What element or aspect of Star Citizen would you say you’re most excited about to experience in-game?
.
For me, the big deal is Squadron 42. I think it’s getting overlooked a lot because the Privateer side of the game is something everyone has just felt should happen all these years… but a new Wing Commander-style story experience by Chris Roberts? That’s going to be awesome. Especially with co-op. It’s too bad we didn’t have that option back in the day (I know, there was a little co-op campaign in Armada) because Wing Commander is basically the perfect setting for it… playing through the game with your best friend as your wingman.
.
I’m an extremely cautious MMO player, I don’t love the fight-forever mechanics that a lot of them are based around. So I’m looking forward to anything we do that goes beyond that in Star Citizen. The game in my head is Ultima Online, which did such a great job of giving you more than just dungeons to kill things in… my favorite moments were sitting on a dock fishing with my friends or just wandering around the countryside exploring the unknown… and I want us to get that kind of experience into SC.
.
.
When teaming up with friends will this team persist once landed i.e. be able to form a team from a friends list planetside as well as in space?
.
The idea is certainly to have a robust ‘squadron’ system for connecting with your friends (it’s a natural thing for this kind of game, I think), but we’re not far enough along to know exactly how it will work. (And I can say that a LOT of thought is going into the PVP issue right now… how to do exactly what you’re asking, but along the lines of Chris’ charge which is to make everything work in the universe rather than imposing outside rules on the players.)
.
.
Are the “high-end” pledge ships Hornet, Lancer and Constellation always going to be the best in their class or you plan on releasing better ones later on after game is released?
.
No, absolutely not. We do not want to give early buyers an *advantage* so much as a choice of picking how they want to play the game. So you’re starting off with a fighter or an explorer or a ship to share with your friends (Hornet, Freelancer, Constellation respectively) rather than necessarily getting a ship that’s going to beat everyone who starts the game with an Aurora. There’ll be better ships to earn later in the game (otherwise what’s the fun? You wouldn’t want to start Privateer with a Centurion…) and part of the idea behind weekly fast refreshes of the game world rather than annual expansion packs is that we can add new ships as we go. So as time passes new models will roll out! (And another big part of the ships is how you upgrade them. We’re trying to come up with a system that gives you an extreme amount of customization… and you won’t start with the money or the access to areas to do all of that on day one. You’re getting the base ships and then it’ll be up to you to outfit them.)
.
.
Do I get to keep my account/forum username, is it reserved somehow?
.
Yes, you do get to keep your username, that’s one of the reasons the new forum is taking so long to get online… because we need to migrate from the current one (bbpress) to the new system (vBulletin.) Now I think the system in the game will have to work the same way, though, with unique usernames and display names that can be used by more than one person… because there’ll certainly be lots of “Maverick”s out there.
.
.
Do you plan to include some sort of VOIP communication in the game, sort of similar to what PlanetSide 2 is doing?
.
This is a Chris question, but I’d certainly like to see it. I think it would be cool to use webcams for the VDU communications. Or maybe that’d take you out of the experience seeing regular people instead of guys in space helmets. One to think about, at least.
.
.
Will squadron leaders be given tools to order their fleet in combat, either through some sort of overview tactical map or some other UI?
.
Too early to know right now, but it’s certainly something we’d like to do.
.
.
When NPC/Player ships explode, will we be able to tractor in the wreckage and perhaps salvage parts?
.
Absolutely yes.
.
.
What will determine a ship’s top speed? Higher acceleration = higher top speed?
.
Not going to touch that one, Chris is master of all in-game physics.
.
.
How is an exploration ship different than the others?
.
An exploration ship is bigger, more room for specialized equipment (more robust jump drive, scanner tech, etc.) and cargo area for carrying samples and treasure from the places you discover. Think more along the lines of the ship from Prometheus (though much smaller in this case) versus an X-Wing.
.
.
Will the website updates include a development or “dev” tracker section, so we can keep an eye on everything you guys say here?
.
Yes! In all honesty we planned to have this online already and then… the campaign hit. So, we’re kind of working back towards the initial website concept while dealing with reality. Which I suppose is how any big launch goes… but I know we will get there.
.
.
When will the details of the “modded” ship requirements will be released?
