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Eyes & Ears - Search And Rescue


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Weekly Update - December 16th

 

Four rescues were made during the past test, that makes 31 rescues for Alpha 2 and 45 overall.

 

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@maxamized started out strong and notched his first rescue early Friday morning by running some scrap out to @Reaper07 on Alioth.

 

@Dr Rhubarb also scored their first rescue after 283 days in the organization. A lack of being in the right place at the right time both in-game and in real life made his first rescue so elusive. Nonetheless, he was able to aid @Context with what our logs say is a "full ship repair". Not sure how big, but I hope the service was appreciated!

 

Haunty came to @Erquilenne's aid on Sicari with a resupply of fuel on Sicari.

 

Finally, maxamized rounded out the rescues this period with another fuel run to @TheMaGoth on Alioth.

 

The first three rescues were notably in a span of only six hours, more or less with me being totally stuck at work thanks to a change in scheduling. I will say that I was quite happy to turn up during my lunch hour to see the team had handled themselves well during my absence. While this is more or less all individual work, I hope that this is a trend that can continue into the future as the organization and team grows and develops.

 

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This is another short and frank update since it's late in the day for me and I wasn't able to attend testing over the weekend due to some conflicts between my old and new hardware (think it's RAM), hopefully that will be resolved soon though!

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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  • 2 weeks later...

50 Rescues - Weekly Update - December 30th - 2019

 

8 rescues were made over the past eleven days since holiday testing began on the 19th. That makes 39 rescues since Alpha 2 started, and 53 rescues since Alpha 1.

 

QXTVgc.jpg

 

We hit our late goal of rounding out 2019 with 50 recorded rescues which, in my opinion, is pretty darn incredible. We're only a small team of do-gooders helping people out in the testing phase. Having come this far off of people getting stuck out in deep space, burning up on re-entry (haven't had a lot of these rescues surprisingly), or simply being re-spawned somewhere they shouldn't have and needing a lift to more familiar territory.

 

For the most part, these random or unexpected accidents are just a small start. I think after PVP comes out we'll be seeing a lot more requests for assistance. Don't worry folks, we'll be there.  ;)

 

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As for rescues, @Armedwithwings was our first rescue of the test by Haunty with a simple pickup on Alioth and a return to their base and a lock on rescue 46.

 

I would take care of rescues 47 and 48.  A recently placed structure at a NQ designated respawn point proved useful when @ilodev sent out a call for help. I flew over and we were just about to take off again when @RJ respawned as well. After hearing their stories about how they were both doing their respective thing before a bug got in the way of their activities and respawned them, I dropped both off at their desired points on Alioth. Rok would pick up @Brahmnz the very next day at the same spot.

 

Ardes provided @BaileyVandenbroek with some fuel and building advice. No doubt it proved useful and scored rescue 50.

 

On Christmas day Ardes would meet up with @Jack_Blade who crashed underwater. Sounds like someones soft water landing didn't go as expected, luckily Christmas miracles do come true.

 

While on Symeon, Rok assisted @vihalvor with a repair and rescue 52.

 

Finally, rescue 53 happened out in space near Symeon where Rok supplied @Protius with some fuel and netted rescue 53.

 

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No major updates on my end. My new hardware didn't exactly play nice in the days after the previous update. Without boring you with the detail, everything culminated in the corruption of about 2 terabytes worth of video recordings I've done of my testing since alpha 1. I'm recovering what I can but I'll just try and be positive and think it no big loss.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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1 hour ago, DarkHorizon said:

 

 

On Christmas day Ardes would meet up with @Jack_Blade who crashed underwater. Sounds like someones soft water landing didn't go as expected, luckily Christmas miracles do come true.

 

Saved my ass, excellent services, quick response and great rescue pilot in Ardes, 10/10 would crash again just for the quality treatment!

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6 hours ago, Waffle Boy said:

Are you guys hiring?

Yes, as a matter of fact we're always hiring. If you're looking to join, feel free to scroll through the positions we have currently available, then both fill out the google forum in the description tab on the community site, and submit an application.  :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Weekly Update - January 13th - 2020

Three rescues were made this test, that's 42 rescues for Alpha 2 and 56 rescues overall.

 

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On Friday evening I had heard a distress call from @Driktheviking who, for real life reasons, ran out of fuel on their trip to Sinnen. Lucky for them, I was active on the DU Discord and saw their message. While I hadn't decided to participate in the test (sacrilege, I know!) due to other DU related activities, this proved to be just the push needed. With the rest of the team either offline, not responding, or not as close as I was, I decided to set out with fuel on hand. Having gone to bed earlier in Europe, and nearing Midnight in middle America, I flew the entire way and refueled Dirk's tanks before retiring myself for the night, and considered rescue 54 a lock.

 

Rescue 55 proved a bit interesting where various problems had presented themselves throughout the process.

 

Respawning the day after at the north pole of Alioth, @Melvin requested a rescue to return him to one of his constructs floating up in space. Since this construct was still whiten Alioths gravity, this presented a minor technical problem which required a retrofitting of the rescue craft being used thanks to me committing a mathematical rounding error. We landed back at base to refit and this is where problems started occurring. I won't go into any detail about these issues in particular, but it was enough for Melvin to summon a squad-mate of theirs to pick them up.

 

After a bit of bug testing by all three of us, I had a small list of things to submit to support by the tests end.

 

Haunty set out from Alioth to assist @Develon who ended up stuck in space a little over 100 SU from Alioth. Their refueling wrapped up rescue 56.

