Jump to content

blazemonger

Alpha Tester
  • Posts

    5505
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by blazemonger

  1. Yes, DU is far from "release ready" .. I do not think anyone, including NQ, is going to argue differently. Frankly, the game is not even in an actual beta state yet, regardless of what label is put on. But NQ has no choice in this anymore I'm sure. They have to push the game out the door and move on as the money jar is empty to the point they need to move what devs they have to a new project which may help them refill it as it is not very likely DU will be self sufficient, let alone generate profits for many. many quarters, if ever.
  2. While true, NQ has shown to not be able or willing to take ownership of these things and just tends to keep "discussing" it until the very last moment to then make a call which generally will take 3-4 further iterations to somewhat work. In general decisions at NQ seem to be made by the programmers themselves and not managed and controlled through a central project manager. There is a good many indicators to support this, including doing the same thing different ways at different places, using different design language for UI and more as well as a rather obvious difference in how models are designed and "polished". This is really not the fault of the devs themselves, it is a lack of leadership, ownership, management and control by the next levels up from there.
  3. DU does not have any form of physics in that sense and adding it woudl require a level of reworking of the core game which is not what NQ could afford an dpossibly achieve. Water is just a mesh and I doubt it will ever be different. ANd with the latest changes it feel like it's even less actual water than before.. it's way to clear and when under water it's really no different from being on "dry" land at all..
  4. @NQ-Nyota I honestly feel this makes no sense. A decision like this is not taken lightly sure, but at the same time for a project which is set to go to release in mere months, after which there is no longer the option to wipe really, such a decision would have been made. Also, your post basically completely ignores the many comments made outside of mentioning that you read them. It just feels like one of those "we heard you" kind of posts where NQ tries to control the fire they started themselves but fail to actually bring the proper extinguishing material. And in this case NQ really just threw water directly onto an oilfire, causing a massivee flash-fire. I really can't accept that NQ has not made the decision whether to wipe or not and following that can't see how they have not decided on a wipe close to release for a number of reasons, but mainly a wipe would: Remove the accumulated damage done by exploits Remove the constructs owned by inactive accounts Remove constructs by beta keys accounts which would go inactive at that time Allow for offering a "head start" to backers leading into release Allow for offering a subscribing incentive to beta key access accounts (participate in head start) There are plenty more benefits but I guess these would be the main ones. This would be a wipe where: Worlds are reset, all constructs removed Quanta is removed with the normal starting amount left, possibly up to a higher starting amount as a bonus Account talent points are reset, the accrued points returned to the pool For constructs which the account is creator for or which have no DRM set on the core a normal core blueprint is provided Lastly, not announcing a "no wipe" at this time really makes no sense as it really changes nothing and will instantly end the conversation. I can see how NQ believes announcing the wipe now could possibly have repercussions but at the same time, the indecisive position NQ takes on this has already damaged the game and has resulted in consequences where many of the active player base, including what I'd consider the major streamer for the game at this time, have decided to either shelve the game for now altogether or reduce their activity to a minimum. And I could easily see that cause more damage that just coming out and announcing the decision mase, which IMO really only can be that a wipe wil loccur a few weeks prior to the release date to accommodate the benefits I mentioned above.
  5. That's true sure. Combat in DU is not designed to be a full time business. It's supposed to be part of the whole. Problem right now is that with a minimal amount of players active in a m,assively big universe, there is not enough combat to go around. I still feel that cpmbat situation should emerge organically out of how disputes between orgs are settles once "politics" and trying to resolve through diplomacy fails. Piracy as a "profession" really only can be a viable gameplay choice if there is enough "normal" traffic going around which is not the case at all.
  6. Sure.. that could be possible. But at the same time, If that was the case, the fact this would have such a severe impact on the overall performance makes you question if NQ is even close to being able to handle the numbers they will need to have a viable game and also would put into question the process of scaling they have always claimed to have built in to the server tech. So left or right, it's really not good ..
  7. Well, the whole point of the game is that the pirate has affiliations and alliances which provide him with these and not that he makes them himself. That said yes, a major problem with DU is that everyone seems to want to do everything for themselves AND the bots in game cause a price level in the markets which is too high. If ore would be available more easily at lower prices, pures could be made cheaper and from that what a pirate needs could be made cheaper. The unsustainable bot prices for ore and things like schematics are resulting in prices being to high which in turn means that pirates can't sell what they do not need themselves from their loot at prices they can actually buy other stuff from. TL;DR The economy in DU is frekked beyond repair, hence a wipe is needed to remove both bots and schematics OR make schematics an actual part of the game, and not just a control mechanism for NQ (which fails to work as well when people have so much money they can just buy every one of them anyway). Fair. However, one would hope that come release that will get better. People take the long way around because they want to avoid a confrontation, which is pretty much certain to be lost if it occurs. There is no mitigation of the risk unless you include actively arming and be ready for combat. And that is not an option that is viable or desired by many. That there may be risk is one thing but if you can't build in securities to reduce that risk, the only option is to go around the problem. Again, in EVE, I fly my blockade runner in pretty much a straight line, only bouncing off an asteroid field or moon if needed or is both bubbles and/or too many people are in a system. It does not remove the risk, but it reduces it to an acceptable level. DU has _none_ of these kind of options, only going well around ..
  8. I'm glad I'm not alone in this as it is a rather obvious issue. It's so bad for me now that I fall through the ship when landing in some places I never had issues before and/or seeing very weird lines on the ground, much like Lissajous curves or distortion you would see back in the day when you ran a C64 on a TV .. It definately feels like NQ has either dialed back server performance even further and/or has some considerable performance issues with this patch. It would be great to get some clarification on this from NQ side .. @NQ-Deckard
  9. While doing my ore collection today I noticed that loading of textures is very noticibly and considerabley slower (and frequently just missed with black or blurred patches all oevr the place when flying) than previously. Overall, the server response feel more sluggish than before as well. A lot of artefacts as well and I see water spawning in (and disappearing when I get closer) where it never was before when flying a known route Anyone else notice this ?
  10. Also .. Could the devs creating the skybox please spend some time looking at the night sky and tell me where they see al lthese different colored stars they added to the skybox in the game?
  11. The shield VFX are an eye sore. DU already shows you a mesh of the construct and not the actual voxels, how difficult can it be to texture map the shield effect onto that mesh somewhat like hardeners are don in EVE? That woudl look much better .. Or even just make the shield VFX less prominent (well NQ really needs to tone down ALL VFX) .. again, use EVE as an example of how to do this in a way it is visible without getting in the way. I do not have an issue witheht warp tunnel effect but here again, it's too much in your face and at the same time it would be great to have the option to not see it. I also feel the tunnel is to narrow..
  12. Another full wipe rever really was an option tobegin with and was always the "if all else fails" type of wipe. What NQ will do is aprtial wipe, so you get to keep these skillpoints. I do agree it's good to see 2FA implemented but I woudl reall like to hav ethe option to choose a longer period the token remains active. 3 months is OK, but for games I prefer a year. One thing this hopefully does put some context around for some is how little 1 million skillpoints means for an established (2 year old) account while at the same time being a massive amount for a new one.
  13. While I get what you are saying @RugesV, that is still working around the issue, not fixing it. Having to wait until a certain time to do an activity to avoid running into certain groups of players is just silly and indicative of a lack of balance and gameplay options. Also, as we should hope for a massive increase in player pop as the game releases, that option becomes less viable.
  14. The problem I have with that POV is that it basically reaffirms what is generally known, many combat focussed players do not see the bigger picture, just heir part of it and pretty much fail to understand that this is not "PVP content" but content outside of the safe zoen, where engagements _may_ occur. At this time, unless you explicitely go around the possibility of an engagement, there is no counter to bring the risk down to where it is acceptable and in line with possible rewards and in the same vein the content only caters to combat focussed players. To once more compare to EVE, there I can be in NullSec without ever bringing guns and make a living doing exploration. I have tools to gain awareness of what is going on in the area I am in and provided I am attentive to this, can ensure I get away before I can get engaged. There si still a risk of getting caught, but through experience, skill and the right ship for the job, I can reduce that risk to getting unlucky or making mistakes. And in turn the hunters will try and force me to make mistakes which is perfectly fine.. Besides there not really being a point to be outside of the safezone to begin with in DU, what activity/content is there carries way to much risk to the point of "once found, you are dead" as pretty much any possible way of escape has been either nerfed to the point of irrelevance or straight up removed.
  15. NQ has always overdone effects and many are still as they were. The latest round included having circles emitting from radar to "show the radarwaves".. total nonsense and as many will hide radar in wals or behind walls, many will not have odd circlees coming out of walls for no reason at all. NQ does not know how to do subtle, add fx that do not get in the way but if they are not here you may well go "hmm.. something is missing" .. And their effects are very rough and basic.. they really do not do the game world a service.. It could be because PopcornFX has no direct integration with Unigine so they may have to do all that themselves, but if I see what gamees like Forza or Diablo II do with it, it's also a lack of experience and skill with the tools I gues.
  16. It's very clear NQ does not test these thinsg on actual constructs at all and obviously ignores and and all feedback they receioved on it while in PTS .. Not that this is unexpected, not predicted to happen or anything new..
  17. The whole auto HQ assignement was one of those unclear actions by NQ. I think that was only for inactive accounts actually. What is clear is that it could only be tiles in your name and not an org. That said though, you could have checked, you should have set thsi tile to HQ the moment you cnme back in after that update and you would have received several notifdications AND ample time to recover your constructs once the tile was claimed. So blaming NQ for all of this is really not justified.
  18. That is fair sure. But I feel that is preferable as it also opens up room for new designs/creators and may entice some who left to return and restart their business. There's pros and cons in anything obviously.
  19. Yeah, these rocks not showing as skittles all over the place unless you equip the tool you need for them is IMO one of the better changes in Athena, sad as the implication of that is for the update itself.
  20. True. The problem is that NQ seems to not take notice of the evolution of EVE and what CCP has done over the years to streamline and optimize that acceessibility. They instead seem to have chosen to be inspired by EVE and reinvent all the wheels again themselves insteead fo paying attention and using the wheels which now work and/or just copy the rims and completely forget about the spokes.
  21. IMO, "advantage" is not an argument in the decision to wipe. It is really bad that NQ even remotely suggest this in their g horrible post on the matter as doing so really pushes the narrative in the wrong way. That argument falls squarely in the "it is because otherwise new players can't catch up". Having the option to jumpstart the game through the eearl;y availability of good quality constructs to buy will be very important for the game post-wipe. And these bleuprints, like the acrued talent points, effectively represent the time and monet players have spent in game leading up to "release". Having these constructs in game early on will also potentrially show "what is possible" and incentivize ne wplayers to follow a similar path. And allowing you to keep the blueprints for ships you bought woud actually be the unfair advantage here as that would deny the creators to start their business back up.
