Chris Roberts Space Garage Simulator: Star Citizen

[shrike126]

Why the crap do they insist on replicating current real-world constraints in a space based game? I mean ... I love the look of this game. It looks great and even better it has a real Battlestar Galactica vibe to it. But just like the Galactica, the "carrier" has a flight deck and the fighters appear to have flaps and ailerons that they use during banks and turns. If they were in an atmosphere that required the management of a medium such as air to travel through, I'd understand the point of having these flaps to turn... but in space it just doesn't seem significant. I guess the fighter would be designed to include them IF it were in a planet's atmosphere but I'd be surprised if they'd be moving 100% of the time, even in space, since a fly-by-wire system within a planet's atmosphere would likely manipulate the degree of flap angle based on sensor data. If there's nothing there to "push" against I doubt they'd keep adjusting.

The flight deck on the carrier I kinda understand, it makes sense to have a platform for the catch and release or launch of individual small craft. I just don't see why it would require such a large "runway" during take off. Carriers on the water and runways on land require it to negotiate the plane's handoff between having enough speed to keep from falling out of the sky (lift vs gravity) and slowing down to a complete stop. In space, both the carrier and the fighters are in the same environment (space) so there's no need to design a large landing strip to help slow down the plane for a landing.

[Saggypoo]

Didn't the fighters in BSG work in an atmosphere also? I'm too lazy to look that up at the moment.

It'll be interesting if they do have atmosphere flying, like some of these indie space sims we've seen tech demos for. I'd be all for flying down to a planet and prospect some resources for trade.

[Thorney]

But just like the Galactica, the "carrier" has a flight deck and the fighters appear to have flaps and ailerons that they use during banks and turns.

Yup, I saw that and there is a legitimate space shippy explanation. See thrust vectoring.

Often control surfaces are inside the engine itself. Nowadays thrust vectoring is usually implemented with computer controlled gimballed engines. However in still other, usually older, designs the control surfaces are external and thus visible. I was reading about the V2 rocket not too long ago. One of its prototype designs used external flap like surfaces that were later abandoned. It was all quite confusing to British intelligence.

[Progression]

Until the bitch gimbal locks you and die! (Yeah I know, modern systems can deal with gimbal lock )

[bill dennison]

well i dropped 60 bucks in the slot i hope it works out


i may need to replace my joystick i no longer have a serial port

[MysticTechnolgy]

Omg, Omg, Omg, I loved the wing commander games and privateer! this has been long long over due now.. you know how much i was smiling watching this trailer? This is beautiful guys.. where to i sign over my house and savings?!!

[bill dennison]

Omg, Omg, Omg, I loved the wing commander games and privateer! this has been long long over due now.. you know how much i was smiling watching this trailer? This is beautiful guys.. where to i sign over my house and savings?!!

http://backup-na.robertsspaceindustries.com/products/give-me-the-galaxy-pledge

[v3rninater]

Damn I'm loving the level of detail in that carrier, I admire the fact that the dev is going full attention to details, immersion, and simulation because imo this is the direction PC games of the future should be going. I hope that other developers take note.

Looooooooooong slooooowww clap to this quote right here, I wish dev's in the whole gaming community would understand this concept. It's summed up in one word, it's called "INNOVATION" freakin consolized mongoloid morons that work for companies like EA. That have about 0.0000012538 innovative brain cells in their body. That small percentage goes to the person(s) who made frostbite 2, but were held back by the crap management blah blah blahhhh.

Computer games should be so far ahead, (and easily could be right now) of all the silly console games. But cry about piracy taking all their precious monies away, yet forgetting there's a genius product out there called coughsteamcough that has easily proven they can sell PC games....blah blah...

JUST LOOK AT THE HYPE created when Black Mesa came out??? And it was a darn good computer game above about 90% of the crap games that are out there, and it was a RE-MAKE!?!

[Napoleonic]

what does the level of detail of the object in a game has anything to do with console vs pc or innovation? it's called maximizing the capability of hardware and software.

and innovation? while I'm absolutely excited about this project, I know it's simply Freelancer on steroid with a probability of wing commander level of cinematic experience added in; can't see it being innovative since it's already been done before

[CoolNitro]

what does the level of detail of the object in a game has anything to do with console vs pc or innovation? it's called maximizing the capability of hardware and software.

and innovation? while I'm absolutely excited about this project, I know it's simply Freelancer on steroid with a probability of wing commander level of cinematic experience added in; can't see it being innovative since it's already been done before

It's not the level of detail its the attention to detail that matters and not just in the texture and look of the world it's in the nitty gritty features that make it feel more complex and add to the immersion, such as the ability to control a ships systems as if it was a real ship, although it may be a hard core feature to turn off stabilizers and what not but the ability to actually have full control over ones ship adds a lot more depth.

