The Glade 4.0

So yesterday, Ben Lesnick and Dave Haddock were here at DragonCon, thanks to one of the big multigame guilds inviting CIG to send a presence a use their both at the exhibitor hall and helped them get a last minute time slot in the MMO track.

They ran a live podcast interview in the afternoon at their both, which I stopped by to watch. That was not that well publicized to Con attendees, so the crowd was small and didn't have a lot of questions to fill the audience Q&A, so I stepped back up to the mic a few times despite getting to talk with the two of them for about twenty minutes beforehand. I'll see if I can find a link.. No luck, MOG Nation's mobile site is crap and it might not be up yet.

The panel, though, was pretty good. They showed us some brand new footage and screenshots of their progress with landing spaces. I think there were the or four new concept art shots of different planets' landing pad, then they showed us a video clip of walking around the main landing pad in Terra Prime. It is gorgeous and has this swooping, majestic feel. There was air traffic flying around in designated routes (creating lanes in the sky, essentially) in the background, and the long landing pad is at the top of a skyscraper with the city sprawled out around and below you.

They tooled around Ben's (test?) hangar, which has a Constellation and the first Aurora ever sold since he was the one to test the site before the crowd funding went live.

There were also some concept shots of a Vanduul in armour, unless I miss my guess (they didn't call attention to it). And then a Q&A that was mostly expected info for me.

The room was packed, with more line unable to get in, which is to say more crowd than the EQ Next panel drew on Friday, which was awesome. After the turnout they got, and the buzz it's been creating, I suspect they'll be splitting their presence annually to cover both PAX Prime and DragonCon... Been, in particular, clearly had a fond spot for DragonCon, since he used to attend on his personal time, as well. But he made what I feel is an accurate and insightful statement at the panel.. Chris is in Seattle showing the game off to some fans and a bunch of gamers who will play a while, say "that's a cool game,"and move on. DragonCon draws the type of people who look at the world of Star Citizen and say, "I want to live there."

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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

Yeah, the community building around this game is really extraordinary.

This new post from Chris was great:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13241-17-Million

I think this philosophy is great, I'm hopeful that it will bring in enough revenue for the game long term.

Yeah, I don't get why people were so up in arms over the launch of the hangar store. I certainly don't feel compelled to buy anything else at this moment (though I did just sink money into grouse's 300i for his birthday) and I don't feel that I'm "behind" (as if it were a race) for it.

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

Yeah, I'm guessing it was just the case of people not reading his initial store press release (which detailed pretty heavily that these were starter and cosmetic items that will be easily attainable in game without additional payment) and just seeing "CASH STORE! WE HAVE TO PAY TO WIN! NOOOOOO". Granted, with the state of gaming these days, it's not a surprising reaction.

I did have a little bit of sticker shock. I was thinking of getting a hornet to go with my 300i, but when I saw it was $110, I was like holy ****, you're kidding me. I'd love to give them the additional backing, but it just ain't in the budget right now.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Yeah, unless there's a time limited or collectible, I doubt I'll be buying any more ships before release, most should be relatively easy to earn in game.

Splitting this off from a SWTOR thread.


It's called the Starfarer.





While it's from one of the in-fiction updates whose purpose is to flesh out the game world moreso than give specific details about game mechanics, I think you'll find this Advocacy Case File on Smuggler Twor Wynton of interest.


Well, there's the Idris Corvette, which is a quantity-limited pledge ship at the low end of the capital ship scale. We've seen some pictures of this one, which is why it's the one I bring up..


The (player) crew on that sucker is 10, and most of those are turret gunners.

As far as ISD size, the Bengal Carrier is either 1 or 2 kilometers long, and is the class of ship that the single-player/multi-player co-op Squadron 42 campaign will take place aboard. I'm not sure if there will be any missions in Squadron 42 that will place you as a gunner, but there will be a handful in the open universe, and capturing one or more of the finite number in existence is on the table for large guilds and the like, so they will be completely functional with player-mannable battlestations and turrets.

And then, of course, for the rest of us, there's the option to run private servers and mod the game. I guarantee that lots of people will be jumping on that to cruise around in a Bengal in their own little universe.

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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. Now seems like a perfect time to throw in this updated pitch video...

