Star Citizen: Chris Robert`s new space sim (the Wing Commander guy)

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Sabrewings

Sabrewings

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2015
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Stringjam said:
Ugh. In my excitement over the velocity increase on the energy weapons I missed the line that said they were reducing their damage.

If shield strength is increasing across the board, and energy weapon damage is getting nerfed, that's going to have exactly the opposite effect I was hoping for (ballistics commander).
Click to expand...

The higher speed of the weapons will increase accuracy due to less aim lead required and less chance the target can alter velocity before it gets there. Thus, with a higher potential accuracy most pilots' hits per second average will increase resulting in a slight decrease in energy weapon damage to maintain the status quo. The flip side is that it can also render a bad pilot that much worse, but for the most part people will be able to hit their target easier.

The increase of shield damage is for a separate reason in the balance equation. They want to increase survivability in the arena and in the PU in general. Stronger shields and higher ship health will make targets take longer to take down, keeping the game alive that much longer. It's not a huge increase, but it can mean the difference between death and fighting for another minute or two in a battered ship against the odds.

I've read through a few times and I'm very pleased with what they're doing. Aside from balance tweaks, the fixes are all great and cover a lot of the issues I've been experiencing.
 
Stringjam

Stringjam

Golden Member
Jun 30, 2011
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Sabrewings said:
Going to PTU?
Click to expand...


Yes. Thanks to a crying fussy baby, I was only able to load it up for about 5 minutes last night.

Hopefully I'll be able to get in several hours tonight.

Initial observation with stock Gladius:
Ballistics have been slowed WAY down.

My initial excitement over energy weapon velocity increases making mixed weapon selection better is squashed at the moment. The spread now is HUGE because energy is so fast and ballistics are so slow. PIPs are a mile apart, so the only viable way to use them is one weapon at a time or getting extremely close to target.

The "one weapon group at a time" approach would really hurt fixed mount / joystick users, who essentially have to re-vector to aim a different weapon, while gimbled / mouse users can more easily move from PIP to PIP.

I feel like this will lead to a flip-flop of how BR was before...instead of ballistics mono-boating we'll probably see energy mono-boating, and even less mixed loadouts than before. This is just conjecture though until I get to spend more time in there.

I think it would have been about perfect if they would have just sped up the energy weapons and left ballistic speeds alone (except for possibly the Scorpion, which was just ridiculously fast, and made it tricky to pair up with anything else).



Positive Change

Rotation rates have been slowed. This is great, IMO. Makes for much easier and smoother aiming, especially for JS users. Lag pips are far less jumpy and much easier to keep on target (perhaps an ESP improvement as well?).

I think this is great step forward.

Further reporting tonight.


I also don't want to come across too negatively here. All of these weapons balance issues can be fixed in 5 minutes as they're nothing more than values in an XML sheet, and will likely be passed again over and over. That's kind of the whole point of testing in this phase, but I wish CIG would make less drastic changes to values.
 
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SLU Aequitas

SLU Aequitas

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2007
1,252
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Stringjam said:
Yes. Thanks to a crying fussy baby, I was only able to load it up for about 5 minutes last night.

Hopefully I'll be able to get in several hours tonight.

Initial observation with stock Gladius:
Ballistics have been slowed WAY down.

My initial excitement over energy weapon velocity increases making mixed weapon selection better is squashed at the moment. The spread now is HUGE because energy is so fast and ballistics are so slow. PIPs are a mile apart, so the only viable way to use them is one weapon at a time or getting extremely close to target.

The "one weapon group at a time" approach would really hurt fixed mount / joystick users, who essentially have to re-vector to aim a different weapon, while gimbled / mouse users can more easily move from PIP to PIP.

I feel like this will lead to a flip-flop of how BR was before...instead of ballastics monoboating we'll probably see energy monoboating, and even less mixed loadouts than before. This is just conjecture though until I get to spend more time in there.

I think it would have been about perfect if they would have just sped up the energy weapons and left ballistic speeds alone.



Positive Change

Rotation rates have been slowed. This is great, IMO. Makes for much easier and smoother aiming, especially for JS users. Lag pips are far less jumpy and much easier to keep on target (perhaps an ESP improvement as well?).

I think this is great step forward.

Further reporting tonight.


I also don't want to come across too negatively here. All of these weapons balance issues can be fixed in 5 minutes as they're nothing more than values in an XML sheet, and will likely be passed again over and over. That's kind of the whole point of testing in this phase, but I wish CIG would make less drastic changes to values.
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks for the update. Hope to do some flying tonight. Did we add each other yet?
 
W

Worthington

Golden Member
Apr 29, 2005
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I keep waiting for SM to be released as my excuse to re-install the alpha but as it keeps getting pushed further out I might have to just bite the bullet and get some AC action on.
 
Stringjam

Stringjam

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Jun 30, 2011
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SLU Aequitas said:
Nice, thanks for the update. Hope to do some flying tonight. Did we add each other yet?
Click to expand...

I don't think we have - this needs to be done! ;)



A couple of notes after viewing the XML sheet extraction:

It looks like the Mantis DPS has been almost halved. That's probably a good thing. It's DPS is now more in line with the rest of the S3s, and still a bit better than most of them. If it wasn't so dang slow now, it would make an awesome paring with the Panther laser repeater.

