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Dr Rhubarb

Alpha Team Vanguard
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Posts posted by Dr Rhubarb

  1. Thank you NQ for the posts recently.  There are several items in there that I am looking forward to.

     

    Mining: So I am not a miner in this game, I am a builder.  I didn't really mind the way mining works in this game, but after you get your talents up, that's it, it is still mining.  I have always liked Minecraft's progression with mining (in certain mods) where you dig to get resources, build faster and more efficient tools to dig, then automate mining so you can concentrate on building your empire.  That process always felt good to me, so I look forward to see how the mining units work.  My hope is that they stay balanced and don't get to an end-game level of resources too quick.  Also, searching for asteroids in empty space seems like a good expansion for folks who scan hexes, although they have to be somewhat quick about securing it/mining it if it becomes public knowledge after a bit.

     

    Missions: I have been looking forward to missions so players can create jobs, but hearing that there may be some NQ missions is even more exciting.  I am curious as to what kind of specialized missions we can expect.

     

    Territory Control: I am a little concerned about how the territory control in space is going to work. I hope that when it gets implemented that, the "pipes" between planets don't instantly get clogged with territory control.  Maybe that is intended, but I hope there is a balance there.

     

    Adding some "fun" into the game is definitely desired, but also performance enhancements is what is most needed.  I hope the new screen adjustments do that for everyone.

  2. 5 hours ago, blazemonger said:

    The actual value of these posts is minimal at best. It's fluff and filler. While I get that currently the company has other things to get sorted, why not communicate that more clearly and create time for yourself to make that happen. This just feels like it's mostly ignoring the reality of what NQ is going through which unfortunately is more of the same.

    Seriously, why are you still here?  You ask for more communication, and you get it, but it's not good enough for you?  There is some truly exciting news about the game in those three posts and you don't have one single good thing to say?  They give you some concrete intentions and plans and you say it's just fluff and filler?  Are you a paid troll? Move on with your life if nothing NQ says or does make you happy.  Can you be more miserable?

  3. On 4/2/2021 at 4:53 PM, Lethys said:

    And please tell me where that Statement I made was "bashing the game" or where in that statement I am being an ass or counterproductive 

     

    "need a working server tech which doesn't shit itself when..."

    That's kind of exaggerated and not productive.

     

    " If that works then change studio and let others with knowledge and experience get game mechanics right."

    This is a bash that the game is not good and they should hire others with knowledge which is just such a great approach.

     

    "Oh and hire a god damn UI dev"
    You feel the need to use GD there?  You don't think that is assy.

    The post is counterproductive because a new player that is reading you post will get the impression the game is bad, the devs are bad, and the community is negative, and they will likely leave.  But I assumed something there. I assumed you want the game to succeed since you have been here since the beginning and are so active. So if you want the game to grow and succeed, then why aren't your posts more productive, positive, or encouraging for new players of the community?  You seem to have a lot of knowledge of the game and you should, but your history of posts show that you really are a terrible ambassador for this game.

    You asked me to respond and I appreciate it, but I don't expect you to really get where I am coming from because you had to ask me to explain that to you in the first place.

  4. On 4/2/2021 at 1:11 PM, SirJohn85 said:

    JC, the ceo, the leadership as itself, has not published a game.

    I guess this is a matter of semantics now, but yes he has not previously published a game before this one that I know of, but that does not automatically mean he has zero experience.  Plus he has been working many years on this game, so technically that is many years of experience on a big game.  But I know I am being semantical at this point so I won't push it.

    Again speculation is fine, I just don't appreciate when people pretend or present that they know what is going on better than the development studio.

  5. On 4/2/2021 at 1:37 PM, ShippyLongstalking said:

    yep, i spent 3 years in game dev and well over a decade in software engineering.

    Thank you for the well thought response, and I will conceded to some of your points.  I am certainly not trying to be a white knight here, but there is just so much speculation with player bases in games, often without an ounce of understanding of how game development works and without any knowledge of the inside workings of the dev studio, that it bugs me.  Even when employees put out public comments about what is happening "behind the scenes" I always take those comments with a grain of salt because it is only part of the real picture.  So speculation is just that, but I guess your post was presenting speculation in a way that came across as factual statements.  So for me it was more of the tone.

