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A letter to the devs...


BiGEdge

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A Letter to the devs,


I have been supporting your vision of a Dual Universe since 2017.
It was a dream for me what you had planned with DU and hadn't seen it in any other game before.
A freely explorable and malleable universe for potentially millions of players from all over the world who develop policies together, band together in large communities and jointly create content and activities for other players and, with luck, emergent systems.
Novaquark wanted to provide the tools and server technology for this.
That's exactly what you did at Novaquark and kept almost all of your promises so far.
Many thousands of players joined together in huge organizations and created great things in a virtual parallel world to our Reallife, a metaverse and were very proud of our and your achievements.
My investment has already paid off umpteen times and my expectations have even been exceeded in many aspects.
I'm still waiting for planetwide PVP, the pets and finally sending me my supporter t-shirt, I've been cold for 4 winters now.
No seriously, you've really done a great job with the potentially revolutionary server technology and all this in a freely editable voxel world.
But a revolution also needs revolutionaries and people who share a revolutionary idea and also appreciate the dedication towards this goal.
There was a time when many members in the DU community shared this vision.
However, that time seems to be over.
To my dismay, I found that very few still share the Dual Universe's initial vision.

What happened?
At the start of the beta there were the most players, but the game was probably not ready to handle the onslaught of players. The first two weeks of the beta launch were bumpy to say the least.
Despite a previous mass play test that was even worse.
Players who didn't start in the tutorial building, but together with the entire market complex many SU away in the middle of space. The world that wouldn't load and to the point of inexplicable game crashes and server crashes.
If you think of other games often have even more problems, DU scared off a lot of players with the beta start, but also kept enough to build a great world with lots of activities.
Tech Expos, Casinos, Giant Space Stations, Museums, Puzzle Games, Whole Cities and many more have been developed by players as content and activities for the game.
The economy prospered and was boosted by the introduction of Schematics into the production process.
At the time I was running stationary mobile trading and was able to earn many billions of quanta with it. Although the industrialists now had the problem that they could no longer produce everything themselves, the market was actively used as a result. Many players left the game because they saw schematics as an unnecessary constraint on their freedom rather than a way to have a healthy player-driven economy.

In the end, everything in DU is built around player interaction, and depends on how much players interact with each other, trade, PVP and destroy each other to keep the economy alive. Things that are produced must eventually be removed from the economic cycle and generate new demand, otherwise every economy will collapse at some point.
This has worked very well in EVE Online for many years, because there is always enough demand for new products generated there. Simply by the urge to expand and the gigantic losses of material that have to be used to do so.
In the Dual Universe, which was once described by large parts as a potential EVE 2.0 and Novaquark even hired former developers of EVE Online who also saw this potential in DU, there is unfortunately no such closed economic cycle "yet".
In DU everyone had everything at some point. The market demand fell to a minimum and the supply grew until it drove the price through the floor. This is called economic stagnation. When nothing is traded anymore because nothing is needed anymore.
Once all players have everything, they no longer need to pursue a goal and money has no value if players have enough money.

New players now have several disadvantages in DU.
Building factories costs them way too much quanta and they don't make any money anymore because the economy is down. It takes way too long for new players to make enough money to afford the schematics and the whole game feels more and more like endless grind and work with no value or rewards.
Player-made game content where you can earn Quanta is missing because few are willing to invest their fortunes in a depressed economy and no one is willing to invest in new players who are themselves frustrated that nothing can be done in reasonable timeframes goes ahead.
And the only option left seems to be a wipe.

The announcement of a potential wipe now had the following effect.
A lot of players who don't want to play until a possible wipe and those players who don't want to play after a wipe because everything worked out, a lot of playtime that was paid for with real money would simply be gone.
Some want the wipe and find it unfair that others have more because they were able to start playing Monopoly earlier.
The others see a way to get the economy and the entire game under control and all the problems that arose during the beta without a wipe.

A wipe only buys you time until the next wipe if the underlying problems are not fixed.
1. A closed economic cycle
2. An industry and a talent system that is fun and not frustrating
3. A smooth game in player cities and larger buildings
4. All content promised at Kickstarter (Planet PVP, Moon sized Space Stations and Citys with more than 10 FPS, Pets and Goodies)

My questions now are...
Is there still the same vision for DU as at the beginning of the development?
Are Novaquark and the DU community still on a common path?
Can we do that again to make DU the revolutionary project and create emergence?
Does NQ still have the means and the motivation for it, or do you let the setbacks discourage you?

