Holy crap!

Letter from the Chairman: $28 Million!

Greetings Citizens,

Star Citizen backers have a need for speed! Sales of the Origin M50 and 350R have pushed us over the $28 million mark! At $28 million, you unlocked an entirely new starter ship, which we believe is going to significantly improve the Star Citizen experience:

• New Starter Ship – The team at Consolidated Outland has decided to take Roberts Space Industries head on in 2944 by premiering the Mustang personal spacecraft. We will use these additional resources to create another ship company and starter ship for Star Citizen. The new ship will be offered for sale alongside the Aurora, so players have a choice between two options to begin the game!

We’re excited to get to work on the Mustang. As the next step in the process, the design team will turn the broad concept into a detailed set of specifications. Then those will go to one of our world-class concept artists for the first visuals. We’ll share that process with you as it happens!

For our next several stretch goals, we’re going to try something different. We are constantly asked where the additional money goes. Surely new mocap hardware or a new starship design doesn’t cost a million dollars. The answer is that the stretch goals are an example: one big thing we will be doing with some of the money. Every additional million means that we’re hiring additional artists and programmers, equipping the team with better development tools and increasing the size of the talented outsource groups being trusted with aspects of Star Citizen’s development. It means more actors and time for mocap studios, more reference for designers, greater variety in game characters, more options in clothing and armor and a large array of ship items and weapons.

Every dollar improves the project. That isn’t as sexy as spending large amounts of money on impressive, headline-grabbing stretch goals… but it means a significantly better game in the end. So, for the next several stretch goals, we’re going to leave you with the knowledge that the money goes to improving all aspects of Star Citizen’s development. Instead of specifying some new development goal, we’re going to add a new ship to the game as a reward.

The design team has imagined a new set of Star Citizen ships, one from each of our big manufacturers. Each ship will have a new role to play in the Star Citizen universe, and unlocking these stretch goals will make it possible to go ahead and start building them. Since the M50 and 350R got us to this point, we’re starting with the Origin Jumpworks design. After that, it’s going to be up to you: the $31 million stretch goal ship will be decided by the poll below!

• Origin 890 JUMP – The rumors are true: Origin Jumpworks has a larger ship in the works! The Origin 890 JUMP is an interstellar super-yacht with exquisite styling and an array of high quality upgrade options. Travel the stars in style with multiple decks, high visibility windows and a small boat bay. Whether you’re outfitting it to explore new worlds or to take a pleasure cruise through Terra, the 890 JUMP is the epitome of luxury, class and refinement!

I hope you enjoy hearing about these new ships and getting to have a say in what content we are adding to Star Citizen’s with your support!

As always, thank you for your continued enthusiasm and belief. Together we’re making something special!

 

Vote on the site for which role next ship to build should fill ...

11 to choose from.

Exploration, salvage or information runner but which one..... tricky.

I did choose mining, since there are no dedicated mining ships, at least no known ships ...

I chose exploration as I'm curious how such a ship would look .... so I can replicate their design and make my own model :))))))))))

Salvaging. As I like old Commodore Amigas "slightly", salvaging comes natural to me! :girlcrazy:

Oh, and Sol Command I would be interested to know what you think of the 300i series. Personally I love em. They remind me of the Raptor fighter from WC1. I reckon that is intentional on the part of the devs to tug those old WC memories in us "mature" players. :girldrunk:

It's quite a stylish design. The first thing that comes through my mind when looking at it is: "this thing is built for speed !" . 

Yea, that's what I think too when looking at it, especially the 350R. I also think one of the other ships, the Freelancer, could do with more work though. I think the nose and cockpit in general needs changing somehow. What to I am not sure, but I do know the view from the pilot's seat is fairly restricted and attracts all sorts of disdain from the SC community. Saying that though, I've flown plenty of planes in FS9 & FSX that were worse. Mind you, no one was shooting at me then! :girlcrazy:

$29 Million! Squadron 42!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8jfVhjC2Xs

Greetings Citizens,

You’ve picked up a lot of bombers… and used them to blow another stretch goal out of the water! This time I want to offer a special thank you on behalf of the Foundry 42 team. The latest stretch goal unlocked additional funding for the Squadron 42 single–player experience. In honor of that, we’ve put together a special Inside CIG behind-the-scenes video introducing the team making the game!

