MathDrou

Hello, Noveans!
 
If you’ve supported Dual Universe during our Crowdfunding roots, we want to give you clarity on the delivery of your in-game rewards.
 
You will receive the following in-game rewards at the launch of Dual Universe on September 27th:
All of your DAC balance Titles In-Game Sanctuary Territory Unit The Arkship Cryogenic Tube A Skin for the Resurrection Node Furniture Sets Fireworks We will also include your name in the game’s credits as a Crowdfunding backer. Should you wish to opt-out of this reward, please contact us at privacy@novaquark.com as soon as possible.*
*Important information about names:
Your real name will appear in the credits if your real first name and name have been provided with a space between. 
If no real name has been provided and a shipping name has been, then the shipping name will appear in the credits.
If no shipping name has been provided either, your display name will appear in the credits.
 
The following in-game rewards will be delivered in updates AFTER the game’s launch: 
The Alpha Team, Arkship Passenger, and Earth Legacy Outfits. In-Game Pets Emotes  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
We’re also making progress on the delivery of your physical Kickstarter rewards. We’ll update you with more information on that soon!
 
Dual Universe exists today thanks to our backers, including all of you who supported us in our Crowdfunding roots. With your help, we are launching in a month. We’re thrilled with the support you’ve shown us by wishlisting the game on Steam, and the energy you’ve built around the game, with also welcoming new Noveans into our community. 
 
If you’ve not yet visited our Steam page, here it is! By wishlisting us there, you’ll help Dual Universe gain visibility and bring us to new gamers across the globe.
 
Let us know your thoughts on the Kickstarter rewards in this thread.
 
Thank you for your support, Noveans!

"Hello Noveans, this is NQ-Ligo.

Whether you’re piloting with Lua, hauling cargo on a scripted VTOL platform, controlling a factory with screens and programming boards, or simply enjoying an in-game arcade machine, Lua can impact almost every aspect of your experience in Dual Universe.

After many years of accumulating Lua updates and additions, it’s time to revamp the Lua API of Dual Universe entirely. Our objective is to enhance and future-proof the tools available to those who create the fantastic scripts enjoyed by everyone in-game.

WHY REVAMP LUA API?

We must rework the Lua API to prepare it for future extensions by organizing it better, making it easier to use, and enhancing the tools available to our Lua creators. From a global point of view, the vision we have for Lua has evolved, and though we’re preparing a detailed changelog on our forum, here are some highlights:
Restructuring of the entire Lua API. Preparing for an object-oriented approach to be ready for future evolutions. Reduce JSON use in the API to favor the use of real Lua tables. Rely much more on event-driven code to reduce player loops and server requests. Reduce the complexity of the scripts, thereby reducing their size. Add some nice-to-have features. Garner more interest in certain elements like the telemeter.  
WHAT’S CHANGING WITH THIS LUA API REVAMP?

With the many changes coming to the API, we wanted to give you some of the highlights, while as we said above we’ll be giving you the specifics in another communication. For now, I want to discuss some of the most significant changes with you all in this devblog:

       NEW NAMING CONVENTION

We needed to apply a clean naming convention with this revamp to make Lua easier to use. This will become even more necessary as we expand the Lua API in the future.
As a result, multiple functions have been renamed, but most importantly, events will receive a name change. Any event will have a prefix ‘on’ from now on, for example:
unit.onStart() unit.onStop() system.onUpdate() system.onFlush() unit.onTimer([string] tag)  
 
       TWO NEW PERMANENT SLOTS ADDED

As part of the API restructuring, we have decided to add two new permanent slots:
`player` - This will represent the player using the script. Usually referred to as the "Master Player" in the current Control Unit or System API. `construct` - This will represent the construct on which the controller running the script is placed. Most of the construct-related functions were in the Core Unit API.  
Each of these slots will have the associated functions and events and will receive some additions. Let's take the example of `construct`. You will find functions and events coming from the Core Unit API and some additions. To give you an idea, here is just a snippet of the `construct` API:
[string] getName() : Returns the name of the construct. [int] getId() : Returns the construct unique ID. NEW [table] getOwner() : Returns the owner entity of the construct. NEW [table] getCreator() : Returns the creator entity of the construct. NEW [0 or 1] isWarping() : Checks if the construct is currently warping. NEW [int] getWarpState() : Returns the current warp state (Idle = 1, Engage = 2, Align = 3 …). NEW [0 or 1] isInPvPZone() : Checks if the construct is in the PvP zone. NEW [float] getDistanceToSafeZone() : Returns the distance between the construct and the nearest safe zone. [string] getPvPTimer() : Returns the current construct PvP timer state. [float] getMass() : Returns the mass of the construct. [float] getInertialMass() : Returns the inertial mass of the construct, calculated as 1/3 of the trace of the inertial tensor. NEW [matrix] getInertialTensor() : Returns the inertial tensor of the construct. NEW [vec3] getCenterOfMass() : Returns the position of the center of mass of the construct, in local construct coordinates. NEW [vec3] getWorldCenterOfMass() : Returns the position of the center of mass of the construct, in world coordinates. [float] getCrossSection() : Returns the construct's cross sectional surface in the current direction of movement. [vec3] getSize() : Returns the size of the building zone of the construct. NEW [vec3] getBoundingBoxSize() : Returns the size of the bounding box of the construct. NEW [vec3] getBoundingBoxCenter() : Returns the position of the center of the bounding box of the construct in local construct coordinates. [float] getMaxSpeed() : Returns the max speed along the current moving direction. [float] getMaxAngularSpeed() : Returns the max angular speed. [table] getMaxSpeedPerAxis() : Returns the max speed per axis. [table] getMaxThrustAlongAxis( [string] taglist, [vec3] CRefAxis) : Returns the construct max kinematics parameters in both atmo and space range, in newtons. NEW [float] getCurrentBrake() : Returns the current braking force generated by construct brakes. NEW [float] getMaxBrake() : Returns the maximum braking force that can currently be generated by the construct brakes.  
The above are just a few examples. You can find more functions in the CODEX.
 
       MORE ITEM API FOR CONTAINERS AND INDUSTRY

With the addition of the mining unit API, we also added item API to the game.
We have since had a great interest in this type of function from our community, allowing players to get more detailed information from item IDs.
As a result, we have decided to integrate it into multiple APIs for items or containers. For example:
NEW [int] element.getItemId() : Returns the element item ID. NEW [int] weapon.getAmmo() : Returns the item ID of the currently equipped ammo. NEW [int] engine.getFuelId() : Returns the item ID of the fuel currently used by the engine. NEW [event] industry.onStarted( [int] id, [float] quantity) : Emitted when the Industry Unit has started a new production process. NEW [event] industry.onCompleted( [int] id, [float] quantity) : Emitted when the Industry Unit has completed a run. NEW [int] core.getElementItemIdById(uid): Returns the item ID of the Element, identified by its local UID. NEW [table] container.getContent() (old getItemsList): Returns a table describing the contents of the container, as a pair itemId and quantity per slot.  
       CHANGING CONTAINER API

Reading the contents of a container is one of our most widely used features, but there has always been a problem. Its current implementation allows players to make ten requests as quickly as they would like, followed by a wait time of five minutes. This has caused spikes in server requests on our end and has been impractical for players.
 
We will change this behavior to allow you to make a content request with a fixed minimum delay of 30 seconds between two requests made with the `updateContent()` method.
 
As before, receiving content from the server triggers the `onContentUpdate()` event allowing you to get the contents with the `getContent()` function. We have also made the updateContent function return the time left before the next request to give our players better tracking of the process.

       CLICK WITH LUA

We’re adding a simple but often requested function; a mouse click for Lua!

Left-click, named ‘leftMouse’, has been added as a Lua action, triggering the onActionStart, onActionStop and onActionLoop events.
For design and security reasons, Lua will only detect left mouse clicks when not in use by the game. So if you click on a widget or in your inventory UI, Lua won't detect it.

We’re excited to see what our talented coders in-game will make of this tool!
 
       MAKE THE LIGHTS FLASH
 

 
In the past, we added the possibility of making light-elements glow with color components set to higher than 255. However, this caused graphical issues, and we had to remove the feature.

We are reintroducing this feature with Mercury but limiting it to a maximum factor of 5. And at the same time, we are changing the color format from 0-255 to 0-1 and 0-5 for HDR colors for consistency.

We will convert the color property of all existing light elements deployed in the game.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many other changes and additions will be included with this revamp. There are so many that it would not be practical to cover them all in a general devblog, but we hope this small selection will inspire your creative spirit!
 
WILL ALL MY SCRIPTS BE BROKEN?

