GraXXoR

Oh man, I gave up learning Japanese! I studied it for about a year 12 years ago.
I can still read Hiragana proficiently, I know some Kanjis (some are the same as Chinese in meaning), and I can't read Katakana still (it looks like a mess).
 
I acquired some basic vocabulary (some I still remember today; some I forgot). I can count perfectly to 億； I still remember the numbers (the system and kanji are the same as Chinese).
 
First things you learn in Japanese:
はじめまして  = "nice to meet you".
___と申します = "my name is ____".
どうぞよろしくお願いします = nice to meet you (please treat me kindly).
それでは、また会いましょう！= well then, see you again soon.
How can I forget lol. I still remember these ones.
 
If you know Chinese, you can guess the meaning of these kanjis (even though you cannot read some of them):
東京の中心部に住 = live in tokyo downtown area
日本 = japan (nihon)
英語 = english (eigo)
時差 = time difference
我 = I or me (it is not watashi which is 私)
質問 = question
何 = what (nani)
苦手 = holding difficulty
 
That's about it.
 
 
 

As with anything, YMMV. It's easy to ask for opinions, but deciphering the answers will be harder.

I am a NMS prepurchaser and Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen kickstarter backer. And I am a strong supporter of crowdfunding, with all its frustrations. 
So please bear in mind that I am used to playing incomplete/buggy space games over the last 6 years, so take that into consideration when reading my impressions.
 
DU is a mixed bag. It is an amazing concept, beautifully rendered, but still has glaring omissions and frustrating inconsistencies.
Stability is generally ok, but tends to get a bit dodgy at times and require players to avoid certain tasks or wait for a server reset.
There are currently very few game breaking bugs.

While Alpha 3 feels somewhat more complete than Alpha 2 did, there are still many problems: The in-game toolset is not complete and balance for many things is out of whack.

Also, as @dizolve above said, there is no ingame help or up-to-date tutorials, so in my spare time (usually towards the end of test periods) I hang around the starting areas and help noobs upgrade their first crafts, teach them the controls etc...

The tests start most Thursdays (three times a month is typical) and last until the Monday. But this Week's test is scheduled to last for over a week, so it might be a good time to get involved.

TL:DR   If you have cash burning a hole in your pocket and enjoy sandbox/space games and can be patient with bugs then DU should provide you a decent return on your money.

I still have a Haswell 4 core i7 4770k circa 2013!! mildly overclocked to 4.1GHz and it is plenty fast enough.  My graphics card is bog standard ZOTAC 1080Ti AMP!  from just before the Bitmining craze. I use a Samsung 512Gb 850 SATA SSD and have 32Gb of common-all-garden DDR3-1600. 

The game is basically entirely server and network limited.  My CPU usage sometimes spikes when flying fast or in the presence of large constructs, but I'm playing in 1440P with no problems.

As with anything, YMMV. It's easy to ask for opinions, but deciphering the answers will be harder.

I am a NMS prepurchaser and Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen kickstarter backer. And I am a strong supporter of crowdfunding, with all its frustrations. 
So please bear in mind that I am used to playing incomplete/buggy space games over the last 6 years, so take that into consideration when reading my impressions.
 
DU is a mixed bag. It is an amazing concept, beautifully rendered, but still has glaring omissions and frustrating inconsistencies.
Stability is generally ok, but tends to get a bit dodgy at times and require players to avoid certain tasks or wait for a server reset.
There are currently very few game breaking bugs.

While Alpha 3 feels somewhat more complete than Alpha 2 did, there are still many problems: The in-game toolset is not complete and balance for many things is out of whack.

Also, as @dizolve above said, there is no ingame help or up-to-date tutorials, so in my spare time (usually towards the end of test periods) I hang around the starting areas and help noobs upgrade their first crafts, teach them the controls etc...

The tests start most Thursdays (three times a month is typical) and last until the Monday. But this Week's test is scheduled to last for over a week, so it might be a good time to get involved.

TL:DR   If you have cash burning a hole in your pocket and enjoy sandbox/space games and can be patient with bugs then DU should provide you a decent return on your money.

You win in MMO when:
 
1) Having lots of fun;
2) Making new real friends (even if they 10.000 km afar);
3) Quit just in time, with bit of bright sorrow, but firm hand at "uninstall"...
 
Everythings else will fade away in global scale of things.
 
 

Winning = Increasing Understanding. In that sense for each player it is subjective. In the sense of comparing players, it is relative.

Some amazing artwork in this thread... DU community has some real talent onboard!

