Not watched it but has some thing to do with the dogfighting module.

~S~

Going to be interesting to see what happens at PAX ....     Will they release the DFM the next day/week or month lol

~S~

 

Going to be interesting to see what happens at PAX ....     Will they release the DFM the next day/week or month lol

From the way WIngman spoke in last week's Hangar, I'd say a month is a little more accurate than days or a week. It might also be a staggered release as well, so prepare for that. I just hope we are in it by the end of May.

Video of the live stream from Pax showing the Roberts playing and showing off some of the features of the dogfighting module from a couple of days ago with plenty of shouting from the fanboys in the background.

A very good interview with Chris from PAX detailing more FPS stuff.

And it hits $42 million https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13812-Letter-From-The-Chairman-42-Million and everyone get a towel, don't leave home without it.

$42 million in crowd funding! I can’t think of a better symbolic victory than reaching that number in crowd funding. The ‘meaning of life, the universe and everything’ is now the amount pledged to let us build a new universe!

I’d like to thank so many of you for coming out to PAX East to see the Arena Commander reveal. We’ll be sharing some additional footage later in the week to let everyone see what we weren’t able to show at the event! Technical glitches aside, it was extremely gratifying to see everyone’s reactions; everyone who got their hands on the game loved it, and more importantly, they immediately understood where we’re going for Star Citizen. I can’t wait to be able to share it with the entire community that has made the project possible.

At $42 million, you unlocked several celebratory goals:

• Updated Observist Guide – Additional funding from the $42 million level will go to expanding the website area of the Galactapedia: expect to see holographic ships, items and navigation interface in 3D! Imagine admiring your ships or planning your loadouts right here at the RSI website.

• Explorer-class mobiGlas Rig – Every player who backed before we hit $42 million will start the game with their own, visually distinctive mobiGlas “ExoGlas” rig which can be used to access the Observist at any time. I’ve charged the mobiGlas team with a very difficult task: creating a realistic interface that will help keep your affairs in order in an expansive galaxy. It’s almost like building our own in fiction operating system for an imagined future, and it’s very different task than building spaceships. This backer-exclusive mobiGlas kit will come pre-loaded with additional galactic information that new players would ordinarily need to explore or barter to fill out; it’s our way of honoring the information you’ve collected about the Star Citizen universe through the RSI site and community over the past year!

The towel features the UEE logo on one side and an Observist logo on the reverse.

• Gladius – The Squadron 42 team will develop an additional fighter for the game, the Aegis Dynamics Gladius-class light fighter. The Gladius will be the first fighter built entirely from concept to CryEngine in the UK! Here’s the official description: The Aegis Gladius is the UEE’s reigning light short-range patrol fighter. A single-seat ship with no room for expansion, the Gladius is fast, maneuverable and capable of punching far above its weight. The main advantage to the design is simplicity: cheap to produce, easy to repair and outfit and quick to train new pilots on. The Gladius is an aging design nearing the end of its life-cycle, although iterative updates have kept it the most nimble fighter in the active fleet.

• Towel – And of course, everyone who backs before we hit $42 million will also receive a towel for their hangar. Don’t explore the galaxy without it!

The team has put together some preliminary art for the towel, included in this post. Use your Observist towels with pride, they’re only available to backers who supported us before this level! (Just like Arena Commander itself, we’ve tried to come up with fiction to go with the towel: it’s the incentive reward your character got for subscribing to The Observist in the first place.)

For the $44 million goal, you’ve voted for an additional hangar room. The Hangar room system is currently being developed at Behaviour and will premiere with the upcoming asteroid hangar. Backers who support the game before we hit $44 million will have the following added to their hangars:

• Stellar Cartography – Walk among the distant horizons you’ve charted in Star Citizen’s dedicated “map room” featuring a 3D holographic representation of the known universe. Your map room will start with a basic guide to the United Empire of Earth, and will expand into something that is unique to you as you explore uncharted worlds and discover new secrets. Build the most in-depth universe map possible and show it off to visitors, or lock down your secret jump points and hidden trading posts so that no one else can follow. Interface directly with the Observist guide to find out everything from what ores are in demand on MacArthur to who serves the best pasta on Terra. And with the ability to leave your own notes about your encounters and travels, it’s more than a map: it’s your digital diary!