If the answers are yes, then NQ just has to keep doing their job as before and DU will be a success.

If the answers are no, then the community needs to do more to make DU successful and NQ set the bar by fulfilling their Kickstarter promises.

I still trust NQ, but I also see that a lot of players don't anymore and they see Dual Universe dieing. Mainly because of this announcement of a wipe.
Please don't leave us hanging on the ropes NQ.
Decide how you want to save your and our game and let us know your plans as soon as possible.
Right now it seems like you don't have a plan yourself.
Many Rumors that Novaquark is broke.
I don't want to see my dream game die.

I would like to justify the "Revive DU" campaign.
After the Schematics update, get all your friends, org members, and gaming groups out of retirement and let's save the economy.
Spend all your money and buy empty the markets and then discard all purchased items from inventory to clear them. This prevents a wipe, in which everyone loses everything and you will be able to produce again with high prices on the market.

NQ should then introduce a decay system asap so that the market remains lively and new products are offered on the market again and again.
As an alternative to a decay system, there shouldn't be any save zones, as in EVE Online, and there would always be a risk of losing everything you've worked out as soon as you log into the game.
NQ should create an overview, how many items and how much Quanta are in circulation in relation to the number of players. Statistics and reading them right ist the key.
This will show you very precisely in which direction the economy is going to countermeasure potential problems and when you have to react early and make game-mechanical adjustments.
If the Economy is not a steady up and down with a tendency to grow, it will not work.
You can also see it in the price. And at least reintroduce market bots until a working decay system is implemented. The market bots can help stabilize prices and give new players the opportunity to start making money again.
Let the market bots buy and withit destroy many oft the created Elements and Products.
Quanta gains value again and players get something for their efforts to build a production again.
A wipe becomes unnecessary as soon as all game mechanics interlock.
The game mechanics mesh once all the game mechanics are built in.
Once all promised game mechanics are in place, a wipe becomes unnecessary because all issues have been resolved.
A wipe can either revive the game for 1-2 years until the next wipe becomes necessary
or a wipe can kill the game for good without NQ trying to change all the necessary game mechanics.

The fact that NQ have already started changing game mechanics like the Schematics system shows that they are trying to save the game without a wipe first.
But please share NQ, take a look for yourself at the community, what moves and then communicate.

I still share the vision for DU from the Kickstarter campaign back then.
Please share with us your current vision and ambition.

 

Thank you for reading…
sincerely your #DU-Fan-NR1

 

BigEdge

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7 minutes ago, Tordan said:

You are not alone.

I too still hope for the realization of the vision.

 

Wish In one hand shit in the other and see which fills up faster. Good games are not built on hope's and wishes. Good games are built from people with experience, and hard work.  There is a reason DU is at where it is now, and that is because NQ isn't capable of building the game you wish for. Instead they have filled your hands with shit.

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34 minutes ago, BiGEdge said:

To my dismay, I found that very few still share the Dual Universe's initial vision.

 

I'd say many still share the initial vision. And many also unerstand that a vision is just that and from there one needs to adjust and shape the vision to what is achievable.

 

 

34 minutes ago, BiGEdge said:

What happened?

NQ (in the form of JC) kept dreaming that their utopia was going to become reality. until reality came knocking at which time it was too late and NQ has been firefighting ans scrambling to just get to a release of some kind.

Unfortunately NQ has never really engaged what is probably their most valuable ally and asset in developing DU, their community. They just kept dreaming up overcomplicated ideas to "fix" other overcomplicated or over reaching ideas. This community has stood up and offered valueble suggestions/iodeas/feedback throughout he years but most has been ignored and much forgotten as the players who provided it have long since moved on.

 

 

So what happened you ask? NQ happened is what..

DU still has the potential it had back then and could still work out. But NQ is not the company to do it I believe. they lack the vision and (financial) resources to really make that push and make it fast enough.

