Kiklix

I would like to see systems implemented that create a greater use of the ship if operated by multiple players.
 
For example. more gun operations from side turrets if multiple people are operating the ship, maybe better, tighther turning or something if a navigator is present...or more efficient FTL if there is a navigator on board vs just a pilot.
 
I can see the need for having one person be able to pilot a large ship, but there should be benefits for groups who multi-pilot a ship. This would help create team play and help to establish "ownership" to a group working on making a large ship.

As most of you are aware Novaquark is laying down the foundation for Dual Universe. They need to get the game in a strong alpha state before they launch their kickstarter campaign. This means that some of the purely aesthetic aspects of the game will have to come later on, like outfits, player customization etc.
 
This thread is for those who would like to dream of the kinds of elements or "props" as they are called in some other games that they would like to see in dual.
 
There are many different types of elements.
 
• Active elements: Elements that have a function and will most likely be scriptable (rocket boosters, guns, conduits for energy transfer, etc).
• Superficial elements: Elements that are made for decoration only. These are to help add atmosphere to a construct (pots/pans, soda cans etc).
• Superficial Working elements: Elements like stoves, sinks, toilets. Elements that "work" in game with opening doors, flowing water etc, but have no function outside of immersive aspects.
• Emitter elements: Elements that give off an effect such as lightning or electric arcs, waterfalls/flowing water, steam vents etc. These would fall under active elements in most cases.
 
 
List what kind of active or superficial elements would you like to see ultimately in Dual Universe?
 
 
I will start off with these:
 
 
• Active elements:
Ramp doors. Doors that extend outward to allow for easier ingress/egress into a ship style construct. Shield windows. Windows that have closable blast shields.  
• Superficial elements:
Desks Chairs Soda cans  
• Superficial Working elements:
Rotating fans. Fans that rotate at various speeds, couple well with steam vents. Spinning gears. Gears of various sizes that rotate to make mechanical looking machines.  
• Emitter elements:
Steam Vents that blow gusts of steam. Electric arcs. Heads up displays with the ability to change the color of the hud.  ​

Hi there,
 
For the time being, the only rotation angle available for Voxel Elements will be 90 degrees.
The development team might allow customizable angles later, but if it happens, it will be most probably after the Official Release.
Despite the look of it, it would need a significant development time to be done properly: it's much more complex to anticipate how voxels would behave with anything else than a 90 degree angle, and so far the preliminary tests conducted in this direction haven't been satisfying. It's not impossible but it's a long road to get good results on this topic. So it has been decided to work on this kind of feature only when we will have enough time to allocate to make it properly (as you can imagine, the team has already a lot on the plate until end of 2018 before going for such feature).
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.
 

Hi Malice and welcome to the official Dual Universe forum!
The answer to your question is: yes, totally! You will be able to build a ship with the shape you want! 
Making the game in voxels was specifically meant to let player creativity go free when making a ship.
However, choosing an exotic shape might not make it easy to have an optimal efficiency.
It will be up to the builders to make the balance between design and efficiency
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

Hi there, 
 
It's true that:
- Massive Constructs "battlestar cruiser" size or "death star" will require incredible amount of resources and may not (or hardly) be possible to build alone.
- We don't plan to let players import design from 3D tools like 3DS Max, Blender or Zbrush.
 
However:
- It's also true that trial & errors will have a massive cost in resources if designing/prototyping a very large of spaceship must be done in the "real" in-game universe.
- It's also true that it would force all large ship designers to get huge amount of resources just for designing, not even for building. The ideal situation would be that the designer role shouldn't be tied to gather huge amounts of resources (this should be left to the production role).
 
