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(sorry for my english, it is not perfect)
Hi all! I want to discuss gameplay mechanics in DUAL.
While I was searching information about gameplay on forum, I discovered that there are some features that I would not like to see in the game.
 

1. Game speed.

Developers say that it takes month for new player to reach ability of space traveling. 

In my opinion its realy bad! No no!

 

First, it will be boring to sit on starting planet and farm resources for your first ship. Not many people likes waiting. Second, it can be wery monotonous gameplay. Not many people likes monotonous gameplay. And finaly, everything said will scare away new players. For example: 1. Player takes trial period 2. All of this time he tries to get resources and technology for his first ship. 3. Trial is and no ship no fun, delete this game. 4. Nobody plays DUAL, no money for developers, no game.

 

My offer:

Flying from a planet to another should NOT be a real achievement in game. Player should be able for his first fly in 2-3 days after start. BUT this first travels cant be long. He can fly to sattelite planet of starting planet, not so far away. Ability of flying to other planets of solar system should become real at 1-2 weeks after start. Then the player can develop his ships, research technologis, trade, explore nearby planets, join to other ship crew etc. After month of playing he should be able to research something like warp engine to reach closest star (about 1 light year away). But at this point, level of his technical development should not be more than 10%-15% of maximum. So there is a large oportunities to grow.

 

2. Interstellar travels.

The idea of stargate at this time is not good in my opinion. Especially, the idea of probes that travels for months to nearby stars to put there stargates and give ability for players to travel there. It is too long. Civiliztion will be spreading too slow, and there be not much explored systems after a realy long pereod of time. What sense in endless universe if travels are limited by several light years? Players must have ability to travel all over galaxy and even to other galaxies!

 

My offer:

Ships must have warp drives or other technologies for FTL travels. This travels can be limited by ships characteristics, top speed of engines, fuel consumption, and level of technologies. First FTL engines should be slow and not very effective. But this technologies can be improved, increasing their power.

 

3 Civilization growth

Civilization should not progressing too slow, some of fraction should gain superiority by technologies, some by resources, other by military power. There will be place for alliances, wars, traiding etc. But there should be place for people who plays alone. They should have opportunities in traveling researching and traiding as well. And they should be able to enjoy the game in their own way.

 

So I hope all of this can be realized in game. And I am looking forward to play DUAL.

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Hi welcome to the forums! Admiral Adama.

 

After reading your post i both agree and disagree in some points.

regarding game speed yea i agree. the people from the ark should've already known about space fairing technology from earth. i don't know what made them forget about said technology. But i do understand the concept of starting from nothing. the suggestion of 2-3 days of making a space capable ship doesn't make much sense because it is a quite hard tech to achieve just by yourself (just imagine doing this by yourself IRL). If i had to choose a time frame for when people would be able to create a low tier form of space travel i would choose 2-3 weeks not several months.

    Regarding your second post star gates are just fine and shouldn't be changed. But perhaps in the future people would be able to make ships capable to travel a certain distance via FTL jump drives making most early game star gates obsolete. When that time comes it might've already been several months since the games start and the only star gates that are still around are the ones that can jump you several thousand lights years away.

   And regarding your last post... I dont understand. Are you suggesting that there be per-made Factions/Classes with their own specific advantage and pre-defined/pre-made areas for specific activities such as trading and war? please elaborate. 

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    Regarding your second post star gates are just fine and shouldn't be changed. But perhaps in the future people would be able to make ships capable to travel a certain distance via FTL jump drives making most early game star gates obsolete. When that time comes it might've already been several months since the games start and the only star gates that are still around are the ones that can jump you several thousand lights years away.

I think star gates should be puted by humans. So you fly in  other solar system, then build star gate there, after this you can teleport between gates, so you can spend much less resources. 

 

 

   And regarding your last post... I dont understand. Are you suggesting that there be per-made Factions/Classes with their own specific advantage and pre-defined/pre-made areas for specific activities such as trading and war? please elaborate. 

I mean that fractions can find some extra technology or resouces and control it. There should be some planets with resurces which help in science or in building fleet or fuel etc. And it must be located so that factions gains more or less of type of each resouce. That mean trade or conflicts or alliance between factions. There can be areas, wich provide different strategies for development.

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That's what they had in plan for star gates mate.

 

Oh and regarding that second thing. yes there were said plans for hidden technology not hidden resources on planets where people can exploit it for certain things like ship jump drives, weapons, fuel, etc etc. But the hidden technology isnt locked to a certain area i believe. Once someone finds a piece of "hidden tech" they could keep it for them selves or share it around with everyone. so yes they have that planned.