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20 minutes ago, Jake Arver said:

I'd say many still share the initial vision

 

Unfortunately, I'd say that NQ's current leadership doesn't share that vision....they more interested in blockchain, web3, and NFTs. They don't even seem to view DU as a game, insisting it is actually a metaverse -- a platform to create content, not a provider of content. 

 

NQ's current plan is to shill the hell out of the web3/NFT/metaverse trend and hope someone will buy them even as these concepts implode. Hopefully I'm wrong...but I'm basing this on posts the CEO has made on LinkedIn. 

 

Otherwise, you're right. They have no plan. If they did, they wouldn't share it. 

 

NQ has gone beyond "having a bad rep" for not communicating or engaging with players. It's not just a bad rep anymore, it's a fact of how they operate. 

 

As I'm sure some will agree, the most likely way for NQ to interact with you is via temporary bans when they rarely decide to moderate the forum. 

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4 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

 

Unfortunately, I'd say that NQ's current leadership doesn't share that vision....they more interested in blockchain, web3, and NFTs. They don't even seem to view DU as a game, insisting it is actually a metaverse -- a platform to create content, not a provider of content. 

 

NQ's current plan is to shill the hell out of the web3/NFT/metaverse trend and hope someone will buy them even as these concepts implode. Hopefully I'm wrong...but I'm basing this on posts the CEO has made on LinkedIn. 

 

Otherwise, you're right. They have no plan. If they did, they wouldn't share it. 

 

NQ has gone beyond "having a bad rep" for not communicating or engaging with players. It's not just a bad rep anymore, it's a fact of how they operate. 

 

As I'm sure some will agree, the most likely way for NQ to interact with you is via temporary bans when they rarely decide to moderate the forum. 

 

I remember talking to a friend who worked in development. Worked for company that did something with making apps and software.  He said ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them. Many good. Only very few know how to actually execute. That's what matters.  He talked about someone having an idea and went to developers and to make his idea come to life and he wanted half profits or stake, and they basically laughed at him.  That's not the hard part.

 

People keep saying DU has potential but does it? Did it ever? Or was it just some half baked idea. Then combine that with a company unable to execute and seemingly makes the wrong decision at every turn. DU really never had a chance. 

 

 

43 minutes ago, Jake Arver said:

 

 

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10 minutes ago, CousinSal said:

 

I remember talking to a friend who worked in development. Worked for company that did something with making apps and software.  He said ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them. Many good. Only very few know how to actually execute. That's what matters.  He talked about someone having an idea and went to developers and to make his idea come to life and he wanted half profits or stake, and they basically laughed at him.  That's not the hard part.

 

 

 I agree with this 100%.  It took until 50 before I realised that being creative isnt enough.  Nobody else will invest heavily in making something because you think its good.  If you want to make money out of being creative you have to make whatever it is yourself.  The problem is that its very rare to get a person who has the creativity as well as the ability and skills required to make something.  Usually a really creative person cant stand doing the same thing twice.  Usually a person that makes things well can make the same thing 100 times satisfied that every one is ever so slightly better than the last. 

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1 minute ago, CousinSal said:

 

I remember talking to a friend who worked in development. Worked for company that did something with making apps and software.  He said ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them. Many good. Only very few know how to actually execute. That's what matters.  He talked about someone having an idea and went to developers and to make his idea come to life and he wanted half profits or stake, and they basically laughed at him.  That's not the hard part.

 

People keep saying DU has potential but does it? Did it ever? Or was it just some half baked idea. Then combine that with a company unable to execute and seemingly makes the wrong decision at every turn. DU really never had a chance. 

 

I've worked in dev for like 15 years now (3 in game dev); this is very true. There's an adage that says that brilliant ideas are worth a penny, but brilliant ideas with an implementation are worth a fortune. 

 

I agree that the potential for DU as a concept was always too optimistic.

 

DU's ambition was always outsized relative to their resources, and because they had no design plan, it was never going to translate into a stable, scalable implementation. They followed their ideas then had to change everything over and over again because they realized it wasn't practical or scalable. 

 

Twitter was built in a weekend, but it has taken them years and years and years of work to learn how to scale the platform. Building something isn't the same as building something at scale for production. That's a concept every dev should have known, but I suspect their leadership was never willing to hear it. 

 

This is the result...a game that's had to go through too many refactors to fix basic issues with scale, which means no feature depth, no engagement, and therefore no subs. 

