Squadron 42....

I liked what I saw ... but I really did not liked what I heard ... despite that English is not my native language .. and I may not have understood everything correctly and sure enough, I couldn´t understand everything ....

little disappointed because no single player and i would like a better focus on landing on planets too....

Just say no to MMO.

I like SP. I like coop MP. I care little for H2H MP, and I don't do MMOs ever.




The Jedi Master

What you don't like is competition. You have this stigma of someone real beating you.

What you don't like is competition. You have this stigma of someone real beating you.

Stigma? That's an odd way of putting it. I don't eat any seafood or drink any alcohol either, but that is because I find both disgusting so I have no more interest in consuming them than I do in broiled weasel.

As for competition, no I don't. I hate all sports (never cared for any them to play or watch) so when things like strikes happen in the NFL or baseball I just laugh at people getting all upset about it. Besides, MMOs aren't competitions, they're silly game crack to make you keep paying every month to satisfy some bean counter. I do not like my gaming enjoyment relying on others. I do not like or trust people, and I have decades of experience that bears that out.

Not to say I'm not competitive, rather I don't like the effects being in competition has on me. In short, it makes me angry. Very angry. Road rage angry. Unless I win 100% of the time, which naturally is an unrealistic expectation. Ergo I do not enjoy them. So WTF is the point of doing something that you don't enjoy but only makes you angry?

Maybe I should start my own MMO that consists of people sending me money every month and me sending them daily emails in return that the servers are down and will be back up tomorrow. You'd like that, right? Why not? Wouldn't you enjoy it? By your reasoning that's not a good reason not to pay.



The Jedi Master

[quote=Grim_Death]

In short, it makes me angry. Very angry. Road rage angry.


The Jedi Master

Will The Servers Be Public Or Private?

There will be public servers that we host for the main universe/game. The universe is going to be a persistent living entity, where your actions, (discovering a jump point and successfully navigating its jump for the first time, designing a ship for sale in the online shops, winning a key in-game battle etc.), will be woven into the history and lore of the game. We really want the universe to be shaped, both by your actions and created user content... to really embrace the passion and creativity of the core fans. A central server system for the persistent universe will be required to assure security, prevent cheating and other bad behavior. We also plan to provide a version that allows private servers similar to Freelancer to be maintained and run by the pilot communities. These would support single and multiplayer space combat battles where teams could hone their skills without having to use the public servers.

There haven't been any good or great fighter-based space sims since IWar2, IMO, and that was 2000.

The only thing I'm worried about here is that I got the distinct impression that it is going to be heavily microtransaction based as well as potentially subscription-based. Both are major negatives to me. The other is them using the Cry engine.

Other than that, it contains everything I'd expect from a Chris Roberts game--awesomeness.

I know its been mentioned before but i hope it has newtonian flight.

What's Your Online Revenue Model?

Not a subscription but not free-to-play; rather a hybrid of these two business models. Much like ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, you will purchase the PC game and pay no recurring subscription charges. Your purchase of the game will allow you to play in the universe for free, forever! The game will offer a variety of virtual items for purchase with in-game credits allowing you to spend money on items that offer more ways to express yourself, provide convenience, and customize your experience. But the cardinal rule regarding "in-game purchases" is: Players who spend money purchasing in-game credits will have no advantage over players who spend time!

Everything is bought with in-game credits. These purchases won't offer any advantage over someone who puts in the "game-time" to earn the same amount of credits. You might ask, why have "in-game" purchases at all? This allows us the resources to support the game on an ongoing basis as well as continually add content.

I know its been mentioned before but i hope it has newtonian flight.

What exactly is the RSI Constellation. Is it a carrier that can host my friend's ships or is it a battleship? Will you be able to control carriers or carrier groups? Will you be able to launch AI patrols and missions?

Also, with the preorder ships, will these be a one time ship and if you loose that ship will you have to rebuy it with in game credits? Or will you be able to alway select that ship with a new pilot?

What exactly are the citizen cards?

Roberts Space Industries The citizen cards are physical items that replicate something you'll have in the game - sort of your in-game identity card.

The Constellation is the top of the line fighter; think the Centurion in Privateer. The big carrier is a "Bengal class" and we aren't selling those... you'll have to earn one in the game.

You will always have your preorder ship -- no way to lose it permanently. You can also buy other ships and upgrade your starter as the game progresses.

Wow, Jedi, you sound like one hell of a misanthrope. Kind of depressing.

It's not that fun? Dude... Independence War 2 is insanely fun and it has amazing physics. In fact, by adding in more physics to Freespace 2's engine, the mods have become more fun as well. It's okay to turn and burn but to turn and remain on your current vector or drift... that's what space combat is all about.

I remember in Wing Commander 1 how I'd abuse the afterburners just to get my ship to drift sideways while firing. It was totally possible if you knew what you were doing. Otherwise, the game was pretty linear and didn't have any physics to speak of.

IIRC IW2 uses the auto-thruster write off and did not have actual Newtonian physics. I agree it's a great game though, partially due to a good weapon system too.

I doubt a game like this will have physics like people always say they want. It's just not that fun, and fun is what they're going for here. I liked the ability to switch on/off in Evochron, but if they want big fun furballs, it's going to be more arcade. In fact, I'd say go unapologetic-ally straight to a normal atmospheric kind of flight. Otherwise they'll just be explaining away the lack of inertia with automatic thrusters. Space flight games never feel right since banking is replaced with yaw, and yaw controls become rotation. Most feel horrible and awkward to play because of that.

Their official forums are up.

http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/forums/

but dont get your hopes up it is pretty much a joke over there at the moment. A lot of wild speculation, people making idiotic statements and just plain idiots.

This is called Nicoll's Law:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any thread that begins by pointing out why stealth in space is impossible will rapidly turn into a thread focusing on schemes whereby stealth in space might be achieved.

There are a high number of ignorant people on those forums. It amazes me because Cris Roberts games are pretty old computer-wise.
I would have thought a higher intelligence level would be represented.
I started a thread about how unrealistic stealth/cloaking in space is, and drew comments about how stupid to arrogant I was.
I posted this link : http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php
On that page is this excerpt :
Everyone tried to explain why stealth/cloak will work. I don't believe anyone in the thread even read the link.

I stopped reading it last night when about 50 people piled into a trackir thread and started agreeing that trackir was stupid because you would not be able to see your computer screen if you tried to look to the left or right or god forbid behind you.

IW2 had full newtonian physics that even went down to the weapons. When you launched a missile the starting velocity and vector was applied from your ship.

What a long, strange trip it has been! I'm very pleased to announce that the Roberts Space Industries website is coming back online as originally intended. Thanks to the heroic efforts of our web team, you can now pledge as originally intended as well as access your account information and view the real time pledge counter.

More changes are coming, too: we're in the process of setting up the more robust forum you deserve; a search feature, PMs and everything else you have asked for will be available soon. Additional payment options and the ability to add to your existing pledges (against all odds, you demanded it!) will be online in the coming days.

It's not all going to be apologetic letters and 'back to normal' updates, either. Now that we're not "all hands on deck" dealing with the site outage you will see the Comm-Link and other familiar sections return to life. Expect more polls, in-depth ship descriptions, news from the world of Star Citizen and more Q&A with Chris Roberts! Ask him about physics! (On second thought, maybe you shouldn't, we'll be here all day…) We're also putting the finishing touches on the maps and the Galactapedia.

And one last thing: your Golden Tickets WILL RETURN. We had to put them away while we fixed the site, but you'll find them waiting for you in your accounts in the coming days.

I'd like to thank you all, personally: you space pilots have proven yourselves to be the most thoughtful, helpful and incredibly patient group I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I feel terrible that the web issues have impacted such a great group. We're going to do everything we can to justify your treatment of our endeavor. It's going to be cool!

Ben Lesnick
Community Manager
Cloud Imperium Games
Ben Lesnick at Roberts Space Industries

O_O wft? Well, now i see how different experts or physicists feel when ordinary, clueless people start discussing their field, lol.

Roberts Space Industries
Hi, Chris Roberts here.

I've seen a few concerned posts on the Facebook stream about whether there's going to be a single player game, and whether if the budget gets tight will that be the first feature that gets cut.

