Warden
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Posts posted by Warden
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I'm some kind of fan of "risk" and thus PVP mechanics that could be forced onto others depending on where they go or who they run into.
But at the same time I can understand these concerns as someone who is rather interested in creation rather than (mindless) destruction. I also played Minecraft on a server community that added things via plugins: An economy, politics, player factions. I've seen myself how ... destructive players can be. We had our headquarters near the main city (only safe place, where all new players that enter the server also spawn or where people go to trade safely).
It was right down the coast a bit, perhaps a minute on foot. So you had to expect traffic and of course PVP was allowed there. But yet the senseless aggression and the attempts to hurt us or destroy our property were mind boggling. It's part of the game but it doesn't mean you have to mindlessly do it all the time to everyone in my book.
Luckily we were superior and / or more lucky somehow and they never managed to really hurt us while we eventually beat all their asses. Each group that attacked us for no apparent reason got some of their own medicine afterwards.
Others didn't have such luck. And the only reason PVP was even remotely interesting or similar there was because of the faction plugin and how it worked. Depending on faction size you could claim "chunks" and thus certain areas. Anywhere where there wasn't a safe zone (set by admins, in this case just the city). You could even claim the territory (if you manage to get on it) of other factions if their power is less than their claimed territory. Each member gives 10 power units. If a member dies somehow (no matter how), they lose a few power units. If you're no part of a faction you cannot modify any block in their, the only thing you could do without attacking them individually was fire artillery at their blocks.
So the result is simple: Fight enemies, make them die, they lose power, try to claim their areas ... if they're too reinforced, use artillery to make some hole first. Despite doomforts with water shields (that blocked artillery) fighting was somewhat dynamic and you had a chance to fight back. Though in theory offline base raiding was still possible if you used artillery on unprotected areas or bases. But you were primarily forced to fight people to lower their power.
I hope some fitting compromise or option will be possible here, too.
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I agree. The money has to come from somewhere, the bills must be paid. That takes priority, otherwise, game success (long-term) could be threatened.
Does anyone remember StarForge? Similar idea to a modern sci-fi sandbox game. They failed because they ran out of money. So much motivation and ideas (including fanbase): gone.
I don't want the same to happen here because they run out of money. Meanwhile in another specific game, people throw millions at them - because they deem it worth it to them. So I think if this game here can deliver, we should also consider a reasonable monthly fee "worth it" - if no other model can guarantee prolonged stability and success.
Besides I'd blatantly argue that most who can spend their free time in front of a computer or similar and in the internet while being able to buy relatively new games on occasion can also somehow afford a reasonable monthly fee for an MMO they consider good enough. I sure as hell could afford an MMO it when I was unemployed for a time and on welfare. In some sense I could even afford one when I was still going to school, basically paid with pocket money.
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Not that I'm an expert nor "guru" on these models and what is good and bad and blahblahblah.
But I would not mind paying a monthly small fee. Perhaps it doesn't have to be your average monthly MMO fee and a bit less but I would not mind. Then again more people would play this if it was more ... accessible in financial terms by having less or no initial cost, or perhaps only an initial cost but no sub fees or similar.
So I roughly wonder in general and specifically over time here:
Free to play (with initial fee)? Can that work, will it sustain the company over a long time, what options are there to generate income?
Pay to play? A more stable income but somewhat ... "outdated" for some
In addition you can ask whether some kind of "shop" makes sense to generate income. Of course the biggest controversy is created by anything going into the "Pay 2 Win" direction where people can spend cash and obtain hard ingame advantages. The softest variant of items or ingame stuff sold with hard currency would be mostly cosmetic items or minor boosts for XP for example. That seems okay. Imo some cosmetic shop or cosmetic additions you can buy should be considered as it may help with income.
Let's face it (again I'm no expert but that's how I see it): We as end users or consumers ideally favor free to play but I think this comes at a price somewhere. All the free access isn't good if it can't sustain the company and thus the game, and in my book it's not good either if the cuts resulted in this are too heavy. I'd rather pay a small reasonable fee per month to play than ... not be able to play eventually. If the game is really good then I think a small fee is warranted and okay.
Some kind of item shop or so (cosmetic items and stuff) as additional income or counterbalance to a f2p model would also be okay if basically enough people buy items from there to keep the game and company afloat.
So basically I see no real possibility for F2P yet (no offense there isn't some major studio behind this here too that could 'afford' it).
I think F2P with item shop (ideally mostly cosmetic, no P2W) or P2P are more reasonable and to be expected.
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Might I introduce you to Everquest Project 1999?
Back in the day, we didn't have Auction houses or even an Auction channel in chat. We just had to travel the world trying to find people to trade with us.
Eventually people got tired of doing that, and started to organize days where they would show up and sell all of their wares at a given location. More people caught on to this and all converged on one location in the game that became famous for being the player auction house area. The East Commonland Tunnels. If you wanted to buy something back in the old EQ days, you had to travel across the world to the EC Tunnels.
People would sit around for hours doing nothing but trading in chat, just waiting for their next customer to come along.