• Enhanced Mission Design for Squadron 42 – The team at Foundry 42 has big plans for Squadron 42, and we’re going to provide extra funding to make it a true spiritual successor to Wing Commander! Squadron 42 can go above and beyond anything you’ve seen before. From opening with an epic battle instead of a training patrol to missions that seamlessly combine boarding and space combat, we aim to put you right into the action! Additional funding will let the team realize this, with enhanced mission design and more resources and animations to enhance fidelity.

Last time we asked you to vote on a role for the next ship we build, and the resounding answer was that Citizens want to have a mining ship. We’re happy to oblige, but I’ll go ahead and warn you that mining in Star Citizen is going to be a lot more immersive than what you’ve seen before; you won’t be clicking on an asteroid until you’ve collected metal!

• RSI Orion – Roberts Space Industries’ goal has always been to make the stars available to individual Citizens. Now, with the RSI Orion mining platform, RSI is letting individuals take over a process formerly controlled by megacorporations. The Orion’s features include high-grade turret-mounted tractor beam arrays, durable exterior-accessible ‘saddlebags’ for mineral storage and a cabin designed by the team that brought you the Aurora and Constellation!

Now it’s time for you to pick the $32 million stretch goal ship. We’ve removed the winner and the lowest-performing option from the last poll. What will it be now? A massive cargo hauler, a speedy information runner, a dedicated salvage ship? The choice is in your hands!

Remember that each stretch goal represents a broad array of improvements to Star Citizen: more staff, better equipment, more variety in the finished universe. The ships you choose are just a sample of what each million dollars lets us add to the game!

— Chris Roberts

And a chance to vote on what to build after the mining ship ...

Yay single player game :gaming:

New vote......smuggling for me.

Letter from the Chairman: $30 Million!

Greetings Citizens,

Another one bites the dust! Since the bombers made this goal possible, I’m sharing a gallery of Gladiator artwork created to show how the rear-facing turret can be changed with different upgrades. It’s a small reminder of how you’re going to be able to make each hull YOUR ship in Star Citizen.

• Origin 890 JUMP – The rumors are true: Origin Jumpworks has a larger ship in the works! The Origin 890 JUMP is an interstellar super-yacht with exquisite styling and an array of high quality upgrade options. Travel the stars in style with multiple decks, high visibility windows and a small boat bay. Whether you’re outfitting it to explore new worlds or to take a pleasure cruise through Terra, the 890 JUMP is the epitome of luxury, class and refinement!

Salvage handily won the $32 million ‘ship role’ poll, which means that the next ship we hope to be developing for you will be oriented around exploring and recovering derelict starships and other hidden treasures! Here’s the first description:

• Aegis Surveyor – The Surveyor, from noted military contractor Aegis, is an industrial-quality salvage ship. Equipped with a reinforced cargo bay, a long-range jump drive and launch pods for unmanned drones, the Surveyor is an ideal ship for taking advantage of deep space wrecks. Tractor beams, floodlights, scanner options and docking ports round out the tool chest on this capable, utilitarian spacecraft.

Now it’s time to vote for the $33 million stretch goal ship! We have three manufacturers left, so choose wisely. And thank you, truly, for making this all possible. Let’s make sure no one ever forgets that when publishers wouldn’t spend a cent on AAA PC games, real gamers went above and way, way beyond to make Star Citizen happen.

— Chris Roberts

I did vote for cargo haulers. I want some big cargo haulers like the ones in this picture:

(From http://starcitizen.wikia.com/wiki/Crusader which describes the planet Crusader )

Just spotted this vid about the HUD design for the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8vVP4Fbof4

Letter from Roberts saying thanks and his thoughts about game, backers and crowd funding.

oday is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Traditionally, it’s a day where family comes together and gives thanks for what they have. While Star Citizen doesn’t belong to any particular country, I do feel like the Star Citizen community is an extended family and I thought today would be a perfect day for me to express the thanks of myself and everyone at Cloud Imperium Games to every one of you for believing in us.

