Star Citizen Megathread v. procedurally-generated deadlines - Games

[QUOTE=Mattk50;52602606]That screenie is a bit outdated though, right now i think its only one bottle in a different locker setup, and the spawn rate is much smaller, if it's even spawning as it should be. i've only seen it actually spawned once out of 15 visits in current version and its never respawned while waiting nearby. Now there are a bunch more floating in a few of the the yela ring system sites, though.[/QUOTE] Google lied to meeeeeeeee :v: I haven't really bothered digging through every inch of Crusader at 20fps, so I wasn't sure where 2.6.3 put them.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52602626]Google lied to meeeeeeeee :v: I haven't really bothered digging through every inch of Crusader at 20fps, so I wasn't sure where 2.6.3 put them.[/QUOTE] Its not worth it anyways

Not this close to 3.0, at least.

So I've been out of the loop a long while, what [i]exactly[/i] is 3.0 supposed to include? As far as major changes or additions to the game are concerned, at least.

[URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6va6e1/going_from_263_to_300_the_compact_schedule_report/"]This Reddit thread[/URL] is intended to be a compact 2.6.3->3.0.0 feature list based on [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report"]CIG's published schedule reports.[/URL] TL;DR version: - improved performance and stability...until the instance exceeds 12 players then it rapidly starts to shit the bed, currently, part of the reason it's not in Evocati yet - Performance improvements include SOME but not all of the netcode and network-involved overhauls and enhancements CIG's working on - Item 2.0 is fully implemented across ships and basically everything else, meaning you get the sexy Inner Thought interaction UIs instead of that ugly ass Cryengine <USE> prompt; ship cockpits are now interactable - Basic ship door-locking so a ship owner can stop fuckholes from stealing it as soon as it's spawned in Olisar - Procgen planets (moons only, with and without atmosphere, in 3.0 - more locations to come) with atmospheric flight, procedural outposts, derelict ship wreckages of most ship types (some are inhabited), and three ground vehicles - Levski is temporarily hanging out in Stanton instead of Nyx for another landing zone - Total MobiGlas overhaul, it's now holographically projected in 3D space in front of you - Lots of graphics tech improvements, including engine trails and realtime holographic volumes - Two interactive NPC mission-givers with procedurally-assembled missions (at first it's gonna be kinda Radiant-like, but this is only the first pass) - Cargo and carrying objects - Shop kiosks now work and let you buy/sell commodities using aUEC, to go with cargo - Doors and airlocks are hooked up to Item 2.0 and are intelligent about the pressure volumes connected to them because, surprise, 3.0 includes atmo pressure simulations for volumes. All we need is remote control of doors on ships and you can space people by sealing the hallways and opening the airlock for the segment they're in. - Basic implementation of ship insurance is in - Character customization - Hailing spaceports and having realtime video calls from NPCs (for landing permission, so far) - AI can use turrets - New and rebuilt ship/fps weapons added - Drake Cutlass Black rework, Aurora rework, Connie Aquila, Ursa rover, Drake Dragonfly, and MISC Prospector added [vid]https://giant.gfycat.com/MerryFirsthandAsiantrumpetfish.webm[/vid] The Aurora rework was worth the wait imo

