Star Citizen: Reverse the Verse LIVE - Frankfurt Studio Update
Developers discuss ship theft and piracy as a planned career, buying ships with alpha UEC (blocked on the item kiosk), and Merlin launching from Constellations (needs docking). They also cover procedural planets, Lorville flora and water, fog and lighting, hacking, vision modes, Star Marine and Arena Commander plans, and non-lethal weapons.
TL;DRThe insurance comments were taken out of context; the vision is that ships can be stolen and held with difficulty, with law and consequences still undesigned, and lawful behavior is being built first.
So it was taken out of context, first and foremost. From there, what Chris's high-level vision is, is that he does want you to be able to steal ships and have the capacity to actually hold on to them for as long as he possibly can. However, that's going to require you jump through certain hoops. We haven't figured out what those hoops are yet, but think of it as like Grand Theft Auto, or in this case, it'd be Grand Theft Spaceship. And therefore, if you're ever caught with this, then you would basically be considered a felon and you'd go to jail for a long time in the game, or you'd be chased down, hunted, possibly put out as a bounty and pay it that way.
As often with everything else in Star Citizen, our development is iterative. We have to start with building the way things are supposed to work. You build the lawful behavior before you build the unlawful behavior, because you have to know one before you work the other one. And we're still building the lawful behavior.
Yeah. And in many ways, when we're talking about law, it will be solar system based. Well, it will be solar system and then local based, but the idea would be that the overarching solar system has a set of rules associated with it, just like states in the United States do, versus England versus Germany. Everywhere there's different laws, but there's some common elements. However, in cases like GrimHEX, the local law might be different than the solar system law. And so those are things that we have to work out. And we've started it from a high level design position and we've done some write-ups on it, but as far as implementing it and getting that into the game, it's on our backlog.
Well, it's focusing on the current implementation, but rest assured, it's one of those things where we view this as a possible career, whether that be a pirate, an assassin, a smuggler, so on and so forth. We view those as careers that we want you to be able to do. And for people that like to play that way, including myself, then I want to make sure it's as fun as possible.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
I mean, you can brainstorm about all the gameplay surrounding stealing other people's ships or retrieving stolen ships, or it goes on and on.
I mean, you want to be able to skirt the line. So whether it be like Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds, you want to be able to smuggle, you want to be able to do that 'aim to misbehave' kind of thing.
We did. So the main issue that's holding us back right now is the item kiosk. So we've done the commodities kiosk. Once we do the items kiosk, then that will free us up to do this stuff. So it's fairly high on the game team in LA's backlog. However, they're working through optimizations and a few other things before we actually get to that shop.
One word: docking. So as soon as we get docking done, then basically you can undock or you can dock, and then it's the same thing with the control module on the Caterpillar. We've got to get that working just from a user interface standpoint and from a code perspective, being able to separate and then figure out how we're going to allow them to dock. But it's something that we need to do just because as we introduce a lot of the newer ships into the game and a lot of the newer ships that are coming down the pipe, meaning like getting the Reclaimer in or all these other major ships, a lot of them need to be docked. In the case of the Reclaimer, not so much, but our capital ships and those types of things. So we need to be able to do that. It's just right now we have higher priorities.
TL;DRWork continues on Levski, ArcCorp, Lorville, flora and fauna, with the object container system holding back release; fauna would get daily schedules and behaviors.
Yeah, we've got three moons in game. So right now we're working on Levski and we're working on ArcCorp. So going through and basically getting our ArcCorp planet working the way it needs to be working, making sure that everything's integrated. But the main thing that is kind of holding us back from releasing that stuff is the object container system. But with that, there's a lot of other systems that come online that we need to put in and do. Then there's Lorville that's being worked on and its associated moons. But there's the flora that is being worked on, as far as getting greenery into the game or other types of trees or plants and actually making it feel lush. So I think the push towards that is a major thing, and it's a very time consuming thing to build up all those assets. And then there's another question in there, I'm going to jump in on this one, and it's about fauna. So being able to make sure that we actually have fauna in the game, and with that there's alpha or there's prey. And then basically each fauna would have its own 24 hour schedule. There's usables that it can go around and do. So whether that be drinking water or whatever it drinks or eats, and then what can it go do? Does it go scratch up against a tree or something like that to mark its territory? Those types of things.
