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First Impressions


Guest Gaird1

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Logged in and was impressed with the 'hold you hand' tutorial at the very beginning.  I could see other players moving around and ships flying about through the window....neat.  Moved out of the starting building and went to the tutorial institutes.  The display in the industrial one was nice to look at.  That's where my good experience ended.  Every damn tutorial I transported to was broken.  The buildings did not rez in.  The fixtures were there;  Lights, Doors, Machines., etc.  I was standing on a circular rug suspended in the air.  The only tutorial I was able to complete was the mining one because there was not a building.  Industrial, fall into the water several meters below the start.  Surface mining, fall about 5 meters to the ground.  Not able to complete because one of the elements to interact with was to far away, floating in the air.  Construction,  again no structure to walk around in just a bunch of floating fixtures  over an ocean.  I can not believe you have the balls to charge people money for this mockery of a game.  I have seen refund period mentioned in a few places.  How do I get my money back?  When a game is this broken where a player starts, shows a serious lack of QA.  Worse is the lack of communication.  For $11 million you should be able to hire some community managers and perhaps spend some time communicating with people.  Your Discord channel is a complete shit show.  Moderators muting people with legitimate questions that are not being trolls or bad actors, and tons of assholes that seems to be friends with the mods that should be muted.  You folks need to get your shit together before you kill your game.  I have been waiting for years for this game.  Looking through the cesspool of your forums, there are issues that seems to be long standing with little to no communications about them.  The toxicity the community is throwing at the dev group in general is being earned because of the apparent lack of simply giving a shit about what the people who payed for game have to say about the problems and issue that are being encountered.

 

I know most Beta runs have bugs. Very few have smooth starts.  That's the point of Beta, test the features implemented as an Alpha and  work on the bugs before Launch.  Communication,  We need more of it.  Most people would quietly bide their time in game if they knew that the bugs they are experiencing are being looked into.  Even a simple acknowledgement that you are aware of X and are currently working on issue T.  Real community managers, you should seriously look into hiring some. 

 

So how do I get a refund?

 

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Same, my experiences so far mirror this.  

 

The tutorials are all broken for the past 48hrs, I come here hoping for answers, nothing.

 

I can only guess the devs cbf or are choking.

 

I want a refund too.

 

Edit: So not only can I not do any tutorials.  somehow when I exited a broken tutorial, it spawned me UNDER THE CITY where tutorial start.

I was left under a roadway in a box in water, with no way out, other than to respawn, & in doing so lost all the vehicle parts, which on checking I cant get a second set of.

 

Played loads of Betas, this , by far, worst experience ever.

 

If you are thinking of purchasing -  DONT DO IT

 

 

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"you only have one chance for a good first impression"

I'm a player like many others and an Alpha1 tester.

I am not an NQ employee but I am sincerely sorry your experience was so broken.

I know there are big problems and I'm a little frustrated too.

Hope you can resolve and get your money back.
In any case, after a year and a half of tests (and critical problems) I can say with absolute certainty that this game, for beauty and possibility, has no equal at the moment.

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I warned for this before the beta was released. The game is amazing but if too many fundamental parts of the game are fucked up, new people that join will freak out.

 

It is beta. But even when joining a beta one expects that some aspects of the game function. Like the tutorial. Like that there is not 3544454533 hovers on the landingpad in alioth. ?

 

I am an alpha tester and i love the game. I will stay. But how many of the new players will stay? Perhaps those that joined a good corporation in a place not too laggy. But the rest?

 

And the login issue is devastating for the game. Another game i played early access on, that allowed the use of alts, gave a free new account and character to all with tjis kind of gamebreaking account-problems.

 

The silence on these matters might scare away even old-timers. That have not been able to log in for perhaps 8 days and that have not received a proper message from the DU team yet.

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You request a refund through support ticket, there is an Account and Billing category.

 

Lesson: don't buy a game in beta if you can't tolerate the bugs. 

 

Devs communicate all the time in Discord acknowledging bugs and saying they are working on them, not sure what you're talking about.

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If you leave and re-enter the tutorials a few times, you might get a working instance.  Worked for me.  Alternately, in the building tutorial for example, you can walk under the static core, choose build mode after focusing on the core, then just jump/fly up to building level with space bar.  From there you can basically complete the tutorial (will need to keep doing this for each section you move onto).  It's janky but I got through it.

 

If you can find the patience to get through the tutorials, bugs and crashing (whiskey might help) - jump on the shuttle and get to Sanctuary.  Once I got there, things seemed to stabilize.  Go out and claim a piece of land and start building stuff.  It becomes addicting :)

 

Just remember - it's a Beta game.  Lots of stuff works, but the bugs are definitely not worked out yet.

