Star Citizen by Chris Roberts (Freelancer, Wing Commander, Privateer, etc)

Not sure if any of you noticed the site www.robertsspaceindustries.com previously, but Chris has launched the funding goals for his new game. Space Citizen.

Check out the announcement video from GDC 2012:
http://www.gamespot.com/shows/gamesp..._panel20121010

And the official site I linked to above for more information. This is going to be a PC game, a proper PC game with none of the limitations that developing for console imposes. The scale is going to be massive, the community interaction is going to be excellent (discovered a new jump hole to a new system? It gets named after you. Have a really cool ship design? Submit it to the developers and they'll review it, if it passes spec then they'll add it into the game and maybe even let you earn royalties off it if other people buy it).

If you've ever played Freelancer or Wing Commander then you're going to LOVE this game. The graphics shown off so far have blown every other game in the genre out of the water by far. Knowing Chris the story is going to be amazing, and the multiplayer features sound absolutely awesome.

Now I don't want to go into to much detail, as I want you guys to form your own opinions on it. I highly suggest you check it out!

http://starcitizen.robertsspaceindustries.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqIC2B9UVPM

You beat me to it.

So. Fucking. Excited.

Don't forget the Kotaku link, too.

I grabbed the Wingnut $125 pledge.

Btw, did I mention that it runs on CryEngine 3?

It seems like CryEngine 3 has spurred a lot of amazing PC development... MechWarrior Online being another title using it that a lot of people are interested in!

I would have pledged when I first heard that Chris Roberts was back and working on a new project, but I'm totally out of money.

If anybody ever needed proof that gaming is better on the PC, this is it.

I saw this as soon as the trailer was out. Gawked at its awesomeness and promptly closed my jaw because I have no way to pay for something that awesome. I knew that was CryEngine 3 by the fluidity of the FP motion and the depth of the graphics.

It's $35 shipped to get the game and some bonuses like testing access, and you have 30 days before the pledges are going to be cut.

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• The finished game for your PC with your RSI Aurora spaceship ready to fly
• Exclusive access to the Alpha and Beta
• 1,000 credits

White Citizens Card (shipping within the US free, add $5 for international - Delivery Est: Xmas 2012)
Title: Scout
Delivery Est: Nov 2014

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$30 for the pledge/game and $5 for shipping. There's no subscription to the game and it's not Free2Play or Pay2Win either:

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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.

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So how much will the game be after launch? And what are credits?

I just edited my last post a bit, credits are the in-game currency that everything in-game is payed for with. You earn it either by playing (time expenditure) or by buying convenience items that make it easier to earn credits ($$$ expenditure). It's not a Pay2Win since you can't directly buy things with money, only things that let you earn credits quicker apparently.

Actually guys, I have to make a request I guess.

PLEASE spread this to your friends and onto any social media sources you have. For the love of PC gaming, this game needs to succeed. It's being developed EXCLUSIVELY for the PC with no plans for console, and that's going to put it in a lot of bad books. It's going to need all the publicity it can get and all the support to go with it. If this game succeeds it's very possible that other developers for PC will jump on the train with exclusive PC games again.

This could be the game that puts PC gaming into a new era of awesomeness. It's pushing all the pros and none of the cons of the system, and it's catering to TONS of people with TONS of different methods of play (such as HOTUS, TrackIR, Oculus Rift, controllers, etc).

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

It's being developed EXCLUSIVELY for the PC with no plans for console, and that's going to put it in a lot of bad books.

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How? There are still plenty of PC-only games on the market

Not really good ones like we used to have.

All the really good ideas are now marketed towards consoles because publishers think that's where the money is. They're not wrong, but only because most people are to dumb or lazy to build and maintain a gaming PC. Let alone understand why it's better.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Not really good ones like we used to have.

All the really good ideas are now marketed towards consoles because publishers think that's where the money is. They're not wrong, but only because most people are to dumb or lazy to build and maintain a gaming PC. Let alone understand why it's better.

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Most people don't have the money to drop on a high end gaming PC. You could argue that PC gaming is cheaper in the long run, but the up front cost is too much for most. Plus PCs have a lot of problems consoles don't typically have. It's almost always too much to ask for a PC game to just work without any hassle.

