Producer's Dialogue (July 2015)

Hello Space Pilots,

The last few months have been hectic as we’ve worked to get our 3D Engine Update completed, tested, and out to you. From what we can tell, you’re using 3D, the performance improvements are noticeable, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive!

It’s been a while since my last update here, but I’ve tried to spend as much time on the forums as possible, along with several other developers.

Also, we’re kicking off a regular Twitch stream in the near future. Both are meant to increase the amount of real-time discussion as much as possible.

As you may have seen, we’ve been focused on getting more community feedback via open Beta tests and forum discussions. This is a direction we will continue to improve on and learn from. This discussion has mainly been in the forums, but once our Twitch stream is up, we’ll use that as an opportunity to solicit and discuss feedback as well.

In the meantime, here are some of the key areas we’re working on at the moment:


New Content
We have a few goals for adding to and improving content before year’s end.

The (newly renamed) “Ultimate Battle Arena – Seasons” system is one such example, but it isn’t last. While UBA –Seasons is PvP focused, the next system we announce will be more broadly applicable to everyone, should breathe additional life into our existing Maps and Gates, and may also take some “deprecated” items off your hands. A bit of a tease, I know – but stay tuned for more.

Another focus of ours has been in trying to get more permanent playable content into the game. Parasite Tide, the Helix Secret Sales, the Hitac Lottery, andthe impending UBA Expo – these are all fun and exciting, but they don’t stick around for very long.

However, the new Galaxy Gate we’re working on will.

Expect to hear more about that in the coming weeks, and get ready to start taking the fight back to your oldest alien enemies.


Server Populations
We’ve seen constant discussion of this topic in the community, and as we’ve mentioned a few times, it’s something we’re focused on as well. We are actively monitoring the trends in instance population, and evaluating potential solutions for how to consolidate or otherwise address low populations on some of them.

Several of the other teams here at Bigpoint have been looking at how to best tackle this issue in their own games. While each game is different, each success in this area is providing us with new insight on how to most safely solve the problem here.

DarkOrbit is still a very large game, with a sizeable population, and a massive amount of data for us to consider – but we are actively working on getting finding the right solution.

This is one of our top priorities, but we will not act until we know that the solution we utilize is safe, and provides the least amount of interruption to you as possible. There will be updates in this area.


Newbies and Economy Changes
While working on the new 3D Engine Update, we’ve also been collecting and prioritizing changes to help ensure that the new players’ experiences in DarkOrbit are as enjoyable as possible.

Over the coming months, we’ll be making small updates to improve the newbie experience. Some of these will be iterations towards a final fix, so if you see us make a change that you don’t think “fixes the whole problem,” please keep in mind that we’re likely plucking the “low hanging fruit” while working to get the best fix in place.

Newbie protection, quest updates, and similar changes will naturally fall into this category of work – but we’re also looking at the economy as a whole. A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to analyze and improve on the costs, and how players progress through the game.

Some of these changes require that we roll them out slowly or in stages. Other changes are waiting for certain new systems and content (alluded to above) to come online.

The Helix Secret Sales allowed us to learn quite a bit. However, changes such as the Ultra Red and Blue Booty Keys, did not work exactly as we wanted. Expect a new iteration on that sale to be Beta tested soon and other changes to follow.


In Closing
Our long-term goals include making DarkOrbit easier to get into, less expensive to progress in, and having more content and options for gameplay at the high end. They are realistic goals and we’re making steps toward achieving them.

This might sound like a lot of talk, but there’s an incredible amount of energy within the team right now. We’re excited to get work we’ve been doing out to you, so expect specific announcements on each topic soon.

With the 3D Engine Update out, we’re doubly focused on improving the game. This is a new chapter in the story of DarkOrbit!

Keep an eye out for newsletters, forum posts, and the coming Twitch streams for more details on the changes I alluded to above.


Feedback Thread

See you in Space!

Yours,
RickDekard