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vertex

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  1. Like
    vertex 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.
  2. Like
    vertex got a reaction from CalenLoki in Ship Class naming standards?   
    I don't think the idea is to have predefined classes that players *have* to chose from - or is it? I wouldn't like that very much
     
    As I understand it "the idea" is to have a thread (about ship classes) that will serve as general chit-chat, right? Quote: "I think there should be a thread" - okays, nice idea, do it, I think the thread should go into the General Discussions forum tho 
     
    Anyhow, since we are here now, I think the classes will be...
    Hovercraft (can't cloud) Plane (can't space) Shuttle (can't... errr... outperform other classes) Spaceship (can't atmosphere) ´
  3. Like
    vertex got a reaction from ShinyMagnemite in Request for better Forum Icon Consistency   
    They're white when there's something new to read and grey when there's nothing new.
     
    Simple: I'm a moron. I see white - I click
  4. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Alluysl in RGB lights   
    I like the general idea
     
    But I don't think we need three inputs. LUA scripting should be way more sophisticated than wasting 3 connectors for 24bit color settings. I guess if this will be realized, we'd rather get proper light setting methods for the LUA object on the DPU 
     
    for key,value in pairs(self.StatusLights) do     self.StatusLights[key].setColorRGB(230, 32, 8) end  
    <edit>
    Regarding the code: to change the color of all your status related illumination, you'd first add all those lights to a table and then use a method to go through all of them and set the color. I've put fixed values for RGB above, but you could pass them as arguments to your method and use something like self.SetStatusLightRGB(230, 32, 8) on a button element labeled "Enable Alert!".
    </edit>
     
    Or .setColorHSL() maybe?
    What happens on .setColorRGBA() then? Do we get octarine!? 
  5. Like
    vertex reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Raming ship   
    Hi everyone,

    @namco:
    As you are new to the forum, This is the first warning.
    As you are supposed to have read the forum rules before posting, please respect them.
    If you don't know where to find them, here is the topic.
    Insulting other community members is not ok. 
    In the case you would insist in this behavior, it could result in a ban.
    Thank you for your understanding.
     
    @gyurka66, @Aesir & @namco:
     
    Regarding "ramming ships", it's not planned to implement such mechanics, for two reasons (and not just one):
    1) This is not properly scalable (at least with current hardware tech & bandwith standards).
    2) This would cause game balance issues.
     
    To keep it simple:
    We will only implement mechanics that are scalable and that can be balanced properly.
    We won't implement anything that couldn't be scalable when applied to thousands of constructs and/or people concentrated in a small area. Unfortunately, Physics applied to voxels are among the things that enter this category. So no ramming ships.
      We won't implement anything that could be abused for griefing or unbalanced gameplay. Even if the technical obstacle mentioned above is solved, it's already well known that some people will install some engines on some big rocks and will use it as cheap mass destruction weapons with little to no solution to protect against, with no risk taken for the aggressor. We won't implement game mechanics that unbalance the "risk vs reward" concept. So no ramming ships. About the "why cpu is used, why not gpu?".
    Yes a lot of things are calculated by gpus nowadays, physics included... when it's related to 3D meshes.
    However, everything related to voxels are still (mostly) calculated with the cpu, and this includes physics applied to voxels. That's why it's necessary to have a decent cpu, with AVX support. If new generations of gpus start to be more "voxel friendly" then it might change some aspects of the problem, but for now it's just wishful thinking.
     
    Also keep in mind that servers have a cost, and the servers we need are not cheap. 
    Some games can be hosted on servers that aren't really expensive. Unfortunately Dual Universe doesn't enter in this category.
    Even if adding gpus was a viable solution, the cost should remain reasonable if players don't want to see the monthly subscription rise accordingly. 
     
    As this idea has been discussed several times, with the same answer, this thread is going to be locked.
     
    Best Regards,
    Nyzaltar.
     
     
  6. Like
    vertex reacted to Alluysl in RGB lights   
    So if data links can carry non-binary information (which I think they can, for screens for example), why not having a light with three inputs for 8-bit values (integers between 0 and 255), one for red, one for green and one for blue? We could have the lighting changing depending on the situation, for example red if the base is attacked or green the day and blue the night (light detectors btw?)
  7. Like
    vertex reacted to Lethys in Ship Class naming standards?   
    Or:
    Puking Unicorn, Property of Lethys
    by Ben Dover built at ß78zh7zj7k0
     
    still don't really see a benefit here. The only things that are important are the numbers - why waste time with some random english words to search for the right ship for you when you could just search for:
    8 atmo thrusters
    6 space thrusters
    10 turrets
    acceleration > 1MN
    turning rate > 10rad
    ...
  8. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Veln in Ship Class naming standards?   
    TheBlender: Ya, me ken! I wos jost doin a pun.. 
     
