Julius_de_Carnutie

Hi everyone,
 
As an exceptional case, we are replying this topic, even if it’s closed, to avoid any misunderstanding. As an exceptional case, as the involved user has explicitly asked for public explanation and the customer support agrees with it, we are in a situation where both parties agree to make it public, so it doesn't break the confidentiality policy. We also want to share this as an example that things don't happen for no reason (and in the case of an error, we are ready to fix it).
 
Just to put things in perspective:
- Emtec3PL account wasn't suspended regarding the game (the account has never lost his rights to play the game when the time will come).
- Emtec3PL account wasn't suspended on the forum and was still able to contact Community Managers in private.
- Emtec3PL account was suspended on Customer Support side.
 
The situation:
- Emtec3PL pledged 1 euro as a symbolic donation during Kickstarter campaign (in which case it was clear it was a donation, with no rewards attached to it).
- Emtec3PL pledged then an Iron Founder Pack after the Kickstarter campaign, which has been upgraded as a Silver Pack shortly after.
- As explained in the news on our website here the access time, depending on the founder level, was pretty clear and self explanatory: 
All Kickstarter Founder Backers get access at Alpha 1.  Post-Kickstarter Founder Backers get access at the earliest at Alpha 2. Emtec3PL becomes a Founder Backer after the Kickstarter campaign, first as an Iron Founder, than as a Silver Founder, so he's rightfully considered as a Post-Kickstarter Backer and will get access Alpha 2. Emtec3PL contested that fact and asked repeatedly to Customer Support for an access to Alpha 1. Novaquark Customer Support denied the request and explained why. The last answer from Emtec3PL to the Customer Support was the following:
 
Emtec3PL sent this reply because he will have access to Alpha 2 (as planned), and not immediately (as he wanted). Obviously there was no possible discussion anymore, and as part of the process for harassment prevention, the account has been suspended on the customer support side. If Emtec3PL is willing to come back to a more constructive discussion, the account can be unsuspended.
 
This example might be useful to put in light how we manage customer service here at Novaquark. Globally there are two schools of customer service:
 
The old school: "Customer is king."
This vision implies that no matter how the customer behaves, the customer service agent needs to endure and gives satisfaction to the customer. In our eyes, this way of doing things is relevant as long as customers and customer service agents behave with mutual respect.
 
However, with internet promoting anonymity and online interaction, a growing number of customers started to consider mutual respect as being optional and/or lost focus that the customer service agent at the other end of the line is a human being, not a machine, and he/she is there to help, not to endure someone else's anger or frustration. Having daily customers being rude or threatening can damage a team morale, especially when rudeness or threat is undeserved. 
 
Customer Support is not an outlet for customers to let their frustration run wild.
It's a place to answer customer questions and help them when they have a technical issue.
Some people would easily throw there: "Hey it's part of the job. If they can't handle it, they can find another job" or the famous “HTFU” (which is perfectly fine in a game where a part of the fun is to compete to see who is the toughest guy. It’s less fine when it applies to your real life where you can’t log out) Our answer to this is "No, it's not part of the job, unless it has been decided that way by the company. It's not up to the customer to decide this part." 
 
At Novaquark we value Customer satisfaction as much as Employee well-being. 
The reasons? We don't want the job of anyone becoming a chore because we aren’t interested in burnouts and high turnovers, and also because we are convinced that, having people less stressed and less harassed than the average in the industry will benefit indirectly to the Customers themselves. So we won't encourage negative behavior from some customers, quite the contrary, by applying consequences to this kind of behavior.
 
To put it simply, we are following the other school: 
"Customer is king... but even a king has its limits."
We will always do our best to satisfy a customer as long as:
- the request/demand is reasonable and motivated by common sense.
- the request/demand is made in a respectful manner.
 
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.

You are totally free to believe so, I stand still. I have no idea how you are going to put casual people into mining/hauling/building. Good luck mate!