.
I’m sorry I’m going to sound like a broken record on some of these but that’s another one where it’s too early to tell. We do know this is something people want to go ahead and get working on and we will absolutely get information about modding in your own ships out ahead of the actual release… but it’s too soon today, anyway! You WILL see more information about the ship design itself hopefully later today, when we release the current draft of the team’s ship design document. It has the specifications and information about how some of the systems (like the engines) ‘work.’
.
.
Will the single player part of game have multiple endings?
.
Yes! We know that one of the things that made Wing Commander I special… and where later Wing Commanders and other games fell down… was the branching storyline. How MUCH of a branching storyline is going to depend on money and time and we’ll release some stretch goals detailing that soon… but no question it will be included.
.
.
Other than turret positions will large ships have separate control stations that different players can man such as helm, fire control, navigation, etc…?
.
That’s certainly in the plan, although we haven’t hashed out exactly what the systems are yet. One of the things Chris believes in is making all of the internals of a ship functional… and we’ll scale that up for the capital ships as well, I’m sure.
.
.
Will there be an injury system that can make use of an infirmary?
.
Interesting one… I can say we hadn’t thought about that at all. But I can see the possibilities! Maybe you get wounded in a firefight during a boarding action and then it’s harder to fly your ship (like the drunk mission in WC3…)
.
.
What are you MOST proud of so far (aside from concept)?
.
It’s early days yet, but I’m pretty proud of the ship creation stuff we’re doing. Kind of taking the standard from Privateer and making it more complex without ruining the simplicity of it, if that makes any sense at all. So, one you’ll see in a few hours (I HOPE) is a tiered system for how the engine upgrades work, with different parts in a chain impacting the ship’s performance in different ways.
.
.
I have just left a fantasy FTP MMO called SilkRoad online. It suffered sadly from repeated security issues and hijacked accounts. One source of weakness they addressed that possibly could develop here is on your website forums. The forum link under user’s avatars to the profile gives away the forum (game account later too?) login’s username.
.
We’re actually in the middle of having a security guy look at our server for issues and are tightening them up where possible. We are aware of the forum username one and plan to resolve it through the forum switch… which should happen real soon. If you find any other vulnerabilities, though, please email admin@cloudimperiumgames.com and we’ll take care of them.
.
.
Please consider carefully all trading systems and the worst kinds of people attempting to abuse it.
.
As for scammers and gold farming… our goal is to be as responsive as possible (it’s one of the big tennets of Chris’ plan for SC: constant updates, hands on dev team.) It’s one of those cases where you know it’s GOING to happen no matter how much we plan for it… so the real test is going to be how quickly we can respond.
.
.
What is your criteria to decide which ideas from the community are feasible and which ones are not, and how strict it is?
.
My experience so far is that the “wow, that’s so cool, I hadn’t thought of that!” aspect of polling the community is actually balancing very nicely up against Chris’ absolute vision for the game. And while we want your feedback and we like your ideas, we’re not doing everything.
Chris has some absolute goals for the game that wild horses can’t change. (I asked Richard Garriott how he felt about the scale of Chris’ plans a while back, whether he thought it was even possible… and his response was that Chris was the only person he’d ever met who would start the development process with exactly the game he was going to release in his head, and who wouldn’t settle for anything but that.)
.
.
Are there plans to give special attention to squadrons (clans/guilds in SC), to give them a place in RSI site, some kind of support, or anything you could think of to tight stronger the community? Other developers/publishers said that community was important for them, and promised special treatment and support, and when the game went live… nothing at all (I’m thinking of SWTOR). I hope that won’t happen with SC.
.
We’re here for the long haul. I just hired my first customer support person yesterday to help handle all the email so I can get back to the forums and publishing for the website… and once we built out our capacity, one of my main jobs is going to be interacting with you guys… letting you know how the process is going, introducing you to the team, sharing our goals and our successes and so on. Squadrons/clans/guilds are a design issue at the moment, we haven’t decided exactly how they WORK yet. But once we do we’re going to share that with you and make sure they are a part of the website. Actually now that I think about it, I was on a call a few nights back where Chris was saying we needed to make sure the new forums had the options for usergroups and private boards for squadrons… so you can feel it coming together in his head, anyway. SWTOR was… a big lesson for everybody, I think.
