blazemonger

Nothing will change before release, NQ will go there with what we now have. They have also pretty much said no, at least for the forseeable future, to all your suggestions even if some make sense.

While I understand your reasoning, the points you rais have noth8ing at al lto do with why wipe is needed. There is no need to wipe to allow new players an "even playing field" or "the ability to catch up" as new polayers will do so to a very proficient level anyway due to the way the talent system works, something I have explain more than often enough by now. As it stands, NQ has yeat to show they can attact enough of a consistent playerbase to reasonable fill this one solar system. It will be years before they have established enough of a playerbase to justify another solar system. I do not see how a wipe can be avoided. As it stands the few who have gain massive amount sof quanta an resources by being allowed to keep their spoils from using exploits and the existing status quo of a few who have so much wealth and resources they can (and have) effectively excluded themselves form the game as a whole and just remain in their own bubble. That NQ apparently is still contemplating options that do not include a wipe, mere weeks before they plan to "release", IMO just means they do not understand the basic concept of what they are building and as such will fail to do so. But at the same time I can see NQ just seeing "release" as a label and as such have falling into the "it's an MMO so it's never finished" trap. Personally, I just do not hope NQ is this naive in their considerations. But then again, it fits their MO and it's an attitude which has caused them a good bit of trouble before so they may wel lnot have learned fro that still.. I guess and expect we'll know in 8-10 weeks ..

Important bit here This statement claims that NQ is not ready for a release of DU yet. Effectively weeks before the game goes to "release", you are saying that you do not yet have the plan for how to get there decided on. OR are we to take this as saying that the release of DU is way more than 2-3 months out at this point? I honestly do not see how stating that Athena is the last major patch before release puts that release more than 3-4 months out from the time Athena releases in your cadence, which has been rather stable for a long time now. While I do not expect it to happen, Ican see NQ not wipe in the end and thus make a massive mistake for al the wrong reasons, shooting themselves in the foot. Lastly, I think the answer given really shows that NQ does not grasp the context of the comments made by many, including myself and takes a rather defensive if not ignorant position on them. This is not about personal belief, this is about what is a sensible deduction fo what the game will need to have a fighting chance from the perspective of having been around for many of these over the last 30 years or so, But I guess NQ will decide what NQ will deicde. TL;DR A wipe will offer many benefits and open up a good few opportunities with regards to monetizing the release of fthe game. Not wiping will only satisfy a handful and block many of those opportunities. from a business sense, a wipe is really not, or should not be at least, a matter of yes or no but just of how and when. Let me also copy a response I posted in th thread you locked as I really feel it applies here; --==-- NQ probably reason that spilling the beans on their plan to wipe would be bad. I'd argue the opposite. Yes, there will be a few who will stop playing entirely. But those are the ones who are not invested in the game anyway, they do not care for the future of the game they only care for the pixels they currently own in game. Yes, more of the few left in game may pause their activity until a wipe happens. That makes sense as it's only human to feel your time in game would not be meaningful until the wipe happens. The game is way to shallow to begin with to justify devoting time to it when you know all there is to know and so playing really achieves nothing But overall, announcing the wipe will create a timeframe to start over, it will create a point in time for existing and new players alike to revisit the game AND it creates opportunity for NQ to show what they game can provide and start building for the future, regardless of the fact the game is barely a game at this point. A wipe will be a positive thing for what I believe to be most of the existing active player base, those on the side-line and those interested to come in. NQ has pretty much set a fairly short time from for when the game will "release" and it really can't be far off. And that means that at this point, the coming wipe is even closer and there really is nothing to lose and everything to gain by just coming out and saying what I believe anyone with a logical mindset knows is coming. NQ, announcing the wipe at the point where you will offer a short head start period leading into "release" is not a bad thing, it's good and it will establish you take yourself, the game AND your community seriously. Keeping quiet while the obvious is written on the wall in big fat bold letter is just achieving the exact opposite. HTFU NQ, just grow a pair and start owning your future. --==--

The pledge cost were directly based on the value the DAC added to the packs. NQ has devaluated this value by quite abit and this they will have to compensate. If they do not, they effectively are in breach of the KS T&C by not delivering the promised goods (not talking perks here, talking what the pledge represents).

