Chris Roberts Back in your wallet - STAR CITIZEN

[Falconeer]

Who said anything about 'Rogue Squadron'? I said X Wing vs Tie Fighter/Alliance/Etc.

What I mean is that now that Space sims are back in style (thanks to Star Citizen too), people with real money and a real IP will exploit Chris Roberts efforts AND inability to deliver and will probably make the game that lots of people have been waiting for since X Wing Alliance... or actually Jump to Lightspeed (JTL incidentally had a lot more in common with Star Citizen than it's obvious at fist glance) while stealing some of Roberts features, especially the monetization ones.

Or do you really think that no greedy EA is trying to understand why Roberts is making easy money and will bring out the big guns to steal his thunder... especially now that the Star Wars IP is hotter than ever, and a specific new movie about Star Wars dogfights has been announced?

[Merusk]

My point is it's not going to be Xvs Tie. It's going to be a Battlefront/ Console-friendly version like Rogue Squadron.  Yes you'll have multi-axis control but it'll be centered around Controllers, not Joysticks and Keyboards and simulation. They're different beasts at the core.

[Lucas]

Sorry, give me Chris Roberts' mad dream anyday over some generic and lazy EA's console/pc crossover product.

[Lucas]

April monthly report:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14690-April-Monthly-Report

(front page of the website also got a facelift)

Patch 1.1.2 for Arena Commander, currently on the PTU (Public Test Universe; test server, basically), introduces a (still rough around the edges) tutorial.

Patch notes:
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/34360q/official_ptu_112_patch_notes_rsi_community_forums/

Here's a video of the new tutorial, that starts inside the so called "asteroid hangar":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvyL-MjXZz8

[Ginaz]

Who said anything about 'Rogue Squadron'? I said X Wing vs Tie Fighter/Alliance/Etc.

What I mean is that now that Space sims are back in style (thanks to Star Citizen too), people with real money and a real IP will exploit Chris Roberts efforts AND inability to deliver and will probably make the game that lots of people have been waiting for since X Wing Alliance... or actually Jump to Lightspeed (JTL incidentally had a lot more in common with Star Citizen than it's obvious at fist glance) while stealing some of Roberts features, especially the monetization ones.

Or do you really think that no greedy EA is trying to understand why Roberts is making easy money and will bring out the big guns to steal his thunder... especially now that the Star Wars IP is hotter than ever, and a specific new movie about Star Wars dogfights has been announced?

The nerdy hipsters who "believe in the vision" Roberts has for SC wouldn't touch a game like it from EA if their lives depended on it.

[Sir T]

My point is it's not going to be Xvs Tie. It's going to be a Battlefront/ Console-friendly version like Rogue Squadron.  Yes you'll have multi-axis control but it'll be centered around Controllers, not Joysticks and Keyboards and simulation. They're different beasts at the core.

But to truly appreciate the Lord of Lensflares Genius you will need to have the cockpit camera randomly spinning around in 4 axis as you maneuver, to generate the true nuStarwars experience and BRING YOU INTO THE MOVIE

[Count Nerfedalot]

You know who's gonna make this guy sad? Disney, in a few months, when they'll announce the Rogue One game, or whatver the new X Wing vs. Tie Fighter game will be called.

The absolute best thing that could happen to Roberts at this point is if someone else comes out with something prettier flashier more exciting and everyone forgets about Star Citizen completely, allowing them to slink off with all that money and no need to deliver anything. Of course those remaining fanboys aren't the most stable lot, so he'd still have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

[Azazel]

Sorry, give me Chris Roberts' mad dream anyday over some generic and lazy EA's console/pc crossover product.

Give me a probably-broken-at-launch, Origin-only, consolitis-controlled, DLC-infested game that gets released and manages to be fun any day over Chris Roberts' mad endless scam.

Or to put it another way, the bar is not high.

[Draegan]

Who said anything about 'Rogue Squadron'? I said X Wing vs Tie Fighter/Alliance/Etc.

What I mean is that now that Space sims are back in style (thanks to Star Citizen too), people with real money and a real IP will exploit Chris Roberts efforts AND inability to deliver and will probably make the game that lots of people have been waiting for since X Wing Alliance... or actually Jump to Lightspeed (JTL incidentally had a lot more in common with Star Citizen than it's obvious at fist glance) while stealing some of Roberts features, especially the monetization ones.

Or do you really think that no greedy EA is trying to understand why Roberts is making easy money and will bring out the big guns to steal his thunder... especially now that the Star Wars IP is hotter than ever, and a specific new movie about Star Wars dogfights has been announced?

I think 80M is real money. I don't think Chris has failed to delivery anything yet. Anything in the MMO space is going to be multiple years in development and SC is in year 3? now.

