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NanoDot

Alpha Team Vanguard
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  1. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from admsve in Realistic incentives for City building   
    Yeah, that's the usual response: "The game must be very "realistic", except it mustn't have the boring parts of RL that make up 90% of our daily lives"
     
    Cities in RL exist for reasons that cannot be duplicated in an MMO. In RL, people live in cities because it's the most likely place to find work (within a reasonable travel distance) and/or a mate. Neither of those needs exist in an MMO. The need to socialise in an MMO is easily met by a voice chat channel, there's no need for physical proximity to other players. Global chat takes the place of going to a bar and chatting to strangers.
     
    In RL, industry clusters around cities mainly because it's the best way to gain access to a big pool of labour, and because there's some economic benefit in being closer to the dozens of other industries that supply them with things they need. None of those reasons apply in MMO's.
     
    That's why MMO's have to provide specific (usually artificial) incentives to encourage players to concentrate together in the game world. Players are usually highly mobile, and they're playing because they want fun action, not because they want to RP an office cleaner on nightshift.
     
    In MMO's, players don't need to commute to work every day, or sleep 6 hours every night, or worry about freezing to death if they can't pay the heating bills in winter. In MMO's, players don't go home every night and watch some TV after a hard days questing... 
     
    In MMO's, cities are mostly the equivalent of RL shopping malls, players go there briefly when they need to buy stuff. Then they leave.
     
  2. Like
    NanoDot reacted to NQ-Naerais in Marketplace Performance Improvements   
    Hello Noveans,
     
    We realize that the districts currently represent a performance bottleneck, as they are a choke point between markets, institutes and the starting zone for new players. Even though we have identified performance improvements that should help solve these issues, we have decided to make some immediate changes to prevent these issues from affecting the performance for new players, until we are able to roll out these improvements.
     
    So we are making some temporary changes such as relocating many of the services you have come to know and expect in the districts: 
    New Stand Alone Markets will be moved approx. 2km from the associated district.  All pending orders will be transferred to the new market building.  All institutes will be removed from districts on Alioth and Sanctuary.  A new single Institute will be created near the Arkship.  Transport stations will be placed at all Districts to be able to get to the Institutes.   
    The institutes appear to be a heavy driver of performance issues, by removing them from higher traffic areas we hope to provide a better market experience for players overall. 
     
    Players who log out on one of the affected construct buildings may find themselves in a new location when returning post maintenance. We recommend bookmarking important places and construct locations. 
     
    As always, we appreciate your patience while we work, and welcome your feedback on the changes and performance improvements once complete.  We expect these changes will occur over the next few update cycles during October. 
     
    Sincerely,

    The Novaquark Team
     
  3. Like
    NanoDot reacted to NQ-Naerais in A Note About Bug Exploitations   
    Hello Noveans!
     
    We would like to thank you for your patience during the past few weeks as we have been incredibly focused on getting you all into the game. While we know there are still a few edge cases out there, we hope you’ve been enjoying your time in Dual Universe!
     
    A burning topic is known bugs surrounding duping, and their exploitation. We’d like to offer some clarifications on this. 
     
    We are aware of some bugs that were allowing players to dupe items and resources, and we are actively investigating  these. The process is however slow and labor intensive. Given how much time is involved, and how severe the outcome is, we want to make it clear that we are taking all exploits very seriously and they will carry heavy sanctions for abuse cases up to and including removal of player accounts and permanent bans.  
     
    We have a zero tolerance policy towards cheating and exploiting, as is clearly laid out in our Code of Conduct.
     
    For those who have encountered these bugs and already reported them, we thank you. There will be no sanctions on those accounts. We may balance gains if deemed necessary.  For those who have been knowingly abusing bugs, you have 48 hours to report your activities via a ticket here: support.dualthegame.com - your duped proceeds will be removed, but no further action will be taken. Please select Gameplay in the first form drop-down, select the “Rules & Policies” > “Exploits” category and use the subject “Self Report” For those who continue to exploit, and do not report it, your account will be banned without notice upon completion of our investigations.    
    While every person has their own sense of fun, it is important to remember that this is an MMO and that rules must be enforced to keep play fair and even. 
    We thank you for being a part of the Dual Universe  beta and for helping us keep the game fair and entertaining. 
     
