Croomar

Welcome to the community! You've gotten your questions answered and provided with primary sources. But maybe there's one more thing that might help you. Sometimes, there are cases when you just have to ask your questions that suddenly pop in mind. For this, we have multiple groups dedicated to help you get the information you need: The Alpha Academy is a community of people gathering to help and teach new players about the game. Their server: https://discord.gg/MdmyZJZ The overall DU Discord server where almost everybody who's active hangs out and talks about everything possible, that includes helping new players https://discord.me/dualuniverse Lastly, the DU Guide server, a project with a small support team dedicated to provide a 24/7 live support to provide you with informational sources. https://discord.gg/J4AVBy7 Additionally, you can of course always ask your questions on the forum. It's also one of the best sources if information to just scroll through old topics and read through the discussions.

Keeping the discussion consturctive I see

First of all, welcome to the community! Always glad to see new people coming in. Another nomadic org, but this time with a twist. I like the idea of a "perpetually growing" construct, giving people a sense of progression and a goal to work towards is vital to a stable Environment. And "The Cluster" is a pretty cool name. You took a good idea, made it a bit more awesome and packaged it well, so I wish you best of luck with that project. Getting members can be difficult these days, so be sure to stay on it, you're heading in a good direction! Regards

I feared this to be the way the discussion would be headed, so I'm going to say it again for the third time here - DU is not a regular shooter, which everybody is already aware of, but a sandbox MMO with shooter elements. There are a lot of sandox games out on the market that usually also feature some kind of avatar combat. The problem is, this combat is usually extremely cheap and boring to no end because it features no other elements than shooting by itself and different weapons. Avatar combat is something that is being neglected in 90% of sandbox games and I'd find it a waste of good potential if DU were to take a similar path. Essentialy, because DU is not going to be shooter, adding certain shooter elements may enrich the avatar combat in this game compared to other games. This is why I've made a list of different elements, taken especially from tactic shooters solely for the reason that they provide a larger list of features than the regular action shooter or RPG, in order to discuss which of these features could be appropriate to add in a non-regular shooter game like DU is. It's about advancing the simple avatar combat by adapting features that other games regularly provide. For that discussion, the actual combat system we will get is only of secondary importance. Of course the combat mechanic DU features may restrict some features, but if you look at the list, most elements aren't even connected to the combat mechanic itself and could theoreticaly be added nonetheless. However, one point you mentioned is important: The production cost of certain elements. As I mentioned in the section of interactive maps, I'd imagine that crafting one and edit it to pass it on at a later point would be fairly easy to program if they have a similar feature with blueprints for constructs anyway. Maybe that would be a feature that could be added relatively fast and easily, and thus cheap as well. But adding maps that update in realtime with what you draw on them certainly is a lot more work, a more convenient feature for sure, but with production costs in mind the first idea may be the better one.

