https://www.facebook.com/RobertsSpaceIndustries/posts/442353775806650



So I guess that is Rix's job now?

Great idea, I'd love to hear from these guys.

Yes, SimHQ must interview Mr. Roberts.

Make it so. (Please)

Lets get some nice sim related questions ready to ask.

Some quetions off the top of my head.

Originally they stated the Bengal Class Carrier would be able to be controlled. Later they said that smaller capital ships would be able to be controlled but the Bengal Class would not. Can they clarify on how large of a capital ship they plan to allow players to control and how that would work? Would it require 2-5 people on the bridge to effectively control it or would one person be able to control it by themselves.

Elfwyn: Yes. Probably not something as huge as seen in the Squadron 42 demo, but definitely on the order of a destroyer. The higher end ship, the RSI Constellation is a multi-person ship with its own short range fighter.

Oct. 19, 2012 on Star Citizen.


CommanderRoberts[S] 27 points 13 hours ago

Probably a destroyer or Corvette - the carrier int he trailer would probably be too unbalancing for the Star Citizen persistent world in a player or group's hands!



They have stated that the want to include all kinds of peripheral support. Does this include TrackIR and will it have free look in FPS mode like in games like ARMAII and WWIIOnline? Or will it be restricted to only the cockpit views?

Speaking of peripheral support. Is there any plans to support things like the Saitek pro flight series. Specifically with output support for the PC Pro Flight Instrument Panel Gages and Radio Panel? What about output to touchscreen monitors for MFDs?

How fleshed out will the on board systems be? For instance in Notch's (Mojang) new space game he plans to give full control to the onboard computer to the player. In fact he has modeled a DCPU-16 computer that lives inside the game which can be programed individually by players for their own ship. Is there any plans to do anything like that for Star Citizen?

What about the cockpit systems? In games like the Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) games you have a fully click-able cockpit with advanced avionic systems. In Rogue System (http://www.fingerscrossedinteractive.com/) they plan to also have a fully clickable cockpit with a start up sequence and etc. Are there any plans to have something like that in Star Citizen? Or is what you show for a start up sequence just for immersions and the player will have no real part in it?

Will the online persistent world thing have a military that you can join? If so will players be able to plan missions and campaigns? Being able to plan and execute missions is one of the important aspects of any war game. If you just lock players into a specific predetermined mission you are wasting one of the most important aspects of an Online Combat game.

My english is not so good. Please feel free to correct what i wrote, if its not be clear

What can we expect on the damage model ships, mainly on ships where you can walk inside then (internal explosions, fire, wreckage) and as a consequence how the repairs will happen..

What do you think the average flight time on a mission will be. Games these days are very ADHD and it seems like you have to do something interesting every 5 minutes. This does not work well with combat simulators though where you can fly for 2hrs in an uneventful mission and call it a major success. Will the game be more like an actual combat simulator where it takes time and planning to accomplish a mission or will it be more like an arcade shooter where you are in and out before the paint can even dry.

BTW feel free to edit and or reword any of my questions.

Are you going to replicate external sound as space games have done forever, or find another solution to portraying sound outside the cockpit when there realistically isn't any sound in space?

Is your POV when out of the ship and walking around only 3rd person as in the videos we've seen? Or will players have the option to toggle between 1st or 3rd person? I'd prefer to use 1st person.

Also, if you can eject from your ship, are there any rescue craft that will attempt to pick you up, or do you have to slowly make your way back to a friendly larger ship using your thrusters? And if so, can you run out of oxygen before you get there?

Will there be any on foot 1st or 3rd person combat if it's possible to send marine raiding parties to board enemy ships? (that was two questions in one).

What kind of support will there be for multiple monitors?

I think everyone is interested in the shipboard aspect mentioned, walking around the interior. Will there be some kind of "a day in the life" RPG gameplay on the ship, interrupted with red alerts running to the hanger on foot?

On the civilian side, will you be exiting your ship at stations to move around and interact, or are you confined to your ship doing business through a comm system?

On the ships, will you have a FPS aspect for fighting off boarding parties? Can we board and take over other ships? Add them to our fleet?