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This is the only game I have in which I get a hard windows crash every 10 minutes on a clean install. I understand its beta and there will be issues....but IMHO this game was/is not ready for release in any form yet. Usually that sort of issue is caused by poor memory management in C code. More work was needed in a closed community to run this stuff to ground. 

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My first trip into the DU Universe was not as bad, had a couple of crashes but always returned to the tutorial just before the crash. Once tutorial complete had a couple more crashes just walking round the landing pad and plazas but did notice some issues in the building tutorial, not missing building parts but the areas where you were to complete the work disappeared as soon as you entered building mode. had a couple of minor issues since landing on the sanctuary moon but the lag is the killer and the disconnects and server errors are almost completely off putting and i wonder why i'm still here at times.

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1 hour ago, Haunty said:

You request a refund through support ticket, there is an Account and Billing category.

 

Lesson: don't buy a game in beta if you can't tolerate the bugs. 

 

Devs communicate all the time in Discord acknowledging bugs and saying they are working on them, not sure what you're talking about.

Not everyone is in Discord for a host of reasons -- it's up to them to provide messaging on more than one channel. Can you imagine a real company being like "oh well we only talk about stuff in discord what are you doing on our forums or twitter?" 

 

It's called "basic engagement with the community". They have time to post tweets to promote the game; they can post a simple announcement or acknowledgement here. 

 

It's up to NQ to set expectations for the beta -- there's a big different between tolerating a few bugs and new player feeling like they can't even start the game. 

 

Personally, I've had a few good experiences in the game. I can see how it has potential. I'm eager to keep trying. I can 100% understand how other customers won't be and how that will negatively affect the game. 

 

"it's a beta, it's your fault for expecting a playable product in return for your cash" is not something I agree with.


"It's beta" is not the end-all excuse for poor communication and instability. It really sucks that people are like "it's your fault for buying a beta of course it isn't going to work right". That's not what people were expecting, and it is 100% reasonable to expect a somewhat playable product for the price vs. basic content like tutorials breaking and not being fixed for weeks!

 

DU isn't going to die, but it seems like NQ wants it become a really niche product.

 

Many people joining beta now have been following the game for years. These are the most interested, qualified customers they will ever have coming into the game.

 

They avoided alpha specifically because they wanted to wait until the game was at least somewhat playable. Instead they got a worse experience than alpha, apparently.

 

Beta shouldn't be less stable than alpha in any universe...and if they are, it should be a temporary issue due to hardware/infrastructure needing to scale which is an operation that takes minutes in 2020, not weeks. Instead, people are left to wonder and speculate that there's core problems with their technical design. 

 

 

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On 9/4/2020 at 8:38 AM, Haunty said:

You request a refund through support ticket, there is an Account and Billing category.

 

Lesson: don't buy a game in beta if you can't tolerate the bugs. 

 

Devs communicate all the time in Discord acknowledging bugs and saying they are working on them, not sure what you're talking about.

Not in any particular order: 

 

First off,  I would expect more from an Alpha Vanguard.  What you offered to this thread amounts to little more than being a troll.  You make an assumption that I only recently bought into the game.  You're wrong.  I did not give any details about that, other than I have been waiting for years.  I have been following  the game and the reports the Dev Group has offered.  I have had access to DU for a long time. Yesterday was the first time was able to log into the open Beat.  I waited two days for my account to unlock after completing the password reset that was required.  Prior to yesterday I admit, I did little more than look around during the Alpha Stages.  The game was not in a state that I wished to play.  In real life I have a full time job, family, grandchildren, and I am on call 24/7 to boot.  When I sit down to play a game, all I want to do is relax and enjoy the experience.  I was elated that DU was finally available in an open BETA.  My expectations were perhaps a little high, but finally, I can experience the game I paid for a long time ago.   I have been playing, alpha, and beta testing games offered through various media since the early 1980's.  I am well aware of the how development works, the hurdles that have to be overcome, and the toxic backlash than can come from the community, even with projects that have more success at the launch of an open beta.  I am very much aware that beta testing a game involves bugs, more importantly reporting them.  As the title says, first impressions.  I related my experience the first several hours attempting to learn the basics of how this game universe works.  It is obviously complex.  Since writing the first post, I have been able to brute force my way through two tutorial section and complete the market Tut without issue.  As I am writing this post, the servers have taken down several times while the DEV group attempts to work the problems.  I actually see that as a good thing as frustrating as it can be, things are being worked on.

