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

[TheVrolok]

Jesus Christ man.. just stop. You hate the game and everything about it. To each their own. But this is getting just down right ridiculous.

I've disliked--- even hated a lot of games that have threads on these forums. I've might have even posted in one (if I reaaaaaaly hated the developer. Brad McQuaid I'm looking at you) if I was really drunk and feeling frisky. But FFS TC.. you post here more than Original Backers.

Can we just add a PS. to the original post that ThinClient hates this game, thinks CR is a slimy thief and a charlatan and then exclude him from further posts?

Well said. As difficult as it may be, everyone needs to just stop responding to him.

 

[bbhaag]

Took some more screen shots this morning from the free flight. Looks like they opened up a few more ships because the 300i and the Hornet were available to fly.
The Hornet is a bad ass ship. I REALLY want one now after flying it. Here's some eye candy for you guys without the arena commander.

 

[rivethead]

Well here's the deal: I'm pretty sure everyone has access to the AC/DFM right now....until Friday. And all five ships are available.

I have not purchased the AC module pass. But I played AC for 5 hours last night. All five ships.

I have to say, I'm shocked....SHOCKED at how well it ran on my measly machine. The hangar module is very sluggish and buggy. So I have been hesitant about spending the $5 for AC. But damn....the AC ran VERY smooth on my system (specs in my sig, but I have 8GB of RAM now and I'm no longer OCing the cpu). Controls are difficult (I'm using an Xbox 360 wireless controller) to get used to....I still haven't gotten a laser kill yet (missles are different story).

They are doing this in honor of Citizencon, but the announcement is easy to miss. So if you don't have an AC pass....give it a run this week. And if you do have an AC pass....well here's your chance to check out all five ships.

On a different note.....they made a half a million dollars in 25 minutes Friday night by selling a limited number of $600 luxury spaceships (with hot tubs!). WOW. People are stup.....er....I mean crazy.

 

[Fallen Kell]

To be fair, it wasn't just the yacht that was on sale, the variants for the cutlass also came up for sale. That said, it was a bit much for the yacht (I know I for sure did not have any want or desire to get one unless I get it in the game). The only other ship I am considering is the dedicated exploration ship or the information runner, but to be honest, I don't see the need for spending more on this.

They are making good progress at this point, and my only concerns now are the linked instancing system along and how well the "galaxy server" will perform handling all the persistent universe data. I personally think the "galaxy server" needs to be a "galaxy cluster" to handle things properly given the number of registered star citizens (something like 500,000 people). I mean Eve online doesn't get much more than 30,000 at one time, and of those maybe only 10,000 are unique individuals (the rest are multiboxing). With 500,000 unique citizens at this point, I think you can say it will easily surpass the 30,000 at once online.

 

[Dannar26]

Anybody feeling worried about the lack of a wipe after beta?

Don't want to see this thing go all Eve, and cater only to seniority.

 

[Red Storm]

Anybody feeling worried about the lack of a wipe after beta?

Don't want to see this thing go all Eve, and cater only to seniority.

Source on no beta wipe?

This won't be like EVE because there aren't any skill books in this game. If you mean some people will have more money than others, well in any persistent multiplayer world that's going to be the case.

 

[Fallen Kell]

They mentioned the no wipe a while ago (probably a couple weeks after people started to create whatever the operation is that is to attack the Vanduul homeworlds). I don't know if they are going to stick to that statement, especially if they are testing economic systems and people find glitches.

 

[SithSolo1]

Article on ship pipeline and current status of known ships:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...as-Take-Flight-The-Star-Citizen-Ship-Pipeline

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Holy crap this looks awesome. I've always loved this kind of game. I plan on buying the $40 pack to get into beta just to poke around. I am confused though; reading this thread makes it look like you can unlock ships. However, on the website it looks like you have to buy ships. Now, I would want them all, and the complete pack is $15,000 () Obviously, being 15 I'm not buying that. Are there other ways to unlock ships? Is the real money thing just to speed it up? Do you have to buy the fancy hangars? No matter how it goes I plan on buying it, I'm just a bit iffy on what I'm buying. The website isn't clear.

