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Roberts on Star Citizen's work-in-progress flight model
If you're keeping up on Star Citizen current events, you probably know that there's been quite a debate brewing amongst the game's backers with respect to the controls and the flight model in the recently released Arena Commander module. Cloud Imperium has heard the feedback, and Chris Roberts has responded with a huge post that clarifies his goals for the game's Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) as well as the flight model going forward. If you're a flight sim fan, you'll likely find it fascinating reading. If not, the primary takeaway is that Roberts and CIG are confident in the direction of the model despite community concerns. As Roberts says, "a portion of our community clearly feels the current flight model is 'wrong.'" "We actually allow for a lot more variation and nuance in flight and combat than a simplified Wing Commander/X-Wing-style flight model," Roberts counters. "Like learning to drive a car really well... it requires some learning. You have to anticipate where you want to be and plan for it." He goes on to explain how most space games use an atmospheric flight baseline with predefined pitch, roll, and yaw rates as well as capped speeds and linear acceleration applied to a simplified mass point. "Star Citizen doesn't do that," he writes. "We model what would be needed on an actual spaceship, including correct application of thrust at the places where the thrusters are attached to the hull of the ship -- in our model moment of inertia, mass changes and counter thrust are very necessary. Star Citizen's physical simulation of spaceflight is based on what would actually happen in space."
Star Citizen begins AC multiplayer invites
It's been a busy week for Star Citizen. The crowdsourced space sim sandbox topped $46 million in funding, and Cloud Imperium Games began rolling out invites to the multiplayer portion of the recently released Arena Commander dogfighting module. The module also continues to be patched in order to address bugs and control issues. CIG also kicked off a new video show called Around the Verse. The first episode features a 40-minute running time and a sit-down with AC producer Travis Day. Finally, CIG chairman Chris Roberts penned his customary thank you letter after the $46 million milestone, in which he offered a sneak peek at the game's next in-universe spaceship commercial and made available a community poll relating to the continued use of project stretch goals. "When we started the Star Citizen campaign, the purpose of the stretch goals was to make things we had imagined but didn't think we could afford possible: adding capital ship systems, studying procedural generation, hiring additional artists to build more ships at once and the like," Roberts explained. "The additional funding continues to expand the scope of the game and make what we're doing possible... but it's becoming more and more difficult to quantify that with more stretch goals (and to explain that to the rest of the world, which likes to focus only on how much money we've made.)"
E3 2014: Hands-on with Star Citizen and a chat with Chris Roberts
Chris Roberts prefers a joystick or controller to the mouse and keyboard. This came up immediately upon meeting him for our Star Citizen demo/interview at this year's E3. As someone who's mainly watched news on the game from the sidelines, sitting in awe of what looks like a terribly complex title with tons of gameplay options, I was a bit intimidated going into this sit-down. But I came out of it feeling, well, relaxed.
Star Citizen tops $45 million, releases Freelancer commercial
It's been a while since we've seen a new spaceship commercial for Star Citizen. Given that Cloud Imperium is pimping the Freelancer this weekend, though, it's no surprise that the space big-rig now has its own in-universe advertisement. Genre mainstay Lance Henriksen does the voiceover honors, and there's a distinctive Firefly vibe to the whole clip, right down to the twangy guitar underneath. See for yourself after the break, and don't blink or you'll miss the Mother Trucker bumper decal! You might also want to read Chris Roberts' latest thank-you letter penned in response to Star Citizen breaking the $45 million crowdfunding barrier.
The Daily Grind: Are you still excited about crowdfunding?
I'm a big fan of crowdfunding. Middlemen bother me, both inside the gaming industry and out, and anything that allows creators to reach their audience with less interference from MBAs, marketers, and the like is a win in my book. That said, my personal crowdfunding honeymoon period is over. I'm finding myself more and more uninterested in betas, alphas, and backer-only pre-alpha stuff. Case in point is Star Citizen's recently released Arena Commander (or dogfighting module, if you prefer). I'm still a big fanboy, and as such I was excited to fire it up for the first time. I'm also appreciative of all the work that Cloud Imperium has done since the game was announced, but man I just don't want to play pre-release stuff! The stack of finished games on my desk is too large, as is the list of non-gaming hobbies, for me to waste time on buggy builds and feature sets that may change post-release. I'm not complaining, though, as the option to get in and see the development process is great. What about you, Massively readers? Are you still excited about crowdfunding? If so, do you get your hands dirty pre-release? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
CIG spotlighting Star Citizen's Freelancer this weekend
Cloud Imperium is spotlighting Star Citizen's Freelancer class hull this weekend, with a lengthy website update, one of those spiffy in-character ship brochures, and three new variants either available via a pre-release backer purchase or available to earn in the finished game. CIG has also patched Star Citizen's hangar module, so if you own one of the Freelancer variants you'll now be able to explore them to your heart's content (though you can't use them in the recently released dogfighting module just yet). The new variants include the DUR, custom fitted for exploration, the MIS, a missile boat design, and the MAX, a dedicated hauler with additional cargo space.
