Star Citizen Live: All About Alpha 3.17

It will be rebalanced now. The sweet spot that we're going to be looking for is how often do you actually need to refuel. We don't want it to be like you have to refuel every 15 minutes or every 20 minutes. It should be that it takes longer. It's not something that you go through or have to think about every single time. Ideally an hour. So my sweet spot I think is basically between an hour and a half and two hours that you need to be thinking about it. That's just from straight flying. Now, obviously that'll depend on what ship you use, how you fly it, so on and so forth. And then also, if we're talking about quantum fuel, then it also depends on how far you're jumping, where you're jumping to, so on and so forth. I think that we are doing a rebalance for it, but again, I think this will be our initial stab, and then from there we'll do tweaks and tuning as it goes. It might be that we're hitting very specific ships afterwards, or it might be we just do a general rebalance as well.

I think it's really important because we have gained so many new players over the last year, folks who it may be easy to forget or some folks may have never been made aware: our live environment is still an alpha testing environment. So we are going to use that opportunity. However this goes out, when 3.17 drops, whatever the rate is when it drops, it is very likely to change, to be adjusted, as Todd said, either on an individual ship basis or across the board. We're going to use this opportunity to find that sweet spot.

Even when it's in PTU. So we're doing initial passes and then we're doing adjustments. And then from there, once it goes live, I'm sure we'll be doing other adjustments for any other subsequent patches that we have. So if we see any outliers or anything there that needs to be wrangled in, we will go in and fix it.

No. Not in the short term. So in the short term, basically that team is finishing off resource management, which is really the power gameplay that we need to basically get the engineering gameplay in ships, as well as making sure that our environments and ships feel alive and can be taken down in different ways. So it doesn't always end with the ship actually blowing up. And then that team is also working on life support and also working on salvage right now. So those are their main focuses. With refueling, this was really to get us prepped for Pyro. And so with Pyro, we won't have the same kind of infrastructure, the way that we're building the solar system, because it's more gang-run as well as places will be abandoned or run down. So this is actually us prepping for this so that if you need fuel in Pyro, you at least can get and find a place that might sell you fuel, or they can come out and do it. Obviously, there's other gameplay that could be happening there, meaning some other people show up with nefarious intent. But yeah, from this standpoint right now, we'll get this iteration out, and then we'll move on to other things.

At least for me, selling. Because before, now we can go out, we can have missions, find stuff, collect stuff with loot, now you can actually sell stuff. Then refueling is a big one for us, just because I view that more as a minor career, but it is still a career nonetheless. Then these two are kind of side by side, but there was some tech that was done for the scheduling and automation support for dynamic events. So before, we always had to trigger this by hand. So now this helps us out, and it's really on the back end. It's not really player-facing. And then, at least from a visual standpoint and making our planets feel alive, the stuff that Will did with rivers, and same with the planet team stuff. I know it's four, but those are the three big ones, or the four big ones, for me.

When we say core gameplay, what we're talking about is player systems. So FPS systems, and that's what we call our core team.

A little bit. I mean, right now we're in the middle of the adjustment. So Rich and I talk about it constantly, and any sort of feature that the core teams are working towards, basically they're going through and they're working out how does this work with S42. And then from there, if we need to take it and bring it to the PU, then we'll go in and we'll actually take it and adjust it and get it working, and either add what we feel like it needs from a Star Citizen side to it, or we'll take it just as is. They're going through and getting it to what they would consider alpha state for S42, and then it just trickles down; that's fine. It just might be that they're not really dealing with the same constraints that we deal with right now. Basically, when we go through and we're doing this, we've got go/no-gos in the middle of the quarter. And so that's when we do our branching and everything. They're just working. And this is really kind of how traditional game development would work, versus building the train while you're on the track.

Laying the tracks while you're...

