News: All your up to the date Official RSI news in one thread!!!

Hyncharas · 6 Oct 2014

Looks like it reached $56 Million sometime after the September Report aired; getting the last of the Reclaimer pre-orders.

NuclearMessiah · 7 Oct 2014

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings Citizens,
We’re going to have a lot of salvage crews roaming the ‘verse! I’m especially happy that the Reclaimer has captured your imaginations; Star Citizen is lot more than just dogfighting, and the fact that so many backers have added Reclaimers to their fleet confirms my feeling that a working universe is much more interesting than just a battlefield. We will continue to focus on adding interesting gameplay mechanics that encourages co-operative play, allowing players to pursue many diverse roles.

Let me take this opportunity to invite everyone to CitizenCon! We will be livestreaming the anniversary presentation on Friday at 7 PM PDT. CitizenCon will be a celebration of how far we’ve come… and a chance to show you where we’re going. Expect to hear updates from each of the project’s studios with a few surprises included. If you can’t make the event live, everything will be available in the Comm-Link shortly afterwards.

At $56 million, you unlocked a user-voted upgrade for Arena Commander! Every backer will be awarded the J-Span Cryo-Star united detailed below, which will become active in a future patch:

J-Span Cryo-Star: Award-winning designers at J-Span have produced one of the most advanced cooling systems yet. The Cryo-Star utilizes a new kind of liquid cooling technology guaranteed to keep your engines cool without sacrificing power. This Arena Commander upgrade will be given to all players who pledged before we reached the 56M goal.

Last week, I asked you to select the role for our first ‘fourth wave’ Star Citizen ship. The results of the poll also confirmed my belief that the community understands the broader reach of Star Citizen: an overwhelming number of backers voted for the research and hospital ship! You can find the first details below:

MISC Endeavor-class Research Platform: The MISC Endeavor is the company’s most prestigious ship: a dedicated research platform capable of carrying a dozen different space science packages, running the gamut from advanced long-range scanners for jump point identification to additional shielding for near-stellar corona research. Externally, the Endeavor is dotted with sensor hardpoints; internally, the main compartment is centered on a large research laboratory which can be configured for use by a wide range of scientific disciplines. The Endeavor’s main compartment is modular, allowing an alternate configuration as a Hope-class floating hospital. This variant is employed by the UEE and other organizations as battlefield support, capable of getting marines and pilots back to the battle as quickly as possible! When outfitted as a hospital, the Endeavor’s docking bay is capable of maintaining a single Cutlass Red ambulance. The Endeavor has also found its way into the service of less reputable organizations, where it can has been modified for everything from narcotics production to black market surgery.

Whew; this should be a good one! Next up, though, you’ll need to vote for the second Wave 4 ship. We’ve removed the winner and the lowest-performing ship, the salvage tug, from the options… it’s up to you to decide which ship we announce next. I look forward to seeing which you pick.

Until then, thank you for your continued support! Your belief in the world we’re building together is what makes everything possible. I can’t wait to show you what we have up our sleeves for Friday, so be sure to check back then. And tell your friends: the Best Damn Space Sim Ever is coming!

— Chris Roberts

NuclearMessiah · 11 Oct 2014

PLAY ANY OF THE ARENA COMMANDER SHIPS!

Greeting Citizens,
In honor of Star Citizen’s second anniversary we are opening up all five available trainer hips for use in Arena Commander for a whole week! All backers now have the ability to fly the Aurora, 300i, Hornet, M50, and the 350R. While we wanted to give our fans a small gift, this is also very valuable for the future of the game. We want to see different combinations of ships across all the Arena Commander modes, this will also allow us to stress test the game in a ways we have not been able to yet. All five ships will be available to all backers, and in your hangars, from October 10th – October 17th. In the future, we will use this system to unlock specific ships for test purposes as feedback is needed.

Thank you Citizens for you dedication and continued support of Star Citizen! Be sure to post your experiences on the forums… and we’ll be watching you!

nachtwolf17 · 14 Oct 2014

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
OCTOBER 14TH 2014

Erin, Sandi and I having fun with the CitizenCon photobooth.

Greetings Citizens,
THANK YOU. Over the weekend, we hit both the $57 and the $58 million crowd funding marks, an incredible achievement in itself and one that means we can continue to support and expand Star Citizen. I’m grateful for a lot more than just your backing Star Citizen. Getting to spend Friday at CitizenCon with backers was an amazing experience, and one that confirms that what we are doing here is special in more way than one. It’s hard work to set up these events… but more than worth it for the chance to talk face to face with people that are just as excited about the game and universe as we are on the Star Citizen team. I hope you enjoyed hearing from the various studios and getting your first look at the detail we intend to infuse the persistent universe with. As I said in the presentation: we’re just getting started!

Eagle-eyed backers have noticed a shot of the Gladius in the Hangar during our presentation on Friday. That shot is actually part of a short video put together by Foundry 42 to keep the rest of the team updated on the status of their ships, which include the Avenger, Gladius, Gladiator and Retaliator. In honor of hitting two stretch goals in one weekends, I’d like to share that video with the world. The military ships aren’t quite done yet (there’s still animations, damage stats, sound effects, internal details and the like) but I think they’re looking great. See what you think!

We’ve also just put online a stereoscopic 3D version of the Cutlass commercial. It’s our first 3D commercial, and I think it’s pretty cool. You can check it out for yourself here.

At $57 we hit the first of the Wave Four ship unlocks, the recently-elected Endeavor-class Research Platform! Here’s the initial design description:

MISC Endeavor-class Research Platform – The MISC Endeavor is the company’s most prestigious ship: a dedicated research platform capable of carrying a dozen different space science packages, running the gamut from advanced long-range scanners for jump point identification to additional shielding for near-stellar corona research. Externally, the Endeavor is dotted with sensor hardpoints; internally, the main compartment is centered on a large research laboratory which can be configured for use by a wide range of scientific disciplines. The Endeavor’s main compartment is modular, allowing an alternate configuration as a Hope-class floating hospital. This variant is employed by the UEE and other organizations as battlefield support, capable of getting Marines and pilots back to the battle as quickly as possible! When outfitted as a hospital, the Endeavor’s docking bay is capable of maintaining a single Cutlass Red ambulance. The Endeavor has also found its way into the service of less reputable organizations, where it can has been modified for everything from narcotics production to black market surgery.

Since we reached two stretch goals so quickly, we did not have time for an additional ship poll. Instead of picking the two highest from the previous poll, I’m going to go ahead and announce the last winner as the $59 million stretch goal ship and start the poll for $60 million with the remaining options. I’m a fan of seeing the community debate these things, and as the pool of options decreases it’s great to see backers “campaigning” for their favorite option. Have at it!

We aren’t forgetting $58 million, though. In honor of the goal, we’re giving 10,000 UEC to every backer that you can use for upgrades and flair in the Voyager Direct Store. I’d advise you hold on to the creds: we’re going to have some cool configurable weapons and other upgrades for Arena Commander in the near future! 10,000 UEC may not seem like a lot, but at this stage in the game it actually means we’re giving our backers several million dollars to outfit their ships!

