CitizenCon 2015

CitizenCon was today. IMO it was a good presentation.

The whole thing is broken into various videos you can find on their main youtube channel. Ill post the gameplay ones and the intro to Sq42 one.

SC Alpha 2.0 (Baby PU) Press Demo (The video given to the press, pre recorded)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrpeLpQWzTk

SC Alpha 2.0 (Baby PU) Live Demo (the live one they played at the Con)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zTVVG-WF4

Sq 42 Intro (prerendered using game engine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EC4WHPxnrk

Sq 42 Intro Mission (start of the sp Campain 1st mission) (buggy as hell, he spent 5 min giving a "this is not the final product" speech)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qexLUpQJPw8

Star Map overview (tutorial video, not the overview video they did live at the Con.) You can actually play with it here
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/starmap

Dev Post on it
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15000-The-ARK-Starmap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eAD0liNeis

New Ship "The Saber" Looks cool and is 170. Kind of a cross between a modern Jet and a Japanese anime jet.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/sabre/Sabre

48hr sale on a 2500 dollar package! You know you want to buy it!
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Combos/Armada-Pack

I cannot wait to get into the large world maps/Baby PU!

The Star Citizen alpha 2.0 / baby PU demo is really worth checking out - it's starting to take shape and it's looking awesome.
I'm also really excited to see Mark Hamill back on board - back when the crowdfunding campaign started it only seemed an unlikely and remote possibility, now it's a reality!

They did hit that stretch goal...I knew it was going to be a good cast, but "Wow!"

That Sabre is a sweet looking ride....

Full presentation video is up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5sRUYwgWGI

Well I must admit to being pretty impressed by the presentation and all the content they showed off.

Over the past weeks I have been concerned by the amount of negative reporting and thoughts of the SC world imploding, what with the reports of them nearly running out of money, etc. However I hope that, like the rumours of my death...it's all,been greatly exgerated!

The star map is lovely ( though doesn't work on an iPad as yet ) and the attention to detail is really quite staggering, I'm loving the look of the inside of the Idris.

Also, having sworn blind not to get any other ships, himmmm that Sabre sure looks nice, maybe room for one more... Lol.

As I've said before, if they pull off even half of what they plan it will be an amazing game unlike anything we have seen before, I continue to cross everything that can be crossed!!!

Well I will be the naysayer here...... but not too much.

It does look interesting, and I know its still in development.

But lets start off the FPS. Characters still look and move a little clunky. I don't see any crouch/prone/lean/cover mechanisms. What about human damage has this been explained/fleshed out? or is it just instaspawn back to a spawnbay?

Ships do they have proper hotas support yet?

It still looks like a money grab to me due to the following.......

Citizen con to ramp up interest.....

Another ship released with LTI

Now we are getting referral codes

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But it is still in development and I know everything is subject to change. I do hope it makes it. The space game genre needs a good win (aside from elite).

But I can guess now from their back-pedalling on LTI. That if I want the game, I just have to wait a few months after release and I will still be able to buy the ships want and they will come with LTI.

So. I am happy to sit back and wait to see what happens. I won't get bowled over again with the hype, like did before. What I am seeing is nothing special nor ground-breaking. But am willing to keep watching to see how it pans out

Crouch, prone and lean have been in the game for months (in the current playable AC build) so I doubt they really cared to demo features that are not exactly new.

They are shooting for more an ARMA control feel for the FPS so I dont think the controls will ever be really smooth like in BF or CoD. They want to force the players to slow down etc. It is worth noting though that the stage demos were all played with xbox controllers which is why the movement was "smooth" yet limited. They also didnt seem to take advantage of the various flight modes which is why the landing/takeoffs were #%&*$#. Im not sure these people play their own game much lol.

The cover mechanic is still one of the blockers. I think in their more recent star marine post they said they are planning to remove it for now until they can get it to work properly so that it wont hold up the release.

Respawn is instant right now in AC but when the baby PU launches when you die you will spawn back on the main hub and have to travel back out to where ever you were when you died.



They have had proper hotas support for a long while now. You can program any joystick and it has curves, deadzones etc. it is a very robust system but it still has a few glitches and etc. I'd say though it is more like a proper sim's control customization than most games have.