Although we consider this revamp necessary, we still want to give you time to transition and adapt your systems and allow your scripts’ users to continue using them during this transition.
To simplify the transition, we will deprecate all of the current API from Mercury, which means that the current functions and events will remain functional for a time but will not be referenced in the CODEX anymore, nor visible on the UI for events.
You will then receive a warning when using a deprecated function or event for the first time.
Please note: This depreciation will be time-limited. The goal is to remove all of the old API by the game’s launch. Along with other factors, we will need to release a new-API version of the default flight configuration before removing the depreciation. We will continue to assess whether removing the old API before launch is possible, and we’ll keep you apprised.

HOW CAN I CHECK THE UPCOMING API CHANGES?

Given the extent of the changes, we have chosen not to list them all in this devblog. The list of changes is very long, so our goal is to try and post a detailed forum thread with all changes and we have published a mock API on the official Github to allow you to prepare yourself as well as possible.

CONCLUSION

We hope you are excited, as players and creators, by the few changes mentioned here, especially about the new opportunities for all to enjoy that our passionate Lua community will create in Dual Universe. Our goal with the revamp is to push the door to future possibilities, evolutions, and additions for Lua. 

We'll be looking to go even further in the future and provide you with more tools to create content for other players.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and opinions, so please feel free to come and share your thoughts and ideas on this forum thread! We look forward to seeing you there.

Yours truly,
NQ Ligo"
 

Hi Hirnsausen,
 
Thank you for your feedback. However, it won’t be possible to go with your suggestion for the following reasons: 
 
What you suggest can be abused in many ways. Just an example among many others: imagine that non-armed ships are used to transport stolen assets (either from wrecks destroyed in PvP or anything stolen due to a betrayal from an infiltrated spy in an organization). We would remove the ability for justified retaliation, and that’s absolutely not our intention. Players should face the consequences of their actions, for the best and for the worst. It’s part of the Sandbox concept (even if we had to limit it in a reasonable way to give some room for both types of players, PvP and non-PvP).
  PvP must keep some unique incentives. Harvesting the rarest materials is one of those incentives. The concept of “risk versus rewards” has been part of Dual Universe, from the very beginning. Please keep in mind that even the current in-game situation is way softer than the initial vision, where safe zones were only small areas on some planets. Today, there are whole planets as safe zones, giving all the necessary space for those who do not want to be involved in PvP. You don’t need the rarest materials for creativity, and even in the rare cases you need some, you can always rely on the markets for resources that would be normally available in PvP areas. Some more adventurous players ready to risk their ships in PvP will find an interesting trade in the situation.
  You can’t speak of non-consensual PvP in Dual Universe. Non-consensual PvP is when there is no way for a player to avoid being caught in PvP in a game. In Dual Universe, you CAN avoid being caught in PvP by staying in the safe zones and have access to pretty much any gameplay available in-game (except PvP of course). If a player ventures outside of a safe zone, it’s his choice and it means he/she has implicitly accepted the risks tied to this choice.
  As mentioned before, unsafe space has always been part of Dual Universe vision. So you can’t talk about lobbying when it is about something that was there from the very beginning. If there is some lobbying, it’s when some players put the pressure to change something that was already well established at the beginning.
While some ideas may be seen as good on paper, it will generate more problems than it will solve, not to mention that it would radically change Dual Universe’s original vision. The game is already more than reasonably friendly toward those who don’t want to participate in PvP and there is no plan to give access to the whole space in-game without any PvP risk. That was never the deal and will never be. 
 
We (as a team) do, however, acknowledge that the current situation in PvP is unbalanced and that some players may resort to some loopholes or gray areas to win a battle. The Novaquark team goal is to fix those loopholes and find the right balance in the long term. Balancing PvP is a delicate endeavor and can take some time. This is why we are still in Beta and that Beta may still last quite a while.
 
On another topic, please refrain to compare non-consensual PvP to awful real life things like rape and such. Try to picture yourself explaining to someone who has been raped that what he/she has experienced is the same thing as being frustrated by a situation in a video game. You will (hopefully) see how unreasonable the comparison is. If you’re not convinced, do try to discuss with some rape victims. It won’t be a surprise if none will agree with you.
 
Last but not the least: some elementary rules are in effect on the forum.
 
- Wishing harm to other players in real life for ANY reason is NOT ok. 
For that reason, @Hirnsausen you get a warning point.
- Direct insults and personal attacks toward a player is not okay either. 
For that reason, @Lethys you get a warning point as well.
 
We hope you will continue to participate on the forum in a more civilized manner in the future.
In the meantime, this topic will be closed to avoid further aggressive/provocative replies.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

 

THE FUTURE OF DU
We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback following the release of our devblog series on the future of DU. We’re  thankful to our community for the great feedback and encouragement. We’ve collected what seem to be the most burning questions following the publication of the blogs and wanted to do a follow-up to address them the best we can. Not all questions have an answer at this point, and we’ll try to fill in the gaps as we’re able in future communications. 
 
Are you going to launch the game in 2021? 
Realistically speaking, we have too much to do with the time that’s left  this year to get to a state where we feel the game is ready for launch. Our current plan is “at some point in 2022”, and we’re targeting mid-year. That projection is tentative, depending largely on our progress and  the feedback we get from our community, so please don’t hold this as a commitment. It could be sooner, it could be a bit later. The state of the game will dictate the date.
 
Why is the game not working on Shadow (cloud gaming platform) and do you plan to support it?
We believe cloud gaming platforms are a great way to enjoy DU if you want to play the game but don’t meet the proper PC specs or want to benefit from the latest hardware improvements without investing in upgrades for your gaming rig; however, we need to clarify that we are not yet officially supporting cloud gaming platforms, including Shadow. Our releases are not tested on these platforms or Windows emulations on Mac and Linux, and we can’t guarantee compatibility at this point. The game is still in beta, and we are focusing our efforts on native Windows PC support.
 
We plan to officially support these platforms at some point, and would like to ensure that when we do we are able to offer ongoing compatibility with adequate testing and collaboration with the platform holders to make a long-term commitment. 
 
We recently started working with a cloud gaming platform in an official manner, and we are hopeful to announce our official support of that platform soon. In the meantime, compatibility with cloud gaming platforms can’t be guaranteed. We log bugs and look at potential quick wins, but we can’t commit to a timeframe for fixing them. Please also note that there is a waiting list of one year to have access to one of the machines of Shadow, which makes debugging all the more difficult.
 
Will there be an updated roadmap?
At the moment, there is no plan to release an official roadmap with dates. We tried to explain why in the three devblogs. We’re changing many things in the way we develop DU, and it’s hard right now to have a clear idea of our future velocity. We don’t want to give you dates that we might not hold. We think it’s more important to have the freedom to adapt to your feedback rather than trying to hit the dates on a public roadmap. We hope you will see this as a sign that things are changing for the better and that we’re being more realistic in our approach.
 
Why don’t we have more frequent releases?
Dual Universe is an extremely complex game to develop. Many of the systems we have already in place are interdependent, and changing or adding a feature has ripple effects on other features and systems both in terms of code and in terms of feature design. For example, RDMS has to be carefully considered in many things we do, as does  the role of organizations in the introduction of new features, etc. Most of the tech we use is custom and not off-the-shelf. It’s one of the secret sauces of the game, and it also makes features much more difficult to work on because we develop the tech AND the features at the same time.
 
Now, with the introduction of the PTS, we hope to make more frequent releases, including releases of prototypes, such as the Lua technology for screen units. How frequently will depend on what goes in these releases and how much work needs to be done after we receive feedback from the PTS. We estimate that you can expect three to four additional major releases in 2021, and smaller releases in-between, but that’s only a ballpark estimate for now.
 
What’s going on with long-standing beta bugs? Are you going to fix them?
Yes we will fix them as quickly as possible although we aren’t able to pinpoint an exact date. Some bugs are easier to squash than others, and some even require a rework of an entire complete backend system to resolve. These processes need to be scheduled accordingly, also taking into account that we want to avoid reworking the same thing multiple times if we suspect that the development of an upcoming feature will force us to rework the same system again. The more critical the bug, the higher the priority. When we’re focused on fixing bugs,  that means we’re not working on the plan we presented to you, so it’s a balancing act. We wish we could give you a list of bugs and a timeframe for each one, but that would be highly unrealistic. These bugs are not being forgotten, that’s the best we can tell you right now.
 
