Sync

Hello, everyone! I'm Mark van den Heuvel, known to many of you as NQ-Deckard, a member of the Production team here at Novaquark.
 
First, to those of you who celebrated your new year recently, I wish you a wonderful new year, and I look forward to seeing all of your creations in-game. As we step into 2023, I want to bring you all up to speed on where we're at with Dual Universe and where we are going.
 
After our launch last September, we have all worked hard to squash remaining bugs and improve balancing. We also delivered the promised digital Kickstarter rewards to our backers.
 
As is always the case with Dual Universe, work does create itself in front of us, and we have a great deal to work on and improve. One of our current central goals is to enhance the gameplay experience and catch up with some features and quality-of-life improvements, particularly some of those requested by our community.
 
Let me walk you through some of what we have planned for you both soon and further down the road.
 
Planets

We’ve recently released a new version of Talemai, and we’re continuing work on the others. After reviewing our progress, we've decided to take extra time to make the new planets truly feel different with new art, new terrain, and more exciting features. This means they are coming at a slower pace and possibly in a different order than we had envisioned. Expect new teasers, concept art, and images from us soon™!

Combat Missions

We had decided early in the life of Dual Universe not to focus on a PvE combat system, given other priorities. With all of the feedback we’ve received since the beginning of the game, PvE combat has consistently remained a highly requested feature from our community. We always try to listen to your feedback, and I’m happy to announce that we have begun work on implementing the first iteration of a PvE combat system into the game!
We’re planning the first version to be a PvE mission system that takes players into combat in their ships. The missions will scale in size to allow all players (solo or part of a larger group) to participate.
 
We’re very excited about the PvE combat feature. It will add more engaging gameplay for all Noveans and allow players to try out the rigors of space combat before heading out to battle with other players in Dual Universe PvP.
 
We are still in the early development of this feature, and it will take time, but we are already looking forward to seeing you all trying it in future PTS sessions. Your feedback will be instrumental in our developing PvE combat in Dual Universe.

PvP Improvements

Following a recent and very successful round table discussion with members of our PvP community, we are reviewing all the feedback gathered and our own data to determine what changes we will make. We are considering increasing the importance and/or requirement of having voxel armor onboard successful PvP ship designs, finding ways to encourage multi-crew ship setups, and potentially restricting the ability to remove cargo while in combat. Stay tuned for more exciting developments on PvP.

Contest Winner Constructs

Before launch, we ran the Build Your Legacy Contest for players to design starting outposts and speeders, with the winning entries being added to Dual Universe. We are currently working to make the constructs that the contest winners submitted available as options to select during the first start of the game, and we are also looking to make these available for purchase in the UEF shop. The contest entries were original and impressive. I want to congratulate all of you who took part. 

Maintenance Unit

A complete rework of the repair unit was planned for the 1.2 release just before the holidays. The feature still needed more work, and we decided to delay its release with plans to include it in the upcoming 1.3 update. When finished, the repair unit will be replaced with the maintenance unit, which can repair constructs with scrap and disassemble constructs. However, construct disassembly is the feature that still requires the most work, and we are determining if the feature will make it into the 1.3 release. When added, this feature will remove the pain of finding that one last bit of voxel in a construct and make redesigning builds easier, with the Maintenance Unit taking down constructs for you.

Joystick Support

Dual Universe already has a basic system to connect joysticks to the game. However, these were never cohesively connected with the Lua system. We will change that, allowing players to map analog and button inputs from Joysticks, Throttles, Pedals, and even simple Gamepads into Dual Universe. This will significantly improve the flying experience for non-Lua developing players and open new doors for Lua developers through projects such as Lua arcade games, custom flight control systems, and other nifty things our community creates.

Default Lua Configuration Rework

Once we’ve added Joystick support, we will redesign the default Lua scripts we give to players. Our community has long requested this update, and we want to ensure we deliver it. We will add a full suite of features and improvements. This means new Lua flight control systems, the ability to toggle widgets on and off without requiring Lua code, and integrating several systems not fully encapsulated in current control scripts, such as Anti-Gravity Generators.

