The Latest From Star Citizen (2.6, Star Marine, and More!)

Does it make you feel better if I tell you the stretch goals aren't necessarily going to make it into 1.0? During one of the panels Chris mentioned the recent goal of player-owned pets (SPACE PUPPIES!), saying that it will come later down the line.

Around the end of March/beginning of April they're going to release the FPS arena and a little later the planetside module. So we'll be able to walk around, visit the shops, get familiar with the current UI etc. No buying stuff though.

have they said anything on how the fps bit will work? Like.. Leaning towards tactical shooter or arena game? (Unbalanced custom classes vs same starts with weapons around the map, and etc...)

They've given some info on the fps, long term it'll be part of large game so will be inherently unbalanced, as numbers and equipment won't be fixed, players will use what they have if you follow.... Some other interesting points, you'll be able to disable gravity, deploy hologram decoys and stuff... Looks like it could be epic...

What you have to remember is it's not an FPS game. It's just got FPS in it. There aren't any formal maps or start positions or something like that.

What'll happen is you might get a mission that says "Clean out the pirate base in the asteroid belt" or something. So when you get there you'll maybe have to kill some pirates flying around. Then you land and now your "map" is the asteroid base and you have whatever equipment you took with you. There are several types of armoured spacesuits, up to and including power armour, you'll also have whatever weapons you took with you (pistols, rifles, all the usual stuff). However skulking around in the dark isn't the only way to take the pirates out. You can find the gravity generator and shut it down, making everyone float about, shut the lights off, or even try to vent everyone into the vacuum of space by opening all the external doors. That might sound OP but remember that this is a world where it's not uncommon to be just wearing a spacesuit and rooms have doors which might create little safe havens.

The bit we're getting in March seems like it'll be a literal arena:



This might actually still be a game-within-a-game in the final version since they're moving Arena Commander and the FPS sim into little sim pods in hangars:




There's also one of these big design posts on how damage and healing will work:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/14318-Design-Healing-Your-Spacemen

Probably sensible. Personally I'm viewing it with cautious optimism, on the basis I've loved every Chris Roberts game I've played in the past to be honest the hype isn't why I backed it, but rather I've been waiting for the next Roberts space sim since freelancer... Will it live up to the expectations of the internet? No chance based on the reception PA got (despite being a superb game imo). Will I enjoy it though? Based on his previous work I'd say yes

Today we get to learn all about how shields (will) work in Star Citizen:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14489-Design-Shields-Management

Different types, different roles, the ability to tweak exactly what the shield does with its power, all the good stuff.




Also there's a monthly report for January:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14481-Monthly-Report-January

My favourite source of desktop backgrounds.

And ship skins are finally starting to roll out:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14488-Skins-Shields-And-A-Gun-Sale



WARP SPEED!

This is pretty exciting stuff!

CIG are introducing REC to the Arena Commander alpha. REC are Rental Equipment Credits, which are earned by playing Arena Commander (and the FPS module when that's out) and let you rent weapons and ships for one week. The rent price is 10% of the in-game credit cost (eg a 1000 credit weapon costs 100 REC), and they all last for one week. You also get a 20% discount if you renew your rental.

The whole thing is here but you have to be logged into the website to access it.

You also get bonuses for milestones. Kills, missiles dodged, matches played, the same kind of stuff you get those ribbons for in Battlefield.

There'll also be a "community chest" so instead of spending your REC you can stick it in the chest. And when that chest fills up from the community's contributions, it unlocks a thing.

BALANCE [NOT FINAL]:

And here's a couple of FAQs that I think are worth highlighting:

Now it's time to
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
GET REC!

Today we get to learn all about digging into space rocks. And the good news is it sounds a hell of a lot more complicated than any other mining system I've ever seen. Bad news is I don't know how profitable or easy it'll be for solo prospectors. Here's a quick summary:

Asteroids are giant chunks of rock, dangerous beasts. Volatile chemicals and seismic activity can really ruin your day. So keep an eye on your scanners.

How to mine:
Go to the Trade and Development Division (the place where you check prices on commodities).

Freelance or agent?
- Freelance miners can dig up what they want, when they want. Problem is, by the time you bring your load home it may have dropped in value and not even cover your costs. In short, you are at the mercy of the market.
- Agents work for a mining company. You get given a nice contract that says "get us this, and do it by then". You get paid only a fraction of your cargo's value. But that's a locked-in profit.

Next, find a place to dig.
All systems have some level of public knowledge, like where all the big asteroid clumps are. But since this is public knowledge these asteroids have probably been picked clean. So you can either stumble around in the dark hoping to hit the jackpot, or you can go to an information broker. They will tell you about the secret little niches nobody knows about, for a price of course. Be careful who you trust, some dodgy folk like to exaggerate to squeeze some more cash out of you. If an organization or player discovers an asteroid field, they can keep it to themselves to exploit the secret riches.

And now, we mine! TEAMWORK!

Pilot:
Basically, don't crash into things, and give the mining beam operators a good angle on your target.

Scan Operator:
Tag asteroids with small probes that will give you telemetry and composition data. This has to be carefully done to guide the missile probe into place.

Beam Operator:
This person gets to use the giant multi-megawatt laser! Cut up the asteroid so your ship can eat it, process it, and stick it in the cargo hold. Beam operators can control the wattage of the laser, because you do not want to pump a huge amount of energy into an unstable hunk of space rock. It's not pretty when that stuff explodes in your face.

