The Star Citizen Thread

[Mr.Nowak]

I appreciate that. The detail isnt necessary.

That's why I was careful to use the phrase 'finite resources'. I hope you understand what I mean.

In any case like I said its done.

Pretty sure Chris has thought of even the worst case scenario. So far it has been going well for them. They didn't have a ship sale since 7 months and they said they don't want it because they want to get things done first. Which is awesome because everybody knows if there was a sale again they would make 5-10 million dollars in a month.

So they know they are secure on the funding. They just want to get something playable and enjoyable out for people to get their hands dirty in so they can get funding through even more interest rather than ship sales without anything playable coming with it.

Hope it works out for them. Even if it doesn't. Chris seems to be good with his finances because he said that he plans to invest a maximum of 10 million dollars in to the Singleplayer.

 

[Bains]

Pretty sure Chris has thought of even the worst case scenario. So far it has been going well for them. They didn't have a ship sale since 7 months and they said they don't want it because they want to get things done first. Which is awesome because everybody knows if there was a sale again they would make 5-10 million dollars in a month.

So they know they are secure on the funding. They just want to get something playable and enjoyable out for people to get their hands dirty in so they can get funding through even more interest rather than ship sales without anything playable coming with it.

Hope it works out for them. Even if it doesn't. Chris seems to be good with his finances because he said that he plans to invest a maximum of 10 million dollars in to the Singleplayer.

I have no doubt he's experienced. But you must know with software development risk is a big part of the equation regardless of who you are.

Believe me the statistics on delays, cost over-runs and DOAs is shocking. This hasn't changed since the early days. As a gamer you know this never mind a Director of Software Development.

At the same time you can't expect him to be Neo from the Matrix. He's a guy who has taken one approach. There are others. As I said another would have been to assign resources to ruthlessly attack every key area of risk first, have us all flying around in a one ship DFM long ago, and worry about the fish tanks and full showroom of ships later. I can only surmise this was a decision driven by commerce rather than conventional wisdom in terms of directing software development.

Anywhere here we are. If it doesnt 'work out' I doubt it will be quite the trivial matter your post could be implying, so fingers crossed.

 

[Boomotang]

A thing I really like about SCs approach btw is the differences in UI placement and visualisation each ship has. Here is a example of the Hornet, Avenger and Freelancer cockpits (click for larger image).



It really makes you feel like flying a different ship. Lets see how the actual UI unfolds, it seems like CIG have gone for max information without having to turn your head around.

That looks pretty cool. I'd only read about the differences in cockpits in different ships. I hadn't seen it until now. Very impressive.

Different ships will also have different avionics capabilities. Can't wait to see what that's like. It's something that you can't analyze before you start playing it.

 

[Boomotang]

BTW Boomotang, I still say ED was and probably stilla is moving faster than SC. I gave my points above and nobody bothered to counter them

Your "counters" weren't counters. I didn't feel like going in an endless loop with you. And I still don't.

 

[Boomotang]

For an explanation for this, I think you need to look no further than the fact that ED built a ship or two so they could test and get on building the rest of the key elements of the game...

That's exactly what CIG did with the Hornet..... They worked on the damage states (which there are a ridiculous amount of), the IFCS, and HUD design on the Hornet before any of the other ships.

Once the modellers were finished with the initial state of the Hornet, why wouldn't they move to modelling other ships? There are OTHER modellers working on different parts of the universe like landing areas and level design. Specifically the single player campaign team over in Europe.

As mentioned, even now with the economy for example, they have a few non technical dudes messing about with scraps of paper and a home made board game.

That's all that they showed us on WMH. Just because their updates are focused on space combat right now, it doesn't mean that they aren't devoting resources to other aspects of the game. They have large teams working on a single player campaign, the FPS aspects of the game, the backend for their entire servers which is part of their whole universe and not just space combat, and more.

The hangar IS part of their 'universe'. It's the portal to their world, both now in alpha AND when the game is finished. It isn't just a 'showroom' for their ships so we can see the ships before the game launches. It was the first thing they released.