$42 million towel - damage states

The development team is back at work today getting the dogfighting module ready for its full release. As always, thank you: none of what you saw last week would have been possible without the support of our backers. Hitting $42 million means that even more resources are going into the ‘verse! Finally, remember to vote in the poll below, which will select the $45 million stretch goal reward item.

Update from Pax East video showing some of the features of the dog fighting module which were not shown or did not work as intended.

43 Million!

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13840-Letter-From-The-Chairman-43-Million

The Gladius looks heavily inspired from WC1-2 era ship

At $43 million, every backer (to this point) gets a set of marine combat armor added to their accounts! A full description is below, but you’ll learn a lot more about what this is good for as we lock down more information about Star Citizen’s FPS module.

• Omni Role Combat Armor (ORC) mk9 Manufacturer: CDS (Clark Defense Systems) The ‘standard’ Marine armor for almost twenty years, ORC armor is prohibitively more expensive than standard-issue infantry body armor used by Army Ground Forces, but the Marines boast far fewer numbers and tend to make compelling arguments to get what they ask for. Clark Defense Systems’ ORC armor is created of composite mesh of fibers reinforced with ablative plates, offering a modest protection against both energy and kinetic weapons. While it doesn’t offer the same protection of the Marines’ proprietary Nail-armor or their SpecOps variants, ORCmk9 armor is a baseline solution for any number of situations the average Marine will encounter on any given day. Besides, in the words of Lt. Col Armin Trask, “you wanna know the best armor? Not getting shot.”

Very nice of them, any pics of it ?.

Omni Role Combat Armor (ORC) <chortles> That's original, ain't it? Orc-armour! <sniggers>

Monthly report out from RSI read more of it on the site https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13848-Monthly-Report-April-2014

Travis Day, Dogfight Producer

As April comes to a close it is time again for us to reflect upon, and share, the major developments of the month! There is much to discuss so let’s get straight to it!

At the beginning of this month we revealed Arena Commander (AKA – DFM) to all the backers who were able to attend our pre-PAX East event in Boston and to the world via livestream. We also had the privilege of having Arena Commander playable on the show floor of PAX East for citizens and interested passerby alike in the Logitech booth. Of course we weren’t able to show everything we wanted to that night in Boston so we put together a video showing off some of the additional features we’ve been working on that didn’t make the demo level which you can see below if you missed it.

While showing off all our team’s hard work is very gratifying, the real treat is being able to interact with everyone in the community in person. Words cannot express how humbling and inspiring it is to be able to meet with so many people who are so passionate about the universe we are creating. It is incredibly motivating for all of us who were in attendance and while it isn’t truly possible to capture those indelible feelings we were able to share at least some of that with the team upon our return.

Speaking of the team, let’s move on to what they’ve been up to! Similar to many of the other studios, we here in Santa Monica are finishing up new feature implementation as we approach our branch date and code lock and move into final polish, tweaking, and bug fixing. To this end there has been a lot of planning and communication going on amongst all the studios to synchronize our finishing of feature development and finalizing our polish and rollout strategy. This will allow us to focus on finishing and stabilizing the planned features we’ve implemented and lower the risk of introducing new issues as we prepare for the launch of Arena Commander.

Whilst Production, Operations, and Network Engineering have been planning and executing the above strategy, our visual effects team has been finishing its final passes on effects and hooking them up to all the parts and states of the Aurora, 300i, Scythe, and Hornet and all of their possible item combinations. Our planning on this from Forrest and Casey has panned out quite well. In creating the effects for the Hornet and the Scythe along with all their weapons and items we’ve established a good starting point for an effects library for both UEE and Vanduul craft. Obviously these libraries will grow and change over time but it has us well positioned to rapidly iterate and hook up new ships and items in the future.

