NQ-Nyzaltar

Yes, Voxel Farm has been considered in the early days of Novaquark. However, at that moment, while Voxel Farm was very advanced on many things (builder tools, etc), performances weren't adapted for a massive, scalable, multiplayer game as Dual Universe. That's why the voxel tech has been done internally, and now, after all the research and work accomplished so far, even if Voxel Farm has improved on the massively multiplayer aspect, it wouldn't make sense to spend money to adopt an alternative tech. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, It seems the DevBlog was not clear enough on some points. We have said it many times before, and we'll continue to say it again: While many players wants to see Dual Universe with a dominant gameplay aspect, it's important to understand that it's NOT the case. Building gameplay is as important as Combat gameplay. Not more, not less. Balancing both won't be easy and we are aware of it. No, Building is not the major feature of Dual Universe. If the Building aspect has been made first, it's only because, it was making total sense to start the development with this part: we are pretty much in R&D field regarding the Voxel technology. It was an essential piece of tech to build the base of the game: Voxels were necessary to create editable planets in the first place. Then the logical next step was to develop tools to give players to manipulate voxels. That wouldn't make sense to develop Combat gameplay before the two previous steps because, there wouldn't even something to destroy, or even an environment where the combat could happen. The order in which the features are developed are NOT by order of importance. It's just a matter of logical game development roadmap. We have no plan to make Dual Universe a total free for all PvP game, just as we won't make it a whole game universe safe, just because some players want to explore it completely without taking any risk. While we don't plan to make our game some kind of "EVE Online 2.0", we don't want either to make a "No Man's Sky 2.0". We understand this may not appeal to everyone taste, and we totally understand that. However, if there is something that is very unlikely to change, it's the fact that there's no intention to catter to only one specific category of players. A final word about the griefing and the mindset of the community. Our point of view is that griefing mainly proliferates when it's an easy way to get rewards with little effort, not necessarily because many people really wants to play that way. Of course, there are people who like to grief just for the enjoyment of annoying other players but we are convinced they're not a majority. If game mechanics are designed in such a way that griefing doesn't give easy rewards, then griefing will be naturally limited. Why not simply remove the possibility of griefing, then? Yes, it would be clearly easier and quicker to remove the ability to grief other players, but while we have no intention to encourage griefing, removing it totally would go against the very definition of the sandbox concept: players are free to interact in the way they want. If we remove any kind of interaction, then we are not in a Sandbox MMORPG anymore: we would be in a Theme Park one. And that is not Novaquark's vision. We want a game universe where bad behavior is discouraged by game mechanics and heavy in consequences if a player still choose to do so, than arbitrarily forbid the said behavior. We want players to be free but also to live with the consequences of their choices. That's what Sandbox mean to us at Novaquark. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

I'm afraid you're asking too much here Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, A Devblog is coming (very) soon about griefing protection (and more info about the differences between Secure Areas and Non-Secure Areas). @Hades: There will be only one Secure Area (around the Arkship)... at the beginning. More can be discovered later by the players, once the game will be officially launched. @Captain Jack: To answer the question of your first post in the thread If the forest is located in a Secure Area, yes it will be totally possible to be in this kind of context That's the whole point of having Secure Areas in the game. Best Regards, Nyzaltar

@MarrrV: For legal reasons, we aren't allowed to create a Dual Universe account for a player. It must be the player himself that should create his own Dual Universe account. That why the process may seem tedious and annoying. Unfortunately, there was a part we weren't allowed to automatize. @Bear Adams: After a quick check, your account has access to the client download on your profile page. Are you sure you checked when you were logged on the community portal here: https://community.dualthegame.com/accounts/profile ? If you don't see the "Download te game" button at the right of the "Edit Profile" and "Upgrade Pledge" buttons, under the profile frame, please contact our customer support at support@novaquark.com for this issue. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Kuritho, Hope things will get better for you soon See you at the full release (or maybe even before?) Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

