MookMcMook

"We don't serve their kind here." I see what you did there, "obviously".

Idk, guys, it creates click-bait for massivelyOP, dolls out a "gong" for some spurious achievement of quality, and tbh makes fans/backers appear either gullible or cloying... Yes I guess the little sticker-badge thing will look good for NQ's marketing online which won't hurt and maybe the game is indeed high quality CF candidate and surprising advanced for a pre-alpha... I "almost know" DU will be quality, and would like others to know, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth done this way, let the game do the talking and heavy-lifting of expectations. YMMV.

Isn't darkness easy to cheat by changing your monitor settings for example? I remember enjoying darkness in older games...

WOW had the infamous corrupted blood disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident Bear in mind this was unintentional. The Mind Parasites idea sounds like Colin Wilson's book or The Invasion of the Body-Snatchers even? Tbh those are ideas are a little bit elaborate for the current 2-3yrs at least of DU development I'd have thought, a question of "outside scope" which is ultimately "a good thing" ensuring the devs focusing on solving intended challenges and dealing the extra problems that those create in any case. No SC motion-capture or WOD rippling fabric on clothes extraneous details overload is for the best. For example it's been said DU will be a human story (so no aliens for now thus dramatically cutting down that scope) where player emergent interactions will be huge scope for problem-solving and innovating the gameplay around; atst as building this virtual world space, such interesting questions and challenges as "will planets rotate about their axis"? are technical problems to consider eg gravity and position but with huge implications eg sunrise and sunsets which are immensely atmospheric and evocative and thence immersive. Certainly in the realms of harder sci-fi, alien micro-organisms and micro-particles could be potentially lethal to humans atst as the scale of challenge presented by space itself. The latest book with some twist on the idea of mind control over distance is the 3-body problem author's second book: The Dark Forest iirc (Chinese author). As for gameplay it has to be carefully done reducing player individual agency as a gameplay mechanic. But overall, if there's a schema of scope for DU, then looking INSIDE that is probably the best for current development as opposed to clearly OUTSIDE of it, if that is a practical and productive way to think about DU? Though Sci-Fi ideas are usually fun to discuss however as theorycrafting and a delight as such.

Probably a starship: A really big starship ; a space-station even if it were mobile... I plan on "gathering" so movement is necessary and potentially transporting large amounts of mass (aka "stuff!") too. The thing is a really large starship should be able to hold a large number of players as well as smaller ships too for local rece... so that is an appealing flexibility also. Given how large planets are, anyone wanting to create bases there it will be interesting to see how tolerant they are of others on "their planet". Hmm images of the larger fish swimming near to the coral reef community... but the space equivalent. I wondering how life on a large starship will be, could be like life in the Navy with a 24Hr routine for all crew to at some stage jump to it. Kinda interesting virtual experience...

I am interested in what the criteria is for determining "best crowdfunded mmo of 2017":- * Pledge Price to Development Delivery Value? * Quality of game (higher = better) delivered over time period used (shorter = better)? * Stated delivery goals and schedule of delivery accuracy achieved? * Extra- services and community involvement provisioned (eg open doors, dev diary, forums quality)? * Subjective fun experienced by Early Access of actual gameplay of the game reported AND demonstrated transparently? * Speculated increase in quality of the game assumed given the previous successful rate of progress achieved? I admit, perhaps sheepishly, that I am satisfied with these so far for DU, bar subjective experience, as I am not a present backer. But I do think "Delivery and transparency" are very critical to the above gong being handed out in such a contest. In fact, I'd go further, I do wish Massively or other such competition providers would ensure those voting attempt to consider such gongs accordingly as opposed to "popularity/who's got talent?" type of vacuous voting that then masquerades as something more than media hype. These musing may seem overkill, but just look at the car/train crash that SC is precariously balanced against making at present. "A stitch in time... saves multiple millions."

LOL! That tickles me like crazy: "We should make crimson confetti out of these dirty dogs!" That said, come Alpha, I will be voting in such polls, gladly.