Can we expect a more frequent communication from Novaquark?
We’d love to, just understand that the frequency of our communications really depends on the cadence of the game releases. The way it works is that as soon as the content of a new release is established (at least a content draft), we sit down and make a plan for how and when we’re going to talk about these features/this content. Often we have to wait until a feature is stable enough in terms of game design and/or coding to be able to talk about it or show it, as a feature can evolve a lot along the development process and the unfolding of our sprints. We simply want to ensure that the information we give you isn't misleading, as early communication means the end result may differ significantly once development is complete and the feature is released.
So between releases, there is indeed a communication gap. 
 
There are different general topics we could discuss between releases, but they wouldn’t really bring anything concrete to the table and that communication could be seen as shallow and vague. It’s actually an interesting topic we’d like to explore with you: what is it exactly that you expect in terms of communication? How can we balance having meaningful content to present with what seems to be the need of our players to see ongoing communication? Based on reactions we’ve seen in the past, we  believe that communicating simply for the sake of it when we have nothing really new to talk about is never well-received.
 
What about PvE? Are you planning to add PvE features to make the game more varied?
Our current focus is on enabling emergent content between players. PvE is not one of our priorities at the moment. This doesn’t mean that it won’t ever come to the game, but it is not going to be added before the official release of the game. That said, one could potentially consider the challenges that we’re currently working on as some form of PvE, though not in the sense that you’ll be shooting NPCs or wildlife.
 
Will we see a return of NQ employee Interviews and AMAs?
We would love to do things like livestreams and AMAs again when the time is right. We feel like these formats are better suited when there is a clearly defined topic to focus the discussion, such as a major release for instance. It is duly noted that these interactions with the community are appreciated, and we will include them whenever possible.
 
You mentioned the changes in the industry gameplay, but it wasn’t clear if schematics will stay or go?
The honest answer is that we don’t know yet. When we introduced schematics, it was a major disturbance in the forc… in the economy of the game.  We don’t want to rush into more changes after that, especially given that players invested a lot of hard-earned quanta in buying them. Removing schematics is ONE of the options we’re looking at, as well as changing their prices or adding more recipes. Reverting to the way it was before the introduction of schematics is also on the table. We know we want to do something with the current state of the industry to add back some of the fun that was taken away with 0.23, but how exactly we’ll do it is yet to be decided.  
 
Is there going to be a wipe?
We see that the debate on the topic has been pretty hot in the community for a while, and it’s about the same at Novaquark. We’re uncertain if the changes we are planning to introduce will require a wipe or not, and we’ve started (intense) internal discussions on the topic. Our priority is to try to preserve the time and effort that our players have put in the game since the beta started. Once we’ve got a better idea of how much the changes we discussed in the third  “Future of DU” devblog will impact the game’s economy, we’ll make a decision. If there is a wipe (and it’s a big IF), it may be a partial one only affecting certain aspects of the universe. Our  priority will be to mitigate the impact for long-time players.

Join us in our feedback thread here!
 

PART TWO: UNDER THE HOOD 

In our previous blog, we spoke about improvements we’re making to our processes in order to get more efficient use of our resources and deliver the best game possible. Today, we’re taking a look at operation costs and how we’re working to make improvements in that area, too. 

THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS 
The server and database architecture behind Dual Universe is new and quite complex. As we had about the game itself,  we had made assumptions about how much running a game like DU was going to cost in various areas. What we found was that our estimations proved to be far too conservative. We had to confront the actual cost of scaling up operating costs for a larger, global player base. And that’s okay. We have a plan. 
 
After reevaluation, we determined that some of our design decisions have had a major impact on our operational costs (i.e. what it costs to run the servers). In particular, databases are a major part of these costs. For example, because the world can be entirely edited and every edit needs to be stored in a database then communicated between the server and the clients, it eats a lot of our I/O allocations, which in turn increases our database costs. 
 
THE IMPACT ON UPDATES
The consequence is that, in the upcoming months, we will be rolling out significant backend improvements in order to optimize these operational costs. We made the conscious decision to keep pricing low in order to make the game more accessible for people who want to play, but that means that we need to keep operational costs in check. Developing these optimizations is time-consuming, but it is fundamental if we want to have a viable game as the playerbase continues to grow. 
 
It’s important to make players aware of this because some of our upcoming releases may not seem like much to you. While they won’t appear to include much in the way of new features, they will be updates to deploy these fundamental under-the-hood changes. For instance, the upcoming 0.25 release will be primarily focused on introducing a “game-changing” incremental storage mechanism for edits to the game world that will have a major positive impact on our database costs. The good news is that we think that some of these modifications will improve performance for the players.
 
Speaking of performance: that’s another area where we’ve been doing a lot of work, using the in-game telemetry to optimize areas where performance was dropping. There are several projects in the works to address performance. Although these may not seem particularly sexy when you read about them in the patch notes, the difference in how much better the game runs and feels while you’re playing should convince you it was worth the time and effort we spent on them. 
 
One example is the in-game screens. They ended up being quite popular among players, but the use of HTML for screen customization has proven to be quite a performance bottleneck in areas where there are a lot of screens. We recently started testing a new system using simple Lua draw commands instead of HTML to achieve the goal of screen customization. This change should seriously alleviate performance issues in areas with a lot of screens while providing the added benefit of unifying customization languages in a more user-friendly way.
 
There are other optimizations like this in our pipeline, and they will be presented in due time. 

MORE IN STORE
Tomorrow, in the third and final part of this series, we’ll talk about DU gameplay, and the challenges of maintaining a delicate balance between staying true to the original vision while taking player feedback into consideration. 
 
Discuss today's blog here!

Hello Noveans,

Over the past months, we have been working with the Support and Community teams to better identify the wants and needs of our players. These findings have sparked the initiative to implement a Live Support system to address some of the most common issues during peak times as well as address urgent tickets outside of office-hours. In addition, we’re adding some self-help tools that will enable you to resolve some of the most common issues without having to reach out to Support.

The changes described below will be included in the next update.
 
NEW TOOLS
We are making it easier for players to help themselves in times of need. This is in the form of the following three features, one of which many of you will already be familiar with.
 
Global Chats
To better organize and filter the chat within the game, we are implementing the following channels:
General - Joined by default and can not be left. Help - Joined by default and can be left. Trade - Can be joined and left.  You can interact with these channels by using the following commands in the text window:
/join - To join a channel, such as Trade, i.e. “/join Trade”. /help - Lists all available commands. To leave a channel, right-click on the channel tab. We know that global channels have been in high demand from our community, and we’re thankful for that feedback and the opportunity to see them implemented. Please continue to provide feedback about our chat system on our forums.
 
Fetch
If you have a dynamic construct that’s become stuck, you can right mouse button-click on the construct from your map view and click to Fetch. This will teleport the construct towards you, allowing you to reach and interact with it normally.

We had hoped to be able to make this redundant; however we have seen that there is still a need for it. We are now intending to leave this feature available for the entire duration of beta, initially with these parameters:  
Players can only fetch once per 24 hours. Maximum range has been limited to 4,000 meters. Players must be standing on a planet/moon’s surface.  
Unstuck
If you find yourself trapped and unable to resume your current play, you can now use /unstuck in chat to free yourself in a random direction. This feature has the following limitations:
You can use this command once per five minutes. This teleports you up to 100 meters in a random direction. Teleports can not move players into the building zone of any construct.
  Please note that the Fetch and Unstuck features are intended to be used only to free stuck constructs and avatars. Any usage outside of this scope may be considered an exploit and actioned accordingly. The team will be continually monitoring the behaviour and results of these features, tweaking when and where needed to ensure that players are not abusing these systems designed to help players in need.
 
LIVE SUPPORT
It is important to emphasize that the purpose of Live Support is not to cover all game knowledge questions and assistance scenarios, at least not in this first incarnation. We’ve noticed that many of our community members enjoy helping and teaching other players. We strongly encourage everyone to join our forums where players and organizations can offer further guidance and services to each other.

That being said, our Support staff will be monitoring the in-game Help channel for any issues that are eligible for assistance, to offer advice regarding knowledge resources, or to recommend when players should file a Support ticket. 

Here is a sample of the assistance we may offer: 
Assistance with the tutorial. Freeing stuck characters (if /unstuck does not work). Raising constructs from below the surface (if Fetch did not work). Fetching ships stuck in the sky above a planet (if Fetch did not work). Refreshing glitched elements.  
Should you encounter one of these issues, give us a shout out with a description of your issue via @GM in the Help channel. Please allow at least 10 minutes for a response, after which you may choose to file a Support ticket instead. With the implementation of Live Support, we are expecting a significant improvement to response time for urgent inquiries.

We are very interested in hearing your feedback and your thoughts about these changes. Please join the discussion here.

Hello Noveans!