    Vellnn: Hey, what's wrong with that? In fact I already thought about a small orbital glider named "CVAN Megalore" and designated as "Multipurpose Carrier of Ark-Battlestar Class". Later maybe a capital ship called "Rural Speeder MK 2¼" classified as "Medium Sized Hovercraft". I'm especially fond of the "one quarter" part in the designation. No? 
  9. Like
    vertex got a reaction from TheBlender in Ship Class naming standards?   
    I don't think the idea is to have predefined classes that players *have* to chose from - or is it? I wouldn't like that very much
     
    As I understand it "the idea" is to have a thread (about ship classes) that will serve as general chit-chat, right? Quote: "I think there should be a thread" - okays, nice idea, do it, I think the thread should go into the General Discussions forum tho 
     
    Anyhow, since we are here now, I think the classes will be...
    Hovercraft (can't cloud) Plane (can't space) Shuttle (can't... errr... outperform other classes) Spaceship (can't atmosphere) ´
  10. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Seveen in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  11. Like
    vertex got a reaction from NanoDot in Raming ship   
    Just a note of personal preference: I really don't like ram tactics for sanbox games where players design their own ships.
     
    True, I am a strong supporter of the #edprotestgoat (Goat will ram you anyways, David!), but in ED the ship designs are fixed. In a game where the ram tactics option would make "ram capability" a single valid construction goal, it would directly oppose the micro management of the weapon and defensive equipment options NQ will give us.
     
    It's a bit difficult for me to put this in English... but it's about balancing combat. You'll have weapons and counter measures. The more complex these are, the more tactical depth we will experience as players. Introducing the option to ignore all of this implied gameplay, by building voxel torpedoes and such, is not only about trolling, but about what players will/can chose to do.
     
    As I said - it's a personal preference and you may disagree. I can even see your point there - freedom of choice and all. But, on this very personal level and for this very topic, I really disliked the "Throw a construct at em!" tactic that is possible in other games with player built constructs. In my opinion it leads to low-end warfare (mediocre at best, because I really want to use the term "mediocre") and a dull snowball fight experience overall.
     
    Design of a battleship should be more complex than just slamming dem hammer plates in the front and get dem biggest drives in da back, yo
  12. Like
    vertex reacted to NanoDot in Raming ship   
    NQ are the ones who said they will not be allowing ship ramming as a game feature.
     
    Whether it's possible or not is irrelevant, they mainly don't want it in the game because of the disruptive "cheese" tactics it will allow.
     
    I agree with NQ in this regard...
  13. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Sh4d0ws in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  14. Like
    vertex reacted to CoreVamore in Gravity Plating   
    Spaceships naturally have no gravity (well unless spinning or accelerating). I'm not in the pre - alpha to know how this is being handled in any ship that a person is not sitting in, i.e. big enough to walk around in.
     
    So I'm proposing gravity plating (maybe as a technology) that a builder places on any surface designed to be the 'ground' within the space vehicle. This will allow walking within an open area of a ship, as well as vertical 'transport tubes', which would be lined on all sides with gravity plating to create zero gravity within the tube.
     
    It may also help the dev team in linking avatars within a ship - last thing anyone wants is a ship to accelerate leaving all the non seated avatars floating in space.... or worse.... crushed against a bulkhead o.O
     
    Anyway, thats my 2c, hope Im not suggesting something that has already been suggested lol
     
    Cheers
     
    CoreVamore
  15. Like
    vertex reacted to Morand in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    This topic is only about design, not production, and I agree with most of the points on the 1st post.
     
    This game want to be hard for everyone, but it want to be realistic as well. And you can't think that build an entire ship from scratch with real materials is realistic.
    Today, engineers are designing full products in 3D on computers before to start building it to ensure that the building phase will cost as little as possible. In the future, you can be 100% sûre this approach will be the same, even more in DU if you have to hire many people to defend your shipyard.
     
    Having a kind of "Holo deck" in DU with no material cost and no real matter is a realistic and good solution for designers, and it doesn't remove the difficulty to design, nor to build. And it is also a good way to allow multiple people to work on the same project (equivalent as the actual system).
     