    Sincerely, 
    The Novaquark Team
  4. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Istanicas in New World lol...   
    The way DU's safezones and Sanctuary moon system has been explained so far, it sounds like non-PVP'ers will have "safety" in less than 10% of the game world (if that much). So they can "play" in complete safety, but in a shoe-box...
     
    I'm not sure how appealing that will be.
  5. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Novarkian in Loners in an MMO like Dual Universe?   
    If they REALLY preferred playing grouped, they would CHOOSE grouped play, lol
     
    None of the "convenience" features you listed prevent group play...
  6. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Borb_1 in Loners in an MMO like Dual Universe?   
    I'm prepared to bet that the vast majority of MMO players actually spend more time playing "solo" than they spend in group activities !
     
    If it was the other way around, MMO design would not have evolved in the way that it did from the days of EQ and UO.
     
    When the majority is "doing it wrong", it's only a matter of time before "wrong" becomes the new "right"...
  7. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Murmandamus in Loners in an MMO like Dual Universe?   
    If they REALLY preferred playing grouped, they would CHOOSE grouped play, lol
     
    None of the "convenience" features you listed prevent group play...
  8. Like
    NanoDot reacted to Lethys in A Mechanic That Welcomes Defeat   
    So.....when we tell them to git gud and they still lose then they didn't follow that advice ?
     
    On a more serious note:
    Since there are no levels in DU nor classes, newbros always have a chance. Ingame skill levels work like in eve: you just get a bonus on a certain activity. This may range from 5 to 500% (numbers don't matter here). So a newbro can still help in a fight because he's actually viable, only less effective. If you just compare it to eve (only other game I played with a time based skill system) a newbro can do LOTS of things in a gang. He can forward scout, act as decoy, just keep off the grid for a while and come in late to kill/hold stragglers, bump enemies to hinder them from jumping and so on. Every player can do something and since DU uses a tab Target system, he can learn to use that to his advantage. Which is basically saying git gud xD
     
    I don't really see a reason why to apply such things nor HOW you would even do that. And I fail to see how it's "unfair" to newbros if a veteran who played for 5 years has an advantage. Or how that might hold the newkid off from doing pvp in the first place 
  9. Like
    NanoDot reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Recent Bans: Clarifications   
    Dear Community Members,
     
    As some of the Novaquark recent moderation and sanction actions haven’t been clearly understood by some, here are some explanations and clarifications. We are aware that members from “Dark Star Imperium” (DSI) and “New Genesis” think that the decisions taken by Novaquark have been unfair and/or feel like a punishment. It’s not a punishment and we limited the inconvenience to the minimum possible by just resetting the member list of the Organization. This has been done to remove all ghost accounts and make the involved Organizations restart on a healthier basis.
     
    We also made sure that at least one person in each of the involved Organizations can re-invite real members in the Organization:
    - CN_Firestorm for “Dark Star Imperium”
    - Chipfromearth/SpaceKitty for “New Genesis” (until the end of TMA’s ban)
     
    You are more than welcome to contact them to join theses Orgs again if you wish to do so.
    Keeping in mind that besides the cleaning of ghost accounts, nothing else has been removed. All community work/content related to these Organizations have been left untouched. We are also going to send an email to all ex-members to inform about the member list reset and offer them to join their former organization again.
     
    Regarding the ban of the leaders of these Organizations:

    We understand that seeing your leader banned might be frustrating. However, we want to make it clear that being at the head of a big Org does not give a free pass on toxic behavior and/or bad practices that could damage the Community as a whole. Being passionate, being young, creating quality content is no free pass for such things either. That’s why all the permanent bans decided recently are final. We are not giving such heavy sanctions with a light heart or on a whim. In more than four years, the number of community members who have been banned permanently from the community can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. We think it speaks volume... Some recent rumors say that the bans may be reversed or canceled. There is no ground to such rumor. It’s just disinformation. The fact that a banned member will “not tolerate that” has no weight either. It’s the Novaquark team’s call and the Novaquark team alone.
     