Here’s the next ship winner, which you decided would be the repair

Anvil Aerospace Crucible – A so-called “flying toolbox,” the Crucible is the ship you want on your side when you suffer an asteroid collision or survive a pirate attack! Structurally, the Crucible consists of a cockpit, drive unit and workshop. The Crucible’s workshop is versatile: it can be used as a base for conducting EVA repairs (complete with requisite tool storage) or it can use magnetic grapplers to attach directly to a ship hull. In this situation, the workshop actually opens to space and allows a repair crew direct access to a damaged ship. The workshop can either maintain artificial gravity or allow for zero-g repair operations, depending on the needs of the mission. The Crucible’s cockpit is also outfitted with an array of repair tools, including dual purpose mounts that can exchange weapons for tractor beams and remote manipulator arms. The Crucible is also part of a larger planned repair system. For larger project, independent sections of support struts and drive units, called the Miller ERS (External Repair Structure), can be locked together to form a sort of scaffolding around a damaged starship, the next best thing to an orbital drydock. A standard ERS unit includes a small drive, thrusters, magnetic attach points and modular hardpoints for mounting tractor beams, repair tools or weapons. ERS segments each have a code defining their shape (P1 = Straight section, P2= Left turn, P3 = Right turn, etc.) with the multiple layouts allowing extensive zero-gravity construction as necessary. In the case of damaged capital ships, like the Navy’s Bengal carriers, hundreds of ERS units might be formed into a latticework serviced by a dozen or more Crucibles.

The Crucible should be another great beyond-combat ship that will help expand the roles available in Star Citizen’s persistent universe. Now, go vote for the next one… and convince everyone else on the forums that they should, too!

Again, thank you for the support. Thanks to the incredible response you gave us at CitizenCon, the entire team is charged up and ready to show you what else we can do. It’s going to be good!

— Chris Roberts

NuclearMessiah · 17 Oct 2014

ORIGIN 325A NOW FLYABLE!

Greetings Citizens,
The Origin 325a is now flyable in Arena Commander! The 325a is Origin’s military-focused variant of their popular 300-series spacecraft line, and today’s update represents the first step in adding our ‘back catalog’ of Aurora, 300 and Hornet variants to the game.

If you’re a 325a pilot, get out there and try your ship. Your feedback will be instrumental in improving and balancing the ship (and others) going forward! Today’s Arena Commander patch also addressed several other minor issues; you can find the full patch notes here. The team is also hard at work on 0.9.2, a more significant patch to address larger Arena Commander issues.

To learn more about the 325a, you can study the ship specifications and holoviewer model below. Tf you’re interested in pledging for one, links are available below. The previously-released 300-series brochure is available fordownload here.

nachtwolf17 · 28 Oct 2014

Letter from the Chairman
OCTOBER 28TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,
We’ve hit another stretch goal! We haven’t had a special ship sale or a big game reveal since CitizenCon, so I can’t credit this most recent accomplishment to a particular trend… but I am very happy to report that there has been a steady flow of new Citizens joining our ranks and helping make the BDSSE possible. If you’re just joining us: welcome! You’re helping us do great things.

The team is hard at work prepping for the PAX Australia demo, and we’re all looking forward to giving an audience of Star Citizen’s backers their first look at something extremely cool this weekend. I think you’re going to be surprised: the FPS module isn’t an aside… it’s a fully featured game in and of itself!

At $59 million, you unlocked the most recent of the backer-voted “wave 4” ship designs, the Anvil Crucible. I’m eager to see this one on the schedule; this repair and construction system isn’t just a new ship, it’s a way to better build out Star Citizen’s world.

Anvil Aerospace Crucible – A so-called “flying toolbox,” the Crucible is the ship you want on your side when you suffer an asteroid collision or survive a pirate attack! Structurally, the Crucible consists of a cockpit, drive unit and workshop. The Crucible’s workshop is versatile: it can be used as a base for conducting EVA repairs (complete with requisite tool storage) or it can use magnetic grapplers to attach directly to a ship hull. In this situation, the workshop actually opens to space and allows a repair crew direct access to a damaged ship. The workshop can either maintain artificial gravity or allow for zero-g repair operations, depending on the needs of the mission. The Crucible’s cockpit is also outfitted with an array of repair tools, including dual purpose mounts that can exchange weapons for tractor beams and remote manipulator arms. The Crucible is also part of a larger planned repair system. For larger projects, independent sections of support struts and drive units, called the Miller ERS (External Repair Structure), can be locked together to form a sort of scaffolding around a damaged starship, the next best thing to an orbital drydock. A standard ERS unit includes a small drive, thrusters, magnetic attach points and modular hardpoints for mounting tractor beams, repair tools or weapons. ERS segments each have a code defining their shape (P1 = Straight section, P2= Left turn, P3 = Right turn, etc.) with the multiple layouts allowing extensive zero-gravity construction as necessary. In the case of damaged capital ships, like the Navy’s Bengal carriers, hundreds of ERS units might be formed into a latticework serviced by a dozen or more Crucibles.

At $59 million, you voted for the Twin-Engine Deep Space Fighter, the first pure fighting ship we’ve seen added to the lineup in quite a while. The deep space fighter was inspired by the twin-engine aircraft of World War II, like the de Havilland Mosquito and the Messerschmitt 110. While there’s no “night” in space, there are reasons for wanting a ranged fighter… and the ability to fight in all-weather conditions take on an entirely new meaning in an environment with meteor storms and sensor-dampening nebulae! Here’s the new ship:

Aegis Bulldog-class Twin-Engine Deep Space Fighter – Strike hard from a distance! The Bulldog, a recent design from Aegis, has quickly become Earth’s premier deep space fighter. Deep space fighters are typically used to pursue engagements in outlying areas when support from a carrier is not available. Bulldogs are usually flown by ground- and station-based naval forces, and are widely used by militia squadrons. Specifically designed to operate from planetary bases and engage targets up to a star system’s distance, the fighter trades some maneuverability for an extended supply of fuel and munitions as well as basic survival accommodations for a pilot and radar operator. The Bulldog’s RIO operates a turret, the ship’s missile loadout (optionally) and its highly advanced sensor suite. This distinct scanning array gives the ‘Dog a particular advantage when fighting in and around an obstacle such as an asteroid field or nebula! Finally, the Bulldog is known to be an extraordinarily sturdy spacecraft, with multiple backup systems not commonly found in single-seat ships; stories of Bulldogs limping back to base with a single engine and half their fuselage exposed to vacuum have become common as the battle against the Vanduul has heated up.

Please vote in the poll below for the next ship in the lineup; the runner ups were extremely close this time around, so I’m eager to see where things land. Be sure to tune in for the livestream on Friday to meet the team behind Star Citizen’s FPS mechanics… and to see what they’ve been working on the past few months.

Until then, thank you for your continued support. I can’t repeat this enough times: none of this would be possible without backers like you. Thank you. I’ll see you down under!

— Chris Roberts

nachtwolf17 · 31 Oct 2014

Arena Commander 0.9.2 Released!
with foreword by Chris Roberts
OCTOBER 31ST 2014

Greetings Citizens,
Arena Commander 0.9.2 (aka Star Citizen 13.2) is here!