[video=youtube;b1aGrN6FV0E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1aGrN6FV0E[/video] [video=youtube;fUAlEOhkdok]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUAlEOhkdok[/video] [video=youtube;A2vgYRiO07M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2vgYRiO07M[/video] [video=youtube;t6qh1mjaPAU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6qh1mjaPAU[/video] [video=youtube;hXmbmWYF5Go]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXmbmWYF5Go[/video] Vanduul make cameos in the Ursa rover and MISC Prospector video -- on the wrecked Connie and in the spotlight sweeps. :xfiles: Full streams if anyone wants to watch them: [video=youtube;gwUtzq3A5-o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwUtzq3A5-o[/video] [video=youtube;vUHUW_magpU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUHUW_magpU[/video] Today Chris and Erin had interviews/Q&As and [URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6vrnxr/gamescom_day_2_live_show_notes_erin_chris_roberts/"]Reddit has compiled summaries of both.[/URL] Highlights: [QUOTE]- SQ42 will NOT be shown at Gamescom - All SQ42/PU missions are now hooked into Subsumption, some SQ42 missions are already playable from start to finish - Fleshing out the AI with all of their animations and SQ42 mocap is a huge effort - Shubin Station in SQ42 has apparently doubled in size to 12km from end to end - 3.0 includes real persistance, you reappear where you logged off, ships parked inside other ships stay like that between sessions - Ship buying with aUEC is coming, but probably not until 3.1 - CIG's eventual goal is to somehow dissolve the visible boundaries of instances and have hundreds of people inhabiting the same space; still not entirely clear how they'll do it - One of the big things they're proud of fixing in 3.0 is something they can't talk about but we "might find out in a few days" (Friday, obviously)[/QUOTE] [t]https://puu.sh/xiiAG/6534587cda.jpg[/t] Delicious engine trails during atmospheric entry [media]https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/900650541910564865[/media] Looks like exploration is a role for the Origin 600 series [media]https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/900316683864297473[/media]

[B]Gamescom presentation begins in fifty minutes:[/B] [url]https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen[/url] Join us in the [URL="https://discord.gg/v9RzF8"]FPSC Discord[/URL] for the usual viewing party! [video=youtube;-fqVdqOrCYU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fqVdqOrCYU[/video] [video=youtube;1gdTg6vQT7k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gdTg6vQT7k[/video] :drool: The Signature, Midnight, and Star Kitten skins [I]may[/I] not happen - Star Kitten has been a persistent joke where everytime a new ship comes out of the pipeline a certain CIG dev makes a Star Kitten skin for it as a joke. They decided to make the joke public with the SK-skin Dragonfly in the recent underwhelming referral promo, so they [I]could[/I] make the Aurora skin happen. I'd definitely snap up a Midnight skin, though, ever since my Aurora glitched in 1.x after being upgraded from an MR to an LX for a little while: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ImG6oOk.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/r4Ch0g7.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/0rp7wgd.png[/t] Aww yeah that's the stuff Day 3's stream [video=youtube;SD8k3M15OiY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD8k3M15OiY[/video]

Gamescon stream was an absolute shitshow (though thats standard CIG practice now) and having just upgraded my Carrack to a 600i Touring, turns out the super cool naming thing going on with it is for Warbond editions only. Guess the marketing team had a stroke the day they thought of that one.