Currently, screen unit content is an HTML page. We synchronize screen unit content between players by sending the whole HTML; however, screen unit HTML content can be pretty big and uses a lot of bandwidth and frame time to render when updated every frame by a programming board or control unit. This has a significant impact on client performance for players, especially when a lot of screen units are in the same area. 
Performance improvement is of paramount importance to us and an ongoing request we get from players. Consequently, it is something we will continually work to achieve. 
 
To address this, we are bringing a possible solution to PTS so that players can try it out. This prototype involves using a new API to draw screen units with a dedicated Lua script. This will use simple drawing commands like
drawRectangle(a,b,c,d) drawText(“Hello DU”) Simple actions like setTextContent will not be affected. 

In addition to performance improvements, this new tech also allows for some unprecedented possibilities to create even better screen displays than before. Check out this video to get a taste of what it can do! 
 

We realize that this change will mean that players won’t be able to use SVGs on screens anymore, and that SVGs are easier and more flexible than uploading static images. It’s important to note that the new Lua system will still allow you to draw complex images. You don't really need any Lua knowledge, and it’s easier than the DPU system.

Additionally, we added an option to deactivate HTML screen units for players who experience the worse framerate. We expect this to bring significant performance improvements in markets and parking areas.
Once the change is fine-tuned, thanks to your feedback after trying it on the PTS, we will announce a transition period to allow players time to switch over to the new API before we disable support for HTML-based screen units. We will continue to support both techs during this transition period.

We strongly encourage everyone to check out this change when it’s available on PTS and share your constructive feedback with us on the forum. 
 

Hello Noveans, 
 
A big update is available today. DU is now in 0.24.3 version and it's packed with many improvements and fixes (and more are on the way for future updates as well): 
 
New Features
New launcher One of the first things you’ll notice when you log in is that we’ve begun to revamp the launcher for now, changes are mostly to improve information about the game and for cosmetic purposes. Over the course of future updates, we intend to improve how it operates to bring more fluidity and speed. This will take a while, but we hope you’ll like what you’re seeing so far. 
Not a feature per se, but we greatly improved lots of visual assets in the game.  New kinds of plants and trees to improve diversity New kinds of rocks New ground textures Underwater look and visibility improvements  New voxel tools and improvements:  Smooth erosion (by default: Area smooth tool + Alt key) Cone shape (by default: E key. This is an addition to the existing shape cycle) Negative paste function (by default: Alt key with a copied/cut shape) Remove with Line tool function ((by default: Alt key when using the Line tool) Organizations Wallet Organizations now have a proper wallet and can own quanta. The Edit Wallet right enables players to manage the wallet of an organization. Wallets can be managed in a dedicated interface. Here they can : Send money to any other player or organization. Consult their wallet log that lists all the operations that happened to their wallet. Package function You can now select several items in a container and create a package by selecting 'Create package' with a right-click. You can assign a name to that package and all selected items will now be bundled as a new single item. You can revert the operation by right-clicking on the package item and using the 'Unpack package' option. After that, the package will be opened and suppressed and the items will go back into their original container, although they will not be in the exact same spots where they were previously. This will be a component in the upcoming Mission system feature that will be released in a future 0.24 update, but it may be useful now to help to organize a container (whether you have OCD or not).
Challenges Introduction of a prototype of "challenges" which are repeatable activities with a potential reward (only available in English for now). The first challenge, “Delivery Challenge”, is available and can be accessed using the new “Challenges” tab on the VR Surrogate Station menu. Metal canopies We’ve introduced a new type of metal canopy for more customization in shipbuilding. These are:  Canopy Metal corner S Canopy Metal corner M Canopy Metal corner L Canopy Metal flat S Canopy Metal flat M Canopy Metal flat L Canopy Metal tilted S Canopy Metal tilted M Canopy Metal tilted L Canopy Metal triangle S Canopy Metal triangle M Canopy Metal triangle L Implemented short in-game survey Your opinion matters. From time to time, you’ll have an opportunity to fill out a short in-game survey via a dedicated interface so you can simply and directly provide a rating to the game and what interests you. Thanks in advance for your feedback so we can improve Dual Universe!
 

Improvements
Windows certificate is now up-to-date and prevents the display of an ominous warning message when installing the game. Tutorials can now be accessed via VR Surrogate Station Menu. Performance optimizations with screen units. [PvP] Optimized gunner seat performance when displaying lots of targets. New implementation of in-world marks (Toggled with V and configured with Alt+V) that fixes some drawbacks and improves performance. [Lighting revamp] The game should be brighter and less gray. It should be prettier at night and more playable as well. Added a persistent notification and bookmark for player deaths. [GUI] Removal of fixed heights from dynamic content windows. [GUI] Various icon improvements. [GUI] Various interface polishes. [Lua] Added a confirmation dialog when closing the Lua Editor with unsaved changes. All number fields now have thousands of separators: 1000000000 (1 000 000 000). [Market] Added a median filter to ignore extremely high or low prices for instant orders. [Market] Search text now instantly updates the item type filter list. [Market] Added market selection dropdowns in market and player orders. [Market] Added toggle button to display more buy/sell orders. [Market] Market names now have standard formatting across all planets. [Market] Alioth Markets on Districts 6 and 7 now have more landing pads to reduce clutter. Ships have been redistributed along with the new landing pads.   Other Markets markets on Alioth and Sanctuary will receive more landing pads in the future. Gunner seat interface polish. [Chat] Now allows a player to ignore other players in the chat, hiding their messages and making them unable to communicate with them. [GUI] Ensure a minimum scrollbar cursor height for market & inventory scrollbar.  

Gameplay Balancing/Changes
[Character] Players can now use the X key by default to toggle jetpack on and off in deep space and in artificial gravity (while away from a planet/moon). [RDMS] Added a right to allow jetpack use on a construct with artificial gravity. [Industry] All advanced and above parts now correctly require the appropriately advanced industry to produce - basic industry can no longer produce advanced pipes or exotic optics. Destroying a core unit in a crash now kills all passengers. Players in cockpits are protected from nearby explosions.  

Crash Fixes
Fixed a crash when closing Barter in certain scenarios. Fixed a crash during loading. Fixed a crash when receiving crafting notification with too large Nitron quantity  

Bug Fixes
Smoothed omni light shadows, fixing the omni shadows bug where they appear as a noise. Fixed shadows banding at shallow angles. The helper (H) will not show a random material anymore when used on marks. Fixed some internal server errors when doing removal operations while building. [GUI] Fixed checkbox on report abuse button prompt. [Antibury] Character antibury (Return to the surface) is now active in Build mode. Fixed a bug where containers connected to hubs did not check for data items that led to item loss when removed. Fixed an exploit about fuel related to construct compactification. [Map] Map selection no longer requires a planet to be selected. Fixed a bug where entering a tutorial would show the wrong planet or would spawn the player at an incorrect location.  [Market] Fixed a bug where scroll position returned to the top when backing out of any specific entry while searching the market. Fixed a bug where Construction Tutorial was blocked due to Internal Server Error when deploying the Static Core Unit. Fixed disappearance of natural caves. Fixed a bug where Aphelia's voice sometimes skipped a line without user input. Fixed Aphelia's text that did not appear in the Tutorial chat window. Fixed players sent to space after closing the game during a loading screen after quitting a tutorial. [PvP] Fixed Identified Target values overlapping. Fixed a bug where loading percent started high and went backward when teleporting between districts. Fixed an exploit with free mass transportation. Fixed Gunnery tutorial approach X triggers that were not working. [GUI] Fixed behavior of spaces between letters/words when naming a construct in the deploy construct panel. [GUI] Fixed the number input in the dispenser claim limit menu. [GUI] Fixed a bug where the text field jittered when clicking to scroll the entry field for an Organization news post. Fixed a bug where certain constructs with too many mesh vertices blocked loading screens. Fixed an exploit regarding hover engines. Fixed erroneous multiple-item transfer error popup from market containers. Fixed misleading naming "Invitation" on Organization home page. Fixed newly-created/modified actor/tags/policies that were not able to be searched using search box on the RDMS panel. Added clear max length on manifest and bloc validation if manifest too long. Added a label to specify the max length for vote descriptions. Container automatic claim mode change is registered on the UI side to correctly update the save button state after a change. Use a standard thousand separator for numbers in achievement. (Standard for DU is space as thousand separators). Added a confirmation modal on bookmark deletion. Autoscroll to the newly created chat tab that forces the selection. (Should autoscroll in case of the newly created chat tab in barter with the other player). Shortest names are now prioritized in player’s searches. Fixed a saving issue with fireworks unit configuration. [Building] Fixed offset when entering precise mode with keyboard for some shapes. Fixed the progress bar that was not correctly at 0% progression in pending state (maintain x) industry unit. Fixed save disabled state button for the auto claim in the industry panel. Minor CSS fix on the industry panel. Fixed exit tutorial button being interactable while not visible. Fixed some XS lights not having a light shaft [Lua] Toolbar, consumable bar, and minimap are not hidden anymore when the player opens the Lua editor  
 
