The developers preview the Vanguard Harbinger and Sentinel variants, the Warden, and the new Battlefield Upgrade Kits and CCUs. They also cover the Social Module test, the customer service backlog, and updates on the Freelancer, Cutlass, Idris, Javelin and Caterpillar. ArcCorp expansion and missile balance come up too.
Social Module's looking great. I bet a lot of you have actually played it. They very quickly diagnosed some connection issues, I think, which had more to do with the launcher than the actual Persistent Universe itself. But it's been going a lot better than we expected, really, from the test. We've been able to ramp up the number of players pretty quickly and that will continue.
Yes. I've been working with Ryan Archer this week. He's been creating the art for these. We should be selling them, I would say, within the next month or so. It'll be a very special card just for Concierge folks. We're doing a non-personalized card because, as you know, there can sometimes be issues with that. So we'll have more info in the coming weeks about how you can order that.
TL;DRThe CCU system is still pending testing with no date, and Vanguard variant CCUs and field upgrade kits are planned, along with slightly lower prices for the two variants.
There will be CCUs for the two Vanguard variants, for people who have an existing Vanguard and want to swap to a Harbinger or a Sentinel. There will also be what we're calling Battlefield Upgrade Kits. We called them Field Upgrade Kits for a while until we started thinking about acronyms. And basically what that is is an in-world thing where instead of buying a second Vanguard, you could just buy a Field [Upgrade Kit] ... The only thing you don't get with that is the changed styling. Differences don't impact the stats of the variants, but you can convert to the same stats as the Vanguard, Harbinger or Sentinel, or both. You can swap them around as well. Basically, it's a similar system as the Retaliator pods, but external instead of internal. And that should be fun. I'm also pleased to announce that the two Vanguard variants were overpriced a little bit in our first analysis, so they're slightly cheaper. I think it's about 10, 15 bucks cheaper each in the final SKU. And you guys will have access to those shortly. We take our review seriously for pricing ships based on components.
CS is still very backlogged. I see people on the forums talking about how it's been eight or nine days since their ticket's been replied to, and that's about, I think, where the queue is. I think we're a little over a week behind right now. We're trying. Continued patience. The UK CS team is working their butts off. And we've been helping out here as much as we can as well, so just know it's one of those times. It's going to be a few weeks.
TL;DRThe text FPS update did happen late on Friday; the video version was replaced on the show by internal studio content, and Illfonic is still working on Star Marine.
For clarification, I don't know if he's talking about this, but there is no more Illfonic update on ATV because we have the FPS update. It just made sense.
I've seen some conspiracy crafting about this. Illfonic is still working on Star Marine. We now have a fourth internal studio that can do videos. They're all set up to share what they're working on in Frankfurt, and we just swapped that out for them, because you still get the FPS update on Fridays, the text one. So it's not a case of Illfonic being kicked to the curb or anything like that.
Because we have half a dozen outsources: Moon Collider, other ones, Behaviour, Turbulent. And we generally don't require they do video updates. So we're going to focus on our internal studios for the news from Around the Verse on Around the Verse.
TL;DRBoth speakers favor the Harbinger, the torpedo-armed fighter-bomber variant, one citing the original multi-role twin-engine concept and field upgrade kits, the other its name and olive drab color.
I am a fan of the Harbinger. It's the torpedo-armed fighter-bomber version. Going way, way back to the original concept for the Vanguard, the idea was that it would be similar to the twin-engine fighters in World War II: the Messerschmitt 110, the P-38 Lightning, and so on. So it would be able to be converted to be our version of a night fighter or a fighter-bomber or a long-range recon photo plane. And so that's what we're doing here with the variants. This idea of field upgrade kits, battlefield upgrade kits, where it happens in the field rather than something you go home for. We have some cool fiction that we've worked up on the military side where these mixed squadrons of Vanguards work together to do long-range bombing runs from forward operating bases. It's cool stuff.
TL;DRNo timing is given for private messages in the Social Module, but they will come eventually, as the chat system is iterative and its schedule is carefully planned.
I do not know about soon, but we will by and by. Tony owns the chat system. We've had a couple conversations with the Austin team this week about the chat system. They've got many plans. It's very iterative. Lots coming.