I just want to be clear with everyone, Squadron 42 is an integral part of the Star Citizen experience and it will be the classic Wing Commander experience that everyone loved (without the FMV though!)

In fact the order of the development means that there's no way that Squadron 42 will be cut, as the features for this, and multi-player dogfights are the first steps in building Star Citizen. The prototype that I showed already includes most of the functionality that I need for Squadron 42. There's still a lot of polish to do on the dogfighting and assets to be created but Squadron 42 is not the difficult part of Star Citizen.

The difficult part is building the open world that Squadron 42 fits inside. I'm confident of that too as I've built this open world twice, and have done a lot upfront technical design work to avoid some of the problems that I dealt with on Freelancer

So ambitious yes. Achievable? Most definitely!

Draft FAQ

To say we’ve had a lot of questions in the past five days would be an understatement. We’re hard at work on an official RSI FAQ to supplement the great work being done by users at the forums. It will have its own place at the website soon, but we wanted to go ahead and share the work-in-progress here since many of you have questions you need answered now! Please post additional questions in the comments and we will do our best to keep this updated.

My community account is not showing my pledge!

We are currently working to sync our pledge database and our community database. Your pledge will show correctly soon and we will send out a message when this process is complete. If you pledged from a different e-mail than your RSI account, we will contact you after the database sync to incorporate your pledge manually.

Is my Golden Ticket gone?

No! We have a record of your Golden Ticket and it will be returned to your account in the near future. We won’t forget our earliest fans!

Is Star Citizen an MMO?

No! Star Citizen will take the best of all possible worlds, ranging from a permanent, persistent world similar to those found in MMOs to an offline, single player campaign like those found in the Wing Commander series. The game will include the option for private servers, like Freelancer, and will offer plenty of opportunities for players who are interested in modding the content. Unlike many games, none of these aspects is an afterthought: they all combine to form the core of the Star Citizen experience.

What are the “Citizen Cards”?

Citizen Cards are physical props to prove that you have supported Star Citizen and will be one of the first pilots in space when the testing process starts. They will be wallet sized cards that you can carry with you anywhere you go. Citizen cards will also appear in the game itself, showing your character’s social standing, credit account and so on. We’re hoping to make them available to backers by Christmas 2012, so you can gift the game to friends and have something to show for it!

Can you tell me about the different ships?

We’re working on concept art right now that will show you the different levels of ships! For now, imagine the sort of ship advancement you encounered in Privateer or Freelancer, with the Aurora being the basic ship and others being improved or more specialized craft. The top-of-the-line ship in our pledge campaign is the RSI Constellation, which is a multi-person craft that includes a turret and a smaller fighter that can be manned by your friends!

How will modding work?

Players will be given full control of their game! When operating private servers, players will be able and encouraged to mod the game. It doesn’t stop there, though: we hope to institute a ‘mod approval’ process that will allow the best of the best player created ships and other additions to be integrated into the central persistent world as well.

Can I upgrade to a bigger ship?

Yes! You will always have your ‘pledge’ ship, but you can purchase and fly others to your heart’s content in the finished game. Star Citizen will feature plenty of other ships and we expect players will want to earn credits and figure out which suits their particular style of play best. You can also upgrade to a bigger ship during the crowdfunding phase by pledging additional money.

What platforms will Star Citizen be available on?

Star Citizen is a PC game through and through and could never be played on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or WiiU. We currently plan to support Windows and are examining our options regarding possible Linux and Macintosh releases. The Cloud Imperium team includes many Linux and Macintosh fans!

How can I work for Cloud Imperium Games?

Please e-mail hr@cloudimperiumgames.com with your information.

Will Star Citizen only be in English?

No, we plan to support many languages. A huge percentage of space sim and PC gaming fans come from Europe and especially Germany, and we want to make sure Star Citizen is accessible to everyone. The game ill initially be localized to French, German and Spanish with plans to handle other languages afterwards.

Can you explain the stretch goals?

The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences.

Why Direct And No Publisher?

Publishers are useful in the old physical distribution world, but the Internet is the great equalizer. Notch didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million Minecraft fans. Riot games didn’t need a publisher to reach 30-million League of Legends players, and Wargaming.net didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million World of Tanks gamers. If we were building a big “AAA” console game it would be crazy to try without a publisher. But we want to build a PC game and publishers increase costs because of their need to recoup their sizable overhead cost. We want to make sure all the money raised goes directly to the development of the game. So we’re throwing ourselves on the mercy of the PC gamers out there that share our vision and passion for the platform and the space combat genre to raise money outside of the “cartel” of traditional publishers. The game will cost less, be more creatively pure, and, most importantly, be built for the real “core” audience – not some corporate suit worried about including all the casual gamers.

Is Star Citizen “free to play”? A subscription game?

To play Star Citizen you need only to buy the initial game. There will never be a monthly charge for usage. Some in-game items may be available as microtransactions, but we will NEVER sell anything that can’t be acquired through honest (and fun!) gameplay.

What will the gameplay be like?

Star Citizen will feature gameplay similar to the original Wing Commander and Privateer, with a more realistic physics system. This means that it is NOT a ‘click to kill’ interface like most modern MMOs; your success in combat is going to depend as much on your skill with a space fighter as it will with your ship upgrades and your pocket book.

Why Not Kickstarter?

We love Kickstarter. We’ve backed projects on their site, and believe everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the “crowd” directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can – we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that’s designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can’t deliver this experience, which is why we’ve decided to go it alone.

Can you estimate the system requirements for Star Citizen?

There will be a lot of optimization in the next 24-months, plus the usual fast pace of technology, so it is hard to say absolutely. At the moment you will be able to play it on a 4GB dual core PC with a GTX 460 or greater, but not with full fidelity. If you’re running an i7 2500, 2600, 2700 or better with a GTX 670 or greater you will get the full experience and we will only scale up from there. You will need a dedicated GPU. Since the game is built on CryEngine, their system requirements will stay roughly the same as ours.

Can you estimate the system requirements for Star Citizen?

There will be a lot of optimization in the next 24-months, plus the usual fast pace of technology, so it is hard to say absolutely. At the moment you will be able to play it on a 4GB dual core PC with a GTX 460 or greater. If you’re running an i7 2500, 2600, 2700 or better with a GTX 670 or greater then the stars are the limit! Since the game is built on CryEngine, their system requirements will stay roughly the same as ours.

Can you tell me about the different ships?

We’re working on concept art right now that will show you the different levels of ships! For now, imagine the sort of ship advancement you encounered in Privateer or Freelancer, with the Aurora being the basic ship and others being improved or more specialized craft. The top-of-the-line ship in our pledge campaign is the RSI Constellation, which is a multi-person craft that includes a turret and a smaller fighter that can be manned by your friends!

Roberts Space Industries Hi Gretchen, Do not worry you will not miss out just yet, not in 3 days. There will also be awesome news released about the ships soon so it may work in your favor smile

An Update from Chris Roberts
Update #1 · Oct. 19, 2012 · 11 comments

WOW!

Thanks to everyone backed us over these past 24 hours. We had our biggest day outside of the announcement day. Kickstarter alone brought in $155,270, hitting 30% of its goal in just 24 hours from when we launched! Remember that the more we raise the more content I can pack in from the outset and louder message we send to the world that Space Sims are very much alive.

So thank you to everyone that backed for the first time, or backed again because you’re such a big supporter!

It makes me proud, humble and determined to make the best game I possibly can as you all deserve nothing less.

As we showed yesterday by listening to feedback on providing Kickstarter as an option we hear you loudly on the ship specifications. We’ve had the general specifications worked out for a while, but I’ve been holding off on sharing as I want some early conceptual work to share along with the descriptions because I believe a picture is worth a thousand words!

But as you would like to know sooner rather than later our plan is to publish the descriptions once the upgrade feature is functional on the main RSI site for the non Kickstarter backers of the project, which the web guys are aiming to have online by Monday.

In addition we plan to do a Reddit AMA on Monday. We'll provide a link here when that is live.

Finally if you go to the Star Citizen section on the home page you will see that it now connects to our game overview and FAQ. This will be the living document that we update the game’s design and feature list as we describe them and also will be where the FAQ will live. Please check it out!