Over this past year, I’ve constantly been amazed at the enthusiasm and support we received. The monetary side, while headline grabbing, is only one component. I’m amazed at the participation of a growing community; the ideas, the debates, the fan fiction and art, the gifts for the team, the growing number of groups and alliances, the friends made and the sheer investment every one of you have in the universe of Star Citizen. The energy and excitement of the community has been the biggest surprise and the most rewarding part of building a game this way. After experiencing this, I don’t know how I could ever go back to the old way of making games.

Male Explorer WIP - Back

As the community has grown and as our total funds raised for development has escalated beyond all expectation, we’ve become higher profile in the general gaming press.

Some of the increased visibility is good. People are waking up to the fact that Space Sims and PCs are not a dead genre or platform, people are seeing the benefits of involving your community early and sharing your work and gamers are realizing the power they have to choose what they want to play rather than accept predictable sequels offered by big publishers wanting to play it safe.

But this extra visibility has also brought the inevitable doubters or people that just hate to see something out of the ordinary succeed. “It’s a scam!” “It can’t live up the hype!” “I’ll laugh when it fails and everyone is disappointed!”

With the headlines will come inevitable haters. They can’t comprehend why a game like Star Citizen could capture the imagination, why so many people would enthusiastically support something long before it’s a sure thing. Sometimes I wonder this myself.

But when I think about it, one answer comes to me.

We’re all following a dream with Star Citizen.

Female Explorer WIP - Front

That’s because Star Citizen isn’t a game in a normal sense of the word. It’s not a finite experience that you will play for a week and put down. Star Citizen is the promise of endless adventure in the openness of space. We all don’t have the same exact dream. Some of us want to explore uncharted stars, some of us want to build a trading empire, some of us want to make our name as a fearless bounty hunter or mercenary or some want to pray on easy targets as a notorious pirate. The spaceship sitting in our hangars represents that promise of adventure, the ability to blast off into space to make our fortune and a name for ourselves. We all in some way are following our childhood dreams when we looked up to the stars and wondered what it would be like traveling among them.

This dream drives everyone at CIG and I’m pretty sure it’s why so many of you have embraced Star Citizen with such enthusiasm.

We are not building Star Citizen to turn a quick profit, or satisfy shareholders at some big Publisher, we’re building Star Citizen because we want to make this dream a reality. One that you are helping become a reality with your incredible support. People may say how can you do all this? How can you build such a wildly ambitious game?

Female Explorer WIP - Back

We’re in this for the long run. Because of your incredible support, we are already the biggest budgeted Space Sim in history, giving us the freedom to hire the best of the best and to take the time to do things right. However I’m not foolish enough to think everything will always go perfectly on Star Citizen. We will occasionally stumble. Not everything will go according to plan. And we definitely won’t be able to build a game that matches everyone’s personal vision of the game. That’s impossible with so many people!

But I’m confident that with this team and the support of everyone in the growing Star Citizen community we will deliver a game that will make the majority of you happy and create a universe that all of us will spend many years to come creating our own stories. A universe that will never be static, but always improving and expanding. I am more committed to this than ever and the team and I won’t be satisfied with anything less.

So today, the team and I give thanks to all of you for being such an amazing community and giving us your trust. We won’t let you down!

— Chris Roberts

 

Some pics of some well armed space explorers, just in case they come across any primitives in need of wiping out.

Big long letter from CR about why they are delaying the release of the dog fighting module https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13432-Letter-From-The-Chairman-On-Dogfighting

As time has progressed I’ve become more nervous taking the down and dirty route with the initial dogfighting build, especially as our numbers grow. With so many people in the Alpha we need a whole other level of backend support, which would require serious work on CryEngine’s existing multiplayer structure – a lobby system, spinning up servers to handle each session – all things that we are building the new Star Citizen backend to handle. Unfortunately the server backend technology will not be ready for prime time for a couple more months. But this is really what I would like to run the dogfighting on, as it will link into your hangar, friend’s lists, chat and so on.

