The developers answer fan questions on an intern program, ship variants like the Aurora LX, missile evasion, a hangar dogfighting simulator, jump point exits, first-person movement and camera recording. They also cover sleep and food, novelizations, in-game fiction, and starting Stanton planetside work with Behaviour Montreal.
So yeah, actually we're quite keen on starting sort of an intern program, so both in Austin and Los Angeles. So reach out to us, and our idea would be to sort of have young, talented people come in, intern, and then hopefully maybe that turns into a starting position and you become part of the small but very talented team we have here. The Cloud Imperium, Cloudites, or whatever, I guess. That didn't really work.
So that is a very good question. We haven't fully decided quite how our camera recording setup is going to work. So depending on how it's implemented, potentially you'll be able to cut between angles. I think generally the way you should think about it is you could capture your play just as a stream and then you could replay that for other people. But we may have an ability where we basically record what's happening with the different objects, ships, et cetera. And in that case, we probably would allow you to switch cameras, although that hasn't been implemented, so I can't necessarily promise it for the initial live release.
TL;DRYes, ships will come in pre-configured variants like real aircraft models, and players can buy base or preset versions and customize them, even saving different loadouts as profiles for different roles.
Yes, absolutely. So we're definitely going to make all the ship, think of it like the modern world where you have different models, even like aircraft. There's different versions of an F-18. There's a Super Hornet and the basic and they have the sort of trainer roles and all the rest. So we will definitely have that on all our ships. And think of those as sort of like pre-configured packages for you, but there's nothing to stop you from buying the base model or even one of the sort of pre-configured models and then switching and changing it, customizing it to the way you want with additional items, avionic packages, shields, weapons, all the rest of that stuff. So think of that as just sort of for ease of convenience of playing. So some people don't want to deal with configuring and setting it up, just the same way you would just buy a Dell computer to play, or you may want to order all the parts from Newegg and build your own computer. So we sort of allow you those two options.
No, definitely. I mean, I actually think that there will be cases where players will have setups. They'll have their dogfighting setup and they'll have their trading setup and they'll have their courier setup, or they'll have their exploration setup for the same hull. And we're going to let you sort of pre-configure them. And then when you go back to your hangar, you can say, OK, I want to put my dogfighting setup as sort of like a profile that you've saved for your ship or something like that. So essentially, you should be able to sort of profile those out and then change the ship out depending on kind of what your role is. So that's kind of part of the concept. I think it's just going to add a lot of detail and nuance, and so it's going to be about essentially how you equip your ship for your specific mission.
Yeah, no, I mean, definitely. I mean, well, it's just pretty hard. I mean, if there's an asteroid or another ship and you manage to fly in the way and the missile can't turn fast enough, then it's going to hit the asteroid or it's going to hit the ship. So if you're a really good pilot, you should be able to do some of that stuff you see in the movies. But also countermeasures and everything else work really well. But it's all physically simulated, so all that should actually sort of fall out of the system.
So our kind of concept is sort of in the spirit of the original Wing Commander, where there was an arcade game sitting in the pilot's mess that you could play to sort of practice just flying around. So we're definitely going to have a simulator section in your hangar so you can go and sort of practice dogfighting. I don't know about the first person boarding combat stuff. We haven't really discussed that. So that may or may not happen. I don't know about that. But definitely in the plan you will be able to sort of do a simulation of dogfighting scenarios to practice your dogfighting skills before you end up having to put your real ship on the line.
Yes, no, definitely. I mean, the whole idea of the 24-hour live event is really just having fun with all you guys out there. So absolutely, we want to have as much fan-made content as part of it. I mean, first of all, there's only so much we can fill the 24 hours with. But I just think that's the whole spirit of what we're doing, making this game, making it with you guys. So we're actually always constantly amazed by how cool and clever all the stuff that you guys send in to us is. And so we want to highlight that, and looking at things like the spaceships you guys are all building and designing. I mean, that stuff's awesome. So yeah, that's all part of the spirit. It's part of the spirit of the game. So 100%, yep.
TL;DRWalking is generally first person for immersion, with occasional cinematic third-person cuts; whether players can switch to third person on foot is undecided, though a chase camera in space and third person in the hangar are likely.