[QUOTE=Sweeney;52613367]Gamescon stream was an absolute shitshow (though thats standard CIG practice now) and having just upgraded my Carrack to a 600i Touring, turns out the super cool naming thing going on with it is for Warbond editions only. Guess the marketing team had a stroke the day they thought of that one.[/QUOTE] I mean to be fair the word "warbond" appears before the words "custom name" in the sentence offering the promo benefit. [QUOTE]As a special incentive, all 600i bought through the Warbond package will be able to reserve a custom name for their ship that is unique across the 600i chassis. Certain restrictions apply: this name must be a 32-ascii character limit with no consecutive spaces or dashes allowed. CIG reserves the right to deny names that violate code of conduct. To name you ship, simply visit your hangar after purchase and view your 600i for naming options.[/QUOTE] Warbond sales are CIG trying to bring new money in instead of the store credit tango they constantly see with their too-successful flexibility policies. I'm pretty sure ship naming will be allowed in general, but the warbond perk is to have a [I]unique[/I] 600i-hull name. [URL="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/169744415"]Here's the Twitch VOD of the entire stream.[/URL] Jump to 44:00 to skip to the beginning of the actual presentation, starting with the 600i commercial/reveal. [t]http://i.imgur.com/RPaJ9pe.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/NXAYqRX.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/P1vt9lW.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/ZxJhTlA.png[/t] [t]https://puu.sh/xjtSL/3582c25933.jpg[/t] CIG has been busy with making Vanduul ships, as this spawn command list shows. [video=youtube;REUAt0OO-2A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REUAt0OO-2A[/video] [video=youtube;gbCSQDhPOlk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbCSQDhPOlk[/video] Here are the promotional pages (including new concept/engine art) for the sale, and their store SKUs. In each case, the promo code is [B]Gamescom2017[/B], caps doesn't seem to matter. With the exception of the Origin 600i concept sale (LTI), all ships come with 6-month insurance. These sales all last until September 4th (the Cutlass Black is expected to remain in-store). When 3.0 launches, [I]some[/I] of the ships being added to 3.0 will increase in price (e.g. Nox is going to go from $40 to $45). [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/AuroraLXgamescom2017"]Aurora LX[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Standalone-Ships/RSI-Aurora-LX-Gamescom2017"](single ship)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/Original-Starter-Aurora-Gamescom-2017"](game package)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/promocutlassblack2017"]Cutlass Black[/URL] (standalone/package options are literally identical to what's already on the store) [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/miscprospectorgamescom"]MISC Prospector[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Standalone-Ships/MISC-Prospector-Gamescom2017"](standalone ship)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/Indie-Miner-Pack-Gamescom2017"](game package)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/promogamescom2017nox"]Aopoa Nox[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Standalone-Ships/AOPOA-NOX-Gamescom2017"](standalone)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/By-Air-And-Land-Starter-Nox-Gamescom2017"](Nox+Aurora game package)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/gamescomdragonflypromo"]Drake Dragonfly[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Standalone-Ships/Dragonfly-Black-Gamescom2017"](standalone)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/By-Air-And-Land-Starter-Dragonfly-Gamescom2017"](Dragonfly+Aurora game package)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/promotions/2017gamescomrover"]RSI Ursa rover[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Standalone-Ships/RSI-Ursa-Rover-Gamescom2017"](standalone)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/By-Air-And-Land-Starter-Rover-Gamescom2017"](Rover+Aurora game package)[/URL] [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//16082-A-Symphony-In-Motion"]600i concept sale[/URL] The 600i variants are touring and exploration; the exploration variant gets an unnamed rover and more utility hardpoints. There are two combo packs as well, one is one of each 600i variant and Origin's upcoming X1 open-canopy racer, and the other is every Origin ship (2x600i, X1, 890J, 85X, M50, full 3xx series). [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/az2nlh9znkqarr/source/Red_Scan.jpg[/t] [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/8zjctxn2mlcqrr/source/Ancient_Derelicts.jpg[/t]

Aside from the cringey fake dialogue, I enjoyed the stream. I guess pseudo multiplayer banter is just going to be the thing now, I remember them doing it for Anthem.

The banter wasn't as bad as Illfonic's badly-forced [I]tacticool[/I] shit during the PAX Australia fps demo.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52613939]The banter wasn't as bad as Illfonic's badly-forced [I]tacticool[/I] shit during the PAX Australia fps demo.[/QUOTE] I browse this thread once every 3 months and I still have nightmares of that.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52613939]The banter wasn't as bad as Illfonic's badly-forced [I]tacticool[/I] shit during the PAX Australia fps demo.[/QUOTE] ＦＡＴＡＬ ＦＵＮＮＥＬ

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52613939]The banter wasn't as bad as Illfonic's badly-forced [I]tacticool[/I] shit during the PAX Australia fps demo.[/QUOTE] Probably gonna regret it but, gotta link? I haven't seen this and want to be in a coma all weekend.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJkAwDXgKEs[/media] never forget

Illfonic stood on ceremony in the end, rip

It was enjoyable for sure, there are an extreme number of tiny little features in all the little streams im looking forward to, just wish it was faster or we saw some indication of how far along s42 is.

What's the updated timeline for 3.0 coming to the avacado testers?