My apologies, indeed you filled the Kickstarter survey. However, you created your Dual Universe account on 20th January 2018. As long as you didn't have a Dual Universe account, filling the Kickstarter Survey had the same effect as if you didn't fill it. The process of being automatically recognized as a backer needed two conditions: First, creating a Dual Universe account as explained in the survey. Second, filling the Kickstarter survey and send it to the Novaquark through the Kickstarter. Doing the steps in the reverse order has the consequence to necessitate a manual action from the Customer Support. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi MarrrV, The problem has been solved. If you had filled the Kickstarter survey, this would have been done automatically. Now, that's not really an issue as we can still do it manually. However, you should expected at least 48h, especially during a week-end. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone! Here are a few clarifications on the topic: - As a general rule, any information or content that has been published publicly by Novaquark can be considered as not under the NDA anymore. As we have started to communicate publicly about the tests schedule since the beginning of 2018, this is not under NDA anymore. I will make a quick post tomorrow in the appropriate section to be sure that everyone is aware of that. - @Elkay: The reason why you may have had some "login problem" on the forum may be related to the fact that you activated your gold status recently. If that's the case, indeed, you weren't able to access the Pre-Alpha section on the forum, sending you back an error message. The problem is now fixed. If the problem was something else, please contact our customer support at support@novaquark.com - @Elkay: For any problem, (log in or anything else), posting on the forum with an angry tone will never solve real problems. Contacting our customer support at support@novaquark.com and explaining in details what the issue is (which error message you get, when did you get it, etc) most likely will. - @Elkay: regarding the time frame of the scheduled tests, as the explanation is in a forum section under NDA, I will re-post it there for information purpose. Dual Universe is still in Pre-Alpha, meaning we are still in a phase where we are debugging/fixing a lot of things. We do a few tests, then we fix things, then we another batch of tests and we continue to fix more things. Keep in mind that we aren't yet in a phase where you can log to play and have fun like in a nearly-finished game. If you want to log now, you should expect that this is to help the Novaquark team improving the game. If you are logging to have a fun experience, then we thorougly advise you to wait and come back when we will reach Beta, or at the very least Alpha. Now, why the "weird" time frame schedule? At the beginning, the goal was to have at least one test per month with hours fitting for every player. If the time frame seems "crazy" for a test (during the night for instance or while you are at work), then it means this test wasn't originally meant for you but for other testers around the globe. However, if for some reason (if you are on holidays, or you can't sleep, and you really want to test the game) you are free to join at these odd hours, and you are more than welcome. Please understand that, at least for the time being, don't expect a weekly test with hours fitting for every player. We are aware that this is one of the most pressing demand from the Pre-Alpha testers (more test sessions, longer test sessions) and that's among our priorities. However, as this involves not only server stability but also recruitment and special authorization (not so easy to obtain unless you are already an international company) to work overnight in countries like France, it may take some time. However, we are doing our best to find a solution for more (and longer) tests as soon as possible. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Update: 17/01/2018. New version of the forum rules The forum rules have been revamped. Please read it carefully. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, We planned to have the new supporter packs for Q4 2017. Unfortunately, the new supporter packs wont't be released this year. The new supporter packs will be available Q1 2018. Our apologies for the wait! Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, All right, the three pages that revolved into a flame war have been archived. @Paul Nicolas: As you are new on the forum, this is a first (but also the last) warning. Your posts have broken several forum and/or EULA rules, among which: - starting a flame war when nobody has agressed you. - being particularly rude by calling people dicks and using some inappropriate text emoticons. - suggesting to sell your account to someone else. Being a gold backer gives you rights, but absolutely not those stated above. If you continue with this behavior, your account can be banned with no refund possible (as you break the rules you explicitly accepted first when you created a Dual Universe account, to post on the forum and play the game). @everyone: When you see something that is obviously the beginning of a flame war, just report it and don't respond to this kind of provocation. Thank you for your understanding. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi RadFallout100, Technically, yes, it would be possible to have Dual Universe playable in single player mode or LAN multiplayer mode, given the appropriate amount of game development time. However it won't be done because of the two following reasons: - because it's not the game vision. - because of game development time necessary to adapt the game to such configuration. That being said: - Nothing will prevent you to play "solo" if you're not interested in activities that could involve PvP (like building your base in a secure area). - If you don't like to pay a monthly subscription, there's a high chance to see a yearly subscription once the game will launch. While it makes total sense to prefer paying only once for a single player game or player-hosted server game (where you can invite your friends to join in multiplayer mode), it makes more sense to pay progressively for an online game managed by a company, as paying only once won't give you the same pros (and cons) of buying a single player game or a player-hosted server game: you won't own the game. you will own the right to play the game for a specific amount of time. - There was a lifetime subscription option for exactly one year (from the 7th September 2016 to the 7th September 2017). This was a limited reward to thank early backers for having given us their trust and backed the game to a such exceptional level. Many people who like to play solo or just with a small group of friends see the current development of "games as a service" as an evil thing attempting to force them to change their way of playing. Nothing is more wrong: 1) The number of available games enabling players to play solo or in small groups has never been so huge (a short glance at Steam will convince anyone at that). 2) Seeing games released as services is not necessarily an attempt to force these people to pay more than before: it's just that these games are not meant for them. If they prefer to play solo and/or with a small group of friends, it's totally their right. However, they often forgot that not all players want the same thing, far from it: there are also many players wanting to play in a huge world/universe populated with many other players. MMORPGs (like Dual Universe) are meant for this second category of players, and from there, it's just a matter of financial viability: Players want a huge world/universe with many other players (or even the whole community, in the case of Dual Universe) around them? => as no player will have the hardware to host a server powerful enough, this is where it becomes necessary to have the hardware managed by the company developing the game. => such server will be expensive to maintain (hardware + staff behind it), and the cost will never end. Moreover, as many people will have different material, may encounter problems, due to a technical issue or a social issue with other groups of players (harassment, griefing, etc), it becomes necessary to get teams able to handle such situations (customer support, community managers). Moreover, as such games generally continue to evolve a lot after the release, to provide new features and new content (development team). All this can't just be paid once, with the wish that the game can live forever: if there are bills to pay at the end of each month, then the healthy to maintain the game is to have a subscription model. Some will say "Yes, but there are a lot of MMORPGs free-to-play or buy-to-play". Sure, but to be honest, it would be interesting to ask ourselves the following: - how many have lived for a very long time (10 years or more) with such model? - do those games have been beyond reproach regarding the three following points: permanent server availability, high quality customer support, regular content/feature updates? Dual Universe has the ambition to be a game that will last a lot more than a few years, with regular updates. Obviously, the vision will not appeal to all types of players (as no game can appeal to all players) and or the service to have a decent quality, it needs to have a regular income, hence a monthly subscription, and no "this monetization model is obsolete" or "look how many went free-to-play" will change that fact. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi RadFallout100, This topic has been already answered in this thread. Reminder: please do not spam (copy/paste the same topic in different sections) as this is against the forum rules available here. This topic is going to be locked. Thank you for your understanding. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi RadFallout100 and welcome on the official Dual Universe forum. No, there won't be any single player or LAN Mode, because it's not the vision of the game. The goal is to gather the whole community in the same game universe. There are already many games enabling players to host their own server and build what they want (Minecraft, Space Engineers, Empyrion...) and Dual Universe aims to provide a different game experience. Private investors and backers have supported the game for the original vision, so no development time will be spent to deviate from this vision. This is one of the few topics that aren't opened to discussion. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi enjoyvirtuallife! Welcome on the official Dual Universe forum. What you have mentioned above is not planned for Dual Universe official release (except asteroid fields). Maybe in an expansion after the official release, but we can't guarantee anything at the moment. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, @namco: As you are new to the forum, This is the first warning. As you are supposed to have read the forum rules before posting, please respect them. If you don't know where to find them, here is the topic. Insulting other community members is not ok. In the case you would insist in this behavior, it could result in a ban. Thank you for your understanding. @gyurka66, @Aesir & @namco: Regarding "ramming ships", it's not planned to implement such mechanics, for two reasons (and not just one): 1) This is not properly scalable (at least with current hardware tech & bandwith standards). 2) This would cause game balance issues. To keep it simple: We will only implement mechanics that are scalable and that can be balanced properly. We won't implement anything that couldn't be scalable when applied to thousands of constructs and/or people concentrated in a small area. Unfortunately, Physics applied to voxels are among the things that enter this category. So no ramming ships. We won't implement anything that could be abused for griefing or unbalanced gameplay. Even if the technical obstacle mentioned above is solved, it's already well known that some people will install some engines on some big rocks and will use it as cheap mass destruction weapons with little to no solution to protect against, with no risk taken for the aggressor. We won't implement game mechanics that unbalance the "risk vs reward" concept. So no ramming ships. About the "why cpu is used, why not gpu?". Yes a lot of things are calculated by gpus nowadays, physics included... when it's related to 3D meshes. However, everything related to voxels are still (mostly) calculated with the cpu, and this includes physics applied to voxels. That's why it's necessary to have a decent cpu, with AVX support. If new generations of gpus start to be more "voxel friendly" then it might change some aspects of the problem, but for now it's just wishful thinking. Also keep in mind that servers have a cost, and the servers we need are not cheap. Some games can be hosted on servers that aren't really expensive. Unfortunately Dual Universe doesn't enter in this category. Even if adding gpus was a viable solution, the cost should remain reasonable if players don't want to see the monthly subscription rise accordingly. As this idea has been discussed several times, with the same answer, this thread is going to be locked. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi there, @[ĦΞЯΘŻ]-TMR: All the Lua functions won't be available and a lot of them will be sandboxed. So the creativity freedom on that matter will have limits, for game balance sake. @Oije: This is not the Pre-Alpha forum section. Please do not talk about anything related to game client and/or the game files for the time being. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, Unfortunately, the PGW website is correct: we won't be at the Paris Games Week this year One of the main reason is the time needed to prepare a proper demo version in "local mode". Each time we go to an event, we have to dedicate a significant part of the team to release a "Demo" version of the game. As relying on a decent internet connection isn't realistic, it implies to make a customized version of the game to make it work with LAN settings. As you can imagine, it's not a trivial matter. Making demo versions for Gamescom and PAX West was a necessity. However, it slowed down significantly for a few weeks improvements of the game itself. As we want to limit extra delays due to this kind of branching, and as presenting an old Demo version wouldn't make sense (because the game has progressed so much during the past months), we decided to avoid presenting Dual Universe at the Paris Games Week 2017 and focus on the game development. However, we plan to organize an "Open Doors" event (less time consuming for the team) before the end of the year. We will announce it in the coming weeks, well in advance, to let interested community members enough margin to manage their time table if they want to attend this event. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

