Code24

75 backers showed up to their open house LAST NIGHT and played the pre-alpha on a multi-player test server.
 
How much more open can you get?

I just got back from the event held in Paris at Novaquark offices. I had to leave a little early, but still, this was quite an awesome evening.
 
I'd like to thank all the team members at novaquark for hosting this event, you guys rock ! 
Quick run down of events for those who didn't attend:
 
- Introduction to the dev build we would lay our hands upon a few minutes later by the man himself: JC Baillie
- Fool around with the dev build previously showcased in NQ videos with some members of the dev team to help us out when needed 
- QA session with JC again
- Little drink with the rest of the team and attendees
 
Where do I start ? 
 
First, we met very dedicated and enthusiastic people at NQ. At no point did I feel I've been fed some PR bull*hit, or that the enthusiasm or willingness from dev to talk about their game was faked.
These guys really want to push themselves to deliver the best possible experience with this project, that's for sure.
 
I viewed JC as a strong leader, with a clear vision for the game, an acute knowledge of the challenges ahead and how to overcome them. From what we've seen from the team, my guess is that this project is in pretty good hands.
 
As expected from a dev build, the control scheme and performance were not ideal, but it ran perfectly. The nice thing is that the game ran on a server, meaning that we had 5 computers running at the same time with people fooling around.
I gotta say, seeing people zooming by in a newly built ship (the first one was built within a couple of minutes), or vandalizing editing those already placed by the devs was really cool.
 
There was a lot to cover during the QA session and little time to answer all the questions, but the community managers who waited for us with the drinks were kind enough to answer all of the remaining questions. Thanks for your golden patience and, again, enthusiasm guys !
 
I'm glad I was able to attend and meet the people behind the project, it really gives another meaning to my backing on KS.
 
Anyways, thanks again guys, and all the best for the things to come !

Fully functional bathrooms. 
 
Toilets. Showers. Sinks. Pretty self explanatory.

Couldn't agree more. I think ship design is planned to be more complex than the Pre-Alpha construction video made it seem. They have released models of energy conduits that can link between various elements. If you look closely every single element has ports for these conduits somewhere on their surface. I'm thinking the way that energy is distributed through the ship and the amount of redundancy in energy systems will add a lot of depth. 

Alpha is not likely to have Construct vs Construct combat and all progress will be wiped for Beta, so this seems perfectly reasonable. Although, I think that at least one person should be shot just make sure that game mechanic works. Any volunteers?

To quote myself on a different topic:
 
 
This has been a Public Service Announcement. Thank you for your patience. 

This game is about a community in one massive megaserver. Its the main feature

That Gif shows both that NQ has some really fast voxel wizards and that the engine can make some really cool voxel creations curvature-wise. 

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https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15515-Note-From-The-Chairman

Hi Everyone,
 
I just got confirmation this morning, so I figured it was a good time to make this public...
 
DU Explorers will be doing a live Q&A session with JC Baillie this Saturday (September 17th) at 10am CST, 5pm (GMT +2) !!!
 

 
 
I had assembled a list of questions that I want to try and squeeze through, but I also want to give the opportunity to viewers to ask any questions that they might have about Dual Universe.
 
We'll have moderators in chat answering everything that can be answered based on information we already know, and moderating questions to discuss on the show itself with JC.
 
I'll continue to update this thread as more information becomes available, but for now, we're all set to go for Saturday :-) 
 
 
 
You can tune into the episode live on Saturday at the following locations:
 
http://twitch.tv/duexplorers - The main stream
 
https://www.youtube.com/c/duexplorers - Backup stream
 
https://beam.pro/duexplorers - Backup stream
 
http://www.hitbox.tv/duexplorers - Relatively unused Channel

I just want everyone to be sure about what they are signing up for before they join alpha and start to give the game a bad name when its not what they are expecting. It shouldn't be about carrying things over, to be honest we can do all of that in beta. Also as to how much of the game is even going to be ready is unknown. It may not be that we can do much in alpha compared to beta. They need to test a lot of things.

Agreed, its a nice video but i really hope they focus on putting out a video that delivers some of the promises the NQ team has made. Large ship density, multi crew and large construct. Got my fingers crossed.

Oh, I reminded one of my LM designs - it was supposed to be some kind of outpost in lava enviroment. It's very early wip, but I didn't have the time to finish it - surely it will be one of things to recreate in DU (if tools allow this).
 

 
PS. Be advised I'm not advertising LM, but the way I see it, DU might be the closest thing to that game.