How do you plan to give the player the feeling of being in a fighter, rather than a "follow the cursor" mini-game? Space based games are harder than atmospheric for conveying a sense that you're really piloting and chasing down the enemy. Most feel like a mouse game instead of piloting, ruining the immersion.

Are there plans to incorporate a space to atmosphere flight transition? Most games just have planets as a background image, or, as in Star Trek Legacy, balls that you actually bump into. How will this be handled?

Will guns be completely fixed, or will they track the target within a certain area?

Will control of a destroyer be from the bridge or external view?

Will fuel be a factor? For just fighters and trade ships or ships of all classes?

How will the navigation system work? Jump gates, or direct travel, time advance etc.

If running a carrier, will you have command ability for the fighters? Some kind of overview command interface to communicate with waypoints, point out emergencies etc?

Yes...planetary landings. A possibility later in the life of the game, some years from now?

How about SimVibe support? http://www.simhq.com/_technology3/technology_185a.html

A lot of games are doing betas now days. Most of them reset everything when the game gets launched. Will we keep all our stuff (ships, credits etc) or will the whole world reset when the game finally launches? If it does reset will all the explored and named areas also reset?

Master, it looks like you are doing a great job with this already, please run with it .

Message sent to Ben at RSS.

Will the Kilrathi make a comeback?

They wont, EA has a very tight grip on the Wing Commander license.

Can you approach and land on planets?

More Questions:

- Are there plans for a mission editor?

- Are there plans for modding ability (for offline play at least)?

- Will it be possible to run the offline components without an internet connection (important in many parts of Canada - which has 1/20ths the population density of England)

- Space games have increasingly been optimised for mouse control, rather than joysticks. In particular games like X2:TT by Egosoft allow virtually instantaneous turn rates (to compensate for the inherent weaknesses of mouse control). In comparison, a game like Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos provided a much better feel of inertia.

- Will it follow the traditional pattern of 'spin and shoot' that has historically limited the genre of space sims? Or will a more the game requiring you to maneuver tactically for a perfect shot (and lethal) on an enemy fighter?

- In flight simulators being in the wrong position can be deadly - but a lot of maneuvering is require to get into the wrong position. Has a more complex flight model (eg. with thrusters being positioned at different angles to lead to optimised rotations for starting or stopping a turn) been considered?

- Will craft damage be based on overall hitpoints - or will you be able to aim for specific subcomponents of enemy fighters (as is the case in modern flight simulators)?

- Wing Commander III had some of the most balanced gameplay in any space game. Will we see torpedo craft return with multiple positions (pilot, commander, gunners)?

- Will sensor distances play a role (like in Starshatter: TGS)? Will it be possible to blind an enemy force by approaching from the direction of the sun??

Will the game be fully voiced?

Mission briefings voiced or text, or better yet in a specific room? (IIRC WC did)

Is it possible to set up your own server and play single player but in the open world aspect?

Alot of people think or want the single player game to also have the open world aspect after completing the missions, is this the case? if not maybe this should be announced again as I see many forum posts thinking it's possible.

Roughly how many missions will the single player game have if you reach between 2 and 3 million?

Will it be possible for people to mod\create new single player offline campaigns?

I found Freespace 2 using joystick very difficult to hit another ship. Will SC have an auto aim function, i.e if you get the enemy roughly near the cross hair the aim will adjust to hit the fighter? (Though freelancer was mouse driven and something I balked at at first and also arcade I found I had some of the best dogfights in that game compared to say freespace 2. I do want the game to be more like Freespace with joystick control and cockpit view but have the exhilarating dogfights Freelancer had and I feel giving abit a leeway with aiming would help).

What is your main vision when it comes to the game, is it the Open world multiplayer aspect over the SP game? Many games that have both you usually find the game is really a Multiplayer game with a single campaign tacked on as a side issue. I've seen many people on the forums who want it for the multiplayer aspect say the single player game is really a minor part and will be more like a tutorial, is this the case? If so do you not think there will be a backlash from all those who pledged soley for the SP side of the game?

Wouldn't you have considered making two separate games, one a single player game and the other an MMO and have run two separate pledge campaigns? I think you'd have measly got 2.5 million for each game, don't you think putting them together in what really is or hopefully is two complete games in one counter productive to the crowdfunding? Not only would those single player gamers have pledged by now who are on the shelf (I'm one of them) about it you'd also have had people peldging for both titles.

