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Why "alien" cores? Wouldn't such a revelation come down the road?


Novidian

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Seriously, from a potential lore perspective, it makes no sense to call them that at this point in the game. I mean, realizing that other life (and a technologically advanced civilization at that!) is not just a game changer for humanity, but for a game. I think it would be better suited as a post-launch expansion/content reveal. There's no lore in this game really, and unlocking the mysteries of an alien civilization is something that deserves to be expanded upon and even supported with in game events. I just think it's too soon to toss in there for the sake of doing it.

 

Also, are they just one core? Why not anomalies, instead? Or wormholes. Pick your your technobabble poison on that one. That way, you could give bonuses to any static core placed within proximity (various boosts to industry placed on cores there would be a start that could further tie industry/PvP). This could encourage more expansive building and inter-org cooperation in those zones, not one core to rule them all in a certain space. Aaaand you could hold off on the whole extraterrestrial thing to make it more meaningful.

 

tl;dr ALIEN cores? lol wut? Slow yer roll.

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We had "alien mysteries" before: the Artifact Puzzle and the Gold Star affair (which was "alien" in a sense of "what happened here ?!") introduced the idea we Noveans were not alone in Helios.

 

True, these "Alien Cores" look more like practical gameplay devices than lore development revelations but remember: even if NQ never put tremendous effort into their lore, we still have a couple more kyrium-backer-made mysteries coming on.

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1 hour ago, Bazzy_505 said:

What lore? The whole "back story" of DU is a single A4 sheet, double space, times new roman 12pt summed in the vignette you watch after character creation.

 

Alien cores won't save of break anything simply because there's nothing to break😝.

 

Dual Universe backstory written by Alain Damasio  was released 2015.

It is 7 pages long.

I have it as pdf.

But it may be under Alpha NDA.

image.png.94f4d9047b37a822be1223acdb160fb8.png

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It's not under NDA, also available in this very forum as well as in the Lexikon Library on Sanctuary Moon.

Note that Damasio's writings, although a personal request from JC to Alain, have been partially retconned by NQ.

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15 minutes ago, kulkija said:

 

Dual Universe backstory written by Alain Damasio  was released 2015.

It is 7 pages long.

I have it as pdf.

But it may be under Alpha NDA.

image.png.94f4d9047b37a822be1223acdb160fb8.png

 

 

that's old short story, i've read that one way back when. Not particularly good or original either. 

There's not lore in it, no meaningfull world building. 😂 This like one those shorts in OMNI.

If anything, it only proves my point

 

 

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Did anyone expect real lore...? 

 

I mean...the premise is that only a select few made it off earth which was utterly obliterated by a wandering neutron star (of all things).

 

After a long, dangerous journey across the stars...they slap down a bunch of markets first thing and decide that the new society should be some sort of nightmare in governance where murder is perfectly legal in set zones and no real services are provided beyond an auction house...but taxes are enforced absolutely.

 

This from a ship built by the UN as the last, best hope for humanity's survival. 

 

Sprinkle in some random aliens...and I think it's safe to say that the game has no lore or world-building. It's just generic sci-fi and kind of a waste of a potential narrative. 

 

This was supposed to be a game about us players building a civilization (or at least building something), but it's harder to be immersed or RP when the world-building is so generic and light. 

 

They could have put in a throwaway line about how the UN ship was built by corps that agreed to suspend their brutal rivalry only until the exact moment of planetfall...how they were so focused with greed, they didn't see their doom until it was too late....anything to lend the world more credibility and explain why players are supposed to be in conflict. 

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The biggest problem is that NQ has used or broken game lore as they see fit and where it suits them, effectivively invalidating the little lore there is/was. They deny perfectly sensible suggestions as "outside of lore" and at the same time make stuff magically exist while completely ignoring the lore.

 

And IMO that is actually a major issue with he game. There is no (and really never has been a) real plan at all and NQ mostly just thows stuff at the wall, hoping something will stick.. in many different ways. 

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I wish NQ had given us an explanation on how, we, the first pioneers of a new civilization, woke up to already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income...

