CptLoRes

I.e. we need tools from NQ that allows us to make interesting content, do more then just cosmetic/UI stuff with scripts, make proper custom missions, host markets etc.

There lots of caveats like this in the game, and the game is brutal for beginners. For this particular scenario, most players carry a spare compacted ship (Alt+B) in their inventory at all times. Something you don't have resources for yet, and one of those you have to get burned before you learn experiences. So if you find yourself close to District 6 on Alioth, contact me and I will give you a good flyer for compactification.

How much profit margin is there for transporting T1 to the outer planets?

So in other words NQ learned nothing from 0.23? You cannot release a feature on a live MMO server just because it is done, when it is balanced for and dependents on other unfinished features that are going to be added later at some stage.

Maybe it is just me, but I am already pining for a way to skip the mining bot "loading" animations.

I agree it would be difficult to get anywhere legally. But at the same time, here is what NQ is selling when a new subscription player wants to join. So a wipe would be disingenuous at best.

And that most likely means players leaving the game. So once again like with 0.23, NQ has managed to drive away players with their "game saving" features. Makes you wonder how many more "features" this game can survive..

Not that long ago everybody was saying get out of sanctuary as quick as possible because it is a dead end. And now suddenly it is supposed to be the solution? DU was already a brutally hard game for new players before Demeter, and to me this only highlight how NQ is not fully understanding the consequences of their actions. Remember that while on this sanctuary tile, the new player is not only supposed to mine enough resources to buy a ship (that may or may not work properly once NQ nerfs the brakes), get a TCU, a scanner and buy a tile somewhere. But he is also expected to have enough free resources to experiment and learn the game mechanics. Oh.. And as a new player he/she is also very likely to crash a lot, so he will need resources for that too..

My guess would be because there is very little actual "game" in this game, and the way NQ is (not) dealing with this problem.

But that is kinda my point. There is no real exploring, and everything else is centered around mining for the markets. But this is more a problem with lack of game features that enable other ways to play the game, then number of planets and size of the universe. And the moment you get features like proper exploring for alien artifacts or whatever, then you want those planets to be there.

For once I have to agree with Cergorach. There will always be some degree of P2W in any game that is not totally free to play. That is just the nature of the beast. The trick for me at least, is to not care so much about how others play the game. I have my style and as long as I get enjoyment from that, then who cares if the dude one tile over makes billions spending all his RL time and money running countless accounts. To me that sounds like the most boring soulless way possible to play a game. But for him that is the way he plays and enjoys the game, and I am sure he thinks the same about how I play.

A quick quality of life improvement that NQ could do in like 10 minutes, is to dial back the excessive tool VFX covering like half the screen when you build. VFX in general is a tool that is supposed to help improve the experience by providing visual guidance, but this is the exact opposite.

Not sure how less planets would help. It would basically kill any space travel mechanics like pvp, exploring and trading in the game. What DU needs more than anything is more features allowing a complete game loop that enables more variation and .. well.... fun. And the problem all stems from the abysmal slow dev rate at NQ, and their inability to generate any substantial improvements in the game even after 7+ years of development. And having a large universe is mostly a server cost/maintenance issue, that since the planets are already there should have minimal impact on available dev time.

Problem with your math is that it only works if you set your clock by the game, join regularly and behave like a good little citizen doing all the chores no questions asked.

Please explain your vision for how new and casual players and solo builders should be able to find an enjoyable game loop with Demeter.

I think you are not seeing the general problem here. There is now a MUCH greater need for people to hoard quanta and push ore on the markets. And that means there is also less incentive to spend quanta on others and do big projects just for the hell of it, which is how the race tracks got made in the first place. And after demeter it is less likely they would ever have been made in the first place.

You know full well that I am somewhat exaggerating the problems to make a point. Sure there are always some who manage to be successful at <whatever>, but that does not mean there is not a general problem there for most others. So the point remains valid.

Problem is that with each new change NQ makes, fewer and fewer of those options seems like valid ways to be successful (relative term) in this game. And that is what make players leave. You want to be Obi Wan - living self sufficient on your own I want to be Han Solo - trading, taking risks and being a character in the community Some people want to be empire - blowing up everyone that isnt them up in space Some people want to be pod racers - making tracks and taking part in races Some people want to be sand people - scavenging and salvaging the stuff others leave behind (people get free stuff with no risk from auto miners??? and safe zone missions) (Only temporarily until tax changes are stabilized and there are no/few tiles left to scavenge) Some people want to be space miner Some people want to be industrialist Some people want to be venue owners - space casinos, cool locations Some people want to be ship / building designers - selling there wares to other players Also notice that the options left are all mostly typical aggressive MMO/PVP style of playing, and it is likely going to get even more aggressive with new feature added later. But here is the thing. MANY people joined DU specifically because NQ told us we did not have to play that way in this game.

If we assume it has anything to do with the client software at all, network performance would be the only thing that makes any sense.

This is just bad game design, it really is. I set up two S miners just to experiment with them. And by the time I had finished calibrating the first one, I was already bored with this so called "mini game".

I actually think it goes the other way around . JC really wanted to make DU and that was probably his only goal. So for all his faults, he really tried his best and I respect him for that. But the new leadership is probably more interested in trying to recover losses at this stage.

While technically true that NQ never said "there would not be a wipe", that sound a lot like circular reasoning to me. What NQ did say multiple times on the other hand, is that they would like to avoid wiping as long as it was technically feasible. And there as been many times when a wipe would have been much easier for them then keeping the data, so everything points towards NQ trying very hard to not wipe.

I am sorry, but this is a very common misconception. And before we start let us be clear that I agree that the whole "right to not be offended" thing while fundamentally good, has gotten way out of hand. So please don't shoot the messenger. So back to the misconception. Free speech means that you can say and mean whatever you want, and not be legally prosecuted for it. That's it. Free speech on the other hand DOES NOT mean you have a right to publish whatever you want, wherever you want. Simply because the owners of media (facebook, forums, news papers whatever) also have a right to decide what type of content they want to have published within the borders of the media they own.

The Kickstarter had 8000 backers, and about half of that where tiers with pre-alpha access. So around 3700 in the beginning of pre-alpha sounds about right. But it quickly went downhill and never recovered (especially after 0.23), which should tell NQ something..

And sadly this is a promise that is easy to keep, since (except for time spent) there really isn't much worth in the game that makes it hard to leave at the moment.