    Another good point about this system, since matter is only photons, is that you could anytime unload a project from a "holo deck" to load another one. So multiple team could work in the same "holo deck" at different hours.
  16. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Miamato in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  17. Like
    vertex got a reaction from huschhusch in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  18. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Morand in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  19. Like
    vertex reacted to Lethys in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    Pls no free cam, that wouldn't fit very well with DU.
     
    I like the idea so far, but tbh: we probably won't see it in action. And even if, maybe only way way later and not at release.
     
    I get why people want it and that's fine but first and foremost this game isn't about building. 
    It's about rebuilding society, communication, emergent gameplay and socializing. So while I get why builders want to have this, I have to play devils advocate here: this is no building sim. You will (and should!) Have a hard time building stuff imho, as it's more rewarding. You have to try different shapes, combinations and utilize different tools (which should be in-game) but you shouldn't be able to do smth for free. You shoup need to hire guys for defense, mining, production and yes, a big construct should mean you sink hundreds of thousands or millions of quanta into that project.
     
    Not necessarily directed at this idea, just my 2 cents in general
  20. Like
    vertex reacted to Emma Roid in Travel, Big ships & Blueprints   
    I am really looking forward to the pre-alpha, but as an 8-year Eve Online veteran and almost 2 years of Space Engineers I have a few concerns/recommandations. I am curious how other people think about this, and if the devs said anything regarding these topics.
     
    My concerns are: 
    Travel should be slow Large ships should be full of equipment Blueprint use should be limited.  
    Let me explain :).
     
    Travel
    In Eve online you can go to the central trading hub (Jita) with a couple of carriers or jumpfreighters in less than an hour from anywhere in the 7500 systems. 
    The introduction of cariers, jump freighters and jump beacon networks (over the years) killed off local trade hubs, and most of the deep space industry. Deep space / 0.0 is now mostly just used for (moon)mining and alliance wars. Trading is mostly limited to the center zone and the profit margins are so low most people do not bother. It also had the side-effect that empires got too big: it is so easy to have fast moving roving fleets cross the universe the empires got bigger and bigger. I miss the early years where you could set out with a group of friends, find yourself an empty solar-system and build yourselves a home. Those days are long gone in Eve-Online: you have to negotiate a rent from an empire, then mine your ass off paying that rent, or you sign up for endless grinding fleet service but never fight for your own home. (this is why I stopped with Eve-online a few years ago)
    To avoid this, travel should be slow:
    I think we should not have stargates in this game: that would make big empires too easy. People would just restrict their use to their own alliance to get a war advantage. I think 12 hours flying or so to the next solar-system is fine to start with (was mentioned in one of the videos). Maybe you can introduce a warp drive so that travel to moons and panets within a solarsystem is a bit quicker, but to the next solar system should take hours (at least 1 or 2 hours I would say, enough so that it is a real expedition, not just a little hop and back). This makes trade more viable, with better profit margins (you could even pay for getting your ship moved while you are offline?: dock it in a huge ship as in the Dune books for instance?)
    As long as all the basic building components can be found in each solar system there is no need for fast travel. Slow travel will create many local economies instead of one big one, give room for real exploring, make trade and local industry viable. It will make the universe feel big. It will also mean that many people from two sides of the universe will never meet, but I see that as a plus, not a problem.
     
    Big ships
    In Space engineers, when you build a really big battleship, it is mostly empty space: the power plants, oxygen plants, etc. take very little space. For the rest its an endless repeat of engines and guns, but they slap on on the outside. Inside it is mostly empty space. I do not like that. This way there is no real reason to build a big battleship other than the look: a smaller one is just as strong, and easier to armor.
    I would suggest that in DU the equipment should be BIG. And I would also suggest lots of supporting equipement.
    For Instance: say a large shield generator can be made stronger with one or more capaciters to handle peak loads, and they need 1 or more cooling systems so it overloads slower, they all need to be linked to a control unit to configure these settings, but they need to physically close to work. Then add that when a shield generator overloads, it explodes (seems very reasonable). This forces you to armor the room on the inside. Follow up with making the shield area it covers a limited sized disk, not a sphere. The effect will be that if you want a battleship to be shielded, you need a series of armored rooms full of equipment.
    Repeat this type of thing for large guns, engines, power supply, sensor arrays etc, and you get a naturally big ship. I think a large ship focused for battle should just have room for living quarters and a few small ship bays, but for the rest be full of equipment.
    (I am speculating stuff like this fits with the game engine, and should not take much performance as the supporting equipment can just be calculated through as improved stats for the shield module).
    A positive side effect is that large trading ships - that DO need lots of empty space - will always be more vulnerable than a battleship of the same size.
     
