Anaximander

No, no it doesn't count. Bronies are no different than people who collect Power Rangers figures and watch all the seasons of the show. Furries are a whole new classs of "...what" on their own.
 
Funny story to illustrate my point.
 
Once in the town I attended university, there was a furry party going, the first in the city back then. I was unaware of it being that same night I was out. So, as I am returning home, on that friday night, having drunk a bit more than usual, two guys try to mug me. At that moment, unbeknownst to me, three guys come out of the nearby alley behind me, ones only the aspiring thugs could only see. Those guys were dressed in full on furry costumes, dressed as some weird WTF-wolf creature. Now, think about it. Dark alley, you see three tall figures with pointy ears, sounds heavy (cause of the masks they wear) and it's a full moon night. 
 
But no, wait, there's more. 
 
Those thugs start backpeddaling because ... three humanoid wolf-creatures came out of the dark alley.m making what seems to sound guttural noises. But even more as a cruel twist of irony, those 3 furries were meeting up with some local friends of theirs to head to the party the same night, so they took a detour through those alleys. As the thugs start going away, furry group B shows up heading our way from the direction the thugs were backpeddaling towards. Never seen thugs - with knives mind you - climb up a chain-link fence as fast as they did, into a building project going on nearby and cutting through it to the main road.
 
 
 
So yeah. Bronies can be made fun of, cause if you see one in a dark alley, you won't think "oh shit, I forgot my silverware at home".

They could indiate the COM by its proximity to the Core Unit as a frame of referrence. IT's not something that's hard to figure out and put into an algorithm and since Core Units do deploy a voxel grid around them, they already act as a point of origin in a three-dimensional map.
 
 
I'd say making the Core Units could have a toggle optino for their CoM to show up as a sphere, that either expands or shrinks depending on how a ship is spread out, so people can adapt and place thrust accordingly closer to it.

The Adjustors would really work up to a certain degree / size of a craft, i.e. star-fighters that can't afford the power needed for actual thrusters for maneuverability. I'd be betting that after a point, the adjustors don't cut it at all, and a person has to add some actual, minor thrusters across a ship to maek it turn.
 
It would help, if NQ provided with a visual way of detecting center of mass, like gravitometric scanners, cause I think most people have a hard time figuring out average values, let alone procuring a center of mass.
 
 
On the topic of ship designs though, people need to understand, that cool != efficient. You can make a ship look like a unicorn with the main propulsion coming in rainbow colors out of its rear, but you will have to figure out all the different materials going into it to make said ship fly without being wonky. But hey, if you can make it shoot laser from its eyes, good for you, you made a good, functional ship that does look like a unicorn. 
 
Call me if someone actually makes one. I'm interested for a friend of mine.

Well, no that I have your attention, yes I do think that PVP and specifically combat PVP is important to DU. It is not vital but it is important, if not very important.
For Combat PVP to work it is required that the mechanics that drive it are stable, solid, balanced and well tested.
 
In that regard I think two things that I expect will happen and/or we know will happen are vital
 
1. Asteroids and Asteroid Mining
For this to be a good driver in combat PVP, it will need to first _actually work_ and in a live service game where there is hordes of bloodthirsty players who are craving their shot of pewpew, testing this mechanic outside of safe zones is a risk. Keeping the mechanic safe at least initially makes absolute sense even when it means  that the pewpew will need to wait.
 
Asteroid mining wil need to be lucrative, flawless and worth the risk for those that want to get the goods to venture in to PVP space. If the value of the mechanic is not established or if attempt to get to them is quickly bashed in by pewpew flotillas camping these sites they will die a quick death. I'm sorry you guys, but the pewpew will need to wait
 
2. TW in space
Could this be a ploy by NQ to tick the TW box and move planet side TW beyond release as they will do what they must to hit release end of the year and will push out what they can to get there? Of course that is possible and frankly not outside of the possible outcomes.
 
