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DU questions/answers from the team I got


Leonis

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Hey there, community, here's what I got from asking questions at the meeting and playing the pre-alpha build. I will make no paragraph but only points as it is LONG, there's a lot, and even more questions than I had before then.

 

 

 

  • Creation / Exploration

 

 

  • NPCs : there will be some at the beginning of the game (where everyone spawn) showing you how to use your powers (creation suit), how the economy works, and everything that will be added like for example the 3D map

 

  • Ship creation: we have created our ship (little, single place ship) ourselves. What's needed:

- a cubic unit you can make spawn that is the centre of the ship's creation (has to be one of the most expensive item) that allows one construction to be movable. (I don't remember the name of the unit)

- a cockpit
- structure (metal) you can make spawn by voxel (you know, the video)
- reactor(s) :

  1. hover to use the vehicle on earth and hover close to the ground
  2. real reactors placed besides a plane object (for those we used), so that the reactors were on each of the ship's sides

- a gyroscope unit (1/20th maybe the size of the cube needed imagine a cube like in minecraft but half the size) that points the way the cockpit is
- one rule : all of the component linked with direct or indirect contact with the make-structure-movable unit (cube)
- one other rule (not in the pre alpha) : physically it has to be possible regarding the size and so mass of the thing and also balance and aerodynamic proof of the ship

- Blueprints : you will have the possibility to get blueprints out of the ship you created with the prefabs, to manufacture it. You will have the ability to create (for advanced users it seems) more difficult objects and get a blueprint out of it (like a specific cockpit), though I'm not sure that last thing will ever be possible, it will bring the game to a realm of creation not even expected.

 

  • Buildings : same as ships without the mythic cube. Though you cannot make a ship out of earth, maybe you can do this with buildings or at least with hobbit-like holes...
  • Massive ships or structures into space:

- instead of a cockpit you have a control centre were you can command the ship if it is one, know where enemies or outside units are (radar-like)

- they talked about a drone you could throw out of the ship to make circle around the big structure and know what is outside in the command centre (with non-moving space buildings)

  •  Conquest : flag-like (as an idea it was said to me like that but well... You know a flag in a future universe is weird) anyway the idea is this one. You conquer, you put your mark, you deploy shields (let's say force shields like a bubble or between a gate), well at least buildings (and guys to protect) and that's all, it's like IRL

 

  • Others:

- Jet packs (for creation): there will be (I don't know for the fuel) only to construct things, I heard about using it only for this but not to travel, and with energy supply to recharge maybe...

- Painting ? It will be possible to do it at close range, though the build we tested was not capable of that

- Map : there will be one, a 3D one maybe, probably not in the pre-alpha as you can play without it to help debug the game (alpha is for that, don't expect to get pure pleasure, it's to test the game and help it being debugged)

 

 

 

  • Servers, players creations' economy

 

  • Cluster servers

The server as in game when it will be released as alpha were not used (I believe) when we played pre-alpha. We were basically using a small on-the-go server. So of course it looked like a pre-alpha build, the one they are using to work on as they say. See the videos on you-tube (Dual Universe channel) for more information on how the cluster server works: it's one server for all that charges round your player's location.

 

  • Scripting and blueprint economy

Still a good question. The problem is the server allowance and processing duration. It will be impossible to have all your scripts into the server to sell them, and there is still the problem about the security. We had a big talk about it, like we thought of common scripts within a same group or society that still runs if someone is connected (this will be possible), but to sell a script without the buyer that uses it reads it... it's something else. Also how much scripts are being used at the same time (I mean for robots you make out) is a deal and one of the biggest challenge of all we came into in our discussions.

 

 

 

  • Environment

 

  • Destroyable environment, the idea to find raw material being used then for ships is to have tools to scan where riches are.
  • Day/Night system (possibilities):

- Fake-sun (unreachable, that is a sunlight seen as coming from the sun) projecting realistically the light by moving on an axis : it's the one we saw being moved in god-mode, into a giant planet's ground. It seemed rather satisfying to see.
- fixed sun(s), planets rotating on themselves

 

  • Water, fluids?

No water, it won't be in the alpha nor the beta (as far as I know), and most probably won't be in the final game (Dec. 2018). What is sure is that fluids spawning and fluids manipulating at hand won't be possible to make and won't be at release it's sure. But (I didn't ask), still water why not (I don't talk about lands under water yet or anything under water), you'd be falling and dying probably. Swimming, I don't know as for sea ships.. Still conceivable but it won't be in any beta. The idea is: no liquids, anyway the game will still be OK and hard to handle (I mean you will get busy by playing it) just by exploring, making business, a new society, war...

 

 

  • Questions in suspend

For now the gravitation operated in the universe is still not a question developed within the team, or anyway I have not asked to the team directly (one might confirm me that). So the planet acceleration should be (at first) the same with no mind to their mass.
One point though considering the size of planets and what it results (you know, the smaller the planet is, the thinner and lower the atmosphere is, due to the gravity): to get out of the atmosphere, you can accelerate with your ship with one kind of gas (used within an atmosphere), and you use another type of combustion when into the void (turns automatically). So basically, the atmosphere seems (I haven't checked, sorry, not the time to do two lifts-off, and I would have had to count the seconds for that over all) graphically to be proportional to the size of the planet (anyway I don't consider mass). This is not a big problem here, I just want to expose anything I understood or schemed in my head.

Concerning weapons and combats system, we could access such things in the pre-alpha, but the team said there will be weapons (at least on the ships) and shields to counter (ships and buildings).

I haven't asked for the in-game "hacking a territory base" system as it was exposed in the kick-starter video, but it's still an idea.

 

 

All in all, we could see creation (god mode, for developers) and exploration by spaceship (the cabin already looks good btw).

Thanks for reading.

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Read the whole thing. This is awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this up, it's really fantastic. It's a great reference too for people to look at just to know about the game, and answer questions that new people might have.

 

Something you said really stuck out to me, about how the actual physical structure of the ship plays an important role? So you can't build any shape because it has to actually make sense, otherwise itll fail?

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One point on this shapes in space don't really have to make sense no air for a start, such a ship would not be able to enter an atmosphere though else it would break apart.

Could be wrong, but I doubt atmospheric entry damage will be a mechanic in this game. Space Engineers doesn't even have an atmospheric entry damage mechanic in the vanilla game, and it is a physics simulator game rather than an MMO.

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One thing I missed. One member of the team said there will be a gate-system for teleportation (such as in stargate), not to redo all the travel from a planet to another, but the gates would be owned by organisations. Also, an organisation could make other one to pay to use their gates, and defend the gate destination as a border.

 

@ATMLVE : yes, they said a structure won't be able to fly if it cannot fly theorically, though in the build we tested we could do anything for a shape.

 

I haven't heard about atmospheric entry damage, but the friction is enabled into the atmosphere and none into space.

You raised a question to me : into space you wouldn't need to add a force to move as ther is no air, maybe it's a question in some thread.

 

Thanks for feedback.

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Actually self rotating planets would be great for the dynamic and would support the project of creating a spatial elevator (even though I'm suspicious on how possible it could be achieved and supported).

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Actually self rotating planets would be great for the dynamic and would support the project of creating a spatial elevator (even though I'm suspicious on how possible it could be achieved and supported.

If there is TRULY no limit to the size of what you can build, who knows! 

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