Chris Roberts

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 6 hours ago

Will the SP have a linear or branching storyline?

CR: Branching. Squadron 42 is how I would make a new WC for today's tech. Its going to be more towards WC1 and less towards the linear aspects of WC3 & 4, as its easier to have multiple paths / options when you're rendering things real time rather than shooting a bunch of FMV

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 7 hours ago

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.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 7 hours ago

Paul D:

in that people who choose to explore from the get go possibly discover all that which can be discovered?

CR: No! That's the whole reason why I want micro content updates. We will be constantly adding jump points / star systems / missions and building out the world as we go along. So its going to impossible to discover everything as the world is always being added to.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 8 hours ago

Dablue & Luc - here's some answers (That will make their way into the FAQs)

So how will the kickstarter and the funding on the own site co-exist?

CIG: The money raised on Kickstarter and the money raised on the direct RSI site (which is now $1,060,239 as of this post) will be combined towards the stretch goals. Based on the amount raised so far and the project momentum its probably safe to say that the minimum $2M will be reached. The question is just how far beyond that we can go! As we explain on the FAQ we intend to build the full Star Citizen experience even if we don't reach the later goals, it just may take longer to get the full persistent universe launched and not have as much content on initial launch. In all cases, Squadron 42, the single player game, will be delivered on the promised schedule as we can finish that in the promised time frame even if we only raise $2M

This kickstarter is only for the single player portion right?

CIG: No, you kickstarter pledge gets you the same package that you would get backing on the RSI site. - So this is the single player game, the persistent universe and the ability host your own multi-player and to mod.

any chance in seeing Kilrathi cameos?

CIG: That's EA call. They own the IP now :-(

you get a better quality ship when you pledge more money. If i am correct in this, how do you think this will be "fair" and "balanceable" in the MP aspect of the game?

CIG: Yes, you get a bigger ship and more credits by pledging more money but that doesn't necessarily mean you will automatically win. Star Citizen is not a stat driven RPG where a 85 level Paladin will crush a 1 st level character. There is always an element of skill to the flying and all the ships have pros and cons. A heavily armored and weapoinized ship can indeed be fearful but a skilled pilot flying a much cheaper but lighter and more nimble ship could win that battle. In addition everything is purchased using in game credits so if you have only spent $30, after flying some missions and doing some trade runs you can earn enough money to upgrade your ship. So really all the higher pledges are doing is short cutting some of the time you would need to spend to upgrade your ship to a bigger or more powerful one. And it is important to note that flying mission and doing trade runs is a big part of the FUN of a game like star Citizen. It wont be some boring grind to encourage you to spend money.

if there were actual planets to physically land on, it would be the game I've been dreaming of since I was a kid playing Elite: Frontier

CIG: Same here! This wont be in the initial release of Star Citizen as we've already promised a lot! But we wouldn't rule it out in the future and engine already supports ground missions.

Rsi%20logo%20640x640.small
Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 9 hours ago

Hey guys.

So on the "double" backing - if you pledge for say a SCOUT package and then get a WINGNUT Package - you will have both ships in your "space" garage, your credits will be pooled and you'll get all the physical rewards promised in each package.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 11 hours ago

@Maric Yes, but we'll have to work with you to get it all sorted out. We'll post instructions once we get the Kickstarter data!

@Uber_Nobody: Absolutely you should see your cargo! Show, don't tell wherever possible. The original Wing Commander set a new standard by doing things like blowing up your cockpit instead of reading off a damage percent... our goal is to continue that.

@Jalister: Yes! We want to support a wide range of joysticks, throttles and other addons. I've been looking for an excuse to buy all kinds of crazy flight sim addons for my PC and this is IT!

@Adauli: Give us a few hours to figure out what the best way for that is. I'm sure we can work it out, I just want to make sure we understand how to read the upgrade when it's time first.

@Papa_Dragon We're investigating a "digital deluxe" tier right now; just need to make sure we have all the extras in a pipeline that'll provide us nice digital versions.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Hey Aaron - the web team is working feverishly on that!

They have been told they have to be ready when I detail the various ships, so the goal is to have it working by Monday :-)

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Jalister - that's correct.

The idea is to allow people to set up their own servers and mod like you can do on Freelancer,

Or play in a curated persistent universe (that will have more reach and scale than one privately hosted)

Or just play a Wing Commander style single player game offline (or online if you want co-op)

All in the same consistent universe.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 14 hours ago

To be clear: you get both alpha and beta access with the physical Scout tier. That was our mistake!

Brett "Tumbler" Williams about 2 hours ago

I get more excited by the Oculus Rift support by the second. I passed on backing the Kickstarter but I can't wait to see how it works with Hawken and I'd love to see Star Citizen release a tech demo next year that lets you sit in that cockpit and flip switches or something. (the cockpit(s) shown in the prototype footage)

Can we get a stretch goal that builds a semi working cockpit ala DCS flight sims? I'd absolutely love to just sit in there flipping switches and looking at it.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 2 hours ago

@Tumbler: Everything in the cockpit already works! No random sci-fi switches here!

Scotty “S42:Space Marines” 19 minutes ago

@Chris – this was a post from Katrar earlier but I also have the same question. Can you give any insight on this?
@Chris, and actually, a real question as well. There’s been some discussion on here about capital ships. Could you give the abridged version of your vision for capital ships in the game’s future, and specifically how players (or groups of players) may or may not be able to crew or own them?


Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation 11 minutes ago
Scotty -

So the game is set up so you can crew capital ships- even ones as big as the carrier that you saw in the demo – they all have a “captains” chair and can have various stations that you can sit down to do things – fire control, target selection etc. Turrets are also manable. There will definitely be a use of this in Squadron 42 and well as the full persistent open world.

We haven’t made the decision on how big a capital ship a player or group of players can earn / control in the open world. But there will definitely be bigger ships you can buy / capture and fly with your friends. The Constellation will be good for 3-4 players and will have up to two manned turrets (not from the start, you’ll have to upgrade to this) and a short range fighter in it’s belly hangar. Think of it like the Millennium Falcon with a bonus light fighter.

We’ll have some bigger ships – maybe up to a destroyer… After that we’ll see!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 11 hours ago

Scotty "S42:Space Marines"
@Chris - Any thoughts on unknown alien artifacts or tech? Perhaps while exploring the galaxy you come across a derelict space craft of unknown origin and can salvage a weapon or power upgrade. I think that could be a cool addition for the explorer/freelancer types.

This will definitely be in the game!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 11 hours ago

JHewett
Hello all
I have 1 BIG question.
I used to play freelancer and this seems like the game I have been waiting for (for sooo long). The thing is - I used to play mainly solo. I get what you are trying to do with the persistent world etc, but I don't want to die because I suck at PVP.
So - here is the question. With the private server option, will I be able to experience the full game (minus multiplayer elements) in terms of open world exploration and trade?

CR: On your own server yes. If there aren't real players available the universe server will populate the battle instances or space locations with NPCs. I'm brainstorming here (so don't hold me to it) but it should be possible to run your own instance as essentially a SP game with the client and server on both on your machine. This is the way CryEngine is set up anyway - even the demo I showed, which was SP was running under a server client set up. Doing this would allow you to train before getting into the universe with other live players. But I have to add that there will definitely be areas in teh persistent universe that you will be safe from PvP

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 11 hours ago

righ
@Chris are you thinking of doing any sort of ranking system for players? Basic stats at first maybe.. then you could also show ranks vs other players and friends. Data and stats are always fun to look through

There will definitely be a player & squadron ranking system (squadrons will be our version of a clan). Its on the list of things to do on the community site, but you're going to be able to create a squadron and have your friends join it (kind of like your friends list or battle unit)

We're going to run some fun stuff around squadrons in the future (which look like are already happening informally anyway)

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

bleachorange
@Chris
How are you planning on inter-system and in-system navigation working at this stage? I understand there's not much final at this stage.

It will work much like Privateer / Freelancer - you can not navigate to any location in space. You can only navigate to locations - a planet, a jump point, a star, an asteroid field etc. that show up on your nav map. There will be some cases where by flying around an area that you navigated to you will uncover an additional space "location"- say an undiscovered jump point.