Build a bonsai... win DU

Here's some fan-art I made recently of an amazing Ship by SoCalExile that I've named "Paradise". Novaquark published it recently on their Social Media. Here is the original in Hi-Res on Gladiators cafe YouTube ?:
 
 
Sincerely,
Geo
https://www.studio-g.live

You're welcome, my friend
 

 
Animated version:
 
Regular Version:

 
Regular animated (neon flicker) GIF:

 
Sincerely,
Geo
https://www.studio-g.live
 

Here's the latest video I worked on for a really cool Community Event by DICE. Novaquark just published it on their YouTube:
 
 
Sincerely,
Geo

Here's some animations I worked on today for the crew in Ministry. It was another fun project:
 

 

 
I really enjoy making these. Some logos are far more difficult than others, but I enjoy the challenge.
 
I post some of my work on twitter as well. Come say hi at Twitter.com/LandmarkXplorer
 
Sincerely,
-Geo

Sorry but i started drooling an hour ago over my new Logo and now my desk is wet and i still cannot stop

Hey Peckem, Here's an Iconic Font with a nebula horizon.
 

 
Here's the HTML to embed the GIF in an ingame screen:
 
<div align="center"><br /><br /><img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/501571239710818335/532702140154642443/Peckems_Palace_Nebula.gif" width="90%"/>
    <br /><p style="font-size: 300%;">Signs by Geo</p></div>
 
Cheers,
Geo

I've been making some animated & neon signs for the Orgs I'm part of and for friend's ships. Because they are GIFs, they can be displayed on ingame screens/signs. I figured I'd share some and see if anyone want's a free animated neon GIF for their org or ship. Either message me or post your existing logo or graphics here and I'll see what I can do. It helps me pass the time when I'm not playing taxi driver for my kids or being yelled at by my wife.  
 
Cheers,
Geo
 
#SignsByGeo










 

Subs is definitely the best system, hands down. Think about it.

Name another system that incentivises the developers to continue to develop and maintain the core game; It's in their vested interest.
Drop the ball and the subs disappear.
 
Elite dangerous suffered from this.
5 years ago they charged players a massive amount ($300) for the Alpha and promised Life Time worth of free downloads.  Just before the game went live, they offered a $100 LEP (Lifetime Extension Pass) on top of the cost of the game ($60) which promised to give the later-comers free DLCs for life, just like the Kickstarted, Alpha and Beta backers...
The game had no subs.

Instead, the moved to microtransactions on cosmetics.

Result: five years after release and only one proper, solid expansion (Horizons) and a bunch of half hearted later addons (Beyond), while Frontier, the company, moved on to develop Jurassic World and Planet Coaster and a new IP coming this year. However, no fear, there are hundreds upon hundreds of mediocre colour palettes from which to choose from to colour your ships or add stupid bobble heads to your ship's dashboard. Pretty pathetic for half a decade's progress, IMHO.

Reason: No incentive to do anything since they already had the money from tens of thousands of LEP owners and Kickstarter/Alpha/Beta players.
 
 
The subscription model should ensure that they try to keep the players interested for as many years as possible.

I initially enjoyed Elite Dangerous due to the open ended sandbox nature of the game.  However, if I take the liberty of tediously stretching a metaphor to breaking point, the ED sandbox was literally a mile wide and only an inch deep and as for working tools, only a small spoon was provided. 
There were scoops without handles, some didn’t even have a bottom edge, there were wireframe outlines of some toy earth-movers, a bit of paper that said, “this will be a bucket” and a photograph of a hose labeled “water”. 
Literally nothing was fleshed out properly and still hasn’t been after three years.
And I haven’t even mentioned the open ended endless repetitive grind that pervaded every single aspect and the only interaction was to shoot stuff. 
 
It was like a sandbox filled with tiny little repetitive FTP “amusement” parks. 
 
The reason I chose to jump ship is because DU promises to allow the players to actually communicate meaningfully and achieve something together. A real sandbox with real tools and an incredible level of openness. 

I initially enjoyed Elite Dangerous due to the open ended sandbox nature of the game.  However, if I take the liberty of tediously stretching a metaphor to breaking point, the ED sandbox was literally a mile wide and only an inch deep and as for working tools, only a small spoon was provided. 
There were scoops without handles, some didn’t even have a bottom edge, there were wireframe outlines of some toy earth-movers, a bit of paper that said, “this will be a bucket” and a photograph of a hose labeled “water”. 
Literally nothing was fleshed out properly and still hasn’t been after three years.
And I haven’t even mentioned the open ended endless repetitive grind that pervaded every single aspect and the only interaction was to shoot stuff. 
 
It was like a sandbox filled with tiny little repetitive FTP “amusement” parks. 
 