Just to not let any misunderstandings come up at a later point, this section of the answer is why I tried to emphasize on... ...in the beginning. The aim of my post is not to discuss the combat system and its mechanics by itself, but to compare different common features of regular shooter games with very basic explanations on how a non-regular shooter game, which DU is to some extent, could adapt them like many other games did successfully before. The answer gives some important insight nonetheless. Having said that, a few of your points are good inspiration to link to what's already been said, like... ...which I'd personally find very interesting to see. I guess it would fall in the category of a class / role / kit / doctrine being determined by gear (instead of just weaponry), but would work in a skill tree in almost in the same way. The advantages are then being unlocked via nodes in the skill tree, some nodes could even grant disadvantages on other roles for especially strong effects. Besides recoil, the bullet spread, or in terms of DU the hit chance decreasing with continuous fire, could be influenced, if we get Sci-fi weapons like lasers there's also a good chance for an overheat mechanic that can be tweaked with armors or skills. Then again, instead of the skills in a combat branch themselves, points could be invested in wearing the armor that grants these bonuses, which breaks down to what Twerk said in the TL;DR. This sounds awfully like the need for a skill system to me. But could even be implemented in the combat system or upgrade mechanic as well by giving a weapon some kind of alt-fire with different effects, depending on either the weapon itself or any kind of upgrade module you insert. May help to determine roles even more. And that's again where the soft cover comes in, because that would be compatible with any surface there is and would therefore even work with those created by players, as long as it's just recognized as a surface and not only as an entity. Combined Arms gameplay was something I orginally wanted to include as well, but thought since it's gonna be an essential part of the game anyway, why include it in a collection of far-fetched ideas. But here again, we have the aspect of roles (doctrines) being changeable in some way or another and determined by the gear you equip. This leaves us with the question on how deeply we'd want to be able to specialize in certain roles with fixed stats and skills or if we want to combine them so the roles can be changed depending on momentary requirements. I agree, not having a full list of players certainly does have its virtues. If at all, maybe being able to see people in a list when your intelligence stat is higher than theirs or their counter intelligence would be a nice feature. Concerning the voice chat, that's partially why I'd recommended different text channels. If you want to forward orders to a smaller group of players in TS / Discord, you need to swich the channels back and forth all the time. In this time, you become unable to react on events ingame and might even miss important information going on in another channel. of course, chat channels need to be switched as well most of the times, but that's still far easier and faster than tabbing out or switching to a second screen, not to mention you can read the chat history at all times. Combined Arms gameplay was something I orginally wanted to include as well, but thought since it's gonna be an essential part of the game anyway, why include it in a collection of far-fetched ideas. But here again, we have the aspect of roles (doctrines) being changeable in some way or another and determined by the gear you equip. This leaves us with the question on how deeply we'd want to be able to specialize in certain roles with fixed stats and skills or if we want to combine them so the roles can be changed depending on momentary requirements.