 

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Minor progress was made on the fuel transporter this go around, alpha 3 being most of the reasoning but my lack of creativity the other. Both side rows of fuel tanks have been removed since I don't yet know how I want to integrate those into the construct. The more I think about it the more I'm considering splitting this construct up into a handful of different types.

 

The smallest variant retains only the bridge and top level small construct bay. It's purpose simply being the transport of the smaller construct and a minor contingent of crew.

 

The second variant, which I have currently reverted to, is a compressed version of the fuel transport I initially intended to design. Capable of carrying half the fuel of the extended version, this is a lighter dual purpose craft made to serve multiple light to a single medium craft. Since this variant still features the small construct bay up top, an alternate will also be created which either removes this bay outright (and henceforth becomes the first outlined variant above), or serves as additional fuel storage.

 

The expanded version I initially intended to create, again, doubles the fuel storage of the compacted variant and is intended to serve small fleets or a light warship.

 

I think further major work will be put on hold until Alpha 3 comes out, which I'm being led to believe shouldn't be long now.

 

For the time being, all that's really being done is adding elements, I'm fairly content with the hull design as is and don't anticipate too many changes going forward for now. The bridge looks plain yet modest, all it needs now is coloring, a bit of fancy Lua and some more buttons to press, a lot more!

 

Now, if I was allowed to publicly say what I thought the future held, this would probably be a bit longer, but since I'm not sure if I'm allowed to discuss such, I'll just leave it off the table until then. You'll probably get further details news once more Alpha 3 news is publicly available.

 

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That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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  • 5 weeks later...

How you plan to react when 1st wave of new players will go to space at 1st time during official game release? For lots of guys something will go wrong at pretty much same time. E and E will likely be competrly overhelmed by those massed sos signals.

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1 hour ago, le_souriceau said:

How you plan to react when 1st wave of new players will go to space at 1st time during official game release? For lots of guys something will go wrong at pretty much same time. E and E will likely be competrly overhelmed by those massed sos signals.

Thanks for the question, indeed, that's very much a scenario that twenty people may not be able to take on in a timely manner. If it ever got that bad then we would more than likely reach out to our affiliates who are working with us to see if they can lend a direct hand in an unofficial logistical capacity. If such can't be achieved, then we'd stagger our resources with community assistance and assign unique IOU's to non-members that assist us which we will seek to return at the next available opportunity should they request it. Why we choose this option is to negate the need to return to restock on supplies (if possible) if we run out in our on-board storage. Not only does it allow for more timely assistance, but it also gets more people involved in a community directed force for the benefit of all.

 

If worse really does come to worst and the outside assistance gets no outside assistance of its own, then people will simply need to wait. Since our objective is to get people up and running to a satisfactory degree so they can get someplace where they can properly repair themselves (especially for the larger vessels), we can't do that without the proper supplies, so why bother showing up empty handed? I hate telling people to hurry up and wait, but many will quickly come to realize that patience is a virtue.

 

Of course, I fully expect more people to be interested in joining this team between now and the next year and a ~half when release comes, so having more hands on deck will most certainly lighten the individual load we all feel. Twenty people is already a fair lot of people in my mind, but when you consider the fact that organizations will probably be the first major wave that goes up and that they'll be looking after their own while the lone stragglers come up a fair bit later. By then I'm confident that Eyes & Ears will have the required infrastructure in place to handle the volume in a reasonable manner.

 

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Oh, and for those of you wondering where the updates have been. I haven't been feeling the desire to report on three hour tests and have instead opted to wait for more lengthy tests before bringing you all up to speed again. You won't be waiting long, this upcoming test is slated for 96 hours so an update will be coming sooner than you think!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Weekly Update - March 3rd - 2020

Due to illness and transplanting my desktop into a new case, I haven't exactly been on par with my usual post-updates so lets catch up a little bit!

 

The only rescues made between January 13th and the start of this most recent test would have been included in a February 8th update. All other tests were either too short due to the deployment of Alpha 3 and did not merit an update due to their lack of content, or NovaQuark had simply scheduled the weekend off.

 

The first four rescues of Alpha 3 were made during a 48 hour February test. That's 60 rescues overall.

Eleven rescues were made over the recent 11 day test, that's 15 rescues for Alpha 3 and 71 rescues overall.

 

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With the introduction of Alpha 3 and all the changes it brought along, to say that there weren't at least a few stuck people would have been an understatement. While some were picked up by friends, I was able to assist two players who had the unfortunate luck of respawning at the default debugging location North Pole on Alioth. With my branded E&E rescue craft out of order due to coding (I'll touch on this later) I jumped into my modified speeder while people were picking themselves up at the districts.

 

@Hyro was the first to call in which prompted the trip. Upon landing in that location I decided to do some quick landscaping to return things to a pre-Alpha-3 state. In this time a few more people spawned in but most were able to be picked up by friends or were able to utilize testing tools to get them out of their predicaments. With no one else spawning in after a short wait, I dropped them off at their base and rescue 57 was locked.

 

@Wyndle was stuck up in the space above Alioth and needed a resupply of fuel. I don't know what happened afterwards but they said that less than a quarter tank of fuel would satisfy their ability to get back to the surface. I didn't receive any calls afterwards so I assume they landed safely!

 

@maxamized would assist @RJ on Alioth with a fuel resupply and score rescue 59.

 

@Flamm netted rescue 60. @WhiteMEat sure does seem to get in a lot of trouble, with three recorded rescues in our logs, they've currently secured the number one spot for most times rescued. :P

Looking at the logs, fuel and scrap were delivered. Was this another bad re-entry or did you crash into a tree?

