Chris Roberts Back in your wallet - STAR CITIZEN

[rk47]

Can we breed our pets captured slaves, to finally realize the dream of space sex geckos sultan?

[Job601]

Who needs politics when you have meticulously modeled space crates to hide in?

Have they released any information about the space crate polygon counts?  Will they be sufficiently high detail to hold your attention?  Perhaps they could have space tv to watch inside the space crates while you're waiting for someone to load you into your hull. 

[ajax34i]

No, they'll just look like crates, but the inside textures will be missing, so they'll be transparent from the inside.  Until they "fix the bug" after about a year, to everyone's dismay.

[Trippy]

Can we breed our pets captured slaves, to finally realize the dream of space sex geckos sultan?

My robot waifu proposal handles that. You buy "slots" (number of robots that can follow you around at a time) and robots separately (e.g. you can have 2 slots and 3 robots, and only 2 of the 3 robots can be out at a time). So as long as you have the money you can have as big a harem as you want

[Teleku]

Think they'll cut us in on some of the action if we start feeding them new amazing ideas to fleece people with?

[Trippy]

I'm waiting for them to sell booster packs of items

[Teleku]

Possibly even free drafts for life?

 

[Paelos]

Possibly even free drafts for life?

 

Ho Ho Ho

[Malakili]

http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/stop-funding-star-citizen

Star Citizen, without question, has plenty of money. Seeking and allowing the receipt of more doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be a success neither does it mean that with even more money they’ll be able to accomplish the impossible. I don’t believe any company, irrespective of budget or experience, could achieve what Cloud Imperium are proposing. By taking even more money they are piling further pressure upon themselves and living player expectation further. I really want Star Citizen to be a success but years covering and playing games in the industry leave me very skeptical. If they actually powered on with development instead of pushing imaginary ships that cost $2500 when there isn’t a shred of a game there, it feels like a con rather than an investment.

What a fascinating new take on Star Citizen 

[Falconeer]

The comments are what one would expect, but still a fun read if you find zealots as hilarious as I do.

[Mithas]

The comments are what one would expect, but still a fun read if you find zealots as hilarious as I do.

I was just going to post that. Man some people really get worked up over this.

[Paelos]

It's how you know this has gone over into cult.

[Trippy]

Possibly even free drafts for life?

 

I meant more like Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare but that works too.

[WayAbvPar]

Thanks for the reminder- have a draft token to burn before 5:48PM today 

[Lucas]

The last "letter from the chairman", among other things, highlighted their current design for the Multi-crew ship systems, which will be implemented first in the single-player campaign (rest of the crew will be NPCs, of course) then find its way into the PU.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14354-Letter-From-The-Chairman-Multi-Crew-Ship-Systems

Sounds basically impossible to implement at its fullest, but you know how things roll at CIG 

If you are vaguely interested about it, even if that means reading then making fun of it, read the post; I'll try to summarize:
------------------

- Capital ship systems will be an even more complex beast; they'll write a dedicated post about them in the near future
- Other players and/or NPCs will be able to man the turrets (if available), but that's different from the proper "crew stations"

- "Crew stations" are fixed positions inside the ship: monitors that you will need to interact with in order to access more in-depth systems, as detailed in this excerpt:

Shield Management: The shield management action gives the user more granular control of the ship’s shields and generators:

Reinforce shield segments which increases the segments’ maximum expansion potential as well as prioritizing its recharge position
Boost the recharge of shield segments which have been damaged
Tune the generator to be more effective in one of three areas: shield strength, recharge rate or recovery time

Radar Ops: On a basic level the radar ops action allows you to identify targets, easing the workload of the pilot. This action will be expanded to include the ability to send commands to other fleet members:

Identify targets so that the pilot does not need to
Focus the radar array to find potentially hidden targets
Flag weakened targets, allies in distress or particularly dangerous enemies
Scan and identify sub-systems on larger ships

EWAR: The electronic warfare station gives you the ability to hinder an opponent’s systems, bringing a new tactical edge to dogfighting. Use of the EWAR suite requires the installation of a specialised electronic warfare module which generates the effect in a radius. You can also fit an emitter to target specific enemies. Electronic warfare breaks down into the following areas:

- Dampening: Reduce the range of opponent systems
- Disruption: Hinder the operation of opponent systems
- Disable: Disable an enemy system, forcing them to restart it
- Debuff: Make the opponent more vulnerable

Communications: The most basic form of communication will allow you to open a channel to another vessel, set up a conference call or deliver information data such as cargo manifests or ship complement. However, when additional components are slotted, automated messages become available for you to use. For example if your ship has a docking ring, you may request to dock with another ship with a docking ring.

