NQ-Nyzaltar

Hi Voodoo and welcome on our forum. In fact, this is a confusing explanation on our side. Our deepest apologies for that. It should be read as follow: "During our first serious tests, several thousands of players have been simulated" meaning, in fact, several thousands of bots, doing random things, have been connected to the server cluster. In short, server load testing. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! No, space won't be closed to the testers during Alpha phase. On the contrary: this is something we want to test right from the beginning. However, alpha testers will be probably limited to one solar system because... no possibility to build a warpgate yet (and it might not be the official starting solar system, in order to avoid giving unfair advantage of landscape knowledge for those who can test in Alpha or Beta, compared to those who will start only at the official release ). Maximum size for an orbital station hasn't been defined yet. We are considering two possibilities to have virtually no limit (expect maybe the natural limit of available resources on planets). Moving an orbital station won't be impossible, but most likely very difficult. We expect implementation of physic laws to be a natural game balancer: the bigger mass a construct has, the more difficult to move it. The fuel will most likely be included in the total mass of each construct needing some in order to move. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Ellegos. This is a very topic. We are currently discussing it internally. You can expect some answers next week Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Kvasir and welcome on our forum! Nice to see another EvE & Minecraft player! We hope Dual Universe will cover your expectations Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Kiklix, Right now, the combat / damage / death mechanics are not implemented. As we focus to implement the first "bricks" of gameplay (which include exploring, mining, building and crafting) for the first Alpha phase, it's a bit too soon to know what effect(s) we will be able to apply in these circumstances. Being able to cause damage or death to those who enter the "flame area" would be realistic and really immersive. But we can't tell you that for sure until the mechanics mentioned above are implemented ingame. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Google translation: "important to have a good game and came out a video then you can do" "Hi eagle777 and welcome on the Dual Universe forum. As english will be (at least for now) the only language used on the forum, could you use Google Translate for your next posts, in order that everyone participating in the posts can understand (at least roughly, as Google Translate is not perfect) what you intended to say? Thanks in advance!" ?????? ???? 777 ? ????? ?????????? ?? ????? ??????? ?????????. ??? ?????????? ????? (?? ??????? ???? ??????) ?????? ????, ???????????? ?? ??????, ?? ????? ?? ?? ???????????? Google Translate ??? ????????? ?????????, ??? ????, ????? ?????? ????????? ? ????????? ????? ?????? (?? ??????? ????, ???????? ??? Google Translate ?? ???????? ???????????) ??, ??? ?? ?????????????, ????? ???????? ??????? ???????! Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Do not change the way you give your feedback. We want honesty above all, even if the feedback seems harsh, as long as the tone is respectful for all involved people (and so far your feedback has always been totally ok regarding this). Some studios want to see only cheers, praises and positive feedback. We don't: we want to see all the feedback, the good and the bad. While having only the positive part usually has a positive effect on the dev team morale, it has also a very bad effect: The communication between players and devs become biased, some players who can raise legitimate concerns remain silent and this can lead the development in a wrong direction while it could have been avoided with honest, transparent communication going both ways (Devs to Players and Players to Devs). We can't promise we will always agree with your position (and if we don't, we will explain why), but we will always want to have the complete feedback, not just the part who make us happy. It's only with honest discussions that we can improve. So in short, Never hesitate to