Squidrew_

this may not be the cause of what you are describing exactly, but i want to talk about this. a huge issue i noticed was that way back in 0.24 when they gave voxels new textures and materials, all metals became very dark. at night, they seem to be largely illuminated by ambient light, meaning that surfaces appear pitch black unless they are directly reflecting a nearby light source. white pattern aluminum for example used to be actually white, like white plastic or concrete as we have now, however currently they appear to be gray at best, and black at worst. because metal is used so much, it made the entire world a lot darker and flatter in my opinion. during the time of 0.24 in beta many had the same perspective as i do here writing this, and the materials were altered slightly in response, but it was nowhere near enough in my opinion. i have pictures of Alpha 3 and upon viewing the markets back then, i realize that everything pops way more, mostly in the metals. i would share of course if it wasn't under NDA, but the world was brighter, and far more detailed, open and eye-catching as a result of the superior lighting conditions for metal honeycomb. it's really quite drastic, and i wish i could show it off somewhere in between the two would be the best balance i think

it just says the max total size is 44.36 KB under the "drag files here" text. and when i try, it says the file was too large and was skipped

i can't upload images larger than a few kilobytes!

i always found it a bit odd that alioth was doubled in radius for alpha 1 but none of the other planets ended up getting the same treatment to keep it proportionate

i like them in general but yes i agree there are just too many. like we don't need the discussion thread for two factor authentication still pinned. and it hasn't been responded to for like three months

this seems really awesome! just as an idea though: what if the lumi glass had a higher weight, so that people could still use it for accenting as much as they'd like, but would be deterred from overusing it (ie, huge cube ship of glass), incentivizing people to find alternate, more proper ways of lighting large surface areas? i think that'd be pretty cool, because with that in mind glass would still be used quite freely as accenting, but wouldn't ruin the darker sci fi feel of the game as much. would probably work best if it were in conjunction with adding mass tiers for building materials as well, which i see some suggesting.

i'm really happy to hear this. thank you Novaquark, and i wish you guys the best on creating our dream game, players and staff alike!😀

Looks good! May as well add: I think it'd be cool if we could place constructs into folder trees! like, for example, organization cores, city cores, personal, sanctuary, whatever we want!

i sure am! i'm really excited if a wipe happens. i have an idea for a notepad type lua script that allows creation and editing of custom to-do lists and all its entries, just like that starting to-do list screen on the pts. i think i'd hang out in my starter base and brainstorm business ideas on a big screen, and maybe plan out an office space, a corporate ship, and other things. i love doing stuff like that. might head into the toilet industry (i definitely will) and try and get a monopoly on toilets. i'll sell them at every market!

the changes that took place on Jago and Teoma were only asset updates and some very minor surface terrain changes. the revamp that NQ is talking about is a full revamp, with totally new terrain, biomes, continents, etc. you can see some of the stuff they had originally planned (and the tools they have now for generating planets) in this old dev diary

Here are some of my thoughts: For this game's long-term future, I believe a reset is essential. With a robust marketing round, more players should arrive, like at the start of Beta. I believe that planet revamps, radical rebalancing, etc. will pay off much more in the long-term (for years), and draw in more players than otherwise. Speaking years into release, the game will require a very high population to maintain the vision to its fullest extent. Regardless of whether you wipe or not, years in, you know you will require a robust marketing campaign to achieve this population, with a high percentage of the population being post-beta players,. I believe that years from now, the presence of all original Beta players will be fairly insignificant in the grand scope of the gameworld. I think of it this way: Reset: lose a portion of current players No reset: maintain current players, however sacrifice many potential new players in the long-term of the game So, either way, there is a loss of some sort. I believe of the two, a reset is the safer route. The game seems to be hanging on for dear life and we need to take a risk to guarantee long-term success. I merely think that for this game's prosperity, a reset is necessary. It may be unethical, however otherwise I'm fairly concerned for the future of the game.

not an issue i've experienced. things like that are usually resolved by a relog for me. try resetting your cache. go to the login screen, click on debug settings on the top right and hit delete cache

hey novaquark, if you do perform a reset, please take the opportunity to perform a planet revamp with it -- the old overhaul that was originally intended to occur over a year ago with all the new biomes and such. i know multiple people whose largest turn off from trying this game is the lack of decent exploration and the repetitive and mundane nature of all planetary bodies. it would provide a whole new dimension to this game that would draw in a lot more players than otherwise. i understand you have the tools already in place from when the revamp was originally intended to occur, so i would imagine this would be done regardless (assuming a wipe), but hey, just in case, here's me suggesting it!

