I've sunk a ridiculous amount of money into this game, considering what I spent for others (let us forget LoL ever existed for the purpose of this discussion).

I hope it's as stellar as all the hype makes it all to be. It'd probably be a first ;)

what is the estimation for this going into BETA? 3-5years?

Where can I get a Christmas themed avatar?

Is anyone getting this one?

I just read about the RSI Constellation Mk3 a 3 person ship so you get to pilot with a friend while another player gets the turret and to pew pew.

General Overview

Ships in the Star Citizen universe aren’t just pretty shapes, they are fully functioning vehicles with hundreds of of components, many of which move and articulate as you imagine they would on a real spaceship. Because of this when we design the ships of Star Citizen we have to do more than create something that looks cool, we have to actually think about how the parts of the ship fit together, how they move. If a missile pod or weapon folds into the fuselage we have to make sure there is room for it. We have to worry about the ergonomics of the cockpit, or living quarters inside a bigger ship, how a gantry or a ladder folds out to allow the pilot to climb in, how a door or canopy cantilevers out. In short we have to do industrial design and engineering as much as we do aesthetic design.

This attention to detail extends to things like the engines, the various ship systems; avionics, life support, the various modular upgrade and the weapons.

How Engines Work

All spacecraft performance is based on a linear series of engine components which can be upgraded in thousands of possible combinations. Pilots will treat their engine systems like their PCs, adding modifiers to increase the performance, upgrading the engine as though it were a CPU and even overclocking them (and risking flame-outs!)

INTAKES | MODIFIERS | ENGINE | THRUSTERS

INTAKES are the hydrogen ram scoops on the front of the spacecraft which fuel it by gathering spaceborne hydrogen.. Upgrades alter the effectiveness and the profile of the vehicle; the more effectively a ship takes in fuel the more efficient its engines. The tradeoff is that, unless countermeasures are installed, this also increases the radar signature. The appearance of the ship is altered as well: more primitive intakes look like physical fan blades, others glow different colors as heat capacity increases.

MODIFIERS are a generalized slot for any kind of tech that affects the overall performance of the engine. The list includes engine coolers, exhaust systems, overdrives, afterburners, over clockers and other similar systems. Different ships can have different numbers of modifiers in a chain. The Aurora has a single modifier slot and so a pilot must decide between an afterburner and a cooler… the 300i has two, the pilot has more options.

The ENGINE is the core power plant of the ship. Engine output varies depending on manufacturer, model and type (types include Fission, Fusion, Anti-Matter, etc.) Each selection offers you a different base performance. Engine model examples: General Fusion 3000, Merlin Agena-L, Korolev Atlas III, Suncom Omega.

THRUSTERS are the end of the chain, the physical output point of the engine. They modify the overall engine output: burn at different rates, impact the range, increase or decrease the radar profile of the ship (you might pay extra for “silencer” thrusters which don’t give off such a large drive plume,) etc. Here you will see a significant visual difference: different size nozzles, different colors of thrust, etc. THRUSTERS are defined by two values; its THRUST RATING (TR), which determines the amount thrust it can deliver. The bigger the number, the larger and more powerful the thruster. A 10 rated thruster would be used on a cruiser’s main engines, and a 1 rated thruster would be a maneuvering thruster on a RSI Aurora. You can normally fit a thruster of the same or lower rating but you couldn’t attach a 5 rated thruster to a 3 rated thruster slot. Most ships have a combination of a few higher rated thruster slots for the Main Engine thrust and at least 4, but more usually 8 lower rated thruster slots for the Maneuvering and Retro thrusters. The maneuvering thrusters are used to change the ship’s orientation as well adjust its overall velocity vector. Retro thrusters arrest the ships velocity. Frequently a front mounted maneuvering thruster will also perform retro fire duties.

The second important value for a thruster is its ARTICULATION TYPE; Fixed doesn’t move. The thrusters on the Apollo lunar lander would be classified as fixed. Then there are Jointed thrusters; these are rigid nozzles that can rotate on one or two axis. After this there are Flex thrusters; which can articulate on one or two axis, but aren’t rigid. Think of these like the nozzles on a Harrier or an F-35. Finally there are Vectored thrusters – which have vector flaps that help direct the stream of exhaust.

As an example the Hornet has one 4 rated Vectored Main Engine thruster, four 2 rated flex maneuvering jets (with the front two also performing retro duties) on the top and four 2 rated jointed thrusters on the bottom.