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The problem I see here is that NQ seems to not want to let go of ideas and move on from them when they see the signs of the idea not working or going to take way too much time/resources/effort. The result is a half done idea, with a lot of fallout in the surrounding mechanics. And we see that happen in DU a lot.

 

NQ does not iterate fast enough and they never have..  "Fail often, fail fast" is a truth that you really can't do without..  

 

And this is why the game effectively is still really in early Alpha.

 

 

Is the potential enough for DU to become a good game? I do believe that is areal possibility, but I also think that NQ lacks the ability to make that happpen because they are to attached to their "ideas" and by now have wasted enourmous amounts of resources trying to make them work anyway. And I believe ther stil lis no central project manager, which is simply going to be a blocker for a comnplex project like DU to become a reality. 

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I can argue without getting too wet that our organization, which has about ten active members + the 20 other players who have played with us in the past, still want the vision of the initial game to be realized.
And we are all more or less aware of the sacrifices necessary for this last, end of planetary mining, industrial nerve, limitation of core units... All this is positive for us if it allows us to carry out the vision.
 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the vision of the game that we support :
 

"At the same time, we want rare resources to be hard to secure, exploring the unknown to be challenging, and territory control to be central for Alliances and Empires."

The ship’s autonomous AI will constantly monitor every action performed in its action radius and neutralize any attempt of aggression or unauthorized destruction. Beyond that zone, it’s PvP free-for-all. You only go there if you’re well prepared. "

" But it will be in principle possible to settle a new safe zone anywhere on any planet (except in another safe zone), if enough players are willing to contribute to its building and maintenance. "
 


" In Dual Universe, creating a market will require nothing more than setting up a Market Unit, a particular Element that you can craft and install in any construct of yours. The Market Unit requires an energy supply and a container to store the traded goods "

- let the players set their markets anywhere they want, making the geopolitical/strategic aspect of this a core element of the emergent gameplay "

 


"One important thing to understand is that Resurrection Nodes (or RN) are expensive. Very. Whether you buy it or you collect the materials to craft it, this will be a considerable investment. "

" A Resurrection Node is a power hungry machine "

"You need to power it and make sure it is fully charged, and the time it takes for a full charge will depend on the type of power source you can afford to use. This can range from a few minutes to a few days."

" In any case, one thing is sure: the resurrection nodes are going to be a central element of gameplay and emergent strategies/counter-strategies between opposing factions "

 


Duties are things like: a price to pay per month, per day or per use to be able to use the tag, a price to acquire it, a certain location that you must be in to be able to use it, etc " 

" Another important aspect is the notion of warranties: when I give a tag to someone, I can also take it back at any time. I may agree to provide a warranty attached to this tag, which says that the removal will be done after a 24h or 48h notice, or that I agree to pay a certain amount when I remove the tag, as a compensation. " 

" The last notion I want to talk about is the notion of ?power delegation?. "



 

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2 hours ago, CousinSal said:

Wish In one hand shit in the other and see which fills up faster. Good games are not built on hope's and wishes. Good games are built from people with experience, and hard work.  There is a reason DU is at where it is now, and that is because NQ isn't capable of building the game you wish for. Instead they have filled your hands with shit.

 

Thank you for your insights

You do know I am not a dev correct? So while I have in fact worked hard to contribute to the game and it's success, mostly as a player and supporter my job is to make suggestions, help where I am able, and sometimes just encourage.

 

Disparaging others seldom helps to achieve a positive result.

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You are preaching to the choir @Knight-Sevy

 

Unfortunately, some of us who saw what was happening early on, got slammed and lambasted not just by NQ but by a good portion of the alpha tester community. "We told you so" certainly applies here, which is why I feel I can say I still believe that DU has the potential to be great in many ways, but it can't be for everyone (which is what NQ keeps trying to achieve) and it needs a very steady hand in development and F-U-N-D-I-N-G .. Neither of which NQ seems to be able to provide.

 

There is a good few in this community who know their stuff, it's obvious from what they say, how they say it and when. There is a number of members of the community who kick kicked for being persistent because they know they are right and want to see this game happen and be great. They get sent to the bench or worse and are not allowed back unless they promise to be good (as in, behave like NQ wants them to). And so more and more of the ones that could actually HELP NQ, if they'd only be willing to listen and engage have either left or not bothered to try again.

