NanoDot
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Posts posted by NanoDot
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32 minutes ago, John said:
Remember that DU is immense. At the start we should have about 12 planets, with moons and lots of asteroids. These numbers will expand over the time.
The first planet : Alioth will have ~100 km radius others will be sometime even bigger. The time to extract all resources of these planets will be long, very very long....
Maybe rare resources will be depleted "quickly" but still it should be quite long. And you can still buy these rare resources on the markets, or ask to your team mates....
Just as a reminder here a calculation from JC:
Just a note of caution here...
That quote implies that if only 1% of the planet consists of useable resources, it will still take several years for the resources to be depleted, even with 3000 players digging 8 hours per day 24/7/365. If that is the case, then depleting resource deposits will be far less of an issue than many imagine. Don't forget that the starter system has 12 planets confirmed, with the possibility of even more being added before launch.
I expect things will change somewhat before release...
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Resource deposits in DU will not respawn once they are depleted.
The area around the arkship will be stripped of resources fairly quickly, but there was talk of creating new spawn zones on other planets as the game world expands after launch. The current "starter zone" will not always be the only place for new players to spawn.
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The original definition of DU's "Starter Goals" on the Kickstarter page includes: "Alien Life: a few NPC creatures".
So, at launch there will be "a few" creatures to hunt or run away from...
I think there was talk about expanding the function of this feature at some point after launch, so that creatures could become a source of food (e.g. when "survival" features are added/expanded).
- Bralor and ProphetZarquon
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I see the "factions" are starting to solidify !
Over the coming months, there will be many forum battles fought between the "PVP is primary, everything else comes second" and the "building of things is primary, everything else comes second" groups. Both sides will claim to represent the "true vision" of what NQ intends for the game. Balancing these opposing approaches will determine the future of DU.
Mega structures will be conflict magnets. Just as some will build things for no other reason than "because we can", there will also be those that want to destroy them for no other reason than "because we can".
But destruction is inevitably faster than building, and in MMO's, the deck is almost always stacked in favour of the aggressor.
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1 hour ago, Hades said:
Not seeking it out is a better phrasing imho. You can't truly avoid pvp. But once again, what's the importance in making the distinction between the two? There isn't.
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That's why semantics are important.
"Not seeking out" implies that something can be avoided if you do not pursue it.
"While trying to avoid" implies that something is seeking YOU out, which is an accurate reflection of DU game play. Trouble will actively come looking for you, whether you look for it or not.
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25 minutes ago, Hades said:
Semantics are pretty irrelevant.
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Yes, the game revolves around PvP... and you can't escape it, but you can play the game without seeking out PvP.
Semantics are actually vitally important.
For instance, I'd phrase that last part of the sentence as: "...but you can play the game while trying to avoid PVP."
Subtle difference, but the emphasis shift is significant.
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We don't know enough about the final implementation of DU's mechanics to say with confidence that "nothing will be bot-able". There are some very resourceful people around, and there's no doubt that many will attempt it, given that playtime can be earned via buying DAC with ingame currency.
What NQ needs to do is to make sure that the EULA is clear and their monitoring systems are able to identify and flag "suspicious" behaviour.
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2 hours ago, Miamato said:
... Another side of this situation is that living on someones claim puts you under risk that at some point this corporation will turn against it's citizens.
I'd imagine the greatest risk is that your landlord gets into a fight with some other group and the "tenants" get caught in the crossfire. The landlord will always try to protect his own assets first, anything else will get protection if there's spare capacity.
Additionally, tenants are seen as legit targets, given that they provide the landlord with additional income.
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7 hours ago, MasteredRed said:
You are actually very wrong sir(I assume sir).
This is what you are referencing, but in actuality, it is using a LUA script to follow him. He specifically says that it is LUA based instead of him using the remote flight unit to control it. However, while you might state that his using the flight controller to control it towards him, it is more likely he is using it to monitor the status of the barge like unit.
STATEMENT: None of anything I say here is based on the gameplay of the Dual Universe, but instead on the public media content posted by NQ themselves.
Perhaps, we will have to see ingame whether my interpretation or yours is closer to the mark.
I believe the "basic Lua functions" that JC fleetingly mentions in the commentary are the movement functions of the construct. But as he doesn't elaborate on the subject, it's impossible to tell for certain whether the scripts he's referring to are running on the RCU carried by the player or the construct's own control unit (or even somewhere else).What's the point of having a Remote Control Unit if you can just use Lua scripting to achieve the same result ? Or perhaps the RCU is not involved in "following", and all dynamic construct control units have a basic "follow" function, in which case you could even get a dreadnought to follow you around...
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On 12/09/2017 at 12:16 AM, MasteredRed said:
There is no specific limitation that is put on LUA scripting, however the limitations of the language itself while embedded in the game might be what you should look at.
They have shown in the dev video though a ship following a player due to a LUA script running on the ship. However, while I do note this, I will also note that automated weapons systems on dynamic constructs such as ships is not possible.
There are some more components to the LUA scripting system that we simply do not know, and I imagine the possibilities will be quite endless.
That ship/construct is following the player because the player is using a Remote Control Element. The actual "following" is not caused by a player-generated Lua script running on the construct. I'd imagine the Lua scripting will allow you to change the behaviour of the thing following you (e.g. speed, distance, altitude, etc.), rather than giving you the ability to issue a random "Follow me" command via scripting. Without the use of a Remote Control Element, nothing will follow you.
The limit on what can be done via Lua scripting will be determined by NQ to a great extent, because you can only manipulate the functions of an element (e.g. ship weapon) which are exposed by NQ in the scripting interface. So if NQ doesn't want a weapon to be automated, they simply won't provide a Fire.weapon() function for you to call in Lua.
