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Took a break and....


JoeKing

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I first played DU at the beginning of the UKs first lockdown, so around 18 months ago. I was drawn in by the promises of the marketing: that I could forge out any path I wanted - I could be a builder, trader, explorer, be part of an org, or go it alone. My experience was off to a shakey start with a buggy intro, but I knew it was a ‘beta’ so I persevered and was hooked. I became obsessed... I loved it.

After a disgusting amount of time playing non stop, I started to make progress, bought my first warp drive, built a space station and some little bases dotted about, life was sweeeet. Then #23 hit. Massive bummer. 

I took a break for a couple of months, and came back, none of my mates did. I assessed the damage, regrouped and started again.

It quickly got really boring - really not into PVP - and dont have the funds for it anyway, but kept going with the promise of the new asteroid gameplay (thought I might risk some super-fast prospecting). Turns out, this isnt for single, newish, resource-poor players either, but nothing in the promo material indicated this would be inaccessible outside an org with deep pockets  (or, of course, an early player whos taken advantage of the abundant ore, bugs and exploits). The new announcement of the features of Demeter frankly spells the end of the downward trajectory for newish players like me. Theres no way to really amass the resources to access interesting play outside joining an org - which wasnt the reason I signed up. No doubt the game will continue to have draconian brakes applied through money & time sinks to curtail the large orgs and mega factories, but it feels like the game has shifted to cater to these, whilst simultaneously trying to save server resources. There needs to be a realistic and honest disclosure of what the gameplay is for new players, ie. join an org if you want to play beyond a few weeks.

I tried to play today for the first time in months, the new warp drive speed seemed like the perfect, sad metaphor. Warp Cells are ridiculously expensive, DSATs are beyond ridiculous both in scale and cost - the game feels joyless now, where it used to feel alive, vibrant and full of possibility.

 

Its a huge, huge shame the direction the game has gone in, it could've been so good. But thanks DU for a great experience while it lasted,  it was a great escape for me, for few months at least...

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3 hours ago, Feriniya said:

"May I ask you to transfer all the property? You don't need it anymore"  :)


Instigations like this are exactly why you and I are clashing in other threads, just heads up... stop poking people in their pain points, it ain't classy.

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@JoeKing No doubt at all this game is rough at the best of times, and it is tedious for someone to progress. As a solo player myself, it is my hope that the mining system actually is a positive switch  away from old underground mining which was a brainless boring task. 

That said, 100% on board with feeling a lack of joy these days, and it is the best hope I have for a game to enjoy vs. WoW, Eldenring, etc. I hope you stick around, come back after the smoke clears, and find a reason to stay.

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16 minutes ago, Creator said:


Instigations like this are exactly why you and I are clashing in other threads, just heads up... stop poking people in their pain points, it ain't classy.

Yes, I am not instigating, which is why I took the sentence in quotation marks. There is such a slang expression in many other games. Take this a little easier.
 

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2 minutes ago, Feriniya said:

Yes, I am not instigating, which is why I took the sentence in quotation marks. There is such a slang expression in many other games. Take this a little easier.
 

So seeing in your other post you are ESL, gonna cut some slack here... but without knowing that, seems like you are baiting him to leave by asking for his things. Just heads up, especially with the smirk emote at the end.

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15 minutes ago, Creator said:

@JoeKing No doubt at all this game is rough at the best of times, and it is tedious for someone to progress. As a solo player myself, it is my hope that the mining system actually is a positive switch away from old underground mining which was a brainless boring task.

That said, 100% on board with feeling a lack of joy these days, and it is the best hope I have for a game to enjoy vs. WoW, Eldenring, etc. I hope you stick around, come back after the smoke clears, and find a reason to stay.

In my heart, I also hope that everyone or almost everyone who leaves at this stage will return in some future when the whole situation in the game is stabilized and the basic mechanics are more stable.

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2 hours ago, Creator said:

Instigations like this are exactly why you and I are clashing in other threads, just heads up... stop poking people in their pain points, it ain't classy.

 

"Can I haz your stuff" is pretty much a standard meme seen across most MMO style games when someone posts about leaving the game. Should really not be taken too seriously.. 