 

DU is a game which DOES have the potential. I'd even say it's really not THAT far-off but needs a good nudge in some areas. problem is NQ seems to not know how or chooses to not want to do that and I have no idea why. And NQ does not want to ask for help, reach out to the community and actually come up with workable solutions, examples of which are plentiful around the forums..
 

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I'd say it doesn't have potential and never did. But here is the thing. Potential means literally nothing. NOTHING. potential doesn't pay salaries. Potential doesn't write code. Potential doesn't come up with proper management styles.  Potential doesn't keep a playerbase to pay subs for years.  I can't wait til after DU dies and then we can here about potential in all the past tense form. 

 

"Man DU had such potential such a shame the servers shut down". 

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13 minutes ago, Jake Arver said:

There is a number of members of the community who kick kicked for being persistent because they know they are right and want to see this game happen and be great. They get sent to the bench or worse and are not allowed back unless they promise to be good (as in, behave like NQ wants them to). And so more and more of the ones that could actually HELP NQ, if they'd only be willing to listen and engage have either left or not bothered to try again.

A broken clock is right twice a day... So being right does not justify being an [filtered] about it. And the reason that people get drop-kicked isn't because the are 'right', it is because they are being arseholes (about it)!

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17 minutes ago, Knight-Sevy said:

I can argue without getting too wet that our organization, which has about ten active members + the 20 other players who have played with us in the past, still want the vision of the initial game to be realized.
And we are all more or less aware of the sacrifices necessary for this last, end of planetary mining, industrial nerve, limitation of core units... All this is positive for us if it allows us to carry out the vision.
 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the vision of the game that we support :
 

"At the same time, we want rare resources to be hard to secure, exploring the unknown to be challenging, and territory control to be central for Alliances and Empires."

The ship’s autonomous AI will constantly monitor every action performed in its action radius and neutralize any attempt of aggression or unauthorized destruction. Beyond that zone, it’s PvP free-for-all. You only go there if you’re well prepared. "

" But it will be in principle possible to settle a new safe zone anywhere on any planet (except in another safe zone), if enough players are willing to contribute to its building and maintenance. "
 


" In Dual Universe, creating a market will require nothing more than setting up a Market Unit, a particular Element that you can craft and install in any construct of yours. The Market Unit requires an energy supply and a container to store the traded goods "

- let the players set their markets anywhere they want, making the geopolitical/strategic aspect of this a core element of the emergent gameplay "

 


"One important thing to understand is that Resurrection Nodes (or RN) are expensive. Very. Whether you buy it or you collect the materials to craft it, this will be a considerable investment. "

" A Resurrection Node is a power hungry machine "

"You need to power it and make sure it is fully charged, and the time it takes for a full charge will depend on the type of power source you can afford to use. This can range from a few minutes to a few days."

" In any case, one thing is sure: the resurrection nodes are going to be a central element of gameplay and emergent strategies/counter-strategies between opposing factions "

 


Duties are things like: a price to pay per month, per day or per use to be able to use the tag, a price to acquire it, a certain location that you must be in to be able to use it, etc " 

" Another important aspect is the notion of warranties: when I give a tag to someone, I can also take it back at any time. I may agree to provide a warranty attached to this tag, which says that the removal will be done after a 24h or 48h notice, or that I agree to pay a certain amount when I remove the tag, as a compensation. " 

" The last notion I want to talk about is the notion of ?power delegation?. "



 

Well this is part of what i meant...
NQ should stick to theyr roots. Lets remind them where it all began and what they had in mind and promissed us for emergent gameplay and create emergence.
They give us the tools and make the games rules.
But if the rules are just not engaging, the game runs dry on players.
We the players did a lot to create content for the game, so that other players can enjoy it.

