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We have to be honest and understand where the game actually is in terms of development. While NQ may try and call it "Beta" it is actually very much still in Alpha and will hopefully be in a true Beta state by years end. 

 

This game is no where even close to an actual 1.0 launch, not with so many core features missing or broken. 

 

Schematics really screwed over a lot of solo and small group corps, it was a bad play that only hurt the economy and desire for many to build factory setups so they can enjoy, build, and play the game without making the process a micro managed mini game of craziness.

 

Building ships to this day is still very challenging for most players. The whole "voxelmancy vudu" required to make voxels play nice with each other is still a major issue. This is the only game that makes building things a real pitta and not user friendly by any means. 

 

Sure, you will get your small crowd of die hard fans that love the ability to manipulate voxels and vertices and use a crazy voxel library system to build with; I mean holy hell! I don't believe you have these kind of issue if you learned 3ds Max or Maya.

 

Development team seems to be in a conundrum ever since JC was forced to step down for the good of the company. Unfortunately it feels like development is still stuck in the JC bubble of thought and not sure how to overcome many of the ongoing issues. 

 

I look at the over saturation of light they are looking to introduce with this Mercury .30 update coming soon. Those screenshots made me cringe because it just doesn't look right to me. 

 

They seem to be in a long debate of how to wipe and what will be wiped when the time comes. I honestly do not feel they can make the hard decisions needed to move forward, time will tell, but if they try and do something outside of a full wipe, 100% guarantee whatever "hybrid" wipe they attempt will be met with tons of issues and they will end up spending way more time all over again trying to fix things when a full wipe would be optimal and give them a fresh new start, which is what the game needs. 

 

Honestly, they should have already made that hard decision to do a full wipe at launch but not say anything until they were a few months out from actual 1.0 release. 

 

I understand they needed more money, and thus, a lot of folks had to pay a sub fee every month during this "Alpha Test" phase, because lets be honest, that is the legit phase the game is in right now. How they will handle accounts that have paid should be a no brainer, they simply add that time to their accounts once they game is in full release 1.0 status. 

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, Palad1n said:

We have to be honest and understand where the game actually is in terms of development. While NQ may try and call it "Beta" it is actually very much still in Alpha and will hopefully be in a true Beta state by years end. 

 

This game is no where even close to an actual 1.0 launch, not with so many core features missing or broken. 

 

While true, that is irrelevant now. NQ has no choice in the matter and has a set date on which the game releases regardless of what state it is in I am sure. The reason is simple, they have run out of money and so it's do or die. And by doing they may die anyway as what they have, as you correctly point out, is not even close to beta quality, let alone release ready.

 

Thing is, it's fine for DU to be in alpha at this stage, this is a complex game, and it all feels like NQ really is struggling to manage this project as it has shown to go well beyond what they can handle. But as they have run out of time and funding to learn and grow towards changing that as they go, all they can do is release and hope for the best which I really fear will not be much.
 

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Good point, to be honest i know space games that have better mods then DU at Hole at this moment.

Frankly with all developments over the years with all the exploits and people who were given sweets a wipe is frankly the only thing possible. And at best some bp are still use able but most can just be deleted as the current DU is not even compatible with them.

But since people payed actual cash for the beta phase there must be a honest compensation in something.

 

Some really good points for a wipe are mentioned and the idea schematics will be deleted are a point that actually shows that the complaints have been heard

Edited by Aaron Cain
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10 minutes ago, Aaron Cain said:

there must be a honest compensation in something.

 

Talent points, they are the most unproblematic thing:

 

-Costs NQ no money 

-They were earned, least exploit prone feature in the whole game probably.

-They can't harm an economy in it's infant boots.... compensatory quanta can rip that delicate flower out of the ground as soon as the server launches... whereas you can have all the talent points in the world and it won't change the fact the people who provide the raw materials can decide who they trade with and how... and there will be such inelastic demand for elements the first days that you willbe able to sell without buffs too.

 

 

The whole level field schtick won't last longer than a weekend anyway.

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As if anyone is even around to care anymore, it's been 75 days+ since this was first posted. 

 

Since then, I think NQ has chimed in about the wipe 2 or 3 times. 

 

I'm not surprised that Nouredine Abboud (NQ's new CEO) is doing....basically nothing. His recent linkedIn post from today is about...RDMS and how brilliant it is:

 

Quote

That’s what we call the RDMS in Dual Universe
 
Following my last post about players creating games in DU, the question that sprung to mind was: yes, but how do you handle ownership?
 
