Haunty

So.....when we tell them to git gud and they still lose then they didn't follow that advice ?
 
On a more serious note:
Since there are no levels in DU nor classes, newbros always have a chance. Ingame skill levels work like in eve: you just get a bonus on a certain activity. This may range from 5 to 500% (numbers don't matter here). So a newbro can still help in a fight because he's actually viable, only less effective. If you just compare it to eve (only other game I played with a time based skill system) a newbro can do LOTS of things in a gang. He can forward scout, act as decoy, just keep off the grid for a while and come in late to kill/hold stragglers, bump enemies to hinder them from jumping and so on. Every player can do something and since DU uses a tab Target system, he can learn to use that to his advantage. Which is basically saying git gud xD
 
I don't really see a reason why to apply such things nor HOW you would even do that. And I fail to see how it's "unfair" to newbros if a veteran who played for 5 years has an advantage. Or how that might hold the newkid off from doing pvp in the first place 

A Quick Recap
 
I should post here a little more often. Thanks to NQ for clarifying the necro rule on org-registry threads!
 
Well we're now just over one solid month into Alpha 2. I think it's high time to do a quick recap on how things are going with Eyes & Ears.
 
Starting out as a mere idea in Pre-Alpha and fleshing out in mid-2018, the idea of a rescue focused organization was something I never thought I'd find myself doing in Dual Universe.
 
In the early days of Alpha 1, Eyes & Ears made it's first official Alpha-1 rescue, Glavies. Throughout Alpha 1, the organization would answer a handful of distress calls from solo players that crashed their ships and were unable to repair or had simply run out of fuel.
 
The highlight of Alpha 1 would turn out to be the Ministry organizations craft The Rex Liberata having run out of fuel with Bramse, PirateTrader, and WhiteMEat on board. Their anti-gravity craft was brought to a stop a little over 50 SU from Alioth and while a flight to them would have been easy enough, NovaQuark was intent on having them rolling ASAP. With Stormeyes assistance and some fancy teleportation, The Rex Liberata was refueled and it's crew were once more on their way.
 
Further rescues would be performed in the lead up to Alpha 2. The week after Alpha 2's launch, two back to back rescues would be performed.
 
The first rescue was simply returning a grounded tester to a construct they respawned from in Alioths orbit.
 
After some time spent debugging their craft, a second call came in from a tester flying to another planet. Unfortunately due to problems out of their control, they were unable to make it all the way with the fuel they had on hand so more was flown out to them and they were able to safely land.
 
Through these activities during tests, Eyes & Ears - Search And Rescue has successfully run 14 rescues in Alpha 1, and thus far, two rescues in Alpha 2. Our membership has also ticked up to eight members. Additionally two organizations, Vulture Cooperation and DYNAMIC AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES have formed partnerships while Albatross Inc in discussion with us. Eyes & Ears has also tentatively acquired a launching platform in Tortuga City. Details haven't been ironed out but we hope this location will make a great first location off Alioth from which we can launch rescue operations from.
 
If your organization would like to form a partnership with us, feel free to get in touch with me privately and we can discuss things.
 
Alpha 2 is looking bright so far even though I've been personally hampered with hardware issues and have been unable to participate in recent testing. Just because I am down, however, does not mean the rest of the team is out! If you ever find yourself in trouble on the test server, feel free to enter the '911' channel. Since it's hard to see if anyone's actually listening, another option would be to head over to our Discord. Friendly chat is also always welcome so stop by and say hi, we don't bite!
 
Outside of testing, things have been quite mild. Earlier this summer, the Eyes & Ears website has seen a minor face lift in its design and a few things like parallax backgrounds were removed to simplify the design. The 'Our History' and 'Media' pages (with signs by @Geo, and an inspired logo by @Spiridon, thanks again both of you!) are both fairly new so check them out!
 
'Stats & Stories' has been filled out with 12 separate pieces of feedback by those who have used our service, check that out as well.
 
That about wraps things up.
 
Safe flying,
DarkHorizon

I remember a past survey on here that showed around half plan to play DU solo, at least for a time. There is something appealing about being a Han Solo type, just taking care of yourself and adventuring. It is more interesting encountering real players as a solo player than NPCs in a single player game. In Eve I was a member of orgs, part of a huge alliance, and solo played a bit, all were enjoyable.

Why solo in an MMO? Are they missing the point? Are they just doing it wrong?
 
This GDC 2011 talk discusses the notion, presenting 10 types of loners and how they could be addressed in an MMO.
 
 
How relevant are these 10 types of loner in Dual Universe?
 
1) New Kid In Town
A new player, fresh off the arkship. Full of hopes and dreams but have no connections and have no idea how to proceed.
Some believe getting organizations to recruit them as fast as possible is the answer but is that really the best way? Overly aggressive advertising puts some people off and others first want to get a handle on the game before they even think of joining an organization.
 
2) The Daria
To this type of player, other players are tragic. A joke. To this player, others are content to be watched with a side of popcorn.
There are already plenty of opportunities to watch others, for example, at events. Just show up. Bring your own popcorn.
 
