Star Citizen - new project from creator of Wing Commander, Privateer, & Freelancer

[Dantrag]

Any vods?

[BaneTheBrawler]

Other than the Gloves/Helmet chanting, that was pretty damn terrible. They could have just prepared a bunch of videos instead of that travesty.

Pre-Alpha

[Asilius]

My body is ready
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Nzbjo8uxU

[The Blackrose]

For those who have access, Arena Commander is now available.

[6souls]

[6souls]

$50 million Stretch Goal announced as $48 million is reached, Alien Linguistics

Star Citizen funding has now hit $48 million, according to Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts who also announced a $50 million stretch goal.


The latest milestone was met due to sales of the the Gladius and Dogtag sales, which means the team can now create the user-voted Retaliator commercial, which David Haddock has started scripting.

The $50 million stretch goal “will truly improve the immersion” by adding Alien Languages, which will have real-world linguists creating “distinctive and realistic alien languages for Star Citizen’s three biggest alien races.”

These are the Vanduul, the Xi’An and the Banu.

“No universal translators, no garbled animal noises: Star Citizen’s aliens will be speaking their own authentic languages,” reads the post from Roberts. “I’m excited about this one… and looking forward to meeting the first fan who learns to speak one of our languages.”

http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/15/star...on-50-million/
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/c...man-48-Million

[Waraji]

So Chris Roberts took a shit on PS4 & XJuan. Should find the article and post it brb.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/15/ps...ersion-for-it/

“Star Citizen is a PC game,” wrote Roberts. “It will never be dumbed down for a lesser platform. We will not limit the input options or supported peripherals to the lowest common denominator. We will not pass on features and technology just because they will only run on some hardware configurations.”

Mind you, the original Blog Post these "new" articles are based off of is a year old lol...

https://forums.robertsspaceindustrie...4-and-consoles

[Intrinsic]

I bought a Kickstarter Freelancer, and a buddy of mine wants to buy my alpha access. I probably won't even play the game until it releases retail, so I'm not worried about early access. I looked around for concrete information on what this alpha module encompasses, but I couldn't find anything. Does anyone know if I'll lose any advantage in the retail version by giving her my alpha access?

[Purrrfect]

I was looking at the manual pdfs for some of the ships (boy they went in depth on this stuff) and got me thinking about it, are they planning on having the option to have multiple people on one ship? Something like the millennium falcon where one player would fly and a couple others would man turrets? At first thought this seems like an amazing possibility, but my lack of handling many video game motions would probably make me spew like a shaken soda. Though, I suppose from the turret seat it might just look like ships flying by you and you are not moving. Stars and planets could be an issue though...

[BaneTheBrawler]

Yes. In fact, some ships require more than one person. Like the Idris and Bengal Carrier. The Bengal in particular is intended to be more of a guild asset than personal. It's not clear how functional you'll be able to have them with sub-minimum crews. Current thinking is that you'll be able to pilot them but won't have access to a lot of their other functions. Also, we'll have AI characters we can hire to fill in crew roles, which your friends can then assume control of, or something. It's not entirely clear yet.

The Falcon is a primary inspiration for many of these ships. The Constellation, in particular.

[6souls]

Wing Commander 3 is free on Origin
https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/f...=1407264213631

[Purrrfect]

Got an email the other day about an invite to arena commander testing and mistakenly thought it meant they had given my account access. Turns out it was just a blanket email sent to backers and nonbackers alike so I still had to buy the $5 pass, but it motivated me to finally pick up a package (315P). I've only played a couple solo rounds and am pretty horrible at piloting control, but holy shit is this one of the most fun games I've played in a long while. Can't wait to see them put this thing together over this year and next. Even the hangar is just amazing detail on everything, I'm just kind of blown away by this game already.

[Bregor]

Wait so there's something you can actually play now? It's not just a ponzi scheme?

[Purrrfect]

If you buy one of the ship packages ($30 and up I think; but the lowest one doesn't include beta access later down the road) and the arena commander module pass ($5) you can. If you already have a package that included alpha access you probably don't need the module pass.

[Bregor]

We are very pleased to announce that Arena Commander’s multiplayer is now available for all of Star Citizen’s backers! We have been reviewing the user experience data from Patch 12.5 and have decided it’s time to open the floodgates! Everyone with Alpha Access or an Arena Commander Pass can now play the current multiplayer modes (with more to be added soon!) Multiplayer will also be available to anyone who picks up an Arena Commander pass going forward.

Thank you to every backer who has helped get us to this point. Your feedback has been absolutely essential in improving Arena Commander and the multiplayer experience. Thank you for your forum posts, your Twitch streams, your bug reports and your patience with the process. The knowledge we’ve gained from this tiered rollout goes well beyond just this release: it’s going to benefit how we launch every single future module and ultimately the Star Citizen Persistent Universe.

Remember: this is still a pre-alpha module! That means we still have plenty of work to do. The team is now working hard to add many planned features (like keybindings, scoreboards and additional ships) and also to improve what we’ve already created. In the coming weeks, expect to see a lot of work on game balance and Arena Commander’s game rules (where players spawn, how a kill is calculated, how the matchmaking server decides to connect users and the like.) Your continued thoughts on how the game plays will be invaluable in this process!