    Now, we want to give a fair warning to anyone wanting to challenge Novaquark’s decisions openly, directly or indirectly. If a community member has been permanently banned from the Community, he’s excluded from the game, which means he shouldn’t be in any Organization anymore. Reinviting or keeping a community member banned permanently could have serious consequences (such as Organization disbanding but not limited to that, as this could trigger other sanctions for those actively supporting banned members).

    Now to address some specific questions/rumors:

    We exceptionally give some details to the Community to show that we are not banning randomly or without a serious reason. We do it only because some banned members try to take advantage of the confidentiality policy to enforce their own narrative and play the victim, and attempt to misinform other players. Don’t expect the Novaquark team to give anymore information on this case or the possible future ones.
     
    “Banning Sakej99 was a mistake. He’s a different person from FullSend/Lime”.
    The Novaquark team is aware that Sakej99 and FullSend/Lime are different persons. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the permanent ban affects FullSend/Lime will also affect accounts he may have access to (by account sharing, which is forbidden in our EULA). This is one of the main reasons why we are so serious about forbidding account sharing. If someone sanctioned got access to your account, the sanction can be extended to the said account even if you haven’t done anything wrong.
     
    “FullSend/Lime has been unfairly banned, with no prior warning.”
    First, for the infraction this community member has committed, there will never be a warning as it was obviously utterly wrong: if a false report is sent to the Customer Support in an attempt to make another community member banned, the one getting the ban is the one who sent the false report. And in this case, indeed, there is no prior warning.

    Second, FullSend/Lime is probably the person in the community who would deserve multiple permanent bans (if it was possible), due to previous infractions in addition to the most recent one. Playing the card “no prior warning” is just complete dishonesty and denial of assuming the consequences of his actions during the past couple of years. Here is a short list of the infractions he has done in the past:
    - Asking members of one of his former organization to give login and password of their accounts to him.
    - Using accounts of other players.
    - Creating ghost accounts.
    - Using a loophole in the organization management system on the Community Portal in an attempt to sabotage/destroy an organization by using the account of another player.
    - Participating in a doxxing attempt.
    - Always denying the facts or trying to minimize them, to the point of reaching self-absolving, to avoid dealing with the consequences (a practice reiterated with his last infraction).
    Due to the history of this community member, there was no reason for “prior warning” with his last infraction. He has been warned too many times already. Mistakes are not erased just because it happened “long ago”.
     
    By default, Organisations where FullSend was the founder have their ownership transmitted to the oldest member with the ability to create an organization, which gave the following results:
    - CN_Firestorm becomes the new owner of “Dual Insider”.
    - Gravetender becomes the new owner of “Project Azimuth”.
    If you are a member of one of these organisations and you want to discuss these changes, please contact the new owner of the Organization.
     
    (About DSI) “There has been a total wipe of the parties to kill the conflict”     
    Wrong. If that was the case, we would have dismantled “DSI” directly and ban both DSI leaders, which would have included CN_Firestorm. You can assume that if it’s not the case, this is precisely because there is a difference between CN_Firestorm and Primarch. This sanction wasn’t against DSI. The sanction was against Primarch.
     
    Some of the banned members may say “They will be back”.
    It’s up to them. However, if we catch them, they will be banned without further notice.
     
    Best regards,
    The Novaquark team.
     
  10. Like
    NanoDot reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in "DSI / TSU / UEE" investigation   
    Dear community members,
     
    A few weeks ago, we took a stance regarding “out of the game”/IRL-related practices to discredit, threaten or shame publicly another Community Member (even if the involved person is guilty of several infractions) that could be an opponent in-game.
     
