SHEDDING LIGHT ON A NOVAQUARK INTERNAL DISCUSSION - discussion thread

[Yoarii]

1 hour ago, CDEEKS said:

They won't because no matter the decision there going to loose.some players and there not going to do that until last minute to keep the players guessing 🤔 (and paying sub) 

 

For me it's the skill points if I go to 0 from 65mil I don't think ad have it in me to start from scratch. 

Yes, wiping talent points on any account (beta-key or paid) is a definitive "I'm gone" too.

 

How can it possibly be a good thing to hold a knife to the throat of the entire player base? How do they expect players to want to invest time and effort into something that may get deleted? Yes, any MMO have a limited life span, but this is so demotivating. It's not like new players don't become aware that there's a wipe hanging over our heads considering the discussion comes up over and over in general chat.

 

I love (some parts of) the game and the community, but I am utterly disappointed in NQ.

[Filokwarq]

49 minutes ago, Yoarii said:

I love (some parts of) the game and the community, but I am utterly disappointed in NQ.

 

Well, lets face it - Most people are. On the other side, NQ went through changes and it looks like they try to save the game and to get it back on track.

 

However, the guy who made promises left, and during the time shortly before he left many of the things occured we are still struggling with now.

 

We saw other games performing well once they regocnized they are on the wrong track. However, the legacy can only be overcome by getting to a state where those things wont be interefering with actual gameplay anymore. Some mechanics are only in the game because of those problems and to solve issues. By that, they produce other issues we would not have if those problems would have been taken care of properly.

 

I am pissed, I am disappointed and I was not speaking very positive about NQ after those problems became visible. I can feel with you, and due to some changes and problems I have I may not continue playing, not if I really lost all my stuff.

 

However, I am pissed to loose my stuff due to bugs and unkept promises. I will for sure try the game after Launch if they wipe (and at least save me my skillpoints). Because even with the changes I dont like, I would like to see how it plays out once it is in the shape the devs intended the game to be (sorry for my bad english here). Get rid of schematcis as they are now, get rid of old planets, get rid of mechanics nobody wants, get rid of items and money people have through exploits. And yes, no magic BPs please. Let people start playing the game the way it was intended. Skills, money and maybe Standard-Ships as Advantage, yes, but hey, I want to go through the new player experience myself.

 

Yes, any reason to be upset and disapointed, but to let DU shine it needs to get rid of its legacy, just like the lore of DU, lets move on to a new world and see if we succeed

 

 

[ABitCrazy]

Heard any news about NQ's arrangement on this? won't do anything except mining device management in game until any updates on this.  Just wonder.

 

[blundertwink]

18 minutes ago, ABitCrazy said:

Heard any news about NQ's arrangement on this? won't do anything except mining device management in game until any updates on this.  Just wonder.

 

 

Nope.

 

They either have some major leadership issues and can't arrive at a decision...or have made their choice but don't feel like it is their best interest to announce it yet. 

 

Either way...it does indeed shed a lot of light on NQ's decision-making and explains why 8 years of dev has translated into a game that's still very incomplete and clunky. 

 

I do hope they realize how critical it is to get as many players testing Athena as early as possible....no matter how much time they think they have to fix bugs and get ready for release, it's never enough time. 

 

Very odd that they haven't settled this BS already. Very revealing of NQ's core issues. 

[RugesV]

Is this an NQ plan to lower server population to reduce costs?

[space_man]

28 minutes ago, RugesV said:

Is this an NQ plan to lower server population to reduce costs?

Big brain!

[space_man]

1 hour ago, ABitCrazy said:

Heard any news about NQ's arrangement on this? won't do anything except mining device management in game until any updates on this.  Just wonder.

 

Nothing official, but my guess is they might be working on a plan to release and what comes post release.

[blundertwink]

8 minutes ago, space_man said:

Nothing official, but my guess is they might be working on a plan to release and what comes post release.

 

Step 1 of every software release plan: beta testing

 

Oops...they finally need to beta test, but vastly reduced the population actually playing and testing...

 

So even if they are working on this release plan, they should realize 10 minutes into this planning session that they need as many testers as possible as soon as possible if they intend to fix bugs and scale the product, and that means ending this thread with an announcement.  

 

Or maybe they believe step 1 should be "make cool videos that don't show real gameplay". Their money to burn, I guess. 

