The server issues have create a no-win situation.

[StoneSpoons]

Over the past several weeks, we've been dealing with some pretty significant server issues that have made this (rightly) challenging game into one that's almost impossible to play.

 

On two occasions, while running missions, my ship has completely lost the ability to brake.  This is happening with a ship that I've used for that same mission many times before and after.

 

This has happened to some of my org-mates as well. One said, "I just landed on thades. and instead of landing I shot into the air at 16k kmph and disabled 223 modules".  Another said, "coming down for a landing - brakes are working and then the ship just drops to the ground damaging half the elements".

 

Another said, "yesterday late in the day i was leaving atmo on talemai .  at 16km above surface my ship disappeared and my body floated down. ship got stuck 16 km above me."  -  I know that this same exact thing happened to another player in my org about three weeks ago.

 

NQ knows there is a problem. And I know they're going to fix it. But until they do, I can't run missions. If my ship crashes like that again, it's done.  

 

If it happens again then my ship is broken forever and I'm screwed.

 

I had a cushion of quanta in my account that I've used to pay my tile taxes, but now that money is depleted. If I can't run missions, I can't earn money.

 

So what am I supposed to do here, NQ?  These server issues have been going on for weeks!  I really like this game and I want to play it. Because of these server issues, which are out of my control, I can't earn money.  And so I won't be able to pay my tile tax.  So I'm going to lose my tiles because the server is having problems. 

 

So I'm asking you, NQ.... what do you expect me to do here? This is frustrating and we've been patient. Are you guys going to do anything?  Please just help.

[RumRunnerI]

Yea this is frustrating and I feel your pain. My T1 flowers weren't making more money then the taxes on it and paying those kept me in a constant state of broke. I was never more than a few days of missing a tax bill. I was running missions but it takes too long and isnt fun so to survive, I pulled all of my miners, left my flowers to the dust bin of history and have been far richer since. It doesnt solve your problem but it is a bandaid until your issues are finally resolved. 

[blundertwink]

23 minutes ago, StoneSpoons said:

NQ knows there is a problem. And I know they're going to fix it

 

I appreciate your optimism, but unfortunately, I'm not convinced they will fix it.

 

They've struggled with performance and stability issues since the start...even if they do fix these specific problems eventually, the fix is too slow and any stability has proven to be ephemeral.

 

Future updates just create new crops of issues because the underlying flaws with the production process (bad QA / bug-prune codebase) don't get fixed. 

 

Maybe I'm overly pessimistic, but DU's stability has never been especially robust and I'm not expecting their post-release "focus" on bugs will actually bring the game enough stability. 

 

[StoneSpoons]

3 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

They've struggled with performance and stability issues since the start...even if they do fix these specific problems eventually, the fix is too slow and any stability has proven to be ephemeral.

 

Can't really disagree with anything you've said. It's not optimism, if I'm being honest.  More like empathy.  I really believe the development team wants to make a great game.  But then, I'm old enough to know it takes so much more than 'want'.  We'll never know what their budget looks like, what demands or restrictions are being placed on them by the decision makers who don't play the game - all those things.  Unless NQ-Deckard is a wild anomaly, which I doubt, the team wants to make a cool game.  But right now, it's not happening.  I'll be happy to be wrong, but I don't think DU is going to make it another year.  So... empathetic pessimism maybe. (shrug)

[CptLoRes]

Sounds like NQ has reduced server capacity, again.

The problems described here are usually caused by client server desynchronization, which happens when the servers are over utilized and lagging behind the client.

[Wyndle]

38 minutes ago, CptLoRes said:

Sounds like NQ has reduced server capacity, again.

The problems described here are usually caused by client server desynchronization, which happens when the servers are over utilized and lagging behind the client.

It is considerably less stable now than end of Beta and difficult to play near other players even on foot.  Massively is a term that never applied to player count here, and now we're trimming out the Multiplayer aspect. 

 

Just give us an offline building mode on a 10km tile copied from existing planets with the ability to invite others to visit combined with a lobby based PvP fighter.  The industry types could still grind to make functional factories in their own or shared map.  That's the way it appears to be headed, and TBH it sounds more fun than the current config even without the connection/capacity issues.

