Q: Is buying ships with uAEC still a planned feature for alpha 3.1?
Todd Papy:
It is a planned feature, however with our current OPTIMISATION PLAN and
everything like that I don't think it will be hitting in 3.1.
Q: What are the plans for adding uAEC transfers between player characters?
Todd Papy:
So, ah, we actually already have that in the... in one of the DESIGNS
for SERVICE BEACON, um... we understands... like... you know... if you
go out on a mission with multiple characters... or multiple PLAYERS you
want to be actually able to, ah... um... be able to go through and...
and say, 'Hey, you know, I will give you a CUT of this', and... right
now... we know you can't do that... the plan is... is to be part of the
SERVICE BEACON design, whether or not that is the... the first TIER
that ROLLS OUT, that's... that's... something that, um, basically Tony
and I are still discussing.
Q: What about plans for a traditional MMO trade window?
Todd Papy:
The... the... that is basically be a MOBIGLASS, that is... that is kinda
SERVICE BEACON DESIGN of you know, hey, with the MOBIGLASS this is how
I, um... basically, ah... create CONTRACTS, so on and so forth, we
call it a SERVICE BEACON but it's... it's part of the MOBIGLASS and...
and how that would work were, um... it's PLAYER INITIATED CONTRACTS so
if you, um... are a HAULER and you want to hire a bunch of MERCHS or
you're a PIRATE and you wanna be able to PAY... you know... basically
people for a day's work... you know, that's... that's what will...
we'll be WORKING TOWARDS
Q: Will we see hotfixes between 3.0 and 3.1 and 3.2?
Jeffrey Pease (DevOps Engineer):
Ok, ah... to answer that question probably the first thing we need to do
is establish what we consider a hotfix because different software
companies and even different videogame companies have different
definitions for what a hotfix is.
For CIG typically we consider the term HOTFIX to be for something we
apply to an ENVIRONMENT that's already been DEPLOYED... but where the
fix isn't something that's normally included... that... for the build
that environment's hosting... so like in a worst case scenario if... if
we were to RE-DEPLOY the exact same CHANGELIST that our backers can see
in the LAUNCHER for the version of the game, those fixes wouldn't be
included for a re-deployed version of that game because they were added
after the fact...
What this tends to mean is that... the fixes can go into the game
without players actually noticing that they've been added UNLESS we
specifically tell them... ah, to answer the question as to whether we
will SEE any hotfixes... the plain fact is that we have already hotfixed
a number of problems that were encountered over the holiday break,
Ahmed and Bryce as well as Tony and some of our other engineers and
programmers were looking into several issues that... were happening
with... the DIFFUSION GATEWAY and... our SHOPPING SYSTEM and... the
PROBABILITY VOLUME SERVICE because we had a bunch of problems where...
gameservers weren't recovering their ability to list items in the
SHOPS... we had a bu... a problem where... the PROBABILITY VOLUME
SERVICE was spawning a mission that was causing the gameservers to
deadlock, uh...
We had... a really strange issue where the gameservers were causing the
SHIPS to become PARENTS and CHILDREN of OTHER SHIPS which caused the
CIRCULAR REFERENCE... and then when the CACHE tried to clear the data,
because it was a circular reference, the cache would DEADLOCK because it
was just keep going ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND and uh...
And then... uh... another one that actually... some of the hotfixes for
the PERSISTENCE CACHE that we did were to put in additional LOGGING so
that we could figure out what was causing it to deadlock and then TOM
SAWYER ended up figuring out that the deadlock was being caused by that
CYCLICAL REFERENCE and then we also did a hotfix to the GENERAL
INSTANCE MANAGER because I discovered that it was trying to matchmake
people into matches... that weren't supposed to let people in once
they'd already started... so for example for VANDUUL SWARM and um...
PIRATE SWARM and... RACE MODES... once the game would START, people
can't join, but it was trying to put them IN and it was telling them,
'you can't join that because it's already started', so another one of
the hotfixes we put in was to make it so that the GIM would stop doing
that...
And uh... we also have... this... new FEATURE... for 3.0... for the
BACKEND SERVICES where we... have... a DEDICATED PROCESS that will take
all of the items that people have purchased on our PLATFORM... and...
add them to their ACCOUNT in game... originally the servers that would
do that would be the same servers players were ON and if one of those
servers CRASHED it would cause problems with items being missing and
stuff
So now we have a dedicated process for THAT... that... because it's not
shared with instances that players are playing on we don't have to
worry about it crashing in the middle of someone getting the items into
their account... one of the GIM hotfixes that we added was to exclude
those specific processes from the ROLLING RESTARTS THAT WE DO TO THE
GAMESERVERS... uh, I think that covered most if not all of the hotfixes
that we did.