  6. 39 minutes ago, ShippyLongstalking said:

    For a long while i was thinking that yes, NQ can bring this back.

     

    For me, 0.24 was a turning point where that last bit of hope faded. It shows that no, they can't fix the game's fundamental problems.

     

    The tech is an absolute mess -- even if the game's design was fleshed-out, the tech is a nightmare:

    • It's riddled with bugs that never get fixed (or get fixed then regress in a future version)
    • Performance is shoddy at best and hasn't been proven to scale even with modest crowds. A million players? Please, they can't handle 10% of that without massive lag and pending ops. 
    • Devs have proven over the last 7 months that they can't make changes -- since closed beta started, what's changed? Schematics to nerf industry, jetpack tweaks, purchased 3rd-party texture packs? Barely making a dent in the laundry list of long-standing bugs? Even if they did drop the mission system in 0.24, this simply isn't enough to justify all that dev time. 
    • They've already been developing for 6 years...and are still far away from being feature-complete. 6-7 years is a long time to stay in alpha.

     

    This is hardly "early stage" of beta, it's longer than most games spend in development...to not even have a feature-complete beta. With how many bugs they've collected in the last 6 years? Even if they can get to "beta" state, it'll be another 6-7 months of bug fixes and polish before it is actually release-ready. 

    It all adds up to one thing to me: they physically can't develop the game in a pace that makes any sort of commercial sense. 

     

    Dev never gets faster as the project gets older and bigger...so it isn't like pace is going to magically improve. 

     

    Then...you take a step back and look at factors other than raw technical development:

    • the fact that their leadership has zero experience in game dev 
    • the fact that they make short-sighted design choices (probably because of the above point)
    • the fact that they never had a complete design to begin with and are still "winging it" with core pillars of the game
    • the high staff turnover and low player population
    • the poor/no communication with players -- building zero goodwill with beta testers -- and even having this reputation among their own employees (that they don't listen)

    nothing about DU today adds up to "this game is going to turn around"

     

    Yes, the premise still has potential, but not the game.

     

    There's simply too much broken to me and no sign that NQ is capable of fixing it or humble enough to recognize their faults and make changes accordingly. 

    So many inaccurate statements here.  6-7 years?  Nope.  The company may have been established for that long, then but you act as if it has been open to players for that long.  There was pre-alpha for a bit then alpha for about a year, and now beta.  NQ has kept a pretty good forward progress roadmap, especially when compared to other large games.  

     

    "riddled with bugs that never get fixed"  Apparently you don't read the release notes or haven't been playing that long because that statement is just ignorant. Yes there are still bugs.

     

    You say they haven't made changes in 7 months.  Again, you may not be paying attention to what is happening.

     

    "zero experience in game dev" that statement is just a big middle finger at their accomplishments thus far.  Are you a game dev by the way?  How do you know so much about the devs, and what their employees think?  Are you an ex-employee of NQ?  What is your experience in the industry?

     

    I can agree that this game that is still in development is not a finished game and has some issues to work out just like any game that hasn't been released yet, but you are stating a lot of things as facts that simply are false or completely assumed.

     

    It always amazes me how much time and energy folks are willing spend to talk and write about something they seem to hate so much.  Like Lethys' comment above, he has been bashing the game in these forums for years, just generally being an ass and counter productive.  I have no idea why he is still here in this game or in these forums.  You think he would be trying find joy somewhere else by now.

     

    As to the OP's question, I believe the game is not going anywhere and has great things to come.  I think the Mission system will be one of the biggest transformations to the game that we have seen in a long time and bring some folks back.  It will give some "game" to the game.  I personally am looking forward to making missions for players.  I have witnessed some folks leaving the game out of frustration of some changes which is understandable.  Some will come back at a later date when more features arrive (also understandable considering playing beta phase games are not for everyone).  There is a large core base of players that are not going to leave and are very supportive.  Please take some of these more salty comments with ...well... a grain of salt.  In the end, yes it will take more time and patience to get where the game is going, but history has shown that NQ has listened to players and made changes appropriately, and that is why I plan to keep playing. Some times it does go backwards a bit, but eventually gets fixed.

