformed, my friend. Yes, it is possible to interact with 50+ other players - if you end up in the same place. The likely hood of bumping into another player is low. 18 quintillion planets in the universe. We all start in the same galaxy, but that's still billions of planets in a galaxy and only a few hundred thousand players. Even if we randomly end up on the same planet, we may not realize it. But, it should be easier to coordinate reaching the same planet once we reach the center. And once we are in proximity we will automatically join the same "lobby" and be able to play with each other. It's not exactly like the solo play in Elite Dangerous if ED doesn't allow multiplayer. NMS doesn't really want 100s of players playing in the same space. They especially don't want 1K players playing in the same space. It's best not to think of NMS as a multiplayer game because the chances of finding other players is quite low. But if you do come in close enough proximity to other players, you will automatically join the same instance.

That doesn't bother me. If I run across names I don't like, there are 100s of millions of other stars and billions and billions of other planets I can explore. Easy enough to ignore the names I don't like.

I've watched 3 or more different people stream NMS - at least 10 hours of footage. 1: Daymeeuhn has an incomplete build - there is a significant update for the 1st day patch. 2: Daymeeuhn used the free fuel he found on the space stations to reach the center of the galaxy as quickly as he did. That is most likely an exploit rather than intended gameplay. 3: Many of the bugs Daymeeuhn initially reported were due to having an incomplete build and/or to his ineptitude playing the game. Other people playing the game (like keng01, who bought his copy from Wal-Mart rather than from ebay) didn't have the same bugs and Daymeeuhn recanted some of his bugs after reaching the center and paying more attention to how the game was intended to be played. 4: Daymeeuhn assumes that his experience is definitive gameplay - that because he reached the center of the galaxy and doesn't see evidence of a center of the universe, that there is no center of the universe to be reached. But, we still have that update that's added weeks worth of development, even on top of the Wal-Mart build. 5. To me, Daymeeuhn's gameplay experience -and his conclusions about the game- are unreliable. I prefer the vids from kengi01 and SaberJudo. 6: All of it looks fun though. Whatever is at the center wasn't necessarily the primary draw for me in any case. What inspires me is learning alien languages while exploring and cataloging the creatures found on strange new worlds - to boldly go where no person has gone before. 7: Reaching the center of the galaxy quickly just makes it easier to work towards finding your friends and coordinating multiplay.

"Happen on its own" is the same thing as "will occur organically". Playstyle segregation is not really a factor of "game balance". The balance that DU will provide is the mechanisms that allow players to control both the creation and the destruction of safe zones. Since both solo players and group players can manipulate voxels and craft constructs - the game is inherently balanced in that regard. The players will decide the balance of playstyles and how and where they congregate. Call of Duty has forced segregation - Campaign missions are completely separate from Multiplayer missions. That's like having PvE servers that are separate from PvP servers in an MMO. We need to move away from that. It should be possible for our characters to seamlessly move between playstyle areas as the mood strikes: a completely shared universe. Conflicts among the playstyles are fine as long as players also have sufficient means to construct safe zones. The balance, there, being that it shouldn't be too easy for players to make the entire universe a safe zone. If you don't like socializing with hardcores, casuals, n00bs, veterans, whatever... don't socialize with them. Hardcoded mechanics that force segregation -making it impossible for the various playstyles to freely interact- needs to be obsolete for modern MMOs.

I'm hoping worlds will eventually begin to look like swiss-cheese, after we deplete them of resources... that will motivate players to move to new worlds. And ensures that the game does not become stagnant. Hopefully, we would also later discover that NPC factions, perhaps like the Borg, have terraformed and assimilated those abandoned worlds into there empire(s), thereby providing reasons for humanity to return for new adventures.

Safe zones won't be everywhere. The player-created safe zones will have to be maintained - which provides opportunity for indirect PvP conflict. Players will PvE in an Arkified zone via deconstructing the environment and creating constructs. I don't think I said anything about giant-sized machines. I suggested that once a planet-sized bubble territory is activated, we will be able to use permissions to flag responses to designated enemies. Has nothing to do with Lua scripting. Safe zone isn't really an "unlock for a faction". Players will be able to take measures to activate safe zones - that's not necessarily faction-related. The devs have already stated that other players will have the potential to de-activate the safety mechanisms. That's why it's elegant.