Kirk Tome (Lead Tech Designer):
Ah, the FREELANCER, ahm... OK well, uh... it... it IS one of the
original five ships for Star Citizen that were planned, um... and we do
know that backers are waiting for them, uh... ah... for the... for
them... so for that we do apologize... uhm... I do know that they are
scheduled to BEGIN WORK, uh, in the LATTER HALF OF THE YEAR, um.. by
the... uh... UK TEAM, um... this... um... doesn't, uh, GUARANTEE that
they'll be DONE by... by the end of the year but... uh... we are
STRIVING to make that happen... um... and... um... we do... we do know
how much the um... the ah... the (mumble mumble mumble) so we... we ARE
working on them and we, ah... DO (mumble) to get them STARTED... and
we'll TRY to get them COMPLETED um...
Unfortunately as you know um... we do have a lot of ships that we're
uh... MAKING and a lot of FEATURES that need to go in the game that also
require artists and design and engineering work, so... things do get
pushed back but um... but they're on the SCHEDULE so uh... we'll...
we'll... TRY to get them OUT, ah... by... by the end of this year
Um... also uh... something that in OTHER NEWS the 300 SERIES rework uh,
is also on the schedule for this year and uh, that will be done by the
team in LA so um... we'll um... we'll be working on it here locally
Q: Is the current way we spawn ships and vehicles in game the FINAL implementation? IE, using a terminal and popping them in?
Luke Pressley (Lead Designer):
Um, there are definitely further plans for development, ehrm... So, the
TERMINAL probably, like... the notion of going to a TERMINAL probably
won't change, eh... ehm... the TERMINAL will definitely change, the UI
on there will get major improvements... ehm... and the kind of FLOW of
it... but... as for like POPPING IN AND OUT? I guess the reason you're
seeing so much popping in and out is because places like OLISAR and
GRIMHEX... ah... it only has landing pads right now it doesn't have the
HANGARS... Erm... URH!
You see these things pop in and out on these landing pads it SHOULD be a hangar.
It... wuh... lak... eh OLISAR is like a LEGACY kind of thing we just
build on and build on until we finally get like the TRUCK STOP and uh,
you know, we'll get a... a FINAL HOTEL eventually and it'll have some
HANGARS and that means that all of this popping in and out will happen
AWAY from the player, you know, he won't be able to go in that hangar
before he has access to the ship and then he'll be granted access to the
hangar and he'll go in... now, that's not to say that we can ever
completely get rid of popping in and out, ehm...
I mean for instance when a player logs out, you know, his ship hangs
around for an amount of time and then it has to go somewhere, ehm... and
then a player logging in, I mean obviously that ship has to come in...
some... I mean... where he parked it before, if he left it, up... you
know... on his... um... NOT STORED
So I don't think we'll get rid of it entirely, we are a game after all,
but... we, you know... you won't be seeing them popping in and out on
the landing pads as often as you do now.
OLISAR is a MONSTROSITY, I mean, you're about to see something that's
about to get even WORSE because you know, the RECLAIMER is HUGE, it's...
it's almost the size of the IDRIS and... eh... that's coming soon, so
we've had to just... the lLARGE landing pad that is already like a
football field is now gonna be like two football fields on there...
So I mean it's good because we don't, we don't WASTE like final art or
anything like that, we just, you know EXPAND UPON this thing until we've
got... until we KNOW all the things that it needs to do, ehm... and
then... and once we've got that we can build this thing PROPERLY,
knowing all the pieces
@rpmcmurphy ;I feel that who does those transcripts only does so to sham the developers for not speaking in a clear speech. Intentionally adding the pauses, "uuhs and aahhs".
I see some shaming Erin Roberts with such type of transcripts because he does stutter when he speaks... It's quite of a low-level insult doing so as some people simply struggle with it. O.o
@rpmcmurphy do you realize that usually when you translate voice to text transcripts you should remove the "uuhs and ahhs" of it?
I feel that who does those transcripts only does so to sham the developers for not speaking in a clear speech.
I see some shaming Erin Roberts with such type of transcripts because he does stutter when he speaks... It's quite of a low-level insult doing so as some people simply struggle with it. O.o
I feel that's reaching. When I've seen the uhms and ahhs included it has always come across as showing how they are thinking a lot of this stuff up on the fly instead of having clear design goals. I never view it as people trying to shame the devs for lack of clear speech, stuttering or what have you, that seems rather paranoid or an attempt to make it malevolent when it wasn't intended.
