Star Citizen Megathread v. procedurally-generated deadlines - Games

[QUOTE=Hezzy;52475225]I am quite disappointed that the systems will be reduced. Kind of takes away from the original MMORPG vibe they were pitching to begin with. Although, I suppose it depends how big the systems are going to be. One of my favourite things to do in Freelancer was to smuggle things between systems using Jump Holes and it was always fun scouting about for them (in the days before instant internet access)[/QUOTE] Honestly, if they introduce points of interest on every moon/planet, and allow for player cities and colonies, it'll already be as big or bigger than any MMO in terms of actual explorable space. Star Wars Galaxies definitely felt like an MMO, but their maps were something like 100 miles square, and not all of them were livable.

[QUOTE=revan740;52475685]if they introduce ... allow for player cities and colonies[/QUOTE] Work is now being done on procedural cities so that in a couple years or so we'll have cities to fly over (that we presumably can't land at, at least not as a Landing Zone with shops/etc.). That definitely has to happen before any kind of player cities, except for lame asspull workarounds to bypass having procedural cities working, is available if ever. [I]Player[/I]-inhabited arbitrary or even semi-arbitrary settlements has been mentioned as a possibility on the long run, but I wouldn't expect that to happen for at least three years unless there's a sudden leap ahead like there was with procgen planets. On the topic of size, SC's planets are scaled down for gameplay purposes, but still huge enough. The engine's built to handle up to 1:1 Earthlike size, but because the planets are scaled down that size will be limited to the biggest gas giants and such. As we saw in AtV with the guy flying around looking for nice places to drop wrecks, the area covered by even one major terrain feature visible from space is [I]huge[/I] when you fly down to ground scale. Now what remains to be seen is how full they fill them with PoIs and how badly those PoIs are copy-pasted.

i wish i had the tools and could make some small moon portion for others ... for real, not joking ... i know what terrain's POI making is w/o good tools

Huh, If they stick to their timeline I may be home within a week of the 3.0 release

[QUOTE=capgun;52476454]Huh, If they stick to their timeline I may be home within a week of the 3.0 release[/QUOTE] Supposedly, CR has mandated that Gamescom is the deadline for 3.0, one way or another. [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/1/thread/spaceship-prices/319152"]The Cyclone concept sale has been announced for this Friday, with [I]five[/I] variants, from $45-70.[/URL] I'm guessing a fighter or 'advanced starter' like the Reliant. Or some kind of middle ground between spaceship and spacebike.

isn't it a rover?

[QUOTE=krail9;52476549]isn't it a rover?[/QUOTE] Five variants of [I]rover[/I] would be a "game-changer" but I'm not sure if it's the right change.

Calling it now it's a modular apc/hover tank that can be outfitted for various things.

I want a space horse.

[QUOTE=Dispenser;52474992]So how will that effect exploration? With so few systems is it going to be limited to finding new routes between systems and misc deep space/planet stuff like wrecks?[/QUOTE] We're talking 10 entire solar systems worth of stuff to find from exploring, and with all the years of development just looking towards getting pipelines refined so it's actually possible to achieve the final goal, we could be seeing a new system being released every 3 months or so (uneducated guess, but once they have all the basic gameplay systems in they'd have 4 studios focused on new content, I can imagine they'd be able to pump them out pretty quickly) The only major problem I can see is they said that as they release new star systems and players find them, they would get their name in the history books, which might conflict a bit since they have a whole star map already with written lore behind them. The current star map, from what I understand, is the current known universe, so I'd like to see how they go about saying 'this is the known universe, but it's not, because you only know of 10 systems in the first full release'. [editline]17th July 2017[/editline] Really damn happy they added the new Aurora to 3.0, I'll be having two nice shiny ships to float about in.

[quote]as opposed to the unrealistic 100 they threw around[/quote] interesting choice of words, I remember a hundred being made out to be a [I]pitiful[/I], lazy developers squandering money kinda number because of ED's galaxy jammed with locations (back then, procgen systems with one or two visitable stations and a few RNG events that can happen while in transit or in orbit around a body somewhere), then NMS's nigh-universe-scale galaxy with the added planetside fidelity. Guess after NMS drove home the point of why raw procgen can't answer everything, there's at least a little appreciation for devs taking the time to work more intimately with locations

Is the plan too still have the performance update be bundled in 3.0? Something about introducing delta patching in 3.0?

[QUOTE=plunger435;52477215]Is the plan too still have the performance update be bundled in 3.0?[/QUOTE] Some performance stuff is coming in 3.0, however I think a major part of it was also coming in 3.1. Delta patcher is [i]hopefully[/i] coming with 3.0, at least that's what CIG would like. Delta patcher only allows for more optimized game downloads, so after downloading the full 3.0 build, any game update after that should only require you to download what has changed, as opposed to the full packages. Delta patcher doesn't have anything to do with performance. Personally I think the with the release of the delta patcher they should at least give access to a nightly PTU build or something, giving much better feedback and bug reporting capabilities. It feels kind of useless reporting bugs in 2.6.3 at the moment just because we're pretty much running on a 12 month old build of the game, so anything we come across is most likely fixed in all the overhauls in 3.0.

[QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52477220]Some performance stuff is coming in 3.0, however I think a major part of it was also coming in 3.1. Delta patcher is [i]hopefully[/i] coming with 3.0, at least that's what CIG would like. Delta patcher only allows for more optimized game downloads, so after downloading the full 3.0 build, any game update after that should only require you to download what has changed, as opposed to the full packages. Delta patcher doesn't have anything to do with performance.[/QUOTE] I backed it awhile ago, and every few months I'll launch it to see what's changed, but the performance always ends up being shit on the servers. Seems like that should be their highest priority.

[QUOTE=plunger435;52477230]I backed it awhile ago, and every few months I'll launch it to see what's changed, but the performance always ends up being shit on the servers. Seems like that should be their highest priority.[/QUOTE] It is a pretty big priority for them, but at the same time it's a massive job. They did an ATV on it a month or so back. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4m2nwn5wT8[/media] Star Network stuff starts at around 13:09. EDIT: I think it was Network Bind/Unbind is the big thing that'll ease up the CPU usage, which they pushed back to 3.1 last I heard.

[QUOTE=dai;52477023]interesting choice of words, I remember a hundred being made out to be a [I]pitiful[/I], lazy developers squandering money kinda number because of ED's galaxy jammed with locations (back then, procgen systems with one or two visitable stations and a few RNG events that can happen while in transit or in orbit around a body somewhere), then NMS's nigh-universe-scale galaxy with the added planetside fidelity. Guess after NMS drove home the point of why raw procgen can't answer everything, there's at least a little appreciation for devs taking the time to work more intimately with locations, so you don't have to spend lengthy periods of time blindly jumping system to system because you have zero options nearby due to your procgen'd system being a single space station and the occasional bandit interdiction[/QUOTE] I think ED also drove the point about how uninteressting procgen is. You can visit a million star systems in that game, but there will rarely be anything interessting in any of them. It just uses a random selection of a handful of pre made planers, stars and stations to inhabit everything, so exploring anything becomes boring after a while.

[QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52477220]Personally I think the with the release of the delta patcher they should at least give access to a nightly PTU build or something, giving much better feedback and bug reporting capabilities. It feels kind of useless reporting bugs in 2.6.3 at the moment just because we're pretty much running on a 12 month old build of the game, so anything we come across is most likely fixed in all the overhauls in 3.0.[/QUOTE] They don't have the soft infrastructure to handle making QA sign off on PTU nightlies and then collecting feedback from the Issue Council for them. If they did this it'd almost certainly be an Evocati deal. Nightlies work fine if you're an open-source project or something, not so much when you're a big complex CryEngine game. It's a good idea but I think it can't work for such a small team with a big game and an even bigger backer base. If even 10,000 people participated in the nightlies the Issue Council would be overwhelmed and become useless. The technology to run nightly builds is easily within their grasp, but it would be a massive task to process the responses. [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report"]Several network enhancements as well as the entity update scheduler are going in and will continue to be improved after 3.0 so that should help.[/URL] However, the performance gains achieved by these changes may well be overshadowed by the tons of new stuff being added. 3.0 probably won't dramatically improve performance, but the network overhaul and the quest for performance is ongoing. 3.0 isn't going to be the magic bullet but CIG wants to tighten performance as much as we want them to. [editline]17th July 2017[/editline] On the topic of performance, I found this German article, reporting the details of a paywalled Gamestar article after F42 invited Gamestar to come over and play 3.0 (but not SQ42), and [URL="http://www.pcgames.de/Star-Citizen-Spiel-3481/News/Minimum-Systemanforderungen-PC-recommended-Hardware-Requirements-SSD-30-Fps-Geforce-1233259/"]it gives the specs for a reference machine that, as of the time of the interview, played 3.0 at ~30fps:[/URL] [QUOTE]CPU: Intel i7-5930 @ 3.5 GHz RAM: 32 GB Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 4GB Hard Drive: SSD[/QUOTE] Obviously, CIG isn't going to stop optimizing 3.0 after it goes live.

I just want delta patching already. It's literally the only thing that has kept me from playing, because this is the sort of thing I just check on every now and again and I don't want to redownload the entire client every time.

