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

Personally I just want to see Jono do something stupid with a Hull E since he seems willing to shell out beaucoup bucks anyway.

turn the cargo areas into roller disco pods also tarantula size2's were a great idea on the M50 [t]http://i.imgur.com/YBkBGEv.jpg[/t]

So yesterday while grinding REC to fund my testing and recover from the Cutlass and all the equipment I bought, I got frustrated at what felt like half of my games failing. It felt like completely wasted time because I’m no longer playing just for fun or to specifically test something. There’s always an undercurrent of “I hope the REC I get out of this is worth it.” Before the REC reduction I didn’t really care that the game barely worked because you got enough REC that it wasn’t really an issue. After the reduction, all that wasted time is a big deal and hits much harder which leads to a hell of a lot of frustration. Annoyed at how wasteful yesterday felt, I decided to keep track of the games I played today to see if it was just confirmation bias or it really was that bad. [quote]Classic Race, Old Vanderval 3:00PM EST - 5:30PM EST Matches attempted: 21 Succesfully joined and finished game: 10 Infinite loading: 2 Back to lobby: 6 Crash during match: 2 Empty game: 1 Crash post match: 1[/quote] Turns out I was right. This is one of the main reasons I’ve been so opposed to turning REC into a grind. The game just isn’t stable enough to for a grind to make any sense.