As far as updates go this one feels pretty special. This is the first time I’ve felt that the control and targeting in Arena Commander is beginning to achieve the level of control and sense of dogfighting that I had in my head when I first pictured how the space combat should “feel” back when I started the journey that is Star Citizen.

Over the past months, I’ve been observing the ongoing debate about Arena Commander’s control setup… and if there’s one thing I’ve learned is that Star Citizen’s backers are passionate about their flight control mechanism of choice! The long term goal is to make Star Citizen fun to play regardless of the tool you use to fly your ship… and today’s build represents some major changes aimed to help realize this goal.

The biggest issue that the team and I have struggled with is how to balance the feeling / ability for fine control of your ship with the full physical simulation of how a spaceship would really behave when you change its orientation and velocity via maneuvering thrusters. The inertia inherent in a correct simulation of spaceship movement makes precise control much more challenging.

In the first Arena Commander release, v0.8 we had given all ships gimbaled weapons and auto-aim (where the gimbaled weapons would automatically aim towards you target as long the target was within a certain field of view). This made it fairly easy to hit your targets but wasn’t particularly skillful. This was always a stop gap solution and so for v0.9 we switched to a system that took away the auto-aiming and forced you to lead your target to score hits. This was definitely more skillful but combined with the clumsy fine control on joysticks and gamepads made lining up a target very frustrating on anything but a mouse and a ship with gimbaled weapons (like the Hornet).

Since the release of v0.9 the team in both the UK and in Santa Monica have been hard at work at making the control and targeting feel better and smoother across all input devices.

I’m happy to say that v0.9.2 achieves this via something we’re calling ESP. It’s not for reading your brain waves, though! Enhanced Stick Precision is our attempt at improving controls for flight stick and gamepad users that feel they have problems in lining up their target without overshooting. You can find a full description of what ESP does and how it works below. We also use ESP for the new virtual joystick mode of the mouse.

In addition to this we have introduced a number of new flight mode control options and have also made significant changes to the ITTSsystem and the HUD. How predicted impact points are displayed is calculated differently, as is how you target ships. More details are available in the FAQ below. There have also been a host of community-demanded fixes to the controls: joystick device sorting has been improved, the throttle and strafe-forward no longer conflict, roll on pedals with yaw and pitch on mouse now works, aiming on the gamepad/joystick no longer automatically re-centers and we’ve switched the default joystick X-axis to yaw instead of roll!

Beyond this we’ve made one other big change. The Arena Commander map sizes have been doubled! This means there is a lot more room to engage other players or AI. We plan to increase the map size again once the 64 bit world space engine changes are completed, but for now having double the size will allow for more interesting engagements.

You can find the complete patch notes, which include numerous bug fixes and other changes, here. And please, give your ships a shakedown cruise and then let us know what you think on the forums.

— Chris Roberts

ITTSEnhancements

A significant change has been made in the way the targeting computer predicts the impact points of each weapon equipped on a ship. Rather than displaying lead targeting indicators that extend out from the target ship, the targeting computer now projects a Predicted Impact Point (PIP) for each distinct weapon. These PIPs lag behind your fixed gun cross or line-of-sight (LOS) reticle depending on if the weapon has fixed or gimbaled convergence.

The lagged PIPs refers to where the projectile of that particular weapon will intercept given the distance, vector, and speed of the target ship, as well as the projectile speed of that weapon. Pilots should direct these PIPs to be over the target ship before firing.

There are very good reasons for showing the PIPs in this way. First, the pilot’s focus is directed onto the actual target object itself instead of an icon extending out from it. This will allow the pilot to keep track of the target’s orientation and movement more effectively in addition to hit impulses and damage effects.

The lagged PIPs also allow a pilot to easily call out individual parts of the target ship in order to perform sub-targeting, such as directing fire toward a wing, cockpit, or power plant. This will come in handy especially when we start to introduce larger capital ships into the fight.

Each PIPs also conveys weapon status through different visual states. If the color of the pip is in the critical color space with a line through it, that means that particular weapon is out of range and will not be able to intercept the target. The pip will also switch to the positive color space if it is in range and has been placed directly over the target and is therefore certain that the projectile of that weapon will intercept.

When firing a weapon, an element sitting just outside of the PIP will flash which indicates that particular weapon is currently firing. If the projectile fired from that weapon intercepts the ship, a hit impulse will briefly display in place of the PIP to indicate that the target was hit by that weapon’s projectile. Finally, the shape of the PIP is differentiated for each weapon type. This will allow pilots to be more strategic in deciding which firing groups to engage at certain times in order to minimize heat output and wasted ammo.

Improvements to the Targeting HUD

We have made some much needed improvements to the targetingHUD in order to give pilots a much clearer view of their focus target. The new targeting reticle is now comprised of four individual brackets which align along the longitudinal axis of the target ship, along with a forward cone. This will give a clearer indication of the target’s orientation. As the target draws nearer, the brackets will expand out along the bounding box of the ship. This will give pilots a better sense of how fast the target is approaching which should go toward reducing unintentional collisions, and this also gives more visibility on the target object as it gets nearer because the brackets “open up”.
Unscanned target markers no longer show identities next to it. This removes a major contributor to the clutter in the HUD and will also now encourage pilots to scan and utilize their targeting dock system in order to keep track of known targets.
The look reticle been revised to be made less prominent, but it also now contextually fades out of view when you’re looking straight ahead at your fixed center reticle. This goes toward further reducing unnecessary elements in theHUD to only what is needed.

Enhanced Stick Precision

What is Enhanced Stick Precision (E.S.P.)?
E.S.P. (Enhanced Stick Precision), a little bit of magic created by John Pritchett our resident flight model and physics expert, bridges the gap between the pilot’s intended input and the input device’s ability to accurately register that intent. As a result, the players are better able to track their targets and perform finer precision movements when aiming. E.S.P. was designed primarily for the gamepad sticks and joystick devices, but it has also been adapted for both virtual joystick and relative mouse modes as well. By balancing the strength of E.S.P. across these various input devices, we should be able to achieve and maintain better controller balance overall.

How does E.S.P. work?
E.S.P. works by calculating an ideal pair of input values (typically pitch and yaw) relative to a goal (typically moving an aim reticle over a target point), then scoring the actual input against the ideal input and, depending on how closely these two pairs match, blending the two. What this does is effectively deaden the sensitivity of your input which allows for much finer aiming control when very close to a target and prevents accidental overshoot. If the input values are not well matched to the ideal values, either on direction or magnitude, the input values passes through unmodified. This allows you to still break away from a target without any kind of deadened control or “stickiness” since input values that are clearly not intended for fine aiming are not deadened. As the input values approach the ideal values, the blend amount increases. As a result, E.S.P. doesn’t move for you or prevent you from moving anyway you want, it merely magnifies your intended input and rewards accuracy. The better your input, the more E.S.P. will magnify your intent. Also, because E.S.P. doesn’t force your input to any particular value, you can easily adjust your actual aim point relative to the ideal aim point. This is important with lag pip aiming where you’re often aiming at a specific part of a ship rather than just at its center.