Upgrade Modules

A ship’s Upgrade Capacity defines its ability for a ship to add additional modules or systems to the base hull. Some upgrades–for instance, an enlarged cargo hold–will require more than one upgrade slot.
The number and combination of potential upgrade modules is nearly limitless, but some examples include:

Enhanced Cargo Hold -alters your ship’s overall cargo capacity. These come in different flavors: one might give you more room, another might include an electromagnetic barrier that hideS contraband from police scans.

Internal Bulkhead – increases your ship’s capacity for taking damage (available in different materials: plasteel, durasteel, isometa etc.)

Avionics Upgrade – increase your ship’s targeting range, friend or foe identification speed, depth of field, etc. with any number of internal computer hardware updates.

Refinery Tools – larger ships are capable of tractoring in spaceborne junk and asteroids. With a refinery lab aboard your ship you can reduce them to their core components, increasing immediate resale value.

Gun Capacitor – increase the amount of energy your ship can shift from engines to guns at any given time.

Jump Drive – if you’re going to travel from system-to-system, you’ll need a jump drive! Jump drives range from a journeyman model for ordinary pilots to complex explorer models that increase your chances when charting a new star system. Another option is a stealth model which reduces your “jump flash” and makes it easier for you to travel undetected.

Shield Generator – available in a thousand makes and models, each of which can be chained or tuned to a specific pilot’s preferences! Standard shield generators provide X protection at Y recharge for Z energy usage per second. Other models might reflect particular types of guns (ie, a 20% chance of deflecting an energy blast, but weak against physical shot and the like) and still others might impact a ship’s stealth. A strong forward “ramming shield” offers an option to players who want an alternative method of dogfighting…

Note that all of these upgrades also have tradeoffs. The ability to shift more energy to guns also decreases it from engines and shields, an increased cargo hold means that maneuverability or speed is impacted, etc.

Hardpoints



Every ship has hardpoints on which a variety of different weapons can be mounted. Each hardpoint has a classification. A lower classification can always be mounted on a higher classification hardpoint, but not the other way around.

CLASS 1: Fixed Gun. This is your standard forward facing laser, neutron cannon, particle gun, etc.

CLASS 2: Articulated Gun. Think the guns in Freelancer or the smart weapons found in later Wing Commanders. Class 2 hardpoints are rarer and more expensive, but they allow guns to rotate on an arc rather than fire point blank.

CLASS 3: Pylon. This is where you mount missiles, ECM units, radar pods, drop tanks, additional ammunition, special scanners, etc.

CLASS 4: Turret. Uses the same fixed guns as class 1, but mounted in a separate area of the ship which may be crewed by another person. Turret slots can also mount pylon-type weapons (i.e. a tractor beam or a chaff dispenser.)

Weapons
Weapons in the Star Citizen / Squadron are split into two major categories; Guns and Self Propelled (Missiles, Countermeasures)
Weapon Manufacturers

Behring – Terra-based weapons consortium. Outsources to a lot of designers and subsidiaries to be a one-stop shop for all your defensive needs. Think of it as a conglomerate of Springfield Arms and General Dynamics. They make guns, missiles, tanks, dropships, sentry drones, etc. mostly for the UEE but there are civilian models. Usually favor quantity of production over quality.
Popular models: P4AR – Standard issue rifle for the UEE military about as basic and recognizable as the modern M16. Also comes in the P4SC, a more compact and collapsible carbine version.

Klaus & Werner – some government contracts but mostly personal defense company. Almost exclusively handguns, rifles, and shotguns (both energy and hard-ammo).
Popular models: Model II Arclight – handheld laser made famous as Kyle Fenris’ sidearm on the hit Vid-Show The Frontier.

Associated Sciences & Development (ASD) – High-end weapons company. Usually their stuff is very expensive and exclusive. Mostly energy weapons but also some ‘specialty’ classes. Distortion cannons, rail guns, shredders, etc.
Popular models: Gained notoriety with the unveiling of the EE6 Electron Cannon. The blast would polarize the electrical charges on an atomic level, causing all sorts of destruction as well as some ugly, gruesome deaths. Consequently they have a somewhat tarnished reputation with the public.

Talon Weapon Systems – Croshaw-based munitions manufacturer, focusing mostly on missiles, bombs, and torpedoes. If it exists, there’s a Talon that can blow it up.