Speaking of ships breaking apart… This month has seen the completion of hooking up all of the damage pieces, LODs, particle effect nodes, etc. for the Scythe, 300i, Aurora, and Hornet. Not only do they all now explode, break, and LOD properly but we’ve also got them all flying properly this month. They’ve all been converted to PBR and as mentioned in a previous post the 300i has also undergone a major uprez and detail pass as it was being converted to PBR. All of the ships (which already looked great) are now looking absolutely fantastic. This is another case where our early work both in the way we approached it and focusing on the Hornet first has paid of dividends. By spending the time to R&D ship mechanics with the Hornet and locking down the process and documentation it has allowed us to blaze through the Scythe, Aurora, and 300i much more quickly and each ship has progressed more quickly than the last as we improve our technique, which is great to see.

On the engineering front the team has been focusing on finishing off some changes to the pipe system (framework which manages per ship and per part CPU, power, cooling, and fuel) to allow players to manipulate settings dynamically on a per item basis or on a global level for the ship which will affect all attached parts. This was a stretch goal for us going into the first release so we’re pleased that we’ve been able to fit this in as it will improve the dynamism of ships greatly and we think player’s will really enjoy it.

The pipe system wasn’t the only one to get a bit of an upgrade. Radar/detection system too has undergone an overhaul to expand its functionality both to improve its current features and to create the foundation for future features that designers can play with. It has also undergone an optimization both in parallel to this which has greatly increased its performance per frame. To expand upon the improvements to the radar system, it has been moved into a centralized system hosted by the vehicle that can be shared by multiple items and only get called once. That doesn’t sound very sexy but what it allows is for much more realistic simulation of missiles for example. Where you can feed your ships primary radar data to the missile for acquiring lock and then later switch to the missiles radar only once it has left the ship. It also paves the way for slaving radar from one ship to another or things like centralized command and control which is a feature we know a lot of our community is looking forward to. Lastly, we’ve adjusted the way the signal to noise ratio system works and expanded its functionality quite a bit to allow designers to play with different types of chaff, armor, nebulas, flares, etc. and have them impact the radar/detection system in entirely new ways.

On the graphics engineering side Okka Kyaw has been very busy working on many improvements to the HUD’s look and feel to make sure that the curvature shader works perfectly in a multitude of resolutions and has a projected holographic feel. He’s also created the redout effect to match his stellar g-force induced blackout effect and is now working on the interstitial effects such as blackout recovery to provide a more realistic and filmic return to consciousness. Overall we believe that folks will be really happy with the graphics effects and immersive feel that his work accomplishes.

Our headcount has increased by 1, with the addition of our new Human Resources specialist. We do have some exciting new hires coming up and we look forward to updating you about them next month!

We would like to close this month by taking a moment to thank you, each and every backer, for all of their support on this project. From backing the game, to fan fiction, to late night chatroll, ‘Ask a Dev’ threads, to fan gifts, to meeting everyone at events like the Arena Commander reveal. We are all truly humbled by all that you do for us and genuinely appreciate you making it possible for us to create this universe for us to share in together.

As always, feel free to post any comments or questions in our “Ask a Dev” threads and until next time… See you in the ‘verse!

 

Nice to see the 300i finally getting a make over. Quite a few threads over on RSI about that ship and the need for it to be more luxurious and better use of the cabin space.

Nice to see the 300i finally getting a make over. Quite a few threads over on RSI about that ship and the need for it to be more luxurious and better use of the cabin space.

Not really, it isn't. The ship looks absolutely stellar, it always has. I'd much prefer to see them spend the resources we provided them with on making as many ships as possible instead of fiddling with about a dozen, otherwise the universe is going to feel shallow. And I'm saying that as a 300i owner.

They need to leave some ships to add later.

So it Begins

More details on RSI https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13883-Arena-Commander-Weekly-Report-May-12-16

Greetings Citizens,

Let me begin with the information you most want to hear: we intend to launch Arena Commander in two weeks, on May 29th.The goal is that every backer will have access to the single player “Free Flight” and “Vanduul Swarm” games modes on this day, and the very first batch of multiplayer testers will get access to the game’s multiplayer game modes. We will scale up the multiplayer as quickly as possible starting on that date, increasing the number of players as it is stable and stopping to fix bugs where needed.

