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STAR CITIZEN, Chris Roberts' (Wing Commander) New Game [$25 million funded]

M

MisterAnderson

Member
Damnit. I hate being so indecisive. I really would like to give them my monies and get the Rear Admiral package for the Constellation, but on the other hand getting that ship off the bat almost feels like cheating to me.

I wonder how long it would take to save up to get the Constellation with in game credits? I can't decide between the Hornet package or the Constellation...DECISIONS.
First world problems.
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
MisterAnderson said:
Damnit. I hate being so indecisive. I really would like to give them my monies and get the Rear Admiral package for the Constellation, but on the other hand getting that ship off the bat almost feels like cheating to me.

I wonder how long it would take to save up to get the Constellation with in game credits? I can't decide between the Hornet package or the Constellation...DECISIONS.
First world problems.
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Haha. I think Chris mentioned something like 60 hours of gameplay to earn enough money for a ship like the Constellation, but it's a very rough estimate. Could be 20, 40, 80. It's too soon to tell. It's not a cheap ship, for obvious reasons.

If you really can't decide, my suggestion would be to get the Hornet package for now. If you change your mind later on and decide you want a Stella, you'll be able to melt the Hornet down for cash on the new website (100$), add 125$ and buy the Constellation. No LTI in that case, but still.
 
S

spindoctor

Member
MisterAnderson said:
Thanks for that. Also one more quick question; Are these "pledge" ships only offered through these specific packages? For example, could I pledge for the 'Digital Colonel' for $125 which gets me the Hornet, then use cash/credits/whatever to get the Constellation that ends up in total cheaper than the cost of the 'Rear Admiral' package for $275 which gives me the Constellation? I only ask because the only reason I'm interested in the Rear Admiral package is for that ship, the other bonus stuff doesn't really concern me.

Is the Lifetime Insurance applicable to other ships purchased in this time period, or only the pledge ship included in whichever package you buy?
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You need to buy at least one package to get the game. You can then buy addon ships without spending extra for multiple packages. So in your case, you could get

Rear admiral ($275) + Hornet addon ship ($110) or
Digital colonel ($125) + Constellation addon ($225).

The second option is cheaper if you're not interested in the extra stuff. Both will get you the two ships you're after.

As for LTI, it will be valid on any ship you purchase until 26th November 2013 as long as you get in an initial pledge before July 6th.

Grief.exe said:
Any information on whether this game will be available on Steam?
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No concrete plans for this yet but Chris Roberts has mentioned that he and Gabe are old friends and he does not anticipate any problems in getting the game on Steam should they choose to.

Zabojnik said:
If you really can't decide, my suggestion would be to get the Hornet package for now. If you change your mind later on and decide you want a Stella, you'll be able to melt the Hornet down for cash on the new website (100$), add 125$ and buy the Constellation. No LTI in that case, but still.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, your backer status will be baked into your account info when the new site goes live. Meaning even if you melt the pledge that got you your original or veteran backer status, you will still be recognized as one and hence an upgrade like the one you mentioned will still give you LTI.
 
S

spindoctor

Member
They've raised over $500,000 since the promo went live last Friday. Between this and the livestream, I'm expecting them to get over a million dollars this week alone.
 
I

injurai

Banned
I wonder why other Kickstarts don't have such an active campaign. Maybe it's because they need to know the finite scope before going into game design and SC will have the wide open modular free play where its all about excess content. But damn they've raised like 5 million since I was last actively following them.
 
R

Raticus79

Seek victory, not fairness
spindoctor said:
As for LTI, it will be valid on any ship you purchase until 26th November 2013 as long as you get in an initial pledge before July 6th.
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Good to know!

I'm up in the air about the constellation. I would have expected the cargo capacity to be a lot higher. 35 vs 5 in the "racing" model? Doesn't really add up
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
spindoctor said:
From what I've read, your backer status will be baked into your account info when the new site goes live. Meaning even if you melt the pledge that got you your original or veteran backer status, you will still be recognized as one and hence an upgrade like the one you mentioned will still give you LTI.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes, you're right. Even better then. If you're happy with the game + extra content that's included in the Hornet package, but want a Constellation with LTI instead (down the road, if you're strapped for cash right now / unsure), that's the cheapest way to go about it.

injurai said:
I wonder why other Kickstarts don't have such an active campaign. Maybe it's because they need to know the finite scope before going into game design and SC will have the wide open modular free play where its all about excess content. But damn they've raised like 5 million since I was last actively following them.
Click to expand...

