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

ALL ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS
December 6, 2013

Greetings Citizens,

One of the first lessons we learned during Star Citizen’s campaign is that players like to form their own groups. Whether you want to game with friends or work with like-minded strangers to impact the universe, you want to come together. We knew going in to the project that Star Citizen would need a robust guild/squadron system… but we had no idea we would need it before the game launched! As soon as the RSI forums went online last year, players were already building their own squadrons, pirate clans, merchant companies and more.

As a result, we decided to start building Organizations into the website today instead of waiting for the game to launch. Players who want to form groups will soon be able to do so right here at RSI… and those groups will transition directly into Star Citizen. The organizations you form today will be the ones you fly with in the ‘verse! The web team at Turbulent has been hard at work integrating these plans and today we’re going to share details about how the first release is going to work.

Setting Up


Part of the Global Org Hub

When the organization system launches, group leaders will be prompted to select a name and a unique ID for their group. Once registered, you will be able to set up a public page for your group right here at the RSI site! Leaders will then be able to upload their own logo, banner and background for the site and choose a preset color theme. They can enter information to be displayed on their public site, including the organization history, manifesto and charter.

With your own page, you will be able to start recruiting and organizing your group! In the first version, leaders will be able to pick an organization type, view their member list, invite new recruits and assign ranks and roles to members. Organization leaders will be able to delegate responsibilities to members.

Organization Types

On launch, you will be able to select a type for your organization. This defines the groups overall goal. We’ve divided organizations into five archtypes:

• Corporation – a for-profit business entity. A corporation is a great choice for everything from shipping flo-pets to Goss II to organizing a hostile takeover of Origin Jumpworks.
• PMC (Private Military Company) – For organizations with a taste for combat. Focuses for PMCs include escorting cargo runs, hunting for pirates or helping the UEE take on the Vanduul.
• Faith – Organizations that have come together for a single cause or under a single banner. This could be rebels fighting for Terran independence… or the devout followers of the LAMP!
• Syndicate – Common interest groups for those who operate on the edges (or outside) the law. There’s safety in numbers when you’re moving contraband through Spider or preying on hapless cargo ships.
• Organization – Want to make your own way without any previous association? Feel free to leave your group’s archetype blank!

Archetypes are a roleplaying element and do not impact the actual functioning of the organization; you’ll still be free to organize your group as you wish regardless of which type you choose.

Inviting Members


Member Representation

There’s two ways to join an Organization: either by applying through the group’s page, or by invitation from the group itself. If you find a group you’re interested in joining, you can fill out an application which will then be reviewed by the leadership. If they like you, you’re in! (Organizations can enable or disable public recruiting.) If you’re the kind of group that wants to actively recruit, you can invite members directly. In that case, the user would receive a request that they would need to approve in order to join the organization. Keep in in mind that while players can come and go as they please, they can join only one organization at a time.

Player Ranks and Roles

Organizations can establish two pieces of information about every member: their rank and their role. Roles are user-defined subgroups inside any organization that define the jobs assigned to players by the organization. Maybe you have a role for accountants or one for turret gunners!

Organizations have a set of six ranks that their leaders can assign to players. Ranks are user-selectable. One common military-styled setup might be:

• Rank 0 – Recruit
• Rank 1 – Lieutenant
• Rank 2 – Captain
• Rank 3 – Lieutenant Colonel
• Rank 4 – Colonel
• Rank 5 – General

But your organization can set its ranks however it likes. If “Peacekeeper” or “Technician” or “Spaceman” makes more sense than “Colonel,” you can make the call.

Organization Naming


Syndicate-themed Org Header

We know that a lot of Citizens are concerned about keeping their existing group names in the new system. Like Community Monikers, Organization names will not be unique. An unlimited number of players can form groups named “Red Squadron.” Every organization WILL have a unique Spectrum ID (“SID”), a ten-character (all cap) alphanumeric designation. The SID will be used in the organization’s URL and will be displayed prominently with the name to distinguish similarly-named groups.

Conflicts which arise will be treated on a case-by-case basis by the moderation team, with absolutely no tolerance for copycat or parody organizations. The archive of ‘recruiting threads’ in the Organizations subforum at the RSI site will be referred to determine claims of pre-existing organization ownership should the need arise. CIG will moderate public facing group areas for content, organizations will be responsible for moderating their private discussion areas.

