NQ-Nyzaltar

Hi everyone! The NovaWriMo Contest is back! What is NovaWriMo? For those who don't know what this is about, here's a quick explanation: NovaWriMo is a writing contest inspired by "National Novel Writing Month" (NaNoWriMo), which usually starts in November and lasts for roughly one month. NovaWriMo is a very similar contest, but with a twist; the writing contest is related to Dual Universe, and it's not strictly tied to the month of November. 2019 Theme: Pre-Alpha, Alpha, and Beta phases of Dual Universe are also part of the game lore! How’s that possible? Simple; it represents virtual simulations run by Aphelia while all the colonists are still deep in their cryogenic sleep during their interstellar travel. Quite similar to the virtual simulation in the film ‘The Matrix’, except that the colonists are aware of it, understand that it’s a temporary situation, and that they will walk out of it at some point (the official release). They don’t have steel pikes plugged into their brains either! Special Rules for this theme: The contender can write anything about what his character (or his organization) is doing during the Alpha phase, or what he will do once upcoming features are officially announced on the roadmap will be implemented in game. In that second case, we would advise to wait until the updated roadmap is released (which should happen very soon). That's the reason why we made the Contest duration slightly longer this time, so you don't have to worry about rushing your story. The contender can write about conflicts, however, it should only involve fictional opponents/organizations, not real players or organizations run by real players (to avoid any disagreement between the players mentioned about how the narrative direction is going) It should be clear with the rules mentioned above but in order to confirm it clearly: No alien creatures should be involved in the story. Lore sources for reference: The Official Dual Universe Lore Bible The short story written by Alain Damasio The mods of the novel by Alain Damasio mentioned in the beginning of this post, some info here and here too The Backstory Page of the official website Some more recent information. (If you spot an inconsistency between the different sources, the Official Lore Bible should be considered authoritative). Writing Rules: The text should have a word count between 3,000 and 5,000 words. The contest starts today, Friday November 29th, 23:00 UTC. It will end on Monday January 13th, 23:00 UTC. The story should be on the chosen theme (see above). You must submit your text in the form of a PDF file and you must attach it to a dedicated topic (with the tag [NovaWrimo2019] in the title) you created in the "Novaquark Archives" forum section. The PDF file must not exceed 500 kb in size. You must also send your file in Word or .txt format to both NQ-Nomad and NQ-Nyzaltar to be eligible. You can do so by private message on the forum. By submitting a fanfiction with the tag [NovaWrimo2019] in the topic title, the poster will explicitly cede author rights to Novaquark. While these texts won't be sold in any form, they may be used (fully or partially) as promotional materials or in marketing campaigns for Dual Universe. For more information, please read our "Terms of Use" and our EULA. You also must accept and respect the legal conditions bound to your Dual Universe account (the aforementioned game's EULA, but also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and NDA if relevant). Your submission must be written in English. Physical violence should be limited (No gore or similar things). Verbal violence and cursing is tolerated but should be limited and not gratuitous. Explicit sexual content isn't allowed. Hate speech toward specific people, ethnic groups, or religions isn't allowed. A non-native English writer can seek help from a native English speaker to polish the text in English. The native English speaker must be aware that it can help only on a volunteer basis: he won't be eligible for any reward. If a non-native English writer seeks help from a native English speaker, he/she must submit the complete text before proofreading. Once his/her text is proofread, he/she will have to keep both pre-proofread and post-proofread versions of the text available on the forum. If several people collaborate on a story, please be aware that only the individual submitting the entry on the forum will be eligible to win any prizes or awards. We will not have group prizes available. Because the juries are completely different, a participant may win a Novaquark prize and the Community prize. You may submit multiple entries, however, you may only win one Novaquark prize. If an entry does not meet all of the requirements for eligibility (text size not observing the word count, missing the deadline by a few days, etc.), the author won't be considered as eligible for the Novaquark and the Community prizes. However, it may still be considered as a participant to the contest. It will be up to the Novaquark team to decide on a case by case basis. Late entries will not be eligible for either the Novaquark or Community prizes, but will still be considered as participants. A gentle reminder, rather than a rule; please consider the reading comfort of your future readers by formatting your text in a way that makes it easily readable (make sure to put some space between your paragraphs, etc.) Winners: There will be three winners selected by the Novaquark team. There will be one winner selected by the Community (Community members will vote for their favorite story). Prizes: Novaquark 1st Prize: 3 Beta Keys + In-game title "NovaWriMo 2019 Winner: Gold" Novaquark 2nd Prize: 2 Beta Keys + In-game title "NovaWriMo 2019 Winner: Silver" Novaquark 3rd Prize: 1 Beta Key + In-game title "NovaWriMo 2019 Winner: Bronze" Community Prize: In-game title "Famous Writer". Good luck everyone! Best Regards, The Novaquark Team.

