Star Citizen Megathread v. procedurally-generated deadlines - Games

Sounds odd and a bit needlessly complicated, tbh. But i can see it maybe working a bit.

Well, nothing is set in stone yet. They described their ideas, but nothing has been really tested nor implemented. So you kinda just have to wait.

The idea is that character deaths are supposed to be meaningful and you will want to avoid death, even if that means looking to alternate solutions to combat for staying alive, like negotiating with pirates mugging you. Every time you "die" you respawn at the nearest medical facility and there's some sort of handwaved assumed excuse that you were rescued from the brink of death. Eventually, your body will be too fucked up for medical science to rescue and your character will die. You then continue play from the eyes of your character's heir as they watch your deceased character's funeral. Your new character inherits the old character's assets and reputation, but with a financial/material penalty and an across-the-board reputation loss (shifting towards neutrality in all cases). This is done for a few reasons: 1) The penalties are obviously the deterrent factor to character death, otherwise all the death/funeral sequence would be is an opportunity to reroll your face and change your name to escape bounties. 2) The reputation decay is not only intended to be a deterrent but also, if the player decides to take their new character in a new direction, a way of accelerating such a decision. If a player has been a hardened criminal since the game went for-real live and their storied, legendary pirate finally corks it, they may want to play a lawful character and get to explore some of the areas they've been barred from (Terra for one). As the sins of the father weigh heavy on the son, the new character is assumed to be a bad apple like his/her predecessor, but this is merely that, a prejudicial reputation -- the character's actual actions are still undetermined and will either reinforce or change their 'inherited' reputation. By having the reputation decay towards neutrality, players don't have to spend as much time grinding their reputation back down from infamous murderer. The other thing character respawns (counting down towards permadeath) will do is leave scars and other permanent alterations to your character. [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/14318-Healing-Your-Spacemen"]If an fps encounter destroys your leg to the point that it's ruined[/URL] you will need a prosthetic leg to walk again. CIG has hinted at prosthetics ranging from natural-looking limbs (for people that didn't want to lose their character's arm) to articulated metal joints and rods for a rad cyborgpunk look. The idea is that your character is an evolving story and this is displayed visually on their character as well as on their possessions. CIG have also strongly implied that there will be some fairly expensive method of extending the number of extra lives you have so that a particularly precious character can stave off permadeath more times than normal. Cosmetic surgery will also be available, for a fee, to cover up any scars you don't want shown, in case your character relies on having unblemished skin or something.

Does being a higher level subscriber give you higher chances of getting into a PTU wave?

Not that I'm aware of. I think they make the decision to bring subscribers in on a given wave as a way of selecting a fairly known number of relatively-active backers instead of just drawing random numbers from a hat and potentially picking someone who's stopped paying attention to SC until SQ42 and has been 100% out of the loop for everything for three years. The subscriber population base is a certain size, the wave 1 player list is a certain size, wave 2, 3, etc. It gives them cards of different sizes to slot into rotation depending on how large a wave they want to add at once. I actually disagree with subscribers being given wave 1 access (at least that's been their assigned wave in most PTUs since the perk was added) because it in effect makes PTU pay-to-unlock for the low price of $10 plus you get all the other benefits of subscribing for a month. But, at the same time, since CIG buffed the subscriber rewards, AtV has gone from something everyone lets me watch and summarize for the thread to a weekly news show that a non-trivial number of us consider it a weekly must-watch, and the hype is automatically intensified if it's a Frankfurt studio update week. Happy Hour is a lot more interesting than "what did the community team watch on TV this week?" and "when is X ship coming?" every week on RtV. They've stepped up their game and I'm willing to bet that the perks have driven more people into subscribing and justified/paid for this quality increase. They used to excuse their poor production values on not giving backers the sense that their game-fund money is being spent on flashy marketing, but now they've managed to strike a balance between still being human and letting the relatively low budget show through and delivering solid, engaging content that backers want to watch. Also, in the case of 3.0, the timing of the release is basically paired with Gamescom. CIG doesn't usually time their major releases to major stage show events, but this time it worked out this way, and that's relevant because in the past at least part of the major events have been paid out of the subscriber budget -- defraying as much as possible the costs of flying personnel to the event and accomodating them and paying them to work the event to minimize the drain on other funding supplies (like the all-important backer fund, which Chris promised would be spent only on game development). If 15,000 additional people subscribe this month just to get PTU wave 1 access, I'm pretty sure that pays for flying and accomodating every American employee flying over for the show for the duration of GC without affecting the baseline revenue from existing subscribers and without having to pull money from anywhere else. I may not like the idea of paying for wave 1 PTU, but in both this specific case and the general improvements to AtV/etc., it's hard to argue with the results.

