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

[Stringjam]

I've said this for numerous months now, but I cannot wait for Item 2.0 to be fully implemented in the game. I want this more than FPS. I want this more than procedural planets. I want this more than cargo (although it's a requirement for cargo any way).

Rumor has it that there are currently over 100 different components scheduled to in the code soon (tm). Once these are in the game, then Jon Pritchett and the other engineers can get fully serious about balancing and improving flight characteristics of all the hulls in the game.

I'm definitely stoked for this, too. I'm remaining very optimistic that we will see a marked improvement when the systems are in place and Pritchett is able to really devote some energy to the flight characteristics.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Latest AtV is up. Shows quite a bit! Including some brief Star Marine footage.

 

[Stringjam]

Friendly NPCs coming in 2.7. That patch is shaping up to be the biggest step forward since 2.0 (NPC subsumption / networking overhaul / procedural planets). No mention of enemy NPCs this year though....which is disappointing, as I'm assuming SQ42 will have them (hopefully you're not just fighting ships).

The Hornet rework looks great. Too bad it's one of my least favorite ships to fly (still interested to see how the Ghost gets finished).

[edited pic to link location] http://i.imgur.com/skzasRX.png

 

[rivethead]

The reliant is nice! Just wait for 2.5 to go live. Might be as soon as tomorrow since they like to go live with updates on friday nights so people can hammer it all weekend.

The lighting updates are phenomenal.

On today's AtV Chris says 2.5 will go live next week.

Friendly NPCs coming in 2.7. That patch is shaping up to be the biggest step forward since 2.0 (NPC subsumption / networking overhaul / procedural planets). No mention of enemy NPCs this year though....which is disappointing, as I'm assuming SQ42 will have them (hopefully you're not just fighting ships).

Plus listen to Tony today...2.7 is going to have some serious locations in it...ArcCorp, Nyx, PO, Grim Hex....all with living NPCs.

 

[TechBoyJK]

On today's AtV Chris says 2.5 will go live next week.

Plus listen to Tony today...2.7 is going to have some serious locations in it...ArcCorp, Nyx, PO, Grim Hex....all with living NPCs.

I guess i'm being optimistic. The 2.5 PTU was far more stable for me than 2.4.1 Live has ever been. Granted, I'm only using a few ships, but feedback on reddit seems to be super positive.

 

[Stringjam]

On today's AtV Chris says 2.5 will go live next week.

Plus listen to Tony today...2.7 is going to have some serious locations in it...ArcCorp, Nyx, PO, Grim Hex....all with living NPCs.

Yeah, I'm stoked! IMO, the success of all of this hangs on the network overhaul. If they nail that, it will change the entire game. If they released that as the sole improvement of the patch, it would still be worth it. I would spend a lot more time in the PU if I could get decent frames.

 

[Linux23]

Thanks everyone for the help. Been reading up the last few days and am definitely gonna purchase a package tonight or tomorrow.

What's the best package to start off with in this game? Are you able to test a few ships before you buy? I can't wait to get into the ever evolving game.

 

[Linux23]

Oh what is PTU?

 

[Sabrewings]

Thanks everyone for the help. Been reading up the last few days and am definitely gonna purchase a package tonight or tomorrow.

What's the best package to start off with in this game? Are you able to test a few ships before you buy? I can't wait to get into the ever evolving game.

Probably the $45 starter package. You can't test lots of ships right off the bat, but you can use rental credits you earn in Arena Commander to rent ships to see if you like them.

Oh what is PTU?

Public Test Universe. It's a totally separate version of the game for testing the next patch. Think of it as an opt-in test server.

 

[Linux23]

Oh awesome. Thanks man.

 

[Sabrewings]

All I know is that in 1.3 (my favorite AC patch...obviously), you could play the advantages of the ships you had at your disposal (there were even some Aurora pilots who could devastate). There weren't any artificial restrictions on rotation to satisfy DCS / ED nerds, and 6DOF actually meant something.

