Hrafna

It's not as simple as creating an infinite loop or using delays if limitations have been set as to the scripts complexity and runtime, and you can't use vectors or print if you have not been granted access to it (hence why it is referred to as a script in the first place). There are simpler, more efficient ways to break the server, and if a server don't have ways to solve this much it deserves all the flack it is going to get. Fair point. I will at the very least leave with this, then, in some glimmer of hope that I might see some changes to it in the future. An MMORPG server is composed of three parts that run independently of one another 1. Login 2. World 3. NPCs Dual Universe is planned to be independent of the largest, and most time consuming, the third application: NPCs. I say NPCs can be replaced with LUA scripts, which even in the long term would be smaller than an NPC server. In this manner, should there be a problem with any of the LUA scripts, such as a delay, it will only affect other LUA scripts, just as it would an NPC server. A script can then only be called by a construct that is stationary, and belongs to a territory, which limits how many LUA scripts can run per organization or capita. You can have 1 LUA script per territory, per organization, or per capita, such as 1 per 10, or 1 per 20, or 1 per 100. Pick any method or number you want. This assumes that a territory will be composed of at least one cluster, by the way. LUA aside, territories can also, instead of simply being a dreadful misrepresentation of what a sandbox implies, have a maximum number of members per organization, so that an organization with 1-100 members will only need 1 territory, but an organization with 101-200 members will need 2 territories, and an organization with 201-300 members will need 3 territories, and so on. Again, pick any number you want. But, the point will be that as soon as a territory is over-populated, there's a penalty, such as a tax cut, or that they will be prohibited from creating or editing in their territory until they've got their over-population under control. This way, territory is more meaningful, as it forces large organizations to expand their territory, through purchasing or annexing the territories of other organizations. If territories are going to be about something else entirely, such as limiting PVP in some manner, then the game is no longer sandbox, and NQ should not be allowed to advertise it as such. LUA and territories aside, the game needs more purpose than simply "building and purchasing pretty cars". As of now, you won't build to survive, because survival elements are being avoided like the plague. You won't build to improve your resource income rate, because you have a magical glove instead that does all the hard work for you. You won't build to improve your life style, because the game won't have a way of pushing, pulling, sliding, or rotating blocks, and won't allow scripting. You will not build for any reason other than to make your ship have a prettier shape and set of colors than your competitors, which is a tragic model that only someone extremely superficial would find interesting. Creativity comes from solving problems, but building for the sake of building, a purposeless model, is apparently the only model that this game will have. I feel that I've silently made one compromise after another, and that LUA was the final straw, as the game then had closer to nothing that I was interested in. They've ripped out any potential, and replaced it with an empty shell of a game; an MMORPG with voxel building, which is not a new concept by any margin, but a concept that's been improved upon since SOE attempted it and failed, and is a concept that I can play around with in the 10000 other indie games out there that aren't necessarily MMORPG, but are playable now, and has models that have proven to work. So, I guess what I'm saying is that there have been other things as well; it wasn't just LUA scripting that brought me to this conclusions. I just haven't mentioned it all, until now. You might like the direction that the game is going, but I don't, not anymore. And that is why I'm leaving. It's not to say I won't come back if I hear that they've changed the game fundamentally later down the line, to be more like the way I want it, but for now, it's not what I want, and who am I suggest changes? Who am I to suggest that this game should be less the way you want it? If you like the direction the game is going now, then that's good. It's good for you. And I don't mean that sarcastically. We can't have everything we want. I do hope that we'll see each other again in the future, though; that, this game will turn out to be everything I wanted, and you wanted, or at least a little bit the way everyone wants, but for now I will take my leave as there is nothing here for me. So, I bid you farewell.

Client-side... I really wish that I had read that sooner. What a waste of my time.