No doubt it is a money grab but isnt that what companies are SUPPOSED to do? All new concept ships have LTI the first time they go on sale. That was the new rule they instituted over a year ago. They have pretty much kept to it with only a few issues which I wont really go into. The referral code system was something they had in the first kickstarter campaign (towards the end) and has been requested to return by backers for a while now. Its hard to give them a negative tick in my mind for delivering a feature requested by their backers... But I guess I can see how that makes it seem even more like a money grab.

They have indeed done a lot for HOTAS controls. As Master indicated, there are things that still need work.

The most glaring control problem is the existence of "Interactive Mode" for the mouse, with no equivalent for the Joystick/HOTAS or Game Pad users. Mouse IM has been demonstrated to be a massive advantage over other mouse modes and other controllers using any available mode. One of the devs has been looking at the situation closely, and has been working on a proposal to address it. We don't know the details of what he has suggested, nor do we know what level of acceptance he won, if any, from Chris Roberts. We may see something soon, now that Citizen Con is done.

So what is this interactive mode. And how is it more advantageous over a hotas?

I thought when flying, nothing could be better than a hosts with all the controls at your fingertips

Interactive mode with mouse and gimbaled weapons means point and click gunnery/gameplay.

IMO a very bad idea.

Not long back from Citizencon, great evening and meeting up with some old friends.

found the test pilot!

These two came over on the same flight as me from Brussels

LocNar can probably give you the best explanation of what is going on under the hood.

In simple terms, in Mouse Interactive Mode you basically use the mouse to aim your (gimbaled) weapons, and the ship flight follows that aim. It essentially means your two axis controller actually controls 4 axis in the game. It turns combat piloting on its ear. It is only available to the mouse (or someone using mouse emulation on a different device).

CIG has been getting heat over it for a long time, but as you might expect, there are plenty of players who like having an easier mode / advantage over others who do not use it. Chris Roberts and crew have been mostly kicking the can down the road (Calix R. being the one notable exception). I don't know how much it is due to Chris Roberts genuinely being in favor of Mouse IM, and how much is due to being afraid to P.O. the IM users... but it needs to be straightened out, and sooner would be better. It's already been way too long, and the longer it stays in, the more people there are that depend upon that crutch.

I'm sorry to sound negative but I still fondly remember the Kickstarter pitch that nearly got me in...

"We're going to make the best damn space sim ever".

After reading this Interactive Mode...
So much for the Sim part.

There's nothing wrong in catering for the largest playerbase.

It just totally lost the original flavor.
Or it's just me?
This resembles nothing the game I expected to see back in 2012- when I saw the kickstarter pitch.

I saw myself buying it when finished (or at least some sort of closer to completion...) but more and more- gameplay wise- feels more and more like Freelancer with an FPS part grafted in.

Splendidly looking but...

It hasnt been a "sim" in a long long time lol (actually never was a sim). The problem is his view of a "sim" is not the same as that of the simulation community!

Its not a sim... wont ever be a sim lol. But it's still a fun game and I could see it being the best damn space game ever

Personally I dont think it feels like freelancer. Most people just say that because of mouse interactive mode. Well, you dont have to use IM. You can still easily kill people flying IM with your HOTAS. Yea there are going to be great IM players but there are great HOTAS players also and if you are not all that interested in PvP leaderboards then the whole IM debate is moot anyways.

The game plays really well with a HOTAS. Much better than any other space game I can think of. (I dont like the yaw limit in ED or that would be a contender).

Just make an account (you dont even have to buy it) and use the free flight codes that get posted every other month to check out the game progress. If it ever gets to where you feel it is worth 45 bucks then buy it. If it never does then all you are down is bandwidth to download it.

But if you have NOT flown it... you really should because it is actually pretty good and most of the nay sayers really have not given it a fair shake. Some have never even installed or flown it. It deserves at least a a play or two IMO. Then if you still dont like it, fair enough! Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else's (as long as you have actually played it)

NOTE: just dont download it right NOW... there is a big patch expected soon that will up the game engine. (no real content afaik) but that could still be a big download so you might as well wait so you dont download the game twice.

There is the free flight week going on until 10/25... but if you're not up for that, wait for the patch


Thanks for posting those images up, Alicatt

Here is a higher quality version of the citcon presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQOqemcSDWA

One of the backers cleaned it up and smoothed it out.

Elite Dangerous is becoming what Star Citizen was supposed to be due to the #%&*$# Interactive Mode not being removed.

That's much better, thanks for posting the link.