Star Citizen - Sneak Peak

You can watch some FPS gameplay of Star Citizen here.

More information.

It should be noted that the video was just showing the stability improvement over the first person view. The current alpha version make it very hard to target things properly and it also has terrible headbobs.

If you wants to see something awesome what you really wants to watch is the Gamescom Live Alpha 3.0 video though.

Originally Posted by azarhal
If you wants to see something awesome what you really wants to watch is the Gamescom Live Alpha 3.0 video though.

Wow, just wow., Looks real good !

Is it known how much an RPG Squadron 42 will be?

Originally Posted by azarhal
If you wants to see something awesome what you really wants to watch is the Gamescom Live Alpha 3.0 video though.

When does the awesome start?

Seriously, though. I don't really understand the recent surge in these types of space games. Space is cool, yeah, and this specific game has an $82 billion budget, but these types of games seem to resemble more of a flight simulation than something with actually interesting gameplay and fun to be had. To me, anyway.

I also noticed that this game definitely seems to live up to its title. It essentially does look like a "space citizen" simulator.

Edit - Minor quibble, but this video should also have a 4K option, imo.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Is it known how much an RPG Squadron 42 will be?

From what I've read, I get the impression not too much of an RPG, but more a Wing Commander string of missions.

The big question for me is how the single-player version of the persistent universe will play out. They say it will be a cut-down version of the main game, and released well after the main MMO. I have zero interest in MMOs, so this is the bit I'm really interested in, though I'm fairly pessimistic.

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
Wow, just wow., Looks real good !

All of their trailers from the very start of the crowdfunding campaign have looked really good so far but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that none of that has really materialized in any way in a playable fashion.
It's like EA showing off their latest Star Wars Battlefront trailers. That always looks really awesome as well but then you play the game and it is… not quite like that .
That's why -as an original backer who has followed the project closely for four years now- I would advise caution with any marketing material from CIG.

They have free fly weekends on a somewhat regular basis so anyone can download the latest client and have a look for themselves. If anyone here is genuinely interested in the game, I would advise to wait for the next opportunity (probably around October 10 since that will mark the four year anniversary) and give it a spin.

The game is still far, far away from release (years). I have always been interested more in the campaign (Squadron 42) which is still officially scheduled for this year (not gonna happen) and I'm hoping they will at least have a new tentative date to share at CitizenCon (October 8th). It's a "little" overdue (was originally scheduled for Q4/2014).

Space is cool, yeah, and this specific game has an $82 billion budget…

Nah. It's almost at $124 million now .

Is it known how much an RPG Squadron 42 will be?

Zero. The original plan was a classic space sim in the good old Wing Commander tradition and then they expanded it to include ground FPS missions as well so it will have a mix of space combat and FPS ground combat (at its very core it's CryEngine after all).
It will probably be a very cinematic game with lots of cutscenes. They have spent months and many millions of $$$ shooting/capturing footage for Squadron 42 in London (with Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, John Rhys Davies, Mark Strong, Rhona Mitra and many more…).

My question is this, if they would have made a game like Privateer, would the game be finished already? That was the game i was hoping this would be when it first was announced. It's heard for me to get real excited because i am just not into MMO's.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Nah. It's almost at $124 million now

Cool. I hope a good chunk of that goes towards interesting gameplay content and not just the latest graphics technology.

If this were released soon I could see it reaching internet-breaking levels of anger, No Man's Sky-style. If it's still years away, well, we'll see how it goes.

Originally Posted by DarNoor
My question is this, if they would have made a game like Privateer, would the game be finished already?

It's Chris Roberts so the answer is 'no' . As long as he has money and no deadline…. well, see ---> Star Citizen.

Originally Posted by Fluent
If it's still years away, well, we'll see how it goes.

It's a long way off. No one really knows how close Squadron 42 might be but given the still wonky flight model and FPS mechanics (this sneak peek is showing a long overdue step in the right direction because many people, including myself, got sick playing the game in FPS mode) it's not going to make it this year and I wouldn't really count on the first half of next year either.

The persistent universe is easier to judge based on what is out there, what is in development and what has been promised as per the stretch goals.
For example, the game is supposed to ship with 100 star systems "at launch" ($6 million stretch goal). Well, we are currently at exactly 1% of that because there is still only a single system in the current alpha.
So, 99 systems to go which -even with lots of asset recycling- is going to take years all by itself.

Another example: Gameplay systems. You can currently do some racing (in a separate module from the alpha so it's not really "in the universe" yet) and run a few simple combat and fedex missions.
The missing list includes off the top of my head: Trading, mining, smuggling, bounty-hunting, SAR, passenger transportation, salvaging, repairing, exploration, electronic warfare, science & research, refueling and multi-crew gameplay for the capital ships like the $2,500 Javelin class destroyer.

It goes without saying that the development, implementation and especially testing, iteration, refinement, patching of all of these highly complex gameplay systems will take several months *per* system or up to "years" with some of the really complex ones like bounty-hunting which also has a PvP element and really needs to be balanced very well.
They have also promised a huge supply & demand driven complex in-game economy with literally millions of AI agents going about their business so that one is also going to take a little while.

Finally, the game barely qualifies as a multiplayer game at this point, let alone massively multiplayer. The current alpha is a single instance with a 24 player limit. CIG has struggled with increasing the player count from 16 to 24 and it is currently very laggy and unstable for most people (except those apparently who are physically close to Austin, TX where the servers are hosted).
The game has only very basic persistence so far so most of the complex database systems are also not in place yet. There is no multi-instancing yet which is the main reason there is only a single star system. No interstellar travel mechanic, nothing.