Short version: We don't know but I'd bet on 2-3 weeks, depending on how things change between this week and next on the bug burndown. Longer answer: [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report"]As of two weeks ago their schedule moved from giving date windows to showing us a summary of their JIRA tracker for bugs that are marked as [I]must-fix[/I], meaning they have to be fixed before the build can be released to Evocati.[/URL] [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/bctqm876ypwiyr/source/Statistics.png[/t] This allows them to show how much actual progress is being made towards getting the build ready for outside testing. New bugs are added and reported bugs get fixed, and what's important is that bugs-fixed goes down faster than bugs-found. And, this week, that's what happened, 1 new bug reported and 19 solved, pushing the mandatory bugfixes down to 67. Two things on the schedule that concern me a bit: 1) They've moved the far edge of the schedule window out to October 9th. If they go to Evocati in 2-3 weeks, that sounds about right for an estimated date unless the public PTU drags on forever -- but I imagine they'd open up access instead of blueballing 95%+ of the community while allowing waves 1-3 and anyone who pays for a subscription in. 2) The character customization feature is now marked as due [B]TBA[/B] because if delays caused by the devs being re-tasked to help with other bugfixes for, presumably, the Gamescom demo. TBA means CIG doesn't have a clear idea of how long this'll take and needs to reassess things, so hopefully we'll get some clarity in the monthly report. On the other hand if it held the build back I could see them bumping it to a 3.0.x rather than pass Citizencon without 3.0 in backers' hands. [editline]26th August 2017[/editline] Also can we just appreciate for a moment that CIG only made us read four slides instead of the multiple corporate boardroom slide decks from last year? Also no embarrassing on-stage costume contest. I'm sure they still had it, but they didn't drag everyone out on stage and delay the demo for it. The presentation was a shitshow of CIG's plans going wrong, but there were definite improvements in some areas. They streamlined the presentation and got straight into the demo once Sandi finished her annual German lesson and introduced Chris, and the presentation pace outside of the demo itself was pretty tight and snappy -- except for when Chris pulled the whole demo over on the side of the road to gush over the facial capture tech. The biggest setback once the show actually got started was the client crashes at the end of the QD because that wasted half an hour just getting the demo caught back up to where it needed to be. I don't think it's fair to blame CIG for that, because the QA devs obviously didn't know that in that build if multiple people are sitting in the bridge seats of an Aquila when the ship comes out of QD, the pilot and possibly other random people in the instance will probably crash out. :v:

Worth watching the full 2hr+ presentation?

well that presentation was a complete disaster

[QUOTE=Bradyns;52614912]Worth watching the full 2hr+ presentation?[/QUOTE] [del]In the past they've provided a "clean" version of the demo, being more like what they'd provide with their 3.0 demo press kit, on YouTube shortly after the event. I'd recommend waiting for that,[/del] Apparently they're [I]not[/I] doing that for this presentation. But anyway, continuing: ...because while the presentation has lots of cool shit in it, there is serious levels of faffing about. Half an hour is spent having to restart and speedrun the redundant half of the demo because shit broke after a few of the game clients crashed. They also just kind of abandon the objective in the last leg of the mission after glitches cause[sp]the Idris ramp to destroy the Ursa rover carrying the black box[/sp]and that might actually have some important effect if it's completed successfully. An offline demo would get it right and wouldn't waste time with trying to get it to work, which happened a few times. It depends on how high your patience is for Chris Roberts talking over his demo team (who are QA testers) fumbling through their scripted roleplay banter for over an hour. He was really excited to show off what they'd done and, well, it shows and the presentation suffered for it. :v: Best way to encapsulate it was a Reddit thread title I saw, and it was something like "CONTENT: 9/10, OVERALL STABILITY: 7/10, PRESENTATION: 2/10". It was painful suffering through it live, but when cool things were happening and Chris let them happen without constant narration, things were pretty great. The bugs in the build made it more genuine and entertaining, aside from the wasted half-hour to restart. Nobody was entertained by that, except that it meant the guy controlling the main demo character startedimprov'd his lines during the speedrun part of the demo repeat and clearly gave no fucks about sticking to the script while his partner was still trying to follow the plan.