Yes, there are documented ways that are being discussed in details right now as the world is opening up to the Blockchain revolution

Yeah, throw that bitcoin into your post -- real timely with that. DU has jack to do with blockchain or web3, but sure, try to convince people that DU is a "metaverse". 

 

Quote

But what is key is to have a clear vision about how you want to populate & animate your digital space
It boils down to a database and to right-management
 
Better make sure you have a clear plan to avoid chaos
💀

 

Yep, no chaos here! The vision is so clear it's basically transparent. Nothing to see here, folks! 😭

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Indeed, just make the call and Wipe this Sh*t, normally all big tittles have a wipe before release and maybe a pre-acces of weeks or days. Just go for it, wipe, clean up schematics and everything and go with a clean slate, Tabula Rasa now and always! 

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5 hours ago, blazemonger said:

Seems NQ's CEO has yet to get the memo that so far blockchain has pretty much bombed in gaming.

 

Their linkedIn post seemed very out of touch...first with the state of DU (really, talking about RDMS like it's either new or wonderful?) then with the random blockchain reference.

 

It's like they want NQ to seem like a hip web3 company (even as this wave of NFT grifts implodes). They want to talk about DU like it's a metaverse and not like it's a game. 

 

His latest comment is even better :D  

 

Quote

I believe Dual Universe which has pioneered so many topics is a playbook for the Metaverse to come :)

 

We all know there's some leadership issues at NQ, but this obsession about branding it as a "metaverse" has become wildly silly and more than a little arrogant in the tone.

 

If DU is a playbook for anything...it's a playbook of things to avoid.

 

I wish the CEO would focus on the here and now and not this absurd idea that DU has anything whatsoever to do with a metaverse. 

 

Edit: I realize now that Abboud was an executive producer for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint which explains a lot.... 👀   

Edited by blundertwink
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I think I have mentioned before that there appears to be quite the disconnect internally at NQ about what middleupper mnagament thinks the game is about/like and reality ..

A good chunk of NQ still lives in this distorted reality bubble

Unfortunately, the people on the floor are caught inthe middle in there somewhere..

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NQ's CEO went to a "metaverse conference" 8 months ago where they were a speaker. 

 

Quote

As the Metaverse is going mainstream (thanks Meta), happy to share some of Novaquark’s wisdom at the Wedbush Metaverse Conference

 

It's just comical to think that NQ believes they were "doing metaverse first" and Facebook merely made it mainstream. The level of arrogance and disconnect is just wild. 

 

Another quote from this event that indicates that Nouredine actually doesn't care about Dual Universe as a game...

 

Quote

As Dual Universe reaches the final stretch leading up to launch, Nouredine is focused on taking the company's unique voxel expertise and technologies to a wide audience and to an array of projects.

 

If it feels like DU has no direction or leadership, maybe it is because the company's CEO is busy with that "array of projects"...e.g. trying to figure out how to jam NFTs or other nonsense into this wild ride, since that obviously worked out great for Ghost Recon 😏

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On 7/1/2022 at 3:04 PM, blundertwink said:

It's just comical to think that NQ believes they were "doing metaverse first" and Facebook merely made it mainstream. The level of arrogance and disconnect is just wild.

The CEO is actually doing his job.

 

NQ might actually have been using the term metaverse before Facebook => Meta started using it. Did they invent the term or the concept? Absolutely not! But neither did Facebook => Meta. As for making it mainstream... Yeah, not there yet at all! Second Life was more mainstream back in the day then THE Metaverse is now...

 

What the CEO is doing is presenting NQ as relevant, as having a future, as having a vision. It might not be a vision you or I might like, but they act like they do. Not for the DU users, but for potential investors and companies that might buy NQ. If you think that companies have actual working products ready and working when they announce them, you need to reevaluate your own perception and insight skills... In business you 'fake it until you make it' and at the CEO level you absolutely need a serious amount of arrogance to keep your head above the water in a pool of sharks (with laserbeams on their heads!)...

 

DU might not be what was envisioned during the Kickstarter or during Beta or six months ago... But there is a reason why the founder of the company/DU is no longer with the company... That is because the combination of the dream + the technology + the audience were not going to work, especially not under that leadership. DU has been in development for 8 years, how much money do you think was spend during that time? How much of that money that was spend came from KS backers and customers paying for founders packs and subscriptions? When I look at the numbers that are available, I suspect that it has only been a very small percentage of the funds used, the rest came from investors.

