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Defunct Probes


ATMLVE

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The developers have said they don't want to make pre-made content. This makes sense because in the lore, humanity has spread far across the stars and of course, where they're going, there's no one and nothing there. The game is supposed to be about players rebuilding everything from scratch, and so the lore and game mechanics tie together perfectly (as they should, obviously).

 

But according to the lore, Arkship technology was developed about a century before the ships were actually completed. This technology most likely includes the propulsion technology. Someone surely must've used that tech to launch some probes out into the galaxy to aid the search for potentially habitable planets; I mean just think about it. That totally would've happened. Humanity needs a new home, so before we finish these massive starships capable of housing millions of inhabitants for thousands of years, run by AI and made of magic material, why not send out a couple probes to see if we can find a good direction to launch them in?

 

I think it would add not only some interest to the exploration side of the game, but also possibly the lore, if it was possible to find probes out in Dual Universe. Old satellites that are no longer functioning, but from which minorly valuable rewards could be obtained. Before you persecute me for suggesting pre-made content, remember that it not only fits the lore but could actually improve it, and it really doesn't take any of the fun out of the whole "we are rebuilding civilization" aspect of the game.

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Here's another idea, what if you could "refurbish" them and in so doing, gain advanced technology? I don't mean to suggest that this could be done easily, it would take lots of resources, but organizations might have the ability. Also, if an organization successfully restores one, they gain access to the data it collected in its travels, like a map containing info about planets it passed on the way to where it was found. Info like inhabitability, ore content / type, planet size, etc.

 

Or you could just have that info be "harvestable" like a hard drive. No refurbishing required.

 

Just a thought.

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Here's another idea, what if you could "refurbish" them and in so doing, gain advanced technology? I don't mean to suggest that this could be done easily, it would take lots of resources, but organizations might have the ability. Also, if an organization successfully restores one, they gain access to the data it collected in its travels, like a map containing info about planets it passed on the way to where it was found. Info like inhabitability, ore content / type, planet size, etc.

 

Or you could just have that info be "harvestable" like a hard drive. No refurbishing required.

 

Just a thought.

 

Dude, I think those are awesome ideas. Info about planets is totally something useful and logical that would be inside one of these things. Awesome add-on idea, I like it a lot. Could be a skill incorporatable from another one, like hacking, so that the better your hacking skill is, the better the info you get out of it.

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Dude, I think those are awesome ideas. Info about planets is totally something useful and logical that would be inside one of these things. Awesome add-on idea, I like it a lot. Could be a skill incorporatable from another one, like hacking, so that the better your hacking skill is, the better the info you get out of it.

This could be a way to give out lore in a unique way.

Another idea would be that once a drone has been turned on and refurbished, you could do a scan for other drones, thus revealing more information

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For something like this that would pre-date launch, I think that such probes, if not harvestable of their useful information like AccuNut mentioned, would just be mere indestructible easter eggs floating in space or as a junk heap on a solid plateau of unmineable land on some planet. Perhaps said information could be 'read only' and contain an article of lore that anyone could read?

 

Of course, it'd be totally unrealistic and plain silly to be moving FTL, only to suddenly hear alarms go off about how some object penetrated numerous walls and doors from one end of your ship to the other. You then realize it was an indestructable probe about the size of what people used to call a "minivan", which didn't move an inch from it's resting place, even after all the god knows what you hit with it...

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If such probes where used, they would have been considered failures at the time the arkships were launched.  Using the same propulsion, they could not exceed the speed of light.  That would also be the limit for the speed of any information they sent back.  To anyone on Earth, they would searched at most about fifty light-years away and it appears any suitable planets are much farther away.

 

Of course, the probes still could have been launched, since no one would know what they would or would not find.  Once they were sent out, they would keep going, even after the Earth was destroyed, so there could be some near the arkship's destination.

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Well they could have been sent in the general directions the Arkships were being sent, with the intent of broadcasting their finds to the Arkships. But anyway, the Arkships got pretty far in 10,000 years, whos to say the probes didn't get farther?

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However much I like the idea, I do not believe Novaquark will bite on this idea. While this will help the players going about settling planets and what not, it would just make it easier for players to settle new planets, which means they have to create new planets. The reason Novaquark makes it that it takes so long to travel to new systems and stuff, is that it allows them to have enough time to make whatever system you wish to go in, and even if its game-generated, they still have time to get more space for all the data that will be required in that planet and what not. So while it is possible for such a "satellite" I honestly can't see it in the immediate future as the Novaquark team already told us the only thing they would be providing is some temporary npc's to get the economy started, and the arkships. 

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Plus, i would assume the arkships have enough advanced technology to not need to send probes ahead of them to find stuff, but just have the arkship AI sensors do it itself. and if probes would have been sent out, they wouldnt need to hold sensitive info such as blueprints or history.

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I think what is being discussed isn't that it would contain blueprints, but rather info it has gained during its voyage. Planetary scans, planet locations, etc.

 

Yes, the Arkship has extremely advanced scanners, but they can't scan planets 80,000+ lightyears away. The idea is that the probes were sent many years before​ the Arkship was launched in order to find a suitable landing planet in a distant universe, sending back its data via super-advanced communication systems.

Or, maybe they just reach the intended target area and gather data so that when the Arkship arrives within communication range, the probes can feed it their data, and let the Arkship computers decide which planet is the most suitable based on the data received.

 

Either way, it would stand to reason that after enough time has passed, they would get damaged, run out of power, or get otherwise robbed of the ability to function.

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