Cargo Operator:
This person uses an attractor beam (pull) and a repulsor beam (push) to guide fragments into the ship. Make sure you target the centre of mass so you don't send that hunk of platinum into a crazy spin.

Refinery Operator:
This job only exists if your ship has a refinery. Refineries will polish your dirty pleb ore into nice shiny stuff and dump the excess. Purified materials will take up less cargo. Which means you can get more. Which means KACHING! This is really good if you find a field that's full of stuff that's worthless in its raw form.

These are really basic summaries of the role, more details are on the page which I've linked. And in case your pals aren't around to crew the ship, you can get NPC crewmembers. The better they are at the job, the higher their wages are.

And now you gotta sell it! As an agent you go to the guy who hired you and close the deal. They only take what they came for so you'll have to go back to the TDD to sell excess.

As a freelance miner you'll have to do a little market research to maximise profits. Or, you can rent a storage shed and stick it in there if you think that there'll be a sudden rise in demand soon.

Now to do all this, you're gonna need a ship, right? BEHOLD! The Roberts Space Industries Orion!



Here's the Orion being a badass:



Here's a blueprint gif:



And here are the cargo rings spinning:



https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14522-Star-Citizen-Careers-Mining

Oh and here's a really cool fan-made trailer:

Oh, well. Personally I think they did go a bit over board here.
Yes, I know from a game design point of view you need some process to give your commodities some value (a.k.a. player time). But I find it hard to imagine that in some space faring future you will have such a personal intensive task as foundation of a market.

Because
A) doing it the same way every other space game has ever done it ever in the history of ever would mean it would be just as fun as those previous installments. That is to say, NONE AT ALL!
B) AI isn't exactly the most popular thing around:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/12977-News-Update-WILL-WE-NEVER-LEARN

Making it more complicated than others before is not making it different or more fun. It is just more complicated. Note that this is my personal presumption, since we didn't see any of this in action. Maybe it is really fun, but I doubt it, until I'm proven wrong.
But my point was not on the game play perspective. The problem is the believability of this game mechanic within the fabric of lore of a space faring future. My disbelieve comes from this line of thought:
Humans always seek for more efficient solutions, and even more so in the presence of a market where you can make more profit by selling more stuff. How long do you think will it take, until some clever person comes up with a apparatus that does the above outlined mining process with 2 less people? Or even just with 1 person? Do you really think that huge industry companies like RSI would not come with a stream lined process of autonomous mining units operated by a few people to harvest complete asteroid belts within years, just to get the profit?
That is the point that is hurting me: I cannot believe that this is not happening. The only cure to my disbelieve I can see is that asteroid mining was invented just a few years ago and there was no time for those improvements to happen.

For me more depth = more fun. As long as it's polished I'm good with it. Adjusting beam wattage and using the repulser to get minerals into the card hold sounds fun to me. It's certainly better then what ever other space game has done. Click asteroid, turn on minning laser, loot.

My one concern is I enjoy doing things solo in these types of games and I hope the AI is good. I also don't like the idea of hunting down an information broker.

I doubt it will be too hard to find one. Just go to that shady bar down the dark alley and look for the one-eyed man in the corner or whatever. It also ties in nicely with one of the possible careers, info-running. It's like smuggling but with the most valuable commodity of them all! It's got its own ship and everything:

Ew Ew ew! Asymmetrical ship!

<3 a bit of asymmetry

Same!

Remember that cool little minigame they had for the exploration ship? Well now there's one for the Orion!



You're in debt to the space mafia! Better get their money before they get you!

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/14535-Orion-Vault-A-Loan-In-The-Verse

Ok I've got a big backlog to cover for reason that I'll explain at the bottom of the post if I don't forget.

New damage system! This new system records impacts in a new set of textures that wrap around the ship and change based on where you get hit. This is 4 times more efficient and saves the artists a ton of time because they don't have to create half a billion meshes for every ship. But the most important part is you can literally carve your name into someone's hull!



Lots of extra detail here:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14568-Design-The-New-Damage-System

PAX East presentation:



The highlight of this is it shows off the massively improved animations for FPS.

Design brief on how weapon mounts will work:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14570-Design-Weapons-Mount-Updates

Didn't get around to reading it myself yet so go do your own summarizing.

A brief word from Chris Roberts about the near future:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/.../14589-Letter-From-The-Chairman-11-And-Beyond

This isn't that important, just a lore post about some planet. But dat art <3

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14525-Galactic-Guide-Helios-System



Here we have a new trailer. It's mostly just old footage and some Arena Commander gameplay BUT! it has a sneak peak of the landing zone on the Arccorp planet, aka The Planet of the Agent 47s.



Yeah character models aren't quite finalized.

Some more lore which I think is noteworthy:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/14596-OPNET-Manned-Turrets

Alien ridiculous SJWs confirmed.


And finally, Star Citizen 1.1 is now live!
This adds the Retaliator heavy bomber, a new character rig, 64-bit conversion, that new damage system to one of the ships (eventually it'll apply to all of them), a landing system and of course the REC system.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14572-Star-Citizen-11-Is-Live

Unfortunately, this requires a fresh reinstall of Star Citizen. Multi-lingual guide can be found here:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14606-Star-Citizen-11-Installation-Guide


Here's that sexy bomber:



I would've made this post earlier but last week they said next week they'd upload the entire SXSW presentation, so I was waiting for that. But now it is next week and no presentation .

Here are some character concepts, which look pretty cool:



@squishypon3
@cdrkf
@theothertwopeoplethatstillcare

Wow, the new damage system looks really impressive!

Oh and here's another one of those fan trailers: