I think nobody knows anything at all. It's certainly touching that there's so much concern from Star Citizen backers. I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen right now.
And I think it's a long process, so it's not something to worry about right now. Just to quote Desiderata, which Alli posted on her Twitter yesterday, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
I mean, that was one of the questions in Time for the Chairman, and none of us are going to disagree with Chris Roberts about what to do with Drake ships.
It's very cool stuff coming up. I am totally confident that a lot of people will love it. I am confident that there are other people who will not be satisfied with anything. That's just the way the world works. I will say that what we have in the pipeline I am very proud of, and I can't speak for anybody else.
We should get shock mounts. Well, when we get the desk, we can put the mics through. The problem with the lav mics is when somebody like Matt Sherman or Jeremiah Lee comes in to join us, then it's a big ordeal to try to get them mic'd up. With the table mics, anyone can sit down and answer questions. So there's a give and take.
TL;DRA novel about earlier history is only a possible ambition way down the road, far from a focus now; fan fiction is encouraged, and Jump Point fiction counts as in-universe fiction.
Yes, to a certain degree we do want to explore times in the UEE or in the history of this universe that came prior to the current date in the game. Novel format...that would maybe an ambition way down the road after we have a very entrenched universe and we have a game you guys are playing and fully involved with.
There's enough stuff there and I think there's enough prime real estate of events in the past we can go back to and give a fuller treatment for. Right now, it's far from a focus, just trying to get the current world set out, Squadron 42...
There some pretty good fan fiction. There's stuff on INN, there's even some specific subreddits that focus just on role playing or fan fiction and stuff like that. If you have any interest in that, you should definitely check those out, you should contribute. I know every once in a blue moon too if you do like fiction, if you like writing fiction we sometimes look for people interested in writing fiction for us. For Jump Point and things like that, so always keep an eye on our website too to see if that pops up.
Do you incorporate official fan...or like fan fiction into the official lore of the game if someone has a good idea, would you guys ever sit down and be like, 'I think we should incorporate what this person was talking about cause this is pretty dope'.
There are a lot of really great ideas that pop up on fan fiction forums. We always need to take it with a step because we know so much more about the universe and kind of where we want to go with it and what is kind of planned for it. So, sometimes that has to fall online. A lot of the fiction in Jump Point that you read has been written by other authors and fans of the game. I think technically we haven't ironed this out for sure, like technically we're spinning it as that's fiction that exists in the universe at the time.
Yeah, I think it's truly cool we're creating a world that has so many different possibilities to it but you know, novels out of it is down the road at some point but lots of good fan fiction and everything like that is already going. So yeah.
TL;DROceans are shader-driven and the speakers think they can be done without killing performance, expecting good fidelity; underwater ships are a design debate, and space whales are likely supported but not committed.
Absolutely and again, Carsten Wenzel is one of the... He's unsung, he's very quiet unless he's very angry, but he's written white papers for the engine, he's been there from the get go and he's actually working within this. He's actually training one of our junior programmers to do this particular implementation. So him and a gentleman by the name of Tiago who went ID software I believe and worked on Doom, worked on our oceans originally within the CryEngine. I think I can go out on a limb and say the oceans within the CryEngine were one of the best features within the engine.
Exactly. So I think you can expect at least that level of fidelity, but what's tricky again about water is how, first of all the highlight changes at a distance. So when you're approaching a planet, the planet has got to react very differently, specularity wise to the surface first of all.
Exactly. Then when you get up close, you want to see waves, but you don't want to see it tiling everywhere, so we've got this real big scale problem that we're going to have to deal with, dynamic tessellation on this stuff, being able to have displaced waves and things like this and then additionally if we want to go underwater, which a ship to design should be able to do, right? Lets hope the design says ships are submarines also. To me, if a ship can go into outer space, it can go underwater right? I think it should be able to go underwater, but whatever, we'll see how that goes with the design in terms of that design thing. I think that's should happen.