It's less costly up-front, too.

Instead of spending money on both a PC to go onto the interwebs/do office work with AND a console AND its affiliated hardware and subscriptions, just buy a better PC to do it all.

"But I prefer teh controll0rz and teh big TV."

Good news, they both work with the PC.

"But installations and updates!"

No worse than consoles these days, and at least you don't have ads on your desktop.

This is CE3, it will probably scale down to mid-range hardware pretty well, and a high-end system can be built for around $600-$700. This game will be releasing right when new consoles should be appearing. Assuming it's good, that puts this game in a position to leverage itself against people contemplating buying a new console...buy a new console or buy a PC to play Star Citizen?

That all said, this game is really niche. It's the type of game that *I* am a fan of. Stylized bullshit cartoons with simple and endearing mechanics can go to fucking hell, because I want my serious, in-depth, and detailed games with the most gorgeous realistic aesthetics you can get. I've been seriously deprived of my gaming joy, and I don't want this one to slip away.

The initial cost is higher by about $300 if you want a decent starting system instead of the cheapest you could possibly go. But the experience is definitely worth that extra $300.

Edit:

Console setup:
250GB Xbox 360 - $300
Extra Controller - $60
40" Samsung LED/LCD TV - $550
Total: $910

This is far from ideal as well, it's not a complete home theater. You can't watch blu-ray movies on it, and your speakers are just TV speakers. If you add a blu-ray player, A/V amplifier, and speakers you're looking at around $2,000. The extra controller is fairly common as well, I don't know ANYONE with only one console controller. You always need an extra for friends and stuff.

PC Setup:
Bitfenix Prodigy Mini iTX Case w/ USB 3.0, Midnight Black - $79.99
Intel Core™ i5-3450 Processor, 3.10GHz w/ 6MB Cache - $179.99
Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance CPU Cooler - $74.99
Asus P8H61-I w/ DDR3 1333, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E x16 - $74.99
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 4GB) - $49.99
WD 500GB Caviar Black 7200rpm SATA III 32MB Cache Hard Drive - $89.99
LG CH12 Super Multi Blue 12x Internal SATA Blu-ray Disc Reader / Combo Drive, Black w/ Lightscribe - $69.99
eVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort - $299.99
Silverstone Strider Essential 700W Power Supply - $79.99
Sub-Total: $1,000

This is a system I recently built for a friend. It's awesome, and has way more muscle than a console. It's also a Mini-ITX case and it's extremely portable, much like a console. He wanted it that way so he and I could attend LAN parties and stuff together, or even just bring it over here easily if we wanted to play some games together for a day or a weekend.

Add some peripherals:
LG E2442TC-BN 23.6in Widescreen LED LCD, Black - $189.99
Logitech H360 USB Headset, Black - $49.99
Sub-Total: $240

Total: $1,240

I left out speakers and a keyboard and mouse because if you can't find some basic ones for cheap or free from a friend, then you need friends that hoard more things. You can probably find someone to assemble this little guy for you for free as well. I know that working with a Mini-ITX system is something a lot of system builders rarely get to do and would probably jump at the opportunity.

Price difference: $330

What do you get for that $330? A blu-ray player, a much higher power GPU and water cooled CPU, quality components that won't overheat or RROD/fail, etc... You get more because you pay for more. You add in a Blu-ray player ($70) so you can at least do most of the stuff you can on the PC and now you're up to $980 and the price difference is down to $260. You could probably cheapen the PC system a bit with a less powerful PSU and GPU and bring them within spitting distance of each other. The PC would still be the better bet.

As Warsaw said, the mid-range hardware will likely run he stuff in CE3 just fine as well. You don't need a super-high performance gaming system unless you're doing super-high performance things. Things like resolutions higher than 1080p for whatever reason (multi-monitors, larger res monitors), or just wanting to max out all the game settings (which there's usually no need to do).

If you can scrounge up some parts from old PCs (if you don't have any, take a visit to a landfill some time, they actually can have some useful shit), you can lower the cost considerably.

Heaven forbid American fat-asses have to put some thought into their lives to get the most of them.

