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Player Experiences and Feedback


Primate

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I'm a fan of space games (played Elite Dangerous MMO for over two years now and, personally, think the devs are passionate about the game and care what the players think). I have been looking at Dual Universe (DU) with interest, but have yet to become a backer.

 

My review of the DU website (including this forum) leaves me with mixed feelings, although I would be the first to admit that I know very little about DU. The concept art and trailers look great, but there are some elements that cause me to hesitate getting behind the game. For example:

 

  • I was underwhelmed by the pledge packages. They didn't seem of great value and are a tad expensive, particularly for alpha access.
  • The subscription model is a disincentive (although it could be OK if gameplay is engaging and the DAC system works).
  • Live game play appears to be limited ATM (i.e. server time is scheduled for short periods).
  • The "tone" of the developers was upbeat, but seemed a bit stand-offish when talking about T & C's and NDA issues. Even the pre approval of posts on the forum suggests some lack of confidence or resistance to player views (but then again you may think it fair).

 

This is not trolling, just my first blush impression based on limited information. DU could be as good or even better than other MMO's. The reason for this thread is to get your comments and feedback as players. All I ask is straight up no BS feedback, good or bad. Why should a "noob" play DU and become part of the DU community? Its a commitment in money and time after all. What do you think about the game content and mechanics so far,  development progress, dev commitment and communication to players (thumbs up or down)  and of course what is the player community like.

 

As the actual players, your thoughts as players count and will help others like me. And need I say, keep it nice please as all opinions are legitimate. :)  

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Hi Primate and welcome on the official Dual Universe forum.

 

- The need of approval for your first post by a Moderator or a Community Manager has nothing to do with NDA.

You need to be approved once. After that, you won't need anymore validation.

Why resorting to such measure? Captcha systems gave mixed efficiency results to prevent spam accounts to spawn on the forum.

As we had Korean and Chinese, as well as English spam accounts on the forum in the past, this is the most efficient way to block them before they start polluting the forum (you would be surprised to see how many we have removed so far that never became visible to the Community ;)

 

- You might think that current Supporter Packs are underwhelming. That's totally your right.

Sure, there are a lot less attractive than our previous Kickstarter Founder Packs, but they remain worth it in terms of value: their price alone is approximatively the total value of the number of DACs (tokens for months of playtime) included in it. That means that everything else if given for free (while cosmetics items - pets, outfits, skins and decorative Elements - have also a significant value too). The value of Pre-Alpha access is not even taken into account as we consider it a "bonus perk" for those who want to support the game beyond just buying it to play. As mentioned in the disclaimer of the Patron Pack, Pre-Alpha is not meant for those who want an immediate fun experience, as the game is not yet at this stage. Pre-Alpha is meant for those who really want to help us tracking bugs and give feedback on every aspect of the game in its current state. In any case, just wanting to play the game and have fun is perfectly understandable, it's just it's not the right time for that yet, and that's why we won't encourage players to aim for a patron pack if they're not interested in this early phase.

 

- Live gameplay is limited for the time being indeed. 

That's pretty common in this early stage, especially for a MMORPG.

Again, if you prefer to play when the server will be up permanently, Pre-Alpha may not be the phase you want to join, and that's totally understandable.

 

- Subscription model is necessary. Server architecture to host the whole community in the same universe (no instances) and Quality Support cost a lot.

As this kind of cost can be, in a certain measure, proportional to the amount of players, it would make no sense to go Free-to-Play and even Buy-to-Play could be a risky move.

Hence, Subscription model is the most logical choice.

 

Best Regards,

Nyzaltar.

 

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First off Welcome to the Forums!!! Far as the community is concerned(i obv cant speak for everyone) i think its safe to say the vast majority of us are happy with the transparency so far. DU isnt for everyone and there are games that do similar things....but nothing at the scale of DU is aiming for. I would suggest joining us in the unofficial DU discord where you can talk more with the community and find out more of the game and community so far.

 

http://dualuniverse.chat/

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16 hours ago, Primate said:

What do you think about the game content and mechanics so far,  development progress, dev commitment and communication to players (thumbs up or down)  and of course what is the player community like.

Greetings Primate and welcome to the forums! :D

 

As far as the content and mechanics go, I can't speak of anything explicitly due to the NDA on pre-alpha testers (it should be coming to an end soon, my golly-god) but if you check out their youtube channel, you can be the judge of things from there. Without going too deep, you can probably tell from that we have a solid foundation to work from. More exciting things will come out later in the future stages past pre-alpha up to release, and that's where the fun truly begins.

 

Heck, if you're looking for fun, check out the organizations that are active and mix it up with them!

