Haven't played since the wipe. How is the game going these days?

[Manchetta]

I was thinking about jumping back in, but Steam charts say the peak player count is around 45. That didn't seem right, so I thought I'd jump on here.

 

How are things going??

[blundertwink]

🤷‍♂️

 

They've not officially confirmed that the game is no longer under development, but that's the reality. NQ is focused on their three other game projects.

 

The CEO's recent LinkedIn post says: 

Quote

After launching our first game Dual Universe in 2022, we started our new projects in 2023
In 2024 we intend to keep covering ground!

 

DU hasn't changed much since the wipe because they haven't been developing it and have no plans to do so. 

 

Player counts seem closer to around 35-40 peek in recent days -- counts seem to be slowly decreasing still, but I'm surprised they are even this high. 

[Wyndle]

11 hours ago, blundertwink said:

🤷‍♂️

 

They've not officially confirmed that the game is no longer under development, but that's the reality. NQ is focused on their three other game projects.

 

The CEO's recent LinkedIn post says: 

 

DU hasn't changed much since the wipe because they haven't been developing it and have no plans to do so. 

 

Player counts seem closer to around 35-40 peek in recent days -- counts seem to be slowly decreasing still, but I'm surprised they are even this high. 

I have been watching for signs of hope but the forums have all but died. At this rate I doubt I will achieve the forum post count goal I set for myself years ago without spamming or being a Steve Martin level of Jerk.

 

TBH, I am surprised NQ still keeps the lights on for this game.

[Manchetta]

Thanks for the info, guys!

[blundertwink]

On 1/31/2024 at 3:34 AM, Wyndle said:

TBH, I am surprised NQ still keeps the lights on for this game.

 

It's all about image IMO. NQ's CEO is still posting about how brilliant DU is. They're just using player creations as a marketing tool to make their company look "cutting-edge". From their last LinkedIn post:  

Quote

"With our first game, we created persistent and editable worlds on one multiplayer server for all players and equipped them with cutting-edge voxel tools and powerful in-game customization such as Lua modding. We watched with awe as our community brought the game to life with unbelievable creations."

 

Sounds impressive to investors that don't bother looking into the product...as they'd realize that Dual Universe has never been an "MMO"...the scam game The Day Before has something like 47 times more players at peak than DU. 

 

Web3 sort of people are all the same...they all think they're pushing boundaries when really they're making shit that doesn't even work.

[FerroSC]

The game definitely falls within the "mmo" genre.  The population is quite small but seems to be dedicated and some of us do have fun despite the lack of any meaning development in the past (checks calendar)..  forever..  but there are enough players for the economy to function and have people to shoot at sometimes, so the game isn't dead but its not bursting at the seams either.  People just like being hyperbolic in their reviews, I guess.  

[blundertwink]

22 hours ago, FerroSC said:

the game isn't dead but its not bursting at the seams either.

 

I guess it's a matter of perspective. To me, an online game that's ostensibly is an MMO is dead when the developer stops updating it. 

 

It's like a dead language -- people still speak Latin, but it's classified as a dead language because it is no longer evolving and changing. 

 

People might still play DU, but it's a dead game because the developers are focusing on other projects. It's great if people can still play it and have fun, but it is dead in the sense that it isn't going to change, isn't going to improve, and isn't going to grow. 

 

The delineation isn't really important if you're still playing and enjoying the game, but it does matter to people that are thinking about buying it.

 

I think the reviews are more than fair in that context. At the very least, people should be aware that their monthly sub isn't going to improve or grow DU...but is likely being spent to further the studio's three other game projects.

 

TLDR: It's not hyperbole to suggest that an "MMO" with no future updates planned and less than a hundred players online during peak times is dead. 

[Wyndle]

DU may have been designed as an MMO but I question that it ever lived up to the Massively part of that acronym.  There are more full population, invite-only minecraft servers than DU players using the steam client.

[Firestorm]

Also remember that player count is only factoring in steam, the player count is indeed low but its probably more or less triple that estimate as most players don't even use steam thanks to poor marketing by NQ and the review bomb on launch by a large number of people over pvp issues and post indy overhal update “the great exodus” from beta that left a sour taste for a lot of people. But yeah majority of the statements are fairly accurate otherwise. Though its def still active, i play every day still with a handful from my org DSI and theres still people in game chat, help channel and the market is still functioning. As for pvp i personally have fought in on average 1-2 fleet battles a week. (Im counting fleet battles as anything more than 3 multi-crewed ships). for me it’s fun still in my own opinion, I’ll likely play until the servers bill isn't paid. I still wish NQ had created the ability to host your own private servers. Would have been neat imo.

 

if you do decide to get back into the game definably more fun with a group. 

[MasteredRed]

I'm going to comment.. and honestly maybe this'll be the last comment on the forum.

 

The appeal of Dual Universe started back in the day with networking. We built organizations in our head, put them on paper in discord, and then had final rivaling each other with the hanging out thrown in there. Then we got the game and no matter how hard we tried, we could only pull so many people from the prior networking game into the actual game. It was rough, the novelty could only be enjoyed by so many people during the pre-alpha and alpha launches. Technical issues and the unoptimized state stunted the growth that the game needed.

 

I think DU deserved a better outcome that couldn't be executed for many reasons. It wasn't one mistake, and from the people who've told me a number of what went on behind the scenes, it wasn't a lack of will. It ultimately came down to consistent failures; some failures came from scaling a small team into a larger developer, some came from lack of attention on the game, some came from game play design itself, and some came from lack of listening to community feedback.

 

Some issues killed the game more than others and I don't have the answers for which ones were the worst. To be fair, Novaquark had vision. What I'm commenting in terms of the issues is from years ago now. I hope things change. I'll hopefully download the game again and give it a spin to feel some of the memories come back. I agree with @Firestorm that it's more fun with a group... and I wish there were more groups.

 

[Aaron Cain]

Too bad hearing that actually nothing changed the last year. Went afk about a year ago just to wait to return when maybe something interesting came up, but seems that is not the case. That actually is a sad thing.

Still might throw in a single dac as i still have about 10......

[Wyndle]

Not even a hint of giving thought to another patch... backers complain of not getting physical rewards... and the mesh exporter feels like a "save what you can" tool before shutting it down  forever.   

[sHuRuLuNi]

17 hours ago, Wyndle said:

Not even a hint of giving thought to another patch... backers complain of not getting physical rewards... and the mesh exporter feels like a "save what you can" tool before shutting it down  forever.   

 

What Mesh Exporter?

 

EDIT: Ah, I see ...

 

Yeah, that does indeed seem like they will be closing shop soon and are at least offering the constructs export, which is what many of us had asked since the pre-alpha days. Sad really.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2024 by sHuRuLuNi
saw the news

[TheBlender]

All they had to do was add AvA and territory warfare like promised... And more people would have been attracted but NoOoOo

They should've kept JC

[Wyndle]

1 hour ago, TheBlender said:

All they had to do was add AvA and territory warfare like promised... And more people would have been attracted but NoOoOo

They should've kept JC

There were layers of problems that prevented either feature from working reliably and JC had time enough to address it before his departure. 

 

Even with significant churn at each major update many still had worsening performance and/or enjoyment with each iteration.  The reduction in dev manpower became plainly obvious shortly after launch.  So no, just adding those features would not have "saved" DU.

[CptLoRes]

The only thing that could have saved DU, is replacing NQ with a more experienced company.