Most people already have a TV. And yes, getting a console home and set up requires a lot less thought put into it. This is an entertainment product we're talking about here, that sort of thing makes a difference. I know one guy who plays Xbox 360 on a TV with a painfully noticeable ~100ms lag and he doeesn't even care. That should tell you the kind of audience consoles are targeting.

e: and about building a PC, yeah that's not going to happen. 99% of people I've talked to don't know what a PCI-Express slot is.

double e: a lot of it probably has to do with marketing too. Cause if there are ~$500 pre-built gaming PCs floating around out there, I've sure never heard of them. Whereas I see Xbox 360 ads all the damn time.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Intel Core™ i5-3450 Processor, 3.10GHz w/ 6MB Cache - $179.99
Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance CPU Cooler - $74.99
Asus P8H61-I w/ DDR3 1333
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz

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You could make quick a few savings with this build. Ditch the H60 as there's no need for it unless you're going for an unlocked CPU for overclocking, get cheaper RAM that won't be wasted on that motherboard and go for a ~500w PSU instead.

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Originally Posted by Btcc22

You could make quick a few savings with this build. Ditch the H60 as there's no need for it unless you're going for an unlocked CPU for overclocking, get cheaper RAM that won't be wasted on that motherboard and go for a ~500w PSU instead.

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Yeah I already mentioned that you could save money a few ways in the build. This build is actually based on an unlocked build that I made for a friend, that's why the H60 is in there. You're absolutely right though, you could take it out for this processor. The RAM I selected is already pretty cheap by my standards, I wouldn't go slower than CL9/1600MHz for ANY build. I also already mentioned a less powerful PSU.

@Pooky, most people I know also already own a monitor for a PC. Feel free to aid my side and just cut the new monitor cost out of the PC price as well. Most people also have earbuds or something for an iPod, go ahead and cut the headphones out as well!

I'm assuming you're getting into gaming properly and just just putting a mismatched system together or adding a game console to a tube TV.

This entire page should be deleted.

Yeah, probably. The funny part is, PC has always been my primary gaming platform. Certain people just get really mad when I suggest that it might not be absolutely perfect.

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Originally Posted by Pooky

Certain people just get really mad when I suggest that it might not be absolutely perfect.

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I'm guilty of this, myself.

It has its disadvantages, but usually they're obscure and irrelevant. At least in my case, I've never had issues using a PC to complete all the tasks I need it to.

I like how the carrier is a modern interpretation of the original Tiger's Claw, how the Confed (fuck you, they are) fighters are literally Hornets, how the ID codes for the enemy flashing on the bridge displays were Kilrathi text, and how the Barbarian fighters were re-imaginings of classic Kilrathi vessels.

So much nostalgia...

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

I grabbed the Wingnut $125 pledge.

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hoping my birthday will result in enough expendable to do the same. whatup.

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Originally Posted by rossmum

hoping my birthday will result in enough expendable to do the same. whatup.

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I almost, ALMOST convinced myself to buy the $250 pledge... But $250 is a lot without knowing what the RSI Constellation ship is. If it's a carrier or battleship then I may fork out the money.

You honestly should have gotten the Lancer package...just for the sheer narminess of it.

Never actually crossed my mind, xD...

Would of been funny to see the "Freelancer: Cortexian" as my handle in-game. Alas the pledge is made and I think the Wingnut combat ship is more the flavor of ship I'd like anyway. The Freelancer ship is geared more towards exploration and trading.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

I almost, ALMOST convinced myself to buy the $250 pledge... But $250 is a lot without knowing what the RSI Constellation ship is. If it's a carrier or battleship then I may fork out the money.

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i'd do it in a heartbeat if i had money

i'm a sucker for little babby model ships

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Never actually crossed my mind, xD...

Would of been funny to see the "Freelancer: Cortexian" as my handle in-game. Alas the pledge is made and I think the Wingnut combat ship is more the flavor of ship I'd like anyway. The Freelancer ship is geared more towards exploration and trading.

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The ship you get with Wingnut is the green one you saw in the trailer, the Hornet. I've never liked that one, not even when it debuted in the original Wing Commander. Actually, I'm not much of a fan of the WCI and II designs, the ones from WC III and Prophecy were much, much better.