 

Lets remind them...
They should check all the good ideas and all the bad ideas for the game and develop only those that have three things.
 - Engaging replayability in all aspects of the game. If you start the Game, new players should get a hand from the players, youtubers, organisations, not a half baked tutorial. Minecraft fE never needed a tutorial and even EVE online first hat the success and after succeeding a tutorial (imo the FTUE was one of the biggest waste of time and resources) its not engaging to logg in once a day and just setting some Talents and check your production and logg off again. Activitys come from players and the tutorials are not leading the players towards those activitys, but seperating players from the community. You cannot show the players what they are able to do in the game, what endless possibilitys of interaction they have with other players, when you lead them to stay a solo player.
 - Give the players all the tools to shape theyre empires. First thing in building a civilization is communication. Give the players all the possible tools to communicate. This crap of a ingame chat is boring and really not engaging. VoIPand all the other things Players have in so many other Games would help. Next part of a civilization are citys. Ya i know players allready build citys. but they are mostly lifeless and dead when visiting them. Why do human build citys? there are good reasons history showed us. War! Only in big groups you can avoid being killed, with strong leadership or in democracy. Land! To find fertile land and defend it against others who want to steal it from you. Companionship! Only works well, when the communication is properly working. Let the players talk ingame to another person, when you meet them, and i promiss you, they will try to stick together and work together.
- Markets have to work. Having a full economy cicle is essential for a growing society. Rather with Quanta, or anything else, but all three things, the out and inflow of money needs to be regulated, the income of resources and the decay or destruction of finished products, These three things need to be balanced to a wealthy supply and demand, the essence of any economy. A wealthy economy only works when there is shortage. An economy stucks, when there is too much abundance.
 

 

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6 minutes ago, BiGEdge said:

Lets remind them...
They should check all the good ideas and all the bad ideas for the game and develop only those that have three things.

 

I don't disagree, but what is the point of "reminding" them...?

 

They've showed over and over and over in the past 6 years that they aren't interested in player feedback or communication. I mean, it's been like about 3 months now and they can't even explain what level of persistence the game will have, haha! 

 

Even if they did read and agree with you, this ship has sailed a long time ago.

 

They're steaming forward to release and there's no time to make sweeping changes to the design. Certainly not enough time to fix these fundamental flaws. 

 

I get that people are disappointed at how far DU has diverged from what was promised, but they won't engage with suggestions about bringing it back on track even if they did have the time to actually do so. 

 

It's hard to root for NQ when they don't really want to discuss the game with their customers. They present an attitude of them knowing what's best for DU and everyone else is just a complainer or a know-it-all. 

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16 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

 

I don't disagree, but what is the point of "reminding" them...?

 

They've showed over and over and over in the past 6 years that they aren't interested in player feedback or communication. I mean, it's been like about 3 months now and they can't even explain what level of persistence the game will have, haha! 

 

Even if they did read and agree with you, this ship has sailed a long time ago.

 

They're steaming forward to release and there's no time to make sweeping changes to the design. Certainly not enough time to fix these fundamental flaws. 

 

I get that people are disappointed at how far DU has diverged from what was promised, but they won't engage with suggestions about bringing it back on track even if they did have the time to actually do so. 

 

It's hard to root for NQ when they don't really want to discuss the game with their customers. They present an attitude of them knowing what's best for DU and everyone else is just a complainer or a know-it-all. 

 

It's shouting into the void. Even back in alpha we gave them good ideas on how to do asteroids, that incorporated real exploration, that was in a way able to be coded and developed (no crazy grand plans) and what did we get, the dumbest lowest effort with dsat and the T1-T5 theme.  Either they don't care to occasionally take some inspiration from the community or they incapable of making good gameplay loops on their own. Both bad. Game is boring as [filtered].

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5 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

 

I don't disagree, but what is the point of "reminding" them...?

 

They've showed over and over and over in the past 6 years that they aren't interested in player feedback or communication. I mean, it's been like about 3 months now and they can't even explain what level of persistence the game will have, haha! 

 

Even if they did read and agree with you, this ship has sailed a long time ago.

 

They're steaming forward to release and there's no time to make sweeping changes to the design. Certainly not enough time to fix these fundamental flaws. 

 

I get that people are disappointed at how far DU has diverged from what was promised, but they won't engage with suggestions about bringing it back on track even if they did have the time to actually do so. 

 

It's hard to root for NQ when they don't really want to discuss the game with their customers. They present an attitude of them knowing what's best for DU and everyone else is just a complainer or a know-it-all. 