It's a good question. So generally it's first person. I'm kind of big on the immersion on that side. I'm sort of debating. There will be moments when you do things either on your ship or walking around that it will cut out to third person for cinematic sort of highlights. A moment you're walking in, like you walk up to a building, going through a door first person, and maybe it cuts to a third-person view, seeing your character walk in, the camera spins around and zooms right into your sort of viewpoint again. So we're going to kind of do those sort of things. I don't know whether we'll let you just always switch out to a third-person view when you're walking around. When you're flying around in space, you definitely can always switch to a chase camera view and see the beauty of the ship and all the rest of the stuff. Those elements where I was talking about, like if you deploy missiles, we'll have a thing where we'll cinematically cut outside so you can see your missiles deploy. And it'll do that the first time you deploy missiles. And of course, if you want to just switch off that sort of cinematic feature, you can. But we definitely want to highlight how beautiful all the characters, spaceships, the environments and locations will be. But I haven't 100% decided on the ground whether we will let you just run around, walk around in a third person view as well as a first person view. So you'll see some of it, maybe not all of it, maybe you will. I'll reserve the decision on that down the road.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we'll probably definitely let you in the hangar see a third person, because the character's kind of cool. So we'll probably end up doing something like that, but I just 100% haven't decided. It's sort of more an immersion thing on story yet. But like I said, I do like to show off how beautiful the art that everyone here is making is.
TL;DRJump point exits will have no single fixed position, to discourage camping, but exact balance between control and safety is still to be tested; they intend to favor fun over making it too safe.
Well, I think it sort of depends on the jump point. It also depends on where you're going to be in terms of space. In terms of the sort of camping on the jump points, we're going to try our best to sort of avoid the ability for people to necessarily camp out and just destroy people. So there isn't one standard exit position where you come out of a jump point, and you'll sort of get spit out in a general area near the space anomaly. So you probably won't have the same ability of being able to camp on a spot as you would have done, say, in another game that has one specific exit point. And we're pretty conscious of that. I mean, yeah, we want this to be fun. But that will all be part of when we get in and when you guys start playing in the universe and we're testing it all together, we're going to balance that level of fun. So there needs to be some level of constriction where you could control people coming into a system, but not to the point where you jump in and you get blasted before you can even...
Yeah, before you can even power up your shields or whatever. So that's still to be balanced, but we're going to err on the side of making it fun without making it too safe.
TL;DRYes, new ships and revised editions of existing ships will keep being released after launch, like real product lines, with some only sold in certain places and scarcer ones needing a wait.
Yeah, absolutely. So part of the goal is to have, I think I've talked about before, the idea of this living universe that carries on. So even once we're live, we will be releasing new kinds of spaceships and even new models of existing spaceships. So just like today, in the real world, there's the 2013 edition of this car or that car. And every two or three years, they do a revamp. So you've been able to buy, I don't know, Ford Focuses for a while, but the Ford Focus you buy today isn't necessarily the same as the Ford Focus you bought five years ago. So that will definitely be the case on our ships. So the one we did the Aurora brochure for was a 2943 edition of the Aurora. And down the road that probably would get revamped by RSI, maybe change a little bit, maybe have some new equipment. And then on top of that, we'll also have newer ships that will be coming to the marketplace. So the idea is it's sort of meant to be like the real world, where new products are coming to market. And also in the game, you won't be able to buy them just everywhere. Some of them, you'll have to go to this part of the galaxy where you've just heard there's this new cool ship and it's got some cool new features, but it's only built by the shipyard over on this corner of the galaxy, so you would fly over there to buy it. And some of the bigger ships, different ships take different times to produce. So if you want to buy something that would be akin to a Corvette in game, well, they don't make a lot of those. So you may even have to pay your money and wait some game turns for it before it's ready. And then they'll send you a message saying, okay, your ship's now ready to be picked up. So it's going to be kind of cool. We're going to have supply and demand even on the ship manufacturing in the universe. And so, like I said, some of the ships will be more scarce than other ones. And I think it will make some pretty interesting game dynamics.
TL;DRDogfighting is mainly inspired by World War Two in space, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, with some space-only and probably new maneuvers added, keeping Wing Commander's ease of play with more depth.
Well, I mean, the core inspiration of the dogfighting is sort of obviously the sort of Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica style, really World War Two in space. So a fair amount of the maneuvers and stuff that you'll pull will be sort of inspired by that kind of stuff, although obviously that's for atmospheric flight versus we're in space. So we're going to have some extra stuff and nuances that will be only things that you could pull off in the sort of situation that you would be in in space. And we're probably going to add some new ones, which are part of the extra detail or wrinkles that we're sort of adding with what we're doing with Star Citizen. Compared to Wing Commander, I think it's got the same basic fun and ease of use to play, but if you really want to get into it, you can start to tweak it and add some stuff that you could never have done in the original Wing Commanders. And so we're going to go that way. So I would say generally it's kind of World War II-ish, but there'll be some other things that maybe you haven't seen or haven't experienced in the old Wing Commanders or even Freelancer.
TL;DRSleep and food won't be simulated as survival needs, but players can do things like lie down in a bunk or make coffee in a galley, and food items may appear later.