A few weird ones though. The Tarantula MK2 now has higher DPS than a MK3 (and is pretty close to a Mantis). I'm guessing this had to be some sort of mistake (?)

In case anybody else wants to check out the sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ImhdZcw-8Nn18d5pTd2nBkHtHUcq27aTlJK95WrLiec/htmlview#


Worthington said:
I keep waiting for SM to be released as my excuse to re-install the alpha but as it keeps getting pushed further out I might have to just bite the bullet and get some AC action on.
Click to expand...

SM = Social Module? There were some changes in this patch for that, too. I think it can now hold 40 people and they have expanded the area. Another thing I want to check out more of tonight. I've heard it also got a decent graphics improvement.
 
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N

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
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81
Stringjam said:
Ah. Almost appears we'll see FPS action in the AC2.0 release (multi-crew) before we see a Star Marine release though. I'm also eagerly awaiting.
Click to expand...
With 1.3 being released earlier than I expected I'm somewhat hopeful that we might see 2.0 before the end of this year.
 
W

Worthington

Golden Member
Apr 29, 2005
1,432
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Yeah I agree. They've been dangling that Star Marine carrot in front of me so I keep saying "I'll just wait till it's released to re-install" but it keeps getting pushing farther out. I'm not expecting to see it anytime soon either.
 
rivethead

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
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Stringjam said:
Ah. Almost appears we'll see FPS action in the AC2.0 release (multi-crew) before we see a Star Marine release though. I'm also eagerly awaiting.
Click to expand...

I believe this is now the official plan. AC2.0 will have FPS. But Star Marine, as a sim module within the game, will come "soon" (tm).
 
Sabrewings

Sabrewings

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Jun 27, 2015
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AtV notes:

  • Filmed at F42 featuring Sandi and Erin
  • The Concorde at Citcon wasn't really a Retaliator :awe:
  • Work on UI for multicrew ships is nearly done
  • Constellation rework is nearly done
  • ArcCorp optimizations
  • Social module V1.0 isn't too far away
  • More work going into streamlining content pipelines (ships, weapons, etc)
  • Systems are being built for both SC and SQ42, so SQ42 locations appear as they would in the PU
  • Avenger variants out soon
  • Starfarer still in work and is "pretty amazing" - Erin Roberts
  • Retaliator modules complete, waiting on code for swapping - "soon"
  • Still expanding ship team
  • Spinning off ship manufacturers by studio to promote manufacturer consistency and keep intramanufacturer differences, also speeds production
 
Stringjam

Stringjam

Golden Member
Jun 30, 2011
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Looks like a 5GB update tonight. CIG indicated a lot of the concerns people had were bugs / mistakes (including the super-low Scorpion velocity).

Can't wait to get in and check it out after the DL finishes.

BTW...anyone else notice the new missile effects? Those things are gorgeous now, especially the Dominators.


Haven't had a chance to fly my 350R in the new patch, but I'm PRAYING they fixed the center-of-mass thruster issue that makes it buck on strafe. This ship will definitely be my BR machine if they ever get it fixed. Don't know what I'll do for a loadout though if they don't do something about this lazy ballistic issue. I really wanted to mix a Panther with Sawbucks / Tarantulas, but the PIP spread is just too ridiculous now. I think I'll either have to do all-energy or all-ballistic to get anywhere close to convergence.


Someone on the CIG forums said that they finally feel like with this patch they're playing a game and not just a module. I have to agree. Everything feels different, looks amazing, audio improvements sound amazing...the feel of the ship is so much better. I am way stoked after playing this, because it feels like they're starting to nail this stuff down and really progress. If they continue in this direction, this game is going to be nothing short of a landmark for PC gaming.

I think by the time we hit AC 2.0 they're going to be in full stride - I have a feeling it's going to bring a lot of people back to the game.
 
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Sabrewings

Sabrewings

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Jun 27, 2015
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One thing they're removing is the EVA during flight. There's lots of Youtube videos showing that if the vehicle is moving it keeps going while the player stops immediately and clips out. Player floats in space while their ship sails away very quickly. Without local physics implemented EVA's in flight are a bit problematic.
 
Stringjam

Stringjam

Golden Member
Jun 30, 2011
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A few notes from about 3 hours of testing (mostly VS....I can't seem to get into BR).

Mantis overheats fast - so fast it isn't worth using.

Mixing ballistics and energy isn't worth it right now because of PIP spread.

350R still bucks on a strafe (damnit!). Otherwise my favorite ship so far.

Tarantula S2s seem to do more damage than they did previously....too bad the PIP is a mile off, Sawbucks are even worse.

Ship flight feels great right now - still pretty sure they adjusted rotation values.

Missiles are harder to deal with and damage more, but are beautiful to watch. ;)

Graphics and audio are improved - everything looks and sounds awesome.
 
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rivethead

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
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A few people have mentioned this on the CIG forums but: the current free fly period (use the Citizencon 2015 code) covers ALL flyable ships in AC.

That includes the Glaive and Scythe.

This is the first time those ships have been flyable to the masses (without owning, being a subscriber, or RECing after winning VS).

I'll probably give them a go this weekend just to see what the Vanduul see when they're kicking my ass.
 
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