It's that full / semi realistic, complex, in depth, and immersive experience that I would love to see in more games.

[Saggypoo]

Not to thread jack or anything, but anyone know of any decent space games to play around with while being hyped up about this one? I was going to download Black Prophecy again to see if it was improved at all, only to find it has shut down. Right now I'm stuck with thinking of playing through some of the classics, but didn't know if there were any newer games with flash graphics to eye hump while flying around.

[ATI FURY-OUS]

watching the presentation he seems a really nice guy and is speaking out for a lot of PC gamers

Its a long wait now though for it, i hope he isnt forced into dumbing it down for consoles or what may come out in the next year or two

looking forward to this, if my 480 can run it, it should with it being the Cryengine

[v3rninater]

what does the level of detail of the object in a game has anything to do with console vs pc or innovation? it's called maximizing the capability of hardware and software.

and innovation? while I'm absolutely excited about this project, I know it's simply Freelancer on steroid with a probability of wing commander level of cinematic experience added in; can't see it being innovative since it's already been done before

Dude, you don't even know what the game is like, you assume it's like "freelancer on roids" but you don't know.

I'm saying it's innovative to go against what the system is now, take a good original game, dumb it down to where your kid sister can play it. Make the graphics look like it's cartoony bullcrap and then say it makes the game "more funner." Or let it be on a tablet/mobile phone and even more dumber'er.

Innovation usually goes against the grain of the mainstream, and sure is doing that so far at least. Making it PC only (afaik at this point) is also pretty "against the grain."

Definition of Innovative;

(of a product, idea, etc.) Featuring new methods; advanced and original.
(of a person) Introducing new ideas; original and creative in thinking: "an innovative thinker".

...just in case you didn't actually know

[Eisberg]

I cannot express in words the joy I am feeling right now.
When this game gets released, if it needs a joystick, I will finally be playing with my stick again

[Thorney]

what does the level of detail of the object in a game has anything to do with console vs pc or innovation? it's called maximizing the capability of hardware and software.

If Chris is correct in saying "10,000 faces" that's double the hero figure in Gears of War and five times the polys of Mass Effect 3's ManShep. That's horrifying to think about but supposedly CE3 scales really well. It's going into Xbox on the low end on up to top dollar PC rigs. Although I'm not seeing that scalability in Mechwarrior Online so far. They admit they are still running through rudimentary optimization passes like this last update. I can say that right? Those are public comments.

and innovation? while I'm absolutely excited about this project, I know it's simply Freelancer on steroid with a probability of wing commander level of cinematic experience added in; can't see it being innovative since it's already been done before

I spent ten years upgrading hardware to keep up with Wing Commander series. I remember it was one of the very first games you could throw a 80386 at. He seems to still be very much in that mindset of, "Whatever the top hardware exists, that's what I'm going to use to make my game." He says he can now do what he always wanted to do - whatever it was that made Microsoft go pale in the face and buy out Digital Anvil just so they shove Freelancer out the door.

[spyre]

I pledged $60 + $5 international shipping. Looks great so far, for something no where near finished.

[logical]

Is this on CryEngine3? I watched the video and there was no mention of what engine it was running.

[Saggypoo]

Is this on CryEngine3? I watched the video and there was no mention of what engine it was running.

I think he mentions it's Cryengine in the 11 minute video on the actual site.

Also.. dynamic dynamic dynamic dynamic dynamic dynamic dynamic...

Good to see that's still a buzzword.

Edit: So yeah, I have no clue where it was said, but a bunch of articles are reporting it. No clue.

[Redeemed]

Not to thread jack or anything, but anyone know of any decent space games to play around with while being hyped up about this one? I was going to download Black Prophecy again to see if it was improved at all, only to find it has shut down. Right now I'm stuck with thinking of playing through some of the classics, but didn't know if there were any newer games with flash graphics to eye hump while flying around.

Hmm...

I've been having a blast with Evochron Mercenary and X3: Terran Conflict. Might try those out.