Whether it be USD or in-game I plan on getting the Cutlass Blue.

EDIT: Reading more of the thread makes it look like you buy it in USD then have to work to get it in game.

 

[nsafreak]

Holy crap this looks awesome. I've always loved this kind of game. I plan on buying the $40 pack to get into beta just to poke around. I am confused though; reading this thread makes it look like you can unlock ships. However, on the website it looks like you have to buy ships. Now, I would want them all, and the complete pack is $15,000 () Obviously, being 15 I'm not buying that. Are there other ways to unlock ships? Is the real money thing just to speed it up? Do you have to buy the fancy hangars? No matter how it goes I plan on buying it, I'm just a bit iffy on what I'm buying. The website isn't clear.

Whether it be USD or in-game I plan on getting the Cutlass Blue.

EDIT: Reading more of the thread makes it look like you buy it in USD then have to work to get it in game.

What you're paying the $40 is to have access to the game. I forget which ship is for $40, I think it's the Aurora. Essentially you get that ship, the game when it's finished and if you purchase Alpha access then you get to play around with the alpha stages of the game. It is important to note that while you can purchase the ships so that you have access to them when the game ships you will be able to earn them in game by doing things to earn money whether they're doing trade runs, killing pirates, etc.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Bubbleawesome you are correct buy now is cash. Earn with in game cash when its released. Assuming money is an issue for you I'd wait it is fun to walk around my hanger and occasionally fly stuff but its a long way off until release.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Ah. Last unclear point is insurance. If I wreck my ship/get a case of pirates/do something wrong and it's dead after the 2 months of insurance do you use in-game money to fix it? If you're broke because you're bad at flying do you have to buy in real money again? The site is really pretty useless on these points.

If release is 2016 then I'd be about a year and a quarter with the base ship. I doubt I would do that without paying for more, but honestly with the awesome reviews on this and it looking so amazing I plan to at least get the $45 pack with the Aurora MR and arena commander pack so I can try the stuff like racing and.. stuff. And the extra ships that get added for trials.

Honestly looking like a game I've always wanted.

Oh, last question. Is there any/much cursing or stuff like that? Stuff like R*'s billboards (mother trucker, inferred meanings etc) I've got a little brother and probably wouldn't be allowed to keep it if there is. I wouldn't want to blow $45 in that case.

 

[ThinClient]

Ah. Last unclear point is insurance. If I wreck my ship/get a case of pirates/do something wrong and it's dead after the 2 months of insurance do you use in-game money to fix it? If you're broke because you're bad at flying do you have to buy in real money again? The site is really pretty useless on these points.

If release is 2016 then I'd be about a year and a quarter with the base ship. I doubt I would do that without paying for more, but honestly with the awesome reviews on this and it looking so amazing I plan to at least get the $45 pack with the Aurora MR and arena commander pack so I can try the stuff like racing and.. stuff. And the extra ships that get added for trials.

Honestly looking like a game I've always wanted.

Oh, last question. Is there any/much cursing or stuff like that? Stuff like R*'s billboards (mother trucker, inferred meanings etc) I've got a little brother and probably wouldn't be allowed to keep it if there is. I wouldn't want to blow $45 in that case.

If your ship blows up, it's gone. It's not fixable, it's GONE. You have to save up for another one with in-game money.

That is, of course, unless you bought the pay-to-win early access kickstarter nonsense that gives you free lifetime insurance on certain ships.

 

[nsafreak]

Ah. Last unclear point is insurance. If I wreck my ship/get a case of pirates/do something wrong and it's dead after the 2 months of insurance do you use in-game money to fix it? If you're broke because you're bad at flying do you have to buy in real money again? The site is really pretty useless on these points.