Fuel: On a basic level this action will enable you to decide which tank is being refuelled via the ship’s hydrogen scoops. Players with a refuelling arm gain additional functions for managing, refining and refuelling.

Scanning: The information that appears on this action depends on what scanner array you have installed.

Avionics and CPU: This action allows you more granular control of the ship’s avionics package specifically relating to CPU power. For example, you may prioritize certain systems, such as ITTS or missile lock, to gain a marginal deduction in lock-on time.

Power Management: Every component and weapon fitted to your vessel will appear in the power management screen. At multi-crew level you gain more control over the individual power level each component is receiving.

Navigation: This is where you might plan a route to another star system or plot a series of waypoints. Additional information will be made available to you such as fuel usage, time to destination and speed-through-point. These tools will allow you to generate routes based on fuel efficiency or time taken.

With small multi-crew ships (2-4 or more) you will be able to hire a full NPC crew. Dunno about capital ships, but they're probably intended for big groups/guild play, so they might be staffed by PCs only.

[tmp]

The really important question they don't answer is, will you be able to play games on these sub-system computers when there's nothing to do, and will there be boss key in case your captain comes over to have a look?

[Lucas]

The really important question they don't answer is, will you be able to play games on these sub-system computers when there's nothing to do, and will there be boss key in case your captain comes over to have a look?

I think it will be just like downtime in a normal multiplayer environment: glorified chat, voice comms with other people, check some stuff related to your character (auctions and other things) and so on.

[Samprimary]

this will be a pretty good 25 dollar game, built on the tears of multi-thousand dollar backers who built cult compounds in the sky

[slog]

it seems outrageous that even after they’ve well and truly broken the $60,000,000 barrier they still want and are accepting more

 

60 million?  Really?  I had no idea it was that high.  Duke Nukem meets Daikatana, except MMO.

[Sir T]

The Fleet controls on hookers don't pay for themselves you know.

[Samwise]

Earlier in the thread I posted about a guy who spent a lot of money on this. I had a beer with him and a friend today. He came clean. He has spent about $18,500 so far. We suggested that he seek professional help ASAP.

Does he know he's been the victim of a con or is the type to spend money on this the actual stupidest sort of person?

He believes he is getting a game he can play for decades. He is convinced that it is going to be so popular that what he has spent will be equivalent to an actual investment. His wife moved out. My other buddy and I think she is positioning for divorce. It's some scary as fuck self delusion.

Any news on this guy?  I've been morbidly curious for a while, and a friend is working on a blog article about Space Ponzi so naturally I thought of this story.  Did he ever seek professional help?  Is he living in a van down by the river?

[Lucas]

So, today has been an eventful day, at least for SC crawling pace :D. All the stuff below was announced during a 3+ hrs livestream  on the SC twitch channel (now archived there; will probably be reposted on YT)

----------------------------------


- First things first, The main page of the official website has been overhauled:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14395-Rebuilt-The-New-RSI-Home

Actual content is more or less the same, for now, minus the "about the game" section, with some updated videos and paragraphs showcasing the game.

New trailer for the game, originally fan-made (here's the original one ) then adapted by CIG with some new footage here and there (especially toward the end, and of course with the consent of the "real" author):

"Imagine: Star Citizen"

- Arena Commander 1.0 has now been released. It's a 20GB download, with a HUGE update to..well, basically everything. Read below:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14390-Arena-Commander-10-Released

There are now about 20 flyable ships in-game, almost all the single-seaters models and their respective variants, including the long awaited Avenger. As a bonus, they also included the base model for the Cutlass, which is actually considered multi-crew (two seaters).


- The (OMG Mosquitos!!!) Mustang (new starter ship, including the variants) has finally been unveiled, it's purchasable as a standalone ship or a starter game package, and included in AC 1.0. Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR07oZC0QHU (what the hell is up with that accent? :P)
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14389-Say-Goodbye-To-The-Familiar-The-Brand-New-Mustang

- Brief new update regarding the Idris Frigate: looking more and more badass (should be heavily featured in S42 episode 1, probably the first big ship you will serve onboard)

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14386-Idris-Frigate-Gallery

- Introducing the Pegasus Escort Carrier, currently in all its "grey-box" glory....Poor "small" thing (BIG image in the spoiler) :P

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14393-Introducing-The-Pegasus-Escort-Carrier

[Lucas]

As the project currently rakes in about $71.5M, this week CIG went to PAX South in order to hold a "Star Citizen Town Hall" entirely dedicated to the Persistent Universe portion of the project.