Yeah, I will say one thing about Arena Commander. We put it out and we spent a lot of time, I would call it almost experimenting, basically taking Arena Commander and saying, okay, this doesn't work, let's do this. The physics system is not accurate here. So it was a lot of stuff you didn't predict. Each iteration required a lot of bug fixes that were not something that were in a long-range plan at all. For the Social Module, it is very, very different, because it has been basically timed out very, very carefully. So we know that this means there's this and this and this for the next year or so to get us to the Persistent Universe. And it's really cool seeing that happen. I have a lot of faith in the guys out there that this will work out pretty well.
No, in the same way that, I mean, what does superior mean in a bomber? Is a Dauntless or a Messerschmitt 410 or something superior to a B-17? They're just totally different things. You're going to have less ordnance on a Harbinger, but you also have a little bit more maneuverability. So it's a trade-off. Like everything in Star Citizen and life.
Whenever people ask those questions about this ship versus that ship, the best example we got of how that's supposed to work out was our Gamescom demo, when the Retaliator was supposed to win that fight with a Connie. In every playthrough, the Retaliator was supposed to win that fight, and then the crew got in there and the crew made their own destiny. So it's not so much about this ship versus that ship. It's about that crew versus this crew. So play better and you should be all right.
No plans for PAX South at the moment, although of course our Austin office is full of giant nerds who I'm sure will be going on their own time. If we have some compelling reason to be there, maybe we'll plan something, but it will be decided later, I think. Not on our schedule right now.
I don't have a lot of information on the Freelancer right now because that's been handed off to the UK. I think I mentioned last week we're trying this new thing where we're doing the art for ships by manufacturer, because it just helps us keep things stylistically more the same. It's just a little bit easier on us. So they're actively working on it. I don't know the status right now, but I can try to find out for next week.
Probably won't see that concept before the end of 2015, because we only have so many left. That's ultimately my decision I'm going to be making. I'll just say I would be surprised if we'd see it before the end of 2015.
Yes, the two new ones will, the Warden will not. I will also note we will have a Warden Battlefield Upgrade Kit. If people didn't have a Warden before, they can pick up a Harbinger or a Sentinel and then have the top turret and the escape pod from the Warden added to it.
We have a strong hope that they will be sold before Friday [ends] in Europe. We had a post this morning, and then we took a look at it and we said, no, make this fancier. So those beautiful boys at Turbulent are fancifying the post right now.
No plans for Paris Games Week, unfortunately, because I would love to go to Paris. We've talked about it. There were some tentative plans at one point. I think we'd all like to go to Paris.
Maybe. They will have a... It's not quite a capital ship. It is the Crucible, which can carry a fighter around in it, so it's larger than a single-seater. It's a mini capital ship, and that's coming soon-ish.
When you see something like that happen, a wizard did it. That means submit a bug report. No, maybe not a bug report, but we will address that. That is actually the sort of stupid little detail that we love fixing.
I don't know if they're working on the Phoenix or not. We work on the base model, and then we go to the variants. They're working on it. It's looking great.
Unfortunately, Tony is based in Austin, and he's one of those people who exists outside of time, so maybe he'll show up at 2:30 in the morning to answer questions in chat, but he's like a horse you can't break.
And as we get ready for the Social Module to go live to everybody, he is working on an introductory post. In fact, I saw a draft of it arrive in my mailbox just now. So we'll be checking that out after this.
There are some Phoenixes remaining at this point. I think there were a couple left at the end of the last sale. Less than 30. But people have melted them since. We could offer another wad of them at some point.
No changes to the Carrack lately, but when we do start more work on it, you will be the first to know. By the way, I'm going to say two words. Something I had a little meeting about this morning, and I won't say no more about this, but just letting you know: Caterpillar variants. We're getting to the point where we're looking at putting the Caterpillar into the game, that part of the process, so we are thinking more seriously about what's next for it.
We don't have anyone slated to work on it super soon, but I know it's been brought up again as, hey, we should actually put this in soon and work on this, more so than since I've been here so far. So I might have more information coming up, but right now I don't have any new information. I'll keep you guys posted. Trust me, as soon as I know anything about that ship, you guys will be the first to know, because I know everyone's excited about that ship.