Star Citizen's monthly report, AC tutorial vid released
Cloud Imperium has had a busy couple of days, what with launching Star Citizen's long-awaited Arena Commander and all. Last night the firm also released its latest monthly studio report wherein CIG's development teams share their progress reports for the past 30 days. The devs also published a mouse-and-keyboard based flight tutorial for the new dogfighting module. You can view that after the cut.
Star Citizen's Arena Commander is live
Cloud Imperium has released Star Citizen's dogfighting module, more commonly known as Arena Commander. Qualified backers can now access the Vanduul Swarm and Freeflight modes using three different spacecraft: the Aurora, the 300i, and the Hornet. The current version includes limited multiplayer for a handful of backers in the form of the Battle Royale and Team modes. CIG says that these modes will open up to more players as it hunts down lag and synch issues. The announcement post also features a lengthy blurb from Chris Roberts on the future of open development as well as a poll to gauge interest in internal date targets. Finally, there's a launch trailer with gameplay footage after the cut! [Thanks everyone who tipped us!]
Space bugs delay Star Citizen dogfighting module
A series of bugs grounded this week's scheduled launch of Arena Commander, the space-based dogfighting module for Star Citizen. Project creator Chris Roberts revealed the delay in a blog post on the game's website, saying "it would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline." "I know that's not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would," he added. Roberts praised Star Citizen's crowdfunding model as part of the reason a delay was possible, citing quality as a main directive rather than a publisher's milestone calendar. "A publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality," Roberts wrote. "But as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable." Since its crowdfunding campaign began in October 2012, Star Citizen has amassed over $44 million from Kickstarter and from the game's own website.
Star Citizen's Arena Commander delayed
Despite the best efforts of a dev team that's been working around the clock for the past two weeks, Cloud Imperium has decided to delay today's planned Arena Commander release for Star Citizen. CIG's Chris Roberts offers a lengthy explanation on Star Citizen's official website, complete with a list of critical bugs soon to be squashed. It would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline. This is the power of the crowdfunding that made Star Citizen possible: a publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality... but as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable. I know that's not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would. This is what can happen with an open development process, especially when we are sharing code and content long before one normally would in traditional development. [Thanks Kommissar K!]
Star Citizen tops $44 million, talks trading, map rooms, and more
Star Citizen has topped $44 million in crowdfunding. As you might expect, Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts has penned a thank-you letter and it features a couple of interesting nuggets. First is the concept art, shown above, of a Banu Merchantman freighter. More specifically, you're looking at the negotiation room, and it exists so that traders can have other players visit their ships, display their wares via the visible cargo bay, and generally go about the business of being a trader. "Transporting cargo is going to be more complex than just finding the ship with the highest storage capacity," Roberts writes. "It's going to involve finding the right ship type for the job." In terms of the usual million-dollar milestone backer rewards, the latest unlock is a map room hangar add-on that will allow players to walk through a holographic representation of the known universe.
The Daily Grind: Do huge dev teams give you pause?
We recently discovered that the Skyforge dev team numbers nearly 300 people. Star Citizen's team is over 200. Those are pretty crazy numbers, even for alleged AAA games and even for full-featured massively multiplayer online things. Taking into account that budgets vary wildly from project to project and company to company, do large numbers of devs on an MMO project give you pause? Why or why not? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Citizen's Arena Commander is launching on May 29th
Star Citizen fans, mark your calendars for May 29th. If all goes well, you'll be playing at least a single-player version of Arena Commander as Cloud Imperium begins to roll out portions of its long-awaited dogfighting module. CIG chairman Chris Roberts has posted his weekly recap, which contains the tentative date and a preview of what to expect. "The goal is that every backer will have access to the single-player Free Flight and Vanduul Swarm games mode on this day, and the very first batch of multiplayer testers will get access to the game's multiplayer game modes," Roberts writes. "We will scale up the multiplayer as quickly as possible starting on that date, increasing the number of players as it is stable and stopping to fix bugs where needed." There's much more to the weekly studio report, so click through to the Roberts Space Industries website to read it!