Expanded Live Chat


Live Chat Update

Goodbye, Chatroll! As part of the Organization launch, we will be introducing a new, XMPP-based, live chat system to the RSI website. This will eliminate the 500-user limit on chat and will enhance it in a number of other areas as well. You’ll be able to connect from outside the RSI site using any XMPP-compatible client. Like the Organization system itself, this chat will transition through to the communications system in Star Citizen and the future mobile app.

Citizens will also no longer be limited to a single general chat room. Every organization will have its own self-governed discussion channel and officer chat. If you’re a member of a particular org, you’ll automatically join the appropriate rooms when you connect! In addition, there will be special chat areas for groups like Subscribers, Concierge and more!

Forum Changes

Pardon our dust! In preparation for the Organizations rollout, you may have noticed some changes to the RSI forums. Users who have either backed Star Citizen or have had a game pack gifted to them now show as part of the “Ready” group. Users who have not backed Star Citizen now show in grayscale at the forums and cannot post to some deeper areas, like the Off Topic forum.

Upgrade System


In a system related to the ‘under the hood’ upgrades we’ve made for the Organization rollout, we’re pleased to announce that, starting today, you will be able to apply any ship upgrades to your existing ships and packages! If you have a Colonel Package and you’ve been waiting to see your Super Hornet, today is your lucky day. Upgrading a package will change the overall value and will allow you to see the enhanced ship in your Hangar. Once an upgrade is used, it’s gone; you will now have the new ship type in your inventory.

The following upgrades can now be applied to the stock ships in all packages.

• Super Hornet
• Hornet Tracker
• Hornet Ghost
• Origin 350R
• Origin 325A
• Origin 315P
• Aurora LN
• Aurora LX

Note that the F7A Hornet body kit upgrade will appear as an item for use in the finished game (similar to a skin or an additional gun) and will not be applied through this system.

What’s Next?

Public testing of Organizations begins later this month with a planned rollout in early January. That’s just the first step! Future drops throughout 2014 will greatly increase customization and functionality as development continues. Here are a few of the features that will be included with future releases:

• Organization Forums – Every organization will have its own, private forum through the RSI site!
• Org Blog – Featuring a shoutbox and the ability to post news updates. Keep your organization informed with your own Comm-Link.
• Visual Chart – An interactive display showing all of your organization’s divisions, jobs and members.
• Fleet View – See your group’s ships!
• Calendar – Set up squadron meetings, big events and more.
• Voting – Make your group decisions based on your team’s consensus.

… and much, much more!

We’re excited about the Organization launch because it aims to do exactly what we’re striving for with Star Citizen: better immerse players in the Star Citizen universe. Even better, it does so by giving Citizens the tools to help create their universe rather than locking them into any one experience. We’re looking forward to seeing where you take your organizations!

 

Aurora Upgrades & Multiple Organizations
DECEMBER 11TH 2013

Aurora LN Upgrades

We’ve heard from a number of users who purchased Aurora LN upgrades during the Anniversary Sale who would like to apply them to Aurora LX packages. We hear you! We’ve updated the upgrade system accordingly, and as of this afternoon you can now purchase an Aurora LN upgrade to convert any Aurora LX spacecraft. If you already have a standard upgrade you would like to use, please reclaim it for store credit (you should save $5 overall.)

Multiple Organizations

There has also been a great deal of feedback about Friday’s All About Organizations post. We would like to clear up one point of confusion: while you will only be able to join a single Organization with the first iteration of the system coming in January, this limit will be eliminated in future versions. Being a member of multiple organization is absolutely necessary for the finished game, and has been in the specifications from day one: players need to be able to join multiple NPC organizations (like the Mercenary’s Guild or Merchant’s Guild) in addition to player created groups.

There will be a reputation system that tracks how organizations stack up against one another and individual orgs can specify their exclusivity level: the Mavericks might require that you join only allied groups, or they might prevent their members from signing on with anyone else at all. All of this is coming in future versions of the Org system; we aim to get you started with a single group now and then expand as the played-created portion of universe comes together!

 

Hangar Patch 9 Released
DECEMBER 12TH 2013

Hangar Patch 9

Greetings Citizens,



We’re pleased to announce that Hangar Patch 9 is now available! The big news with today’s patch is that the Hangar now features client-side persistence. That means that the changes you make to your hangar are now permanent: you can change your ship loadouts in the holotable, log off and come back without having them reset!

The bulk of today’s changes are “under the hood.” Patch 9 includes a number of bug fixes, but more importantly it sets the stage to incorporate future hangar changes and other Star Citizen modules currently in development. We know it’s not as exciting as a new ship, but it’s essential for what we have in the works. Another public-facing Hangar patch is coming before the end of the year, and it promises to include more for Citizens to play with.