This date is based on our best possible projections using the latest information put together by Star Citizen’s production team as of this afternoon. This is a big part of what the often-unseen production side of game development does: schedule out every task they believe is required for a game to ship. Sometimes (in fact, more often than not) things go wrong and these forecasts change: bugs we don’t foresee appear, features we didn’t realize we needed become necessary and so on. This is why we haven’t had a solid release date yet; it’s not to better schedule marketing or because we want to keep you out of the cockpit… it’s because game development is a complex beast, and there are few games more complex than Star Citizen! At this point, we’re close enough that we feel fairly confident in this date… but the next two weeks will be a march!

 

Very nice of them to gives all access to the single player mode

Nice, although the Elite Beta is also out the next day. Some tough game playing decisions for the backers of both projects indeed! Nice dilemma though!

Arena Commander Weekly https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13891-Arena-Commander-Weekly-Report-May-19-23

V0.8 of Arena Commander is almost here! Hopefully this will be the final weekly report before it launches. You can find the individual studio reports below, but first I’d like to run through the milestones we listed last week.

• May 17th: The planned server update was successful, thanks to our hard working IT groups!

• May 18th: Perforce Streams setup was completed and an Arena Commander Release Stream was successfully created and work began to make sure the build system would be ready to build from the new streams setup.

• May 19th: The QA team began their troubleshooting session, which lasted several days as the final work was done to finish integration of the Arena Commander Release Stream with the build system. A ‘must fix’ list was generated and updated through the week as progress was made.

• May 22nd: Pencils down! Infrastructure change to Perforce Streams was completed successfully, Perforce was locked down and it was successfully updated with the latest from main. All developers successfully migrated to the Arena Commander Release Stream which was officially closed to new check-ins last night. Only updates that have gone through a specific approval process will be included with V.8 of the Arena Commander now.

What that boils down to is that we’re still on schedule and things are looking good. There’s still a lot to do over the next seven days and there are still unknowns… but we have a great team that is dedicated to making Arena Commander a reality!

 

BANG $44 million https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13888-Letter-From-The-Chairman-44-Million

$44 million! I think I can safely say that this will be the last letter I write before Arena Commander launches, and I can’t wait to share the first taste of what you’ve been helping us build. Getting to dogfight in deep space is going to make Star Citizen real for a lot of people… but I also know that everyone who has supported us to this point already understands. Thank you for getting us here!

The final week push to get Arena Commander V.8 out the door has begun here, so I’ll keep this letter short… but I would like to share a piece of concept art. You’re looking at what we call the “negotiation room” in the Banu Merchantman freighter. It’s a place where traders can invite others into their ships, display their cargo (the bay is visible) and make deals!

As we look to the next stages of Star Citizen beyond dogfighting, we’re putting more and more thought into how systems like cargo and trading will take shape. We’re building a system that makes sense, measuring ship interiors, building a standardized cargo container measurement system (see diagram) and determining exactly how cargo will be loaded, unloaded and interacted with in port (and during flight!) As the most recent set of changes to our preliminary ship stats reflect, transporting cargo is going to be more complex than just finding the ship with the highest storage capacity… it’s going to involve finding the right ship type for the job.

Everyone who pledged for Star Citizen before this point will be getting an additional room added to their hangars, once the modular room system launches:

• Stellar Cartography – Walk among the distant horizons you’ve charted in Star Citizen’s dedicated “map room” featuring a 3D holographic representation of the known universe. Your map room will start with a basic guide to the United Empire of Earth, and will expand into something that is unique to you as you explore uncharted worlds and discover new secrets. Build the most in-depth universe map possible and show it off to visitors, or lock down your secret jump points and hidden trading posts so that no one else can follow. Interface directly with the Observist guide to find out everything from what ores are in demand on MacArthur to who serves the best pasta on Terra. And with the ability to leave your own notes about your encounters and travels, it’s more than a map: it’s your digital diary!

