Star Citizen Megathread - Fly FREE thru Dec 14th! Link in OP - Games

[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15024-Development-Update-Star-Citizen-Alpha-20-Star-Marine"]New Dev Update[/URL] [QUOTE]The coolest news? SHIPS CAN NOW SPLIT IN TWO (or more!) Yes, the Tech Design and Code team have been working hard and getting this very exciting feature working in the engine and they’ve finally cracked it… so you will now be able to break ships up in to large chunks once you’ve dealt out some catastrophic damage! You can really go to town on your worst enemies and deliver irreparable damage to their ships, for instance, breaking up the Constellation in to four whole chunks. The system still needs more love to get it ready for release but in terms of the technical functionality we’ve definitely broken the back of it (excuse the pun!) [/QUOTE]

finally.

[QUOTE]Fixed Tutorial - Chapter 3 where the missiles would sometimes not track the target correctly.[/QUOTE] By sometimes did they mean [I]restarting the four times [/I]because I ran out of missiles?

Well lads, SC is starting to reach that critical point where dreams become reality. 2.0 is set to blow peoples minds when it finally reaches a bug-free release state And it's only the starting point

2.0 will come out and people will still trash on this game even after its full release and every goal fulfilled.

I really want 2.0 just so I can practice flying a connie. Also it has all the things I wanted since playing Freelancer so long ago. [editline]24th October 2015[/editline] More hyped for this than I was for MGSV and GTAV.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/rHye3xM.jpg[/img] goty

Looks like it'd be a Sakura Sun product, they've definitely got the aesthetic nailed. [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/14343-Sakura-Sun"]link[/URL] Basically a parody of Japanese super-conglomerates [editline]25th October 2015[/editline] Ｂ　Ｉ　Ｇ ＢＥＮＮＹＳ ＾＿＾ ＞．＞ ＧＲＡＢ　ＥＡＴ！

Reading over the Sakura Sun article again, I noticed this [QUOTE]plus a fifth model that is produced in extremely limited numbers and given a “2×01” numerical designation (Breezefire 2101, Windfire 2201 and the like.[/QUOTE][QUOTE] It is known that Sakura Sun’s engineers are focusing on an even more efficient Helium-7 system and that they are likely to reveal this technology in the near future. Helium-7 would theoretically allow an even greater output-to-signature-block ratio.[/QUOTE] That'd be an interesting goal trying to collect these. Rare (more powerful?) guns and super stealthy power plants. MP/WC cannons are supposed to be good for shields and armour + fire at gatling speeds which means no switching weapons mid-fight, good for hit 'n' run. Combination of these factors means the Sabre would be the [I]perfect[/I] ship to mount these on. Segaull tactics- swoop as a group, shout same garbled banter, shit on them, shout some more garbled banter, then fuck off before their sensors can even beep [video=youtube;qFjNA982QtY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjNA982QtY[/video]

The very first thing I'm going to do in this game is be a passenger ship stewardess. That's all I want.

[QUOTE=Rubs10;48976264]The very first thing I'm going to do in this game is be a passenger ship stewardess. That's all I want.[/QUOTE] You know what we need? Those silly round hats the stewardesses wore in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[img]http://i.cnn.net/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i31/2001SpaceOdyssey_FF_300x225_050220051550.gif[/img]

