Pleione

Per the last official Roadmap, almost 2.5 years ago, its also missing: (7) of the (12) planets - although those are expected eventually. Although that doesn't sound ALL bad, if the ore's are distributed the same way, I think we will be missing availability of some of them. Hopefully they will tweak availability, because I think without Ion or Sinnen Moon 1 we won't be able to mine Rhodonite? Without Symeon we won't have Vanadnite??? Suspect there are others. Those planets best come soon or people are going to be blocked in manufacturing higher tier items. Building of "gigantic" (their term) space stations. Suspect that references the "death star/small moon" early indicators Power-Ups (energy management) Player-made Markets - OMG, it would be such a game changer if they actually do this and remove bot based markets Pets? Does anybody really care??? And the biggie that they have been steadily chipping away at: "Craft your components - Produce the interactive components YOU need for YOUR bases and ships". Nothing in that says "become the galaxies best advanced LED manufacturer (specialization being the only practical thing a solo person can do)". It strongly implies that I can build everything I need for my bases and ships. I think there is an implied "within some reasonable timeframe e.g. Less than 10 years (5 years? 2 years? 1 year?)". Closely tied to this is "Become an industrialist - Set up industries to mass-produce building elements for you and your friends, or even sell them on the market". Again, no mention of needing to "Join a massive organization and collectively..."

My point exactly - it is popular, development continues - at a slow rate, but its a fairly mature game, and was sold as a one-time cost. Just cranked up a new game today and noticed some nice improvements since the last time I played. Things that REDUCE grind, are logical, and make the game MORE fun.

I disagree. Plenty of games out there, like Space Engineers, that have survived without subs. They add cosmetic things from time to time, and price them so low people buy them just to support the game (like $3 "packs"). Rimworld is another example. Admittedly, neither is an MMO, but both are well known games. On the other hand, I fully support something like a $15/month sub. On the other, other hand, asking people to sub for 13 months is a stretch and clearly just a "We need cash NOW" thing. Also, if I sub, they bloody well better not offer a cash shop with anything other than cosmetic items.

Interesting. Thinking cosmetic only or a jump to pure Pay-to-Win (aka Black Desert Online)? Maybe all that thorium is now available, via RNG of course, in magic chest...

Off topic, but sounded like you were describing Netflix...

Knee jerk every time I read this. Backers didn't "play for free", they played based on a one-time fee. Think I was in it for $175 (ish) - the most I've ever invested in a game that wasn't playable at the time. Now, I admit, I'll get DACs for that - maybe. Perhaps will find out tomorrow - but they were silent around DACs. And I did get to play alpha and beta for a lot longer than anyone (except perhaps Blazemonger) predicted. But it sure didn't feel like "free".

Worse than NQ? Wouldn't anything be a step up? (Shy of someone buying it just to milk a few dollars before shutdown)

I particularly liked the 1M talent points they dangled if you activated 2 factor authentication. Those are worth nothing now.

Want a funny read, go back to the original 2016 kickstarter post: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949863330/dual-universe-civilization-building-sci-fi-mmorpg

157 days, 11 hours - so 3,779 hours. Almost 2 man-years at a typical 40hr/week job with 2 weeks vacation.

I highly suspect I'll go check out the PTS if they are wise enough to actually test before releasing. If not, I'll hop on, mostly for old times sake. I easily logged 3000 hours in the almost 4 years between pre-alpha and 0.23. I doubt I've logged 10 hours since then. Just ask my wife how much coffee she delivered when I played 36 hours straight of a 48 hour test window (gotta love that gal!). Will I stay after checking it out? Very iffy. Let me know when this is happening relative to Crimson Desert and/or Starfield release - both of those are going to be a big grab of my time and I tend to only play one thing at any given time. So as a filler until something else grabs my attention? Perhaps.

Pure speculation but: I expect, would like to demand, at least an announcement of when an actual date for the wipe is going to happen Tied to (1): Perhaps an actually announcement of the PTS server being reset for launch testing A statement that there will be zero new features released prior to launch - all effort is currently focused on bug reduction and production readiness - this, of course, is weak, since they tend to fix "bugs/gameplay issues" with feature releases. (e.g. rework of mining, rework of combat, rework of honeycombs, etc.) I have heard some are speculating that at release, DU will be sold to a 3rd party, and this will be announced. Sad, but oddly elated, but this potential. Fear they will announce major new features, like player driven markets, with little if any PTS testing, or perhaps yet another rework of PVP Cheers! Let the guesswork begin in the spirit of fun!

Trust me, I feel your pain and disappointment. I feel the lack of a player driven economy, of which player driven markets are a huge piece, is my 2nd biggest disappointment in the evolution of DU. 1st being the lack of delivery of "Galaxy" with the implications its was well beyond 2 or 3 solar systems - I wanted in pre-alpha to work towards a Stargate Universe class exploration and gate seeding ship. That dream died a rather slow death, with feature after feature required to do it slowly being removed and replaced with more and more dependance on central markets. That dream died its last death with the introduction of schematics.

