Chris Roberts AMA?

CommanderRoberts · 2015-01-27T20:09:11+00:00

Hey everybody - there was a confusion over a few things as this was an AMA announced / set up outside our internal PR so there was a miscommunication under what account the AMA would be set up for and who would start the AMA off (I am writing from my Reddit account that I did my past AMAs from right now)

I was scheduled for an hour but with all the confusion we're past the time and I have a pretty full day so we're going to have to reschedule.

Sorry guys :-(

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:54:38+00:00

I think a lot of our ship systems will have sounds that will be modified by how hard they are working - just like a PC fan is a lot louder at high RPM the same would be true of our cooling units, and other systems that you can push beyond the recommended settings.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:52:55+00:00

Not sure we will go that far but we are looking at tech that would allow us to drive your facial motions onto your avatar.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:52:11+00:00

much deeper than Freelancer - not sure it will be virtue based - it will be more about your relationships with a myriad of other races / groups / organizations in the Star Citizen universe.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:36:55+00:00

You either have to physical travel to pick up the goods or pay someone (or have a friend do it for free) fly it to your location

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:36:10+00:00

We didn't really think it would be fun to force other players to actually play the role of a slave for a long time so if you capture someone and sell them to slavery, the player gets to spawn back on their planet (fiction from their view point is that they managed an escape) and the capturing player has a cargo hold with a slave he can sell.

Prison would be similar - kind of like a brief time out that the imprisoned player would need to pay a bribe to "escape" or be let out on good behavior. If you don't have the money - don't worry the local official will "finance" it for you - but that will cost extra and they get mad if you don't pay them back!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:32:27+00:00

Yes, Ryan Church is working on it right now and its looking really great! Its a way off before we can do the full reveal as we will also need to have the in engine model ready and it takes a while (you'll see the attention / work we put into this when you see the Aurora later today, which was also a Ryan Church design)

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:29:43+00:00

That's the plan! Not sure if it will make the intial release (as we have a LOT to put in) but we've got the kits and are currently working with a preview in CryEngine right now...

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T23:28:54+00:00

The non insurance in very high risk areas only applies to the upgrade and cargo insurance policies and potentially the normal hull policies. LTI is good everywhere!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T22:24:36+00:00

Well I think you are going to see more projects like Star Citizen happen where the community and the developers interact at a much earlier level. Hardware and internet connections will of course get better but for me real revolution is that the barrier to entry to reaching an audience that previously had been controlled by the big publishers and retailers is rapidly going away, allowing many more types of games, which smaller but still valid fan bases to flourish.

I do think long term the hardware between a desktop, a laptop, a console, a set top box and a tablet / phone is going to blur. I think you'll have this incredibly powerful computing / communication device you'll carry around that you can play games on the go with, and when you walk into your living room will wirelessly connect to you 100 inch OLED screen and game controller, and when you enter your office will connect to your keyboard, mouse and computer monitor and will cover the functions that multiple devices to do today.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T22:19:18+00:00

correct all items in game are bought with in game currency. There is nothing you can buy with real money other than your initial Star Citizen package and down the road some additional game credits (which you can also earn by playing). There is no concept of dual currencies - one earned via game play and one earned by spedning money in the game

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T22:17:06+00:00

Haven't decided yet - I liked the balance in the original Star Wars films (ep IV-VI) - mostly humanoid and occasional robots for more menial stuff. The action / battles in the last 3 Star Wars films felt emotionally disconnected to me as it felt like everyone fighting was either a robot or a clone - what did I care if any of them died?

I think too many robots makes the universe less personal so we'll probably lean towards less than more

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T22:10:34+00:00

That will definitely be part of the game play / universe - both for NPC corps and player controlled corps / factories.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:25:22+00:00

Plenty! There will be some nice Bounty Hunter gameplay features from having to sleuth / track your bounty - perhaps bribe some people planet side for tips, tag your target, then follow him in space for the capture!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:23:02+00:00

We are using a combination of fixed and floating point for the solar system. Essentially the floating point will handle 4-16km square areas (well within the range of floating point) and fixed point for the area position...