    As the DSI (Dark Star Imperium) / TSU (Trinary Star Union)  / UEE (United Earth Empire) case blew out of proportion during January, we investigated.
     
    We are really serious about differentiating real life from the game itself. Unfortunately some didn’t take our stance seriously. We gave them a chance to come clean in a private discussion and restart on an healthier basis. They didn’t take the opportunity for what it was: a last chance.
    As they preferred “playing dumb” with Novaquark staff, we can’t have any trust that they won’t continue. Therefore we have decided to ban permanently those Community Members for various reasons (all not being banned for the same reason(s)):
    Not being honest towards Novaquark staff. Making and encouraging ghost accounts. Abusive recruitment practices. Practising real life harassment and/or threatening another player. Making false report to Novaquark’s Customer Support in an attempt to make ban someone they dislike. Spreading real life information without the involved person’s consent, aka Doxxing.  
    (strong reminder: even if a person gives you real life information about him/her, it’s not okay to share these information with ANYONE else without his/her consent. You can’t predict how the other person(s) will use this information and if he/she/they won’t share it again. If some trouble occurs following this sharing, you can be held legally responsible).
     
    This might seem an extreme sanction but this shows how serious we are when we say we are not going to let toxic attitude and practices spread in the Community. Our goal to build a healthy and friendly community isn’t just a figure of speech. Anyone caught to spread or encourage any toxic behavior will be removed from the Community as it will be considered as damaging the Community and negating Novaquark staff efforts (without saying that it’s time consuming and a waste of our resources).
     
    Saying it’s a long time grudge coming from before the arrival in the Dual Universe community is absolutely not a valid excuse. If someone has a personal grudge with another community member, he/she should either:
    Leave it at the doorstep and/or settle it in private and peacefully with no one else involved. Contact directly (and only) Novaquark staff if the issue persists.
    The moment someone uses the Dual Universe community as a tool for IRL revenge, he/she is not welcome anymore. We’re all here to have fun. It should always stay that way.
     
    Therefore, the following Community Members have been permanently banned from the Community:
    Lime / Fullsend / mmtheboss / Sakej99 [DSI] Primarch Zelevas / TharisUEE Melkor_Morgoth
      In addition the DSI Organization member list has been reset, and the Novaquark Team has appointed CN_Firestorm as the new owner of the Organization, should he accept to take a fresh start on a healthy basis.
     
    We also give a warning to all those who were indirectly involved (with the evidence we found) but not actively participating in the recent community troubles. Next time, there won’t be any new warning. If you become involved against your will in some shady real life activities, you have only two healthy options:
    Leaving the group doing such activity immediately. Report it to Novaquark staff.  
    If you stay in such group without leaving or reporting it and the group is caught, you take the risk to get the same sanction as those actively involved.
    This investigation has taken (or more precisely wasted) a lot of time from Novaquark staff. We really don’t like to intervene in players affairs. However, if there is a chance that such affairs damage the Community by toxic behavior, you can expect Novaquark staff to step in. We hope we won’t have to take the same measures again.
     
    Best regards,
    The Novaquark Team.
     
  11. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from DragonShadow in Realistic incentives for City building   
    I'd imagine that power needs (i.e. electricity supply) can quite effectively be used to organically create settlements and eventually cities.
     
    If a large power generator is much more efficient to run than a small one, the economic benefit will naturally draw people together.
     
    Money talks...
  12. Like
    NanoDot reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in [Reminder] Line between legit PvP and unhealthy RL behavior   
    Since the beginning of the year, we have witnessed unhealthy behavior from several members in the Community.
    As many are relatively new and some older members seem to lose focus of Novaquark's vision for Dual Universe, here is a strong reminder.
     
    Dual Universe is a game where there will be wars, power struggles, conflicts, plots, spying, information warfare and betrayals. It's all fine... as long as it stays within the framework of the game.
     
    We are aware that a fair amount of people have a hard time to differentiate in-game behavior and real life behavior. While someone can be infamous, merciless and twisted in-game, that doesn't give him/her the right to forget elementary good manners outside of the game. Following the concept "the end justifies the means" will never be a valid reason here.
     