[Sycopata]

2 weeks... Is time to shedding light on the decission

[blundertwink]

6 minutes ago, Sycopata said:

2 weeks... Is time to shedding light on the decission

 

When they say "shedding light" they mean shedding as if it were fur.

 

So really they are cloaking themselves in darkness by shedding off all the light. Make sense? No? I stopped caring like 20 pages ago, so.... 🤷‍♂️

[Nosomu]

NQ should announce their decision asap and if it is a wipe then they should dangle a reason to keep testing in front of us. An exclusive beta award would be nice.

[blundertwink]

This is the speed in which NQ has always moved...I do think it's weird that they expect people at release to stay subbed for months while they do small changes and rarely communicate about them between patches. 

 

Release is going to be really hard for them...like, really hard.  

[CDEEKS]

1 minute ago, blundertwink said:

This is the speed in which NQ has always moved...I do think it's weird that they expect people at release to stay subbed for months while they do small changes and rarely communicate about them between patches. 

 

Release is going to be really hard for them...like, really hard.  

I thought with a new CEO things would get better but yet to see this

 

[Messaline]

On 14/04/2022 at 16:22, NQ-Wanderer said:

Bonjour Noveans.

 

Que pensez-vous de notre  communication FAIRE LA LUMIÈRE SUR UNE DISCUSSION INTERNE DE NOVAQUARK ? Faites-nous savoir ci-dessous!

 

Hello,

 

Precisely I would like to have this famous light on my future on DUAL.
And... I don't think I'm the only one!

 

--

[CptLoRes]

16 hours ago, blundertwink said:

Step 1 of every software release plan: beta testing

Many would argue that DU is still far from reaching the beta phase of development.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

- A beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs.

[blundertwink]

1 hour ago, CptLoRes said:

Many would argue that DU is still far from reaching the beta phase of development.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

- A beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs.

 

Yeah I wouldn't disagree, but IMO it's "feature complete" by definition since they are on the path to release and Athena was the last major update.

 

That's not to say I think it has a "complete" set of features, but it is finally beta by the strictest definition. Unless they intend to keep adding/tweaking features until the last moment, in which case there's no point to having this testing program at all except as trying to generate a bit of revenue. 

[ABitCrazy]

20 hours ago, RugesV said:

Is this an NQ plan to lower server population to reduce costs?

Lol... depopulation and the great reset.... conspiracy ? NOT. 

[Lichryre]

Forgive my 2nd day real time, in this game.  1 day actual play time.  However, before diving into my answer.  Let me say, I have played Archeage, and Eve Online from when these games first were being developed.  The reason I am even mentioning these games as well trying to recruit a real friend to this game.  Those two games, my friend and I have played countless hours on and were dedicated hardcore style gamers at them. Now, as I tried to recruit my friend to this game.  The biggest argument for not paying the subscription and playing this game was, time.  Like Archeage and Eve Online, time is spent in the same way for this game. Archeage, if I remember correctly did not keep accruing while you were offline.  In this game, I am glad they added offline talents acquired and completed.  Finally, my question is best summed up like this: "should the time spent of one's account be wiped"?  To imply my answer: "depends on, if you want to have a fair and balanced playing field with new players"?  I am indifferent on this top I can see both sides of the coin. If was up to me I would gather what I could from community and have a vote/poll. just to see what is what.  Then inform the community I was going to have random roll with a 4 choices.  Those four choices: full wipe, partial wipe, legacy server, and no wipe at all.  

Lastly, it all depends on what you have defined "time".

[Novean-61657]

13 minutes ago, Lichryre said:

Forgive my 2nd day real time, in this game.  1 day actual play time.

On one hand it's a great time to start DU, because you can absolutely mess around without much consequences as we'll probably have a full wipe (with the possible exceptions of talents and BPs). That is a perfect environment to get to know the game and the systems. The negative is that everything you make now, you loose (except possibly BPs).

 

I suspect that those that get to figure out now how the game works will have a huge advantage over those that don't. Might be even an advantage over those that started Beta 1.5 years ago, as starting was a long time ago and in a very different environment...

[Lichryre]

48 minutes ago, Cergorach said:

advantage over those that started Beta 1.5 years ago

This is what I was trying to imply, when I mentioned "time". 

[Zarcata]

1 hour ago, Lichryre said:

Archeage, if I remember correctly did not keep accruing while you were offline. 

