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Star Citizen Pre-Alpha: 'Arena Commander' Dogfighting

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D

Dictator93

Member
Zabojnik said:
The show could use a couple of professional hosts for sure, as long as it's not the you-know-which-guy, but I really don't feel like complaining. It's admirable that they're putting so much effort into the community stuff, even if it comes off as semi-amateurish sometimes. As long as they keep improving it, it's fine with me.
Click to expand...

OH I know.

I like the show's unprofessional nature tbh. The exact reason why WMH was so good-
 
M

Mister_Bubbles

Member
Zabojnik said:
It's admirable that they're putting so much effort into the community stuff, even if it comes off as semi-amateurish sometimes. As long as they keep improving it, it's fine with me.
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Absolutely - when I was watching last week's Around The Verse I was thinking how completely unlike any other game development this is, and how much of a good job they are doing with keeping the community informed and involved with such regularity - not to mention the massive forum presence from the various studios. It's very impressive.
 
kutthoat5150

kutthoat5150

Member
Retailiator cockpit, hard to tell from the pic but I really hope they stuck close to the initial concepts
10350349_734490989937523_3737976202097472516_n.jpg


RETALIATORcockpit-Copy-1024x645.jpg
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
Mister_Bubbles said:
Absolutely - when I was watching last week's Around The Verse I was thinking how completely unlike any other game development this is, and how much of a good job they are doing with keeping the community informed and involved with such regularity - not to mention the massive forum presence from the various studios. It's very impressive.
Click to expand...

What's even more impressive to me is the fact that they genuinely seem to be enjoying putting everything out in the open and feeding off the community's energetic response. Which is somewhat surprising, given the amount of vocal assholes that the internet tends to bring out. SC is no exception - quite the contrary. Some CIG employees are more comfortable with this approach than others, I'm sure, but in general they all seem to be the more than okay with it. There were a few instances with people complaining (sometimes rightfully, to be honest) where I thought they'd just go "fuck this shit, it's not worth it".

But no. If anything, they've expanded this development / PR philosophy and I think it's going to really pay off in the long term, even if it means shifting work priorities for the sake of public presentations and such, which in return likely means a longer development cycle. I wouldn't trade a couple of months or even a year of extra waiting for all the awesome stuff they've shared with the backers over the past two years. I feel like I have a much, much better insight into what goes into game development than I had at the beginning of this journey, including all the messiness that comes with setting up a new studio and a fully-fledged production pipeline. Not everybody cares about what goes on behind the curtains, but I, for one, I'm very much enjoying this crazy ride.
 
Ephemeris

Ephemeris

Member
Random Question time: Anyone have any ships they're looking to sell or was considering melting? I'd say trade, but I doubt anybody would want another Aurora : /

Edit : feel free to PM me
 
T

The Dear Leader

Banned
Ephemeris said:
Random Question time: Anyone have any ships they're looking to sell or was considering melting? I'd say trade, but I doubt anybody would want another Aurora : /
Click to expand...

I'll have an extra AMD Mustang Omega ship code when it launches (9/30, I believe it is), let me know if you're interested, I don't think I'll need two of them.
 
S

Skyzard

Banned
Not this weekend:

Greetings Citizen

This morning, we held a “go/no-go” meeting to discuss whether or not we could launch Arena Commander V0.9 today. The decision from the production team was that we are not go for release at this time. While we hope that today’s build will resolve some of the last remaining blockers we do not want to release a build that has not been thoroughly tested as these fixes may have had knock on effects. Additionally, Star Citizen’s team members have gone above and beyond lately so we didn’t want to make people work straight through the weekend again, as some worked over Labor Day and we’ll be immediately sprinting to V0.9.1 and ultimately V1.0. We know some will be disappointed not to play this weekend, but we’re also cautious about releasing an untested build to our community.

Last week, we had a number of backers asking about specific features planned for V0.9. Here’s the “short list,” which I think you will find represents a major step forward for Arena Commander!

• Murray Cup Racing Mode: As shown at Gamescom, players can now race their pledge ships in a specially designed upper-atmospheric scenario!
• Vanduul Swarm Co-Op: Take on the alien hoards with a friend, or competitor!
• Flyable M50 and 350R: The M50 and the 350R have been readied for flight to kick off the race mode. These ships will now be flyable in all Arena Commander game modes.
• Private Matches: Tired of being matched with random players in AC? Private matches will let you play with friends!
• Friend Codes: We’re launching a code system for both private and public matches so you can connect with your wingmen.
• Leaderboards: Your performance in Arena Commander’s various modes will display on the RSI website and allow you to compare with others.
• Updated Ship Performance: We’ve increased the speed and acceleration of every ship. With this we’ve also reworked the afterburner mechanic to increase acceleration instead of top speed.
• HUD Update: We’ve overhauled the usability of the visor HUD interface so you can customize your ships systems much more easily in flight.
• New Hangars: We’ve remastered all of Star Citizen’s Hangars with the new forward-looking room system and added the Asteroid Hangar.
• New Pause Menu: Our refactored pause menu is a large step forward ascetically and will support new features like custom keybindings in the future. In the meantime we’ve included selectable profiles for the most common peripherals.
• 6DOF: With the improvements to the IFCS and flight physics we are now ready to introduce 6DOF movement for an entirely new way to fly.

