Rhovan Haerel

PART TWO: UNDER THE HOOD 

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

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

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

Dear Noveans,
 
When we set out to launch our beta this summer, we also envisioned a series of major changes and improvements outside of the game. A major one was the complete redesign of the game’s website, as well as the migration to a brand new tech stack for the site’s front and back ends. We were also planning to launch several programs, such as a Content Creator program and a Recruit-a-Friend program, which relied on a new, versatile code system. That code system is also being used to grant our backers the beta invitations which are part of their Kickstarter or Alpha packs.
 
Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned, as you’ve been witnessing over the past few days (2020 strikes again...). We had to revert part of our tech migration, and postpone the move to a new authentication platform, among other things in our backend. So for the past few weeks we have been struggling to try and reconcile the new site and the code system with our legacy backend. This task has honestly been way more difficult than we had imagined. 
 
We already missed the boat when it came down to allowing you to invite your friends a week earlier, and we’ve come to announce more delays, sadly. As we approach the launch of the beta, we have to be realistic about what we’ll be able to deliver, as we had to make tough choices:

We will launch the new Dual Universe website tomorrow; it will have the most essential content and features, with some visual and quality of life improvements missing. We’ll add more content after beta.
 
The Content Creator program will be ready, using the above code system (see potential limitation below). You should be able to get the invitations included in your beta packs on day 1, though the system may not be as easy to use as we wanted. Making sure you have these codes ready is one of our top priorities (see potential limitations below). You should be able to go to the website and upload images for publishing in Dual Universe, which will go through an internal review process to ensure that they follow the game’s Code of Conduct.  
The Recruit-a-Friend program didn’t make the cut… and that sucks. We worked hard on it and we were really excited about it. The in-game content is ready, but the entitlement system isn’t. Unfortunately, we couldn’t work on all the entitlements in the limited time that we had these past few weeks.

There is a potential limitation with the code system, for both content creators and beta keys: in the next few days the codes may not be redeemable with existing accounts - only with new ones (like for the load test). We are trying to lift that limitation as soon as possible, as we know it’s not ideal. 
 
So what’s next? All these new systems, the new website, and these new programs will be constantly improved in the days and weeks to come. Our priority will be to lift the code limitation and to launch the Recruit-a-Friend program as soon as possible. We don’t want to give you a date that we may not be able to hold, but know that we are doing everything we can to make it as early as possible. 
 
Finally let’s tackle the question of “Why did we announce the Recruit-a-Friend program if it wasn’t going to be ready?” Well, that’s the point; we really thought it was going to be ready, just as when we announced the ability to invite your friends a week prior to beta. It’s disappointing, for you and for us. But we believe these programs are worth it, so we want to make them right.
 
We hope you’ll bear with us, and that you’ll be able to enjoy the Dual Universe beta in the meantime.
 
Sincerely,
The Novaquark Team
 
*Note: we unfortunately won’t be able to retrofit any recruitment that you may do between now and the official launch of the program. Recruitment will only count from the day of the launch of the program, when we can track who’s recruiting who properly.

(Update: November 12th, 2019: detailing the content that will be released before the end of the year)

Dear Community, 
 
We heard your feedback regarding our communication that wasn't as regular during the past months than it was before, in addition of a few miscommunication incidents. That's why we decided to plan several events to catch up and address that topic before the end of the year:
 
For those who have questions (or concerns) about Dual Universe or Novaquark, we've just opened a dedicated thread here (as many questions may be related to subjects under NDA, and we can't check beforehand, we had to put the forum thread in a section under NDA. If you're not a backer and you have questions on topics that aren't under NDA, feel free to contact NQ-Nomad and/or NQ-Nyzaltar by private message on the forum, and they wil transmit them to the team). No question is taboo. Although we can't promise to give a clear and detailed answer for each question, we will try our best to reply as much as we can.
  Here is the content related to communication we plan to release before the end of the year:
- a video presenting the updated roadmap.
- a Dev Diary video showing the recent progress on the game development
- a PodCast where we will try to answer the most pressing matters (based on the questions posted in the dedicated thread).
- an AMA event where we will try to answer to the remaining questions.
- a Kickstarter update.
  We can't give specific dates for all of this content yet, but all will be released before the end of the year.
 
Best Regards,
The Novaquark Team.