[QUOTE=Why485;47604321]I'm sure elix can write a gigantic post about how it really is all pointless to be buying the ships, and despite his fanboyish nature, he would still be right.[/QUOTE] rude Possibly accurate if you count all three topics this post covers, but Anyway, CIG takes a lot of flak for selling ships for real money, and the gaming press (looking at you, Polygon, Gamespot, etc.) love to focus on the money, not the game. There are definite concerns and consequences with selling ships, but it also means funding for the game, which they need. The model has worked out for it a hell of a lot better than E:D's funding model worked, where you had to pay more (a lot more, in cases) the more rough and broken a state you wanted to see the game in. With the exception of PU alpha slots, which [I]will[/I] separate the playerbase temporarily, CIG has given all backers access to everything playable as soon as it's gone public (with passes as needed, e.g. AC), unlike E:D gating development era access, so the value proposition instead is more money=more ship, not more money=more problems. However, CIG has made a number of definite statements and moves to mitigate the P2W nature of the ship sales. Namely, by balancing out the "win" aspect. The ships we are buying all have maintenance and running costs. We saw it with the Javelin -- this is a $2500 ship, but it's a decommissioned military boat and all the weapons have been stripped off of it. Javelin owners have bought a huge warship with all the war taken out of it. It's probably going to be ten million credits to outfit it properly. The Hull E has the largest cargo capacity out of any ship seen yet, but the page clearly states that it is coming fairly barebones, and it will take a large investment of credits to outfit it to be sustainable in-space; it'll also be a very juicy target so escorts are highly recommended. The larger the ship, the more crew it requires to operate properly, as well. A Javelin requires about 25 people to work together, and you either bring in friends, or you hire NPCs and either pay out the ass for high-quality AIs or pay cheaply and get morons that are worse than Rust kiddies except for being obedient enough. If you spend more than $150 on a ship, it's multicrew (the exception being the SH/Gladiator if you can slave the turret in the PU as is now) and that adds a bigger burden to ship operation. And even if the ship you buy is geared for its role out of the box, it's not geared very well. Statements from CIG point to a large equipment upgrade ladder (eventually) sitting behind the stock equipment for ships. The luxury ships like the Connie Phoenix will be using higher-quality parts, but even those higher-quality parts will only be a 3 to 4 on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the most powerful equipment you can obtain. Your garden-variety shitty Aurora ES will come with 1/10 parts, while a premium ship like an m50 would be carrying 2/10 parts and maybe 3/10 for the engines/main thrusters, or something to that effect. Don't make the (easy) mistake of confusing Star Citizen's vertically-priced ship range with a vertical power range, they do not correlate 1:1. As CIG reminds us every time a ship sale comes out, with the "hey, this is optional" blurb they always stick at the bottom, buying ships is a way of obtaining greater flexibility in roles. The larger the ship, the more powerful it is (at fighting, or hauling, or fleet coordination, or resource harvesting), but that power is blunted with a greater cost and more responsibilities and challenges. And on day 1, anything beyond a certain size of ship will just be a fat target except for the most organized and resourceful of orgs. In a way, you could say that I was wrong, earlier. More money=more ship, but, if CIG sticks to what they've said, more ship=more problems, but unlike E:D less of them will be alpha bugs. Now, where I primarily worry is the post-launch situation. CIG intends on funding their post-launch costs from new account signups (the one-time buy-in to enter the game), campaign scenario purchases (Squadron 42 episode 3 isn't free for anyone, even Alpha backers, and I imagine they'll do more campaigns and storylines in the future), and cash-to-UEC sales subject to the limitations they've promised will be in effect--both a cap per day and a total bought-currency cap. The pros and cons for this can be a topic for another day, but it's a model that's worked fairly well in other games when controlled. My concern is that selling ships is not completely off the table; CIG has made statements that indicate that they're holding the idea as a backup plan if desperation reaches that level. They intend on halting ship sales after the game launches, but we don't know how well their signups-and-credits revenue model is going to work. If it comes down to selling ships or pulling the plug on the servers and firing everyone, I imagine they'll turn to selling ships, but it wouldn't necessarily be conducted the same way it is today, so we can't assume that it'd be as abusable as it would be if CIG just never stopped the pledge store and we went into post-beta exactly as we are today. If they [I]had[/I] to do some amount of ship sales to keep the heat on in the dev offices, I think I'd be willing to accept selling ships at the concept stage, and only the concept stage. [del]Without LTI.[/del] Preferably without LTI, but I could see it being a necessary pot-sweetener. CIG would hold concept sales exactly as they do now, where they pitch us the new ship they want to make, and then people who choose to buy it help fund the development of the ship itself (that's why LTI and hangar goodies are offered--they need the money to fund the making of the ship before, not after, it's flyable). There would be no upgrade system, you'd just be getting the ship itself and poster/model, and only when it's hangar-ready/flyable. Anyone who didn't buy in during the concept sale window would need to obtain it in-game with UEC. However, the player population, and the economy, would have months/a year to prepare for the incoming adjustment. CIG would need to remain as transparent as they are, but we would know everything about the ship before it came out. If it's a missile boat, people could begin stockpiling missiles to release into the economy, but likewise people could ramp up production of missile-specific defenses to deal with any shift in the combat meta. The long gap between concept and flyable is such that the extreme delayed gratification should keep out most of the morons. [I]Edit:[/I] In fact, these could become global events; why should all of these concept ships appear out of the ether? Hello to 13 months of heavy demand for ores from Origin JumpWorks and parts subsidiary factory locations as they suck up a couple moons worth of raw materials to build all the ships in the Origin XYZ concept sale consignment plus enough to seed the economy with stock. That means more miners and more transports taking risks, and more pirates and bounty hunters and mercenary escorts, and more wreckages for salvagers. As long as the community agrees that CIG is handling a necessary "evil" (concept ship sales to keep the devs fed and the servers on) as ethically as can be realistically expected, [I]everyone wins[/I] when a new ship gets added to the PU post-launch. Obviously, if CIG is able to remain afloat without resorting to ship sales, new ship introductions can have this same impact on the economy anyway (with forecasted demand replacing concept sale fulfillments), so I hope they do it. I reiterate that I'd prefer no ship sales at all after launch, but if CIG needed to run concept sales to cover content development and operating costs, I'd accept it as long as they didn't go insane. If what they've told us so far about the lack of power our pledged ships actually represent (compared to their potential when geared in the PU) remains true in the PU's balance, I'm okay with CIG's pre-launch ship sales. However, that IF is always subject to change, as Why485 correctly points out. On the topic of REC, the distribution rate is still a number being balanced and CIG has admitted it was nerfed way too hard in the last patch, but overall I think it's great, because it nullifies the entire argument of P2W, which the Voyager Direct store absolutely was prior to REC arriving. I have a bit more of a problem about what they did for subscribers, because they went and eliminated all traces of P2W out of Arena Commander, and then basically created new ones by including a REC stipend for subscribers and giving them access to limited ships like the SH, the Delta, etc. I saw some guy log into the SC chat and ask if you get your hangar flair and REC immediately on subscribing (answer: no, they're distributed once monthly) -- innocent enough question and important to know the answer to if he just subscribed and is wondering why things he expected are missing, but it also suggests people are subscribing for the REC. I was a subscriber before REC was introduced, and I can't say I [I]hate[/I] benefitting from the REC perks, but I still think CIG needs to do some work to soften the impact. If the available-to-subscribers limited ships go onto the public REC store for a week every four weeks, I think that'd about balance it out, because then they're merely upholding their test flight perk promise by giving us a monthly REC allowance. On the topic of filling out ship roles in the 'Verse, I can't wait to see the concept for the Genesis-class starliner, even though it'll likely be priced well into my "in the PU" list. I'm really interested to see what CIG plans for the interior, because we'll be able to be passengers, and that could be a journey of an hour or longer depending on your route. I would hope there'd be enough room to, say, have an org party, or an interior Sataball arena. I can't imagine it'll just be rows of seats with an aisle like a DC-8 in space. (Xenu has no style.)