I don't subscribe at all and have gotten into the first wave of the last dozen PTU builds. I don't do reports either.

The wave 1 population has pretty much been set-and-forget since about 2.2 or so, not counting subscribers being thrown on top sometimes. They haven't kicked people off or made any major efforts to add more people in. I'm not sure how I feel about that, even though it means I've had an easy time surfing in on wave 1 each PTU.

My friend was invited to a player group named bad company that wanted crew for a javelin. That's a pretty neat job offer.

I think for 2.6.0 I was in Wave 2, but have since then subscribed purely because I believe the improvements to ATV and Happy Hour are now worth paying $10 a month. Say, an hour of entertainment a week, that's 4 hours a month. Pretty good for $10. Was just wondering if I might be getting a PTU bonus with my subscription also. I havn't reported many bugs, but I have a few, mainly art related.

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52504546]My friend was invited to a player group named bad company that wanted crew for a javelin. That's a pretty neat job offer.[/QUOTE] I hope they did inform him the job has a waiting period that may be longer then provided in the terms?

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;52507960]I hope they did inform him the job has a waiting period that may be longer then provided in the terms?[/QUOTE] He didn't take it overall, he's more interessted in being a freelancer than a security guard. Though i'd certainly consider it! Just for the chance alone. Though a piracy group with a javelin, that sounds scary. Anyways, the ursa has its own store page now, and is listed as having a cargo capacity of 4, quadruple the capacity of the cyclone, neat.

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52507975]He didn't take it overall, he's more interessted in being a freelancer than a security guard. Though i'd certainly consider it! Just for the chance alone. Though a piracy group with a javelin, that sounds scary. Anyways, the ursa has its own store page now, and is listed as having a cargo capacity of 4, quadruple the capacity of the cyclone, neat.[/QUOTE] Isn't the Cyclone a 2 seater making the Ursa only double the capacity? Or did I fuck up and send CIG more money for a 1 man race kart? :( Do they let us post questions for the Happy Hour on Friday early or is it only in chat? I wanted to ask how the planetary generation system works in terms of game file size, eg. does the finer the artist placed detail on the planet get increase the file size by a lot/not much, etc.

[QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52509262]Isn't the Cyclone a 2 seater making the Ursa only double the capacity? Or did I fuck up and send CIG more money for a 1 man race kart? :([/quote] [QUOTE=ulvemann43;52507975]Anyways, the ursa has its own store page now, and is listed as having a [B]cargo[/B] capacity of 4, quadruple the capacity of the cyclone, neat.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52509262]Do they let us post questions for the Happy Hour on Friday early or is it only in chat? I wanted to ask how the planetary generation system works in terms of game file size, eg. does the finer the artist placed detail on the planet get increase the file size by a lot/not much, etc.[/QUOTE] They post threads in the subscriber corner to ask questions when they do their monthly subscriber townhall streams, but it doesn't seem like there's a thread on Spectrum for this week's Happy Hour. If there is, their own search can't find it. :v: Keep in mind that the engine's entire notion of the universe is nested object containers, so it amounts to carving out a subdivision of space into its own zone and defining stuff inside of it. Unless they have an insane amount of metadata attached to every attribute, this seems like it'd be fairly efficient in terms of a planet definition file's filesize, but that's just my guess. Obviously when you include the asset files for all the objects and textures on a planet, filesize is gonna skyrocket.

Ohey, got the refund on that one cyclone i bought before they clarified you can't CCU them to ships. Time to get that offroad pack!.

[QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52509262]Isn't the Cyclone a 2 seater making the Ursa only double the capacity? Or did I fuck up and send CIG more money for a 1 man race kart? :( [/QUOTE] it's a two seater regardless of the variant, with a little pickup bed in the back that can fit 1 SCU of cargo (a standardized cargo box), or utilize that opening for the modules. Don't think you'll be able to trade your passenger seat for some extra cargo space though. If you thought you heard something about that, it was probably about the rear seat of the dragonfly [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/6ptysq8lyy9jbr/source/Tumbril-V8_pg6.jpg[/t] [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/9fjfp1i3hed72r/source/Tumbril-V8_pg14.jpg[/t] summarized- cargo box tucked into the hole (left of full rendered pic) halo warthog style third man gunner big ass radar for recon and terrain mapping self loading AA missile rack 80's tuner car with window louvres (aerodynamics package + boost intake) I think the color scheme and shape in general are very 80's science/industrial tech inspired, love that aesthetic. similar vibe to Hakke weapons in destiny [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/w3vw5498xb25mr/source/Tumbril-Buggy-Piece-05-Rocky-Beach-Sport-Fin.jpg[/t] [t]https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/994/507/large/mark-van-haitsma-hakke-ar2-back-perspective.jpg?1443926309[/t]

So, since i have a cyclone TR as part of that offroad pack i can upgrade the other one now to another cyclone, erm, which one should i get? RC or RN?