When in transit to these destinations (which is triggered by engaging autopilot / warp) the universe server, who sees everyone's locations and destinations, determines if conflicting groups will intersect. If so it will dynamically create a battle instance (that is populated with space terrain,like asteroids, a nebula and so on fitting for the interception point) and drop the players into it (this could also be triggered by NPCs like pirates as well). Once the conflict is resolved you can "auto-pilot" again onto your destination.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

mikkonator
@Chris - Can you speak to the scale of the volume of flyable ships. Is this high fidelity extremly detailed 5-10 possibles or are you shooting for a large cadre of 30-50+ variants that people can choose from. Obviously player generated ships would increase the volume.

CR: There will probably only be 10-12 flyable ships / hulls at the start, mainly due to the level of fidelity on each ship and all the upgrades / modifications. The goal would be for the content team to introduce new ship types once live - maybe one a month or close to that time frame. We would supplement that with some player designed ships (if they meet the quality level)

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Monty **OoTG**
@Chris.. just wanted to ask... I purchased a Freelancer on the main site and have pledged for a Hornet here. However, I do not really want two copies of the CD soundtrack, map or manual, so will you look at tiers where you can just purchase the aircraft and then off add-on's for other items so we can 'tweak' our pledges accordingly - if the answer is no that is fine - just will get two of the physical goods !!

CR: This is an interesting one... When we started the whole process we didn't even think about people wanting to collect the full set (silly us!). Right now you would get both sets but only pay shipping once (if outside the US) as you've paid for them.

We're considering adding extra pledge levels hat would allow you to add on ships digitally but not get all the extra goodies if you want. It would unfortunately have to be on the RSI site as Kickstarter doesn't allow you to make multiple pledges

Is this something everyone would like? By the way this is me talking without running it by the rest of the team, who will probably kill me for suggesting this as this would further complicate the current pledges - we already have 3 databases we now have to integrate!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Chris - Freelancer chose mouse control over the joystick. Is joystick/HOTAS the main focus again, or could the controller scheme be compromised due to a preference for the mouse?

I'm supporting ALL - mouse, gamepad, joystick, full HOTAS + rudder pedals - even keyboard (for the people that like the highest degree of handicap!)

Its not that hard and there's no point in limiting it. We're PC baby!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

When will more details on the ships be coming? I'd like a fast fighter with high maneuverability. Would that Hornet be the one and it could be upgraded or would that be another ship with upgrades?

Were aiming to release ship specs this week - We're going to do it when you can upgrade / change your pledge on the RSI site, otherwise there will be a wave of frustrated people as I'm pretty confident a decent amount of people will want to move as this is something that a lot of people have already stated even before knowing the specs. We're aiming for Monday but its dependent on the web team getting the upgrade functionality

The Hornet (which will be a little different than the military one) is the one you'll want if you want to focus on dog fighting and maneuverability vs. trading or being an all around ship. It can still haul cargo but not so much with an additional module and its really set up more as a mercenary / bounty hunter / escort style ship.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Will you be able to buy lifetime insurance after the game is released. like the one you have for your pledge ship? Or is insurance going to be mostly temporarily or for a limited number of "deaths"?

CR: Lifetime insurance is going to be available for the people that back before we go live. After this you can only buy insurance for limited durations or replacements. As long as your earning money through flying missions or doing trade runs you should easily have enough cash flow to pay for this insurance (kind of like real life!)

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

You've stated that the constellation has a fighter bay. Is the fighter proprietary or can we upgrade the fighter bay to hold something like the Hornet?

CR: You will be able to upgrade your fighter, but the Hornet will probably be too heavy duty to fit in a Constellation. You'll need a bigger ship for that,

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 12 hours ago

Cody -

1. Its too early to say as we haven't balanced or finished designing out all the upgrades / costs and the $ to credit conversion, but rest assured we will make sure the exchange of time vs money matches up. In addition having the bigger ship doesn't mean its fully equipped so you'll have to do some missions / trade runs to really kit your new ship out the way you want - it just means your base hull & engine package that you build on is at a higher cots level than the starter ship.

2. I DONT want a RPG level system (i.e. you have to be level 20 to fly a Constellation). I want it to be like real life. If you had the money you could probably buy a F16. But that doesn't mean you would be as effective pilot as someone that has been flying F16s for a while. I kind of like the idea of a pilots license and being qualified for different levels (like in real life). Not sure we would do something like that but I'm going to think about it - Getting your license could be the "training" run through / mission you get when you step up to a new ship class / size

3. 1000 credits can buy a couple of modules, or a few containers of cargo. Its not enough for abase Hull. We haven't priced the hulls out credit wise but my guess is that you would need 10-15K credits minimum to move up to the next ship level. Don't quote this as gospel - the big caveat is that we haven't leveled all this as we're still in the design stage!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 8 hours ago

Adam Seinen
Is there any thought towards mining and resource collection for the trader/industrialists?

CR: Yes - we are going to allow this - its pretty simple to support and I really want people to to able to play different roles in this universe. I suspect some people will gravitate to combat, some to trading, and so on.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 8 hours ago

StMorpheus
@Chris
I assume that the game will have the space sim standard targeting computer showing where you should shoot, but are there any plans for ship add-ons like an ECM that would confuse the enemies targeting computer. Maybe be based on the range of the enemy. basic would protect against long range, and the more expensive and advanced ECM's would protect at closer ranges?

CR: Yes all of this - HUDs and various targeting components and other avionics systems will be modular and enhancable. There's quiet along thread from the flash genius that wrote all the dynamics HUD code for the system (like most AAA games we use scale form for the UI). You can read it here http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/forums/topic/hello-from-one-of-the-devs/

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 9 hours ago

Scotty "S42:Space Marines"
Has there been any thought to creating your own base? If I were a pirate I might be inclined to find an asteroid and set up shop in the middle of a field. Would something like this be possible?

CR: This is part of the design. With enough money you should be able to buy a base, and there will be some that you can discover and take over and perhaps have to defend from others if they try and take it form you - we will just have to work out the issues of people being online at different times as it wouldn't be fair to lose your base because you were offline.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 9 hours ago

CCraig 22 minutes ago Backer info Report spam
CR, what exactly is an instance ?

CR: An instance is a server run battle of players (maximum not determined yet but will be at least as much as BF3 and hopefully a lot more). We dynamically create these based on different player's locations and travel in the universe, so that when players that would be in conflict (or hostile NPCs) cross paths we have a battle instance to put them into to resolve the combat before letting them continue on their way.. The persistent universe server keeps tracks of all the players locations and assets and dynamically "match makes" these battles.

Also, what security measures is your website providing to protect our data ? for example : encrypting passwords and credit card data, etc

CR: All the payment stuff is handled away from our site (via Paypal, Amazon or Stripe, which is how we manage the credit card stuff). We don't keep financial data or CC numbers on our site. The most we keep is your email address and name. Having said that we recognize that even the email addresses are sensitive so we will be upping our security on this over the coming weeks - moving to https and such.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 9 hours ago

Dave blanchard
@chris any chance we can see visible damage as the ship comes in, this is one of the things I loved in Wing commander 1 and 2

CR: Absolutely - its a big focus - individual components will become damaged. break off and so on - All ships are built of 100s of parts, so it will be a level of visual fidelity not seen before.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 9 hours ago

Sorry for the delay folks.

Martin Solis
There was a huge discussion about what exactly should be AI controlled and what shouldn't. Could you clarify what your limits are concerning this?
(Example: AI turrets are fine but AI fighters isn't. The constellation mini fighter was a big contention point.)

CR: Currently AI will run your turrets but wont fly your fighter tender. You'll need to either set your ship on autopilot, turn on the auto turrets and jump in your fighter or get a friend to fly your big ship while you pilot the short range fighter... I wouldn't rule out an AI upgrade at a later date that could pilot the fighter tender at a later date though!