 

Development progress, if you look at the kickstarter and expectations there, you can see that we're behind. Is it really any surprise? Can't say much more, but you know the saying, slow and steady wins the race.

 

NovaQuark is an awesome team that I believe is very committed and quite forthright in their communication with the community when the community needs to know. It's something which is tons more than I can say in one sentence compared to some other development teams I've seen. That's quite a shame really, when I love a game I tend to stick with it for a long time, seeing my passion and enthusiasm not reflected by the people at the helm is disheartening and has pushed me away from at least one game thus far.

 

 

The community itself is six different flavors of awesome. Sure, we have our share of more... eccentric individuals, but those are far and few in-between. 

 

If you'd like to get to know the game and community better, I'd suggest joining that discord mentioned above!

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Welcome Primate

 

I don't have access to the Pre-Alpha, however, everything Iv'e seen/read/heard gives me great optimism for the game as it develops. Definitely a game to watch, and if its your cup of tea, well worth purchasing a supporter pack - which is what I did this week. In fact it's the only game I've ever supported in this way. Naturally thats up to you to decide if its something you may like to do, but for me it was the right decision.

 

Hope this little feedback helps :)

 

 

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I'm always surprised when people think it's odd that an MMO asks for subscription. There are numerous benefits to sub a service you, as player, expect to work 24/7 as is.

Benefits, such as:

> an actual professional customer service

> ingame GMs

> decent servers

> constant updating and adding new content.

> Less chance of spammers, griefers, bots and the like.

 

People are spoiled by Steam and likewise services. They see the swat of money DU has garnered, but don't realize how fast that money dries up. Especially with an ambitious project like this.

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I have to say, the supporter packs are of GREAT value.  Would snatch another pack up if I could.  *cough* NQ *cough* please?

 

There’s a great development team behind this game.  It’s really impossible to refute that haha.  Everything they do is keeping their original supporters in mind, as well as the soul of their game.  It’s really refreshing when you consider all the other teams out there 

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21 hours ago, Primate said:

What do you think about the game content and mechanics so far,  development progress, dev commitment and communication to players (thumbs up or down)  and of course what is the player community like.

The game content and mechanics are everything I expected based on the information NQ released in the past. The development progress is slow, but I expected that after following other MMOs. The dev relationship with players is better than average in my experience, and communication has gotten better and more frequent lately. At this stage most of the community are backers and passionate about the game, generally good. After release I'd expect it to evolve into something similar to eve-online's community, for better or worse.

 

I played Elite Dangerous for a while. It was fun but I didn't get the feeling that I was playing an MMO, it was mostly NPCs and content generated by the devs. That's why I'm interested in DU, everything is created by the players.

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15 minutes ago, Haunty said:

The game content and mechanics are everything I expected based on the information NQ released in the past. The development progress is slow, but I expected that after following other MMOs. The dev relationship with players is better than average in my experience, and communication has gotten better and more frequent lately. At this stage most of the community are backers and passionate about the game, generally good. After release I'd expect it to evolve into something similar to eve-online's community, for better or worse.

 

I played Elite Dangerous for a while. It was fun but I didn't get the feeling that I was playing an MMO, it was mostly NPCs and content generated by the devs. That's why I'm interested in DU, everything is created by the players.

This is a very insightful post, OP. I mean very. The writing is very much on the wall for those with eyes to see.

 

As for your post OP, it barely registers a ripple. Some posts like the above, the few words they use the more you know that lies behind them. Other posts like yours the words they use, the less you know lies behind them. You're lucky to get such a high class reply as above, far more than is merited. Perhaps they mispelled their uname as "Haughty".

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1 hour ago, MookMcMook said:

This is a very insightful post, OP. I mean very. The writing is very much on the wall for those with eyes to see.

 

As for your post OP, it barely registers a ripple. Some posts like the above, the few words they use the more you know that lies behind them. Other posts like yours the words they use, the less you know lies behind them. You're lucky to get such a high class reply as above, far more than is merited. Perhaps they mispelled their uname as "Haughty".

I'm not sure I've understood your point, but the OP is intended to help me (and maybe others) decide whether to commit money and time to DU. The opinions of existing players' are important and I agree the replies  have been informative and helpful.  

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37 minutes ago, Primate said:

I'm not sure I've understood your point, but the OP is intended to help me (and maybe others) decide whether to commit money and time to DU. The opinions of existing players' are important and I agree the replies  have been informative and helpful.  

I thought they were all valid concerns, especially coming from some other development studios.  I sincerely hope you stick around and just watch NQ work, and how they handle the community.  

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