The reason I chose to jump ship is because DU promises to allow the players to actually communicate meaningfully and achieve something together. A real sandbox with real tools and an incredible level of openness. 

This is the sort of statement made by one of those guys with wild hair, dirty clothes and screams the end of the world is coming. 
 
More seriously, their aim is obviously to have a game more like EVE than ARK. Where the single universe is too large for any one group to control it all, too many ways for small groups to grab a foothold, build themselves up and take a piece of that pie.

Compared to the noisy Alpha period Elite Dangerous, Kerbal and original Star Citizen forums, DU forums are very quiet... I suspect the NDA has something to do with it.

Try sentences. Works. - L.E.T.H.Y.S. | 14.04.2018

I initially enjoyed Elite Dangerous due to the open ended sandbox nature of the game.  However, if I take the liberty of tediously stretching a metaphor to breaking point, the ED sandbox was literally a mile wide and only an inch deep and as for working tools, only a small spoon was provided. 
There were scoops without handles, some didn’t even have a bottom edge, there were wireframe outlines of some toy earth-movers, a bit of paper that said, “this will be a bucket” and a photograph of a hose labeled “water”. 
Literally nothing was fleshed out properly and still hasn’t been after three years.
And I haven’t even mentioned the open ended endless repetitive grind that pervaded every single aspect and the only interaction was to shoot stuff. 
 
It was like a sandbox filled with tiny little repetitive FTP “amusement” parks. 
 
The reason I chose to jump ship is because DU promises to allow the players to actually communicate meaningfully and achieve something together. A real sandbox with real tools and an incredible level of openness. 

I initially enjoyed Elite Dangerous due to the open ended sandbox nature of the game.  However, if I take the liberty of tediously stretching a metaphor to breaking point, the ED sandbox was literally a mile wide and only an inch deep and as for working tools, only a small spoon was provided. 
There were scoops without handles, some didn’t even have a bottom edge, there were wireframe outlines of some toy earth-movers, a bit of paper that said, “this will be a bucket” and a photograph of a hose labeled “water”. 
Literally nothing was fleshed out properly and still hasn’t been after three years.
And I haven’t even mentioned the open ended endless repetitive grind that pervaded every single aspect and the only interaction was to shoot stuff. 
 
It was like a sandbox filled with tiny little repetitive FTP “amusement” parks. 
 
The reason I chose to jump ship is because DU promises to allow the players to actually communicate meaningfully and achieve something together. A real sandbox with real tools and an incredible level of openness. 

I definitely prefer sandbox too. But I think that the community around the game is another important point, I would prefer play a game with low quality but a friendly community rather than a "perfect" game with a grinding community.
 
There is a key expression for me in this vidéo: this guy said that a sandbox is a long term investment and a Themepark game a short term investment. I think it does not only reflect the evolution of the video game industry, but the evolution of the world through globalisation. In this way, the short term profit and the financial power, based on a ruthless competition has crushed any other way to manage the world.
 
Recently, I've realized how much the new MMORPGs, like Revelation Online for instance, look like to a day at work, competing harshly to be the first in the top list, to be the first to get the new stuff, to be the first to get everything and finally maybe paying a lot of monney and/or time to consume the content without even the pleasure to do it. It's more and more like an addiction, like social networks are sometimes.
Games like this are not "RPG" anymore, they are MMOthemepark, MMOArena or MMOcasino, and it brings more monney...
 
Finally, other players could be bot or AI at this point... What a paradox for a MMO!
 
Watch this vidéo.
Or read this about Tristan HARRIS and the Silicon Valley.
 
Maybe a MMO-RPG is just a nonsens.
 
Why? Because RPG is basically something about our human experience: me inside a story (like in a novel) or me interacting with other people (basic roleplay or board game) and that is what makes the experience valuable and interesting. And it's not possible to interact with everybody at the same time!
 
For me, that makes a MMO really worthy is the human experience, and this experience is strongly linked to the expression of our creativity and identity, finding a role or place in a bigger group. We find in it an alternative to the every day life, an "Oasis", just like in Ready Player One. Other people can find an oasis in their family, hobbies, friends or spirituality... Maybe after all, the sandbox MMO is the only MMO or MMORPG which makes sense?
 
So if I bring back something social, some knowledge or some wisdom from a game it's a good game. If I only play automatically or to get another level or another piece of stuff or only to don't feel alone, it's a bad or not so good game.
 
Thanks for reading!

 
 
 

Hello GraXXoR,
 
Please read this thread to troubleshoot your issue - https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/13294-why-dont-i-have-pre-alpha-feedback-forum-access/
 
 
If you need further assistance, please feel free to message me.
 
- Mercutio