Dual Universe is coming along well in development, according to a new letter from the game’s director, Cyrille Fontaine (also known as NQ-Kyrios). In a letter to the community, he covers progress, saying that development "continues at full speed" and they are focusing much effort on polishing the game, fixing bugs, improving stability and the back-end systems on the road to a launch.
Fontaine also describes a few of the features that the team has in various stages. One of these they intend to be a hub for creators and merchants that will let them gather and effectively present to one another. You'll be able to participate, advertise your services or shop, and be part of this new marketplace. He also says that the team is at work fulfilling Kickstarter backer rewards of both the physical kind (when they have a new shipping partner) and the digital kind (expect these through 2022).
Coming features and goals include adding Flotillas, which will let players group up temporarily and combine their constructs. This addresses some holes they see in group play and covers the range from fleet engagements and convoys, to piracy. They also plan to add some kind of recycling system that will let players break down items into components, making room in their inventories and gaining usable materials.
Other things they are building include a power management system to strategize about energy and ships, additional discovered planets and moons, as well as other characteristics like different biomes and gameplay options. They are also planning planetary warfare. This is a huge and resource-intensive feature, and this won't happen until they polish and refine PvP as a whole first and make it a more “mature” feature.
The letter closes with acknowledgment of the issue of whether they’re planning a reset or server wipe. They've been discussing what they could do, as well as potential contingencies that let players keep things like core blueprints or other aspects of progress if they do reset before launch. So far, there's no definitive answer, but they are considering several different possibilities should a full reset become necessary.