[Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design]

1m cubes though do look VERY blocky when you get close up compared to avatar size.

 

Not necessarily with Dual Contouring.

But I think it will become clearer when we will show you some screenshots

[DevBlog - Organizations: build your corporation, faction, nation or empire!]

Organization management features are planned  to be very flexible. 

A default template will be provided at the beginning with a vote system. 

But that doesn't mean you will be bound to this game mechanic. 

For example, it will be up to the Organization Manager(s) to edit succession rights for a more authoritarian system.

Basically, you will be able to have very different types of organizations. Some democratic, others oligarchic or dictatorial...  

We want to empower players with maximum freedom, even in the organization management.

[Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design]

Hi Kiklix!

 

You're totally right. The smaller the voxels are, the more performance issues you have.

We had to make some tough choices, and we think we have come to a good compromise:

- Voxels on any planet will have a size around 100 centimeters.

- Constructs made by players will be composed with 25 centimeters Voxels permitting better precision.

Granted, this is still bigger than Landmark, but in exchange you have mobile constructs 

And for the planets, well, you will have some up to 100 km radius (which means a bit more than 125 000 km2 !)

[DevBlog - Organizations: build your corporation, faction, nation or empire!]

What we have in mind is indeed to have one game feature to create permanent groups (for organizations) and one game feature to create temporary groups (for creating fleets or building teams). But temporary groups will be under a permanent group rules in some situations. We will give more information on this subject in the future (probably in a Blog Post )

[DevBlog - Organizations: build your corporation, faction, nation or empire!]

Organizations won't prevent some players to adopt a "Lone Wolf" gameplay style. It will be possible to play solo or in small groups. However, there is strength in numbers: The bigger the group is, the easier it becomes to explore, acquire/control territories, etc.

 

In the beginning, we'll provide generic templates for different types of organizations based on classic models (democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, etc...). After that, it will be up to the organization's creator to set the admin rights as he sees fit for the legates and/or simple members

 

Two organizations starting from the same template will be able to evolve completely differently in structure, according to their leaders actions.

 

However "forming a Fleet" is something a bit different, not necessarily tied to an organization:

When forming a Fleet, the roles and admin rights in the Fleet depend on the situation:

- If you act in your personal name, then fleet admin rights are pretty open and regulated mostly by the skills of the members composing it.

- If you act in the name of an organization, then fleet admin rights will be delimited by organization rules (who has which admin rights, how many people he/she can have under his/her command, etc)

[Communication and Voice Command]

A lot of good ideas there. Thanks Astrov! 

While none of these will happen for the Alpha (mainly due to time constraints), there are many ideas that have their place in the Idea Box for later development

[DevBlog: From Barter to Market Economy]

You're welcome, Klatu

By the way, all comments from the Devblog Post "from Barter to Market Economy" have been pasted in this topic, just below the DevBlog Post copy.

[DevBlog: Multiplayer Ship Crew]

All comments from the Devblog Post "Multiplayer Ship Crew" have been pasted (and sometimes updated) in this topic, just below the DevBlog Post copy.

[Invoice chat where ingame distance matters (Idea from Jared)]

The Novaquark Team:

This is definitively an interesting idea! You’re 100% right on the fact it would improve immersion.

We will discuss about it in the team to see if this can be developed in some ways.

If this seems achievable, it will most likely be a stretch goal for the crowdfunding campaign!

 

[Droids helpers for players but hackable by opponents (Idea from Wicpar)]

Novaquark Team:

This is an interesting concept.

We have already some ideas about how players will protect their base or outpost, but what you’re suggesting could be an interesting advanced possibility once all the essential features of the game will be implemented. We will discuss it in the team. 

[Social Areas to find people easier (Idea from Estevan)]

Novaquark Team:

Creating social features making life easier for players to interact with each other is on the list. Having “social hubs” where people can put requests looking for people (example: Mercenary for hire, Advertising to join a Player faction/corporation, etc) is something we are thinking about.

[Social Areas to find people easier (Idea from Estevan)]

Estevan:

You've been talking about teams and alliances being an important part of the game. Would there be social areas that make finding people easier? Like lets say maybe postings at a pub that request a crew for a mission? or perhaps a specific place to meet possible allies? Also should there be people whod want to be a “crew for hire” would there be parts of the game that would incorporate that?

[Props generating interaction between constructs (Idea from Estevan)]

The Novaquark Team:

It will be possible to have moving parts on a ship, with the use of “Anchors” (a special unit type). But keep in mind this is still a very early design, and there is no promise this will be implemented in the game from start. You can see a Concept Art research here on our Facebook page. However, to have these moving parts used in PvP Mechanics is not what is currently intended, but this is definitely an interesting idea.

[Props generating interaction between constructs (Idea from Estevan)]

Estevan:

Would there be moving parts on ships that can interact with the real world?

for example what if i want to build a pirate ship that had arm-claw-things

on the bottom to attach to other ships for boarding or destruction purposes? would this be possible?