TL;DRDistant LODs can affect what players see, but the team strives to make planets look as good from afar as up close and keeps refining existing LODs and textures.
Well, it does. But I think one of the things that we've always strived for is making it look as good from far away as it does up close and personal. And so that was a comment that Chris called out when we showed off the Lorville stuff. We showed it off from the player perspective, but what does it look like from a ship flying above? And how does that hold up? And those are all things that we're working on and working towards.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
Absolutely. And even on top of the new stuff that we're working on, which is chunky in assets and flora and populating with more and even new planets, we're also constantly working on updating and maturing what we actually have. We recently did a pass on the textures to get seams to blend even smoother. We're looking at the LODs and how things fall off and how the LODs are blending together. Even though there's some things that may not be as substantial as, 'hey, here's a whole new moon with a whole new look,' we constantly have a group of guys that are pushing the existing tech we have to get it as mature as we want it to be.
TL;DRGrimHEX needed another lighting pass because the new fog disrupted the old lighting, and improved lighting and atmospherics can change an environment's feel dramatically.
No, it is. It's also introducing the new fog into it, and that basically wreaked havoc, I think, with the old lighting. So now it's doing a pass on it now that we have all the new fog in place.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
But once we give it more attention to detail and we've defined even more the art style we want and the tools mature, we start pumping in, as Todd was saying, more atmospherics, and the guys are getting even more used to the tools and so on. And I'm absolutely with you. You'll see something that I looked at a month, two, three months ago, and I'll see it now, like on Chris Campbell's desk, our lead lighting artist, and you'll just go, wow. You'll just look at it and go, okay. It's a clear indication that lighting and the atmospherics absolutely breed a feel for the environment and can push it drastically one way or another.
TL;DRFog is fine if it sets a mood or supports gameplay but a problem if it stops players finding their way; the current density isn't final and may be adjusted.
Well, I think there's times that we can say that. And then there's other times, at least for me, as a game player, I want very clear signage. I want to understand where I'm going. I want to not look at a mini map all the time to work out the 3D layout of an area to understand where I need to go. So if it's selling a mood or selling an emotion, then I think it's good there. But if it's too much fog, or if it's actually obscuring the way that the players can find things, then that to me is an issue.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
I read a few of those comments as well. Some people are saying it was too much. Some people said, no, it's perfect. But as Todd said, each planet, each area is going to have a certain amount of density within the atmosphere for certain reasons. And what you see today doesn't necessarily mean that's it. We may come back and look and go, you know what, we need to dial that down 10% for one reason or another. So you'll see a whole mix of atmospheres, and some will be pretty dense that will be hard to see through, but maybe that's for a reason.
If it makes sense, and from a game mode perspective, it would actually have to make sense. It's not something that we've tried yet, just because there's other things that we've been fixing. I understand it, and I understand why people would want it. I'd be interested in even just trying it in the PU, see what it feels like there first. But I'm not nixing it. I'm just saying that we're not working on it right now.
When people have their setup with hands-on throttle and stick, there's some features they maybe don't always want to pull their hands off for and have to switch to another control scheme. So what are our thoughts about adding additional key mappings to quick-key some of these features?
I guess for me, it would be more about freeing the player up to do that, to be able to set it to whatever they want. From a keybinding perspective, it's something that we haven't really explored just yet, just because, again, we first got it in, and then we were just talking about HOTASes today and how they feel and people complaining about having to switch over to keyboard and mouse. But I'll speak to Andy about it and I'll see from a code perspective how hard it is to map that, and we go from there.
Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
I actually had a really long conversation with somebody at a Bar Citizen or something about that, that they basically have filled up every single input that they have and they were all custom, and every time they reboot, it's all blown out and they have to redo it all.
It's because the game right now grabs the ID from Windows and not directly from the controller, I think. So maybe that's something we can ask Andy about too.
TL;DRFighter classes differ by weight, loadout, maneuverability and range; the team sets the light and heavy extremes first to define the medium ones, and keeps adjusting and balancing flight.