That's about it, yeah. As much as they've raised, it's still not enough for what they have in mind. The plan was to bring in private investors, but since the fans' response was/is overwhelming, the goal is now to fully crowdfund an AAA MMO space-sim by getting as close as possible to the ~20M$ needed and be more or less completely free of outside influence.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Zabojnik said:
That's about it, yeah. As much as they've raised, it's still not enough for what they have in mind. The plan was to bring in private investors, but since the fans' response was/is overwhelming, the goal is now to fully crowdfund an AAA MMO space-sim by getting as close as possible to the ~20M$ needed and be more or less completely free of outside influence.
Click to expand...

oh wow they need 20M? I hope they make it. They are still a ways away from that.
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
injurai said:
oh wow they need 20M? I hope they make it. They are still a ways away from that.
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According to Chris Roberts they have private investors lined up, but he'd rather not take their money or take as little as possible, as it comes with strings attached. Not creative ones, but strings nonetheless.
 
B

Boogdud

Member
I can totally see why they no longer make epic space-sim games anymore. I'm sure the industry sees this as well and they're glad they don't have any in the works.

Disney, I hope you're paying attention and you pull that "Tie Fighter" folder out of the cabinet you moved to your office from Lucasarts.


On a more on topic note, I am just blown away by how much fan support this project is getting. I can't believe how much money I've dropped on something I have basically zero knowledge of outside of a guy talking at me on a youtube video and some pie in the sky vision about a neato space game.

In the beginning I just wanted this project to get enough interest to actually get made. Now, I want it to tear a hole in the pc gaming universe. What? Unrealistic?


also: please don't turn into mwo.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Zabojnik said:
According to Chris Roberts they have private investors lined up, but he'd rather not take their money or take as little as possible, as it comes with strings attached. Not creative ones, but strings nonetheless.
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oh gotcha. Man they really have thought of everything.
 
B

Boogdud

Member
Zabojnik said:
What's MWO's problem? Haven't been following that game at all.
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This is just my opinion, but it seems like an immense cash grab.

People paid almost $120 for a founders package 2 years ago, the game is still in beta and they just added another tier of mechs before it's out of beta where you can't buy the heavy without buying all 4 (for $80). Not to mention, there have been tons of pay store additions (mech customization items, hanging dashboard things, paint etc.) to the game while the gameplay is still stuck in the 2 shallow modes from the original beta release. Still no community warfare, still no voice chat, UI is still in 1.0. Heck they still haven't delivered on all of the promises from the founder's pack, yet they're releasing more paid content to scoop up.

Basically, I can't say I blame them. What is the incentive to finish out the game types and gameplay elements when people happily give you $20-100 for a coat of paint and hula girl on your dashboard?

It's just a disturbing trend with these extremely premium cost F2P games it seems. All of the dev work seems to go to frivolous cash grab items while the game remains stagnant in key areas.

That's what I'm hoping SC does not become.
 
D

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Boogdud said:
This is just my opinion, but it seems like an immense cash grab.

People paid almost $120 for a founders package 2 years ago, the game is still in beta and they just added another tier of mechs before it's out of beta where you can't buy the heavy without buying all 4 (for $80). Not to mention, there have been tons of pay store additions (mech customization items, hanging dashboard things, paint etc.) to the game while the gameplay is still stuck in the 2 shallow modes from the original beta release. Still no community warfare, still no voice chat, UI is still in 1.0. Heck they still haven't delivered on all of the promises from the founder's pack, yet they're releasing more paid content to scoop up.

Basically, I can't say I blame them. What is the incentive to finish out the game types and gameplay elements when people happily give you $20-100 for a coat of paint and hula girl on your dashboard?