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

The ship you get with Wingnut is the green one you saw in the trailer, the Hornet. I've never liked that one, not even when it debuted in the original Wing Commander. Actually, I'm not much of a fan of the WCI and II designs, the ones from WC III and Prophecy were much, much better.

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I know, I liked the Hornet.

I want a Thunderbolt VII...

More posts and excitement in this thread please.

A good PC game deserves more awesomeness. Also they're at:
Goal: $2,000,000
Raised: $1,210,152
Space Sim Fans: 13,432

And they started a Kickstarter that works in parallel with their own crowd-funding source that has raised:
7,188 Backers
$318,793 pledged of $500,000 goal

So total they're at around $1,500,000 / $2,000,000 already and they're only like 10 days in to crowd funding.

I heard (uncomfirmed) the total budget was $14 milliion.

I threw down some serious cash for my gaming pc, this is the type of game I bought it for, big, open, beautiful graphics, its just a shame I'm not totally into space games, that said I will pledge a bit for the game ^_^

They wanted $2 million crowd-funding in order to secure big private funders. They also have plans for "stretch goals" for any extra money they earn from crowd funding.

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Originally Posted by Limited

I heard (uncomfirmed) the total budget was $14 milliion.

I threw down some serious cash for my gaming pc, this is the type of game I bought it for, big, open, beautiful graphics, its just a shame I'm not totally into space games, that said I will pledge a bit for the game ^_^

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One of the biggest draws to Star Citizen is that if it is successful, it could cause the big names in the industry to question their current methods of thinking and models of development.

:)

Is the citizen card a physical installer or is it just a piece of plastic? I want a physical copy of the game but there's no way I'm paying $125 for it :v:

The citizen card is just some fluff item (kinda like a drivers license, except for a fictional space universe) that they're going to send out around December 2012. Every copy of the game you purchase ($30 and higher pledge) gets you a physical copy of the game. The versions with the little spaceship USB include the game on the USB instead of a regular disk I think.

Oh cool.
I assume you can change your address somewhere? I doubt I'm going to be living here in 2 years when this vaporware ships.

I'm sure you can, worse case scenario you can send them an email on the main site. Click the question mark in the bottom right corner of:
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/

So they've hit the $2,000,000 goal, as well as the $2,500,000 stretch goal so far. They are rapidly approaching the $3,000,000 stretch goal. Not sure what I'm talking about? Stretch goals are extra content that they've promised to the pledgers if "x amount of pledges are made". Here's a brief look at them:
http://i.imgur.com/XzpsK.jpg

If you haven't yet pledged and you're even vaguely interested, help the existing pledgers out by clicking here and selecting your desired pledge amount. Details on what is included in each pledge can also be found on that page.

Ugh. I honestly hate crowd funding.

I mean, yeah, people post up good ideas I like, so I foot part of the bill to make those happen - that's a sound enough concept. What's not so sound is that if it ends up not being what I hoped, I am stuck with it with no way to back out and no hope of making that money back. I have been burned several times now from preordering games and have more or less sworn off ever preordering anything ever again, regardless of how good it looks; this is about the fourth or fifth thing I've put money towards without it even being in development at time of payment.

Last time, I think.

There have already been a couple of things that seemed to be hyped up to be something they weren't. I wasn't satisfied, but when I searched around their forums I found I wasn't alone and that the devs had already clarified what was what. That at least made me happy, and the more clear answers from the team were satisfactory even if they weren't the ideal thing I was looking for.

there's actually a slim chance i might end up working on this.

Eternal Silence ring a bell anyone?

That would be awesome neuro!

FYI, they've added a referral system, see the news update here. Chris himself said that if you want, you will be able to retroactively designate someone who referred you in the "Your Account" page on their website.

Come on dudes! Lets tell everyone we know and push to $4 million for some professional modding tools! They het $3.5 Million last night, new star systems every $100,000 and we're going to get another flyable ship when the game launches at $3.7 Million!

http://i.imgur.com/lQAK0.jpg

I'm actually looking at that "outside-the-ship combat" bullet...hmmm...

