Star Citizen

[rtil]

is anyone following the development of this game? Chris Roberts, the guy who made the Wing Commander games, made this kickstarter which raised $2.1 mil, and now you can donate on their site, where they have raised a total of almost $14m now through certain pledge levels that promise you a spaceship with "lifetime insurance".

it seems the goal of Star Citizen is to create an immersive universe where you are a pilot who can take on a number of different roles - a merchant, explorer, business owner, pirate, mercenary, soldier, law enforcement.. there's probably more i'm forgetting. you buy a ship that fits your needs, and set for open space. depending on your role, your goal may be to attain a 'citizen' status of your empire, which grants you a number of different benefits. or you could perhaps try to become "king of the pirates", discover new worlds, make a fortune selling cargo, make a fortune stealing cargo, claim a huge bounty.. the list goes on. all of this taking place in a massive universe with a number of different star systems, allegiances and, eventually, races.

the goal of this game sounds a little bit like EVE Online to say the least, except it is even more ambitious. you're supposed to be able to walk around your ship and interact with everything, the entire game will be worked around a realistic physics engine, and you'll even be able to do things like board other ships in space and sabotage or commandeer someone else's ship. the game is not even in alpha yet, but they have shown off a lot of stuff for the game and it is looking amazing:
Star Citizen - What is It?
The 300 Series: The Next Generation is Now
Star Citizen - Early work in progress - AI Combat
Star Citizen - Immersion

to me it looks like if this game is pulled off right, it will be the best space life simulator by a long shot. it's still too early to tell, but you can tell the developers care a lot about this and are creating a lot of great content. one thing i was concerned about was that the game might be pay-to-win, as the pledge system shows that if you have more money to burn, you can get a bigger & better ship. but the ship is only as good as its pilot, and they have said that it is very easy to earn money in-game that you can spend on new mods, weapons and ships, as well as trade-in ships for cash to get a new one.

more info: wiki | currently known ship stats

I caved in today and pledged for the Origin 325a, a speedy ship fitted for interception & combat, as i want the speed to explore if i want, but also covering my tendency to get in to the action.

the alpha is supposed to start at the end of the year, and i'm pretty excited to get my hands on this game when the time comes as this kind of stuff is right up my alley. anyone else care to join me when the time comes?

[Gilthwixt]

Is it strictly space-based combat? Personally I feel that if a game includes "exploring planets" and "boarding other ships" then there needs to be a solid FPS element to it.

[rtil]

i believe fps is planned, but they are focusing on the ships right now. but there are materials on the site that hint at things like mechanical bodysuits, explosives, guns, etc. the fact that you will be able to step out of your cockpit and walk around a ship, a flight deck or a station is pretty exciting. but i think the main focus is still space combat.

[creamcorn]

bump because this game looks like its gonna be awesome
check out this list to see what they have added to the game throughout this funding campaign https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

what caught my eye on that list:
$20,000,000: First person combat on select lawless planets. Don't just battle on space stations and platforms... take the fight to the ground!

y'all should pledge right now

[rtil]

i think alpha backers get a free sidearm pistol as well, which means you don't have to spend in-game money so you won't be defenseless in the scenario that you'd need to fight someone when docked. also , it will be possible to board enemy ships and "kill" and loot from a ship.

[creamcorn]

fuck yea

[Sinitron]

I almost want to back this game, but I also want to see more substance. They have a lot of ideas on the table, but very little content... All they have so far reminds me of a certain other game's hangar feature and how useless that is.

I greatly enjoyed Freelancer many years ago, but it didn't feel quite as open as it could have been and I didn't like most of the ship designs all that much, they were merely 'adequate'. This looks a lot better, not quite enough variety in terms of designs, but I'm sure they could remedy that. I'm not getting that vibe that I need to really get me into it, like the StarCraft Battlecruiser with the distinct hammerhead shape, or the various space ships from Star Wars, which are fairly iconic. I could go into all the EO ships I like, but rambling about the Cyclone or Vagabond would do you no good if you don't already play it. I sort of like the Hornet and Cutlass, but the Hornet is kind of small and the Cutlass looks a little flimsy. I like rugged designs a lot, not sleek or pretty but with warning chevrons, bulky shapes, a sledgehammer look with little regard for form. The Hornet is almost there.

Also, I'm a corsair. I want to blow out cockpits and board shit, not necessarily in that order, take whatever is most valuable and set fire to the rest. Stalking people and playing mindgames is what EO is king of, I want something that can rival it in terms of driving up paranoia and panic in random people. I miss the days of pissing in the maw of the great coalitions and getting them to send 100-man response fleets after our  3-man raider squads.

[rtil]

yeah it's understandable. they've made a lot of massive promises when it comes to content and they've only taken the first few steps towards the foundation of the game. i think the dogfighting module that will come out this year will be the first true test of whether they are capable of delivering on what they promise, because it will be the first real multiplayer gameplay to test.

my logic behind the ships i pre-ordered are that if i end up hating the game, i can sell them for more than i bought them (they are limited edition alpha backer ships with Lifetime Insurance and a couple other perks). regular alpha backer ships are still worth good money once they run out. RSI has said that selling ships is fine as long as you do it outside of their site.

once they start releasing more of the alien ships i think ship diversity will get a lot better.

[Sinitron]

The one they have listed already, the Vanduul Scythe, looks like something from the Angel Cartel, which isn't a bad thing.

What bothers me though is that I read something about it being instanced, and every instance only supporting a small number of players at any time.

[rtil]

i think it's one of those "Cross that bridge when we come to it" scenarios

[Sinitron]

tbh that's probably the main problem with star citizen

this guy wants to build a lot of fucking bridges, over a lot of different rivers

but building a lot of bridges at the same time could easily come at the expense of architectural integrity

a lot of people like to cut corners, with a "i'll fix it later" attitude, and while everything looks good so far, it's still only just a framework

less complex games than this with just as competent developers have crashed and burned in the past for different reasons... there are also some concerns about the devs being 'bullied' by their own community to do stuff which may or may not be in the best interest of the game as a whole, there was some debate about boob armor and other nonsense because some nerds wanted a "TRULY IMMERSIVE AND LIBERATED SCIENCE FICTION UNIVERSE" which are also the same kind of fuckers with online handles like SpiritAnimalWolfFucker or GoatseConnoisseur69 or whatever

and that's kind of a scary prospect when most people would rather just fly cool spaceships, not play barbie dolls in a sci-fi setting (which is basically what EVE's character creator turned out to be)

[rtil]

here is a kind of useful and funny guide on what ship you might want for star citizen
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/15kNjOPLMKX4bW7Jk0KDWRkMrKxuig5x5sczTjfFY028/edit

there are also some concerns about the devs being 'bullied' by their own community to do stuff which may or may not be in the best interest of the game as a whole, there was some debate about boob armor and other nonsense because some nerds wanted a "TRULY IMMERSIVE AND LIBERATED SCIENCE FICTION UNIVERSE" which are also the same kind of fuckers with online handles like SpiritAnimalWolfFucker or GoatseConnoisseur69 or whatever

the devs do listen to the community very closely but they often simply respond to fans rather than cave in to their demands. they have a very clear vision for the game and immersion is their #1 concern from what i've been able to tell. they know they can't please everyone and they explain everything they can to the hypernerds in as clear of terms as they can.

[rtil]

here's some screenshots i took from Arena Cmmander

this is the only ship you can currently fly - the stock 300i






and here's a little webm video of me being a horrible pilot for about 5 minutes. i'm playing with a mouse in this video. the mouse countrols are either always too sensitive or not sensitive enough depending on where you are on the screen. but they just enabled them so i'm assuming they will improve. i also tried playing with an xbox controller. it's better, but i could not find a way to rotate the ship. if i had a flight stick i would have tried it but i don't.

i also accidentally was targeting friendlies instead of enemy ships for the first bit because i was pressing the wrong target cycle button. there's actually quite a few keyboard controls to memorize so it's daunting at first.

so far there's not much to say, you can currently fly around in free flight mode or fight against these vanduul bots with absolutely useless wingmen that can't hit anything. sometimes there are bad chugs and slowdowns but i haven't had any crashes yet. when it's not acting strange i get a solid 45 fps in 1080p on high.

http://thebackalleys.com/ok/StarCitizen%202014-06-04%2004-59-16-94.webm

[Gilthwixt]

So in the  year since you've first posted about this more info and concrete material has come out and I'm a lot more sold on buying into this. The idea of a fully realized universe with both space and infantry combat is really exciting but it sounds like the FPS element is a long way off. The problem is, I'm sure that if I wait until that comes out, I'll be starting out way behind. So right now I'm debating whether or not I want to buy in from launch and if so what ship to buy.

[rtil]

it's a valid question. however, any sort of benefits you would have gotten by buying into the alpha at this point are gone, so you wouldn't have to worry about starting out behind. the only advantages the alpha backers have besides some trinkets and accessories are the ships they bought have "lifetime insurance", which means we can reclaim destroyed ships at no cost with regards to in-game credits (not real money). how big of a deal that is at this point we don't know, but there are going to be multiple ways to earn money in the game and since the game is only worth the cost of the ship you paid for, i don't think it will matter too much if you buy a small ship and work your way up like most people will be doing.

that and the game is going to ship with a single player campaign that they have said will have a lot of content. it's going to be called Squadron 42 and they're putting a lot of work into that as well.

Star Citizen Extended Trailer - Squadron 42 [Cry Engine 3]

[rtil]

here's a tutorial on how to use the HUD

[creamcorn]

https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/484822916140249088

this could be good news to some of you early backers

[rtil]

https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/484822916140249088

this could be good news to some of you early backers

almost good news for me

son of a bitch

at least i'll be in the next wave for sure

[creamcorn]

[rtil]

damn they went from 250k to 350k fast