There are still a few surprises to be found in your hangars today. We’ve added a trophy case to every hangar, which displays several possible things. If you have a Gold Ticket on your account, it will now show up there, as will the RSI Zeus model and the 2943 Gamescom trophy. Your fish tanks have also been given a big makeover!

If you’re interested in helping us test the latest changes, try changing our ship loadouts and then logging back on to see if they’re correct. If you run into any issues, please report them to the Hangar Bug Report forum for our QA team to investigate. Note that the changes are currently local, so you can’t carry them over from one computer to another. Server-side persistence, a must for the finished game, is in development now.

 

Star Citizen Patch 9
15.13024

NEW FEATURES

• New feature: Client side persistence
• New feature: Trophy Case
• New feature: New fishtank decorations
  • Helmet
  • Coral
  • Space crab grotto
• New feature: Golden Ticket plaque

BUG FIXES

• BUG FIX: Fixed a crash that could happen when using the outfit changer
• BUG FIX: Various camera and collision fixes for both third and first person views
• BUG FIX: Third person camera jitter reduced
• BUG FIX: Added support for 2560×1440
• BUG FIX: Holotable: tab key now toggles
• BUG FIX: Deluxe Hangar floor fixes
• BUG FIX: Fixed mis-labeled weapons
• BUG FIX: Fixed a rare particle crash
• BUG FIX: Fixes and updates to Hangar lighting, 300i and Hornet lighting will show up again now
• BUG FIX: Fixed flipped decals inside the 300i
• BUG FIX: Fixed flipped decals on a 325a engine
• BUG FIX: Fixed flipped decals on the 350r engine
• BUG FIX: Hornet F7c has the proper loadout now
• BUG FIX: Fixed some items not showing up in the Hangar
• BUG FIX: Fixed a rare crash due to left over debug code
• BUG FIX: Fixed particle effects in the fish tank
• BUG FIX: Fixed some character IK issues with the F7c
• BUG FIX: Fixed various character collision issues
• BUG FIX: Various other small fixes to the Hangars and ships

KNOWN ISSUES

• KNOWN ISSUE: 325a cockpit seat and controls do not animate
• KNOWN ISSUE: Crash can occur while using the holotable and aggressively mousing over ships
• KNOWN ISSUE: Pilot left hand not attached to Hornet and variant throttle
• KNOWN ISSUE: Hands not attached to Constellation turret joysticks
• KNOWN ISSUE: Super Hornet first person free look is sluggish
• KNOWN ISSUE: Aurora joystick and pedals move simultaneously
• KNOWN ISSUE: Lights seen through glass do not distort properly
• KNOWN ISSUE: Buggy first person camera is stationary
• KNOWN ISSUE: Camera can snap to an opposite direction following an animation
• KNOWN ISSUE: Unable to look left when sitting on the Constellation toilet
• KNOWN ISSUE: Privateer outfit hands remain after switching back to default outfit
• KNOWN ISSUE: Some ship items are able to be attached to an unrelated ship
• KNOWN ISSUE: Freelancer controls remain extended after standing from pilot seat

 

Letter from the Chairman: On Dogfighting
DECEMBER 16TH 2013

Greetings Citizens,

The Dogfighting Module!

When? Is the question on most of your lips!


The Dogfighting Module


Hornet Damage States


Hornet Damage States


Hornet Damage States


Hornet Damage States


Hornet Damage States


Hornet Damage States


The Dogfighting Module

The initial plan was to release a preliminary build for feedback towards the end of this month. However after much deliberation I’ve decided to push this back.

As I explained during the live stream, we’ve been debating internally what would be the best use of time and resources for the overall development of the game, to keep as close as possible to our original schedule of the Alpha of Star Citizen’s Persistent Universe towards the end of 2014, and the “public” release 2015.

The incredible surge in funding this year has helped the long term picture. We have been able to ramp up sooner and wider than we originally thought. This means more features and content will be in the game at launch. We’re further along than originally planned in building the tech for the persistent and instancing server backend which will ultimately drive Star Citizen. Both Squadron 42 and First Person Personal combat / boarding have full teams working in parallel, in addition to the teams in Los Angeles, Austin and Montreal working on the Dogfighting and Planetside components. We have smaller groups of people supporting these efforts from CGBot in Austin & Monterrey, Mexico and Void Alpha in San Francisco.

