Star Citizen - down to its last 1600 alpha slots

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Canterbury, Apr 13, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Working backwards, no, there's no monthly sub. Some people get confused when they see subs on the SC site (which you might have?), however, these are a voluntary thing to fund the weekly video shows, monthly publication, etc. Totally optional. Once you have your pledge, you are good to go for as long as those servers keep running. Keep up the insurance payments on your ship (in game) and you can be blown up as much as you want and still get your ship back.

    (Earlier pledges got "Lifetime Insurance" or LTI on their ships so they don't have to pay in-game insurance on their hulls. Kinda like buying a house in SotA at Citizen or above and not having to pay any in-game taxes on it...)

    As for how the game works, it's always handy to keep in mind it's a space sim first and foremost, so sitting in the cockpit (whether it's a small one man ship or a much larger ship with a crew), is the #1 aspect of the game. However, there will also be walking around on planets and in hangars, and there will also be an FPS component working its way into the game over time to cover ship boarding and other activities planetside that might involve shooting it out for some reason.

    There's actually a percentage of people who are coming at Star Citizen from the FPS side of things... they seem to think it's going to be Halo or something... but they are going to be really disappointed, I think. That's why I try and downplay any walking around or FPS elements because, absolutely they are in the game and they will be a lot of fun, but I think people need to remember it's a space sim, first and foremost, and if you like space sims, you'll love Star Citizen.

    PS: And being in the cockpit doesn't mean it's all about dogfighting... plenty of people want to be explorers, miners, couriers, all sorts of professions. It's a very big sandbox and you can tweak your ship(s) to suit different roles.
     
    Dhimmi, Athelstan, Time Lord and 3 others like this.
  2. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    To be clear on a couple of things, the single player aspect of Star Citizen -- Squadron 42 -- is a fairly tightly controlled storyline sort of thing. You aren't free to roam the game's universe in it. So it's not "Star Citizen single player".

    Also, as I was saying earlier, I think EVE is like playing a spreadsheet. I can't stand it. But tons of people love that stuff and Star Citizen is nothing like a spreadsheet. So plenty of people will stick with EVE. I have no doubt about that.
     
    Dhimmi and Time Lord like this.
  3. Duffrey Blake

    Duffrey Blake Avatar

    Messages:
    720
    Likes Received:
    1,558
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Bravehaven
    Ccp is also developing a star citizen like space / dogfight sim: http://evevalkyrie.com. If they connect this to the eve universe in the way they did with Dust 514 then this will be the star citizen killer.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  4. Jatvardur

    Jatvardur Avatar

    Messages:
    2,020
    Likes Received:
    3,002
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    CH

    Thanks for taking the time to explain that. It helps to give a better picture of the game. I'm less keen on fps and the dog-fighting aspect of the game, while I think that is cool it isn't something I typically enjoy. I think this is why SC has wider appeal than SOTA. I'm more interested in the sandbox aspects. For me, existing in an interesting sandbox universe is most fun; player to player interactions and emergent gameplay. Quests, RP, fighting etc is secondary.

    I did see the monthly sub on the website and had assumed it was a normal monthly sub. Again, thanks for clarifying that. I'm still considering if I'll pledge, I'd be interested to play it as a break from SOTA but unlikely to be as involved.


    Back in 2006 (?) I was following an indie game called Infinity Quest for Earth. It was a procedurally generated space-sim which was heavy on the sandbox elements. It had a bold plan and a scope which was grander than SC. A lot of cool things in SC were already considered for that game. Unfortunately their dream was bigger than they could manage. Someone on SC even created a thread about it: https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/13366/infinity-quest-of-earth They are looking to kickstart a "dog-fighting module" though, full-game is way off it seems.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  5. Silent Strider

    Silent Strider Avatar

    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    1,343
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Actually, you can play the persistent universe offline, and thus in single player. I actually only got my pledge for SC after making sure of that — Chris Roberts believes in never allowing players to completely opt out of PvP, so I will never play on the official servers, and I have little interest in Squadron 42. What I want is a successor to Wing Commander Privateer, and one where I can do all the PvE content of the game without ever bothering with PvP.
     
  6. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    If Dust514 is any guide of the EVE team's ability to branch out into other areas (in Dust's case, trying to crack the FPS market), I think Chris Roberts will be sleeping pretty easily at night.

    Only the most die-hard of die-hard EVE fans thinks Dust is any good. Last I looked, it was barely over 50% on one of those big meta-score websites.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  7. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Maybe it's just semantics here, but I don't believe it can be played offline as you would still need to be running the universe on a private server (which is possible, yes), and connecting to that, to play the game.