    Novaquark expects from each community member to:
    1) respect the EULA and forum/Official Discord code of conduct
    2) be respectful toward any other member or at least neutral toward the members you don't like outside of the game, whether they are newcomers or veterans.
    (neutral means: no free provocation, no real life insults or real life threats, as already mentioned in forum and Discord chart)
    3) avoid using any real-life conflict, unhealthy real-life behavior or drama (made on purpose or not) as part of the game (because it's not) as this can escalate in very toxic and unnecessary situations.
    4) avoid using any underhanded real life "tricks" to gain an advantage in-game. This includes:
    - real life threats or real life harassment with anonymous accounts outside of the game (on Discord or any other online means).
    - doxxing, doxxing attempts, or any behavior like gathering real-life information that could lead to doxxing.
    - leaking publicly private discussions about real-life topics (especially when showing only carefully selected pieces with the deliberate intention of biasing the facts) without the agreement of all people involved. This also includes Novaquark’s investigations that haven’t been publicly announced and about which you may have been informed through a private channel/room or a private discussion.
    - making false accusations, creating NDA leaks or false NDA leaks to accuse someone else with the goal of making them punished or banned from the game.
     
    As a company, we want to provide a fun and welcoming experience to our fans and can’t tolerate inappropriate real life behaviors that potentially ruin the gaming experience or worse, lead to real life consequences.
     
    If the Novaquark staff gets enough evidence on any of those behaviors, the team may give any sanctions deemed appropriate without further notice.
    If you see some community members having inappropriate behavior, please point them toward this forum thread.

    Best Regards,
    The Novaquark Team.
  13. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Ben Fargo in Antigravity drives discussion   
    Sure, but no amount of "alignment bumping" will damage the target. You still need to bring tacklers and enough firepower to do the job.
     
    "Bumping" an antigrav platform to below 1000m altitude will have the potential to make it crash, without the "attackers" needing to fire a single shot. So the whole intended design of combat (knocking out the Pulsors) will be circumvented.
     
    The solution is as simple and cheesy as the "bumping" tactic: make antigrav platforms immune to bumping !
  14. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Ben Fargo in Stealth, Fog of War, ability to hide Territory hex claim.   
    Yup, the implementation of PVP will be a "watershed moment" for DU, because that's when everyone will find out how viable their intended play style will be.
     
    Hard decisions will have to be made, either adapt or find a new game to play...
  15. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Anaximander in Stealth, Fog of War, ability to hide Territory hex claim.   
    Yup, the implementation of PVP will be a "watershed moment" for DU, because that's when everyone will find out how viable their intended play style will be.
     
    Hard decisions will have to be made, either adapt or find a new game to play...
  16. Like
    NanoDot reacted to Lethys in Stealth, Fog of War, ability to hide Territory hex claim.   
    The focus isn't on you - If you don't claim a tile then noone will instantly know you're there. But ppl like me will try to find ppl in their hideouts. Yes there are thousands of players and in that alone is a huge advantage. Ppl will have a hard time finding YOU anyway. But you can't hide forever and shouldn't bei allowed to do so. Only when you take extreme measures like flying far away, Not building big things, Not claiming territories and other stuff.
     
    Claimed territory needs to be marked somehow though. Imagine entering orbit and doing a quick long range scan. Then you just knowe that 6 of 55894 tiles are taken. Nothing more. Then you have to fly there to get a better scan which allows you (because of skills, modules and such) to determine which org or player claimed that tile. 
     
    Who knows If there will be scanners for players? But structures like TCUs, bases and ships can be detected via radar. It would bei much more fun and better gameplay If they did some countermeasures to that. Build your base out of antiradarium to block radar. Then the guy needs to do a thermal scan. If you have a major mining base there which needs alot of heat to run (furnaces) then you'll emit thermal energy which can be detected. If you build so deep that even that is blocked then you still need electricity which could emit EM-waves which could bei detected via some other scanner.
     