Long term, this is great for the game, but in the short term, getting multiple teams up to speed has definitely taken some bandwidth from myself and the initial team members.
Which brings us to the Dogfighting module;

Originally when I first started this journey I didn’t dream that we would be entirely community funded so early so I thought that if I released an early dogfighting build it would help drum up interest in the project and get some good community feedback on the player versus player fun and balance. I knew this had some drawbacks, the biggest being that we would have to use the built in CryEngine netcode and not our intended persistent and massively multiplayer capable system that we are architecting to handle the large amount of players we hope to have with Star Citizen.

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

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

The hardest part of dogfighting balance is to make it fun and challenging between two players. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the various systems and dials you can adjust to add a whole level of strategy / skill to dogfighting as we don’t want it to devolve into an endless turning battle with little chance of turning the tables on your opponent.

Outside of having the dogfighting use the proper backend there is a lot of finesse and detail that needs to go in to get the dogfighting ready for the community’s consumption – The HUD, Damage states, various FX – these are all in progress and look very promising but in my personal opinion aren’t quite ready for prime time.

I feel that the Dogfighting module, especially with Star Citizen’s greatly increased profile, needs to be more polished than a typical “alpha”. There are a lot of eyes on the game, and more than a few people wanting us to fail. Because Dogfighting is the first module that will involve significant gameplay, it has to be good – I don’t feel that we will get a pass just because it is pre-pre alpha.

So we had two choices: either fork development and spend time building something that would involve throwing away work in order to meet the December deadline and deliver something that wouldn’t have the level of polish I’m happy with, or stay on course to build something that would lead directly into the finished game.

A modular release schedule, which we delivered the first of with the Hangar, was not something we promised in the original funding campaign. Delivering the game in a modular fashion was an idea we hit on after the initial crowd funding campaign when we realized just how impassioned and engaged this community was. It would help the project and involve the community: you would be able to follow our work and help us improve Star Citizen to a level never before experienced in game development. If releasing dogfighting were to mean throwing away months of work and give an experience that doesn’t advance the final vision of Star Citizen, for the sake of meeting a deadline, we would be poor stewards of the funding which has been entrusted to us by the community.

On top of this, finding a new space for the growing team in Austin has taken a lot longer than originallg anticipated – we are now scheduled to move in on Dec 28th! As our backend and network ops is run out of Austin it would be pretty risky trying to push out a module that relied on this over the holidays.

So rather than force the team to crunch through the holidays chasing something ‘good enough,’ I am going to make the tough choice to delay the dogfighting module for a couple of months to allow us to take our time and deliver something special.

Our goal isn’t just to make Star Citizen good enough. Big publishers make games that are good enough; this is about creating a game that matches a vision. The beauty of crowd funding is that it allows us the creative freedom to do exactly that… and the one great downside, is that I feel your disappointment in a way I never would otherwise. I don’t just want to make a great game… I want to play and live it. But even more than that, I have come to find myself a part of the Star Citizen community, in a way that I never expected.

However, as it is the holidays, we’re not about to send you off home without a few treats. There’s going to be an update to the Hangar at the end of the week with some fun new functionality. But better than that the team and I invite you to join us Friday, December 20th to show you some of the dogfighting work that is in progress; you’ll see us fight in a multi person fur ball, and hopefully appreciate some of the detail and care we’re adding to truly push dogfighting in Star Citizen to a level beyond anything achieved yet in a space sim.

We think you’ll be happy with what you see!

So please join me at 9 AM PST on Friday, December 20th for a special Christmas two hour livestream that will have updates on Squadron 42, The Hangar and Dogfighting!

— Chris Roberts

 

TEN FOR THE CHAIRMAN - EPISODE 3

Chris Roberts answers subscriber questions about the Dogfighting Module in a special edition of Ten for the Chairman.



Edit:
(Quick synopsis found on reddit)

1. Will the dogfighting module serve as a good benchmarking tool wrt current pc hardware? -> Yes, but the final game will be more optimized than that. If you can run the hangar smoothly, you'll run the final game no problem.
2. Will our friends be able to join us in the multi-seat ships during DFM alpha? -> Not yet, but as soon as the ships are done, yes.
3. Will we get a chat between DFM and Hangar? -> Yes.
4. How big will the DFM map be? -> 20km³, full of cool stuff like planets, nebulae, an asteroid belt, etc.
5. Will we be able to run DFM on lower-end hardware with settings tweaks? -> No, just very simple tweaks and resolution changes. Optimization will come a little later.
6. Will there be a flight tutorial with the DFM. -> Unlikely, everyone here hates tutorials. Maybe against an AI ship, but unimplemented and undecided.
7. Will we get access to more weapons/upgrades/etc during DFM? -> Yes. More and more upgrades will be available as they're implemented. Players will likely get test money to try upgrades/weapons out.
8. How will you balance ship battles in the DFM? (So we don't get 8 hornets vs 8 connies). -> Ships are weighted by points so that weaker ships get less points and each team gets balanced against the other team's ship points.
9. Will physics be final in the DFM or still to be tuned/modified? What feedback will help the devs? -> Unfinished and prone to a lot of tuning during DFM. Any feedback based on how the physics feel is good.
10. How will you gather user data during DFM alpha? (Logs, etc; can it be turned off...). -> We run the servers so we'll have access to all the battle data anyway.

 

Hangar Patch 10 Available
DECEMBER 20TH 2013



Greetings Citizens,



Patch 10 for the Star Citizen Hangar module is live! You should be prompted to download the patch the next time you log in to your Hangar. Major additions include the Cutlass, the updated Avenger and the interactive gun range demonstrated during the last live stream. A variety of small changes have also been made, including some special lights for the holidays! You can find the full list of updates in the accompanying patch notes.

As part of the persistence test, we’ve added several new items to the Voyager Direct store. Included are several guns, a pair of new posters, several additional guns and a set of new fish for the fishtank! If you don’t have a fishtank already, we’ve added the option to purchase it. To help the test process, we’re adding 1,000 UEC to every account… so feel free to pick up a Hangar item on us! Development subscribers will be awarded additional UEC (1,000 for Centurions and 2,000 for Imperators.)

 

Star Citizen Patch 10
DECEMBER 20TH 2013

• NEW FEATURES
  • NEW FEATURE – Updated Avenger
  • NEW FEATURE – Added Holiday Wreath
  • NEW FEATURE – Added Firing Range
  • NEW FEATURE – Cutlass
  • NEW FEATURE – New fishtank decorations
    • Cleaner Fish
    • School of Jellyfish
    • Cute Space Crab
    • Ribbon Fish
  • NEW FEATURE – Footlocker
  
  
• KNOWN ISSUES
  • KNOW ISSUE – Firing Range has limit selection of weapons
  • KNOW ISSUE – Weapon impact decals missing from firing range
  • KNOW ISSUE – Jump graphic is offset
  • KNOW ISSUE – Avenger and Cutlass must be entered through the rear
  • KNOW ISSUE – P52 missing from Constellation hangar
  
  
• BUG FIXES
  • BUG FIX – Missing DLL in some versions of Windows Vista
  • BUG FIX – Various improvements to collision physics
  • BUG FIX – Cockpit in 325a has been fixed
  • BUG FIX – Lighting in the Hangar and ships has been improved

 

Letter from the Chairman: $35 Million



Greetings Citizens,

Wow! When I started this journey I would have never guessed that we would have come so far in such a short time. $35M in funds raised to build Star Citizen before the end 2013 it truly a monumental achievement! You’re not just re-writing the rules of how games are made and funded but you’re showing the power that a committed community has to achieve a vision that so many people said was no longer relevant. You’ve broken every record there is in crowd funding – and not just for games – for any type of project!

What is also a great sign for the long term longevity of Star Citizen and its community is that a large amount of this last stretch goal, like the previous ones has come from new Citizens – 6,617 to be precise! A continually growing community is a testimony to the enthusiasm of the existing community in sharing their excitement and also a resounding indictment of the people that still say space sims are a fringe genre.

With your enthusiasm and generosity you’re allowing the team and I to go beyond the bare minimum we knew we needed to deliver to make Star Citizen an engrossing experience. As Star Citizen is an open universe and there are so many possibilities the additional funds allow us to increase the amount of content available at the start, have more talented developers working on the various facets in parallel, which will allow us to have a richer gameplay experience from the beginning and allow us to invest in some research and development projects to keep Star Citizen ahead of the curve. Unlike a typical publisher we don’t look at this initial funding as bigger profits – we look at as allowing us to deliver more of the dream sooner and ensure the online infrastructure and support is as full featured as possible, even during the pre-release period.

