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The generic "Some questions about this game"-topic


skalibran

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Hey everyone!

 

I'm a long-term Star Citizen defender and casual Elite Dangerous player. I do like both casual space games like No Man's Sky, and more complex voxel-based space sandboxes like Space Engineers. I even enjoyed EVE for a bit, but haven't played it for a long time.

 

On the initial announcement of Dual Universe, I was really excited to get my hands on the game. Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with the latest information. If some questions are obvious, I'm sorry for that. I have some generic questions you'll probably hear once in a while and the answers may change ofter time, this is why I still ask them even if Google already has some results.

 

My first question is about the marketing of the game and how you would rate the developers if a specific scenario happens:

We are in the happy situation that we get more and more variety in space games. Not every game is a contender for Dual Universe, but it is still a niche genre. Many games do not require a monthly subscription. While the subscription is definitely for the good of the game and while this game has definitely enough to stand for its own, I wonder if the devs overthink their decision if the game massively lacks players. And I wonder if you would accept a change to a fair F2P model as well, if everything else would lead to the death of the game. This is important for me, because I've supported several games that closed their doors shortly after because of lacking concurrent players.

 

A bit more generic question: Is there information about what is procedurally generated and what not? For example, are the generated planets, but with hand-made citys?

 

When I invest my money in one of the supporter packs, when can I start supporting the game with my feedback? The top of the website - as stated in the supporter packs - does not show a Pre-Alpha Test date. Are we talking about four tests a year or about four tests a month?

 

My last question: How would you personally rate the ambitions of this project, especially if you have already spent a lot of time with this project? I'm not one of the cool kids who hate Star Citizen because the development takes so long. I still defend it, and I still believe in their vision. But I'm actually a bit annoyed that games like Elite Dangerous get very close to Star Citizens ambitions in much shorter time, while offering a great gameplay loop already. Do you believe that this game will reach its goals in a reasonable amount of time? Do you think we will actually play this game in two years?

 

Thank you for your time!

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5 hours ago, skalibran said:

My first question is about the marketing of the game and how you would rate the developers if a specific scenario happens:

We are in the happy situation that we get more and more variety in space games. Not every game is a contender for Dual Universe, but it is still a niche genre. Many games do not require a monthly subscription. While the subscription is definitely for the good of the game and while this game has definitely enough to stand for its own, I wonder if the devs overthink their decision if the game massively lacks players. And I wonder if you would accept a change to a fair F2P model as well, if everything else would lead to the death of the game. This is important for me, because I've supported several games that closed their doors shortly after because of lacking concurrent players

Maybe, who knows. If it's the last possible method to save the game. Maybe they don't do it and go another  Route. But for now it's subscription only.

 

5 hours ago, skalibran said:

 

A bit more generic question: Is there information about what is procedurally generated and what not? For example, are the generated planets, but with hand-made citys?

Planets and systems are procedually generated. Cities are built by players only. We fill this universe with stuff to do, Not the devs

 

5 hours ago, skalibran said:

When I invest my money in one of the supporter packs, when can I start supporting the game with my feedback? The top of the website - as stated in the supporter packs - does not show a Pre-Alpha Test date. Are we talking about four tests a year or about four tests a month?

Only the highest pledge gets access to PreAlpha immediately and the locked Forum section (because the PreAlpha is under NDA). There are several tests per month.

 

5 hours ago, skalibran said:

 

My last question: How would you personally rate the ambitions of this project, especially if you have already spent a lot of time with this project? I'm not one of the cool kids who hate Star Citizen because the development takes so long. I still defend it, and I still believe in their vision. But I'm actually a bit annoyed that games like Elite Dangerous get very close to Star Citizens ambitions in much shorter time, while offering a great gameplay loop already. Do you believe that this game will reach its goals in a reasonable amount of time? Do you think we will actually play this game in two years?

Ambitions are high and we'll see If it works or not. I believe in them because of their open communication (though other, non-musketeers might disagree here) and because of the things they say will NOT be possible.

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Sub is going to be the right pricing decision for this game.