.
.
Do not forget we like to have PvE with my friends both in 42 and outside it. Outside it would be fun to blow apart a star system blockade fleet with my squad mates.
.
No question; for all the grousing about PVP and how we’re going to solve it (ahhhh) I think we aren’t getting the message out that there’s going to be a LOT of PVE. An Empire falling in on itself, alien raiders on the frontiers… lots of chances for big battles with your friends against the AI.
.
.
What about planetary exploration?
.
For the initial release, planet stuff is going to be like Privateer… gameflow menus rather than walking around. But in the future we’d like to expand that.
.
.
Will there be any FPS aspect at all in the game?
.
Yes, absolutely, FPS style gameplay during ship boarding.
.
.
Will there be trade between players?
.
There will certainly be trade between players.
.
.
Will we have more than one account on one copy of the game key?
.
Too early to tell how accounts will work.
.
.
What are you guys cooking up to make sure that people continue pledging now that you hit your base goal on KS?
.
We’ve got a few surprises in the pipeline
But for now, we’ll get the ships information and the more detailed stretch goals (with various in-game rewards) up later today.
.
.
When will the new forums arrive?
.
All I can say is soon. Unfortunately there’s not a great way to go from bbpress to vbulletin, so we’re having to write a custom bridge so you all don’t have to register new accounts.
.
.
When will other forms of modding support arrive such as source models and briefings?
.
Too early to know… we have to build the game out before we create the modding tools for the community.
Do you intend to hire (or perhaps have you already hired) someone who’s had experience in building AAA titles with any modern engine (unreal engine 3, cryengine 1/2/3, heroengine etc) and knows exactly how to build an efficient content pipeline with those, to oversee the technical side?
.
.
Yes, absolutely. Actually we have someone with a lot of CryEngine experience coming on soon, and we’ll be hiring
I like the ideas for what we’ll be able to do as an explorer, but I am wondering if terraforming is one of the planned options or is it something for down the road?
.
No comment.
Actually, I don’t know if we’re going to let players do terraforming to start, but it is a big part of our backstory.
.
.
I saw it mentioned somewhere that a lot of the environment will be destructible like asteroids. Perhaps you would care to elaborate on that to some degree?
.
We haven’t built any of this, but I can give you my personal feeling which is that a ship needs to have a spectacular explosion and then leave wreckage for you to explore… but that wreckage needs to be cool and worthwhile, not just an identical ship with burned textures like in Prophecy.
.
.
What’s the team’s approach on music? Will it be Star Wars-esque or you’re going for something more “fresh”.
.
Music is still up in the air, but I know we’re working at least for the demo with a composer who is very familiar for Wing Commander fans.
.
.
Will Pledge Titles be used in game?
.
I THINK they’re going to be both forum titles and displayed on your Citizen Card in-game. But that may not have been decided for sure yet.
.
.
Is there anything that you’re desperate to get in that you haven’t fully realized yet, and aren’t sure if you can?
.
Nothing I can think of specifically. I think what we’re going to run into is wanting to do more and figuring out how we can push technology to get there. For instance, instances… I bet we’ll be trying to figure out how to have more than a hundred players at once in a year or so. But no, Chris has been absolutely clear about goals being achievable for now (which is why we get so much debate about some things… if we could just promise everyone everything it’d be a great funding period!)
.
.
Will there be content updates for the single player aspect of the game, or is this all about PvP?
.
Very, very little of the game concept is about PVP.
Content updates will absolutely happen for the single player portion of the game, both the Privateer world and Squadron 42. We want to do addon campaigns for S42, just like the original Secret Missions.
.
.
Will I be able to access my pledge ship in single player?
.
You can access your ship offline in the Star Citizen mode… I think the Earth Navy will assign you a different one for the S42 storyline.
.
.
Is there any chance you can put up a few 5 minute videos highlighting some of the cool things you like about the prototype? I think most people have missed the GDC video so all they have to go on is the trailers on Kickstarter.
.
Excellent advice! Yes, it would be great to remind people that we have an actual working game already. I’ll mention it to Chris!
.
.
Could there be support for command input from a program like Dragon Naturally Speaking?
