Chris Roberts--the primary creator of Games such as Privater, Wing Commander and Freelancer is back in action!.
FROM THE CHAIRMAN:
Welcome!
If you’ve made it here, you probably know who I am. Maybe you have heard of Wing Commander and its sequels, or perhaps Strike Commander, Privateer or Freelancer.
If not, you’re still welcome!
I grew up making video games. I sold my first game at the age of 13 and created Wing Commander when I was 21. But 10 years ago, at the height of my career I took a break. Not because I stopped loving or playing games but because I had become frustrated with the limits of the technology at the time to realize my vision.
I decided to pursue my desire to create detailed worlds and tell sophisticated stories in film.
I always said the moment I became interested in making games again was when I was going to come back.
With the power of today’s computers and the reach of the internet I finally feel I have the tools to build the connected experience that I always dreamed of. A world that would be more satisfying and richer than any film I could work on.
With films you tell stories but with games you create worlds.
If you’ve played my games, you’ll know that’s what I love to do.
I’m here to tell you that I have been working on something for just under a year, something that embraces everything that my past games stood for but takes it to the next level.
I hope you’ll be as excited by it as I am.
My new endeavor is still in its early stages but I invite you to take the journey with me.
If you register below you’ll become an insider that will not only give you early access to the game’s website and forums, but you will also get the opportunity for rewards and privileges that no one else will get. It’s my way of showing how important your early involvement and support is.
The full announcement will be at 10am Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5) on the 10th day of the 10th month of this year.
My name is Chris Roberts.
And if you would indulge me I would like to create a world for you.
________________________________________________________________________________________
The link is here (and "42" is what will get you in if you get stuck). Go enroll and let this guy know you are interested--this is the original scfi game maker who broke all the rules and did the things no one else would.
I would pay for this game in advance without even knowing what it was.
I believe the link gives you the chance to be an alpha-beta tester for the game during the next two years. I'd highly recommend it.
I also think it would be fantastic if Stardock and Ironclad sent him a note of support (I'm just sayin'...)
Correction, Alpha, if even that.
Yeah, it is more of an Alpha.
Alpha: Not all features yet implemented.Beta: Main features all implemented, focused on balancing and fixing bugs.
So the Orion minigame (more like microgame) is pretty fun. If you've got some time to kill (took me two hours, but I was kind of watching tv at the same time) give it a go. It takes the theory of how mining will work and puts it into the realm of reality, minus the minigmes the crewmen at each position would have to play to be successful of course. I like it, with some experienced people, it'll be a solid money making endeavor.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/14535-Orion-Vault-A-Loan-In-The-Verse
Yeah mining looks like it will be a fun and involving occupation... however I'd rather be the hired muscle patrolling the area to protect the miners =P
Retaliator ship porn...
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14566-Reintroducing-The-Aegis-Retaliator
Also new way to do damage. Full write up.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14568-Design-The-New-Damage-System
PAX East video will be available Monday.
EDIT
Also, if you're a fan of the Descent games, Wingman's new project (Currently called Ships That Fight Underground, or STFU) is about to enter the kickstarter phase, check out the site here:
http://descendentstudios.com/
Will the squadron 42 part be story driven with WC type cut scenes between battles?
Or is it just going to be a MP with a kill board total?
With all the money this game has gotten it should be finished by now....I'm thinking they are trying to do TO MUCH.
No way I'm giving a dime to walk around a hanger or arena type dogfights with no story/ purpose....
I bet Chris Roberts bought himself a nice chair to sit in on your dime. I'll wait five years till its done....
Many AAA title are made with far more money than they have received, and who says they shouldn't aim high?Besides which it takes 3-4 years at least to make a decent PC game, rushed jobs have proven that time and time again. Throwing more money often won't help with the quality side of it, that takes time.
To me.....and I have been watching from afar..
it seems this game is exactly what it is ....a bunch of modules that have no center, nothing to connect the dots.
Who am I ?
Who's the bad guys?
Is there a story?
Is there a end?
Or is it a money machine for people to collect ships and kill boards.....
People WANTED a new WC and I don't see anything that makes it one........