Yeah, exactly. So basically, they're just building. And then from there, depending on where it comes in, that's when it'll drop to us. And they'll do the integrations, they'll go into game dev, and then from there, we'll be able to take it and run with it. So it just depends on when it comes in in the quarter, and then how much work needs to be done on it. I mean, not all teams have gone over there. We still have a very large content team that works on the PU side, in the EU as well as in Montreal. And then we also have three different feature teams that still work on PU-specific features in the EU as well as in the US. So it's not like everything has stopped on PU to go work on S42. Stuff's still happening for PU. It's just that any of these core things that were needed for S42 first go there first and then come down to us.

It's just a rearrangement of what's always happening. It used to be that it worked for PU and then it was adapted for Squadron. Now it's just worked for Squadron and then it'll be adapted for the PU. We just flipped the waterfall.

Yeah, and it's not a bad thing, in order to actually get that game out. And frankly, I think all the teams, and even I have more of an outside view, but I think the teams there have been making great progress and have really felt that switch. And just like when it was on PU, we felt that instant... It's basically like four-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive when you're stuck in the mud. So you feel that instant: all right, go. Everybody's focused on this. Everybody's pushing. So I think it's been a great thing to happen for that team and also for the company in order to get that out.

And it'll be a good thing for the PU once we get past this transition period. Ideally, the idea is, and as always, we'll see if this pans out, but the idea is that these features will then come into the PU baked a little more.

Well, yeah, a little bit more baked versus half-baked. But there's a lot of different things that S42 needs that we need. But there were certain things where we're in complete opposite needs. So, for example, I feel like we need careers and we need to be pushing towards these things, versus Rich is like, no, I need this for S42. It's just those types of fights were always happening behind the scenes. And then Chris would come in and be like, no, no, I think this is the priority, and make those calls. But before, it was definitely, I think, more PU-focused, but now it's like, no, no, this is S42. Todd, you don't get to have this, or Tony, you don't get to have this right away. Versus we want it now, and we're a little bit like Veruca Salt. But for us, we're still getting it. It's just we're not getting it instantly, and so it just requires a little bit more patience. And that's not why I'm wearing the Salty Crew shirt.

And I also want to be clear before it gets quoted out of context. You say we need more patience. You're talking about you and your teams need more patience.

Well, no, it's really more me. Just because, again, since Tony and I are the driving forces on this, we have to be pushing. We're the players, and we're basically wearing little Timmy's hats, or whatever, of the players out there, and saying, I want this and I want it now. And so then the teams are like, well, you can have this, but in this time. And then it's just us having those discussions. The work is being done, and it's just that right now we're getting things that are funneling into the PU now, like some fixes or those types of things, and then we'll have more next quarter, and then we'll have more the following quarter. So we are in the middle of that adjustment, in the middle of that transition. It's just a little bit slower now, and we know that it will speed up as time goes on.

Well, I guess I'm going to give you kind of the generic answer for that. I mean, we're constantly trying to improve the quality of life. It's something that we've been trying to do for multiple years. And it's always dependent on what the team is doing, because we have something like 50 different feature teams and content teams. It really depends on what each team is doing, and if they're slammed on some sort of feature or release, or if they're in the middle of just building something, then it's a lot easier for them to go in and fix a fair amount of quality of life things there. And then it'll also depend on how complicated that quality of life fix is. For example, we know the star map is broken. We know, but the star map is being worked on, and it's basically that team's number one priority for S42. And then from there, it will come to us. But there's things like that that are more complicated, and we try to spot-fix it as much as we possibly can. But part of that is just we know that there are certain features that just need a full rework. But again, it depends on the quality of life. We're focusing on the ships and trying to go through, fix any sort of lighting issues, fixing any sort of vis area issues, anything like that. We have our list of stuff that needs to be done, and through every quarter the teams are trying to go through and fix it.

