My concern would be what happened to Wurm Unlimited. The devs stopped updating unlimited a few years ago now, while the live MMO has kept receiving updates. Upsetting to see how much live has progressed versus unlimited for those (me) who spent time creating worlds.
I'm going to buy this version of Dual Universe though, as I never liked the live version (I'm too much of a care-bear).
I was around before the game was ever playable.... asking devs questions. "will ship building be 'easy' for the typical average gamer to do" and they said yes. I asked if "controls will be simple so the average gamer can enjoy the game, unlike other spaceship builder games where you have to learn 100 hotkeys" and they said "yes."
Early access, try the game, runs like absolute dogshit on a high end system.... 3950x + 6900xt and could barely get 30 fps on low settings. Even on high settings with even lower fps, the game still looked like absolute shit visually.... "wtf?" I thought. So I asked the devs whats up. They inform me the game is using AVX512 in order to handle the large procedural world. And if your CPU doesn't have native AVX512, you would suffer. So in essence, my AMD wasn't up to snuff. Ain't that some shit. FUNNY TOO Because Intel DROPPED AVX512 support while AMD is now the king of AVX512 with their newer products. INSANE. Anyway, the controls were convoluted. Too many hotkeys, to much thrown in your face. So the developers lied on that part. Then I try ship building, and its like using any convoluted 3d modeling program.... why? why are you giving the player the SAME TOOLS you use for creating the game in order to make ships? You can't design your own easy to use tools? sad, very sad. So the game flopped and no one plays it. It was just bad. They had GREAT IDEALS but POOR EXECUTION. Which I blame the fact that the developers are indeed smart.... but that kind of intelligence doesn't see the lowly aspect of the average gamer. Its like those other spaceship building games with tons of hotkeys. you have one hotkey to rotate left, one for right, one for up, one for down, one for each diagonal.... its just too much. You can simply all that down to using the scroll where for "forward/backward" and picking the rotational style (horizontal, vertical, diagonal".... but no, instead they have to give you a billion hotkeys.
It reminds me of trying to learn Blender. Its an absolute shit show. People will defend it.... "its free! you just have to learn it" the problem is barrier to entry. Your application should be so easy to use a child could do it with minimum effort. If that doesn't happen, then your application sucks. Which is why game development today is still niche, and why production takes too fucking long. Because they overcomplicate every step of the design process which creates this barrier to entry. The day game development becomes so easy that a child could do it with minimum effort, is the day we have a gaming renesansne where AAA studios completely die off and private studios take over. And for those saying its unrealistic to believe in "a child can do it with minimum effort" think about ANYTHING in real life.... driving a car? a child can learn and pick it up in a matter of minutes simply driving a gokart. Building an engine? You can also pick that up after one go. Meanwhile these "tools" we have for game development take MONTHS to get used to, and YEARS to master. THATS WRONG.
Solo developers exist so people can and have done it. They won't be replacing development studios any time soon but can coexist with them far better than was once possible.
Game had so much promise, then the pvp became toxic as it always does, then they introduced kernel level anti-cheat and charged money to play it just a recipe for disaster.
"Its like those other spaceship building games with tons of hotkeys. you have one hotkey to rotate left, one for right, one for up, one for down, one for each diagonal.... "
I spent 4-6 weeks memorizing hotkey and my HOTAS setup blind so I could play Elite Dangerous with the Oculus when it first came out. Shit was brutal, but was the best VR experience I've had to date.
I can't imagine doing that every again for a space game.
Comments
I'm going to buy this version of Dual Universe though, as I never liked the live version (I'm too much of a care-bear).
Early access, try the game, runs like absolute dogshit on a high end system.... 3950x + 6900xt and could barely get 30 fps on low settings. Even on high settings with even lower fps, the game still looked like absolute shit visually.... "wtf?" I thought. So I asked the devs whats up. They inform me the game is using AVX512 in order to handle the large procedural world. And if your CPU doesn't have native AVX512, you would suffer. So in essence, my AMD wasn't up to snuff. Ain't that some shit. FUNNY TOO Because Intel DROPPED AVX512 support while AMD is now the king of AVX512 with their newer products. INSANE. Anyway, the controls were convoluted. Too many hotkeys, to much thrown in your face. So the developers lied on that part. Then I try ship building, and its like using any convoluted 3d modeling program.... why? why are you giving the player the SAME TOOLS you use for creating the game in order to make ships? You can't design your own easy to use tools? sad, very sad. So the game flopped and no one plays it. It was just bad. They had GREAT IDEALS but POOR EXECUTION. Which I blame the fact that the developers are indeed smart.... but that kind of intelligence doesn't see the lowly aspect of the average gamer. Its like those other spaceship building games with tons of hotkeys. you have one hotkey to rotate left, one for right, one for up, one for down, one for each diagonal.... its just too much. You can simply all that down to using the scroll where for "forward/backward" and picking the rotational style (horizontal, vertical, diagonal".... but no, instead they have to give you a billion hotkeys.
It reminds me of trying to learn Blender. Its an absolute shit show. People will defend it.... "its free! you just have to learn it" the problem is barrier to entry. Your application should be so easy to use a child could do it with minimum effort. If that doesn't happen, then your application sucks. Which is why game development today is still niche, and why production takes too fucking long. Because they overcomplicate every step of the design process which creates this barrier to entry. The day game development becomes so easy that a child could do it with minimum effort, is the day we have a gaming renesansne where AAA studios completely die off and private studios take over. And for those saying its unrealistic to believe in "a child can do it with minimum effort" think about ANYTHING in real life.... driving a car? a child can learn and pick it up in a matter of minutes simply driving a gokart. Building an engine? You can also pick that up after one go. Meanwhile these "tools" we have for game development take MONTHS to get used to, and YEARS to master. THATS WRONG.
I spent 4-6 weeks memorizing hotkey and my HOTAS setup blind so I could play Elite Dangerous with the Oculus when it first came out. Shit was brutal, but was the best VR experience I've had to date.
I can't imagine doing that every again for a space game.