    Is that your plan? To set up a private server? Totally doable, but even in that universe, unless you get into the code and start re-coding the game, you are going to be attacked by NPCs in various parts of the 'verse.

    To be honest, I don't know why you wouldn't just log into the official game server, and throttle your PvP slider down to "no PvP" and play the game that way? The result would be much the same, and the 'verse way more dynamic.
     
    Dhimmi and Time Lord like this.
  8. Retro

    Retro Avatar

    Messages:
    568
    Likes Received:
    1,496
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Actually he explained why in your other thread:

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...nd-opportunity-right-here-in-sota.8538/page-7

    to which I replied:
    Then you scolded me for going off topic: "Community" ;) (sorry about that btw)
     
    Time Lord and Silent Strider like this.
  9. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I went back and read it and, if I'm reading it correctly, the argument boils down to, "the PvE might get very hard and that would be like PvP". At which point I have to say, I'm sorry, I totally get people who don't want to PvP, but when you start wanting to avoid PvE because it might get hard, you're starting to lose the whole point of the game*. As I said earlier, even on a private server, there will still be PvE unless you go and, like, hack the game code or something.

    (*I mean, to say more about that, what is the actual challenge at hand if you can just putt around the universe, never being attacked by NPCs or, if you are, they are always easybeats? The game would turn into clicking on stuff, and making money, and being top of the heap... but surely in a very, very hollow way? To me, that's the equivalent of going down the local park and kicking a ball through an empty goal 50 times and thinking you're great at soccer, or something...)
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  10. Adiun Tesserande

    Adiun Tesserande Avatar

    Messages:
    577
    Likes Received:
    670
    Trophy Points:
    75
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    College of Arms Building, Kingsport
    Actually, Canterbury, you just described my dream space sim. I would love to ship things from one planet to another without any risk of combat. For me, the stock market-style gambling inherent in buying something with your own money on speculation that it might sell at your eventual destination is a thrill I can't begin to describe.
     
    Joviex, Time Lord and Jatvardur like this.
  11. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    That may be -- and more power to you -- however, if a game is based around the risks that a trader might encounter, to play a version of it where there is absolutely no risk at all (ie: to the extent of even wanting the PvE enemies removed), I think succeeding at that would feel awfully hollow. It's essentially playing the game in "god mode" at which point I think one has to stop and ask oneself if they're really "playing" the game at all, if they have it crippled to that extent.

    Vitally, I don't want this to appear to be me complaining about non-PvP people. I think you know where I stand on PvP via dozens of other posts I've made. This is me, however, commenting on the integrity of a game's design. I think if a game is designed to be played in a certain way, it should be played that way. I don't like seeing games crippled and then people showing off their "phat loot" or achievements when they didn't really play the game as it's intended to be played.

    If a game was designed, meanwhile, to have no PvP at all, and that was the way everyone played it, I'd have no problem with anyone's achievements in it. Hope that shows my line of thinking in this area.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  12. Sir Mike Dragon

    Sir Mike Dragon Avatar

    Messages:
    128
    Likes Received:
    232
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    St Louis, MO
    Ok, so I backed it this weekend, picked up the base 300i package. Looks pretty cool. So now I'm wondering, is there some way to get veteran status like people have done here by adding on a pledge/merge. I saw some talk about it but was short on time to do any real research and figured I would go through a Shroud person if I were to do it.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  13. Silent Strider

    Silent Strider Avatar

    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    1,343
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Actually, I want the hardest PvE challenges the game can throw at me, but I simply won't play non-consensual PvP. I've played, and beaten, every single Wing Commander game on the hardest difficulty, after all.

    It's why I really dislike the way Star Citizen is going to handle PvP and the slider thing. Chris Roberts is tying challenging PvE to accepting the chance of non-consensual PvP. This works for those that want easy PvE without PvP, and for those that want challenging PvE mixed with PvP, but leaves anyone that wants challenging PvE without PvP high and dry.

    BTW, using a private server running on the same machine as the client for solo play has been described by Star Citizen's devs as playing offline. Which, BTW, is something you likely do in many games with multiplayer capability, even if you don't notice it; the current version of Minecraft, for example, has the multiplayer server always running on the player's machine whenever he is playing. This is not new; Quake 3 did the same a long time ago, and many games by ID Software (and the studios that were born from it) ever since use the same architecture.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  14. Silent Strider

    Silent Strider Avatar

    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    1,343
    Trophy Points:
    113
    As far as I know, no. Unless you find some veteran willing to sell his early pledge, but in that case expect to pay reasonably more than the pledge was originally worth.