I think and hope it more likely NQ wants to be able to gather data and get experience wit the core mechanics in a more controlled environment which is PVP space. This intermediate stage would mean a better way to test and control ECM and shielding, an initial option to test base and tile defenses. Frankly, from a game design perspective it makes sense. 
 
 
Overall, NQ once more shows their lack of understanding the need to set clear expectations and drive understanding of their choices through clear communication. It's almost funny to see how some of the things they say they have understood and will need to do better going forward are already thrown out the window on the first opportunity they have to show they mean it, the third part of those blog posts.

10/10
 
Would use as copy pasta
 
 

The rest of them will be go mine X and deliver it to me.  The mission system won't keep people from having to mine.  It will be a lot of big guys trying to convince the small guys that mining for them at a loss is in the way to go.

Bounties might be nice when ava comes, until the average player realizes that he will spend more in ship parts, ammo, fuel and time than the bounty is worth. 

Until they fix the grind of mining and the costs of basic industry, I think this game has about had it.

In very many of my previous posts I have described the view from the paying customers. Until recently, it was even the case that players could still play after their subscription had expired, which would make me a little suspicious even as a paying customer. Don't get me wrong, this is not about me at all. I'm reflecting this whole view from a customer. To put it mildly, I would feel like a fool if I had a 1-year subscription and the other person could only continue playing after a 1-month subscription.
 
Why have so many old players quit? Especially since they were backers / supporters who didn't even have to pay for the beta. At the latest when another developer studio takes your company as an example of how NOT to do it, I would rethink my strategy. 
 
Seeing past your unqualified statements, I'll casually mention once without breaking the NDA that I've been in Alpha Team Vanguard (ATV) since 2017. 
Maybe you should look up what ATV means again. We have jumped from the original ~600k euros that were funded to 20 million. There has been no lack of time and money in recent years. I would rather call it mismanagement.
 
The stories, in terms of actions, decisions, lack of communication and the points I have listed above all speak their own story.
I am only the messenger. I just make sure that all this is not forgotten. Even if people will hear it several times. You are free to ignore me at any time.  Just as customers and new players should be left to weigh up for themselves whether they should buy into Beta under these conditions or not. And I think it's only right not to do this with rose-coloured glasses.
 
And it is not helpful when people try to silence others.
 
 

The criticism and displeasure will not change. One censors oneself in the moment that one does not see what popular opinions of others are, even if they have no weight. That only shows in the end that you are dissatisfied with what others think. Bute sure, let's remove it. I'm in favour of removing the like button and just dealing with the context that the players write. At least then we don't have to deal with arguments like: "You write this only for the brownie points."
 
It's funny that in the alpha there was a great community that gave good and constructive criticism. But it's also the people from back then who (still!) give good and constructive criticism today. 
 
NQ just decided over the years to take an ignorant attitude towards the community that is irresponsible and to manoeuvre the project with questionable decisions into a direction (no AvA, patch 0.23) that can no longer be approved. Also the fact that since the start of the beta no significant progress or features have been added makes me wonder. 
 
I don't have to explain that there is no peace, joy and happiness afterwards. I have invested enough money and time in this project to have my mouth shut. 
If the game's right for you: fine. It's not true for me when I look at the project after 4 years.
 
Edit:
Something very important forgotten - We are in Beta. New players pay money if they want to continue playing. The situation is completely different than when you give your armchair "expert" opinion as a backer.
 
And this is something a few people should not ignore.

Lol. The irony. 
 
Its done m8. The faith of DU is sealed.
And you know it, or else you would be afraid of moderation. 
 
At the end, what makes DU fail is the decisions NQ made. 
 
The game is fun for a "minecraft" game. But ppl dont want to pay a monthly subscription to play minecraft. 
 
As a MMO it fails with 5 stars.
 
The game focuses on hours grinding, hours of space travel, days of crafting. It is not a work day escape. Ppl go to work to escape DU. 
 