ArcheAge is not comparable with DualUniverse. Here you don't have any equipment that can be broken, downgraded or destroyed for your character in order to be able to play in the endgame. likewise, here you don't immediately forfeit all your possessions because you don't pay your taxes, so you don't lose the land or even important things that are on the land. here you can even permanently protect 5 areas. likewise, there is a permanent area on the starter moon.
In general, the grind in DualUniverse is not as extreme as in archeage. Here it is enough to set up their mining units and calibrate them once a week. A week in Archeage has fatal consequences for their equipment, because many points were simply not collected through dailies. I myself played ArcheAge very successfully for many years, streamed and created guides and websites and switched to DualUniverse because here you can play in a much more relaxed way and don't lose everything because you weren't lucky when upgrading. Of course Archeage had the much better housing system, the furniture alone is worlds better, as is the PvP system, especially the ship battles - the PvP in DualUniverse is really boring and outdated. But hey, in the end it depends on what exactly you want to do in DualUniverse to find fun for yourself.

 

[Pleione]

With NQs performance of Athena, I fear I have to suggest TWO wipes.  One to test the process, another, perhaps a month later, to actually implement.  Athena felt like early Alpha:

 

4/26 Athena outage - all good

4/26 30 minute "number of issues" restart, oops, taking longer, oops, one more thing to patch, ah, got it - territory resource pools reset, territory ownership issues resolved, market ownership in Haven fixed, quanta and inventory issue for older accounts fixed, but space radars still broke and shield generators funked.  None of these things showed up in PTS?

4/26 Another restart

4/26 Another 30 minute outage, oops, just kidding, going to take longer 

4/27 Another 30 minute outage

4/28 More bug fixed, hour outage, dot release

5/1 Login server issue (Really?  That basic code still isn't solid after 4+ years?)

5/1 Wow... login server is really borked.  No idea how to fix it (at least they were transparent and honest)

5/1 OK, 30 minute outage to fix login problems

5/2 More maintenance needed, will do tomorrow

5/3 30 minute maintenance complete

5/4 Another hour needed, will do tomorrow

 

This is the expected turmoil during an alpha cycle, without a PTS.  Anything like this after "The Big Restart" would be embarrassing (if not to NQ, at least to all the players trying to bring friends (back) online).

 

 

 

[Captain Hills]

8 hours ago, Messaline said:

 

Precisely I would like to have this famous light on my future on DUAL.
And... I don't think I'm the only one!

Yep. You're not the only one. And I'm curious how many players do not watch the forums and notice this discussion here. Even though "BETA" implies the necessity to pick up the news here from time to time.

 

Some possibly just play and have no clue ... what's coming to them

[Lichryre]

13 hours ago, Zarcata said:

ArcheAge is not comparable

please remember the labor bar in Archeage.  The labor bar is "time".

 

[BlindingBright]

21 hours ago, Pleione said:

With NQs performance of Athena, I fear I have to suggest TWO wipes.  One to test the process, another, perhaps a month later, to actually implement.  Athena felt like early Alpha:

 

4/26 Athena outage - all good

4/26 30 minute "number of issues" restart, oops, taking longer, oops, one more thing to patch, ah, got it - territory resource pools reset, territory ownership issues resolved, market ownership in Haven fixed, quanta and inventory issue for older accounts fixed, but space radars still broke and shield generators funked.  None of these things showed up in PTS?

4/26 Another restart

4/26 Another 30 minute outage, oops, just kidding, going to take longer 

4/27 Another 30 minute outage

4/28 More bug fixed, hour outage, dot release

5/1 Login server issue (Really?  That basic code still isn't solid after 4+ years?)

5/1 Wow... login server is really borked.  No idea how to fix it (at least they were transparent and honest)

5/1 OK, 30 minute outage to fix login problems

5/2 More maintenance needed, will do tomorrow

5/3 30 minute maintenance complete

 

This is the expected turmoil during an alpha cycle, without a PTS.  Anything like this after "The Big Restart" would be embarrassing (if not to NQ, at least to all the players trying to bring friends (back) online).

 

 

 

DU is arguably at it's lowest population point since they started charging a sub.... and the servers are still on fire. This does not bode well for release.

Paired with talk of a wipe still being on the table, and NQ has nailed their game to the cross. I don't like the next part of this movie.