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 10 hours ago

bleachorange
@Chris
will there be a limit on maximum velocity on ship speed?
CR - Yes, there has to be as it won't be much fun otherwise. So the fly by wire system has limited top speeds and boost speeds. So while the physics is 100% accurate and everything is done via impulses / forces the FBW system will prevent you from going to fast (for the sake of game play)

Can we have nose art (including kill markers)?
CR:Yes I very much intend to implement this

how are the systems scaled in terms of size (including sector size)?
CR: Tough question to answer - kid of like saying how long is a piece of string. Star Systems can have multiple locations - planets, asteroid fields, jump points, etc that you can navigate to. Each "location" is a large chunk of 3D space that has "terrain" - a planet, a nebula, asteroids, a gravity well etc, To travel between locations you "auto-pilot" just like in Wing Commander / Privateer. We will may also let you try and fly in real time between locations, but I can;t promise this yet as there is a floating point precision issue that would need to solved (as space is so vast, plus I would guess this would only be for die hard realists as it would vb every boring.

Creator Cloud Imperium Games Corporation about 10 hours ago

GT500
@Chris R.
Any thoughts given to server side calculations for Multiplayer as World Of Tanks has implemented?
One of the things that is great about WoT is knowing the other players are unable to cheat.

This is why the persistent universe and the "battle" servers that run the instanced combat are operated by us, as opposed to on the client side or peer to peer. Its more expensive but it provides a better experience both in reduced latency and also preventing cheating.

Josh Strike
Key Master

Hi all,
I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m the designer/coder for the Star Citizen HUD and additional 2D elements. While a good deal of my work wasn’t integrated in time for the live demo, that was largely because what we’ve been doing has pushed the limits of Scaleform and CryENGINE – and is radically different from the standard game HUD formula that’s prevailed for the last decade. Taking inspiration from previous Chris Roberts ship controls, nothing in our work is similar to the templates you’ve seen in more recent games; it’s been engineered from the ground up to deliver an unparalleled degree of control and detail to the pilot. Chris is an inspiring guy to work for, and I’m honored to have been picked for the job. We aren’t cutting any corners. All the elements of the HUD systems we’ve developed are based on procedural algorithms and can be customized to different ships and styles to a huge degree of depth and flexibility, keeping the scope of the universe in mind. My task is to pack as much useful information as possible into tight, clear displays, to give pilots those crucial visual cues that can mean the difference between life and death in a dogfight. The HUD will be your friend, and learning to read it reflexively will shave crucial milliseconds off your reaction time. Sometimes it feels more like I’m developing an avionics package for the military than for a game!
For my qualifications, I have 15 years in Flash/Flex development, including dozens of casual games and a custom gaming platform for a Bitcoin site I operate. I’m very much a DIY, self-employed developer, and this is my first team effort in over ten years. But this is a game I’m dying to play, and I couldn’t say no… I’ve been a fan of Chris’s work since I was a kid playing Wing Commander, and it’s a dream job for me to work with the team he’s assembled.
There are lots of reasons to pledge to this project, but one of the best (in my view) is that the authenticity of the flying/fighting experience is going to be unparalleled. I can confirm that all the pieces are in place to ensure that it will be – and as for the avionics, I think this HUD will be the gold standard in “AAA” games for the next decade or longer.
I hope to hear your feedback as we go along, and thank you all for showing your support and helping to building this awesome game!

Josh Strike
Key Master

I’m looking forward to showing off the design, and I’ll see if we can’t get a sneak peek in here pretty soon! You can catch a tiny bit of it in the “Immersion” video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVua4SsaGqU&feature=relmfu which shows some of the earliest integrations of marks, radar and ship displays when you climb into the cockpit. Although this is just the tip of the iceberg, you’ll notice the screen displays there look quite a bit different from anything in the other videos. What you’re seeing (for HUD-skeptics) are functional components with a lot of data layers and controls built in, but they aren’t engaged yet in that video.

Mea culpa, by the way. I was trying to do something that hadn’t been done before, which was part of the reason we missed our integration target, which is most of the reason why the targeting reticles and gun pips weren’t in for the live demo (which is why Chris missed the enemy ship — and why some people seem to doubt the HUD exists). But I promise the end result is well worth it; you’ve never seen this stuff in a HUD before, because we had to rewrite parts of the CryENGINE/Scaleform integration code and roll a whole bunch of new graphics methods just to make it work.

I’ll shut up now before I say too much, and leave it to Chris to make the big announcements :P

Josh Strike
Key Master

Thanks for such a warm welcome! Can’t believe so many people stopped by to say hi while I was sleeping. I’m by no means able to answer all the questions, and I should be getting back to work :P but I guess I can give you all another good teaser…

I’m seeing a lot of questions about 2D vs. 3D displays, and about 3D HMDs vs. cockpit-projected HUDs. In fact, Chris made the decision to use all three types in Star Citizen from the beginning.

There’s a fixed holographic projection within the cockpit, which overlays things that don’t move with your head, e.g. velocity, acceleration, attitude, altitude, heading and targeting data. This projection has depth for greater effect (along the lines of what you see in that Scaleform promotional video), and also uses some (non-essential) stereoscopic depth cues to assist the pilot in reading certain situations more quickly. You don’t need an Oculus to get all the same info, but I’m not saying the depth cues won’t give you a slight edge.

In addition to that, there’s a separate projection on the inside of the pilot’s helmet which can be loaded up with with deeper data sets (e.g. ship status, weapons selection, power balancing, navigation maps, communications, etc). This HMD projection stays in your field of vision when you turn your head.

Finally, elements from both of these projections can be shunted to the flat LCD displays or brought back up to their respective projection, and have been designed to shift shape, color and opacity, and/or break into separate elements, depending on whether they’re being displayed on a flat screen or holographically. So yeah, there was definitely some inspiration from Minority Report and Iron Man, but at the same time these elements are very much in the CR space sim style, and my primary goal is to remain true to his original vision.

I should stress that these projection layers exist, and about 80% of the gizmos are fully functional; in tests, they have been added to the projections and screens and run successfully with dummy data. The part that’s not yet complete is the full integration that sends active environmental data to the components. The HUD is a platform in itself with 62 custom classes and a 20-page API manual so far. There are hundreds of data points that need to be connected up to the ship’s systems, so we’re still in the process of getting the cockpit fully “wired”.

And no, we’re not deviating from the classic polar-mapped radar screen! But we’ve added some nice touches like sector heat mapping, and ship-on-your-tail alerts.

Additionally, someone asked me about incorrect and/or damaged displays. Every element in our HUD responds to damage. As Chris built the fly-by-wire system to procedurally handle an infinite range of ship states based on damage to various components, that philosophy was extended to have damage also rendered procedurally in the HUD. Just as one example, text in the HUD is not pre-rendered or even generated on the fly as a block; it’s printed procedurally to the displays one character at a time, with a greater likelihood of transcription error (or garbled transmission) depending on specific damage to your avionics or communications systems. Response to damage is a bedrock feature of every element in the HUD and has a negative impact on boot times, data latency and accuracy. If this sounds like something not recommended in a scaleform project, it isn’t – and they said it was crazy – but we’ve refactored, honed and optimized it to work.

So, I’ll end it here before I give away all my tricks, but I’ll drop back in from time to time. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next vid!

Josh Strike
Key Master

Good luck to all of us! I just want to say, as far as modding the HUD, a lot of things (e.g. colors, custom drawing styles) are written to be extremely moddable. I imagine custom skins will be an early addition. Totally custom HUDs that include unique ship configurations are probably further down the road. We’ve overcome some major technical hurdles with Scaleform in terms of getting all of our procedural elements to work, although the trade-off is that we had to mod the SDK a bit so it’s not as easy to compile these things in. But the HUD is made to be very, very flexible… we’ve already got some in-house programs written to ease the process of integrating new elements and new ships… so I do think community modding of the HUD is ultimately in the cards.
Also: Personally, and not speaking for RSI, I’m a big fan of Privateer, and the exploration/trading side of things (although with some good dogfights to spice it up). Actually one of my favorite games from back in the day was Starflight, which was pretty much all about that. I still have great memories the planetary analysis that would piece together the atmospheric and mineral composition of new planets you’d orbit. My 9-year-old best friend and I (can’t resist linking to him) decided to start a software company to build an open universe after playing that game, which ended a year later with a journal full of dozens of solar systems and a bunch of hypercard stacks. So from my perspective, civilian uses for the HUD and ship’s systems are absolutely crucial as well, and they won’t be neglected in Star Citizen. It’s one of the reasons I’m thrilled to be part of the team.