Live together, work together, fight together. Die together.
 
Join the Cinderfall Syndicate today.

I second the hope for a video of multicrew, but I don't expect they will have it ready during the kickstarter. It would be great to see a player walking around a moving ship.

I think there will be plenty of emergent solo missions that can be done in the interest of the players organization. This includes mining, exploration, cargo hauling, and security patrols, which  can all conceivably be done alone, while still helping out the players organization. So that doesn't completely devalue the game as an MMO because it is still dependent on interaction with other players. 
 
One man factions do seem like a bad strategy however because there will always be strength in numbers.

After spending some time on the Dual Universe Facebook, kickstarter page and these forums I have noticed a lot of very negative feedback about the subscription price model. It actually got me down a bit seeing how many people were saying things like "sub game, I'm out." And i just wanted to say to people who may be feeling a little down about all the negative feedback(The NQ Dev and community manager as well):
 
Remember Overwatch.
 
For those that don't know Overwatch got a lot of flak when they announced that it would be $40 pc/$60 console. In fact I was able to find this post from 10 months ago simply by Googling Overwatch overpriced:
https://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/3rughx/so_overwatch_will_be_40_am_i_alone_in_thinking/
 
At the time I remember what felt like a HUGE amount of the player base saying very similar things about Overwatch that are now being said about DU. "Full price for an Arena pvp style game, I'm out." Players saying things like the devs were out of touch, that these types of pvp games are all f2p now,  it should be f2p and players can just buy heroes like every other game. The blizzard dev team knew that hero swapping was simply too important to the games concept to allow for a f2p and buy heroes style game. They knew that to have a good game they needed to sell all the heroes in a package so that teams weren't held back by a player who only owned two heroes and was getting counter picked. In short they priced the game the way it needed to be priced to make the game work. Overwatch has become extremely successful and has sold millions of copies.
 
I just wanted to say to the dev team if you make a good game people will buy it and pay a sub fee or whatever pay system. Just do what is best for the game and the vision you have for it. To the community and the dev team, if you are feeling a little down, like I was, about the amount of negative feedback just remember that other games have gone through similar problems and come out extremely successful.
 

“They told us it was impossible…They were right.”
 
 
 
The scorching sun, the blistering desert wind, the screams and shouts of the desperate people behind us. The images immediately switched to outer space. I saw the earth, a small blue sphere, seemingly insignificant against the backdrop of the celestial realm in all its glory. The image stayed there for a second shorter than I would have liked it.
 
Again, I was teleported into the chaos I just escaped. The people were being held off by armoured guards. Somewhere in my confused mind, I sensed a tinge of acquaintance with them all. The crowd seemed grimly desperate to get to where I was standing.
 
“Hisashi, we need to leave, now!” A voice screamed in my ear.
 
As the view turned, my eyes caught Kyle standing in the crowd. He was wearing the same uniform the others were wearing. Standing beside him were Nora and little Jeane. The three of them waved frantically at me, smiling and cheering me on. Somehow, I knew that they were all just trying to be brave: the sadness beneath their eyes was way too evident. But, my brother seemed happy, almost ecstatic at my departure. The door closed and darkness enveloped me.
 
I woke up with a dreadful headache, enough of it to kill every living human three times over. My entire body was stiff and ached with a pain that drove me to the edge of utter madness. The place was cold, as if I took a walk on a winter evening without so much as cloth on my back. Somewhere in my foggy mind I remember being told to stay still and wait the pain out.
While I waited for the pain to subside, I strained to get my thoughts together. The thoughts that came were ones I didn’t ever want to remember. I slept off, the tiredness overcoming the terror of pain.
 
Kyle, Nora, Jeane, Sonke, Tzu, Peretti, Karl… A pang of guilt stung me, hurting more than the pain my body had to endure. I killed them. I killed them all. The Arkship could only take so few people and it was no secret that to a large extent, the selection process was corrupted. What was to become of the people left behind? Death, famine, wars, disease and distress. Oethe Inc. had decided to change that.
 
As the Arkship was being constructed, Oethe was busy building our light at the end of the tunnel. The masses sponsored the project: any alternative hope was worth the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars were poured in and still the people on this craft with me were the children and grandchildren of those that had started the project. What was the name again?
 