.
I don’t know Dragon Naturally Speaking, but I will look at it. I have found that those programs can add immersion… back in the day, Microsoft Game Voice supported Wing Commander Prophecy and it was pretty neat to be able to actually speak to your wingmen. So, I have that in my mind going in, anyway.
(Although I think it’s a double edged sword, because literally telling your missiles to fire felt dumb… so maybe a voice system that does wingmen commands and nothing else…)
.
.
What are those 2 Seahorse like Red objects in the Carrier to be seen before Chris goes inside the Hornet?
.
Uh, no comment
.
.
Will there be some element of choice within this storyline with multiple outcomes and endings? I liked the fact that in the WC series if you weren’t careful your wingmen could be KIA too.
.
Yes. Killing wingmen like in WC1 is hard from a design standpoint, but it’s something I’d like to do. It limits you in terms of some storytelling, but it’s a powerful way to make the game experience different each time and to make you care about what you’re doing… hmm.
.
.
Will we see some cosmetic damage to the ship models after a fierce firefight?
.
Absolutely you will see this. Chris is all about immersion.
.
.
Is there any plan to have the Star Citizen universe as a local simulation?
.
You can start a private server and play by yourself! You’ll lose some of the experience, but there will be a Privateer-style game there.
.
.
Will the game support in-game VoIP like Day Z has?
.
Looking at it, no decision yet. I like the idea, but I also see the downsides (as anyone who has ever used Xbox Live would
)
.
.
Will the game have dangerous asteroid fields like in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?
.
Empire Strikes Back is exactly the example we’ve used when planning them. I want more varied space environments and I want the asteroid fields to be both more dangerous and for them to have variable size. It’s an obscure one, but if you ever played Wing Commander Armada’s Proving Grounds addon, it got asteroids EXACTLY right (for the time): little dangerous ones that can hit you plus several huge ones that players could actually hide behind to mask their radar signatures.
.
.
Do you have any thoughts on the trading side of the game i.e. is it just a means to earn cash for ship upgrades (like FL) or can it be a real career?
.
Trading system isn’t designed yet, but we’re leaning towards a real career. One thing Chris wants to do in Star Citizen is model entire economic systems… so instead of just a “get something, get reward” model like WoW, he would model all ends of the spectrum… so you’ll also be paying taxes and landing fees and so on and money is both coming in and going out of the economy. And what he’s thinking there is that it will create a setting that people can start their “realistic” trading careers and so on top of, since it will work just like real life (that’s the theory, anyway! Let’s see how it reacts to players…)
.
.
Will inertial compensators be an upgradable ship component? I am wondering if it will be possible to improve how much thrust can be applied to braking and/or rotational maneuvers.
.
That’s a good idea! We’re going to have an endless variety of upgrades, so… one more for the stack!
.
.
Will there be differences in the available features between off-line SP, LAN servers and Internet MMO servers?
.
The MMO server will be different because it’s “live” and it will be shaped by the players wherever possible. The others will follow behind, but they won’t necessarily go the same places. Gameplay should be the same on all three.
.
.
How long is the single player campaign going to be? Will there be some DLC or something like Secret Missions for single player?
.
It’s going to vary. We’re looking at 30 missions now with stretch goals to expand it to 40 and then 50. Secret Missions added later are a must!
.
.
I was wondering if there will be more than just ships for people to own in the game.
.
Yes, the goal is to roll out bases/larger ships/player housing/etc. as the game develops. So we may not launch with everything, but the desire is to add it as players become the masters of their environment.
.
.
Will it be possible for backers to get access in the near future to some kind of a tech-demo?
.
Unfortunately no tech demo for download in the near future. The lesson we learned on Strike Commander was that you shouldn’t let the competition play with your game when it’s still two years away.
.
.
Will the game support force feedback?
.
As for Force Feedback… is that still a running concern? I still have a Sidewinder that I use for Wing Commander Prophecy, but I didn’t know force feedback sticks were still a big deal. We’ll look into it.
.
.
Are there plans for a bounty system for criminals and maybe even the recovery of stolen ships?
.
Absolutely to a bounty system, haven’t thought about recovering stolen ships yet… but it’s a good idea.
.