 

[Boomotang]

Seen it. far too much 3PV with gamepads for my taste. I appreciate they say they just want to show the ships ...yet again.

But I really think they're just getting people used that play style for the future. I mean who does it impress?

It impresses me to see the level of detail being put into the models and the animations of the different parts on the ship. Yet I prefer 1PV. I am able to separate my expectations of how the game will be played with how they showcase different parts (3D models and animations) of the game. The final gameplay is a combination of all of the above. It only makes sense to show the individual pieces coming together while in development.

 

[Bains]

That's exactly what CIG did with the Hornet..... They worked on the damage states (which there are a ridiculous amount of), the IFCS, and HUD design on the Hornet before any of the other ships.

Once the modellers were finished with the initial state of the Hornet, why wouldn't they move to modelling other ships? There are OTHER modellers working on different parts of the universe like landing areas and level design. Specifically the single player campaign team over in Europe.



That's all that they showed us on WMH. Just because their updates are focused on space combat right now, it doesn't mean that they aren't devoting resources to other aspects of the game. They have large teams working on a single player campaign, the FPS aspects of the game, the backend for their entire servers which is part of their whole universe and not just space combat, and more.

The hangar IS part of their 'universe'. It's the portal to their world, both now in alpha AND when the game is finished. It isn't just a 'showroom' for their ships so we can see the ships before the game launches. It was the first thing they released.

See above, this was my point.

...another approach would have been to assign resources to ruthlessly attack every key area of risk first, have us all flying around in a one ship DFM long ago, and worry about the fish tanks and full showroom of ships later....

And (meant genuinely) help us keep it constructive dude. Their patience with our antics is understandably wearing thin.

Gotta go. Later.

 

[Boomotang]

About half of the SC ships I have seen work for me, and there are some I really like, but some of them look bloody awful.

Isn't that a good thing in making a game with variety? In real life, does every single car work for you? I'm sure there are some that you hate and some that you love. And if you ask different people they will have the exact opposite reactions. Heck, maybe you even hate a whole category of vehicles, like SUVs, but love another category, like Formula 1 racers.

They aren't trying to make a game where everyone will love every different part of the game.

 

[Boomotang]

Do you think they should concentrate on ship to ship combat,travel and everything flying a ship entails before moving on to the FPS portion?

No, because the FPS portion is directly tied to flying the ships, especially in multi crew ships. Even in a single cockpit ship, it's still important in being seamless when you go from a space station or your hanger to getting into your ship and flying into space.

There's a lot of talk here about ED being seamless in how you travel to different star systems. But what about your transitions between walking around in your hangar/planet/space station to flying your ship. In capital ships the FPS portion is going to play a BIGGER role than the 'flying' portion.

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

Isn't that a good thing in making a game with variety? In real life, does every single car work for you? I'm sure there are some that you hate and some that you love. And if you ask different people they will have the exact opposite reactions. Heck, maybe you even hate a whole category of vehicles, like SUVs, but love another category, like Formula 1 racers.

They aren't trying to make a game where everyone will love every different part of the game.

I wasn't saying it as either a good thing or a bad thing, just an observation.

 

[Boomotang]

I appreciate that. The detail isnt necessary because it doesn't speak to my point.

I'm talking about timeline and order of prioritisation of what really matters including risk, which is why I was careful to use the term 'finite resources'.

The detail is necessary because it shows that they're working on different parts in parallel. The release point for different parts will vary because they have dependencies on other parts, and some things take longer to develop than others. But they are not focused solely on just what they are showcasing for us.

As just one example you could have started DFM long, long ago with one ship and then added the rest as time goes by.

Only if they wanted it to be throwaway work. The whole reason behind the delay was so that the work they put into the DFM would carry over into the other aspects of the finished game.

 

[Bains]

The detail is necessary because it shows that they're working on different parts in parallel. The release point for different parts will vary because they have dependencies on other parts, and some things take longer to develop than others. But they are not focused solely on just what they are showcasing for us.