Dual Universe's general Avatar vs Avatar combat system is still a topic to be discussed as most of it also lies in the dark for the community. Nonthetheless, I'd like to discuss a related topic: How and if different tacical gameplay elements can benefit AvA combat and which elements can be used meaningful. Having said that, it's also important to think about if certain tactical elements even make sense at all in an MMO like Dual Universe, what is feasible and what may be too much. However, I personally felt it would be disappointing if ground combat only consisted of aiming and shooting around with different weapons with barely any features around. Seeing how many non-tactic games adapted features from tactic shooters, implementing certain elements can bring a lot more depth in combat situations. So I thought of different features that many tactic shooters implemented. Surely you wouldn't expect DU to feature a full list of these and become a full-fledged shooter by the way, but I'd like to list a few specific ones that I think could be discussed well. Advanced movement systems A good basic for most tactic shooters is a movement systems that allows the player to take on different stances and have the character interact with objects and world elements during movements. Usually, this consists at least of being able to stand, crouch and lie down as stances (Battlefield, Arma), some shooters go even further with additional stances in between these three or being able to sprint in different modes and combine them into slides or throwing yourself down. But another element of this feature is the interaction with the environement, for example being able to leap over obstacles (The Division, Ghost Recon), sometimes even climb on elements These elements can commonly be seen in third person shooters, but more first person shooter adapt them as well. First person shooters also sometimes feature the possibility to lean over to a side to look around corners. (R6 Siege, Squad) Does DU need this? Interacting with the world would be great, but DU is a Sci-fi game. Cimbing a building or being able to leap over small objects would not be necessary if we can use our jetpack for it. In fact, the jetpack allows for a far more complex movement system as it creates an larger, 3 dimensional space to fight in. Jetpacks are also found in modern action shooters more and more and open other options, such as walking on walls or power leaps. However, being able to go prone is something that a jetpack can't replace and what I personally like to see in any game. Games with advanced physics or cover systems also include the leaning automatically. Cover system Especially in recent years, cover systems have been implemented in a majority of tactic shooters. It allows the player to position his character to any surface large enough and "stick" to it, moving along its course. With this, you can peek out to shoot and largely avoid getting hit easily. The problem with these systems is that they don't blend well with 1st-person, which is why most games with cover systems are 3rd-person shooters or switch into 3rd person as long as the character stays in cover. Another problem is that games with cover systems usually revolve around these (The Division, Gears of War, Rainbow Six: Vegas). Having a full cover system in DU would likely mean more work for a possible 3rd-person perspective or that combat takes place behind cover, which is fun for many but can become tedious at times. This where the soft-cover system comes in: Some recent games have implemented a cover system, that doesn't require your character to stick to a surface. Instead, the player positions his character regularly behind cover. As soon as he aims, the character will automatically look over or around the cover. The recent Ghost Recon Wildlands mixed these systems through an animation that seemingly lets the character stick to the surface without actually entering a sperate cover mode. While it's questionable if DU needs this, it would certainly be a nice feature to get just a bit more depth in the overall combat system as it opens more possibilities in combat and prevents the rushed, senslessly action-rich gameplay seen in low-effort productions. Kits / Roles Typical for an MMORPG is a class system. Shooters feature them as well sometimes, although "kits" are used more often in modern shooters as the less static pendant to classes. Kits feature a set of equipment that can usually be changed in or between rounds. Together with these kits, certain roles of a player are associated, which are often similar to traditional classes in RPGs. We have healing kits like medics, damage dealers like the normal rifeman or assault, a subsitute for tanks are usually kits with heavy weaponry like rocket launchers or LMGs and engineering kits for what in any other RPG can be a summoner, tamer or an engineer as well. NQ already stated that DU will not feature a fixed class system, but a skill tree with which players can specialize in a certain direction. These may be associated with roles as well, but in terms of overall DU gameplay. That means that AvA combat would only be one direction for a role in the whole tree. By fanning this direction of the skill tree out, a role system could be integrated into the game instead of having players assume different combat roles themselves or be determined solely by weaponry, which would be another possibility as well. A broader skill tree would also mean stronger in-depth specialization, more directions to go and being able to combine skills and equipment effectively. Communication channels A working chain of command is essential for successful operations. A complex strategy needs to be executed correctly, which is why everbody has to know their part in it. But a single squad also needs to be able to adapt to the situation in the field, which is why higher ranks make decisions and forward them to the single members. Sadly, most games neglect this complex procedure and only give access to an all-chat and team-chat, traditional MMOs mostly also to guild / clan / alliance chats. This is good, but not enough for a working chain of command. Sadly, the commonly used 3rd party programs like TeamSpeak, Skype and Discord can't satisfy this problem either. Squad implemented a good first start for this - a Radio channel for Squad leaders, for the squads and for proxmity. Squad leaders can discuss plans and strategies together, forwards them to their squad, that can in turn confirm and report single events while members can talk to people outside their squad or their immediate group through the local channel. Additional, the chat window allows to send messages to the whole team. I wouldn't expect DU to include VoIP, but besides the regular chats of traditional MMOs at least being able to have multiple chat channels for use inside organizations could be a lot to work with. These channels could maybe even be linked to the RDMS to decide who can type or read in it. If we take this step a bit further, being able to create a certain amount of custom channels would come in handy for all possible situations. In that case maybe not only for use inside an organization, but even for creating prviate chat channels with password protection to invite people from everywhere in the game. Weapon customization Not neccesarily a tactical feautre itself, but brings with it a lot of tactical depth, similar to kits and roles. Most MMOs feature equipment customization to some extent, mostly by upgrading quality and / or level of the gear. Fantasy MMOs also often allow to insert gems in sockets to boost a certain stat of the weapon. This is a very basic level of customization, but being able to put mods, modules, upgrade chips or whatever you want to call it on a weapon would definitely be imaginable for Dual Universe. Advanced customization allows the players to choose various components of their weapons like scopes, barrels, magazines, triggers and stocks. Somtimes, this is done when assembling or crafting your weapon and will determine the end stats of the finished product. In some games, this is an option in menus or on a crafting station (Fallout, Ghost Recon) While this certainly is a lot of work on the development side, the result is always a fun feature that would be a great addition in a sandbox game like DU. In a game you can create your own buildings, cities, vessels and societies, why exclude weapons from it? Interactive maps The last and shortest feature on the list is interactive maps. There are only few games in which you can customize your maps. But like with communication channels, a complex strategy needs to be explained well. Being able to illustrate and visualise a strategy or tactic is a great help and makes for a fun feature. Having a map you can draw on and show other players can be a great help to communicate even without words, this doesn't even need to be in real time. It'd be enough to craft a map, edit its content, save it and pass on the next player. Seeing as this is already the case with the blueprints in DU, making maps similar to them might not be too difficult on the development end. Now you're asked. What do you think of these features? Would you like to see some of them in Dual Universe as well? What other elements would you prefer and what would you want to add to reach a deeper combat system?

