Dual Universe Gets Free Trial Server As Downtime Coming For Reset and Launch Next Week | MMORPG.com

Comments

• DrunkWolf Member RarePosts: 1,701

  September 2022

  i hope its ready for launch, seen many games release to early and never recover....
• Spiider Member RarePosts: 1,135

  September 2022

  
  

  DrunkWolf said:

  
  

  i hope its ready for launch, seen many games release to early and never recover....

  
  

  
  
  It is ready. But not for everyone. The public wants cheap fast brainless entertainment. DU offers something completely different. I predict 5k-10k player max will play this gem. If they can sustain their business on such a low population we shall see.

  No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.
• DigDuggy Member RarePosts: 694

  September 2022

  I'm cautiously hopeful for this one.  I'm downloaded and ready to go.  Didn't play beta or anything.  I did login the other day to just start the tutorial to get a feel.  My very very initial impression is that I might be able to find a home here for a bit.
• waveslayer Member UncommonPosts: 607

  September 2022

  been keeping a semi watch on this one, would love a good sci fi MMoRPG to call home.

  

  Godz of War I call Thee
• Spiider Member RarePosts: 1,135

  September 2022

  
  

  waveslayer said:

  
  

  been keeping a semi watch on this one, would love a good sci fi MMoRPG to call home.

  
  

  
  
  Its not really a mmorpg unless you rpg it all the way yourself. Its probably the biggest sandbox you have ever seen since minecraft.

  No fate but what we make, so make me a ham sandwich please.
• Mendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609

  September 2022

  I've been messing around with the Steam demo.  Here's some observations, based on roughly 4 hours of play time.
  

  • It's pretty finicky to get setup, creating an account and linking the Steam account.  Lots of emails involved.  More than really necessary, probably.  Once that's done (a one-time operation), it's pretty smooth to get into the game.

  • The demo wipes every week, so it's not a permanent game.  I actually like this feature because it gives a great opportunity to explore the basic tools.

  • Some of the tools are pretty sensitive to use.  Placing an individual voxel is particularly frustrating.  This is a game where the tutorials are almost mandatory; building isn't entirely user-friendly.  Definitely use the demo to learn how to do things before jumping into the main game.

  • Learning to identify different elements in the inventory is mandatory.  Yes, you can build lots of things, but the DU terminology is a bit confusing, especially at first.  There's lots and lots of mining activities needed before even attempting to build your own construct -- maybe more than the weekly reset allows, I'll have to see about that.

  • You can select your starting gear, to a degree -- an initial base and vehicle.  That's pretty nice.  Don't know if that applies to the base game, but it should.  There's not much to character creation -- male/female body models and a suit to customize 4 colors.  Everything else is stock.

  • Learning is a lot like EVE, the longer you're around, the more skill points you collect and spend.  There's more skills to learn than just about anything, some to improve your physical body and some to modify how your abilities work (apparently).  I didn't really see anything to learn a new ability; it seems you can do anything at all from the get-go, just not very efficiently.  Driving your vehicle is immensely frustrating at the start.  You probably want to spend a few days just learning skills.  Fortunately, the queue mechanics are pretty good.

  Overall, this seems a lot like a No Man's Sky and EVE had a baby.  Except without a story.  There seems to be a pretty steep learning curve.  Everything you can build is at a very granular level -- you build things from minerals.  How this approach applies to engines and propulsion devices, I haven't gotten that far.  But to build some spare containers, you start from raw minerals up.  It takes a lot of time.  Fortunately, construction uses the same queue mechanics the learning process does.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
• Mendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609

  September 2022

  Addendum to my demo experience.

  • The voxel tool is very difficult to use.  I tried building a ramp from a honeycomb material, and tried to make steps from a floor surface to the ground.  There isn't any good way to use half size voxels, or half size steps; everything has to align to the building grid.  I've got to investigate further to see if I'm missing something, but it really seems that the only way to connect something to the ground is with a force field ramp, which is pretty advanced building.  I just wanted a brick staircase or ramp, but since it doesn't connect to the ground properly, I can't walk up to the floor I've created.
    