[Dwarden]

Nexus 2 and this and Miner Wars ... oh hell yes ... now please someone say HomeWorld 3 is PC game w/o DUMBED DOWN style

btw. i hope authors if Independence Wars series will finally crowdfund the IWAR3

[CoolNitro]

Nexus 2 and this and Miner Wars ... oh hell yes ... now please someone say HomeWorld 3 is PC game w/o DUMBED DOWN style

btw. i hope authors if Independence Wars series will finally crowdfund the IWAR3

I would love to see a homeworld 3 just imagine it running in this engine with that level of scalable detail at all zoom levels and Independence Wars 3 would be another

[Dark_Swordmaster]

Thread title change please? We now know it's title and for those of us who don't know Chris Roberts off the top of their head, it'd be very helpful to know what this game is called and what it is, instead of "Is a figurehead doing something?"

[MysticTechnolgy]

http://www.wcsaga.com/

Give this a try guys, i found it last night, sorry if this has already been posted at some point. graphics are not the best but it certainly does have that good old wing commander feel =D

I am enjoying this a lot right now

MT

[badboy]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

Give them all your money!

Let's put high-end PC gaming and Space Sims back on the map!

[acroig]

btw. i hope authors if Independence Wars series will finally crowdfund the IWAR3

Wow! There's a thought.

[UFO]

The original Wing Commander game was ground breaking in terms of graphics and game play that you could do the 386 16MHz computer you had back then. Wing Commander was one of the first 3D games that used scaled images to represent objects in 3D space. Scaling and rotating a bitmap was tedious work for the poor CPUs back then.

What I see now is little bit like Bob Geldof's Live 8, which is based on a previous idea that worked great but in modern time it just doesn't belong and this is what I feel with Chris Roberts new production.

The graphics isn't that great compared other recent games. The game play is also not ground breaking, it's a combat space sim and that's nothing new. If this is going to be game that people wants, Chris Roberts must achieve an absolute polished product. You can always tell the same story twice but you have to it very well in that case.

The game players are really spoiled today and would say take Mass Effect and add space combat to it, then people would turn their heads. People are used to so much more freedom of movement today and just sitting in a space ship would seem limited.

BTW System Shock had a wing commander game in the game.

[xCLAVEx]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

Give them all your money!

Have any of these "kickstarter" projects actually come to light yet? They seem to be a dime a dozen these days but I haven't heard of a single one actually turning into a real game yet...

[badboy]

Have any of these "kickstarter" projects actually come to light yet? They seem to be a dime a dozen these days but I haven't heard of a single one actually turning into a real game yet...

FTL, Ravage and probably more that I cant remember now

[Riptide]

I'm fine with just sitting in a space ship.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatwat

[acroig]

The graphics isn't that great compared other recent games. The game play is also not ground breaking, it's a combat space sim and that's nothing new. If this is going to be game that people wants, Chris Roberts must achieve an absolute polished product. You can always tell the same story twice but you have to it very well in that case.

The game players are really spoiled today and would say take Mass Effect and add space combat to it, then people would turn their heads. People are used to so much more freedom of movement today and just sitting in a space ship would seem limited.

BTW System Shock had a wing commander game in the game.

What a buzz kill.

[Redeemed]

The original Wing Commander game was ground breaking in terms of graphics and game play that you could do the 386 16MHz computer you had back then. Wing Commander was one of the first 3D games that used scaled images to represent objects in 3D space. Scaling and rotating a bitmap was tedious work for the poor CPUs back then.

What I see now is little bit like Bob Geldof's Live 8, which is based on a previous idea that worked great but in modern time it just doesn't belong and this is what I feel with Chris Roberts new production.

The graphics isn't that great compared other recent games. The game play is also not ground breaking, it's a combat space sim and that's nothing new. If this is going to be game that people wants, Chris Roberts must achieve an absolute polished product. You can always tell the same story twice but you have to it very well in that case.

The game players are really spoiled today and would say take Mass Effect and add space combat to it, then people would turn their heads. People are used to so much more freedom of movement today and just sitting in a space ship would seem limited.

BTW System Shock had a wing commander game in the game.

Have you seen a final product? Is this even in Alpha yet? I'd wager the graphics will be extremely competitive if not in a leage of their own for a space sim by the time this launches.

Further more, this is PC only so by default it's not targetting the masses. It seems to me like he's got some money to spend, as well as depending on the die-hard fans of this genre, to fund it and make this possible. There's quite a few wing commander fans out there with deep pockets now days to help support this title if it lives up to their expectations.