Some of these are big, headlining features that we know backers are eager to get their hands on; Like Murray Cup Racing and Vanduul Swarm Coop! The reality is that the less flashy features are some of the most important in the long run and also some of the most challenging. You’re seeing the individual atoms of the persistent universe coming together before your eyes. The Friend Code feature represents the first step towards connecting you with friends and organization members from the web platform in the game itself. Likewise the leaderboards involve building the platform/client connection that will someday let you interact with your character through the RSI website and will serve as the basis for stat tracking and rating based matchmaking!

Other features are a direct result of your feedback. The HUD improvement is designed to address how players have responded to HUD navigation and interaction. Every patch we release involves listening to our backers, watching them play and aiming to improve the experience. We hope that you will find the HUD much more user friendly, functional, and intuitive than it has been in previous iterations.

We’re also giving pilots more control over how they fly their ship. In addition to adding 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) controls pilots will now have the ability to “overboost” directional thrusters, at the expense of more fuel burn. This allows you to temporarily increase the thrust output of your maneuvering thrusters to better arrest undesirable angular velocity such as in a tight turn.

The physics modeling and damage feedback have also been improved. We’ve resolved some ongoing issues with the damage modeling but more importantly we also provided increased feedback to players on incoming damage and the direction it came from. You are now jostled in your ship based on the direction and power of a weapon impact. We have changed the g-force animations to more accurately reflect the physics g-force has on your character.

With a patch that adds so much and is thusly so complex as V0.9 issues are inevitably going to come up. Due to the diligent work of our team we have been able to solve most of the biggest blockers: leaderboards, rubber banding, stuttering in Vanduul Swarm Coop, and friend code issues. While these issues and a few other appear to be nearly resolved we need a couple more days to test and validate that our fixes haven’t created any new issues.

Our goal for V0.9 isn’t just to add exciting new features, it’s to keep improving every aspect of Arena Commander (and ultimately Star Citizen) based on your testing and feedback. We very much look forward to being able to share V0.9 with all of you as soon as it is proven to be stable enough to release. We are aiming for the middle of next week and we will update the community on Wednesday, September 10th about the status of the build if plans change. Until then we appreciate your patience and support as we engage in this open development process together.
Click to expand...

Was hoping to see custom controls for joysticks like I had read about. Was hoping to see more evidence of a persistent universe coming together but we got time I guess.
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
Man, I'm really itching for that HOTAS, even though I think I'll wait for 1.0 before giving Arena Commander a proper go. Is anyone here flying with an X55? How do you like it? Not just for SC, in general.
 
E

elyetis

Member
Sooo, a friend of mine just told me that even thought AC 0.9 isn't ready as the expected/hoped date, the Avenger won't be ready for it's release either ?

Is it actually true ?
 
S

SmartBase

Member
elyetis said:
Sooo, a friend of mine just told me that even thought AC 0.9 isn't ready as the expected/hoped date, the Avenger won't be ready for it's release either ?

Is it actually true ?
Click to expand...

I don't have a link but no it won't be ready for 0.9.

It's kind of amusing since it was the first vehicle showcased with PBR.
 
E

elyetis

Member
SmartBase said:
I don't have a link but no it won't be ready for 0.9.

It's kind of amusing since it was the first vehicle showcased with PBR.
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Ok..

I guess I was right to stop checking SC dev news after AC release, I would have facepalmed to death by now. But hey, at least I will be able to race... and loose to every decent M50 and 350r, releasing racing before a decent matchmaking /yay/ ( at least it made them understand how important it was to finaly put a decent 6DOF in I guess ).

0.9 seems to prove that AC release wasn't a special scenario, but a patern we will see for every step of Star Citizen development, late and with less feature than expected.
I hope I'm wrong, but at that point I don't think for a second that multi-crew will make it this year as it was said, I would put it as far as march.
 
D

Daedardus

Member
elyetis said:
Ok..

I guess I was right to stop checking SC dev news after AC release, I would have facepalmed to death by now. But hey, at least I will be able to race... and loose to every decent M50 and 350r, releasing racing before a decent matchmaking /yay/ ( at least it made them understand how important it was to finaly put a decent 6DOF in I guess ).