What's striking is that _EVERYTHING_ in these "podcasts" is showing that on the"devs" side of things there is no signs of a push toewards a release, in fact it's all still an alpha stage state of mind where many disruptive and yet to be started projects and ideas are on the table. Not that this is surprising as it was the same when beta started, It seems there is a total disconnect between the game designers and the commmercial decision makers and NQ will just slap a "release" label on the game at some point in the next few months regardless of the fact that the game itself is still knee deep in Alpha. What could possibly go wrong Technically, the audio was again really bad. The last answer was not understandable at all and the quality of Entropy's audio was way worse then he usually is besides his long winded answers which I get from his perspective but which are entirely not fit for purpose. These need to be edited and scripted to shorten them. And fixing the hollow reflections in the audio are really easy to fix, put some effort into these if you want to come across as somewhat professional please.

From a combat PVP player's perspective I guess your comments are fair @Taelessael.. What's not right with it from my perspective though is that is puts everything in the combat PVP basket and it assumes that PVPplayers should "do it all" themselves, which IMO is precisely why I do not agree. The content should incentivize players NOT interested in combat PVP to venture out for the rewards as they are worth the risk. ANd yes, that woudl then in turn open up opportunity for combat PVP players. I honestly believe that the compare with EVE does apply here. In EVE, the PVP players do not go out and run high tier relic and data sites or combat sites to get the loot that is needed for industry to produce the components that are used to build the modules they need for their ships to go fight. They may hunt the players that do, but those are two entirely separate loops which generally do not meet until he puts the modules on his ship. If you translates these sites to DU, it woudl be like there is a legion fleet at every superior sleeper cache waiting to kill the specialized ship to run that site. This is not meant as a dig against the PVP contingent in DU, it is basically saying that I feel DU is way to shallow and lacks the meat on te bones to be called a MMO at this point.

The problem is not that they can't come up with a decision. The problem is that it should be blatantly obvious that the decision has been made and was made some time ago for the simple fact that NQ has much more serious issue if they have not. There is understandable reasons to keep the decision to wipe internal up to a point. There is not a single reason I can think of to keep a decision to not wipe internal. So it is only reasonable to take that as yes, a wipe will happen. And from that, as we know that release is mere months away, it's time NQ mans up and makes the announcmenet as IMO they have nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point. And the apparent fact that NQ thinks their community can't put 1 and 1 together is kind of funny and worrisome at the same time.

The problem here is that al lthis is focused on combat PVP gameplay, while the Alien cores IMO should have the harvesting of resources and bringing them to market or use in industry as core purpose. That there are opportunities for combat engagement along the way of that purpose I woudl see no issue with. Suggesting that transport of plasma effective must be done with non warp travel kill the entire purpose of the cores as it only caters to the combat PVP focused players and eliminates the rest. DU is not and should not be a combat PVP game first as it is well established and well documented that combat PVP in general is not a main driver in agame's long term success. The mere fact hat a single alliance was able to grab and control the cores in game so fast, with so much ease and be able to maintain control with little effort just shows both how broken the whole mechanic is and how it is misrepresented an /or ill conceived by NQ

NQ has yet to announce anything about how they will handle the devaluation of pledges due to the lower than expected subscription cost @Damian_Firecaster Having said that, NQ always implied that DAC were similar to PLEX for EVE and as such, they do not translate 1:1 in cost vs a direct playtime subscription. NQ pitched DAC at a retail value of $18 and at the time pitched gametime at around $15 for 30 days.. That means your 12 DAC would come out more like 18 when compensating 1:1 which probably will not happen anyway. And I can see NQ bring sub cost up to the originally expect level anyway at release, which may be why they never addressed this in the 2 years since beta started.

NQ probably reason that spilling the beans on their plan to wipe would be bad. I'd argue the opposite. Yes, there will be a few who will stop playing entirely. But those are the ones who are not invested in the game anyway, they do not care for the future of the game they only care for the pixels they currently own in game. Yes, more of the few left in game may pause their activity until a wipe happens. That makes sense as it's only human to feel your time in game would not be meaningful until the wipe happens. The game is way to shallow to begin with to justify devoting time to it when you know all there is to know and so playing really achieves nothing But overall, announcing the wipe will create a timeframe to start over, it will create a point in time for existing and new players alike to revisit the game AND it creates opportunity for NQ to show what they game can provide and start building for the future, regardless of the fact the game is barely a game at this point. A wipe will be a positive thing for what I believe to be most of the existing active player base, those on the side-line and those interested to come in. NQ has pretty much set a fairly short time from for when the game will "release" and it really can't be far off. And that means that at this point, the coming wipe is even closer and there really is nothing to lose and everything to gain by just coming out and saying what I believe anyone with a logical mindset knows is coming. NQ, announcing the wipe at the point where you will offer a short head start period leading into "release" is not a bad thing, it's good and it will establish you take yourself, the game AND your community seriously. Keeping quiet while the obvious is written on the wall in big fat bold letter is just achieving the exact opposite. HTFU NQ, just grow a pair and start owning your future.