Known Issues
Please be advised that we are aware of a situation where some players have experienced issues with constructs having disparities between Build mode and Non-Build mode honeycomb meshes. After investigation, we were able to identify and resolve the issue. However, we are unable to restore the damage done to currently affected constructs. Should you find a new occurrence that was not present before this patch, please notify us via a Support ticket immediately. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. With this release, you may notice that there are materials (textures) that have a different look or they might appear less shiny (or shinier). This is due to changes that were made to correctly standardize the materials to bring more consistency and coherence for those material types. Metals should look and behave like metals. We’ve also dialed down the glossiness so that it’s not as aggressive. Due to these adjustments, some players may find that textures they’ve used may appear ‘broken’ (though technically they aren’t) or they are no longer aesthetically pleasing. You may want to spend some time reworking areas of your constructs where this is an issue. This being said, we, unfortunately, noticed at the last minute that some issues are noticeable in various cases. We’ll fix this ASAP!  Numerous French and German localization issues have already been spotted. A random rendering crash may occur under some conditions due to low GPU/driver resources. Disabling Volumetric Clouds in Graphic settings may help. Voxel crashes may occur due to low disk/memory. [Industries] Talents that impact ingredients of schematic products are not displayed client-side, but the schematic updates with the server schematic when starting. [Industries] Some inconsistencies in schematics and tiered elements. [Screens] Transparent screens display as solid white when loading in close proximity. [Screens] High-frequency text updates on screens, cause text to not display or flash. [Elements] In certain situations, elements unload at high speeds. [Elements] Issue causing electronics industries to displace slightly. [Crash] Triggering a detection zone after maneuvering the construct it is attached to leads to a crash. Primary Container loses link after moving it far enough away from where it was originally linked In the new launcher, drop-down menus overlap in some situations  
The team continues the hard work, thanks for your support! 
 
Cheers, 
Nomad

+1 to all this!

Hey Noveans,

Joining an organization in Dual Universe has many advantages, especially when it comes to pooling and sharing resources. The introduction of org wallets in the upcoming 0.24 update will add a convenient way to transfer money to and from organizations, just as players have been requesting.
 
But wallets aren’t limited to organizations alone. Many of these features will be useful to individual players as well. This should be welcome news to everyone who will be raking in the quanta via the new Mission system.
 
Let’s take a closer look at all the wonderful things wallets can do.
 
WALLETS 101

Each organization now has a wallet.
 
There are two new rights related to organization wallet management in the Right and Duty Management System (RDMS):
 
Consult wallet: Gives the right to members to simply know the current balance of the organization. Edit wallet: Gives the right to do all the wallet operations available to the organization wallet. It includes buying, selling (and paying taxes by doing so), browsing the log and transferring money (see below).

            Giving the right to edit the wallet of Wave Corp to another player.
 
HOW IT WORKS

Any player with the “edit from wallet” right of an organization can:
Sell unclaimed items or items claimed by the organization in the name of the org. Once sold, the money goes to the organization wallets. Buy items in the name of the organization. When doing so, the wallet of the org is used instead of the wallet of the player. Also, the item is then automatically claimed by the org when purchased. Edit and/or delete orders owned by the organization. NOTE: Going to the “My Orders” panel of the market UI, allows the player to see their own orders as well as the orders of all organizations for which they have the appropriate rights.
  Payable dispensers owned by organizations will use the organization wallet, instead of the Superlegate wallet.

TRANSFERING QUANTA

All players can give any amount of quanta to any other player or organization. Players with the necessary wallet rights of an organization can also transfer money from the organization wallet to any other entity. Transfers are tracked in the wallet logs of both the sender and the recipient.
 
There are a few rules regarding quanta transfer, mainly intended to protect players from griefing through spamming the recipient’s wallet log :
A transfer requires a minimum amount of 1,000 quanta. There is a cooldown period of 10 minutes between two transactions with both the same sender and the same recipient.

            Transfering money to the organization Wave Corp.
 
THE WALLET LOG

Managing an organization and giving the right for wallet operations to several players requires basic management functions. That is why we are adding the wallet log.
All entities (players and organizations) have access to a wallet log that reflects all transactions related to their wallets.
 
Each entry contains the date of the operation, the type of operation (such as money transfer, market transaction, various fees, etc.), and additional information, such as the name of the player who completed the operation, for instance.

            
            The wallet log.
 
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

What do you think of the plans so far? Is this a good starting point or are there additional functions you think wallets will need? We look forward to reading your feedback in this forum thread. ?
 

Its probably bugged like so many other talents.

in my language "+ 5% ore extracted" means that what I get is more than those who don't.
 
Or is a bug - talent dont works correctly.
 
Or is it an impression (possible ... I hope ... a ninja nerf to a basic mechanic is already wrong and a very unpleasant thing).
 
Or whoever wrote it really meant a speed boost and the description needs to be changed (and lost 2kk of talent points and 2 weeks of subscribtion for something different).

That's a very... creative... interpretation there.
 
How does that stack with

"Mining Optimizations"
-5% time to reach max sphere size skill. 
 
And the "Advanced Mining"
+5% max sphere size.

please show us.


I'm going to test this language on my employes.... +5% salary earned per year... After 5 years you"ll be +25% more earned.... but only get paid for the first 80% of the day.

Scuttlebutt is that the Dredger, Mining Efficiency skill (5% more ore extracted per level) has been nerfed by JC.

According to our miners, they are getting only 2.6% increase for LEVEL 5.... That's 2.2m Skill points (17 days or so) for a 2.6% increase in extraction.
But I waited over 2 weeks for this skill to stew and  now can't detect any increase in my maximum or "bite" size which stayed somewhere around 300L per "bite" rather than increasing to 330 or over 360 as expected. Still getting around 4k for a standard "mini" node as per usual when I was expecting to be able to extract 5k per node.

I really hope our miners and I are just being thick and that this is merely a grave misapprehension.
 
JC wouldn't purposefully nerf a skill in order to slow down progress without giving the players half a month of subscription worth of skill points back. Would he? Surely? No... 
 

Every time I see "waste management" I can't help but think of The Sopranos... ? What kind of ring are you running, @JohnnyTazer? ?

The points will be applied after a brief downtime starting at 9 am UTC | 4 am EST on December 17th.  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
Hello Noveans,
 
December is halfway over, meaning the arrival of the new year is tantalizingly close! 2021 is sure to usher in some big changes, and we couldn’t be more excited to experience those with you. ?
 
While we were rolling out 0.23.1, we noticed that players who had talents in training lost what was accumulated during our downtime. So, in the spirit of bringing out the old and ringing in the new we would like to offer everyone 1 million talent points (~1 week’s worth) to not only replace lost points, but also as a bit of a holiday gift! Build, explore and be merry!
 
Thank you for your continued support. We sincerely hope that you and yours enjoy a restful holiday season!

Sincerely,
The Novaquark Team
 

0.23 and What We Learned

In reading through the reactions from our community regarding the recent 0.23 update, we’ve gained some valuable insights. 

Before we talk about the changes we’ll make in our processes going forward, let’s get back to the fundamental reason behind the update itself. What we did in 0.23 is at the heart of the vision for a game where a society of players is interacting directly or indirectly with each other through an elaborate network of exchanges, cooperation, competition and markets.
 
As it was, the current state of the game consisted mostly of isolated islands of players playing in almost full autonomy. A single-player game where players happened to share the same game world but with little interactions.
 
It’s hard to imagine how the appeal could last for more than several months for most players once they feel they have “finished” the game. It is also a missed opportunity to try something of larger proportion, a society of players growing in a fully persistent virtual world. For this to work, you need more than isolated gameplay. Players need to have viable reasons to interact and need each other.
 
In many single-player space games, you have ways to make money, and the game then offers you ways to convert this money into whatever you need in the game to progress, mostly via markets. This is the state in which we should end up for Dual Universe once all the necessary ingredients are in place, You get into the game, you farm a bit of money in fun ways, and you buy more and more powerful ships, equipment, weapons, etc., to help your character grow. The difference is that here, the ships or equipment you buy have been made by other players, instead of the game company. On the surface and during the first hours of gameplay, to a new player it would look similar to any of those other space games, but it would in fact reveal itself to be much deeper once you spend a bit of time in the game. Everything you would do would be part of another player’s or organization’s plan, everything would have a meaning. And soon you would realize that you too could be part of the content creation and, somehow, drive the game in the direction you want.
 