Josh Strike
Key Master

Good luck to all of us! I just want to say, as far as modding the HUD, a lot of things (e.g. colors, custom drawing styles) are written to be extremely moddable. I imagine custom skins will be an early addition. Totally custom HUDs that include unique ship configurations are probably further down the road. We’ve overcome some major technical hurdles with Scaleform in terms of getting all of our procedural elements to work, although the trade-off is that we had to mod the SDK a bit so it’s not as easy to compile these things in. But the HUD is made to be very, very flexible… we’ve already got some in-house programs written to ease the process of integrating new elements and new ships… so I do think community modding of the HUD is ultimately in the cards.
Also: Personally, and not speaking for RSI, I’m a big fan of Privateer, and the exploration/trading side of things (although with some good dogfights to spice it up). Actually one of my favorite games from back in the day was Starflight, which was pretty much all about that. I still have great memories the planetary analysis that would piece together the atmospheric and mineral composition of new planets you’d orbit. My 9-year-old best friend and I (can’t resist linking to him) decided to start a software company to build an open universe after playing that game, which ended a year later with a journal full of dozens of solar systems and a bunch of hypercard stacks. So from my perspective, civilian uses for the HUD and ship’s systems are absolutely crucial as well, and they won’t be neglected in Star Citizen. It’s one of the reasons I’m thrilled to be part of the team.

Josh Strike
Key Master

Historically, in Chris’s games, the higher-end / more expensive ships tend to have more open and undivided viewport areas in the cockpit than the basic models. Just sayin’.

From: http://www.robertssp...-stretch-goals/
Has been deleted becouse (maybe) they weren't finished...

“We Have Liftoff!”
Initial Goal – $2+ million Pledged

Community Updates
Star Citizens will get to play in the multiplayer Alpha (12 months)
Star Citizens will receive access to the 30-mission Wing Commander/Squadron 42 campaign (18 months)

$2.25 million – Everybody gets a robot! Backers will start with a Class I Repair Bot, in their garage.
$2.5 million – Star Citizen will launch with 35 star systems to explore.
$2.75 million – 500 extra credits at launch for all backers!

“One Small Step For Man…”
Stretch Goal 1 – $3+ million Pledged

Increased Community Updates!
Star Citizens will get to play in the multiplayer Alpha (12 months)
Star Citizens will receive access to the Wing Commander/Squadron 42 campaign (18 months)
Additional base type: hidden smuggler asteroids.
Two additional flyable ships on launch (total of twelve.)
40 missions in Squadron 42

$3.25 million – An additional 42-page fiction manual in the style of Claw Marks available digitally / Additional base type: can you discover the alien derelict…
$3.5 million – Extended hardcore flight sim controller support. Flight chairs, multiple monitors, Track-IR. MDF panels and more on launch. / Largest playable ship: corvette.
$3.75 million – Largest playable ship: destroyer.

“… A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By”
Stretch Goal 2 – $4+ million Pledged

Increased Community Updates!Star Citizens will get to play in the multiplayer Alpha (12 months)Creation of Professional Mod Tools provided free to players
Monthly Dev. Team Webcasts
Star Citizens will receive access to the Wing Commander/Squadron 42 campaign (18 months)
Richer Storyline
Four additional flyable ships on launch (total of fourteen.)
Introduce the Kr’tak Aliens
50 missions in Squadron 42

$4.25 million – Star Citizen will match Privateer, with 70 star systems to explore on launch.
$4.5 million – The first Squadron 42 mission disk, Behind Enemy Lines, available for free to all backers upon release. A 16-mission campaign in the style of The Secret Missions.
$4.75 million – Additional base type: Vanduul trading post

“Have Starship Will Travel…”
Stretch Goal 3 – $5+ million Pledged

Tablet companion Application to check on your inventory, commision or find missions and get the galactic news feed
Increased Community Updates!Star Citizens will get to play in the multiplayer Alpha (12 months)Creation of Professional Mod Tools provided free to players
Monthly Dev. Team Webcasts
Monthly Town Hall Meeting with Chris Roberts
Star Citizens will receive access to the Wing Commander/Squadron 42 campaign (18 months)
Celebrity voice-acting for Squadron 42; we will bring back at least one favorite from Wing Commander!
50 Missions in Squadron 42
Star Citizens will receive access to the Wing Commander/Star Citizen universe for online persistent play (30 months)
Privateer-like gameplay
Online Ship Marketplace
Multiple Star Systems to Explore – 80 star systems

$5.25 million – Largest playable ship: cruiser
$5.5 million – Professional motion capture for the Squadron 42 cutscenes. It’s the next best thing to Mark Hamill and a green screen!
$5.75 million – Exclusive RECORD BREAKER ship skin and 1000 additional credits on launch for all backers.

“To Infinity And Beyond…”
Stretch Goal 4 – $6+ million (Locked)

Star Citizen will improve on Privateer, with 100 star systems to explore on launch.
Atmospheric missions included with Squadron 42.
Bengal carrier unlocked for persistent universe play.

What element or aspect of Star Citizen would you say you’re most excited about to experience in-game?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.)
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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?
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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.)
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Do I get to keep my account/forum username, is it reserved somehow?
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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.
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Do you plan to include some sort of VOIP communication in the game, sort of similar to what PlanetSide 2 is doing?
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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.
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Will squadron leaders be given tools to order their fleet in combat, either through some sort of overview tactical map or some other UI?
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Too early to know right now, but it’s certainly something we’d like to do.
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When NPC/Player ships explode, will we be able to tractor in the wreckage and perhaps salvage parts?
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Absolutely yes.
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What will determine a ship’s top speed? Higher acceleration = higher top speed?
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Not going to touch that one, Chris is master of all in-game physics.
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How is an exploration ship different than the others?
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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.
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Will the website updates include a development or “dev” tracker section, so we can keep an eye on everything you guys say here?
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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.
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When will the details of the “modded” ship requirements will be released?
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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.’
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Will the single player part of game have multiple endings?
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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.
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Other than turret positions will large ships have separate control stations that different players can man such as helm, fire control, navigation, etc…?
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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.
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Will there be an injury system that can make use of an infirmary?
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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…)
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What are you MOST proud of so far (aside from concept)?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Please consider carefully all trading systems and the worst kinds of people attempting to abuse it.
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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.
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What is your criteria to decide which ideas from the community are feasible and which ones are not, and how strict it is?
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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.)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What about planetary exploration?
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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.
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Will there be any FPS aspect at all in the game?
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Yes, absolutely, FPS style gameplay during ship boarding.
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Will there be trade between players?
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There will certainly be trade between players.
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Will we have more than one account on one copy of the game key?
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Too early to tell how accounts will work.
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What are you guys cooking up to make sure that people continue pledging now that you hit your base goal on KS?
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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.
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When will the new forums arrive?
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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.
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When will other forms of modding support arrive such as source models and briefings?
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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What’s the team’s approach on music? Will it be Star Wars-esque or you’re going for something more “fresh”.
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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.
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Will Pledge Titles be used in game?
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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.
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Is there anything that you’re desperate to get in that you haven’t fully realized yet, and aren’t sure if you can?
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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!)
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Will there be content updates for the single player aspect of the game, or is this all about PvP?
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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.
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Will I be able to access my pledge ship in single player?
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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.
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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.
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Excellent advice! Yes, it would be great to remind people that we have an actual working game already. I’ll mention it to Chris!
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Could there be support for command input from a program like Dragon Naturally Speaking?
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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…)
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What are those 2 Seahorse like Red objects in the Carrier to be seen before Chris goes inside the Hornet?
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Uh, no comment
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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.
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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.
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Will we see some cosmetic damage to the ship models after a fierce firefight?
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Absolutely you will see this. Chris is all about immersion.
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Is there any plan to have the Star Citizen universe as a local simulation?
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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.
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Will the game support in-game VoIP like Day Z has?
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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 )
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Will the game have dangerous asteroid fields like in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?
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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.
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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?
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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…)
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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.
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That’s a good idea! We’re going to have an endless variety of upgrades, so… one more for the stack!
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Will there be differences in the available features between off-line SP, LAN servers and Internet MMO servers?
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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.
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How long is the single player campaign going to be? Will there be some DLC or something like Secret Missions for single player?
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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!
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I was wondering if there will be more than just ships for people to own in the game.
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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.
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Will it be possible for backers to get access in the near future to some kind of a tech-demo?
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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.
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Will the game support force feedback?
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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.
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Are there plans for a bounty system for criminals and maybe even the recovery of stolen ships?
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Absolutely to a bounty system, haven’t thought about recovering stolen ships yet… but it’s a good idea.
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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?
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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.
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Are we as players allowed to actively seek out vulnerabilities be it in forum or alpha or beta?
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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.
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What game mechanics will be in place to execute salvage operations of debris after a combat?
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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.
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Are collisions are going to be harmless or potentially dangerous?
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Dangerous! Getting hit with a million tonne rock should hurt. (Otherwise what’s the point of even having asteroids?)
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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.
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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!
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Is the team thinking about joining AMD’s Gaming Evolved program?
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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
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Will there be special events?
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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?
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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…
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Can you tell us which graphic motor will you use for SC?
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SC is build up from CryEngine 3, with additional coding by Chris Roberts himself.
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Will it have forced PvP?
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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.
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Do you plan on having a housing system?
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There will be a housing system.
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Is a first person view planned?
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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.)
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Don’t you think that SC will be similar to Star Trek Online?
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I can’t comment on Star Trek Online because I never played it. (Should I? I like Star Trek…)
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Will there be servers only in America or will they be in Europe too?
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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.