While I agree things should be like they were when every ship had a strength that you could exploit against another's weakness, I don't think going back to that level of overpowered MAVs is the right answer. It didn't make any sense. For your mains to be so large, but your ship can accelerate in nearly any direction as hard as the mains can push but with just four tiny thrusters versus say the two large mains. It wasn't rational. IMO, the game should be more mains-centric, but not atmo style. You should have three distinct choices in how you want to fly:

1.) I forget the name of the mode, but similar to the existing mode that limits your angular change such that your ship can't out-rotate its ability to change direction.
2.) Like we currently fly, but with the ability of the MAVs to stop slide reduced. Very slidey motion, but this would also weaken strafe which I'm fine with. There's too much strafe going on. There should always be some, but it's overpowered and overused right now. This additional slidey behavior would require you to keep an idea of where your mains are pointing and use those powerful engines to change direction the fastest (unlike now where they're pretty much useless). You can still let the MAVs do it and rotate to where you please while they sort it out, but there should be a clear advantage to the direction your mains are facing.
3.) Decoupled. The more advanced pilots are given complete control to do with as they please. Still within the performance limitations described with 2.

My point is that the MAVs are unrealistically overpowered. They're that way because of how powerful they would have to be to achieve the rotational rates we have. There will have to be a balance between acceptable angular acceleration and keeping strafe from being OP. Mains-centric flying is the objective, IMO. And it isn't necessarily the same as atmo flying (and is in fact quite different in the handling dynamics). I want to rotate in any axis as the MAVs can handle, and for them to arrest motion not in my forward direction. And I think their strafe power is a bit OP. Hopefully they see it that way too.

Wall of text aside, my major gripe with what they've been doing is how max speed is handled.

Oh awesome. Thanks man.

No problem. Wait for some of these other guys to chime in. I haven't kept a close eye on things here since March, so they might have better advice.

 

[Pheran]

Probably the $45 starter package. You can't test lots of ships right off the bat, but you can use rental credits you earn in Arena Commander to rent ships to see if you like them.

I think you need one of the $60 packages if you want both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 (single player campaign).

 

[Pheran]

Pheran are you in the AT Org?

If not join us. I don't have the link handy right now but just go back a couple of pages I know I've posted it in the last 2 weeks

I don't really plan on spending too much time with the game in the near future, but I applied.

<GRAMMARNAZI>Someone please remove the goofy apostrophe from "member's" on the main page.</GRAMMARNAZI>

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don't really plan on spending too much time with the game in the near future, but I applied.

<GRAMMARNAZI>Someone please remove the goofy apostrophe from "member's" on the main page.</GRAMMARNAZI>

That's me I'm a lazy speller and grammar guy.
What's your SC name and what did you purchase? We have a list going.
I'll approve you later tonight. Welcome aboard!

 

[Worthington]

I got him Fanatical. Welcome to the Ballers!

 

[rivethead]

Thanks everyone for the help. Been reading up the last few days and am definitely gonna purchase a package tonight or tomorrow.

What's the best package to start off with in this game? Are you able to test a few ships before you buy? I can't wait to get into the ever evolving game.

Welcome to the madness.

Here's the deal. For $45 you can get either an Aurora MR or a Mustang Alpha starter package. That includes only Star Citizen, the mulitplayer sandbox universe game. For $15 more you can get Squadron 42, the single player military story mode campaign. If you enjoy solo campaigns, spend the extra $15 and get SQ42. It stars Gary Oldman, Mark Hamil, John Ryhs Davies, Gillian Anderson and a bunch of other stars. Should be good.

CIG let you do something called CCU (cross chasis upgrade) which means you can upgrade your ship to a different one and only pay the difference. Chances are highly likely you'll end up wanting to do this. As such, I highly recommend the Mustang Alpha starter package. Why? Because the trade in value of the Alpha is $5 more than the Aurora MR. It's probably a marketing bug, but CIG have to know about it....it's been this way almost all year.

But some people (like me) really like their Aurora's.

Here's what I recommend. Don't buy anything this week.

Next week CIG will have a free-fly week. Create an account today (use a referral code to get a free 5,000 UEC (in-game money)....search this thread as myself and several others have posted their referral codes). Then next week, try out ships for free. If there is a ship that isn't part of the free fly.....just get into the game and ask (use the in game chat). People are generally really nice and chances are good someone will spawn a ship you're interested in and let you take it for a spin.

Lastly, this is an early alpha test code. Expect low FPS and bugs and crashes and a bit of frustration. But it's also a lot of fun.