If release is 2016 then I'd be about a year and a quarter with the base ship. I doubt I would do that without paying for more, but honestly with the awesome reviews on this and it looking so amazing I plan to at least get the $45 pack with the Aurora MR and arena commander pack so I can try the stuff like racing and.. stuff. And the extra ships that get added for trials.

Honestly looking like a game I've always wanted.

Oh, last question. Is there any/much cursing or stuff like that? Stuff like R*'s billboards (mother trucker, inferred meanings etc) I've got a little brother and probably wouldn't be allowed to keep it if there is. I wouldn't want to blow $45 in that case.

I haven't seen any cursing or anything like that shown in game, other than in game chat perhaps when flying in matches in arena commander. I doubt very much that you'll see anything of the sort when it comes to billboards with profanity or inferred meanings, they just don't fit in to this universe.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

If your ship blows up, it's gone. It's not fixable, it's GONE. You have to save up for another one with in-game money.

That is, of course, unless you bought the pay-to-win early access kickstarter nonsense that gives you free lifetime insurance on certain ships.

But if there is no in-game money right now do you have to buy every time? Also, I imagine flying is pretty hard with just a keyboard. Is it possible or do you pretty much need a joystick.

I haven't seen any cursing or anything like that shown in game, other than in game chat perhaps when flying in matches in arena commander. I doubt very much that you'll see anything of the sort when it comes to billboards with profanity or inferred meanings, they just don't fit in to this universe.

I did see the "mother-trucker" bumper sticker on a transport ship (misc I think?) It was in the video for it on the site. That's what sparked my suspicion.

(So many questions, sorry. :$)

 

[ThinClient]

But if there is no in-game money right now do you have to buy every time? Also, I imagine flying is pretty hard with just a keyboard. Is it possible or do you pretty much need a joystick.

No, you don't need a joystick. The insurance scam feature doesn't kick in until the game is released.

 

[Fallen Kell]

If your ship blows up, it's gone. It's not fixable, it's GONE. You have to save up for another one with in-game money.

That is, of course, unless you bought the pay-to-win early access kickstarter nonsense that gives you free lifetime insurance on certain ships.

You get 3 months of insurance with your ship (at least this particular ship, some others might have lifetime insurance). If it gets blown up without insurance, then yes, it is gone, and you have to earn the money to get a new ship (loans and various missions will allow you to earn in game credits). But, nothing prevents you from extending the insurance on your ship in game for a nominal price (and yes, I said nominal, as that has been stated from the beginning all over the place on their forums, in posts from Chris Roberts himself, from developers, etc.). It may cost more to get extra insurance to cover additional modifications you may have made to your ship, or any cargo you were carrying, but basic insurance which will give you a replacement ship is said to be extremely cheap. The only reason you should ever not have insurance would be if you were completely brain dead.

To look at another game that has basic mechanics like this would be Eve Online (not quite the same, but close). In there, you can buy insurance for a fee on your ship. If it blows up, you get the insurance payout in Eve (which has been lowered overtime because Eve needed a way to remove in game cash from the hands of players). In Star Citizen, basic insurance will give you a replacement ship. There may be some delay in receiving a new ship if you constantly just jump in it and go suicide (basically to prevent suicide runs against other players), or if you have insurance from the lawful insurance companies but decide to go be a pirate and attack someone else (and lose your ship in the process), the lawful insurance companies will not pay out on the insurance claim, however, that doesn't prevent you from getting insurance from a pirate faction (which might cost a little more) which would cover your insurance claim during an act of piracy... In other words, there are always ways to get insurance on your ship, just that you can only act certain ways depending on who you got your insurance from and what level of coverage you have.

 

[Fallen Kell]

But if there is no in-game money right now do you have to buy every time?

Right now it is alpha release. There is no lose of ships at this time. Arena Commander is essentially an in game flight simulator (i.e. your character is jumping into flight simulator in your hanger).

Also, I imagine flying is pretty hard with just a keyboard. Is it possible or do you pretty much need a joystick.

