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Bella_Astrum

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  1. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to Kiklix in Hello my friends   
    I found Dual Universe by a retweet of a friend. I am a designer irl and dabble in art, and photography. 
     
    I currently play another voxel based game in early development and build sci fi exclusively (but there is no movement to the voxel creations). I love to make spaceships and spaceships and then more spaceships. 
     
    I am extremely excited about a single shard sandbox sci fi game where players can craft and pilot their own ships and or space stations. 
     
    I look forward to meeting you all in the future. 
  2. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Terraforming   
    Hi Hylios,
    For the time being, it's not planned to make Terraformation possible.
    This would require some heavy development time, and that can't be in the priorities right now.
    But we will look into it so see if it's feasible at least for small areas, like biosph?res. Maybe for a distant goal ? 
    I'll come to you on the subject when I will have more info on the subject
     
    Best regards
    Nyzaltar.
  3. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in The arkship protection area   
    Hi everyone.
     
    Well the discussion has become quite heated in one day.
    Let's cool down a bit. There's no reason to start a fight here.
    It's natural at this stage of the project that many interested people have a different vision of what the game could be and/or could become, mainly because there are so many things unclear right now. We will read each suggestion. However, we have also a clear vision for the game, and in the end, not everyone will love it (because that's just impossible to satisfy everybody).
     
    That being said, here are a few clarifications that could ease the discussion a bit:
     
    - When the game will be launched, there will be only one starting point, around one arkship on one planet. There might be - later - other starting points as other Arkships land on other planets. But this is just a possible idea, nothing written into stone at the moment, so it would be preferable to consider there will be only one starting point and only one ASA in game for now.
     
    - Unless we are mistaken, Shores of Azeron was giving the opportunity to each player to make his own empire, and be the only player in his own empire if he wanted (meaning he could have a lot of NPCs under his command). In Dual Universe, this won't work like that: Social interaction will be at the center of the game. It will be the players who will decide what is considered as an Empire and what is not. If your organization gathers hundreds or even thousands of players and achieve important things in the game, then the organization will likely be labelled as an Empire. If you will be less then ten players in your organization, then you will have a hard time to be considered as an Empire. Not impossible, but very very difficult. Also, even if you will be able to have NPCs (probably droids) helping in automatized tasks, don't expect to have thousands of NPCs under your command. Again, we want to incite social interaction and team play. In this regard, we are nearer to EvE Online than games like Civilization.
     
    - Planets in Dual Universe will be generated procedurally, but this is not intended to give access to thousand of planets right from the start. It's more a huge unknown content to explore, conquer and colonize. We don't want to scatter players right from the beginning, on separate planets, for many reasons: As there will be some significant time needed to build spaceships and colonize other planets, this will be a teamwork. And we don't expect a player alone to make all the technological discovery, exploration, production all by himself. You will be able to explore and discover planets alone. But big group of players will be faster because they will be able to dispatch many tasks among them in a short amount of time. if you want to play alone or in small numbers, it will more than likely that you will use market hubs built by other players to get some rare resources or components to build or get your spaceship.
     
    - FTL Travel will be the hard and slow way to explore other solar systems. It will be difficult because complex logistics will be needed to make the travel worth it. In fact, we expect FTL Travel to be most likely used to go to an adjacent unexplored solar system, and build a Stargate... Or to make a discreet recon mission in solar systems controlled by hostile players (as using a Stargate will clearly not be discreet). But players might surprise us by finding other uses to FTL Travel! 
     
    - Building a Stargate won't be a one-man work. It supposed to be a common goal for a big group of players as there won't be a Stargate built every day. Same thing goes for Space Stations. You should consider both as among the biggest building projects you can aim in Dual Universe (bigger than that, well... it might only be the Death Star ).
     
    I hope this clarify some unclear points.
    If you have more questions, just let us know
     
    Best regards,
    Nyzaltar.
  4. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to Michaelc in Hello there :)   
    Hello everyone! Names Michael and I love to build and create things. Hopefully one day I can become a game designer and do what I love to do best and that is to create places, worlds, and other things. I have been following the progression of Dual Universe for quite a long time as it really captures my interest. One of the main factors that really got me interested was having the ability to make something, out of voxels, and make it actually work! There are alot of other things that has had me interested in the game as well like multiple planets, outer space, faction/organization creation, and pretty much all the things listed on the 'About the Game' page. This will truly be an outstanding game and will have my full support.
     
    Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll be around on the forums! See you all around!
  5. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Land Ownership   
    Hi everyone,
     
    Here are a few answers related to Land ownership
     
    What do you plan to do in the case of a massive "landgrab" at the game launch?   The possibility of a massive landgrab right from the start is a concern we are working on.  This is indeed a recurrent problem for any Open World MMO giving the opportunity for a player to own some land. We are currently thinking about limitating (at least at the beginning) the area size owned by each player (or each account). That combined to the total surface of the starting planet (see below for the planet size) should be enough to start with.   Do you plan to limit surface for housing on planets?   We don't see why there should be a limit to housing. Look at Coruscant in Star Wars: it's an example of a planet entirely covered with buildings. Beside that, it's important to keep in mind that outside the Arkship Secure Area, there will be possibilities of building destruction, even if you will be able to set a small "indestructible" area to have a safe haven somewhere.   How big the universe will be?   It's a procedurally generated universe, so expanding the universe will be faster than creating planets one by one: - During the Alpha, it will probably a few planets (to be able to test space travel) - At the release: probably a few hundreds of planets to a few thousands (difficult to say exactly right now)   How big planets will be?   It may still be subject to change but we plan the following: - Around 100km diameter for the starting planet (which is equal to a bit more than 30000 km2. Even with oceans and seas, the remaining surface for land will still be incredibly huge!) - Probably around 50km diameter for others (even if we are aiming for an average 100km for a planet on the long term)   Will we be able to go to every planet, or only specific ones the devs specify?   If you're weren't able to go explore each planet or asteroid belt we put in this universe, this wouldn't be a true sandbox in our opinion.  So yes, you will be able to explore every single planet existing in the game. No limitation for exploration.    Best Regards, Nyzaltar.
  6. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design   
    All these features will be part of the Nanoformer, the multifunctional tool available to each player character, right from the start. The Nanoformer will be upgradable to increase its performance with the different tools. It is directly embedded into the right arm of the player character.

    Warning: We are still in very early development, meaning that everything written below must be taken with a pinch of salt. These features can be heavily modified before the Alpha release and even completely redesigned: We want to end up with the best player experience in the end. And that's why your feedback is essential!
     

    Collect Tool: This Nanoformer tool enables the player to collect material in the environment, digging holes of various shapes (depending on the choice of the player, via a specific interface). Digging with regular shapes like cubes or spheres will cost a bit more time than the standard irregular shape.
     
    Softening Mode: The Nanoformer can generate an area of molecular instability centered around the player and limited to the player Construct, where resources can be added or removed instantly, going back into the inventory. There will be a small delay before being able to enter in Softening Mode. While not in this state, collecting resources from one's own Construct will take exactly the same time as if using the Collect Tool to gather Raw Materials. People who have no rights on the Construct won't be able to remove/collect anything at all: the only way to create a "hole" in this area will be to "damage" (by hostile action) the voxel-based Shapes in the area.
     
    Create Tool: This Nanoformer tool enables the player to create a voxel-based Shape (a regular geometric figure made out of a given Material).
    The geometric primitives currently planned are the following:
    - Cube
    - Sphere
    - Cone
    - Torus
    - Cylinder
    - Pyramid
     
    Polish Tool: This Nanoformer tool enables the player to smooth angles on a voxel-based shape, enabling the possibility to sculpt various contours.
     
    Select Tool: This Nanoformer tool enables the player to select a specific volume of voxels, called a "Selected Area".
    This volume will be adjusted by the following action:
    - Click and drag to create a box, from one corner to the opposite corner.
    - Resize the box by dragging the faces or corners.
    - Turn (or reverse/mirror) a voxel-based shape selection in one direction or another with shortcuts keys
    (arrow keys or +/- keys?).
     
    Creating Patterns, using the Select Tool: Once the player has defined a "Selected Area", it is possible to copy this area into memory, storing all the Shape information (this excludes active Elements). This is called a Pattern. Patterns allow basic operations like Copy/Cut/Paste with Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+P shortcut keys. A Pattern is limited in size (typically 32mx32mx32m) and cannot be traded/exchanged in-game. You can think of it as a player-bound template, stored in the Cloud.
     