i'm not here to stifle debate just want to share my thoughts (i'm in a good mood, don't burn me!) if you guys wipe, i'd be super stoked. i love the idea of potentially having a new and improved solar system too (i assume you guys would do the whole planet revamp thing you talked about ages ago?). i don't need to point out that it's true this game has drastically shifted from its original course, but with my new standards, i'm actually pretty excited. keep doing the best you can, nq. excited to test! oh, actually, i'd like to say one more thing. i'm a bit concerned about the development of emergent gameplay if there are no player markets by release. it might not seem that important on the surface, but i personally believe it's vital for any emergence of cities, as large, player markets are what would bind people together and create traffic and industry, combine that with territory warfare and ways to provide defense, i think we're off to a good start. i mean, think of it this way: if you had a market, you'd need to defend it. and if that market got big enough, from the taxes you earn, you could afford to "civilize" the area a bit. that in combination with the possibility of the market owner org providing defense for the region, cities might emerge! at least to a basic extent, especially on remote planets. anyway that's it. squidrew oouut

Hi everyone! I made a similar post about this a long time ago here but thought I'd write a new one dedicated to this issue in General Discussions. All atmospheric bodies in the game (except Sanctuary) have the exact same Earth-like, blue look to their atmospheres with the same apparent density (the exact same rendering), whereas in Alpha and Pre-Alpha, they were unique per planet (i.e., dense, purple atmosphere on Madis). They also all have clouds now which takes away some variety IMO. As you guys over at NQ made Sanctuary's atmosphere orange, I was wondering if the atmospheres would ever return their original unique looks, and if not, why that might be the case. It's a server-side change as far as I'm aware, so it shouldn't require a client update! I wanted to shed some light on this as I haven't heard anyone else talk about it, while me and my friends have been acutely aware of it. I don't expect a response or anything, just decided to make a post, in case, I don't know, you forgot or something haha. This would be an incredible change. Here are some pictures that I dug up online by the way: Gorgeous, gorgeous Sinnen. As you can see, it's quite nice and orange, and it doesn't have clouds either. Imagine standing on its surface, looking out onto a deeply rich, warm sky. A ship on a cyan Talemai (this was on the original Dual Universe site) And here's Madis, with its purple Venusian-like atmosphere (P.S. if you want to view the original graphics for each planet, you can do so by looking at the map icons)

I was under the impression that a lot of these artificial Aphelia restrictions are placeholders to keep the game balanced until more immersive, emergent gameplay loops are added like player run markets, territory warfare, electricity, etc

In Deckard's defense, that was said during a casual conversation about the nebula between only a few people. It's likely that Deckard didn't realize the depth the issue had within the community and the passion that was behind it

100% agree. At the very least, I'd say reduce the brightness to a fraction of what it is now, and maybe reduce the amount of rocks as well. They're so abundant it shouldn't matter if the spawn rate was limited to, say, 1/3rd for example. They also lessen diversity and uniqueness among planets and moons in my opinion, as having such a large portion of the area around you be covered with these rocks makes all the planets feel just that little bit more the same. Here's another gorgeous shot just to add:

Right! Damn was it something when I first witnessed the sun set on Alioth. It was magical to see night. Really gave me that classic Star Trek/Star Wars vibe and hooked me just like you.

I'm so glad I'm not alone in this! I hope that someone from NQ at least reads this. And if they do, I'd love it if they replied just to let us know where they're at. I know that this is probably a minor change in the grand scheme of things, but since the engine supported this type of lighting at some point, I don't think it would be too challenging to revert it, at least internally to try it out. We're all human, and these simple artistic changes can make a massive impact on players, far larger than one might expect. I truly believe you guys would attract more players from this. The world you're creating is meant to be emergent in its nature, with no set form, for the players to define, and to hold as diverse of a playerbase as possible. In theory, you'd want a skybox that compliments that — one that is beautiful and compliments any scenery (because it's black and realistic). Yet, as it is like a blank canvas and is open to interpretation, it doesn't push for any specific style, leaving a more organic and natural style the universe and its planets emergently develop if that makes any sense. Plus, it would draw in those who look for realism in games. I think this skybox would compliment any scene, enhance immersion, be consistent with Dual Universe's vision and wouldn't even affect gameplay. I think it's one of those things that a lot of people want, but never actually ask for because it's purely aesthetic, so NQ never really knows the community wants it in the first place.

