The developers cover Squadron 42 Marine work and a new BDU for itemization testing, the delayed Shubin mining contest judging, and possible in-game purchase of subscriber ship variants. They also discuss the Javelin escape pod, Cutlass and Vanguard revamps, paint systems, multiplayer hangars and studio tours.
Squadron 42. But the Marines are all done and approved.
So Omar and Shane are working on that right now. So I'm really excited to see them running around.
TL;DRThey praise the new artist's BDU as looking remarkably good, explaining it was needed as a base suit for testing layered itemization and that the artist produced it immediately upon starting.
It looks so good. I mean, he's new. He's not supposed to be that good. That's why we had him on the interview this week. I know it's just a BDU. But for whatever reason, it just looks so, I mean, you could swear when you were looking at it, you could swear the cloth was moving. I don't know the technical aspects of it. I don't know what goes into actually implementing it in the game. But whatever they did was fantastic.
No, I mean, the reason why he had to do that was because we're testing the itemization thing where we just layer stuff on top and put components and stuff, and so we needed a base suit. And so we were like, we could use the BDU we already have, or we do one that's a more badass looking one. I can say badass, right? This is the internet. I can say badass. Badass looking one. And so I think about three days, or a day, before Shane came in the office, Omar was like, dude, this looks weird. Can you just do a concept real quick? And so I spent about a day doing the concept. And day one, when Shane came in the office, I'm like, yo, do this now. He's like, oh, hi, nice to meet you. No, shut up. Go on ZBrush, sculpt this thing.
And we talked about that in the ATV interview, actually. So he hit the ground running day one.
Oh, we don't mess around.
TL;DRThe Shubin mining contest judging is delayed by staffing absences and nearly 30,000 entries, but the entries are saved and five winners will eventually be chosen by team picks and votes, not by objective ranking.
Obviously we've been sidetracked a little bit with the bereavement leave. Covering Ben and Alexis right now is pretty taxing. So I'll be real honest and say I'm not all that anxious to go through. It ended up being nearly 30,000 entries. So we will get to it. We're just a little delayed right now, guys. But we will get to it. We want to make sure that we give as many people as we can their due. So it is closed. We have your entries. They're saved. We just got to go through and pick five winners. It's not going to be who's best. It's not a quantifiable thing. We're not going to say these are the five best. It's going to be the five entries that move the needle for us, that intrigue us, that pique our curiosity, the ones that resonate with us.
It's going to be tough. I read one page, one page, and I couldn't pick. I was just like, this is going to be so hard.
The way it's really going to work is we'll all probably read through, and Tyler will pick his one, and I'll pick my one, and Ben will pick his one, and Alexis will pick her one. And then we'll all have a number two, and we'll all vote between the number twos. That's probably exactly how that's going to go. So we won't tell you who was whose favorite because I'm just mean.
That is actually something we have discussed. It's obviously not a priority, but it is. You will be able to buy some variant or version of the subscriber models for in-game money. We haven't decided whether it's going to be the exact same model with the same skin or whether it's going to be the same model with a slightly different coloring or whatnot. Kind of like if you look at the M50 that is a subscriber reward and that is also a stretch goal reward, the same ship with different liveries. That is probably what we will do. The subscribers will have the ship with one livery, and then you'll be able to go to the store and buy the same ship with a different livery. That's been on the plans for quite some time, just not near ready to implement yet.
We already have game support agents in multiple studios. We have Will Leverett, who runs out of the Austin studio. We also have Chris Danks out of our UK studio. And as the need arises, the teams will build up in both places around them. I suppose there's even room for it to grow in Frankfurt as well. They're in the process of adding another floor to that studio because they're growing so fast. So probably not here in LA, because I don't know where they'd put them. They'd probably put them where I'm sitting right now. And I don't want that. So I'm going to fight. Stay out of my area. I have no idea about LA, but they already exist in Austin and the UK. I think they're hiring in Austin as well. We're hiring in all the studios. We're ramping up.