Fuel Intake Changes

This has been a popular demand by our players, and we are looking into options to allow players to refuel tanks from another element. Currently, we plan to make a  'Fuel Intake' able to act as a proxy for a single fuel tank. This feature is still on the drawing board and may change as we dive deeper into it.
 
-------------------------------------------

As always, thank you for reading this short overview of some of what’s coming up. I hope you have a clearer picture of the direction we're taking Dual Universe in, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the forums. Have a wonderful day.
- Mark (NQ-Deckard)
 

Spontaneous Missions based on a Player Event (AI Events).  (Maybe someone completed an Aphelia Mission through the PvP Zone, or maybe a big fight just took place with a specific variable, etc.) 

Example:   A War just took place in the PvP Zone where, (X) number of people died.  An AI Mission appears in the Special Missions Tab where a ship/station is available for the taking!  That ships coordinates can only be found by using a DSAT Scanner with 3 Waypoints vs. 5 (like Asteroids)  
 
This mission would be open to the Public, and is available for the taking regardless of who shows up, or when - so it would be time-based (2 hours?).   [This concept mission will create additional PvP]  The Final Waypoint of this mission doesn't necessarilly have to be in the middle of the PvP Event that caused this Mission; it could be randomized too.   The ship that is spawned by the AI would be 100% RNG;  S, M, or L Dynamic Core, it might even be a Space Core with Medium Container full of Titanium Ore or something.  
 
Either way you look at it, this would be a Server Event based on an event similiar to a World Boss Server Announcement.   It gives the server depth, spontaneous interaction between players, and exploration with a reward! 

In general, there must be more reasons for people to fly out into the PVP zone, simply so that there is more destruction in this game and the market is stimulated. So something like a spontaneous fight for an object in the PVP zone, which is worth fighting for(Ship with Schematics,Plasma,T5 as Cargo?). The important thing is that it spawns randomly, both with place and time. So a large group cannot prepare for that and gives smaller groups a chance to get something.
 
edit: and an Ongoing Mechanic, a bit like capture the flag. hold the ship for 30 minutes-1h and its you.rs
 
 

At one point in time, we were Alpha-Testers, and we did so knowing there would be Wipes, it was expected to improve the game itself.  When you transitioned us to Beta, we became PLAYERs, not TESTERs; then NQ began collecting subscription money - it was at that point NQ removed the option of a wipe and a 100% sustainable environment.  It won't work! 
 
NQ attempting to justify a 100% Wipe will ruin the game entirely.  Example:  Games like Eve or WoW have a long-standing community of players who have built up wealth over their playing-years.  Is that no different than what you have in DU right now?   "A community of long-term players who have built a society to play in, all the while waiting for New Players to join-in the fun?"  It's the same thing.  ALLLL of those games have acquired new subscriptions in a game that has extremely wealthy and fortified Players and Organizations alike. 

I am a no-wipe fan.  Clean-up what you need to for balancing or whatever, but wiping the server and starting anew is pointless. 
 
NQ - We stuck with you through Beta and amassed our wealth and place in the game to help you provide an enjoyable platform for Future Players.  Let it Ride! 

Wallet feeling a little light lately? Get ready to remedy that when the Panacea update hits, bringing with it two lucrative, quanta-producing possibilities: space wrecks and inactive asset requisitioning (IAR).
 
SPACE WRECKS
 

You’re going about your business, flying through space from one market to another or heading out to join some friends when your radar unexpectedly reveals something. Curious, you move closer to investigate and find wreckage. There’s no indication of who left it behind or why. Finders keepers, right? It’s yours now. And you’ve got some choices to make.
 
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Will you: 
salvage the ship for materials and elements? tokenize and sell the whole ship? sell the information about where the wreck is located? create a mission to get someone else to salvage it? The decision is all up to you.
 