yes yes yes -- strength slider! would be nice for bloom as well

Dear NQ, You see this little thing? It's always there, taking up UI space. I'd love it if you guys added some way to hide this. It could be an option in the settings menu or moved into the context menu when you right click a construct (like with right-clicking to see player names). In addition, the information it shows you while looking at a planet I feel is redundant and unnecessary: The planet name and whether the territory is claimed can be observed through the map. As for the voxel material, there's already a key for that: H! While it's quicker to view it this way, I think it simply doesn't need to be, considering the value of the information you're actually gathering. Just a small QoL thing that, for me personally, I'd love immensely. Never liked this label since the day it was added.

True. However, my point in the main post was that objects themselves can still be artificially lit by the renderer in a dark skybox, as shown in the Pre-Alpha Thades picture. It may not be realistic but it still looks a heck of a lot better than the blue illumination we have now (IMO)

I believe that the nebula skybox should be replaced with a realistic, dark and starry skybox, akin to the old one prior to Alpha 3. Here are my arguments, The nebula was originally introduced as an immersive way to increase ambient lighting in Dual Universe, making it easier to see at night. This is mentioned in NQ's Dev Diary on YouTube. However, this was nullified in 0.24 with the reduction of ambient light brightness. This is personal preference however I believe many will agree; the ambient light level does not have to match the skybox's brightness. For example, take this image of Pre-Alpha Thades. Its dark side is heavily illuminated, as I'm sure it would look on the surface as well. You'd be able to see. Compared to current Thades, I think most of us can agree that it still looks far better, and it could be taken down a notch if it's too bright. Additionally, with the introduction of the nebula, the atmospheres were changed to the same blue color we're all used to. I'm guessing this was done as a result of a technical limitation relating to the new skybox. So, think; If I'm right about this, we could have a Thades that looks like this, for example: Current Thades, for comparison: You see where I'm coming from? The way I see it, removing the nebula would provide so much in the way of fidelity, immersion and polish. It wouldn't affect gameplay either. Furthermore, I believe this change would solve many, many of DU's lighting glitches and "rough spots," at the very least making them look far better, and would provide much more polished lighting, both on ground and on a planetary scale. I simply don't see what the nebula adds other than style, but it sacrifices fidelity in a lot of key areas. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots to back up that claim, so you're gonna have to take my word for it as an Alpha 1 player who knows how lighting used to interact with the old skybox. The nebula may be beautiful to some, but honestly, changing it would add so much in the way of polish — which I believe is far more important and is what this game needs right now. Not to mention, many people were dismayed at the release of this nebula, and I'm taking a wild guess by saying that most players would like this change. I know my friends and I would. Please consider this, Novaquark. Similar post by Mjrlun

Currently, every planetary body with an atmosphere has the same blue color, same apparent density, and all have clouds. I've noticed that upon reading planet descriptions in the map, the actual appearance of planets are completely inaccurate. For example, Sinnen is described as "an empty and rocky hell" with "no atmosphere to speak of." In its icon on the map, it's shown as having an orange atmosphere. Yet in-game, it has a blue atmosphere with clouds. What? That's not right! From Lacobus' map description and icon, we can see that the planet is supposed to have liquid oceans coexisting with its frozen surroundings due to geothermal activity. Yet in-game, it simply doesn't. And the strange thing is these planets were accurate earlier in the game's development. You can see this from various videos they have uploaded during the Pre-Alpha period. So, I propose that NQ go through each planet and quickly fix them up if they can, with the correct atmosphere colors and density, adding / removing clouds and water where necessary and so on. We can see that the engine is capable of this as Sanctuary has an orange atmosphere. And from what I understand, this can be done totally server-side, so no client update required. This shouldn't take long from a development point of view, and would breathe so much more life into the game. I'm an explorer in Dual Universe, and I enjoy experiences like Space Engine which value scientific accuracy and realism. It really turns me and my friends off from this game to see these simple yet very impactful things that NQ have perhaps overlooked. In the rare case they have, I thought I'd bring this up. Here are a couple example images from the Pre-Alpha, showing what could be: Madis' dense, purple atmosphere with no clouds A base on an orange Thades