While I havn't quit my job yet, I can't afford to eat either. I kinda feel you. When it comes to coping with stress, there are 2 ways nice ways to handle it: (1) Kick the sources aside / give up on it or if that's not possible (2) act as if it doesn't bother you and focus on things you'd like to do instead. Just don't postpone a week's worth of work for later... that doesn't end well. Believe me, I know.

Dead Space certainly has a very distinct and especially unique style, which I have been a fan of ever since I played the titles. It is however difficult to grasp this actual style, since Dead Space plays mainly indoors and the game's style is literally alienated the more you progress through the games. Interiors and exteriors are quite different from each other and drift apart over time, while its original design is mainly to be seen on constructs' exteriors like Isaac's suit. I can totally understand the appeal of trying to create a similar style. In fact, I have already done so in a rudimentary way in my previous models I created for my org. But as everyone has their own ideas about Sci-fi, and the most common picture is still heavily influenced by Star Wars, there is no uniform fashion in the genre, especially when it comes to space ships. Everybody creates their own style from their own ideas and influences, and having a Dead Space kind of style is both a gift and a curse. The ships are very detailed and composed of multiple "limbs" arranged in parallels. This makes for a simple visual effect that creates tension on simple surfaces and adds multiple levels of detail. At the same time, it's extremely difficult to replictae this style in sandbox games, simply because of the levels of detail and the different styles of Sci-fi games. DU features a smooth, futuristic set of materials from what we've seen so far while Dead Space gets your a really rusty, industrial set of designs. So what I'm trying to say is, while it's very difficult to get a Dead Space style going in DU or in general because of its uniqueness, it'd be at least as rewarding when actually achieved. I'd certainly be interested in seeing a design in a stronger manner than what I've created.