  • The voxel tool does have a 'precision mode' but that aligns to the grid using the arrow keys to move the active pointer 1 grid space.  Oddly the PgUp/PgDown keys are used to move vertically, except they appear to be reversed.  PgUp moves the pointer down, and PgDown moves the pointer up.  Peculiar.  Coupled with Shift (to extend a selection) or Alt (to select a selection for removal) it can get pretty wonky.  Still, precision mode is easier to use than the point-and-click method.
    

  • When laying down voxels using different materials, sometimes a selected material overlays an existing voxel that has already been built.  I built some brick honeycomb materials in different two different colors and tried to lay down a simple checkerboard pattern.  The colors of new voxels would occasionally 'bleed' over into existing voxels, requiring a *LOT* of rework.

  • The point-and-click method for laying down voxels really need some work.  It is difficult to get the initial space selected.  It has a lot to do with mouse positioning AND where you are standing in relation to the object you're trying to build.  This is fiddly, beyond NMS or CE or any other building game that I am familiar with.

  One final thing that I discovered today.  The alpha-beta testers will carry all their Blueprints over into the release version.  As you would expect, a blueprint allows quick reproduction of all the fiddly (and time consuming) work it takes to build an object from voxels and manufactured elements.  This will give the existing players an enormous edge over new players, as all they will have to do is train the appropriate talents and gather the raw materials before they are able to construct any number of items from building to ships to guns *WITHOUT* the trial and error process.  In a basically PvP environment, this is a real advantage.  So, if you're looking to join DU when it releases, you *WILL* be behind.  It's some kind of strange semi-wipe, where everything except the blueprints will be wiped.

  
  

  I don't know about anyone else, but they've lost a potential customer over that.  And I detest PvP, which I was pretty much willing to try to make a go as a miner/small-level builder.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
• DigDuggy Member RarePosts: 694

  September 2022

  Mendel said:

  I've been messing around with the Steam demo.  Here's some observations, based on roughly 4 hours of play time.
  

  • It's pretty finicky to get setup, creating an account and linking the Steam account.  Lots of emails involved.  More than really necessary, probably.  Once that's done (a one-time operation), it's pretty smooth to get into the game.

  • The demo wipes every week, so it's not a permanent game.  I actually like this feature because it gives a great opportunity to explore the basic tools.

  • Some of the tools are pretty sensitive to use.  Placing an individual voxel is particularly frustrating.  This is a game where the tutorials are almost mandatory; building isn't entirely user-friendly.  Definitely use the demo to learn how to do things before jumping into the main game.

  • Learning to identify different elements in the inventory is mandatory.  Yes, you can build lots of things, but the DU terminology is a bit confusing, especially at first.  There's lots and lots of mining activities needed before even attempting to build your own construct -- maybe more than the weekly reset allows, I'll have to see about that.

  • You can select your starting gear, to a degree -- an initial base and vehicle.  That's pretty nice.  Don't know if that applies to the base game, but it should.  There's not much to character creation -- male/female body models and a suit to customize 4 colors.  Everything else is stock.

  • Learning is a lot like EVE, the longer you're around, the more skill points you collect and spend.  There's more skills to learn than just about anything, some to improve your physical body and some to modify how your abilities work (apparently).  I didn't really see anything to learn a new ability; it seems you can do anything at all from the get-go, just not very efficiently.  Driving your vehicle is immensely frustrating at the start.  You probably want to spend a few days just learning skills.  Fortunately, the queue mechanics are pretty good.

  Overall, this seems a lot like a No Man's Sky and EVE had a baby.  Except without a story.  There seems to be a pretty steep learning curve.  Everything you can build is at a very granular level -- you build things from minerals.  How this approach applies to engines and propulsion devices, I haven't gotten that far.  But to build some spare containers, you start from raw minerals up.  It takes a lot of time.  Fortunately, construction uses the same queue mechanics the learning process does.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  You know, to be truthful, I could use a game that has a bit of a learning curve.  Not too high, but it'll be kinda refreshing to have to think a bit.  There are plenty of games out there that go out of their way to make it super super easy.  A little bit of mental effort might do me a bit of good.