And the results of the penultimate player reward stretch goal are in! Backers who pledge before $46 million will get an updated scanning software suite from Chimera Communications. Here are the details:

• Updated Scanning Software – Chimera Communications unveiled the latest version of their SBit scanning software, also announcing a one-time free upgrade for their current and long-standing customers. The new SBit upgrade offers advanced scanning capabilities for prospecting asteroids above and beyond their baseline systems. SBit is a FIB-based system that floods the scan-zone with energy then processes the frequency of the energy reflected back, providing the operator with a composite sketch of potential ore deposits. With the new version, Chimera included an updated library of searchable frequencies as well as variable scan sizes, allowing smaller surface, higher-resolution scans. The general public will be able to purchase the update when SBit is officially released.

Again, thank you for your continued support. That support means a bigger, better game… the first part of which you’re going to play very soon. Remember to vote in the poll below, which will determine the final player reward stretch goal!

— Chris Roberts

 

And it's been delayed. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13898-Arena-Commander-V8-Delay

The team has been working around the clock for the past two weeks to polish gameplay and eliminate the bugs that would allow us to release Arena Commander V0.8. Today at 4:00 PM PST, I sat down with Star Citizen’s production leads for a ‘go/no-go’ meeting. We went around the virtual table, like a ground control team preparing to launch a rocket, and the decision was that we are not able to release Arena Commander tomorrow as there are too many blocking and critical issues outstanding.

Below you will find a list of the current bugs being tracked by the team. Game developers classify bugs based on their severity: blockers, critical, major, moderate and minor. The most serious of these, blockers, are bugs that completely prevent the game from working and from being in a releasable state. Unfortunately, as of tonight, there are still two blockers and half a dozen critical issues (which we would like to fix before launch.) Our biggest issue today is a newly developed DirectX crash which breaks the single player Vanduul Swarm mode every backer will be given access to.

It would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline. This is the power of the crowdfunding that made Star Citizen possible: a publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality… but as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable.

I know that’s not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would.

This is what can happen with an open development process, especially when we are sharing code and content long before one normally would in traditional development. But I don’t think you would want it any other way! The Star Citizen team feeds off of your incredible enthusiasm and your energy for the project… and we want more than anything to see what happens when you get into space.

In order to keep our backers as informed as possible, I’m asking the production team to provide DAILY updates for the community until Arena Commander V0.8 ships. This will be the raw stuff: lists of bugs and other information to tell you the current health of the build. You will see the same information I do, and you will be able to follow as we resolve each “blocker” preventing the build’s release.

I want you to know that we’re very close… just not close enough to launch tomorrow. Stay tuned!

— Chris Roberts

Arena Commander V.8 Bug List – May 28, 2014

Blockers

• Vanduul Swarm – Display drivers can crash when Vanduul spawn or blow up
• Lag in feedback and update of essential game events resulting in increasingly divergent multiplayer sync

Critical

• Battle Royale (Crash) – While Flying (Shader)
• Camera – After respawn character is stuck looking up
• Vanduul Swarm (Crash) – Shortly after missile lock
• All Maps – Occasionally, when first spawning into the maps lasers and ballistic fire is invisible but can be heard when firing – they eventually appear
• Crash on exit after returning from DFM match
• Character is unable to exit DFM Aurora bed if helmet is on
• Gforce animations are not playing on the pilot in any of the ships
• Character and parts of cockpit interior vanish while accelerating

 

I'm still impressed at how CIG always prefer taking the risk getting flamed for delaying stuff instead of pulling typical AAA developer/publisher mentality of rushing in the release no matter how 'broken' it's currently is.

At least, they're pretty quick at fixing those things too.

I'm still impressed at how CIG always prefer taking the risk getting flamed for delaying stuff instead of pulling typical AAA developer/publisher mentality of rushing in the release no matter how 'broken' it's currently is.