Hi everyone, As Yamamushi said, there won't be a MeetUp during the MIGS event. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough people potentially interested. Sorry for the last minute notice. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

As we're considering to make a meetup at Montreal during MIGS (Montreal International Gaming Summit), we need to know who would like to attend this MeetUp in advance. Please complete the poll above if you're available and want to go to such meeting. Thank you in advance for your anwers! Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

(Update: November 12th, 2019: detailing the content that will be released before the end of the year) Dear Community, We heard your feedback regarding our communication that wasn't as regular during the past months than it was before, in addition of a few miscommunication incidents. That's why we decided to plan several events to catch up and address that topic before the end of the year: For those who have questions (or concerns) about Dual Universe or Novaquark, we've just opened a dedicated thread here (as many questions may be related to subjects under NDA, and we can't check beforehand, we had to put the forum thread in a section under NDA. If you're not a backer and you have questions on topics that aren't under NDA, feel free to contact NQ-Nomad and/or NQ-Nyzaltar by private message on the forum, and they wil transmit them to the team). No question is taboo. Although we can't promise to give a clear and detailed answer for each question, we will try our best to reply as much as we can. Here is the content related to communication we plan to release before the end of the year: - a video presenting the updated roadmap. - a Dev Diary video showing the recent progress on the game development - a PodCast where we will try to answer the most pressing matters (based on the questions posted in the dedicated thread). - an AMA event where we will try to answer to the remaining questions. - a Kickstarter update. We can't give specific dates for all of this content yet, but all will be released before the end of the year. Best Regards, The Novaquark Team.

Hi everyone! We are going to deploy a brand new Authentication Bot - developed entirely by Novaquark - on Discord in the coming weeks to simplify the life to new backers in the Community, as well as facilitating the work of the Discord volunteer Discord Moderators. The news is important for both new comers and veteran community members, as authentication to NDA Discord sections will change drastically! You can find the complete news here. Don't hesitate to give your feedback in this forum thread, below this forum post! All feedback is welcome! Best Regards, The Novaquark Team.

Dear Tacotuesday, We interrupted the test sessions for two weeks because a big part of the team was "out of office" and it was communicated in a newsletter beforehand. So as the service was temporarily interrupted and communicated to the backers, it was unlikely that there would be people in urgent need of support. Now you asked on the forum during a Saturday why you hadn't have a reply yet by the Customer Support. You get an answer the following day, on a Sunday. As an indie studio, with our budget and infrastructure, we believe we are trying our best to keep our community informed and follow up any issue that could arise. We agree that we could always improve and as the game will develop, the team will too. Now you will have a reply from our customer support, even if it feels too long by your standards despite these circumstances. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi @TACOTUESDAY Many members of the team were on holidays during the past two weeks. So the response time on support tickets may have been affected. You will get a reply as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! You may have already seen it but we launch the Community Survey 2019 two days ago on the official website. If you haven't filled the Community Survey yet, please take it when you will have time. It takes only 5 minutes to complete it, and it will help the Novaquark team a lot to know you better and see what are your expectations for each kind of in-game activity. You can take the survey here. Thank you so much for your help! Best Regards, The Novaquark Team.