The four tutorials are now released on our YouTube Channel! Tools & UI Basics (25 min) (WATCH FIRST) Atmospheric Ship Building (12 min) Interactive Elements & Linking (21 min) Rights Management, Outposts & Territories (8 min) Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi everyone, As some of you were wondering a bit a bout this unannounced video, here are a few clarifications: - This is the first tutorial video regarding Pre-Alpha gameplay. - What is in it is subject to change quite significantly in the near future (with community feedback and also several changes already planned). Also, as the Pre-Alpha test sessions are still quite limited for the time being, we prefer to see Pre-Alpha tester focusing on testing what's in game instead of recording videos to make tutorials that would become quickly obsolete (you will have all the time to do your own tutorials in Alpha, when UI will be not far from being in its definitive version). - Releasing publicly this video wasn't a mistake. It was done on purpose: we are aware that a lot of backers didn't have (yet) the opportunity to have access to the game, so it seemed to us it was necessary to give them some preview of the game mechanics currently in-game. Moreover, we hope this will help, in addition to the in-game tutorials - a lot of Pre-Alpha testers to master more quickly all the tools available. - While we considered not opening comments at first, we came to the conclusion that it would be better to allow them for a public video. Comments are now opened on this video. - This video is not under NDA so the content can be used by other Youtubers. - This video doesn't replace the DevDiary of this month. - There will be other (shorter) Pre-Alpha tutorial videos soon (between today and tomorrow) to help Pre-Alpha testers grasping other game mechanics currently in play. Best regards, Nyzaltar