I struggled to scratch my head, realising that I could move my hands. How long was I asleep? I craned my neck to the left all that was there was the white wall of the “Cocoon”. With a hiss, the transparent cover slid down, and the Cocoon tilted, patiently waiting, it seemed for me to make my first step. It was harder than I thought possible. My body was as stiff as a mountain. With great difficulty I put one foot out and adjusted my weight—I was floating within the moment. Slowly pulling myself along the cold metallic walls, I used the faint illumination provided by the electric blue phantom lights somewhere on the roof to guide myself along the dark corridor to the control centre. The pain was immense, nerve wracking at times, as my joints began to recover the fluidity of movement they once had.
 
We had been warned, hadn’t we? The project we were undertaking was one that entire nations in a massive and surprisingly concerted effort struggled to finance and complete. Even if we did complete the project, what would happen if an error on the on-board computer wiped us out in space? What was going to stop space debris from destroying this fragile structure?  Nonetheless, we pressed on. What hope did we have here on earth or with the corruption fraught selection system the United Nations hailed as fair and square? We had no hope on this planet.
 
As I entered the massive control centre, Eidolon came online.
 
“Hisashi, how are you feeling?”
 
I loosened my tongue and tried to reply. All that came out was a grunt.
 
“Is that how you thank me for keeping your sorry life intact?”
 
I shook my head, half amused, half frightened. Eidolon was the on-board AI developed by Oethe. He was more human than computer, being based in part on the high output brain scan of the Oethe founder. That made him, above all else, dangerous.
 
“I would have opened the air-lock to teach you manners, but the lot of you are still going to die anyway.”
 
My neck snapped in the direction of his holographic image.
 
“Ow! Whaa…do…say?!”  
 
“There is a catastrophic system failure in Section 53. The Instant On-board Error Analysis and Repair System (IO.EARS) has reported its inability to fix the problem.”
Section 53 was the central propulsion hub.
 
“How much…tume… we have?” I asked, sweating despite the cool breeze.
 
Eidolon moved across the room to the windows.
 
“Until we enter the gravitational field of the Arkship’s current home: one hour, fifty-four minutes and thirty-three seconds.”
 
Panic kicked in faster than light.
 
I could leave this ship and escape. There were enough emergency crafts to go round and I could at least save myself and carry the legacy of the Oethe with me. Eidolon could be deactivated or commanded, either way, I would need his help.
 
“Thinking of leaving, aren’t we, Grand Architect?”
 
I spun round and flew back in bewilderment as Eidolon closed in on me.
 
“I’m disappointed.” Even as he said those words, the command centre lit up in a brilliant but, macabre show of red lights.
Eidolon stood over me, looming and threatening even as the lights made his face seem dark, almost hellish.
 
“You are—“
 
“Shut up.” I spat and assumed my standing position.
 
He looked taken aback.
 
“I said shut up, if you didn’t hear me the first time. I’m not leaving. Go make yourself useful somewhere.”
 
Without so much as a word, the AI vanished into animated aurora that flew down the corridor and out of sight.
Running away right now would make me a worse person than all the tyrants, dictators, cowards, deceivers and war mongers that made us leave in the first place.
I slowly sat down in the Prime Seat and assessed our imminent death. The five hundred and fifty-seven people on this ship were my family and responsibility. The survival of Project Deliverance hung on my shoulders.
From what the Argos’ computer was relaying to me, there was no chance of survival.
The critics of this Project Deliverance had clearly told us:
 
“It’s impossible.”
 
They were right.
The planet loomed ahead, embracing us with arms of death. At this speed, we would all be dead before we felt any pain.
I whispered to myself, lost in fear, terror and desperation.
 
“Hold on, Kyle. I’m coming.” 
 
Part Two will be released soon. Stay tuned for more. 
Find out more about the Aether here.

It makes sense though, we run in to the same issue on Earth. It gets too hot 

That's some very very very tricky things to ask for in a strech-goal. 


Having pig pens for example, could be a way to have an area were your food re-stocks itself.


Having the ability to deploy fauna, will cruch the server in the long-run. The main goal is to have as little NPCs as possible and/or having it in check as a population.

Giving the ability to players to deploy 100,000,000 pigs, will cruch then server in half, due to many a technical reason for it to happen.


What I want, is having biolabs (greenhouses) that produce food, like a factory, where players can actually work as farmers and producers of food, that they can store in fridgees of near absolute zero temperatures and then carry to the market to sell, or even better, have the food creating process linked to a processing ability to make high-ration bars that people can store in their backpacks for a trip or deep-space mission or explortaion.


Just let animals be a thing that spawns on certain biomes, which can respawn itself in time, as long as a certain amount of them exist on a planet. You hunted down all the chickens? Bad luck, better trap and bring chickens there to repopulate the planet, or say good bye to fauna on that world of that kind.