0.9 seems to prove that AC release wasn't a special scenario, but a patern we will see for every step of Star Citizen development, late and with less feature than expected.
I hope I'm wrong, but at that point I don't think for a second that multi-crew will make it this year as it was said, I would put it as far as march.
Click to expand...

If you did follow the dev news, you would know they are further along than they seem now. A big part of the team is working on things for 1.0 while a smaller part keeps working to fix the 0.9 release (the problem is mostly the leaderboard system). The release schedule isn't as linear as you think, at one point it will just come together faster than you'd expect. A car can't ride even though the only thing you have to do is the put the wheels on it.
 
E

elyetis

Member
Daedardus said:
If you did follow the dev news, you would know they are further along than they seem now. A big part of the team is working on things for 1.0 while a smaller part keeps working to fix the 0.9 release (the problem is mostly the leaderboard system). The release schedule isn't as linear as you think, at one point it will just come together faster than you'd expect. A car can't ride even though the only thing you have to do is the put the wheels on it.
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But at what point are we supposed to see that speed ? when would you say we can expect 1.0 ? then multicrew ?
While keeping in mind that mid august/gamescom :
0.9 in 2 weeks ( we are already past that, PAX / AC release the return of the vengeance, but we all knew it was coming )
1.0 in 8 weeks ( even with what you said should we still think that the 0.9 delay will have a 'linear' impact on 1.0 and be released 6 week after 0.9/not in 5 weeks now ? )
multicrew still hoping before 2014 ( don't remember how it was said exactly ).
 
D

Derp

Member
I'm thinking of buying into the game now.

If i buy a starter pack (with a 300i or something), and my ship gets "hijacked" (because apparently that's a thing):
1. Do i lose it forever? (I mean, all that money i spent on the ship would just disappear...)
2. Is there a way to not get hijacked?
3. Can i play offline so this doesn't happen? Any consequences for this?

Sorry... Just really curious... And frightened.
 
K

kase23

Member
Derp said:
I'm thinking of buying into the game now.

If i buy a starter pack (with a 300i or something), and my ship gets "hijacked" (because apparently that's a thing):
1. Do i lose it forever? (I mean, all that money i spent on the ship would just disappear...)
2. Is there a way to not get hijacked?
3. Can i play offline so this doesn't happen? Any consequences for this?

Sorry... Just really curious... And frightened.
Click to expand...

1. Your ship would come with a few months worth of insurance if it came from a starter pack, it covers theft and accidental loss, any cargo you were carrying would be lost forever though.
2. Don't pick up hitchhikers from remote star ports, stay out of the Stary Sobor system
3. Squadron 42 is the single player game akin to the old space sim's of the 90s ( x-wing, wing commander etc ) you can also host or play on private persistent universe servers if you want to.
 
Irobot82

Irobot82

Member
Derp said:
I'm thinking of buying into the game now.

If i buy a starter pack (with a 300i or something), and my ship gets "hijacked" (because apparently that's a thing):
1. Do i lose it forever? (I mean, all that money i spent on the ship would just disappear...)
2. Is there a way to not get hijacked?
3. Can i play offline so this doesn't happen? Any consequences for this?

Sorry... Just really curious... And frightened.
Click to expand...

The real answer is don't know the game isn't out yet. Speculating, most likely insurance will cover getting hijacked, though I would say I highly doubt it's worth anyone's time to try and do that to a 1 seater ship. The only offline will be single player story mode.
 
D

Derp

Member
kase23 said:
1. Your ship would come with a few months worth of insurance if it came from a starter pack, it covers theft and accidental loss, any cargo you were carrying would be lost forever though.
2. Don't pick up hitchhikers from remote star ports, stay out of the Stary Sobor system
3. Squadron 42 is the single player game akin to the old space sim's of the 90s ( x-wing, wing commander etc ) you can also host or play on private persistent universe servers if you want to.
Click to expand...
Oh wow. I also just did some googling and yeah, it seems pretty damn intense... Okay i think i'll pass. Having to maintain insurance and worrying about my ship disappearing would probably be too stressful/fustrating for me. And those prices... Jesus Christ.
 
Ephemeris

Ephemeris

Member
It's not quite "offline mode" but if you're worried about other players, I swore I read there was going to be a PvE - PvP slider in place for the PU .. where you can adjust how often you have a chance of encountering other players and such.

But like Irobot82 said, game isn't out / subject to change etc etc

quick edit: read more here.
 
D

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Derp said:
Oh wow. I also just did some googling and yeah, it seems pretty damn intense... Okay i think i'll pass. Having to maintain insurance and worrying about my ship disappearing would probably be too stressful/fustrating for me. And those prices... Jesus Christ.
Click to expand...

the insurance payment allegedly can be automatically withdrawn from your in-game spacebucks account. so you don't need to micromanage anything beyond "keep making money."
 