    All those scanners and countermeasures would need special skills and special modules, need energy and fuel to balance them. Such a system would be way more fun to have because it doesn't make you inherently stealthy or inherently good at detecting others but it would need critical thinking, good planning and actual work to stay hidden or detect others.
  17. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from 0something0 in Place your gaming Curriculum Vitae here!   
    I'll confine this to titles with some relevance to DU:
     
    Wing Commander series (all of 'em) Freelancer Privateer Homeworld X-Universe series (all of 'em, but X3:Reunion is my favorite so far) Star Wars Galaxies (I own a Collector's Edition box ) Planetside 1 & 2 Elite:Dangerous (briefly) EVE-Online (first 6 years after launch)  
    and 4500 hours of aerial combat in War Thunder !
     
     
  18. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from ProphetZarquon in Creatures   
    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).
  19. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Hades in Question to NQ: server up time   
    It doesn't have to come with ironclad guarantees and be written in stone, lol
     
    It would just be nice to get some idea of what NQ's plans are at the moment with regards to extending test times, and what they're considering for the different alpha stages...
  20. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Hades in Did someone say.... Wednesday? :O   
    Lol, sure, if DU wasn't the only choice in that category, it might have been a factor !
  21. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Bambino in The Economy   
    The pace of game play in DU will most probably have a marked effect on the volume of market transactions.
     
    In EVE, gathering resources is a large-scale operation that produces huge volumes of material in a relatively short time. The processing of those resources into ships is a simple operation (compared to DU). EVE needs to produce 1000's of ships and modules a day, because 1000's are destroyed every day.
     
    In DU, the industrial output will be much lower than EVE, because every step in the production chain is slower and more complicated. In DU, resources have to be located, then mined by hand, which is a few orders of magnitude slower than EVE, where the location of resources are a known quantity, and mining is done on an industrial scale.
     
    And not only will the daily volume of resources in DU be lower, but the potential use of those resources will be split between infrastructure (planetary base building, space stations, stargate construction, etc) and shipbuilding. So demand for resources might be much higher than supply.
     
    In EVE, there are many small-scale mining ops (commercial mining) that continuously bring resources to market.
    In DU, much of that small-scale mining output will be consumed by personal building projects, which means less resources going to market.
     
    In EVE, ship losses can be replaced by making money from NPC missions or belt-ratting. That allows many players to exist purely as consumers of player-made goods. DU doesn't have that option, so everyone will be ultimately dependant on mining to generate income.
  22. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from Bambino in Faucets and sinks   
    If NQ's plans change in that regard, it will have to take into account the extra development time of designing, coding and testing the PVE content. None of that is currently being budgeted for AFAIK. It would not be a trivial exercise, unless they add something simple like "fetch and deliver" missions that don't require combat.
     
    The beta phase will probably be the first test of the "mineable ore buying scheme" that currently is planned as the sole cash faucet in DU. 
  23. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from blazemonger in Faucets and sinks   
    If NQ's plans change in that regard, it will have to take into account the extra development time of designing, coding and testing the PVE content. None of that is currently being budgeted for AFAIK. It would not be a trivial exercise, unless they add something simple like "fetch and deliver" missions that don't require combat.
     
    The beta phase will probably be the first test of the "mineable ore buying scheme" that currently is planned as the sole cash faucet in DU. 
  24. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from MookMcMook in Dev Progress   
    Yes, it's pure speculation and entirely my own opinion. 
     
    NQ have never given an estimate for 24/7 availability AFAIK. Perhaps the promised "new roadmap" will give a rough estimate in that regard, but I doubt it.
    Unless I'm totally wrong, 24/7 access is too far away to even risk an estimate at this point. People tend to take developer estimates as hard facts, regardless of how many disclaimers accompany them.
  25. Like
    NanoDot got a reaction from MookMcMook in Dev Progress   
    There won't be 24/7 server access for a long time yet. Perhaps by the second half of 2019 if all goes well...
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