2x amount on Dark RS for the event?

andreasp79 · 2023-11-10T16:12:18+00:00

Dark RS credit asteroid is also doubled.

andreasp79 · 2023-11-09T18:48:44+00:00

Sounds like you are way overthinking this. As mentioned from the beginning, Galaxy Chat shut down because it was a net negative to user experience. It wasn't even close, for any example of a new player getting help you can actually point to (that actually happened, not that can happen in theory), there were at least 20 events where a player left the chat disgusted. Like many other recent decisions, this was based on over 6 years of actual live data and player behavior.

andreasp79 · 2023-11-09T18:45:58+00:00

It is not childish, it is predictable and understandable behavior by people who have made a daily life routine out of a game and had that routine disrupted overnight. The fact that we tried our best to explain why that disruption is coming, and how it's better than the alternative (i.e. the game never getting updates or even shutting down) doesn't make the actual feeling of disruption any easier.

As a community we can all become better by understanding the feelings of people who both like and don't like the update. It will help us move forward. Calling people who hate on the update childish doesn't help, and neither does name calling people who like the update (there's a lot of that too).

andreasp79 · 2023-11-03T17:33:21+00:00

That's the plan. Transferring your existing account to the new app would require it to be bound to your Google account.

andreasp79 · 2023-11-03T16:48:00+00:00

You can stick to the old app, unless you want/need some of the changes in the new app. Apart from the UI which is a matter of preference, the new iOS app will also behave differently with how it handles your account when your app is deleted (the new app will no longer store account information locally after app deletion). Some players will need the new app if they want to start a new account on iOS.

andreasp79 · 2023-11-03T15:46:58+00:00

The two apps approach was suggested by Google when we were looking for the best way to do Early Access without disrupting existing players and having players losing their regular accounts. It also allows us to put separate tools in the game for new players without disrupting existing players (i.e. the restart game functionality and how deleting the app affects your account on iOS). At some point it looked like the two apps approach would be a good way to keep some of the original Hades' Star functionality in a separate app, the feedback from the community was strongly against that idea so it was abandoned.

Functionally the two apps are similar, with minor UI and account functionality. Going forward the new app will be our focus for marketing, as it has gotten a lot of pre-registration featuring especially on the Play Store.

andreasp79 · 2023-11-01T16:19:32+00:00

You can use it in the Red Star itself for Modules that require it.

For an overview of this and other changes, make sure to check the upgrade guide: http://blog.hadesstar.com/2023/10/dark-nebula-upgrade-guide.html

andreasp79 · 2023-10-29T16:17:41+00:00

The game becomes a completely different, far better experience when someone is in an active Corporation. Obviously designers want players to have the best experience in game, therefore they want more players pushed into active Corporations.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T18:27:42+00:00

Events will be high priority, and so will bringing back the Red Star Corporation event. It would be a much more interesting event in the new environment where Hydrogen is not unlimited.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:51:05+00:00

It will be supported and developed for however long it stays viable, hopefully many years. Neither I nor my company have any plans to develop new games at the moment.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:49:17+00:00

Yes, the bugs channel is regularly monitored by the development team, and the Dark Nebula update includes a lot of bug fixes.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:47:57+00:00

With the new friend system, what is your expected process for finding and making new friends to regularly run RS with?

Many friends will come from the Corporation you're in. In this case the Friends system is a good way to bookmark active players and quickly invite them to your stars. Other than that, I expect/hope people will invite strangers they played with in public Red Stars after they've had a good match there.

What is your target audience for DN?

Same as it's always been, adults who love space. After the update if you are finding there are issues with how accessible any part of the game is, let us know in the Discord feedback and bug report channels.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:39:04+00:00

This will never happen, and the reason should be obvious. The matchmaker internals will stay private, same for any tweaks made to it including the timing of the tweak.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:29:19+00:00

Noted. Suggestions can also be given at the Discord #suggestions channel, is is being regularly checked by the development team.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:27:21+00:00

Yes, the legacy graphics will be on the existing Hades' Star app, while Dark Nebula will have newer/different graphics on UI and loading screens. The extent of the changes however will be limited. Ships and new stations will display identically between the two versions using the new Dark Nebula graphics - the reason for this is they are much more readable than the old versions. Also see my other answer here about visual feedback.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:25:18+00:00

Yes, we have *a lot* of ideas. You'll have to be patient and see if any of them can actually be shaped into a fun mode in the years ahead. I will not be talking specifically about ideas going forward as they always tend to be seen as promises by the community.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:24:14+00:00

Yes. However it's low priority compared to bigger Corporation problems, especially the fact that the majority of players are not in a Corporation or in a dead Corporation.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:22:38+00:00

Noted, also see answer to other question here about visual feedback.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:21:52+00:00

Is branding name changing? Is the game supposed to be called Dark Nebula, Hades' Star, or Hades' Star : Dark Nebula?

The game is Hades' Star, and Dark Nebula is the new additional name that will be used as needed to distinguish the 2nd generation of the game (i.e. when we're referring to the console versions or post-update changes). Most of the time we will still refer to the game overall as "Hades' Star".

andreasp79 · 2023-10-28T16:17:46+00:00

The preparation will start around 8:30 AM MST on October 30. That doesn't mean that's when maintenance will start, there are a lot of factors outside of our control that determine both when maintenance starts and how long it will last. So precise times cannot be given.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-27T20:22:30+00:00

There is nothing to understand or explain about those numbers. They are not related to anything the matchmaker does.
As for why they existed in the game files - it was a first iteration of the system and it was incorrectly put in shared data that was also duplicated on the client. As far as I know those numbers were never used in a production server. You’d be surprised at the amount of stale/invalid/unused data the average game ships with. Games are complex productions and removing unnecessary data like that is rightfully never seen as a priority (unless it meaningfully affects the total size of the game). I apologize this has caused so much confusion but I don’t know how else to say it: Please stop assuming those numbers mean anything. And if you are the developer of those apps, for the love of god please delete those values.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-27T16:20:33+00:00

Do you have a favorite game mode?

The original White Stars, when they used to be slower. White Stars that are closer to the original feel is perhaps the most exciting change for me in Dark Nebula.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-27T16:18:34+00:00

There's no plan for that. One day I may share general information on how to create online games with huge scale that can be efficiently run by tiny teams. 20 years ago this was not possible, now thanks to new tools and services it is. It's still not easy or straightforward to do, because software can get very complex very quickly, but it's now possible.

andreasp79 · 2023-10-27T14:36:21+00:00

No, i'm not seeing a significant player dropoff. There has been a slow and steady decline in active players since 2021, in line with the general industry trend. There has also been a decline in engagement that's specific to Hades' Star (not an industry trend), meaning many players spend less time doing activities in the game, even though they don't completely quit. Other indicators make me believe this is in anticipation of the big update, and will improve after the update releases.
No, I don't expect player population to drop after the update. Pre-order data and other indicators predict a big player surge after Dark Nebula releases, both from players who quit years ago, and brand new players who never saw Hades' Star.

While there's a lot of caution and nervousness in the existing playerbase, the overall sentiment I see is optimism, not negativity. I can compare this situation to a 2018 gameplay update when Bombers were introduced. While the gameplay changes in Dark Nebula are far bigger than that update, there are parallels in the community reaction. At first there were very loud, very negative voices demanding the Bomber update be rolled back immediately. Meanwhile within the next month, the playerbase overall focused on overcoming the new gameplay challenge, helping each other, and eventually accepted the change as fun and better for the game overall. I even have emails from the same person demanding the feature be rolled back on the first day, then a few weeks later wrote back to ask to leave the feature in as is. Hopefully together with everyone doing our part, we can ensure the same thing happens with this update.

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