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;47606704] And even if the ship you buy is geared for its role out of the box, it's not geared very well. Statements from CIG point to a large equipment upgrade ladder (eventually) sitting behind the stock equipment for ships. The luxury ships like the Connie Phoenix will be using higher-quality parts, but even those higher-quality parts will only be a 3 to 4 on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the most powerful equipment you can obtain. Your garden-variety shitty Aurora ES will come with 1/10 parts, while a premium ship like an m50 would be carrying 2/10 parts and maybe 3/10 for the engines/main thrusters, or something to that effect.[/QUOTE] I can imagine that some of those named NPC's that can only be killed once could have some kind of unique 11/10 equipment on them. If it were a capital ship gun, or engine for an M50, having control of this unique equipment would almost be political. Like "we gotta get twenty dudes together and steal this technology from Imperium so we can win the [del]swoop race[/del] Murray Cup"

[QUOTE=ScottyWired;47607883]I can imagine that some of those named NPC's that can only be killed once could have some kind of unique 11/10 equipment on them. If it were a capital ship gun, or engine for an M50, having control of this unique equipment would almost be political. Like "we gotta get twenty dudes together and steal this technology from Imperium so we can win the [del]swoop race[/del] Murray Cup"[/QUOTE] Heists when, CIG But, for serious, yeah, I could see that working. Also, don't forget that CR's said that there'll be incentive to explore, like some backwater planet will have a shop with a genius tinkerer who can build versions of stock guns that are 10% better than anywhere else in the 'Verse, for example. Also, corps engaging in covert war over control of rare/unique equipment would make for great player-created stories. I imagine the first dude to steal a Xi'An Volper bomber, or any other not-available-ever-for-pledge ship, will have a problem keeping his prize safe once his exploits become public. If you get your ship geared up with 9/10 or 10/10 parts, the parts you've fitted probably cost 5x-10x the actual cost of the stock hull itself. And this is where component insurance vs hull insurance becomes critically important to understand. And, again, that's an example of how buying ships doesn't entirely equate to buying power, and how tall the upgrade ladder goes above baseline.