Allow me to answer all of your questions.
Squadron 42 is the single player game, completely story driven, with cut scenes just like wing commander was. By the end of the year, Episode 1 of SQ42 will be released, it can be played 100% OFFLINE. You can also play ONLINE in coop mode with your friends dropping in as your wingmen to help you out in a mission. You will progress in story, they will not since it's your game, and they're the wingmen, but if you're a good friend, you'll drop into their game and lend a hand... Assuming you're both playing the story out. It's mostly compared to WC3 in style.
It's impossible to be finished by now unless you have exceptionally unrealistic expectations or don't have a single idea about how long it takes to staff up a project. Most/all AAA titles are in development for 3 to 4 years before they are even announced or have anything leaked about them. SC was announced before the project was even started, is currently in the beginning of year 3, and year 1 was mostly spent hiring people. So far, we have a hangar, we have lots of ships, we have various multiplayer combat/racing modes (including coop), and come Tuesday, a couple of first person shooter modes. One is your typical, run around and shoot each other coop that we're all familiar with, the other is the zero gravity arena that you have seen in the movie Ender's Game. If you haven't seen the movie, go watch it, it's pretty cool. This type of FPS hasn't been done before so work had to be done to figure out how to do it. This doesn't include the time spent not only basically rewriting the cryengine to be a 64bit program, as well as creating a way to run the game with drop in loading so that assets are loaded on the fly so you don't have sit sit through load screens all of the time, to creating an entirely new way to show damage on a ship dynamically and continue it with persistence rather then creating a bunch of models and meshes. The holy grail of damage modeling as some are calling it.
And that is a choice that is perfectly acceptable for you to make. You don't have to give a dime to the project until after the game and everything is completed and released. No one is forcing you to open your wallet. This thread is for the people who are willing to open their wallets though, but maybe just can't afford to do so. It's for those whom are interested, but maybe just need that last little nudge to jump in. I get it, I was that type, I knew about the project before Sinperium started this thread, and it still took me until April of the following year (6 months pretty much) before I budged enough to buy the cheapest package being offered. If you are not the type of person whom can be convinced, then please, keep your negative comments and judgements to yourself until after release, when you find yourself more willing to be a part of it, then by all means, comment and judge away. There is a purpose for these things though. To test and break shit. Basically, the general public is the QA and balancing department. What would you rather play? A game that has 30 or so staffers doing QA and balancing, or one that has hundreds of thousands of volunteers who are dedicating their time to making sure it works right? We've found so many bugs QA missed. We've found countless problems with ship designs and models, meshes making odd seams and doors that don't close just right and stuff. There was even a community discovered work around for older DirectX cards that allowed people with older systems to still load up the hangar... At least until it was locked down.
Well, I don't know how nice it is, but it's certainly better then mine, next time I visit the Santa Monica office, I'll be sure to ask if I can sit in it so I can report back my thoughts and impressions. In the mean time, feel free to watch any of the 10 for the chairman videos, you get a good look at his office, his chair, his wall decorations, his desk, his PC and his lamp... Oh and the decorations were all gifts from fans, so no money was spent on them.
If you're going to wait for 5 years for the game, that's your choice, but I'd ask that you withhold your thoughts and criticisms for 5 years as well. If you're not going to be a part of it, then it's not your place to openly badmouth it. Thank you.
Not true, none are made using more money then they have received. Investors always foot the bill and get paid back with the sales. If sales are weak and the game makes less then it cost, the investors are shit out of luck and they lose money. If a game does really well, they get their money back, plus a little bit, and the rest goes to the company that made the game.
Indeed.
We are just starting year 3 of development and the first episode of squadron 42 will be out by the end of the year (after only 1 year of Foundry42 even being in existence). Of course, we already have flyable ships, drivable vehicles, moveable characters, hangars, and space environments, Tuesday will add FPS, this summer we are expecting to get the social module, and by the end of the year, the PU alpha which ties all of these modules together and creates the first part of the universe (this timeline is established from the PAXEast event yesterday, you'll get to see the video on Monday). If all goes well, year 4 will be spent expanding that universe.
That is because you're too far away, and are clearly short sighted. Your observations are correct in that they are just modules, but each module is just a piece of the Persistent Universe. When it reaches a completed enough state when testing and balancing can begin, it's given to us, and we do our best to break things, find exploits, and get into even the oddest of places where bugs may be hiding. When we have all of the modules in place and under testing, and they're approaching a level of polish that most seem to be happy with, we get them all tied together with the release of the PU alpha. Then the real games begin.
Your following questions will be answered one at a time because there are two answers for every single one of them.
In SQ42, you are a UEE Navy pilot, you fly missions, success or failure determines your next mission, if you move up in the ranks, or if you're dishonorably discharged. We've already been promised a second single player game once work on SQ42 is finished, and the idea being kicked around was that you'd be a pirate and do pirate things. Both seem like a hell of a lot of fun. Oh, and your actions in SQ42 will carry over into the PU, so if you're an asshole and get booted out, don't expect to play nice with military NPC's in the PU. However, the less lawful types will like you more, so there is an advantage to that. Use some more long term vision and planning if you plan on going into the PU once you've completed SQ42. Actions have consequences, good and bad.
In the PU, you are whom ever you desire to be. The game is player skill based. This means if you're a shitty pilot, you should probably not enter into very many racing competitions. If you suck at running around and shooting at things, then it'd be best to avoid the FPS stuff when possible. Me? Well, I was excited for the racing, but after discovering I'm not exceptional behind the controls and would likely not win in a real competitive race, I've decided to make that more of a hobby, something that's best done on the amateur courses, and stick with the big three that I'm traditionally very good at. Mining, salvage, and long haul trading. I may have to focus more on one, but I've got the resources to make them all happen
In SQ42, that would be pirates and the Vanduul for sure, probably some Xi'An mixed in as well. No doubt there will probably be another Tavarin uprising that needs to be squashed. Foundry 42 is being very tight lipped about SQ42 for a reason, they want us to be surprised. The lack of information out there is a very good thing because I want to play the game and enjoy it, not hear all about it then finally get my hands on it 8 or 9 months down the road. Wouldn't you agree? It's gonna be a blast.
In the PU it is whom ever you've pissed off. It's some random person or NPC that's there just to make you have a bad day. Hell, depending on what you do and where you do it at, there may not be any bad guys. Bad is a purely subjective thing. Is Robin Hood a bad guy? To the rich, he's a bully and a criminal, to the poor, he's a hero. What about Jesus? To the Romans and the Jews that ran the temples, he was an outlaw, a rebel, even a terrorist. To the others, he was their leader, their savior, the son of God. Good and bad are whatever you make of it. I cannot answer that for you.
In SQ42, absolutely, and it branches, and we've been assured, that we'll want to replay missions after we've completed them to explore other options. What that is exactly, we'll start to find out when episode 1 is released later this year.
In the PU, it depends. There's always a story. You write one every day. All that matters is if you decide to include others in it, to tell the world about it, to be a part of someone's, or do you just keep everything to yourself and your story dies with you. Your call. No one is twisting your arm.
In SQ42, absolutely. It depends on what you did in your career. How it ends, we'll find out.
In the PU, nope. It will go on as long as there is a server, and with modding being a huge part of the game right from the conception stage, there will always be a server. The public server is expected to last for at least a decade, private servers will outlast the public server. People still play Freelancer, a good game you should check out to get a glimpse of how the PU will operate, only on a lesser functioning, more fundamental level.
In Sq42, nope. There's nothing to buy in the campaign. The military has given you everything you'll need.
In the PU, to some, it's all about the killboards. To some, it's all about the 1st place wins. To some it's all about nothing at all. To some it's all about hanging out with your friends. I'm not you, I don't know what you're interested in, but I will say, once you do get in the PU, while you're trying to figure that out, I've always got room for more crew, and if you prove capable, maybe even a captain's spot.
Now a side note about real money here. This game is not pay to win, it's pay to get ahead for a little bit, or as I like to call it, pay to catch up, because lets be honest, I have a life, and a job, family, social obligations and what not, just like many others whom played wing commander way back in the day. We've all grown up. What I don't have is a whole lot of time. So in my case, I'm supplementing my lack of time, by funding development to make this the BDSSE (to get ahead in the early stages) and will probably be funding the continued operation of the servers for years to come as new stuff comes out and I lack the time to work my ass off for it. In this case, real world money will be spent to buy in game credits, which can then be used to buy anything in the game. However, for example, someone like Major Stress, doesn't have a whole lot of funding available at the moment, but may have a good amount of time. He earns in game credits, in game obviously, and buys the same shit I buy. The only difference is he put the time in and played the game, I went to work in the real world, and spent some of my income on catching up to him while I was away. In the end, he still holds the advantage because he played the game and gained more experience, got better at the controls, found a new little spot to earn the credits... Something like that I won't have and will have to rely on people like him to be nice enough to tell me, or at least sell to me.
People WANTED a new game that doesn't leave them feeling ripped off at the end, that is made for the PC, not dumbed down for a console and then ported back to the PC that it was created on, that reminds them of the past but brings it all to a whole new level of fun and entertainment, that they can play over and over again should they desire to. YOU wanted a new wing commander. While a lot feel the same as you, there are a shit ton of Freelancer fans out there that want a game as well, and a whole lot of us that played and want both. Don't lump everyone into YOUR wants. That being said...
Star Citizen's SQ42 is the next wing commander that we've always wanted. Remember, Foundry42 is not releasing details intentionally so that we can all be pleasantly surprised and enjoy a good single player offline game (or an online coop if you so desire) which will be starting at the end of this year. I can't wait.
Star Citizen's PU is the next Freelancer/Starlancer that we've always wanted. A universe that will last and continue to be developed for years to come. A place for us to escape reality and make a living IN SPAAAAAAACE! (Read that with a deep announcer voice.) A place to hang out with friends and do fun things. A place to be a part of something bigger, or give it a go lone wolf style. A place to make a name for yourself or to be destined to be forgotten. I can't wait and I don't have to since I get to test the modules out as they are released as the basic funtionalities of the PU are being built.
See you in 5 years.
Thanks.
Informative, condensing , defensive, and name dropping all in one reply....
But don't tell me to "withhold my thoughts" on a public forum.
I wish I could say that I normally would ignore this and move on, and in any other place, I would, but for some reason, that's not the case on these forums. That being said, this reply is purely for information purposes. No attitude or slight, perceived or otherwise should be inserted into what I say, as I make none. I make this disclaimer because I didn't think I needed to the last time, but apparently I did.
You're welcome.
I try.
Well, not as condensed as I'd like, but there really is a lot of information out there that needed to be passed along. You did have a lot of questions. Honestly, some answers aren't even as simple as I made them.
Not in the slightest. Reread it without your own personal attitude inserted in and you'll see it's nothing like that at all. Perhaps you're the one being defensive? I did say your not wanting to spend a dime until it's finished is a perfectly valid and acceptable position to have and that no one is forcing you to do anything otherwise. That's not a comment someone whom is being defensive would make. I'm not selling you the game. I'm not trying to convince you to back now rather then wait. I've made no comment on the benefits of being a backer now as opposed to buying later. I agree, you should wait. Unlike someone looking for that little nudge to become a backer, if you haven't been sold on it by now, the odds are, it won't happen until release. I gave you information. You gave me attitude.
Name dropping? Who's names? Robin Hood, Jesus, and Major Stress? (Stress should be honored to be in that company) You have a funny definition of name dropping when the name is only used so that you can recall the lore around that person whom may or may not be real, and then have that lore used as an example. Look, it's not like I said Donald Trump, Kanye West, Will Farrell, Queen Elizabeth, and Mark Hamill are all backers and like it, and thus so should you, and not add anything relevant to the discussion. Now THAT'S name dropping. But I didn't do that, now did I?
Well, this isn't a public forum bud. You're not speaking out at a town hall meeting or on a street corner. It's a private forum with public access. Please understand the difference. You've indicated that you don't, so I'll illustrate. At any moment, Stardock can close this thread, delete all of our comments, and permaban all of us for no reason at all. That is their choice and we have no course of action but to accept it and move on. Why? Because it's not a public forum. We can stand on the sidewalk outside their office with picket signs and scream our heads off about what pricks they are and there is nothing they can do about it, because that IS a public forum and we have the rights to assemble and free speech.
I ASKED you to withhold your thoughts, not demanded or ordered it, I even politely said please. Huge difference in what I said and what you're accusing me of. Don't do that. I'm not asking you for that, I'm telling you to not do that. See the difference? I'm pretty blunt and straight forward about these things, and I don't like being accused of something that I clearly did not do, as I'm sure you wouldn't like it if I was accusing you of things you did not do. So just don't do it, okay? Thanks.
My question to you is, why do you feel so entitled to have and voice an opinion on something that you are not invested in, nor do you posses much, if any knowledge of, and openly admit it? You're not a backer, so what's it to you what kind of game is being made? Because you were promised that *IF* you backed you'd get this experience? Fact is, you have yet to back so no one is under any obligation to give you the experience you desire. You will get it eventually because many of us want it too, but the obligation to get it to you isn't there until you buy it. You said you'd wait five years until it's done, I cannot agree with you more. Please revisit the project in five years when it is done, and hopefully Squadron 42 meets or exceeds all of your expectations. Until then, please withhold your thoughts and judgement, because it is currently ignorant, flat out wrong, and your condescending attitude towards the project may dissuade others whom are legitimately interested in the project from backing. I'm asking you as one gamer to another, don't scare off other people because you haven't bothered to do any research before forming an opinion. It's the decent thing to do.
If you have more questions about Star Citizen or Squadron 42, feel free to ask, I'll do my best to answer with the most up to date information that I have.
I thought you said you didn't have lots of time ..........
Yet you seem to have time to come here and complain about something you are not even invested in.Go home troll, we don't serve your kind here.
Someone else leery of unlimited crowd funding........
http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/stop-funding-star-citizen
My answer to him imploring me is, I implore him to not tell other people what to do.He doesn't like the idea of them taking more money because he doesn't believe money makes a better product, and he doesn't favor taking the time to make a large product, over a smaller one with less funding. Well great, that's his opinion, but telling everyone else to agree with him, just because he said so, is farcical. Worse he's calling everyone supporting them fools at the start and end of his article, because they have a different opinion to him, so we have a reviewer resorting to name calling to try to make a point.
Now true, money can make a terrible product, it can make a good product, it can make a great product. It's all about how you spend it. Does anyone here who has been a part of that community, feel the devs haven't been in continued contact with them, they haven't seen the progress being made? That's your measuring stick, not someone elses opinion on early access in general. As he says he doesn't back EA games apart from 1 title, I do, I back them with research and after seeing reviews and demos (the very rare exception being me buying GC here because of my history with their well made games). So yes I haven't backed SC yet, not till more footage is out but I will soon be doing because it's reaching that stage, and they are making decent progress.
I don't know how you can rationalise how more developers, more engine improvements, more money for both in game assets and out of game assets like servers is bad for the game, or hiring additional developers to work on these stretch goals is somehow going to get them complete any less quickly. It just seems like someone was surprised that an indie dev could pull off AAA funding and is then waving his hands in the air, telling people not to support it. Asking for them to reduce it to a smaller scope to keep his own expectations of what you can do with the EA model in line.
Now that is out of the way he does raise valid concerns about instancing. However no matter if the devs spent 50 bucks on the game, or 50 million they'd still have the problem of server load to address. Just like planetside 1 and 2 did, just like EVE did, i'd rather they did it with the most money possible on hardware and for that hardware to be paid up to be maintained over the life of the game.
The multiplayer is a sandbox, that is, you generate the story as you go. You become the pirate, or the player shooting you is the pirate. That's what a sandbox is, and this is setting itself up to be a well supported one with the more dynamic mission system. You develop your grudges and battles develop as you play, starting off as you did in privateer or games like freelancer, neutral. You can build up your own little corner of space for example, or play the trader, explorer, etc.The singleplayer I hope to be more like WC.
I haven't seen anything to make me worried about Star Citizen. If anything I am consistently blown away by the progress they have made so far.Something people seem to forget, is that Chris Roberts is not Tim Schafer. Chris Roberts knows how to deliver and as of yet has never let people down.Contrary to the publisher model, all the money these guys make goes right back into development. There is no one stuffing their pockets with excess cash, the money goes towards paying the bills and the staff.They also have the wisdom to realise at this point they have all the features planned that they need, they've stopped with stretch goals and now when milestones are reached in funding they deliver more in depth reports on their processes and progress.That article... lol. Comparing Elite Dangerous to Star Citizen is just silly. Elite Dangerous is much smaller in scope than Star Citizen.It has no single player campaign, it has no player pilot-able capital and multi-crew ships, it doesn't have planet-side exploration and First person boarding and combat. Elite Dangerous is basically a remake of old style space sims like the original Elite.Star Citizen is taking Space Sims to the level that people have always dreamed of as the Best Damn Space Sim ever. As in, being a person in a space based society, rather than a ship in a space based society.Star Citizen not only has offline play for the campaign, but will also allow private servers like Freelancer had.really, at this point Elite is going a very different direction to Star Citizen.
Really, that Article is just stupid.
Wow, this went south quick..
"Name dropping? Who's names? Robin Hood, Jesus, and Major Stress? (Stress should be honored to be in that company)" I am Flattered...
I am not touching Elite Dangerous with a 10 foot pole. Totally MMO X-Rebirth Wannabe. Single ship. Ohhh, Ahhh, Pretty scenery, and.... not much else.
SC You can fly damn near any ship you want, or not fly anything at all. Have a crew, or not. Have wingmen (but any mmo can do that), or not. Explore, Mine, Trade, or Fight. Fight in Space, or on the ground, or not. You can just go for a joy ride. Basically its the freedom to do what ever you want to do in an open world (or universe in this case). I compare SC to Eve Online. Except you don't "need" to be online once Squadron 42 comes out. Quality wise SC is far superior to Eve Online. Even in its present state. My money was NOT wasted despite the fact that i have a shit system that cant play SC worth a damn now. Soon that will change too, and by that time SC should have progressed quite a bit. I expect SC to be around for quite a while. I don't expect Elite Dangerous, or Eve Online to be around much longer.
The only reason I haven't backed SC is I don't have a computer capable of handling it at all. So from my point of view, I would be wasting my money, because I won't be getting any of the benefits of backing any time soon, at least until I get a top of the line computer. Now, if SC hadn't blown all of their funding goals out of the water and then some, then I might have backed SC to support that dream. But since SC is doing just fine, I don't feel like I need to back it, because it will most likely still be there when I can properly appreciate it.
Hi from Necroland!
I'm trying to figure out why my darn accounts are split again.
Sigh.
Fixed.
Seems this post dies without me.
Anyway, your friendly neighborhood Space Marshal here, work seems to be slowing down so I'm not working 12 or more hours a day seven days a week, and good thing too since Alpha 2.0 is on the PTU getting ready to be pushed to live soon so everyone can enjoy fun things.
Tons of good stuff in the very near future as the baby PU gets its little crash bugs fixed. Anyone wanting to join, or still needing to create an account, here's my referral code STAR-YLDG-3BLG use that and you get 5000 extra credits to use in game. Bison, I'm looking at you, buddy.
If you already have an account, add me to your contacts, the name is Joxer over there (just Joxer, not the other 4 that have crap added to the name, I have a picture of a 300i as my profile pic if that helps). Supposedly, that increases our chances of being put into the same instance. Bison needs crew...
Hey, I revived this post!
Yes, but it only survived a day and a half without me the last time, I have no reason to believe this "Revival" would have worked with you only posting replies from your alts.
Lol--I only have one alt and that's becasue it's the account I bought the game with but I'd already set up the other.
Search your feelings, Stant. You know this to be true.
Oh I know it's true, you have alts, more then one.
So we gonna go to the PTU and participate in some tom foolery or wait for the baby PU to go live?
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