Calling All Devs - In the Beginning

Dave Haddock · Lead Writer, Star Citizen / Squadron 42

That is a very good question. When we were doing the build-up to the anniversary sale, obviously there were a lot of conversations about these land claims. And I remember in one of the conversations talking with Tony that apparently, based on every single Star Citizen getting one of the big estate pieces, if every single one of them got one, they still wouldn't be able to fill up a single planet.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

So we've got 1.9 million Star Citizens. We're actually fast approaching 2 million. But if all 1.9 million Star Citizens bought – there's two sizes of land claims – if they bought the largest one, they could all put them on a single planet or moon and still have room left over.

Dave Haddock · Lead Writer, Star Citizen / Squadron 42

That's the calculation.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

And how many planets and moons do we have in the game here?

Dave Haddock · Lead Writer, Star Citizen / Squadron 42

Just in the Stanton system, there's four planets. I'd have to look up the moons, off the top of my head, but three on Crusader. I think there's three on Hurston. So probably 8 to 10-ish.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

And then 100 star systems beyond that. And then, of course, if we ever happen to fill up every single moon and every single planet, would you mind making more?

Dave Haddock · Lead Writer, Star Citizen / Squadron 42

I'm going to not answer that.

Matt Sherman · Technical Designer

Like you said, it definitely does have multiple interpretations. The core is going to come down to player-facing modularity. That's going to be the moment-to-moment choices anyone gets to make with how their ship is kitted out, what are their components, weapons, all that good stuff. But at the same time, we've also got developer-facing modularity, and that's a lot of the set for how we are going to be able to actually create and iterate all of this content that's going to populate the world of Star Citizen. So right now, the biggest thing for player-facing modularity is really going to be your component options. It's definitely something that we're looking to keep fleshing out. We've got the alternate room options for the Retaliator, and we're looking at a number of different things for various other ships, but a lot of it does become more case by case and how big of a win can we get for it. So I know in the long run, we still have modules planned for the Caterpillar, because that's its nice big segmented rooms. But at the same time, that modularity doesn't mean it's going to be just Legos. You're not just going to be, 'I'm going to pick this desk up and move it a half meter over to the side.' So there's still going to be some structure and form to it.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

So if I understand you correctly, when we see a developer talking on ATV and whatnot, we're talking about two different forms of modularity. There's a modularity we use internally to build things, like for the Avenger. We build an Avenger and then we build these little rooms that go inside it sometimes, like the EMP and whatnot. But when we sell things, there's the market modularity, if you will. The way in which we present certain ships to the community, ships like the Retaliator, where it has modules like the bomb bay and the living quarters that you'll be able to swap out. So we use the term in two different ways, and I think that leads to a lot of the confusion.

Matt Sherman · Technical Designer

Yeah, and we've also recently been showing off a lot more of the developer-side modularity. So just a month or so ago, when you did the Outpost Happy Hour with the UK team, that's a great example of developer-facing modularity, because it's, 'Hey, set up these wall prefabs, set up these node prefabs for, okay, this is this bed set and it's for this manufacturer, this style.' The planet generation demo that we showed, the building out of the Idris and the Javelin videos from a month or so back, where it's, 'Hey, here's these Aegis giant ship hallway chunks.' That's a lot of that developer-facing modularity, where it's how we're able to build a giant multi-star-system game without killing ourselves.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

So two modularities, one for you, one for us.

Matt Sherman · Technical Designer

Yep.

Calix Reneau · UI Designer

Yeah, as usual, we're finished from the gate. So much of this is coming together still. We're iterating on it and doing all kinds of things, including doing a whole other aspect to it. Basically, the interaction system is really good for finding things in the world to click on and interacting with them in bespoke ways. Just go out there and see what you get. But it's not so great at things that don't really have a logical place out in the world. Where would you click exactly to exit your seat or to holster your weapon or to do your emotes? We have a little personal Inner Thought radial wheel that comes up and gives you access to all that stuff. Actually, I am working on that now, so I can share my screen right now. There it is. I know, I know. It's living the life and it only gets better. When you trigger it, the radial wheel comes out and you can select from a whole batch of things that will look prettier than this when Art gets a chance to touch it. Currently I'm doing the structure of it, making it so that it responds and does the design that we want, and then Art gets the chance to make it not green and ugly. For instance, this box will be a little image to indicate that when you select this, it opens up a sub-menu. You can turn your flashlight on and off. Like I said, you can exit your seat. You can find all the emotes that we have, interact with your various tools. It's coming along. And it's just a matter of iterating on it and getting it over to Art so that they can have it ready to put out.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

So if this were similar to the ship pipeline, this is sort of like a white box phase.

Calix Reneau · UI Designer

Yeah. Actually, that's pretty apropos, because everything is placed, everything is working, and it's just not pretty.

Todd Papy · Star Citizen Live Game Director

Well, for us, we saw 3.0, and as Erin stated, and as we stated in the development letter, in order for us to move over to this date-driven release, we needed to get 3.0 out the door. But with 3.0 going out the door, there was a lot of stuff that we felt wasn't up to snuff, and we needed to get optimizations better, just because of the overall frame rates. Then there were other usability aspects that we felt we needed to improve, and even just players understanding what they can do and what they can't do. And then, if you think about the Item 2.0 combat visor screens and those types of things, we worked really hard on those, they just didn't get to the quality level that we all wanted them to get to. So it's working towards and finalizing a lot of the issues that we felt should have been part of 3.0, but they just kept on limping along, and the guys were working very hard on it. It just didn't come to be.

Eric Kieron Davis · Studio Director, CIG Los Angeles, and Head of US Production

When? It's the production part of me, that's why you have to ask the 'when' question, right? I can't go without a 'when.' Okay, the 300i rework. That is a great question. It is, I believe, the last of our original five pledge ships. And from what I understand, it's one of the most owned ships?

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

Yeah. On the recent accounting that I had to do for Ship Shape, it was number five in total ownership amongst all ships.

Eric Kieron Davis · Studio Director, CIG Los Angeles, and Head of US Production

Wow, so there's a few people interested in what's going on with the 300i. Fair enough. All right, so the 300i, I'm going to have so much information for you. It is definitely on our radar. It's definitely one that we want to rework. It is on the agenda to work on, as you'd expect. I can't give you more information on what the date is. I know you're asking for it. We're looking at 2018. We're looking at what the long term is for a lot of the ships. Being one of the last ships to be reworked, we're definitely super interested in getting that done and out from under us and getting it into everybody's hands, so we can keep moving on to the new ships and the fun ones that are coming up. So I can't give you more than that, but it's definitely on our radar. And I think you're doing Ship Shape now, right, Jared? So is it going to be on Ship Shape in the future?

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community Content Manager

We do have a new Ship Shape segment every month on Around the Verse going forward.

Eric Kieron Davis · Studio Director, CIG Los Angeles, and Head of US Production

Well, I think that might be a place that gets updated. More information to come for sure. But being an original and being a rework, the guys get really excited. We're doing the Mustang rework and it's looking really good, and just seeing that ship in the studio gets us really jazzed. So the 300i, it's coming up.