It's just a disturbing trend with these extremely premium cost F2P games it seems. All of the dev work seems to go to frivolous cash grab items while the game remains stagnant in key areas.

That's what I'm hoping SC does not become.
Click to expand...

I don't think it will. It seems like SC is getting a normal development path and is being headed up mostly by ex-Origin guys who know how to make a game. It won't be cash-strapped because if the crowdfunding ever dries up, there are investors who will step in. So all the development time won't have to be spent on releasing expensive doodads to gouge people for.

The crowdfunding has progressed with very few incentives over the last seven months. Twice there have been mini campaigns in which a ship that was already available at any time to donors is offered, but with more of an advertised push and with a few upgraded packages that add some weapons and whatnot to the base ship. It hasn't felt like a cash grab so far.
 
B

Boogdud

Member
That Idris looks amazing. But honestly, how in the hell are they going to pull that off? 5-8 people crew, with 2-3 fighter bays? I mean, there's ambitious and there's this. Will there be a machine that can run this thing in any acceptable manner?

I'm hoping that throwing the term "simulation" around, doesn't mean what it meant back in the days of yore. ie) there's a lot of detail but the cost is, this thing is going to run at 10fps.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Boogdud said:
That Idris looks amazing. But honestly, how in the hell are they going to pull that off? 5-8 people crew, with 2-3 fighter bays? I mean, there's ambitious and there's this. Will there be a machine that can run this thing in any acceptable manner?

I'm hoping that throwing the term "simulation" around, doesn't mean what it meant back in the days of yore. ie) there's a lot of detail but the cost is, this thing is going to run at 10fps.
Click to expand...

they have already mentions that most of the world is empty space, so achieving these visuals isn't super hard for medium cut gaming pcs.

Also Occlusion Culling exists in all modern engines, so you won't be rending out everything at once.

If your talking about orchestrating the manning of this ship I'm pretty sure every ship has some sort of auto-crew feature so It can be piloted on a 1 man skeleton crew.
 
B

Boogdud

Member
injurai said:
they have already mentions that most of the world is empty space, so achieving these visuals isn't super hard for medium cut gaming pcs.

Also Occlusion Culling exists in all modern engines, so you won't be rending out everything at once.

If your talking about orchestrating the manning of this ship I'm pretty sure every ship has some sort of auto-crew feature so It can be piloted on a 1 man skeleton crew.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was talking pretty much in terms of performance. Even though it's a year or more out, I just don't see it being feasible. I'm trying to keep my realist hat on here and not get all googly-eyed at concepts and hyperbole because how many games have we seen that promise the world and even give us dev shots that look spectacular and end up not delivering? Especially when they're mmo-type games. I just don't see how something like this is going to work in the 'real world'. This is a corvette, imagine a carrier or a battleship. There's a whole level's worth of polys in the vette model alone, a moving level, occupied by playable characters, with weapons and systems of it's own.

I'm not trying to be a downer, but I think there needs to be some tempering of expectations here. Is the crysis 3 engine some marvel of multiplayer technology to allow for this kind of fidelity and detail in a highly populated environment? I genuinely don't know.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Boogdud said:
Yeah, I was talking pretty much in terms of performance. Even though it's a year or more out, I just don't see it being feasible. I'm trying to keep my realist hat on here and not get all googly-eyed at concepts and hyperbole because how many games have we seen that promise the world and even give us dev shots that look spectacular and end up not delivering? Especially when they're mmo-type games. I just don't see how something like this is going to work in the 'real world'. This is a corvette, imagine a carrier or a battleship. There's a whole level's worth of polys in the vette model alone, a moving level, occupied by playable characters, with weapons and systems of it's own.

I'm not trying to be a downer, but I think there needs to be some tempering of expectations here. Is the crysis 3 engine some marvel of multiplayer technology to allow for this kind of fidelity and detail in a highly populated environment? I genuinely don't know.
Click to expand...

I'm not worried about performance or even gameplay. I'm worried about infrastructure and macro level game experiences. Seeing as these features have never really been attempted before. Should still be fun no matter what.
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
Boogdud said:
I'm not trying to be a downer, but I think there needs to be some tempering of expectations here. Is the crysis 3 engine some marvel of multiplayer technology to allow for this kind of fidelity and detail in a highly populated environment? I genuinely don't know.
Click to expand...