No, thats been answered on the FB page.

The campaign will be branching rather than linear so I doubt it will be voiced mainly down to money...lets remember I doubt many MMO game smade have managed to come in for under 5 million and Chris wants to make a SP game aswell...

I think Chris hinted that it wouldn't have as much of a story as the WC games had with specific characters etc etc.

Obviously I would have thought the briefings will be text. I'm very worried about the SP side of it so far, and it all seems very vague on how in depth it will be.

Lets let him answer, no need for conjecture.
Thanks though!

Actually a lot of these questions have been answered by him already in various places. The campaign and voice capture was one of them. I forget where (could find it I guess) he stated that the campaign would be branching and if they got enough money they would do full voice capture and if they got even more they would bring in big names like mark hammel.

Part of putting a game out is answering the same questions many times. The good thing is that he's got people interested and asking. That's why we want a SimHQ interview, so our questions could get answered directly without sifting through 100 other places.

Fair enough, but if it comes down to a limited number of questions I would rather he answer one he has not answered before.



I think I will also go back through my questions and post the answers they gave on reddit and the forum/kickstarter.

Some of the other questions were answered as well but not really specific enough for me to post the answer. Also I skipped some of the repeat questions.

Again, guod should ask whatever he wants to. If he feels a questions would be best answered for context for another questions or just because he wants a verification it is completely up to him. I am just posting the already answered stuff so if there is a time crunch or limited number we get as much new info as possible. I am not trying to step on anyone's toes.

Need all questions in by 2400 GMT on Friday!

On reading some stuff about the "HUD" systems from Josh Strike made me think about navigation and co-ordinate systems in the game. So my question would be how do we navigate in system ie what planes of reference will they be using, and if playing multiplayer how do we reference how we co-ordinate moves, turns, interceptions, and such remembering the "any way is up" in space.

1) Will we have an ingame voice comms system?. Something like diferent channels for diferent players flying other ships or inside capital ships?.
I´m thinking on something like we have now with IVC on FalconBMS, where you have two buttons to transmit to two diferent channels, and you select the two channels you want to sent/receive messages, and eveyone on those channels can hear them.
Or something diferent, you can open and close direct channels to any particular player, and also you can have channels where all, or several players, can communicate continuously.
2) Same but hearing the comms of the enemy (tauting the human enemy like on WC :D).
3) Is there a possibility of flying inside of VERY BIG capital ships bringing destruction from the inside out?. That would imply more complex damage model where you can blow up a wall to scape the ship, and also put internal defense systems on big ships to counter this kind of attack. THAT would be COOL!! .

More questions:

Will the game have volumetric clouds to dogfight through? Clouds (or thin sheets of ice crystals) can limit visibility and make combat unpredictable in space as well as on planets...

Dynamix's StarSiege strongly benefitted from a damage model that had system damage, penetration and global vs. local damage. Will the damage model distinguish between weapons which cause:
- localised vs. general damage (ie. damage to one system vs. damage to all systems)?
- general damage vs. penetrating damage (damaging systems, but not effecting overall shields/armour)?

Will there be dispersion or probabilistic elements to weapon effects (eg. a chance of a 'critical hit')?

Will unreliability - such as weapon jams - be modelled? (similar to WWI simulators and some FPS which have misfires)?

Some more MP, others more freeplay SP oriented; a bit "spoiled" from X3:TC.

Can the player hire and command AI wingmen?
A magnitude above, can a player build and command a fleet of AI ships?
And can he do so out-of-sector (OOS), e.g. a guard squad protecting a precious station while the player is roaming the universe?
OOS - can a player have AI cargo/trade ships doing "automated" missions, e.g. ferrying resources to production centers?
Will it be possible to wage a war on economics, e.g. over-producing and selling at dumping prices to bleed out competition, or even whole sectors.

A bit more strategic, the notion "call in your friends when you are in trouble" (in that sense) scares me a bit - when I/we prepare a perfect ambush, or lure the enemy fleet to one "corner" of the universe and then launch an offensive on the opposite side - in such cases I hope the reaction time to such distress signals will be defined by the distance in the universe, e.g. it may take real-time hours (or even days?) to cross the universe. It would be sad if you could hide your fleet in well protected home sector and by some magic it shows up in every corner of the universe in a minute or two....

