Miamato

As only very limited amount of people have access to pre-alpha I think it would be nice to have at least some forum dev blog posts that in written form give short list and idea of what was done and what is planned next. It would take much less time and still will be really helpful.

I want to have farm with cows, tomatoes, salad, cucumbers, some other vegetables, craft burgers and coke, sell it in my fast-food base. Then when it becomes popular, poison all burgers with uranium, all visitors die and I grab everything that was in their pockets. Then drink a glass of whiskey watching sunset of twin-stars, get into my ship and begin new life... build a church to help poor, teach them how to grow tomatoes and cows... find some new uranium deposit...  

I want to have farm with cows, tomatoes, salad, cucumbers, some other vegetables, craft burgers and coke, sell it in my fast-food base. Then when it becomes popular, poison all burgers with uranium, all visitors die and I grab everything that was in their pockets. Then drink a glass of whiskey watching sunset of twin-stars, get into my ship and begin new life... build a church to help poor, teach them how to grow tomatoes and cows... find some new uranium deposit...  

Not only in difficult natural terrain. For example if you are mining deep inside the planet or want to reach planet core at some point, you need some vertical cave. You can use such rails as an elevator for your resources or for transferring mining vehicles deep.

then we need a possibility to craft nuclear bomb. Just imagine, you steal the ship, take it to you base and booom!  The guy inside proved to be more cleaver

speaking about scale and speed: 
- scale should differ from single voxel or even texture-like rail, that are used in small mechanisms, to big rails with physical structure depending on how much mass would be transferred and what speed. 
- speed should be average if we talk about small rails, to high-rocket speed if you have advanced enough train with long rails.
- speed directly depends on rail size and length. 

I was also thinking about it, so just like in real world you would be able to load a ship with cargo, just by moving boxes.
This removed one of elements in building sand-box games that I hate the most - using player inventory as buffer between two cargo boxes/crafting stations. 
It's actually what this all topic is about - to have simple mechanism that allows to create both simple and complex things when combined with scripting. And of course - that is why using hover vehicles is not the case. 

There's something that I feel alot of space-survival/construction games miss out on, weapon customization. Being able to design/tweak weapons and ammunition adds a layer of depth to combat. Instead of everyone using the same turrets people could design their weapons to work well in certain situations. Plus it creates an occupation for more engineering-minded players. Look at From The Depths as an example of weapon customization done right. A similar (But simpler) system would definitely add variety to combat between ships. Having in-depth weapon customization would create more opportunities for advanced players to use their knowledge. This also adds another level of constuction because now players could create weapon companies to sell their weapons or blueprints. Of course, there should be some simple to use 'plug and play' general weapons; These weapons could be balanced weapons, with non of the benefits or trades-offs of custom weapons. 
 
Some ways that such a system could work:
1) Multi-component structures:
      (This is the method that From The Depths uses) While multi-component objects offer more creativity and involvement from the player, it is also complicated to implement and may effect performance. It would also need to be simple enough to understand the basics, yet allow for complex creations by advanced users. There would need to be a controller component which would keep track of the attached modules. Such a system could work and would be really neat but I'm not sure if multi-component objects is something that the engine supports (and it isn't worth adding for one feature). Another effect of a multi-component system is making weapons take up space, which would have a positive effect of preventing 'death cubes' (A cube construct covered in turrets).
 
2) Production-based customization:
Using a 'Turret Factory' a player could modify a turret's characteristics and/or model. This turret factory could be used to manufacture turrets (which players can place). Each turret could have a different physical appearance: A high ROF modified turret could have multiple barrels vs a sniper modified turret with a single extended barrel. The players should have the ability to customize each part of the turret from barrel length, gauge, count, etc. Since the turrets would be one component there wouldn't be a need for multi-component support and the performance hit would be the same as a regular 'non-modified' turret. The addition of a 'turret factory' would mean that a player could perfect a design then mass-manufacture and sell their design.
 