RADAR AND RARITY
No special equipment is needed to locate these space wrecks, your standard radar is enough to detect them.
They will spawn randomly throughout Helios. There are five tiers of rarity, with lower-tier wrecks with low-value contents spawning at a higher frequency. The highest-tier wrecks will be harder to find; those who discover and harvest them will be rewarded with high-value materials and elements.
 
INACTIVE ASSET REQUISITIONING
 
This system is being introduced to address one of the chief complaints we’ve heard from Noveans, namely abandoned constructs cluttering up the universe, especially in public markets.
 
The purpose of IAR is to:
create salvaging opportunities for players around the game world. ensure cleanliness and performance around markets and other Aphelia zone hot spots. clean up older, unowned constructs.  
In other words, IAR has the potential to create a less cluttered environment for everyone and a fatter wallet for you.
 
ABANDONED CONSTRUCTS DEFINED
Players with a subscription, even if they have not logged in for a while, are in no danger of having their constructs flagged as “abandoned”, with the exception of constructs parked in Aphelia territory as noted below.
 
In effect, constructs belonging to unsubscribed users and not on their owners’ sanctuary zones will eventually lose their ownership, putting them in an abandoned state and making them vulnerable to be salvaged by other players. Likewise, constructs owned by an organization will lose their ownership when the org’s last remaining legate ends their subscription.
 
During the unsubscribe process, players will be reminded that their constructs will be in danger of becoming abandoned. When the constructs lose ownership, a blueprint will be placed in the owner’s inventory should they choose to return to Helios at a later date.
 
TIME’S TICKING 
When an account becomes inactive due to a canceled subscription, a countdown will begin on all constructs belonging to that account. After a period of time, those constructs will lose their ownership and other players will be able to salvage or capture them.
 
Then, all unowned constructs will have a countdown timer and it will count down from the moment it is unowned, regardless of why they are unowned (PvP destruction, IAR, abandonment, etc.) At the end of this timer, the construct will simply be removed from the game world.
 
The ‘ownership’ timer for unsubscribed players’ constructs is three months (90 days/2160 hours). The timer is the same for organization-owned constructs and begins when the last active legate of the owning organization’s subscription expires.
 
Each time a construct is unclaimed, whether due to an owner’s inactive game account or if abandoned via PvP, a one-month countdown to decay is set and is visible to everyone. If no one salvages the construct, it will be permanently removed from the game.
 
As with most newly introduced systems, this is subject to change in the future depending on the metrics we see as time passes.
 
SPECIAL RULES FOR MARKETS 
A modified version of IAR will be used on Aphelia territories, including all market zones.
Regardless of whether or not the owner is an active subscriber, all constructs on Aphelia territories are subject to IAR. As soon as a player exits their construct in Aphelia territory, a 168-hour (seven-day) abandonment countdown will begin for that construct. This is considerably shorter than the default IAR timer. Once that countdown reaches 0, the construct will lose its ownership. A new countdown timer of 48-hours (two days) before deletion will start ticking.
 
HAPPY HUNTING
 
Will you be among the happy scavengers scouring the skyways and byways for wrecked ships and abandoned constructs? Join the conversation about this devblog here.

Hi Noveans,
Thanks for the warm welcome! Since I've joined I've been amazed by the incredible job the Novaquark team is doing, working hard on delivering the dream of Dual Universe. I’m also very impressed by how you, our community, have been supporting the DU project from day one. Let's all keep moving forward together!
Cheers,
Nouredine

I'm ok with the current mechanic of being able to remove unwanted players. It's too easy for them to plant a spy on a ship and use that to target you. I truly believe its crippled their mission running gameplay. BUT all that being said, I believe the true solution would be proper AvA on Constructs, and maybe even anti personal "turrets" of some kind. Something to provide a risk for onboarding players. I really hope NQ hasn't given up on this......
 

1. When will we actually see a player count?

2. Why are their so much graphical updates over the course of Beta Rather than actual game play?

3. When will the players who do pay a monthly have their voice heard over the huge amount of crashes?
 
4. Will NQ be more honest on what the games outlook is rather than watching players argue in the discord due to the lack of communication provided by the Devs?

5. When will decide that the game needs a fresh start and the engine redone so it don't crash on so many people?

6. Why ban over bugs in game created by the games DEVS during what is supposed to be a test period?

7. Why ban over talking about the bug in general? How else are you going to find out how to fix during the test period? Very counter productive.
Banning should only be done during release. Otherwise you kill off your players who would promote your game........... Literally

8. Why did the Devs focus on game play based around work (Farming) rather than fun such as AVA?

9. If the game play doesn't exist now and you have severe bugs with this foundation how do you intend on adding new game play with that foundation?

10. Will you ever answer any of these?


                                                                         Sincerely "An Alpha Player who wanted a 3rd person view for Cockpit"
 

I've been watching this and other Sell Orders.   The seller in the attached screen-shot purchased over 112 Warp Drive Schematics due to NQs mistake and will profit easily, but approximately 2billion quanta.   This has got to be investigated and fixed ASAP! 
 
 

Attached is a screenshot taken about 10min ago of a Sell Order I've been watching.  In the past 48hrs. this seller has made approximately 2billion quanta off of NQs "mistake/bug/glitch."   Call it what you want, but that's a lot of capital to benefit from when it can be researched and fixed.   It is unacceptable and should be investigated further.   I looked at this sell order on Friday and he had 112 for sale.  He's now down to 18 left.  That is some serious cash for 0 work. 

 

I've been watching this and other Sell Orders.   The seller in the attached screen-shot purchased over 112 Warp Drive Schematics due to NQs mistake and will profit easily, but approximately 2billion quanta.   This has got to be investigated and fixed ASAP! 
 
 

Attached is a screenshot taken about 10min ago of a Sell Order I've been watching.  In the past 48hrs. this seller has made approximately 2billion quanta off of NQs "mistake/bug/glitch."   Call it what you want, but that's a lot of capital to benefit from when it can be researched and fixed.   It is unacceptable and should be investigated further.   I looked at this sell order on Friday and he had 112 for sale.  He's now down to 18 left.  That is some serious cash for 0 work. 

 

So we know that with the next patch that NQ is going to add in the mission system.
However, after giving it some thought NQ, I feel, needs to understand the environment the game is currently in.
With the onset of the .23 patch they've added in more sinks and almost no faucets. So in the end, the economy is in the crapper and no one is able to make much money unless you're a market guru and know how to capitalize.
 
However, even then barely anyone will be interested in engaging in the game because they all feel they have to mine in order to do anything. Or Join a large org to get anywhere.
 
When adding in the mission system, the way you can help the community is to add a balance to it by having Bots auto-gen missions for people to engage in.
 
The current status of the community, barely anyone is in a realistic position to generate meaningful missions and honestly it's on NQ to create a solid foundation of plentiful missions that the community can at least start off at. Then eventually make their own when the community is thriving again.
 
Adding in this new feature without a foundation for the community to start off at will only lead to the mission system being identified as another sync and barely a faucet for anyone else.
 
These missions need to be plentiful in number so EVERYONE has a chance to at least grow individually or as an org.
 
So as far as turning this ship around that's a SOLID way NQ can do it. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS POST FALL ON DEAF EARS!!!

HAHAHAHA there's already enough syncs in the game man NQ making more syncs will just blow the brains out of a horse that's nearing the flat-line
 
Since I've dumped $900 into this game I'm invested to fight and get suggestion infront of their face in ways they may not like to ensure they don't act on poor execution and game breaking features

... why you gotta bring me into this...  "as another sync" 

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.

Invasion
 
The initial invasion of every plan is well thought out and coordinated.  Knowing that the enemy may have a Protective Device casting a force-field over their Construct(s) is part of that plan.  However, it is not known how reinforced said "bubble" is.  I propose the following meta:
If the base being attacked has a Large Core, then the owner should have or be required to have, a Large shield.  Of course this item should be Tiered as such 
     Core:  XS-Tier I shield   S-Tier II shield  M-Tier III shield  L-Tier IV shield The attacking force would be required to "probe" that shield to determine the level of weaponry required to overcome the shield and it's health/capacity  
Attacking Ship's Core Theory = the size of the dynamic constructs core dictates the weaponry it is capable of carrying.  (an XS vessel should NOT be capable of overcoming any Base, sticking to the "It takes a village" concept)
                                              XS: No weaponry capable of penetrating a Dynamic force-field
                                              S:  >Tier-I Weapon or proper caliber to penetrate an XS Static Cores Shield
                                              M:  >Tier II Weapon or proper caliber Pulse/Laser to penetrate a S Static Cores Shield
                                              L:  >Tier II Weapon or proper caliber Laser/Rail/Artillery to penetrate a M or larger static construct
  Capture The Flag
Once the shield is diminished to 0, the timer should not be server-static so we know when to attack.  There should be an unknown element of pending-battle inherent in the process itself.  If everyone knows what's coming because the force-field has been penetrated, then the element of surprise and inevitable doom is removed from the game.  In other words, it should be based on a formula of Construct Size+Fuel available, and possibly another variable determined by the size of the Organization/activity.  Super-Large organizations may have more resources, thereby making it more difficult to be overcome by a simple timer.    I disagree with the Email Alert system - It is the Leadership/Organization's responsibility to manage their faction members and their land.  That's the organizational meta and it should be just that.  If you choose to live in PVP, then you expect to get hit - GUARD it or loose it.  Login and defend your hex or live to build another day!   It's not personal, it's business. 
      Note: Auto-Turret Defenses -  Will they be firing through the force-field before it is taken down?  Can the invading force be held off by my defenses?  Is that going to be possible? Once a base has been over-ran, then the opposing force takes possession by raw power and is able to place their Land Claim Device similar to a "Capture the Flag" moment.  If nobody is defending the flag, or I haven't been attacked within a certain time frame, and the owning faction ISN'T actively protecting their base core, then I should be able to place my LCD down and PWN!
  Weaponry Meta
 
As stated above, no XS Dynamic Construct should have the ability to overcome/snipe, or otherwise overrun a Static Construct that contains a force-field.  With the advent of all of these Space Survival games, the meta for PVP is always disputed by PVE/PVP players alike.  The playfield has an inherent danger that should frighten the crap out of you and your teammates should you chose to venture away from Home.  It isn't supposed to be easy, it isn't supposed to be a cake-walk.  The weaponry that dynamic vessels can carry should not be equal across the board.  There needs to be a Tier'd weapons system that allows for progression based on superior tactics thereby awarded as such.  If you want protection, go play No Man's Sky.
 
           Example:  In a game I play now, once you level up, you acquire all the weapons in the game for your dynamic vessel.  All you need is a bit of ore and you build each one - BAM!  You are now the most powerful ship on the playfield.  But can you use it properly?  My example above, allows for an element of responsibility in the attacking faction to either bring all your big guns and risk the loss of said weaponry should you be attacked enroute, or do some scouting and be cautious with your dooms-day device.   My "Attacking Ship's Core Theory" allows for a steeper than normal method of acquiring said dooms-day device.  This is in-line with NQ's crawl/walk/run method that they have imposed. 
 
These dynamic core limitations and weaponry scaling provide a proverbial speed-bump my Example above. 
                                              XS: No weaponry capable of penetrating a Static Constructs force-field
                                              S:  >Tier-I Weapon or proper caliber to penetrate an XS Static Cores Shield
                                              M:  >Tier II Weapon or proper caliber Pulse/Laser to penetrate a S Static Cores Shield
                                              L:  >Tier II Weapon or proper caliber Laser/Rail/Artillery to penetrate a M or larger static construct
 
Final Variable  @NQ_Stargazer
 
Maybe it would be a better meta to force the factions to seek out partial technology to create their dooms-day device?  Maybe, not all of the components in the Tier III Shield Buster can be created from the ores in the ground.  Maybe, you need to work a little more before you can take out a Large Static Construct.   Maybe!