[Droids helpers for players but hackable by opponents (Idea from Wicpar)]

Wicpar:

For keeping factions from getting fully automated you could add a way to “hack” into the droids/system and disable everything and disable all, but it would be difficult if alone (you would be able to do it if you have a equal or superior force,or get to sneak into the central command core). 

[Invoice chat where ingame distance matters (Idea from Jared)]

Jared:

Many games have a talk key that only allows your voice to be heard when it is held down. I find that method cumbersome especially in games that require a lot of your focus. As an idea, I have always wanted a game with true voice mechanics so that if your talking your voice only carries so far and if your yelling it can be heard farther away. I don’t know how this might be accomplished or if it is even feasible for a game, but I think it would fit in well with a game designed around immersion and a real world feel.

 

 

[Hello]

Hi Spacelike,

 

Indeed, we won't go for a "Free 2 Play" Model.

A few people in the Novaquark Team have already worked on F2P titles and here is the opinion they built upon experience:

While it may look like attractive like a siren's call on the paper (at first, it seems all fair and ethical as anyone can pay what he/she wants), there are a lot of drawbacks to this model. That's why we're aiming to another model, and we will probably make a Blog post in the near future to explain the details of the chosen monetization model, why and how we come to this solution

 

As for a possible Linux version, we are thinking about it. 

It might be a stretch goal for the coming crowdfunding campaign.

[DevBlog: From Barter to Market Economy]

Currently, there is no plan to enable players to create their own currency, for several reasons:

- Risk of imbalance: If there is something that needs to be stable for a sandbox game, this is the in-game economy. 

- Development priority: Many features are quite long to develop (even the basic ones). And as this type of game mechanics implies a complex game design behind it in order to work well, it would cost a lot of development time. And for now, it's far from being in priorities

- Fun to play: We are not entirely convinced that enabling players to create their own money would be fun on the long run, nor really very easy to understand and master for most of the players (look how the economy in real life is complexified just by that). While we don't want to go "mainstream" in the game design of Dual Universe, we don't want either to go for a game that will only appeal to a very small population of players. We also need numbers to create a MMORPG full of player-driven stories!

[DevBlog: Multiplayer Ship Crew]

Hi there! 

 

In Dual Universe you will have two choices regarding the situation when the "usual weapon specialist" is not in game:

 

- Having other crew members who are at least proficient in using the involved weapon. The Skill system won't block your character in one or two specialization. Basically, there will be nothing to prevent your character to be a "Jack of All Trades". Most skills will be easy to learn, but hard to master. It will all depend how much time you want to allocate to train in a specific skill. If you know the EvE Online skill system, then you should have a pretty good idea about what we are planning

 

- If you lack manpower at a given time, you will have the option to use (craftable) droids, with limited AI, to replace a crew member. However, don't expect them to be better than a living player

[Sci Fi builder]

Really glad to see sci-fi landmark players gathering here.

Welcome !

[Hello from Comrademoco]

Hi everyone, 

Welcome to the Dual Universe forum.

It's seems you're all veteran gamers here!

About the current ranking of Dual Universe, I think there is a simple explanation:

We haven't yet any visual to show. And even if this is only one part of the game (and not necessarily the most important, in our opinion), this is today "must have" to rise in any game ranking. But we should have some visuals to show you in a near future

[Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design]

Hi Astrov,

We aim for photorealistic graphics as much as technical limits will allow us.

Meaning... No "cartoon style": We know most MMO choose this style, probably because its popularity has already been proven many times, and/or because it's also easier to make this style more accessible to older computers. The game we are building won't be for everyone, that's for sure. But this is the price to have a game that is not just an improved version of an existing one. And we firmly believe that is also a ingredient necessary for success nowadays, a lot more than just going "mainstream". 

[DevBlog: About the Alpha Gameplay]

 

What? I haven't seen this elsewhere, please inform.

 

Hi Astrov,

 

Yes, Alpha release has been postponed:

We want to provide a meaningful experience for Dual Universe Alpha testers.

And while the game has evolved a lot until now, it seems to us that we won't have a version that we estimate satisfactory enough to be released (even with a restricted access). Updating our roadmap with this in mind is currently in progress. As soon as more information will be available for the Alpha release, you will be informed. 

[Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design]

Hi Ai Austin,

 

As it is planned to use Dual Contouring for primitive shapes built with voxel tools, the result should be far from a lego/minecraft-style and a lot more realistic. 

A few games already use this technology. We can't show you some screenshots from the game yet, to illustrate voxel tool descriptions. But it will be posted in time  

[Nyzaltar, at your service.]

Hi everyone!

I'm Nyzaltar, the Community Manager for this Sci-Fi epic adventure known as "Dual Universe"!
If you have any question or suggestion on the game or anything related (forum, website, the team, etc), don't hesitate to contact me.

I will be more than happy to answer!

Also, as many of you, I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi Themes and a passionate MMO gamer.
Eve Online, Landmark, to name a few... but far from being limited to these.

I hope you will enjoy this forum as much as we, the Novaquark Team, hope!
Also I will be around on the forum during this week-end, to answer topics that have already been posted

Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.