Davin - its not multiple membership. Each $10K person is buying their own private club / room that they can invite their friends to hang out in. Think of it as an exclusive cabana / room for you and your friends behind a velvet rope at a hot club, or a private board room to plot your plans at universe domination with the rest of your squadron / clan.

Roberts Space Industries
COMBAT ALERT: if we reach the $2.5 million stretch goal in the next
four hours, we will be giving away ten brand new Anvil Gladiator
bombers! Everyone who has pledged will be eligible and has an equal
chance of winning: we'll notify the RSI winners later this week and
the Kickstarter ones after November 19. Let's hit that goal, pilots!
Tell your friends - even a $10 pledge qualifies!

Christopher Roberts: Plus we talked about doing a custom SC Rift



Christopher Roberts: I want to have that one ready for our MP dogfight alpha



Christopher Roberts: Yes – we want to add options



Christopher Roberts: merchandise, ship models, and also in game items are all on the list



Christopher Roberts: yep – we want to add some modules Christopher Roberts: Its hard as I have a lot of it mapped out but we haven’t balanced the in game cost so we’re kind of guessing at a reasonable $ to time / in game credit ratio!



Christopher Roberts: I also don’t want to gouge anyone! But I get the feeling that its more about supporting the game and getting some extra in game stuff is a good excuse to do that



Pirate: will the private clubs available for 10k usd also be purchasable in game with (a lot) of credits? 31 2012, 11:42 PM Christopher

Roberts: Pirate: Yes – its part of the higher game objectives – earn enough for real-estate (or maybe a very big ship)



Christopher Roberts: What’s the anvil situation?



Christopher Roberts: Ships are in the works – but they’re not simple designs – they have to be fully engineered and thought out for ergonomics and functionality. They get conceptualized in 3D. Both Ryan Church and Jim Martin (two very famous concept artists) are hard at work!



Christopher Roberts: Wrinyk: Most definitely – good to show off the physical constraints system.

[EDIT: Wrinyk: This was in response to my asking if there would be harpoon-and-tow lines included in-game, for throwing asteroids, tearing bits off the enemy, etc. ]



Christopher Roberts: Taran Tatsuuchi: Yes – its actually part of the boarding process (esp in SP). Disable the engines etc.



Christopher Roberts: Paranoidkitten: What do you mean by Ram shields? Some of the ships (the Vanduul fighter) have specific reinforced components for ramming…



Christopher Roberts: Zabojnik: No it should be your character / avatar – the S42 part of the game is done WC1 style, so its not as linear and forced as the later FMV WCs. Its teh advantage of everything being in-engine and rendering in realtime versus filming stuff



Zovator: Chris: “With the advent of Windows 8, we will start to see an influx of multitouch desktop displays. My question is that with the touch-screen displays in vessel’s cockpits/bridges, will they be extendable to physical standalone touch displays? So we can control ingame ship functions via real life touch display input?”

Christopher Roberts: Zovator: We’ll try to get some of this working – the in game HUD is designed to be like Minority Report / Iron Man. Not sure how much at the start but it will be definitely something we’ll add later Christopher Roberts: Don’t worry you wont need the rift to play!



Christopher Roberts: I Plan to have the Constellation to show first, then the Lancer. You already have a good idea on the Hornet (although it will be modified somewhat). 300 and Aurora after…



Christopher Roberts: Yes we’re going to let people upgrade and do more add ons after the campaign ends.



WaspX: Will there be an FPS (combat) element to the game? And how would it differ from the rudimentary run ofthe mill FPS games out nowadays?

Christopher Roberts: Pirate: Depends on if you insure your new hull. If you do you dont drop back down



Christopher Roberts: WaspX : Yes there will some FPS combat aboard bigger ships / space locations (space station, asteroid base)



Christopher Roberts: CMDBob: I would really like to be able to do that – can’t promise but its definitely on my want to do because it would be just too damn cool list.



Zabojnik: Chris, you should totally get the Leap Motion guys to send you guys a couple of these magic devices!

Christopher Roberts: Zabojnik: Checked the Leap out today as well – Leap + Rift + HOTAS + Rudder pedals + Flight Chair will be the full cockpit VR experience!



Prevalent Pegasus: @CR: How much detail do you and the team intent to go into when designing the ships? Are just essential compartments being modeled like the cockpit and the engine room? Or are things like the living quarters and other miscellaneous spaces being implemented where applicable?

Christopher Roberts: Prevalent Pegasus: The full ship is modeled, including living quarters, etc. Hoe you move around, what areas close off with bulkheads and so on. You’ll see when we share the Constellation design work in a bit..



WaspX: leap + rift + HOTAS + rudder pedals + flight chair = all of which I cannot afford

Christopher Roberts: WaspX: Gamepad or mouser or joystick will all be fine. I’m talking about the E3 line up to play demo set up!



Singularity: I just worry about my FPS, its especially important with FPS games like this one. I’ll wait to build my new PC for another 6 months if I should.

Christopher Roberts: Singularity: I’m shooting for high end now (single GTX670+) which I figure will be mid level in 2 years. Plus the game will scale down – for lower spec machines the Carrier and other ships will use the lower LOD models. Space is much easier for this than a normal FS game as we don’t have to worry about rendering a fully detailed environment like acity or jungle as well



Christopher Roberts: No Engine can really render planets at proper scale – even with the modifications we’ve made to CryEngine.



Christopher Roberts: WaspX: Probably not – combat is going to be focused more away from planets, although if you do get too close and are not on an auto landign run we may have a atmosphere / burn up effect – haven’t worked that part out fully yet



Christopher Roberts: Switch: There’s going to be a fun competition with very cool prizes donated by Alienware, Oculus, Nvidia and Rift that we will announce soon.



Greaser: @chris compliments to the team – I love the informations about the Xi’an…

Christopher Roberts: Greaser: Thanks. Xi’an was modeled by Chris Olivia, whose an awesomely talented artist and has worked with me since WC3… Most recently he’s been Robert Rodriguez’s VFX Supervisor / Creative Conceptualist



Bootcha: and other indirect/direct avenues of world building inside the game proper?

Christopher Roberts: Bootcha: I cant answer that on live chat – take too long. But storytellign and world immersion are very important to me. Its why we’re doing the serialized stories on the sites and other things like the shipping news and intelligence data… Even before the alpha I want people to be having fun in the universe. The idea is the RSI site is like the first point of entry. And rest assured there will be some great stuff in S42 and SC



DaemonXR: so will we be able to have more than one ship in game?