I feel that's reaching. When I've seen the uhms and ahhs included it has always come across as showing how they are thinking a lot of this stuff up on the fly instead of having clear design goals. I never view it as people trying to shame the devs for lack of clear speech, stuttering or what have you, that seems rather paranoid or an attempt to make it malevolent when it wasn't intended.
I think it is intended, it's obvious the uuhs and aahs and other pauses that do normally exist are added intentionally to attempt to make a point about what they are saying. Like you just say, to imply they are making stuff up and do not have clear design goals. (on the SC topic we even saw the facial expression of a developer in camera is used to make similar argumentation)
I know when it comes to talking about design and plans most people I work with, including me, do speak in a lot of pauses like that, especially because it requires remembering and listing stuff you are to work on in the future in many discussions (several times with details not set in stone yet).
That's why I don't see anything not normal if we were to talk about something we are actively working on then we won't be answering with many pauses like that.
I feel that's reaching. When I've seen the uhms and ahhs included it has always come across as showing how they are thinking a lot of this stuff up on the fly instead of having clear design goals. I never view it as people trying to shame the devs for lack of clear speech, stuttering or what have you, that seems rather paranoid or an attempt to make it malevolent when it wasn't intended.
I think it is intended, it's obvious the uuhs and aahs and other pauses that do normally exist are added intentionally to attempt to make a point about what they are saying. Like you just say, to imply they are making stuff up and do not have clear design goals. (on the SC topic we even saw the facial expression of a developer in camera is used to make similar argumentation)
I know when it comes to talking about design and plans most people I work with, including me, do speak in a lot of pauses like that, especially because it requires remembering and listing stuff you are to work on in the future in many discussions (several times with details not set in stone yet).
That's why I don't see anything not normal if we were to talk about something we are actively working on then we won't be answering with many pauses like that.
Have you ever talked to someone who was passionate about a topic or knew a lot about a topic? Did you ever notice they rarely use uhm’s and ah’s because they know what they are talking about.
People who use a lot of those types of filler words either can’t organize their thoughts properly, need some public speaking experience or aren’t as smart as they think they are.
There are exceptions like a language barrier or trying to dumb down the subject so everyone can understand of course but this isn’t that.
Have you ever talked to someone who was passionate about a topic or knew a lot about a topic? Did you ever notice they rarely use uhm’s and ah’s because they know what they are talking about.
People who use a lot of those types of filler words either can’t organize their thoughts properly, need some public speaking experience or aren’t as smart as they think they are.
There are exceptions like a language barrier or trying to dumb down the subject so everyone can understand of course but this isn’t that.
Oh sure.
I also know people who work on complex projects with hundreds of people involved that are most of the time when going on camera, being asked things about the future development of the game that they aren't working on at the moment and/or directly involved with.
Not to talk about talking about things where the design details aren't finalized yet, the need to be careful to not commit with things that can change. Or even to talk about things they aren't supposed to go public about yet.
I know SC devs that literally stopped publicly taking questions on the chats and so because anything they say will be put somewhere as a confirmation of something, so I'm sure I myself under that pressure would certainly be under some serious uhm's and ah's if I was speaking instead of writing.
But some people, very visible on someone like Erin Roberts, simply have that communication struggle, but that's not a problem their jobs are not about being good at public speaking.
A fairly cogent Glassdoor entry on CIG talked about being required to perform for the videos, whether or not you were good, or comfortable, with it.
On the other hand, I do suspect that they absolutely cannot talk legitimately about what's going on behind the scenes. Might interfere with the River of Gold.....
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Have you ever talked to someone who was passionate about a topic or knew a lot about a topic? Did you ever notice they rarely use uhm’s and ah’s because they know what they are talking about.
People who use a lot of those types of filler words either can’t organize their thoughts properly, need some public speaking experience or aren’t as smart as they think they are.
There are exceptions like a language barrier or trying to dumb down the subject so everyone can understand of course but this isn’t that.
Oh sure.
I also know people who work on complex projects with hundreds of people involved that are most of the time when going on camera, being asked things about the future development of the game that they aren't working on at the moment and/or directly involved with.
Not to talk about talking about things where the design details aren't finalized yet, the need to be careful to not commit with things that can change. Or even to talk about things they aren't supposed to go public about yet.
I know SC devs that literally stopped publicly taking questions on the chats and so because anything they say will be put somewhere as a confirmation of something, so I'm sure I myself under that pressure would certainly be under some serious uhm's and ah's if I was speaking instead of writing.
But some people, very visible on someone like Erin Roberts, simply have that communication struggle, but that's not a problem their jobs are not about being good at public speaking.