Well they're already going to be adding the ability to board other ships. They have to be multi-crew ships, basically unless there's room to walk around in the ship you can't board it. However you need to shoot out the enemies weapons and thrusters, then use a potentially expensive tractor beam and docking collar. It's more of a reward for awesome shooting than a main feature. Boarding will be done in FPS mode with guns and the like, defenders can setup turrets and stuff while the attackers are cutting through the hatch.

There was also some mention of being able to exit your ship and do the whole EVA shooter thing. But I believe you're right, that's at the $4 million mark.

So both the things we wanted have been attained Warsaw, they're sitting at $5.1 Million right now and pledges are POURING in at the last minute. The previous highest crowdfunded game was $4.2 Million, so Star Citizen is now the highest crowdfunded game ever... Wow!

That lone makes me want to upgrade my pledge from $125 to $250 lol.

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Originally Posted by neuro

there's actually a slim chance i might end up working on this.

Eternal Silence ring a bell anyone?

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I wondered what this guy was going to do about jobs when this thing kicked off. I know he's got contacts to fill major roles, but I wondered if he was going to open up jobs if he hit hella stretch goals. Well, he did.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

So both the things we wanted have been attained Warsaw, they're sitting at $5.1 Million right now and pledges are POURING in at the last minute. The previous highest crowdfunded game was $4.2 Million, so Star Citizen is now the highest crowdfunded game ever... Wow!

That lone makes me want to upgrade my pledge from $125 to $250 lol.

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I only wish I could have pledged. :c

I hope somebody does a BSG-style mod for this game in the future. Doesn't have to be BSG, but the muffled-sound, bullets-in-space, and BSG flight physics make for a very visceral game. Diaspora has proven that much. I hope Chris Roberts and company don't do the whole "pew pew pew lasers" thing again.

I'm pretty sure they mentioned something about having different sound modes. I thought they were saying there would be a semi-realistic sound mode as well.

It's not just the sounds, it's how things behave. I don't want to see space ships blasting at each other with slow-moving, slow-firing energy cannons. I'd rather them do something like the Impulse Ray Emitters from X3, or detonating flak and huge 16-inch cannons...

Have you played the first release of Diaspora?

Well they said they're going to sacrifice some visual realism for a more cinematic experience. Lasers will be "bolts", though they're going to be fairly fast. I'd assume projectiles will have some type of tracer effect and missiles will have contrails.

And no I haven't played that.

You ought to. It's free, you have nothing to lose but time. If you enjoy space combat sims, Diaspora demonstrates an alternative combat style to what we're used to, and the visual effect is stunning.

So they've almost hit $7 million in funding now, even after official pledging closed... Wow.

So we're getting everything and the kitchen sink? Awesome. They better deliver, or there are going to be some lawsuits.

Yeah, for this, they could probably keep funding open to launch and work out something like what Notch did with Minecraft by raising the amount (minimum amount in this case) as it nears launch.

Well, the minimum amount they needed to fund was 2 million. Their maximum goal was 6 million, that they attained within the funding period (6.25 million or something). Now they're at 6.98 million, though everyone who pledged after the funding closed doesn't get all the same benefits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQ0qMRZ_1Q

I've been following this game pretty closely but I'm pretty put off by the pay to win aspects, despite what the fanboys (paying hundreds for ships for a game that doesn't yet exist) and Chris Roberts espouse.

Most of those arguing that it won't be seem to live in some fantasy land where clearly you have time or money but never both or neither, therefore making everything perfectly balanced. Either that or they're redefined 'pay to win' so it doesn't apply to any game where you can acquire the same goods without paying, regardless of how much of a time sink it is. :allears:

Perhaps it'll all work out though. Time will tell.

I don't classify a game as pay 2 win if I can put the time into playing it to earn something. If you don't have the time to sit down and sink into a video game that has you interested, it clearly doesn't have you interested enough or you're not a true gamer™

Honestly? X: Rebirth is looking more promising right now. Star Citizen is basically a vapourware pipe-dream and I'm not sure they can pull it off. Roberts's idea of what makes a game fun might still be stuck in the 90s for all I know.

