Novaquark has released an updated roadmap of their upcoming sci-fi MMO Dual Universe highlighting the next phases of the development cycle and the upcoming Alpha 3. Along with the new, revised roadmap, the developers have also released a podcast that features the company CEO Jean-Christophe Baillie and the company staff sitting down to discuss the future of the game in more detail.
The game’s Alpha 3 is scheduled to release in January 2020 and the roadmap details the new and updated features which are scheduled to arrive in Dual Universe in 2020 and 2021. The roadmap also highlights key milestones in the game’s developments. The developers have identified the gameplay tenets of Dual Universe and broken them down in six main pillars which are exploration, building, economy, RPG, PvP combat and social.
The Alpha 3 will be critical and it will arrive with PvP combat and social features. Once it is live and players have access to it, the developers will focus on making the game stable and polishing the user experience. Baillie commented:
As we’re heading toward Beta, 2020 will be a critical year for us. We have to focus our priorities on making sure the gamer’s experience is as smooth as possible.
Dual Universe Alpha 3 is dubbed ‘Shattered Alliances’ and it will include Construct-vs.-Construct PvP and introduction of player organizations. Avatar-vs.-Avatar PvP is slated for a later release and the developers have decided to focus on construct combat first due to ‘its innovation in regard to real-time voxel damage and crew-based emergent gameplay’. You can check out the detailed podcast below.
At this point, Dual Universe is in Alpha 2 with Alpha 3 arriving next month. The first Beta for Dual Universe is scheduled to arrive in Summer 2020. Key features of Dual Universe include:
- UNIVERSE (available in test version): The first fully editable universe made for players by players. The only limit is your imagination! Gather your friends and build on a truly epic scale, from ships, cities and space stations, to Lua scripted puzzles and interactive constructs.
- MASSIVE (available in test version): Dual Universe is the first game where potentially millions of players can interact together simultaneously, inside the same giant universe. We call it the Continuous Single Shard Cluster (CSSC) technology. This proprietary technology means no multi-server player separation, instances or loading times, just one enormous, persistent universe.
- EXPLORATION (partially available in test version): Explore & Discover new worlds with your friends, find rare resources and build the greatest place in the universe. Will you be a nomad treasure hunter or a calculating profiteer?
- ECONOMY (partially available in test version): Dual Universe will have the most realistic economy system ever made in a game. From weapons and tools to spaceships and giant space stations, build and trade everything to everyone – at your price – on your own market.
- WARFARE (work in progress): Fight for supremacy, resource control or geostrategic advantage, as you join with fellow players and create your own defense systems, build warships, cities and space stations. Will you defend yourself or lay waste to your enemies?
- POLITICS (work in progress): Be a lone wolf or choose an organization or build your own, hire new players, fight other alliances, cut deals with them or rule your own part of the Universe with this completely open political landscape, full of emergent gameplay opportunities.
Are you looking forward to playing Dual Universe Alpha 3? Let us know in the comments section below.