Let's stay in the frame of the forum etiquette, shall we? Literally insulting your counterpart in a discussion will not make your statements any more credible, don't you think? Because when evading to alternative methods, it's more likely for people to see you as the mentally challenged. I can absolutely see where your arguments are coming from. I was, at first, very disappointed of the seemingly poor marketing choices Novaquark had made. just what you said before was the same I had in mind as well. Almost all the subscription based games turn f2p at some point, and in general, I am in favor of b2p / f2p as well, since it definitely IS the better choice for 95% of games. Sadly for you, nobody was willing to explain the foundation this communitie's opinion is based on, because we discussed it countless times before with no result, as Yamamushi said. However, with time I, too, realized that there are exceptions. The games that are subscription based are different from the usual mainstream trend of games. Wonderful examples are, as you said, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 11 / 14 and Eve Online. All those games can survive because they provide a special service that the usual MMO-genre fails to deliver. They all deliver content on an exceptional scale, regular updates influenced by its playerbase's wishes and features that you can't find in a similar collection in different games. That's why these games' playerbase is loyal enough to return again and again and is willing to pay the subscription. Now if we look at Twerk's statements concerning the marketing philosophy of many eastern publishers, we can see why f2p works for these games, but wouldn't work for subscription based games. The policy of these publishers is to create cheap games, design them in a way that is easy to attract large masses of people by adding features that are well known in the genre and become genre standards (which for example tab-targeting was for many years), harvest the most out of it by creating a small, but efficiently paying group of fans and then leave the game as far as possible to itself while practivally generating money with few effort. That's why f2p works these days, because people look for that. What you misunderstand is that we have the problem that a f2p system is not the guarantee for attracting a large playerbase, but they attraction of a large playerbase through a game's features. And let's be realistic, we all here see that DU has tons of potential, but it's not the right game to attract a playerbase of millions in a short time. For that, DU is too unexplored, too new, too risky so to say. It does not deliver all the standard features an international community is looking for in an MMO, for example the absence of quests and NPCs. You see, Bleep_Bloop, you have it mixed up. Being able to attract a larger playerbase does not result from f2p, it's the other way around. F2p results from being able to attract a large playerbase, a larger one than you would see in a subscription game. Because why pay for one game if you can have many of the same features in another one for free? That's completely in your logic, as you said. But DU doesn't belong in that category. It relies on a smaller, but more loyal fanbase, similar to Wolrd of Warcraft. Imagine the millions of people that would rush in and start playing if WoW would go f2p tomorrow. But also imagine the small portion that would actually want to pay for a cash shop. And imagine all the people leaving WoW or simply not paying any longer then. But in order to attract that fundamental playerbase, you need to make some compromises. Imagine if the game would actually be on cost of a AAA game. As Novaquark is a completely new studio, it can not guarantee a successful future of the game, so which larger mass of people would actually be willing to throw $60-ish at them when they can't promise anything? No, instead they decided to give you a free trial period. They decided you don't have to buy the game itself. They even chose to allow to sell the playtime for ingame money. So you have to see the advantages for you as the player from a subscription based game as well. The devs are forced to continually improve and expand their game, or they will loose customers. They are also forced to deliver higher quality content than the regular publishers. And they are forced to act after the players' wishes. So you will get a game that is far more consistent than the average f2p, as developers can't just leave it to generate money. Additionaly, you can choose when to p(l)ay. You don't have to pay $156 at a fixed interval for as long as the game exists. Before you pay a regular b2p price for a game, you can play it for 3-4 months at minimum, presumably more since DACs can be bought with ingame money. And that's as long as many players will play it. In the end, the $/hr ratio in subscription based games is not rarely better than in b2p games. And that's also why subscriptions work. I also see that you've already realized that this game can't afford to lose customers, which contradicts a bit with your last post, but only because you didn't yet reach the final conclusion. Losing customers does not equal losing money in our times. things are a bit more complex, it's 2017 after all. From that statement, you also seem to still be ill informed, which is why I can relate to you as I was in the same position for a longer time as well, as I already said. There is nothing "premium" in this game NQ could sell you. There are no permanent assets in this game due to its own nature. What you ultimately failed to realize because of that, and that's the most important point of all, is that this game is so fundamentally structured to rely on a loyal fanbase that is willing to pay the subsciption and even appreciates it as you can see from the previous posts, that it doesn't even have the choice to go f2p/b2p without completely becoming another standard MMO in the long list of quick cashgrabs. If you read until here, I respect you for your effort. Please don't think ill of the community, we are just all very tired of this ongoing discussion. There are so many reasons why there is just no other way for this game to become what it aims to be, that somewhere along the way trying to fit it into words we lost the motivation because people just turn around and go as soon as they notice they don't meet like-minded people here or it's not going their way. But here's your chance for you to be better than that. I have given you a guideline for you to think about, and with time you might also learn to trust Novaquark with their choices, just like I did when I was in your position.