Yes. In fact, in that chat we were just talking about, where Tony Z jumped into Star Citizen chat at 2 o'clock in the morning, he mentioned that a lot of those alleyways that don't seem to go anywhere will expand into new areas. You'll notice the doors to Casaba, I think it's Casaba, are currently closed. That will open at some point. And they have many plans. It will be a very iterative experience, and you'll get to see just how a video game is made, which is basically true of this entire project.
We actually have Zane, our UI artist, over in the UK right now to work with some of their UI designers over there to come up with some strategies for, basically, how manufacturers are going to be styled. For example, I think someone asked about the holographic-ness in one of the HUDs. Some manufacturers will have that as the way that we're going to go, and other ones won't. It'll be more what fits with that company's vibe. So that's something they're over there talking about and working on right now. But in general, similar manufacturers will have more similar HUDs. If one has a holograph, then chances are others by the same manufacturer will. But they're all going to be awesome, because Zane is a genius.
Someday. I want it so bad. I've talked to everybody. Erskine, I've talked to Jake Ross, I've talked to Tyler Witkin, people who, Gerald Manzies, people who don't have anything to do with it. I've talked to everybody at Austin. All I want to do is drive my buggy around and do ArcCorp Demolition Derby. Doesn't mean it's going to happen, but I'm championing it. We'll see how ineffective I am.
Do they not? I've also seen them do damage. I mean, I'll look into that as well, because we've had issues with some of our integration stuff on account of the internet. Not everything has made it in.
TL;DRCutlass art updates were quiet because other priorities came first, nothing is being withheld, and an upcoming patch raises component health so side components stop exploding so easily.
Honestly, from my experience, this is something that we've handed back and forth a lot. We've had a lot more teamwork on that ship between the UK and LA, so I think both of us have been hesitant to give many [updates]. And I know that a big part of what we were working on was getting everything ready for Gamescom. And we have some other stuff coming up that are also a priority, and now we got that to a place where it was solid for Gamescom. Everything else that has potentially more pressing deadlines and dependencies gets handled before we go back to focusing too overly much on the Cutlass. So that's that situation. We're not withholding anything. It's not a disaster.
I do have an update on the Cutlass, although it isn't the art updates that you're talking about, which is: part of the pass that isn't in the current patch but will be in this coming patch is, we changed the health of the hull with our balance pass previously, but we did not go back and change the health of the components. As a result, the big components sitting on the side of the Cutlass still had the old health values, and so would explode if you looked at them. So I've gone in and I've increased those health values quite a lot. It should also be affecting the Hornet. I believe the Gladius is not helped by this, because they mostly lose their thrusters because they have lost a wing, and the thrusters are on a wing. So that's going to get more addressed with some of John Pritchett's future flight model updates that will allow for unbalanced thrust input, where basically your ship has a really hard time pushing on this side if it can't also push on this side, so you'll start spinning. So that's some of the stuff coming down the pipe that'll help the Gladius. But in the meantime, everybody who's affected by losing the physical object should be assisted by the new health of the components.
I don't know, given the current design of it. It was originally specced that you could, but whether or not that's still the case, I don't know, because I haven't touched it in a while. But it was also designed that if you are able to transpose this to other ships, it doesn't come with its suite of ammo, so you just have what's actually on the rack, which means that you get your some 30-odd shots before this is now a used turret. So buyer beware.
Yeah, when you see the Harbinger, it's got the rockets that are on there, and then there's this whole section in the back with more rockets and a cool reloading system. It's part of itself.
I don't believe we're going to do one this year. Last year it came up suddenly, I think last week. So if you are the person who set that up last year, we'd love to do it again. We will support you with prizes and cool stuff and all that. If not, that's also okay.
Something to keep in mind with that concept piece is, since it's a concept, we still haven't fully answered everything. So we'll most likely do some cleanup as that gets fully built out into a game-playable asset, to make sure that you're not tearing a feed belt off your ship to turn around and shoot some guy behind you. So that will definitely be taken into consideration.
The door will open and it'll go right out. In fact, I remember being very concerned about this in the early days in Austin. We had a whole series of meetings where we came up with this Japanese car-style garage, where the ship would go onto a platform and you'd carry it up and you'd see the other hangars around it. I don't know if that's still what's going to happen or not, but we have certainly thought it through.