 
Both systems allow players to build weapons with different characteristics, and both would require trade-offs. For example: A high rate of fire turret would have a trade-off on accuracy, while a sniper turret might have higher damage/accuracy but a much lower rate of fire (suited more towards Alpha-strikes than DPS). Personally, I prefer the first method of multi-component constructions since it offers more creative freedom. The system From The Depths uses for it's custom cannons (advanced and CRAM cannons) is probably the best I've ever seen done. However, From the Depths is not a good example on the usability front, since it has a cliff of a learning curve and no real tutorial. I think a system similar to From The Depths would be a good addition although it may be to complicated to implement; The second method is a compromise in terms of performance/usability and creative possibility and may be a better fit.
 
 

This game is MMO and you won't be able to create solar systems or planets on your own, they would be procedure-generated. So in this case you will be able to explore only. You are able to change planet appearance by mining and building things on it, but from what I saw in devblogs and forums - planets would be really gigantic and it can take too much time to recreate landscapes from real life on them. 
 
As for building stuff ingame - I believe you will be able to recreate real space rockets and adjust behavior of engines to be more similar to what we have in real life with lua scripts. 
 

I thought it would be a great idea and add to the Gameplay experience when we would have planets with they're own Climate and Eco-system that can be changed by the actions of the players so if players kill to many flesh eating animals the plant eating animals would eat the plants away that would effect the climate of the planet like in Spore just with more factors like Emissions or even machines that could change the amount of air or what kind of gases that are in the air so that players could change the presser and the heat of the planet so that Dead planets can get an working Eco-system with breathable air, the players could even do Magnetic Field generators to shield the atmosphere to protect the players from the Suns Radiation so New players with not so good gear can build, mine and do stuff on the planet.
 
 
Just an other Idea to think about it would add an lot to the Gameplay and the politic system, i mean that is one of the most important things in the game giving the players the control that would be an other way players can impact the world.
The climate could change have impact in multible ways like:
 
Higher see Level
Lower see Level
More Rain
less Rain
More thunder Storms
Less thunder Storms
No more trees
No more animals
More Airpressure
Less Airpressure
Unbreathable Air
breathable Air
Less Radiation
More Radiation
Hotter Atmosphere
colder Atmosphere
Clear Atmosphere
Completely light absorbing Atmosphere 
Corrosive Atmosphere--->Iron and other materials gets eaten away and in case the player has an Armor and tools that anrent protected agents it goes as well.  
not corrosive Atmosphere
 
It would give every Planet a special feeling and if your moving around and exploring the universe it would make it even more interesting. 
It could even Implement mechanic that adds emission detection tools and could build up conflicts between organisations, one that is destroying everything with they're mining an the other that tries to keep the climate in control.
 

I believe that similar topic may be discussed somewhere in older posts, but...
 
The idea is to add parameters like Temperature, Radiation, random weather events. I know this is present in different games, like starbound, empyrion and probably many others, but it's also pretty logical step, especially if NQ is going to add more biome types to the game, that will correspond to existing planet types. 
I hope you agree that life is completely different on temperate planet and on burning planets that are pretty close to stars (to say nothing about the star itself), the same as for gas giants or cold planets where temperature is close to 0 K. It means that if some ships, with hull made from basic materials, are fine for flying inside atmosphere of temperate planet should not survive on fire planet, where temperature may melt the ship. So it would be nice if all the materials were dedicated to stand against certain environment and protect people and modules that are inside your ship or base. If your construct or space suit does not correspond to environment - it takes damage over time and can be destroyed in result. 
It would be logical that on gas giants (if they are added at some points) there would be endless storms that change how your electronics behaves, disable it or just make harder to operate without some special modules dedicated to negate the effect.
On fire planets you need fight with overheating and melting effect, along with some fire rains etc. The same when you are close to a star, it's not quite logical if you can approach to it on a tiny ship made mostly from iron. 
Probably it's hard to implement and maintain in terms of server load, but I think this will only add more realism to the game and increase variety of civilization created inside game world with their special approaches to survive on different planets. 

then we need a possibility to craft nuclear bomb. Just imagine, you steal the ship, take it to you base and booom!  The guy inside proved to be more cleaver

if ship is deconstructed this is also funny you can do it somewhere in the skies and just let owner fall and die on login. So I guess we need to wait for official explanations on how this should work.