In conclusion:
Yes, having a creative mode inside the game, just for designing purpose (without giving any free resources in the "real" in-game universe) is something we are considering.
However, this is a huge feature to develop, and while we would like to add it to the game, there is a high chance it won't be implemented before the official game release. If it's implemented at some point, it will be probably after, in an expansion.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

I do plan to start with small craft like fighters, bombers, shuttles and hoppers and work my way up as commission brings in the $ for it. Also thinking about opening up the Aegis Foundation to custom orders

As others have stated it is very likely that you can build that big. I would be concerned however with fueling the ship and maintaining it. I would say to definitely set your goals to build what you want, but imo I would start small to get a feel for the mechanics and material cost, fuel cost etc.

I am a ship builder as well and although I do like large capital ships, I find that they are rarely necessary (in other games that is). I would focus on something that does what you need it to do, but does not go over board. That being said, if you are the primary builder for a large 100+ organization, then you should have the support to make your large vessels

In real life, a random dude with little to no experience with cars can't just steal a design for a car and put it in a machine that magically makes more of that car at the same exact quality.
 
So by your logic, being able to make a ship with base components and a blueprint, shouldn't even be a thing.
 
Personally I hope that copyright infringement can be a thing that's just handled by the players, but the reason I brought up the topic in the first place was because it looks like something that could be potentially really really shitty if there isn't a decent mechanic for handling it; kind of like how NQ is setting up a bounty system and not just leaving that to the community.

The only reason people don't want people to be able to prevent others being able to protect their work so they can take all the players designs and mass sell it making the system almost useless and not enjoyable and being a troll who wants nothing more but a ruined game and then the players start quitting the devs run out of cash they try to sell the company but it ends up folding and then we have nothing.
 
All because someone wanted to steal ship designs

Something can be completely transparent, with no blur, no deformation and no color but can still be visible by light reflection on it.
Transparent and Invisible are two different things
 
Best regards,
Nyzaltar.

Hi there,
 
In the near future, windows will be available under the form of decorative Elements.
However, implementing voxels made from a transparent material, nothing is clear planned at the moment in the roadmap, so if it's implemented, it will be most likely after the official release.
 
The challenge of making transparent voxels functional enough to use it for windows: Developing this type of materials to the point of being able to make windows of custom size, with a perfect transparency with no blur or deformation when whatching something placed on the other side of the windows is not an easy task. And it will cost a significant amount of development time. So as always, we will concentrate first to core mechanics and mandatory content before starting developing transparent materials that could be used in an industrialized way.
 
In any case, we will keep you informed about the evolution on this topic when we will have fresh news about it
 
Best regards,
Nyzaltar.

Oh yeah they've got to get us some windows.
 
In Landmark there were glass voxels and element based windows and they both had some benefits and drawbacks.  So i kind of hope they give us both in DU.
 
Elements are handy because they can be rotated to any angle and overlap with voxels.
 
But voxel glass let you create curved windows or any crazy shape or thickness you wanted
 
I'm going to miss the way curved voxel glass warped light when you looked through it in Landmark.  I hope they do something similar with voxel glass in DU.

Hello everyone!
 
Another Landmark refugee arriving late to the party, a frustrated builder still dealing with some serious withdrawl issues. After poking around these forums a bit it seems that the safe zones and the building tools so far discussed sound wonderfully familiar, as are many of the names I see in the posts. Any better informed LM players tell me if it's just my imagination or is DU going to unleash the voxel artists again?
 
As an example, using parts of curves or the smooth tool (as currntly planned) would it be possible to make a giant St. Louis Arch or a model of the space shuttle?
 

 

 

Check out this old post from NQ.  https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/14-voxel-tools-pre-alpha-game-design/
 
And this post on the dev blog.  https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2016/02/20/builder-gameplay-voxel-tools-elements/#more-531
 
That's most of what we know so far other then a few sneak peeks of tools in action in a few of the videos.
 
Good to see more Landmark refugees turning up here.  

I'm addicted to NMS.
One of the best single player games I've played in the last 25 years.
Gamers looking for difficult challenge or robust combat will be disappointed by NMS, sure.
 