 

At least, they're pretty quick at fixing those things too.

Far better to fix the bugs and delay the release, rather than push out a buggy client and have to deal with a load of bug reports and complaints that they already know about.

I am still disappointed in the delay, naturally so, but the complaining backlash on the CIG forums is not in any way productive. Anyway, hoping CIG get things sorted as soon as is practical.

I RSI are stuck between a rock and hard place, what ever they do they going to get criticized for it.

Very short trailer for Arena  which is not showing much.

Official announcement

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13909-Arena-Commander-Launched

Don't think I will be downloading it anytime soon as I see that 10 GB installer/patch thing has to be done first.

Any how I see that their is the usual whinging going on about it on the net, never understand why people buy into these Alpha game then some how expect them to finished on the first release.

Couple of vids about the controls.

And they are at the $45 million mark https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13930-Letter-From-The-Chairman-45-Million

We’ve hit $45 million in crowd funding, so I think it’s safe to say that the Freelancer is a winner! I think the Freelancer is a great microcosm of the Star Citizen experience. Backers chose the original design during the initial campaign, they petitioned us to update the cockpit… and now here it is, beautifully finished in your Hangars with a full set of variants. This isn’t just a ship you helped pay for: it’s a ship you helped create.

At $45 million, you’ve unlocked one of our backer-selected rewards, the mysterious Hadesian artifact. We have some cool plans for exactly what this will kick off in the Persistent Universe… but you’ll have to explore that aspect of the game yourself! Here are the details:

• Hadesian Artifact – The mystery of what happened in Hades has been one of the great archeological puzzles ever since the system was discovered in the early 26th Century. The evidence suggests that the Hadesians nearly erased their entire civilization in devastating civil war that left a planet cracked in half, but so many questions remained. Who were these Hadesians? How did the war get started? Over the centuries, even the public became enamored by the mystery of this system. This curiosity was inflamed when scientists recently discovered a lone Hadesian artifact on the black market of all places. Trinket manufacturers quickly tried to capitalize on the resurgence of interest by building exact copies of the artifact for sale to the public, even replicating the unidentified symbols along the base…

For your final ‘flare’ reward, you’ve voted for the “Engine Tuning Kit.” Here’s the newly-unlocked official description:

• Engine Tuning Kit – Wilkes & Federman MaxTune Kit has become one of the best-selling starter kits for the discerning home enthusiast. Featured in Whitley’s latest Steal of the Year issue, this kit comes with everything the fledgling engineer needs to take a deeper look into the mechanics of their engine. With a Tap Analyzer, you will be able to view your engine’s current output and energy draw numbers in an easy and comprehensible way. Use the thirty-eight piece omnitool to access your engine to start tweaking. Wilkes & Federman is not responsible for damage incurred after tuning your engine. Please consult with manufacturer’s warranty before performing work.

I hope you’re enjoying your Freelancers, and that you like today’s commercial. As you know, our initial plan was to produce brochures and commercials for the first set of pledge ships. You’ve seen the Aurora, 300i, Hornet and Freelancer now, and the Constellation and Cutlass are in production.

For the next ‘player reward’ stretch goal, I’d like to add another commercial to that lineup… and I’d like to leave the choice up to you! Please vote below to pick which of Star Citizen’s second wave of ships should be the focus of the next commercial we develop.

As always, thank you for your incredible support! Enjoy Arena Commander, and stay tuned as we perfect dogfighting and roll out even bigger parts of the Star Citizen universe.

— Chris Roberts

 

New Freelancer variants out as well https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13926-Introducing-The-Freelancer-Line-Up

Three additional versions of Freelancer are being launched today:

The Freelancer DUR is a long-duration explorer ship, specifically outfitted for exploring strange new worlds!

Go big, or go home: Freelancer MAX is the line’s dedicated hauler, with additional cargo space for merchant captains!

The Freelancer MIS is the heavy hitter of the line: a powerful missile boat designed for use by the UEE military and now available for civilian operators!

 

Still a butt ugly looking ship.

And that commercial for the Freelancer.