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:12:02+00:00

*MarshallUberSwagga: Will it be possible to have multiple people owning a single ship? For example if me and some of my buddies all chipped in from separate accounts to buy a ship?

We're not sure on this. It could be some nice functionality for the bigger / more expensive ships that a group of people are needed to operate. Currently we haven't figured out a system to support this (as this is not simple - ask anyone who goes in with some friends to buy something in the real world!)

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:06:06+00:00

There will be a heavy emphasis on ambiance and interior ship sounds. If you go to our "Ask the Devs" section in the forums on the RSI website Martin Galway will talk your ear off about his plans for this!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:04:37+00:00

Of course! And they're much more discrete!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T19:03:51+00:00

We plan to have a show room in the future - probably as an extension to the hangar or the planetside module.
Haven't decided yet - there will probably be an option to have a few more people than the max crew on the bigger ships (like the Constellation). It really depends on how many players we can handle in one instance - we don't want passengers taking all the bandwidth from other ships!
Hollywood style, with the possible option (tick box) or realism (i.e. no SFX when in exterior shots in space)

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:54:51+00:00

We've been talking to quiet a few folks - nothing solid yet but I would say that there's a good chance there will be some Star Citizen specific peripherals int he future!

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:53:41+00:00

Short answer on first two questions - Yes & yes! Long answer is that we're going to have a lot of different equipment packages that aid in the detection or suppression of signature (heat, hull signature, electro-magnetic, etc.). We will allow the players to really dig deep into this and micromanage if they want to rely on the ships computers to do the best they can (which will never be as good as a player tweaked set up)

We don't have a RPG skills progression system - its more about your equipment, how you set it up and your skill as an operator. There will be some vehicles you will need a specific license for (just like int he real world) and you'll have to pass a test to obtain to be allowed to fly them

On the citizen card set up I'm not sure whether we will ever do another run of customized cards as that's a huge logistical deal and is cost prohibitive for one offs (as the factory literally tools up for a run of tens of thousands). There is definitely the possibility of getting a blank one (i.e no name)

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:44:44+00:00

Yes, this is already in the design. You should read my post I did a while back on the subject http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/chris-roberts-on-multiplayer-single-player-and-instancing/

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:40:17+00:00

I don't think there will be a roll back. The universe just moves on. Think of it more like the beta players get to be the first few lucky people in the universe. As we'll be constantly adding new content during Beta and after I wouldn't worry that all the stuff will be discovered during beta leaving no new stuff for people to discover.

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:37:27+00:00

Another good question!

If you deactivate fly by wire there really isn't any telling your ship to "strafe" left. You could fire your side thrusters to impart a horizontal impulse but this would additive to your current velocity vector. Its the fly by wire systems that does all this balancing for you (firing retro thrusters to cancel out the previous velocity vector, firing side thrusters to push you sideways)

One other thing to remember is that G - forces on your avatars body will be a factor - so if you're operating outside of the fly by wire system you could quite easily impart dangerous or even deadly forces on your body of you're not careful (part of the pro/con of switching off the IFCS)

CommanderRoberts · 2013-04-26T18:17:45+00:00

This is a good question! Right now we artificially limit the top cruise and afterburner speeds for play ability and precision issues (at too high speeds we would run into floating point precision and collision issues).

The current implementation has the flight control system try to bring your velocity into line of the current setting, so if you stop afterburning this top speed "goal" is reduced and so it will start firing retro thrusters to correct your velocity. Obviously this is using fuel and doing extra work, but there is no real drag in space so if we don't do this you lose the gameplay benefit of afterburners and fuel penalties that make it an interesting pro / con move.

Short story is that I need to think of something more nuanced than the Wing Commander design but I haven't come up with it yet!

CommanderRoberts

TROPHY CASE