We'll start picking the winners once Ben and Alexis are back. And they come back Friday next week. So we've probably got about another two weeks before we start picking the winners for that.
TL;DRTo be featured on ATV, do something unique or unexpected, such as emergent gameplay, rather than a common accomplishment like a fast Vanduul Swarm clear.
My answer is always the same. Do something that most other people aren't. There's so many videos, and if we're gonna take one and highlight it every single week, it's gotta be a step above the rest. It's gotta be doing something that's unique, something that's different, something that not everybody can just log into the game and see. So if you went around in Arena Commander and you cleared Vanduul Swarm in a record time or something, that's cool. I'm not diminishing your accomplishment. It's just we have many videos like that, of that nature. So we're looking for stuff that's different, stuff that's unique, stuff that, the term is emergent gameplay. It's stuff that we didn't anticipate you guys doing, for instance. That's the stuff that moves the needle for us.
Sergeant Gamble's bowling with ships last week. There's a lot of cool stuff that people do. They find ways to make fun out of what they have. That stuff is awesome. We love that stuff. That's fast track to MVP. We want to see more of that stuff.
Star Citizen, when all is said and done, it's going to be the largest sandbox in creation. So you guys are going to be what makes Star Citizen whatever Star Citizen becomes. So we like seeing the stuff that you guys make of it.
TL;DRMore political lore is almost certain but depends on the writing team, who are busy with Squadron 42; a model UN-style piece is being kicked around, though it may never happen.
Almost certainly. That's entirely up to the writing team. They're a bit wrapped up in Squadron 42 stuff at the moment, but I just discussed with Adam and Cherie earlier this week on Monday about eventually, when things kind of settle down for them and they're all back in one place, because Dave Haddock and Will Weissbaum are out in the UK as they're getting ready for more pickup shooting for Squadron 42. We talked about doing a model UN. Basically, where we have Cherie, Adam, Will, and Dave all pick a planet, a system to represent in a crazy model UN, just to show you the different politics that are going on within the Star Citizen universe. I don't know if it'll ever happen, but it's one of those things we're kicking around. So I think it'd be fun. It's just a question of whether it'd be more embarrassing than fun or not. Because unlike Reverse the Verse today, most things we do, we try to make it look at least somewhat presentable. So it's a matter of whether we can pull it off or not.
TL;DRThere is no more imagery of the Javelin escape pod beyond what was shown, and the answer explains how sneak peeks and Fast Forward choose what to show, noting a three-part pipes system episode is coming.
No more imagery, because that was all the imagery. There was like eight or nine photos in that whole montage there. That's all the imagery we have. That is the escape pod for the Aegis Javelin. Different people on the teams work on ships at different points. There's a group of people that have moved on from the Idris because their particular work is done on the Idris and they're on to the Javelin now, while others continue their work on the Idris. So one of the things that they've completed was the escape pod. It was cool. It was unique. We hadn't seen it before. So we decided to show it. The Fast Forward, the Art Sneak Peek, and we'll talk a little bit here about the evolution from the Art Sneak Peek to the Fast Forward. The Art Sneak Peek was always here's one image, two or three images at best, of some random thing. Sometimes it was a prop, it was whatever production had cleared to go out. It's one of those things, again, when people are like, why don't you just show this and this? Because there's a process, and because we try to show things that we know are at least close to being final. We always put work in progress and all that, because nothing is guaranteed to be that way to the finished game. But we do try our best not to play with your emotions and show you something that we absolutely know is going to change, or show you something that we're not at least comfortable with, that even if it changes, it won't change too much. So it's always identifying those things, and then if they're Squadron 42 related, obviously we try to lay off them most times because we're really trying to preserve that game experience for you. It has to come across our desk too. It has to be something that we even find and notice, because a lot of people think our job is sitting here. We don't just sit here looking at our work all day. We do that for like an hour after work from home because we never get a chance to do it at work. But yeah, the Javelin is cool. I was never happy just doing here's an image, here's an image, here's an image. With Fast Forward, we're able to explore the work the audio team is doing and the work the AI guys are doing and the work the animation guys are doing. That great video in last month's monthly report with the EVA transitions, the guys going from running to ragdoll to collision, whatnot, I had that set up for a Fast Forward. And then we decided to throw it into the monthly report instead. So we lost that as a Fast Forward, but everything goes into every little place. So yeah, Fast Forward, I like it a lot. I think it's evolved quite a bit. We've had a good run here, like eight of them. I don't know if we're going to be able to do it for every single episode, because it's always a struggle every week getting something put together for it. But we've got a three-part one coming up. The next three weeks, you're going to see it in three parts. You're going to see the first third, the second third, and the third third of a much larger episode. And it's our pipes system. And it sounds, you go pipe system, ooh, but it's actually pretty interesting, especially if you have any interest in the development of games. So yeah, Javelin escape pod, that's what that was.