If DU launches - I think the primary issue will be the tension between PvP combat aficionados and builders who abhor PvP combat.
 

I would love to interact with Aliens on both Primitive and Modern culture and also i'd like some of them are Friendly and some are Hostile

​Cops has been disbanded. Sorry for wasting your time. This was a lone decision by Kiklix and does not reflect the other legate lady astrum nor the members.
 
 
​The following are the answers to why COPS has been disbanded.
 
Drama:  Certain populous organizations and their legate have been concocting rumors about COPS. Legates from other some what populous organizations have made assumptions about COPS and presented these as facts. In every case these people are wrong and only serve to create drama. There is no reason for all the hate I have received and COPS has received. I am done 'playing' with a community full of children.
 
​EDIT: Removed this section due to clarification by Novaquark.
​
​​I would like to thank everyone who made the decision to join cops. I am sorry it could not pan out. I wish you all well, I wish Novaquark the best.
 

 
 
 
COPS - Coalition Of Pirates & Smugglers.   The arkships landed. We woke anew, scared, unsure. Groups formed, factions aligned. Power corrupted. For all the efforts to save our species, the millennia we traveled, we reverted almost instantly back to that old human nature. Not even extinction could change our habits, our instinct.   We have all been there. Watching and witnessing the mega-corporations metastasize and feed off the livelihood of the less fortunate. Class warfare, poverty, slavery...being forced to work by some clown sitting at the top of his ivory tower barking commands. I’ve had enough of it, most likely so have you. It’s time to break from those chains and live a free life. It ain’t easy, ain’t too much glory, but it’s honest (for the most part) and fair.  We are a coalition, a collaboration,  a consortium, a conspiracy, a communion,  a clan, a crew, a club, a confederation, a confederacy collecting cohorts connected, conjoined, combining efforts to be a free people, free from tyranny, terror and totalitarianism.       WHAT IT'S LIKE:   Ever want to pilot the Millenium Falcon? Ever dream to have a crew who works together like Firefly? You want to be that solo guy who searches for bounties like Boba Fett and his Slave I?   This is how we dream to play and we intend to play this way. However Dual may require efforts from a  larger group. If this is true, we just want to have a system in place so that people can come together to fullfill their visions. We want solo play, but under the safety net of a larger organization.     WHAT WE ARE NOT:   ​We are NOT GRIFERS. COPS are pirates, smugglers, outcasts, ninjas, mercenaries in the ROLE play sense, NOT in the griefing sense.  
THE BREAKDOWN:   • Enrollment: Some will get invited, some will inquire. If you want to be part of a free alliance just ask.
• Primary language: English and gibberish.
• Timezone: Only mega corps keep up with time.
• Goal:  Solo or co-op gameplay within a larger group. We all like to do our own thing, but somtimes you need to be part of something larger or you will get left behind.  
COPS is an organization created and designed to bring together like minded people who prefer to play solo without constraints of typical guild requirements (be here on X day, at Y time to raid Z...ya its tiresome).  We realize people have limited time to play and that real life takes place first. That being said, Dual Universe looks like this might be a game where cooperation and collaberation are keys to success. If we find this to be true, there might be more expected collaborative gamplay required. We don’t want to force anything on anyone, but just ask people to step up if it is required to do so.  In the end it’s not about making a large guild rich, its about making sure your needs are met, our mutal needs are met. We endevor to create an enviroment where co-op game play is actually fun and rewarding.    
SO WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?   • Security: Safety in numbers.
• Community: A network of people to work together with if so desired.
• Freedom: Free to play your way but with the undertanding that freedom requires effort and work. There will be times we need to work together, its the only way to keep an alliance strong.
• A Trade network. Not sure how Dual is going to work with trade, but within a group there will be communication lines. We will be able to trade with each other and help keep our alliance strong.
• Veteran ship builders: We have members who have crafted some of the finest voxel ships to ever exist.  Our fleet will impress, this I can promise.
• Veteran home builders: We have members who have crafted some of the finest voxel sci-fi mega structures to exist. Our home world wont look like a cut rate hostel.
• PVP: Lets face it, even if you only care for PVE, PVP might and will happen at some point. If you intend to fly in a ship, once you are out of the ark safe zone, pvp will happen. We intend to create smart ship designs that will help to ensure pvp victories, but you will need to know how to fly it.
• PVE: We know some people have no interest in PVP. Hopefully we can get a civilization started with trade, harvesters, crafters etc. It’s good to have folks who specialize in these categories.
• Exploring: It’s at the heart of Dual Universe, of course we will explore!
• If i can be done in Dual, we intend on experiencing that content in one way or another.  
GOVERNMENT:   Don’t really intend on having some massive over inflated group of power hungry people running the show. I have no interest in that, however there does need to be a head or some form. Castles have kings, homes have breadwinners. Even a pack of wolves looks to their Alpha. I intend on holding the main key of power or have it distributed among a very close group of friends. Those who know me know I fight tooth and nail for the little guy, for honesty and integrity. I have no intent on telling you how to play or what to do...but internal conflicts will occur and those will need to be resolved. We want everyone to be happy and to play together...its the best recipe for success. 
   