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Game speed

Limiting technology progress is a start. There is a bit of work gathering food, materials, crafting, surviving. Then you can focus on machines, automation, refining, mining. Then you need to find/ produce a sufficient power supply for a ship, some sort of fuel to get to space. These of course requiring research and effort.

All the while protecting yourself from harm, searching for resources and not getting raided.

 

Game speed may not be necessarily in real life time. 4hr long days could suffice making what would be a month of in game time would only be a week. Same could work for star gates.

 

When the true scale for a planet is chosen, there is a set amount of resources and open land. When you find a new planet, think about how much land is out there just for you. A week or two travel time is worth the investment.

 

For the lone wolf out there. Be wary of others. Other players must embrace independents and shelter them against griefers as a community and culture. Neutral trade zones and safe zones is what we must rely on for everyone though. If that much can be accomplished then civilization can advance at speed.

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Game speed

Limiting technology progress is a start. There is a bit of work gathering food, materials, crafting, surviving. Then you can focus on machines, automation, refining, mining. Then you need to find/ produce a sufficient power supply for a ship, some sort of fuel to get to space. These of course requiring research and effort.

All the while protecting yourself from harm, searching for resources and not getting raided.

 

Game speed may not be necessarily in real life time. 4hr long days could suffice making what would be a month of in game time would only be a week. Same could work for star gates.

 

When the true scale for a planet is chosen, there is a set amount of resources and open land. When you find a new planet, think about how much land is out there just for you. A week or two travel time is worth the investment.

 

For the lone wolf out there. Be wary of others. Other players must embrace independents and shelter them against griefers as a community and culture. Neutral trade zones and safe zones is what we must rely on for everyone though. If that much can be accomplished then civilization can advance at speed.

Well said, though I hope this holds up in any galactic wars that might happen in the game. Wars tend to change people, and usually not in the good way.

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I feel our friend, OP, has made some interesting points regarding new player retention.

 

In EVE Online fanfest 2016, CCP had stated that their player retention at 2 hours is about 50%.

 

Dual Universe is an emergent virtual world, where players have a vast array of paths to choose from when it comes to their direction through the many possibilities granted by the very open and unrestricted nature of gameplay presented.

This unrestricted gameplay proposed is, actually, very similar to the many real-life choices available, however in real-life a person generally has 16-20 years to learn of the best way for them to integrate themselves into the real-life world.

 

Dual Universe has 3 hours to do the same.

 

So to contrast with official statements and OP about the currently proposed 30 days of active gameplay before something very exciting happens, is not the right gameplay decision for new player retention. 

 

However!

 

I believe the very talented team behind DU is more than capable of creating exciting and emergent gameplay to keep players invested well beyond their first few hours of the game with early-game activities and tutorials that do not pale in comparison to spaceflight, so as to not have leaving the planet be the only 'fun' thing to do in this game.

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I believe the very talented team behind DU is more than capable of creating exciting and emergent gameplay to keep players invested well beyond their first few hours of the game with early-game activities and tutorials that do not pale in comparison to spaceflight, so as to not have leaving the planet be the only 'fun' thing to do in this game.

 

Gotta have those "shock and awe" moments within that first hour or two to grip the player. So I agree with this statement 100%. 

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Game speed

Limiting technology progress is a start. There is a bit of work gathering food, materials, crafting, surviving. Then you can focus on machines, automation, refining, mining. Then you need to find/ produce a sufficient power supply for a ship, some sort of fuel to get to space. These of course requiring research and effort.

All the while protecting yourself from harm, searching for resources and not getting raided.

 

Game speed may not be necessarily in real life time. 4hr long days could suffice making what would be a month of in game time would only be a week. Same could work for star gates.

 

When the true scale for a planet is chosen, there is a set amount of resources and open land. When you find a new planet, think about how much land is out there just for you. A week or two travel time is worth the investment.

 

For the lone wolf out there. Be wary of others. Other players must embrace independents and shelter them against griefers as a community and culture. Neutral trade zones and safe zones is what we must rely on for everyone though. If that much can be accomplished then civilization can advance at speed.

I imagine this game to be really dynamic. So you can do a lot of things in any time. And political situation is changing frequently. So there a lot of events in game and all this events are made by players. Resources are limited, everything is changing. You should always exploring space to get new technologies and opportunities to grow.

I also want to be able to travel anywhere i want. But sitting in one place for months and do same job there it just not for me.

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