Developers answer community questions on Update 2.5 (Evocati first, then PTU), Grim Hex and the planned outlaw-punishment system, the Argo as a snub tender, and incremental patching. They also cover lean/cover mechanics, land vehicles, the Carrack, and concept artist Gurmukh's departure.
There is work being done on a Star Citizen app. Beyond that, I can't tell you much. It's one of the things that Turbulent has on their plate. It is not subscriber-only. Something at that level, something as fundamental as an authenticator and stuff, that's something that needs to be available to everybody. But work on that is proceeding. I've seen mock-ups. It's more than just in the theoretical stage. They're actually in the act of building it at this point. No ETA yet, but it's on the horizon.
Generally, we don't answer 'when' questions, but the standardized process for this is: when we move from the Evocati phase to the PTU phase, the patch notes should have everything you're looking for.
It's one of those things where it's hard to estimate how long it takes to build things you've never built before. Build things that have never been built before, in a way that's never been used. We can't sit here and tell you when, but we're hopeful in the coming weeks, in the next few weeks.
I encourage you to check out the Tony Z interview from Around the Verse Austin last week. He kind of goes into detail about how Nyx is going to roll out with our first iteration of procedural planets.
No, on either. The Argo falls squarely into the snub category. If you go back to watching the CitizenCon presentation from last year, you saw an Argo at the beginning of the Idris Squadron 42 section. It's very small. So it's more like a ship tender than anything else. Kind of like a chicken tender to a chicken, ship tender is to a ship. Maybe.
TL;DRWhether Grim Hex is free-fire depends on feedback, but eventually armistice zones are meant to go, replaced by a consequence-and-enforcement system that punishes bad behavior without preventing it, not in 2.5 but on the horizon.
And they talked about it in the Grim Hex behind the scenes on ATV this week. Basically, that is iterative as well. There will be what happens in the first version, and then there are others that... Eventually, we don't want armistice zones, period. Armistice zones are this weird god ray that comes down and prevents you from pulling out your gun. We don't want that at all. Eventually there is another system in line that is being designed and built out right now that will punish you for doing bad things in certain areas, but not prevent you from doing it. So it's entirely up to you. Your actions will be your own in those regards. If you want to pull your gun out in the middle of Port Olisar and go on a shooting spree, you will have the ability to do that. There will be a set of consequences, and there will be a force in place that attempts to stop you. So that will apply to both Olisar and Grim Hex. Not in 2.5, but it's on the horizon.
It is being worked on. That's pretty much as far as we can go. It's very cool. We got to see a sample of it in one of our recent internal show and tells, and it was the highlight of the show and tell.
Yeah, that's one of those things Chris is really excited about. So when you hear about it and you see it, it'll probably be from Chris. It's one of those things where it's not our place to reveal that.
Tonight is Bar Citizen at Woody's, across the street from the Hill Country Galleria, which is the studio in Austin. And there will be a handful of us attending to hang out and chat. So if you're in the greater Austin or close-drive Texas area, you should come on out.
At present, there are no plans. That was a special one-off thing for a charity we believed in. So part of the mystique and allure of it was to be there at that time, at that place, for that cause. So not to say that we won't do it, it's just that right now there are no plans to.
Yes. It's a major project. What was Org 2.0 is now a full-blown revamp of our entire communications platform. So that includes the forums and chat. So yes, those will be completely redone and more in line with the overall design of the website.
I think it was something that came from a lot of feedback and something that the designers agreed with, which is we wanted to have, not necessarily faction-based, but somewhere for outlaws to spawn. And eventually the Persistent Universe is going to be populated with loads and loads of interesting places. And so this is just another one.
Gold Horizon was a station built for the original iteration of Star Marine. To my knowledge, it was never intended to go in either the PU or Squadron 42. As Star Marine is a video game within our universe, it was a video game level within Star Marine. I don't know if, when Star Marine does make its triumphant return, Gold Horizon will actually be included or not. And those words specifically: I don't know. So that's not me saying it will or it won't. I just don't know the answer. But I do know it's not a Squadron 42 asset and it's not a Persistent Universe asset. It was strictly for the video game within the video game.
I don't know. It's one of those things. Right now, we're so focused on Gamescom and CitizenCon. And considering that CitizenCon is like the ultimate Bar Citizen, and it's coming in just... less than three months now. So that might be the next event in SoCal.
TL;DRShoulder-fired weapons like a shoulder-mounted railgun have been considered, but he can't say whether one will make it into the game, since concepts often never ship or change.
Thought? Yeah, I've talked to people about something like that. I know in a sneak peek for ATV many, many months ago, we showed a shoulder-mounted railgun. So that kind of stuff is considered. I couldn't tell you whether it would actually make it into the game or not. As part of development, you end up building a lot of things and concepting a lot of things that never see the light of day, because so much of game development is experimentation and exploration of ideas. So just because there's concept art of something doesn't mean that it will either, A, match that concept art when it makes it into the game, or even ever make it into the game. It means that it is an exploration of a particular idea. One of the best recent examples of this is the Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens book. One of the best art books I've seen. Full, front page to back, with concept art of things that have no place in the finished movie. So it's really great at seeing all the different ways they thought about going and stuff. And you see that if you're a subscriber and you get the vault updates and stuff; you'll often see other concept art for other ways that we go on ships and stuff like that. Pre-production. But it's not just related to ships, it's related to characters, it's related to places.
How hyped am I for the Argo sale? I think the Argo is cool. I'm not a particularly good dogfighter. Although that playtest, I kicked some butt. I was weird. I was like the kid in The Wizard. I was having this weird, beautiful mind moment where I was killing everything, and Eric Davis and everybody else that were in the playtest were yelling at me for stealing all the kills. A broken clock is right twice a day. It's never happened before. It'll probably never happen again. I just had one really good day where I was zoned. But I tend to gravitate more towards the non-combat roles. So one of the things that excites me most about the Argo isn't the things that it's intended to do, cargo, personal transport, stuff like that. It's the emergent behavior. I want to see the things that people do with it that were never intended, because it's small. It has a number of additional functionalities that you'll learn about at the concept sale and stuff. I'm really curious to see how people utilize the Argo in combat situations, how people utilize the Argo in cargo situations. Yeah, it's designed for cargo, but I think there's a lot of room to be creative with it.
In simpler terms, I think he's asking if there will be group or raid content in the traditional MMO mold. I have only heard yes on that stuff, but that is still so far down the line, and we're still building out game systems: cargo, mining, salvaging, all that stuff. So that kind of stuff comes much further down the pipeline. So I don't know what can change, what will change between now and then. But from the information that I have at present, yes.
Yes, they have, because it is a key aspect of Squadron 42, which is heavily in testing. And AI will span out to more than just combat. And yeah, it's going really well.
Eventually. The Carrack's not one of those super limited ships like the Scythe or whatnot. So it'll eventually go back on sale. I couldn't tell you when. There's no current plan for it. But if you look at previous history, our anniversary sale that we do in November is probably the safe bet. We tend to put most of our ships back on sale then.
Yes, it'll be a part of our cover system. I'm not in QA anymore, so it's very possible this could change, as everything does in game development. But what they were working on when I was in testing: you know in-game now, when you walk up really close to a wall, your character will hold his gun up. That was essentially putting you in the cover state. And then you could basically hold down the right mouse button and you would peek around whatever the nearest corner was. Or if you were crouched next to a railing, when you raised your gun and held down the right mouse button, you would peek over it. And so that was the lean mechanic that they had in at that time. And again, subject to change and evolve over time.
I don't know the answer to that. That's one of those things that you find out when everything is fully built. In this case, trying to guess how big the door is and what I've seen of the Argo, I would say it's a distinct possibility, but I couldn't tell you definitively, because I haven't tried it.
Yes, it will go to the Evocati first, and it's actually doing really well. Generally, when a build goes to the Evocati, it is pretty messy, because it's the really initial stage of that stream. And so we try to get it into a more stable state before opening up to the PTU. But 2.5 is actually looking really good stability-wise. And so, soon.
Well, as far as the missile thing specifically, that's not just in Arena Commander. That affects combat in Crusader and stuff. So that would be fixed when it's fixed, independent of any work on Arena Commander. But my understanding is yes, there is some Arena Commander focus coming. I think it's slated for 2.6, but that's contingent on a lot of other things. Priorities shift a lot in game development. But yes, I have heard rumblings that there's some Arena Commander work coming in the next couple of patches.
No, the Idris is the only ship that comes standard with an Argo. Not to say that that couldn't change, but as of right now, it's the Idris. I could see possibly the Polaris when the time comes, and maybe adding it to the Javelin, but that's theory and idea. It's nothing confirmed or official.
I encourage you to check out Austin's Around the Verse last week, because Mike Pickett goes into detail on some of the work he's been doing for incremental patching, also known as delta patching. And it is heavily in development, and we want it just as bad. We struggle with the same issue when we are working internally. Developers need builds, sometimes multiple per day. Some of these raw builds can be 60, 70 gigs, even larger. And the ability to incrementally patch would be amazing for us as well. And so it is a high priority, and we're looking forward to getting it out there. He kind of touches on the subject, but what we'll do is, when Mike Pickett is finished with his project, and all else who are involved, we'll test it internally, we'll use it internally, and then we'll roll it out to you guys.
TL;DRAlready-shared land vehicles include the Greycat, the Dragonfly in ground mode, and rovers carried by ships like the Aquila, probably the Carrack and the Phoenix; he lists only those that come to mind.
Well, the land vehicles that have been sold to people already: there's the Greycat; the Dragonfly technically counts as a land vehicle, if you count it floating over the land when it goes into its ground mode. There's the rover in the Aquila, which is the Ursa. There's the rover in the Carrack, which is the... somebody will say it in chat. It starts with a P. Pisces? No, Pisces is the scout ship. Can't remember which one, but I think there's a rover in the Carrack. I think those are the only rovers that are coming to mind at the moment. I think that the Phoenix comes with a rover. They're supposed to come with the same rover the Aquila does, but it might be the same rover. So yeah, those are the ones that come to mind right now that have already been shared.
That will come later. The Herald will be flight ready before info-running gameplay systems are in place. Only because gameplay systems are being prioritized not just by how fast the work is developing, but also by how many people it would affect and stuff. A gameplay system that would only pertain to one or two ships would almost certainly be a lower priority than something that would affect way more people, like cargo or salvage or mining and stuff like that. So the ship will almost certainly become flight ready before info-running game systems come online.
Landing 2.0 is accurately called Landing Pad 2.0, which is something completely different. As far as the exact tech needed for that, I'm not privy to the exact details, but I know it's being worked on.
Yes, I'm hoping so. Vault updates and Jump Point reruns are two of the things that Ben handles. They're two of Ben's favorite things to do. I mean, they're not huge tasks, but it's just a Ben thing. He likes doing that. He likes curating stuff to provide to you guys. So I didn't know the plan. I wasn't even aware of the plan. So I was trying to figure out what it was that he had scheduled to show and put that out this week. So it will come. It just may not be super fast. I'll be real honest and tell you that, priority-wise, I considered Ben resting up to be more important. We'll get it. It'll happen. It just may not happen right away.
TL;DRHe has been working on a new system for making more distinct space stations, and he doesn't know whether that work will actually make it into the game.
You haven't actually been on a ship recently. In the most general sense, you can't give them details on that. You can tell them you've been working on a space station.
Well, I've just been doing a space station. Basically, a lot of the stations we have right now are kind of starting to feel the same, because we're using the same kit to develop these things. And so what I've been working on for a while was just trying to develop a new system for unique, different-looking types of stations. So I don't even know if the work I've done will actually make it into the game, but it's more to figure out the idea.
So that goes back to two points we made earlier in this show. One, are we working on space stations that you guys haven't seen? Yes. Two, does everything that's concepted make it into the game?
I don't know if these ones will or not, but I think the idea from the beginning was more to just develop a system so that eventually we can get a wide range of different-looking, or different-feeling, types of stations and stuff.
TL;DRGurmukh Bhasin says he may be remembered most for concepting the Vanguard, and calls the Carrack, which he also concepted, a very cool exploration ship.
I worked on a bunch of ships, a bunch of variants. I did the concept for the Carrack and the concept for the Vanguard. I think right now I'll be remembered the most maybe for the Vanguard, but I think the Carrack is a super cool ship.
There hasn't been a week since the Carrack was first introduced where we haven't had a half dozen questions: When's the Carrack coming? When's the Carrack coming? It's definitely a ship that captured the imagination of a good portion of our community.
Yeah, the Carrack is going to be a really, really cool ship. Once the game is out, once you can find jump points and explore different parts of the universe and all this stuff, the Carrack, that's what that ship is built for, is exploration. Which I think is one of the most exciting parts of the game. So once that thing is out, fully flyable and everything like that, I think it's going to be pretty awesome.
The ships that I've concepted, but, to be more general and broad about it, my favorite accomplishment is just being a part of this project. I think this project is super adventurous and really risky and exciting. It's not your normal game project. It's not your bread and butter, where you just do the same thing over and over. This is something where we're pushing the boundaries. And being a part of a project like that is really rewarding, slightly stressful, exciting. It's all of the above. But I think my biggest and most exciting accomplishment was just being a part of this team for so long and helping to make what is going to be one of the best games, I think. It's a really tough project to be a part of, just because there's so much to figure out, and every day has been an accomplishment.
Absolutely, and nobody's done it before. I don't know if it's fair to say that people are starting to copy us or not, but you kind of see that. Space has become super popular as far as games, and a lot of the stuff that we're doing, people are catching on and starting to use in their games. I feel like we're the leaders of this movement in some ways.
As for how it will affect Carrack development: Gurmukh is the concept artist, and now it will soon go into the being-built-out phase. So those are different team members who will be building it.
So I always wanted to do a single-seat fighter. So not necessarily a specific ship, but a single-seat fighter. And I always wanted to do one for Anvil, because I think that's one of the cooler companies. Aegis is one of the cooler companies as well, but has so many ships. And I always thought it would be fun to do one for Anvil. I'm actually going to be doing one on my own just for fun, because I never got to do it here. So I think that's probably going to be one of my first personal projects when I'm out: a small single-seat fighter, something that I always wanted to do.