P

phoenixyz

Member
Danthrax said:
the insurance payment allegedly can be automatically withdrawn from your in-game spacebucks account. so you don't need to micromanage anything beyond "keep making money."
Click to expand...

Also CR said there will be some mechanic in place to not drain fees when you are not playing.
 
D

Daedardus

Member
It's the calm before the storm I guess? Even I have no idea when the 0.9 update will actually be out.

In other news, has anyone noticed we're about the hit 54 million in ~2 days. I'm feeling confident that we will reach the 100 million milestone in a year or two :). Still 400 million short of being the most expensive game though, gotta pledge more I guess.
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
This is pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjcCi6_jTLw

Daedardus said:
It's the calm before the storm I guess? Even I have no idea when the 0.9 update will actually be out.

In other news, has anyone noticed we're about the hit 54 million in ~2 days. I'm feeling confident that we will reach the 100 million milestone in a year or two :). Still 400 million short of being the most expensive game though, gotta pledge more I guess.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's in the cards for SC. Not its ... destiny, one could almost say. /leaves
 
S

Skyzard

Banned
Saitek Pro Flight Combat Rudder Pedals on their way today! Should be fun to get things going properly.

Also ordered just clip for the trackir from ebay, going to go look for a compatible ps3 eyetoy later on and try and get that free-track ir thing working later too.

But I needed those pedals, don't have twist on my stick (thrustmaster warthog).

I'm thinking yaw on the stick and roll on the pedals, might help with accuracy moving sideways.


-sorry just remembered people will be expecting news about 0.9...let's see if it's up.

Nope, not yet.
 
S

Skyzard

Banned
Update tomorrow:

Greetings Citizens,

Arena Commander V0.9 will release tomorrow! The QA team in Austin has just cleared a Release Candidate for liftoff. This version is currently being uploaded to the public release servers where it will be staged with publishing.

Why not release it tonight? Answering that question means going behind the scenes. Tonight’s version, now approved, is what we’re calling Release Candidate 2, or RC2. Since kicking off the build process for RC2 earlier today, we’ve made a number of additional bug fixes and improvements that we’d like to see included with the patch. Release Candidate 4 is currently building and will be available for QA in Manchester to test when they get to work in a few hours. This version will also be uploaded and staged later tonight. If Release Candidate 4 is also approved, we will release it instead of the version undergoing staging now. If it introduces unexpected bugs, then we will pull the trigger, make RC2 available tomorrow and integrate the last-minute changes in a future patch.

So check back tomorrow for the long-awaited update! Arena Commander V0.9 includes a multitude of new features, from co-op play to leaderboards to the Murray Cup racing simulator to the new Hangars, along with too many bug fixes to list! Starting tomorrow, you can expect a totally revamped Star Citizen experience. We’ll also have plenty of cool content on the website, including the M50 brochure and commercial, an updated Arena Commander manual and a post from design talking about the ship stat change process. The team is working tonight to have all the finishing touches on this material done, and it’s content we’re thrilled to share!

END TRANSMISSION
Click to expand...

I launched it anyway and it's downloading something 9mb ish...no patch notes

-gives me errors on startup and endless loading :/
 
kutthoat5150

kutthoat5150

Member
Daedardus said:
15GB patch? That's more than the game itself as it is now. How much is this game going to take up when it actually releases, 120GB?
Click to expand...

well from what I hear developers usually do the space compression near release to make the game smaller so I doubt they have done that yet
also it appears only a small number of users got the patch in time before CIG stopped the early release, so maybe they were lucky enough to get the real deal before everybody else

edit: this guy is streaming the new update here on twitch
http://www.twitch.tv/bod699
 
Z

Zabojnik

Member
Looking forward to see how it runs on my 'new' 770 GTX, if nothing else (until I get a HOTAS).

EDIT: watching that stream, some very excited people in there, lol.
 
Shrike Alvaron

Shrike Alvaron

Member
Aw shoot, it is? I had planned one last night wandering around my old deluxe hangar before the update :< Aw well, it's not like it was a very nice hangar, the new R&Y one looks to be leagues better.

Edit: Oh, seems that early release was unintentional.
 
U

Unhandled Exception

Member
It was a mistake, but if you cancelled the update following the 15 GB patch and launched the game you had access to some of the new things. Official update is still tomorrow.
 
E

elyetis

Member
19 & 21 said:
It was a mistake, but if you cancelled the update following the 15 GB patch and launched the game you had access to some of the new things. Official update is still tomorrow.
Click to expand...
As an european I'm kind of lost as to when "tomorow" is for that release. Friday ( Austin time ) or Saturday ?
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"As an european I'm kind of lost as to when "tomorow" is for that release. Friday ( Austin time ) or Saturday ?"

They say "morning" PST, so we're talking like under 12 hours assuming no hitches.
 
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