It is totally unbalanced.
Being in a group gives you exponential advantages. 
Being a old player also gives you exponential advantages. 
 
It is full of bugs. But more importantly, it is full of loopholes that require mechanisms that do not exist. 
 
 
Now why would a new player join the game, and if he joins, not quit after 2 days? 
 
How are we the players responsible for the direction the game went? 
 
You can even say "because you influenced developers to make 'this' game". But the community always gave arguments for both sides of each decision. It was up to NQ to read and make a informed decision. 
 
At the end is NQ's fault, not ours. 

Tells people to stop being jerks, then signs off calling everyone douches. You sound like a fucking idiot to me, so no wonder no one listens to you. 

That's a whole lotta words just to say you got your feelings hurt in chat.
 
People are quitting this game because the gameplay is garbage right now, not because their opinions are getting slammed by fanboys in the support channel.

.

Every time I look on the ground now with this patch, I get severe fps drops... Typically it's the reverse in like... every other game.

. 

I WILL 

.
 

With each passing day I resent this game more and more because of ... well.. everything... I don't even know if I can hang on till .24... because to me, them pushing out a successful 0.24 is like a man painlessly passing a kidney stone the size of a paintball.
 
 

That list of NQ names who left in all fairness and IMO more likely is a list of employees working for a BPO with whom NQ had a contract to provide support. As NQ ended that contract, these guys would no longer show up and would either be redeployed to other clients or let go by the BPO. 
 
But yes, it's not DU. The game, or what is supposed to become a game, has all the promise and potential in the world and it has certainly been shows that the tech behind it needs work but could function as advertised. The problem is not the game, the problem is NQ and it's "senior staff" and "managers" culture. If NQ were a dozen of programmers in a shed with a somewhat flamboyant and driven  project lead/manager (ehum.. Hello games) who decides to hunker down and not say a word until they fix the damn code on a botch (for whatever reason) first attempt.
 
NQ's LinkedIN mentions 74 staff, from their titles it is very possible to create a fairly solid and organized development structure on all fronts. The one thing that is missing there is a project manager who oversees everything and has the authority to make decisions on what happens (next). To me it feels like JC is currently doing that and while he may be a mad scientist and have a great vision for the game, that in itself would make him not fitting for the role. I fully expect he will put vision over what is technically feasible and asks for things that simply can't (yet) be done or only drives the high level (visual) designs while ignoring (because unaware) of the underlying low level requirements.
 
And it shows. The schematics system introduced in 0.23 really is not bad, in fact it could be great and in the big shiny example for JC, EVE, it works fine if not great. The reason it work in EVE though is because there are several underlying game loops and mechanics that feed into that and enable that. All of this is missing in DU and not only that, they are not even a consideration. NQ, by means of JC, only wants to bring in the high level "visual" stuff, they want to see all the pretty effects and lighting hung on the ceiling but ignore the fact they need to run cables for power and control to all those lights for them to work, all neatly tucked away in cable trunks and well organized. Instead, as they find "oops we need power", NQ just start mad rushing in extension cord which are then seen hanging from the ceiling all over the place. The result is a messy, unmanageable pile of cables, not a fun, flashy lighting grid. NQ bypasses the one person that can make all that be what it needs to be, the guy with the plan for the lighting grid, who knows what he owner wants and knows what he needs to have the engineers do to make it happen.. 
 
 
JC is a nerd, he gets all "look at this cool stuff people do in my game" on Twitter and that is all he sees. To put it bluntly he chooses (as he is an intelligent person) to ignore all the problems and only wants to go "oh, shiny".. And that is a problem when the same person is the one setting the direction for the development team to follow.
 
 

RIP Dual Universe. 
 
It was fun while it lasted.
Kind of?
 