RED HAT SYSTEMS
This topic, sponsored by Red Hat Systems, aims to inform players about the LUA scripting side of the game and clarify the facts.
 
KNOWN ELEMENTS
Propulsion Engines, Fuel Tanks, Cockpit, Navigation Instruments, Doors, Weapons, Batteries, Containers, Accelerometers, Radars, Targeters, Drone Bay, Elevator, Inclinometer (Gyroscope), and last but not least…
 
CONTROLS UNITS / DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING UNITS
Control Units – A control unit is the computer hardware, whereas the DPU (Distributed Processing Unit) is the computer's software. In fact, every element in the game will have a built-in DPU. The difference between control units and other elements is that the control units exist specifically to run player-customized DPU's, whilst the DPU's embedded in other elements are not customizable.
 
DPU's will be distributed (sold, copied, transferred, etc) in black boxes. Think of the black box as a USB Memory Stick. Only a single black box can be inserted into a control unit at any one time, however a construct (ship, car, boat, factory, etc) can have many control units and therefore many black boxes. The black box is therefore simply a transport mechanism for the DPU. More on black boxes later.
 
Each DPU will be capable of emitting events (standard pre-defined events written by the devs and also player-defined events written in LUA) and exposing executable functions (again, predefined + custom). The DPU will also have a collection of event handlers (again, predefined + custom: you get the idea). An event handler simply listens out for events, and then executes a function if a player-defined expression evaluates as true.
 
Each DPU has multiple slots where other elements can be plugged into (Think of USB Ports).
 
KNOWN EVENTS (EXAMPLES)
self.radar1.enemyAt(x,y,z)
 
KNOWN FUNCTIONS (EXAMPLES)
self.inclinometer2.getRoll()
self.Inclinometer4.getPitch()
self.engine1.setPower(100)
self.weapon7.fire()
 
In the example events and functions above, “self” is simply a Lua keyword that implies the code is referring to its own scope. “radar1”, “weapon7”, etc are the names of the slot that is emitting the event or is being targeted to execute a function. “getRoll()” is an example of a function being invoked (safe to assume it will return a numeric value with roll angle).
 
SYSTEM DPU
The system DPU is rather special. It handles user input (emit event when a key is pressed) and also controls the flow of procedural code (as opposed to event driven) via the use of timers. I.E you could call system.setTimer(0.1) and provide a function that will be invoked every 100 milliseconds. Another awesome feature of the system API – Customizable GUI! That's right, via calls to system you can customize the games GUI.
 
BLACK BOX/COMPONENT DPU
A Component DPU is an element that you, as a programmer, will be selling to other players. It will abstract the functionality of your custom DPU into what can be seen as a compiled library. The end user will be able to consume your functions and events without seeing the underlying code. If the end-user is another programmer then they can use your Component DPU as a module to write their own Component DPU which requires your Component DPU in order to work. If the end-user is not a developer they can either drag and drop the required functionality via a simple UI, or they can make use of an auto-configure system (Think Plug and Play).
 
SUMMARY
What the devs have done here is give us access to the very tools they themselves use to build the game. When you use a Propulsion Engine, its functionality was written by the devs in the same way a player might customize a DPU. The Propulsion Engine has its own pre-defined fully functional DPU inside it. By introducing the concept of Control Units we as players can fully mod the game, from within the game. If we don't like the way the Propulsion Engine handles, that's fine, we can just overide the behaviour with our own code. The same for almost every element in the game. The devs has basicly created an in-game IoT (Internet-of-Things). This system literally redefines Emergent Gameplay, in fact it laughs in the face of Emergent Gameplay. Nothing else comes close.
 
Intrigued? Love to code, or hungry to learn? Join the most advanced organization in Dual Universe. Red Hat Systems needs you!

I see no reason to designate different hull types, because it would only serve to reduce variety in ship design, rather than letting the best designs rise to the top of the markets. 
 
Though I could definitely see blueprints for frames or modular ship parts becoming popular on the markets, because they could speed up the construction process while still allowing for personal customization. 

I see no reason to designate different hull types, because it would only serve to reduce variety in ship design, rather than letting the best designs rise to the top of the markets. 
 
Though I could definitely see blueprints for frames or modular ship parts becoming popular on the markets, because they could speed up the construction process while still allowing for personal customization. 

We have another ship design for you today: the Valgard Class. It is a compact sub-FTL fighter meant for dog fighting situations. Primarily designed for taking out other small craft and targeting turrets on larger vessels.