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Do you think this is a good game to teach math and science?


aliensalmon

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I think with ship building and vehicle operation at least, you use a lot of math and some science concepts to be successful.

 

Bonus Question: What do you think of the idea that this game was designed more for people with backgrounds in math, science, and programming, rather than the average video game player? I've heard this idea several times in the Dual Universe community.

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If you get into the LUA, then sure, I think it’s ok. I have a few of my students who use LOVE try to get their creations working in DU: with limited success though.

 

DU has a pretty damn specific and non transferable framework heavily hampered by the image servers requiring sometimes several days or even a week to verify uploads and make the links active. 
 

But general framework programming concepts can be taught, I guess. 

 

As someone who runs a culture school in Tokyo, I would say there are far more effective, though less fun,  ways to teach math and science than crowbarring the teacher’s playtime into students’ lessons. 
 

judging by the fairly serious disregard for actual science visible in this game, like mining coal to make wood, I would say that the only skills I’m you need for this game are design and creativity and programming skills. 
 

Coming from an engineering background, I’d say very little of my schooling as actually relevant in game since it’s mostly handwaving. 
 

 

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I strongly disagree. Being good with (newtonian) physics or having played physics based building games just means there is an even longer list of things you have to unlearn in this game. 

Any craft is just a list of parts and their arrangement matters far less than just a few talents for piloting. The skill floor and ceiling for practical building is super low. Knowledge of DU bugs and DU exclusive mechanics is far more important compared to any normal knowledge in normal physics or math.

Math helps when it comes to industry, but what helps even more is a lot of spare time, a second screen for netflix and a mouse macro for digging.

Being good in DU is not a matter of skill, it is more a matter of having no shame when spamming advertisement, reading every comment in the discord to know about upcoming features or current bugs and abuses. Getting some ATV scoop or being online while schematics are sold for 1% is great.

So I strongly disagree with you, science does not make you a good DU player or give you any other advantages. It also does not teach you anything about science, it may actually teach wrong concepts (like engines not creating torque etc).

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11 hours ago, Gottchar said:

I strongly disagree. Being good with (newtonian) physics or having played physics based building games just means there is an even longer list of things you have to unlearn in this game. 

Any craft is just a list of parts and their arrangement matters far less than just a few talents for piloting. The skill floor and ceiling for practical building is super low. Knowledge of DU bugs and DU exclusive mechanics is far more important compared to any normal knowledge in normal physics or math.

Math helps when it comes to industry, but what helps even more is a lot of spare time, a second screen for netflix and a mouse macro for digging.

Being good in DU is not a matter of skill, it is more a matter of having no shame when spamming advertisement, reading every comment in the discord to know about upcoming features or current bugs and abuses. Getting some ATV scoop or being online while schematics are sold for 1% is great.

So I strongly disagree with you, science does not make you a good DU player or give you any other advantages. It also does not teach you anything about science, it may actually teach wrong concepts (like engines not creating torque etc).

Pretty much spot on. Knowing the upcoming exploits before they happen by being in or having a good mate in ATV and being around to make sure you use them is a surefire way to getting ahead in this game even more than business entrepreneurship, which is arguably the most useful IRL skill to bring to bear in game.

 

(also, the fact that NQ aren’t actually punishing players who use bugs unless they rub NQ’s nose in the poo is also good to know. )

 

IMO Being an entrepreneur is much more powerful in game than having any real life technical knowledge like electronics or engineering... or, Hell, even aerospace or space engineering!

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3 hours ago, aliensalmon said:

I think with ship building and vehicle operation at least, you use a lot of math and some science concepts to be successful.

 

Bonus Question: What do you think of the idea that this game was designed more for people with backgrounds in math, science, and programming, rather than the average video game player? I've heard this idea several times in the Dual Universe community.

I knew a few people who had the technical know-how to do really cool things and were invested just for the Lua stuff. What happened to them? They stopped playing when NQ decided that their work would not be protected or covered up. Why invest hundreds of hours in programming when people can just take it and you as NQ declare it as opensource? I still have the video here with the time stamp where I know they got the middle finger from NQ. Funnily enough, it is again the video where power management and AvA are also discussed. This has always been sold to people differently over the years. And with the podcast came the bummer that set everything in motion.

 

 

But to come back to your question: I was working with C# in Space Engineers and was very proud when my solar panels aligned with the sun for the first time. It's not the same in DU without my people around me who I enjoyed playing with.

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If you're serious - heck no. The aero forces are practically made up and engine forces don't make full sense sometimes.

 

Unless your entire curriculum is F = ma, you might find it more frustrating than fun. That said if it's just for an excuse to have videogames in class then go for it!

 

That said for a programming curriculum and making something work around radians and vectors - it's great.

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I think you can learn some math and science from DU, but except for a touch of special relativity, you would be much better off playing KSP for that.

 

But I don't think you need anything but video game skills to play. You can buy ships that will work (even if the UEF ones are a bit under-powered). Our engines are so powerful and efficient that you don't need to be good at space flight to do it - especially if you use warp, which is entirely unscientific and requires no skill at all (unless you count applying the formula to figure out how many warp cells to take with you.) With the brakes we have, you don't really even need to be good at atmo flight - just get over your destination and hold the brake. (btw, the ships I build don't have enough brakes to do that, but I think everyone else does.)

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It might be a good place to learn programming, which also involves vector math. 

 

i'm showing my age here.....but one of my first experiences with programming was the original Neverwinter Nights toolset. 

 

it was a lot more interesting than fiddling with a console because i could easily see how my code impacted the game world. it's a great way to gain basic fluency with code and one of the reasons i have a career in coding today. 

 

although nowadays I assume they teach coding in grade school, so what do i know....? Cursive? 

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programming? Yeah it’s Lua but the concepts are fine.

math? The game does use vectors and has a momentum matrix but it’s not essential or arguably even that useful. 

biology? Non existent or just decoration. Not even food or water mechanics.

physics and chemistry? Bwahahhaha.

 

 

I would say that the facts that you mine coal to make wood, fluorine is solid, concrete is more expensive than aluminum, limestone does not contain carbon, marble is an effective armour material and the stars all move in time with the sun means this is not a serious scientific game. 
 

?

 

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