3) The Sociopath
Sometimes called a griefer, this player type likes to watch everyone burn.  
The smart ones will stay within the rules (barely), while the not-so-smart ones will feel the ban hammer. Moving on.
 
4) Mr Lunch At His Desk
Those with little time, playing in the few breaks they have; like during lunch or after the kids are asleep.
Some activities will simply take too long for this type of player, but as long as there are viable and reliable workarounds (like taking a DUber) this type of play is possible.
 
5) The Introvert
Talking to people is scary and this type of player doesn't want to ask anyone else for anything.
The sandbox nature of DU means that unlike some other MMOs, players are not forced to do anything if they don't want to. Players don't need to do anything at all if they so choose.
 
6) The Adrift
Groups break up. Organizations will dissolve and some players will be kicked out of groups for various reasons. These are players that really don't mind the social interactions but find themselves without a group. Sometimes this sours the players outlook on the game as a whole and they leave game.
Alliances between similar organizations will help a player find a place they are comfortable in the unfortunate event of a liquidation. 
 
7) The Unworthy
These are the players that don't know whether they are "good enough".
DU: This is more of a problem in a hard leveling system. In DU, every hand is valuable.
 
8) The Vacationer
The players of this type want to take a break, be it from organization responsibilities or to do something different.
Three characters per Dual Universe account may provide a player with a level of anonymity if they so choose. Or they can take their main character to relax in a specially built resort on that tropical island planet.
 
9) The Commitment Phobic
The commitment phobic have been burned by organization drama or by joining an incompatible organization. Or this type of player believes others are idiots.
Joining an organization is a commitment, some bigger than others. Joining a voice chat shows a level of commitment, which is why (among other reasons) many organizations require a voice chat interview.
 
10) The Garbo
No, he is not calling this type of player garbage. These types of players, like Greta Garbo, just want to be left alone.
 
 
In Dual Universe, everything is player run. If an item can be bought at a market it's because players collected the required ores, built it and put it up for sale. Besides going full hermit, a solo player will still need to interact with other players, even if it is indirectly.
 
Can a player play Dual Universe solo? Yes.
Will that solo player be able to control a vast empire that includes huge fleets and multiple planets? No.
 
Do you agree? Disagree?  Or is this talk old and no longer applicable if it ever was? Like, comment and subscribe.
What? This isn't the YouTubes? Just DU it anyway.

Is using several cores really a problem? And the number needed depends on the size of the core. I believe the ability to align cores is planned, which would make it easier.
Or with adequate terraforming tools, you could just use terrain voxels to make roads.

Is that a mug shot?

Microtransactions can't sustain long term development, it would be a cat and mouse game of constantly trying to - 

1) Gain players
2) Create new content to sell to players
 
 
Whereas DU is going to be a constantly evolving game, dedicating resources to creating new expansions on top of trying to push out constant microtransaction-backed content would be an uphill battle that would hurt everyone in the long run. It's hard enough for them to keep up development speed now with all of the resources they have.

A subscription allows them to have a solid metric on how much money they are bringing in every month and allows them the flexibility that the constant fluctuation of microtranscation-based income wouldn't give them. 
 
People think servers are cheap, and of course someone is going to go to the AWS pricing page and try and point out "oh but you can get instances for dollars a month it can't be that expensive!" but running infra in AWS isn't cheap, it's just cheaper than building out a data center with all of your own hardware to maintain. NQ has really strict hardware and rack requirements that add to those costs (I was told it's more akin to a weather modeling supercomputer than a traditional gaming cluster), and as they scale up to match the needs of their growing player base it's only going to get more expensive over time. At a previous job we were spending $150k a month alone on our web frontend, and if you counted all of the other supporting infra we had for our product, it was something like $3.5 million a month, it wasn't cheap, it was just cheaper than the alternatives. Nobody is going to convince me that microtransactions are the way to go when you have to pay for infra, employees, long term development, support, offices, advertising, etc. This isn't Fortnite where the core game isn't changing and they are tweaking things from time to time while adding new items to their store, DU's development is on a whole other level from that. 
 
Regardless of all of that, I think the bottom line here is that if you can't afford to pay $10-$15 a month for a game, then you need to reprioritize your hobbies (irrespective of the fact that DAC's allow people to play for free essentially). 

No, nothing like that has been promised.

I pledged several months ago in 2018 when I saw that the DU project became truly consistent and worth the investment. Since then I didn't look that much about the progress until few days.
My amount of expectation is still high but I'm reassured by the way Novaquark go forward. I heard that the Alpha 2 phase start the 11 of July so I have decided to integrate myself a little bit more in the community . 
My plan at the start is to play alone or not with many persons ( I'm not closed to offer ) to get familiarized with the countless mechanics of the game. I'll try to focus on the economic aspect and "programming" with or without LUA (Language I still have to learn , just to say) to optimized and automatized at utmost the craft  , exchange and everything I don't know yet.

Thanks and well done if you have read up to that point.