We had considered just going single player and having a few combat scenarios available for the first stage of the Dogfighting module, but ultimately we decided this will not be beneficial as even the single player part of Star Citizen, Squadron 42, is built on the multiplayer backbone and is intended to have cooperative play out of the box. And even in this scenario with AI only we would be creating a lot of throw away content as we had always intended for the dogfighting module to be more about head to head than player vs AI.

 

More about the dogfighting, behind the scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qRNYF12Us4

The damage model isn't procedural - all the damaged phases of individual parts are pre-modelled. Tolerable for fighters, but not suitable for large capital ships at all.

The cash cow just keeps on giving. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13464-Letter-From-The-Chairman-36-Million

We just hit $36 million in crowd funding! What’s even more impressive is that we reached this goal while Cloud Imperium was closed for the holidays, without any kind of special “holiday” promotion – pretty staggering and it’s entirely down to the word of mouth and enthusiasm from all of you!

I’m happy to report that the Star Citizen Development team will be back on the job as of Monday, revitalized and with an ever-greater determination to do everything to make this the Best Damn Space Sim Ever. Your continued financial support allows us to chase this goal with confidence.

Starting on Monday, I’ll be sitting down with the Dogfighting Module team to go over all your feedback from our live demo at the end of the year and schedule the remaining functionality, content and polish we want to achieve before we push it out to all of your hard drives!

After this I’ll be making my first visits to our new offices in Manchester and then Austin, where we are holding a summit with all the teams from around the world working on Star Citizen to schedule and coordinate this year’s work in detail.

Last but not least, launching The Next Great Starship, exposing some great talent to the community and allowing you to see the process of building ships up close for Star Citizen!

I can’t wait to get back to work!

At $36 million, you’ve unlocked the first of the backer-voted systems, Tamsa:

• Tamsa System – Located near the fringe of Banu space, Tamsa System features a massive central star that has collapsed into a black hole. Only two planets remain in the system, a chthonian world and a gas giant located far from the black hole’s event horizon.

For the $38 million goal, your votes have selected the “fully aquatic planet” option. Here’s the description of the system we’re creating based on your input:

• Cano System is home to a G-Type Main Sequence Star that’s almost identical to Earth’s. Of the four planets in the system, only one is inhabited: Carteyna. Located on the edge of habitable zone, Carteyna is a classic waterworld. Fortunately, its planetary axis constantly keeps the northern hemisphere away from the sun, which allowed for the water to freeze into the landmasses used as the initial landing zones in 2587. Multiple attempts have been made to try to convert the thick atmosphere into something breathable, but the process never seemed to stick. In fact, over the years, every time there’s a new technological development in geo-engineering, they test it out here on Carteyna only to yield the same result. Almost fifty years ago, scientists discovered microscopic organisms in the very early phases of life in the depths of the oceans. This caused a massive uproar throughout the UEE at the prospect that they had been attempting to terraform a developing world. Carteyna was immediately placed under the Fair Chance Act. Unfortunately, Humans had been living here for almost over three hundred years and the families that had been here for generations felt that they had earned rights as residents. After years of debate in the political and scientific community, the population was allowed to stay, but only under certain conditions: future terraforming attempts have been outlawed and the Human population has been consolidated to a single arcology to minimize their impact on their environment and the development of whatever species is growing in the deep.

Be sure and vote for the penultimate backer-decided system in the poll located below. Remember, these options just represent a small portion of what the additional budget allows us to do with Star Citizen!

Thank you for your continued support.

In honor of this accomplishment, I’d like to share the result of an aspect of Star Citizen that I think makes us special compared to the normal game development process – involving the community during development to get user feedback early to shape a better game. Here’s the result of a lot Freelancer pilot’s requests now they’ve had some time to get a feel for their ship in the Hangar: a revised design for an updated Freelancer cockpit featuring the greater visibility! And get ready: you’ll be seeing more of the Freelancer in the New Year.