Hi everyone! More news about the Gamescom 2019 MeetUp: - The meeting hour will be at 20:30 (local time), on Wednesday, August 21st. - We have only 4 more seats available for the MeetUp! So if you're interested to join us for the MeetUp at Cologne, don't wait to register until the deadline... - We are considering (not 100% sure yet) doing a MeetUp in October in Paris during the Paris Gamesweek 2019 for those who can't join us at the Gamescom. If it happens, it would be most likely either on Wednesday, October 30th or Thursday, October 31st. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! Here is more information about the Gamescom MeetUp 2019 (and we need some from your side too ) If you plan to join us at the Gamescom MeetUp 2019 in Cologne (Germany) on Wednesday, August 21st in the evening, please complete the form below. We need to make sure to book enough seats for the members of the Community in advance. You have until Sunday, August 17th to register in the form. Please register as soon as possible as we can't guarantee to have a booked seat for everyone who will register after this day. In order to make your booked seat valid, you will need to have a Dual Universe account beforehand. >>> Gamescom MeetUp 2019 Inscription Form Like last year, the MeetUp will take place at the "Ludwig im Museum Restaurant" (near the Cathedral in Cologne). To find the exact address of the restaurant, here is the google map link. At this MeetUp, you'll be able to meet the following members of the Novaquark team: NQ-Sophon (JC Baillie), CEO NQ-LowDegree, Senior Server Engineer NQ-Helvetica, UI/UX Designer NQ-Nomad, Live Ops & Community Manager NQ-Nyzaltar, Social Media & Community Manager NQ-Oli, PR & Marketing Manager Best Regards, Nyzaltar

Hi Oninous and welcome in the Dual Universe community! We know it's a bit frustrating to wait for validation to post on the forum, but this is the safest way to keep the forum clean from all spammers and advertisers that have nothing to do with the game. Beside, once your first post is approved, you don't need any validation anymore. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

@shaake Talking about Real Life Politics is not allowed in Dual Universe. No matter how it is presented, making a parody of Real Life Politics IS a way of talking about Real Life Politics. Therefore, the organization has been deleted. Please avoid to create such type of organization in the future. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Yes, and that's why this topic is going to be closed, now that an updated reply has been given Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Ce sujet a évolué depuis 2016. Il est prévu une version française pour la sortie officielle du jeu. Une section de forum entièrement en français est à l'étude (comme ça le sera aussi pour toutes les autres langues dans lesquelles le jeu sera traduit). Nous ne pouvons pas encore donner de date sur le déploiement d'une telle section, mais patience, la chose finira par arriver Cordialement, Nyzaltar. -------------------------------- This topic has evolved since 2016. A french version is planned for the official release of the game. A forum section entirely in French is considered (as it will be considered as well for all other languages in which the game will be localized). We can't give any ETA yet regarding the French forum section opening, but be patient: it will happen eventually Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, This discussion is going nowhere. Everything has been already said on the topic and continuing would only lead to stir up conflict between those who think the situation is unfair and those who think it's normal to adapt. To sum up one last time: PC Gaming industry has a long history of replacing/upgrading components in very short cycles (4-5 years) due to technological breakthrough, to stay up-to-date. However it's true that during the recent years, there have been less technological breakthroughs on the CPU side, reducing the need of replacing CPU. While it's a comfortable situation on many levels, keep in mind that it's not the "normality" but the exception in the PC Gaming history. The technological stagnation (at least CPU-side) for so many years is a first. At some point, technological breakthroughs will force you to upgrade your PC if you want to play games that will use the most advanced technologies available (unlocking opportunities that weren't possible before). It has always been like that, and it will continue to be like that (even if it will be at a slower pace). It's true that AVX instructions requirement weren't specified during the Kickstarter campaign. It has been a miscommunication on our side as it was decided from the beginning to use them (these instructions help A LOT regarding performances in a full voxel-based environment) and we recognize that. That's why it's a legitimate reason to contact the Customer Support for a refund. However, we think it's a mistake to see the situation just as "I won't change my PC rig just for Dual Universe", because sooner or later, other games will ask you to have a more recent hardware. It's just a matter of time. If it's not AVX instructions, it could be something else. There was no intention of deceiving or trapping backers here. The dev team genuinely thought that, by the time Dual Universe will be released, CPUs from 2012 or older will be replaced by gamers with more recent ones, especially as the team never marketed Dual Universe with low end specs (even during the Kickstarter). That being said, if you plan to keep an old CPU from before 2012 at least two more years, and don't plan to play DU because of that, that's totally your right and you should contact our Customer Support. Now the topic is going to be closed as the original question has been answered in detail, and repeating arguments again and again will add nothing constructive on the topic. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Like last year, we are organizing a MeetUp in Cologne (Germany) during the event of the Gamescom. It will be an opportunity to meet JC and several members of the Novaquark team to discuss about Dual Universe! Please indicate which evening you will be available The poll will close next Tuesday, June 11th, as we have to book the restaurant quickly. (More info about the event coming soon ) Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! With the test session starting today (Thursday, May 30th) at 14:00 UTC, you will be able to enter the Puzzle Game Building Contest! We presented quickly what is the concept of the contest in this announcement two weeks ago. You can also find the complete rules over there. (to be able to read them, you need to be logged and have Alpha access). However, we felt it was necessary to give some more insight about the possibilities with Interactive Elements. That's why JC, with the help of NQ-Wzrd, made a Puzzle Building Tutorial. It explains the basics with an up to date video. Moreover, as the Contest duration will be quite short, we've decided to give to everyone (even those not actively participating to the Contest) a few Interactive Elements of each kind. The Elements you received are just a starting point. You could use more by crafting more or trading more with other players. Happy building! The Novaquark team.