    Just like SotA, in SC people that backed early could increase their pledges, and get extra ones, with the same conditions as during the KS campaign for a year after the KS ended. That time has now passed, which means new veteran pledges can't be created anymore.

    (Actually, it's SotA that did copy SC here, though with the SC devs being fully aware of and supporting the idea ;) )
     
    Joviex, Time Lord and Sir Mike Dragon like this.
  15. Sir Mike Dragon

    Sir Mike Dragon Avatar

    Messages:
    128
    Likes Received:
    232
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    St Louis, MO
    Ah well, no worries. Just thought if there was a way I'd probably bump it. In that case I may just buy the upgrade to the 325 and leave it at that.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  16. Canterbury

    Canterbury Avatar

    Messages:
    1,458
    Likes Received:
    3,874
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    No, you can't change that status at SC. It wasn't really like SotA where founders could "create" new founders, anyway. Basically it was older pledgers were able to use their ability to buy ships with LTI (ie: lifetime insurance), and then gift them, but LTI has ended now. This created a grey market for existing ships with LTI, which are still traded online today, and usually for silly amounts of money. LTI sounds cool, but it's not really worth what people charge for it now.
     
    Time Lord and Sir Mike Dragon like this.
  17. Sir Mike Dragon

    Sir Mike Dragon Avatar

    Messages:
    128
    Likes Received:
    232
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    St Louis, MO
    Those last Alpha slots are going pretty fast. Just over 1,100 left. Also only 9k away from everyone getting their Towel, lol.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  18. Shade Cido

    Shade Cido Avatar

    Messages:
    192
    Likes Received:
    437
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    London UK
    You could try Elite Dangerous, currently in Alpha and looking really nice. Its further along the SC, as they've already released a single player DFM with a number of missions, and have just released alphas that include trading and Outfitting. The game is similar in alot of ways to SC, however it has a larger universe, as each station/planet is not indivdually crafted/designed, but created procedurely. It also is ALOT easier on hardware. The DFM plays quite easily on my Laptop with a playable DPS (Hangar module for SC plays at about 1 fps on the same laptop). The DFM is pretty stable, with very few bugs that I have seen.

    Its a lot more basic than SC, as it does not have the FPS element. However the Trading/exploration/Combat is still there, and the way the economy is going to work seems to be along the same lines as the Star Citizen Universe.

    There is no Non consensual PvP as the game creator David Braben stated he was making a game that he wants to play and one of his pet hates is 'Being griefed by Teenagers'.

    David Braben was the co creator of the very first 3D Space Sim/Sandbox game - Elite. This game had 3D graphics, an open universe allowing you to trade, explore, pirate, bounty hunt, mine asteroids and run missions. A full trading system, an upgradeable ship and over 2000 planets in 8 Galaxies- All in only 22Kbytes of Memory! This post probably uses more memory than that...


    Definately worth looking at if you're not that keen on the Non Con PvP or are worried about Hardware restrictions that Star Citizen has.

    Check it out at http://elite.frontier.co.uk/
     
  19. Silent Strider

    Silent Strider Avatar

    Messages:
    1,067
    Likes Received:
    1,343
    Trophy Points:
    113
    £85 pledge which includes all future expansions already ;)

    I'm getting SC for playing single player offline (since I'm still in love with Wing Commander Privateer, and playing SC offline should be a really good match) and ED for online multiplayer (groups where if a player ever shoots another player he is automatically kicked out should keep PvP way down, and if that fails I can always go for single player online).

    On top of that there was some talk by a dev about the NPCs being dynamically made harder and more aggressive when playing without PvP, which is exactly what I want. Not sure if that will end up in the game, but it was mentioned some time ago as a possibility.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  20. Wonderboy2402

    Wonderboy2402 Avatar

    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    37
    Trophy Points:
    8
    I backed the game back at around the $17 million dollar point. I didn't during the kickstarter because I didn't appreciate the bold scope they were aiming for. But as you can see the funding has continued to surge upward and more content is slated to be injected into the game.

    Of course, quite a bit of this is years and years away from every being in our hands. Short term we will be getting the dog fighting module to play with (and it will be very buggy). We will get Squadron 42 hopefully before the end of 2014. And the persistent online universe? Maybe in 2015. But this game is going to be simmering for years as more features get added.

    So long term it will fantastic if they can accomplish what they are doing. But even though it has been years since this project started, there is a long road before the game is something great. To claim it will dethrone X game or be the biggest thing ever... well, to early to make those claims.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.