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Ok so we like to get into things. So today while heading up to a rudimentary space station I made... [Deployed an M space core and added some voxels just a surface - do try to set it up away from the warp point, fairly off the planet, as people launch from all over the place, you don't want them to fly through an "asteroid field" to fly away from the planet (or don't worry about that and call it CCP/EvE-style "emerging behavior"? No thank you), and try to put some lights on it, so people see it from a decent distance - avoid accidents - just my advice] So having mostly flown third person up to now (it suits), seeing the ship from behind and above, today I thought, hold on, this is not how its in reality. Astronauts don't have a camera following them form behind and above, to understand where the ship is going. So I challenged my self to make it realistic. And the fun began Issue no 1 : there is no marker to where the ship is going. That's fine, but it does help when you design the ship, to put some structure in front of the cockpit, or command seat, not too much to block all the view, so that you can relate to this fixture around you regarding the direction you would travel if you just pump the volume erhmm gib gas, erhmm hit the gas petal, erhmm whatever. I got it!! When you use the force! (lower case f to avoid misunderstandings) [Obviously you can use the thrust/direction markers that the cycle-my-thrust/direction-viewing-options-thing gives you and it just shows you an arrow of where you are going and the thrusts of engines airfoils, adjustors etc, so don't worry about it too much, I was just playing around.] Now what I wanted to do was dock with another ship in space, that was ECU-parked just above me space station. Never-mind that I think its not possible if the ship is unoccupied, even if you own it, to dock with it, but still how would you see where you are going when you dock. The early game/small ships just have cockpit, so most of the view of what you see is above you, its not easy to gauge what's underneath. So I rolled the ship over and tried to dock upside down. Which is kinda how and why and the whole science and engineering of where they place windows on spaceships etc. It was fun. I was glad I was able to use autopilot to get back. Do try the 'Albatross' "Add-on" to start with, it has no auto pilot, but you get a feel of what these add/help with, then get 'ArchHud', needs a bit of reading but there are videos in Youtube too about it, Its not perfect, but to me its nothing short of brilliant and hats off and kudos to the people that gave this to us and maintain it. This is nopt worth a buy-me-a-coffee folks. If you can and I will when i can I'll give 50 to these guys that did ArchHud. [its also reassuring that "The Man on the High Castle" in DU is a professional automator and AI aficionado [aficionado to say the least, but imo its still early days for AI]. Good chance it will take a lot of the fear out about what should be allowed to be automated and what not] So overall it was a great experience today, I no longer feel so dismissive of how real spaceships are quite automated these days, you can still fly it, if designed properly around the idea of control but also how pilots would want it made (yeah the airline industry had a bit of trouble/teething problems with planes and if you hear what percentage of automation planes had before and how much was added in the new ones, you will freak out, its very small compared to what you think and it was already a big enough number, above 50% I believe - not sure whose fault it all was really but I am glad its better now) So in closing, if you ask me if it bothers me that come game launch time, the DU solar system is going to be modeled as the Sun revolving around the planets, vothered really. Even in real space flight, they sometimes use this "old" model anyway, not in all situations ofc, but for some things, you can, so I hear. And anyway it was very reassuring to hear that space companies have a meme or whatever you call it, that just because it works in Kerbal Space Program, it doesn't mean it really works, i.e. in that respect too, we are getting back to reality in real space. That is also good news . Still, imo, KSP was a milestone in gaming, and it will forever remain such. I can assure Dual Universe has won me over fairly fast over Kerbal Space program 2 that is coming up. But I would recommend the experience of KSP 1 and hopefully 2 to anyone that does have the time for it. With KSP I got certain things fairly fast. Why docking is the most difficult thing to do manually in space, landing on a planet at a specific place probably also, but other simple beautiful things like in space, the natural, given, direction, is not the line, there are no lines really (oh you can and we will make them) but as far as au naturel is concerned, everything moves in circles, arcs, curves. Even by a tiny fraction infinitesimal amount (of movement), you can always orbit something in space. Even a galaxy. Even if Lagrange is your uncle, its just two orbits canceling out. 25 years I waited for this. Oh I played the early space games Like Privateer etc, but there was one game, to me, that at that time was the best of them all, that never made it past beta (the word beta didn't exist back then). I believe it was called Planetary Raiders, but I might be mixing it up coz the company who eventually bought it kinda messed it up (called it something similar). It did have a funny thing called a cockpit shot. Only time I ever lived as David and survived to tell the tale of killing Goliath. Rare. Lucky. Just aimed for where I thought the cockpit was and fired everything I had. So yeah I am rather anxious. Will DU make it? Tune in in a couple of weeks! Steam is a good choice in my opinion. Are we encouraged to switch to subscribing through Steam? We probably should. Start strong with our big player number? "Invade" Steam and knock Counterstrike off the top of the list of how many play what at any given time? Yeah right. I am not aiming that high. There is hope, expectation and then there is hubris. Anyway good choice, Steam is. Personally it suits me. You upgrade to a new PC and you have to go to a gazillion game sites to download all your games again? Steam for the win!