 

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The 11 day "super test" as it's been called was a fairly active test for some of Eyes & Ears members. Props to the following members for their activities:

@Ardes - 5 rescues

@VirtualFPV - 4 rescues - Congrats on your first rescues :confetti_ball:

@Akropolis112 - 1 rescue - Congrats on your first rescue :confetti_ball:

@Flamm - 1 rescue

 

@Fechi92 also provided us with some feedback on our Stats & Stories page, here's what they had to say:

Quote

On the way to Madis, I ran out of space fuel after 50 SU. Shortly after asking for help on the official Dual Universe Disocrd Server, I got a private message from Ardescar!

He provided me with 800L of Kergon and now I can, thanks to his help, get back to Alioth and prepare for my next spaceflught that I have enough fuel with me. :D

The service of Eyes & Ears is really great, very reliable support.

 

- fechi92
Rescue 69

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So... about those code issues I had mentioned earlier... Don't count on the game holding your info, save it to a file on your local drive. Unfortunately when I upgraded from an Intel 67k to an AMD 37x plus a new motherboard, all my drives corrupted. All my DU replays that I like to look back fondly on, even from the very first tests, those were salvageable for the most part. Of video data specifically, I think about 200gb was lost alongside... 50gb of other data; desktop items, youtube videos, music, pictures, games.

 

As it would turn out, the X570 Aorus Pro Wifi motherboard when paired with a Ryzen 3700x CPU, was a bad combination. I think it was a Hardware Unboxed video I saw on youtube that had mentioned this irregularity. My issue specifically was a chipset driver that refused to play nice. No other CPU / board combo had any issues so consistently, just this pair. 

 

Alpha 3 rolls around and I'm messing around with my code and getting ready to tear down my ship so I can rework everything since it was no longer flyable. I cut the code from the game into a file on notepad, cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste, and I'm done in about three minutes. I'm cleaning and organizing the file when a hard shutdown suddenly occurs. I hadn't saved the file and its no longer in the game.

 

Aww shit, here we go again.

 

There wasn't a recovery file so there went my saving grace.

 

While looking through my replays, I saw snippets of code so I'll be going back over those videos to see what I can retrieve sometime between now and the next test. I think next time I'll be saving that sort of stuff in a cloud document...  <_<

 

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No in-game updates from me since I was pretty much out of action for the entire super test while I was installing my new motherboard, then transplanting all of that into a new case.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Very pleasing to read! This kinda powering up my faith in humanity every time. This is right thing to do.

 

If stars align right, one day I will be building city and I was thinking to make some sort of little "supply depot" and offer it for your organization to use.  Here reserves of fuel and repair parts will be stored an maintained by city for your guys to resupply during emergency (if such need arise). 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Weekly Update - March 30th - 2020

 

With the current global outbreak going on, the four day test that started on the 19th of March was extended into an eleven-day test to help testers cope with being stuck in their homes. We'd like to thank the team at NovaQuark (who is now working remotely) for making this happen.

 

A/N: A prior test slated for March 12th was canceled due to server issues, see the afore linked news article for details.

 

Fourteen rescues were performed during the course of this test. This brings us to 29 rescues for Alpha 3, and 85 rescues overall.

 

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My fingers and wrists hurt from all the playtime so here's a handful of the rescues that happened:

 

72: @Shakini was the first rescue of the test, they ended up crashing on Alioth and needed assistance in getting back to a friend.

 

73: On multi-hour journeys between planets, some players like to AFK, be it doing some chores, taking a nap, or even sleeping overnight. @Sinister was AFK on their way to Teoma and I forget if they were sleeping or got held up, but they ended up overshooting the planet by 267 SU. Without enough fuel to get up to a reasonable speed, Spiridon flew out to resupply them.

 

75: @LosNopales crashed on Teoma and had an accident with their resurrection node so they were respawned back on Alioth. Unable to get back into space, I flew out to pick them up and fly them to another one of their constructs in space near Teoma.

 

80: @enderfish crashed a ship on Symeon and respawned back on Alioth but was stuck without fuel. Haunty assisted them with their fuel needs before they flew off to Symeon in another ship for a second attempt.

 

84: @Assar246 also had some trouble with their resurrection node. I picked them up and flew them to their outpost on Alioth where a friend was waiting. On the way there we discussed how they got into that situation (as I do with every rescue so I can describe it for all of you here :D ) and they had mentioned crashing one of their constructs while going in for a landing at their outpost. The structure they're building was mostly scaffolding that didn't appear until it was too late to take evasive action.

 

We landed and I ran around for a while, somewhat impressed with the amount of industry these two players had set up. Lots of time mining I bet, or just working with a certain organization I don't remember being mentioned, most likely the latter if I recall correctly. If its the former, I commend them, that's gumption.

 

After being assured everything was under control, I bid them safe flying and was about to fly off when, you guessed it. I clipped a corner of their construct, spun out, and did a controlled crash. I wasn't high nor fast so everything was fine. I was sure to fly around and not over the second time around.

 

Also, a big welcome to @RulerOfCats, a new rescuer and programmer. 

 

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Sadly, I don't have much to say on my personal activities this go-around. Half of the time was spent waiting on the Empire's bureaucracy while the other half was spent playing hurry up and wait on industry. With the cleansing of static constructs, the previous base for Eyes & Ears among them, I'm taking this opportunity to start anew.

 

With the Alpha 2 version looking more like an outpost, with storage for one medium and one small construct along with various human amenities. At the bottom was an all business storage room, nothing special. One floor up was an employee lounge with cooking facilities, a table for six, lockers for ten, beds for two, and a small entertainment area with a fully fledged bathroom facility. The dispatch center was right above which could be manned by four people to manage incoming calls and keep track of ongoing missions and rescuer locations.