New Flight Controls & Mod
Dynamic Zoom
Activate: Mouse Wheel / Left Trigger+Dpad up-down / (JOYSTICK / HOTAS mapping?) (1st person view)
When this mode is active (i.e. when zooming in on geometry or targets) your focal point changes depending on what you are looking at. This mimics and expands on the optics of the human eye, to give a clearer image and removing other distances from focus.
Veteran’s Tip: With the increased zoom and focus, it can be used to hit specific parts of an enemy ship. Want to slow them down? Pew-pew, destroyed engine! Too much firepower? Aim for the guns. Who said don’t play with your food, eh?

Drag to Move
Activate: Ctrl+C (Toggle)
A mode for Keyboard and Mouse; this is where the mouse only turns the ship, and the guns fire toward where the ship is facing.
Veteran’s Tip: Great for fine shooting or precision maneuvers, as the ship will become more controlled/less ‘floaty’. Also useful in ships like the Aurora, with non-gimbaled weapons.

Target Focus
Activate: ‘L’ / R3 / Button 11 (rebindable)
When enabling this mode your view will drift to focus on your currently selected target. All you need to do is keep your target within set view constraints. If the target moves out of your view for more than 3 seconds you will lose your “focus” on the target. Target Focus is very useful for pilots that use joysticks (or gamepads) as their primary input method as it allows the player / pilot to keep eyes on target as long as the flying skill of the pilot keeps the target within his field of view, allowing for greater situational awareness and tracking.
Veteran’s Tip: Good to use with ships with gimbaled weapons when you have an input device such as a joystick or gamepad as it allows you to bring your gimbaled guns onto the target with a little help of your flying skills.

Look Ahead
Activate: Right-Alt (Toggle)
This mode turns the pilots’ head and reticule in the direction that you’re pitching or yawing, offering a better view in that direction. This gives a more natural feel to piloting, and makes it easier to keep targets in your sights. This mode works with Joystick and Gamepad users, whereas the Keyboard and mouse users already have this feature as default (for instance, when using the hornet)
_Veteran’s Tip: Ideal for users who prefer look and ship direction being linked, in conjunction with a greater field of view. Ships like the M50 or Hornet benefit from this mode. _

HOMAS
Activate: Right-Shift (Toggle)
Also known as ‘Aim-only Virtual Joystick’, is primarily intended for joystick users. It was introduced in a previous release as part of the CIG2 keyboard preset but can now be use in the default layout by pressing the right-shift to enable. Great for ambidextrous pilots who love flying and using gimbaled weapons as separate entities, to offer greater combat potential.
Veteran’s Tip: Particularly good to use with the hornet and other gimbaled ships.

Gimbal Lock
Activate: Right-CTRL (Toggle)
Also known as Move-Only Mode. This means you fire directly ahead with all weapons including gimbaled ones whilst being able to use the mouse to look/control the ships pitch and yaw.
Veteran’s Tip: Love it or hate it, there will always be a use for this as it allows you to bring both your fixed weapons and gimbaled weapons to bear on the target when flying using a mouse.

nachtwolf17 · 6 Nov 2014

MONTHLY REPORT: OCTOBER 2014
NOVEMBER 4TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,
Between two very big public demos showing off vastly different (but intimately connected) aspects of Star Citizen and a major Arena Commander patch launch, it has been a big month for Cloud Imperium Games! You’d be forgiven for assuming we didn’t have anything else to share… but the truth is that work has continued on all aspects of Star Citizen at studios around the world in October. Below you’ll find the full breakdown, studio by studio.

(See the full report at the link.)

nachtwolf17 · 6 Nov 2014

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
NOVEMBER 6TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,
In the past three weeks, we’ve seen the reaction to the MMOdemo, the FPS demo and the Arena Commander 0.9.2 patch… and to say we’re thrilled is an understatement. The team is ecstatic that their efforts are being appreciated, and I think I speak for everyone on the team when we say it really feels like Star Citizen is starting to go from a series of modules to a single, coherent vision.

Over the weekend, following the FPS reveal, we hit $60 million in crowd funding. That’s an incredible number, and I’m very happy to report that we have everything from old backers picking up Heralds and Redeemers to new backers impressed with our early presentation of first person shooter mechanics joining up to make Star Citizen happen!

Before we move on to stretch goals, I’d like to share some additional images of the Drake Herald that have just came in from our concept artist, Jim Martin. The first shows the internals, modeled out as a 3D concept. The others show a different configuration for the data transmitters that I think better gets across its capabilities. Let me know which you prefer in the comments. A strange looking ship in any event, the Herald is going to introduce some very interesting data-running gameplay elements to Star Citizen’s persistent universe.

At $60 million, you unlocked the previously-voted deep space fighter:

Aegis Bulldog-class Twin-Engine Deep Space Fighter – Strike hard from a distance! The Bulldog, a recent design from Aegis, has quickly become Earth’s premier deep space fighter. Deep space fighters are typically used to pursue engagements in outlying areas when support from a carrier is not available. Bulldogs are usually flown by ground- and station-based naval forces, and are widely used by militia squadrons. Specifically designed to operate from planetary bases and engage targets up to a star system’s distance, the fighter trades some maneuverability for an extended supply of fuel and munitions as well as basic survival accommodations for a pilot and radar operator. The Bulldog’sRIO operates a turret, the ship’s missile loadout (optionally) and its highly advanced sensor suite. This distinct scanning array gives the ‘Dog a particular advantage when fighting in and around an obstacle such as an asteroid field or nebula! Finally, the Bulldog is known to be an extraordinarily sturdy spacecraft, with multiple backup systems not commonly found in single-seat ships; stories of Bulldogs limping back to base with a single engine and half their fuselage exposed to vacuum have become common as the battle against the Vanduul has heated up.

I know that there has been some drama about the winner of the last ship poll, with the results shifting just after the stretch goal was reached. I saw an excellent suggestion on the forums, which was to allow both ships as stretch goals and then to bring back all of the ‘eliminated’ options for one final poll for a veritable wave four ship Ragnarok. We’re going to work an extra ship into the long-term schedule and do just that. (And for the record, in the future: we record the winner as the selection that had the most vote when we reach the stretch goal… in this case, it would be the boarding craft.) At $61 million, you’ll unlock the boarding ship…

Espera Prowler – Named after the UPE military designation, the Prowler is a modernized version of the infamous Tevarin boarding craft from the First Tevarin War. With the recent discovery of the lost Tevarin planet in Kabal System, Espera’s engineers were given unmitigated access to examine the preserved ships found in several of the caches, before meticulously recreating the design choices. The Prowler’s effectiveness as a rapid personnel deployment vehicle was mainly due to its silence. The boarding was constructed using a variety of techniques to minimize its signatures and get close to unsuspecting vessels before quickly deploying their boarders via EVA. With the updated Prowler model, you will find the perfect fusion of two culture: the elegance and effectiveness of the Tevarin war machine combined with the reliability of modern UEE technology. (While lacking some of the upgrades of the modern version, vintage Tevarin-built Prowlers restored for modern spaceflight are prized by owners lucky enough to locate them.)

And at $62 million, the passenger liner!