 

8 years and no finished product is a problem and when you need to wipe your persistent world again due to 'issues', you do not have a finished product. There are a ton of companies that are not making a profit after 8 years, but they at least have a finished product that they exploit, with a promise that they can make a BIG profit in the future (and many companies will still fail to make that promise).

 

So the NQ CEO is whipping up hype for investors and potential new owners, it's a sales pitch. And sales pitches use words that work on their audience, that audience isn't us DU customers. And let's be realistic, the CEOs job is to continue the company, even if DU fails. And computer games/MMOs fail all the time...

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2 hours ago, Cergorach said:

So the NQ CEO is whipping up hype for investors and potential new owners, it's a sales pitch. 

 

True, and I'd guess potential buyers to be more likely as I can't see investors wanting to burn more money on NQ.

 

In fact, he right buyer might wel be what saves DU. Although the chance of the company being torn apart for parts would be more likely if it got sold.

Maybe the game ends up opensourced :P

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2 hours ago, Cergorach said:

That is because the combination of the dream + the technology + the audience were not going to work, especially not under that leadership.

 

I get your overall point and don't necessarily disagree with the idea that the CEO's job is to do whatever it takes to preserve the company...

 

However, this means that NQ's leadership knows that DU won't work as a product. They know they won't get enough sales to keep NQ solvent, which means their focus isn't really on improving or fixing DU. They know they can't. 

 

Abboud has explicitly stated that they are working on more than one project -- in this context, that means to me that DU isn't moving forward because they don't have hope that it'll scale.

 

As you've reminded us, it took NQ 8 years to get to this point...you'd think they wouldn't be eager to take on more projects considering their dev pace unless they were utterly confident that DU was going to fail. 

 

So bringing this back to the original topic, this has never been about NQ's leadership "discussing" what to do with the game and the wipe...because it seems to me like their leadership has already given up on DU and are focused on last-ditch efforts to reposition the company in general. 

 

That's not a great thing for DU, even if it is a possible strategy for NQ.

 

With how they are trying to position NQ, there's little chance (IMO) that someone will buy the company and keep on with DU (vs. taking NQ's patents and doing their own thing). I'm equally skeptical that any reasonable investor would throw money at them to extend an 8-year-long runway to "finish" DU, either. 

 

So maybe the CEO is doing what they believe will save the company, but this doesn't mean good things for DU.

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driving away from the initial concept is always a good thing according to policy makers and people who need cash and do not want to deliver. This discussion is also pretty meaningless and just prevents people from venting at other posts.

Nothing will change unless the flow of money will be affected. And if that happens, NQ will not ask us what to change, investers will tell them.

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On 7/6/2022 at 3:12 PM, blundertwink said:

Abboud has explicitly stated that they are working on more than one project -- in this context, that means to me that DU isn't moving forward because they don't have hope that it'll scale.

 

As you've reminded us, it took NQ 8 years to get to this point...you'd think they wouldn't be eager to take on more projects considering their dev pace unless they were utterly confident that DU was going to fail.

 

This was probably one of the reasons why JC went out the door.

DU was his baby, and one of the original kickstarter promises was that NQ existed with the sole purpose to be working exclusively on making DU a reality.

 

And resources being allocated to other projects (despite being a clear violation of the kickstarter promises), would also explain some of the glacial slowness in the DU dev process.

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13 hours ago, CptLoRes said:

This was probably one of the reasons why JC went out the door.

DU was his baby, and one of the original kickstarter promises was that NQ existed with the sole purpose to be working exclusively on making DU a reality.

 

And resources being allocated to other projects (despite being a clear violation of the kickstarter promises), would also explain some of the glacial slowness in the DU dev process.

 

Maybe, but IMO this is just as likely something driven by the new CEO, who is very much as obsessed with the metaverse as JC was...

 

Indeed, Nouredine's LinkedIn bio makes it sound like his main focus from day 1 was expanding NQ into new projects:

 

Quote

Nouredine is focused on taking the company's unique voxel expertise and technologies to a wide audience and to an array of projects.

 

FWIW, I really hate when people write their bios in the third person...

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More evidence that NQ is aimless and destined to become a scammy web3 venture: 

Quote

...Novaquark has bet on voxels, single shard technology and blueprints (even before the web3 revolution)
 
We do not know exactly how those elements are going to be structured in the future for our creative journey.