That depends on what you want to do. If speed and tuning are important to you, RC. If you want to be a bit more stealthy and have superior scanning capabilities (for locating beacons?), RN.

[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52509537]So, since i have a cyclone TR as part of that offroad pack i can upgrade the other one now to another cyclone, erm, which one should i get? RC or RN?[/QUOTE] RC: -regenerating boost fuel (feature we've seen before with the P72 Achilles, whereas merlin just depletes til it can't boost anymore), helps with getting back to top speed after having to slow down due to obstacles/corner taking -faster, room to tune performance further RN: -objectively a better choice if you're not interested in racing -sensor suite aids if you're in dangerous territory, you can avoid ambushes or approach enemy encampments with full advantage. No need for faster vehicle if you can see and tackle problems before they can attempt to run you down -seriously if there's anything that needs 'finding' this is probably your only option as a ground vehicle. Sure ships have sensor suites but as we've seen with homestead, they'll likely make flight conditions hazardous near the good stuff. -beacon placement sounds pretty important if you want to return to something (like, you discover a wreck, and there's a shit ton of cargo that you can't carry, but you can always fly your ship back to collect the rest). -also likely selling data you've collected, making beacon placements at points of interest super valuable to players who can salvage wrecks the RN is pretty much better for realistic use cases, while the RC is a for-fun joyrider that might prove useful once in a blue moon if you REALLY need to get two people and nothing else from one place to another ASAP PS I got the RC with my remaining store credit and am jealous of the RN's usefulness, but it's just a for-fun thing for me since I've always been interested in racing and tuning. It'll be cheap enough to upgrade or even buy a second cyclone if I get to the point in actual game

I figure Cyclones won't cost that much in-game, compared to say a Connie, so I'm okay with getting something like a racer variant in-game. As soon as CIG introduces a planet with hazardous terrain we've gotta hold a ground race tournament on it. On a course aimed at achieving a 50% casualty rate. :v:

Never mind, you can't actually upgrade a TR to anything below an AA. Seems like a bug since it should technically be possible, but i suppose not. But hey i can wait til later, no biggie.

Remember, $0 CCUs don't exist for new concepts anymore, and the Turret, Racer, and Recon variants all cost the same. It's not a bug.

Didn't they decide to go back on that and not remove 0$ CCUs?

Can't find anything on /r/sc about them reversing course on the CCU plans. They held off on some of the changes until 3.0 (or after), but they've made their intentions clear. No new $0 CCU options will be created for new concept sales, that's why you can't switch Cyclone variants laterally.

By the way, CIG has made a statement on the 5-10 star systems at launch: [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/could-we-please-get-an-official-cig-confirmation-a/350872[/url] Basically they haven't reduced the amount of systems for launch, CR just said that they'd have 5-10 systems ready when the core mechanics are in place.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52509844]Can't find anything on /r/sc about them reversing course on the CCU plans. They held off on some of the changes until 3.0 (or after), but they've made their intentions clear. No new $0 CCU options will be created for new concept sales, that's why you can't switch Cyclone variants laterally.[/QUOTE] Ah, darn. Oh well, i can CCU my cyclone to something else in the future then.

Oh and the cyclone Q&A was released: [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16026-Q-A-Tumbril-Cyclone[/url]

[video=youtube;S2Lk3JroAQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Lk3JroAQM[/video] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/12715-2792-The-Tide-Rises"]Garron was referenced in one of the very early posts, before SC's official reveal.[/URL] The Garron II massacre and the fall of the Messers is a core element of the lore. This week's lorepost is up and [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/16028-Plain-Truth-Shadow-State"]it's another round of Parker Terrell's Plain Truth.[/URL] [media]https://twitter.com/sandigardiner/status/890297562678382592[/media]

[QUOTE=dai;52509510]it's a two seater regardless of the variant, with a little pickup bed in the back that can fit 1 SCU of cargo (a standardized cargo box), or utilize that opening for the modules. Don't think you'll be able to trade your passenger seat for some extra cargo space though. If you thought you heard something about that, it was probably about the rear seat of the dragonfly[/QUOTE] I'm just dumb and can't read, got mixed up between cargo space and seats :(

Is there a confirmed list of features for 3.0

[QUOTE=Solomon;52511545]Is there a confirmed list of features for 3.0[/QUOTE] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report"]Quite a detailed one, in fact.[/URL] Scroll down in each section to what's already implemented in the 3.0 branch.