They have lots and lots of work to do before this even becomes a MMO fledgling. And then it will be interesting to see what happens once they actually do have the basic technical/networking/instancing systems in place and start adding those complex gameplay systems from above… setbacks are guaranteed to happen… workarounds are going to have to be coded yet again, more delays, no increases in players per instance until the workarounds are finished, rinse, repeat… yeah, YEARS. Several ones. Maybe even another decade .

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Is it known how much an RPG Squadron 42 will be?

Depends what you mean by role-playing. Squadron 42 is going to have gender selection and character customization. Last year, Chris mentioned Mass Effect when talking about the game crew interaction/story/dialogues and it is supposed to have main and side missions. It's not class or level based though.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Another example: Gameplay systems. You can currently do some racing (in a separate module from the alpha so it's not really "in the universe" yet) and run a few simple combat and fedex missions.
The missing list includes off the top of my head: Trading, mining, smuggling, bounty-hunting, SAR, passenger transportation, salvaging, repairing, exploration, electronic warfare, science & research, refueling and multi-crew gameplay for the capital ships like the $2,500 Javelin class destroyer.

Eh, I guess I'm just not into space games much, because that stuff doesn't really sound too exciting to me. Exploration - cool, obviously. But it has to be something worth exploring in a place that invites exploration. Mining/bounty-hunting/typical space game stuff/etc. is not too fun for me, unless it's a game like Smugglers V. I would highly recommend that game if you're looking for a turn-based space RPG with similar elements.

I think this game looks pretty slow, too, which isn't automatically a bad thing. It's just the whole "slowly crawl towards a planet…enter the atmosphere…slowly get to the surface…" thing just seems boring to me. No Man's Sky had that thing going on, too, and I just thought it didn't look very fun. I like moving slowly in RPGs with nature/medieval/etc. sights to see, but crawling through space in an asteroid field…zzz.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Depends what you mean by role-playing. Squadron 42 is going to have gender selection and character customization. Last year, Chris mentioned Mass Effect when talking about the game crew interaction/story/dialogues and it is supposed to have main and side missions. It's not class or level based though.

Thanks, that's enough to keep me interested.

(Possibly exactly what Chris tried to achieve by mentioning Mass Effect.)

I wouldn't expect too much. The Wing Commander games also had dialogue options and things would sometimes play out a little differently depending on your choices but nothing major.

What Chris meant with the ME reference is the structure of the game. You do a space or ground mission and then you return to your "HQ" (= in most cases the Bengal carrier you are a crew member of) to interact with the crew a bit between missions.

So, as with Wing Commander (and ME) you will be able to make friends and foes, maybe do a little romancing even, and you can place a very safe bet that there will be at least one traitor among the crew.

I'm not so sure whether a little character customization and interacting with the crew really constitutes "role-playing". Most of the gameplay will certainly be all about space combat and FPS combat and I'm hoping very little of the latter because I pledged for what was advertised as a Wing Commander-like space sim and not for a FPS or a RPG .

Originally Posted by Moriendor
What Chris meant with the ME reference is the structure of the game. You do a space or ground mission and then you return to your "HQ" (= in most cases the Bengal carrier you are a crew member of) to interact with the crew a bit between missions.

You are the crew member of an Idris frigate (The Stanton), not a Bengal…unless you get promoted enough apparently which depends on how well you complete your objectives (or so said a German magazine last year).

Yes. It might be that you start out on an Idris but the main part of the game is pretty much guaranteed to take place on the flagship Bengal carrier of the UEE that CIG have been working on literally for years now.
The Idris only has a crew of about 10 people and can only carry… I believe 4 full-sized (like a Hornet) fighters if the ship stats pages are to be believed and up-to-date.
Squadron 42 would be long finished if it would only take place on a "small" ship like an Idris . One major reason it is taking so long is that they are doing the huge flagship Bengal in very minute detail.

Anyway, I remember Chris Roberts (and the ex-lead designer Rob Irving) stating that Squadron 42 is not exactly aiming to reinvent the wheel and that people who have played a WC game will feel right at home.

I'd say it's fairly predictable: You start out on an Idris ass-crack of nowhere as a recruit, fly some easy-peasy starter missions, get to know some crew and superiors, a bit later a routine mission ends up a mess when the Vanduul attack, Idris gets blown up, big fleet (including the Bengal) comes to the rescue at the last minute to pick up survivors, you are promoted to squadron leader, you get wingmen and women, you fly missions against the Vanduul, you will have to babysit squadron members a bit who are losing their shit or who don't get along, then at some point something really bad will happen where either the Admiral (Bishop) gets killed and/or your mentor… maybe the flagship even gets blown up after you fight Vanduul in FPS-style after they boarded the carrier and you escape with a capsule, then a huge treachery where one of your closest friends turns out to be a traitor, huge drama yada yada but you and the rest of the squadron decide to stick together even closer from there on, then more missions including ground/space/EVA FPS missions to explore shot down or derelict Vanduul ships for clues and then a final "death star" mission against the Vanduul mothership… all ending in a nice ol' cliff hanger so you can look forward to continuing the fight against the Vanduul in the PU.

/Nostradamus out

Originally Posted by Moriendor
The Idris only has a crew of about 10 people and can only carry… I believe 4 full-sized (like a Hornet) fighters if the ship stats pages are to be believed and up-to-date.

That 10 crew date back to the time it was a corvette, now it's frigate and the crew size was increased to 37(stats from last April). They haven't said anything about it carrying more fighters though.