I remember accidentally stumbling across a video of Dual Universe, the alpha feature showcase running ~50 minutes long. Boy oh boy was I impressed. In the past I've played things such as starmade, and empyrion, and always loved the idea of a space sci-fi and as a star wars fan myself, always building large scale stuff like star destroyers and blah. As fun as these games were to play, they always suffered from having next to no major interaction in multiplayer. As you can guess, the whole idea of Dual Universe being a space sci-fi sandbox in an MMO setting was an incredibly grand and alluring idea. I had plenty of fantasies and imaginations of how awesome DU could turn out to be, as many many others had too. Unsure of what exactly I can say without breaching NDA, I'll keep it vague. Playing the Alpha build was pretty frustrating lol. However, the community made up for a lot of DU's pitfalls. I had discovered a sort of 'role play' civilisation building community that spanned over years of living under a shell of tight NDA alpha development, which was quite interesting. Everyone was eager for DU to enter beta, and to get serious. To let go of needing to 'Role play' and just be able to take their metagaming to the next level in the persistent world of Dual Universe.

The Beta launch was certainly a real mouthful. Everyone rushed out the gates to make their mark in the world, a race to cement their existence into DU's solar system. Damn were there a lot of people, compared to the current population it's almost unbelievable. Even NQ didn't expect such a huge influx of players to jump in. This caused a lot of dumpster fires during the start of beta, and a lot of NQ's efforts were directed toward putting them out. It was choppy as hell, but it seemed like DU really had a major ingredient to succeed, player population. Regardless of the hugely buggy nature of the game which many people criticized as being no way near beta ready, especially paid beta ready, people still trucked on hopeful of what DU could be. One extremely common phrase among critics and players alike, was that DU had so much potential, and every one of them were right. 
 
With the introduction of larger than alpha resource nodes amongst all of the planets, and meganodes for each ore, DU experienced a huge boost in progression, as everyone grinded their brains out to collect as much ore as they could. Mega factories popping up left and right, in every nook and cranny. Production and resource exploitation at an all time high left NQ worrying about the fast paced progression they seemed to be quite uncomfortable with.
 
The idea behind DU was that it was oriented to group play in such a way that people would build organisations, alliances, countries, and civilisations. Unfortunately, apart from marketing efforts DU wasn't really setup to encourage any of this. Being weary of needing to RP to really do any of this, most older groups began to grow uneasy. The cause for this controversially being the implementation of safezones, and lack of territory warfare, which was a desired addition for the beginning of beta. Initially, the idea was that the only safe place in the solar system would be the Sanctuary moon. The absolute only reason for its current existence. Instead of a creative solution to allow organisations/nations to create their own safezones, their own mark in the solar system, we were given a very, very lenient absolute safe space. In my opinion, the sole existence of any safezones aside from the sanctuary moon works only to remove any incentive or encouragement for a nation or country to emerge in any part of the solar system. Everyone joined into DU with their own dreams, and their own desires of creation. And everyone was very much free to move about and do as they wished, on their own. It's likely NQ were forced along this path due to simply not having enough time to develop critical gameplay mechanics, coupled with problems among the studio itself, with none of the original team who initially worked on DU no longer even working at NQ. DU now has effectively turned itself from a promising civilisation building MMO, into a quiet, enormous and extremely overpriced museum for sci-fi voxel creations.
 
The PVP, and effects of it are nothing short of Pitiful.
 
NQ's move to stifle progression and control it's rate among DU, backfired miserably and completely decimated DU's saving grace, its player population. The introduction of update 0.23 unsettled and enraged SO many people, eesh. If you're reading this and your opinion is that 0.23 was a great patch, you clearly don't see the incredible damage that it's done to DU, NQ, and their PR. Enjoy your giant space museum while it lasts. NQ certainly took a major step back in communication in the aftermath of update 0.23, which only further annoyed the playerbase.