 

Finally the top floor featured the directors room which I made to feel more like that corner office every new intern wants. Fancy desk, fancy chairs, big screen tv, comfy couch, a rug, a couple of plants, and a wood floor. In front of the desk along the outer wall were windows offering a view of the marketplace where I watched many players take off and land from. Behind the desk was another set of windows which offered a lookout at the garage space below with a... I'm watching over you sort of vibe.  ?

 

I had hosted two in-game meetings in this room and utilized several in-game elements for some visual displays while we spoke over in our Discord server. The first meeting back in October had some great in-game participation. While some players were too far to attend, I think at least four players were local in our morning session while only two were local in the afternoon session. In these meetings we discussed a few ideas,  one chiefly among them, was how to go about a few features and changes to our website.

 

To make these meetings worth peoples while, I go into them with an itinerary of questions and things I'd like to discuss. Partly so I know what to talk about, partly because I hated school presentations in front of the class, never did like that.

 

The Alpha 3 base will be created in the Empire's new city, Aevitas, and built upon three cores. The basic design is going off an idea someone else bestowed and I'll make a few edits where I think necessary. For those of you that remember that black cube back at District one, well, I'll try a little harder this time.

 

I'm still in the initial phases, haven't even laid the cores down. Is your organization creating a city? Perhaps I can be swayed elsewhere, feel free to PM me (Discord works best, find me in the official DU server) and we can discuss things. ?

 

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We're only 15 rescues away from 100. I should probably look for a picture to post like I did for 50...

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Weekly Update - April 6th - 2020

 

Seven rescues were performed during this test, that's 36 rescues for Alpha 3, and 92 overall.

 

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With some of the more formal details laid out, initial progress for the new base was sporadic, but lets get through some of those rescues first!

 

Ardes started after @Rabbyte who was flying towards Teoma and in need of some space fuel. With a bit of work, they tried to make things happen at 6,000 km/h but things proved too difficult so they ended up stopping to make the transfer for rescue 86. Perhaps taking a friend will help next time?

 

I had put in a little work for rescues 88 and 89 transporting @emoticomp and @facemywrath to their wrecked ships, the former of which went splat on Moon 1 on their first journey out into space. The latter meanwhile burned up while trying to leave the atmosphere. Friction burns are no fun, so remember to keep a reasonable speed until you get into space.

 

Spiridon meanwhile flew 80 SU from Lacobus to help a Novean with another empty space tank to cap rescue 91.

 

Finally, a big welcome to our newest members!

@WolfPilot - Dispatch, Rescuer, Dedicated Pilot

@LosNopales - Rescuer

 

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As previously mentioned, the initial ground work for our Alpha 3 base has just wrapped up with the conclusion of this test. Most needed industrial units have been created and the cores are all in place, you could say that we've done groundbreaking and emptied that first shovel of dirt.

 

Since most of my activities were spent between industry, core alignment, and even a few rescues, my activity is again fairly thin in detail.

 

With the new base ready to take shape, I've started thinking about Eyes & Ears next meeting. The main topic of discussion will be in regards to the current 911 communication system we have set up and have been working with since the organizations founding.

 

As I'm sure many testers know about it, but for everyone that walks away from the marketplaces, I'm sure you've seen a few organizations advertisement boards. Some of them are complex and give you lots of information, but ours is just a simple screen telling people how /join 911 works if you ever need help, and how to join our Discord server.

 

Since we're not always paying attention to global chat or even discord, the 911 chat gives players a focused space to go if they ever need crash or run out of fuel (or any litany of problems that don't need a game mod) and need direct support from players willing to help.

 

With the way things are currently set up, however, our attention isn't always focused on that channel. Our members are members of other organizations, we're doing other things, so we might not always know when a problem comes up. This is unacceptable.

 

When the appropriate time comes, I'll create a thread for community discussion and have a meeting with the rest of the team on this topic. Depending on what NovaQuark does in the future, this may not even be needed, but for now it seems like a good stopgap measure. More details on that later.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Weekly Update - April 13th - 2020

 

Four rescues this weekend makes 40 rescues for Alpha 3, and 96 overall.

 

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After a quiet first day, @CesareBorgia and a friend found themselves stuck on a planet without a ship after a series of mishaps for these new stellar explorers. It started with a trip to Madis that ended in a crash. One friend went to get the other, and they crashed again on Thades during their return trip home. Regardless of their streak of bad luck, I was available to fly them both to Thades, gave them a few tips on landing, and even utilized the orbit mechanics to show off the destructive beauty that is the ringed planet.

 

Saturday was also quiet, until late in the day when @DeVuono accidentally respawned on Alioth and needed a quick flight up to lunar orbit where their ship was waiting for them.

 

On Sunday, Haunty assisted @IEYESI and @SirRichardTheFirst on separate trips to their crashed constructs on Alioth and Madis.

 

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Spoiler

tenor.gif

 

Concrete is the bane of my existence currently. I won't go into explicit detail why since it's probably covered by NDA, but if you have concrete building material, then you have my attention.

 

This material is forming the foundation that the structure will be built upon, and with a few kind donations from some of the organizations members, we're about 55% of the way done with the first core. I don't know what this says about the future, but lets just say that I'm not all that interested in the industrial segment as much as I was in Alpha 2.

 

Nothing too interesting happened between the mining and crafting while the rescuing provided the only breaks I had in the process. Evidently, it's getting more difficult as far as time is involved. The (industrial) process itself is largely still the same motions, its the time and effort being put into those motions that's starting to drive my boredom with my whole endeavor. Don't let this dissuade anyone from the single player aspect, but what was a day long job so to speak, well, not so anymore.