It depends on different things. So usually with normal game development, you really kind of get one shot at it and you're working through it, and a lot of times once you get to alpha and you get the game all together, then you have those malarkey-just-hit-the-fan moments, and you look at it and go, oh, this thing really needs to be cleaned up, or this thing needs to be rebuilt. Let's rebuild it as fast as we possibly can, or we duct-tape it. Now, for us, we're in a very unique situation. There are certain things that were done a long time ago, and now that we've got a bigger universe, it's being updated. For example, the QT HUD and other things like that; that to me is just switching it over to a different HUD and fixing that, and that will fix a lot of the QT issues that we have. So from there, there's other things where teams have other higher priorities that are needed for S42 or needed for PU that kind of get in the way of this stuff a lot of times. So, just because we are dealing with the live environment, and when we are doing feature work... Before it was, we've got six weeks on and then kind of six weeks of bug fixing and trying to solidify things, and you're doing work, but at the same time, you've got live must-fixes or Evocati must-fixes or PTU must-fixes that are coming in, plus quality of life. So it's just a mixture of... You're working on the feature, but then it's a little bit of stutter-stepping that's happening. So versus traditional game development, it's just you plow on, you work, and then you really get to alpha. And a lot of times that's when you take a breath.

You just kind of hope it all works.

Yeah, exactly. And then from there, between Alpha and Beta and Final, a lot of times that's when you're seeing a lot of what I would consider crunch, because a lot of times it's not in a state that you want it to be in, so therefore you have to go in and fix it in a very, very short time period. And that to me is the hard part.

It is. I mean, on the surface it is. So basically this was one of our junior designers' first tasks, getting in and doing this. And this is kind of when the AI teams were shifting over towards S42 and basically dealing with other features. This guy and the AI team, or the content AI team, were working on this and basically were getting moved around and pushed around onto different things. But this was something that they were working on and cleaning up, and this is really how we deal with vendors: they will be different reskins of the bartender. But in reality, where I wanted this thing to go more towards was the black market dealer. Somebody that can sell you something, because at least for black markets, we don't feel it's right that you're fencing something to a kiosk versus somebody... It's missing that personal feeling. So that's really where it's heading. And there were some code changes that were done underneath to basically move it towards it that way. But I can definitely see from an outside perspective: yeah, this is a reskin. And in many ways it is.

I brought it up not just because I thought it was funny and I like throwing you curveballs every once in a while, but I think it's important. When I say we, I mean the folks outside of game development: we don't always see the context behind some of these decisions. And we often forget that in video game development, Star Citizen, just like anything else, there's turnover. There's new people coming on board. There's old people leaving for other opportunities. And when these new people come on board, you don't just throw them down the well and be like, make server meshing happen. You start them on these smaller beginning tasks; many times they have to learn the tools that we use. They have to learn the processes that we developed. So a lot of times when backers see kind of a head-scratcher, like this seems like a weird kind of side thing, whether it's our game or some other game, just keep in mind there's always context.

So for example, there's combat features that need to be worked on or focused on, or there's flight features that need to be worked on or focused on. Well, it's the same thing with social features. So whether it be a pizza vendor or coffee vendor or any noodle vendor, there's just vendors in game that need to be worked on, need to be built out. It was just that we chose this one first, and then that's what we did. But in many ways, this is just laying the groundwork for other things to come. But for right now, again, the feature team and the tech team, most of their focus is shifted over towards S42, so it's really basically getting that stuff working, and most of theirs are going to be focusing on combat, making sure that that's tight.

Yeah. So I talked to Tony about it today. So they're still planning on Quantum in 3.17 to dictate the price of three commodities, repair materials, quantum fuel and hydrogen fuel, and where service beacons occur and the price, and then three probability volume tags, piracy, security and freighters, at about a dozen locations. So that's the way that the first iteration of Quantum will be put in. And then from there, again, every quarter we'll build on it and adjust it and then go from there.

So, I'm sorry, did I mishear you? You're saying that Quantum will be dictating the prices of those things in 3.17?

It's that, yes. But it'll be dictating the price for three commodities. Not all the commodities, just three of them.

I think that's news in and of itself, that some aspect of Quantum will be driving stuff in 3.17.

That's the goal, yeah.

