The Glade 4.0

Oh, I wasn't trying to sell anybody on it. I just wanted to see if anybody else had seen the textured Constellation in the June issue so I could compare thoughts.

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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 had a dream last night I was a pilot on the Tiger's Claw and we were sent out on a mission deep into Kilrathi territory at the site of the largest battle the two sides had and we were to lay low using the debris as cover from the enemy's sensors. One of my fellow pilots was a survivor of the battle and he desired to do some recon to see if a Yale class carrier The United States of America was still there (the largest carrier ever made) because he got out late and never saw her blow.

Fun dream half of it was inside and half actually flying. Odd bit though it opened up with my 6 month review citing that I had an excellent diversity record in flying 55% of my last sorties with female wingmen.

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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

I'd read the fanfic written from that dream.

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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

Epic.

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Holy shitsnacks!

That's one of the ships I pledged for. Nommy. I'll have to scan through the variants to see if I want to upgrade it.

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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

okay, that was rather cool.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Mmm. I'm so torn between a 315p and a 325a... What to do!? Hehehe.

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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 been some interesting stuff on the 24-hour livestream so far. 2.5 hours in, now.

New website is up, and running (fairly) smoothly, now. Much more attractive, much more usable. Their web development guy, Zane Bien, really pulled this off.

They're doing announcements/reveals hourly, on the hour. So far, we've had the new website at Noon (Eastern); the reveal of the Avenger, a new pledge ship; and new physical merch (mouse pads and cloth patches)...

If you're able and interested, go check it out! They're running multiple Twitch.tv streams, which can be found at their website.

Also, if you've previously backed, be sure to go through the account migration process.

Roberts Space Industries

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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

They planned this well, scheduling their livestream for payday...

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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

Yes it's amazing how they can make so much money off a game that doesn't yet exist.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Well, unless you're incredibly cynical and believe they're going to make off with the cash, they're raising money to produce the game, not making money off it 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

I'm just sour on crowd funding. I think it's overhyped. I'm sure RSI will do a better job of delivering on their promises than Erfworld, Oots and Ouya.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

The 24 hour Livestream to celebrate launching the new website just wrapped up. Chock full of new reveals ranging from more system outlines, the first three entries in a new fiction series, interviews with team members and behind the scenes with them, Q&A interviews with Chris, a new ship revealed, first looks at artwork (in various stages of concepting to modelling) for that new ship and FOUR previously pledgeable ones, and even random video with some of the artists showing off animations on rigged ship models in-engine.

Speaking of showing off animations in-engine, the livestream culminated in the release of the Director's Cut of the 300i commercial.


I do encourage folks who've pledged previously to definitely check the new site out. Migrate your account (it's a pretty painless process now that the website's running smoothly -- it was dodgy for the first hour while they were bringing up new nodes), check out the recent Comm-Link entries, etc.

And, of course, if you haven't pledged yet, but are interested.. Also check the site out, or I'll field questions.

I'm pretty excited, Chris mentioned that this coming week he'll be doing a Comm-Link post on the economy.

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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

Mmm. Yeah, crowdfunding definitely has to be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. Not all projects will complete, not all of those that do will deliver something that meets your expectations, etc.

I've backed a few that have been grossly delayed or which I'm beginning to expect a disappointing final project based on updates (or lack thereof). So far, though, my batting average is pretty good, because I've had several more that have really pleased me.

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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

Well, that didn't last. Turns out, my wallet just needed a breather. At least I had the opportunity to melt a few things (which I'll probably rebuy over time) to lessen the immediate hit.

"Void Rangers" - working title (Kaffis has the domain name, but needs to get off his *** and set a site up if we like it)
Elm - 300i; Exploration, Light Trading, Combat
Ulfynn - 300i; Explore, Combat, Mercenary/Bounty Hunting
Kaffis1 - Freelancer, Starfarer, Hornet; Exploration, Trading, Escort
Kaffis2 - M50, 315p, Caterpillar, Cutlass, Constellation, Idris-P; Smuggling, Bounty Hunting, Combat Support, Piracy?
Foamy - 300i; Exploration, Trading
Ranelagh - Hornet, Cutlass; Escort, pansy term meaning piracy
Lonedar - Hornet, Freelancer; Combat, Explore, Salvage
Aquila - Freelancer, M50; Smuggling & Racing/Scouting
Juneau - 325a
Halloween - 315p; Exploration, Escort, Mercenary
Müs - 315p
Darksiege - 315p

I threw in some more RL recruits I've dug up with the latest round of publicity, and updated my 300i to the variant I picked up. Otherwise, my own hangar is kind of out of date (see above) and I haven't settled for sure on a distribution of ships between my two accounts, yet.