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DU has more varied possible combat scenario's than any other MMO I'm aware of.
In DU we have the possibility of combat involving:
- Avatar vs Avatar
- Avatar vs Construct
- Construct vs Construct
All of these battles can potentially take place:
- on the planet surface (on land)
- on the planet surface (in or under water) *not planned for launch*
- in the planetary atmosphere
- in space
NQ is not a large dev team, and I expect that the combat mechanics for launch will be fairly basic, with things being expanded and refined "after release".
Some aspects of combat may simply be disallowed at launch, for the simple reason that there's not enough time to develop it into a satisfactory state in the limited time available. Otherwise NQ will probably have to postpone launch by 2 years so that they can fully develop all aspects of combat...
What are the minimum combat features you'd expect to see at launch ?
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DU-u-EVE ?
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12 minutes ago, MinerMax555 said:
limited inventory volume. Just make the BPs use 0.0 m³ and you're good.
As longs as you remain in the safe zone...
At this stage, we have no idea what the shape or limits of the inventory system in DU will be AFAIK.
What I do know is that managing 100's of BP's and copies will rapidly become a PITA if it's not a well-designed inventory system...
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1 hour ago, MinerMax555 said:
why would you have a limited amount in the first place?
From what we can assume, you can make unlimited blueprints. I don't see anything against that.You can make unlimited amounts of BP's and copies, but you'll have limited personal inventory space.
They have to be stored somewhere, and BP's are lootable AFAIK.
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Basic refining will be done in the inventory (e.g. iron + coal = steel), but more advanced processes will need to be run in external elements (e.g. refineries, smelters, etc), which will be constructed from the basic materials you refined in your inventory.
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1 hour ago, Hiztaar said:
Actually it was the idea, an offline kind of "Hangar" a la SC.
There simply aren't enough resources to tackle such a project.
There has been a suggestion that NQ should add a "creative mode" for building things in game to allow players to create blueprints without physically gathering all the resources first. Even that request was answered with "possibly some time after launch".
There's still a massive amount of development ahead for DU. And all that has to be tested, balanced, optimized and polished.
It would certainly be a nice toy to have, but I'd rather have the game launch 3 months earlier !
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It would be strange indeed if ships flying in the atmosphere couldn't attack structures on the planet surface, or even engage player avatars. Anti-construct defenses on bases would have to be able to counter both flying ships and hovercraft. Anti-personnel turrets will also be needed.
We'll have to wait for the PVP implementation to see how it all works out.
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Just be careful with the "replica" ideas.
Nobody will be any the wiser if you build a pixel-perfect copy of an X-wing in your single-player SE game.
But the moment that happens in an MMO where potentially tens of thousands of players will see it, buy and fly it, the owners of the original IP will quite likely have an issue with it.
- Dinkledash and Lethys
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From Nyzaltar's OP, we get the following:
QuoteFor the official release, the DAC system at the moment is supposed to be pretty simple: A player buy a DAC on the payment portal, he choose the character on which he want to drop the DAC and a moment later, the player can find the DAC in the character inventory.
It is also clear that NQ's original plan was to have DAC be unlootable items in the player inventory.
But due to player demand from the current community, NQ have undertaken to implement a "redemption system" similar to EVE's, where a "redeemed DAC" will be lootable. HOWEVER, due to the considerable extra dev time required, they cannot guarantee that it will be in place at launch.
But what about the DAC associated with pledges ?
Will those DAC be a "credit" on the payment portal, which can be assigned on-demand and in varying quantities to a character of your choice at any time ?
Or will they all be dumped into the inventory of the first character you create ?
Absent a fully functional redemption system at launch, DAC's should remain unlootable until the required redemption mechanics are implemented.
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My dislike for "improve-by-use" skill systems in MMO's stems from the fact that it inevitably leads to AFK botting, especially in PVP games, where people fear "falling behind" other players who have more play time than them. before you know it, everyone's botting in an attempt to either stay ahead or to catch up.
EVE and DU's planned time-based training means you can play the game without having to spend hours repetitively grinding skills so that you can be "viable" in PVP.
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Frankly, I think "pay-per-hour" would be a terrible idea for DU !
Players will very quickly start converting the time cost of ingame activities into RL money costs.
The forums will be full of posts demanding that mining should be "faster", because it costs X dollars per hour, which is waaaaay too much !
Reddit will have posts with detailed breakdowns of the "exhorbitant" RL cost of training skills in DU...
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Dumping resources "on the floor" certainly sounds like an option, but it has a security risk. Anyone can hoover-up that pile with their own nanoformer. You can't set RDMS permissions on a random pile of resources.
There will HAVE to be restrictions on inventory, otherwise "space-truckers" will be replaced by "space-couriers on bikes" !
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Services like Netflix use the flat-rate per month (subscription) model. You don't pay for what you watch, you pay for the ability to watch.
It works because the total volume of subscriber revenue is sufficient to cover costs and generate a profit. Some heavy users will get a bargain, while others that only watch 1 movie a month will get less value. But the sub is cheap enough to be attractive for the average user, because there's cross-subsidization taking place.
"Pay-per-view" services are generally far more expensive on a per-hour basis than those that charge a flat monthly fee.
"Pay-per-view" also increases the administration costs for the company. Detailed logs have to be kept for each customer, and the inevitable disputes over usage has to be handled by additional CS rep's.
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in Idea Box
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The KS basic goals include "a few alien creatures". So unless NQ decide not to honour all the KS promises, there will be a few "alien" animals on Alioth at launch.
But I doubt that there would be enough of them to justify a scanner and logbook combo...