Well, so for this one, first things first, we've done a complete rebalance of what's actually being sold in stores. And we've actually pulled out a lot of them, and they will be in loot containers now. So where we were getting like 20 or 30 armors that had the same colors or different color variants, now you should see a much smaller stock. And then from there, we do know that there needs to be code rework, certain adjustments to the actual UI. But right now we do currently have what we view as other higher priorities to get those fixed. But yeah, there are certain things there... Even when you're buying ammo and sort of attachments for the FPS weapons, remembering, okay, oh yeah, it's this FPS weapon that I need to buy the ammo for. There's different ways that we can adjust it and make sure that it's more user-friendly. It's just currently we have other higher priorities for that team to be working on, like physicalized cargo and other stuff that Tony's working on.

Maybe for a point patch, but for initial release, no. The teams are really focusing on getting what at least I call verbs out. Obviously we've got deliver or attack, defend, so on and so forth, but we have a list of verbs. And so each time we're building one of those verbs, it takes us a little while to build up the tech that's needed for it, and then also build up the first modular iteration, and then from there being able to implement it into the locations. So right now we've got a team in Montreal working on stuff that we'll be showing, I think, pretty soon, in probably one of our releases. And then obviously our teams right now in the EU are really focusing on getting Pyro working, getting other things built, and making sure that when we release Pyro, it's actually strong, and making sure that for our space stations, for our outposts and everything like that, there's things to do there.

So I talked to Dave Colson about this today, and he wanted to make sure that I was very, very clear on this. The issue is a desync in time, not in position. So basically, right now, the way it works is the more you move, the more it's wrong. And this was really done to smooth out the movement of the ships and making sure that things aren't just jittering all over the place. What we've done is we've exchanged that: there will be more time synchronization, but the ships might jitter a little bit more. And what will happen is we'll need to see how bad the tradeoff is and see if this will really stick or if we need to think of a different way of going. No matter what, this will always be a continued effort for us as long as it's an issue, and we feel it's an issue and you guys feel it's an issue. This might not be the complete fix, but it's more in the right direction. So it might be that in the future it's kind of a mix between the position and the time, so you do get a little jitter, but that's something that Dave and the team will be looking at and seeing how they can fix it even better. But right now, this is the thing that they want to try out and see if it feels pretty good. And then we go from there.

We've all been pretty excited on this end since we first started seeing it in Evocati. It's hard because I'm talking with Tyler, I'm talking with Jake. We want to run up to the top of the mountains and scream, hey, how awesome this is. But at the same time, we know what the nature of game development is, and it may be good today, but then something happens tomorrow.

Yeah, and I think there's so many other factors that come into play. Obviously, speed of your actual machine, speed of your internet connection, the server frame rate, so on and so forth. So once we get into wider PTU, then that to me is really where the proof is in the pudding, once we see larger numbers on this. But yeah, I do think it's a step in the right direction.

Cautious optimism is what I recommend at the moment.

As far as the server meshing stuff goes, I know folks have been asking for an update. I see it all in the questions for this. It is still ongoing. It is still proceeding, as we stated. Basically, what you saw at CitizenCon still applies. What you saw in the wonderful Ask Me Anything follow-up Q&A the community team did afterwards still applies. All that stuff is still on track. It's just we're not at a point now where there's anything really new to tell you, other than things are still proceeding how we said they would.

It's still on track. Basically, all the downstream teams, we're still working towards those dates. So we're still building. We're trying to make sure that everything is ready. So it really just comes down to that team working on it.

And then perhaps the most important thing I want to remind everybody is that it won't be a light switch. There's not going to be a day where server meshing is turned on and everything is better. Quite honestly, it's probably going to be a day where we turn it on and everything breaks. And then we'll have to fix it and adjust. But it will continue to be iterated on and refined and adjusted just like anything else. Manage some expectations.

Part of it is when the feature actually came in, because Will did the first one versus the planet team doing it. Will was basically working out the code. And then from there, there were other things from a visual standpoint that needed to be adjusted and worked out. And so there are plans to add more to microTech and add them to other planets where they actually make sense. And so it was just that the planet team was focusing on different things. And in reality, the feature, we did the go/no-go for it, I want to say, early February. So for us, again, mid-February, that's when we cut things off and we say, okay, we're branching. So there was no other time for the teams to go in and adjust and do things.