Joker Engineering – Small start-up company founded by an eccentric engineering whiz-kid named Barlowe Elias. Burst onto the scene by creating ‘specialty weapons.’ His weapons are generally favored by criminals and pirates because of their unusual applications, such as the Beacon Bomb designed to simulate a distress beacon with customizable distress calls.

Guns



Design Philosophy

Guns are an exception to the “more is better” rule that applies to all other upgrades. Looking back at the original Wing Commander games, there’s a clear jump: you had the original games where there were between three and eight gun types and players had a clear feel for each one and the later games where there were ten to twenty and they all felt light different colors of the same thing. Anyone can tell you which their favorite gun loadout in Wing Commander I or II was (and it will be different for each person) whereas few can tell you which guns the ships in Wing Commander III forward even had.

Like those earlier games, we want to design a few iconic gun types and then build on that canon (pun intended!) over time. Variation can be added with modifiers (gun silencer, gun cooler, over clocker) and different companies or subordinate models of the same weapon (perhaps the ASD Mass Driver is distinctly inferior to the Behring model.) But developing a new gun–say, introducing the first Particle Cannon–should ultimately be treated as a major event in the game world.

Gun Types (at Launch)

Energy Weapons

Behring Mk. V Laser Cannon
Clarkson Industries C44 Electron Gun
A&R Fix-mount Plasma Particle Blaster
Intergalactic Research Concepts Phased-Array Tachyon Cannon (“X-1”)

Ballistic (hard-ammo) Weapons

Klaus & Werner Mass Driver Cannon
ASD PN-21 Scattergun
Behring “Ripper” GaussGun
MaxOx 35mm Dredge Gun (fires AP Sabot rounds)

Self-Propelled Weapons



Note that all self propelled weapons are mounted on pylon-based launchers which can be attached to a class 3 or class 4 hardpoint. The same general class of self propelled weapons will be produced by any number of companies and we will encourage player loyalty to “their” brand. Maybe a more expensive ‘name brand’ missile has a little bit more of a kick, versus cheap store brands and even cheaper ‘discount’ missiles that have a higher rate of failure.

Missiles

Missile are defined by three important components;

GUIDANCE | PROPULSION | PAYLOAD

GUIDANCE: this can be Dumb (no target acquisition – this is the behavior of a rocket), Heat Seeking, Image Recognition, Friend or Foe.

PROPULSION; This is normally some form of a thermal jet propellant system; either a solid or liquid propellant. Some larger missiles can however use more exotic forms of propulsion, closer to what a spaceship will use.

PAYLOAD; this can be PBX High Explosive (HE), Nuclear (Fission and Fusion), EMP and Anti-Matter.

Examples of missiles in the Star Citizen / Squadron 42 world are;

Behring Arrow (Dumb/HE) (aka: Lemmings, Matchsticks)
Talon Devastator (Heat Seeking/Variable payload)
Behring Judge (Friend or Foe/HE or AP)
Talon IR4 Stalker (Image Recognition/HE or Anti-Matter)
Behring Mk2 (Friend or Foe/MIRV)
Joker XXV Vampire (aka “Leech”)
Talon Fusion Torpedo (Dumb/Nuclear)
ASD Chaff Auto-Dispenser Countermeasures
Joker XB-44 “TomatoCan” (IR or HS/HE Frag)
ASD BV-8 Blackout (Dumb or IR/EMP)
Talon SV32 Bulkhead Buster

SHIPS


Spacecraft design and construction have become big-business. Like the car industry of the 20th-22nd Century, many companies have tried their hand at building and selling the latest and greatest ships. Here is a list of the major companies still producing today:



Ship Manufacturers


ROBERTS SPACE INDUSTRIES (RSI)

The original creators of the engine that kickstarted humanity’s expansion into space, Roberts Space Industries build a wide range of spaceships that serve all needs starting at basic interstellar travel to deep exploration on the outer edges of the galaxy. The tagline is “Roberts Space Industries: Delivering the Stars since 2075”

ORIGIN JUMPWORKS GmbH

The BMW of the Star CItizen universe. Their craft are more expensive, sleeker looking status symbols, maybe more so than they’re worth? They get numbers instead of names: “Origin 300i,”"Origin 890 Jump,” “Origin M50 Turbo,” etc.

