/tg/Station 13

I'm a mega-fag for Star Citizen and since the latest patch actually made it a playable multiplayer game, I've had some fun with a friend of mine killing pirates, crashing into people trying to take off, and EVA-ing in space like a nugget.

Who else has invested into this pyramid scheme other than myself? I have a Constellation Andromeda (six person freighter, think Millennium Falcon but not round) who needs some crew if you duders wanna derp around.

I bought in at the cheapest bracket at the time, have my mercenary card around here somewhere.

Do you know want to know the DEEP LORE or like gameplay?

Let's play sometime then Anon, tho I will need an invite to the discord because I wasn't around during the holiday discord memes.

I'm gonna wait until this shit gets finished, if ever.

Its current state, while still rough and definitely still pre-alpha (not even close to feature complete), is still super fun and extremely promising.
They current have a minor economy system in, a crime system, questing, quantum travel, docking, FPS combat in and out of EVA, and ship racing/combat.

They just made a switch from CryEngine to Amazon's Lumberyard engine and holy hell did things take a huge leap forward in quality.

Got the Sq42 thing, one of the civ hornets, a sabre and a freelancer for space panel van adventures

Couple questions about the current state of the game:

Multiplayer, how? Arena, single server, how big etc.
Multicrew, how? One guy pilots, the others are passengers, or do they actively operate ship systems (engines weapons shields etc)?
Bording actions?
Trade?

What is Star Citizen you ask?
Well this explains/shows what Star Citizen is currently and what it wants to be once finished:
[youtube]HaJx4TdshFA[/youtube]

The fluff for this game is insanely deep, when you're on Discord sometime I can explain some of it via VoIP, I'm too lazy to type it but the TL:DR is there is a massive human empire called the UEE that is like Space Rome, which is slowly crumbling. There are pirate factions, lost colonies, like 3-4 alien species, and xenophobia galore!

Multiplayer, how? Arena, single server, how big etc.

See video. At the moment there is arena stuff like dog fighting, racing, and FPS combat but these are all test beds for the persistent universe, which just launched in a pre-alpha state. Basically its going to a space realm bigger than Eve where you are able to do anything you want organically with hundreds, if not thousands of people joining you.

There will be only one mega server (powered by Amazon Web Services) which will have dynamic instancing based on your organization (clan), location, friends list, and activities.

Multicrew, how? One guy pilots, the others are passengers, or do they actively operate ship systems (engines weapons shields etc)?

Absolutely. There are multicrew ships as small as two and capital ships with crews upwards of 50 I believe. Now there will be hireable AI to fill these posts but of course humans are preferable assuming they are competent.
I have a freighter called the Constellation Andromeda (See: which can hold a crew of six people. Me and a friend have been dicking around in it and its great.

I pilot and he either guns one of the two turrets or co-pilots. There are two co-pilot seats, one is a radar and weapons officer, another is like an engineering officer who directs power flow to different systems depending on necessity.
Also there is a small snub parasite fighter attached which, once the functionality is added, he can launch to fight off attackers and then reattach to continue our spess journey.

Bording actions?

Yup, damage is modular so you will be able to disable a ship so you can EVA over, breach charge in, and kill the occupants.
I kind of had something like this happen to me yesterday. I was sitting on the platform at a space station and someone jumped on board via my cargo hold and I didn't notice them.
Once I quantum jumped somewhere else, he shot me in the back of my head and stole my ship. GGNORE.

Trade?

There is going to be a full economy system, kind of like Eve's. They have hired economists to design a fully function system with mining, trading, supply and demand, hauling cargo, salvage, etc.
Currently you can complete missions to earn credits which allows you to buy weapons, firearms, ship mods, clothing, and EVA suits.

Thanatos PM me your steam url, I'll add you and we can spess sometime.

Thank you, I already knew some of these final features, I was actually asking about the current state. Last time I checked they only had arena dogfights, now you're saying they moved to pre-alpha persistent universe, how large is that?

I use my thinger via just the straight launcher. I use the handle steelgriffin ingame.

Also I k inda wish I had a drake caterpillar personally. I hope we get paint job customization in the future.

you know what other game had a hype list of features like this? spore

also i guess no mans sky

While I understand the worry that this is all hype, they've been piecemeal releasing portions of the game in a pre-alpha state.
It first started with the dogfight module, then planet side module (which allowed people to just walk around a station), and now they have released the first playable build of the persistent universe and first person shooter.