In its current beta stage, DU doesn’t have enough ways for people to make money because we haven’t yet had the opportunity to implement all of the necessary features. There’s mining, of course. Trading is not as good as it will eventually be because markets are not really used to their full potential. As a consequence, players rightfully turned to a solo or small org autonomous game mode. 
 
We tried to nudge people out of this with the changes introduced in 0.23. While necessary, many players expressed that the changes of 0.23 came too soon because it lacked a variety of lucrative ways for people to make money outside of mining.

What We’ll Do Now
 
The vision expressed above still holds. We want people to consider going through the industry specialization only if they intend to become industrialists and not necessarily to sustain their individual needs; however, we understand that it’s too soon to press for intense specialized gameplay considering the lack of sources to earn money. 
 
Here’s our plan for now. We will modify the formula of the schematic prices to make it considerably more affordable for Tier 1 and still challenging and worth a commitment but less intense for anything Tier 2 or above. 
 
This will allow most factories focused on T1 to resume their activities rapidly while keeping an interesting challenge for higher tiers, spawning dedicated industrial facilities aiming at producing to sell on the markets. We will also reimburse players who have bought high-priced schematics since the launch of 0.23 (please give us some time since it may take a few days as we go through the logs).
 
We will keep monitoring the price of schematics to see if it makes sense to increase or decrease the costs. The right approach to set such a price would be to evaluate how much time it takes to recoup your investment by selling the products that the schematics allow to produce. It should be a few months so that the investment is a real commitment and it makes sense to plan for it.  We currently lack the metrics to properly assess this return on investment time. We need a player-driven market price for the components and a market price for the products to assess the profit made by each run of a schematic. This will come when the markets start to work as intended, and we can gather more data about them. 
 
Feedback and Testing

The release of 0.23 also taught us that we need improved ways to test new features, both internally and with community participation. The Upvote feature on the website was a good start, but it’s not enough. 
 
To address this, we have two courses of action that will be taken. The first will be to set up an open public test server, hopefully with shorter release cycles, for players to try out new features. This will also allow us to explore ideas and be more iterative. If all goes according to plan, this test server should be introduced for 0.24, the next release. It will mirror the content of the production server with regular updates to sync it. 
 
The second important initiative is to revise the role of the Alpha Team Vanguard (ATV), getting them more involved in early discussions about new features and the evolution of the game. We are still defining the framework, so more information will be released as available. 

What is to Come
 
In the short term, we will push a few corrections to improve 0.23, which include:
 
Ships will now stop (be frozen) when their core is destroyed in PvP, making them easier to catch. Element destruction will impact the restoration count only when it occurs through PvP, at least for now (not when the ship is colliding/falling as we want to avoid having players penalized simply for crashing their ships because they’re learning how to maneuver them, for example). Recycling of un-restorable elements through a recycler that will take an element as input and grant a small amount of the schematics required components as output.
The next major release is already in the making and will be about the mission system, a first step toward giving players more fun ways to earn quantas. We will reveal about it shortly so that we can get as much feedback as possible.
 
We also want to reassure you that the mission system is not the only answer to offering more varied ways to earn revenue in Dual Universe. Things like asteroid mining and mining units will be introduced in the next few months. 

This list is by no means complete, but should be a good jumping off point that gives players reasons to fight and to explore, opportunities for pirates, new ways of making money, and a plethora of other activities our creative community will think of even if we didn’t. 

That’s it for now! We want to thank you again for your support and patience as we progress along this beta road! See you soon in Dual Universe!

Want to discuss this announcement? Visit the thread linked below:
 
 

Naunet running by with a quick edit for clarity: Element Destruction will be applied to all damages sustained, both in and outside of PvP battles.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Draw your weapons and get ready to shoot first! In today’s Dual Universe Dev Blog we will discuss an upcoming PvP feature: Element Destruction.
 
In its current iteration, the feature works rather simply. Once destroyed, an Element can be restored indefinitely. There is currently no way for a crafted Element to disappear from the game unless it’s done intentionally. This poses a problem in the dynamics of the economy. In the real world, most purchased goods will inevitably need to be replaced. This helps to fuel the economy by creating a steady demand of goods. And, as in the real world, Dual Universe relies on a strong supply and demand chain for its economy to thrive. 
 
To facilitate this, we’re making some changes to Elements that will not only give them value as a commodity on the Market but also add some exciting layers of strategy in how they are manufactured and used by discerning pilots who won’t settle for anything less than the best on their prized ships. 
 
Let’s take a closer look at the incoming changes.  
 
ELEMENTS DESTRUCTION
 
When an Element on your ship is damaged in combat, can go next to it and repair it using scrap. If destroyed, you can also restore it completely. The change we’re making will limit the number of times an Elements can be restored, i.e. three times for an Engine and five times for a Container. Once an Element has hit its maximum amount of restores, it is Destroyed and can’t be repaired anymore.
 
This will be less brutal than an immediate destruction, allowing you to manage a critical situation during combat, yet give you the opportunity to plan for a long-term replacement strategy as your restore counter is approaching the limit. Getting low on the restore counter for an engine? Swap it for a brand-new one at the next station. 
 
An Element which has been restored once or more will be allowed to be brought back into a player’s inventory, but  please keep the following points in mind:
This Element will be marked as a Modified Element. As such, it cannot be sold on Markets or used in Blueprints This Element can be bartered. Unlike certain other modified elements, the restoration count cannot be reset. The number of times an Element can be repaired depends solely on the nature of the Element.  
Note that this is a first step. We may introduce other forms of degradation in the future, possibly impacting Element performance. Another important thing to note is that when an Element of type “Container” is fully destroyed, everything it contains is destroyed as well. This includes all types of fuel and ammo. 
 
Tier 2+ Elements and Industry Units
To push this logic even further, we introduced the idea of a new class of elements with better stats, by extending some existing elements with variants into higher tiers. This will impact Engines, Weapons and Radars to start with, and we will also make a push for Containers and Control Units a bit later. 
 
In any real world industry, you have room for producers specializing in high-end products with better returns, or low-end products with higher volumes. This is what the addition of Tier 2+ Elements will bring to the table. We envision a future where Tier 2-5 engines will become the norm for performance-savvy players because of their better stats while Tier 1 will remain a commodity that is basically good enough for most players who don’t care about the stat boost. This adds variation to the gameplay and will certainly be a factor in PvP and efficiency-oriented logistic operations. 
 
Note that only Tier 2 Industry Units will be able to produce Tier 2 Elements, the same for Tier 3 and so forth. Industry Units of higher tiers will be considerably more expensive to produce and/or buy.
 
Element perma-destruction
A deployed Element that has been destroyed cannot be brought into the inventory. This Element is totally non-functional and can only be deleted or Replaced. 
 
When Replacing an element, all custom properties and settings are maintained. This action will consume an Element of the same type in the player’s active inventory, as it would do with an Element that was deployed standard. Of course, we will introduce a proper tool to replace your Elements to prevent the need for reconfiguration when you’re swapping in a fresh new one. This should help to create a healthy level of demand as PVP increasingly heats up across the Universe.  

Weapon limitation by core size, and better hit formula
Speaking of PVP, we want to address some imbalances in general around PvP. 
 
Several things are on the way to address this, some of which might affect your ship designs:
Limitation of weapon sizes based on the core size, no more L weapons strapped onto an XS core unit. Previously, the probability to hit another ship was based on the size of its core. From now on, that probability will use the surface of the ship that's visible from the view of the shooter as defined by the cross-section of the ship from that same point of view. In other words, the surface of the ship exposed to your weapons will matter and generate more damage. That way, building a borg cube will simply not be efficient and will expose you to greater damage risk.  Radar lock range unification: Instead of having each radar lock different core unit sizes at different ranges, every radar will now have a global lock range at which it locks all targets. Smaller radars will now lock at lower ranges, but retain their faster lock times while larger radars will lock slower but at greater distances. Unlike weapons, there will not be any further core-based restrictions on radar placement.  
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts about these changes. We appreciate your support and look to your constructive feedback to help us make Dual Universe the absolute best it can be. 
 


**Edit note: Clarified RESTORE vs REPAIR verbiage

[Updated Nov 19, 2020 @ 3:02 PM EST]: The rules outlined below apply to teleporting both avatars and constructs. This means that, outside of the list of approved scenarios, we won't be able to fetch your ship and bring it to your location. 
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Good day fellow Noveans,
 
I come bearing support-related news! More specifically, I’d like to address teleportation requests with all of you.
 