MUSASHI INDUSTRIAL & STARFLIGHT CONCERN (MISC)

Mass produces very efficient, modular ships, mostly armored freighters of different sizes that make them the preferred brand for traders and larger corporations.

DRAKE INTERPLANETARY

Ostensibly a legitimate company, it’s an open secret that they manufacture cheap, well-armed craft favored by pirates, to the point that they’re named in that vein: “Cutlass,” “Buccaneer,” “Privateer,” and “Marauder,” etc.

ANVIL AEROSPACE

Produces dogfighters, but with less of the pirate stigma. These ships are more expensive, less spit-and-glue.

Ship Information


Aurora

Builder: Roberts Space Industries
Crew (max): 1
Mass (empty): 15,000 KG
Focus: Exploration / Light Mercantile

The Aurora is the modern day descendant of the Roberts Space Industries X-7 spacecraft which tested the very first jump engines. Utilitarian to a T, the Aurora is the perfect beginner’s ship: what it lacks in style it makes up for in ample room for upgrade modules. Most pilots move up from an Aurora as quickly as their credit accounts allow… but a select few regard flying this venerable spacecraft as a badge of honor!

Upgrade Capacity: 4
Cargo Capacity: 5 tonnes

Engine-
Modifiers: 1
Max. Class: Fission
Thrusters: 1x TR3, 8x TR1

Hardpoints-
2 x Class 1: Equipped 1 x Behring Fixed M3A Laser Cannon
1 x Class 3: EMPTY

Similar to… Tarsus, Straith, Startracker, Y-Wing

300i

Builder: ORIGIN JUMPWORKS GmbH

Crew (max): 1
Mass (empty): 20000 KG
Focus: Dogfighting / Courier

If you’re going to travel the stars… why not do it in style? The 300i is Origin Jumpworks’ premiere luxury spacecraft is a sleek, silver killer that sends as much of a message with its silhouette as it does with its particle cannons. Some have accused Origin of putting style over substance and inflating the sticker price to match… but at heart the 300i is still an elegant dogfighter’s tool.

Upgrade Capacity: 6
Cargo Capacity: 8 tonnes

Engine-
Modifiers: 2
Max. Class: Fusion
Thrusters: 1x TR4, 12x TR1

Hardpoints-
2 x Class 1: Equipped 2 x A&R “Omnisky III” Laser Cannon
1 x Class 2: None Equipped
2 x Class 4: None Equipped

Similar to… Centurion, Icarus, Falcon, J-327

Hornet

Builder: Anvil Aerospace
Crew (max): 1
Mass (empty): 22,000 Kg
Focus: Dogfighting / Interception

The Hornet is the civilian version of the F7A Hornet flown off of the elite Bengal carrier vanguard of the UEE Navy. While not outfitted for long range runs, the Hornet can take her share of hits… and dish out a consistent, powerful response. The Hornet may be uglier than anything from Origin’s lineup, but pilots love them for their rugged reliability.

Upgrade Capacity: 6
Cargo Capacity: 4 tonnes

Engine-
Modifiers: 2
Max. Class: Fusion
Thrusters: 1 x TR4, 8 x TR2

Hardpoints-
2 x Class 1: Equipped 2 x MaxOx NN-13 Neutron Gun
2 x Class 2: Equipped 2 x Klaus & Werner CF-117 Laser Gatling
2 x Class 3: Equipped 4x Talon Devastator (HS) missiles
2 x Class 4: None Equipped

NOTE: On the military version of the Hornet the two Class 4 hardpoints are utilized by a Ball Turret with twin Laser Gatlings and a Canard Turret with twin Neuton Guns. The Ball Turret takes 4 Upgrade Slots (Its a ball turret or the decnet size cargo cargo hold)

Similar to… F-71 Stiletto, ML3B Freij, Liberty Defender, X-Wing

Freelancer

Builder: MISC (Musashi Industrial & Starflight Concern)
Crew (max): 2
Mass (empty): 55,000 KG
Focus: Long-Range Exploration / Heavy Mercantile

MISC is known for producing efficient, modular, middle-of-the-road ships, primarily transports of
different sizes. Freelancers are used as long haul merchant ships by major corporations, but they are just as frequently repurposed as dedicated exploration vessels by independent captains who want to operate on the fringes of the galaxy. Don’t let some of the alien technology in the cockpit surprise you: the Freelancer’s design owes several of its internal systems to a lend-lease deal with the Xi’An.