It's the same team that's always been here. I mean, we've added new people, but we combined with our West Hollywood office, which was administration stuff, Ortwin and some of our human resources and stuff like that. So it's neat. It's neat having them here, because you've never partied until you've partied with a comptroller. Those are crazy people, those comptrollers. But they actually work in my area, so I see them a lot. This is my 37th job, my 37th job with an I-9 and a W-2, official. And it's easily, without any quantification, the best job I've ever had. So I'm thrilled to be here. And I like everybody I work with here. There's some people in Austin I'm not crazy about.
TL;DRThe Cutlass remodel hasn't begun and isn't being rushed, because the team learns with every new ship and wants to remodel older ships later with that greater experience for a better result.
When the Cutlass remodel happens. It hasn't begun yet. If you go back to our Ship Shape article that we released back in November, we detailed all the work up to where it's at, and it's still there. Basically, the way this works is that every time we make a ship, we learn more. It's not a misconception. It's an assumption that I don't think anybody would have if they actually spent time dealing with it for any period of time, that we have all the answers at the beginning. We don't. That's why it's game development and not game construction. We're developing. We're learning our own processes. We're learning how to make 50, 60, 70, 80 ships that could all be the hero asset in a Mass Effect game or something. So we're learning how best to do that. And every time we build a ship, we learn more. So we redid the Hornet twice. We redid the Constellation three times. We redid the Freelancer a couple of times. What we've learned is that you learn more with every ship. So now, if we rebuilt the Cutlass now, basically we would rebuild it with the information that we have now, which is this much. If we wait and build all the different types of ships first, the explorers and the miners and all these other ships, and we learn all the lessons that we learned from building all these other types of ships, and then we go back and do the remodel, then we remake the Cutlass with this much information. And ultimately you get a better ship for it. So the short answer to where is the Cutlass remodel now is it's not being remodeled now, the same way the 300 isn't being remodeled now, the same way the Aurora isn't being remodeled now, because we are in the process of learning from all these other new ships that we're doing, so that when we go back to remodel them, we have a greater repository of information and experience, and we can just do it the way that we want to do it and do it the best way, the right way, whatever that happens to be. So I know it sucks. Waiting sucks. It's terrible. I'm an impatient person. It's one of the reasons I could never be QA. But the wait will mean an ultimately better ship built by more experienced people and built with greater knowledge and resources. So it'll ultimately be a better thing. So that's why we're not rushing into the remodels right now.
Maybe? This might be the only time we use the Evocati. I don't know. Let's see how it all goes. If people keep breaking their NDA? Probably not. So you guys have control. You guys can determine whether this is a thing that we continue to do or not. So maybe, if we continue to do it, possibly.
TL;DRThe April Fool's dance in front of the green screen was unscripted and came together in a few days, with Jared genuinely slamming into the wall and moving it.
Let me answer that one. So I was approached by a handful of people that asked if that was a scripted event. So not only was that not scripted, but the entire fact that we were dancing in front of a green screen was about five minutes of an idea before it actually happened. They stood us in front of the green screen and said, all right, dance. And then Justin was like, well, we need music. So Justin played music on his phone, and it was the most authentic and genuine reaction from Jared. I don't even know what you were thinking. He just flew across the frame, slammed so hard into it. It's this thing.