Only if they wanted it to be throwaway work. The whole reason behind the delay was so that the work they put into the DFM would carry over into the other aspects of the game.

I'm sorry, I've just read your post and don't think I've got across to you what I'm driving at. Never mind.



What about modding?

Which this level of fidelity I guess you could make a rivet accurate inside and out millennium falcon.

If a group ever put together a big high quality star wars mod running on a private server I would be there like a shot!

 

[Dante80]

Arena Commander Weekly Report - May 19-23

A good report this time around, seems that all are in schedule for the May29 release. Also, a couple of nice images from the report..C:

http://imgur.com/a/7auB9

Excited to see the reveal, we have waited a long time for this. Between AC and ED pb1 June is going to be awesome!

 

[Mr.Nowak]

Good news!

Greetings Citizens,

V0.8 of Arena Commander is almost here! Hopefully this will be the final weekly report before it launches. You can find the individual studio reports below, but first I’d like to run through the milestones we listed last week.

May 17th: The planned server update was successful, thanks to our hard working IT groups!

May 18th: Perforce Streams setup was completed and an Arena Commander Release Stream was successfully created and work began to make sure the build system would be ready to build from the new streams setup.

May 19th: The QA team began their troubleshooting session, which lasted several days as the final work was done to finish integration of the Arena Commander Release Stream with the build system. A ‘must fix’ list was generated and updated through the week as progress was made.

May 22nd: Pencils down! Infrastructure change to Perforce Streams was completed successfully, Perforce was locked down and it was successfully updated with the latest from main. All developers successfully migrated to the Arena Commander Release Stream which was officially closed to new check-ins last night. Only updates that have gone through a specific approval process will be included with V.8 of the Arena Commander now.

What that boils down to is that we’re still on schedule and things are looking good. There’s still a lot to do over the next seven days and there are still unknowns… but we have a great team that is dedicated to making Arena Commander a reality!

Here are some nice images. Note : The black orb is for testing reflections.

Spoiler

 

[Asp Explorer]

All very pretty pictures.

Still nothing to play yet.

 

[Mr.Nowak]

All very pretty pictures.

Still nothing to play yet.

Yes they are finishing Arena Commander 0.8. Those are all in game shots which indicates things are looking good.

 

[Toumal]

What interests me is, can i move around and see myself move in relation to the planet? Or is it like in that freespace engine-powered babylon 5 game where the giant planet you were flying above was just a static backdrop?

 

[Mr.Nowak]

What interests me is, can i move around and see myself move in relation to the planet? Or is it like in that freespace engine-powered babylon 5 game where the giant planet you were flying above was just a static backdrop?

Pretty sure you can see yourself moving in relation to the planet. Having it static would be below Star Citizen standards.

Watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP1mlIUZYqI

 

[Dante80]

What interests me is, can i move around and see myself move in relation to the planet? Or is it like in that freespace engine-powered babylon 5 game where the giant planet you were flying above was just a static backdrop?

The Arena Commander has "maps" of sth like 20 cubic kilometers. When you reach the edge of a map, a warning is displayed to bring you back into the game area. Its an arcade dogfighting game inside SC, don't expect much freedom. Chris Roberts has stated that they're going to use a Battlefield style system, where you get a warning and a countdown if you stray outside the borders of the instance, presumably before eventually self-destructing.

 

[Bains]

The Arena Commander has "maps" of sth like 20 cubic kilometers. When you reach the edge of a map, a warning is displayed to bring you back into the game area. Its an arcade dogfighting game inside SC, don't expect much freedom. Chris Roberts has stated that they're going to use a Battlefield style system, where you get a warning and a countdown if you stray outside the borders of the instance, presumably before eventually self-destructing.

hmm, kind if what I expected but even smaller. What's the top speed again? This will tell us many seconds before you have to turn around. I'm guessing something in the region of 5-7 seconds.