speak what's on your mind, as long as it's in a respectful way. And that goes for any community member Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Cainon and welcome to our forum. To answer your questions: 1. I'm not sure to understand your question here. Each player will incarnate a PC (Player Character) in game. If you are talking about finding NPCs (Non Player Characters) on the planet you start. Well, not really (except maybe a few NPCs coming from the same spaceship you're aboard). See the beginner's experience as discovering and colonizing a new, fresh world. There will be no factions at the beginning, apart those players will create. 2. Yes, we will have common and rare resources in game. Rare resources will enable players to make items that aren't possible without the specific resources, or making items that can be made in different ways, but with different levels of quality (using a rare resource making the item of higher quality). So yes, this will be an important incentive to have "territory control" in areas rich in resources. 3. We might have NPCs involving ingame events on the long run. This is a possibility. But don't expect anything like that right from the beginning. 4. Again, I'm not sure to understand what you're refering to: EvE is in Third Person View (not First Person) and you can't really "colonize" a planet, you can only install some predefined buildings for industrial purpose (that's probably why it's simply called "Planetary Interaction"). Those buildings can't be attacked either (only the custom office from which you get the resources). This type of gameplay is radically different of what we have in mind for Dual Universe: we aim for an immersive experience, where you are one of the people making each building, or, if you are at the head of a group of players, you can indeed manage a whole industrial process, coordinating other players. But you won't have implicit NPC armies of workers executing your orders. You will have the ability to make mechanical workers, but even that will be probably limited (we want to emphasize player cooperation. It's a very important component of the MMORPG genre, quite lost in the latest games of this category, in our opinion). And of course, as a natural evolution of this concept, we have in mind to develop elements for the planetary defense. I hope this answers to your questions Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Kiklix and Lady_Astrum ! You made some very valid points there. Indeed, "Voxelmancy" is a word that could interpreted negatively, or at least seen as intimidating, discouraging. As we try to promote an easier way to promote voxel manipulation, well, it makes sense to find another word defining it. Thanks a lot for your feedback! "voxelmorph" and "voxelmorphing" have been noted. We will discuss about it in the team Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Well, we have of course considered this fact. But the real questions are: - Is the subscription model really on a decline that can't be avoided? - What are the exact reasons why the model is declining? - Is it just due to some changes in consumer habits as most of the big publishers claim? - If there was other reasons, who would be less acceptable to the players, would the big publishers will tell them with transparency? Don't get us wrong here. The idea is not to blame the big publishers. But our stand on the situation is what is regularly said is biased, for economic reasons. The more a game has a big budget, the more the investors risk a large sum of money, the more they want to secure Return On Investment. There is no evil there, it's just life. And limiting the risks conducts inevitably to... copy something that have already worked well, hoping the success will be repeated. If there are interrogations about why there isn't real innovation in the last decade on MMOs, from our point view, this is mainly because of this. And generally, indeed, players seems less and less motivated to pay a subscription for a game being a copy of another they played in the past. We might be wrong, but as time pass, we are more and more confident that subscription model is the way to go for our game, for many reasons that will be explained in DevBlog post dedicated to the monetization model. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

