Novean-32184

DU is not a "PVP only" game, It is a sandbox MMO with PVP combat as one of he game's components.

I'm not sure what you mean @FatRillos, but the workaround, while suitable for some purposes, is just that. ANd it really only works if the original scipt uses a databank in some way to store variables. I'm not happy with the delay in getting this resolved but the explanation given I can understand so I'll "work with it" and in some cases the mentioned workaround will suffice. For those that wonder, the workaround basically means linking a programming board to the databank holding the Lua settings and using that to edit the variables, it's pretty much like the old PEEK and POKE instructions those of us who played around with the C64 in the past know and love

No matter how you spin it, they pushed it to EA end of August last yeear already.

The big difference is you can runs 10 or more clients in EVE without needing a monster PC, the same can't be said for DU. I do on occasion have two clients running, one on my local ssystem and one on Shadow butonly when two charatcres need to interact, which is not very frequent. For me, my alts are pretty much independent characters with their own purpose and not meant to be used at the same time,..

@NQ-Ligo Thank you for this clear explanation. Keep these coming please. While I was hoping for a fix sooner rather than later, I can understand the reasons.. so we'll have to make due for now I guess.. You did peek my interest with the mention of a camera Lua API. That is quite the teaser to say the least, it's intriguing and I really hope we get to know a bit more soon in the new year.. Enjoy your break, which I have no doubt you are looking forward to.

So, this issue has plagued us again for some time now and IMO this is really a game breaking bug at multiple levels. It is causing a lot of extra work for several players who sell their product in game with DRM lock on the Lua code. When asked, NQ seems to brush it off as "well, it's caused by optimisation and may take some time to fix", which to me really comes accross as another "not a priority right now" excuse which I honestly feel this is not good enough and this should be prioritized. Please NQ, get this sorted before you go on your (multi week) Xmas breakl. I get you need so time away but don't leave us hanging with this one. A pre-Xmass fix woudl be greatly apreciated!

The devs would probably do fine.. it's the middle and upper management that woudl haveme concerned. Actual devs just do what they are asked/told to do, if there is no structure and direction in that, they will fill in the blanks themselves generally, which really is something that is quite clearly happening in DU at the moment for me.

They would not downscale to test, they would downscale to save cost, and with all the cost cutting actions NQ has been taking since last year, I do not think assuming they are on a very strict and stretched budget is unreasonable. Demeter is clearly driven by reducing cost and IMO this includes reduction of cluster footprint. But obviously that is just me speculating, even when the signs are all there to indicate I can't be far off. My concerns is that they will need funding to scale up. funding they will not have when they need it as the upscaling comes before having the funding to do so. If a couple thousand players suddenly were to show up.. performance is going to go down the drain. I just hope NQ is able to secure funding in time for release as subsciptions will not give them the money they need for quite some time.

I can't escape the feeling that NQ has downscaled their cluster with Demeter to save more cost.

The DU server cluster is quite a bit more complex than the single dedicated server model Space Engineeers has and frankly, Space engineers is pretty much what you are asking NQ to provide right now and has much better combat and content to boot for such an environment.

In all fairness, part of the problem and part of the reason why certain groups started lobbying NQ to get these safe zones was the ever-present talk of "wait until PVP comes, I'll be kicking over all your sand castles" Now, NQ could have turned around and made it clear that was not going to happen and clarify that the TW mechanics would be favouring defence (as they have done once) and that it would not be a simple matter of walking up and kicking over sandcastles. They could also have then turned the other way and said "We will be bringing in enough options for you to work on making your territory very, very safe and very hard to take over (as they hinted here and there). Instead, NQ never even tried to set correct expectations for both sides and just turned half the game into a permanent safe zone. Basic game design choices would have allowed NQ to build a system that provided pretty much an full on safe zone if you want it. Have the TU as the centre Allow the TU to be "upgraded" Tier this in a way that each level extends a "decay and attack free zone" from say 1 S core size to 4 L core size around the TU If a tile is fully surrounded by org/same player owned tiles and all of them have a TU upgraded to the highest tier, the centre tile becomes a virtual safe zone in its entirety. Such a top tier tile allows players to set rules with regards to use of weapons, set taxes, charge for renting space etc. Really not hard to come up with and mostly should really not be very costly in dev resources to create. It also builds a strong case for: "You want to be safe? You can get there, but you have to organise and work for it" "You want combat and take over territory? You can do so, but you have to organise and work for it"

A big issue causing what OP noticed is that the talent system is set up to allow this. Everyone gets access to anything instantly and talents really provide mostly buffs and gate nothing except for maybe what size core you can deploy (and how many). As a side effect new players get no incentive to choose a "career path" as is the case in EVE for instance, where you buy the skillbook first, which is a first gate to drive choice, and then skill towards what you want to do. Overall it's all really a symptom of the same root cause for the game, no real direction, structure or plan when starting development, just a list of "this is what we want the game to do/offer" and then just start "doing stuff" while never really stopping to think about how what you are building may affect other parts of the game.