They held three panels, plus a "Game Ideas" forum, and finally a wrap-up presentation (here is the original, pre-event post on the website). They're all on YT on the Star Citizen Channel (just look for the town hall ones, should be easy to spot), each about one hour long, with much rambling and "you know's" involved :P.

Still, Gamers Nexus came to the rescue and posted a nice, 10 minutes long video summary of the "wrap-up" presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hFsVBU-FBU
----

Regarding their current module schedule:

- End of March/beginning of Apri ------> Social Module
- Around the same time, the FPS beta should come out
- Autumn 2015 -----> first episode of Squadron 42
- End of 2015 -------> First "loop" of the Persistent Universe (planetside+space+trading+fps) with maybe a couple systems

Also, today they posted a very interesting design article about the mobiGlas, an "augmented reality" interface that will allow us (through in-game apps) to access various info about shops, weather, npc/player info and more:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14466-Design-MobiGlas

Three big images (more at the link):

[Maven]

I almost forgot about this game. I take it there has not been any new cash grabs released on the store?

10+ mil since December, damn. Even showing up at a con to discuss the game must net them tens of thousands in new donations. Fleecing the sheep.

Second screenshot: Is that being able to Yelp any player? That has terrible implications....

[WayAbvPar]

For  $71.5M couldn't they just buy a town to have a town hall in?

[Pennilenko]

Failure or success, no matter how this turns out the results are going to be epic in their own way.

Personally I cant wait for the realization to sink in for the people who have spent thousands of dollars on this, that they spent thousands of dollars on shit that isn't real.

[tmp]

For  $71.5M couldn't they just buy a town to have a town hall in?

It wouldn't be the first! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyUMytNKa0c

[Lucas]

New monthly report (January 2015):

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14481-Monthly-Report-January

New (and very in-depth) Design Document: Shields Management
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14489-Design-Shields-Management

Excerpt:

In Star Citizen, shields react uniquely depending on the kinds of forces they are deflecting, with energy weapons being absorbed entirely (chipping away faster at the health of the shields) or with ballistic weapons simply being slowed to weaken the impact that does make it through (inflicting reduced but lasting damage). The higher power shields specialize by splitting that output among multiple faces, and by better deflecting splash damage, for example. Augmentation items can be used to push these effects even further, or to find a middle ground relative to the more standard shield setups.
By bolstering the direct fire absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Mark generator sacrifices some resistance to splash damage to allow a ship to better weather a focused attack.By bolstering the direct fire absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Mark generator sacrifices some resistance to splash damage to allow a ship to better weather a focused attack. Focus on improving the splash damage absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Splash generator exchanges some protection from direct fire for extra strength against missiles.Focus on improving the splash damage absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Splash generator exchanges some protection from direct fire for extra strength against missiles.

We’ve just completed the first round of variant shield generators, representing 2 variant styles with size 1-4 models available. When setting these generators up, we first roughed out a general set of variant styles to help set a baseline for how they’ll perform in game. After that, we brought in David and Will to help us sort out which of our component manufactures would really be producing these kinds of equipment.
Here are some of the high-level shield variations we’ve been thinking of. Not all of these are built out, but it serves as a reference point when helping to figure out who makes what:

    Military – High Damage, High Recharge, High Power Use, High Signal

    Stealth – Low Damage, Low Power Use, Low Signal

    Civilian – Everything’s Even

    Racer – Low Damage, Rapid Recharge

    Industrial – High Damage, Low Recharge, Low Power Use, High Signal

    Outlaw – Weird Stuff – Vampire Shields, Flux Shields, etc.

Next, manufactures were assigned to the high-level ideas:

    Military – Gorgon Defender Industries

    Stealth – Ascension Astro (or Lightning Power LTD)

    Civilian – Seal Corp (Average), Behring (high end)

    Racer – Yorm

    Industrial – Basilisk

    Outlaw – SternenKatzen

Now on to the variant styles. These are the 6 styles we’ve started to build out and get ready for use, along with their high-level role and assigned manufacture.

    Rapid Charge – Low recharge delay and high recharge value, offset by weaker base shields with lower HP. – Racer (Yorm)

    Durable Item – Reinforced components with strong component HP and boosted shield HP at the expense of a higher signal. – Industrial (Basilisk)

    Direct Damage Shell – Improved direct fire absorption with reduced splash damage absorb. – Civilian (Behring or Seal)

    Splash Damage Guard – Improved splash damage absorption with reduced direct fire absorb. – Civilian (Behring or Seal)

    Second Skin – Improved overall damage absorption with higher power draw. – Military (Gorgon)

    Hard Light – Substantially improved shield HP and absorption with increased Heat generation. – Military (Gorgon)

[fang]

By bolstering the direct fire absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Mark generator sacrifices some resistance to splash damage to allow a ship to better weather a focused attack.By bolstering the direct fire absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Mark generator sacrifices some resistance to splash damage to allow a ship to better weather a focused attack. Focus on improving the splash damage absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Splash generator exchanges some protection from direct fire for extra strength against missiles.Focus on improving the splash damage absorption of their all-purpose shield generator line, Seal Corporation’s INK-Splash generator exchanges some protection from direct fire for extra strength against missiles.