    Creating Snapshots, using the Select Tool: While Patterns can be stored and copied in multiple instances anywhere in the Building Zone, Snapshots are a static photography of a particular "Selected Area", not limited in size and containing also active Elements. Using this function, the player can create a "ghost" of the area, and, provided the player has enough Material resources, he/she will be able to restore the area in the saved state later if it were damaged. You might think of Snapshots as insurances on the information content of an aera. The process of restoration takes a long time, depending on the size of the Snapshot.
     
    Inject Tool: Replace a cube of a specific Material in the world with your current selected Material.
    Everything under the surface is also being replaced. This operation is equivalent to a Collect+Create operation.
    Advice to player: save resources by using smaller cubes.
     


     
    Possible other tools: These will be developped only if it seems necessary to complete the tools mentioned above.  
    We are aware that a few other games enabling players to manipulate voxels have other tools. However, assuming the tools described above offer a wide array of possibilities and the fact that voxel manipulation might work a bit differently in Dual Universe, we want to be sure there will be a real need for the 2 following features:
     
    Line Tool: Used to form a "line" with similar or different square bases size. Minimum size: 1 voxel (see below)
    Select and size a start point then drag and size to an end point.
    Click to fill the volume. Can be re-sized between start and finish points.
     
    Restoration Tool: This Nanoformer tool enables the player to correct weird voxel shapes obtained by voxel manipulation in other modes. Restore shapes as they were meant to be.
     

     
    Tool not planned: its role will be handled by some specific Elements (Area Units), and it won't be available for Alpha.
     
    Area Tool: Use to create invisible areas players can interact with.
    Link one of the areas to a prop and activate the prop with a script when a player enters the invisible area.
  7. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to PetdCat in Clubs, Bars, Cantinas, Dives   
    Per a request, I am moving this idea over to the "Idea Box", which makes a great deal of sense and probably why I didn't think of it!
     
    I believe it would be an excellent idea to have a prop, or a setting, for someone that "owns" an area to be able to connect to an outside URL for music streams.  It could also work for video, but in a voxel world I am thinking that would create a lagfest, but I do not know for certain.  An audio or video stream is going to be limited by the streams quality--64 kbps or 128 kbps--anyway, but I have not worked with the video side very much.
     
    What this would allow is for Clubs, Bars, Cantinas, Dives, Social Areas, to pipe in whatever music they wish.  For those who know DJs with their own streams--those DJs can have live shows during the week.  It also opens up things like theme parties, and the like.  For those unfamiliar with the possibilities, you can go to www.radiofreegaia.com.  That is a radio station for people in The Secret World with multiple DJs and themes.  The only thing TSW doesn't have is the in game ability since there is no "building" there and only common areas--so the streams are accessed outside the game itself.   It is just not the same experience as "in game" music.  There is nothing quite like walking into a place in a virtual world and having it have its own flavor of sound.  Music is a common denominator for many and can be a focal point for many people's interaction in a game.
     
     
  8. Like
    Bella_Astrum reacted to NQ-Nyzaltar in Nyzaltar, at your service.   
    Hi everyone!

    I'm Nyzaltar, the Community Manager for this Sci-Fi epic adventure known as "Dual Universe"!
    If you have any question or suggestion on the game or anything related (forum, website, the team, etc), don't hesitate to contact me.
    I will be more than happy to answer!

    Also, as many of you, I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi Themes and a passionate MMO gamer.
    Eve Online, Landmark, to name a few... but far from being limited to these.

    I hope you will enjoy this forum as much as we, the Novaquark Team, hope!
    Also I will be around on the forum during this week-end, to answer topics that have already been posted

    Best Regards,
    Nyzaltar.
     
  9. Like
    Bella_Astrum got a reaction from Kiklix in Hello there :)   
    Ello! *waves*
  10. Like
    Bella_Astrum got a reaction from Michaelc in Hello there :)   
    Ello! *waves*
  11. Like
    Bella_Astrum got a reaction from Kiklix in Hello my friends   
    Ello Kiklix *waves*
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