Made a long, ranty thread about Hornets on the RSI forums. Validate me, FP. [quote= Arthur Locke]I know one Hornet thread is still on the front page about this issue, and so I apologize for creating another. The other thread, I feel, didn't fully address the bigger issue at hand, and seeing the lengthy discussion on the subject, I didn't want to make a post that would quickly be snowed under by others and skimmed over by all but a few. So I had the hubris to create another thread. I'll let the community decide whether or not my input is meaningful enough to warrant it. Anyway, to the matter at hand. I have something to say about Hornets. I'm a player of Elite: Dangerous. The current short-range space superiority fighter in that game (In its size class, anyway) is the Vulture. [img]http://i.imgur.com/IyZB3aN.jpg[/img] The Vulture isn't the fastest ship, and it's very heavy, like the Hornet, but it can pivot very quickly, and has both powerful shields and weapons. When outfitted for combat, it will utterly decimate other small fighters, and poses a considerable threat even to larger, well-armored and shielded ships like the Anaconda, if their pilots aren't on the ball. That said, the ship's no Mary Sue. It runs hot, is slow for a small ship, has very limited space for non-combat modules and tends to be power anemic - It also has a very, very low jump range compared to other ships in its price range. At best, a combat-outfitted Vulture can jump 15 or 16LY at a time - Barely better than the starting ship, the Sidewinder! It is, in short, practically useless for anything other than combat. The Hornet and variants (Especially the Super Hornet) are supposed to be Star Citizen's space superiority fighter, but they don't even come close to living up to their name. They used to be quite powerful, but consistent and repeated nerfs, patch after patch, in response to a certain very vocal and whiny element of the community, have made them mediocre at best, and at worst, a terrible liability in combat. Consider this simple fact: In the Persistent universe, pilots are going to want to add different modules to their ships to fit different mission requirements. The Hornet, out of all the starter ships, is the least modular in the sense that in order to add, say, cargo space, it must sacrifice a huge part of its firepower - The S2 ball turret. The ECM package and stealth refit both remove this firepower as well. What does this mean? It means that the Hornet, like the Vulture, was initially designed to be very good at one thing and one thing only - Kicking the sh*t out of other fighters. Like the Vulture, it can be modified to fit other roles, but doesn't perform them quite as well as other ships. Then you have to consider the fact that the Hornet, by its very nature, is a short-range fighter. It's meant to operate in a single star system with a refuelling station nearby, or as part of a carrier contingent, or with a Starfarer for fuel support. Star Citizen will allow ships to mount drop tanks - On weapon hardpoints. Again, in order to extend the range of the Hornet, a pilot will need to sacrifice more firepower. I own an F7C-M Super Hornet. With a full weapon loadout of four badger laser repeaters and two bulldogs, with what should be a loadout entirely devoted to combat, I find myself, in 1.3, being torn to bits by smaller, faster ships that are almost as well armed. The Hornet in the current build of the game has weak shields, just took a power plant nerf, has very, very slow ball and canard turret tracking, and barely more health than most other ships. Furthermore, it was modified to be even less maneuverable. Flying normally without using a booster now feels like flying in decoupled mode. The ship is now the most expensive piece of trash in my hangar - I'd have better luck in my Aurora. The crux of my argument is this: Right now, all we have that we can play is Arena Commander. And Arena Commander's primary focus is combat. There are no long range escort missions, no exploration, mining, capital ship combat, trading, or bounty hunting. As a result, players were, understandably, upset that those flying the Super Hornet had an advantage in combat. However, in the Persistent Universe, this castrated, nerfed Super Hornet is going to be worse than useless, because even with the most combat-oriented loadout, it can't reliably do the one thing it was designed to do - defeat other fighters in combat. And it'll be pretty bad compared to other, dedicated ships at doing anything else. So I'm here to say that I think the Super Hornet should be restored to its former combat utility once the Persistent Universe goes live, or when Alpha 2.0 drops. Let the ship do what it was designed to do, and what those of us who bought it because of its role expect it to do.[/quote] y/n? [editline]asfasgfag[/editline] On another note, fuck the official forums. Jesus Christ, the straw manning and circle jerking going on there is just sad. [url=https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/292645/on-the-subject-of-the-super-hornet-and-its-balance/p1]Take one look at the thread[/url] and you'll see exactly what I mean.

the forum is FULL of people throwing around theoretical situations like they've been flying ships (that aren't even flight ready yet) for years there were so many salty hornet users writing what amounted to dogfighting fanfiction just a few hours after the sabre was announced to try and show it was worthless, and that's probably to be expected when the hornet seems to be in a state that's leaving owners wary of its prowess (as you've shown) then you've got the countless "connie vs tali" threads trying to prove the tali is worthless (either to make the connie out to be the ultimate winner, or to prove tali needs buffs) by virtue of the multicrew demo, while entirely ignoring the facts that: > the tali they rescued was damaged enough that the old crew used the escape pods, and the boarding crew wasn't even enough to fill the remaining turrets. > it's a show demo set up to look exciting there's literally no facts to bank off just so much "omg this needs buffs/that needs nerfs" on your own point though, I agree. ideally I think the PU version of ship stats need to be separated a bit from AC. If we have a deathmatch gamemode where people take their ships into arena combat [i]for fun[/i], I think player skill should play more factor in fights than X ship being meta prime for the singular situation of dogfighting, with the rock/paper/scissors situation being roughly evened out

It's worth saying that in Elite's CQC mode, all the ships involved have stats and functions that are separate from how they actually work in the main game. Ship speeds and loadouts in particular are arbitrarily set and limited for the sake of making CQC a more interesting and balanced game. I think it's [I]way[/I] too early to talk about doing that kind of thing for Arena Commander though, but that is a good end goal for Arena Commander in 2-6 years when the game is more finalized.