You nailed the "autobalancing" concept we are after In fact, it's not so different in real life: the biggest problem engineers currently have to send rockets in space is the balance between total weight of the rocket (fuel included) and the amount of fuel required to make the rocket take off, move in space, and land somewhere (landing back on Earth or landing on another planet). This is basically what limits human space exploration today (that and the time needed to reach another planet). Best regards, Nyzaltar.

To be honest, I don't see where it could be wrong to use the word "Voxelmancy", even for Dual Universe. But I might be wrong, as it is just my opinion here. The team will discuss the topic internally to be sure there is no legal wrongdoing by keeping using this word. Without the intention of "stealing" any word cleverly found, trying to rename an emerging concept feels like not calling a cat... a cat. True, this name has been created by the community of another game. And as such, this deserves credits while extending the concept to other games. Voxelmancy is a perfect word to illustrate the idea how some people are able to manipulate voxels in a weird way that looks almost like dark, obscure magic to other players, while in fact everything can be understood with technical (and often complex) explanations. And it seems usable equally for heroic fantasy and sci-fi games. Look at another example of a concept that has spread through the years: Theorycraft. It's a concept born in the Starcraft community. Since then, it has extended to World of Warcraft and later many MMORPGs where mini-maxing stats to improve the Player Character efficiency can be seen a legitimate way of having fun. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Yes, in a way. It will have useful skills. But it won't follow the player everywhere as pets will do. This hasn't been defined yet. Mechanical workers will be "crafted" from craft components. Constructs like standard ships will be "built" from voxel and elements (either from a factory or manually by a player). Elements will be the parts where LUA scripting will be possible. It hasn't been decided yet if custom LUA scripts will be possible for mechanical workers. If these will be considered as Elements themselves, then maybe yes. But that's not sure yet, as Elements are generally non-autonomous pieces of a construct, with at least a Core Unit as Element. The topic is more complex than it seems at first glance. We can't give you an exact answer for now. Interesting lore question. I will transmit the topic to the team, and see what comes out from there Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Daddio! Sorry for the delayed answer. I see other members have already answer most of the questions, so I will keep my answers short on these (unless you need further details).How many In theory... there is no limit. How this could be possible? Unlike many MMOs, the game world is not on a single physical server. Unlike other MMOs, the game world is not segmented in parts each hosted on a single physical server. We're fully taking advantage of the cloud technology, dynamically assigning servers proportionnally to the number of players gathered in one place at the same time. This is one of the reasons why we won't go "Free2Play". But there will be a more detailed explanation in a Devblog post, right after the one on the Voxel Tools. Server side, we have already tested hundreds of players gathered at the same place with bots simulating players connecting to the server and wandering around (with minimalistic graphics activated, but that's just the start). The encouraging fact is, with our server technology, the workload is growing linearly (instead of exponentially) with the number of players increasing. And that's the first crucial step on the path for unlimited number of players interacting with each other in one place, at the same time This is still a part being designed. We can't tell you yet something relevant on this topic. But we will keep informed the community as soon as it will be clearly defined. To pilot a flying construct, the gameplay will be nearer to Elite Dangerous than EvE Online. This won't be as developed as in Elite, because we're building a MMORPG and being a Massively Multiplayer Space Sim isn't our core gameplay even if it's an important component. It won't be "point & click" either. However you will have the locking target mechanics in order to shoot at other constructs or players. One single-shard Universe. No multiple instances of the same area, thanks to our server technology. However, We're not sure what you mean by "shared phases or sectors". Could you explain a bit more this point? Along with resurrection nodes, there will be teleportation nodes. But building this kind of thing won't be easy, it will cost a lot in terms of energy required, and will be stricly limited: expect to arrive at the destination... naked (Sarah Connor? ). No gear, constructs or resources will be transfered by this mean. Think of it like some jumping clone technology in another game. As a matter of fact, we will be mathematically more limited in terms of possible little details. But we are currently working to enable player to do micro voxel stuff. So you should be able to make little details, not as little as in Landmark, but we hope this will be satisfactory enough for builders. Alpha team testers will tell us, as they are already several experienced builders among them . We will give you more info on that topic in the near future. I hope this will answer to your questions (at least for those we can already answer)! Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Daddio and welcome to the Dual Universe official forum! Well, somewhere in 2016 As for streaming... it will probably become possible a bit after the crowdfunding campaign Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

To the question "Is there going to be reasonable character creation and customization for people who like to role play?", the answer is Yes. However, it won't be in the Alpha, that's for sure. For the Alpha, expect to have a character appearance hidden by a spacesuit or something similar (so no customization available) but there will male and female versions and this "default outfit" (probably the Alpha Team outfit) will be of decent quality. As said before: focus remain on gameplay features for the Alpha. We are currently looking into possibilities regarding custom character creation. But this is a huge task. We have also planned to have a Character Sheet, but the design is not final at the moment (a tab with the possibility to write a Biography is in the todo list). No decision has been taken yet about allowing UI add-ons created by players or not. We'll keep you informed on this topic as well. We're derivating from the initial topic here: This is more about "in-game social tools" than custom character creation, but yes, there are also internal discussions about that in the team This is what we want to see on the long run: Players in charge for as many roles as possible, especially those that can generate social interaction, as it should be in a real sandbox MMORPG That... will be another topic for DevBlog Post. We have a social media project that should facilitate this kind of roleplay preparation (that will be one of its purpose, but not the only one), even before the release of the game. But I've already said too much for now ...

Hi there, We have taken into account: - The interest to have a voxel editor, to manipulate directly data defining the shape of voxels (also called Hermite Data Field, for those interested ) - The fact that voxel boards can be immersion-breaking in a consistent open world and the need of having a more user-friendly and accessible approach for a majority of builders. There will be soon an update on several topics regarding the voxel tools. It will cover: - The voxel tools operational so far (and those still under development). - The possibility to have a Voxel Editor: Pros & Cons. - Voxel Elements presentation: an alternative to Voxel Boards. - Our stance on "Voxelmancy" (microvoxels, antivoxels and such). We might make this update through a blog post, depending of the update size. If not, it will be posted piece by piece in this thread. If you think something is missing on the topic, just let me know Best regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, Lots of interesting points raised in this topic Here's an update on the Pets that might be included in Dual Universe. 1) It's important to make the distinction between "Pets" and "Mechanical Workers". a ) By definition, Mechanical Workers will be craftable helpers for a player wanting to delve into industrial activity. But it won't be a Pet. It will: - have a precise activity pattern, defined by an AI script. - have a real practical usefulness in-game. It won't: - be a reward of any kind (reserved to backers, founders, or any specific group of players) - follow the Player Character anywhere. b ) A Pet will be more or less the opposite of the Mechanical Worker: It will: - be a reward representing an achievement (it might be backer/founder related, or for an exceptional community activity) - follow the Player Character when his owner will decide it. It won't: - have a customised AI script. Just a basic script to follow the player (with maybe a few scripted actions, lore related) - have a practical usefulness. Otherwise, it would be considered as an advantage given to a limited number of Players. 2) Don't expect a whole part of the gameplay centered on Pets. Because: a ) while it can in some cases add a little something to the immersion, this is not a part of the current game vision. b ) It's an incredibly time consuming and expensive content to develop if you want to do it well. (Side note: this has been one of the biggest features developped in the 4th expansion of a popular MMORPG involving murlocs, just for comparison ). c ) We make a difference between "Pets" (as creatures following the Player Character and having only a cosmetic or mini-game purpose) and "Wild Beasts" (as creatures that can be tamed and having a practical usefulness in the game once tamed. This category is also generally called "Hunter Pets", "Animal Companions", or "Familiars" in other MMORPGs). Gameplay about taming wild beasts might appear at some point in Dual Universe, but if that's the case, it will be after the official release, again for priority and budget reasons. While it makes sense in a game oriented exclusively on survival to focus on that, Dual Universe will probably have a survival component but keep in mind it's meant to be also oriented towards other kinds of gameplay. 3) Focus remains on main gameplay features: Pet development will be kept to the minimum (at least for the time being). Currently we have only planned to develop the Crowdfunding Reward Pet, along with the Crowdfunding Reward Outfit. While we can totally understand that many players might not care about this kind of rewards, stats have proven in the past that a significant amount players like to see a "thank you" from the team for their support, materialized either physically (T-shirts, Collector Edition Box, etc) or virtually (ingame Pet, Outfit, etc). 4) Use of pets by a massive amount of players might become a hindrance (for PvP or CPU/GPU workload) and it has been noted. We might think of something regarding this, in the future (maybe a way to deactivate Pet Display ingame, as a client optional parameter?). Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Atmosph3rik. Welcome to the Dual Universe official forum Glad to see another builder joining us! Some precisions about the Alpha Team: There will be only one Alpha Team. The 20 members selected before Winter Holidays were just the first wave of this team, and there will be other waves through 2016. The reason we proceed in small waves is to give opportunities for members to ask questions, to know a bit more each member, and possibly to have private discussions with some devs of the team before the Alpha (we're are currently working to make that possible), something less easy to handle if we send hundreds of invitations at the same time... but this will be explained with more details soon. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Murren and Verlin! Welcome on our forum. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know! I'll be glad to answer as much as I can Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