If we're talking about different armors for people, then basically speed would be the main thing, the amount of bullets that you can actually take, and the loadout that you can actually carry. From a ship's perspective, it's basically the same thing. So it's weight, it's the loadout, so whether that be shields, weapons, items. Then its movement, so how fast and nimble it is able to move around. And then from there, how far it can go, the fuel that it can carry, so on and so forth. So in speaking with John Crewe and Andy about this, it's more about making sure that we're setting the two ends of the spectrum. What we set is the heavy fighter and we set the light fighters, and make sure that those are in the categories that we feel they need to be. And then from there, that will help us establish the medium fighters. John and Andy have done some tweaks to, I think it was the Gladius and the Hornet. I'm trying to remember if those are in 3.0.1. If not, they will definitely be in 3.1, but we're going through and we're definitely adjusting how the ships fly, and we will continue to balance as much as we possibly can.
Well, I think that there will be something there. Even we showed it at CitizenCon, they flew over some sort of lake or sea. But as far as it actually being H2O, it will be some form of liquid. I don't know if it's brown or like Bud Light kind of thing.
TL;DRWildlife in water hasn't been built, but Chris wants swimming, underwater vehicles are only loosely discussed, and fauna would likely be added later to bring such areas to life.
We haven't built it yet, but I know Chris wants to be able to swim, and maybe in the future we talk about doing an underwater vehicle if there's a lot of water prevalent in all of our areas. But I'm sure that in order to add life to that location, that's going to be one of the things that we look into, adding flora and fauna.
Well, we haven't. Well, we've kind of discussed it, but it really depends on how much water we have in the universe. And I think on Reddit I saw, was it a Javelin or a Bengal, sitting on the water? Somebody did concept art.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
If you think about the level of detail, though, that we're putting into everything, bodies of water, you would assume further down the line they would absolutely need to have something in order to match the quality of immersion that we've put into everything else.
I mean, we've talked about IR and EM signatures and being able to see those, as far as long-term exploration. And I know that Tony wants to be able to look at different parts of the EM spectrum, which is kind of strange because we do EM and then we have IR, which is already on the EM spectrum. But being able to go and look at it from X-ray or EMA or something like that. So we've talked about it from an exploration standpoint, but not necessarily like a night vision, 'okay, I want to look at it this way.' But I think once we do one, getting the screen filtered to do other ones is pretty quick.
The plan is for it to work in ships as well as just space stations in general. And we've done early prototyping of the power system through ships as well as through... And so if you're going through, turning off lights, turning off gravity, turning off life support, hacking open a door, as far as if there's a mini game or anything like that associated with it, then those are things that we've had initial discussions about, but until we actually really start digging into it and until the sprint teams really focus on it, we won't dive any deeper than we already have.
Not for quitting the game, but we've joked about it where basically your vision gets redder and redder if you haven't dropped a deuce in quite a while. We've talked about that, or that people can smell you and therefore they have adverse reactions towards you. And if you haven't showered, these are all things that we've talked about. But as far as logging out and your way of quitting the game, no. Sorry to kill your dreams, Tyler.
TL;DRThe trees were probably general plant explorations; Hurston's lush areas are meant as watered family compounds, and the assets could be reused elsewhere.
I believe those are general plant explorations. The idea, I think, in particular for the Hurston family, is that they have these compounds that are very lush and have these areas that don't look like the rest of the world. But it's more about: this is the family compound, and since they run the planet, they can water the area. Think of like Las Vegas and golf resorts. Basically they water the grass there, and if they didn't, it would just be dead and be just sand and die. And I think that's kind of the concept for these compounds with Hurston.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
So you could argue that some of them stay within that family, but I think they could definitely be used as assets elsewhere if needed as well.
Well, in the future, if you ever get Ian on, you need to have him show you the power triangle where he's worked out the different biomes, and where it goes from dirt to snow to overrun by jungle, as well as other things. So it's pretty interesting.