I'm so excited for this game, I couldn't resist to pledge due to the amazing possibilities this has.
As a syfy and space geek this is what I was dreaming about to be honest.
Cya all ingame !

For reference, NQ explained themselves here: 
 
 
 

I think they mean seamless in perception of the player. 2 players could be on different nodes but still see each other as if they were on the same one. Over interstellar distances there is no need to be actually seamless because players don't interact with or observe things that far away.

You mean the contents of the container is unuseable by anyone? So the guy transporting it can't run with it? 
 
That might work - but it'll then only work for the public markets on alioth and ppl won't really use it anywhere else.  So why not do this on a universal scale and implement a mechanic which will work for everyrhing, anywhere, to all destinations.
 
Because you need a courier system everywhere. 
Can you be scammed? Sure, such is life. Ppl always scream "protect me from scam" when all they have to do is think on their own. With that they avoid 99% of scams - it still might happen but then ppl will make orgs such as red/black frog just like in eve who are trustworthy.....That's the sandbox approach 

It is a space game though, and space is mostly empty. And the emptiness makes it feel larger. You still have the choice to go where the people are or travel with a group.
 
When Eve first came out I thought it would be pretty empty of players because there were so many systems. But even with a fraction of the player base they have now, players were just about everywhere. DU will be a bit different though because there won't be as many bottleneck points where players come together, but there will still be stargates and market hubs/cities.
 
Games like Elite Dangerous feel empty outside of the bubble because the millions of systems already exist in the game and you can travel to them, in DU it will just start with 1 system.
 
Games like NMS have NPC everywhere, but still feels lonely because it's all the same. I never felt like I was "far away" from anything.
 
If player-like NPC are put in DU I'd hope there would still be a way to find emptiness instead of seeing them everywhere. I'd prefer to only see NPC fauna on habitable planets, some maybe dangerous and most not very dangerous. Some optional pve gameplay could be created with them also.

Then ppl can just abuse that and use such a core as a forward respawn base. Or bunker all the valuable resource there. No thanks. 
 
As said, that's what safezones are there for. 

While you are obviously free to be of the opinion that minimal requirements purely relate to performance, the general accepted meaning is that you will need the specified hardware to run the application. Your CPU is three generations behind the minimal requirements at least so it's not suitable to run DU.
 
In technology terms you are using a quite outdated CPU. It would be like driving around a 1950s car in today's traffic, it may be able to keep up but to say it's a safe or suitable way to drive in 2019 is at best questionable. Expecting technology and software development to continue to support outdated hardware is not reasonable.
 
The i3 7100 in every way out performs the i7 970 with half the core count, it's not even close.. TDP alone is 1/3 of what your CPU required, memory and bus speed is way, way higher on the i3. Lastly, using a 1080ti with a CPU that provides not even half the bandwidth it needs to perform optimal seems also a bit odd, it's pretty much like driving a fast car with the handbrake on all the time.
 
It would be very bad for NQ to accommodate ancient hardware by removing ways to be more efficient through modern day technology. I guess you have a choice to make here.

I did not vote, because I am not sure whether my response would be considered a yes or a no.
 
This idea is based on my understanding of why cores exist, so it may not be valid if I am wrong about that.  As I understand it, a core creates a grid in which voxels are placed.  Dynamic constructs obviously need their own grid, so they can move, but why do we have static cores?  The planets are also made of voxels, so it seems we should be able to build there without a core, but I believe they use a grid that is spaced much more widely than the one for constructs.  A denser grid allows constructs to be more detailed, but means the voxel data will require more space, since it must allow larger numbers.  Making the grid extend farther also requires larger numbers.  To build outside the current limits of cores, the grid would need to be extended, so technically it would have the same effect as using a larger core.
 
My suggestion would be to continue to limit construct by core size, but provide better tools for manipulating the planet voxels.  With the right tools, I believe adequate for most of these really large projects.  As an example, for roads there could be a paving tool.  With this tool, we could select two points on the ground and they would be connected with a surface that was relatively smooth but still generally followed the contours of the land.  There could be options to control how closely if followed the contours and how wide the surface was.  It could also replace the surface with a different material.  A tool like this would make it easier to build roads, but the result would still use the current data structures.
 
While the paving tool would be suited specifically for roads, there could also be general purpose tools.  These could be like the ones we use for building constructs, but outside cores they would only manipulate planet voxels with their current resolution.
 
 

Here is a good story of EvE sociopaths. I had been playing eve for about 1 year, maybe a bit longer. I was living in a wormhole, with an wormhole alliance.  At one point I found out one of my corp mates lived in the same city as me. We had talked about the possibility to meet up for a beer.  Well before that happened, my current roommate I had bailed on me, and didnt have his rent so I had to unexpectedly move out, and soon. To make matters worse I didn't have a car at the time, tho I started a new job and would have one soon.  My corp mate offered to come help me move in his truck for free. He and his gf came over, helped me and it all worked out great.  A guy in my corp in eve online who I never met, extended a helping hand.  That was over 7 years ago or so, and we are still friends to this day. 

I played eve and according to online tests I am not a sociopath. ?