It’s really not that hard to have a answer prepped for questions you can’t answer with “we are sorry but as that is still in the design phase we don’t want to comment on it as it could change” problem solved.
Now is it just possible everyone at CIG is just terrible at public speaking including Chris Roberts? Or is it possible these people aren’t as knowledgeable about the subject as they think they are
It’s really not that hard to have a answer prepped for questions you can’t answer with “we are sorry but as that is still in the design phase we don’t want to comment on it as it could change” problem solved.
Now is it just possible everyone at CIG is just terrible at public speaking including Chris Roberts? Or is it possible these people aren’t as knowledgeable about the subject as they think they are
Not at all.
There are quite a few factors that come to mind when speaking publicly of something, and I do not think that they know and rehearse the question, think they just know they are going to be on camera or going to pop in a show, the answers end in the same tone as the live stream QAs with questions taken from chats.
Now the answers to me are usually quite simple to understand, due to the nature of most of the questions are about things that are in the future and most certainly the design is not final, they have to consider quite a bit of things as they speak, from the "what I can and can't say" to "what Is or isn't or may be". Because most of the questions are design related.
So if someone was to ask the guy "What is being done on the optimization/stability front for 3.1?" the answer would certainly be more direct and less paused than the question that was "what about players trading aUEC with each other?" that is something they are to work on still, hence he had to dig into plans and designs that is what such is attm.
Q: Is buying ships with uAEC still a planned feature for alpha 3.1?
Todd Papy:
It is a planned feature, however with our current OPTIMISATION PLAN and
everything like that I don't think it will be hitting in 3.1.
Q: What are the plans for adding uAEC transfers between player characters?
Todd Papy:
So, ah, we actually already have that in the... in one of the DESIGNS
for SERVICE BEACON, um... we understands... like... you know... if you
go out on a mission with multiple characters... or multiple PLAYERS you
want to be actually able to, ah... um... be able to go through and...
and say, 'Hey, you know, I will give you a CUT of this', and... right
now... we know you can't do that... the plan is... is to be part of the
SERVICE BEACON design, whether or not that is the... the first TIER
that ROLLS OUT, that's... that's... something that, um, basically Tony
and I are still discussing.
Q: What about plans for a traditional MMO trade window?
Todd Papy:
The... the... that is basically be a MOBIGLASS, that is... that is kinda
SERVICE BEACON DESIGN of you know, hey, with the MOBIGLASS this is how
I, um... basically, ah... create CONTRACTS, so on and so forth, we
call it a SERVICE BEACON but it's... it's part of the MOBIGLASS and...
and how that would work were, um... it's PLAYER INITIATED CONTRACTS so
if you, um... are a HAULER and you want to hire a bunch of MERCHS or
you're a PIRATE and you wanna be able to PAY... you know... basically
people for a day's work... you know, that's... that's what will...
we'll be WORKING TOWARDS
Q: Will we see hotfixes between 3.0 and 3.1 and 3.2?
Jeffrey Pease (DevOps Engineer):
Ok, ah... to answer that question probably the first thing we need to do
is establish what we consider a hotfix because different software
companies and even different videogame companies have different
definitions for what a hotfix is.
For CIG typically we consider the term HOTFIX to be for something we
apply to an ENVIRONMENT that's already been DEPLOYED... but where the
fix isn't something that's normally included... that... for the build
that environment's hosting... so like in a worst case scenario if... if
we were to RE-DEPLOY the exact same CHANGELIST that our backers can see
in the LAUNCHER for the version of the game, those fixes wouldn't be
included for a re-deployed version of that game because they were added
after the fact...
What this tends to mean is that... the fixes can go into the game
without players actually noticing that they've been added UNLESS we
specifically tell them... ah, to answer the question as to whether we
will SEE any hotfixes... the plain fact is that we have already hotfixed
a number of problems that were encountered over the holiday break,
Ahmed and Bryce as well as Tony and some of our other engineers and
programmers were looking into several issues that... were happening
with... the DIFFUSION GATEWAY and... our SHOPPING SYSTEM and... the
PROBABILITY VOLUME SERVICE because we had a bunch of problems where...
gameservers weren't recovering their ability to list items in the
SHOPS... we had a bu... a problem where... the PROBABILITY VOLUME
SERVICE was spawning a mission that was causing the gameservers to
deadlock, uh...
We had... a really strange issue where the gameservers were causing the
SHIPS to become PARENTS and CHILDREN of OTHER SHIPS which caused the
CIRCULAR REFERENCE... and then when the CACHE tried to clear the data,
because it was a circular reference, the cache would DEADLOCK because it
was just keep going ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND and uh...