Braben on Elite's GTA successors and friendly competition with Star Citizen
Space sims are in vogue again, thanks in large part to crowdfunded darlings like Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen. Prior to the past couple of years, though, the genre was basically dead in the water aside from occasional indie gems. Elite mastermind David Braben says the lull happened because game devs and publishers lost sight of the freedom that defines space sims. "The true successors to Elite and Frontier were the Grand Theft Auto games. For me, the setting is secondary to the feeling of freedom," Braben recently told Tech Radar. "The success of the Elite series has always been based on the freedom that players are given. It's all about individual choice in an open world -- you don't select 'pirate' or 'bounty hunter' or 'trader' from a list, you simply do what you want and events will unfold accordingly." Braben also addresses the "friendly competition" between Elite and Star Citizen, saying that he and Chris Roberts are "both alpha backers of each other's games and both want the other to succeed."
Star Citizen hires former D3, WoW producer
Crowdfunded space sim sandbox Star Citizen has a new executive producer. Effective immediately, former Diablo III and World of Warcraft producer Alex Mayberry is joining Cloud Imperium Games. "After 10 years at Blizzard, I didn't think that there was anything that could ever get me to leave," said Mayberry via press release. "But then Chris invited me to come check out Star Citizen, and after seeing the game and listening to Chris talk about his vision, I knew that I had to be a part of it. Star Citizen is bold and ambitious, with a unique and innovative approach to game development. I am extremely excited to be joining the talented people at Cloud Imperium Games, and I strongly believe that together, with Chris Roberts' direction and the support of the player community, we will set a new standard for AAA games." Click past the cut for the full release.
Star Citizen's latest video Q&A talks used ships, collisions, and more
Will Star Citizen's dogfighting module feature collision damage? Will the game allow you to buy used ships from other players? Will you be able to name your ship (and will said name be visible to other pilots)? These and seven other gameplay questions are answered by Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts in the latest episode of 10 for the Chairman. The answers are yes, yes, yes (and yes), if you don't have time to watch the video embedded after the break.
Stick and Rudder: How Star Citizen is turning the game industry on its ear
When this column began, the first thing I talked about was Star Citizen's then-unique development model and how important it was both for fans and the game industry as a whole. Over a year later, the jury's still out on whether or not Cloud Imperium's opus will bring balance to the Force and give starving hardcores a home of their own. It's already safe to say that Star Citizen has turned the industry on its ear, though.
Star Citizen issues its monthly report to backers and fans
As they do every month, Star Citizen's studio leads have just posted the latest report for Cloud Imperium's upcoming sci-fi sandbox. The highlights? Dogfight Producer and holder of one of the most epic job titles ever Travis Day recaps the Arena Commander demo at PAX and discusses technical strides made by his team. Austin director Eric Peterson details work on overall code integration, the planetside module, and the persistent universe part of the game. Manchester lead Erin Roberts steps up to talk Squadron 42 and capital ship controls. Other team leads mention work on art, audio, finalizing multi-orgs membership, and at least a million other things. It's probably more information than anyone but Massively's Jef wants to know, but hey, if you wanted transparency, this newsletter is it.
Another month, another $2 million for Star Citizen
The last time we checked in on crowdfunding success story Star Citizen, Chris Roberts' space epic had pulled in over $41 million. Now that total has surpassed $43 million. Like previous earnings landmarks, that figure brings with it a new content addition for the long-awaited game. In this case, all backers will receive a gratis set of marine combat armor within Star Citizen. According to the lore description offered by Roberts Space Industries, the Omni Role Combat Armor mk9 offers mid-range protective capabilities, though it warns that for ultimate protection it's best to simply just avoid firefights. That seems like solid life advice in general. Having already surpassed so many funding goals, Roberts Space Industries is now looking ahead to the seemingly inevitable $45 million mark where players will unlock the mysterious Hadesian Artifact. Instead of a useful item, Roberts describes the Artifact as "a puzzle players will someday compete to solve," though he makes no mention of how or why. Those wondering how the Star Citizen development team has spent all that money should view the above footage. Released at last month's PAX East conference, that video serves as the first, and so far only, in-game look at Star Citizen. [Image: Cloud Imperium Games]
Star Citizen tops $43 million, Roberts talks Gladius and combat armor
Guess what folks? Star Citizen is still making money. Chris Roberts' latest Letter from the Chairman celebrates the $43 million stretch goal achievement, which adds a set of marine combat armor to each backer's account. The letter also details the Gladius light fighter, which became a thing when SC broke the $42 million barrier. The Gladius is "an older fighter that doesn't have the arms and armor of a Hornet... but that can maneuver and strike quickly," Roberts writes. Click through the links below to see the work-in-progress screens and read the full letter. Don't forget to click past the cut and watch Roberts field backer questions in the latest episode of 10 for the Chairman.