  22. "You can only completely empty my tea cup if you leave the milk in it". But seriously. I guess I will have to response each time someone makes the incorrect statement NQ said they would not wipe again as they never did. There is ONE mention of "no wipe" and that is in a press release prior to beta. EVERY other comment or statement NQ has made as left a wipe of some kind firmly on the table. And so, let's take a step back and look at this. NQ has a number of structural problems, one being communication. Not just a lack of it, but when they do they tend to be vague, confusing, and contradicting in many instances. It's anyone's guess why this is still the case, but it is. The only logical explanation for the press release would be for NQ to ignore the talk in the community about a partial wipe and really only discuss another full/global wipe like they did prior to beta in that context without ever making that distinction clear. And seeing how NQ realistically soft-launched the game at that point by starting to take people's money through subscriptions is why another full wipe would not be an option. NQ can't erase the built-up benefits from paying a sub and the big one there is the talent points. Experience in building, understanding of game mechanics, knowing how to fly, how to mine, whet the best way to prospect is and similar actions are all part of the experience gained while playing beta. These are a permanent advantage and benefit over new players. Talent point accrued in a passive training system like DU has are directly linked to the subscription being paid. And NQ simply can't take that away anymore. So, a full wipe is effectively no longer an option. The discussion around another (partial) wipe has been raging on and off ever since beta started, actually before that as the day 1 exploit which insta-boosted the abilities for some to where they should only get to weeks from that point should have triggered another full wipe, and flared up several times. There have been a number of major exploits and issues damaging the game over the beta period and NQ has all but left this untouched. Assuming for a moment that NQ did not just ignore it and purposely allowed players to enrich themselves beyond reason through exploits and mistakes, the only logical conclusion would be that NQ has ALWAYS planned to do a partial wipe closer to actual release and so choose to not rock the boat. And I've mentioned this a few times, my expectation is that NQ will do a partial wipe where everything goes, players get blueprints for constructs they created (not the ones you bought or were gifted and are DRM locked to the creator) as well as their accrued talent point returned to the pool. That wipe makes sense and it will happen an few weeks prior to the official "release" of the game at which time beta keys will also deactivate. Backers will then have an early start and NQ will probably offer a subscription package for several months to allow others to also have that start. This is just a logical and sensible business move. The problem with al this is that NQ never clarified what I believe to be their intent to say a FULL/GLOBAL wipe would not happen again. Whether this is/was because they just do not see this oversight is a major cause for a lot of the debate or that they deliberately do not do it because of another problem they have, which is that they do not trust their community to be able to handle the truth and the actual intent they have for these kinds of things. The biggest initiator of confusion, debate, discussion and arguments around DU is actually NQ in their, at times, hopelessly naive and borderline ignorant way of communicating with clear signs of a massive disconnect between what they think the community wants/needs and what is actually going on.
  23. Regarding your last sentence, see the first one. lso, studies and extensive teesting done by game studios in collboration with experts in behavioral science provide actual data and results, not just opinion and expectation. And the reaearch done shows that reinforcement of achievement and direct signals of progress will in general promote engagement and desire to "stick with it". Maybe that's not true for you and that is fine, for the general public though, it is very much a factor. There is reasons why studios who take this seriously will generally have a behavioral scientist on the payroll or have ties with institutions which can provide research and result in this regard. While I can see how NQ does not have the resources to have this as part of their process, there is a lot of documentation and information onthe subject they can use.
  24. The relevant point reads: And yes, they mention talent points as part of the advantage veteran/experienced players have, sure. Your interpretation here is something I do not agree with at all and the general notion that new players have an unsurmountable disadvntage over those who have been playing for longer is factually incorrect and easily proven worng. Of course, having accrued more talentpoints is an advantage. But the way the talent system is designed (which is pretty much direcly lifted from EVE), that advantage actually get's less important very quickly and I have explained that several time now. Bottom line is that a new player will catch up to about 80% of the level a player who has been training for two year is at in about 5 months, as a new player trains several talents to L4 while the more experienced player will train level5 of a single talent. ANd 5 months in a game like DU is really not all that long. After some time, talents that are trained will be the ones with higher multipliers. Each talent has a base of 600,3000,15000,75000 and 375000 point respectively with a multiplier ranging from x1 to I believe x15 currently. As you see from the above, the way talents work is that for the talent to be trained 100%, you spend 20% of the time needed to get to level 4 and then 80% for the 5th level. And a 2 year old player would generally be training talents with x5 multipliers and up, so the new player will be able to train their x1-x4 levels at a considerably faster rate relative to the time the tenured player trains L5 levels at x5 and up. So no, talent points are not a massive barrier for new players and so no, it really can't be used as an argument in this discussion.
×
×
  • Create New...