Even then a dogfight game will be a fun game, but it's a completely different genre than some kind of MMO that this game is supposed to be.

[Falconeer]

The way I see it:

- You have the Star Wars license. Hundreds of ships that everyone loves and would kill to pilot or simply put in their virtual hangars.
- You have crazy good looking and performing technology these days. Put a decent team on it and it's gonna look mindblowing.
- You know it can't be a silly dogfighting game. Make an arena if you want, but put a bit of legs to sustain it. Forget FPS, but make sure that people can move around your ships and between them. Hangars, of course. And walking around. Avatars. Nothing more than what you could do in Jumo To Lightspeed.
- Also, multicrew.
- Make sure 3rd person is possible and viable but 1st person is even better or at least equal.
- Sell special ships the same way World of Tanks AND Star Citizen do. A mix of both.

Huge profit.

Again, if you think of a new Star Wars arcade, then it's a wasted oportunity and it makes no sense whatsoever.
But if you do Xwing/TieFighter/JTL with a liiiiitle bit of Star Citizens dreams added, you beat Chris Roberts. Because people couldn't even get mad at you for the microtransactions this time as what Roberts is doing is worse than any EA nightmare anyway (yeah yeah everything is obtainable in-game, yadda).

[Viin]

Again, if you think of a new Star Wars arcade, then it's a wasted oportunity and it makes no sense whatsoever.

Except you can make 20 of those for the same cost. And charge $50 a pop to every fanboi out there and make a killing. Easy money.

[Falconeer]

You are all probably right, for real. No need to stretch this fantasy any longer so I'll just concede it all. I just want to leave with a question though.

If you were an EA fucking Corporate moron who happens to have the power to push projects, wouldn't you be thinking "We have this license that is collecting dust even though it's actually hotter than ever, and there's another game that is pretty much building on it and making lots of money. I think I am gonna steal what I can from their bag of tricks and use my license to bring a slice of that pie back home!!"... ? You really think that's so far fetched, or that it's so hard to make a new Xwing vs. Tie Fighter that steals some ideas from Elite and Star Citizen?

[Viin]

There might be something contractually preventing them from doing that. Especially since I see them pushing the old XWing/etc on Steam a lot these days. But I wouldn't be surprised if they did something, though I would imagine it'll be arcade-y rather than sim-like, since EA doesn't really make games for hardcore gamers.

[Tmon]

Why not a Star Wars version War Thunder.  That game seems to have done pretty well at appealing to both the arcade types and the more sim oriented gamers. 

[Draegan]

The way I see it:

- You have the Star Wars license. Hundreds of ships that everyone loves and would kill to pilot or simply put in their virtual hangars.
- You have crazy good looking and performing technology these days. Put a decent team on it and it's gonna look mindblowing.
- You know it can't be a silly dogfighting game. Make an arena if you want, but put a bit of legs to sustain it. Forget FPS, but make sure that people can move around your ships and between them. Hangars, of course. And walking around. Avatars. Nothing more than what you could do in Jumo To Lightspeed.
- Also, multicrew.
- Make sure 3rd person is possible and viable but 1st person is even better or at least equal.
- Sell special ships the same way World of Tanks AND Star Citizen do. A mix of both.

Huge profit.

Again, if you think of a new Star Wars arcade, then it's a wasted oportunity and it makes no sense whatsoever.
But if you do Xwing/TieFighter/JTL with a liiiiitle bit of Star Citizens dreams added, you beat Chris Roberts. Because people couldn't even get mad at you for the microtransactions this time as what Roberts is doing is worse than any EA nightmare anyway (yeah yeah everything is obtainable in-game, yadda).

Well sure, if Disney makes a full blown Star Wars MMO with a lot of pew pew, it would kill Star Citizen. That shit ain't happening though.

[HaemishM]

I'm not sure there is any dev house or lead designer competent enough to make that full-blown Star Wars MMO Falconeer suggests, regardless of the budget.

[Lantyssa]

Jump to Lightspeed...

[Falconeer]

Again, I am not talking about an arcade, nor a full blown MMO. Something in between.

Instances, with A BIT of persistence and some walking around your hangar and ships. Yes, JTL without the whole SWG ground part. Not that huge of a thing.

I also want to add that I don't think Star Citizen is going to be the kind of MMO people think it's going to be. It's heavily instanced and it doesn't have crafting. So, 

[Khaldun]

I'm still pretty sure Star Citizen isn't going to be anything really. Like, at most a Daikatana thing, rushed out suddenly in the middle of the night.

[Falconeer]

This game will be announced at the E3 next month. You heard it here first.

[Paelos]

This game will be announced at the E3 next month. You heard it here first.

But in a private event for only the most elite donors.