It's the same wall that's behind me now. They are 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide.
Yeah, the whole thing moved like 5 feet. Everyone was worried about you. That's why we all ran over immediately to make sure that you were okay.
I have lots of cushion. None of this was planned. The entire April Fool's gag came together in three days. We had nothing Tuesday afternoon and this thing had to go out Friday morning. So it was Tuesday afternoon. I had an incredibly bad idea and I'm like, no, this is bad. We don't have the time to do it. We don't have the resources to do it. And so I went into Ben's office specifically to have him talk me out of it and told him, hey, profession, career, food delivery. And he just goes, let's do it. And those are the three worst words that I can ever hear. Because whenever Ben says, let's do it, it means I'm not going to sleep for the next three days. And that's basically what that was. So it worked out. I liked it.
TL;DRA Vanguard revamp is possible but not ruled in or planned; it depends on resources freeing up and ultimately on what Chris wants, and Jared says he doesn't know.
Possibly. When I say possibly, it's because I'm not ruling it out. I'm not saying that there's any plans to do it. I'm saying that this all happens on a wheel. We're going through all the individual ships right now, and there'll be a point where the right resources free up that we'll sit there and say, okay, now some people go back and look at the existing ships and see what we need to fix. And keep in mind that there's what you guys think we need to fix, which in itself is, there's what the guys in INN think needs to be fixed, versus the guys in Redacted, what they think needs to be fixed, versus the guys in Test, what they think needs to be fixed. And even within their orgs, there's different people. So there's a thousand different ideas about what needs to be fixed, and there's no way to fix all of them, because some of the fixes for one would inherently fly in the face of others. So there's all the disparaging ideas of what needs to be done in the community. And then there's the same here. There's people here. This designer thinks we should do this and this designer thinks we should do that. Ultimately, it always comes down to Chris. So the ships will be what Chris wants them to be. For those of you who have been around for a while, if you remember that old Why I Pledged video that I did like two years ago or whatever, I said that when I pledged, I didn't do it so Chris Roberts had to answer to me. I pledged so that I could help Chris Roberts make the game he wants to make in the way that he wants to make it. And I still believe that. So as long as Chris is happy with it, I'm happy with it. So we'll see. Basically, the short answer is I just don't know. It's possible.
I saw some pictures on Twitter. I didn't see the actual presentation. This week has been kind of under the bus. But it looks like semi-flashier versions of the stuff that they've already got in line, which makes sense. That's been our experience. When we go around and we asked all the HOTAS manufacturers, hey, you're interested in making something new and different and crazy? And most of them said, not really. So it doesn't surprise me that their new stuff is very similar to what's come before. I'm sure it'll be good. Thrustmaster makes good stuff.
That is our hope and intention at some point later on. There's been lots of discussion of a paint system for ships and possibly something similar for armors. It's just right now we're still building the ships and we're still building the armors. So it's just a horse before the cart thing. So we're not at that point yet to know whether that's going to be something that we can implement or not. But it is definitely something we've said many times that we would like to do, that we are interested in doing, and that we will absolutely pursue.
Probably, maybe, I don't know. We're spending a week in Manchester in August after Gamescom, so I'm sure we'll get many people there. But that's in August and we're in March, so...
No, because the inmates don't run the ship, and we don't not do a thing because some people are misbehaving.
TL;DRJared calls Chris a phenomenal boss he loves working for, joking about getting the "Chris stare" and saying he can only work by being himself.
Phenomenal. I love working for Chris. A lot of people are intimidated by Chris and whatnot, and I love just going up to him and saying incredibly stupid things or showing him stupid things, like my Jar Jar tongue sucker thing from 1999. And he gives me this look that doesn't say a word. He looks at me, it's the Chris stare that says every decision involved in the hiring of you was a mistake. And I love getting that look from him. So I try to get that look from him as much as possible. I gotta be me. I was an actor for so many years. This only works if I'm me. You gotta be able to believe the things that are coming out of my mouth. You gotta be able to trust that I'm telling you the truth as I know it, when I know it, when I'm saying it. And the only way to do that is to be me. So I gotta be me.