Dear Alpha Testers, We are glad to announce a new Contest coming next week, starting Thursday, May 30th! This time the theme will be about “puzzle games”, made with Interactive Elements. LUA scripting will be authorized, but it won’t give an edge on the winner selection: the main criteria to win the Contest will be creativity, originality, and aesthetics. Full Contest Rules will be posted next week, just before the Test Session. We can’t wait to see all the puzzles, contraptions and escape rooms you’ll design! Also, we said last week there will be a time extension for the test session this week. With the Contest coming, we thought it would be more relevant to do it next week, as this will give you more time for the Puzzle Game Contest! If you’re not familiar yet with Interactive Elements, here is the video presenting the main ones: (Disclaimer: The video is a bit old so graphics are not representative of the current graphics in the game anymore, but the gameplay related to Interactive Elements presented in this video still globally applies in-game). The Novaquark Team.

Dear Community Members, Last week we've already detailed some of the main changes and additional features in the r0.15 Update. Today, we want to give you a visual preview of those changes and features and we just released a short video for the occasion! We will also release a DevBlog on the Talent System later this week, so stay tuned! The Novaquark Team.

Hi everyone, @Kirth Gersen AVX instructions have been implemented in intel processors in 2011 and AMD processors in 2012 (for processors oriented to gaming activity, which generally does not include Xeon processors made before 2013 and Celeron processors). These instructions give a substantial improvement performance-wise. While a lot of games rely mostly on GPU Power, this is not the case for some games, using voxel technology. Voxel calculation is, for the moment, mostly handled on CPU side (at least for the moment, as no current GPU is optimized to calculate Voxels). That's why having AVX instructions is required. For some games, it could make sense to make a "No AVX required" version. For others, like Dual Universe, it's not worth it: the performances would be so bad without AVX, that it's not worth it to spend a fair amount of time (re)developping a "No AVX required" version. So no, there is no short term plan to remove AVX requirements. "Minimal" requirements are the minimal specs to be able to launch the game, not to have a decent game experience. That's what "Recommanded" specs are for: to have a decent game experience. That being said, if you want to ask for a refund for this reason, please contact the Customer Support at support@novaquark.com Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! Thank you for reporting that! The website will be updated tomorrow to fix the missing text on the Sponsor Pack Disclaimer text. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! If you want to discuss on the best entries of the Winter 2018 Ship Building, this the right topic to do so! ? You can find the related topic below: Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Dear Community Members, As some of the Novaquark recent moderation and sanction actions haven’t been clearly understood by some, here are some explanations and clarifications. We are aware that members from “Dark Star Imperium” (DSI) and “New Genesis” think that the decisions taken by Novaquark have been unfair and/or feel like a punishment. It’s not a punishment and we limited the inconvenience to the minimum possible by just resetting the member list of the Organization. This has been done to remove all ghost accounts and make the involved Organizations restart on a healthier basis. We also made sure that at least one person in each of the involved Organizations can re-invite real members in the Organization: - CN_Firestorm for “Dark Star Imperium” - Chipfromearth/SpaceKitty for “New Genesis” (until the end of TMA’s ban) You are more than welcome to contact them to join theses Orgs again if you wish to do so. Keeping in mind that besides the cleaning of ghost accounts, nothing else has been removed. All community work/content related to these Organizations have been left untouched. We are also going to send an email to all ex-members to inform about the member list reset and offer them to join their former organization again. Regarding the ban of the leaders of these Organizations: We understand that seeing your leader banned might be frustrating. However, we want to make it clear that being at the head of a big Org does not give a free pass on toxic behavior and/or bad practices that could damage the Community as a whole. Being passionate, being young, creating quality content is no free pass for