Hi everyone, As this kind of topic has no legitimate reason to exist, it will be locked down. @LISPYxLUNA: Welcome on the official Dual Universe forum. However, even if you are new, you are supposed to have read the forum rules, posted here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/8-forum-rules/ What you just did was exactly breaking the rule III.e: "Naming/accusing people". Accusing publicly people on the official forum, for any reason or motive, is clearly not authorized. If you have a problem with a community member, you can contact the customer support team to explain the problem. Despite being attentive to all community concerns, in certain cases (like this one), the customer support team won't take any action. The reason: the Unofficial Discord is managed by community members and the Novaquark team has decided from the very beginning to avoid any attempt to take control and/or police media managed by the community. Another broken rule: As a general rule, it's not allowed to post any private conversation without the agreement of all involved parties. Again, if you have a problem with a community member, you can contact the customer support team to explain the issue. As a consequence, any unauthorized screenshot posted publicly regarding a private conversation has been removed from this topic. As you are new to the forum, this a first warning. Please do not insist in this kind of behavior. Thank you for your understanding. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Well, wether you like it or not, the "single shard" expression isn't born yesterday and hasn't been invented by us, as it has been used for more than a decade in the video game industry, and has been widely spread with EVE Online. Edit: According to wikipedia, a "Shard" can be used to designate a database architecture OR a game server (which can be hosted on several computers). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

Hi Dehkur and welcome on the Dual Universe official forum. Nowhere it has been said this will be hosted on a single computer. It has been said it will be hosted on a single server. Are you not confusing the words "server" and "computer"? A server can be hosted on a cluster composed of many computers. And for Dual Universe, this is definitely the case. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.

@Young Bot Zero You should now have access to the Pre-Alpha forum section. @Jespa'r Are you sure to have signed off and signed in again on the forum, not of the Community Portal? Currently this would be the first case that wouldn't work by signing off and signing in again. Best Regards, Nyzaltar.