Was someone having a stroke when they were editing this?

We’ve just completed the first round of variant shield generators, representing 2 variant styles with size 1-4 models available. When setting these generators up, we first roughed out a general set of variant styles to help set a baseline for how they’ll perform in game. After that, we brought in David and Will to help us sort out which of our component manufactures would really be producing these kinds of equipment.

    Military – Gorgon Defender Industries

    Stealth – Ascension Astro (or Lightning Power LTD)

    Civilian – Seal Corp (Average), Behring (high end)

    Racer – Yorm

    Industrial – Basilisk

    Outlaw – SternenKatzen

Oh, thank goodness they're prioritizing the identification of the imaginary corporations that will "produce" these items.  Cause that's what makes a good game.

[Malakili]

So, I guess this thing is going to let you rent ships?

http://www.pcgamesn.com/star-citizen/not-everyones-a-fan-of-star-citizen-s-ship-rental-system

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14502-Design-Rental-Equipment-Credits

With Arena Commander 1.1, we intend to roll out a system called REC, or Rental Equipment Credits. In essence, you will be able to earn credits to rent equipment to use in Arena Commander by playing Arena Commander’s ranked modes. We want to reward backers for their time spent with the early game with a more expansive experience, not prevent them from accessing things that will be readily available in the Persistent Universe. You’ll still be able to support the development of the game by pledging for ships and weapons, and these will carry across into the Persistent Universe but you will no longer have to contribute additional money to fly a different ship or use a new weapon; You’ll have a choice. Spend time playing the game, which will earn REC to be spent on ships and weapons for use in Arena Commander or pledge for these items, supporting the ongoing development and running costs of the game. It’s the classic time vs money proposition and either way you’ll be helping making Arena Commander and Star Citizen better! This is always how the final game was intended to work and we’ve decided that we need to bring this dynamic into play sooner than later!

I dunno.  Whatever at this point.

[Rendakor]

That sounds like you're renting them with in-game currency instead of real money. Not sure how that could be a bad thing.

[Trippy]

Except that you have to earn that in-game currency from winning PvP matches.

[Rendakor]

I mostly meant by comparison to having to buy them with hundreds of real dollars.

[Lucas]

As the game reaches the $73M mark in funding, CIG dished out some more interesting material, including a detailed design post about Mining and how it's going to work (at least at this planning stage) in Star Citizen.

First of all, here is the RSI Orion, premiere mining platform (the mining design post, linked further below, includes a video animation as well):
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14518-Rugged-Colossus-Orion-Mining-Platform

The RSI Orion is mankind’s premiere spatial mining platform, featuring multiple independent mining drones, an onboard refinery and a system of saddlebag-class storage units.

For advanced mining operations, the RSI Orion is second to none. The Orion carries a crew of up to six, responsible for flight operations, engineering and manning both turrets and pre-installed drone interfaces.

Onboard accommodations, while industrial in style, support all crew for extended duration mining runs. A genuine complete mining solution, a single Orion can locate, identify and extract lucrative ores, or it can be paired with explorers and transports to form the centerpiece of a larger-scale mining operation! Get to the core of the matter with the all-new RSI Orion.

----------

Star Citizen career: Mining (by Tony Zurovec, Persistent Universe Director)
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14522-Star-Citizen-Careers-Mining

Snippet:

The first of several occupations we’ll be aiming to detail over the ensuing months is mining. In many ways, it is representative of the basic design goals for all of the occupations within Star Citizen.

Mining presents players with a variety of challenges requiring skill and intelligence, whereas mindless repetition of a task and idle drudgery are explicitly avoided. There are no aspects of mining that allow a player to simply press a button and wait without concern for a result, or that require players to perform an action repeatedly without some element of thought and/or dexterity coming into play.