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

I don't classify a game as pay 2 win if I can put the time into playing it to earn something.

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What if it takes you 100,000 hours to earn the same items? Still going to stick to that definition?

Can you say it's pay to win when you can only pay for items as rewards for supporting their development funds ? I believe the only items they said you can buy in-game (when the game gets released) are ship design plans which are ships designed by community members and the money goes to them. You then have to play the game and gather in-game resources to actually build the ship.

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

Honestly? X: Rebirth is looking more promising right now. Star Citizen is basically a vapourware pipe-dream and I'm not sure they can pull it off. Roberts's idea of what makes a game fun might still be stuck in the 90s for all I know.

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Are you suggesting things become less fun as time progresses? The Halo series kept getting progressively less fun (ODST excluded as that brought something completely new to the table) as time progressed, but that didn't make the original Halo any less fun. It has less eye candy than its sequels, but eye candy is far from what makes a game fun.

If you think something has to be new and fresh in order to be fun, most sports and the Olympics would like to have a word with you.

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Can you say it's pay to win when you can only pay for items as rewards for supporting their development funds ? I believe the only items they said you can buy in-game (when the game gets released) are ship design plans which are ships designed by community members and the money goes to them. You then have to play the game and gather in-game resources to actually build the ship.

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That all depends on how those design plans (I'll call them blueprints) are implemented.
If they're able to build an infinite amount of ships off those blueprints that are only able to be obtained through crowdfunding then it might as well be pay to win if that ship is unique and superior in stats to others in the game. This would give those crowdfunded owners the opportunity to dictate prices of a truly unique item by restricting supply. A similar mechanism existed in EVE with t2 blueprint originals (unlimited production). As the sole provider of a type of ship, they were able to dictate prices and were truly the richest people in the game. They were so rich they were able to convince owners of other t2 blueprint originals to sell them for multiple years of revenue just to further constrict the market and ensure their income.

It caused an outrage amongst the players and the devs implemented a way to invent blueprint copies (limited run of production) for t2 items. It took nearly five years for things to balance themselves and for the market to be corrected. I'd argue it only took that short amount of time because the people doing invention valued their time at zero and used that as their profit margin. Most of the invention runs created a negative value on the ships being invented so anyone building off those invention stats lost money (probably without realizing it).


If they're only able to build one then it is not pay to win as long as that ship is destructible and able to be lost forever.
If the ship is identical in stats to other ships but merely aesthetically different,then it's not pay to win.

Those blueprints are available to everyone though, that's a system they plan to implement. The rewards are just a single ship and if they are destroyed they are lost forever. The exception are those that gave donations during the first 30 days of funding, they have a lifetime insurance policy on the ship though they clearly stated it can't be abused in such the way you just kamikaze the ship and spawn a new one. Every time you use the insurance the cooldown until you can get your ship again increases. As far as I know all the ships that are being given to people donating are not unique in any way and anyone can get them in-game.

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Originally Posted by Zeph

Are you suggesting things become less fun as time progresses? The Halo series kept getting progressively less fun (ODST excluded as that brought something completely new to the table) as time progressed, but that didn't make the original Halo any less fun. It has less eye candy than its sequels, but eye candy is far from what makes a game fun.

If you think something has to be new and fresh in order to be fun, most sports and the Olympics would like to have a word with you.

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What I mean is that while replaying the Wing Commander series is fun, it's fun because I grew up with it and reliving the memories is something I like to do. The play mechanics do not, however, hold up very well today. The combat is monotonous and extremely repetitive with no real challenge offered beyond having to mash "E" constantly to decoy enemy missiles on higher difficulties. What I don't want from Star Citizen is Wing Commander: 2014 Edition, because that would not be fun. What I fear is that Roberts will be delivering exactly that, but with some added insubstantial fluff...such as eye candy. Or walking around inside the capital ships.

Remember, Roberts has not actually made a game since Starlancer (2000). Freelancer doesn't count because he left his position early on and was merely an advisor on the project.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sta...ule,24065.html

I don't know what's happening to me. Despite having no interest in Star Citizen up to this point, an hour ago I started having a panic attack about being too late to get in on the pledge packages. I've since found out that there's plenty of time left for that, though. What I need help with is choosing the right package for my budget. $50 is what I'm willing to spend and the closest packages are the Scout and Mercenary for $30 and $40 respectively.