I do agree, and it would add a lot of interest to the game. Say, for example, you were in a space battle near a space giant. You're losing badly, and your only option is to flee. With FLT down and only the gas giant in sight, you decide to head to it for cover. As you mentioned, electronics may go down, stopping you from sending a distress call. The majority of your systems are down, resulting in you being stranded. Likewise, other crazy events could happen on any planet, depending on the situation. It'd just be really cool if you crash landed on a scorched planet and you find yourself surrounded with lava and volcanoes. 
 
On the technical side of things, they could keep it simple, such as disabling systems, weakening blocks, or maybe, even cause voxels to break if the climate is too deadly. (Like a slow corrosion on a toxic planet.) Could be quite hard to implement though. 
 

The idea is to have rail system in the game. As wheels are hard to implement because of movement and collision physics, can we have ability to create straight rails. This will open a lot of great new options. 
1) If you can build rails inside your base or big ship - this makes possible to create moving platforms that would work like elevators. For example you have a large carrier ship filled with many smaller ships. You can make main hangar for landing and once you need one of your ships, it's delivered by such elevator to your landing zone by elevator. 
2) You can create hiding turrets, so building a large ship at first glance it would look like a transport one, but when you encounter some enemy - you can show your weapons. 
3) Train system inside a large city or ship, that may work like public transport when it's not enough space for everyone to fly on their ships. 
4) Underground mining platforms. Principle would be the same as for vehicles that build tunnels for underground (metro) in real world - you have some custom build vehicle that moves only on rails, each time you dig enough, you need to build more rails to proceed. This allows to create accurate tunnels or caves. 
I think people will create many other cases where such things can be used. 

The idea is to have rail system in the game. As wheels are hard to implement because of movement and collision physics, can we have ability to create straight rails. This will open a lot of great new options. 
1) If you can build rails inside your base or big ship - this makes possible to create moving platforms that would work like elevators. For example you have a large carrier ship filled with many smaller ships. You can make main hangar for landing and once you need one of your ships, it's delivered by such elevator to your landing zone by elevator. 
2) You can create hiding turrets, so building a large ship at first glance it would look like a transport one, but when you encounter some enemy - you can show your weapons. 
3) Train system inside a large city or ship, that may work like public transport when it's not enough space for everyone to fly on their ships. 
4) Underground mining platforms. Principle would be the same as for vehicles that build tunnels for underground (metro) in real world - you have some custom build vehicle that moves only on rails, each time you dig enough, you need to build more rails to proceed. This allows to create accurate tunnels or caves. 
I think people will create many other cases where such things can be used. 

It's just about how you treat things around you. For example I hate and I'm getting nervous when there is too much ore around me, I cannot sleep and I need to conquer it by mining. That actually is a conflict and those stupid ore will pay for everything when becomes a brick in my base wall, my endless slave  

we are in future, trains won't need wheels anymore. It can be smth like magnetic rails, the general idea is not how it looks like, but how it works. Some sci-fi rail system would feet much better into DU setting. 
 
Imagine fully automated trains that can transfer people from one side of the planet to another, especially if they will work like hyperloop or have optional rocket engines installed  
But the main usecase for me is - creation of interactive moving parts of your ship/base. For example with proper design you can create base or carrier ship hangars that expand themself if someone needs to dock or become smaller when noone is inside. If even more active blocks would be added - like circle or 90* rotating planforms, etc.

we are in future, trains won't need wheels anymore. It can be smth like magnetic rails, the general idea is not how it looks like, but how it works. Some sci-fi rail system would feet much better into DU setting. 
 
Imagine fully automated trains that can transfer people from one side of the planet to another, especially if they will work like hyperloop or have optional rocket engines installed  
But the main usecase for me is - creation of interactive moving parts of your ship/base. For example with proper design you can create base or carrier ship hangars that expand themself if someone needs to dock or become smaller when noone is inside. If even more active blocks would be added - like circle or 90* rotating planforms, etc.