such things either. That’s why all the permanent bans decided recently are final. We are not giving such heavy sanctions with a light heart or on a whim. In more than four years, the number of community members who have been banned permanently from the community can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. We think it speaks volume... Some recent rumors say that the bans may be reversed or canceled. There is no ground to such rumor. It’s just disinformation. The fact that a banned member will “not tolerate that” has no weight either. It’s the Novaquark team’s call and the Novaquark team alone. Now, we want to give a fair warning to anyone wanting to challenge Novaquark’s decisions openly, directly or indirectly. If a community member has been permanently banned from the Community, he’s excluded from the game, which means he shouldn’t be in any Organization anymore. Reinviting or keeping a community member banned permanently could have serious consequences (such as Organization disbanding but not limited to that, as this could trigger other sanctions for those actively supporting banned members). Now to address some specific questions/rumors: We exceptionally give some details to the Community to show that we are not banning randomly or without a serious reason. We do it only because some banned members try to take advantage of the confidentiality policy to enforce their own narrative and play the victim, and attempt to misinform other players. Don’t expect the Novaquark team to give anymore information on this case or the possible future ones. “Banning Sakej99 was a mistake. He’s a different person from FullSend/Lime”. The Novaquark team is aware that Sakej99 and FullSend/Lime are different persons. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the permanent ban affects FullSend/Lime will also affect accounts he may have access to (by account sharing, which is forbidden in our EULA). This is one of the main reasons why we are so serious about forbidding account sharing. If someone sanctioned got access to your account, the sanction can be extended to the said account even if you haven’t done anything wrong. “FullSend/Lime has been unfairly banned, with no prior warning.” First, for the infraction this community member has committed, there will never be a warning as it was obviously utterly wrong: if a false report is sent to the Customer Support in an attempt to make another community member banned, the one getting the ban is the one who sent the false report. And in this case, indeed, there is no prior warning. Second, FullSend/Lime is probably the person in the community who would deserve multiple permanent bans (if it was possible), due to previous infractions in addition to the most recent one. Playing the card “no prior warning” is just complete dishonesty and denial of assuming the consequences of his actions during the past couple of years. Here is a short list of the infractions he has done in the past: - Asking members of one of his former organization to give login and password of their accounts to him. - Using accounts of other players. - Creating ghost accounts. - Using a loophole in the organization management system on the Community Portal in an attempt to sabotage/destroy an organization by using the account of another player. - Participating in a doxxing attempt. - Always denying the facts or trying to minimize them, to the point of reaching self-absolving, to avoid dealing with the consequences (a practice reiterated with his last infraction). Due to the history of this community member, there was no reason for “prior warning” with his last infraction. He has been warned too many times already. Mistakes are not erased just because it happened “long ago”. By default, Organisations where FullSend was the founder have their ownership transmitted to the oldest member with the ability to create an organization, which gave the following results: - CN_Firestorm becomes the new owner of “Dual Insider”. - Gravetender becomes the new owner of “Project Azimuth”. If you are a member of one of these organisations and you want to discuss these changes, please contact the new owner of the Organization. (About DSI) “There has been a total wipe of the parties to kill the conflict” Wrong. If that was the case, we would have dismantled “DSI” directly and ban both DSI leaders, which would have included CN_Firestorm. You can assume that if it’s not the case, this is precisely because there is a difference between CN_Firestorm and Primarch. This sanction wasn’t against DSI. The sanction was against Primarch. Some of the banned members may say “They will be back”. It’s up to them. However, if we catch them, they will be banned without further notice. Best regards, The Novaquark team.