I guess it's expected that people are going to speculate wildly on the PU since AC is seen as a test bed for it rather than a standalone thing that doesn't represent the 'real world' that it is [QUOTE=archangel125;48978039]Made a long, ranty thread about Hornets on the RSI forums. Validate me, FP. y/n? [editline]asfasgfag[/editline] On another note, fuck the official forums. Jesus Christ, the straw manning and circle jerking going on there is just sad. [URL="https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/292645/on-the-subject-of-the-super-hornet-and-its-balance/p1"]Take one look at the thread[/URL] and you'll see exactly what I mean.[/QUOTE] my point of contention on your post is on whether or not the hornet sucks. there's quite a bit of agreement in the thread and I respect your own opinion of it, and since I don't have a super myself (and it's taking me 3 days to update the game) I can't comment from personal experience aside from fighting on the other side of it in your post, you say that faster ships are 'almost as well armed', and that the hornet 'has weak shields' and 'barely more health' than other ships, all of which are patently false according to the stats: [IMG]http://puu.sh/kXVrY.png[/IMG] this is from the 1.1 xml but afaik none of the relevant data such as hp, speed or hardpoint sizes has changed. notice here I've only used COMBAT SHIPS, that is ships who's primary or ONLY purpose is shooting shit. granted, these stats don't tell the full story, but it gives a decent understanding of how these ships compare in HP, shield and damage potential. the main thing missing here is manoeuvrability, though in most cases it correlates pretty well with top speed you can see immediately that the F7C-M has significantly better armament, shields and HP than all other ships. I'll admit this is a little biased because it doesn't show the hornet's greatest weakness, manoeuvrability. but note that even in a utility loadout (change ball turret for tracker, cargo etc, see F7C stats), the hornet is still highly competitive with the other dedicated combat ships now, I don't want to act like the stats are everything, but the leaderboards back this up. the [I]majority[/I] of the battle royale top 50 is still hornets and super hornets. granted, there could be some bias due to people with hornets tending to play more, or a tendency to choose the hornet over other ships they own, but surely if the hornet was just an expensive piece of trash it would show up far less, right? in the end, I'm not saying that the hornet should be nerfed or buffed, maybe in the PU the short range really will be enough of a downside for it to dominate in combat. but right now, in arena commander, it seems to be in a decent place. I just want to see variety in the ships, in all parts of the game [editline]26th October 2015[/editline] also ED's meta is really shallow and boring, the vulture should be a reason NOT to go down that path :v:

One thing that bothers me is the fact there is a concept of "top speed" in space. Of course there should be some restrictions, but i would prefer if things behaved more like spaceships and not airplanes. Basically make accelerations slower, but max speed higher and capped to something common with all ships 500m/s etc. for all ships. The difference would be in how bigger ships need a lot more force to change directions and angles. This would make a lot more sense and would be more fun to play.

[QUOTE=creec;48985636]One thing that bothers me is the fact there is a concept of "top speed" in space. Of course there should be some restrictions, but i would prefer if things behaved more like spaceships and not airplanes. Basically make accelerations slower, but max speed higher and capped to something common with all ships 500m/s etc. for all ships. The difference would be in how bigger ships need a lot more force to change directions and angles. This would make a lot more sense and would be more fun to play.[/QUOTE] A universal top speed is how Freelancer and most Freelancer mods worked and I liked that a lot. I'm going to talk to 88 Flak specifically because that's what I played the most, and I really like how it handled speeds. It bended the Freelancer "all ships have the same top speed" rule a bit, but still technically abided by it. The difference in Flak was that different ships had different [I]combat[/I] speeds, but the same top speeds. Every ship had what I liked to call a "cruising speed" of 160. That's the standard speed for 100% throttle and it's universal across all ships. Whenever you were just idly flying somewhere and not in a hurry, this is how fast you were going, and because it was the same for everyone, you could always stay together and it made flying in formation super easy. It was your casually flying around speed. Each ship also had a thruster speed. Think of a Freelancer thruster like an afterburner for your main engine. This was their top combat speed, and varied between fighter classes. This was the speed you would spend a lot of your time fighting at. I forget the exact numbers, but I think for your average fighter it was ~300, but the light fighters could reach ~500 if they were flying in a straight line. However, because inertia was a thing in 88 Flak, just because you're flying really fast doesn't mean you can actually change your velocity vector any faster. At least, not in any direction other than forwards. Your strafe thrusters were still as equally powerful as before, which means the faster you go the more you're going to drift. If you needed to change your velocity vector ASAP, you had to point your nose in that direction and use your thruster. Capital ships didn't have a thruster, so they were always limited to 160. Then, on top of [B]all[/B] that was the cruise engine, which was how you got around long distances and the absolute maximum speed that any ship could reach. This was 750 and it was universal across all ships. The charge time for these varied between ships, as well as their acceleration and ability to turn in it. Light fighters could escape with ease because of how quickly they charged up and how quickly they could accelerate to the 750 max. Heavier fighters took longer to charge and get up to speed, capitals even slower. It all worked super great, and I loved it. I wouldn't mind if Star Citizen worked similarly to this, and I've heard of proposals discussed in CIG videos that would be similar to this system. No idea if any of them got through. We're supposed to get a flight model focused deep dive post later in the week, so flight related stuff is definitely getting looked at and possibly changed dramatically.