 

[rivethead]

Sabre.....I keep reading about thrust shunting. How's that factor into your vision of space flight? Don't know much about it, but it sounds like thrust from the mains is re-directed to other ports to help maneuver the ship (along with the thrusters....I think).

The Reliant, in particular is supposed to have thrust shunting in landing (horizontal) mode because the wings block the mains when the face forward (in vertical mode this isn't an issue).

 

[shortylickens]

is it done yet?

 

[rivethead]

is it done yet?

Nope. They just started real coding in 2013. The single player campaign is expected to be released at the end of this year (Squadron 42). The multiplayer game is at least a year after that. Most thing sometime in 2018.

 

[Dannar26]

What's your SC name and what did you purchase? We have a list going.

Haven't logged into SC since 2014. Is this list visible somewhere?

Do the ballers ever roll out, you know, as a crew?

 

[vshah]

yuck. can't say i'm a fan of the helmet HUD removal in 2.5. Makes combat pretty much impossible w/ no weapon information or target information readily accessible.

 

[TechBoyJK]

yuck. can't say i'm a fan of the helmet HUD removal in 2.5. Makes combat pretty much impossible w/ no weapon information or target information readily accessible.

I'm struggling to get used to it.

It would be ok in the Avenger IF my helmet didn't obscure the view. I can only see the upper half of my MFD's.

They did say this was the way it was always planned to be... that you'd be using the actual ship's controls and displays to fly, not something superimposed on the screen. I would enjoy the option to buy a helmet that could then display that information, even more so if you could toggle it easily.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Haven't logged into SC since 2014. Is this list visible somewhere?

Do the ballers ever roll out, you know, as a crew?

We want to but currently its just not a realistic expectation to get all of us together the way the game works right now. I do believe a few have tried multi crew ships but I'm not sure.

Here's the link:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/OLDSBAMENT

I'd have to dig around for the ship pdf and I'm sure it needs updating. Who had that ship list going?

 

[TechBoyJK]

yuck. can't say i'm a fan of the helmet HUD removal in 2.5. Makes combat pretty much impossible w/ no weapon information or target information readily accessible.

I haven't tried this, and I still don't think it's intuitive for combat (especially close quarters combat in AC), but if you hold Z and use WASD it will zoom in on your MFD's. A player (via facebook SC page) mentioned he created macros for this on his flight sticks to make it easier.

 

[Stringjam]

My point is that the MAVs are unrealistically overpowered. They're that way because of how powerful they would have to be to achieve the rotational rates we have. There will have to be a balance between acceptable angular acceleration and keeping strafe from being OP. Mains-centric flying is the objective, IMO. And it isn't necessarily the same as atmo flying (and is in fact quite different in the handling dynamics). I want to rotate in any axis as the MAVs can handle, and for them to arrest motion not in my forward direction. And I think their strafe power is a bit OP. Hopefully they see it that way too.

Wall of text aside, my major gripe with what they've been doing is how max speed is handled.

I think this is just where SC fans are not going to agree - in the end, one of the groups is going to end up unhappy with the FM.

When some people think spaceship dogfights, they think Star Wars. Another group thinks Battlestar Galactica, which is much closer to what SC is at the moment.

When I think space combat, I think strafing. The MAVs should have massive thrust available to them, as thruster shunting routes energy from the powerplant where it is needed. Right now we have a sort of automatic version of this and a set ratio. In future builds we might be able to change the mains / mavs ratio to tweak the forward speed vs maneuverability of the ship.

This makes sense, as when you change flight modes into Cruise, you're essentially providing your mains almost all available powerplant energy to attain huge forward speed, and almost no maneuverability. You obviously can't laterally strafe at cruise speeds because the size of MAV thrusters limits how much thrust they can produce.

Example - a 350R can cruise at 1060 m/s, but SCM w/afterburner is about half that. This is a viable explanation for me of why we have such big main engines (aside from looking cool). The thrusters aren't nearly capable of producing the kind of thrust the mains can.

I think the MAV thruster levels produced in 1.3 were wholly believable for these lightweight, single-seat dogfighters. And to me, anyway, 1.3 was by far the most fun I've had flying in AC. I'll admit that 1.2 was a bit nuts, but I think they nailed it in the next patch. The problem was it was so buggy hardly anybody played it - and then we just jumped to 2.0 without a lot of people getting any time with the 1.3 flight characteristics.