[Novean-61657]

It sounds like the desync issue that was mentioned in the latest bug reports. I had a similar issue with moving my ship with the move tool. Put it on the ground it was launched far into the air, luckily I could catch it...

[Atmosph3rik]

4 hours ago, StoneSpoons said:

"coming down for a landing - brakes are working and then the ship just drops to the ground damaging half the elements".

 

 

I've definitely experienced this before, many times.  Coming in for a landing, going about 500kph, and decelerating, holding the brakes.  And without releasing the brakes, suddenly your speed starts to increase.  I've started taping the brakes when this happens, and usually they seem to kick back in a second or two later.  But sometimes that few seconds of no brakes is enough to cause a crash, or at least a rough landing.

 

 

 

 

[StoneSpoons]

I think I'm just tired of playing a game that's not working. It's a grind anyway and now even the grind isn't working.  The game was more fun in Beta and they've just ruined it. At least for me.  I'm sure others will disagree, but for me, I'm tired of the server issues.  These aren't the first and I don't think they're going to be the last.  And I don't think they really know what they're doing, tbh.  Sucks.  Could have been such a cool game.

[GraXXoR]

For me the worst is terraforming. I am a masochist and will often dig out entire core volumes for our base, like a 12-M-core-long tunnel dug through a Thades mountain. But these last few weeks I'm getting Internal Server Error every time. Sometimes repeatedly, sometimes not. It's really throwing me off the rhythm and reducing the efficiency.

[Wyndle]

I have been working on a digging project as well.  I find that the errors associated with digging go up exponentially the closer one gets to other players and constructs.  I also find that changing between tools (flatten and mine), tool sizes, and how your pointer is aimed all increase your ability to bypass most of the errors.   Keep in mind that doing it this way greatly increases your chances of leaving tiny, ship killing fragments of terrain voxels.

[ColonkinYT]

On beta, we could tear down a whole mountain just because it made it difficult to see the sunrise or sunset. Now we try not to do it. Due to the delay in loading new surfaces (even if they were in the cache). At this rate, Starbase will soon overtake DU online, given that they have not updated the game for 8 months.

 

As for the topic.
Falling through the floor, untimely braking, unloading of the terrain (by the way, it can also lead to a blow). All this is due to server delays.
Have we received all the Kickstarter awards due? If yes, then we are waiting for the announcement that "We tried, but we could not." Or the more fashionable "We did everything right, but the wrong players broke everything."
And then either another deletion or closing of the project.

[StoneSpoons]

They're on top of the server problems just like they're on top of these forum posts.

 

[[Insert cricket noise here]]

[blundertwink]

It's kind of hard to blame them for nerfing capacity again, if that's what's happening.

 

I'd probably do the same thing in their boat.

 

Being realistic, why should they keep things scaled out...? Unfortunately, there's no avenue for growth, here. Not with platforms like Steam. Not with paid adverts. Not with organic growth driven from good content and high quality.

 

NQ's opportunities to fix this game have come and gone, unfortunately.

 

Yeah, server problems are a no-win situation, but let's be real...fixing their server problems wouldn't likely make a huge difference in the game's subs, anyway.

 

To be clear, I don't think NQ has "given up" -- they're actively looking to fill roles still, including a backend dev with an emphasis on web dev and microservices (which makes me think it is micro-transaction related, but that's just a wild guess)...but until these (likely desperate) ideas materialize, I don't blame them for not wanting to pay for infra. 

 

Personally, I am not confident the CEO is grounded enough in reality against the ocean of web3 / blockchain nonsense to pull the game out of its oblivion-spiral, but who knows...? Weirder things have happened. 

[Wyndle]

1 hour ago, blundertwink said:

It's kind of hard to blame them for nerfing capacity again, if that's what's happening.

 

I'd probably do the same thing in their boat.

 

Being realistic, why should they keep things scaled out...? Unfortunately, there's no avenue for growth, here. Not with platforms like Steam. Not with paid adverts. Not with organic growth driven from good content and high quality.

 

NQ's opportunities to fix this game have come and gone, unfortunately.