NQ actually tries to claim that respawn of surface harvestables was "never intended" (which is what Deckard claimed in Discord) to not have to address this issue. Funny bit is though, surface rocks respawning was one of their major arguments when they introduced them and huge swats not actually doing that has been a problem since, which they seem to not be able to fix (of they just don't care to).

I certainly feel the balance is not there yet and I hope NQ will make some quick adjustments to accomodate this. I would not mind if the small basic MU would lose the calibration (on Sanctuary) and the bonus for adjecent tiles to just pull 50l/h. Limit use to 8 per player and new players can fairly easily get going on Sanctuary. The basic S MU really has little to no value elsewhere anyway. SImple fix with a good impact for noobs..

Most of the points raised realy focus on something I agree really need to get a lot of attention over the next few months as we move towards a "release" and that is the UI/UX needs a massive overhaul, if not a rewrite as it is hopelessly non intuitive, inconsistent and very much of the last decade. Frankly, the UI/UX has not changed much, if at all, since pre alpha and varies a lot depending on who built it. It also feels like much of the UI/UX is designed by the coders which in itself is really not a good idea.. You need to have someone who understand what users need to know/see to design the UI/UX, not a dev who assumes certain things should be obvious since it is to them.

Some will tell you to go do missions, for a new player missions pay very little though and so you really are stuck with grinding for a good bit of time unless you join an org where you may get some support .. these starter mission are really not work the effort IMO.. You get 150K quanta/day which will mean in about week you will have a basic mining setup running 4 basic L mining units which will give you about 400l/h in ore from Sanctuary. Quick calculation will mean you make about 1.6 million quanta a week from selling ore to bots. doing so will require you to log in daily and spend considerable time on just this. So yeah.. The game has pretty much turned into a grindfest..

Workable and cheap solutions for the market situation have been suggested for years now, NQ refuses to actually resolve this issue. Just went to M17 and there is several ships way bigger than S size taking a quarter of the pad and it's orange and red flashing lights galore trying to land..

All potential good intentions aside, NQ simply lacks the means to dedicate resources to such an undertaking. They have been on a cost cutting campaign for well over a year now to allow themselves enough time to get to some sort of release. It certainly is a management decision but that is driven by their financial headroom above anything else and that headroom is minute at best I'm pretty sure.

I'd say it was more a matter of reality catching up with NQ in that their projections for what they would do more or less fell apart. JC lived in a reality distortion bubble worse than Steve Job's ever was. /s

NQ _could_ have implemented a mechanic where NPC mission givers would offer players rewards which in turn woudl allow them to .. craft schematics.. We could have had reserch and crafting stations. We could have had locations where special gems can be found which woudl allow inventing buffs to elements, we could have had surface harvestables be in pockets of many different volumes where you could find such gems. It all could have been done if NQ did not get stuck in the idea that al lthey needed to do is build a sandbox and players would do all the work to actually build this into a game for them. Seeing the kludge that is Asteroids and how NQ had to shoehorn even a simple mechanic like that into the game, it's safe to say anything slightly more complex is just not possible without a considerable rewqrite of the core code.

Even if, the answer is still .. not a chance.. and for several pretty solid reasons.

Not a chance. For one, Apples and Oranges and SC has actual funding, even when it is minimal for the scale of the project, and a considerable userbase in accounts alone which I expect is about five times what DU has. And no, SC players do not "frequently buy $400 ships". SC players have invested some money an dwill "exchange" their current ships for new ones on occasion from credits by "selling" their ships into a buyback program. SC requires no mmore than a single one time $45 purchase and you can buy everything else you want in game really. CIG also blows NQ out of the water in the marketing department. Finally, keep in mind both games have been in development for about the same time now, with SC having a bit of a head start.

JC wanted an engine which he could sell as a "Metaverse engine". DU was just a proof of concept for this and the investors he managed to talk into pitting money in I expect were pitched as much. Thing is JC was about 10 years to early with his idea and as we know, currently the big tech is starting to take the metaverse idea and are running with it, no doubt with the sideeffect that efforts such as the engine behind DU get pushed aside. As the original idea to license the servertech fell through (because it was both too early and not the performer JC thought/claimed it would be), all NQ had/has is the game but in the meantime the money is gone (as is JC) and we all know what that has brought us. DU has some good things, some very good things and some really terible things. Overall it's really not yet a game, it is a collection of features that may eventually make it to being a game. As I see it , what happens in the next 4-6 months will determine the fate of both NQ and DU. IF NQ manages to pull of a miracle and gets to a release of a somewhat balanced and polished MVP game with reaosnable prospect of new features and growth they may have a chance. But they must find funding to even try and get there, right now they are stretching the last bits of cash they have and subs are not going to save them, at least not for a few years.

Well.. here's mine..

I think we can all agree NQ is currently just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something will somehow stick.. That said, the mechanic of losing ownership of territory and with it the risk of losing your stuff is something I have no problem with at all myself. But I can understand the arguments made by others, even when I do not agree.