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Isn't the point of it being an alien core that it's something which is present but which we don't know how to create more of?  If they were human-made, isn't it a bit immersion-breaking that there are a small number to fight over and we can't just make as many of them as we need?

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11 hours ago, Peregrin said:

We had "alien mysteries" before: the Artifact Puzzle and the Gold Star affair (which was "alien" in a sense of "what happened here ?!") introduced the idea we Noveans were not alone in Helios.

 

True, these "Alien Cores" look more like practical gameplay devices than lore development revelations but remember: even if NQ never put tremendous effort into their lore, we still have a couple more kyrium-backer-made mysteries coming on.


All true, but if it’s going to be given to us as one-off content, it’s pretty pointless.
 

Can you imagine a new player trying to put it all together and old players are trying to remember that one event some time ago that sort of eluded to something, but there’s no real record, so just take our word for it? lol

 

We may as well make it up as we go along, I doubt we’ll ever be corrected.

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2 hours ago, Zeddrick said:

Isn't the point of it being an alien core that it's something which is present but which we don't know how to create more of?  If they were human-made, isn't it a bit immersion-breaking that there are a small number to fight over and we can't just make as many of them as we need?


If it’s going to be alien, then make it alien. Make it a bloody obelisk or one of those zohar things from xenogears/saga, or something otherwise foreign. Not something that already exists with a green skin on it or something.

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3 hours ago, blundertwink said:

Did anyone expect real lore...? 

 

I mean...the premise is that only a select few made it off earth which was utterly obliterated by a wandering neutron star (of all things).

 

After a long, dangerous journey across the stars...they slap down a bunch of markets first thing and decide that the new society should be some sort of nightmare in governance where murder is perfectly legal in set zones and no real services are provided beyond an auction house...but taxes are enforced absolutely.

 

This from a ship built by the UN as the last, best hope for humanity's survival. 

 

Sprinkle in some random aliens...and I think it's safe to say that the game has no lore or world-building. It's just generic sci-fi and kind of a waste of a potential narrative. 

 

This was supposed to be a game about us players building a civilization (or at least building something), but it's harder to be immersed or RP when the world-building is so generic and light. 

 

They could have put in a throwaway line about how the UN ship was built by corps that agreed to suspend their brutal rivalry only until the exact moment of planetfall...how they were so focused with greed, they didn't see their doom until it was too late....anything to lend the world more credibility and explain why players are supposed to be in conflict. 

 I had a similar premise in my head cannon. The difference was that humanity entrusted AI to see us through the cosmos until we arrived at a habitable planet. Afterwards, we were supposed to be reconstituted and slowly introduced to the new seat of human civilization they had set up for us.

 

Unfortunately, humanity’s old grudges and prejudices reared their ugly heads again and our benefactors wiped the slate clean after it was determined that if we remembered our former lives, we would surely destroy ourselves vying for supremacy.

 

After numerous small batch social experiments (like GLaDoS in portal lol) it was determined that our memories must be erased and all “unsafe” history deleted for our protection. What a mind fudge it would be to learn that we were actually the XXXth attempt at rebuilding humanity, but aphelia time and time again wipes us out because we became unworthy and self destructive.
 

That would give a lore reason for us not having talents at the start of the game, along with any hand holding after being rezzed the first time. It would also explain any mysterious ruins we’ve found, without actually having to introduce aliens. Why things we encounter seem advanced beyond our present capabilities, yet strangely intuitive and familiar.

 

Over time, we would uncover the truth about what aphelia had done to us and be forced to align with her or rebel/go off world to assert our autonomy.

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7 hours ago, Bazzy_505 said:

 

 

that's old short story, i've read that one way back when. Not particularly good or original either. 

There's not lore in it, no meaningfull world building. 😂 This like one those shorts in OMNI.

If anything, it only proves my point

 

 

At least for Anarchy Online, Ragnar wrote a whole novel “Prophet Without Honor”. He had a long term plan with the story for that game, at least through Shadowlands. It’s a shame he never finished them beyond the first, they really had potential.