Multiplayer hangar modules is something that comes after persistence is totally up and running. So it's on the list. It's just, again, it hasn't been a priority because everybody's hangar is pretty much the same. Now that we're working on the hangar decoration system and working on persistence, we get those going, and then it makes sense to do multiplayer hangars after that. No ETA.
TL;DRProbably no more Mass Effect streams, since Jared dislikes how Mass Effect 2 oversimplified morality, though he says he'll get back to the game eventually.
Probably not. I'm a little disappointed in Mass Effect 2 right now. Not necessarily in the gameplay. The gameplay is great. The graphics are amazing. Miranda's butt is something people will write songs about if they haven't already. I'm behind. I'm assuming that the songs exist. It's just I'm not a big fan of how simplified they made the morals. I played Mass Effect 1 legitimately as me, making the decisions that I feel I would make in the real thing. And I didn't discover a paragon point for the first seven hours. And I got one by accident. I'm like, what? What's a paragon point? So I played Renegade. But Renegade wasn't evil in the first one. It was just pragmatic. It was just, I don't have time for your bullshit, I'm trying to save the galaxy. Which I agreed with. So I was really happy with that in the first game. And then in the second game, my character's got a red crackly face and Darth Maul eyes. And I'm like, what? It's like, oh, no, you're evil if you're a renegade. I'm like, that's garbage. So I really didn't like the oversimplification of the morality in Mass Effect 2. So I haven't finished Mass Effect 2. I played it for a while. I started collecting some people. Then it kind of fell off. Because the game itself, in every other aspect, is better than the first. It's just the story, I just wasn't feeling it. I'll get back to it eventually.
Yes. We do the 25th anniversary streams. So we will do them for the 25th anniversary for whatever Wing Commander-related game comes up. I don't pay attention to it. Ben just comes to me like three days before and goes, it's the 25th anniversary of this. And I go, shit. And then I don't sleep for three days as I set up.
TL;DRStudio tours are arranged by sending a customer service ticket naming the studio, but visits happen only on set days every couple of months, so visitors can't pick a date or show up unannounced.
Basically, the way that we arrange tours is through our CS ticket system, which is on the website. You can go to Contact Us. It's at the lower right-hand corner. Send in a ticket to CS. Indicate which studio you'd like to visit. These visits happen on specific days at specific times. I'll be real honest and tell you, you don't get to pick when the tour is. There's just too many requests. If we let people pick when the tour would be, there would be a tour every single day. So what we do is we take one day, one time, every couple months, and we say this is when we're doing the tour. And folks who can make that tour, we let in. So you can do that by the Contact Us at the bottom. Just keep in mind that it just has to be on our schedule. It becomes an untenable nightmare otherwise.
So the people that are like, hey, I'm in Austin for two days, can I get a tour? Chances are, statistically speaking, the tour is not going to be on those two days.
And I promise you, if you show up at our front door unannounced with a gift, I will take your gift and then close the door. I have done it before. I will do it again. Please do not show up unannounced. It's not cool in real life. It's not cool in business. We love you. We will work with you to get you in here. It's just there's got to be some rules. There's got to be some guidelines, because it has to be manageable. And we take a liability when we bring people in here. So there's just many considerations that most people never take because you don't need to. It's our job to take those considerations. It's a process. Please, please, please follow the process.
They are open now. You can post your questions now. Like I said, it's the same way the 10 for the Developers got late. It's just everybody's been in this 2.4 crunch right now. So as soon as we let up from the 2.4 crunch a bit, you'll see more devs in there, hopefully.
No, that was a one-time thing, I think, for the charity. I know we don't have plans to do it again, but I don't think we will have new plans to do it again later.