What is really fair, and what is really the penalty here? I suppose what isn't fair is the fact that we, as humans, are all different from one another, and that the penalty is that one will not find solutions to ones problems if one does not so much as attempt to be creative and solve ones problems in the first place. I mean, can they not befriend someone who can script? Or, can they not take part of the economy, and purchase the services of someone who can script? Is it not realistic that factions will have different people, with different set of skills, and that this could, and most likely would result in secrecy, spying, and feuds between factions; in short, politics, which Dual Universe has advertised for a long time?

If that's what it means to play Dual Universe, then I'm already playing Dual Universe.

Vikings: "Oh my! Hello, there, Sir. May we be so kind as to rape and pillage this wonderful city you call pæris?" [declares war] Franks: "Why, of course, Sir. Step right in. We enjoy a bit of pleasantries, just like the Saxons." [accepts declaration of war] Vikings: [pulls out white glove] Franks: [pulls out white glove] *slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap**slap* What a terribly convenient system. Just, don't accept any declaration to reap all the rewards!

I like this idea. For now I'm pretending to have the API just so that I can get used to writing LUA -- This function was borrowed from LUA's homepage. -- It will be used to remove some redundant decimals later on in the script. -- Feel free to ignore it for now. function round(num, decimals) local mult = 10^(decimals or 0) return math.floor(num * mult + 0.5) / mult end -- Newton's law: -- acceleration = newton / mass -- mass = newton * acceleration -- newton = mass * acceleration -- Gravity will, later, be a modifier that the player can determine through a control panel. -- The value can be anything, but in this example, the player is going to choose Earth's gravity. local gravity = 9.80665 -- Earth -- If gravity returns as a boolean, then gravity has not been set by the player, and gravity should be given a default value. if gravity == nil then gravity = 0 end -- The amount of force that ONE thruster can perform is assumed to make the script work. Thruster information should be available upon game's release. local thruster_n = 800000 -- N -- The ship's weight is assumed to make the script work. Ship's weight should be available upon game's release. local ship_kg = 135106 -- kg -- If there is a ship with weight to be calculated, then... if ship_kg then -- The amount of thrusters that this imaginary ship will have is assumed in order to make the script work. -- It is also assumed that thrusters are- or can be grouped in this manner. local thrusters = {"Thruster 1", "Thruster 2"} -- The number of thrusters found in the above array. local thruster_count = #thrusters -- The amount of thrust that all thrusters produce in total local total_thrust = thruster_n * thruster_count -- If there is gravity, then... if gravity > 0 then -- the total thrust needed to repel this gravity is thrust_needed = ship_kg * gravity else -- the ship is not affected by gravity thrust_needed = ship_kg end -- If the ship's total thrust is higher than the thrust needed to lift off, then... if total_thrust > thrust_needed then -- calculate redundant thrust in percent local thrust_per = ((total_thrust / thrust_needed) * 100) - 100 -- calculate the amount of redundant thrusters local redundant_thrusters = total_thrust / thrust_needed print("The ship has",round(thrust_per, 2),"% more thrust than what is required to repel",gravity,"gravity.") -- I'm a sucker for proper grammar... if redundant_thrusters >= 1 and redundant_thrusters < 2 then print("The ship has",round(redundant_thrusters,0),"thruster that can safely be removed.") -- 1 thruster elseif redundant_thrusters >= 2 then print("The ship has",round(redundant_thrusters,0),"thrusters that can safely be removed.") -- 2 thrustersssSSS end print("The ship accelerates",round(redundant_thrusters, 2),"m/s while in",gravity,"gravity.") else -- Calculates thrust missing in percent local thrust_per = ((total_thrust / thrust_needed) * 100) - 100 -- Calculates the amount of thrusters missing local thrusters_missing = thrust_needed / total_thrust print("The ship is missing",round(thrust_per, 2),"% of total thrust required to repel",gravity,"gravity.") -- What? Sue me. if thrusters_missing >= 1 and thrusters_missing < 2 then print("The ship needs",round(thrusters_missing, 0),"more thruster.") -- 1 thruster elseif thrusters_missing >= 2 then print("The ship needs",round(thrusters_missing, 0),"more thrusters.") -- 2 or more thrustersssSSS end print("The ship accelerates",round(thrusters_missing, 2),"m/s while in",gravity,"gravity.") end -- if total_thrust end -- if ship_kg Edited: Dual Universe will apparently be using LUA 5.3, so getn(thrusters) was deprecated. I had to change it to #thrusters. My bad. I also made sure that the script will run regardless of gravity, and edited the grammar to sound more neutral and coherent. I hope editing doesn't bump my post, but only makes sure that future readers can test out the LUA script if they want and it works as intended. Read CaptainTwerkmotor's post below mine to see what changes I made.