We actually addressed the MFD question on this week's Calling All Devs, so the answer to that is literally available on YouTube right now, so go check that out. As far as a companion app, that was a Star Citizen stretch goal. So that's something that should happen at some point, but we're not anywhere near ready to start developing. We're still making the game. Let's make the game before we do the companion app. But that was one of our original stretch goals, so that will be somewhere in the future. And of course, the question about controlling MFDs from external tablets and stuff, that answer's on this Monday's Calling All Devs, which you can find on our YouTube channel.
It's not something that we've talked about, but what we do want to develop is environmental hazards, whether those be like geysers or lava or those types of things. And so I don't see why we couldn't do it on a plant, whether or not it picks you up and eats you or it's like a cactus and pricks you.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
I saw some early concepts when the team here was working on some of the flora months and months ago. And when you talk about some of the flora for some of these more alien planets and moons, some of them looked mean. Just looking at these things that are spiky and so on. Even if they can't actively go after you and hurt you, they definitely don't seem lush and nice to touch.
Magnatron, it's something that we've looked at. It's something that Luke Presley and I have complained about, whether that be on the human flashlights or even on ship lights. It's something that graphics is aware of, and our art directors are very aware of as well. So I'm not going to say anything for 3.1, but on the later aspects, the more stuff that we start putting on the dark side, and the more that I give Ian hell about that, then ideally we see a change.
TL;DRStar Marine plans center on moving the front end to the Personal Manager app, getting REC into the game for purchases, and a possible new mode that needs much testing.
Well, first things first is getting the front end working the way it should. Basically, in 3.0, you saw the release of the Personal Manager app, and so the main goal is getting that front end screen switched over to the Personal Manager app. So then when we fix one thing in the Personal Manager app, it fixes both areas. Getting REC, so getting rid of basically Electronic Access on the website and getting REC into the game, so that when you earn this REC, you can go in there and you can purchase the weapons or the armor sets or whatever else, gadgets, grenades, those types of things, in the store that way. Then we've talked about a different game mode, and some art has been done on that. But there's a lot of testing and level design work that needs to be done to get that thing up to snuff. And then from there, there's basically fixing the game modes. We're working on FPS. We're working on EVA. And so that will be a constant adjustment and constant weight that we're always trying to fix.
TL;DRArena Commander plans include fixing the buggy Vehicle Manager app, balancing swarms, fixing racing bugs, and Todd's personal view that more modes don't help when few players are online.
Sorry, Vehicle Manager app. That is in 3.0. It's buggy, we know. We're working on it right now. Then the front end screen already uses the VMA, as far as the hierarchy and the way that you attach things to the ship. So getting that up to snuff and working the way that we want it to work. There's constant balancing things that Luke does throughout with the different swarms, whether those be Pirate Swarm or Vanduul Swarm. Then we're working on racing and basically fixing a lot of the bugs that we're having in there. The thing with having too many modes, now this is my personal belief, but having too many modes, like having too many Star Marine modes, having too many AC modes, and then having the PU: when we have a whole bunch of concurrent players and stuff like that, then it makes finding games a lot easier. But if we're running lower on concurrent players, then basically adding more and more modes doesn't necessarily gain us what we're after, which is getting you into a quick match. We've even talked about just 'find me a match,' and then it finds the one that's about to be filled and adds you to it.
All right, let me do this. We've got another Ship Shape coming up in ATV in February. Let me find out the answer. Let me talk to people, and if there's anything to report, we'll report it there, guys. So tune into ATV. It's somewhere in the middle of February, our next Ship Shape. So I'll hunt that answer down.
Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
I honestly don't have one that I'm heavier on. When we talk about mining and we start digging into that, I'm like, all right, mining, absolutely, I'm there. And then you talk about piracy and stealing ships and what you can do with that and people on your tail, and I'm like, all right, yeah, I'm doing that. So it's kind of whatever I fancy at the time, I think.
So actually, real quick, to go back to the hacking question, because this has to do with piracy. So one of the things that we've talked about is breaching. So there's basically the invasive breaching, so blowing up a door or blowing off a turret and then being able to go in that way. Then there's non-invasive breaching, which in this case would be hacking.