I would also like to thank each and every one for your support in my decision to delay the Dogfighting Module. I know it was disappointing for many people, and it wasn’t a decision that I took lightly but after much deliberation I decided it was best for the long term health of the project. The various modules are a great way of engaging all of you and providing useful feedback to the team. But for me their strongest benefit is providing smaller, shorter terms goals for the team to achieve, while working towards is a pretty daunting feature set for the full game. It forces us to finish a feature with enough polish that hundreds of thousands of people can experience it. The Hangar module, while fairly limited is an example of this – despite still missing many features that will be present in the final game it is far more polished than anything would normally be at this stage of the development if it was just an internal or publisher milestone. Even our commercials are constructed this way. They are goals that force us to get the ship and animations finished and polished for the commercial and usable in the hangar. We chose situations and assets for the commercials that match up to what we know we need for the game, in the same way we are using the modules as a way of making incremental progress to delivering a game of the scope of Star Citizen. This is why I’m against polishing something that won’t contribute to the final game. We could have shared a simple single player dogfight module with some scripted missions – and had something much more polished than we showed on Friday (at a cost of all the multi-player progress we’ve made) but that’s not something that would be anything other than one off work to keep everyone amused while we work on getting the actual functionality that we need.

In my heart I didn’t want to rush out something that would be a stop gap. Testing the head to head aspect is the one I’m most focused on. I’ve made a lot of single player games – I know that we can knock that out of the park but I really want to make sure that the multiplayer combat is fun, compelling and that we solve the various challenges in having the controls and flight model work smoothly online. That was what the Dogfight Module was always intended to be at its core and so at the end of the day I felt I would be letting myself down, as well as everyone in the community if I didn’t deliver a module that lived up to the goals I wanted to achieve. Even though I want the community’s feedback that’s only useful when I’m mostly happy with how something plays and looks and I’m not there yet on the multiplayer dogfighting.

So from the bottom of my heart thank you for your support. I’m pretty sure that when you get your hands on the dogfighting module you’ll be happy and glad we made this decision.

At $35 million, you unlock the final fan-voted ship design. The Drake Herald was one of my favorite potential choices, as it represents the diversity in possible professions that will make Star Citizen such a compelling universe for players of all stripes. I’m glad the design (and the ‘information runner’ role it represents) has made it onto our schedule due to your support! Here are the specifics:

• Drake Herald – Knowledge is power, and one of the most valuable commodities is pure information: the 1s and 0s behind everything from UEC ledgers to Citizenship ratings. Whether it’s colonists struggling to stay in contact with the UEE’s central worlds or criminals trading in illicit data, there will always be a need to securely move data. The Drake Herald, small, armored ship, is designed to fit that need and safely get that information from Point A to Point B. Featuring a powerful central engine (for high speed transit and generating the power needed for effective data encryption/containment), advanced encryption software and an armored computer core, the Herald is unique among personal spacecraft in that it is designed to be easily ‘cleaned’ when in danger of capture. The Herald includes an array of heavy duty internal options for data protection, including redundant power subsystems and EMP shielding, and a high-powered broadcast array for data transmission.

The results of the last system poll have determined the winner of the $37 million stretch goal: the stellar graveyard.

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

Be sure to vote for the $38 million system unlock in the poll below. Remember that all additional funding goes directly to supporting Star Citizen’s production in dozens of ways, the additional ships and systems are just a small representation of what is being done to improve the game!

Finally, don’t forget about the Foundry 42 / Squadron 42 contest announced on Friday; There’s some really great prizes and it’s our way of giving a little back to all you for being such a great community. You can sign up here!

Thank you for your continued support. Happy holidays to all of you and I’m looking forward to showing you more of what we’re working on in the New Year!

 

Letter from the Chairman: $36 Million
JANUARY 5TH 2014



Greetings Citizens,

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

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

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

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

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

I can’t wait to get back to work!

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your continued support.

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

— Chris Roberts



Higher Res:

 

Woot! I'll be able to see out of my 'Lancer!

 

Organization System Launch
JANUARY 22ND 2014

Greetings Citizens,


The Org Hub

The first release of the web-based Organization system is now live. You can access the Organization Hub via the Community menu at the top of the page. From there, you can create your own organization or join an existing group. A special thank you to the hundreds of Citizens who volunteered to test the Organizations system over the past week; your feedback was invaluable in launching this update. The Star Citizen community has expanded beyond our wildest expectations over the last year; we’re excited to see how these new tools help with the process.

Registering an Organization


Org Creation

Click on the CREATE button to start a new Organization. You will be prompted for registration information, including an Org name and a permanent ten-character Spectrum ID (“SID”). The SID will appear in your Organization’s web URL and elsewhere, so choose carefully. With the first release, every user may create or join one Organization. This will be expanded in future updates to the system. Note that you must have a Star Citizen game package on your account to take part in the Organization system.