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

PurplePanda’s Space/Construction Game list This list is being created for anyone who or wants some DU-ish games to play between tests or until DU releases. All of these have been chosen by me through “extensive” research that I did an hour ago, as well as some personal favorite of mine. Hope you enjoy some of these games, I think some of them are definitely worth a look! (Note all reviews will be from there Steam pages) Out Now Avorion - Early Access A procedural co-op space sandbox where players can build their own space ships out of dynamically scalable blocks. Fight epic space battles, explore, mine, trade, wage wars and build your own empire to save your galaxy from being torn apart by an unknown enemy I’ve seen this game around for a little bit and although I’ve never played it myself, I find the aesthetics and mechanics look fantastic. For me it really puts into scope how big the universe is and how there is so much more out there, but less in an existential way, and more in an curious way. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive. $22.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/445220/Avorion/ Astroneer - Fully Released Explore and reshape distant worlds! Astroneer is set during the 25th century Intergalactic Age of Discovery, where Astroneers explore the frontiers of outer space, risking their lives in harsh environments to unearth rare discoveries and unlock the mysteries of the universe. In this space sandbox adventure, players can work together to build custom bases above or below ground, create vehicles to explore a vast solar system, and use terrain to create anything they can imagine. A player’s creativity and ingenuity are the keys to thriving on exciting planetary adventures! Once again I haven’t actually played the game but I’ve seen it from time to time and the aesthetics are simply whimsical. I also watched a very interesting and entertaining documentary about it and the company’s creation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfUjl4owxTQ All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Very Positive. $29.99 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/ Star Made - Early Access The ultimate space sandbox. Participate in epic fleet battles, form alliances, strive to dominate entire galaxies and harness the universe’s resources for your industrious empire or the destruction of others. Customize your experience, the universe is yours! A voxel-based 3D sandbox set in the never-ending darkness of space. Create your own ships, explore new galaxies, stars, and planets. Discover and salvage space stations, fight against pirates or opposing factions in multiplayer. Equip your ships with completely customizable weapons and conquer the galaxy. Trade and make a fortune, mass produce materials in gigantic factories. Design your very own space station. Create warp gates and network the universe at your front door. Star made is probably the game I have sunk the most hours into (although not that impressive), and I’ll admit I had a lot of fun doing it but the game has kind of stagnated. Personally, I think it is a good game but updates now rarely come out and the community is all but dead. If you enjoy playing by yourself and are able to see past some of its problems, I do believe you could have a genuinely enjoyable experience. At the very least it could be useful for prototyping ship ideas. All Reviews: Mixed Recent Reviews: Mostly Positive. $Free. Download the demo it’s the full game. https://www.star-made.org/ Interstellar Rift - Early Access Interstellar Rift is an open world Starship Simulator with an emphasis on ship construction and multi-player interaction. Players can explore and conquer the galaxy with their own custom designed and constructed a starship. Space is vast, but you won't have to face it alone, other players will be able to join your crew, and help out, or build their own rival fleet and fight you across the galaxy. I don’t own this game and have only recently learned about it but from what I’ve seen (and read) it incentivizes ship creation and allows for immense amounts of creative freedom. All Reviews: Mostly Positive Recent Reviews: Mixed. $26.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/363360/Interstellar_Rift/ FTL: Faster Than Light - Fully Released In FTL you experience the atmosphere of running a spaceship trying to save the galaxy. It's a dangerous mission, with every encounter presenting a unique challenge with multiple solutions. What will you do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields? Reroute all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, power up additional weapons to blow your enemy out of the sky, or take the fight to them with a boarding party? This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat. I don’t know much about this game and I have never played it, but I know it’s a classic and that it’s a classic for a reason. Definitely worth a try if you haven't yet. All Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive. $14.50 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/212680/FTL_Faster_Than_Light/ Cosmoteer - Early Access Cosmoteer is a starship design, simulation, and battle game. Design a fleet of ships by placing individual modules including weapons, shields, engines, and hallways. Battle A.I. starships to earn bounties or test your design skills against other players. A dynamic crew and combat simulation make every design decision important and interesting. This game is one of my recent favorite, hands down. I find the way how the shipbuilding and 2D elements blend to be thoroughly enjoyable. There is a large amount of flexibility when it comes