 

It got me thinking about release, and finally having more people to fill those unwanted roles that I don't want to fill myself. I already have my niche, how about you?

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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  • 2 weeks later...

Weekly Update - April 27th - 2020

 

This most recent 264 hour test only had 5 rescues made, that's 45 rescues for Alpha 3 and 101 overall.

 

100.png

 

On April 20th Eyes & Ears secured its 100th official rescue. A big thanks to the team that made this happen alongside our entire community of supporters. The time it took for us to net our first 50 rescues was over 8 months, now the latest set of 50 rescues has come in just under 4 months. This is nothing but good news as we await the further development of the game. I'm looking forward to our next achievement which I am forecasting to occur sometime during the Beta phases based on this current data.

 

Looking back however, I harbor a tinge of disappointment since in the intervening time between our 50th and 100th rescue, we've not had a single PVP related rescue. Of course, in the testing environment there are a number of ways and means which make our assistance unnecessary which made this not entirely unexpected. Aside from this, I've only heard of the more devout players engaging in PVP related testing which says to me that a very minuscule percentage of players are engaging each other in combat. As we continue down the path of development I expect our work to increase accordingly.

 

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@Flamm netted the 100th rescue when a Novean crashed on Thades, respawned on Alioth, and needed help getting back to their wreck. Nothing spectacular, we've done it less than a hundred times, and we're looking forward to doing it a hundred more!

 

I've noticed a bit of a theme regarding many of our rescues on Thades. It's that the ground always comes up faster than expected. The current diversity of planets makes me hope that NovaQuark has atmospheric phenomena in mind as that will also add to the challenge that is landing on strange planets. I would advise all travelers seek knowledge about the planet they hope to land on before they try and land. Knowledge is power, and your greatest resource to that end is your fellow testers and players.

 

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With a pair of recently announced wipes of the test environment made at the onset of this test, I didn't put in a lot of work in considering how long the the servers were online. While I worked mostly on smaller projects, a majority of my time was dedicated to organization related activity outside the test.

 

Our Discord server saw a few changes and some fresh faces.

 

The main change that was made was the addition of an On Call role that rescuers can freely apply to themselves should they wish to be pinged for every rescue that comes in. I hope that this takes at least some of the weight off of rescuers that are in direct vicinity should they be unable to.

 

Other changes include a non-member #guest-nda channel for non-organization members with NDA access. Additionally, some helpful content under the Welcome to E&E section has been made available for members, non-members, and future members alike. This is meant to smoothen out a potential new members introduction to Eyes & Ears with instructions on the application process and more in-depth details and processes on what each member role does. Much of my offline work will be focusing on adding more member roles and content to this section in the time to come.

 

As for those new members I mentioned earlier, welcome to the team the following players:

@Endstar - Rescuer

@Rastaban - Rescuer, Pilot, Programmer

 

Also, a warm welcome to our newest affiliate:

@Metric and the organization - Cobra Tec

They will be assisting us with market information in Dual Universe with a project that is currently in its beta. Feel free to contact them for more details.

 

We're happy to welcome our new members and affiliates to the team and are eager to see all they bring to the table!

 

Finally, Eyes & Ears is lining up to present two of its members ships representing our organization at the Alioth Aerospace Expo which will be going from the 1st to the 3rd of May. I'm looking forward to seeing the communities works, I don't get out and sightseeing much, so this presents a welcome time to do so!

 

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That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Weekly Update - May 4th - 2020

 

Only one rescue was made this weekend, that's 46 rescues for alpha 3 and 102 overall.

 

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Ardescar assisted @Rudi0043 after they crashed on Thades, you can probably guess why.  ?

 

Outside of rescues, most of our focus this weekend was on the Alioth Areospace Expo! From what I've been told, it's a biannual in-game event that showcases all the creativity the community has to offer. After some of the team expressed interest we had decided that instead of setting up right on the showroom floor that we would create our own private showroom just off to the side. The construction process was complete in a day but it wasn't without its hurdles. 

 

For starters, everything was done on the fly without any pre-planning aside from a basic idea of what I wanted. Initially I thought we were just going to do what we did last year with a flat slab of land, but this years events proved more put together by the AAE which was why the showroom was suggested by one of the team. A structure with smaller craft on the inside on a presentation floor, and a larger construct displayed on the roof. Everyone involved brought along some basic materials to get us started and from there I was left building while the rest of the team flew back and forth to their respective outposts to gather needed materials on demand. Aside from a few symmetry errors early on, I'd say everything came together fairly well for the little time and effort that was put into it. I didn't get to do everything I wished but that was mostly all little details, in the end, everything looked presentable which was the ultimate purpose.

 

In all, five constructs were displayed by @Ardes, @Haunty, and @WolfPilot. A big thanks to all three of you for your presentations as well as the logistics work you did to make this a success for Eyes & Ears. Finally, credit and thanks to @Geo for hosting the event.

 

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Outside the game, a bit of diplomacy is being done. I'll be sure to update you on this hopefully after the next test which starts in 10 days from now. In the meantime, a scheduled wipe will be taking place so everyone will be starting fresh.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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  • 2 weeks later...

Weekly Update - May 18th - 2020

 

One rescue was made this test, that's 47 rescues for Alpha 3 and 103 overall!

 

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What happens when you spend one-million quanta on a ship, you crash it into the moon. This was the incident that one unfortunate Novean found themselves in this recent test. With no other way to get into space, Haunty came to the rescue with a quick late night assist in the flight and eventual repair. I personally was about to make the journey, but no sooner did I set the moons in my sights did I remember that I didn't have space engines. Luckily, another member of the team had the right tools for the job.