For a while now, we’ve allowed players in need of a port to say the word on Discord and - voila - your wish would be granted! ✨
That worked well for a time, but our Discord support channel is now beginning to slip under the veritable wave of port requests… and we’d like to rescue it and all those in need of a ‘lift’.
 
As of November 19th, we would like everyone in need of teleport-related assistance to use the in-game chat support, or submit an official support ticket. By using the in-game chat function instead of Discord, you’re likely to receive an answer quicker because our GMs are ready and waiting for you there!

Having said that, we’d also like to inform everyone that we will no longer grant port requests if you’re simply out of fuel, stuck in one of your own constructs, or just generally stranded. All port requests will now be investigated, verified and potentially denied if the request falls outside of approved scenarios.

Some examples of when to ask for a port (approved scenarios):
 
if you’re stuck in an Aphelia construct if you’re trapped in any other player-owned tile (unable to dig) if you’re unable to get past the loading screen upon logging in
  What to do if you’re just stuck/out of fuel/stranded: 
 
Don’t forget: there are plenty of player organizations available to assist in your travels through space! Be sure to check out the organizations and services provided on Discord and our Forums. Some organizations will be happy to provide you with transportation, refueling, repairs, building help and so much more!! ?

How to contact support:

To access in-game chat support, simply click the “support” tab in-game, as depicted below.


 
From here, it’s as easy as typing up your request, starting the message with "@NQ" and sending it off!
 
To submit an official support ticket, please click HERE. ?

Then, select the hyperlinked text that says “submit a request” in the top-right corner of the page. Once you see the screen featured below, select the appropriate category for your issue and go to town!


 
(Quick note for those submitting crash reports: PLEASE do not forget to include a crash log and/or XML logs with your ticket!!)

And there you have it! Let’s all do our part to keep the Discord server free and clear of port requests so that players with big ol’ bugs and other issues to report can receive the visibility they deserve.

~NQ-Naunet

PS - I want to give a special shout-out to all of our support staff for everything they do!! Thank you, all!!
 

Dear Noveans, it's time for another DevBlog!
 
Dual Universe is a vast game. Its gameplay has layers, and we keep adding depth to them as often as possible (though not nearly as frequently as we would like to!). As developers, we love to dive into these depths. Moreover, we want to make sure everybody understands why we design features the way we do. DevBlogs are perfect to address these topics, so here we are!
 
Today, we will tackle two major features which shall be released in an upcoming patch: Construct Intellectual Property Protection and Blueprints Duplication. Without further ado, let's jump right into it.

CONSTRUCT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
 
The objective of this feature is quite simple: allow a player to protect their creations when they distribute them in game (whether it is by selling them or trading them). We want to make sure that no unauthorized player will access the intellectual property content of a construct they did not create themselves. In particular, we want to protect:
 
The possibility to create a Blueprint of the construct The possibility to copy voxels from the construct to another construct (however, intra construct copies are still allowed) The access to Lua scripts from Control Units The access to HTML content from Screen Units  
This is how it works: each construct has a creator. A creator can be either the player or the Organization who deployed the original Core Unit. We can call this initial construct the “Master Construct”. When an Organization is the creator, any legate will be considered to be the creator.

When making a copy of a Master Construct via a Blueprint, a set of Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection flags are set automatically, both on the construct as a whole AND individually on each of the Control Units and Screen Units in the Blueprint. The newly created construct can have a new owner, different from its creator, but it remembers who was its creator. When trying to access Lua or Html content, the DRM flag of the corresponding Element (i.e. a Control Unit or a Screen Unit) will be checked to determine if the new owner is allowed to do this action. The creator is always allowed to do that. 
 
Similarly, when trying to make a Blueprint or to copy voxels, the DRM flag of the whole construct is checked. By default, since the original Blueprint sets all the flags to “not allowed”, a new owner will have no rights to do these actions.

If you deploy a new Control Unit, or a new Screen Unit on your construct that is DRM protected, they will be deployed without the DRM flag activated; therefore, you will be allowed to modify these Elements in particular. 
 
Moreover, the creator of the construct can also decide to come and remove the DRM protection of the whole construct (by right-clicking on the Core Unit), or of one particular Control Unit/Screen Unit if he wants to (warning: this action is not reversible). Make sure, however, to check if the DRM flag for voxels is global or not. If it is, and you add a beautiful sculpture to the construct, you will not be able to copy-paste it out of the construct. You should rather make your own Master Construct for this kind of action.
 
BLUEPRINT DUPLICATION

The Blueprint duplication will let players create copies of Blueprints, which in turns other players will use to generate a limited quantity of constructs.
To understand this feature better, allow us to make the distinction between Core Blueprints and regular Blueprints.
 
Core Blueprints
When the creator of a construct, or any player owning the right to create a Blueprint from a construct generates a Blueprint from said construct, this is a Core Blueprint.

Its creation is free. It can be used as the simple construct-save it used to be. But more importantly, this is what you’ll use to generate Regular Blueprints.

It is stored in the player inventory and behaves as a regular information item. A Core Blueprint is never lost on death. However, a player can generate a core Blueprint only if he is the creator of a construct or if the DRM flag of the construct has been lifted.

All ancient Blueprints (as in, Blueprints from before the Blueprint Duplication patch) will be converted into Core Blueprints.
 
Regular Blueprints

By right-clicking on a Core blueprint, a player can choose to generate a regular Blueprint, or just “Blueprint” for short. A regular Blueprint, is in reality a one-run Blueprint, and is always the result of a duplication of a Core Blueprint.

It is a standard information item, and because it is a one-run Blueprint, it can only be used once and disappears on use.

Once created, regular Blueprints are delivered at once in the player’s inventory as soon as he validates the duplication. Regular Blueprints are weight-less and volume-less.
 
We hope this DevBlog gives you better visibility and understanding of what’s coming next in Dual Universe. Don’t hesitate to tell us what you would like to see next!
 
See you very soon in Dual Universe

 
Want to discuss this announcement? Click HERE. ?

 

Good afternoon, everybody!!

If you (and/or your Org-mates) are a fan of Lua and you've used it to breathe life into a creation you're dying to show off... now's your chance.  

For a chance to be featured in our Lua Museum (ooooh, ahhhh!), please submit your builds using the handy dandy form we've put together. 

? Click HERE to access the form! ?

Thank you for taking the time to check this out, and happy building!! We can't wait to review your submissions.

~ NQ-Naunet

For those not in-the-know, Lua is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed primarily for embedded use in applications. This video contains more information about the ways in which you can use it in DU!

The Alioth Aerospace Expo is a Community event where all the manufacturing organizations come together to show off their latest designs. We have events and contests at these Expos as well. For now attendance is free and we rotate which Organization hosts the Expo.
 
This time Hyperion has the pleasure of hosting the Expo. We are looking forward to present you the biggest event in the beta.
 
 
► When:
Spring 2021
 
 
► Why should I attend?
The Expo aims to become a central hub of the shipbuilding scene. It is an opportunity for both industry giants and innovative startups to attract new civilian and military customers, by showcasing their talent to the wider player base. More than 600 constructs were already participating at the last Expo! 
 
 
► Want to show off your ships?
Players and Organizations can register for exhibition spaces, one construct per area. There will be 9 areas in total.
 
There will be three phases/ways to register your ships for exhibition.Choose the way you prefer. We recommend our Website.
 
Phase 1: Pre-Registration on the Hyperion website starting 23rd November
Phase 2: Registration via a Google Form starting 14th Dezember
Phase 1 and 2 are live now! Feel free to use our website to register your ships. For boring people we have this google form.
Phase 3: During the event, free space can be arranged via Discord. For each area there is one responsible person who takes care of it.
 