Currently in the persistent universe you spawn on Crusader Station or in Grim Hex (criminal station) and are able to buy minor in game items as previously described and pull out any ship you have in your hangar(s).
You are able to do a select number of quests that involve going to places, fighting pirates, and interacting with electronics of some sorts. While there is nothing that deep or overtly unique about the quests, its a fantastic proof of concept that blends ship combat, exploration, EVA shooting, and minor tid bits of story.
The persistent universe is split into 24 man instances at the moment and you can kill, ram, griff as much as you want but the more you do it, the more your crime state increases. This can be removed via a security outpost which has to be hacked into, telling everyone in the instance that you're doing it and leaving you as bait to get shot till its completed.

A lot of the worlds are pretty empty right now, thats not just the demo footage. The game is not close to feature complete and they are focusing on that before flushing the worlds out.
As someone who backed the kickstarter and has dabbled in the modules since the initial release, the current build is light years of progress especially consider its early mismanaged development and completely re-writing CryEngine before switching to Lumberyard. (See: http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/23/insi ... ar-citizen **Disclaimer I work for Future PLC who publishes Kotaku UK, not shilling just think that's a really good investigative piece.**)

While I understand what you mean by them hiring a PR firm, the INSANE amount of content and transparency provided to the community via blog posts, forum discussions with devs, and numerous weekly livestreams/programs has been beyond successful in terms of garnering community support and continuing to drive the moon money generator. Again since this game is still in an early phase of its development, seeing executed as proof of concepts is huge. For example them just showing off the FPS boarding action in zero G garnered a standing ovation from the Gamescom crowd, so take it in context of them talking to the community they know so well not necessary Joe Schmo.

Besides, PR spin is what got games like NMS and such in trouble, Star Citizen usually shows off pretty blunt and often times buggy demos of their latest builds. The whole sand dune planet scene was part of an two hour livestream from their own convention, none of it pre-recorded:

That all said, if you wanna wait I encourage you to do so. I'm just really enjoying myself in the persistent universe with the little content there currently is and wanted to have some peeps join me if they had backed the game too.

>not able to slap branding on the side of your freighter for sweet spacebux

No I watched it live Cosmic and then re-watched it before sending it to you, seems the same to me. /shrug

Well the issue with NMS is that it was a bunch of indie devs who didn't know how to do anything in terms of appropriate PR/marketing so when Sony put them on a massive pedestal they just kind accepted it.
I actually don't blame them for the misleading PR they got, I blame Sony completely. Like Hello Games does not have a PR team, they are a tiny studio. In fact most devs don't have PR teams.

As someone who worked PR for a developer, usually its a one or two person team with most of the work being outsourced to an agency, and its highly unlikely Hello Games had the funds to pay for PR.
I'm sure their deal with Sony included PR and advertising via Sony because it sure seemed like it.

I mean Chris Roberts, the guy in the video, isn't just the project lead but the founder and CEO of the whole company. Its his baby and its his vision that the fans have rallied around so while he may come off as a bit awkward, he is the literal heart behind the game.
However, Chris does present and speak and stream like all the fucking time, you just get used to that way he talks cus it is a bit strange. Interestingly enough his wife Sandy is the head of marketing for all of CGI.

Dunno if you can slap custom branding but I know like decals and paint for ships and firearms are in the dev pipeline.

So how does ship loss currently work?

On a timer for respawn, or pay to get it back faster.

Yeah what Thanatos said.

Though that is only till the persistent universe is completed and launched into beta, which could be at least a year.
Once in beta though, perma loss of ships will be implemented, which can be negated via insurance. The insurance cost is supposed to be negligible, according to the devs.

Insurance only covers the basic ship model, so if you purchased and implemented upgrades to your weapons, radar, engine, etc you will not be reimbursed for that.

Player-run insurance agencies and insurance fraud when?

I could see Eve doing that shit.

The premise is insanely cool but I don't trust the developers for the minute. Not paying a cent until the full release.

I just want to be a dickhead in a big ship flying around in space.


I guess I can do that with my Gunmetal Panel Space-van.
Seriously, I look at the freelancer and wonder if I've got a rape dungeon in the back end, it's like a damn box truck in space.

I wanna be a dickhead in a small ship.

Tell me we can go space submarining.

Nah there isn't.
How would space submarining even work?
Like water wouldn't have a form in space.

Space submarining works like planetary submarining, only in space.
You sneak up on merchant ships that the guys who sign your paycheck don't like, bomb them to bits, then run like hell because you can't do shit in a stand-up fight.

Bolien wrote:I was sitting on the platform at a space station and someone jumped on board via my cargo hold and I didn't notice them.
Once I quantum jumped somewhere else, he shot me in the back of my head and stole my ship. GGNORE.

Shit, you can do that?

I may want to play the game JUST for that.

Luke Cox wrote:TFW you have the most successful video game kickstarter in history that managed to raise a AAA budget but you beg for more money anyway

Seriously, if you dumped any money into this, cut your losses and just get out now. Sunk cost fallacy, my friends. This project's continued revenue stream relies upon it.