And then... uh... another one that actually... some of the hotfixes for
the PERSISTENCE CACHE that we did were to put in additional LOGGING so
that we could figure out what was causing it to deadlock and then TOM
SAWYER ended up figuring out that the deadlock was being caused by that
CYCLICAL REFERENCE and then we also did a hotfix to the GENERAL
INSTANCE MANAGER because I discovered that it was trying to matchmake
people into matches... that weren't supposed to let people in once
they'd already started... so for example for VANDUUL SWARM and um...
PIRATE SWARM and... RACE MODES... once the game would START, people
can't join, but it was trying to put them IN and it was telling them,
'you can't join that because it's already started', so another one of
the hotfixes we put in was to make it so that the GIM would stop doing
that...
And uh... we also have... this... new FEATURE... for 3.0... for the
BACKEND SERVICES where we... have... a DEDICATED PROCESS that will take
all of the items that people have purchased on our PLATFORM... and...
add them to their ACCOUNT in game... originally the servers that would
do that would be the same servers players were ON and if one of those
servers CRASHED it would cause problems with items being missing and
stuff
So now we have a dedicated process for THAT... that... because it's not
shared with instances that players are playing on we don't have to
worry about it crashing in the middle of someone getting the items into
their account... one of the GIM hotfixes that we added was to exclude
those specific processes from the ROLLING RESTARTS THAT WE DO TO THE
GAMESERVERS... uh, I think that covered most if not all of the hotfixes
that we did.
Using the amazing composer Geoff Zanelli to deliver the bit about money-laundry subplot lol "I wanted to make sure there was paperwork theme, because I know a lot of people care deeply about tax returns". @Turrican187 I highly recommend you this one. :P
Using the amazing composer Geoff Zanelli to deliver the bit about money-laundry subplot lol "I wanted to make sure there was paperwork theme, because I know a lot of people care deeply about tax returns". @Turrican187 I highly recommend you this one. :P
Heads up for those who wanted to make a career of stealing ships. Pirating and stealing a ship will only let you have that ship very temporarily, just for the session.
"Stolen ships, no matter how well the theft, will not be a long-term thing. You get to enjoy them for the session, but those ships will not be returning when you log back in. Stealing ships should be a short-term goal. Joyriding, piracy or selling them for scrap, not for growing your own fleet."
The original idea (below) that players will be able to steal a ship and then legitimize it for the long term was apparently forgotten.
"What will you do to combat insurance fraud? A ship cannot be sold without a legitimate hull id code. Claiming on the insurance policy invalidates the hull code on your previous ship, so if it was captured or stolen the new owner will be unable to sell the ship at a regular ship dealer. Additionally if you have claimed on a policy and someone is flying the stolen ship in a well policed system, the hull id will mark it as a stolen ship, the law will be after you and landing privileges will be denied on any lawful planet. You will be able to fly a “hot” ship to the less savory parts of the Star Citizen universe, where you will probably be able to land and may be able to purchase a fake hull id code, but it will take effort and not necessarily be cheap. "
It was apparently forgotten because when asked about it without the FAQ citation, Will Maiden from CiG said:
"If that was a thing, it isn't currently being discussed."
This pretty much obliterates one of the largest appeals of a pirate career and a hefty aspect of emergent gameplay (as shown by the large amount of devastated and sad aspiring pirates in the thread)
Heads up for those who wanted to make a career of stealing ships. Pirating and stealing a ship will only let you have that ship very temporarily, just for the session.
"Stolen ships, no matter how well the theft, will not be a long-term thing. You get to enjoy them for the session, but those ships will not be returning when you log back in. Stealing ships should be a short-term goal. Joyriding, piracy or selling them for scrap, not for growing your own fleet."
The original idea (below) that players will be able to steal a ship and then legitimize it for the long term was apparently forgotten.
"What will you do to combat insurance fraud? A ship cannot be sold without a legitimate hull id code. Claiming on the insurance policy invalidates the hull code on your previous ship, so if it was captured or stolen the new owner will be unable to sell the ship at a regular ship dealer. Additionally if you have claimed on a policy and someone is flying the stolen ship in a well policed system, the hull id will mark it as a stolen ship, the law will be after you and landing privileges will be denied on any lawful planet. You will be able to fly a “hot” ship to the less savory parts of the Star Citizen universe, where you will probably be able to land and may be able to purchase a fake hull id code, but it will take effort and not necessarily be cheap. "
It was apparently forgotten because when asked about it without the FAQ citation, Will Maiden from CiG said:
"If that was a thing, it isn't currently being discussed."
This pretty much obliterates one of the largest appeals of a pirate career and a hefty aspect of emergent gameplay (as shown by the large amount of devastated and sad aspiring pirates in the thread)
If anyone is surprised at this point that CIG will walk back promises then they must have had blinders on or their head buried in the sand
Like I said elsewhere, no pirating of ships is convenient for the developers, but not very immersive for the players. It does kinda strike at the heart of the game too. as a long term, expressed play style.
Essentially, a cop out.
And how many more to go....?
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if tenthousands of GOON voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I sense something necessary has happened."
Wasn't this always one of the reasons why the game was apparently not P2W?
What's irritating about them walking back on things like persistant ship theft is this why people funded the game, it was these difficult-to-do features that normal AAA games were not bothering with and why CIG were going to be different.
@Erillion Plenty of fans on Spectrum and the subreddit who are not happy with this, plenty of people who were planning their playstyle or their org's playstyle around this. The trouble here is that once again the devs run their mouth (to gain more money/players) before knowing if something feasible.
Comments
Q: Is buying ships with uAEC still a planned feature for alpha 3.1?
Todd Papy:
It is a planned feature, however with our current OPTIMISATION PLAN and everything like that I don't think it will be hitting in 3.1.
Q: What are the plans for adding uAEC transfers between player characters?
Todd Papy:
So, ah, we actually already have that in the... in one of the DESIGNS for SERVICE BEACON, um... we understands... like... you know... if you go out on a mission with multiple characters... or multiple PLAYERS you want to be actually able to, ah... um... be able to go through and... and say, 'Hey, you know, I will give you a CUT of this', and... right now... we know you can't do that... the plan is... is to be part of the SERVICE BEACON design, whether or not that is the... the first TIER that ROLLS OUT, that's... that's... something that, um, basically Tony and I are still discussing.
Todd Papy:
The... the... that is basically be a MOBIGLASS, that is... that is kinda SERVICE BEACON DESIGN of you know, hey, with the MOBIGLASS this is how I, um... basically, ah... create CONTRACTS, so on and so forth, we call it a SERVICE BEACON but it's... it's part of the MOBIGLASS and... and how that would work were, um... it's PLAYER INITIATED CONTRACTS so if you, um... are a HAULER and you want to hire a bunch of MERCHS or you're a PIRATE and you wanna be able to PAY... you know... basically people for a day's work... you know, that's... that's what will... we'll be WORKING TOWARDS
Q: Will we see hotfixes between 3.0 and 3.1 and 3.2?
Jeffrey Pease (DevOps Engineer):
Ok, ah... to answer that question probably the first thing we need to do is establish what we consider a hotfix because different software companies and even different videogame companies have different definitions for what a hotfix is.
For CIG typically we consider the term HOTFIX to be for something we apply to an ENVIRONMENT that's already been DEPLOYED... but where the fix isn't something that's normally included... that... for the build that environment's hosting... so like in a worst case scenario if... if we were to RE-DEPLOY the exact same CHANGELIST that our backers can see in the LAUNCHER for the version of the game, those fixes wouldn't be included for a re-deployed version of that game because they were added after the fact...
What this tends to mean is that... the fixes can go into the game without players actually noticing that they've been added UNLESS we specifically tell them... ah, to answer the question as to whether we will SEE any hotfixes... the plain fact is that we have already hotfixed a number of problems that were encountered over the holiday break, Ahmed and Bryce as well as Tony and some of our other engineers and programmers were looking into several issues that... were happening with... the DIFFUSION GATEWAY and... our SHOPPING SYSTEM and... the PROBABILITY VOLUME SERVICE because we had a bunch of problems where... gameservers weren't recovering their ability to list items in the SHOPS... we had a bu... a problem where... the PROBABILITY VOLUME SERVICE was spawning a mission that was causing the gameservers to deadlock, uh...
We had... a really strange issue where the gameservers were causing the SHIPS to become PARENTS and CHILDREN of OTHER SHIPS which caused the CIRCULAR REFERENCE... and then when the CACHE tried to clear the data, because it was a circular reference, the cache would DEADLOCK because it was just keep going ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND and uh...
And then... uh... another one that actually... some of the hotfixes for the PERSISTENCE CACHE that we did were to put in additional LOGGING so that we could figure out what was causing it to deadlock and then TOM SAWYER ended up figuring out that the deadlock was being caused by that CYCLICAL REFERENCE and then we also did a hotfix to the GENERAL INSTANCE MANAGER because I discovered that it was trying to matchmake people into matches... that weren't supposed to let people in once they'd already started... so for example for VANDUUL SWARM and um... PIRATE SWARM and... RACE MODES... once the game would START, people can't join, but it was trying to put them IN and it was telling them, 'you can't join that because it's already started', so another one of the hotfixes we put in was to make it so that the GIM would stop doing that...
And uh... we also have... this... new FEATURE... for 3.0... for the BACKEND SERVICES where we... have... a DEDICATED PROCESS that will take all of the items that people have purchased on our PLATFORM... and... add them to their ACCOUNT in game... originally the servers that would do that would be the same servers players were ON and if one of those servers CRASHED it would cause problems with items being missing and stuff
So now we have a dedicated process for THAT... that... because it's not shared with instances that players are playing on we don't have to worry about it crashing in the middle of someone getting the items into their account... one of the GIM hotfixes that we added was to exclude those specific processes from the ROLLING RESTARTS THAT WE DO TO THE GAMESERVERS... uh, I think that covered most if not all of the hotfixes that we did.
Kirk Tome (Lead Tech Designer):
Ah, the FREELANCER, ahm... OK well, uh... it... it IS one of the original five ships for Star Citizen that were planned, um... and we do know that backers are waiting for them, uh... ah... for the... for them... so for that we do apologize... uhm... I do know that they are scheduled to BEGIN WORK, uh, in the LATTER HALF OF THE YEAR, um.. by the... uh... UK TEAM, um... this... um... doesn't, uh, GUARANTEE that they'll be DONE by... by the end of the year but... uh... we are STRIVING to make that happen... um... and... um... we do... we do know how much the um... the ah... the (mumble mumble mumble) so we... we ARE working on them and we, ah... DO (mumble) to get them STARTED... and we'll TRY to get them COMPLETED um...
Unfortunately as you know um... we do have a lot of ships that we're uh... MAKING and a lot of FEATURES that need to go in the game that also require artists and design and engineering work, so... things do get pushed back but um... but they're on the SCHEDULE so uh... we'll... we'll... TRY to get them OUT, ah... by... by the end of this year
Um... also uh... something that in OTHER NEWS the 300 SERIES rework uh, is also on the schedule for this year and uh, that will be done by the team in LA so um... we'll um... we'll be working on it here locally
Luke Pressley (Lead Designer):
Um, there are definitely further plans for development, ehrm... So, the TERMINAL probably, like... the notion of going to a TERMINAL probably won't change, eh... ehm... the TERMINAL will definitely change, the UI on there will get major improvements... ehm... and the kind of FLOW of it... but... as for like POPPING IN AND OUT? I guess the reason you're seeing so much popping in and out is because places like OLISAR and GRIMHEX... ah... it only has landing pads right now it doesn't have the HANGARS... Erm... URH!
You see these things pop in and out on these landing pads it SHOULD be a hangar.
It... wuh... lak... eh OLISAR is like a LEGACY kind of thing we just build on and build on until we finally get like the TRUCK STOP and uh, you know, we'll get a... a FINAL HOTEL eventually and it'll have some HANGARS and that means that all of this popping in and out will happen AWAY from the player, you know, he won't be able to go in that hangar before he has access to the ship and then he'll be granted access to the hangar and he'll go in... now, that's not to say that we can ever completely get rid of popping in and out, ehm...
I mean for instance when a player logs out, you know, his ship hangs around for an amount of time and then it has to go somewhere, ehm... and then a player logging in, I mean obviously that ship has to come in... some... I mean... where he parked it before, if he left it, up... you know... on his... um... NOT STORED
So I don't think we'll get rid of it entirely, we are a game after all, but... we, you know... you won't be seeing them popping in and out on the landing pads as often as you do now.
OLISAR is a MONSTROSITY, I mean, you're about to see something that's about to get even WORSE because you know, the RECLAIMER is HUGE, it's... it's almost the size of the IDRIS and... eh... that's coming soon, so we've had to just... the lLARGE landing pad that is already like a football field is now gonna be like two football fields on there...
So I mean it's good because we don't, we don't WASTE like final art or anything like that, we just, you know EXPAND UPON this thing until we've got... until we KNOW all the things that it needs to do, ehm... and then... and once we've got that we can build this thing PROPERLY, knowing all the pieces
I see some shaming Erin Roberts with such type of transcripts because he does stutter when he speaks... It's quite of a low-level insult doing so as some people simply struggle with it. O.o
Thank you for the transcript. I prefer being able to read over having to watch a video.
I feel that's reaching.
When I've seen the uhms and ahhs included it has always come across as showing how they are thinking a lot of this stuff up on the fly instead of having clear design goals.
I never view it as people trying to shame the devs for lack of clear speech, stuttering or what have you, that seems rather paranoid or an attempt to make it malevolent when it wasn't intended.