Oh. And the Void Rangers now have a dedicated combat support ship. *cringe* I think I've committed myself to trying to do some active recruiting in-game, now. Those multi-crew ships won't crew themselves..!

Anybody else pick up (or planning on picking up) any of those 300i variant upgrades?

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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 want the 300 explorer/cargo variant(s)

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Holy shitsnacks!

Only the 350r has a different cargo capacity (way less, lol), so I added you to the list as a 315p, the sensor-packed, tractor beamed exploration package.

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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 haven't decided on an upgrade for my 300 yet. Currently leaning toward the one with better engines, which I can't remember the # for, offhand.

I'm looking forward to the Hornet upgrade with the "I win!!!" button.

Going to be backing today. Right now I'm leaning towards the bounty hunter, pathfinder, or arbiter. Any recommendations?

Just migrated my account on the new site. 2 things...

1. Where are these 'upgrades' for the individual ships that are being talked about here?

2. Did the Citizen Cards ever get sent out? I thought they were in the process of getting them out months ago and I have not received mine.

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

Only recommendation is that the Pathfinder and Arbiter are pretty minor increases in monetary cost and include some role-specific insured equipment. All three are built off the same chassis and have the same hardpoints, so with enough upgrading work in-game, there's no difference. As such, it's hard to make a really "wrong" choice if your playstyle changes down the line. I made a best guess as to what I'd use my 300-series for initially, and went with that.


1. On the old site. You don't have to worry about the date of pledge on your 300i pledge, now -- you've been locked in as an Original or Veteran Backer based on the date of your pledge when you migrated, which is a status tied to your account, now. The new method is to use the "Reclaim" feature on your Bounty Hunter package and then apply the store credit that will generate to the purchase of one of the variant packages.

2. They did -- I've got mine. Word is that shipments including the T-Shirts were at the end of the queue to be sent out. This is supported by my anecdotal experience -- I got a card on each account, and the one that had a T-Shirt arrived about 3 weeks later. If you haven't seen it in another week or so, I'd put in an email to support -- in a couple weeks they'll be collecting reports of lost cards and mistaken distributions (wrong name, etc.) for a correction run.


I'm just updating the roster post on this page.. I notice we've got 6 and 5 players on the East and West Coast, now, which is encouraging.

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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

Cool, I think i'm going to go with the explorer package. I think initially it will suit my playstyle more.

Edit: Alright, backing complete, you can put me down for the Explorer in the list.

I'm definitely planning to pick up a flight stick for this game. The last flight stick I owned was a sidewinder 3d pro, had a serial connection. Has been a while.

Hehe. Yeah, I'm probably going to end up upgrading mine. A few years back, I picked up a Thrustmaster T16000m to play Rise of Flight with and it's been a pretty solid value. But I'm sure that by the time Squadron 42 rolls around, I'll be looking to pair it up with a throttle and likely pedals. But I'm going to hold off on that, since the current stick is adequate and there are rumors going around of possible peripheral partnerships for Star Citizen.

I mean, I'll be disappointed if I go drop a few hundred bucks on a nice HOTAS setup and then they announce one of the big 3 is designing a six-axis input HOTAS from the ground up for Star Citizen...

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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

Ooh, I'm glad you said that, I was already starting to research, but I would definitely rather have one designed in conjunction with the game's creators.

HOLY CRAP:

The $12 million achievement means that we will be building a professional sound studio, replacing the current home office used for Star Citizen’s sound recording. This will give the team access to professional voice talent and the ability to interact more directly with the team doing the sound portion of the game. It also means we’re going to push for Oculus Rift support in the upcoming hangar module… so line up those Rift pre-orders!

I was interested in Rift before, but now....