For those of you new to the Arena Commander multiplayer experience, the QA team has generated a quick list of beginner tips. We’ve noticed that some players are frustrated by their first matches, going up against pilots with different ships and more experience. We’re working on game rules changes that will alter this, but can also say that with a little patience you’ll be dogfighting with the best of them in no time! Winning at Arena Commander requires some skill… but these tips should help get you started right:

Avoid flying slowly or sitting still. Especially after spawning into the middle of a chaotic fire fight.
Use boost as much as possible (left shift). The higher speed makes you a more difficult target to follow and fire on effectively.
Incorporate barrel rolls into your evasive maneuvers. Rolling and boosting can be very effective in helping to avoid enemy fire.
Avoid fixating on a single target. Continue changing targets and flying evasively to maintain situational awareness and find the more vulnerable enemies.
Avoid engaging another player head on. This is a sure way to get killed.
If you must engage a target head on, switching to decoupled mode (capslock) and strafing can help to avoid a last second collision.
Experiment with Comstab mode on and off (ctrl + capslock twice). Having it on will help minimize sliding while turning but having it off can help you become a harder target to hit.
With g-force safety toggled off (ctr+capslock) you can perform more aggressive maneuvers but be careful because the additional g-forces can cause you to black out.
If you have additional weapons at your disposal, experiment with alternate loadouts via the holo-table.
Missile damage is absorbed by shields. For maximum damage, weaken your enemies’ shields by using standard weapons before firing missiles.
Try getting almost on top of your target before releasing a missile, in order to reduce the amount of time that your opponent has to react.
UPDATE 8/06/2014: We are currently seeing server load issues associated with the multiplayer rollout. Our engineers are investigating the problem. Discovering issues like this is the benefit of making such an early build available to the public! We thank you for your patience and support.

>pre-alpha but somehow patch 12.5
>no keybinds
>seems legit

The only reason I care is because two years ago my father-in-law sent me an email before Christmas. He said there was a new Kickstarter from the guy who made Wing Commander to create a spaceship MMO, and asked if his present to me could be donating in my name. That way, when the game was released, I could play with him and I'd have these early backer bonuses and also help fund a game he really wanted to play. I explained to him that I didn't really have time for MMOs anymore and I never played Wing Commander anyway, but thanks for the offer. Anyway I forgot about it shortly thereafter and hadn't heard anything about it for a while. Flash forward to a few weeks ago when I read SC crowdfunding broke $47 million. After reading about it a little more, I'm pretty sure my father-in-law is pissing his retirement away on space jumpsuits and space jukeboxes and space bonzai trees or whatever.

Anyway, after almost two years and $50 million I would hope there's something more than pre-alpha for one module but I guess not.

[BaneTheBrawler]

"pre alpha but patch 12.5" is a stupid complaint. oh noes they number their patches in a way you dont like, 2/10 would not play

the rest... eh, that shit doesn't bother me. knew this was gonna be a long wait when i pledged. i think the pace of progress is moving nicely; it took them a while to build up to the staff they've got and get everyone working. when they started this, they had a much, much lower goal, which was based on their capabilities at the time. and they're working on a lot of the behind the scenes stuff where progress isn't as visible.

no keybinds is kinda lame. i haven't been able to play, my computer has a heart attack just in the hangar, let alone the dogfighting module.

[Bregor]

I guess my main concern would be the detail Roberts and the production team are going for is insane. You said they started with a much lower goal, and I'm wondering why they didn't make that product first and then augment it once sales and subscription fees allowed them to. Actually, I'm not wondering why, it's because the crowdfunding money stream is still showering them with cash every time they announce anything new.

We're on a forum for a Square Enix game, so it's not like long production times are really a foreign concept. Just seems like the cycle of new features dangled like carrots for the next stretch goal seems disingenuous.

[BaneTheBrawler]

actually, beyond the initial kickstarter stretch goals, most of the "new features" have been things they were intending to add later on, after launch, but with additional funding they could do them before launch. In fact, a while back, they flat out said "k we've got all we need, do you guys want us to keep doing goals or should we just stop?" and we voted to have them keep going. Here's the "Letter from the Chairman" for the million after the vote.

I don't think I communicated what I meant by the lower goal very well. When they started this, they had a plan laid out- they were going to build the product on a schedule and as revenue increased, they'd be able to grow gradually and continue doing things. Since the funding was so much more than they expected, they've had to accelerate that immensely and do all that growing at once. hiring new people, etc. That stuff takes up time, and since they were doing it all at once it took more than they'd initially allocated at this stage in the game. Now that that's done, we've seen them progress much faster. A year ago all we had was a room with some pretty models and a few working doors/ladders.

[Waraji]

Destiny had been in production since before 2009 and I hear no one bitching about that coming out in 2014. And that was with a pretty substantial amount of people working on it. I couldn't imagine this game's development taking any Less than 5 years because of their monetary/staff constraints. The reality today is that it takes far greater resources to develop an MMO, let alone one of this scale. If you don't think its viable, fine, don't back it. But don't piss in people's cheerios about the game never coming out because its taking long.

[Bregor]

In fact, a while back, they flat out said "k we've got all we need, do you guys want us to keep doing goals or should we just stop?" and we voted to have them keep going.

Fair enough, but I feel like my point about RSI dangling the carrot for more money still stands.

I don't think I communicated what I meant by the lower goal very well. When they started this, they had a plan laid out- they were going to build the product on a schedule and as revenue increased, they'd be able to grow gradually and continue doing things. Since the funding was so much more than they expected, they've had to accelerate that immensely and do all that growing at once. hiring new people, etc. That stuff takes up time, and since they were doing it all at once it took more than they'd initially allocated at this stage in the game. Now that that's done, we've seen them progress much faster. A year ago all we had was a room with some pretty models and a few working doors/ladders.

That's good news, no arguing that. The production timelines do seem to be advancing at a pretty good pace. It just seems they're overwhelmed with all the things they want to do pre-launch, and if they keep hitting their goals that's just more crap they need to add.

If you don't think its viable, fine, don't back it. But don't piss in people's cheerios about the game never coming out because its taking long.

I have no problem with a long production time. I have a problem with squeezing more cash out of a desperate fan base during a long production time. Kind of a big difference there, champ.