We'll just have to wait and see. CR and crew seem confident enough. As for fidelity and detail ... well, Chris did show off the Bengal carrier in the early demo and that seemed pretty 'realistic' to me. Like, I can see it working. The Idris corvette is supposedly smaller, so ...
 
S

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
I backed this during the kickstarter campaign... Haven't followed info much except for the emails. Didn't realize there was a thread om GAF. Is there anything important I missed that I really need to know?

For now, subbed!
 
D

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Smiley90 said:
You do realize just dropping that term doesn't help me at all, right? :p What is it?

EDIT: I love how you put it in 3 separate places, so it seems important. :p
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One of the pledge ships has been a "luxury" interceptor called the Origin 300i. For the last week, CIG has done a mini-campaign in which people can upgrade their 300is to a package with some extra weapons, gear and a paint job already equipped. Those are called the 315p and 325a. They billed this like different models of a base automobile and even made a car-like commercial for it, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBef4GUdUuk

There's also another model that uses a little different body (another thruster, less cargo room and weapons) called the 350r. It's meant for racing.

Also during the campaign, people have been able to pledge for one of these 300 series ships and get a copy of the game, access to the beta, etc.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Site down for maintenance, can we still pledge tomorrow and get the LTI?

6Y0JGWg.png
 
S

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Zod the Bear said:
Livestream tomorrow, NHL draft on Sunday.

Saturday will be my only productive day this weekend. Tomorrow should be pretty fun though!
Click to expand...

You! I recognize you. Draft will be good.

What time does the livestream happen tomorrow? Will there be a recording of it online later?
 
Z

Zod the Bear

Member
Wingman's Hangar starts at noon eastern tomorrow, with the livestream starting at 1, and going 24 hours.

I never found a full recording from the first livestream afterward, but they've shown some segments (like the Lamp stuff) in later Hangar episodes.

All of the information from the stream will be compiled everywhere, though. Star Citizen Library is a pretty good resource--he goes through every video they release and summarizes the new info with links back to the videos as references. He's apparently liveblogging the livestream, so all the info should be compiled there as people are getting off of work.

The first livestream had time sensitive sales for limited release ships, which is the main loss to not watching it live. If you're not planning on pledging any more though, it's not a problem.
 
S

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Mhmmm thanks a lot! I'll go check out some of the old stuff when home. Probably won't get to watch the livestream until 10 PST, but oh well. Does the time-sensitive stuff run all 24h, or is hour by hour? E.g. Ship x on sale from 1-2, ship y from 2-3, etc?

I might be interested in upgrading my pledge... After reading up a bit more.
 
Z

Zod the Bear

Member
I didn't watch it, but I think there were some ships that were only available for a window of a few hours (I think the Starfarer--a fuel tanker, was an example of this.)

I originally was going to stick with the starter Aurora, but ended up upgrading to a Hornet.
 
S

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
If I upgrade my original kickstarter pledge/add ships to it, do those extra ships get LTI/free garage space as well? Or only the ships I backed while the kickstarter was still going on?

Damn the website being down on the day that I'm finding this thread :lol
 
Z

Zod the Bear

Member
There's a grace period after the stream, so you should be good through...July 5th?

There's an article explaining the timelines with LTI for people depending on when they backed, so you can check that out tomorrow night when the website's back up. You're good through next week, at least, though.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Article posted on Joystiq

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/chris-roberts-can-build-you-a-star-citizen-space-fighter-for-35/

"It can be anywhere from $35,000 to $150,000," Roberts says, speaking to the development cost associated with "a single ship."

The ship's price considers multiple factors: the time and money spent by his team to model the object and the care taken to ensure everything within that item functions realistically. Thirty-five thousand dollars, Roberts says, is the price associated with building a small space fighter, composed of animated dashboard displays and moving parts within and out. Larger carriers, like the kilometer-long Bengal Class ship featured in the prototype version of the game and showcased as part of the crowdfunding campaign, inch closer to the $150,000 mark.
Click to expand...
 
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