The Glade 4.0

Hehe. I think it says something about this game that I'm already dreaming up squadron logos I'd want to plaster on the side of my ship. And nose art. Man, I wish I were an artist.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Let me know if I showed up as a referalee or something. I would show up as Fletcher (call sign named after my dog) or Airworthy.

And I just broke down and registered a domain name after said squadron. I probably won't do anything with it for the near future, but...

As a more substantial update, go feast your eyes on our concept artists' resumes/portfolios.

Ryan Church
Jim Martin

So many pretties.

Thanks, Lonedar. It doesn't say who my referrals are, but it is saying I've got one, so it looks like it linked up fine.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

There's a big long Comm-Link entry on how Multi-player, Single-player, and Instancing will work and mesh up today.

It's definitely worth a read if you're curious, though it pretty much confirmed most of my initial interpretations of his prior statements. It's great as a cohesive description that you don't have to go hunting around for smaller snippets and draw your own conclusions from, though.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

So what are my fellow Star Citizen-followers looking forward to?

Plying the trade lanes to make an honest living?
Bringing the scum of the galaxy to old-West style justice by taking bounties?
Defending the earnest traders and miners from pirates in dangerous sectors as escorts-for-hire?
Selling your guns to the highest bidder on either side of the law?
Bribing customs officials and dodging cargo-scanning inspection patrols as a smuggler?
Or terrorizing the void as fearsome pirates yourself?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Me, I'm looking forward to a more trade/exploration role in the persistent world. I am somewhat of a wanderer when it comes to my gaming, and I end up poking my nose into every nook and cranny of whatever gaming world we're talking about. Sometimes (most of the time) it gets so bad I make almost zero progress toward the main storyline.

This seems to be a viable way of playing in SC and I plan on doing exactly that. I've never been much of a skill gamer (I suck at FPS games) but more a tactical/strategical planner and I look forward to being able to do just that.

I will enjoy the combat aspect in the Squadron 42 storyline, but I will likely keep it there, for the most part. As a trader/explorer, I'll probably gear towards stealth and avoidance of combat rather than bulking up on armor and weaponry.

All that being said, sure would be nice if I knew a friend with a Constellation that wouldn't mind occasionally flying as my escort should I have to ply a trade route through a "rough" system.

EDIT - I am also looking forward to the apparent huge about of customizable bit and bobs for the ships. I look forward to being able to kit out a ship that fits just perfectly for my individual playing style. Something about finding that piece of equipment that you didn't even know was out there that will fit your ship just perfectly. I doubt SC will be a loot based experience, but finding those pieces of equipment, to me, feel just like it is.

As a side not, I'm hoping the manual will provide more than backstory and control schemes. I'm hoping that it fleshes out at least the basics of the many different ways to ply your trade in the persistent world.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

<-- Friend with a Constellation. Just sayin'.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Nice! Figured as much.

How bout you? Wingman for hire, mostly? Pirate? What are you going to be up to?

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I figure I'll probably be mostly up to mercenary work. I might do some trade on the side opportunistically -- pick up some cargo to fill a hold while running an escort or something.

I haven't decided how strictly legal I want to be, yet. =)

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Space is a cold, lonely place, fraught with danger. I feel many traders will find a small fee for safer passage through my protectorate will be value added. Everyone should value safety. If not, space is cold, lonely place, fraught with danger.

Or maybe I'll hunt the bounties on peeps with the above business plan.

Hah. Nice. Like I said, I broke down and registered the domain name "voidrangers.com" -- I figured it had a good ring to it for a squadron for some friends.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I'm thinking the Hornet would be the way to go for escort and general misbehaving rather than the Freelancer. Concept art would be exciting before I make a call though.

The only concept art that's going to come out before the pledge period ends is the Constellation, which should be out in the next few days.

They're opting to not release rough art, so they're instead going to do a full-quality "sales brochure" for the Constellation that will not only probably feature in-engine shots of exterior and interior, but also give us some more insight into some universal features like available controls, what we can expect for moving around in-ship for stuff other than 1-seaters, etc.



My best guess is that the Freelancer is that the above concept sketch features the Hornet and the Freelancer. A cropped section highlighting the non-Hornet ship was featured as the clickable link to the "Lancer" pledge level on the backup site they used for pledging in the first four days while the main site was down. Others have speculated that it may be partially stripped for repairs, hence the asymmetrical lack of a wing on the other side and the exposed look in the middle of the hull.

I've strengthened my suspicions since the release of the ship design document, as I feel the relative sizes of the ships match up with the listed chassis weight and cargo capacities for the Hornet and Freelancer pretty well, so I don't think what we see there is likely to be the Origin 300i.

In any event, Ranelagh, I agree that the Hornet is probably the stand-out choice for an escort craft among the pledge options.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Oh yeah, and if you guys haven't been doing so, go to the RSI site and click on the Spectrum Dispatch section. They've been running 2 episodic stories that are on part four of each by now, plus a couple one-off types of in-fiction news broadcasts or equipment reviews that are pretty interesting, too.