Fair enough.. The DAC post kind of cameout of the blue and it may have been the odd one out.. I'll hold out for a week before conceeding

There is a big difference between "continue to update the game" and "try and keep building the base game". If anything, the latter is what NQ will be doing for a few more yeras at least at the pace they keep. But yeah.. They wil no doubt play the "it's an MMO and an MMO is never finished" and completely bypass that they pushe what effectivelu is an Alpha game to "release".. If they even keep their commitments with regards to game mechaincs and features, a number of those still need to even be started and several of those will massively disrupt the game ..

We're coming up on 8 weeks since their post.. At this point, maintaining you are discussing this is just silly and merely re-affirms the notion that NQ is stringing us along on this while they full well know that the decision to wipe was made months ago already. It's funny when people who do not seem to grasp the basics of community management and communication in general fall on their face so hard they really have no comeback but no doubt will try to anyway. More likely though, they will just start and try to silence the voices speaking up in order to pretend it never happened as that is what is pretty much the pattern here. The post was probably 2 months early and should have been posted around this time as the actual wipe and subsequent headstart period leading up to official "release" is probably 6-8 weeks out from now, maybe a little bit longer.

In its current state, DU communicates a bland and uninspired image in the first 5 minutes and never recovers. And that will be a big problem as it means it will cause many to disengage early on and quite outright or keep going with low expectations which are barely met down the line, if so. I really want DU to do well, become good and maybe even great down the line. I do not feel NQ has that objective and is just trying to push a product out the door without much of a consideration for what it looks like, nor do they have a solid idea of where to take it after. It's why, for quite some time now, I have said that while I can see what DU can be or become, I do not think NQ is the company to make that happen.

Well no, but he day is not over yet We'll see if I need to revise OP tomorrrow..

The one thing NQ has always said and has put quite some effort in making sure it is understood is that your stuff is never safe EXCEPT for on your sanctuary tile where other players can't touch your personal stuff. I see no issue at all with the game requiring upkeep. You can argue about the way in which NQ implemented it sure, I feel they opted (as they do) for the least expensive and IMO least imaginative option but that does not take away from the fact that a deterioration mechanic needs to be in place. Now, there are obvious holes in this implementation, for instance a player who is inactive will have their constructs go abandoned but the TU on the relevant tile will remain a HQ TU and you still can't take over the tile itself which will effectively mean that people tear down constructs and not put them to use as you can't do anything on the tile itself like dig or build new constructs. That is a massive oversight and IMO a clear indicator NQ is really just throwing stuff out there and not really thinking these things through at all. There could have been far more intricate and interesting choices made to achieve the same effeect such as what I posted on HERE .. But NQ chose a cheap option instead which really adds nothing to the game at all outside of a simple timer.

The character creation in DU is laughable, especially for an MMO.. It's of those "initial implementations" that was supposed to be worked out during alpha. Slapping some color on a suit really equates to nothing. And on top of that I really liked the first iteration of the suit, with the cloth patches, far better than the skin tight suit with the weird helmet design we have now. That just looks terrible and it makes the game even more sterile and unpersonal than it already is. I'm not asking for EVE level customisations here but what we have now is just not adequate at all.

The answer here is: "We ticked the box and moved on, the game is now ready for release" --NQ

We'll know more by wednesday I think..

The remaining roadmap is: "Release in 2-3 months with the current featureset.." NQ is out of time and money now so they can't do any more work unless release brings in more cash.

It was more a general remark, The French have a habit of needing to debate/argue/discuss something even when the outcome is kind of known in advance.. It's something I have had to "deal with" on occasion personally

Yes, from NQ's perspective: TODO: Space Territory Warfare implement Alien cores DONE, READY FOR RELEASE, CHECK, NEXT ITEM

Let's see what happens this week..

NQ has removed the mention of player markets entirel from their narrative.. Obviously that wil lnt mean we, as community will forget their commitment an dpromises with regards to markets. I do think the M15 debacle expsosed some serious issues with markets which I can see NQ has not actually addressed yet. In what we saw at that time it's quite clear markets are very vulnerable and fragile in their design and fairly easily broken

I'm still expecting NQ to spin the dispensers as what was always intended. They have in several instances tried to "sell" workarounds as what they actually planned to do or changed mechanics from "initial implementation which will change" to "this is how it was always meeant to work".