Upgrade Capacity: 10
Cargo Capacity: 20 tonnes

Engine-
Modifiers: 3
Max. Class: Anti-Matter
Thrusters: 2x TR5, 8 x TR2

Hardpoints-
4 x Class 2: Equipped 2 x Behring M3A Laser Cannon
2 x Class 3: Equipped 2 x Talon Stalker Image Recognition missiles
1 x Class 4: Equipped 1x Behring M5A Laser Cannon (turret)

Similar to… Galaxy, Gea Transit, Humpback, Imperial Shuttle

Constellation

Builder: Roberts Space Industries
Crew (max): 4
Mass (empty): 75,000 kg
Focus: Long-Range Mercantile / Space Superiority

When you think handsome bounty hunter making his own way in a galaxy of enemies, you think the Constellation. The Constellation, a multi-person freighter, is the most popular ship in RSI’s current production array. Constellations are beloved by smugglers and merchants alike because they are modular, high powered… and just downright iconic-looking. The Constellation includes a manned turret, a large cargo area and a small flight deck capable of launching a snub fighter in its own defense.

Upgrade Capacity: 14
Cargo Capacity: 35 tonnes

Engine-
Modifiers: 4
Max. Class: Anti-Matter
Thruster Class: 4 x TR6, 8 x TR3

Hardpoints-
2 x Class 1: Equipped 2 x Behring M3A Laser Cannon
4 x Class 2: Equipped 2 x A&R Pike IV Neutron Gun
6 x Class 3: Equipped 2 x Behring Judge missiles (Friend or Foe)
2 x Class 4: Equipped 1x Behring M5A Laser Cannon (turret)

Tender -
Short Range P52 Space Fighter

Similar to… Paradigm, Salvia, Armored Transport, Millennium Falcon

]

Hi everyone!

I get a lot of questions about how the whole persistent universe works and what I mean when I talk about battle instances.

I’ve given some answers but as it keeps coming up, I thought it would be good to give all of you a longer description in how this all works and fits together.

One of my goals with Star Citizen was to create a huge open world that you could adventure in solo, with your friends, mingling with NPCs and other real people.

Freelancer was built to have up to 128 players in multiplayer, but as a few of you know that was more a theoretical maximum than something that was really practical, especially back in 2003. When I started building Freelancer, partly inspired by the work done on Ultima Online (which was in development when I was still at Origin), the fun I was having playing multiplayer games like Command & Conquer and Diablo I had wanted to bring the Privateer experience into the bold new world of multiplayer. My original vision for Freelancer was to first release a single player game and then follow it up with massively multiplayer version with a dynamic economy and a world that reacted and adapted to the players actions.

I didn’t get a chance to deliver this vision and ultimately while Freelancer was a good game, it fell short of what I was aiming for.

With Star Citizen I was determined to combine what I wanted to achieve with Freelancer, with the personal experience that I think both Wing Commander and Privateer were so strong with.

But me being me, I wanted to combine things I like about the promise of a MMO, but avoid the aspects that I’m not so keen on like splintered player groups, griefing and grinding. I also was really impressed with how Demon’s Souls merged the single player experience with the multiplayer side.



All of this helped form my thinking on how Star Citizen is going to balance the difficult balancing act between multiplayer and single player.

All multiplayer games – whether they are a persistent world massively multiplayer game (MMO) like World of Warcraft or just an online multiplayer game like Battlefield 3 – have a limit to the number of players that can be active in anyone area or level. This number is usually inversely proportional to the amount of data that needs to go between the client and the server. For a game with complex physics and a fully destructible terrain, like Battlefield 3 the number of players that can active in an instance is less than a game with less real time fidelity like WoW, or Eve on Line. But in all cases there are always more players than any one server instance can handle. For a persistent multiplayer world like WoW the solution is to split up the player base into more manageable groups called “shards”, which are a permanent instance of the universe that look after a certain amount of players.

One thing I don’t like about most MMO structures is the fragmentation of the player base between these “shards”. If you had joined much later than a friend of yours, there may not be room on his world instance anymore and you have to join another parallel one and so cannot play together. This is one of the nice things about the Eve Online design – everyone plays in the same universe.