 

Im not that negative about NQ,
i know they read everything and they know exactly what the community wants.
They tell us in they're podcasts that they listen to us. And i really believe they do.
So many gamefeatures were implemented only because of the voice from the community.
More market interaction - they implemented Schematics and it worked as intended
Easier Tools for Voxelmancy - they implemented the Vertex precision tool
Activitys for PVP and PVE - they implemented Shipwrecks and Alien Stations for PVP
Just three suggestions that came from the community and have been implemented.
NQs time is limited, but ive never heard from NQ that the budget is yet. So i have faith in them, they will save the economy and implement planetary PVP befor the release.
I have faith that they get the games economy running without a wipe that will kill the game entirely.
And i have faith that NQ is still up for the initial vision of DU and working on it.
I have less faith in the playerbase, because i see many players who joined the game, espeacially after the beta start, who havnt recognized the vision of DU and many dont seem to understand what DU is all about.
Dual Universe was never planned as a game build by developers to entertain players.
Dual Universe was planned as a parrallel world to our real world with all its good and bad sides.
Good is everything the kickstarter page told us. a virtual world build by players for players and all activitys come from the players.
Bad is that everyone has to work for it. You have to work in the game and yes the game feels like work, because it was allways intended to be.
But Work that pays out, with activitys for players and an emergent ecosystem, where the players build orgs, orgs build citys, citys that have to be defended against other players and naturally grow.
It seems many players have forgotten that they have to build the games content with all the many tools NQ gave us.
Not the devs build the world and the activitys. The players DU
Only task for NQ is to make those tools engaging, so we enjoy that work.

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14 minutes ago, BiGEdge said:

 

Im not that negative about NQ,
i know they read everything and they know exactly what the community wants.
They tell us in they're podcasts that they listen to us. And i really believe they do.
So many gamefeatures were implemented only because of the voice from the community.
More market interaction - they implemented Schematics and it worked as intended
Easier Tools for Voxelmancy - they implemented the Vertex precision tool
Activitys for PVP and PVE - they implemented Shipwrecks and Alien Stations for PVP
Just three suggestions that came from the community and have been implemented.
NQs time is limited, but ive never heard from NQ that the budget is yet. So i have faith in them, they will save the economy and implement planetary PVP befor the release.
I have faith that they get the games economy running without a wipe that will kill the game entirely.
And i have faith that NQ is still up for the initial vision of DU and working on it.
I have less faith in the playerbase, because i see many players who joined the game, espeacially after the beta start, who havnt recognized the vision of DU and many dont seem to understand what DU is all about.
Dual Universe was never planned as a game build by developers to entertain players.
Dual Universe was planned as a parrallel world to our real world with all its good and bad sides.
Good is everything the kickstarter page told us. a virtual world build by players for players and all activitys come from the players.
Bad is that everyone has to work for it. You have to work in the game and yes the game feels like work, because it was allways intended to be.
But Work that pays out, with activitys for players and an emergent ecosystem, where the players build orgs, orgs build citys, citys that have to be defended against other players and naturally grow.
It seems many players have forgotten that they have to build the games content with all the many tools NQ gave us.
Not the devs build the world and the activitys. The players DU
Only task for NQ is to make those tools engaging, so we enjoy that work.

Good points

I agree by 100%

What you wrote, made me think this:

 

I think we all agree about current problems. Direction of development is off

 

If NQ really does listen us , are those problems on us?

 

This I like to say to NQ:

Respect original vision and go towards it.

Ignore proposals which  may lead to wrong direction.

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2 hours ago, Cergorach said:

A broken clock is right twice a day... So being right does not justify being an [filtered] about it. And the reason that people get drop-kicked isn't because the are 'right', it is because they are being arseholes (about it)!

The [filtered] part only comes after desperately trying to help for years, and then having to watch any and all constructive feedback (including bug rapports) from the entire community being ignored.

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Has anyone ever considered that the original vision isn't viable at all and NQ is somehow trying to pull together something playable so it's not a complete bust?
That vision at the beginning - it's gone.
Now another DualUniverse comes on the market, you either get along with it or you don't. Still, we should stay with reality and not chase a dead dream.

Maybe the game should be seen as an attempt that didn't work out as expected. I hope, however, that the developers could profit and learn something from it, in order to develop better products from it. Even if Dualuniverse would remain only a voxel construction game, some surely have fun with it...maybe in 10-30 years then comes a new DualMetaVerse, which then rather fulfills the direction of the visions.