From what I can see, Merc and Scout are identical packages except the Scout doesn't get alpha/beta access and it has one month less insurance. I'm leaning towards the merc package, but I want to know how long the Alpha + Beta periods are likely to be. How long will I be waiting to access the full game if I go for scout instead? I also want the Origin 300i instead of the Aurora, but I'm not willing to spend $65USD to get it :(

For what it's worth, if it doesn't end up being pay to win, you won't have a problem acquiring those ships through play.

That's true. And it's not going to be P2W. Only thing you can purchase is in-game currency and there's a cap on how much you can purchase per month.

Went ahead and bought the Mercenary package. 25 minutes until the Hangar module is done downloading.

Yeah the Hanger is kinda neat. I can't wait for the Dog Fighting module though, or even just something to let me practice flying!

Awesome in-engine Aurora commercial:

http://vimeo.com/76735257

Here's some more interesting news.

Anybody want to do this? I'm already drawing up starships...

I thought about it, but then I remembered how many jobless specialists this field has made.

you are already jobless though, zeph.

emphasis on the specialist part.

people who focus on one thing really well is what they're looking for with the way this is set up.

i expect every team that passes into the proper contest to consist of one technical artist, one hard surface specialist, and a 3d artist that can draw.

Probably.

That said, with all the mods out there and all the digital media I've seen, I can tell you that the vast majority lack decisive aesthetic conviction. There is a reason there are a few big names on the likes of dA, etc. that are familiar (i.e. Adam Burn). And I've seen very few mods for space games with great looking content that wasn't a mere conversion of another existing universe's content to the game. I suspect that the finalists are going to be clean ideas with a clear aesthetic theme, probably existing back-stories, and a minimum of greeble. In the end, the preliminary challenge (designing that wave particle cannon) will probably be more interesting to watch than the ships themselves, since it enforces constraints.

Yeah, it's kinda why I avoid polycount forums. There are definitely some talented people out there, but they're one in a million to the chest thumpers who know what they're talking about because they've read some other people say the same thing or that they've sat through a proper critique themselves. Usually the chest thumpers ride on other people's ideas or pursue their own individual idea of aesthetics when approaching your own personal work.

I've actually run into this issue with the game I've been working on. Space-based science fiction is relatively limited in what you can do with it aesthetically. Symmetry, asymmetry, blocky, organic, etc. There's only so far you can go in those regards before you lose visual interest in the piece, it becomes too noisy/bland, or you begin to roughly encroach on another IPs designs and you look like a leacher. Look at Gundam. The mecha designs were very straightforward, but you rarely see anything come close to them (closest I can think of is later-gen FMP). By staying away from that general area of design, it makes virtually all other mecha look the same in comparison.

The one thing I look forward to during the proper contest is how well the artists listen to exactly to what CIG people say then refines particular points of interest versus the two or three teams take what CIG says and scraps->overhauls with new ideas.

The problem with mecha, apart from being 100% impractical, is that the Japanese are largely convinced they all have to look like giant people in suits of techy samurai armour. Look at the mecha in GitS: absolutely nothing like Gundam or most any other anime's mecha. Blue Gender also has its own unique interpretation with its Armour Shrike variation. Both series are very worth watching (if you can get over the cringe-tastic hair of the latter's male protagonist). Then there are also the Western interpretations of mecha: the walkers from the Battlezone series of games are quite unique, as are those found in Hawken and Mech Warrior. Even the humanoid mecha of the Heavy Gear series are quite different looking.

Science-fiction can be every bit as interesting as fantasy, or reality, etc. I mean, if you want to get right down to it, everything is either blocky, curvaceous, or some combination of the two. Accepting that most sci-fi is actually science-fantasy, science fiction is limited compared to straight fantasy only in that you need to have proper justification (physical, political, economic, whatever) for everything and you must minimize the use of "because magic." I can't really comment on work ethic when making a piece, since mine is terrible, but I can say that if your (general "your") artistic vision is getting too diluted it's time to stop, pick out the key points, and start again from there. I've probably gone through that process three or four times now, and I finally think I've got something unique enough to call mine.

