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Erin Robert's Interview And Studio Tour
Cotic
Member UncommonPosts: 268
Summary:
Hooks & Tangible Gameplay Coming with 3.0
There are a good few new tangible gameplay elements & hooks to play
in Alpha 3.0, there is a Number of New Shops & Items to Spend your
aUEC on.
We will have the first real form of Persistence, if you leave a ship at a
location or planet & logout there, you will spawn there when you
come back in, you might have ships that will be at different locations
around the Stanton System.
If you die you’ll go back to the last major zone or “respawn” area you were.
There is a logout timer when you try and logout, the idea being if you
try to logout somewhere extremely “unsafe” or while someone is fighting
you then you will very likely get killed.
But you’ll still have the ability to logout in an emergency OR if you can’t get back to a “safer” area.
There is still a reputation system for criminality & good guy bad
guy, BUT you’ll no longer constantly spawn just at Olisar & GrimHex,
there is a lot more locations & you’ll spawn back in where you
were.
You will be able to buy upgrades, systems, weapons & items for your ships.
Generated Missions, re-fueling re-arming, Planetary Exploration, Trading,
Replacing your Ship there is a lot of ways to make & spend you aUEC.
Insurance – Supply & Demand | The idea here is to
make common & cheaper ships more easily replaceable and available,
you’ll lose all items on it & be given a stock model when one is
available. Insurance will be cheaper with those common ships & if
you lose the ship it will be replaced quickly.
Whereas more expensive ships could potentially take days to replace
based on where it is on the Queue, if lots of Super Hornets keep dying
then it could be a bit of a wait for the next one.
The mortality of your ship & player will be much more important,
they want you to look after your ship and your character with
consequences.
Erin didn’t specify if ships were going to purchasable in 3.0 with aUEC,
so I suspect that omission means it’s unlikely BUT we will have to wait
and see.
Delta Patcher
They want if possible to get the Delta Patcher in Alpha 3.0 or just
after & that is the current plan, meaning that we won’t have to
download massive files every update & the potential for much
quicker, smaller patches, content, weapons, ships additions, hotfixes
& balance is there too.
Mining & Alpha 3.1
Mining is the next mechanic being added after 3.0 & will land in 3.1.
You’ll be able to land on planets, find deposits and then mine them up.
The quickest & easiest iteration of this is planetside, creating the mineral veins and allowing players to mine them.
3.0 represents the backbone and skeleton of the game, it allows them to
much more rapidly flesh out game mechanics & content as now a large
portion of the features & engine are done.
Gas & Asteroid mining will be a thing with Asteroid mining possibly coming with 3.1 as well.
Again with 3.1, there will be more shops, locations, stuff to buy, missions and content.
Erin is very excited about Jobs and Roles that support and lead on to
player interaction a lot of which will hopefully be coming with Alpha
3.1.
Like the information game, finding locations of asteroid fields, marking them for Nav Beacons and selling them on.
But also the Service Beacons which will allow us to request refueling,
distress signals, calling for aid in general and even Quantum
Interdiction, pulling players out of Q-Drive in an area of effect like a
net, which will require working out where trade routes are & if
players have made their own with Nav Beacons.
Ground Battles
Ground & Space Battles both can be of epic scale & in a lot of
situations will bleed over to combat over ground, air & space.
The System allows for an Idris to go close to a planet and unload it’s weaponry.
They are adding Tracked Vehicles, Static Defenses, Tanks, Missile Systems & more.
And a lot more of this is planning on coming with 3.1 as well, they want
locations where you cannot take ships because there are anti-air or
ship defenses that would need to be disabled first, so you would have to
go in on the ground with a group or stealth in.
Base Building
They have plans for Base Building mechanics later down the road too,
you’ll be able to spawn there, defend it, use it to store goods &
ships. But they will be attackable too & ground vehicles &
installations will be a big part of the combat there.
But players will be able to build functional bases, walls, habitation modules & lots more.
![[Deleted User]](http://w8.vanillicon.com/v2/8fb1f3555cfe9a83f4bfa1bdfb5cb3d0.svg)
Comments
Vertical Slice & SQ42
They still plan to show the Vertical Slice, SQ42 is different from the PU.
It’s a Standalone Game, they can’t have the whole community playing & help reiterate it, it would ruin it. They want SQ42 to be as polished as possible for release & for it to genuinely WOW people.
They will show the VS when it’s at that AAA polished WOW stage.
There will be a public schedule for SQ42 as well, it wasn’t specified when this would occur OR the depth of that schedule BUT it was said that it would be when they were ready.
They are planning some forms of more traditional advertising for SQ42 closer to release, a lot of marketing will be in a similar vein of what they have already done until now BUT I personally would expect coverage in Magazines, Websites & Trailers too.
Ship Progression
Ship Progression, Values & Costs of ships are all still being worked out.
They want the community to help with this as they go forward.
The idea is that some ships especially the larger ones are going to be extremely expensive & would be bought by an ORG or group together.
He equates the value of ships being bought now with IRL monies as effectively good value.
The smaller starting ships will be much more affordable in game, BUT prices will ramp up fast.
Building up your ship and becoming attached to it are part of the gameplay they are going for.
But with 3.0 and beyond they will work with the community to balance ship progression appropriately.
Other Human Forces
Outside of UEE Control there will be other Human Forces & Militias as well as more legitimate pirate orgs controlling areas, they will have their own look and style.
Fleet Battles
They will have control of systems dynamic too, if you force out the Vanduul of a system in the PU then that system may get colonized by humans or military outposts & patrols might pop up from the UEE.
Pushing the Vanduul out of a system would be hard BUT it is possible and part of the game mechanics BUT also would be large scale invasions from NPCs that could take control of a system if players & other NPCs don’t protect it.
But there will be massive NPC Fleet Battles, that players can get involved with if they want, which will also feature heavily in SQ42.
Players Effect on the Universe
Players will have effects on lore, missions and news in game. Players may become a very well known pirate & mission generated to kill OR hunt him. They have ideas for News teams following players and their actions, reporting on them, kind of like an assisted GM role that aid player narrative & overall plot, but could also help with broadcasts in news being displayed in game almost like a real news network.
PvP – Casual & Hardcore Players
Some areas of space will be heavily regulated by UEE or some form of NPC presence.
IF you attacked someone law abiding in an area with good communications & policing then you would quickly be marked as a pirate & they would attempt to hunt you down.
Eventually they want to remove the armistice zones & allow players more freedom BUT if you did pull out your weapon in a secure area you will likely be taken down very quickly by security.
Some areas might require you to give in your weapons before entering OR only allow players of a certain reputation to carry weapons.
This system has some exploits they want players to use, communication arrays monitor areas, flagging players & NPCs as pirates. These can be disabled allowing for players to potential kill another player before they are fixed, thus never being flagged as a pirate… the perfect robbery!
But communication can take a while to travel & you can potentially outrun, by travelling from system to system, the law. It’s all about Risk & Reward.
Getting captured or committing crimes may have various consequences, fines, KOS orders, bounties, being outlawed from areas.
They specific want legitimate piracy as part of the game BUT they will not reward griefing.
Modding, AWS & Partners
There is still a commitment to allowing & supporting Modding for Star Citizen BUT after the game is finished.
In regards to partners & sponsorships with the game, anything that makes sense for the game and the community is a possibility.
Star Citizen After Release Revenue Streams
They are sticking with that you purchase a game package then the game is free to play.
A revenue stream for them will be selling UEC for the game once it’s live, some people will play a lot OR grind mission to earn credits, some players might only have a limited amount of time BUT a disposable income and be able to purchase UEC to grab their next ship or weapon. Literally paying to offset time.
This should also help regulate unofficial “gold” sellers like you get in WOW & EvE as well as helping support the game.
They will however keep an open mind when it comes to how to support the game, if other revenue streams are necessary BUT this would be discussed & explored with the community.
Longer Term Studio Plans
They have no plans for game after SQ42 Episode 3 and Star Citizen at the moment, their focus is on getting SQ42 Episode 1 & Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 beyond out at the moment.
The Engine that they have built and now use can build any game, it’s a massive Universe simulator, that you could create a game OR a mode on a single planet to an incredible high level of detail OR just focus on a system OR larger.
We will start to see the scale and quality of what is possible with 3.0 Alpha.
They want to support the PU for at least 10+ years.
A lot of that will be creating new systems, professions, ships, weapons, content, gameplay.
They’d like a lot of the linear super high quality missions, similar to SQ42 to get into Star Citizen as well, with large story arcs that can be played with friends & groups.
The planets themselves are going to be huge with massive amounts of gameplay BUT they can do a lot with them for the game & possible new ones in the future.
Studio Tour
There isn’t much I can tell you about my studio tour, it’s under an NDA to not divulge the specific content of what we saw. There are a couple of things I can tell you:
There is a lot more ships, weapons, vehicles and items that they have been working on that we haven’t seen yet.
Delays in Alpha 3.0 have not stopped them working on 3.1, 3.2, Squadron 42 Ep1 & beyond.
I was very much looking for how accurate the Schedule Report was while I was there, everything that I saw (and went out of my way to see) matches what the schedule report says except they are a lot more fleshed out with certain tasks and beyond that there are things clearly for after 3.0.
And when Ben on Bensday with Batgirl, said there was a "gamechanger" concept ship in the future, he did mean it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6l0yr2/erin_roberts_interview_studio_tour_overview/
Still no release date. Getting frustrating.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
It's one great interview sharing details on some stuff that have been points of discussion for long.
Stuff like the Insurance bit on how the bigger ships can take up to days to get a replacement confirms the design direction of consequence when it comes to "death".
Less If's and more concrete information on this mechanics.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
https://www.redacted.tv/erin-roberts-interview-foundry-42-uk-tour-star-citizen-alpha-3-0-beyond/
Viking
Now it makes sense the whole "comm arrays on/off" stuff in the alpha, as PvP is not legal and crimes will be reported, the ability to criminals to disable comms in areas of space is the undermining pirates will want to do, but in the other hand the game is generating missions to lawful players to repair/re-enable and/or patrol to keep the lawful areas stables.
Literally, the opposite spectrums of players will generate missions and gameplay to each other, piracy will be of the trickiest balance though.
My guess is that ship prices will stabilize once the game is released, solely because if it remains an open market, there will be competition and cheaper avenues for obtaining the ships (for farmers). The nice thing about selling in-game cash is the ability to stabilize the economy. Also, though, they need to make sure that they don't entirely deflate the economy by funneling money into it. I would be much more in favor of a market that allowed players to resell currency earned in the game, opposed to simply injecting funds into the economy willy-nilly. I guess we'll see how that's handled.
Crazkanuk
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"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I think it's a very smart thing, because simply, if you want to buy a ship in-game, let's say you grind for half of it and then say... you might just put some money in and get UEC to cover the other half (say 50$), from me working in Marketing I can't stop seeing that as more effective to get a sale over someone who would never buy the item directly for cash.
But they will have to implement this first and see how it goes, most likely before release but full effectivity would only be achieved after launch due to the nature of progress wipes.
Yes, this is something that inquiring minds want to know. In the interview summary it mentions being 'able to purchase UEC to grab their next ship or weapon.' which unfortunately presents more questions than answers. The takeaway is that you will be able to buy enough UEC to grab your next ship but that is something that contradicts previous statements and documents.
It's not any unlimited thing from the information present on the website, the UEC limitation first announced is still in place (20$ /day), I expect that to change because the valuation will change due the massive in-game balance being done (millions to what was before thousands), either way the firstly announced limit was enough to buy most ships (at their current pricing ofc).
You can hear the audio interview for his specific words because that's just his resume of his interview, he doesn't give much detail either way.