 

Yeah, server problems are a no-win situation, but let's be real...fixing their server problems wouldn't likely make a huge difference in the game's subs, anyway.

 

To be clear, I don't think NQ has "given up" -- they're actively looking to fill roles still, including a backend dev with an emphasis on web dev and microservices (which makes me think it is micro-transaction related, but that's just a wild guess)...but until these (likely desperate) ideas materialize, I don't blame them for not wanting to pay for infra. 

 

Personally, I am not confident the CEO is grounded enough in reality against the ocean of web3 / blockchain nonsense to pull the game out of its oblivion-spiral, but who knows...? Weirder things have happened. 

All of that plus:

 

The original vision as stated was a group of disparate features that had not been tried in this combination before.  Some of the intended features are in conflict with other features.  It isn't impossible to get them balanced but that balance should have been achieved in the pre-alpha and alpha or the project scrapped then.  To push into later stages without addressing the conflicting systems within the design was a recipe for disaster.  It is also telling that there is so much finger pointing and blaming of groups.  United we stand, divided we fall.  There was a spectrum of players who wanted everything, but more were at one end or the other; squeezing out players all the while. 

 

All of that to say:  Why should we build the game for a company that ignores and blames us?  That's just a lose-lose scenario.

[Kezzle]

2 hours ago, blundertwink said:

It's kind of hard to blame them for nerfing capacity again, if that's what's happening.

 

I'd probably do the same thing in their boat.

 

Being realistic, why should they keep things scaled out...? Unfortunately, there's no avenue for growth, here. Not with platforms like Steam. Not with paid adverts. Not with organic growth driven from good content and high quality.

 

NQ's opportunities to fix this game have come and gone, unfortunately.

 

Yeah, server problems are a no-win situation, but let's be real...fixing their server problems wouldn't likely make a huge difference in the game's subs, anyway.

 

To be clear, I don't think NQ has "given up" -- they're actively looking to fill roles still, including a backend dev with an emphasis on web dev and microservices (which makes me think it is micro-transaction related, but that's just a wild guess)...but until these (likely desperate) ideas materialize, I don't blame them for not wanting to pay for infra. 

 

Personally, I am not confident the CEO is grounded enough in reality against the ocean of web3 / blockchain nonsense to pull the game out of its oblivion-spiral, but who knows...? Weirder things have happened. 

In summary "Game over, man. Game over." Not disagreeing: what's the point of microstransactions in a game with no players? No growth means no futire.

[Novidian]

I really wanted to invest in the new higher capacity containers and advanced engines for my first hauler build since returning, but I’m freakin terrified of the brakes going out and losing lives.

 

I’ve had the same thing happen a couple of times on smaller ships and tapping the brakes saved me from absolute disaster, but barely. This has happened to me in beta plenty, too.

 

I finally get into a groove and this is making me really apprehensive about investing in a quality build, even in SZ. I wish there were a way to add lives to an element, rather than dump 4-10m replacing something that gets destroyed by game bugs.. 😕

[Novean-61657]

Question: Does NQ fix those lives and repair a ship if it is an issue due to the game being buggered? Even if it takes a long while. Build another ship, replace stuff on there and if DU flip-flops again and the game destroys your ship. Just fly the old one with cheap components until NQ completely fixes your most expensive ship...

[Novidian]

On 12/16/2022 at 7:12 PM, Atmosph3rik said:

 

 

I've definitely experienced this before, many times.  Coming in for a landing, going about 500kph, and decelerating, holding the brakes.  And without releasing the brakes, suddenly your speed starts to increase.  I've started taping the brakes when this happens, and usually they seem to kick back in a second or two later.  But sometimes that few seconds of no brakes is enough to cause a crash, or at least a rough landing.

 

 

 

 

This may sound weird, but going vertical (like perpendicular to the ground) has caused my brakes to kick in enough to stabilize. I have to keep the red trajectory line running right down center of my ship.
 

Usually the brakes never operate normally until I level off around 1-2km and punch it, and then fly a little bit. Then, I can drift to the ground no problem. I call it my “landing mini game” at this point, because it ALWAYS happens to me.

 

If I want to go straight to surface, I literally have to land ass down, like a vtol ship, or I crash.