Ample amounts of dangerous situations are afforded, despite the fact that combat isn’t inherent in any fundamental aspect of the effort. The most valuable materials will often reside deep within a dense field, the result of less experienced pilots being unable to extricate them without suffering serious damage to their ship. Compressed pockets of gas, volatile materials that can explode in the presence of excessive energy (which is required in some capacity in order to liberate the ore from its parent asteroid), and elements that can explode when subjected to seismic vibrations as caused by repeated fragmentation operations all present their own unique types of jeopardy. While most miners will seek to actively avoid armed conflict, the reality is that any ship carrying a cargo of valuable ore will present a tempting target to less scrupulous types, rewarding those players that formulate contingency plans in advance, whether that be the hiring of an NPC crew member extremely talented with a defense turret, or investing a portion of the expected profits into hiring an armed escort or two.

Finally, multiple roles of substance are presented, each of which is referred to as a specialist. Every role can occupy the full attention of a player and present sufficient challenge to keep them engaged, or assigned to an NPC whose skills are commensurate with their monthly cost.

-----

Inside CIG: Imaginarium ("Performance Capture" video, about 8m long):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUlU6RvrQE

Yep, weird 

- Letter from the Chairman:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14520-Letter-From-The-Chairman

What I would really like to talk about today is what an exciting time this is in Star Citizen’s development. Building our universe is already the most creatively satisfying thing I’ve ever done. But the coming months are going to be something else. Without sharing internal target dates, I will tell you that we are entering into the tightest schedule we’ve ever had for public releases. In short order, you will see Arena Commander 1.1 (now with REC!), the FPS module and the so-called ‘social module,’ our first foray into the persistent universe. We’ve talked a lot about how Star Citizen will come together from disparate pieces over the past year, and we are now entering into when that happens. I can’t express how excited I am. Will there be unforeseen issues, bugs to squash and things to balance? Yes! …but I know that I have an amazing development team AND the best community ever assembled behind me. Stay tuned: it’s going to be big!

Here's a clarification about the so called "REC" system written by Chris Roberts on the forums:
http://partedveil.com/index.php?p=3&quote=4449786

One last post before I get sucked down the rabbit hole that is forum debates

I just want to point out that Arena Commander (and the upcoming FPS module) is a test bed. We use it to test, balance, and stress test functionality that will be in Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Along the way we decided it would be cool / useful to have it be a game within a game so players could learn and train without having to risk their hard earned ship and weapons in the PU. Until SC is finished, AC is very much a work in progress that is more a test bed than final, polished game.

Yes we have added game like functionality; leader boards, different game modes the proposed REC system but its really all for test reasons. By "gamefying" our test bed we hopefully make it fun for people to spend time in it which helps us make SC better in the long run. Part of what I think is the revolutionary aspect of how we are developing SC is that we try to make following and participating in the development of the game fun for everyone in the community that wants to participate.

Where it becomes frustrating is when people start treating AC like a finished game and making assumptions on how SC will turn out based on a very much work in progress (and changing) AC, which only affords a small window into what Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will be like.

REC is something that takes extra work to implement and wasn't in our original development plans but it is something that we think is definitely worth doing. Only this past week I reinforced to the Area Commander team that "AC Bucks" (REC) was not something we could push back and re-prioritized other tasks to make this possible for AC v1.1.

So yes, I got a little exasperated when after making a requested community feature a priority to get accused of turning SC into a "freemium" game with all sorts of "grind". The point of REC isn't to decide on the game economics or prices for weapons, or turn SC into some sort of the Korean MMO grind fest, its purely to allow a route for players to earn things by playing so they aren't forced to pledge for them but this is entirely optional. Just like no one needs to do anything more than pledge for the most basic ship, no one needs to spend a minute of their time in AC. If you do then we are grateful to have your participation and you'll be making a better game.

REC allows us to give an incentive for certain parts of the game to get tested. Right now testing different player ships against other player ships is more important for the ongoing balance of the game, which is why REC is focused on the PvP side of AC. We recognize that people don't want to be put into the current completely open bear pit that is ranked AC games, so we're also working on the ability to have brackets to match players of similar ships and / or skill in games and also allow people to opt out of the public leader boards. This will be after v1.1 though.

There is nothing to stop us from deciding that we need some more focus on PvE - perhaps a mining scenario we want to test out and so we reward players with REC if they mine a certain amount or open up REC for Vanduul swarm - although I do believe you need to segregate progression on multiplayer from single player or else you'll just end up with Super Hornet vs Super Hornet in AC multiplayer!

So think of REC as a tool to allow us to encourage a larger player base to focus on areas of gameplay we would like to get a larger sample / bigger stress test on. Its also something that we can give out and not impact the PU (unlike UEC) and there is still nothing stopping us from making a certain ship or weapon free or greatly reduced in REC for a limited period in order to get people to test an area we feel we need more data on.

I hope this helps in understanding our intentions with REC.

[HaemishM]

A $325 fucking mining platform? SERIOUSLY?