Even better, Raptor Squad is an option, but the Order of Meru isn't. So does my blending appereance

I can't remember NQ stating their exact plans either, but you can often suspect a developers intention from the way they handle and phrase certain things. Typically, "Alpha" refers to a single, continuous testing phase for most developers, whereas developers like to use "Alpha-testing" on their websites to indicate multiple testing phases. Some of those choose to open up the servers for a few days with limited features, collect player feedback and work on that until the next testing phase. It's however noticeable that these games have usually received close to zero marketing and information for public access. And through limited access, the games are also rather in a pre-alpha state. So the phase-wise testing is commonly used for games that are in a VERY early state and have just started to become playable. That tells us a bit, because the way alpha and beta phases are used is less a developer choice than more a necessity based on the way a developer constructs his game. From the devblog and dev dairy we know that NQ has been building on the game for years now, they have a clear vision, concrete ideas and a goal. They have also stated that they use a lot of placeholders and are beginning polish on certain aspects. Which in turn tells us that what they plan to deliver is suppsed to be a stable and fundamentally enjoyable experience. Also, when devs want to intrduce multiple alpha launches they usually know it beforehand and state that in forums, founder packs and news. Something like "Access to all alphas" or "Access during the timeframe of alpha" or the likes. In the pledge section, NQ describes an "Alpha Access Key" in singular and same for the beta key. That may not tell us much, but might hint on their mindset of a continuous alpha. Then again, having in mind what I said before, multiple alphas are well suited for extensive testing, so when devs want to receive feedback on specific features instead of presenting an early version of their game like it's often the case with Steam Early Access titles. Seeing the Kickstarter and Facebook comments from NQ, they see Alpha as a duty rather than early access for loyal fans. So, we have different signs we could try to interpret. According to the way NQ handled their production in the past and their progressive views on their game, I think a continuous alpha is not only more intelligent but also more likely. But that's only an opinion based on previous experiences. Although it's also quite common that there is a certain downtime of a few weeks right before beta launch, and that really just depends on how well the content is they implemented until then.

Here's what I think will be a reason for ingame religions inside DU to be very successful at some point. There are different layers for players to group up with each other. First, there are wild masses of people close to each other in terms of distance. They can then form fixed groups like between a small party of friends. Multiple of those parties would create clans or guilds in regular games, where Dual Universe offers organizations that are essentially both what guilds are and another layer for the larger orgs, mostly nations or whatever BOO would be categorized as. Then on another, larger layer would be Alliances / Conglomerates / Umbrella Orgs or whatever you want to call it. And that's where the religions kick in. Because typically, the raison d'être for a religion is to form a bond between a large amount of people. That usually works out for religions that preach peace, as one example for an objective to work towards, among all their followers, which is achieved by idealizing common factors, for example the 10 commandments in Christianity or the 5 Pillars of Islam. And simplified, a deity or idol functions as personification of these common factors. But not every religion needs this, as stated before a religion can idealize a set of characteristics (see mrjacobean's post) and worship them directly or through certain assets at best. That would be a reason why religions would work ingame. And when given an objective, the followers can gather on an alternative layer, that exists alongside political layers that might restrict players from grouping up and working on an objective together. A Cinderfall politican is unlikely to work with a pirate on a shared vessel, because they have different points of interests that contradict each other and thus restrict them. But at the same time, they could be working on the religious layer on a giant vessel to eradicate a common enemy, let's say a different religion that idealizes war instead of peace or vice versa. And if these groups are just large enough, their usages are practically limitless and can become effective on the political level as well. So there we have a comparison between material and spiritual world, explained through different levels and layers. TL;DR Religions might be successful ingame because they are a means to form a group that can co-exist on a different, perhaps even larger level besides regular organizations or political factions.