I know when it comes to talking about design and plans most people I work with, including me, do speak in a lot of pauses like that, especially because it requires remembering and listing stuff you are to work on in the future in many discussions (several times with details not set in stone yet).
That's why I don't see anything not normal if we were to talk about something we are actively working on then we won't be answering with many pauses like that.
People who use a lot of those types of filler words either can’t organize their thoughts properly, need some public speaking experience or aren’t as smart as they think they are.
There are exceptions like a language barrier or trying to dumb down the subject so everyone can understand of course but this isn’t that.
I also know people who work on complex projects with hundreds of people involved that are most of the time when going on camera, being asked things about the future development of the game that they aren't working on at the moment and/or directly involved with.
Not to talk about talking about things where the design details aren't finalized yet, the need to be careful to not commit with things that can change. Or even to talk about things they aren't supposed to go public about yet.
I know SC devs that literally stopped publicly taking questions on the chats and so because anything they say will be put somewhere as a confirmation of something, so I'm sure I myself under that pressure would certainly be under some serious uhm's and ah's if I was speaking instead of writing.
But some people, very visible on someone like Erin Roberts, simply have that communication struggle, but that's not a problem their jobs are not about being good at public speaking.
On the other hand, I do suspect that they absolutely cannot talk legitimately about what's going on behind the scenes. Might interfere with the River of Gold.....
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Now is it just possible everyone at CIG is just terrible at public speaking including Chris Roberts? Or is it possible these people aren’t as knowledgeable about the subject as they think they are
There are quite a few factors that come to mind when speaking publicly of something, and I do not think that they know and rehearse the question, think they just know they are going to be on camera or going to pop in a show, the answers end in the same tone as the live stream QAs with questions taken from chats.
Now the answers to me are usually quite simple to understand, due to the nature of most of the questions are about things that are in the future and most certainly the design is not final, they have to consider quite a bit of things as they speak, from the "what I can and can't say" to "what Is or isn't or may be". Because most of the questions are design related.
So if someone was to ask the guy "What is being done on the optimization/stability front for 3.1?" the answer would certainly be more direct and less paused than the question that was "what about players trading aUEC with each other?" that is something they are to work on still, hence he had to dig into plans and designs that is what such is attm.
Is this gonna be CIG's new Tank Command game ?
MAGA
https://youtu.be/fS6FpCpt5m4?t=4m53s
Using the amazing composer Geoff Zanelli to deliver the bit about money-laundry subplot lol "I wanted to make sure there was paperwork theme, because I know a lot of people care deeply about tax returns". @Turrican187 I highly recommend you this one. :P
you owe me a coffee and a screen cleaning service.
"Colonel Blair Funeral Theme" cracked me up ....
Have fun
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/50259/thread/insurance-and-cheating-the-system/916039
"Stolen ships, no matter how well the theft, will not be a long-term thing. You get to enjoy them for the session, but those ships will not be returning when you log back in. Stealing ships should be a short-term goal. Joyriding, piracy or selling them for scrap, not for growing your own fleet."
The original idea (below) that players will be able to steal a ship and then legitimize it for the long term was apparently forgotten.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/faq/Insurance-FAQ
"What will you do to combat insurance fraud?
A ship cannot be sold without a legitimate hull id code. Claiming on the insurance policy invalidates the hull code on your previous ship, so if it was captured or stolen the new owner will be unable to sell the ship at a regular ship dealer. Additionally if you have claimed on a policy and someone is flying the stolen ship in a well policed system, the hull id will mark it as a stolen ship, the law will be after you and landing privileges will be denied on any lawful planet. You will be able to fly a “hot” ship to the less savory parts of the Star Citizen universe, where you will probably be able to land and may be able to purchase a fake hull id code, but it will take effort and not necessarily be cheap. "
It was apparently forgotten because when asked about it without the FAQ citation, Will Maiden from CiG said:
"If that was a thing, it isn't currently being discussed."
This pretty much obliterates one of the largest appeals of a pirate career and a hefty aspect of emergent gameplay (as shown by the large amount of devastated and sad aspiring pirates in the thread)
Essentially, a cop out.
And how many more to go....?
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Have fun
What's irritating about them walking back on things like persistant ship theft is this why people funded the game, it was these difficult-to-do features that normal AAA games were not bothering with and why CIG were going to be different.
@Erillion Plenty of fans on Spectrum and the subreddit who are not happy with this, plenty of people who were planning their playstyle or their org's playstyle around this. The trouble here is that once again the devs run their mouth (to gain more money/players) before knowing if something feasible.