Xylos0

Good day, Noveans!
 
Much of the allure of Dual Universe is the ability to be the captain of your own destiny as you pilot the ship of your dreams. Piloting your ship requires skill and a strategic use of the tools available.
 
The Maneuver Tool is an important part of that toolbox. In its current state, however, it wasn’t working quite the way we planned. As we approach the launch of the 0.23 update, we wanted to talk about changes we’ll be making to the Maneuver Tool as well as changes to issues around what happens when you’re disconnected from the game (intentionally or not) when actively flying your ship.
 
The Maneuver Tool is for maneuvers

The Maneuver Tool was originally introduced to offer a simple way to get your ship out of a small hole or to flip it over when it landed upside down. It also provided a handy way to lift your ship off the ground a bit so you could work on it from below.
 
But as is often the case when designing video games, the cunning imaginations of players found unexpected ways to use the tools that were not intended by the designers, some of which are detrimental to gameplay and could cause issues in the not-so-distant future. Let’s take a closer look at some of the issues caused by the “creative” use of the Maneuver Tool and the upcoming changes we’ll be implementing in the imminent 0.23 update to correct them.
 
Cooperative play is all about collaboration and players helping other players. That’s great, and we don’t want to discourage players from doing that, but how it’s done is important. The Maneuver Tool was not intended as a way to move a ship “by hand” over kilometers or to create a ladder of two ships used as intermediary steps to reach space. These uses went clearly beyond the original intent of the tool.
 
To address this, we’re introducing some limitations in line with the purpose of the tool: 
 
A ship will not be able to move more than 50m in total between accumulated uses of the tool. The distance between the start and end points is added at each run of the tool. The moved distance is reset after three minutes to ensure that players aren’t stuck forever. It is, of course, a per-construct limitation.  Unless the player was in contact with a planet ground or a static/space construct, a ship will no longer freeze in the air during the use of the Maneuver Tool. This will make it possible to lift it up to work under it, but no higher than that.
No more instant stopping of ships upon disconnection

Everyone has “the need for speed”, the desire to get from Point A to Point B in the shortest time possible. So you pull that throttle back, amp up the power and blast off. The danger is that if you don’t carefully monitor your speed, you’ll smash full-force into a planet, your ship will blow up, and you’ll find yourself either returned to your bind point or resurrection node. Ouch!
 
A common workaround for this has been to disconnect from the game just before impact. Upon reconnection, your speed would be reset to zero, and thus you could approach with a safe speed. Although it’s convenient, that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

With the upcoming change, upon reconnecting, as soon as you get in range of the construct, the speed and rotation will be restored to whatever they were when travel was interrupted. The benefits to this change are twofold. First, it will close the aforementioned loophole. Second, it will prevent you from expending twice the amount of fuel to reaccelerate a ship at maximum speed if you had been disconnected for whatever reason.
 
Further, if you disconnect while another player is in range, the server already assigns the task of handling the physical properties of your ship to that nearby player. This means that your ship will continue to move in this situation. On a large ship with many people on board, disconnecting will no longer have the effect of freezing your ship because there will always be other players nearby to continue the simulation of your ship’s movement.
 
We will also add the option to have the Emergency Control Unit (ECU) activated in that case, so that an emergency “braking” can take place if the ship capacity allows it.
 
Keep Doing What You’re Doing
 
We tip our hats to the ingenuity of our Beta testing community. The way you use the tools and mechanics we toss into the sandbox gives us lots of food for thought, showing us the changes we need to make to make the game we all want to play. We encourage you to maneuver your way to the discussion thread to tell us what you think about the adjustments we’re bringing to DU! ❤️ 

[Updated Nov 19, 2020 @ 3:02 PM EST]: The rules outlined below apply to teleporting both avatars and constructs. This means that, outside of the list of approved scenarios, we won't be able to fetch your ship and bring it to your location. 
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Good day fellow Noveans,
 
I come bearing support-related news! More specifically, I’d like to address teleportation requests with all of you.
 
For a while now, we’ve allowed players in need of a port to say the word on Discord and - voila - your wish would be granted! ✨
That worked well for a time, but our Discord support channel is now beginning to slip under the veritable wave of port requests… and we’d like to rescue it and all those in need of a ‘lift’.
 
As of November 19th, we would like everyone in need of teleport-related assistance to use the in-game chat support, or submit an official support ticket. By using the in-game chat function instead of Discord, you’re likely to receive an answer quicker because our GMs are ready and waiting for you there!

Having said that, we’d also like to inform everyone that we will no longer grant port requests if you’re simply out of fuel, stuck in one of your own constructs, or just generally stranded. All port requests will now be investigated, verified and potentially denied if the request falls outside of approved scenarios.

Some examples of when to ask for a port (approved scenarios):
 
if you’re stuck in an Aphelia construct if you’re trapped in any other player-owned tile (unable to dig) if you’re unable to get past the loading screen upon logging in
  What to do if you’re just stuck/out of fuel/stranded: 
 
Don’t forget: there are plenty of player organizations available to assist in your travels through space! Be sure to check out the organizations and services provided on Discord and our Forums. Some organizations will be happy to provide you with transportation, refueling, repairs, building help and so much more!! ?

How to contact support:

To access in-game chat support, simply click the “support” tab in-game, as depicted below.


 
From here, it’s as easy as typing up your request, starting the message with "@NQ" and sending it off!
 
To submit an official support ticket, please click HERE. ?

Then, select the hyperlinked text that says “submit a request” in the top-right corner of the page. Once you see the screen featured below, select the appropriate category for your issue and go to town!


 
(Quick note for those submitting crash reports: PLEASE do not forget to include a crash log and/or XML logs with your ticket!!)

And there you have it! Let’s all do our part to keep the Discord server free and clear of port requests so that players with big ol’ bugs and other issues to report can receive the visibility they deserve.

~NQ-Naunet

PS - I want to give a special shout-out to all of our support staff for everything they do!! Thank you, all!!