 

----------

 

If I had to summarize this test in a few words, I was very happy with the progress that was made.

 

Everything was reset, and I mean everything. With some pre-wipe planning and some last minute ideas, various members of Eyes & Ears swung into action so that by the end of two days of testing, we had all the necessary tools at hand to start crafting ships to get our rescue operations back to functional capacity. Haunty made a rescue on the third day and I went along with them to Thades for some resource gathering. On the fourth day, most of us from what I seen and didn't see in our Discord, opted to rest and individually brainstorm our creations for the next test session aside from giving one of our newest recruits a crash course in mining, inventory management, industry, building, and a bit of flying.

 

The next test, I anticipate a majority of the time will be spent deepening our crafting ability through the harvesting of resources from other worlds and constructing our ships.

 

----------

 

Welcome to the two newest members of our team!

@remdawg12 - Rescuer, Pilot

@outrun - Rescuer, Pilot

 

The diplomacy I mentioned in the last update is still ongoing. Things have been modestly slow on this front which have been mostly attributed to the offline reality. Work however is still progressing and a Lua project has even been taken up in the meantime.

 

If you lead or are in an organization that you think would make a great partner to Eyes & Ears, feel free to message me here or find me on the Official DU Discord, I'm everyone's favorite community mod (DH #2530).  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Weekly Update - June 1st - 2020

 

Two rescues were made this test, 49 for Alpha 3 and 105 overall!

 

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@Dr Rhubarb notched rescue 104 when @andysando had a run in on one of Alioths moons, with the moon itself! Always remember space brakes.

 

@eldrake scored their first rescue of @tdog2999 who left their construct behind on Thades while respawning on Alioth.

 

Welcome to the newest member of the team:

eldrake - Rescuer

 

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Most activity during this test was focused on gathering ore from other planets and getting some initial small constructs up and running. These objectives were by in large accomplished. Personally speaking, I'm constructing a new small construct and flight testing is under way. This new construct will be fairly lighter and shorter than the one testers probably recognize me in from Alpha 2. The major changes come in reduced fuel and personnel carrying capacity as well as a few less engines while ultimately achieving the same purpose. On paper, its bit more geared towards transporting people and less-so fuel and other general purposes while more than likely having a shorter range to boot. While I do miss my old flyer, Alpha 3 demands something new!

 

In the later half of testing I had witnessed some fairly aggressive advertising from one very particular organization while making a few stops at the markets. While Eyes & Ears advertises its services at these player hubs, this is done in such a manner and way where it's like a billboard on the side of the road. Visible, easy to see, hard to miss, and something you'll ultimately pass by sooner or later in your travel. The only divergence here is in size.

 

While I don't condemn the organization in question for this action, it's kicked off an idea that I've had in mind for a week now since the topic on aggressive advertising was first brought up on the forums. I'm currently talking with coders both inside and those partnered with Eyes & Ears on a potential remedy to this situation. If we move beyond the discussion stage and draft something up, I'll spill some more beans on my proposal.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Weekly Update - June 8th - 2020

 

One rescue was made over the course of two short tests, 50 for Alpha 3 and 106 overall!

 

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With the launch of the latest patch, @Haunty took off on a rescue in my stead when technical issues proved too difficult. @Rub3n213 was in need of assistance near Lacobus after running out of fuel while in space due to technical reasons of their own. All is well and good now right, we can notch another rescue on the belt, well hold tight. Here comes a server restart, and now they're out of fuel again.

 

Come Mondays scheduled short test, I gather up a few last minute things and just barely escape from Alioth in a new and untested construct. It became a race against time because without an extension, having to stop and start again, arrive at my destination, then restart again would prove to be a less than optimal choice. Not one that would leave me high and dry, just undesirable. I ended up making it to the scene, but the test ended in the middle of things so this second rescue wasn't truly completed.

 

We'll meet up again on Thursday in the early minutes to hours of the test to finalize things.

 

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Some initial progress is just starting to get made on coding a solution to the advertising problem I mentioned in the previous post. Still no details are ready to be made public but something is being worked on, and I'm eager to tell more about it when the time is right.

For those wondering, the 911 service is still running in the 911 channel in-game. If you crash, need fuel, or get lost in space, just enter into the chat /join 911. If you'd like to contact us through Discord (or we simply didn't respond in-game), then you're encouraged to join our server.

https://discord.gg/ETk5ubw

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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  • 1 month later...

Weekly Update - July 15 - 2020

 

The 822-hour super test (June 11th to July 15th) has finally wrapped up with 23 rescues being made throughout this test. This brings us to 73 for Alpha 3 and 129 rescues overall.

 

-----------

 

I started this test right where I left off on @Rub3n213's ship out in deep space. We traded fuel, parted ways, and I haven’t heard back from them since so rescue 107 is a lock.

 

Alioth's moons have a unique propensity to attract new space fairing players to it like moths to a flame. @sleepydas happened to be one such player that crashed on the moon, luckily @remdawg12 was available to respond and helped them make the needed repairs to their ship and completed rescue 118. Not three days later, @Hostile became another such victim. Once again, remdawg12 responded with scrap for rescue 120.

 

One of the latest features to be added is warp drives. @personality_matrix approached us after their requests to friends had all gone unheeded. After someone had purchased all the warp cells at the market on Jago, the player requested an expedited warp service to deliver them some warp cells. Eyes & Ears quickly met this request by dispatching @Haunty who completed rescue 126 in record time!

 

Finally one of our newer members, @Buck_Rogers, cut their teeth in their first rescue by giving @MRog40 a ride from Alioth to Madis for rescue 129.

 

A big thanks to all the players who made rescues during this test:

 

Welcome to the newest members of the team:

@Assar246 - Rescuer

Buck_Rogers - Pilot, Rescuer

 

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Last month, the topic of in-game advertising took a front and center picture with advertising signs (some, of the grossly huge variety) occupying much of the space near commonly used market entrances. While a great way to get eyeballs, some signs were proving a nuisance to the community. With Beta just over a month away, it became apparent that this issue would only grow if it wasn’t tackled.

 

Eyes & Ears undertook a Lua related project throughout this test. Our goal was to consolidate these in-game advertisements into one construct and present them in a way that was appealing to both the viewers and advertisers. With a minimally viable product now available, we’re getting ready to come forward to the greater community. More details on this will be shared in a dedicated thread, for now though, we are running down the list of organizations for any groups interested in this project. With enough interest, development on this will continue into a somewhat more polished product before we perform our initial launch at Alioths major marketplaces.

 

That aside, it was mentioned in an earlier post that no major projects were going to be delt any progress due to wipes. Well with one month of continuous testing and nothing to do, I decided to initiate work on a small planetary outpost. Now some of you might remember back to Alpha 2, my little spot at the end of Market 1. To say that it was too big to fit any reasonable use case was an understatement. With a tri-large-core design that will serve as a system headquarters for our heavier constructs, a single medium core should serve well for two small constructs.

 

I hope to have multiple outposts spread throughout a system, optimally one on every planet to keep our response time down, but how things will play out remains to be seen.

 

Oh, uh, and apologies for taking most of the rescues. While building this construct, I've just hit a creative dead end. Getting eager for beta I suppose, but more or less for release. More players, more things to do, more places to go. I guess I feel like I'm stuck in a rut in this game, the creative juice is tapped out. Hopefully once things become more, dynamic, maybe I'll get that joy I had back in pre-alpha.

 

So much has changed, and much more is going to change. I hope it's for the best.

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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If you have been given a ride/rescue and are now capable of providing one to someone else please give back! Many people that need a ride at the start of their gaming experience in DU leave the game once they crashed their first contruct. The purpose of this org has time and time again (over 100 times & counting) helped new players overcome this keeping them interested in the game. If you like DU, show it by helping a new player overcome a game ending experience by offering a ride!

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Weekly Update - August 3rd - 2020

 

Two tests were had between this update and the last. First on Friday the 24th, there was a 3-hour stress test, and then just recently there was the usual four-day test this past weekend. It also happens that this latest test was a special load test where NQ invited testers to bring on five friends for the duration of the weekend test to stress the servers as much as possible in this lead up to beta.

 

No rescues were performed over either test.

 

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“But how did you not perform any rescues, there was a mob of new people joining that inevitably crashed.”

 

You’re right, and while I could have easily advertised the 911 channel and the team could have hammered out a dozen rescues or so this weekend, it’s precisely the 911 channel that’s the problem.

 

I didn’t advertise it because I don’t know how much longer it’s going to stay.

 

Back in April, I discussed this topic more in detail about moving the 911 channel from in-game to the E&E discord server. Well, I’m finally scheduling a meeting with the rest of the team this week, and I’ll probably be dropping a thread on the matter for the community to provide their own input. Whether or not the 911 channel remains in-game will be the major talking point.

 

The other major bit of work I’ve been putting in happened outside Eyes & Ears regarding the advertising initiative I mentioned in the July 15th update. Even as I was writing this post, I ended up getting distracted for about a half-hour.

 

I’ve talked with a couple of dozen organizations about this, and while I’m getting bites, I’m waiting for the organizations themselves to personally inspect things before they decide to advertise. For now, I’m still waiting for a critical mass of actual advertisers before going public. We’ll see how this develops over the coming week but it should happen before Beta.

 

That aside, while real life didn’t have me occupied, I spent the rest of my time helping out the load testers in discord. Not much to say there, but I will say that if we do another load test this coming weekend, I’ll hopefully be helping out a lot more.

 

----------
 

Welcome to the newest members of the team:

@Rrobin - Pilot, Rescuer, Supplies Manager

@ScorpionStrike - Rescuer

 

----------

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Weekly Update - August 10th, 2020

 

Six rescues were made this test, that’s 79 for Alpha 3 and 135 overall.

 

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A pound of feathers vs a pound of rocks. Transporting your desktop in the back seat or the trunk. Moving cargo in your inventory or in a container. @Fynn_Reiher found this out the hard way that it doesn’t matter where you store your goods, what matters is that your speeder can carry them. One early test transport down, probably many more to go.

 

Stranded on a planet, how about outer space, on an asteroid, maybe a moon? @Rub3n213 was out of fuel on one of Lacobus’ moons. Luckily @remdawg12 was around and was willing to fly out 11KL of kergon to get one of DU’s more… spicy players back in flight again.

 

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Only some light building work was done on the outpost this weekend. Intermittent web connectivity issues on my end were stifling things a fair bit so playing wasn’t much of an option when the internet kept cutting out every five or ten minutes. It’s something with the receptacle that the barrel plug goes into that’s causing it to be very sensitive, even rotating the plug in the socket will trigger a power cycle. Then again I’ve had this router-modem combo since connectivity was first installed in this residence almost a decade ago. I’ve had a standalone router now so I really only need a new modem and with DOCSIS 3.1 now pretty much standard, the 3.0s are fairly cheap. Current setup still works, its just another thing on the list I got to manage now.