In Star Citizen there is going to be one persistent universe server that everyone exists on. So you will never be separated from your friends, and if you want you’ll be able to join up and adventure together, you can. Due to the fidelity of the dogfighting and physics simulation we can’t however handle thousands of players in the same area of space. Even if you had enough internet bandwidth to handle the data going back and forth and a super computer for the server there’s no PC, even with quad SLI that could render that many spaceships with Star Citizen’s fidelity.

So the “magic” of Star Citizen’s multiplayer design is how we combine a persistent universe with a more traditional (and easier to implement) temporary multiplayer “battle” instance.

The way it works is that the persistent universe server, which we’re calling the Galaxy Server, keeps track of all players’ assets, group relationships and locations inside the Star Citizen universe. As the Galaxy server isn’t handling any realtime action it can handle our complete player base, which right now would be about 45,000 players, but is designed to be able to scale to millions if need be. The other key thing the Galaxy Server does is dynamically place players based on their location, skill level, alignment and player versus player (PvP) preference into battle instances. Think of a “battle” instance like a Battlefield 3 multiplayer session or a World of Tanks Battle with the key difference that the selection of players is done transparently and is “in fiction”.

An illustration of how this would work is like this –

I start out planet side on New Pittsburg. I decide to buy a few tonnes of steel to fly to the shipyards of Terra. I’m currently in the hands of the galaxy server that communicates with my client and handles my purchases and interactions on the planet as these are not real time in the manner that the space action is. We render these in the manner of Freelancer, as detailed 3D environments where we see a third person view of our character in a location and we can click on Non Player Characters (NPCs) or terminals to buy / sell, upgrade your ship, get gossip, hear about a mission and so on. You’ll also be able to interact with other players via a chat interface. We haven’t fully worked out the player avatar handling planet side but the bar or private clubs will be where you can meet / chat to other players. Besides populating the bar with NPCs, the game will also populate the bar with other players. If there are more players planet side than there are slots of avatars in the bar the ones visible to you will be based off your friends list and then it will be based on relevance to you – a player looking for a wingman, one from a similar group, or maybe someone that you’ve been given a mission to find or hunt down. You will also be able to see the full list of players in the room if there are more players than there are slots. Default would be a drop down list for this, but as I hate anything that breaks the immersion, we’ll probably come up with a better in fiction way of seeing the list of players – maybe you tell the bartender who you’re looking for, maybe you can look at the door list for the bar.

Having bought my cargo I launch into space. If there are players already in orbit there will be an orbit instance already created. If it’s not full then I will be placed into that. If it is full then a new one will be dynamically created. All orbit (and battle) instances reserve slots for friends and persons of interest (POI), which can be NPCs or other players, so if you’ve launched and there are multiple orbit instances and you have friends already in orbit you should be placed into that instance. This is also the dynamic that will be applied if you want to follow another player – you can “tag” them as a POI and then the game will do its best to place you in the same instance as your POI. For instance if you tagged someone planet side and they launch your PDA with its future version of Siri will notify you that your POI is leaving, giving you a window to launch into space too.

Once in orbit I can pull up my Navigation computer and set a course for my destination. If its several systems away like Terra, the nav computer will chart a course through the relevant jump points. You will be able to adjust this like on Google maps, so if you click a different jump point on the system map it will then re-route you on the shortest path to your destination with that jump point as the first “jump”

Once I’ve plotted my nav course I would then engage auto-pilot and head towards my first “way” point on the path to my destination (a jump point, an interim space feature, like an asteroid belt and so on). At this point I’ve been handed back to the Galaxy Server, which is determining whether I will encounter a hostile, someone that has tagged me as a POI, or a predetermined encounter on the way, or if I’m going to run across ongoing battle instance that is relevant to me (some members of the instance are aligned against or with me). These encounters could be with an NPC or a live player(s) and are sorted on skill level and also – which is important to all of you that like a more single player experience and don’t want to deal with griefers – based on your player versus player (PvP) preference. So if you’ve set your game settings to be low PvP and you’re in a relatively safe area, you’ll likely have an NPC (PvE) encounter as opposed to a PvP one. Of course your ranking and any reputation you earn won’t be the same with a PvE encounter versus a PvP. My hope for this dynamic is that it will allow people to first play Star Citizen in a safer more single player open world style, but as they grow in confidence and want to test their mettle against other real players they can take the training wheels off and get into battles with real players. There will also be areas of the universe that no matter what your PvP setting is, will be PvP. These will be systems that are on the fringes of the policed galaxy and will be notorious for pirate and other illegal activity. They will also be the most lucrative areas – if you can survive.

