The developers answer fan questions on P-52 fuel range, in-system comm limits, penalties for disconnecting mid-battle, and limits on fighters carried in a carrier. They also cover salvage with tractor beams and derelicts, Squadron 42 characters, and cockpit decorations such as bobbleheads. Mark describes his career and character customization work.
Man, if you get stuck out there in a P-52, you are stuck. Unless, of course, there's a place for you to land, or you can call in something like a nanny ship or call in for some help. They're not made to be jumping around the galaxy. They are short-range fighters. You've got to think about that.
To answer that question, you kind of have to look to the past. Look at Freelancer and Privateer and how they handle those kind of things. And that's pretty much exactly how we're going to handle it here. So without giving too much away, you can extrapolate out yourself. And the fans that haven't played those games, get out there and get those games. They're certainly worth playing.
Yeah, of course. I mean, absolutely. We're in the process of creating those stories and backstories for the characters. That's part of the Chris Roberts experience, the immersion, the detail. You want to feel like you are part of something real and something going on. So, absolutely, we'll have some cool stories going on. And those are going to pop up, perhaps, in the Star Citizen universe in later details. You never know what might happen later on.
That was very well done. And the answer to that question is, let me read this directly. A kitty by any other name is still a kitty, is it not? Something to ponder.
It's important that we have those bobbleheads in the universe. The question is, are there springs large enough to hold up the size of this cabeza? Yeah, man, we're going to have all kinds of bobbleheads. We're still toying out how that's all going to work because we've got cockpit decorations. But you can bet your bippy there'll be Wingman in there somewhere, a hangar. And I'd love for a Wingman's bobblehead. I know for crying out loud, my family would like one.
Yeah, man, if somebody disconnects in the middle of battle, we are going to be tracking that. And so if somebody becomes a serial disconnector, man, there will be punishments. We will mete out the punishment on those people. Perhaps the UEE will be putting some bounties out there. We will absolutely be tracking those people who are gaming that type of system. We don't want it. You don't want it. Nobody wants it. We're going to sort that out. We will have a system in place. And that'll probably be like a big announcement of how that works once we get it all locked down and how that's all going to handle.
Yeah, of course it will. We're not going to let you talk across the galaxy, that's not the way it works. We're trying to be as realistic as possible while still maintaining the fact that it is a game, and it's very important to us that the fun overrules everything else. So that will rule pretty much everything. So, yeah, there'll be limitations on your comlink, but that doesn't mean that people won't be talking to each other on Skype or some other way, on VoIP, across the system. But as far as that goes, yes, you'll be limited to your in-system stuff.
Another great one, we've had really, really good videos this week. We don't really know exactly how we're going to handle cap ship or larger ships docking with each other yet. But we are looking into that. It's sort of one of those things. It's TBD how it'll all work. We want to make sure that, again, gameplay rules in this regard. So look for answers to that in the future. But that was a really, really good effort. We just wanted to get in there. So whether or not we allow the big ships to dock with each other is still kind of up in the air.
Somebody is wanting to play fighter Tetris and squeeze as many of them in there as possible. For balancing reasons and for every other reason, yes, there'll be a limit in both the carrier, and any other ship that has fighters is going to certainly be limited. You're not going to be able to game the system by stacking them or sideways and playing Tetris with your fighters. Tsk, tsk, tsk, come on now, folks.
That is exactly what we're going for. You're building a legend for your entire family, not just your own character. So yeah, it's going to go down. If you are one of the few who kills a big NPC in the game, it's going to always stick with your persona or your family, your familia. So yes, absolutely.
First of all, that's one bad to the bone rig. We have not decided how that's going to work. But we are just like you in that we want to do stuff like that. So we want to support that. But depending on when that support becomes available and when we're able to execute on that, can't really say right now. Probably not in the first iteration. But yeah, we really want to support things like that.
Another most excellent effort on the video side. And you almost had me. I thought that was Legante. Gazamba, you crazy guy. Yeah, most of the salvage is going to be done with the tractor beam, much like some of the other games that Chris has done in the past. However, we're going to have some derelicts out there that you can get into, forage through, and find specials and items out there. So a little bit of both is the answer to that. But I'd say primarily anything you blow up is going to be tractored into your own ship. If you have the room, of course.
Oh, man. Long story, bro. Long story. I've been in this industry now, I was doing the math last night, about 18 years. Almost 19 years. Got started way back at this little company called Cop Media, which I think you know Todd Porter. Actually, it was Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty. Jerry went on to be the art director on Gears of War, which was awesome. So that's how I got my start, man. I was making a whopping eight bucks an hour, I think.
Oh yeah, Blizzard. So I was at Blizzard for about six years-ish. I was probably like number seven hire for the cinematics department, which was awesome. Really dug that. Great group of guys. So they grew a little bit, and their stuff got really cool.
Let's see, when I first got there, I worked on the StarCraft expansion, actually, and then moved on to Diablo II, which was really good. Great projects, man. Really liked that group of guys. It was really, really a fantastic work environment.
TL;DRAfter Blizzard, Eric Peterson wanted to do movies and joined Luma Pictures, working on a few films including Sky Captain, but a long commute wore him down.
Actually, I decided at that point in my career I wanted to do movies. So moved out, actually got with this company named Luma Pictures in Santa Monica, which was an interesting experience. Worked on a few movies. I worked on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
That movie was a mess, man. Oh, my God. It was interesting. At one point, I think there was like seven VFX companies working on it all at once. It was a mess. But I'm surprised it turned out so good. It actually turned out pretty damn good.
I was done, man. It was rough. I was doing about an hour and a half drive each way. I was living in Orange County and driving to Santa Monica at the time, and that just took its toll.
TL;DREric Peterson is a lead artist at Cloud Imperium who touches many things and is currently working on characters and character customization, whose decisions caused a roughly 50-50 fan reaction.
Well, actually, I'm a lead artist here at Cloud Imperium. So, honestly, I have my hands on a lot of different things here at Cloud Imperium. Right now, I'm specifically working on characters. I've been working on the character customization stuff, figuring that out, which, I think I told some people in chat, some of the decisions that we decided to make, there was about a 50-50 firestorm there. Had to kind of sit back and let it happen. But I think all in all, I think everybody's pretty happy with it. It's interesting. It's a little different development process when you're this close to the fans.