Once you have created an Organization, you can begin recruiting members and customizing your Organization page with your own text and graphics. The sky is the limit: we saw a number of very creative Org pages set up during the test period. Select the “Admin” area for a wide range of options, from setting your group’s public visibility to deciding the roles and rank titles for group members. The system is extremely customizable and we’re confident that Star Citizen’s creative backers will be able to do amazing things on top of this shared framework.

Organizations with pages listed as public will appear in the Organization Hub’s main page. The page includes a list of the newest organizations, the most active groups and comprehensive search and listing options for those seeking an openly-recruiting group. Group activity is measured by a combination of individual user activity and group size.

Live Chat


XMPP-based Chat

The Organization launch also includes the launch of our new XMPP-based live chat system. Designed from the ground up to replace the existing Chatroll, the new Live Chat adds scalability and greatly improved customization. In addition to the shared general chat, users will now connect to rooms for their organizations and other roles (Subscribers, for instance, will have their own chat room.) Best of all, you can now connect to the Live Chat using any XMPP-supporting client. You can access the live chat on the go… and this cross-platform functionality will transition directly into the game itself.

The Live Chat is currently in beta, during which the Chatroll will continue be available. You can switch to the new chat via a link in Chatroll, or connect directly from the chat buttons located in the new Organizations area.

Organization Rules


A Sample Organization

The existing forum rules apply to the new chat system and any public-facing Organizations page. Additionally, Organization pages cannot include inflammatory, offensive or copyrighted material. If you find an Organization page violating these rules, please use the ‘flag’ button at the bottom of the site to report it. Organizations are expected to moderate their own internal communications; if a member is causing problems, remove him from the group.

Please note that “claim jumping” of organization SIDs and names will not be tolerated. Do not attempt to ‘steal’ an existing Organization’s information. The archived Organizations forum of the RSI website will be used to settle any disputes about who started what group first.

Future

This is only the beginning of the Organization system. Cloud Imperium remains dedicated to creating an environment for Star Citizen’s squadrons, clans and guilds to flourish, and we have extensive long-range plans for enhancing Organizations as we build towards their presence in the persistent universe. Multiple org membership, visual organization charts and fleet views are among the features we are working on adding now.

Our goal with the Organization system, like the Hangar and Dogfighting modules, is to allow the Star Citizen community to get a foot in the door and start experiencing (and expanding) the Star Citizen ‘verse as soon as possible. Remember: organizations isn’t just about letting you group together with friends and gamers, it’s about backers beginning to shape Star Citizen’s lore!

 

Letter from the Chairman: $37 Million
JANUARY 22ND 2014

Greetings Citizens,

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

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

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

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

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

Now it’s time to vote for the final system stretch goal, which will be unlocked at $39 million. If past polls are an indication, it should be a close race between the three options. We have some interesting ideas for developing each one, so you can rest assured that whatever you select it will add a cool new facet to the Star Citizen world!

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

— Chris Roberts

 

First Look: Asteroid Hanger
27TH JANUARY 2014

Greetings Citizens,

We’ve had a number of backers write in to ask what the status of the Asteroid Hangar. Also known aas the Pirate Hangar, the Asteroid Hangar is the upcoming fourth environment type for the Hangar Module. Citizens who have purchased the Drake Cutlass will have access to the hangar as soon as it launches:


https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/lb8vozzcdvu7tr/source/Comp_02.jpg
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/4lzprstnadrjxr/source/Comp_02-1.jpg
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...e/NF_Asteroid-Hangar_Speedpainting_02high.jpg


To answer your question, the Asteroid Hangar is still in the works! It has been concepted, as you see here, and is currently being built by the Hangar Team. The Asteroid Hangar has been designed in such a way that it can expand to support larger ships, like the Drake Caterpillar, as needed. Expect to see it in action in a future update.

 

THE NEXT GREAT STARSHIP - EPISODE 1
FEBRUARY 1ST 2014

[ame]http://youtu.be/CIb4rTrP_9w[/ame]

The Next Great Starship, the modding competition that gives fans a chance to create a space ship to be used in Chris Roberts’ upcoming epic space sim game, Star Citizen™, is just about to get real for 24 teams. The series kicks off on YouTube, January 31, and a handful of teams will be eliminated by judges at the end the first episode. Sponsors for the competition include Alienware, AMD, Autodesk, Crytek, Cologne Game Lab, Maingear, Wacom and YouTube.

