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Star Citizen Pre-Alpha: 'Arena Commander' Dogfighting

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tuxfool

Banned
I want to assume that's a mashup of assets + concept art, but SC has fooled me before. The silhouettes of the cities in the background look drawn, though.

Yeah. One of the artists recently did a presentation a Gnomon showing how the concept art gets created out of 3d models.
 

Galava

Member
Is the Baby PU/Crusader system officially set for 2016? All I recall from the Citizencon presentations was some vague "soon"-ness. I was hoping that's for this year =X.

Star Citizen 2.0 (baby PU/crusader system) is due before end of year. Chris Roberts' brother just said it might be a few weeks away. (cross fingers for late november release, with Star Marine launching in january).
 

aliengmr

Member
When they were talking about it at citizencon it seemed to me Roberts really wanted to say the PU would be out sooner than anyone expected. Just my impression. And based on earlier talk of wanting to get something out the door, it makes sense.
 

Zabojnik

Member
I had a feeling it might be sooner than expected when Chris almost spilled the beans at CitizenCon, but then thought better of it, lol. Soon(tm).

EDIT: Goddamit, aliengmr.
 
All I know is the AC and the game needs a massive update. AC and the build we have now is basically the build before the 6 month fork. It is missing so much in terms of tech, smoothness, animations, QOL, etc.

I mean, half the time when I fire a missile it takes about 7 secs for it to actually launch... and when it hits, it does not even have an explosion.
 

tuxfool

Banned
When they were talking about it at citizencon it seemed to me Roberts really wanted to say the PU would be out sooner than anyone expected. Just my impression. And based on earlier talk of wanting to get something out the door, it makes sense.

I had a feeling it might be sooner than expected when Chris almost spilled the beans at CitizenCon, but then thought better of it, lol. Soon(tm).

EDIT: Goddamit, aliengmr.

In terms of completion it probably looks soon™, but things can always happen on the way. The realist in me is thinking that it will break in spectacular ways before going live for real.
 

Zabojnik

Member
All I know is the AC and the game needs a massive update. AC and the build we have now is basically the build before the 6 month fork. It is missing so much in terms of tech, smoothness, animations, QOL, etc.

I mean, half the time when I fire a missile it takes about 7 secs for it to actually launch... and when it hits, it does not even have an explosion.

Exactly why I'm waiting for S42 to really take the plunge. Until then I'm content to live vicariously. Although resisting flying in the baby PU won't be easy.
 

mnannola

Member
Star Citizen 2.0 (baby PU/crusader system) is due before end of year. Chris Roberts' brother just said it might be a few weeks away. (cross fingers for late november release, with Star Marine launching in january).

I think Star Citizen 2.0 includes Star Marine doesn't it?
 
I think Star Citizen 2.0 includes Star Marine doesn't it?

Ben clarified this. The Bably PU, Alpha 2.0, etc... whatever you wanna call it contains Star Marine elements, guns, FPS stuff that is integrated so far (minus jukes and all the nice animations though) but does not have star marine. Star marine is the original systems arena FPS mode.

So whatever FPS you engage in while playing the alpha 2.0 will probably look really janky. Star Marine will probably the polished non-janky thing that comes out later.
 

Irobot82

Member
Ben clarified this. The Bably PU, Alpha 2.0, etc... whatever you wanna call it contains Star Marine elements, guns, FPS stuff that is integrated so far (minus jukes and all the nice animations though) but does not have star marine. Star marine is the original systems arena FPS mode.

So whatever FPS you engage in while playing the alpha 2.0 will probably look really janky. Star Marine will probably the polished non-janky thing that comes out later.

Ok, does Baby PU contain Multi-crew ships?
 

Zalusithix

Member
Created a ship map in the roster sheet. Kind of acts as a spacial visualization of the breakdown of the different manufacturers and ships that we have. Similar ships are lumped together, but if you click on the series, it'll bring up the the breakdown of the individual models.

Edit: I should probably mention that right clicking brings you back up level after diving into a category.

Edit 2: And if you're too lazy to bring up the roster, here's a cap of the top level giving a general idea of what we know right now.
mSkOhQl.png
 

aliengmr

Member
In terms of completion it probably looks soon™, but things can always happen on the way. The realist in me is thinking that it will break in spectacular ways before going live for real.

Ohh I expect it to be quite broken in many ways when it arrives. In fact I'm hoping its a fucking mess. The PU is going to be the foundation and I personally think early access does build a better sandbox experience. It'll also tangentially help SQ42 which needs to stay under wraps for a bit longer.

I worry that too many people would be frustrated in the beginning but I honestly believe the end result would be better for it.
 

Gwarf

Banned
Okay, I have been on vacation for 5 days so I am just catching up on everything.

AMAZING! The speech was great. The animations are great. Actors are great.

But the map! THE MAP!

LET ME LOAD A SHIP WITH CARGO AND GO!




I could look at this all day.