► What are the areas? What kind of ships can be exhibited there?
1. Military Ships - all ships that are designed for PvP
2. Freighter - any vessel designed for the transport of goods
3. Shuttle - all ships designed for the transport of persons
4. Replica - replicas of constructs from the real or a fictional world
5. Scripting - all dynamic constructs related to Lua
6. Starter & Scouts - all ships that can operate as scouts or are especially suitable for beginners
7. Racing - all ships designed for racing
8. Luxury Ships - The most glamorous ships with the only purpose to sparkle and shine
9. Organizations - Extra exhibition space for organizations with a greater amount of ships
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Further details about the Expo and the events taking place will be posted here

We welcome any support you like to contribute to the project
Contributions for the Expo can be made here: ::pos{0,2,16.7544,112.0115,42.2058} Please claim your items
 
 

Hi Noveans, 
 
A new update is available today. It brings bug fixes and should also allow some performance improvements. Dual Universe is now in r0.22.9 version. The changelog is available below: 
 
Bug Fixes
[Market] Fixed the "sell to this buyer" / "buy from this seller" context menu and improved the label’s description. [Market] Fixed Market quantity notifications. [Market] Fixed Market seller/buyer source information for normal and updated orders to show more relevant information about transactions. [Market] Fixed reminder notification for Market purchases. It will now only notify players after completing a local instant buy. [Barter] Quanta symbol in quanta input no longer overlaps the value in the quanta input in barter. [Barter] Fixed a bug in which Quanta wasn’t displayed to both participants. [Barter] Fixed a bug in which players could not move items from their basket to empty slots in their inventory. Fixed issues between Linked Containers and Container Hubs. Please note that a possible delay of 10 seconds may occur before the Linked Container right/distance is updated. Build Helper now performs a full element update even in piloting mode. [SFX] Fixed harvest tool sound effects.
Gameplay/Changes/Improvements
All Institute buildings have been removed from the Alioth and Sanctuary District Areas to improve performance. A new district has been created near the Arkship that is not a starting district but has the Institutes. Each District in the Alioth starting area has a dedicated teleporter in the “District Center” construct (previously District Market) to visit the new Institute District. 10 new markets have been added near each District in the starting area on Alioth. All market functions have been removed from the Districts themselves, and existing market orders have moved to these new nearby standalone markets.  This change is intended to reduce the number of ships parked in the starting Districts, which was causing framerate issues for starting players. Anyone returning to the starting area (Pioneer zone) to use the markets should instead go to the standalone Markets nearby.    Removed "Share Publicly for all" as some players accidentally misuse it. Using the maneuver tool now prevents damage. [GUI] Various interface sound effect changes. An error now displays when players try to convert organization constructs to personal ones when max construct limits have been reached. [PVP] Alerts are no longer displayed in safe zones. [FTUE] Updated First Time User Experience according to the District refactor (Institutes and Markets). [FTUE] Robustification of tutorials has been reintroduced. Players can no longer close windows or click when important actions are taking place.  
Known Issues
Windows certificate is not up to date. This may prompt a warning message for new players during the first install. It can safely be ignored. The starting FTUE tutorial notes the location of tutorial teleporters as being in the District Center  (previously District Marketplace) where the market pods used to be. As a workaround, these tutorials can now be found in the new Institute District. Uninstalling the game directly from Windows will leave the game files on the disk. Please use the game dedicated unins000.exe uninstaller located in the game directory for that. Numerous French and German localization issues have already been spotted. In some situations, you may not be able to place a Static Core Unit on your claimed Sanctuary Territory. An error message saying that it's too close to another construct is displayed. This may occur due to being too close to a District. Trying again from a further distance should solve this issue for now. A random rendering crash may occur under some conditions due to low GPU/driver resources. Voxel crashes may occur due to low disk/memory. [SFX] Only blue fireworks currently function. [Industries] Talents that impact ingredients of recipe products are not displayed client-side, but the recipe updates with the server recipe when starting.
  Cheers, 
Nomad

Hello Noveans, 
 
We realize there is some confusion regarding whether certain scenarios occurring within the game world are permitted or not, and would like to clarify these points for everyone.  In short, we’d like to ask our community to use common sense when encountering issues in the game;  If it looks like an exploit, smells like an exploit (do pixels smell?), or sounds like an exploit, chances are it is an exploit. Don’t DU it! Report it. (support.dualthegame.com)
 
We are in a testing phase, and reporting these bugs/issues is important. Abusing them may lead to sanctions against accounts, up to and including removal from the game. We will not take ignorance as an excuse, especially in the following list of scenarios. Please note this is not an exhaustive list, and we will continue to expand upon it as needed: 
 
 “ALT + F4 Emergency Brake”: We acknowledge this is not an intended game play loop that is being intentionally used by players. We do plan to counter this action in the future but do not consider it high priority at this time. At this time, we will not take action against an account for using such. [Allowed]  
Parenting Ships - Dragged to PVP Space: This is a hot topic and one we wish to be very clear on. Intentionally parenting any construct without permission of the owner is not intended for game play. A fix has been rolled out that will address the ability to parent constructs together via the maneuver tool. As we have not previously clarified this point, we will not retroactively punish this abuse, as of this moment forward abusing similar bugs/tools to replicate this maneuver in its current state can result in disciplinary actions on an account. [Not Allowed]  
Attacking PVP Zone from Safe Space: Our team has been investigating complaints of ships being attacked in the PVP zone from ships outside of the zone. Our investigations strongly point to sync issues between clients. We will continue to work with this feature, but recommend players consider the zone lines for PVP to be somewhat fluid and not absolute. Our version of the neutral zone! We ask that you continue to report cases with positions, but will not action accounts at this time, unless an additional exploit is discovered. [Allowed]  
Overlapping engines with other elements (obscuring): A fix will be rolled out that will prevent this from occurring. No action will be taken, unless additional abuse is occurring. [Allowed]  
Theft Via RDMS: RDMS permissions and settings are the sole discretion of each player. We advise you take the time to get to know and understand the system and be cautious when making a construct or element usable by unknown players, including the use of your friends list. Not every player has your best interest at heart. We can not get involved with permission based theft, whether as an individual or an organization. We encourage you to review your friends list each time you add or remove someone and ensure your construct permissions are set accordingly. The context menu options that set public access currently do not have a confirmation prompt, be careful as setting public access to said construct will allow every player in Dual Universe to go into build mode and remove/place elements and voxels.  [Allowed]
   
Environmental Walls/Creations: Use of the environmental and voxel tools allows the manipulation of terrain on owned and unowned tiles. You may build walls or other structures up to the allowed height, however, said constructions must not:  Block access to market places or tutorials Must abide by our Community Standards (phallic/sexual, political, religious or otherwise offensive shapes are not permitted) Must not be placed with the intention of interfering with neighboring players. When players can not agree, the final decision on what is and is not acceptable is decided on a case-by-case basis by Novaquark staff.
   
Marketplace Construct Parking: Players are permitted to park at marketplaces with their transport vehicles so long as they are not preventing use to other players or obstructing entry or exit points. Vehicles whose purpose is advertising (organization, service or otherwise) must abide by the following rules.  Organizations and individuals wishing to advertise at markets may have one advertising construct per district maximum Constructs may not be larger than “Small” sized Constructs may not block access to any building, entry points or dispensers Advertisements must not be placed/parented on constructs that don’t belong to you Constructs that violate these terms will be removed from the game without warning or compensation.
  Mass Manipulation in Transportation:  Players who utilize bugs to bypass the weight penalty of their inventory, other players, other constructs, etc to move mass through the game are not permitted. This includes: Adding additional mass to an already piloted ship [Fixed] Docking mass to an already piloted ship [Fixed] Circumventing linked container range [Fix Pending] [Not Allowed]  
Item Duplication: Any method of duplicating items or resources (including quanta) is not allowed at any time. Any incidents of bugs of this nature must be reported to the support team at support.dualthegame.com [Not Allowed]
  Boarding without permission: As the deployment of the docking update is pending, the boarding of other players' constructs without consent will be considered an exploit. [Not Allowed]
 
Offenders will be teleported away; repeat offenders may be subject to more serious repercussions.

If you are boarded by another player and wish to have them removed, please report it either by creating a ticket here or by messaging @gm through the in-game Help channel.

We do recommend you keep regular backups of your constructs in the form of blueprints in the case you lose a ship (through intended means (sale, give away etc),or undesired results such as in PVP, you can still recreate it later.    
 
How to Blueprint (to save your ship/build):
Enter build-mode on the construct, right click anywhere on the construct and click “Create Blueprint”. The blueprint will then be generated inside your currently active inventory. It is wise to keep hold of a copy of any of your blueprints inside your personal nanopack, as these are safe and not lost upon respawning.
 
We realize this is not an exhaustive list, and we will expand upon it as time goes on. We also understand some members of our community feel that using a bug or exploit prior to acknowledgement by Novaquark is considered okay. We’d like to state that any intentional use of a  bug or exploit will be treated harshly going forward. This is the one and only warning we will issue on this topic. Please just don’t DU it! 

On behalf of the entire team, we thank you for helping us make Dual Universe a better place! 
 
Sincerely,
The Novaquark Team
 

Hi Noveans,
 
Another small patch has just been deployed. DU is now in Beta 1 r0.22.2. We fixed an issue that made high altitude flying possible with hovercrafts
 
Cheers, 
Nomad