    Blueprints
    I like the blueprint idea to store and recreate your personal designs. But I think it is a bad idea to make mass production too easy (also an experiance from Eve online). In the end somebody will come up with an optimal design for a small scout, miner, fighter etc, and then everyone will just endlessly copy that design. I think we all want there to be lots of variations in ship design.
    Standards might still happen, but I think we can fight to keep diversity by limiting the blueprint functionality. One way of doing this would be to make the use difficult (as in Space Engineers you see the blueprint in space, and then have to slowly welt it together from the inside out: very hard to do for large blueprints). You could also make it so that you can reproduce your blueprint, but only 1 reproduced ship of the blueprint can exists in DU: that way you limit it to personal use as a sort of 'save game', but not stimulate mass production. Wat would be the dead of ship variation is the buying and selling of blueprints, I hope we do not get that.
    As I expect some wipes in the alpha and beta phases of the game the blueprint is a great help, but personally I hope that it is dropped when the game is out for real. Losing a ship should hurt, and not just for the materials: it should take time and effort to create a new one. 
    This will limit piracy, because it makes piracy more time-consuming and harder to make profitable, and it will limit war: nobody is going to trow their hard-build ships away because an alliance leader has a temper tantrum. War will come when a group of people feel it is a just cause.
     
    Ok, so far the 3 topics running through my mind lately. How do others feel on these topics? Is this all old news and already sorted? 
     
     
  21. Like
    vertex reacted to SirJohn85 in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    I like this idea.
     
    Somehow, it reminds of the Iron Man scene:
     
     
  22. Like
    vertex got a reaction from SirJohn85 in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  23. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Mr_Kamikaze in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  24. Like
    vertex got a reaction from Oije in Ship Design Atelier (Holo Deck)   
    First I want to gather distance from what has been raised already: creative mode and the like. I have searched and found the "Creative Mode" thread and while it kinda addresses the same issue, I consider it another "game mode" that would be separate from the "real" universe (ehem... just let me use the term "real" without quotes from now on - don't slap me).
     
    Atelier? Holo Deck? Holo Dock? Holo Shipyard?
    I guess I don't need to describe the atelier (holo deck) in detail - you all know the Star Trek Holo Deck, where people can create a holographic illusion that they can even interact with, or take damage from if security protocols have been disabled - it looks and feels real, but really is just an illusion/projection within a limited area.
     
    What makes this different from Creative Mode?
    Applied to Dual Universe and the role of ship designer it would mean that the designer could start by building a first atelier (static construct) which may be rather small, but lets him create concepts of dynamic constructs that fit into the room. I think the Star Trek Holo Deck is infinitely large when switched on, but this would create a "seperate world/instance" within the real world of DU and I think that would imply many issues and players hiding in a tiny spot that inside might be huge. Don't know.
     
    Second reason why I think the atelier should be just as big as the inside of the construct: designers would start small and work their way up. As this is a game and you probably aim for some kind of progression, it would be sensible to not have the one week old player design a Star Destroyer (executor- or eclipse-class, hehe) in his tiny 3x3m atelier.
     
    Third reason: it's a building in the real world, visible by other players. It adds prestige, too. It's where your company works and where other players (friends, clients) may be granted access and look at your progress.
     
    But how on Alioth would one fit an executor class star destroyer into a building that has to fit into a TCU tile!?
    Good thing you ask! Because you don't and because you shouldn't. Two reasons:
    You don't really want to have ships of this size equipped with atmospheric thrusters to launch from a planet. Once the designer progresses to a point where he could build something like this, he'd have his own space dock - he'd have his own "holo atelier shipyard", where giant rails run along starboard/backboard, topside/keel, bow/stern, which mount projector equipment to get the planning phase done.  
    Resources/Maintenance?
    You'd have to feed the atelier with power to run the projectors - but those projections don't need material as you can't take them away anyways. You might want to secure your endeavours tho as you leave the safe zone to create bigger stuff.
     