Why is this an ultimatum?

My first encounter with LUA was last night, and it's deliciously simplistic. C#, on the other hand, is just awful. It looks awful, and worse, runs awful. It's repetitive and un-intuitive, spite having been created to be the opposite.

Call it the blueprint, draft, or hologram block. A block that you can build in-game, upon which you can create, save, load, and delete blueprints, similar to the core unit, but which allows you to put anything on it without a cost. You can't move the blueprint block, and you can't destroy or use anything that has been built via the blueprint block. To avoid being abused for its indestructibility, it could be made into a hologram instead (no collision). It could become difficult to build with, such as not being able to access a certain hallway on a big ship to build, because it's somewhere you can't reach, but the solution could be to build some scaffolding around your workspace so that you can move in, out, and around your blueprint. Make your scaffolding mobile! Go nuts . It should be able to be placed on a ship, in space, in case you want to build something small, for yourself, but it shouldn't work in velocity. So, if the ship that the block is on, is moving, the block won't work. The creator of the block can allow other players to see the hologram, and participate on the project, and the players who has been allowed, can choose to see the projection and participate. So, it's invisible to anyone the creator of the block doesn't allow to see it, and it's invisible to anyone who doesn't manually click to see it. It's a block that needs everyone consent. A "nice guy" block. The type of block that buys you a drink and doesn't expect anything in return.

I hope they add restrictions such as not allowing numbers and random capitalization. It's ugly, and folly. I also see no reason why you can't change your name, or why people can't have the same name, and the same last name. I'm pretty sure there's more than one person on this planet with the name John, and with the first name John and the last name Smith. Their IDs may be different, but it doesn't have to be visible. It's not like we have to separate our friend John from our other friend John by asking for their birth certificates. We don't tattoo indistinguishable numbers on their foreheads, and call them John#1 and John#2, or call them by their last names. Only in terms of economy does a distinction really have to be made in order to avoid identity theft. If John creates something, and sells it on the market, and is recognized for his name, then some other guy comes in pretends to be him, that could cause problems. So, in this case, anyone called John is given a unique ID. Not the player ID because it's too long, but something such as John[QR] and John[3T], two capitalized letters that are easy to recognize, distinguish, and remember. This means that if you want to keep your recognition, if you want people to know who you are, for what you have done, then you have to keep your name. Your [QR] economy-name ID doesn't follow you when you change names. If you change your name from John ([QR]) to Frank, then you might end up with Frank[b2]. You're going to have to build up your fame all over again, and maybe even suffer from the fact that someone else might end up with your name and ID, and pretend to be the old you. I mean, if you call your game Dual Universe, the game gets known, then decide not to call it Dual Universe anymore, and you lose the trademark. That can actually happen. And it's not the system's fault. It's yours.

This means that you can sell your scripts in-game, and not have to expose your source code,and keep your client's products updated. I approve.

If they're serious about territories, then territories could become breathable with the right prefabs (triangulation?) and upgrades. It could be visible from a distance, as a blue dome above the territory, to indicate that it has a breathable atmosphere. Then again, I'm thinking in terms of pressurization, which last time I heard they said they would stay away from because of performance issues, which is a shame.