The Next Great Starship airs Fridays at 6 pm Eastern/3 pm Pacific. Fans are encouraged to join the Roberts Space Industries YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd to watch. Star Citizen is the creation of Roberts’ Cloud Imperium™ Games studio, headquartered in Los Angeles.

A total of 270 teams representing 65 countries entered the competition. The judging panel includes members from Star Citizen’s art, design and animation teams, in addition to Chris Roberts himself. Celebrity judges will appear in later episodes. The judges already have narrowed the initial list of entries to the top 24 teams. Over the next three weeks that number will shrink even more with judges picking 15 finalists and the community having an opportunity to vote for one team that will make it into the final 16. Every week after that, each team will provide work-in-progress videos to the panel and face the possibility of elimination (judges can save teams and the community also has a vote on who stays and who leaves). It all culminates in The Next Great Starship finale airing on June 7 from Los Angeles where the champion team will be crowned and awarded $30,000 in cash in addition to many other great prizes.

Wingman’s Hangar will not be seen this week. It will return next week at a new time, Wednesday noon EST!

 

Letter from the Chairman: $38 Million
FEBRUARY 4TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,

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

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

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

• Kabal System – The discovery of a new system is always an exciting time. Even the most jaded NavJumpers can’t help entertaining the possibilities for scientific understanding or new species or even a new home that could await them on the other side of a new jump point. The discovery of Kabal was certainly something new. By all outward appearances, the system seemed empty. It was only during when a UEE Surveying team began to assess Kabal III, did they find something disturbing; old uninhabited Tevarin cities. How could an entire Tevarin system escape detection all these years? Did the Tevarin that were assimilated into the UEE know about it? How was it kept a secret? The questions multiplied when a detachment of Marines, sent to secure the planet ended up discovering a cache of old Tevarin war machines. Among the rows and rows of weapons, they made an even more disturbing discovery; some of the technology was made in the last ten years…
  
• Oretani System – Oretani was just one of many systems that were being discovered during the rapid Expansion era of the 25th century. The surveyors noticed nothing in the system’s six worlds of immediate importance. Only one planet seemed to be a viable candidate for terraforming. The terraforming Corp that won the bid sent a mid-level team (and their families) into the system to start processing when the only jump point into the system collapsed. Scientists scrambled to figure out a solution, but it was the first time an incident like this had occurred. As years stretched into decades, people studied the area around the former jump point, hoping for a sign that it had reopened, but after time they gave up. After all this time, Oretani is only ever debated among select number of historians. Most believe that without support, the initial terraformers probably died out, but no one really knows what to expect on the other side if that jump point ever reopens.

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

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

— Chris Roberts

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

 

RSI Broadcast Schedule
FEBRUARY 10TH 2014

Greetings Citizens,
You may have noticed there have been some changes to the Roberts Space Industries broadcast schedule in recent weeks. The recent production summit allowed the team to sit down and work out plans to expand our video production schedule. The goal is to give backers a closer look behind the scenes of Star Citizen throughout the week. On Mondays, Chris Roberts will answer your questions on 10 for the Chairman, on Wednesdays Eric “Wingman” Peterson invites you in to Wingman’s Hangar for a look at Star Citizen’s production and on Fridays Sandi Gardiner asks you to help pick The Next Great Starship!

10 for the Chairman offers a chance for Star Citizen’s development subscribers to ask Chris Roberts the tough questions. Every week, Chris will take time to answer ten questions collected from the Subscriber’s Den forum which will be featured on the show. If you’re interested in subscribing, you can learn more here.

Wingman’s Hangar is being updated to provide a more in-depth look at elements of the game development process. Future episodes will go ‘Inside CIG’ to show you how we do everything from plan production schedules to build space stations. Additionally, Forum Feedback questions will now be vetted by Chris Roberts to allow the crew to address harder topics.

The Next Great Starship brings the development process to you. Teams from around the world will compete to build Star Citizen’s new gunship. As we follow their story, you’ll also learn how the Star Citizen team brings a ship from concept into the ‘verse! Episode 3 airs Friday, followed by a community vote for the wild card contestant!

Schedule

• Mondays (3 PM PST) – 10 for the Chairman

• Wednesdays (9 AM PST) – Wingman’s Hangar

• Fridays (3 PM PST) – The Next Great Starship

 

SCYTHE PBR UPDATE
FEBRUARY 13TH 2014



Star Citizen’s artists have updated the Vanduul Scythe fighter, including the addition of Physically Based Rendering.