— Chris Roberts

Just spotted this vid not seen them before where Roberts answers 10 questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsWDLHVYNHI

This game looks like it's going to be truly epic, I have backed it, and it is very ambitious - I only hope they can pull it off successfully. I'll probably have to buy a new machine to play it in it's full glory.

Yea, I agree Stormprooter. Looking over this thread, in the beginning, I thought my present machine (an AMD Bull dozer based rig) would be fine to run it, but to be honest I have to run the hangar module on the lowest settings and it is still slow. Goodness knows what the final minimum specs for the game will be. The one good thing is I have to 2015 to sort that out. So at least that is something.

Hangar is on one hand not optimized, on the other in gull game, we'll met dozens of ships.

Yea, I agree Stormprooter. Looking over this thread, in the beginning, I thought my present machine (an AMD Bull dozer based rig) would be fine to run it, but to be honest I have to run the hangar module on the lowest settings and it is still slow. Goodness knows what the final minimum specs for the game will be. The one good thing is I have to 2015 to sort that out. So at least that is something.

I think the dogfighting module may give us a reasonable idea of the level of spec required for the initial full release. Balancing the fact that the dfm will not be fully optimised and the release will have much more in it. But you really never can tell for certain with these things until you have the actual end product to play with. My rig runs the hanger module smoothly at about 80% of max settings at 1920 x 1080.

More ask the chairman questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtyZzO5OrE0

And it's $37 million. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13490-Letter-From-The-Chairman-37-Million

You’ve pushed Star Citizen to $37 million in crowd funding! And that amount is only one of the numbers I’m having trouble believing today. Let me share another one with you: 4,924. That’s the number of Organizations that have been created since the new system went online less than twelve hours ago. The breadth of the Star Citizen community continues to astonish: you’ve taken up our charge and are creating something truly unique.

At $37 million, you’ve unlocked a new star system at the center of a nebula:

• Tanga System – At the heart of an unusual rectangular planetary nebula, lies Tanga System. The inner planets were engulfed as the star entered the red giant phase. The expanded habitable zone unfroze a small world on the former outer ring and for several hundred million years made it habitable. Life began to emerge and was just reaching a primitive state when the star collapsed into a white dwarf, throwing the planet back into a deep freeze, then blasting the atmosphere away with the resulting planetary nebula. That’s how the system was found: Only two worlds (speculation that there could have been three to four more) but both are dead planets with no atmosphere.

The last poll was a hard-fought contest, but it looks like the explorers continue to have an advantage: the winning selection is an “unexplored natural wonder.” As a result, we’re adding a new system (based on a recent, real-world discovery) for you to discover. We intend to stock it with some impressive surprises for the explorers who manage to locate it! Here’s the description:

• UDS-2943-01-22 System – Breaking news: UEE astrophysicists based at the famed Klavs observatory station have utilized advanced telescopy and other remote sensing technologies to identify a truly unusual star system on the fringes of known space. The object, once thought to be a single massive star, is actually a trinary star consisting of two white dwarfs and an active pulsar orbiting one another. Because of the complex gravitic factors at work, it is now believed that a jump point leading to the system likely exists in or near explored human space. Beyond the bizarre stellar makeup, the composition of the system is all but unknown. Could planets exist in this carefully balanced web? What else might have been drawn there? One thing is certain: the first Citizen to travel to UDS-2943-01-22 will have one hell of a view!

Now it’s time to vote for the final system stretch goal, which will be unlocked at $40 million. If past polls are an indication, it should be a close race between the three options. We have some interesting ideas for developing each one, so you can rest assured that whatever you select it will add a cool new facet to the Star Citizen world!

Thank you for your continued support. Whether you’re part of a thousand-person Organization or planning to explore the galaxy on your own, 2014 is going to be the biggest year yet for Star Citizen.