 

It's be a good game to play whatever the success rate.

 

It's a different genre to most other space games: It's a Virtual World MMO.

 

No Man's Sky in scale seems like a VW but it's just not got any interconnected systems at scale that I've ever seen in it's videos. It's like one large level 1 or something to use a comparison. There's never level 2-100 as it were...

 

SC, has all the hallmarks of a failed software development project. I'd be careful with that one and if you're not refunded I doubt that money is ever coming out of that now esp. given the change of TOS. This leads to pre-purchase of DU: I would not bother personally until they at the earliest hit alpha and even then it is likely better to wait further.

 

Side-note: It's odd that NMS and SC warrant longer sentences the first 2 which are accurate. I guess that's a product of untangling errors and misconceptions. In some cases then the conclusion is, it's better not to bother with information holding too low value given the lack of economy.

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Lethys pretty much nailed everything right on the head.

 

As for the bit in subscriptions:

 

DU isn’t just a paycheck for NQ, there is some real passion behind the game from these developers.  If there’s a way to save their game from closing, I imagine they will take it.

 

I personally don’t think it will be an issue for quite some time, but that is all speculation.

 

A game doesn’t always need a billion players behind it to remain afloat.  The DACs and potential cosmetics will help keep the game kicking, even if the player base is rather small.

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Thank you all for your answers! I've read the FAQ, but I'm still unsure about NPCs. Will there be wildlife on the planets? And if I build a bigger ship, can I man different parts of the vessel with NPCs? D:U is a true sandbox game with everything created by players, I know that by now. But does that exclude any kind of NPC interaction (except of these market NPCs that are announced of course)?

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1 hour ago, skalibran said:

Will there be wildlife on the planets?

Only smaller animals, but no "threats" for now

 

1 hour ago, skalibran said:

And if I build a bigger ship, can I man different parts of the vessel with NPCs?

There are no "classic" NPCs at all in Du. There are no aliens, no quests, No missions, No pve, no NPCs which give quests or can be hunted. Everything comes from other players. So you would need other players to man your guns. Maybe (! Still undecided !) NQ allows for turrets to be automated for static (bases, forts, stations,...) Constructs but not for dynamic (ships) constructs

 

1 hour ago, skalibran said:

But does that exclude any kind of NPC interaction (except of these market NPCs that are announced of course)?

Those market "NPCs" are bots in fact. Same as a discord bot with no real (ingame) appearence in the game.

 

To me this is the exact reason why i bought into the game. Pve and NPCs always get boring really quickly for me. At some point it's only rinse and repeat boring and dull things. PvP or Player created content is always changing and new - that's why Du got me

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34 minutes ago, Lethys said:

To me this is the exact reason why i bought into the game. Pve and NPCs always get boring really quickly for me. At some point it's only rinse and repeat boring and dull things. PvP or Player created content is always changing and new - that's why Du got me

So true. NPC formula is based off faulty design imo for Virtual Worlds. The population with MMO is players. All that brain power not being used otherwise... for free.

5 hours ago, Hades said:

As for the bit in subscriptions:

 

DU isn’t just a paycheck for NQ, there is some real passion behind the game from these developers.

It needs large profit. The current market pricing reflects: 1. Generic 2. Derivative results of current products. Hence Free. If the quality of the product is sufficient then sub will be effective. As with UO then EQ/WOW I think DU can be very profitable and sustainably so as an inception game for a genre.

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20 hours ago, Lethys said:

To me this is the exact reason why i bought into the game. Pve and NPCs always get boring really quickly for me. At some point it's only rinse and repeat boring and dull things. PvP or Player created content is always changing and new - that's why Du got me

This right here is my mentality as well!  I currently play EGS (real close to buying the Patron Pack here) because it's the only space game out with all aspects of space that I want  but the combat versus AI really adds nothing to the game.  The actual fun part of the game is PvP Combat but it's very limited in EGS just given the game structure.  No fleet combat, no real infantry battles, not much but a few small vessel versus small vessel battles mostly.

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