.
What game mechanics are in place to prevent a group of players (pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters, whatever) from camping right at the exits of Jump Points to gang up on people exiting the wormhole? What game mechanics are in place to prevent people from doing kamikaze runs into your ship to destroy you just because they can?
.
The truth is that for a lot of these we need it to happen before we figure out how to fix it. I feel like kamikaze runs are an easy fix, though: make death something that matters so you won’t want to impact/damage/etc. your character by killing it.
.
.
Are we as players allowed to actively seek out vulnerabilities be it in forum or alpha or beta?
.
Oh, you know legal disclaimers (our lawyer is actually a really cool guy, none of that EA scary legal department stuff…) But obviously I can’t contradict it now
But if you find something wrong, let me know and I’ll do my best to have it fixed.
.
.
What game mechanics will be in place to execute salvage operations of debris after a combat?
.
Another one we don’t know specifically enough, but I’d lean towards tractor beams of varying types and then limiting you based on the size of your cargo bay. Space walks would be cooool but I don’t know if it’s something we’d do immediately.
.
.
Are collisions are going to be harmless or potentially dangerous?
.
Dangerous! Getting hit with a million tonne rock should hurt. (Otherwise what’s the point of even having asteroids?)
.
.
As far as boarding combat goes, what happens when the invaders win? Do they get to keep the ship? Or does the ship get converted into ‘salvage’ of some kind? Permanently capturing ships in a game environment where ship loss is paid for with insurance sounds like it could tip over the economy especially when the prize is a pinnacle good that takes lots of invested game time to earn… the winner gets a whole new ship with whatever’s on it, the loser goes home and at some fraction of its cost, gets a whole new ship.
.
Interesting thoughts and you’re absolutely right. We need to make losing a ship hurt enough that even though you get the same ship back you don’t want to do it in the first place, I think. All on the drawing board right now!
.
.
Is the team thinking about joining AMD’s Gaming Evolved program?
.
I don’t know that program, but will look into it. AMD makes great chips and I’m sure they’ll be a fine alternative for our game… and they’re based in Austin, so that’s a plus
.
.
Will there be special events?
.
Yes! Special events are a must. One of our goals is to be a lot more interactive as the game goes on, to build it so we can do things at a moment’s notice.
.
.
Seeing how this is marketed as a space Sim, what kind of simulator tech, if any, will be supported? Can we expect or at least hope for head tracking support? Or maybe even pitch and roll support for those who want a true sim setup? I am most interested in head tracking because I might not be able to use the rift due to my eyesight so head tracking with Eyefinity would ramp up immersion quite nicely for me.
.
I’d like to know more about the rift and eyesight myself, my vision isn’t great. We are looking at headtracking (Track-IR) and will have more to say about it soon! And Chris wants to support all kinds of crazy flight sim stuff, just a matter of time and money to do it all. I personally want an excuse to buy crazy MFDs and fuel panels and stuff that the pretend-737 guys get to have…
.
.
Will there be a place that has a snapshot of all the different races (in the known universe) with what they are called, their symbol (if any) and a basic story-line point with how they fit in to the universe?
.
Yes, we’re working on a Galactic Encyclopedia type site that should have all of this information. One of those things that got delayed by the campaign…
.
.
Can you tell us which graphic motor will you use for SC?
.
SC is build up from CryEngine 3, with additional coding by Chris Roberts himself.
.
.
Will it have forced PvP?
.
There will be PVP, but the goal is to figure out how to punish players in an in-universe sense to keep them from killing one another indiscriminately.
.
.
Do you plan on having a housing system?
.
There will be a housing system.
.
.
Is a first person view planned?
.
Not sure if the ‘walk around’ part will be first or third person yet (my experience is that while first person SOUNDS better, it actually is more distracting making the transition because you go from envisioning a fighter to having nothing… maybe it’ll be player choice.)
.
.
Don’t you think that SC will be similar to Star Trek Online?
.
I can’t comment on Star Trek Online because I never played it. (Should I? I like Star Trek…)
.
.
Will there be servers only in America or will they be in Europe too?
.
The goal is to have one central universe with servers in both the US and Europe. We’re hoping we can work it out in a way that makes the game playable for everyone.