I don't agree that those gameplay designs apply to every MMO - they do apply to MMOs designed prior to 2012. Forced segregation, like separate servers or instance also cause frustration. Arkification is an elegant solution to PvE vs PvP combat. Voxels and the ability for players to create their own interactive content will resolve solo vs group frustrations.

DU has alien ruins - we can expect to encounter citizens of those alien civilizations at some point. We won't have any NPCs at Alpha. But, expect intelligent NPCs to be encountered at some point - may take a year or two. PvE will literally be playing against the environment for the most part - that won't necessarily entail fighting animals. It's not really that PvE is another form of PvP, rather it will be that PvP will be split between direct PvP combat and indirect PvP conflict. Conflict doen't necessarily entail fighting - may not even entail competition. And it will be possible to become remote hermits who encounter no player competition at all.

1: This a poor description of the solo outlook. Solo simply refers to players who don't like to rely primarily on a group to accomplish game objectives. Solo players may -and often do- enjoy communicating with and interacting with other players. Soloers are especially unlikely to join a group for combat purposes. The segregation we will have will rely on Arkification. We start the game in an area that is immune to PvP combat - and players will have opportunities to create more areas that are immune to PvP combat. That allows the possibility for everyone to migrate to areas of interest according to their mood. And also motivates players to actively support their interests - either by creating or protecting safe zones or by taking control of safe zones. Solo vs group will occur organically since players can create their own content and decide for themselves whether their goals can be achieved solo or with a group. I'm not really sure what "group abuse" means, but individual players can create their own safe havens from groups - whether that's an underground lair, a stealth scout ship or a personal lab on a multi-crew ship.

Planet protection seems like a logical extension of Arkificarion mechanics and "bubble" territories. Once a bubble territory covers a planet, it should be possible to flag auto-detection of enemies via permissions. Primary impediment at the moment is the code for ground-to-space attacks... but the devs have that on their wish Iist.

Barter: exchange (goods or services) for other goods or services without using money.

Welcome!

NMS is great for solo explorers, yeah... But, I do wish we had more opportunities to hang out there with other players. I'd need both NMS and DU in the same game to really feel complete.

Almost two sides of the same coin for me. I wish DU and NMS shared the same universe.

I say we just rename the game to COPS.

More to the point, not everyone is interested in "military sci-fi" - not all explorers and traders in DU will be military... in fact, not all fighters in DU will be "military".

Yeah, that's all well and good for docking, but... I doubt a battlecruiser cares about docking. They'll just a blow a hole in ships and board. More about destroying ships than overriding permissions. But, that's a derail from names of ships based on perceived type.

Interesting. A freighter could have the same size and shape as a battlecruiser - it's a voxel game with players crafting the ships. A freighter could even have the same weapons as a battlecruiser. We don't know whether shields will be armor plating or force-fields. A primary difference between a freighter and a battlecruiser will be the instruments/control screens and the spaces that act as cargo holds. Looking forward to seeing what players actually do. One class of ship in BSG is luxury liner. I can imagine some people may want to disguise a battlecruiser to look have the same shape and size as a popular luxury liner... or freighter. To me, the list of ship classes is primarily to have common terminology for trade. The current list is a bit too military for my tastes. I'd prefer to draw from other cultures - "Kayak" for a solo explorer ship. "Atsá" for a solo fighter ship. But, these differences can become how we differentiate factions.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to more info we can use to RP lore for Alpha. We have a tiny bit of info regarding what we might do in Alpha as individuals, but no idea of what we might be able to do as organizations on the same Arkship.

Interesting idea. I'm thinking more along the lines of Star Trek and Battlestar Gallactica. But, I look forward to seeing what the devs come up with.

Why waste time trying to understand Bluedrake's rants?? I hope to enjoy NMS - for very different reasons than DU.

Hopefully we will have relatively shallow level caps, but a wide variety of skills.

That tweet says "target and lock system"; not tab-target. I think we're going to want to have some manual targeting that locks. That way we're able to get strategic instructions for the crew as directed by a captain. Which doesn't mean tab-target will not be an option - but, it may not be the only option. FPS style targeting won't be an option, though.

https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/296-devblog-territory-control/