But we believe voxels bring ease of use as anybody can use Legos.
🚀
The single shard technology helps breaking online limitations and is also compatible with multiple servers.
🚀🚀
Finally, blockchain is making concepts like blueprints finally easy to understand for everyone.
🚀🚀🚀
 
Curious to see how the landscape is going to evolve with all the cool technologies being developed

 

 

Blockchain isn't the future of gaming, it's a fad. NQ doesn't need a blockchain enthusiast at the helm, they need someone focused on finishing their game. 

 

I love that single shard is hailed as a great technology "breaking online limitations" when most of the last few patches are all about implementing more restrictions because nothing can scale...

 

No wonder they've gone down such a hole with their game design, the leader of the company is too busy obsessing over silly web3 cliches. 

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Who writes this stuff @blundertwink ?

 

Whoever wrote that must be talking about something else as nothinmg he is saying applies to DU in any way.

  • Working with voxels is not like working with legos as legoes, that is nonsense
  • SIngel shard is nothing new, CCP would like a word on that. Also, NQ's siungle shard technology is not all that great and certainly has not lived up to the hype so far
  • Blockchain has absolutely zero relevance towards blueprints in DU.. that statement is nonsense

 

Are you saying that the NQ CEO is writing this stuff? If he is, he sure is not talking about DU there and it mut be the new project NQ is working on according to him.

edit:

So yes, found that post by the NQ CEO on LinkedIN..

The #createtoearn tage he adds is very concerning

It feels like he is desparately trying to find a party willing to buy NQ

He is very much misrepresenting the state of the game

I really think that if he really is pushing towards blockchain then he apparently di dnot yet get the memo that that whole experiment mostly fell on its face already in the context of gaming.

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Blockchain + blueprints = NFT aka #createtoearn.  shudder.. As if things could not get worse.

 

But to be fair. NQ is struggling, and it is the CEO's job to try and save the company. It is just the way he goes about doing this, that is questionable.

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8 hours ago, Jake Arver said:

Are you saying that the NQ CEO is writing this stuff? If he is, he sure is not talking about DU there and it mut be the new project NQ is working on according to him.

 

Wild, right...? 

 

This is NQ's 3rd CEO and the only CEO they've had with actual game development experience.

 

I was hoping he would help right this ship and push the game to completion, but it seems like he's using DU as a vehicle for his personal web3 / metaverse obsessions rather than focusing on the one product NQ has. 

 

This is the leader NQ's stakeholders picked...?! This is the direction they think will work...? 

 

I've yet to hear any convincing pitch on why blockchain is the solution to any problem in gaming, but these people keep pushing for NFTs and web3 like it's an inevitability...and mostly it's people that don't really understand technology but believe they do. 

 

The level of disconnect and arrogance is really something. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Saw a news article about this game today randomly, got interested.

Got home and created and account, downloaded the installer, prepared to purchase a subscription, and headed to the forums,

Read through the first and last pages of this forum thread and decided not to buy a sub. Mostly based on the dates and lack of activity, but also the content is worrying. And with a wipe coming up someday that may or may not destroy this apparently small community of a niche game with a shaky development future... I'll pass.

And that is a sad thing. Seemed like it would actually be a fun little slice of gaming.

Good luck to all of you. And if I'm wrong on my conclusions please let me know.

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10 hours ago, Rawblin said:

Saw a news article about this game today randomly, got interested.

Got home and created and account, downloaded the installer, prepared to purchase a subscription, and headed to the forums,

Read through the first and last pages of this forum thread and decided not to buy a sub. Mostly based on the dates and lack of activity, but also the content is worrying. And with a wipe coming up someday that may or may not destroy this apparently small community of a niche game with a shaky development future... I'll pass.

And that is a sad thing. Seemed like it would actually be a fun little slice of gaming.

Good luck to all of you. And if I'm wrong on my conclusions please let me know.

We are pretty sure that we will get a launch date announcement on tuesday during this livestream event:

 

 

There was/is huge inactivity in the game because we didn't know about the launch wipe (which would delete all of our creations), which we finally now know will happen. So the game is expected to launch shortly (date incoming) and after this point we expect that there will be huge influx of new players when the game launches proper.

 

As a new player you can either dip your toes in now to get used to the systems before everything is wiped and we start again at launch, or simply wait for launch and start then fresh with everyone else.

 

(Also, if you're creating a new account, then you can use on of the referral codes to get some minor in-game bonuses at the start. Referee also benefits. Let me know if you need a code.)

 

[Edit: here is a code if you want one, but you'll need to create a new account by clicking on the link (your existing account won't work): https://www.dualuniverse.game/signup?recruiter=30720 )

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