 

Second,  my asking for a refund twice was a commentary on frustration.  No one can seriously expect a refund request, buried in a forum post, to be acted upon.  If I was truly after a refund I would not have spent the time to write a post offering details of a first impression.  Enough said.

 

Third,  Communication from the Devs about fixes, on discord, are shallow with little substance, for good reason.  From what I see, MOST Dev communication on Discord is related to transporting lost players, replacing lost gear, unsticking stuck avatars, etc.  All good things.  More on discord in a Sec I spent a total of 8 hours in game yesterday.  After the first hour I hit the forums on my secondary monitor looking for possible work-arounds.  i was dismayed at lack off attention the forums have from the DEV group, with a game in development.  Hence why I spent a few sentences talking about Community Managers.  I easily found the Discord invite link. Engage third monitor.  Wow, the shear amount of people chatting via text.  So much is lost.  Tons of folks asking questions, or general chatting in the help channel.  Sigh.  I asked several times over about 4 hours, if there was any information regarding the Tutorial structures not rezing in.  Not once did I receive a response.  No @me's, or even a general "we know, it's broke."  I also asked 12 times over the course of about 6 hours, using the in game support channel.  I never once saw a DEV respond to anyone in that chat.  Again lots of people using it as the general chat channel.  So ya, communication is poor.

 

 

Lastly, a thank you to all the offered advice and understanding. The initial post was spot on, it was my first impression of the DU.  I tried several ideas that were offered. I did not just throw my hands up and say I'm done, I know what a Beta means.  The most common problem I found with the tutorials, was the ground was not even showing up.  Often it was me hovering Several meters over an ocean with some fixtures and element also hanging in mid air, always out of reach.  No floor.  The ground actually did show up twice, but no structural floor, and I was able to complete both mining tutorials with some creative use of the limited jetpack.  Not sure if a 1 second burst is all the jetpack normally does, or if that was yet another bug.  Guess I'll find out when The servers come back, hopefully.

 

Sorry about the length. I know it is a lot to read, but I feel it is important to expand understanding of the ideas I wrote in frustration.  MichaelK's post above is a very good take on the issues.  Please read it.  (I felt it was to long to quote here.)  He has some good insight on issues discussed.  Thanks for the replies from the rest of you and maybe I will see you guys around.  Hopefully not on the wrong end of a gun barrel.  LOL

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On 9/4/2020 at 3:06 AM, Rippah said:

Same, my experiences so far mirror this.  

 

The tutorials are all broken for the past 48hrs, I come here hoping for answers, nothing.

 

I can only guess the devs cbf or are choking.

 

I want a refund too.

 

Edit: So not only can I not do any tutorials.  somehow when I exited a broken tutorial, it spawned me UNDER THE CITY where tutorial start.

I was left under a roadway in a box in water, with no way out, other than to respawn, & in doing so lost all the vehicle parts, which on checking I cant get a second set of.

 

Played loads of Betas, this , by far, worst experience ever.

 

If you are thinking of purchasing -  DONT DO IT

 

 

I am sadly in agreement.   But I thought this was a working Beta.  Its an Alpha.  And a very badly running alpha for me.  Pending operations every 10 seconds since I bought the game, tutorial doesnt work, and I get kicked once every 20 minutes only to wait for 600 to 900 people to load before me.   I understand and respect alphas, and betas, but I bought this thinking the game was much closer to fully finished, not a rough alpha draft.   I wish the game well, but I'd love to know how to apply for a refund.

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16 minutes ago, ToothlessRaider said:

I am sadly in agreement.   But I thought this was a working Beta.  Its an Alpha.  And a very badly running alpha for me.  Pending operations every 10 seconds since I bought the game, tutorial doesnt work, and I get kicked once every 20 minutes only to wait for 600 to 900 people to load before me.   I understand and respect alphas, and betas, but I bought this thinking the game was much closer to fully finished, not a rough alpha draft.   I wish the game well, but I'd love to know how to apply for a refund.

Forced to agree...at least on the alpha part. I fail to understand how these issues weren't discovered in any respectable sort of load and network testing. 

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I will 100% agree this game was undercooked when it went to beta, even the devs kinds of said it themselves, they need the more money for further developments and server infrastructure.  One thing I want to make clear though, as someone who played the game extensively over three years, the majority of the issues we are seeing have only occured to this extent since open beta went live, the pre launch week was pretty bloody great, as was midweek for the first week or so.  It seems the playerbase has hit critical mass though and then the current architecture just falls over.   This is not a bold statement to say that when DU is playing well (such as in headstart week) it is the ONLY game I want to play at the moment out of the 600+ I own.  Infact it is one of my favourite games OF ALL TIME, it is just shame that you have never got to try it properly, even more concerning that you might never get to.