Who's really being excluded though? The cheapest backer pledge is only $16.00 USD an you can upgrade your pledge if you wish. Anybody who has PayPal and a job at McDonalds can be a part of this for as much a few Big Mac's. I think people who are willing to pay at least a little to fully enjoy and help the development of the game is game's primary audience anyways. Just my 2¢

What we need to understand before processing the AI idea is :
Havin an AI controlling your character means constantly heavier server load,
They are not going to make mining automatable,
Selling stuff offline means botting the market
If they are not able to defend properly and the AI goes statistics for defense solving, it's going to put people in trouble, or force them to leave base to disconnect.

Not saying these issues can't be limited/configured...

Now to get specific on the issue of persistence, you could have like a "pod" to sleep in, where no one can loot or kill you unless they destroy said "pod", the character just sleeps on the ground otherwise, or any place (ships, roofs, whatever). Shouldn't be able to sleep underwater/floating in space tho...
For now i'm about sure it's not priority, gameplay wise i think it's an interesting matter, why making rooms/safeplaces if you can just pop in and out? where the subject is the most sensitive is about higher tier stuff... should you be able to log off and disappear with these, and then having the issue of safe transportation in dangerous conditions unbalancing the game??

Can't see anything about this in the Trello. Ideas?
 

What we need to understand before processing the AI idea is :
Havin an AI controlling your character means constantly heavier server load,
They are not going to make mining automatable,
Selling stuff offline means botting the market
If they are not able to defend properly and the AI goes statistics for defense solving, it's going to put people in trouble, or force them to leave base to disconnect.

Not saying these issues can't be limited/configured...

Now to get specific on the issue of persistence, you could have like a "pod" to sleep in, where no one can loot or kill you unless they destroy said "pod", the character just sleeps on the ground otherwise, or any place (ships, roofs, whatever). Shouldn't be able to sleep underwater/floating in space tho...
For now i'm about sure it's not priority, gameplay wise i think it's an interesting matter, why making rooms/safeplaces if you can just pop in and out? where the subject is the most sensitive is about higher tier stuff... should you be able to log off and disappear with these, and then having the issue of safe transportation in dangerous conditions unbalancing the game??

Can't see anything about this in the Trello. Ideas?
 

If there won't be such a planet, you will be able to dig your own caves for sure!

I like the idea of the player's body being persistent in the world. I do not play Rust, but I like how players cannot simply "disappear" or use other age old methods of exploiting a game to win, such as combat logging. Having a logged out player inside a cryopod or some kind of shell/case would be easier on system resources to complete. The cryopod does not have to be transparent showing the body, a simple red or green light will due for indication of occupancy.

As for a person logging out at random, the system would need to leave the body or basic human 3d placeholder in some type of form or another to comply with the meaning of persistence. I really hope NQ will add these features! 

What we need to understand before processing the AI idea is :
Havin an AI controlling your character means constantly heavier server load,
They are not going to make mining automatable,
Selling stuff offline means botting the market
If they are not able to defend properly and the AI goes statistics for defense solving, it's going to put people in trouble, or force them to leave base to disconnect.

Not saying these issues can't be limited/configured...

Now to get specific on the issue of persistence, you could have like a "pod" to sleep in, where no one can loot or kill you unless they destroy said "pod", the character just sleeps on the ground otherwise, or any place (ships, roofs, whatever). Shouldn't be able to sleep underwater/floating in space tho...
For now i'm about sure it's not priority, gameplay wise i think it's an interesting matter, why making rooms/safeplaces if you can just pop in and out? where the subject is the most sensitive is about higher tier stuff... should you be able to log off and disappear with these, and then having the issue of safe transportation in dangerous conditions unbalancing the game??

Can't see anything about this in the Trello. Ideas?
 

Provide an option to recycle elements & materials back to their sub components ore's. Each time would reduce the amounts returned as a cost of processing. Perhaps this might require equipment or skills to drive  performance levels.

Very true. It's IMO also true that many that are into PVP are in fact carebears. For me a carebear is basically a risk averse person who will go out of his/her way to not take any risks, avoiding any situation where loss may be an option.
 