Luke Cox wrote:Seriously, if you dumped any money into this, cut your losses and just get out now. Sunk cost fallacy, my friends. This project's continued revenue stream relies upon it.

Nah, it's gonna be great.

DemonFiren wrote:

Luke Cox wrote:Seriously, if you dumped any money into this, cut your losses and just get out now. Sunk cost fallacy, my friends. This project's continued revenue stream relies upon it.

Nah, it's gonna be great.

In that case, I have some snake oil you may be interested in

Luke Cox wrote:

DemonFiren wrote:

Luke Cox wrote:Seriously, if you dumped any money into this, cut your losses and just get out now. Sunk cost fallacy, my friends. This project's continued revenue stream relies upon it.

Nah, it's gonna be great.

In that case, I have some snake oil you may be interested in

I'm gonna buy it like I bought Star Citizen: not at all.
It's still gonna be great, though.

Sell him snake oil, he's a damn lizard.

I'm waiting for "release" to judge this

It's a win win for me - if it dies or turns out shit I lose nothing and can play video games

If it turns out to be the fucking ridiculous universe simulator they promise then it's a win because >jesus christ they did it

CosmicScientist wrote:Nuh uh. Be as pessimistic as possible and lambast the people who pay towards it. Only things I like are good.

>there are people who unironically believe things like this

i know you're joking but it hurts

The more money they get the less likely the game is going to get completed.

It's suffering from feature creep hardcore.

I can't tell you guys what to do with your money, but don't expect anything good to come of this. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt it.

lntigracy wrote:The more money they get the less likely the game is going to get completed.

It's suffering from feature creep hardcore.

see: broken age/most kickstarters that get past their goal

it's unfortunate, some people manage to retain the spirit of their origina pitch and use the money well, but others feel the need to increase the scope thanks to the new funding and it often falls apart

Qbopper wrote:

lntigracy wrote:The more money they get the less likely the game is going to get completed.

It's suffering from feature creep hardcore.

see: broken age/most kickstarters that get past their goal

it's unfortunate, some people manage to retain the spirit of their origina pitch and use the money well, but others feel the need to increase the scope thanks to the new funding and it often falls apart

This, I don't know how many of them were scams from the get go, but most of the failed crowdfunding projects always show the same excuse/cause, they accepted stretch goals that grew way beyond what they were capable of doing, and the project escaped any real chance of being completed.

About SC... It's a dangerous mixture of heavy feature creep and the team getting way more money by never finishing it than being done with it. This will never come out, and when it happens, a lot of stuff will be broken and unfinished.

Its like all those hentai games on patron that make lame updates whilst raking in thousands a month because some people are dumb enough to fork out the price of a game every month, its not in the developer's best interests to ever finish that game because then people would stop donating.

Breeding Season.

People love ideas and potential, and often don't really give a shit about the final product
This goes double for anything pornographic- The concept will always be better before it gets made

Basically they want to use a new engine, and with that they've stopped putting cryengine on their pictures and promotional material and instead just put "Star Citizen".

What they should've done is as soon as their plan changed from making an entire game and instead making modules that add up to a game is renegotiated their contract with crytek...

they didn't and thought it was cool to just stop using it and use their own engine. it isn't.

Here is PC Gamer's explanation of the lawsuit: http://www.pcgamer.com/star-citizen-crytek-lawsuit/

Basically Crytek as a company is up shit creek and running out of money, so they're doing a gambit to get some money.

you're saying they're having a crysis?

>We didn't license you to use our engine for two games
>OMG WHY AREN'T YOU USING OUR ENGINE LIKE WE AGREED

both of these statements are in the same lawsuit

DemonFiren wrote:you're saying they're having a crysis?

DemonFiren wrote:you're saying they're having a crysis?

DELETE THIS IMMEDIATELY

lntigracy wrote:>We didn't license you to use our engine for two games
>OMG WHY AREN'T YOU USING OUR ENGINE LIKE WE AGREED

both of these statements are in the same lawsuit

Presuming this hasn't gone past pleadings that's entirely 1) expected 2) reasonable 3) contemplated in American law.

cedarbridge wrote:

lntigracy wrote:>We didn't license you to use our engine for two games
>OMG WHY AREN'T YOU USING OUR ENGINE LIKE WE AGREED

both of these statements are in the same lawsuit

Presuming this hasn't gone past pleadings that's entirely 1) expected 2) reasonable 3) contemplated in American law.

yeah i must be misunderstanding his post because i fail to see how "we licensed the engine to you for one game and you used it for more than that" is in any way unreasonable