The demo should've been half as long with the only voice over being Chris rambling on about his usual hopes and dreams with a special guest appearance of Sean Tracy. I don't know why nobody seems to understand that the fake ERP dialogue between presenters sounds awful. On a broader sense, I feel like as the game's graphics get better and better, it looks worse and worse in motion. Or at least, it's wildly inconsistent in its presentation. Some things about the game look jaw droppingly amazing, like the Idris model, its scale, and that beautifully animated explosion at the end. Meanwhile, the actual [I]battle[/I] that the Idris was looked... kind of awful. All the combat sequences of the demo were jarringly bad looking and really destroyed all immersion and build up. The way ships look flying around in Star Citizen (the brief glimpses you get of them in SC's super dark space, anyway), or the buggies/bikes look when they travel across the landscape looks so unnaturally stiff. It only gets more jarring the better that other elements of the game get. For having such great explosions, all weapon effects are barely visible. It barely looks like anything is even shooting. The Face Over IP stuff is neat, but aside from the faces matching cartoonishly exaggerated expressions you'd almost never make, it never once actually looked good enough to not look like the ultra experimental and cool in theory, but not in practice, technology that you'd guess it would be. The Idris battle should have been the big "Wow!" moment of the presentation but that it was so terribly underwhelming, awkward, unnatural, and just [I]boring[/I] looking is what really [CONCERN]'s me about the game. I wanted to like and get excited about that battle, because that's the [I]one thing[/I] Star Citizen is supposed to be good at. You know, space combat, the most fundamental and core mechanic that the entire game is built around. It looks so mediocre and, I hate to say it but, amateur. That's despite the 100% AAA level art that was backing it, despite the programmer wet dream level of engineering that goes into the game. Star Citizen doesn't look fun. At this point, everything I like about the game is purely academic.

I'm still really bothered by how ships seem to accelerate in any direction just as strongly as forward even though that makes no sense at all considering the difference in engine sizes. I really want them to reduce the strafe, pitch and spin thrusters to like 10% of the main engine power and accelerate really slowly compared to main engine. Otherwise it looks very clunky and unrealistic like in the stream where we saw ship jumping on the ground due to instantly accelerating up and down thrust.

I'm so excited about FOIP!~ It's gonna bug out so much and there are gonna be so many spacefaring stroke victims but holy shit it's gonna at least be so cool to make funny faces at my friends. Or actually see them be angry at me for crashing our ship or whatever.

[QUOTE=Khaleet;52615554]I'm so excited about FOIP!~ [/QUOTE] I wonder how long it'll be until people start going "muh privacy". I'm surprised he who must not be named hasn't used that point yet.

[QUOTE=Forumaster;52615734]I wonder how long it'll be until people start going "muh privacy". I'm surprised he who must not be named hasn't used that point yet.[/QUOTE] Because he's not a real critic. I can understand people being concerned about privacy, but the nice thing about this kind if system is that it transmits no video, only the blend shape values (what moves the vertices around to make expressions) that it calculates from your face tracking. Also you can always unplug it while not playing if you are worried about people watching you spank one out.

[url]https://gfycat.com/SpiffyOrnateElephant[/url] So watching the connie leaving the moon, One thing I notice that irks me a lot are the Thruster Flare graphics. Their too small and unnoticeable, it gives the impression that the connie is not accelerating or moving. CIG needs to up the Flares a thousand times more. It would be so much better if we are able to see a ship accelerating, decelerating, turning, rotating etc. all from their Thruster flares, especially at distances where we cannot see the silhouette of the ship, but only the light given off by the Thrusters.

Is there a cut down version of interesting bits? I'm not going to bother watching it until the timeline preview on the youtube video starts working.

This is possible [url]https://clips.twitch.tv/AffluentGenerousBisonYouDontSay[/url] Because falling at terminal velocity leaves plenty of room for FP tactics