— Chris Roberts

 

$38 million https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13550-Letter-From-The-Chairman-38-Million

We’ve hit the incredible $38 million mark in our crowd funding campaign. It’s exciting seeing the Organizations feature flourish: backers are inviting more and more people into this world, and in the process they’re making even more possible for Star Citizen’s development. The $38 million unlock is the Cano System, home to a fully aquatic planet:

• Cano System is home to a G-Type Main Sequence Star that’s almost identical to Earth’s. Of the four planets in the system, only one is inhabited: Carteyna. Located on the edge of habitable zone, Carteyna is a classic waterworld. Fortunately, its planetary axis constantly keeps the northern hemisphere away from the sun, which allowed for the water to freeze into the landmasses used as the initial landing zones in 2587. Multiple attempts have been made to try to convert the thick atmosphere into something breathable, but the process never seemed to stick. In fact, over the years, every time there’s a new technological development in geo-engineering, they test it out here on Carteyna only to yield the same result. Almost fifty years ago, scientists discovered microscopic organisms in the very early phases of life in the depths of the oceans. This caused a massive uproar throughout the UEE at the prospect that they had been attempting to terraform a developing world. Carteyna was immediately placed under the Fair Chance Act. Unfortunately, Humans had been living here for almost over three hundred years and the families that had been here for generations felt that they had earned rights as residents. After years of debate in the political and scientific community, the population was allowed to stay, but only under certain conditions: future terraforming attempts have been outlawed and the Human population has been consolidated to a single arcology to minimize their impact on their environment and the development of whatever species is growing in the deep.

Our final star system poll was the closest we’ve ever run, with only a few votes separating the Tevarin Ghost World and the Lost Human Colony. Since it sounds like Star Citizen’s backers are equally excited about both concepts, we’ve decided to break the rules and include both concepts!

• Kabal System – The discovery of a new system is always an exciting time. Even the most jaded NavJumpers can’t help entertaining the possibilities for scientific understanding or new species or even a new home that could await them on the other side of a new jump point. The discovery of Kabal was certainly something new. By all outward appearances, the system seemed empty. It was only during when a UEE Surveying team began to assess Kabal III, did they find something disturbing; old uninhabited Tevarin cities. How could an entire Tevarin system escape detection all these years? Did the Tevarin that were assimilated into the UEE know about it? How was it kept a secret? The questions multiplied when a detachment of Marines, sent to secure the planet ended up discovering a cache of old Tevarin war machines. Among the rows and rows of weapons, they made an even more disturbing discovery; some of the technology was made in the last ten years…

• Oretani System – Oretani was just one of many systems that were being discovered during the rapid Expansion era of the 25th century. The surveyors noticed nothing in the system’s six worlds of immediate importance. Only one planet seemed to be a viable candidate for terraforming. The terraforming Corp that won the bid sent a mid-level team (and their families) into the system to start processing when the only jump point into the system collapsed. Scientists scrambled to figure out a solution, but it was the first time an incident like this had occurred. As years stretched into decades, people studied the area around the former jump point, hoping for a sign that it had reopened, but after time they gave up. After all this time, Oretani is only ever debated among select number of historians. Most believe that without support, the initial terraformers probably died out, but no one really knows what to expect on the other side if that jump point ever reopens.

That’s it for the additional star system stretch goals. At $39 million, we’ll announce a new goal that will help chart the course for the future of Star Citizen in a different way… and it’s one I’m personally very excited about, so be sure to check back then and learn more!

As always, thank you for your continued support of Star Citizen. It’s hard to properly express how grateful we are to the community for letting us pursue this dream. I know that everyone is eager to see more of Star Citizen as quickly as possible—more ships, more systems, more gameplay—and I promise you that we’re just as eager to get that out there. Stay tuned: big things are happening in the ‘verse!

— Chris Roberts

P.S. – Everyone curious about how the Banu Merchantman will land should check out the attached concept art. Please remember that this is an early WIP and shape, form and function can change as we drill down on the inner workings of the Banu Merchantman!

 

At this rate they I would not be surprised if they hit $50 million by the time the game is released.

And another 10 for the chairman videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcRxuvQT3Ew

Some pic from the German version of PC Gamer, more and bigger version on RSI. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13559-PC-Games-Gallery