For me, and my org, we do not instigate, support or promote aggression and will make every effort to avoid it but when we must we will be prepared to take defensive action to the point where we would certainly end a conflict in our favour if we can.
 
Personally I see the desire for some to be in a constant state of conflict and be protagonists of aggression for the smallest of reasons even when to me that is not anything I could ever see myself engage in. I do accept though I could be on the receiving end of such action and this do need to be prepared to responds as needed. Where my opinion may be different from others is that I do not believe that PVP is a main driver for this game, it is much more a supporting mechanic which has it's time and purpose. How that all plays out remains to be seen.
 
Violence and aggression do not build (lasting) communities or civilisation, thus they go against the main vision for the game by nature is what I believe.

Dual Universe is not an open world PVP game, it is an open world civilization/community building game. PVP is part of that yes, but is not the main driver in my opinion. PVP as I see it will be a means to an end wit he purpose of settling disputes if all else fails. (source: the DU website front page)
 
Now, obviously (and queue the proponents of this commenting) there will be those that just want their pewpew and so consider PVP to be the holy grail and expect PVP to be the main focus and driver for the game. I believe this will not be the case to a large extent because from what we know so far (large scale) PVP will not be as simple as jumping into a ship and raising hell.
 
Players will have access to tools that will create personal safe zones and sanctuary but those tools will be (very) expensive.

I was thinking about this the other day actually: would be very cool to see decaying buildings that are now uninhabited, and perhaps in a few months or years of game time city ruins that are deserted once people have moved on. Will give the world a very "lived in" feel I think.

Nukes are lazy weapons for leaders scared to use their fists against their enemy......
 
Tis also the same reason we manually mine by hand....
 
Stop being a lazy bum 
 

What we need to understand before processing the AI idea is :
Havin an AI controlling your character means constantly heavier server load,
They are not going to make mining automatable,
Selling stuff offline means botting the market
If they are not able to defend properly and the AI goes statistics for defense solving, it's going to put people in trouble, or force them to leave base to disconnect.

Not saying these issues can't be limited/configured...

Now to get specific on the issue of persistence, you could have like a "pod" to sleep in, where no one can loot or kill you unless they destroy said "pod", the character just sleeps on the ground otherwise, or any place (ships, roofs, whatever). Shouldn't be able to sleep underwater/floating in space tho...
For now i'm about sure it's not priority, gameplay wise i think it's an interesting matter, why making rooms/safeplaces if you can just pop in and out? where the subject is the most sensitive is about higher tier stuff... should you be able to log off and disappear with these, and then having the issue of safe transportation in dangerous conditions unbalancing the game??

Can't see anything about this in the Trello. Ideas?
 

I hope not. Kill boards advertise that the game is all about killing. If there are kill boards then there should also be "best build" boards, exploration boards, manufacturer boards, and mining boards.
 
DU is not EVE. It should being DUing it's own thing, not making an EVE 2.0.

assuming of course that the real crew aren't all arguing about whose driving and whose security

Isn't the goal of the game to gather real people instead of displaying fake ones?

Isn't the goal of the game to gather real people instead of displaying fake ones?

Or, have a smaller ship....
 
Or more useful real life crew.....
 

 

Isn't the goal of the game to gather real people instead of displaying fake ones?

I played Eve for 10+ years
i have EA games (Empyrion, 7 days to die, etc)
p2w games and sp games also
 
Games cost money to develop, that is a fact. I would rather spend mine on supporting a great idea and help it make it to market without the pressure from corporate sponsors... and I would keep on paying to keep the patches coming similar to how it was\ is done in Eve.
Why? Because the game stays vital and interesting by keeping the dev's on the project. If you don't like that idea there are alot of games out there where you will pay for the game once, and if development continues for the game you will pay a price for the DLC's that follow. That price is usually at 50% of the original purchase price. But those type of games don't have the same type of ... call it reality feel that Eve does and that DU is striving for.
To me that is worth the pledge to get it developed and worth the sub price to keep it going.