Now if you’re flying with your friends, who you can link to via the game POI “tagging” system, they will be with you when you’re pulled into a battle instance, whether it is against NPCs, real players or a combination of both.

Once the Galaxy Server has determined that you will have an encounter based on the above criteria it either dynamically creates a battle instance, or puts you in one if one already exists at the encounter point, and that instance has room for new players. To exit this instance you either have to resolve the hostilities by defeating who’s targeting you, negotiating an exit or just outrunning them. Once in an instance you can put out a distress call to your friends. There are two ways people on your friends list (or squadron as we’re going to call it) can help. We save slots in all instances for friends to warp in to fight. To do this they need to be in the same system. If they are they can autopilot in to your rescue and will be dropped into the instance. If they’re not in the star system, if they can get to your system before the battle is over then they can join (but will only be able to join once they’ve reached your system). The second way for your friends to help out is by “dropping in” on your ship. This only works if it’s a multi person vehicle like the RSI Constellation. In this scenario they don’t need to be in your system, they just will drop in inside your ship and will be able to move around in first person, climbing into a turret to man it, or jumping in you P52 to fly it in combat while you fly the main ship (or they could fly your main ship and you pilot the fighter)

Once the hostilities or the event (sometimes you could be pulled into an instance because you came across a derelict ship or space station and we want to give the player a chance to explore) that triggered the drop out of auto-pilot has been resolved, you can hit auto-pilot again, get handed back to the Galaxy Server and go about your way on the nav course you’ve plotted.

You will always drop out at jump points and planets, where you will need to either make a jump to another system or land.

This process is continued until you reach your final destination, which in my example would be Terra, where I would use my comm system to negotiate a landing slot, which would take me down to the planet’s surface via an in-engine cinematic. Once planet side I’ll be able to sell my cargo, replenish my supplies and look for new opportunities via the third person planet side interface.

The advantage of this system is that is allows you to tailor your experience towards your preference – solo, co-op or full PvP. It also doesn’t partition you into different, parallel versions of the Star Citizen universe as everyone is kept on the persistent server. Because our battle or orbit / space instances are temporary, you’re never stuck

with one group over the long term and due to our heavy emphasis on friends and co-op, there will always be room for your friends to join you on your adventure; whether it’s against other players or NPCs.

The same instance system underpins the single player Squadron 42. If you’re playing off-line, your computer will be acting as the server and client, there will be no opportunities for friends to join and everyone will be an NPC. But if you play Squadron 42 through the Galaxy Server, even though your missions and space areas are pre-determined (you don’t get to pick where in the galaxy you are flying if you’re in the military) we will allow your friends to drop in / drop out to take over NPC wingmen and if you want extra skill ranking you can allow other players to drop in and take over enemy ace characters. This system is pretty similar to the Demon’s Souls setup where people could drop in as a Blue Phantom to help you kill a boss monster or fight off another invading player, or you could drop in as a Black Phantom to someone else’s world and try and kill them for XP and other gamerewards.

The key to all this is to allow player choice – you want to play alone you can, want your friends to join you in co-op we allow that and if you want to be challenged by other real players you can do that. The special part is that it can all happen in the same holistic universe.

I hope this helps in terms of understanding how we’re balancing the aspects of multiplayer as well as making the game fun.

You're not going to get the same guarantee you would if you deposited up to $100,000 into an FDIC-insured bank, no.

But neither is it a "leap of faith." I bet there are Kickstarters that WILL fail to deliver--all they have to do is pitch a convincing idea. It's coming, but since Kickstarts happen at the beginning/prior to development, it will be a while before we see the failures.

That said, I believe the most successful/mainstream kickstarters, like Project Obsidian and Star Citizen, will fully deliver.

I believe Kickstarter legally binds devs to put out what they promised by writing into the EULA with the dev that Kickstarter goes after them for the money they raised if they don't deliver.

MMOSPACE: AVAILABLE

EVE would fill the spot if I could get enough ISK to buy free game time, but I never could. Now accepting resumes for MMOSPACE

Count me in when this comes out.

If even half a dozen of us were playing it semi-seriously (like we do LoL) then we could accomplish really awesome things.