I suspect that the teams which refine their original idea will do better, since they have the conviction to see it through to the end and can effectively use the criticism. Those who constantly come up with something new will get new problems every time, and can't actually progress anywhere without excessive brute-force skill. That said, I don't put much stock in CIG crit since I don't actually like the general aesthetic of Star Citizen so far. The star ships are going back to those awkward Wing Commander I proportions, are covered in useless detail, and sport profiles that just don't make any sense in space or militarily; "rule of cool" doesn't hold much sway with me. That said, it's their game and I can get over my preferences enough to play it when it comes out.

P.S. The Cutlass is basically a human interpretation of a Minbari Flyer from Babylon 5:
Attachment 3254

Just something I was able to make...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNzElVfocJQ

I am suddenly interested in the development of this game. ill be paying more attention to it from here on out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Just something I was able to make...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNzElVfocJQ

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So you bought all of the ships?

No I don't have $15,000 to spend on a video game. That's how much this would cost at the minimum. It would actually cost more since the package I got this in has more than the $15,000 one.

I do get perks through work though!

Ah, that makes way more sense now lol. I was like where the fuck did this guy get enough money to buy all the pre-order ships and then get an XCR-M on top of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0gZES2pTWk

If you have a 4k display, this video is available in 4k. Select the "Original" quality option above 1080p to enable it. We downloaded it and added it to our Samsung 4k demo TV's playlist of 4k content at work and it looks stunning.

Yep, that's the ship I've dived on.
I've been tweaking some of the weapon placements and the turret isn't implemented just yet but this game does have my attention now.
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9ea3e56d.jpg

Anybody using an Aurora to actively try and take down a dedicated combat vessel is a fucking idiot.

On a separate note, I sincerely hope that all of these weapon effects are just placeholders, because they are lame. Seriously lame.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

Anybody using an Aurora to actively try and take down a dedicated combat vessel is a fucking idiot.

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My word. The game isn't even out yet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Btcc22

My word. The game isn't even out yet.

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this is modacity. we play games before they are even out.

I'm making the comment as a viewer within the universe, not a gamer waiting to play the game. CIG said the Aurora is basically the Ford F150 of space, not a fighter. If you want to make a convincing in-universe advertisement showing how superior your super sports-car is to everybody else's, you don't show it taking on the everyman's pick-up truck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by =sw=warlord

Yep, that's the ship I've dived on.
I've been tweaking some of the weapon placements and the turret isn't implemented just yet but this game does have my attention now.

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You know that the ball turret won't come with the F7C base model right? It has the cargo module instead. The Hornet's that we can pledge for aren't the military versions we saw in the Squadron 42 trailer with the canard and ball turrets. We will be able to buy these in-game after the fact, alternatively the F7C-M Super Hornet that you can now pledge for/upgrade to has the ball turret attached. It's a two-seater variant though, unlike the military one-seater that presumably has a much better targeting/AI suite controlling the ball turret.

Are you certain about that?
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...ps54a9f6ea.jpg

Yes, that's a two-seater F7C-M Super Hornet.

drools​

I went and got the $30 starter, so my hangar looks very unimpressive compared to yours FL, holyshit that looks nice. I've always wanted a space game where I can actually move my character around in hangars or space stations in general. Moving around in big super motherships would be impressive too. Easier said than done though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0gZES2pTWk

If you have a 4k display, this video is available in 4k. Select the "Original" quality option above 1080p to enable it. We downloaded it and added it to our Samsung 4k demo TV's playlist of 4k content at work and it looks stunning.

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I'm not entirely sure which is more impressive:
That this has rift support.
Look position from the rift can be serialized.


They've made a game where you can see where your copilot is looking incredibly accurately.
Only thing they need now is an add-on to the rift where you can point with your finger in real space and have it accurately represented as a vector in the simulation.

I literally gasped when I saw this:



$250USD

nope.avi

Come on Chris, what happened to those nicely utilitarian ships in Wing Commander III?