to the construction of your ships and I find it deeply satisfying when I pit two of my creation against each other, using there A.I to efficiently decimate the other party. I highly recommend this game, whether you're into pitting your creations against other peoples ships or your own (or the bounty hunter campaign). Plus there's nothing to lose, it’s free!!! (There's also a relatively large modding community). No Official Reviews. $Free (at least for now). https://cosmoteer.net/ Space Engineers - Fully Released Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration, and survival in space and on planets. Players build space ships, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and use's, pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive. I don’t have much to say on this title as I have played it only on occasion, it’s a very well know game with a good single player mode. The multiplayer has been notorious for its issues but it does work to some extent (from what I’ve seen) and it was known for its insanely long alpha period, but in total it’s apparently a really good game. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Very. $28.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/244850/Space_Engineers/ No Man’s Sky - Fully Released In No Man's Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you'll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before - and perhaps never will again. If you know anything about this game, you know about its horrendously rough start and while I wouldn't say all the hate the company was just, after twenty hours of playing I got bored and stopped. But while some of the responses were justified, Hello Games were able to truly turn their disaster around. Although I myself have barely played it since release I intend to soon, that's because in the years No Man’s Sky has been online Hello Game has been constantly updated. If you bought this game and have never looked at it since I highly suggest you give it another chance, you may be pleasantly surprised. All Reviews: Mixed Recent Reviews: Very Positive. $84.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/ Kerbal Space Program - Fully Released In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics. Launch your Kerbal crew into orbit and beyond (while keeping them alive) to explore moons and planets in the Kerbol solar system, constructing bases and space stations to expand the reach of your expedition. K.S.P is another game I would have to list as a favorite game, simply because it is so difficult yet so fun, in all the 40 hours I’ve played I got nowhere, but I got nowhere with style. And I think that's what's so great about it, if you do dedicate time and effort you can go somewhere, you can go to many many where’s. Whether you're a casual player that just wants to play in sandbox mode or colonies the solar system through dedication, this game deserves a look. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive. $45.99 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/Kerbal_Space_Program/ PULSAR: Lost Colony - Early Access Team up to operate an advanced starship and explore a randomized galaxy falling into chaos. Each player assumes a role aboard the ship: Captain, Pilot, Scientist, Weapons Specialist and Engineer. Coordination between your crewmembers will be essential in order to survive the perils that await you. I’ve been seeing the game on multiple sites like youtube for the past few years and it always caught my attention. I love the idea of having specialized roles and love how they have been able to recreate that ship on the frontier feel, with only yourself and your crewmates to rely on. If you like playing in friend groups, or just want to feel like you actually are controlling a ship, this game is for you. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive. $35.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/252870/PULSAR_Lost_Colony/ Planet Nomads - Fully Released Planet Nomads is a single player sci-fi sandbox game of survival on alien planets through block-style building. You are a lone astronaut scientist crash-landing on a strangely captivating planet. Keeping your wit together and securing your basic survival needs that include food, water, and building material is the best start towards figuring out a way out of this messy situation. This game started its development around the same time as the No Man’s Sky hype and sort of faded into the background, and although production continued the product today is quite controversial. Many of the players say that the game failed due to lag, mediocre updates, and eventual boredom while many others really like the game and still support it. If your willing to give this game a chance and aren't adverse to a bit of risk it might be something to check out. All Reviews: Mixed All Reviews Mixed. $28.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/504050/Planet_Nomads/ Elite Dangerous - Fully Released Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic, bringing gaming’s original open-world adventure to the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entirety of the Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions. I don’t actually know much about Elite, I know it’s big, it’s pretty and it’s quite hard to get into it and enjoy it but other than that it’s up to you to investigate and research. All Reviews: Mixed Recent Reviews: Very Positive. $42.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/Elite_Dangerous/ Infinfactory - Fully Released Infinifactory is a sandbox puzzle game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infiniminer. Build factories that assemble products for your alien overlords, and try not to die in the process. This game is all about industry, so it would be perfect for anyone partaking in Alpha 2 to get some “practice” before or in between (I don’t know how much help it would be). Other than that, anyone who likes to create systems that work flawlessly or like to think logically might like this game. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive. $35.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/300570/Infinifactory/ Empyrion Galactic Survival - Early Access Empyrion - Galactic Survival is a 3D open-world space sandbox survival adventure. Build powerful ships, mighty space stations and vast planetary settlements to explore, conquer or exploit a variety of different planets and discover the mysteries of Empyrion! As far as I can tell, Empyrion is a game similar to Space engineers with more customization ability for its creations. Of course, there are probably several key differences but I have not played the game and thus do not know. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Mostly Positive. $28.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/383120/Empyrion__Galactic_Survival/ Nimbatus - Early Access Nimbatus - The Space Drone Constructor is an action-packed simulation game. Craft drones out of hundreds of different parts and explores a destructible, procedurally generated galaxy. Build autonomous drones to fight against other players' creations. Do you have what it takes to become a drone engineer? I’ve only played Nimbatus for a little bit, but from what I have played and have seen externally from the game, it is going to highly appeal to those who like using logic parts. While i is an extremely fun game without using them and I suggest you look into the game, either way, the logic parts are definitely one of its strong suites. All Reviews: Very Positive Recent Reviews: Very Positive $28.95 AU https://store.steampowered.com/app/383840/Nimbatus__The_Space_Drone_Constructor/ EVE Online - Fully Released EVE Online is a community-driven spaceship MMO where players can play free, choosing their own path from countless options. Experience space exploration, immense PvP and PvE battles, mining, industry and a thriving player economy in an ever-expanding sandbox. EVE truly is a virtual world, one that houses so many people and factions and wars it’s almost impossible to keep track of. If you're looking for a game with history and lore, legends and tales of war, and distances almost unimaginable to the human mind, then EVE is for you. Although you should note that it is extremely hard to get into and to fully immerse yourself in the culture and history, will take a lot of dedication. All Reviews: Mostly Positive Recent Reviews: Very Positive. $Free (With packs) https://store.steampowered.com/app/8500/EVE_Online/ Bonus I know we already have enough on our plate with DU, but these two are game projects that are definitely worth following in the future. I highly suggest you look into them. Starbase - https://store.steampowered.com/app/454120/Starbase/ Skywanderes - https://skywanderersgame.com/ If you have anymore good games that i missed or noticed any mistakes I've made, please notify me with a comment! ☺️

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

NQ said that the game will have lots of types of fuels, so why not have fuels that are in real life?

I like the foundry and 3D printer but can we have a second incarnation of both and storage. These would be attached to a voxel build creating a bigger version with slightly faster operation. This would allow the building of foundries, factories and storage bays and silos that look impressively industrial and make great places for a fire fight. Most would be purely decorative. I noticed that the forge and other machines in landmark often got hidden in such bigger builds but were never really optimised for that function. It may need a forge input, the end of that mesh cropped off and made a little larger. Production bonus depending the number of solid voxels in the volume xyz1 to xyz 2 behind it. A few molten metal voxel types would be an optional extra. A printer Scaled up Shorted with the option to put more in a row as a special effect. I.e they all seem to run if 'connected' as above. A cargo input element that expands it's storage depending the number of solid voxels in the volume xyz1 to xyz 2 behind it. No need to change the fluid storage it looks industrial enough. Think minecraft's multiblocks in the mods but easier because the bulk of the 'multyblock' can be anything the artist desires.

I like the foundry and 3D printer but can we have a second incarnation of both and storage. These would be attached to a voxel build creating a bigger version with slightly faster operation. This would allow the building of foundries, factories and storage bays and silos that look impressively industrial and make great places for a fire fight. Most would be purely decorative. I noticed that the forge and other machines in landmark often got hidden in such bigger builds but were never really optimised for that function. It may need a forge input, the end of that mesh cropped off and made a little larger. Production bonus depending the number of solid voxels in the volume xyz1 to xyz 2 behind it. A few molten metal voxel types would be an optional extra. A printer Scaled up Shorted with the option to put more in a row as a special effect. I.e they all seem to run if 'connected' as above. A cargo input element that expands it's storage depending the number of solid voxels in the volume xyz1 to xyz 2 behind it. No need to change the fluid storage it looks industrial enough. Think minecraft's multiblocks in the mods but easier because the bulk of the 'multiblock' can be anything the artist desires.