Oh! That's a good point, right. What a Pandora's box right, cause you get under, you open the back of the Cutlass and what happens, right. Shouldn't the water flow in, right, but with the local physics grid like pushing water out, I don't know. There's all sorts of crazy...
A submarine though is built to withstand the extreme weight and pressure that the water puts on it and I don't think a ship needs to withstand the same amount of pressure in outer space.
Yeah right and again this will be a design debate and as you see there's a couple different mindsets. I'm sure all the players are gonna go "Ya, Absolutely they need to go underwater" because that will be more fun.
We talked a little bit earlier in a question about Fauna anyways so space whales, megafauna, I think we're gonna have to support something like this. Whether it's whales or big big things on the ground, walking around.. Yeah sure, space whales, let's do it. You heard it here.
So a space whale walks into a bar and he sits down next to another space whale and the space whale goes [Whale noises] [Whale noise intensifies] and then the space whale looks over and goes... You are wasted...
TL;DRThere won't be an artist-specific 10 for the Developers; the series will keep mixing disciplines, with specific developer pairs named for upcoming episodes in the coming weeks, after a Chris Roberts one next week.
You will see 10 for the Developers. That was one of the better ideas that Thomas Hennessy had, and I'm still super proud of him for it to this day, where we take people from the different disciplines and combine them together to get a more robust Q&A.
So we'll get some artists in there, we'll get some designers, we'll get some engineers, we'll get some producers. So we mix them up. I think we get much better results when we mix them up. So 10 for the Developers.
I know they're actively in development for it, because when I walk through the studio in Austin, I can see the animators working on various stuff with that.
We do not have an Avid machine. Actually, we do. We do have an Avid machine. It's on the other half of the office. They're using the Avid machine for Squadron 42 dailies.
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Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships
I wonder if it's the same one, because Chris had one back in the Wing Commander movie days.
It's not actually an Avid machine. It used to be called the Avid. It was actually a machine. Now it's a software program. Some people still call it the Avid. When it first came out, it was a machine called the Avid. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier used the Avid to cut Chasing Amy and stuff like that. Now it's software. It runs on a PC just like our Premiere does. They're actually not cutting dailies with it. They're rewriting the script, using the dailies to make changes. So if an actor improvs a line, they're going back and looking at that footage and changing the master script.
TL;DRThe Wall of Honor glass plaque is now hanging in the lobby under construction, though the logo emblem and lighting still need to be added and a photo will follow later.
It is hung up. They did find the hardware. They were mounting the holes because there's other artwork going up ahead of it. It's in the lobby outside of the big conference room. Just the glass piece and the mounting stuff is on the wall, so we still have to put the actual raised Star Citizen logo emblem, which goes behind it. There's other stuff that's in there. We're going to get some lighting and stuff for it to make it look nice. But technically, if you go into the under-construction lobby right now, the plaque is actually hanging, and you can see all the names on it.
I mean, there's still a lot of construction, but it is a milestone. It has its place, the hardware has been found, and it is mounted in its resting place.
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Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships
To add part of this story that you folks probably are not familiar with because you're not here every day, when we moved into the office, the development side was all set up. Our area was pretty much set up. There's been all sorts of construction, minor things like holes in the roof being fixed over the last month or two. But the lobby itself was not done at all. So over the last two months, they've been building the front desk. They actually have to blast a hole in the building where the door is going to be. Right now, everybody comes in the back door. It's going to look really cool. We're going to get dev up first.
TL;DRThe furniture wasn't part of the office: the set was built from lumber, and the table came from Chris Roberts' old office, with a new desk in the works.
No, we built this. This is built from a big pile of wood that we got at Home Depot. So this room, we built from the ground up. And the table is actually a table that came from Chris Roberts' office at the old office that he wasn't using and I had stolen. And occasionally they steal it back from me. So it's kind of a constant back and forth.