A forum is typically a place to discuss single topics, pose questions or make suggestions. This happens in a highly organized manner, which is perfect for keeping discussions in order, being able to archive them and giving a large portion of people the possibility to participate. However, there are downsides to it when it comes to user friendliness in various forms. Getting an answer usually takes time, topics that may interest you already exist but are no longer active or already archived and discussion can head in a directions you don’t feel like taking part in. For these reasons, the user Loondoe has created the Dual Universe Guide (DUG) Discord server. What exactly is that? Primarily, the DUG server aims to provide a 24/7 live-support platform for all players interested in any aspect of Dual Universe. This support is offered by many volunteering, friendly and well respected community members from all branches. Furthermore, the server intends to act as a compressed collection of informational sources and material. We publish community generated guidelines, articles, monthly handouts, records and history information, walkthroughs and more. Is this the right thing for me? Basically, the server is for everyone and everything distantly and closely related to Dual Universe. This is definitely what you are looking for if: you want to have questions about the game or features, the community portal, pledges or the forums and its community answered fast and easily you want to find or be provided with information and sources for the game’s features and plans quickly you want to find or found an organization and need advice you are looking for players or organizations to partner up or make business with you want to feature a website, server or project you created and open it to the public you need help or a solution for a problem you encountered you want to get informed about past or current events and business in the community you need help with anything else and need someone to talk to And how does it work? First, you’ll need to join the Discord server itself by clicking the link below: https://discord.gg/J4AVBy7 Once you’ve joined, you can just state your issue in one of the support channels to receive help from supporters. Alternatively, you can take a look at the other channels to look for information yourself. And that’s it. That’s how easy it is to receive help. For any further suggestion and question on the project itself, these will of course also be answered on the forums itself.

Nope, I did as well.

Having my fair share of experience with surgery and hospitals, and even with a disease similar to yours, I know the risk and situation you're in just too well. While aftereffects are not all unlikely in these surgeries, doctors do a good job on that, so I wouldn't be worried about that. What I wish you is that you get well over the anesthesia! If they extend your little nap in the surgery room for some reason, that can really make you wish you'd have died in there by the time you wake up. Good luck with everything.

Ein herzliches Willkommen auch von meiner Seite. Your org brings a bit of a fresh wind in the mercenary business. Hope you'll find some members, good luck!

I've been waiting for a heated discussion over this sensitive topic to emerge from the beginnining of the thread. Now that it actually came to it, it ended surprisingly fast, indeed. I would've been interested in the further development of the discussion though.

Dear Vulture Corporation, Your organization has been present to me ever since I've joined the Dual Universe community. No wonder, since you've been here for quite some time, and you have been one of the very first orgs to be founded, and well prepared from the start. You have a creative project, you have features that are unique to your organization even with various groups dedicated to pretty much everything there is to do in Dual Universe, you have a very clear, well-built and convincing structure, you offer fun and advantageous opportunities to potential members and partners, you have a your own website, recruitment and presentation videos, a meaningful description that doesn't flood its reader with unnecessary information, you are active, obviously reasonable, not too strict, serious and show an amount of effort that is close to uncompeted in the whole community. - If you ask me, you have everything a great organization needs. From the way it looks to me, you should have what it takes to be among the best. And yet, I noticed the strong lack of interest in your project several times now and couldn't help but wonder why that is. Even thinking about it for days, nothing would come to mind. As all orgs struggle in their search for members, your struggles stays undeservedly unrewarded. I can see how that can become very frustrating. So I am here to express my respect and support to you, your members and your project. I'd like to wish you best of luck and the knowledge that someone out there is rooting for you! Keep up the good work.

This was the first question that came to my mind as well. If you were to fly up in a straight line away from the planet, you reach escape velocity and shut down your engines, wouldn't you just drift straight away from the planet or would you still enter an orbit?