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4 hours ago, Jake Arver said:

 

"Can I haz your stuff" is pretty much a standard meme seen across most MMO style games when someone posts about leaving the game. Should really not be taken too seriously.. 

Just think the game is challenging enough for players who aren't well established without us even joking about being jerks in a text format where intent of comment gets lost in a text format.

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12 hours ago, Creator said:

As a solo player myself, it is my hope that the mining system actually is a positive switch  away from old underground mining which was a brainless boring task.

You're just not feeling the ZEN! ?

Imho it was different from almost all the other MMO games where you needed to acquire resources. With going with the automining option, DU is shedding it's more unique sellingpoints. And imho the 'brainless boring task' is just replaced by a 'brainless boring task' you'll need to do each and every day! Those aren't 'free' minerals at all, that's a daily grind that you have to keep playing whether you want to or not.

 

But the OP brings up an excellent point, where does this leave the NEW solo player? I suspect not in a good place. They might be forced into certain gameplay loops with very specific paths, because this might now be the optimal way to gather resources.

 

The new talents are just another talent sink. In addition to the previous mining talent sink. Another 4+ months to spend subscription on... And it's advantageous for training your alts into it as well, more alts means more ore (and more grinding a mini game)... More incentive to buy those additional accounts (if it wasn't already the case with other talents/activities)...

 

Less well known consequences to the Demeter patch also mean that players need to concentrate their mining on a single planet. Otherwise your ore income will be severely impacted or the quanta costs of additional tiles will be significant (I suspect that it will be unsustainable). That means people will need to specialize and trade. Giving more opportunities to traders and space truckers. But the NEW solo player just won't easily be able to build much beyond the basics in any real quantity.

 

On the other hand, I think many people think to much into the MMO classic of guilds and (EVE) corps, I think DU has much more potential for more loosely organized collectives that cooperate with different solo players, the tools for organizing this in game just SUCK! You want me to boost your Cargo capacity with my Lvl5 talents? Can you boost my engines with your Lvl5 skills? I have a ton of Coal, you have ton of Baux, wanna trade? And especially not just locals/neighbors, this is an advanced society, we just need tools to get this off the ground. I would love to see autotrade units (I have x and want y) with a decent interface (you want to trade 407 times... Just hammer those buttons ?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/15/2021 at 1:19 AM, Underhook said:

What is "super-fast prospecting" ?

finding an asteroid to attempt a quick mine and leave before being obliterated. Not that I can afford to repair my ship anymore even if I survived, or in fact, warp cells to get anywhere tbh...

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On 11/14/2021 at 10:00 PM, JoeKing said:

The new announcement of the features of Demeter frankly spells the end of the downward trajectory for newish players like me.

I dont think the features themselves are the problem. 

The problem its the conditions needed to use the features.. 

 

I dont understand why we need to own a territory to build. Or to place a miner. 

 

Someone may answer "people want to safeguard their right to mine and build" 

My answer to them is: sure allow ppl to own territory but dont disallow other ppl to use free territory. 

 

"What if someone buys a territory that already has a base there?  Simple... The owner of that base has 7 days to remove the base or the base becomes abandoned. 

 

If ppl can build and mine without owning territories, new players have a chance again. 

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On 11/15/2021 at 6:46 PM, Cergorach said:

With going with the automining option, DU is shedding it's more unique sellingpoints. And imho the 'brainless boring task' is just replaced by a 'brainless boring task' you'll need to do each and every day! Those aren't 'free' minerals at all, that's a daily grind that you have to keep playing whether you want to or not.

That is not quite true!
The normal mining was voluntary. Everyone could dig as much as they wanted and do whatever they wanted with the ore.

The new mining system, however, was introduced together with taxes. So a player has to go digging/calibrating or fly afk missions for hours. 

Without taxes no machines, no autominer (although autominer is wrong for me, it is only partially automated) no progress. You could also stay on Sanctuary forever, but progress is even more limited there because the resources are set extremely low.

So, the system was not only replaced 1 to 1, but made worse by additional obligations. If ore prices fall even further, some areas will not be worthwhile at all if the ores are brought to the market - just to be able to pay the tax. There are hardly any ores left over for the progress of the game. I'm already waiting for the prices to drop to the bot prices, then not only Quanta will disappear from the game, but the ore as well.

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