[QUOTE=Oicani Gonzales;48985753]arcade gameplay is not a problem if it plays better tbh compare sc dogfights to space engineers dogfights[/QUOTE] Yup. IRL space fight weapons would be fired far beyond visible range and be 100% computer controlled bullshit.

the concept of intentionally limiting speeds on ships makes total sense, I don't see the issue. Didn't they say a long while ago now, that they're looking into the ability to unlock speedcaps, which would be your "oh shit I gotta run" button since you're not going to be doing any combat maneuvers at 500m/s

Remember that Alpha 2.0 is introducing a sub-Qdrive supercruise mode to IFCS that's much faster than current flight speeds. The idea is that this is that "cruise around between nearby places" speed, and you'll drop out of that into the slower dogfighting speeds when a fight happens, as your maneuverability likely won't still be as capable when in speedy cruise. It's the in-between flight mode for things that aren't far enough away to Qdrive to, but too far away to fly there at 175m/s in any reasonable period. What'll be interesting is seeing how quickly you can switch out of dogfighting and into S-cruise to run from a fight. Your ship will have to be completely still while the Qdrive charges to run away that way, but if you can flip into high speed you could run for cover, hide behind an asteroid or something, and hope your opponent doesn't catch up and find you before you blast away in QD. In other news, don't trust people driving buggies in ArcCorp 1.3: [t]https://i.imgur.com/0KTlp72.jpg[/t] [t]https://i.imgur.com/RvcnQnl.jpg[/t]

Not too long ago they specifically mentioned that they were throwing around the idea of a unified top speed, and instead having a dynamic "maneuvering speed" that would vary between ships and what you have equipped. You could boost to go faster than your maneuvering speed but you eventually hit that universal top speed. They also said that going faster would mean that you slide more because going fast doesn't make your thrusters any better. Basically it was pretty close to what I was talking about with that Freelancer mod. That was before the recent mention of the three flight modes though, so I don't know what the status of that idea is now that there's this new thing. It could've been completely replaced, or it could've maybe been rolled into the combat mode. We'll find out soon enough with that upcoming flight model post. I'm looking forward to that one with equal parts anticipation and dread.

Yeah, I remember the "accelerate up to global max" idea; however if there's any constant at CIG it's that they change the plans often. Sometimes because the new designs are simply better, sometimes because it's what they could salvage from the original idea and still get it through the compiler without a 6-month refactor. Oh, by the way, apparently "Full Burn" was accidentally included in the patch and came out of a dev's personal files by mistake. Found this out when I posted a thread to Reddit encouraging discussion and speculation on who the vocalist was (maybe it's Hamill?!) and when I refreshed it later there was one downvote and a poster pointing to a [URL="http://radio.starcitizenbase.com/the-friday-night-show-interview-jared-huckaby/"]multi-hour podcast[/URL] in which, apparently at some point, Disco Lando mentions this. SQ42 confirmed for no fun allowed. :unimpressed: Still an awesome song, and I kind of hope they convince the dev to actually contribute it to SC ([I]if[/I] they have the rights to do that, I haven't listened to the podcast so I have no idea where this song actually came from) because that'd be a fucking awesome song for the SQ42 equivalent of the Death Star trench run mission.

I'm pretty sad that I STILL can't get out of my hornet while it's free-floating. You'd think they'd have included that in the patch notes. Ah, well.