 

This also played somewhat of a role in pushing back an intended meeting that I hoped to have over the weekend. Then there was a PVP event also going on. Lots of discussion and drama in that sector in other servers. I’m hoping to get this all done and taken care of during the final A3 test this Friday, more details on that hopefully by this time next week.

 

The rest of my attention went to the whole advertising gig I have running. Two organizations are now advertising, two others are searching for something to put up, while the other dozen or so that are interested got sent an update the other day to drive some more activity and I’m waiting to hear back. Still not ready to go public but there shouldn’t be much more of a wait.

 

I and the person coding this are kicking around some ideas on how to improve things once it’s public. It will still be pretty barebones first coming out, but it will improve over time.

 

----------

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon
 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Alpha Wrap-up

Weekly Update - August 27, 2020

 

And just like that, Alpha is over.

 

Four rescues were made between August 11th and the 27th, bringing our Alpha 3 final total to 83 rescues, and our then total to 139.

 

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One of this updates more interesting rescues was done by Haunty who assisted @Biglulu. The latter found themselves stuck on Alioth and needed a ride either to Lacobus or simply up into space so they could get to Lacobus under their own power.

 

Yup, 'under their own power'. There's no ship involved here, Biglulu jetpacked their entire way from Alioth to Lacobus. This was the first time I've heard of someone doing such a thing since I've started testing Pre-Alpha back in September of 2017. I don't know if this caught on or anything because I heard about someone doing it a second time shortly after Beta started.

 

I really hope that this doesn't become mainstream, because that idea is totally out of left field and not something I would have come up with on my own. Leave it to the community I guess.

 

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Alpha ended rather unceremoniously on my side of things as a family incident had come up which required immediate intervention on my part. The End of the World event was held which I decided to contribute to at the very last minute. Digging through some of my blueprints, I found a copy of one of the several revisions my light rescue craft went through during the Alpha phases and left it behind at the event with a spot of organization lore.

 

Beta Release Candidate testing was held in the final run up to Beta on the 27th. While still technically considered Alpha, Eyes & Ears took advantage of this period to help jump start our work into the official launch of Beta. While I was out of the picture for a majority of this period, some of the team took to task of gathering resources and before Beta was officially launched, we had a microbase of sorts with most of the required industry to get us started before our suppliers came online.

 

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Beta 1

Weekly Update - August 31st, 2020

 

Four rescues were performed in the first four days of Beta, bringing our total rescues up to 143.

 

The first four days of Beta have been exciting to say the least from my standpoint. We've been working with some of our affiliates behind the scenes and I have some initial plans for how I want to expand the organization once various things are in place.

 

Our initial expansion will bring us a tri-core base on the Sanctuary Moon in the city of Tortuga, currently being headed up by @[BOO] Sylva and the Band of Outlaws. From there, a single outpost on each remaining planet will complete our expansion in Helios.

 

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With work on the microbase complete, we'll be moving on to our private rescue ship construction before progressing into, other things, ship development wise.

 

I don't expect much in the way of expansion until more safe zones on planets are established and many organizations are truly up and running.

 

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The launch of Beta brought about a handful of changes. While many things happened behind the scenes and on our discord server, on the visible side of things there are three major items:

     We are now charging for our rescues (see the post below this one)

     The in-game 911 channel has been moved to our Discord

     Navigating to our website and clicking on the EMERGENCY button in the upper right ties these changes together

 

Since we are now taking payment for our services, the above linked page serves as a disclaimer that fees do apply to a rescue. If the player accepts this, then they can click on another button which will take them to our dispatch section in our discord server where they'll be able to communicate with our dispatchers.

 

While we no longer use the 911 channel to connect players with dispatchers and rescuers, we are still monitoring the channel and redirecting players to our website to ensure the proper process is being taken and that no surprises are afoot. We've been doing this for going on two years now, I'm sure our alpha players wouldn't appreciate the sudden surprise and being put in a tough spot.

 

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Work on the advertising organization Dual Universe Classifieds is going well.  Once NQ launches its image hosting server and Beta specific forums, I'll be moving this segment of discussion into its own topic.

 

For now, ad stations can be found at Districts 5, 7, and 8 on Alioth. One new reconstruction is planned bringing the station from its three terminal design to four is already planned and will be conceptualized soon.

 

With a full roster of 9 live advertisements, the roster has been expanded to include slots for an additional nine organizations. Further development on the underlying code is planned, but for now me and lead programmer eldrake are working on other projects.
 

----------

 

That's all for now, until next time, fly safe everyone!

 

- DarkHorizon

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Payment Structure:

With Beta now official and some permanence in the game, it's high time to announce that Eyes & Ears has transitioned to a payment structure for its rescue services. The following costs are now in effect:

  • Dispatch of rescuers: 5,000h/rescuer
  • Fuel: Actual cost based on purchase from nearest marketplace at lowest cost
  • Element replacement: See above
  • Scrap repair: Varies based on amount used and tier, tier affecting overall speed of repair.
    • Rescuers, are asked to use their own judgement and be fair here.
  • Player rescue: 1,000h/player


Note: Dynamic fees will be added in once some new Lua is in place for things like fuel consumed and distance traveled.

(please go to our discord server linked in the OP and check the #price-list)

 

During the initial construction phase while we're getting a base and outposts setup throughout the system, I don't expect Eyes & Ears to be majorly profitable. Rescuers will be given the dispatch fee, supply fees will not be profitable until our suppliers are online and a flat fee is decided upon between our organizations, and a 5% general service fee is also in discussion which if approved will be applied at the very end when the bill is rendered to the player on the receiving end.
 

Any major changes on this will be announced.

Edited by DarkHorizon
Price structure change
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