Christopher Roberts: DaemonXR: We’re doing some stuff realistically, but also we’re doing a lot of stuff unrealistically. I would say we’re realistic in a Star Wars kind of way! The idea is the fantasy of dogfighting in space, not the actual hard cold beyond visual range run by computers at insane speeds that it would likely be.



AD: Will you be releasing a version of the trailer with George Oldziey’s music that didn’t make it on time for GDC?

Christopher Roberts: AD: Don’t. I may have a version of it with it cut in – kind of got lost in the GDCmadness. Battleship track sounds bigger because it is with a real orchestra whereas George’s music was samples. George’s music was actually for in game not the trailer. We just tried to adapt it at the last minute because we didn’t think we could do a reasonable deal with Universal for the music rights.

Christopher Roberts: At the last minute we did and George’s stuff still had to be cut in, so we used the cue that the sequence was originally cut



Christopher Roberts: Anvil Gladiators? Nov 1 2012, 12:27 AM



Christopher Roberts: Cause the Hornet is an Anvil ship too!



Christopher Roberts: We’ll pull the winners from the RSI backers tomorrow. KS has to wait until the campaign closes. We’re distributing the 10 between RSI and KS based on relative $



Zabojnik: Chris: do you guys plan on releasing another trailer before the pledging campaign is over? Even if it’s just a remixed version of the first one … I think it would help a lot

Christopher Roberts: Zabojnik: We have a few videos in the works! So yes!



CMDBob: I wish my pledge would appear on my account, I made mine on like day 1 and it still hasn’t been linked. Filled out the form, just gotta wait I guess. Don’t wanna miss the chance for a Gladiator though…

Christopher Roberts: CMDBob: Don’t worry – You wont. I’m hoping most of the last accounts will be linked tomorrow – its top priority for the web guys. You filled in the form right?



Grysage: What are your thoughts on player use of macros? Specifically I’m thinking of macro’ing thruster fires to produce or help execute complex manuevers.

Christopher Roberts: Grysage: We will probably set up a system for this, as I think it will necessary for the more complicated, override the computer kind of stuff



briguy168: nah, I like having to slow the throttle and kicking the joystick down and to the left to do a crazy maneuver

Christopher Roberts: briguy168: You should be able to do both… I just think some people will want to be super specific and it doesn’t hurt to give people the option for assignable hotkeys – they’re pretty easy to do



AD: If I play with a 360 controller, do you plan on including rumble effects?

Christopher Roberts: AD: Yes – rumble effects are already in



Asaob: Chris if you not planing to make ingame voice communication than plz put a distress call button in the game what send your cordinates to the other nearby ships!

Christopher Roberts: Asaob: That will be built in – you will be able to broadcast to your friends for help



Aidle: Chris Roberts: Will there be any option of droping mines/chaff or rear turret (with auto/manual mode) upgrades on certain ships?

Christopher Roberts: Aidle:yes



Zovator: Only your friends? Zovator: What if you want to lure in some pirates? Zovator: And attack them?

Christopher Roberts: Zovator: Friends, law enforcement, aligned groups that kind of thing…



Christopher Roberts: Prevalent Pegasus: Million mile high club is an exampel fo player owned real-estate. There will be other ones, and ones that are even cooler, but for this its kind of like your own private club you can invite people to – kind of like a VIP section / or room in a very hot club. A lace for your friends or squadron to get together, swap stories, plot and so on.



AD: Will there be a flyable EVA suit that we can putter around it… and maybe even “dogfight” in zero G with pistols?

Christopher Roberts: AD: We’re probably going to give you small jets on your suit so you can spin around and look at the battle around you



Fyremaster: I am going to presume that you cant answer, or dont know yet, but I will try one more time: can a player “re-enlist” in s42 to play the missions again, or does he have to start a new character. or can s42 be played twice at all?

Christopher Roberts: Fyremaster: I like the idea of multiple play throughs, each getting harder



Switch: @Chris – What will exploration involve besides discovering new systems and selling navdata? What happens when all systems are discovered?

Christopher Roberts: Switch: We plan to continuously add systems when the game is live. Not every week, but probably at least one a month.



Christopher Roberts: Alright – I have to run. Been fun chatting. I’m doing a reddit tomorrow at 1pm PST, so stop in – that’s a little easier to answer questions on!

I beg to differ, peppergomez.
Rogue Systems, fingerscrossed interactive...

I already hate the SC community lol. The vocal few are real ****s.

The Pirate Pack $100 NEW!

Add a Drake Interplanetary Cutlass fighter complete with a tractor beam, docking collar and skull-and-crossbones skin to your game! Available only through the end of the pledge campaign.
Includes:
- Drake Interplanetary Cutlass + Mark IV
- Tractor Beam
- A&R Technologies Docking Collar

Anvil Gladiator Bomber (add-on ship) $150 NEW!
Add a powerful carrier-based bomber to your arsenal in the finished Star Citizen game.

ORIGIN M50 Interceptor (add-on ship) $80 NEW!
Add a sporty, high-speed interceptor to your arsenal in the finished Star Citizen game.

MISC Starfarer Tanker (add-on ship) $175 NEW!
Add a lumbering fuel tanker to your arsenal in the finished Star Citizen game.

Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar (add-on ship) $225 NEW!
Add a pirate transport ship to your arsenal in the finished Star Citizen game.

Retaliator Heavy Bomber (add-on ship) $250 NEW!
Add a heavily configurable surplus strategic bomber to your arsenal in the finished Star Citizen game.

Captured Vanduul Fighter (add-on ship) $300 {Limit 500} NEW!
The UEE has captured a Vanduul carrier and is selling off the fighter complement. Your only chance to fly this rare spacecraft without catching one in the wild.

Idris Corvette (add-on ship) $1000 {Limit 100} NEW!
Looking for a home for your squadron or guild? The Idris is the ideal place to start, allowing players to dock multiple fighters.

If the SP campaign isn't as good as WC3 and 4, forget it. It better be improved over those, or the haters will descend. And it better not be 5 stupid hours' worth, either! The big space sims came from the days when SP games were 20+ hrs, so this better be well over 10, preferably 15+.

Yes, that's also the impression that I get from "Lifetime insurance" feature. If you loose a ship that you bought which is better or diferent than the ship you start with you'll return to the game with the starting ship which for pleagers will be the ship that the players pleaged - for example I pleage $30 which means that my pleage ship is the Aurora so if I loose a ship that's diferent/better than my initial Aurora (for example a Hornet) I loose that ship and get back to the game "earning" a new Aurora, if I don't own any more ships that is! I read rumours that there's a "weaker" ship than the Aurora which is the ship that the player's that didn't pleage (or only pleage $10) star with - but that's not confirmed which means that the Aurora could still be in fact the "normal" starting ship.
Probably this "loose your destroyed ship" isn't a bad idea at all since this pehaps will keep some or many players from attacking others since there's the "real risk" of loosing the "better" ship that cost many in-game hard earned credits, but who knows?

Anyway, if being able to buy insurance for your ships together with the possibility (already confirmed) that you can purchase multiple ships (not only being able to own one single ship like in Freelancer or Privateer) and store them in a "garage" than loosing a ship won't be a very annoying issue (at least not so annoying).

Also, like Master said there will be options within the game where "you can opt out of pvp play" but notice that will only work within 'core' or 'main/central systems' which are supposed to be heavily "policed" by the UEE Navy/law enforcement agencies within the Star Citizen universe (these include the Sol system and other adjacent UEE core systems) but once you get out of these systems into the UEE 'border systems' and even perhaps other civilization's systems (such as Xi'an, Banu, Vanduul, etc...) the "opt out of pvp play" won't work (independently of what PvP option you have selected you can can be targeted/intercepted by other human players) and of course together with this the margin of profit (doing missions and/or trade) will be much higher in those 'border systems' than will be in the 'core/main systems' (mainly due to the tax rates being much higher there).

Finally, I want to say that I'm in fact much more interested in the Single Player (and Co-Op) 'Squadron 42' "Wing Commander style gameplay" part than in the 'Star Citizen' part and when or if I decide to play the 'Star Citizen' part I'll probably play it in a private server with some of my friends.