People flying the meta ships give said ships a bad name. I feel guilty flying the Gladiator now because it's risen to the top because of the broken missiles and typical gimballed Omni-boat setup. [editline]27th April 2015[/editline] Forced myself to use the joystick some more today. While I still think I would do much better all-around with a mouse, I feel like I've become at least competent with using the joystick. Flying with gimbals still seems all around better than without because you can use the lookahead thing Mattk50 loved so much (he was right) and the padlock to help you. With fixed weapons, it's much harder to hit stuff because your ship often isn't fast or responsive enough, even the M50. [vid]http://a.pomf.se/bbfpyq.webm[/vid]

[QUOTE=Why485;47608516]People flying the meta ships give said ships a bad name. I feel guilty flying the Gladiator now because it's risen to the top because of the broken missiles and typical gimballed Omni-boat setup. [editline]27th April 2015[/editline] Forced myself to use the joystick some more today. While I still think I would do much better all-around with a mouse, I feel like I've become at least competent with using the joystick. Flying with gimbals still seems all around better than without because you can use the lookahead thing Mattk50 loved so much (he was right) and the padlock to help you. With fixed weapons, it's much harder to hit stuff because your ship often isn't fast or responsive enough, even the M50. [vid]http://a.pomf.se/bbfpyq.webm[/vid][/QUOTE] haven't played AC yet why don't people just decouple and turn around when they're being chased like this? I see lots of videos in SC (I understand why I see it in E:D) that are very reminiscent of WWII.

[QUOTE=Mbbird;47608858]haven't played AC yet why don't people just decouple and turn around when they're being chased like this? I see lots of videos in SC (I understand why I see it in E:D) that are very reminiscent of WWII.[/QUOTE] a lot of people dont really know how to control their ship. the only excuse for a tail chase to be happening if your a third party chasing someone taking part in a separate dogfight. As a general rule (your ship depending, some ships have thruster configs that mean you want to do things slightly differently) its good to keep your opponent in your sights no matter what direction your moving (away, towards, dodging, spiral) so you can react to his movements and make sure he isnt getting an easy shot on you. And of course you can return fire.

it looks like he was chasing someone else

The guy in the video was pre-occupied shooting somebody else. What typically happens when you fight somebody who knows what they're doing is that you'll be facing each other the majority of the fight and sort of orbiting around each other trying to place shots. I'm still not sure if I like that or not, but that's how combat works when you have 6DOF and ships that can rotate as fast as the ships in SC do. It's basically Freelancer, but first person. I loved it in Freelancer because Freelancer was always a more arcadey shooter in space type experience but Star Citizen is trying to be DCS-lite in space so I just find it weirdly incongruous. I've said it before too, but I still think that most of the ships being so insanely maneuverable makes the fighting kind of annoying sometimes when its fast ship versus fast ship. It looks pretty ridiculous too. Watching a Hornet, Gladiator, or Cutlass fly around looks awesome and really convincing. Watching an M50, Gladius, or 350R fly around looks pretty silly.

Probably because you are able to boost on all axis, if the boost was only connected to the rear main thrusters, I doubt it would be that ridiculous.

I liked StarShatter's and Infinity's combat much better. Lateral and rotational thrust was a lot weaker so managing your inertia was methodical and required some degree of planning. You could also shoot over much, much longer ranges with very powerful zooming.

Ship decorating has been confirmed! [media]http://vimeo.com/125961399[/media]

Imagine having all that shit bouncing around as you carry out hard maneuvers. Getting clocked in the head with an unsecured assault rifle would not be fun.