Recently a new Community Manager that went by NQ-Naunet was hired, and made strides in engaging with the remaining DU community. Only just recently, after only 4 months of working at NQ, Naunet has left NQ without a word. Naunet was much appreciated by the community, and her departure left a gaping hole in the communities confidence in NQ's ability to manage a community, sparking a recent freefall dive (absolute shitshow) in NQ's temporarily completely unmoderated Forums, with only NQ-Naerais left to hold the reins on a fragile and wavering community.
 
Another recent incident involving NQ deciding to completely remove ingame support, and discord support has also caused unease and frustration throughout the entire playerbase. Leaving the only form of support to the ticket system, which is famous taking up to a month or more for a response, and often the responses were extremely unhelpful. The removal of NQ's ingame support system basically blew up any players hope for help in navigating DU's buggy and problematic nature.

The ingame support team did an incredible job of handling many of the problems thrown at players, most of which simply made no sense to wait months for. Most of the tech support workers have left NQ after this move.
Their names are:
NQ-Wokk
NQ-Blacksun
NQ-Gallion
NQ-Astratum
NQ-Samaritan
NQ-Stargazer
NQ-Orion
NQ-Reaper
NQ-StarFire
NQ-Xeno
 
Apologies for anyone I've missed, but they've singlehandedly been through the rivers of buggy shit to ensure that players had the best possible experience in DU.\
 
Now that the support team is gone, Naunet is gone, any Liason between community and NQ non-existant, most people just want to see DU put out of its misery. Was a fantastic concept, but it seems like it'll just never work. With the whole idea of DU having millions of players, but only being attractive to a very niche group of resilient and hardcore players, and the recent decision of NQ, DU has just lost it's much needed momentum, and as we can see with numbers pulling out of NQ's roster, including more prominent and notable names, faith in NQ's ability to deliver DU as advertised, promised, and pitched, are at an all time low.
 
Even JC's in rough shape after 0.23, poor dude.
 

 
As for JC himself, mad respect for the dude. Starting a brand new company to develop and handle his dream game (as was ours), was bold and brave of him. We all wished him the best in his endeavours, and are all sad to see what is to come of DU.
 
If you're new and wanting to get into DU, I'd advise against it. If you have friends to play with and wanna muck around DU, all power to you. DU isn't really that pricey, probably won't last for another 3 months anyway.
But for anyone looking for what DU was pitched as, it's looking like a hard skip. 

And now some random memes to dust off the post.


 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


RIP, nobody wanted you here. Except for maybe your competitors, although they probably feel guilty about it now.

Big missed opportunity here.. 
Invert this mechanic (need permission to use "gravboots") and you instantly fix the problem with stowaways on ship hulls .
 
Also.. not sure how this is worthy of a separate devblog.. but I digress

LIKE title says game is F2P wether by design or not i dont know and dont care. I am one of those players who left after 0.23 and keeps popping in to see how things are going. after the recent paid shill drama am done with them now and will expose this BS. I and about 12 or so others i still chat with on the daily all unsubbed from game around this time. However, most of us about 8 or 9 can all still play the game. now i double checked my bank and no payments have been requested or made to NQ or anywhere for that matter relating to a DU sub it was 100 percent stopped. now theres 2 things here. 1 NQ know this and dont care so if u unsub they still let you in to bolster there numbers or 2 they're so inept they cant even get getting paid right and if the latter is the case i'm affraid i am out RIP. but if u enjoy the game and still hold out hope then yeh keep paying but if not cancel and u will still be able to play. this  post may be removed soon by admin so yeh. GG NQ u

Well.. apparently, the "marketing guy" over at NQ Montreal has quite the history himself with YT as in having large subscriber counts but so-so views on his videos..
There's a bit too much showing up in quick succession to be a coincidence with regards to marking spin and bordering on misrepresenting the state of the game.

Yep, very questionable (to say it politely). May be this is just "vision" again, like with fantasy-filled trailers before.
 
@NQ-Nyzaltar, @NQ-Naunet, may we kindly ask you to comment on this sort of article in context of wider PR strategy for the game? 
 