Also, to the haters:

I would buy this gamer to interact with these actors alone. Honestly, if it was super janky and weird it might only make it better and humorous. Like having fun with old school characters in Goldeneye. (STILL A GAME GUYS, not real life)


Also Also, to those always comparing the game to Elite... Stawwwp. I love Elite as well. There is plenty of room for different space sims and experiences.
 

RK9039

Member
Baby PU in 2015? Omg.

He did imply they hope to 'release it... inside, inside' 2015 I imagined, because he made it sound like it's going to be very soon.
 
I cannot understand any criticism regarding the facial rigging or shading. The fact that it is in production and looks the way it does is fantastic.

I am not sure what other games people are playing and comparing with... I would really like to see some direct slow motion comparisons of anything anyone thinks is better. Because I scarcely believe anyone is being genuine when they say it looks like playdough, is full-uncanny valley, etc.
 

epmode

Member
The thing that weirded me out about the speech is that the voice didn't look like it went with the face. Yes, I know the character is modeled after Oldman's face. Still didn't sound right.
 
The thing that weirded me out about the speech is that the voice didn't look like it went with the face. Yes, I know the character is modeled after Oldman's face. Still didn't sound right.

Oldman's voice (which was not his normal voice, but some sort of acted voice) or the lip sync?
 
I cannot understand any criticism regarding the facial rigging or shading. The fact that it is in production and looks the way it does is fantastic.
Yeah for an in-progress thing it looks amazing at this point.
The thing that weirded me out about the speech is that the voice didn't look like it went with the face. Yes, I know the character is modeled after Oldman's face. Still didn't sound right.
I agree with this. His voice sounded odd to me.

I also think the cinematography wasn't all that great.
 

Zabojnik

Member
I'm also not sure what people have against the Morrow tour. Everything looks fucking great. The whole landing / entrance scene, the deck, etc. considering they had people working on it until the very last minute. It's WIP, actual WIP, not "well, it's a [three months before release] beta, they'll probably fix it before launch", which they almost never do.

High expectations are perfectly fine, given how Chris likes to talk about this stuff, but like ... if people think a crowd funded videogame, however well funded, is going to break the uncanny valley curse, when two hour long movies with infinitely higher budgets [for that one specific aspect] can't do it ... well, think again. Long and hard.
 
I don't really have anything against what was shown, I was just expecting a lot more of it. I thought we'd get at least a full mission playthrough with combat and flying around, not just walking around a big ship with people talking (sometimes not quite =P) at you.
 

Zabojnik

Member
The voice really grew on me after a couple of rewatches. I'd be disappointed if he sounded different in the final game now, haha. It's certainly a distinct voice. I mean, that's how Oldman sounds like and he's 57. Though I suppose he could do with a bit of grey hair. :p

I don't really have anything against what was shown, I was just expecting a lot more of it. I thought we'd get at least a full mission playthrough with combat and flying around, not just walking around a big ship with people talking (sometimes not quite =P) at you.

Yeah, I get that. I guess I'm just really hyped that we're finally getting a proper space game. With actual space, not another Mass Effect. I see the ships in the cutscene and I get excited because I know it could be me piloting them. It still feels like a dream sometimes. I was quite certain we'd never see another big budget space sim.
 
Sean Tracy responds to criticisms of Gary Oldman's face in Bishop Speech (and Morrow tour).

Basically, he worked on Ryse and said that it takes a long time to get each face to the quality that Ryse had (about 1 year to get all the faces in Ryse to their quality), whereas CIG has only put in 4 months of work so far and only a few weeks specifically for Admiral Bishop.

Which is amazing because it already looks fantastic.

Well, glad it wasn't just me. I don't really have any doubt that they'll nail it in the end, though.
 

tuxfool

Banned
I thought the Ryse stuff was also real time. In that comment he mentions that the cutscenes are pre rendered. Anyone with Ryse care to clarify?
 
I still think it is just the camera work! ;D

True, I was thinking that something about that angle was unflattering or just made him look weird. Either way, I'm glad they acknowledged the criticism.

I really do hope they get the input of some actual industry cinematographers and editors when creating their cinematics, if they haven't already (dat Serkis connection).
 
I thought the Ryse stuff was also real time. In that comment he mentions that the cutscenes are pre rendered. Anyone with Ryse care to clarify?

There are only a handful of "real time" cutscenes in Ryse. As the game starts on the bridge of rome, entering the chamber with nero, crossing the bridge in britania. They still have the same quality facial animation as the "pre-rendered" scenes though.

The rest are pre-rendered scenes rendered out of cinebox (apparently with 2X SSAA according to Crytek presentations). The assets and animations in them are totally doable in real time though for the most part... though they may add many more light sources and some techniques which would grind real time performance down: way more hand placed shadow casting lights, mirror reflections, etc... (those would grind CE down to a halt in RT).

Though! What I think he is more so alluding to is that they had months to perfect scene lighting and camera work...
 
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