If COPS sounds like a style of gamplay that you find appealing, speak to Kiklix or LadyAstrum.
 

I agree with the OP. Element doors are fine, but eventually players are going to desire different art forums to fit their style. If Dual makes a ton of money so future development is not only ongoing but healthy, then i am fine with them making all the doors elements as long as they can fit the majority of our needs, but that seems more difficult and costly vs a voxel door assembly.
 
I do not believe elements will be able to be scaled, which for doors is kind of a tough thing. Players are going ot want to add lots of immersion into their builds so a door could be anything from an entry into the ship, an entry into a room, a door to a cabinet, a cargo bay entry, etc. The list goes on and on. The ability to reuse and repurpose elements will go along way into solving the needs of players.
 
In the beginning it makes sense that all the styles will be similar (not ship shape, but elements) as we all come from the Arkship. I think though, as time goes on, factions break apart, people find even more distant planets to inhabit, we should also see a chance or rather an evolution of styles. Sci-Fi can be clean like Star Trek, a bit dystopian like Star Wars or Firefly, or alien like Prometheus. I would like to see elements that allow for players to break out of the Arkship mold so to speak.
 
Anyway, point is. The variance of needs (ramp doors, large docking doors, aperture portals, etc) and styles greatly necessitates voxel construct animation.
 

I guess one big question is how will constructs interact with each other?
 
Hopefully there will be some way for smaller constructs to overlap and attach to or dock with larger construct.  So a moving door made out of voxels could be programmed to open and close.  But maybe more importantly that would also allow for smaller ships to dock inside of larger ships which i'm pretty sure we all want.
 
I think it'll be a lot easier for most doors to be elements.  But i definitely hope that we can build our own doors and elevators and whatever out of voxels too.
 
I really want a underground base with a huge hidden door that opens just below the surface of the water in the middle of a lake or something awesome like that. 