Genesis-class Starliner – The Genesis is yet another landmark in Crusader Industries’ proud history of transport designs. This ship utilizes award-winning manufacturing techniques and the highest quality parts to create one thing; a next-generation passenger ship at a price that won’t break your budget. Crusader Industries’ proprietary NeoG engine technology offers some of the most efficient flight for a ship of its size. The Genesis line has been cited in Whitley’s as “one of the most reliable and safe public transport ships on the market.” Genesis Starliners are available in a number of stock configurations, focusing on everything from passenger capacity to freight to overall comfort. The UEE military operates multiple Genesis conversions for support roles, including SWACS and starflight test operations.

You’ll notice that both of these ships are from “new” manufacturers; that’s because the Star Citizen universe is expanding! My feeling was that specialized ships, like Star Citizen’s equivalent of an airliner, should have some additional backstory to make sense in our world. So, enjoy two new ships AND two niche companies to build them.

Next: As I promised above, we’ve returned all of the eliminated options for the final poll, and you can cast your vote below. There’s more than one here that I’d like to see… it’s going to be a contest!

As always, thank you for your support. You are what’s making Star Citizen happen. I know it seems like we’ve shown a lot in the past few weeks, but I can promise you right here that there’s more to come! We won’t end 2014 without a few more surprises.

— Chris Roberts

nachtwolf17 · 7 Nov 2014

TEST DRIVE THE M50
NOVEMBER 7TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,
For the next week, we’re unlocking the Origin M50 for all backers to test! The M50 is a fast, nimble interceptor that’s also great for star racing. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to try out one of Star Citizen’s faster, more focused ship designs. As you know, we made some exciting changes to controls and other mechanics with Arena Commander 0.9.2 (Star Citizen 13.2) and if you’re game we’re eager for feedback on how the racing mode plays. You can post your comments here, or in the Arena Commander forum. We’ll be watching!

NuclearMessiah · 12 Nov 2014

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings Citizens,
It’s good to be home! After a fourteen hour flight home from Australia, it was a nice surprise to see that Star Citizen’s backers had once again hit another milestone. It’s hard to express here how deeply everyone at CIG appreciate what the community has done, and is doing… We all thank you!

The $61 million stretch goal unlocks the Espera Prowler, a Tevarin-designed UEE ship. I’m excited to see where our concept artists take this one, as they’re going to have to design a new style for another alien race and then adopt it for human use. It should be an interesting process. Here’s the description:

Espera Prowler – Named after the UPE military designation, the Prowler is a modernized version of the infamous Tevarin boarding craft from the First Tevarin War. With the recent discovery of the lost Tevarin planet in Kabal System, Espera’s engineers were given unmitigated access to examine the preserved ships found in several of the caches, before meticulously recreating the design choices. The Prowler’s effectiveness as a rapid personnel deployment vehicle was mainly due to its silence. The boarding was constructed using a variety of techniques to minimize its signatures and get close to unsuspecting vessels before quickly deploying their boarders via EVA. With the updated Prowler model, you will find the perfect fusion of two culture: the elegance and effectiveness of the Tevarin war machine combined with the reliability of modernUEE technology. (While lacking some of the upgrades of the modern version, vintage Tevarin-built Prowlers restored for modern spaceflight are prized by owners lucky enough to locate them.)

The winner of the ultimate wave four ship poll was the third starter. When we say a ‘starter’ ship in Star Citizen, it doesn’t mean one you ditch as soon as you can… it just means a smaller, less expensive ship that will introduce you to the Star Citizen world. We had similar starter ships in Privateer and Freelancer, and plenty of players opted to stick with their old reliable hulls for the whole game! Star Citizen’s starter ships tend to be more ‘jack of all trades,’ allowing you to sample different activities in the ‘verse.

When we sat down to choose the ideal third starter we went in knowing that it needed to stand out the same way the Mustang differed from the Aurora without being dedicated to a specific role. What we couldn’t decide on was who was going to make this new ship. We already had starters from RSI and Consolidated… so who gets the next one? A pirate-oriented starter from Drake, a military one from Anvil or Aegis, or perhaps a small luxury craft from Origin or a commercial one from MISC?

In the end, we put together outlines for four possible ships, one from each ship builder (representatives from the fifth company, Origin, turned down our request; apparently, they just won’t build an inexpensive ship!) And now we’re giving backers the ability to choose which one we develop into Star Citizen’s third starter. Here are the options:

Drake Dragonfly: You don’t so much as climb into the Dragonfly as you do put it on around you. In short, it’s the closest thing to strapping an engine and a weapons mount to your spacesuit… or, as the advertising campaign claims, it’s the closest thing to riding the vacuum yourself. Occupying somewhere in the pantheon between a snub fighter and an Aurora, the Dragonfly is a speedy, maneuverable ultralight designed to be cheaply constructed in large numbers and to be readily customized by hobbyists. Dragonfly’s have become the favorite of a particular brand of enthusiast that frequently gather together to share their modifications, off-track race… and other less legitimate “hobbies.”

Aegis Terrapin: A literal tough nut to crack, the Terrapin is the most heavily armored of the base-priced spacecraft on the market. Originally designed for long-range survey missions in dangerous star systems, the Terrapin’s design philosophy involves wrapping the ship in additional layers of armor and reserving a significant amount of engine power to host the largest shield generator in its class. Terrapins are popular among private miners, with an equipment mount and a small storage hold that can be converted for valuable minerals.

Anvil Hurricane: Some ships avoid dangerous encounters with speed, some with stealth and others with maneuverability. The Anvil Hurricane’s philosophy is that it should be able to blast anything that gets in its way out of the sky. The Hurricane won’t win any races and its electronic signature won’t let you sneak behind enemy lines… but it features a wide array of fully customizable small bore weapons hardpoints plus the ability to customize weapons types in several ways. Hurricanes are often used by militia squadrons and private organizations seeking to add a “heavy” to their lineup.

MISC Reliant: With the success of the Freelancer “Built for Life” campaign, MISC has moved to join RSIand Consolidated in the single-seat introductory starship arena. Their silver bullet? A starter ship with more than one seat… and their ace in the hole: Xi’An technology. Where the Aurora is a pure utilitarian platform and the Mustang is a delicate, maneuverable personal transport, the Reliant is MISC’s most Xi’An tech-heavy ship to date. Featuring impossibly sleek lines, two separate crew seats and a vertical fuselage design, the Reliant’s streamlined cockpits glow with some of the finest xenotechnology available!

Please let us know what your favorite is in the poll below; the winner will be Star Citizen’s third starter… and the others will go back in the vault for future reference (I can already see backers writing in to ask if we might ever see the runner ups again; we don’t have space on the schedule for multiple new starters at the moment, but never say never!) I think that any of these four ships would make a great addition to Star Citizen’s lineup, and so I’m confident in letting backers make the choice!

I’ll announce the winner in my next letter. Until then, I’d like to thank you again for your continued support. Our backers are the most incredible group of people in the world, and every time I see how creative you are in supporting the game and spreading the word, I’m all the just more grateful that this has all come together. Thank you.

— Chris Roberts

NuclearMessiah · 16 Nov 2014

ORIGIN 315P NOW FLYABLE!