Well, we're going to have a nod to them just for the sake of it being fun, but we're not simulating it at a point where you have to sleep eight hours for every 24 hours that you're playing in game, because obviously that's not much fun, or you have to eat to keep your health up. But we'll let you, in your ship, you can sit, you can go back to your cabin and lay down. Like that shot we did in the brochure where your character's laying in the sort of space bed in the Aurora is definitely something you'll be able to do. And on other ships, so like there's a kitchen in the Constellation, you should be able to go up and make yourself a cup of coffee in the kitchen.
Yeah, environmental interaction. I mean, just stuff to just sort of make it feel more real, like things have a purpose like they do. And we may play with some of that stuff in the future. Maybe there's a gourmet delicacy on a planet and you can go buy it and your character will eat it and go, that tastes nice. But it won't be sort of gameplay necessary, as in you need to fuel yourself every so many game turns or anything like that. But environmental, make it fun, make the world seem more alive, definitely.
So we're definitely going to do novelizations of Squadron 42 and other aspects of the game. We actually already have novelists like Doug Niles, who's well known for doing D&D and has novels that were on the New York Times bestseller lists and stuff, working, doing fiction for Jump Point, and we've got a bunch of other authors on tap. So we'll definitely do that. So that's in there.
TL;DRWebsite fiction characters and mechanics are meant to appear in the game, and tutorials will be woven into the fiction, such as Navy boot camp, to make the game feel like a second life.
The characters that we've been doing on the website and in some of the fiction that you've been reading are deliberately designed to introduce characters and gameplay and concepts that are going to be in the game. So you will run across Cal Mason, you will run across Kid Crimson, and some of the things they do, not all of them, because obviously we sort of broaden out a little bit when we're writing, but a lot of the stuff that we sort of explore there will be elements of game and gameplay, which sort of ties into one of the later questions, which is, is there going to be in-fiction sort of learning of how to fight and fly your ship and everything? Absolutely. I mean, for me, that's a much more immersive way to do it. So I would rather it all happened in fiction. So in fact, normally on our website, when we sort of try and introduce game mechanics, we're kind of doing them in some of the in-fiction stuff and the one-shot shipping news and stuff like that that David Haddock's been writing. So we're definitely doing that on our website and it will also extend into the game. So my approach for the game is, even when you're running the tutorial, it does not feel like it's a tutorial. It just sort of feels like, okay, I've joined up and I'm going to boot camp now because I'm signing up for the Navy. I want to be a Navy aviator, and you've got to go through that course, and that teaches you how to fly, use your ship, and then you get into the actual combat and the stories later on. It should all be holistic to the universe and the story. So that is all a big goal and drive. The brochure is another example of really good sort of in-fiction stuff. So yeah, we could have that as a page on our website that says, okay, here's the Aurora and here's its stats, but we're trying to dress it up and be like, okay, imagine you go into this future showroom and the sales guy's like, hey, you need the Aurora 2943 model. The LX is perfect for you. So for me, that's kind of the world I want to play in, exist in. I want to blur the line between it feeling like a game and it just feeling like a second life, so to speak. And I think if that can happen, that'll be brilliant.
TL;DRPlayers will collect artifacts and unlock Galactapedia entries through exploration and display trophies in their hangar or ship, though it's not certain there will be readable books to collect.
I think we've got one more that I've missed out there, which is the libraries of alien history and fiction. And so there's definitely going to be a case of collecting artifacts and items around the galaxy. Not necessarily sure so much it will be books that you can go back later and read. But there will definitely be in-game sort of information that you unlock, and then in your in-game Galactapedia you'll be able to get those entries and stuff. So there'll be some of that, but there's definitely going to be artifacts and items that you need to find by gameplay and exploring around the universe, and then we're going to let you sort of collect them. So when you have your private space, whether it's in your hangar or you get some other, like your own apartment, or in your spaceship, you should be able to sort of have items that are, instead of like the console, here's my trophy or award that you get. For me in the game, what would be cool would be different things that you sort of collected because you've done missions that have gone to these corners of the galaxy, and then you can sort of look at what you've got sitting on your dashboard or what you've got sitting in your hangar and go, okay, yeah, I went here, I was part of this battle, I did that. So that's sort of where our thinking is on that. And I think, again, that's another sort of push towards being as immersive as possible.
A physical diary, yeah, absolutely. And an in-fiction diary, right? So in-fiction rewards. Even in the original Wing Commander, you went in and you got the medals and they were in your locker, and they were medals that you were awarded for missions you were flying. It wasn't some sort of arbitrary gaming award.
So we'll be starting to work on the planetside gameplay. So Stanton is the first system that we'll be building up. I can't wait to go back to Montreal and work on it. We're getting all the information here on how to make it. But yeah, as soon as early next week we'll be starting to build it up. Corentin will be doing more illustration for us so we can conceptualize the universe.