    More benefits?
    you could configure the projector to disable clipping and or reduce opacity you could switch to wireframe, which would be bliss (if you ever created a 3d model using design software, you know it can be hard to track down hidden surfaces that don't serve any purpose, but just bloat your model) you could switch voxels on/off as well as components on/off (easier to link fully enclosed components if no voxels are in the way) you could move, raise or lower the construct without having to worry about gravity you could switch to simulation mode in order to enter a projected cockpit and move some meters around within your atelier - speed off and your character will smash into the wall, while your construct swooshes through it and is gone (so you need to reset relative projection position) you could have guides (lines/planes) projected to your workspace - lines to align stuff and planes to view cross sections or set a mirror plane, without having to calculate double/triple/quad resource cost (as there are no resource costs) everything this device can do for you would neither break the consistent universe, nor have people vanishing into thin air, because they suddenly are in "a different game mode" of course you could still just start building - trial and error, get that thing in the air and all that - but you'd be lacking some tools and it would have the full cost in resources Freedom of Choice! This would be an option to excel at something you love - at the same time it would not be mandatory. Your choice, mate! immersion, immersion, immersion..  
    Modularity of design and construction
    All holographic constructs would be just that - hollow projections. They would not take up real space. This means you would place your projector/-s, start designing your construct and at the same time you could in fact place the core unit where you just planned it and start building the real thing as if you did a colour by numbers ("Malen nach Zahlen" in German). Your company/organization could take in someone specialized on construction/building, who helps on this process.
     
    Projectors would be an asset just like doors or cores or engines - they would need players to build them, they would need resources to be built, they could have limited projection capacities in "supported construct dimension and/or volume" - again this means scalability - this means progressing through the game - this means having something to achieve, to work for. The largest stuff doesn't come cheap, but the biggest XXL of projectors coult have clustering capability, so you could connect it with other XXL projectors to create the giant holo shipyard atelier I mentioned above.
     
    Final statement
    I'm not 100% sure if I thought of everything - but seeing the threads around creative mode, offline mode, single player stuff, creators needs, clients needs, freelancers needs, and the polarization it sometimes causes, I think this is a direction that could serve the needs of all sides. Designers could create blueprints while they wouldn't vanish from the rest of the world, but be an essential part of it.
     
    I did the search - maybe this has been here already? I hope I didn't miss it. Yeah, I've seen the note in the "Creative Mode" thread, that something like this "might" come as an addon after release. No problem with that! It's just an idea and open for discussion. Please, add your thoughts - I'm craving for feedback, as I've got a hunch this could be awesome.
     
    Merci pour votre considération.
  25. Like
    vertex reacted to Kurock in KO Mechanic   
    Before we can start with the KO mechanic, here is a quick recap of the current death mechanic in Dual Universe
    As death penalties go, financial loss, full body looting and location displacement are only beaten in harshness by perma-death (which thankfully, DU does not have).
    Other MMOs have death prevention mechanics. For example, Guild Wars 2 has a weakened downed state where the player character can crawl back from the brink of death or get a last shot in before collapsing.  Albion Online and the future Chronicles of Elyria both have (sometimes) knock out states where the player character is incapacitated rather that outright dying.
     
    Potential DU knock-out game mechanic
    For massive damage, like from a ships gigantic cannon, or face-planting into a planet at 200+km/h, a instant trip to the resurrection node makes sense. In other cases e.g. small arms fire and not too far falls, instead the players avatar could be knocked out instead. 
    While KO'd
    The player cannot act or move. Potentially even looking around would be limited. The player always has the option to force a respawn.  The amount of time spent in a KO state could depend on many factors, such as damage taken, armor, skills, time since last KO etc.  The players avatar can be looted for a smaller subset of items they are carrying e.g. weapons held in hand. Potentially limited bloodshot vision. This aids in deciding whether to hit that respawn button or not. After the time is up (could be a 20 seconds to minutes) the avatar can get up again with minimal health and potentially a limited time debuff.  
    Why a KO mechanic?
    Incapacitation gives more options:  
    A pirate boarding party that just wants goods, can incapacitate, take their pick and leave the tree to bear fruit for them again later. There is also a chance that friends may be near enough to protect the KO'd avatar and get them back on their feet. The player stays in the action a little longer (even if it is just to accept a coup de grâce from the enemy) Penalties (be it RP or with a reputation system) could be heavier for killing rather than incapacitating.  
    Would you like to see a KO mechanic in DU? Do you have suggestions on how you would prefer it to work?  Comment below.
     
    Edit: This thread also has some interesting suggestions for incapacitation:  
     
     
    Further watching/reading:
    DU Kickstarter Ask Me Anything (Part 3): https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/10215-kickstarter-ama-event-third-last-part/
    DU Devblog Ressurrection Node Mechanics: https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2014/10/10/resurrection-node-mechanics/
    Albion Online KO/Death penalty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xk2VfcWvN8
    Exploring MMO death mechanics: https://www.engadget.com/2014/01/15/mmo-mechanics-exploring-death-mechanics/
    MMO Death Penalties: https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/24/the-perfect-ten-death-penalties/ and http://massivelyop.com/2016/03/05/massively-ops-guide-to-death-penalties/
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