It is quite possible to do without a joystick. That said, you need to get accustomed to it, and setup a few things to make it work well (specifically, there are two modes of flight control when using a mouse, one in which you can move the mouse a bit around a "dead zone" in the middle of the screen so you can aim weapon systems which are not fixed straight forward, but this can make it hard to "thread the needle" in terms of flight direction since you can't make small adjustments in your direction. The second mode fixes the cursor dead center and your mouse movements adjusts the direction of the ship. You need to toggle back and forth between those two modes to effectively fly with a keyboard and mouse. These modes are in addition to the flight modes that exist for all players such as standard flight or decoupled flight (i.e. think Battlestar Galactica swinging the ship around in a 180 while continuing to move in the original path so you can aim your forward guns at an enemy that is behind you).

 

[ThinClient]

Yes, newtonian physics.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Much thanks fallen, I was taking it that everything was enabled (death, destruction) without in-game money. That would make it ridiculously expensive. I'll probably have the money in a week or two. This is probably one of the most exciting games I've seen in a while.

 

[ThinClient]

Much thanks fallen, I was taking it that everything was enabled (death, destruction) without in-game money. That would make it ridiculously expensive. I'll probably have the money in a week or two. This is probably one of the most exciting games I've seen in a while.

Have you bothered looking at Elite Dangerous?

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I'd never heard of it but it looks pretty cool. Beta 3.0 apparently just came out. I'll look into it more.

 

[rivethead]

Bubbleawesome - you may want to wait a bit and/or do more research before diving in.

I agree that the RSI site is quite confusing to people new to the concept. I was overwhelmed (still am)....this message board and frequent posters on it have helped me a lot.

Note that EVERYTHING will be available for purchase with in-game money. Not just ships. Everything. That includes: space fish, space plants, space posters for your space hangar, space golf cart buggy thingies, hangars, guns, shields, insurance, gas, etc. etc.

From what I can tell, it will be possible to start Star Citizen without anything.....you'll simply be a crew man for hire on a multi-crew ship (gunner, navigator, engine room, shields, etc.). You'll get paid (maybe...depending on mission success and who you're dealing with). That payment can be saved or spent.

Also note that there are two games: Squadron 42 (the single player story which will be released in chapters over time) and Star Citizen (the multiplayer game everyone's so excited about). SQ42 will develop the backstory for "who" you are in SC....so they kind of go together.

But I would caution you here: the concept of these games are amazing and sound great. But there is still a BIG question as to can CIG deliver everything they've promised (and will promise)? And can they deliver it in a reasonable period of time?

I'm 44 and blessed with an high salary. Spending $45 for the Aurora LN back in June was not a big deal to me. I treated it more like a lottery ticket than anything else. But I have a 15 year old son and know firsthand that $45 is much different in his eyes. That's like 7 different Steam games during the Steam Holiday Sale!

So I would be cautious about your investment. Remember spending money today is essentially backing the development of a game that may (or may not) be released in the future.

Yes, there is a real chance that the games are never released or are released in much different forms than what's being marketed today.

My personal opinion is that we'll see something more likely in 2018 than 2016 and it'll have tons of cutting edge features.....but not nearly as grand as what's being touted today. "Feature creep" will strike. The guys building these games have eyes bigger than their stomachs (as the saying goes) and eventually (I hope) will be brought back to reality.

Again, just my opinion. Best of luck to you and please keep asking questions.

 

[ThinClient]

Bubbleawesome - you may want to wait a bit and/or do more research before diving in.

(... and the rest of it)

Excellent post.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Have you bothered looking at Elite Dangerous?

I'd never heard of it but it looks pretty cool. Beta 3.0 apparently just came out. I'll look into it more.

You should, it's all kinds of awesome. Beta 3 has a huge amount of changes and added features (and it looks even more purty, now, ESPECIALLY the planets and belts) It's not the same level of fidelity as SC, but it's definitely NOT a slouch in the purty department, and the sound engine is MUCH better than where SC is at right now. Elite Dangerous and SC are both amazing games to be following right now.