CptLoRes

We all know the game is alpha, or "balpha" as the joke goes. But admitting this, would mean that NQ has been developing for 5 years + (unknown years before Kickstarter) and still is no where even close to release of a proper game. And that is a PR disaster. So they put up a brave face and churn out youtube videos and progress blogs that makes everyone who actually play the game snicker and roll their eyes.

There is a reason why ALL the tiles around the Alioth ring are taken. It has been confirmed by NQ multiple times that the ring would be a safe-zone. So there is an strategic value there since you can take your time and not worry about future territory war, and at the same time have close access to central markets, mission hubs and other people. So in other words. People in the ring, are specifically looking for a permanent risk-free and persistent place to build. And the persistent part here is important. This has always been a MAJOR selling point of DU. And demeter tax turns this up side down. Suddenly you have to play the game in a way dictated by NQ (which is completely opposite from the original premise of make-you-own-game), and do daily chores or else risk loosing tiles. I.e no longer persistent. And it is true that we all knew that territory war was coming in the future, and tiles outside safe zones would be as risk. But that means that people who want to do t-war, are building strongholds outside the safe safe zones and preparing for that. But as indicated by the popularity of ring tiles, there is also a demand for a stress-free alternative where people can relax and build at their own pace close to other people. And demeter completely decimates the stress-free scenario. Leaving only sanctuary and space stations where you are mostly alone and no longer feel part of a community like in the ring. And to address the counter claim that tax is needed to remove inactive tiles. That is to put it frankly, bullshit. If the goal of demeter was to remove inactive tiles. Then all NQ would have to do, would be to look for inactive players. I.e. if the player is no longer paying the subscription and/or has not logged into the game in a long time (many months). Demeter tax on the other hand feels more like an desperate attempt at generating player interaction by way of adding artificial scarcity to the ownership of tiles. And to me this has all the trademarks of a classic NQ "quick fix" where they try to generate content with minimal effort. And look at 0.23 for an example on how well that usually turns out..

Very true, but it is suspect when you consider that DU has a history of GPU related client problems and crashes, and at the moment neither runs on Shadow play or GeForce Now.

In the original Kickstarter the fee was always going to be around $10. But when they opened the beta (alpha) for subs even NQ had to admit they did not have a $10 game to offer, and lowered the price. And you could make the argument that after 0.23 and demeter, there is even less of a game then it was then.

NQ already owns me a pet from the kickstarter, two in fact (lv1 & lv2) and a shiny Alpha Team outfit. But on a more serious side. The definition and solution for inactive tiles in DU is dead simple really. As long as the player pays the subscription, then he and by extension his tiles should be considered active. So if someone get a month sub, claims some tiles and never returns. Then NQ simply has to wait 1 month + some margin before releasing the tiles again. And once the game is out of balpha and "released", this means that inactive kickstarter accounts will also eventually time out, after the DAC's (that we payed real money for) are spent.

Yeah.. And NQ knows this is a bad solution, to the point that they even admitted in the VLOG that they are surprised there is so little noise about the issue. But that is mostly because players are so worried about the tax issue, that having to dig out your construct seems trivial in comparison. You know. Hide the bad with something worse..

Once the voxels/meshes has been streamed to the local cache on the player computers, there is no longer any potential server bottleneck that could limit client fps. So it is almost certain that low fps on a space station that is far from any other players, is an performance issue with the DU client software.

Of course nobody knows. Because NQ has neither said what will happen or given people enough time to find out on PTS. So most likely NQ don't even know themself, and whatever happens will be some happenstance when old and new game features collide on the servers. And if NQ do know what will happen, where is the post/video explaining the details so that players can prepare ahead of time?

Not to mention that demeter is effectively a death sentence to many players. So there is nothing to gain any more by staying quiet and civil.

And the alternative would be? Just smile and pretend everything is fine? I am sure that would work out just fine, yes sire. Just fine... The only times NQ has actually listen and made changes, has been after outright riots from players. So the mood on forums etc, is 100% cause and effect by NQ actions, or should we say lack of such.

The main issue with tax is that it is in direct conflict with one of the foundations of this game. Player created persistent content..

There are two problems here. 1. That lattice design is close to a worst case scenario for voxels and the mesh server conversion of voxels into static 3D meshes. 2. The 3D performance in this game is still terrible, like WTF levels of bad. In the screenshot you are alone on a space station, and even with the lattice I see nothing in that picture that should results in a 4fps performance on any modern computer. Not even close..

The compensation would be fair because this time it is a drastic game altering change forced by NQ, while players having released tiles themself is voluntary.

The construct cube removal tool NQ showed in the video is pretty much worthless for anyone who has spent some time doing proper terraforming and use the landscape as a part of their builds. So I have raised some markers above the ground telling me where to dig. That is, if there still is a tile to dig out between demeter and the time when the non tax HQ tile feature is released. I took a break from the game because of mining and boring missions, and I for sure won't start playing again just to grind auto bots for paying taxes that give me nothing in return. That's even worse then mining. So while I can live with having to dig out my tiles, I will most likely call it quits when I start to lose tiles because demeter is released without the tax free HQ part, that we all know will happen because sigh NQ..

Probably some change to the default script. Try re-running the "Flying" auto script generator on the chair to refresh it.

I love DU for the potential. But it breaks my heart watching the potential slowly getting destroyed one patch at a time.

It is all about intent. Those scripts aren't design on purpose to hurt the servers, and lag is only a side effect of bad design at NQ's side.

I can't speak for others, but we are way, way past the constructive feedback stage. In fact we got past that point years ago. And I suspect that is part of why for many people including Blaze left the discussion. There is a limit to how long you can invest and stay motivated in something, and not get anything in return. And to be honest, only reason I am still here is some weird combination of "sunken cost" fallacy and morbid fascination watching a train wreck in slow motion.

Not sure being banning from the game is an effective deterrent at the moment.. And the threat of banning only works if there is a very small number of players, since banning a large number of players would affect NQ financially.

Not that unlikely actually. This game has a long history of questionable GFX performance and bugs, so many bugs..

Problem is that the "official" statements for the game has now changed many times, so what you expect and what was promised all depends on when you joined..

DU was supposed to be different from a traditional MMO, in that NQ would make the tools and the community would use those tools to make the content/game loop. By itself not a bad idea, but the tools never got made so... here we are.

The pending Demeter patch made me visit my Sanctuary spot for the first time in ages.. And while there I did notice there is more ore lying on the ground, then what I am used to seeing on Alioth etc.

This is probably a problem with a new version of some unified Nvidia driver that was introduced to the platform with the 3080 release, so not necessarily a 3080 specific problem.