It's the original video from the crowdfunding campaign with more concept art and video footage from later in the development cycle thrown in so we're not just staring at Chris the whole time...

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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, definitely a lot more material in there now. Also liked the nod to the oculus. Only downside is that it's taking way too long for the next module to get here, it's time to get flying.

Lol. Nah, they need to get more ships in mah hangar, first.

I've got 4 on one account (plus a model Cutlass!), and just the Freelancer on the other. That's not even half of my ships!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the cockpit is like on the Cutlass, and walking around and seeing how space is laid out in the Caterpillar and Starfarer.

And then, of course.. getting lost in my Idris. I can't decide whether I hope inviting people into your hangar beats the Idris to live or not. On the one hand, I'd get to learn my way around before giving tours. On the other hand.. it would be hilarious for like 5 people to all be lost on the same ship without seeing each other...

_________________
"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

It looks like the 325 and 315 can still be had, so I might spring for those over the next couple months, as money permits.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

i just bought the Pathfinder bundle and the Deluxe Hangar...

Yay, more Gladers to ply the spacelanes with!

_________________
"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

How did you buy the Deluxe hangar? Is it available as an add-on?

Also, welcome to the fray!

Yep. Apparently, it is.

_________________
"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

Yea, its in the add-ons page
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/add-ons

Elm - 300i; Exploration, Light Trading, Combat
Ulfynn - 300i; Explore, Combat, Mercenary/Bounty Hunting
Kaffis1 - Avenger, Gladiator, Freelancer, Starfarer, 350r; Exploration, Trading, Escort, Overclocking
Kaffis2 - Caterpillar, Cutlass, Constellation, Hornet, Idris-P, M50, Retaliator, 315p; 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
Darkroland - 315p
Rorinthas - Aurora
Diamondeye - 300I
Grouse - 300i
Midgen -315p

We're up to 15 Gladers and friends!

_________________
"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 now one of you guys with the pimped out hangars will have to buy a couple buggies so we can have buggy races once they implement hangar friend invites.

I was asking several of the questions on the first Q&A Podcast since the crowd wasn't very big.

_________________
"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

Heh.. have some cliff notes?

I don't have two hours to commit to watching those :p

18 million!

Also, clarification on the backer only system:

That makes more sense.

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

Well, I haven't seen the 2nd podcast interview, yet, so I can oblige there.

Ben: He's run into some confusion; there's no classes in Star Citizen or Squadron 42. It's a sim-style game where your joystick input is only constrained by the capabilities of your ship.
Dave: Character creation will attempt to be its own in-narrative experience, rather than picking customization options from a menu out of universe. The original pitch Chris likes to describe is that you'll start the game facing two restroom doors, and which one you enter will determine your character's gender. Then, as you pick features, you'll wipe fog off a mirror or something to slowly show more and more of your completed character.
Ben: Yes, you can arrest people with bounties by shooting them down and, if they survive, turning them in. Dave chimes in that they're still working through how some of the stuff will work, like if some bounties will be dead or alive, etc. It's going to feel immersive.
Dave: In Squadron 42, like in most of Chris's games, there's not a binary "you win, you lose" -- even if you accomplish all of the mission parameters, there may be other factors that will result in the next mission being more difficult. They want there to be consequences to the choices you make, and the things you accomplish or fail at, rather than just going "Game over."

Audience Q&A
What are the positives and negatives of crowdfunding, and how do you approach the responsibility to the community that it creates?
Ben: We're trying something different with our crowdfunding. A lot of people come and say "We need this many thousand dollars to make a game" and then they come back in 8 months with a game or they don't come back at all. We want to share every little step of the game. We want to make the whole thing crowdfunded, we've got a 20 million dollar budget, and we're treating you guys like our publisher. It's really important to be responsive, in fact some feedback came back about our new Voyager store, and we've got a new post going out tonight about that.


Okay, that was a lot shorter than the other one.

_________________
"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

Nifty. I just got done doing some video recording testing. Looks like I can record 720p at around 30fps, which ought to be a decent quality to give you guys a tour of my hangar. I'll work on that tomorrow morning.

So I'll be approaching this as a walkaround for folks who can't run their own hangar, and a brief tour of my ships for those who don't have the same ones. Anything in particular somebody wants to see? I suppose I can take requests.

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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

Other than the Connie?

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