 

https://www.buffed.de/Dual-Universe-Spiel-57410/Specials/6-Monate-Beta-1366842/
 
^^ source article
 
Buffed.de, mostly known for WOW articles, has written a few pieces on DU before, and have been mostly positive. However, I and a few friends saw a part in a translated version of this article that stated something that could bring a set of attention to DU that is not needed at this time, that is until NQ fix their game.
 
1st section: "the world comes alive":
 
"Although the rush was already high at the beginning of the beta phase, more and more players were added over time and slowly but surely filled the world of Dual Universe. That had several positive effects on the game. For one thing, the world feels much more alive now. We no longer only encounter strange players in the central marketplaces of Alioth, the largest of the planets, but everywhere in the universe. Even the tiny moons of smaller planets on the edge of the solar system are now well populated."
 
keep in mind this was written on 02/13/2021, and right now that 3rd sentence cannot be any more wrong, alioth is a ghost town, madis and thades are abandoned, and any other planet besides maybe ion and lacobus have basically no inhabitants. That is all because of .23 and the major screw up NQ had. i might be blowing it out of proportion, but you get the jist'.
 
2nd section: "Large organizations have grown":
 
"But it's not just the individual players that make the world come alive. Giant organizations have been set up and grown over the months. Huge factories that produce spaceships on an assembly line and are operated by dozens of players are not uncommon. Huge freight transporters fly from moon to moon with a crew of several men, buy cheap resources there and deliver them to the many thousands of players who have established their home on Alioth. There is organized trade, a flourishing industry, and the first political intrigues between the largest of the organizations."
 
"giant organizations"... what, like 100-200 active players making up 5 different major orgs? compared to the 30K ish+ we had since launch in total? (in reference to sanc moon tiles), if you go to any market in the game, even the district markets on alioth, they are all dead, no one visits them anymore.
 
3rd section: "Schematics ensure more trade"
 
"The schematics in particular are responsible for the flourishing of trade. In the alpha and at the beginning of the beta, everyone was still able to produce everything, provided they had the resources and had the appropriate industrial equipment built beforehand, is no longer possible. More complex modules, which you cannot manufacture in your personal nanocrafter, but only in industrial plants, now require a so-called schematic. This is practically a set of instructions that you can use to explain to your industrial plant which module is manufactured and how. Without a schematic, even the most sophisticated production line is just a pile of scrap metal. You can get the schematics on the marketplaces for a chunk of the in-game currency Quantas. The more complex the module, the more expensive the schematic. You also need a separate schematic for each system. Anyone who wants to manufacture silicon from quartz in ten melting systems not only needs ten systems, but also ten schematics - which can quickly turn into money in large factories."
 
Excuse me, what? Anyone who has played the game most likely quit over schematics, or permanent destruction. why? schematics are 1. expensive, 2. tedious to setup, and 3. has almost entirely killed production of any goods not tier one. when schematics came out, a 7m item (anti-gravity generator S) had a schematic required to build it worth hundreds of millions, now that schematic is worth 76m as of the time of writing this, 10x the items worth is fair, ok, but the way they implemented them was ridiculous. 
 
you can read more on the article and see for yourself, but here is something i noticed, none of that was labeled as opinion...
 
i have the feeling this was a commissioned article by NQ to Buffed.de, if it was, I read someone say that its illegal by German law to publish paid pieces, however i may be incorrect. (correction, if the article is noty labeled as a sponsored article and its found out to be then it is illegal, no where on the article does it mention sponsorship)
 
regardless of the legality, NQ needs to come clean because if this was paid that is scummy, make me feel like this game was a cash grab.
NQ I'm begging you, come clean and stop hiding that your game is dying, you still have a chance to dig out of the hole you made, please!

And then.. suddenly.. the lights go out and there is no more servers.. And some will look around wondering what happened and how the never saw it coming.
 
There is one major difference between a game's community and "sociologists, economists, professional writers" .. one of these pay the bills, the other are the bills..