[Draegan]

Well they already announced their single player game for the end of the year. Maybe. So I wouldn't be surprised about an E3 presence.

You'll also hear about 100000 hours of single player experience! Oh yeah next month buy the new chapter for $25!

[Samprimary]

The odds that this game turns out as a smoking daikatana-level ruin or vaporware are I think pretty astoundingly low, but not as low as "the game is so good that it validates the decisions of people who spent many hundreds or thousands of dollars on it"

[Lucas]

A few more updates:

BEHOLD: this is what $81M can actually achieve.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14704-Hyper-Vanguard-Force


No, anyway: like you can read in the description, that was realized by the external web team (Turbulent) based in Montreal. It features sprite models of the SC ships (dunno how many).
-------

MISC Starfarer sale:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14694-Fleshing-Out-The-Starfarer

This ship was among the first stretch goals of the project (at 3.25M, lol) ; it underwent a reworking because it will also feature inside Squadron 42; it's mainly a refueling/transport/hauler ship (more pics over at the link):

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Last but not least, a BIG update about the current state of "Star Marine", the FPS/Breathing module simulator:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14697-Star-Marine-FPS-Update

Yep, told ya it was a long (but interesting, IMO) read.

Don't have time to write a comprehensive summary (beside "when it's ready" :P), but anyway, it will feature three game modes. You can also watch a couple videos at the provided link:

- Gold Horizon (abandoned mining station)
- Astro Arena - Zero-G matches
- Astro Arena - SATA ball

Looks like they're really pushing the FPS studios (Illfonic) capabilities on this; Roberts claims it's going to be much more closer to a fully finished product compared to Arena Commander.

[Falconeer]

Off Topic but since we (I) were talking about XWing vs. Tie Fighter, here's a new Kickstarter from one of the authors of that glorious series, trying to make a new one.

"World of Tanks meets Counterstrike, in space".... with real newtonian flight? That doesn't make any sense I believe.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impellerstudios/starfighter-inc

[Kitsune]

Uh, yeah.  There's a reason that I played TIE Fighter: I wanted to fly a TIE fighter.  The opportunity to fly generic sci-fi fighter is not really turning my crank here.  Now if they said they needed money to secure the licensing to make a new TIE fighter game, my money-filled fist would be shoved through my monitor in my haste to get it to them.

[DraconianOne]

Off Topic but since we (I) were talking about XWing vs. Tie Fighter, here's a new Kickstarter from one of the authors of that glorious series, trying to make a new one.

"World of Tanks meets Counterstrike, in space".... with real newtonian flight? That doesn't make any sense I believe.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impellerstudios/starfighter-inc

I keep seeing this link with various people saying "From the people who brought you X-Wing and TIE Fighter..." but it isn't. It's one of the guys who designed the missions for X-Wing and TIE Fighter. The game might be great in it's own right (although not a fan of the whole newtonian flight thing personally) but when Larry Holland and Ed Kilham come back and announce a new Space Fighter sim* then I'll be more interested.


*And as Kitsune said, all the better if it's a Star Wars licensed game or even an HD, more moddable version of X-Wing Alliance with XvT multiplayer

[Lucas]

Two small tidbits of info:

Concept sale of what is going to be the third "starter" ship (the other two are the RSI Aurora and the CO Mustang) in the Persistent Universe, the MISC Reliant:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14730-MISC-Reliant-Now-Available

Fictionally, the main peculiarity is the inclusion of Xi'an technology (one of the alien races of the SC universe), that allows the ship to rotate the cockpit and engage in a vertical flight configuration (there is a brief video showing it at the mentioned link).



For now they're only selling it as a standalone ship, but when it will reach the so called "hangar ready" phase, they'll start selling it as a starter game package (like it happens now for the aforementioned Aurora and Mustang)
----------

Chris Roberts is currently in the UK (Manchester) for the "Performance Capture" of Squadron 42, and will stay there 'til (roughly) mid-late June; one thing worthy of note is the following tweet by a certain actor:



A few months ago there was also a rumor about the possible participation of Tom Wilson  

[Goreschach]

May the farce be with you.

[UnSub]

I look forward to Roberts repeating his trick of hiring porn actors for their vocal talents.

[Jeff Kelly]

Are Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys Davis also heading for the UK?

[Surlyboi]

So the new ship's a B-Wing but not as cool looking.

[K9]

Why do you need alien technology to make your cockpit rotate? Seems pretty underwhelming as far as alien technology goes.

[Merusk]

Why do you need the cockpit in your STARSHIP to roll at all?

Much as I love the B-wing, and was thrilled to have the feature in my toy, it bothered me that you'd never need that feature IN SPACE.

Carry on.

[K9]

A very valid point