Much, MUCH, harder. They have no constructs for this. Think about questions along the line of: Are they going to create special "market containers" or would a player owned market be limited to a 10X hub of large containers - that would be VERY limiting. What about RDMS (which doesn't have a great record): Do I, as the player market owner, own the contents of those containers? Can I wait for folks to fill them with items for sale and then just shutdown the market and steal it all? If I can create a player market with infinite storage like the current markets have, what keeps me from just creating one and using it for myself - putting sell orders on it at 100X market prices? These are all things that should have been resolved in Alpha. ps. Dispensers are NOT player markets, although the large core space station I set up called Jita used them to get as close as it could (fuel, territory scanners, etc.) was at least for sale - but no market like capability. pps. Basically this is enough to quality as a release by itself and should be given ample PTS time.

Not going to happen. I would max out my large core cargo ship, spend every dime on more L cargo containers and reduce my entire L core space station to parts and store them on that cargo ship. Then BP that. Any space I had left over would be filled with ore and intermediate parts. Or, even better yet, just BP that space station and claim it - easier still.

I agree in concept, except: 1) Most of my friends from Alpha quit after 0.23, some of the few that remained stopped playing and are just awaiting launch - or were until recent news. Others have been banned from Discord and the forum for saying things NQ apparently did not like - although they were not told why. 2 & 3) Most of what I learned pre-0.23 is hardly relevant anymore. Flight dynamics has changed, combat has changed, orbital awareness (thinks like the safe zone edges) are under question, mining of course is a whole new game. That's all OK, but the thousands of hours I invested, especially now that my 95.5M talent points are going to be nerfed (Just logged in to check, and discovered my 18 month training queue is empty - oh well), don't feel particular useful. Want a laugh? Go read the FAQ that I wrote that was current as of October 31st, 2020: https://tinyurl.com/y2phpt3b Look and see how much has changed since then. Note that was the accumulation of almost 3 years of knowledge (I started DU in February of 2018), is now almost completely obsolete. Yeah, it was only posted in August of 2020, but that was the DAY we were released from the NDA required to be an Alpha player. 3) Noobs was SO long ago... lol. I'm sure I'll repeat many of those same mistakes. Admittedly, we have had almost an additional 2 years to adapt, for those that decided to continue post 0.23 and tough it out. Many opted to wait until "release", which we expected much sooner than now (Please remember that the original roadmap had release in 2nd half of 2020 - many believed that would slip, but not into 2nd half 2022, and were not surprised when the December 2019 roadmap pushed release into "not early" 2021. So many expected to have to wait a large fraction of a year post 0.23, only a few expected it to be 2nd-half 2022 (and I sincerely suspect they will make that - but its questionable given they have not told us).

Because it positive PR to keep BPs. The real question is how many of the BPs will actually still work after launch? The new honeycomb numbers may require many to be worked. Old BPs may have bugs... (I had an old pocket ship BP that couldn't be built because of component name issues), etc. Of course, this is kicking the can down the road - they will have to deal with all this post launch, but I'm hearing the cry of "Whatever it takes, LAUNCH. We will deal with fallout afterwards". (If they were not, they would wipe the PTS world and let us test their new blank slate and find the worst of the bugs pre-launch)

No longer a "discussion" (if it ever was), now its the law of the land.

Again, DACs (which they didn't mention in this announcement, so we have to speculate on) might be considered a large portion of that reward. But I agree in principle, since I'm been active for 4.5ish year now? (wow) Allowing someone to buy their way in and be equivalent in rewards day 1 seems wrong - although a great way to raise cash.

I think there would be player riots, and complaints to Kickstarter themselves, if they did not do this. Perhaps even a lawsuit or two, although I'm sure they have sufficient disclaimers in the actual documents (people can sue for any reason, doesn't mean they will win). So I'm going with "They are not total idiots, so Yes". Hope I'm not wrong.

One difference: I'm presuming kickstarter and patron types will get their promised DACs.

1) Unknown 2) Cut & paste into wordpad - Safer than presuming your BP isn't going to bust and not be deployable. I've already had that happen since 0.23. 3) Presumably yes.

Yep - definite "Pay to play" feature here.

Presuming you had a talent queue long enough to cover you until launch. I did <evil smile>. Otherwise you would just have received the basic 30 points/minute instead of 90 points/minute. But that is a nit since its your backer status that defines bonuses, not time spent working on talents.

Two questions: Are you going to test this out a month or three on the PTS first? I sure hope so. Bluntly, releases have historically had a lot of bugs - it would be nice for your to clean new ones (ok, and all known old ones) up before launch. But to make such a change without public testing seems very risky. I presume DACs remain based on backer level. They were not mentioned.