Greetings Citizens,
The Origin 315p is now flyable in Arena Commander! The 315p is the long-range ‘explorer’ variant of the versatile 300i spacecraft. If you have previously purchased an 315p, your ship will now be available for combat (and racing) in Arena Commander… if you’d like to learn more, or pick up a new 315p to try out, details are available below.

Be sure and share your feedback on the forums; we’re using the 300-series (315p, 325a, 350r) to get the flyable variant release process down, in preparation for a number of ships which will be added for Arena Commander V1.0!

To learn more about the 315p, you can study the ship specifications and holoviewer model below. Tf you’re interested in pledging for one, links are available below. The previously-released 300-series brochure is available for download here.

NuclearMessiah · 16 Nov 2014

ARENA COMMANDER V0.9.2.1 RELEASED

Greetings Citizens,
We have released a new version of Arena Commander! Version 0.9.2.1 is now available via the Launcher. The big focus of this week’s patch is the release of the Origin 315p, the last of the 300-series variants promised for Arena Commander. This patch also updates ship balance, ESP and makes several fixes. You can find a complete list in the Patch Notes. Finally, it adds the Liquor Cabinet item for development subscribers.

With the entire 300 series now playable, we have updated the default loadout for all ships to match their intended roles and the specifications listed on the website. If you’re a 300i, 315p, 325a or 350r pilot please get out there and try the newly balanced lineup! The team is eager for feedback about all four of the ships, which you can post to the Arena Commander forum.

As you know, we use a number of methods to continue improving Arena Commander. From our internal QA teams to Twitch stream observations to the forum for collecting player feedback, we are always looking for ways to make your space combat experience better. Another tool in our arsenal is statistics collected from the game. We measure everything from CPU type to control preference to Comstab usage… and with this patch, we thought it would be fun to share some of that data with our backers!

You can see graphs for the most recent patch period in this post. A big aspect of this collection process is monitoring how accurate the different control methods are, so we can try and find the “sweet spot” where Star Citizen works well for everyone. Please note that the accuracy and kill/death ratio data reflects only single player; a bug resolved in today’s patch was preventing us from collecting multiplayer numbers. Also note that ‘session numbers’ refers to the number of Arena Commander and not the total Hangar logins.

Kill/Death Ratio - DistributionKill/Death Ratio - AverageKill/Death Ratio By Control TypeAccuracy - DistributionAccuracy - AverageAccuracy - By Control TypePlayer LocationsMap PopularityAverage Flying SpeedsDecoupled UsageComstab UsageSession Data

OPERATING SYSTEM
Windows 7 64 bit SP 1 (build 6.1.7601)61.1%
Windows 8 64 bit (build 6.2.9200)35.3%
Windows 7 64 bit (build 6.1.7600)3.3%
CPU
i7-4770K CPU 3.50GHz7.0%
i5-3570K CPU 3.40GHz6.3%
i5-2500K CPU 3.30GHz5.4%
i7-3770K CPU 3.50GHz5.2%
i7-2600K CPU 3.40GHz4.9%
i5-4670K CPU 3.40GHz4.4%
FX-8350 Eight-Core Processor4.0%
i7-4790K CPU 4.00GHz3.3%
i7-3770 CPU 3.40GHz2.5%
i7 CPU 2.67GHz2.2%
i7-2600 CPU 3.40GHz1.9%
i7-4770 CPU 3.40GHz1.8%
i7-3820 CPU 3.60GHz1.7%
i7-3930K CPU 3.20GHz1.6%
FX-6300 Six-Core Processor1.4%
FX-8320 Eight-Core Processor1.3%
i7 CPU 3.07GHz1.3%
i5-4690K CPU 3.50GHz1.3%
Phenom™ II X4 965 Processor1.2%
i7-4700MQ CPU 2.40GHz1.0%
GRAPHICS CARD
AMD Radeon R9 200 Series12.3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 7708.5%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 7606.6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 7805.7%
AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series4.9%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 6704.2%
AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series3.8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9703.8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 6803.8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 6603.3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti3.3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti2.8%
AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series2.4%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti2.0%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9801.8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 5801.8%
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series1.7%
Intel® HD Graphics 46001.6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti1.1%
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series1.1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 5601.0%
AMOUNT OF RAM
8.0 GB RAM40.9%
16.0 GB RAM38.4%
12.0 GB RAM6.6%
32.0 GB RAM4.7%
6.0 GB RAM2.8%
4.0 GB RAM2.3%
24.0 GB RAM1.2%

NuclearMessiah · 19 Nov 2014

Meet the CIG Devs Episode 1

Hyncharas · 21 Nov 2014

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14314-Star-Citizen-Anniversary-Sale

Though I doubt very much you'll see me buy a Javelin next Friday (unless I win the lottery before now and then), I think I will get all the Flair stuff as I'm not a subscriber.

NuclearMessiah · 24 Nov 2014

Flying Fortress: The Aegis Retaliator

FLYING FORTRESS: THE AEGIS RETALIATOR

The Ark Visual Archive Presents
A Millennium of Memories: Photos in Flight
The top 500 iconic images from the last thousand years of traveling the stars.

#312: The Bombing Run
Date: 2544-10-01
Photographer: Renzo Oui

After the beginning of the First Tevarin War, the United Times/Tribune decided to embed Renzo Oui with the 71st Carrier Wing to provide exclusive material on this historical conflict. For over two years, Renzo chronicled the successes and struggles, both personal and professional, of a Naval carrier and its pilots, bringing the realities of front line combat and military life to public.

For his award-winning series, Renzo would accompany the pilots of the 391st Squadron on torpedo runs against Tevarin capital ships, but it was this image that would become one of his most remembered. Captured during Operation Nemesis, the Retaliators of the 391st were tasked with a daring run on one of the Tevarin’s devastating planetary defense systems that were keeping the UPE Navy at bay. This shot, taken remotely via Renzo’s camera, captures the moment where the Alpha Flight opened fire and has since been regarded as one of the iconic images of the war.

What makes the Retaliator cool?
Retaliator pilot seat
The Retaliator is one of Star Citizen’s premiere multi-crew fighting ships! While crewed ships are not uncommon in the ‘Verse, the larger options tend to be oriented more towards transport and exploration than fighting. The Retaliator is a fighting bomber covered in turrets which carries a heavy bomb load; the perfect thing for striking at enemy bases and capital ships! It’s also an extremely modular ship. The asset has been created with customization in mind, and entire hull segments can be swapped out: players will eventually be able to replace their bomb bay with entirely different configurations for different roles (imagine swapping in some quarters, or a cargo area.)

Does the Retaliator include Weapons?
Torpedo bay concept
YES. We’re aware of a long-running discussion on the matter and would like to put it to rest right now. The version of the Retaliator available for pledge today (and previously) includes the bomb bay and defensive turrets. (The ship won’t include pre-stocked munitions in the bomb bay, it will be up to players to load their own ships in that regard!)