I do agree about being limited to the cockpit. Some may be satisfied just flying around- me I'd love to be able to explore the ship I'm on, or the space station, or even the city I'm docked at. Been begging for this level of detail in a space sim for so very long. Add to the fact it's using CryEngine 3 and I'm certain this will please. The strong SP story-telling and later open world approach is just epic.

So far, this seems to be exactly what I've been begging for in a game. See a nebula far off in the distance you want to explore? Great- go explore it. Discovery and exploration are both encouraged and rewarded. EM had a hint of this but ultimately failed to deliver. How cool would it be to fly into a massive nebula only to discover a planet or asteroid cluster rich in resources for you to mine, and make an amazing fortune off of! Word would likely spread of your discovery so you'd have to defend it... the possiblities.

Yeah, I'm stoked for this. EM was fun, X3 is fun but neither are what I've been looking for in a space sim. This title so far, looks to deliver on all fronts.

[Nytehawk]

The graphics isn't that great compared other recent games. The game play is also not ground breaking, it's a combat space sim and that's nothing new. If this is going to be game that people wants, Chris Roberts must achieve an absolute polished product. You can always tell the same story twice but you have to it very well in that case.

The game players are really spoiled today and would say take Mass Effect and add space combat to it, then people would turn their heads. People are used to so much more freedom of movement today and just sitting in a space ship would seem limited.

I understand what you are saying but I'm not sure I would agree totally. Besides, COD has made a fortune on not making anything new. I feel it is best to focus on what this game is intending to be. If it is a space fighter sim then that's where I think the focus should be spent. Sometimes too much freedom hurts the game because there is too much content to worry about. I would rather all attention be spent on the simulation of flying a spaceship and engaging in epic battles with some limited movement around a carrier or space port. I feel like if you try to add too much it gets spread too thin and then content can seem lacking. For example if you get to leave your ship and walk around you need to be able to do stuff. If that's the case you must make sure there is enough stuff to do on every planet and port you land on, and each planet is unique or it gets boring. I say make the battles unique and engaging and it will make people craving the next trip out of the hanger.

I've got tons of games where I can walk around, do quests, following a story, alter my character, mine resources, craft equipment, get married and shoot stuff. What I don't have is a lot of space combat simulators. I think this is what made the original Wing Commander and X-Wing/Tie Fighter games so much fun.

-Nighthawk

[El_Diablo]

It's been a while someone posted info here, so I'll post some new stuff:
Comprehensive Stretch Goals
List of the different stretch goals
Also, the Kickstarter webpage for Star Citizen have been updated with some Kickstarter specific stretch goals

Star Citizen Ships Development Document
Some info about the different ships you can pledge for ...

Interview with Chris Roberts:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...ce-crime-lord/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...e/#more-129483
http://www.dualshockers.com/2012/10/...d-squadron-42/

[Napoleonic]

very ambitious project...

[Destroy]

Thread title change please? We now know it's title and for those of us who don't know Chris Roberts off the top of their head, it'd be very helpful to know what this game is called and what it is, instead of "Is a figurehead doing something?"

^^^^^^This.

Game is looking and design sounding darn good. Updated Wing Commander should be sweet.

Hit $3.5 million btw.

[Hyrax]

or a Wing Commander: Privateer

aww memories of the real Origin

All hail the ori!

[Adanu]

Have any of these "kickstarter" projects actually come to light yet? They seem to be a dime a dozen these days but I haven't heard of a single one actually turning into a real game yet...

A few, but FTL comes to mind. I play it regularly.

[CoolNitro]

The amount of features this game has planned is crazy and if it's pulled off it will be amazing but I actually think they may have said too much, the things they are aiming for such as boarding of ships and fighting within ships on top of the main game not that I think they can't pull it off but it feels like they are setting us up for disappointment when it turns out they got ahead of themselves.

Aside from that I really hope they keep the player skill component and not dumb things down too much so that anyone can do anything within a few minutes of trying a task.

[Adanu]

This isn't like battlecruiser where Derek Smart is overhyping his ****. Chris has actually delivered great space games in the past. If he says he can make this work, I believe him. Besides, the main reason features get cut is because the publisher is being a jackass. He won't have that problem with this.

[abdecken5]

It looks like a good sophisticated space combat sim, but i think the open world bit sounds too ambitious and will turn out poor and the single player is nothing ground breaking. At least it attempts to be uncompromising in its vision.