[QUOTE=archangel125;48987338]I'm pretty sad that I STILL can't get out of my hornet while it's free-floating. You'd think they'd have included that in the patch notes. Ah, well.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=elixwhitetail;48968043][QUOTE]PLEASE NOTE: This is only a small partial list of Patch Notes. We'll update this page with the link to the complete Patch Notes as soon as they're ready! HANGAR Additions/Balance/Tweaks/Fixes: - The Greycat Buggy has received an appearance, animation and handling overhaul. - The elevator to Area 18 will now show all available instances of ArcCorp, how many people are present in each one, and how many people from your contact list are present. - There is now a "Loadout Selector" located in all player hangar's that will allow players to select what load out they will move around the Hangar and ArcCorp with. - The Selfland Hangar is in the process of receiving a full relighting pass to improve the overall look and atmosphere. Not 100% implemented yet. [B]- Camera free-look can now be activated by "Shift+G". - "Ctrl+F" is now the hotkey to disembark a ship.[/B] [--EDIT: Disabled until 2.0 is out, according to RtV] - Fixed seating in Retaliator and Gladiator and visual shaking inside Vanduul Scythe.[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;48987357][/QUOTE] Oh. Edit wasn't there when I saw the patch notes.

Thursday is going to be an interesting day. Pritchett is the guy who wrote the IFCS and is getting screen time again on ATV. [quote] Today we bring you 10 for the Producers with Eric and Darian, Wednesday is this month's special Subscriber Edition of RTV with guests from the Santa Monica Art Team, [B]ATV on Thursday includes a chat with Pete Mackay and John Pritchett about upcoming changes to the Flight Model in Alpha 2.0[/B], and Friday brings Reverse the Verse and another Star Marine/Star Citizen Alpha post full of fun stuff. Monday, October 26th - [1500 PDT / 2200 UTC] 10 for the Producers: Episode 12 Tuesday, October 27th - Jump Point Rerun Wednesday, October 28th - Vault Update - [1100 PDT / 1800 UTC] Reverse the Verse: October Subscriber Edition - [url]http://www.twitch.tv/cigcommunity[/url] Thursday, October 29th - [1200 PDT / 1900 UTC] Around the Verse: Episode 2.05 [B]- Flight Model Update Post[/B] Friday, October 30th - [1100 PDT / 1800 UTC] Reverse the Verse: The Community Team's Weekly Livestream - [url]http://www.twitch.tv/cigcommunity[/url] - Star Citizen Alpha 2.0/Star Marine Update Week of October 30th [/quote]

A few weeks ago, Redditors compiled a list of major modifications made to Cryengine. [URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/38pb1o/discussioncollaboration_decided_to_try_and/"]Putting them all into one list puts new perspective on where the time and money has been going.[/URL] Disco Lando has confirmed that 2.0 will [B]not[/B] be hitting PTU this week. I'm sure people will still be asking every day on the RSI forums despite this. [video=youtube;jx2NSZOGNqE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx2NSZOGNqE[/video] [QUOTE]00:51 – Favorite Assets 02:47 – Maintaining and Overview 07:09 – Duration Estimates 09:41 – Organizational Changes 12:20 – Managing Difficult Projects 15:30 – Staff Changes in Different Departments 21:46 – Multiple Development Streams 25:57 – Managing Component Complexity 30:42 – Mad Max or Jurassic Park 34:51 – Jira[/QUOTE] Meanwhile, over at Lowtax's house, someone's wearing out their welcome. :v: [QUOTE=dumb shithead]It's a case of the right hand working independently from the left hand. They'll never see it coming. Trust me, there's a plan in place. And the end result is glorious. It's going to be part of my legacy that will be written about for the next decades.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=some goon]I've had a blast reading your stuff these last weeks but you should beware that after beating this drum with such gusto if this doesn't happen the goons are going to turn on you even faster than they did on SC. There's no "soon" here, no "we always knew that was the plan from the start", you'll get needled with it incessantly until you flip your shit. SA is worse than the Iron Bank, in the end we always get our laughs one way or another.[/QUOTE] I really wonder who's trolling who over there now. It's going to be fun to watch when that alliance finally breaks. He's also been posting the real names/twitter/reddit handles of people changing his avatar because he has no qualms about doxxing. But anyway, there's your shithead content for the week.

Was there even a chance 2.0 would hit PTU this week or was it just baseless speculation>

Hype and wishful thinking, really. "Are we there yet?"