Not soon enough. You're going to see some more components in the not-too-distant future. Weapons will be coming behind those. It's been a topic of discussion lately.
Once it goes to live, you can stream it. I can't tell you when that will be, just that I can't say anything else, but once it goes to live. By the way, we did not do that to arbitrarily punish backers. We wanted the initial thing to be a focus on the actual load test. Back when we did Arena Commander 0.7, 0.8, people were just furious that streamers managed to be in the first group, and how there must be a conspiracy: we're letting streamers show this off because all we care about is selling the game, and we should be testing it. So this time we decided to try an NDA. It's not like a traditional NDA. We're not going to be going after you if you stream. We're just disappointed, and we'll be less likely to include you in the next batch.
I haven't seen the art for that cargo area. The cargo values are measured by the artists building the thing, because the amount of cargo that your ship can carry is the amount of cargo space that it actually has. So that number comes out of the actual geometry. It was written to have a certain amount, but we always need to get that number back from what the end of the art ends up being. I usually just go by whatever the artist said.
I don't have any. I'd have to check with the UK, because I think I might have seen that on their schedule somewhere, but I don't remember if that was now or anything. So I can find out, but I don't have anything to say about the Javelin.
The Idris is also in the works, and it's much further along. People were asking about the Idris, the Constellation and the Cutlass. You just saw them all in the Gamescom demo. So that's where they are.
A lot. We've got several here and a few in Texas, and probably the most ship artists in the UK, probably a little bit more than here and Texas combined. It's tricky to give an exact number, because we have some artists who will go back and forth between working on ships and other things. We have some ship artists who don't actually work on modeling the ships or creating them, but they're almost dedicated to bugs and support. So I'd say less than 10 here and a few in Texas, and more than that combined in the UK. I don't know how many offhand. And we usually have two people working together on a ship in the early stages. So we'll have someone working on the interior and someone working on the exterior through the white box and grey box stages, which is the majority of time when we're working on a ship. And then we'll usually both work on polishing and materials and everything together. Sometimes one person has to come in and out. After that is when all the craziness happens, because we have to have all of the designers and the engineers and the still artists helping out to tag-team the ship until it's ready.
It hasn't received any significant changes to how it flies, but the Delta rockets have increased damage and flight speed, so they should be less useless now.
Yes, they are generally future-focused, so the changes to how much health and damage is being done is more on establishing what we expect out of a physically-based damage system, and seeing how that sort of feels, what we're working with. Same thing for some of the signature work I'm doing right now. Any time we have new features that are coming down the pipe, we want to balance the game such that we can understand those parts better.
But I'm sure there's a lot of legacy in the missiles. In general, basically everything about the missiles is legacy at this point. So we need a lot of engineering time and to sit down and re-examine what the design of each missile component is, because it's carrying a lot of baggage at this point.
TL;DRA solo player could technically operate a capital ship from the captain's chair without being locked out, but it would be cumbersome and inefficient, and a full crew should beat them.
I wish I had Randy here for this. From what I know, and if he says anything different, defer to Randy over me: the bigger ships that do have more stations and their responsibilities more broken out, you probably technically could, but it would be a lot easier [with a crew]. It's cumbersome.
I don't think it should be possible for someone soloing an Idris to defeat someone else in a capital ship that has a maybe slightly less talented but full crew of people.
The efficiency loss of trying to solo things is definitely going to be [there]. It won't make things impossible. If it's like, oh, I just need to move my ship from point A to point B, and you're not really going to get into a fight, we don't want you to be stalled from that. But if you're picking a fight with a capital ship, you're going to want more than yourself on board.
And I don't represent the full breadth of our design decisions, but I have not heard anything about mechanically locking you out of operating your ship if you're a solo player. All the discussions are a matter of: you will not win whatever thing you're doing unless you work together in these giant ships. It's not that you walk up to it and it says, you need two more players to be a cool guy.
We talked about this early on and actually put a bunch of planning into it. The idea is that, yes, a capital ship is your thing to fail. You can try to man 30 turrets at once. You're just an idiot if you do it. So it's no technical limitation. Simply your own abilities.