And we loved every minute of it.
Now that will never happen in DU (I can dream), however on the other hand being able to build "market" units is going to make the world feel much smaller. It will be harder to build giant trade hub space stations that lots of people are going to want to use, if everyone can just build their own local markets and never have to actually see someone in person to trade.
I suggest that Market units be somewhat difficult to create, require a certain skill level to create, require many resources, and also require some type of "city token" or other territorial token in order to be activated. That way players actually have to come together to have markets, as it will reduce the ability for the lone player to run off and build everything they need on their own.
Even if the cities are never populated, at least markets will feel like they have more depth to them.
I have the same sentiments towards player run shops. I think they should be fairly difficult to create, although not nearly as difficult as a market terminal (and obviously very limited in its capabilities).
I probably went a bit too far off topic here...
Actually, that sounds quite awesome in its own way. Then again I'm more used to how games were "back in the days" compared to today. For example in RPGs you often had to walk anywhere or at least go to some sort of travel point (think of Morrowind and Striders / the Mage's Guild Teleporters ... or scrolls). In addition, quests you got from NPCs or by other measures (written letters etc) often did not just give you a magic map marker but contained the location or things you do within the text itself. So you had to look around or think. I didn't play EQ btw, my earliest MMO(RPG) was Star Wars Galaxies. But I heard many things about it.
Of course nowadays I'm more inclined to use "modern features" such as map markers or fast travel to location points (like in Fallout) and while I can see some benefit for NPCs to some extend, I think the idea to have players come together at local (if the universe is too big, there'd be more than one or few hubs) trade hubs at specific times for a specific length sounds kinda cool.
Some players may call that "outdated" or whatever but these mechanics (or rather lack of mechanics, thus forcing players to do this instead) encourage social interaction and possibly a somewhat more immersive experience as you have to actively barter with living thinking people - you can't code that any better into some cheap trade interface or NPC.
Then again at the same time that means you're more dependent on other players. But hey, if you play online you have to expect some kind of interaction anyway. Buuuut we probably won't see this kind of stuff you named out of necessity as some mechanics and features may cover trading.
Then again ... even if, you could still do that stuff if you wanted. Just open local trade hubs that are kind of like "neutral grounds" or open and public and invite all the people operating / living in the area to come and trade at specific days or times. Profit...and fun.
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Having some kind of NBC arsenal (in a sci-fi variant) would be nice, especially "exotic" bio weapons or chemicals as long as you are also able to somehow repair the damage over time or with special tools.
Deadly gas cloud or area infected with some organism? Radiation? Put on some suit that withstands that and get to clean-up.
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I believe NPCs can generally add to the world and be helpful. What roles they could fill and how "active" they appear compared to players is another topic, but I'd seriously consider humanoid NPCs in some form, if you have the time. Might feel a lot emptier otherwise (I don't know how the "one big shard" thing will work yet).
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One can argue in favor or against them endlessly, I suppose.
I'm generally in favor of some kind of safe zone or similar mechanic to protect various areas. It doesn't even have to hinder PVP, it could complement it (compare to Minecraft Faction Plugin and how player factions worked there for example).
Doesn't mean you can magically protect everything and just pick the easy way out, but I feel some level of being able to utilize safe or protected zone allows creations to last more and perhaps to serve as possible new trade hubs where players of all (virtual) walks of life can meet and engage without clubbing their heads in.
Some may argue that only that should persist what players can actively manage but this automatically excludes a majority of factions or at least a lot due to lack of manpower. Even moderate groups may have trouble if the enemy can just wait and "raid the city at night when no one is there" - lame. "But defenses"... that would resort in turret spam or similar all over.
I get that there should be certain risks involved, but at the same time there should be some incentive to create, not purely destroy. If you put a lot of effort into trying to make some city over weeks and within a day a bunch of random people destroys it or significantly damages it so that weeks are lost, chances are you won't try the same again.
I'm sure there is some middle grounds. How? That is the biggest question. It could be tied to certain factions or areas in space, it could be tied to faction (man)power, or perhaps to certain technology you have to obtain.
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Oh Rhyldan...have to chime in here. And then they totally threw the game (The Repopulation) away (as far as I know) when it was more or less looking okay and a bit like Star Wars Galaxies already.
I'm just glad I didn't invest more and I hope Dual Universe won't face the same problems. Anyway, with that said, greetings!
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Time for me to step up my game. This is quite high quality and now that this has just entered into the picture, I'm going to have to advance myself.
Thank you for the somewhat indirect (or direct) positive feedback.
My personal opinion? Don't sweat it - the game itself is a good chunk of time away. Besides we also recruit in Star Citizen and while feedback there showed that quality of multimedia is good, it doesn't even help much if you're not seen (unless you constantly bump your threads somehow, but I dislike it) due to the very high amount of player organizations being present there.