So to the last part, do you think we'll add more in subsequent patches, or are they going on the back burner?

No, we'll add more. As far as I know, it'll be something for 3.18 and 3.19.

I guess for me, I have the title of the game director, but we've got multiple game directors within the company: Tony, myself, Rich, Nick, so on and so forth. Basically, I think every director is responsible for their teams and making sure that their teams are doing the job to the best of their ability, and basically that the features that come out are as good as they possibly can be. When we go into these go/no-gos, it's Tony or Aaron or myself. And if it's one of my teams, I have the meetings before and I make sure that it's ready to go. If it's not ready to go, then I tell Chris and Aaron why, and have those difficult discussions. But each team has a director associated with it, and so it's those teams doing that. So when we're going into go/no-gos and I'm going in for a lot of other teams, then I'm just looking at it and making sure it's hitting what I think it needs to hit from a player standpoint, the look and feel. Have any of these edge cases been thought about? Are there other features that need to be done associated with that? And how many bugs do we have left? What's the overall feel of it? Does it feel good, or is there a little bit of clunkiness to it? But a lot of times when we're going into those things, we expect the directors and we expect the leads and the POs that are working on it to be those initial people saying, yeah, we're happy with this. We're proud of putting this out. And then from there, it's a call that we make. So for Tony, if he's looking at something, I trust him to look at it and drive it home. And so when we're going into live meetings or live release meetings, he's there, he's present, he's looking at it and making sure that it's good. If we're talking about AC or Star Marine or Tau stuff, then that's Sean. He's there, he's in those live release meetings, making sure it looks good. And if there's any bugs that need to be chased up or anything like that, he's calling it out, and then I'm doing it for my features. So I am really kind of the point of contact if things aren't looking or feeling good, and then I chase up those teams and figure out what we can do with production. And then that's really kind of my live game director role. And then other times it's just game director. Basically, we didn't want to have two SC game director positions. So Tony's got the SC game director and I've got the SC live game director. There is that separation. But again, Tony is focused more on the tech, I'm focused more on the look and the feel, and that's kind of how we play off of our roles. And then, as far as working with the community and dealing with the community stuff, this to me is golden. A lot of times with other games, you only get that feedback at the very, very end. And you're hoping and you're praying that, yeah, we did this right and we hit it. And I can guarantee you that basically every game director or every lead, when their game goes gold and the reviews start coming out, they're sweating bullets. You never know. This, to me, allows us to try it out and see what works, what doesn't work. I work constantly with Bayer, the community team, Eric Green, basically our live production team, to look at the bugs that we have, to triage those, to go through what's working, what's not working, what did players really... That's the part that I like. In games, you'll be working on something and then you do a focus test. And a lot of times you're bringing in people from the outside and you're sitting there watching them play the game. I would view it as: that's kind of where dreams go to die. You have a dream of, hey, this is how this thing's going to play out and work. And then you watch people play it, and you're just like, oh, man. You're just pulling out your hair. Why don't you know this? Why can't you see this? And this is our way of focus testing. So this, to me, is good for us. It's true feedback and honest feedback. Sometimes it hurts, but sometimes you look at it and you're like, oh, yeah, how did we not see that? But it just goes into making the game better, and that to me is what it's all about: just making the game as good as it possibly can be.

How did we not know players were going to overdose other players in green zones? How did we possibly not know that was going to happen?

Exactly. But that to me is fun. It's interesting gameplay. We never knew Jumptown was going to be so interesting, but it's immersive. This to me is fun and interesting, at least from a career standpoint. This is so different from all the other stuff that I worked on in the past. So every day is a new, we call it a new fire to put out, but it's problem-solving, and that to me is the fun part. I love building and problem-solving with the team and going through that experience. It's new, it's fresh. It's not for everybody, but I love that challenge. I like it when people tell me, well, you can't do that. And we say, F you, we're going to do it anyways.