Additional questions:

- Are there plans for a rare 'Ace level' AI opponent (similar to the super-ace in X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter) or will all enemies be relatively easy targets?

- Are there plans for a quick mission generator / scenario builder?

- Will offline players be able to access all ship types or will they have to purchase DLC?

Some more economics,
Will the player be able to control/own the full production chain, from collecting resources, ferrying them to a station were they are processed to some intermediate goods, on to some final products, e.g. ore => steel => ship component?

Will all goods have to be produced out of the in-universe resources, or will items continuously spawn out of "empty space" at stations?

Can resources locally run out, by pure consumption or destruction?

-How will deaths be handled?
-During a battle, do you respawn after it's over, or a few seconds/minutes later?
-Where, in your fighter/ship again or do you launch from the carrier/dock again? (relaunch being preferred)
-Penalties for dying?
-Friendly fire?

How will friendly spawning work inside ships that can fit large crews? The RSI Constellation has a crew of 4. Will your friends have to ferry over to the ship from where ever they logged in or will there be existing AI crew that they can just take control of and spawn into your ship instantly?

Is there any plans for an Iron Man mode with either the Squadron 42 or the persistent world mode? Iron man mode is where you only get one life and when you die you have to start over from scratch. Most combat simulators feature a iron man campaign where you try to live out a tour of duty without dying.

Is there any plans for a dynamic mission generator (campaign) like in B17II or Battle of Britain II? If so can the players create mission plans and control the theater while other players fly the missions?

On the reddit AMA you said "your view is going to focus / scope depending on where you are looking - look out the windshield at a ship in the distance your focus and FOV will gravitate there (making this area of space you're looking at cover a lot more of the screen). Look down inside your cockpit at a LCD or buttons or your legs, the FOV will widen and the focus will be near."

Can you expand on this any? Generally speaking automatic FOV changes tend to make people sick. Is there any plan on making it adjustable by the player in game with a zoomin/out FOV adjust button setup? In games like Rise of Flight I have my view zoom mapped to my joystick so I can zoom in and out while panning with TrackIR. Is there any plan to incorporate options like that without making them automatic.

"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.)"


I sure hope they allow/enable first person view, especially if they allow combat while boarding

Will there be diversity in the equipment of different factions/races and will components be incompatible?
E.g. no Kilrathi (I know that they are not in) weapons on human ships.
Consequently, there would be no market for such equipment in sectors where it can't be used; well, maybe scrap value.

In navigating as a "fleet" would you all be able to jump together to the same location and if an " Instance" happened along the way would the "fleet" all be in the same "instance"?

Will we be able to build our own stations and manufacture stuff like in X-universe or just visit and buy from others?

Anyone know if the questions were sent or not?

guod mentioned that the interview was ongoing earlier this week.

I´m waiting for this. Thanks Master.

Have you seen the reddit AMA interview?

http://www.reddit.com/user/CommanderRoberts

Just click the "context" links to see the questions he is responding to.

To be honest, most of the stuff we asked has already been answered lol.

Any update on this? It would be nice to get the interview out before the crowd funding ends just in case an SimHQ members wanted to preorder the game.

Any news?.....

It´s dead Jim!!!

We need SimHQ frontpage time with this!

If they get to 4.5 mil there will be hardcore Track-ir, multi-monitor, MFD en flightseat support at first launch! two days to go, we need all support we can!

Probably why I didn't hear anything back yet.

He would need to get used to that. Should just make it easier to answer.

You'd think that'd make it easier for them!

Ok, so we have a ton of information out there now. I am going to be going through this thread and answering all the questions asked here with excerpts pulled from interviews and articles. If anyone has any other questions feel free to post them and I will try to find some answers. Also, they do a weekly QA so if your questions has not been answered yet we can always throw it out and hope it lands in the QA.

That's true, we really don't need another QA session since it looks the facts have started to repeat themselves. The concept is pretty much revealed, now it's onto developing the game out of it. Looking forward to ship walkaround presentations now.