Others have less in those areas but are more successful (or known) in other areas. Meaning that it's not everything and shiny pictures or videos don't automatically make a good "guild" (I somewhat dislike the words "clan" or "guild" due to the medieval or fantasy implication). The main thing is that you have a bunch of friends that can back you up once the time is right. Of course, if you're remotely into detail, RP, immersion or anything, a perceived higher quality helps. But as I like to say it's not everything.
On an unrelated note and in general:
This was all carried over in "a rush" and while I don't expect a lot of applications here so far (given that this specific game is hardly playable yet or close to it), we'll slowly tweak our main site applications and forum to cover "Dual Universe" as game. Given the chance that someone is in fact interested at this time, please shoot a message or post here to express your interest instead of using the application form that mostly covers that other space game until we can tweak it.
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General overview
Vulture Corporation intends to provide work, products and services in the following categories listed below. With former root in another contested region (competitive Minecraft, formerly), we look to the stars in the Exodus from Earth to regain a stable footing and to offer our customers and members a lasting experience they can look at with pride.
More information can be found on »vulturecorp.space and »vulturecorporation.com. You can also interact with us via Discord at: »Link
Career? Career starts here. For people from all over the galaxy. It does not matter where you are from, but often, we have or had members from the places shown above, with a focus on but not restricted to European heritages.
We're dynamic and next to qualified motivated employees, we also look for contractors and partners. You are interested in working with us? Simply contact us - while our promotional hubs listed above offer more information and serve as central spectrum presence and hub for us, we prefer to actively engage in conversation with potential future employees, contractors and partners. This is the best way to find your place here and to ask any questions before submitting an application!
But why consider signing up?
Our central team is currently small but growing and we want to offer our employees an optimized experience. Dynamic profit distribution is one thing, but the most vital part is that our employees can take responsibility. You think you're team leader or department management material? If you can prove it, the spot can be yours. You prefer to specialize in specific tasks? No problem, specialists are our backbone.
Who do we look for?
With our new strategic goals provided by the board, we first and foremost look for potential leadership and management material to establish a working foundation for the Corporation. While we wouldn't say no to fitting specialists who focus on specific tasks, in the long run we need a competent number of managing staff that help shape the style and direction of the Corporation. You should therefore apply with this in mind.
How can you apply?
The first step here is simple: Contact us via »private message to find out if and how we can move forward together. While we currently overhaul and generally offer an application system, at this time we prefer the direct interaction with potential applicants.
⚠ So what is Vulture Corporation in a nutshell?
Vulture Corporation is a small but slowly growing player organization, formerly in Star Citizen and now Dual Universe.
Most current members are from European timezones but it should not be a deterrent for others as we want to recruit internationally for a broader coverage and experience - we did this before after all in a Minecraft server community years ago where we were very successful, with members from the US to Europe and Russia. Dual Universe could be the perfect "reboot" for us in terms of sandbox roots.
We want to highlight the fact that we want to support and engage in roughly moderate levels of RP and have an immersive experience. After all, this group was created by roleplayers initially. Initial members had broad RP experiences with both elements of active and passive RP so today we strive for "immersion". An immersive experience is vital for us and can contain active and passive RP alike. We want to bridge worlds where people that are not fully and those that are fully into RP can get along just fine and enjoy what is to come in Dual Universe. While I consider myself as modest person I think the best example of how we feel about RP and what effort we want to invest is our multimedia such as promotional videos or AI contact videos. Feedback so far seems to tell us that we're on a good path regarding that. There is a lot of interesting and even great groups and multimedia out there but I did not see the same style elsewhere so far, so I think we're somewhat unique in that area.
We currently have a few members in reserve and do not specifically focus on Dual Universe at this time - obviously, given the lack of content or accessibility yet, but we always look for alternatives. In between members can play what they have together, for example we recently dipped into "7 days to die" where a member provided a small dedicated server. Perhaps you can bring a new addition on the table as we wait for DU or you assist us with multimedia and specifying company lore more. To stress it, however, our "primary games" we wait for are still being developed, we have no hard alternatives.
We so far have a flat hierarchy on an OOC basis and prefer a healthy inner social climate where de-escalation is key to preventing notable conflicts in the first place.
Chances are you're ultimately not interested or part of a group already and simply taking a look, but in either case we're happy about feedback. What should change? What is right just the way it is? Let us know. You might just get it back later when it matters to you.
I believe this should suffice for a more or less solid overview so far. If something is unclear, simply ask. We don't bite, and with that said, I thank you for your attention.
- Subject to change -
Full PvP or allow player-created PvE zones? (outside of Ark)
in Idea Box
Posted
In the end there's still the option to band together and bash up the people who engage you (for apparently no real reason).
If someone attacks you, don't quit. Rebuild, get stronger, fight back or get help. This can in turn become one of the best experiences you can have. While losses can also be the most devastating and fun ruining ones, it's not the end.
We were engaged randomly (only tried to do our own business) by random people and we fought back. We had luck (or enough skill) and kicked their butts in retaliation. The best feeling. Some of them even quit (karma I guess).
Of course it won't always be easy or feasible but if the universe will be so big here - move to another location or find help somewhere.