[QUOTE=Grenadiac;47610908]Imagine having all that shit bouncing around as you carry out hard maneuvers. Getting clocked in the head with an unsecured assault rifle would not be fun.[/QUOTE] local gravity and maybe some sticky tack should take care of that I wonder if cockpit-only ships (like the M50) will have room for a picture to be taped up or a bobblehead to sit around

if I can't fill my avenger's cockpit with pin-ups I'm going to be severely disappointed

[URL="https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/255939/1-1-2-to-public-test-universe-downtime-at-4pm-cdt-9pm-gmt"]Impending PTU 1.1.2 (with the new tutorial system) release.[/URL] [QUOTE]Frequently Encountered Known Issues with 1.1.2/Tutorial System - User folder and inventory.xml issues can frequently cause weapon ammunition to go missing, among other related inventory issues; this will be fixed this summer when we introduce server-side inventory management - Long load times currently for any chapter of the Tutorial - Tutorial tips may show for the wrong controller type - Ships can sometimes sink into landing platforms during MP Free Flight - Characters can spawn as only eyes without a body - Characters will sometimes not have a head when viewed by other clients - Combustion Pistol cannot be equipped in AC - If two players enter Squadron Battle or Capture the Core as a team, they'll be put on opposing teams - Client crash may occur when hitting X after colliding with an asteroid - Client crash while interacting with various lobby elements by invited players - Client crash sometimes occurs when typing 'quit' in the console or exiting in the Options Menu Full list of Known Issues available soon. Instructions As with all new PTU publishes, you will need to re-copy your account over at [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/ptu[/url]. Instructions for Public Test Universe: - Log on to [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com[/url] with your normal credentials - Click My RSI on the top right, then My Account, then Public Test Universe (in yellow) or go to [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/ptu[/url]. - Click “Copy account to PTU” to start the account copy process over from the Live Service to the PTU Service. This process may take several minutes to complete. - Once done, you’ll receive an email with your PTU password and additional instructions for how to access the service.[/QUOTE] As always, this is another big fat download, so if you have metered bandwidth it may not be time to get excited yet. However, this is intended to be the last patch before the fps module drops. I'm hoping to see those structural fixes to matchmaking that required a patch, not a hotfix, that they were talking about probably having. Hoping to see REC balances, too. Ben's post for the week's schedule: [QUOTE]Greetings Citizens! There’s more coming than this week’s schedule suggests – [B]we’re also going to do a post every day about a specific model in the Hull series. For a few of these (B and D, at least!) there’ll be some new concept art.[/B] If you have any pressing questions about a specific Hull, please hit up Lando’s thread on the subject. We’re also making progress on the next Star Citizen patch, which will hopefully go to the PTU in the next few days. If that goes well, we could see a proper patch late in the week. Finally, we’ve asked the folks at Illfonic to help out with an update showing you the current status of the FPS module. I don’t want to promise a date for this, because we’d rather they focus their resources actually working on blockers… but hopefully later in the week! Tuesday, April 28th - Meet the Devs: Steve Bender Wednesday, April 29th - Vault Update - Jump Point Update Thursday, April 30th - Around the Verse Episode 42 (42!) - Reverse the Verse Friday, May 1st - Monthly Report Saturday, May 2nd - Weekly Roundup[/QUOTE] Also, it's Monday, so that means [video=youtube;mODLgO4DgwY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mODLgO4DgwY[/video] Audio's a little hot.

[QUOTE=Squeegy Mackoy;47610740]I liked StarShatter's and Infinity's combat much better. Lateral and rotational thrust was a lot weaker so managing your inertia was methodical and required some degree of planning. You could also shoot over much, much longer ranges with very powerful zooming.[/QUOTE] anything that makes stuff more like the ICP is great in my book, but it seems unlikely at this stage. Even with a much higher speed cap, if they introduce speed curves or make boost something stupid it hurt the whole thing. But the ICP had no gforce mechanics and was very simple in terms of physics and flight model, it shouldnt be directly ported either. If anyones wondering what the icp looked like: [video=youtube;9EOoQtTghvo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EOoQtTghvo[/video]

Okay, so maybe the PTU is worth doing this time. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz6tmZkFGAQ"]The tutorial is fucking something else.[/URL] That's linked for (minor) spoiler reasons. This is an even lesser spoiler, but it's the first part of the first tutorial and some might wish to be truly virgin. [sp]You climb into a Gladius and take off from the asteroid hangar. If you don't rush to talk to the NPC too fast, you can watch a Gladiator land.[/sp] [video=youtube;cnS1k7N6Ak4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnS1k7N6Ak4[/video] GHG talks over this one, but it's the video that shows off [I]certain things[/I] the best. The other videos I found were crappier for one reason or another. Also, the tutorial NPC gets just a bit salty with you if you follow him around instead of doing what he told you to do. :v: In short, [sp]our first playable steps into the PU experience[/sp]. And I am so ready. I can't wait until the PTU's finished downloading. Oh, and a reminder to anyone downloading the PTU: There is a known issue where the tutorial keeps telling you to use missiles after you've done so. Remember this, unlike the moron who helpfully filed a bug report for a documented issue in the official PTU thread.

The tutorials are nice. Hope they will release the tutorials and the FPS module in one go soon.

The tutorials are amazing. Wish we could get Squadron 42 even quicker now.

[QUOTE=darkgodmaste;47617522]The tutorials are nice. Hope they will release the tutorials and the FPS module in one go soon.[/QUOTE] The tutorial is in 1.1.2. Star Marine (the fps) is 1.2.0. [URL="https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/4908503/#Comment_4908503"]Will Leverett also says:[/URL] [QUOTE]- If you have purchased the $5 Arena Commander pass you'll have Arena Commander and Star Marine alpha access. - If you have a starter package, you will only have access to Arena Commander, but not Star Marine (unless you buy the pass).[/QUOTE] So, that's cool. If this turns out to be official policy, Star Marine is included in your $5 AC pass instead of being its own $5 pass. PTU's downloaded, time to try these tutorials myself.

Well I've got the AC pass, so yay me.

[URL="https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/4909192/#Comment_4909192"]Will clarifies:[/URL] [QUOTE]Hey guys, Whoops, whoops, whoops. I totally got this backwards. My bad. Here it goes: 1) Early backers (who have a pledge with Alpha Access) will always have free access to all modules. 2) Late backers who had to buy an Arena Commander Module Pass will also need a Star Marine Module Pass. 3) Starter packages that come with an Arena Commander Module Pass will also need a Star Marine Module Pass. Sincere apologies for this and for derailing the conversation.[/QUOTE] I kind of thought it was weird that, after every indication from CIG that Star Marine would be a separate module pass, all of a sudden here's the dude who's basically the public face of the engineering and live ops teams (i.e. handling the public game servers) saying it'd be included. Another reminder that if it's not posted by CR personally or in a Comm-Link post, it's only a dev's best guess/understanding at the time. A note for anyone who hasn't played the tutorial yet: Leave the hangar [I]slowly[/I]. The hangar doors are a two-step airlock, not a completely open hole once the door opens for you. RIP my tutorial Gladius's vertical fins.

Wait, I bought a Mustang Alpha so this puts me in the 3rd option? Yep, it does. Okay.

[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14684-Hull-B-Q-A"]The Hull B Q&A contains a few interesting notes[/URL], including a complete updated cargo chart in cubic meters and SCU. Ships in-engine were measured in-engine, and the others were estimated. [QUOTE]"The Hull B having TR8s while those engines are physically smaller than the Constellation's TR5s would be ridiculous otherwise unless all ships are having their main engines changed to a new size system." Remember, TR rating indicates thrust and not size! For the entire hull series, especially efficient thrusters are required, as they may be required to push up to 16 times the mass of the ship.[/QUOTE] New Hull B concept art, too [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/12qfckfecmszar/source/HullB_insit_v04c.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE]“WAY TO B!” – Unpopular MISC Advertising Slogan[/QUOTE]

the hell? the 300 series got shafted with those cargo values it's now the single worst ship barring the ones that hold 0, by a huge margin also why does the hornet hold as much as the avenger and aurora

i mean you could always tell just by looking at the 300.