It is still the Ten for the Chairman table. Ten for the Chairman on Monday, you'll see this same table, only without the tablecloth on it. We're working on some other more practical stuff that works better, because obviously this table is really small and it doesn't make for a great way to shoot this show and some of the other shows, but we're making do. So slowly but surely we're making progress. We're in the process of having a new desk built. That is where this stuff comes from. I scavenge, I'm a scavenger. I'm Rey.
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Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships
And then he brings these furniture bits and things to me, and I dole out portions. I hate to say it, but that is actually how this process works. [Hennessy] is like, I think we can build a set for $200 in lumber. I'm like, okay, we can try it.
We actually use what are called Kino Flo lights. We have three in front of us on boom stands and there's actually one behind us up here. So they're natural-light-replicating Kino Flo lights, the kind you would see in any television studio. So that's the kind of lights that we use.
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Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships
Not to bring everything back to archive Wing Commander material, but we're going to use these same lights to take a really high-resolution picture of Chris Roberts' giant Wing Commander map, probably next week.
Just a preface: there are some issues right now with 2.2 and the 10 for the Developers, and making sure we get it out on Monday, if I can get Kirk Tome.
Yes, 10 for the Developers is currently in danger right now because everybody's been crunching for 2.2. We haven't been able to shoot it yet. But it is scheduled to include Kirk Tome, who is currently hip-deep in the Reliant.
Forrest and Omar continue to work on character customization, as does the team in Austin. They're doing some fantastic work. Walking past their desk every day is a treasure. It'll be cool when it's here. XCOM 2 came out this week, and they have a pretty cool character creator, so a lot of us were looking at that. And I was like, oh, we're doing that, and oh, we're doing that. So I was like, cool.
TL;DRAlien armour will not be wearable by humans because of size, but there will be human armour pieces inspired by alien materials, though the specifics are unknown.
Right. So I mean that's one of those things that sounds really cool. Like I'm going to take some alien armour and I'm going to retrofit that to me, but imagine going up to Shaquille o'neal and saying "Can I put your shoe on?". It would be ridiculously oversized it wouldn't work, so really we don't expect for this to happen. You're not going to be killing a Vanduul and ripping off pieces of armour and just taping it on me ala Transformers "Take my parts". Type thing. It's not going to happen like that.Now will there be armour pieces that are inspired by alien materials and things like that for the humans? Absolutely, I don't know exactly which ones those are going to be or what they'll be made of.The Vanduul as they are, are at least eight feet tall. So again imagine putting on Shaq's shoes or shirt or something like that, it would be like a dress on you.So no you will definitely have to have some level of human armour that's created by these alien materials but you won't be actually taking a piece of Vanduul armour and wearing it yourself. I don't think that makes a lot of sense.
So what you guys don't know is that Steve and I share an office. Sort of. We have a little glass door between us because we both get a little bit excitable on Skype. So Steve might be talking. Actually the other day you were [Bleep] about something you were whining a little bit.
About previewing animations and "Oh Tracy why can't I preview this animation". And he hadn't turned around so it was actually pretty cool. It worked out pretty nice.
TL;DRMaking immersion animations into emotes is not hard in theory, and any emote could let players act as, say, an aircraft marshal; the harder part is design and player-to-player interactions needing the other's acceptance.
This is a good question it's also related to ... there was another question by ... somebody else is on there is it ... Amontillado "Hi guys we're aware that the characters will be able to pull others out of the line of fire during combat but will our characters be able to interact with each other in other circumstances such as pushing, pulling, restraining and hugging?" So these two things are basically ... the answer to these is kind of similar.So in Star Citizen and in the Persistent Universe you're going to start seeing detailed animations for aircraft carrier launches and things like that. And in theory making those animations emotes isn't really too difficult of a thing. We have a lot of eating, we have a lot of drinking. You're going to be able to go a lot of places like nightclubs, and there'll be waitresses there and bartenders and bouncers. We shot motion capture for people selling spaceships and stuff like that, like at a car dealership or things like that.The challenging thing is the design side of this: getting this to play well together and having a connection between the animation. So for the AI we can control the things that we want them to do, when we want them to do it, and how we want them to do it. But for Players it's really kind of restricting. So anything that we create as emotes however you could essentially use as jobs so we have an aircraft marshal ... guy that sort of goes like this [hand gestures] ... kind of like, almost like a work out right?