I guess for me, if we did, I would want to make sure that it oozes Star Citizen and it's not like PUBG reskinned or like Fortnite kind of thing. So I'd prefer it to be oozing Star Citizen.
We've talked about cutaways and those types of things. If you're doing a special mission, I think the most cinematic that we'll get would be interacting with the mission givers or those types of things. But if you're doing a mission and it's... Now, here's the thing. What we've talked about is having different levels of what we consider missions or jobs. And so there'd be the job board versions, or basically the service beacon versions, which are the player-created contracts. And then there's the mission giver ones, which in our mind would be a lot more bespoke and kind of unique, and would be a longer play time to actually finish. And so I think if any cinematics show up, it would be more...
TL;DRThe service beacon lets players create contracts like distress calls, refueling, taxi or bodyguard jobs; distress comes first, with fund transfers between players a main goal afterward.
So the service beacon is a way to create a contract. And that contract could be 'help me, I'm being attacked,' so like a distress call, a 'mayday, mayday' kind of thing. Then there's something like refueling, or 'I want to be taken from point A to point B,' so like a taxi or Uber. Then there's like a mercenary hire, or like a bodyguard: 'hire me and protect me while I'm traveling from point A to point B,' or if I'm mining or doing something. It's a way for players to create contracts as well as transfer funds. That for me is one of the main goals. Right now, let's say you, Brian, and I went out on a mission and we did something, and I was the owner of the ship, and then I go in and I basically turn in the cargo that we got. There's no way for me to pay off the two of you guys. So from a usability standpoint, from a player standpoint, this is one of my main goals. And I think Tony and I would need to talk a little bit more about how we're going to actually do it, just because right now we're focusing on distress as the first one, but one of my main goals after we finish off the distress would be a way to actually transfer funds between players.
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
If you're trying to track down your ship somebody stole, you could use the service beacon as well then, right?
Mr. Lighty? Lighty is fun to work with. Well, his non-HR name is Sweet Princess, because what he does is he's a feeder. So whenever I go around, if I go up to the UK, he's got chocolates or other biscuits or things on his desk that taste wonderful but are horrible for your waistline. So it's always, 'hey Todd, do you want some of these?' But the thing is that we've got so many different producers, and I like each one of them for their own unique reasons, Lightfoot.
TL;DRNon-lethal options like stun grenades and tasers have been discussed and depend on the Weapons 2.0 refactor and needed animations and feedback, but work on them hasn't started.
I mean, we've talked about stun grenades. We've talked about basically taser aspects, to knock players out. So it's something that we've talked about. And right now we're working on Weapons 2.0. So basically refactoring all of the weapon system and switching over to Item 2.0, and getting everything to work the way that we feel we need it to work and get it so it's scalable. So once that's done, then we have a list of projectiles that we want to be able to create, so that we just don't have laser and distortion and ballistic. If we can get the dread hotshots or armor piercing or those types of things, those are the ways that we're pushing towards. And then non-lethal would be another venture into that. And then it's also making sure that the players actually have a stun or some sort of reaction to that. And then the other thing that we'd have to tackle is basically, as a player, if you were ever knocked out, what do you do? Because as a player, me watching somebody drag my body to their ship, that's not going to be very fun. And so is it basically, do I sit there and kind of wait? And are there ways that I can alert my friends to come and help me and save me? Or is it that at that point I give up that life and then I respawn, and then they take their bounty and get paid out?
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Brian ChambersDevelopment Director, Foundry 42 Frankfurt
On that topic too, an interesting thing to just point out and to highlight. Let's say we have assets done and the base design of how a non-lethal weapon X should function and look and so on. Let's say you have the asset built, the effects, the audio and all that. Well, you also need the animations associated with that. You also need then the feedback, the player feedback, and the design or the UI elements, so on and so on. There's a tremendous amount of stuff that we work on, but it doesn't get out there until it has all the parts and pieces, right? It's not enough just for us to put out one little thing and you can kind of see it and go, 'oh, look, this kind of would stun people if the animations were there.' So a lot of our work, we have to wait till those other parts and pieces come together globally, to where we can then really stand back and look at it all and play it and go, okay, cool, this is working. And that's when things get closer to release for us.