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The people who have been talking about how great their game play was prior to the open beta, has left me with hope that I may be able to log in and complete the tutorials in the near future.  LOL.  I can say that at least the Dev team is actively trying to work the problems and are constantly applying fixes.  I am having a hard time thinking of a game that did not have issues the first week or two of their respective beta releases.  I have been watching the forums and the discord.  Most of what I am seeing appears hardware related.  Again not anything strange for the few weeks of of a beta release.  I have to remind myself that even big companies like Sony and Blizzard have had challenges.  Always seems to take a week or two to get it sorted.  I am still trying to log in, but the que is huge and the constant server disconnects are making it difficult.  Here's to trying new things...  <cheer>

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On 9/5/2020 at 11:53 PM, scotsman said:

Forced to agree...at least on the alpha part. I fail to understand how these issues weren't discovered in any respectable sort of load and network testing. 

The issue with any fake load testing is that it will never replicate everything players will do, it appear there are certain services within the game that are struggling a lot more than others.  For example anything that appear to be sent via HTTP for industry / container management etc is struggling to cope but the flying part of the game is holding up ok.  It is only with actual live players will you find out these processes and be able to fix them.  In my honest opinion they should go back to Alpha testing schedule (4 days open, 3 days closed) to allow them more time to make fixes.

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On 9/5/2020 at 11:45 PM, Losses said:

Lucky I did not sign up for 1 year.

 

dont mind a que on joining.

 

But I do expect a working server at least when you do get in, its basic stuff thesedays

You did read the part about how they're pushing the boundaries of what's possible on a server, before you signed up, didn't you? This server is the very opposite of "basic stuff".

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13 hours ago, Moosegun said:

The issue with any fake load testing is that it will never replicate everything players will do, it appear there are certain services within the game that are struggling a lot more than others.  For example anything that appear to be sent via HTTP for industry / container management etc is struggling to cope but the flying part of the game is holding up ok.  It is only with actual live players will you find out these processes and be able to fix them.  In my honest opinion they should go back to Alpha testing schedule (4 days open, 3 days closed) to allow them more time to make fixes.

That's not a bad idea. A bit radical, perhaps, but maybe a good idea nonetheless.

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UPDATE:  For those of you watching this thread, I have news.  I have been able to log in the last few days and play.  The tutorials are still bugged, but with some brute force and try, try again, I was able to get through them.  Seriously, these need fixed.  I have place my claim on the Sanctuary moon and have commenced mining and building.  There are still occasional disconnects and pending action issues, but it is playable.  PRO TIP:  if your pending action is hanging for more that 20 seconds or so, re-log.  If that does not work restarting the client has so far solved the issue for me.

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Yeah, they seem to have gotten on top of last week's server issues. I had cause to go back to Alioth/SancMoon yesterday, and the Districts are still a bit of a lagfest; shan't be going back any time soon. They really need to have a way of cleaning up the abandoned speeders all over the place. 

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The eternal speeder problem lol, so instead of making an overflow parking for them, which still causes lag, anything parked in the market areas ONLY ( so speeders on people’s hexes are not affected) need to go free in x days. This way people can salvage/use them and removed them from the market area. I’m pretty sure there are salvagers here who would love to clear a market or too.

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1 minute ago, Iorail said:

The eternal speeder problem lol, so instead of making an overflow parking for them, which still causes lag, anything parked in the market areas ONLY ( so speeders on people’s hexes are not affected) need to go free in x days. This way people can salvage/use them and removed them from the market area. I’m pretty sure there are salvagers here who would love to clear a market or too.

Something like that.

 

Or they make a "virtual" overflow parking where they get "teleported" to, and can be reclaimed at a kiosk/dispenser or something. That way they don't have to render. And any not claimed after a time get dumped in a "scrap" lot with their cores un-claimed so we get the salvage experience too :)

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1 hour ago, Iorail said:

The eternal speeder problem lol, so instead of making an overflow parking for them, which still causes lag, anything parked in the market areas ONLY ( so speeders on people’s hexes are not affected) need to go free in x days. This way people can salvage/use them and removed them from the market area. I’m pretty sure there are salvagers here who would love to clear a market or too.

Been saying this for ages, 100% they should make a big strip down the middle of the parking, ANYTHING left in there for 24 hours gets unlocked so anyone can take it - simples, the outside edges can be longer stay parking / org stands

Basically short stay and long stay parking

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