But if we create them as emotes you could actually turn yourself into an aircraft marshal without it being an official job. You can just go out on the tarmac and start start directing traffic. And stuff like that.
The other problem though with some of these actions, like the bartending and things like that are things ... it's about interacting with other players. The tricky thing here is even though you can do something it's about the acceptance of the other player. So if I want to make out with Sean Tracy [Sean is shaking his head] he has to accept that offer otherwise I'm going to end up back in the HR office again. So the same thing is true ...
TL;DRYes, character animations will change with injuries: leg hits cause limping, arm hits make that arm unusable, possibly forcing a switch to a pistol, with balancing of speed and accuracy still being worked out.
Sao... Saol... Mr... Saouldian. Yeah, I think that's good. Sao. Saoldian. Sao Saoldian. Saoldian. Sao Saoldian. Yeah I know, it's just the question starts with his name. Saoldian. Sao Saoldian. Sao Saoldian, no idea how to say this. Sao Saoldian asks: Will our character's animation change when injuries are incurred? Occurred? I don't know if it's my grammar or their grammar, but something's wrong there.
So, ahh, yes. You'll be having characters, will begin to change the way that they move and interact with injuries. So if i get shot in the leg, I'm going to start to limp. If i get shot in the arm, that arm will no longer be useable. Now, there's a certain amount of shot in the arm, like the likely one shot will not put your arm completely out of commission, but, there's a couple challenges that we have in this though. In that, it's about balancing this. So, when I get shot in the leg, and I'm moving, how fast am I moving? Because you know, we shot this stuff on set, we actually shot actors in the leg. not with real bullets but you know, we threw things at them. You know. Just sort of ...
And stuff like that right? Give them a good charlie horse. And then they tried to move, and it actually, whereas it looks good on camera, it's one of those things in first person / third person where it just felt really slow. So, within the design we have injuries. So when you get shot in the leg, you're going to be limping forward, when you get shot in the arm, likely we won't be holding our arm down, if I get shot in the left arm I'm going to want to keep it up here because I want to make sure that, you know, I keep my arm above my heart level so I don't bleed out, and you know, that gives us opportunities to do things with the weapon. So, for instance, if I get shot in the arm, perhaps I have to go to pistol, so I drop my rifle, I'm going to draw out my pistol, but I can't go to two hand, so I have to go one hand right? And how does that change your accuracy with the weapon when you move with the weapon and things like this. Yeah. If you get shot in the right hand, you're holding the weapon in the right hand what the hell happens?ST:L What about things like reload and things like that too? So I guess you'd have to have some level of one-hand reloads, you'd have to have all these kinds of things right?
Right. So, we had a Glock, and he was doing this thing with this Glock where he just... he had ammo kind of like this, and he would eject and this would go in and then he would like grab it in this funky grip and goST: Holy shitSB: And go scrunch it together like this, the slide would go back, and then it would pop up, the whole gun would pop up, and he'd catch it in his hand and he'd be able to fire. It's [BEEP] [BEEP] I was sitting there and he was just sort of waiting for the next take and I saw him doing this I was like.. what the f... is that? Do it again!
Yes, we're going to have more rewards. With the referral program, we definitely want to have more rewards, but we also want to make them good. So it's a time versus... If we want to do something quick, we can say, oh, everybody gets an Orion or something. But we want to do some more unique content, which takes production time, and it takes an artist and a designer. So it's all about scheduling, making sure we can do everything else we've promised. More rewards are coming. Keep your fun, folks. If you cross the threshold for one, and I'm glad you have already, we'll give it to you later.