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24 minutes ago, kulkija said:

Good points

I agree by 100%

What you wrote, made me think this:

 

I think we all agree about current problems. Direction of development is off

 

If NQ really does listen us , are those problems on us?

 

This I like to say to NQ:

Respect original vision and go towards it.

Ignore proposals winch  may lead to wrong direction.

You know,
i try to put me into NQ. Has something to do with being empathic.
If i was NQ, i see the active players i would cry and lose ambition to work for those whining, ungrateful but paying customers.
Even if you listen to suggestions, deviate from the plan and the initial vision to fulfill stupid suggestions that were never planned,

work your ass of to implement many of those things into a game where the players were intend to create the content.
Dosnt it feel like a waste of time, when the community is whining even louder after you devided from the plan to just implement the tools for the players and not the content?
Well if i were NQ i would think about ever listening to this ungrateful community again and try to finish the project as soon as possible without breaking too many promisses.
I would tell the community to not being that negative and tell NQ not just where they failed, but also where they have done something good.
But hey i allways try to be empathic, im not a fanboy...
Well... i lied, im a Fanboy after all 😜

 

Jokes aside, let us remind NQ why we wanted this game, why they wanted to fulfill this vision and let them DU theyre job...
And lets DU our job.
Both sides are the reason if DU will be unsuccessful. Not just NQ, but also the Comunity.
We in Germany have a saying
Sweep in front of your own door
or
Grab your own nose
Means befor critizising others, check if you cannot do it better, or
If you rely on others, then you are abandoned. So you have to do your job first

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2 hours ago, Knight-Sevy said:

I can argue without getting too wet that our organization, which has about ten active members + the 20 other players who have played with us in the past, still want the vision of the initial game to be realized.
And we are all more or less aware of the sacrifices necessary for this last, end of planetary mining, industrial nerve, limitation of core units... All this is positive for us if it allows us to carry out the vision.
 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the vision of the game that we support :
 

"At the same time, we want rare resources to be hard to secure, exploring the unknown to be challenging, and territory control to be central for Alliances and Empires."

The ship’s autonomous AI will constantly monitor every action performed in its action radius and neutralize any attempt of aggression or unauthorized destruction. Beyond that zone, it’s PvP free-for-all. You only go there if you’re well prepared. "

" But it will be in principle possible to settle a new safe zone anywhere on any planet (except in another safe zone), if enough players are willing to contribute to its building and maintenance. "
 


" In Dual Universe, creating a market will require nothing more than setting up a Market Unit, a particular Element that you can craft and install in any construct of yours. The Market Unit requires an energy supply and a container to store the traded goods "

- let the players set their markets anywhere they want, making the geopolitical/strategic aspect of this a core element of the emergent gameplay "

 


"One important thing to understand is that Resurrection Nodes (or RN) are expensive. Very. Whether you buy it or you collect the materials to craft it, this will be a considerable investment. "

" A Resurrection Node is a power hungry machine "

"You need to power it and make sure it is fully charged, and the time it takes for a full charge will depend on the type of power source you can afford to use. This can range from a few minutes to a few days."

" In any case, one thing is sure: the resurrection nodes are going to be a central element of gameplay and emergent strategies/counter-strategies between opposing factions "

 


Duties are things like: a price to pay per month, per day or per use to be able to use the tag, a price to acquire it, a certain location that you must be in to be able to use it, etc " 

" Another important aspect is the notion of warranties: when I give a tag to someone, I can also take it back at any time. I may agree to provide a warranty attached to this tag, which says that the removal will be done after a 24h or 48h notice, or that I agree to pay a certain amount when I remove the tag, as a compensation. " 

" The last notion I want to talk about is the notion of ?power delegation?. "



 

 

I agree with u. 1000%,

 

awesome collection o the DevBlogs and the good things they said there! 

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16 minutes ago, Zarcata said:

Has anyone ever considered that the original vision isn't viable at all and NQ is somehow trying to pull together something playable so it's not a complete bust?
That vision at the beginning - it's gone.

 

Clearly NQ is not following their vision. And here we are.

 

How many times in history people have said that "it is not possible," Man can not fly, earth is flat, Columbus shall newer go west...

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