If that could be SHOWN then for sure the poll would have a basis for saying how/why. But there's an NDA at present which prevents seeing all those game features description of gameplay or those voting, showing why/how instead of merely talked about. So for me, I remain a sceptic too: "Nullius in verba"

It might be different if NQ had delivered a full Alpha sans NDA and thus proven value to backers ALREADY. But until then I don't see voting as anything more than hype-o-meters and that's a problem because it ends up producing too much noise and not enough signal about the game's true merits. You'll end up with well intentioned and less well intentioned interactions (fanboys vs banbois vs trolls vs etc) and both of them becoming toxic due to poor communication and confused motivations. AKA "Show and don't Tell" pr exercise is the way forward because it keeps things honest and without that we've seen a lot of money thrown down the drain in the MMO market. Yes I'm excited by DU, but I won't be a propagandist either. If NQ had an Alpha and right now I could watch:- 1. A fully player designed spaceship in voxels and lua. 2. Built from gathered materials located around the planet. 3. Collaborately designed and built. 4. Tested and flown by multicrew. 5. Various other such groups doing similar diverse gameplay. 6. Plenty of shared content SHOWING this. 7. Self-reporting feedback: This is dang fun!! I'd consider NQ to have easily produced a brilliant crowdfunder value for money for content delivered. But not yet. Bear in mind, I'm very happy with their:- * Website quality * Forums functionality features * Dev Updates and community gimmes frequency * Glimpsed progress apparent so far... Adding value to their crowd of funders so far.

I presumed biome types of singular type is due to the Procedural Generation use at present and how the algorithms work? Also in conjunction with the reduced size of planets: The size is a function of playability partly and I suppose rendering balance as opposed to full-blown realism as per our own Earth's size? On that basis I took the OP's questionnaire at face value and picked the biome that I like best: Mountains, lakes, plains (with Alpine gradient in snow green etc) and ideally like Alioth with some forests too. BIOPHILIA plays a big role in this I think. Also the thrill of 3D sense of gradient and depth to planets as 3D large entities which also look more interesting from space with such gradient variety is the other reason why I chose this one. That said I'll feel less mortified if a single biome such as "Mars-like" gets trashed, it'll feel as if it's right to exploit the planet for all it has got, no doubt, in resource extraction.

My expectation is that AvA combat (shooting) will be relatively short-range and CvC will end up being the bread & butter. I guess AvA combat will be for going down rat-holes (inside ships, space-stations, and underground bases). CvC will probably rule (firepower and shields) open combat ie distances included??

People are more creative than they give themselves credit for. Perhaps that's because of themselves or because of the nature of creativity? Or both.

"Theorycrafting".

Yes it is A-mazing. There's a recent post showcasing "Movie-making" in-game with some entertaining and skillful sample chapters from another game. There's a radio-station with well-designed advertisements, others will create LUA scripts whirring away in functional constructs built by other players, across "known space" spreading the human survivors technology lighting up the darker reaches, there will be some sub-verses within the game, in-game space racing with betting soft currency in game perhaps? And that's not even getting started on the online business moguls money-making businesses, or mentioning the Voxel architects who've shown off their work from Landmark, already. It seems intimidating, but these are other peoples' ideas and dreams, that one would not perhaps dream for oneself. If you find your own dream then it is not intimidating but invigorating. I aim to come up with a few ideas myself. Some will hatch, others will not, and if lucky one or two such eggs, will be made of gold.

I do have my own ship design in mind. but it hinges on gameplay to make it actually work so I will keep my cards close to my chest for now. However should the design be viable according to the functional gameplay then if I am struggling with the designing then having it made by someone with the ability to make it, is a big relief. "A custom ship is not just a ship, it's also a place to live... welcome home."

AW YEEA ! Ship designing is going to be big business: OP you could do with sprucing up your advertising , addiing a little touch of class! Star Citizen replica ships are going to be a collector's dream (strictly for viewing purposes; like fine art for auction: 100% authenticity/fidelity guaranteed!). "Please, over here on the left the EVE showcase room to feast your eyes on... and ladies and gentlemen if you'll take your seats now for the jewel in the crown of this evening's tour, the creme de la creme showpiece itself (please have your bidding slips to hand): The Star Citizen showroom!" *faint elevator music, in a sort of John Williams style, slowly wafts through the assembled crowd, mingling with the growing excitement, on the warm evening wind...*

I'd guess Capital is analogous to the Age of Sail where the larger ships could hold larger cannons and stronger hulls, and thence out-range other ships and gain superior advantage in warfare? What will large ship fleets attack? * Other large ships controlling areas of space * Large space-stations themselves (trade hubs?) * Planetary infrastructure defences and productivity areas. Whatever happens it seems large fleet battles could be one of the most fun and most popular areas of gameplay (could) so let's hope we see relatively frequent such engagements of diverse sizes, scenarios, multiple fronts of factions and of course some great ship to ship engagements themselves! As said, role in such scenarios might end up classifying ships too?

Love 'em. When the backing portal opens and I subscribe I will set up an organization. I have some design ideas already but need to make them. I have to first make the insignia or crest or logo as the Organization's Face/ID/Fingerprints. We'll have ships according to standardized scheme which is functional appearance (signalling system!). I'll post the "logo" after I create the group here and hope it is enjoyed by others and fuels other creative ideas further.