The idea is to have rail system in the game. As wheels are hard to implement because of movement and collision physics, can we have ability to create straight rails. This will open a lot of great new options. 
1) If you can build rails inside your base or big ship - this makes possible to create moving platforms that would work like elevators. For example you have a large carrier ship filled with many smaller ships. You can make main hangar for landing and once you need one of your ships, it's delivered by such elevator to your landing zone by elevator. 
2) You can create hiding turrets, so building a large ship at first glance it would look like a transport one, but when you encounter some enemy - you can show your weapons. 
3) Train system inside a large city or ship, that may work like public transport when it's not enough space for everyone to fly on their ships. 
4) Underground mining platforms. Principle would be the same as for vehicles that build tunnels for underground (metro) in real world - you have some custom build vehicle that moves only on rails, each time you dig enough, you need to build more rails to proceed. This allows to create accurate tunnels or caves. 
I think people will create many other cases where such things can be used. 

Agree, it would be pretty cool to have this in post release major updates. It will result with some insane and cool mixes of human vs alien design ships. But at current stage I think better to have one race and everything polished and balanced for it. 
Another side effect of such addon is that you need additional skill tree for that race that will just increase learning curve. Not a huge problem, but again hard to balance. 

For me the difference is that if you implement new non human race, that means it should have it's own technology, as humans and that other guys never met before. So that means you need much effort at least to create similar construction parts with different design specific for the new race. In ideal world if that other race is non-human like, that should use completely different technologies. In case we have not only other player models, but all needed technologies, design, backstory - this will make sense, at least for me. 
Just imagine that several thousands of years one race was traveling to face another space guys and then realize they have all the same vehicles, but just another face. 

The idea is to have rail system in the game. As wheels are hard to implement because of movement and collision physics, can we have ability to create straight rails. This will open a lot of great new options. 
1) If you can build rails inside your base or big ship - this makes possible to create moving platforms that would work like elevators. For example you have a large carrier ship filled with many smaller ships. You can make main hangar for landing and once you need one of your ships, it's delivered by such elevator to your landing zone by elevator. 
2) You can create hiding turrets, so building a large ship at first glance it would look like a transport one, but when you encounter some enemy - you can show your weapons. 
3) Train system inside a large city or ship, that may work like public transport when it's not enough space for everyone to fly on their ships. 
4) Underground mining platforms. Principle would be the same as for vehicles that build tunnels for underground (metro) in real world - you have some custom build vehicle that moves only on rails, each time you dig enough, you need to build more rails to proceed. This allows to create accurate tunnels or caves. 
I think people will create many other cases where such things can be used. 

Agree with that. There is one more feature in such community driven games - if you are useful enough and don't have enough real money, someone may pay for your subscription just as reward for your achievements and contribution inside the game. I've seen enough of such examples in EvE. For example in some pvp alliances if pilots are good at fighting other people but have no time for farming - they can receive ships for free as well as subscription, or if someone likes to carry cargo all the time, does not steal and stupidly die - they also will find enough ways not to pay with real money.
When I started playing EvE - real money was not an option at all for me due to real life problems, but I've found people that were interested in moderating their local community website along with translations of devblogs to my native language. They paid me with ingame money equal to 3 subscription fee each month. So I was able to pay for my first 2 accounts and buy some nice ships. So I'm pretty sure that in DU there would be enough people ready to pay for efforts outside the game itself.

Monthly subscription is perfect for MMO that are continuously updated and gameplay elements added on regular basis. It's up to you how much you play and whether you want to pay. For example in EVE sometimes I pay for few month during which I don't play at all, just to have possibility to access the game at any time if I decide so. The second reason why single approach is good - it's subscription and skills management. 
On the other side it's too early to speak about how beneficial would be to keep the subscription active for all the time, because if there would be some passive income sources in the game - like having some taxed area that is used by other people, or some inventing/research process that continues to work when your character is offline - how do you imagine this with hourly payed plans? Such things won't definitely be allowed for trial or unpaid accounts, but for example if you pay only for amount of hours - that means you will be either able to receive that passive income only when you are online or have no access to such sources at all. 
 
In other words if DU is supposed to have EVE like mechanics with offline gameplay elements - it's nonsense to add hourly subscription. This approach can work only in some Lineage games that totaly rely on how much you grind online.