It is also mentioned that ship prices will increase very quickly so if the wallet cap is still in place it would not be feasible to obtain enough cash bought UEC to purchase a ship. The comment contradicts previous comments, would be nice to get more answers on the subject.
I haven't listened to the audio, only read the summary. If what you say is the case then he should have presented the situation more clearly.
Yeah that's what I was saying, the whole rebalancing will greatly change valuations in many aspects, hence they will most certainly change and rebalance it, the progression is rather as explained there will be a big gap in how much players can earn through the different "tiers" of content.
Even though the way he resumed it is not directly wrong, the end of the day it works for it and anything else the currency can buy.
Housing and vehicles will only be available to buy with credits (UEC) in-game, as I understand it. Same with ships, upgrades, and other in-game items, but also physical merchandice is planned to sell in-game (you just specify your home address as delivery option instead of your hangar or ship).
Modules? If you mean game modules, as in present Hangar Module or Star Marine, I've not heard anything about selling them separately. On the contrary, the existing modules will be seamlessly integrated with the game. Arena Commander, Star Marine, and racing, will continue as in-game simulators.
Regarding buying credits with cash, they've said it'll be like it is now (more or less), where you can buy credits for max. $25 per day (24 hours) and max. accumulation to $170. These limits may be different in the future.
As for saving up credits to buy ships in-game, it has been said once or twice that a regular player could typically afford to buy a Constellation after earning credits for about 60 hours of gameplay. Obviously this can change with balancing so don't take it as written in stone. If we use the same Constellation example, and the ship costs 300,000 UEC ($300 today) in-game, you could maybe buy the ship with credits you bought in about 12 days (300 / 25 = 12) - if there's no max. limit for accumulating credits bought with real money and you can stack these upto the required amount to buy the ship. If they keep the current accumulation limit you'd have to get the rest of the required price with in-game credits.
Viking
The current plan is $25 per day, $750 per month but you can only hold $125 worth of UEC at any time. As you say that can obviously change.
As per that interview, prices are going to ramp up very fast. A Constellation costing 300,000 UEC today might cost 3,000,000 UEC at launch.
What I want to know is how long do they anticipate it would take to earn 3 million UEC. Are they increasing prices so that there is a real grind and people feel the need to supplement their acquisition of UEC with cash bought UEC? It's the sort of practice a lot of studios implement when they are selling currency, I do hope it is not the case here.
I'd expect the final economic system will be considered fair by most players.
Viking
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Brings the need to draw a line to when it is griefing and what it is not, I guess the grief will be a topic in safe areas where players should be safe from that happening and have ways to say, run away and not be forced to engage, and on the unsafe areas of space per default players should be prepared and aware pirates would be lurking around for targets.
edit. one very good idea for griefing in safe areas would remove or minimize the death consequence and loss a player would have if griefed.
I hope by prepared means motivating group play, so you still can go do your things as a group that isn't any easy target. I like that because it would fight that usual MMO "solo-play" and provide a different experience.
Griefing is something no one want, except the griefers of course, so I expect a zero tolerence policy with severe sanctions to be enforced.
Viking
(and don't tell me that those 10 NPCs are acting like players, then they need to be tracked by the server like a player AND are exploitable in many ways)
Whats then with NPC camping, this renders all mining ships useless because we have our drones to do this and they are easy kill able in mining ships.
Whats with the economy if a player found an abadoned Hull-E full of expensive ore (Do multiplayer ships despawn when the owner is disconnected? what happens with all the other people on the ship? do they also desapwn or are they sent to the nearest station? can this be exploited for a quick station access? etc etc).
Or a Hull-E full of ore where I killed the captain (if the player closes the client, will the ship despawn?)
Now I just sell all this ore on the market for a dumping price, what is NPC 10to1 now doing.
Basically this 10to1 ratio will make it much easier to play the auction house game and other players will get rich through this system.
When you have cake, it is not the cake that creates the most magnificent of experiences, but it is the emotions attached to it.
The cake is a lie.
You may find answers here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/13128-The-Star-Citizen-Economy
Viking