@ Saffi: All our condolences for your loss To answer to your questions, there will be indeed a name for the game account, and a name for each of your characters. For security reasons, it might be impossible to have the same name for the account and for one of your characters. We can't tell you yet what will be the limitations in terms of character naming freedom. But if we can go with one surname (or even two) and a family name for each character, that would be ideal indeed. I'm adding this to the list as an official suggestion, to avoid seeing that forgotten along the roadmap. Making an Imperial Senate will be possible, as long as enough players are interested to make it real. We will provide the tools to build it through the organisation system but it will be up to the players to design the rules running in this political organization. @Ellegos: Nice blog post! Indeed dictatorships in games where PvP has a deep impact on the world/universe (changing frontiers, controlling territories, changing the landscape, etc) seem to be the political system the most widely used. But we want to let players complete freedom about choosing, building and/or improving the political system they want. And who knows? Maybe someone will invent some sort of democracy efficient even in time of (virtual) war?...

Hi Faceof. Welcome to our forum! We hope you'll find what you expect in Dual Universe! If you have any questions, just let me know. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

How do you intend to go about the colonization process in DU? As Klatu already said above: the process will be managed through Territory Units. The goal is not to have all the worlds inhabitated by players. Players will gather naturally only on the most interesting planets. Other planets will have a low population, just for resource extraction purposes. At the moment, there's no NPCs planned anywhere else than the Arkship starting zone (to guide players in their first steps). Don't expect to see NPCs popping from nowhere in cities built by players. I had already answered partly this question in this thread: "Social interaction will be at the center of the game. It will be the players who will decide what is considered as an Empire and what is not. If your organization gathers hundreds or even thousands of players and achieve important things in the game, then the organization will likely be labelled as an Empire. If you will be less then ten players in your organization, then you will have a hard time to be considered as an Empire. Not impossible, but very very difficult. Also, even if you will be able to have NPCs (probably droids) helping in automatized tasks, don't expect to have thousands of NPCs under your command." And as said Klatu above: Players won't build cities to leave them as ghost towns afterwards. Players will most likely build only the cities they need. But we'll see for sure only when the game will launch. Should ghost towns appear, the team will think of ways to adapt to the situation. If there is something we are well aware, it's the impact of server location and lag issues. It's always a sensitive topic for single-shard MMO games. We're currently evaluating several possibilities right now. But it's too soon to say "we will go for this solution". However rest assured: we won't forget american players For the time being, nothing prevents it, if you have smart enough machines (with a "home made" LUA script) able to use a Factory Unit (as described recently on Facebook and Twitter). However, we might limitate the possibilities on this field, for game balance purposes. But this is still an ongoing internal topic in the team. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

No worry Silvligh. Misinterpretation happens, and it's not a big deal here Well... my thoughts can't be seen as an objective point of view as I'm a member of the team. The only thing I could say is: if I'm part of this adventure, it's pretty much because I have felt many similar things you have described (not just you but other members too) on the forum since its opening. The Dev Team have made some impressive progress in the last months, and it sometimes hard to resist sharing some news the community, even when it's clearly "not yet ready for communication" And what do you mean about me being too formal ? It seemed to me I was already way less formal than many CMs on big IPs Is this because I always end my replies by "Best Regards" ?

Hi everyone, I respected Silvligh wish (until now) to avoid participating in this topic. But it seemed important to clear any possible confusion: I confirm that Shadow is not me. I have, of course, another profile than Nyzaltar as a gamer. But I won't use it to post on this forum (unless I state clearly it's my gamer profile) for ethic reasons: - If I want to discuss with any member of the community I can already do that with my official profile Nyzaltar. - Using another account could be perceived as an attempt to deceive members of the community and I definitely don't want to risk any misinterpretation or loss of trust, as it's completely contradictory with the job of community manager. I know some CMs who played with this kind of things, and it has always, sooner or later, backfired painfully. To put it simply, I have no good reason to use another account to communicate with everyone on a Dual Universe topic Best Regards, Nyzaltar.