Hi everyone!   @ghoster:   Despite how you might feel, we are not going in radio silence mode.   A few points that we want to clarify here:   - We never expected either to have a success as large as Star Citizen for many obvious reasons: we started to really communicate about the game a few months ago, we had no celebrity in our team and no big brand to put in front. That alone were legitimate reasons to keep our expectations realistic. We are already amazed to see how far we went in a such short amount of time and we are not going to stop there! - As Pang_Dread mentioned it, we communicated in the last Kickstarter update that the communication now won't be as intense as it was during the Kickstarter.  - A few things are coming soon:
1) new forum sections will be opened on Wednesday 2nd of November 2) a newsletter for the end of the week (with some stuff that might interest more than one ) 3) a fan fiction contest that will take place from Tuesday 15th November to Thursday 15th of December! (more info very soon!)   @Anonymous:   We can understand that you are concerned about our current lack of presence. However, you should understand in return that you can't expect the same presence from a Community Manager in a big company or being a part of a big structure than one in a small company. Why? Because in small companies (like indie studios), people are generally brought to do more than the exact job written on their contract. If not, then the company might quickly run into some problems to work properly.    Just a few examples: - Apart the communication from JC, all the comm from the devs is handled by the CMs (who are doing the link between devs and the community). - Managing discussions on Facebook and Twitter is totally within the job of the CMs (it's really disturbing to say the contrary). - This might be shocking but yes, Customer Support can be something a CM has to do (and right now, this is also part of our job). - Internal, invisible tasks related to Kickstarter and hugely time consuming are also among the things we currently have to do. - Despite what you're saying, Reddit can also be an appropriate place where a CM might have to interact with people interested in the game.   All in all, we would love to interact a lot more with you guys than what we are currently doing. We will do our best to increase our presence in the coming months. A few replies are coming soon to some important topics.   Best regards, Nyzaltar.

It's not actually human skin. Its a nanotech synthetic adaptive polymer. It allows for more than one form (not simultaneously) and allows for deep infiltration into the ranks of....ohh dear I have said too much. If you have any weird dreams of abduction or red marks on your arm, ankle, legs or neck after you wake tonight...it was not me.

The issue is that there is some progression in the game by building a ship in game with the available tools, if you allow outside meshes to be used this system is bypassed.
 
I work with 3D software (Cinema 4D mostly, some maya under my belt) and I can see the appeal. The issue is progression will be skipped, instead of people working from small to medium to large to capital ships, someone could just plunk down a death star...this would cause major imbalances in pvp and would essentially break the game.
 
Secondly. The game will have an in game market where the best designs (aesthetically and functionally) will sell, allowing for a mesh import would leave those who do not know 3D programs at a disadvantage. This would not be good for fair or balanced game play.

As most of you are aware Novaquark is laying down the foundation for Dual Universe. They need to get the game in a strong alpha state before they launch their kickstarter campaign. This means that some of the purely aesthetic aspects of the game will have to come later on, like outfits, player customization etc.
 
This thread is for those who would like to dream of the kinds of elements or "props" as they are called in some other games that they would like to see in dual.
 
There are many different types of elements.
 
• Active elements: Elements that have a function and will most likely be scriptable (rocket boosters, guns, conduits for energy transfer, etc).
• Superficial elements: Elements that are made for decoration only. These are to help add atmosphere to a construct (pots/pans, soda cans etc).
• Superficial Working elements: Elements like stoves, sinks, toilets. Elements that "work" in game with opening doors, flowing water etc, but have no function outside of immersive aspects.
• Emitter elements: Elements that give off an effect such as lightning or electric arcs, waterfalls/flowing water, steam vents etc. These would fall under active elements in most cases.
 
 
List what kind of active or superficial elements would you like to see ultimately in Dual Universe?
 
 
I will start off with these:
 
 
• Active elements:
Ramp doors. Doors that extend outward to allow for easier ingress/egress into a ship style construct. Shield windows. Windows that have closable blast shields.  
• Superficial elements:
Desks Chairs Soda cans  
• Superficial Working elements:
Rotating fans. Fans that rotate at various speeds, couple well with steam vents. Spinning gears. Gears of various sizes that rotate to make mechanical looking machines.  
• Emitter elements:
Steam Vents that blow gusts of steam. Electric arcs. Heads up displays with the ability to change the color of the hud.  ​

Thank you Trigun, making me feel teary

i Think that stuff like this is good though, while it may taint the experience for some, generally in real life some people just dont like you. for me this adds an added sense of immersion and lets be honest if you want to be a pirate and or smuggler you going to not make friends just enemies, shout outs to the grand maester kik an great lady astrum though.