Dear community members, A few weeks ago, we took a stance regarding “out of the game”/IRL-related practices to discredit, threaten or shame publicly another Community Member (even if the involved person is guilty of several infractions) that could be an opponent in-game. As the DSI (Dark Star Imperium) / TSU (Trinary Star Union) / UEE (United Earth Empire) case blew out of proportion during January, we investigated. We are really serious about differentiating real life from the game itself. Unfortunately some didn’t take our stance seriously. We gave them a chance to come clean in a private discussion and restart on an healthier basis. They didn’t take the opportunity for what it was: a last chance. As they preferred “playing dumb” with Novaquark staff, we can’t have any trust that they won’t continue. Therefore we have decided to ban permanently those Community Members for various reasons (all not being banned for the same reason(s)): Not being honest towards Novaquark staff. Making and encouraging ghost accounts. Abusive recruitment practices. Practising real life harassment and/or threatening another player. Making false report to Novaquark’s Customer Support in an attempt to make ban someone they dislike. Spreading real life information without the involved person’s consent, aka Doxxing. (strong reminder: even if a person gives you real life information about him/her, it’s not okay to share these information with ANYONE else without his/her consent. You can’t predict how the other person(s) will use this information and if he/she/they won’t share it again. If some trouble occurs following this sharing, you can be held legally responsible). This might seem an extreme sanction but this shows how serious we are when we say we are not going to let toxic attitude and practices spread in the Community. Our goal to build a healthy and friendly community isn’t just a figure of speech. Anyone caught to spread or encourage any toxic behavior will be removed from the Community as it will be considered as damaging the Community and negating Novaquark staff efforts (without saying that it’s time consuming and a waste of our resources). Saying it’s a long time grudge coming from before the arrival in the Dual Universe community is absolutely not a valid excuse. If someone has a personal grudge with another community member, he/she should either: Leave it at the doorstep and/or settle it in private and peacefully with no one else involved. Contact directly (and only) Novaquark staff if the issue persists. The moment someone uses the Dual Universe community as a tool for IRL revenge, he/she is not welcome anymore. We’re all here to have fun. It should always stay that way. Therefore, the following Community Members have been permanently banned from the Community: Lime / Fullsend / mmtheboss / Sakej99 [DSI] Primarch Zelevas / TharisUEE Melkor_Morgoth In addition the DSI Organization member list has been reset, and the Novaquark Team has appointed CN_Firestorm as the new owner of the Organization, should he accept to take a fresh start on a healthy basis. We also give a warning to all those who were indirectly involved (with the evidence we found) but not actively participating in the recent community troubles. Next time, there won’t be any new warning. If you become involved against your will in some shady real life activities, you have only two healthy options: Leaving the group doing such activity immediately. Report it to Novaquark staff. If you stay in such group without leaving or reporting it and the group is caught, you take the risk to get the same sanction as those actively involved. This investigation has taken (or more precisely wasted) a lot of time from Novaquark staff. We really don’t like to intervene in players affairs. However, if there is a chance that such affairs damage the Community by toxic behavior, you can expect Novaquark staff to step in. We hope we won’t have to take the same measures again. Best regards, The Novaquark Team.

Dear community members, It has come to our attention that abusive recruitment practices, as well as practices to artificially inflate organization sizes, have been recently used more and more in some organizations. After having conducted an investigation regarding New Genesis, and discovered the following infractions: - Recruitment attempts that are harassment by private message through automated bots on Discord. - Ghost Accounts to inflate the size of the organization artificially. It has been decided to reset the member list of the organization to its sole leader, TheMasterArchitect. Furthermore, as New Genesis has been already twice at the center of troubles regarding recruitment ethics in the past, involving at least once (if not more) its leader, a temporary ban has been applied to him. Best regards, The Novaquark Team.