Following the recent Mercury update that added and changed multiple features in Dual Universe, Novaquark has an overview of upcoming changes to schematics that overhaul the system completely.
There's a new devblog discussing progress as well as the problems the team ran into when schematics were first introduced in 0.23. The purpose in adding schematics to begin with was to offset what had been overly skewed player self-sufficiency that would undermine the game as an MMO. There just wasn’t enough interdependence mixed in, and it also potentially undermined the game's player-driven economy if players were not encouraged or incentivized to participate in it.
However, now they feel like they overshot things in the rush to add the feature:
“The limits we placed were too harsh, too binary, and too expensive. You needed too many schematics to run an industry chain and it was painful to manage them all.”
Where do they go from here? They’ve decided to remake schematics completely instead of just removing them since it would bring back the original problem. In the new system, there are two parts, copying and consuming. Copying is a new system and it means “copy batches of schematic copies from Aphelia’s Master Copies. Players will have access to several copying slots that can run simultaneously and will each be able to create a batch of schematic copies. “
Copying will cost you time and some quanta. Larger and more complicated schematics will cost a lot more. Also, different types of batches will result in different numbers of copies, based on various criteria. On the consuming side, what this means is that when you use those copies, the schematics are consumed.
Some items won't need schematics anymore, like parts or decorative elements, but this will vary as they develop and gather feedback.
To read the full devblog, head to Dual Universe.