 

This type of game really needs supplementary info, because there are no npcs or story missions in game. If they won’t bother, at least give us the tools lol

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Maybe NQ find someone else to help them?
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke *Haha - Fat Chance*

 

 

p.s.

deleting history and memory seems like a bad story line. Deleting those things and you are just force to repeat the same mistake ad nauseam

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8 minutes ago, Kurosawa said:

Maybe NQ find someone else to help them?
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke *Haha - Fat Chance*

 

 

p.s.

deleting history and memory seems like a bad story line. Deleting those things and you are just force to repeat the same mistake ad nauseam


Ah, but Aphelia has watched your kind fail over and over. Trial after trial, age after age; that persistent hubris has been your undoing each time. Far more times than you know, pitiable and tragic  Icarus’, one and all…

 

Despite knowing the pitfalls and short comings of your species’ tribal nature, even with the knowledge of your predecessor’s mistakes, you failed to manifest even the slightest semblance of the utopia you sought to create.

 

This time will be different - the Silicon Mother is certain of that. Praise be this new and final age, oh empty vessel.

 

Dundundun…

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6 hours ago, Peregrin said:

I wish NQ had given us an explanation on how, we, the first pioneers of a new civilization, woke up to already amply-stocked Markets (on every planet!), huge Institutes, Ship Shops offering cutting-edge technology, free and insistant shuttles to the Moon, buried wrecks and even a guaranteed daily income...

 

Agreed, the whole idea was that markeets were there to fill the gap in player driven markets while NQ built the game. It's one of those "placeholders" that over time have just become part of the story as it suits NQ and allowed them to bypass some of the more complex develolpment as well as quickly offer a supply of elements and materials. They completely forgot what it was they were building and so here we are..

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19 hours ago, Novidian Prime said:


Can you imagine a new player trying to put it all together and old players are trying to remember that one event some time ago that sort of eluded to something, but there’s no real record, so just take our word for it? lol

But there ARE records. I'll PM you and see if I can interest you into Lexikon and DUHS.

 

Also...

 

19 hours ago, Novidian Prime said:

 I had a similar premise in my head cannon.

We need to talk and write that down.

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16 hours ago, blazemonger said:

 

Agreed, the whole idea was that markeets were there to fill the gap in player driven markets while NQ built the game. It's one of those "placeholders" that over time have just become part of the story as it suits NQ and allowed them to bypass some of the more complex develolpment as well as quickly offer a supply of elements and materials. They completely forgot what it was they were building and so here we are..

 

Long ago when beta first dropped, I remember laughing a bit at how much the "single shard" concept was talked up. No instances, eh? Millions of players sharing the same space, eh? 

 

Well...as a new player, it felt like having a bunch of cloned markets was effectively the same thing as separate servers, only even more clunky (especially when trying to start the game with a friend)

 

Cloned markets have the same purpose as instanced servers -- splitting player load. Yet it's more immersion breaking and these areas have far less character compared to other games...

 

Now it's really too late to build lore or cultivate immersion...and in a game where there's not much else to do beyond creativity, this disconnect will be very unfortunate to the game's viability. 

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Absolutely @blundertwink

 

The first thing that will create communities are markets and having players create and run them would gravitate others towards them if the style and products fit their needs. Having the sterile and "one size fits all" market design for the Aphelia markets really only detracts from that idea.


Player created markets and hubs of trade and ideas is also what starts the "cities" NQ so desperately wants to see.

It's really baffling to me how NQ seems to really have no clue about how their dreams could be made real and they actively work against their ideas with their "fixes" and changes. So much has been taken away from players just because NQ lacks the ability to remove what does not work so they just cut everyone off from functionality instead.


It's sad really, seeing how NQ structurally undermines the basic concepts of the game and be blind to it themselves.

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On 4/6/2022 at 8:12 AM, Peregrin said:

But there ARE records. I'll PM you and see if I can interest you into Lexikon and DUHS.

 

Also...

 

We need to talk and write that down.


I honestly had no idea any such thing existed for DU. I look forward to learning more!

 

I’ll be in touch soon. Thanks for reaching out to me.

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