Where is the Retaliator in development?
Initial Retaliator Greybox Pass
The Retaliator was concepted by Ryan Church, who designed the Constellation, and has since been passed to Foundry 42 to implement in the CryEngine. The base ship is currently in the engine, and the team is working on subsystems, such as turrets (which should be installed next week!) Our goal is to launch the Retaliator in Arena Commander 2.0, which will be the earliest point in development that large multi-crew ships will be fun to play.

What inspired the Retaliator?
First Retaliator concept
The Retaliator’s role was inspired by World War II strategic bombers like the B-17 Flying Fortress and Lancaster. We envisioned a crew of players (or a player and NPCs) operating the different crew positions and defensive turrets during bombing missions. The idea of civilians flying surplus bombers also came from the period after World War II, when the United States Army Air Force sold off B-17s to be converted for everything from passenger flights to firefighting duties. We’re looking forward to seeing people work as a crew to make the ship successful. The image of a bomber squadron coordinating an attack on a large capital ship, complete with escort fighters, bomber interceptors and space borne flak has excited our imaginations!

Original Description
Retaliator cockpit
The Retaliator is the United Earth Empire’s premiere, if aging, jump-capable heavy bomber. Massive formations of these spacecraft running long-range strike missions is not an uncommon site around the fringes of the empire. With a distinctive elongated silhouette that is dotted with turrets and carrying a massive bomb load, the Retaliator is an effective symbol of Imperial might. As such, they are the frequent centerpiece of Space Force recruiting posters. Retaliators are ground-based, with all but the largest carriers unable to operate them effectively. Heavily modified Retaliators are becoming commonplace on the civilian market as the design ages and earlier production runs are sold off en-mass. Outfitted to carry cargo instead of antimatter bombs and with the waste turret positions typically swapped for makeshift living quarters, they make a good medium freighter or a basic explorer. Some have even been converted into long-hop passenger spacecraft!

NuclearMessiah · 26 Nov 2014

Bombs Away: The Anvil Gladiator

THE ARK VISUAL ARCHIVE PRESENTS

A Millennium of Memories: Photos in Flight
The top 500 iconic images from the last thousand years of traveling the stars.

#167: The Calm Before the Storm
Date: 2933-05-28 SET
Photographer: Taia Wallen, Major

One of only a handful of images of Corin that the Marines have released, the photographer, then Lance Corporal Taia Wallen, had just completed an intensive six-hour zero-g boarding training exercise when she came across this flight of Gladiators waiting on the launchpad. The squadron was in the process of transferring to a Marine vessel headed for an undisclosed combat zone.

While many cite the grain and contrast as contributing to the immediacy of the moment, the pilots are the truly striking aspect of this picture. There is a serenity as they wait to launch into what we can imagine is certain danger. It serves as a testament to the focus and training of the men and women who serve in the UEE Marines.

WHAT MAKES THE GLADIATOR COOL?

The Gladiator is proof that a small ship can pack a big punch. Designed to operate against capital ships and installations, the Gladiator is the UEE’s premiere strike craft. Star Citizen’s world is full of capital ships, from frigates like the Idris to massive carriers like the Bengal… and we want to give you a way to blow them up. With the ability to conduct bombing runs with a manned turret on its back, a skilled Gladiator crew should be able to prove that David can defeat Goliath! Trading some speed and maneuverability for upgrade space, the Gladiator can also be customized for peacetime roles like explorer or support roles such as command-and-control platform.

WHERE IS THE GLADIATOR IN DEVELOPMENT?

The Gladiator was concepted by David Hobbins, who also designed the Javelin and updated the Constellation. It has been in active development at Foundry 42 recently, and is currently on-track to be the next Hangar-ready ship. We expect to make the Gladiator flight ready between Arena Commander 1.0 and 2.0; while it is a multi-crew ship (with a manned turret/RIO seat), it does not feature room to walk around. Since each crewman is locked to their seat, we will be able to put it into service earlier than the Retaliator or Constellation.

Gladiator concept art

WHAT INSPIRED THE GLADIATOR?

The Gladiator was inspired by the carrier-based dive and torpedo bombers of World War II such as the TBF Avenger and the SBDDauntless. It was initially created for Squadron 42, where you will fly it in defense of the United Empire of Earth, but will also be fully fly- and mod-able in Star Citizen’s persistent universe. We are envisioning two-person Gladiator teams working together to take on large freighters and capital ships together; your partner can man the turret to keep interceptors off you as you focus on dodging flak and completing a torpedo run!

Initial Gladiator concept model

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION

The T3A Gladiator is the UEE Navy’s primary carrier-based bomber. Gladiator squadrons are typically divided by specialty: a carrier may have both a Gladiator torpedo squadron and a Gladiator dive bomber squadron. A back seat is occupied by a tail gunner who also acts as radio operator.

Though a heavy-hitting bomber, the Gladiator has proven easy to modify and thus has become commonplace in the civilian market. The bomb bay can easily be converted for light transport. Many pilots choose to replace the rear turret’s laser cannon with a tractor beam, making it an ideal craft for light salvage missions.

Gladiator cockpit

NuclearMessiah · 27 Nov 2014

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings Citizens
Congratulations on helping us get to $63 million in crowd funding! Many backers have picked up limited or wave two ships during the anniversary sale, and I’m truly grateful. We’ve always stressed that you don’t need anything beyond a basic starter ship to be able to earn anything or go anywhere in the Star Citizen universe, but we acknowledge that the support the community gives by investing in bigger or additional ships allows Star Citizen to deliver a deeper, richer experience much sooner than we could otherwise. In addition your continued support is allowing us to make some smart investments in the world wide team and technology that will safeguard the future of the game.

I’ve had a number of backers ask me why I don’t ‘stock pile’ letters and have them ready to go immediately… especially during an event like this. My answer is that I don’t feel right assuming things like that when it comes to backers providing the project with millions of dollars! The letters may take a few extra days now, but they’re always from the heart.

The $62 million stretch goal was the penultimate ‘wave four’ ship design:

Genesis-class Starliner – The Genesis is yet another landmark in Crusader Industries’ proud history of transport designs. This ship utilizes award-winning manufacturing techniques and the highest quality parts to create one thing; a next-generation passenger ship at a price that won’t break your budget. Crusader Industries’ proprietary NeoG engine technology offers some of the most efficient flight for a ship of its size. The Genesis line has been cited in Whitley’s as “one of the most reliable and safe public transport ships on the market.” Genesis Starliners are available in a number of stock configurations, focusing on everything from passenger capacity to freight to overall comfort. The UEE military operates multiple Genesis conversions for support roles, including SWACS and starflight test operations.

I love options like this, because they’re more than just fighting ships. They help us populate a living breathing universe… after all, most people are more likely to encounter 737s than F-22s in their daily lives! For the next goal, a whopping 50% of the vote went to the MISC Reliant to be the third starter ship:

MISC Reliant – With the success of the Freelancer “Built for Life” campaign, MISC has moved to join RSIand Consolidated in the single-seat introductory starship arena. Their silver bullet? A starter ship with more than one seat… and their ace in the hole: Xi’An technology. Where the Aurora is a pure utilitarian platform and the Mustang is a delicate, maneuverable personal transport, the Reliant is MISC’s most Xi’An tech-heavy ship to date. Featuring impossibly sleek lines, two separate crew seats and a vertical fuselage design, the Reliant’s streamlined cockpits glow with some of the finest xenotechnology available!