The stories are awesome -- deliciously pulpy. One follows a small-time scoundrel, the other a rebellious fighter jock. Quite awesome, and worth a read.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

AI Test footage video

For a change of pace, I figured I'd post an update instead of Kaffis.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Hehe, thanks, Foamy. I was about to come do that, since I've been out of the house all day.

That's a pretty sweet video. I love watching those Hornets in motion. And when the order's given to break and attack, watching them all choose targets and break off... it's pretty sweet to see that this early.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

At the moment I post this, $666 needed on Kickstarter for hidden smuggler asteroids.

Whatever they are exactly, they sound pretty cool. Somthing else to be discovered...Hidden stashes, I would assume?

C'mon Kickstarter!

Also, just got around to reading the ship boarding mechanic. Wow, what an in depth process to be able to do this. I can't see it being a lucrative or rewarding course of action.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

That was quick.

http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/asteroid-bases-unlocked/

Apparently there was some snafu with Amazon that caused the Kickstarter total to not be reflected properly. They made the $1,250,000 mark and asteroid bases, here we come!

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I'm looking forward to the 2 additional craft, now. An interceptor and an armored transport/salvage craft sounds pretty awesome. Not to mention the enhanced display interfaces (supporting additional monitors/tablets as dedicated MFDs, etc) at $1,750,000 on Kickstarter. I really hope Kickstarter shows a strong final push to hit that one.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I still can't decide which ship I want. I think I'm enjoying watching the goals get hit and expanding my purchase before I make it.

Art for the Constellation ought to be out today to make it tougher, Darkroland...

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

SO I might dabble in this. Can someone sum up the thread for me? Launch date, cost, etc etc?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

In about 2 years

Probably $60 when launched, as little as $30 with a pledge now before end of Crowdfunding phase

So much to attempt to sum up. Not sure what you are wanting to know.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Anticipated date for a "multiplayer alpha" (essentially skirmish multiplayer without any of the persistence elements) is 12 months.

The beta for the single player campaign "Squadron 42" is scheduled for 18 months from now, with a final product release in two years. The persistent world will presumably be in a beta phase by then, and will be ramping up to a feature complete game by mid-2015.

Any crowdfunding pledges that have the game as a reward (the full packages starting at $35, now, since the $30 early bird ones are sold out) will grant access to the alpha and beta.

If you opt not to contribute during the crowdfunding, the full game will release with a $60 pricetag or thereabouts.

The pledges generally work like this: the $30-40 pledges have the same rewards, the less expensive ones are just limited in quantity as incentives to get in before they run out. They offer alpha and beta access, and a game account with the RSI Aurora ship (which is presumably the starter ship that retail copies will get).

Higher tiers of pledges replace the Aurora with a different ship as your starter ship: the Origin 300i at $60, your choice of the Anvil Hornet or the MISC Freelancer at $125, and then all the pledges from $250 and up offer the RSI Constellation.

A development document with detailed specs of the ships can be found at this link, but I'll summarize here. The Aurora is a small all-arounder. The 300i is a larger all-arounder with more upgrade capacity. The Hornet is a dedicated dogfighter. The Freelancer is a small trade and exploration vessel that can be crewed by 2. And the Constellation is the largest pledge reward ship, featuring a crew of up to 4 and sporting the most armaments and largest cargo hold of the 5 pledge ships. It also comes with and docks a dedicated short-range fighter that is not jump-capable.

The $125 tiers and up come with one of three hardcover books -- a book of technical goodies related to the campaign comes with the Hornet's pledge, a book geared towards helping modders get up to speed modding the game comes with the Freelancer, and a behind the scenes "making of" comes with the Constellation pledges.

Different pledge levels come with different color Citizen Cards, plastic (or, if you're a big spender, metal!) credit-card style cards that can be printed with your or your character's name and will be similar to the ID cards issued to citizens in-fiction. These are mostly trinkets geared towards collectibility, though it's been suggested that there might be "fun" or discount-related applications should Star Citizen ever have its own convention, SOE Live or BlizzCon style.

Um, I think that about covers it. Oh, wait. Ship-styled USB sticks for $125 and up, and a small (3-8", IIRC) physical miniature model of the Constellation in increasing sizes for the Constellation pledges.

Oh, and pledging via a referral link (like this one here) gets you some bonus in-game credits and enters you in daily and end-of-funding-drive drawings to win some hardware. If you want to pledge via Kickstarter (and help with the current stretch goal to get two more ships added to the game by launch), you'll miss the daily drawing, but can still enter a referral when the Kickstarter ends.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

60 sounds reasonable for a game that may go live...so if I get it right and go through the referral link I get all the bonuses + a chance at other stuff.

Can you reserve your call-sign early if donate?

Is donating different than pledging?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville