Squadron 42: Star Citizen (Chris Robert's New Space Sim)

[Ithekro]

Perhaps there is a path you can choose that is more or less story driven and essentally single player. Perhaps the path if you decide to stay in the military as a carrier-based pilot? It will still have some multi-player elements I suppose since it might not be just you on the carrier. But the mention is that even in single player you can have people jump in to be your wingmen (since players tend to be better than AI).

[synaesthetic]

I mean more the meta-aspects of it, like having to have an account, needing an internet connection to play, being kicked out of the single-player when the servers go down. The kind of stuff people complained about for Diablo 3 when they wanted no part of the multiplayer yet were still forced to deal with.

[Ithekro]

If Roberts is to be believed, the whole of this universe will be on one server (or something) so that everyone playing will be in the same place.

On advantage of space is that you could just expand the number of systems and worlds, and as people "muster out" of the military, they send you to farther away systems to keep the local popuation in check. But you can still work you way back to the older areas. That or people will want to explore out and thus keep the region less crowded.

Or the areas will be so huge it won't matter.

[Ithekro]

Also, if nothing else, I would like to be able to use a joystick properly for a space sim game again. It has been far, far too long since I got a new joystick game. From what I remember Freelancer was mouse driven, and X2 or X3 was the last joystick game after Freespace 2 and that era of games...over 10 years ago.

[Jazzrat]

There's actually 2 game in development. Star Citizen is the multiplayer portion with the online "persistent" world and Squadron 42 which is a singleplayer campaign that can be played offline.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this game pans out. It would be nice to have a good space sim game (my last one was Freespace2) but RSI have gotten so much money from kickstarter, fan expectation should be retarded by now. It's shaping up to either be the best example kickstarter success or a high profile kickstarter failure that we haven't had yet.

[TJR]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

I'm looking forward to seeing how this game pans out. It would be nice to have a good space sim game (my last one was Freespace2) but RSI have gotten so much money from kickstarter, fan expectation should be retarded by now. It's shaping up to either be the best example kickstarter success or a high profile kickstarter failure that we haven't had yet.

If anything, Star Citizen proves why many developers favour the persistent world/microtransaction model.

For an offline game, most backers pledge $15-25, and that's it. However, RSI can keep announcing "limited time" stretch goal ships (with "lifetime insurance"!) and watch the millions roll in! With $33 million raised (and counting), backers have been eager to play into their hands.

[Ithekro]

Around the time of Privateer and Strike Commander, I had the notion of having a Wing Commander game were you would control a carrier (military or private) in a larger section of the Wing Commander universe (more sectors to move through) and play out the time between Wing Commander II and Wing Commander IV. The stalemate, followed by the year of peace, followed by the attack on Earth, followed by the events of Wing Commander III, followed by the two years of restless peace in the Confederation, ending in the Border Wars and fracture of the Confederation.

Such a large span of time allowing a lot of movement, missions, and even different storylines depending on how long you have played. It was all single player, as at that time I'd never seen an MMO aside from I think one text based space trade sim.

You would have to buy weapons, hire crews, fighters, bombers, equipment for your carrier. Even hire escorts for a small task force. I was setting it up like a mix of Privateer and Strike Commander.

Star Citizen seems to be as close to that game as one could get....just twenty years later.

[Jazzrat]

Originally Posted by TJR

If anything, Star Citizen proves why many developers favour the persistent world/microtransaction model.

For an offline game, most backers pledge $15-25, and that's it. However, RSI can keep announcing "limited time" stretch goal ships (with "lifetime insurance"!) and watch the millions roll in! With $33 million raised (and counting), backers have been eager to play into their hands.

I think games like League of Legend and World of Tanks have long proven that microtransaction model works in western gaming market.

As for the fundraising method, I personally find it a bit disgusting but it's a free market and people are free to do with their money. The major pitfall RSI will have to avoid is the pay to win problem with their founder program. While you need to give proper incentive to people who chose to donate and yet balance it so people who didn't aren't treated like 2nd class players.

Ultimately, everyone should realize that they are buying into hype and promise in a videogame and there's always a chance that their dream would not be realized.

[Ithekro]

They go almost $8 million dollars in funding in November alone. Already they are over $33.5 million to fund this game. I have no idea if that is enough, but it is a lot of money.

[synaesthetic]

Microtransaction models only work because they exploit human psychological blind spots. This is great if everyone falls for it. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

I might consider picking up the Squadron 42 portion of the game, assuming they allow me to buy it separately.

[Ithekro]

No idea what model they will be using at this point. It will probably not be EVE Onlines levels of economy (thankfully). But I can see this going the microtransactions method for getting cosmetic items. Possibly purchasing better ships to skip content (if there is such a thing), but that would have to be looked into to be sure people weren't just buying the huge ships and becoming pirates to "gank" newbies.

[xizro345]

I'm honestly not that impressed in Star Citizen (and its single player part, Squadron 42). Aside not being interested in the multiplayer part at all, and Roberts' pointless comments about PC with no compromises, the fact is that I believe his model of "space sim" (Wing Commander, Starlancer, Freelancer) is vastly inferior to Freespace 2's model (without mentioning all that the SCP did with an open model, without asking for kickstarter money).

I certainly don't expect anything revolutionary from this.

[Ithekro]

At this point it is more a "better than nothing" when it comes to space sims. And at least from someone that has some credibility from making some of the good ones.

Freespace 3 is one of those dreams still. And who knows what's happening with Star Wars when it comes to space sims.

[xizro345]

Right now I don't think I'll buy the game. It has zero interesting features for me (the inclusion of online isn't a good point, and since it'll likely support Steam, it means I'll never get it even if it's good).
And while the output has been one and off over the years, I'll gladly keep supporting the SCP project over this.

[vio5555]

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/

Anyone here planning on playing Star Citizen? It's the upcoming space MMO by Chris Roberts.

For those who haven't heard of it yet, it was a kickstarter from 2012 that's raised $37 million to this point by selling pledges for spaceships.

Will be going to alpha in the next few months, so I figured I'd start a thread.

Also, organizations just started up. I started one for fans of anime/manga if anyone here is interested in a like-minded group (we're all mostly long-time anime/manga fans and many of us have animesuki accounts from 10-12 years ago). We won't be roleplaying, but we talk anime/manga a lot.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/MIG

[Ithekro]

If my computer can handle it. I really need a good space flight sim. Hope to use a joystick again.

[Wild Goose]

I'm already a member of the SB corp, and we're working on 1) having fun 2) mutual self defense, that sorta thing.

Basically, if your rig can run crysis it should be okay - a GTX460 is the minimum, which you can do by running at a lowish resolution.

[vio5555]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

If my computer can handle it. I really need a good space flight sim. Hope to use a joystick again.

If your computer can handle DirectX11 it should be able to handle it.

You can check by just using dxdiag. Search for that prog and check the display tab. It'll be listed under DDI.

[felix]

Thread already exists: http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=115379

@mods: you should really rename the thread to Start Ctizen, squadron 42 is merely the single player module.

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Anyhow, current assets run fine at max settings, since its not yet really well optimized I assume I shouldn't have many issues.

Dogfighting module should be the next thing in, in a few months, so I'll find out if there are any issues then.

[Ithekro]

I am worried more about the CPU processor speed than I am the video card at present. I think mine is 2.3 Ghtz with 3 G of RAM.

With a NVidia 630 gt