And since we’ve already hit $63 million, the Reliant is in the bag! It sounds like backers are interested in seeing more alien technology! That’s one thing Star Citizen will deliver on. As I said last time, never say never for the other concepts… I especially liked the Drake ‘space motorcycle.’

We’ve added a lot of ships lately, and so we’re making the $64 million goal a fun one.

Pets – We have repair bots, we have fish… but we haven’t implemented a traditional pet system in Star Citizen yet. At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica’s Daggit, pets have a place onboard starships… and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen. Expect traditional terrestrial options, plus anything exotic we can dream up in the Star Citizen universe! (Those Torshu Grey crabs that keep escaping are just the start.) This stretch goal is in honor of Paddington, Strike Dog of the UEES Paul Steed. In one of our first videos Paddington helped us get to $4 million back in the initial campaign, and sadly passed away recently.

For those looking ahead to $65 million, we have a major feature we’re investigating as an option. Suffice it to say, we’ve heard a lot of your feedback about modular ships and we want to expand our plan for how to do them… so check back next letter for more information!

I can’t say it enough: thank you. I often finding myself sitting down to play Arena Commander and just admiring what we’ve made together. Sure, we could have done this behind closed doors… but it wouldn’t have had the same heart and soul, and it wouldn’t be coming together in the same way. Arena Commander is a microcosm of Star Citizen: your backing made it possible, your feedback is making it work the way we imagined together… and your belief in what we’re doing here (and patience with real software development!) is going to push us to continuously iterate and improve. As we deliver more aspects of Star Citizen, from first person combat, to planetside exploration to a gripping single player narrative story to planets and star systems you can fly between, I think it will dawn on all of us just how groundbreaking and unprecedented the journey that we are all taking together is. Nothing of this scope has ever been attempted, and never in this fashion.

See you in the ‘Verse!

— Chris Roberts

NuclearMessiah · 5 Dec 2014

Letter from the Chairman: Multi-Crew Ship Systems

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings Citizens
Its been a busy week for the Star Citizen team! A good portion of the project leads have gathered in Manchester, England where we have been focusing on all issues related to characters, animation, cinematics and Squadron 42. The goal of this summit has been to sync up the rest of studios with the incredibly talented team at Foundry 42 for the major push to release the first chapter of Squadron 42 towards the back half of next year. It has been a fantastic week, full of passionate debate and pure creativity that I’m proud to say drives this project… but while we’ve been heads down making sure Squadron 42 lives up to the larger vision for Star Citizen, it seems a stretch goal or two may have passed!

Between the final days of the anniversary sale and the roll-out of the Anvil Carrack explorer platform, we’ve managed to surpass $66 million in crowd funding! It’s an astonishing number that both old backers and new made possible: while many existing backers pledged for Carracks, we also had over 7,400 new backers who decided to find out what all the fuss was about. Thank you to all and welcome to our new players; we’re happy to have you onboard on this adventure!

At $64 million, pets are a ‘go!’

Pets – We have repair bots, we have fish… but we haven’t implemented a pet system in Star Citizen yet. At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica’s Daggit, pets have a place onboard starships… and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen. Expect traditional terrestrial options, plus anything exotic we can dream up in the Star Citizen universe! (Those Torshu Grey crabs that keep escaping are just the start.) This stretch goal is in honor of Paddington, Strike Dog of the UEES Paul Steed. In one of our first videos Paddington helped us get to $4 million back in the initial campaign, and sadly passed away recently.

The last letter hinted at the $65 million stretch goal: a revamp of our modular ship design drawn directly from player feedback. As Star Citizen stands today, the ships are extremely customizable. You can switch engines, thrusters, guns, missiles, turrets, sensor suites, scanners, cargo pods and some interior ‘seats’ (and much more.) Starting with 1.0, we’ve added the first iteration of the technology for a paint system that will allow us to create promised skins and ultimately let you alter your ship’s exterior appearance. For 1.0 it is used to handle the various paintjobs for the variants. But longer term this will allow us to give everyone the skins they have backed for and ultimately this system will allow for some user generated paintjobs!

Caterpillar modular tech concept
One huge piece of feedback from the Constellation and Cutlass sales has been that backers want more: they want to customize the roles and the internals of their ships to a higher degree than we initially envisioned. Based on this feedback we intend to make changes to the ships that make sense to better represent what you want. The team at Foundry 42 is already building a number of modular capital ships, like the Javelin, that can change their internal and external form factors through an array of optional user-configured modules. What we intend now to do is take the technology and design work done for these capital ships and apply it back to a number of Star Citizen’s smaller personal craft.

Enhanced Ship Modularity – So you have the ship of your dreams, but really wish that it could be customized to suit your needs a bit more than the off-the-shelf models? This new goal, a massive undertaking, is going to be of interest. We are looking to overhaul any suitable ships (including the Cutlass, Avenger, Retaliator and Redeemer) to allow many modular components to be available as swap-outs. For example: if you have purchased a Redeemer, then using the new system you would have a variety of new modules available to refit the ship, internal and external, to suit your play requirements. If you wanted to make it a Bounty Hunter ship, you could buy a “Stasis Chamber module” for the lower deck and you would be able to capture and store fugitives to be delivered for their bounties at your leisure. You could configure the upper deck to be outfitted with a “long range communication suite” allowing you to keep in touch with your “Infoagent” even when in deep space. Fed up of Bounty hunting? Swap in a larger cargo module in the lower deck to make that profitable run you have been planning for a while, or add the Explorer Module with deployable vehicle for some planetside recon. Manufacturers will still be offering pre-configured variants, but should you be looking to adapt a hull to suit a certain task then your ship has come in (and is now ready for modification!)

Of course, $65 million isn’t the only milestone we need to discuss in this letter. Starting with $66 million, I want to start focusing everyone on the level of detail and immersion that everyone’s support is enabling. So instead of always having a feature or a reward I want to share a deeper view into an element of the design that has been enabled by your continuing support.

This time around, we’re going to tell you about Star Citizen’s multi-crew ship seat actions. With the release of the Carrack, there has been a lot of discussion about how ships can be flown solo, whether or not they need a crew… and there have been a lot of questions as to how any of that will even work. You can read on below to find out the answers to those questions and more. (This letter’s design update was put together with the team here in the UK, who are also currently looking forward to the multi-crew ship features for Arena Commander 2.0)

This doesn’t mean we won’t still occasionally reward backers with in-game content (flair, UEC, ship upgrades and more types to come!) or propose new ship types to celebrate major milestones but I would like the focus to be more about the amazing game that you are all enabling rather than the amounts we have raised. The real story is that with a community and the team sharing such a passion for making something special, with all of your continued support we have an opportunity to make history.

As always, thank you for making all of this possible. It’s an honor to be at the head of development of a game that already means so much to such an excellent group of backers. You’ve earned your Citizenship! Finally: please sound off in the comments section: does this new system work for you? We WILL be listening!

— Chris Roberts

I will split the multi crew portion into its own thread for dicussion

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