Here, have some grief bacon to go with your yellow of the egg. :-) Let's say 250 words per page average (low end). Then for 6,000 word essay = 24 pages target. I think having a good editor will help a lot should one decide to have a go at this. Bon Chance!

In one of the dev articles, the reasoning for First Person Perspective was given (iirc):- 1. It's more immersive. A view (ho-ho-ho) I've become much more comfortable with in fact to the point where I feel it's easily superior to 3rdpp for such a Virtual World (VW) 2. There was a vague aspiration to the fact 1stpp "COULD" support such as VR interfaces. But nothing direct on VR and nothing specifically with regard to the OR implementation. I'm sure the sentence in the developer diary (?) could be dug up...

Oh my... I did not see the tiny avatar human figure walking along the front there, that REALLY adds a scale meter to this wonderful picture of teamwork and creativity. Whoa-under-full!

Sounds like a possible fundamental taxonomy of ships to apply. * Core Number ∝ Ship Size * Crew Number * Function * Range? I actually have an idea for a ship design based on Function => Form. In fact the appearance is key part of successful function in the design, the form is intended to convey social information to others. Well itchy fingers for when we can design our ships...

In general over-complex food/water (and O2) systems would be adding tedium (someone said going to the loo etc). That said, Biomes with food and O2 and water etc would become much much more valuable if ships required these as abstract fuel components ie your avatar just has to go to the ship for these things after extended absence to remove the issue. The ship itself then needs refueling. Also consider cities as well: A huge economic management to grow food. O2 planets "free supply" than non. Of course costlier on non life-biome habitats for these things. Then and again the control of air ala Total Recall has political ramifications too. So perhaps these systems as "macro parameters" as opposed to pesky micro-ing management. At such a level they would shape player behaviour and settlement patterns in space possibly...? Then even further in the future than this already future, "Terraforming Mars"! Mega corps... mega infrastructure required ! Dang, easy to get dizzy with excitement too quickly.

Avatar Movie: IVVS Earth to Alpha Centauri (pandora) I enjoyed this movie immensely for what it was: sci-fantasy setting for fairy tale story structure. The details of the trip the above ship makes from Earth to Pandora (one of the moons of the gas giant Polyphemus orbiting Alpha Centauri A in the AC star system, our nearest start our own solar system, is quite an interesting What If? comparison. The interesting details are the relationship between:- * propulsion technology creating possible speed ranges * acceleration and deceleration phases * fuel requirements * on-board carrying capacity and functions * The derived speed, time, distance (with some time dilation thrown in too) measures of the journey. I don't know what the structure of Dual Universe will be with respect to solar system distances between each other, galaxy (one is big enough??). I might need to read up on the lore some more. But how NQ design for the above within game systems is going to be interesting, of which it seems possible:- 1. Very large ships will be required to make large interstellar journeys via some "tech": Warp, Hyper, semi-FTL (!)? 2. Smaller ships might be more tolerable to atmospheric to space flight (think a behemoth expending fuel inside the gravity pull of a planet? 3. Warpgates: Maybe these will be for "super long distances"? Some economic, time, resources, distances, fuel, options available CONNECTION between all these will materialize? So for example, large ships could leap in a few days or more to another solar system in game time, whereas obviously the Warp tech is "instantaneous": But if that warp tech is not available, incredibly expensive so better deployed say the equivalent of >week of insterstellar time/game time or real time(!) then setting one up further away seems more practical. Then add to what Vorengard said above about resource raw -> processing complexity -> infrastructure functional. That Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times..." Yeah flown interstellar and forgot to pack my toothbrush: I'm screwed! The overall shape I'm hoping for the game:- 1. Breaking planetside will feel immense for the first time 2. Exploring the solar system will feel immense 3. Interstellar travel will feel immense 4. The first stargate will feel immense 5. All the while "not perfect information" on the requirements for all the above stages until reached.

I'm very very very glad NQ shut down their sales after crowdfunding for a year. It shows great integrity of intent and avoiding the temptation to continuously extract money from their backers who are invested and possibly more prone to "sunk cost fallacy", and more eager to invest more than they should (risk) given subtle promptings from the dev. It also as they've stated elsewhere: Ensured they don't over-extend their scope creep nor over-promising... Notably they released pre-alpha build to honour commitments and then avoided the Paris games week again to prioritize development and not lose weeks. So thank you NQ on that front. Thank you, emphatically. Secondly, I would like to chip in a couple of months or more upfront to "support" the devs (market signal and finance). But also along with this option comes the further option to create an Organization which I would also like to do. So end of year would be welcome for me on that front as well. I look forward to joining this game community and promoting some positive stories with everyone.