I have started to watch The Expanse because of this topic on the forums here and have seen all the episodes so far. I expected something quite different, a bit more "adventurous", but I didn't get let down once. What The Expanse shows is a realistic and logical construct of politics, story, different temperaments and the strong impact of actions of only a few people. But as a former theater actor, I pay more attention to the actors and acting than the average viewer and I noticed quite a few slips and grossities in actions, often on a very basic level and mostly due to suboptimal directing. While this tells a lot about the show's background, it's something you can ignore easily. Most of these are forgotten within seconds if you focus on whatever is happening. But the bad acting may disturb your enjoyment from time to time. Yet overall, it definitely is one of the better shows I've seen in the past few months and can surely recommend it for everyone who is interested in a Sci-fi universe, which should be everyone active on the forums.

I personally like the idea of agricultural content in Dual Universe. In a game in which pretty much a bit of everything is possible, farming seems to be one of the few holes I can think of. What players understandably don't like about this is that it's usually a survival aspect, which would be rather bothersome in DU. While food may be limited to granting buffs with the absence of survival like aspects, I could imagine crops solely for industrial purposes better. For example in growing plants like Flax for textiles, Mastix for wax, rubber or sap as a base for plastics, perhaps even just corn for bio mass to create energy or fuels or as a source to extract proteins from, further different herbs for medical purposes and so on. There are a lot more possibilities for crops and farming than just for food, and introducing this to a game that conveys a feeling of being able to do everything would further underline this.

I can see where this is coming from, and it isn't actually a bad idea. There is one thing that bothers me however. From friends' reactions, recent topics all around the gaming community and especially the comment section of the recent IGN video featuring JC and DU at GDC, it's easy to tell that Dual Universe has a really hard time to be taken seriously or being believed at all. For a vast majority of people as it seems, Dual Universe looks to be another cash grab in the steadily growing list of space sims and MMOs, people consider it a second No Man's Sky if you want to phrase it like that. Now imagine a potentially doubtful player doing research on the game and bringing up the trust to look further into it. As soon as he sees that you have to pay money to create an organisation, so in order to do what you want or at least prepare it, this player would be detered as it does indeed seem like a cash grab at that point. "Give us your money in advance so you are free to do what we advertised before" may sound a bit overly critical, but that's what it would likely look for the average hysterical player. Trading this risk for a rather ineffective measure as I find isn't going to end well for the reputation of this game in this stage. It's a completely different topic as soon as DU has proven that it's in fact capable of what it promises. So if you want to introduce this measure in this exact form, I'd recommend to wait at least until Alpha, because that's when people will be able to see that it works and players become less doubtful.

Another thing to add, NQ KNOWS who is who on the community portal and can actually see who has created which alt, as they stated before somewhere I believe. And this has been going on for a while now, in several orgs. And as it seems, they havn't interfered so far, so I wouldn't expect them to even in this case. Althrough it is very extreme, boosting yourself to the top 15. The only thing that really bothers me is that a completely new player isn't very likely to immediately recognize a fake org and would try to join if interested, instead of an actual org in the field which has been around for far longer and is far more serious and probably the better experience for an interested player. In this case for example, a member joining the IBF instead of the IBO, that would much rather deserve new members. But in the end, I guess the only thing we can do is to work together as a community and draw attention to how it really is. And it's not like an org founded with 60+ fake accounts has any meaningful future either. But boy was I surprised to see an org with more alts in it than TVR.

It's also important to mention that Hellion is more on the simulation side in space, whereas DU is not only less realistic in these terms, but also has planets with players on them. While a precise interface as shown would definitely be fun and useful, it probably doesn't require that much detail concerning orbits or coordinates in the system, but could instead contain information about positions relative to parts of the planetary surfaces as in the hexagons for the territory system or simply using planetary aspects like hemispheres and poles to go into detail about locations.

First of all, welcome to the forums! Well, Alpha and Beta is all about testing the game, its limits, its problems, bugs and so on. There probably won't be much exciting or regular stuff happening during testing, as members will be busy to test the game and experience or learn all the stuff. But seeing as technology is part of this testing, you can't really say that there is a most important factor, it's more like being able to test everything and check the limits is the most important factor.