  7. On 1/2/2019 at 10:50 AM, Pantera said:

    There’s good points on both sides really. I can’t wait to stream it. Even got me a 2nd PC and an Elgato ready to go but patient I will be: :)

    Ha, I was just eyeballing the Elgato last night for streaming.

     

    The game is still in early 'development", hence Alpha, and the developers can still control the narrative.  Once you let slip the dogs of war, it is much harder to real them back in.  I believe that you do not have to go full bore with marketing right now.  That effort is better served when the game is out of alpha and has all of its features.  I know it is tempting to feel anxious about the possibility of losing players, but it feels to me that NQ has heavily considered the missteps and pitfalls from other recent (or not so recent) sci-fi games and the nightmare PR issues that have arisen.  Extending the NDA into ALPHA 1 and maybe 2-3 is a smart measured approach.  Believe me, I want to tell everyone about the fun I having with this game.  Having played in this past holiday extended period has me very excited for the future of this game and I am not panicked about losing players.

     

    One of the reasons that the forums have seen a little reduced traffic is because many of those folks are now able to play in the Alpha and that chatter has moved to the NDA section of the forums.

  8. On 1/6/2019 at 6:24 AM, skalibran said:

    Since there is almost no AI, a healthy player base is important for me. It is only alpha, I don't expect anything. But out of curiosity: Are there any numbers of concurrent players?

    I am currently under NDA, but these early alphas are limited in players and will increase with each release stage as NQ has said.  I can say that I am happy with the amount of player interaction I have had so far, every time I logon.  So I am excited to have even more folks gain access.

  9. 12 hours ago, Lethys said:

    Well, just design your ships in a way that the crew can move faster through the ship. Ofc those paths have to be defendable too in Case of attack.

    I agree.  Mobility will be an important part of design for large ships.

     

    If there were to be teleport pads they should not go far, maybe 10 meters or so, just to be able to go up and down decks.  Perhaps they should consume power each time as to not be OP.

     

    I wonder if a hovercraft could work aboard a large ship or station.

  10. I haven’t been able to find any info on whether or not a ship/plane can have more than one core, but looking at the videos of the early ship building, there is a 3D grid which is stated as the limits of how big you can build.  So I am wondering if you will be able to add another core to build larger.  If that is the case, then maybe you can classify ships based on number of cores, big or small cores. For example, this is a 2 large core ship.

  11. I suppose you can always just make small cylinder voxels out of a cheap material.

     

    I think it would be nice to have way points like in one of the map mods in Minecraft.  They show up only for the user who placed them and they look like light beacons that you can see from a distance.  But having them show up just for the creator helps keep the load off of the server and keeps the landscape clean for everyone else. Define Tlt a nice thing to have.

  12. I can't speak for everyone, but one of the most exciting things for me about DU is the ability to design and build ships.  I would assume this is a major interest to most folks wanting to play.  So how many people don't want to be bothered with building ships and would rather just purchase one?  Are we over estimating the demand for buyers and bootleggers?  Now a "ship" could be a little single seater fighter type or a massive transport behemoth or something completely bizarre. 

     

    My uninformed 2 cents would be to see the master blueprint and regular blueprint as the simple elegant solution.  Ultimately we need to see how this all plays out in the alpha before suggesting too many changes.

     

    As an in-game way to handle infringement, if you are worried about your amazing design getting bootlegged, you perhaps find an in-game way to advertise your creation as the original designer.  Perhaps you have unique feature or element to you ship.  You can let everyone know that you are the author of the amazing "Triple Power Foil".  Like in RL, copyright disputes are researched by looking at who had the design published first.  You can use advertising as a type of "first published".

     

    Either way it goes, the alpha play will let us see exactly what happens and whether it is a significant issue or not.

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