I want delta patching too. Especially if I get into wave 1 PTU as I usually do. I've always tended to download every other PTU build even if I'm actively trying to test and contribute bug reports. It also means CIG devs don't have to sit around waiting for 30 minutes until the first backers get the build installed and get into the servers to see if a PTU build sets everything on fire. It'll also probably reduce the amount of money CIG spends on bandwidth by like 75%, which, at the volume they use, will be a considerable amount of money saved. They've been actively using it internally on a testing basis for several months. [QUOTE=ulvemann43;52472248]Huh, for some reason i thought daymar was rocky similarly to our moon, and that the desert moon showed was another 4th moon, my bad.[/QUOTE] To answer this question, the desert planet we saw last Gamescom and often since is Leir III, and that demo was codenamed Homestead. The Homestead demo jammed Leir III into the Stanton system in many demos involving the ongoing progress of 3.0 because the baby-PU portions of the Stanton system are the currently-playable points of reference for backers, and the transition from e.g. Port Olisar to the Homestead demo planet becomes more easy for someone who's played 2.x to appreciate. Bottom line, 3.0 will not include Leir III, unless CIG surprises us. It'd be nice, but I haven't seen any sign of merging the Homestead demo environments with Stanton for 3.x. On the other hand, the Levski landing zone is going to be added to 3.0's Stanton system even though Delamar, the massive asteroid it's built into, actually belongs in the Nyx system. It's again using Stanton as a placeholder to deliver the playable content to backers.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52479559]I want delta patching too. Especially if I get into wave 1 PTU as I usually do. I've always tended to download every other PTU build even if I'm actively trying to test and contribute bug reports. It also means CIG devs don't have to sit around waiting for 30 minutes until the first backers get the build installed and get into the servers to see if a PTU build sets everything on fire. It'll also probably reduce the amount of money CIG spends on bandwidth by like 75%, which, at the volume they use, will be a considerable amount of money saved. They've been actively using it internally on a testing basis for several months. To answer this question, the desert planet we saw last Gamescom and often since is Leir III, and that demo was codenamed Homestead. The Homestead demo jammed Leir III into the Stanton system in many demos involving the ongoing progress of 3.0 because the baby-PU portions of the Stanton system are the currently-playable points of reference for backers, and the transition from e.g. Port Olisar to the Homestead demo planet becomes more easy for someone who's played 2.x to appreciate. Bottom line, 3.0 will not include Leir III, unless CIG surprises us. It'd be nice, but I haven't seen any sign of merging the Homestead demo environments with Stanton for 3.x. On the other hand, the Levski landing zone is going to be added to 3.0's Stanton system even though Delamar, the massive asteroid it's built into, actually belongs in the Nyx system. It's again using Stanton as a placeholder to deliver the playable content to backers.[/QUOTE] Ah yes, i knew about the diference between the desert moon and planet. So we are getting 4 landeable planets, alrighty. I wasn't quite certain what delamar actually was, neat to know it is an asteroid. So my question asking whether we are getting 3 or 4 moons was refering to that one as well. In my post i was a bit confused since i thought Levski would be in one of those 3, when i remembered its surrounding landscape being much diferent than anything on the moons, alas i thought Daymar to be the Levski location due to similar name to Delamar. Thanks for clarifying.

I have gigabit internet and I'm still reluctant to download new builds of this game, just to have to redownload it every time a minor patch comes down. I haven't touched it in over a year now.

I don't know why but the last two times i played this game i encountered a player flying a scytche. That's like a unicorn in terms of rarity innit?

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52484453]I don't know why but the last two times i played this game i encountered a player flying a scytche. That's like a unicorn in terms of rarity innit?[/QUOTE] you can rent it with REC it so long as you've beaten the last wave (18) of vanduul swarm [t]http://i.imgur.com/Ph3OQ6c.png[/t]

But rented ships cannot be used in PU. Only rented weapons

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52484563]But rented ships cannot be used in PU. Only rented weapons[/QUOTE] You could use them before, i guess not anymore?

[QUOTE=creec;52485212]You could use them before, i guess not anymore?[/QUOTE] Nope, they changed that a while back. And in the future they will change weapons to work like that, too.

I hope 3.0 allows for at least rentable ships in the PU

Oh, and to add onto those scytches me and my friend saw. Those servers were odd. In the first one there was a starfarer, which was the first one i ever saw, and i believe there may have been a second one too. Then the other schytche server had two starfarers and one catterpillar. I had never seen any of those ships in person before.

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52485936]Oh, and to add onto those scytches me and my friend saw. Those servers were odd. In the first one there was a starfarer, which was the first one i ever saw, and i believe there may have been a second one too. Then the other schytche server had two starfarers and one catterpillar. I had never seen any of those ships in person before.[/QUOTE] Since most people with bigger fancier ships have had them for a while now, they've already shown stuff off to their friends and, if playing on the server, are probably back to just using small combat ships so they can get to missions fast, kill things fast, and get in and out of EVA to activate beacons/gather loot fast. if one big ship spawns, you might see a few more, since those people are more just hanging out and showing off. Also, if you ask on a server, I'm sure someone will happily spawn a big/unique ship and even let you pilot it around, maybe even squad up with a few more people to man turrets and fly escorts. You can get a LOT of pirates to spawn if a handful of people fly in a pack, makes for some fun battles

[QUOTE=dai;52486020]Since most people with bigger fancier ships have had them for a while now, they've already shown stuff off to their friends and, if playing on the server, are probably back to just using small combat ships so they can get to missions fast, kill things fast, and get in and out of EVA to activate beacons/gather loot fast. if one big ship spawns, you might see a few more, since those people are more just hanging out and showing off. Also, if you ask on a server, I'm sure someone will happily spawn a big/unique ship and even let you pilot it around, maybe even squad up with a few more people to man turrets and fly escorts. You can get a LOT of pirates to spawn if a handful of people fly in a pack, makes for some fun battles[/QUOTE] Oh yeah, one server we were on had a group of 5 hornets camping the first ICC mission, waiting for pirates to spawn.