State of the Empire, #8

Greetings Citizens!

It was another busy week for CIG.. lots of stuff happening!

We started off the week, by crossing the $37 Million mark, which is keeping funding going at about a million dollars every two weeks (that’s.. really kind of nuts still).

$37 Million gives us the next “Player Selection” system type:

• Tanga System – At the heart of an unusual rectangular planetary nebula, lies Tanga System. The inner planets were engulfed as the star entered the red giant phase. The expanded habitable zone unfroze a small world on the former outer ring and for several hundred million years made it habitable. Life began to emerge and was just reaching a primitive state when the star collapsed into a white dwarf, throwing the planet back into a deep freeze, then blasting the atmosphere away with the resulting planetary nebula. That’s how the system was found: Only two worlds (speculation that there could have been three to four more) but both are dead planets with no atmosphere.

We also got the $39 Million goal revealed:

• UDS-2943-01-22 System – Breaking news: UEE astrophysicists based at the famed Klavs observatory station have utilized advanced telescopy and other remote sensing technologies to identified a truly unusual star system on the fringes of know space. The object, once thought to be a single massive star, is actually a trinary star consisting of two white dwarfs and an active pulsar orbiting one another. Because of the complex gravitic factors at work, it is now believed that a jump point leading to the system likely exists in or near explored human space. Beyond the bizarre stellar makeup, the composition of the system is all but unknown. Could planets exist in this carefully balanced web? What else might have been drawn there? One thing is certain: the first Citizen to travel to UDS-2943-01-22 will have one hell of a view!

There is also one more final “system type” vote for us to participate in, to determine the $40 Million goal.  The remaining three options are:

• Lost Human Colony
• Tevarin Ghost World
• Xi’an Science Outpost

So, head over and Vote (Xi’an!)

Organizations are the next big item for the week, going live on this past Monday… and having just under 5,000 organizations created in the first twelve hours!

The new organization system, also means no more chat roll (eventually)! (Yay!), replaced instead with a XMPP based chat system (default channels are “General”, “Backers”, and “Subscribers”).  You also get channels for the Organization you are in (if any).  Because this is XMPP based, it means that you can sign in via any XMPP client (on your phone, from a web browser, etc..etc..) and never be far from your SC crew, CIG has posted an FAQ on XMPP here.  Here’s the official ‘they’re live’ announcement.  We got an additional breakdown on Organizations on Friday, to see how they’d grown during the week.

By Friday afternoon, there were 9,291 Organizations, 27 with more than 100 members, and 1 with over 1,000!  We got a nice graphic showing the breakdown by archetype, and primary role.. here is a snippet of that:

 

It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on how this breakdown changes, as more information about different aspects gets solidified as development progresses.

 

This week wasn’t all about Organizations though, we also got a poll gathering some input on what a CIG partnered Joystick/HOTAS device should do – including what brand of Joystick/HOTAS people prefer currently:

Greetings Citizens,

During the last livestream, Chris Roberts spoke about how Cloud Imperium would love to partner with a joystick manufacturer to create genuine Star Citizen hardware. We’re investigating our options now, and we need your help. We’ve created the following survey to help gather data that will let manufacturers know how much interest there is such a product. Please take a moment to let us know about your gaming habits and how you intend to enjoy Star Citizen!

We would also be interested to know what features you would like to see in custom Star Citizen hardware. Please sound off in the comments below with your suggestions.

Make sure you head over to the post here, and get your voice heard.

 

Friday brought us our weekly dose (streamed this time!) of Wingman’s Hangar, and 10 For The Chairman.

Wingman’s Hangar Episode 54 highlights:

• Now that they’re in the new office, staffing is ramping up.  3 new hires down in Austin this week.
• Another Development Summit coming up this week in Austin (teams from all locations coming in to work together, get to know each other, etc..etc..)
• Nose Cam returned, giving us a peek at the Austin office getting ready for the Summit..Place looks much more ‘lived in’ now, they have artwork up on the walls, etc.
• Re-iterated that Ben will be moving to LA, and working out of that office starting the 1st.
• The Next Great StarShip is starting shooting now (out in LA).

Forum Feedback was very video oriented this week, still some good questions though:

Q: Will CiG control commodity prices?
A: Will have to have some control, so economy doesn’t stall/collapse.  Will use various tarriffs/taxes/etc..

Q: Recruitment campaign for SQ42?  [note:  It sounded to me like this was in reference to a ‘refer a friend’ type deal]
A: “maybe”

Q: Will the AI seek out people (on planets/stations), or will players have to initiate contact for missions?
A: Goal to have AI be involved enough to seek people out

Q: If someone decides to hijack ship, will there be some kind of remote control possible/high tech deadman’s switch?
A: Maybe some limited ways to do that, but not widespread.. don’t want to nerf the pirates too much

Q: Engine noise final in Alpha, or potential to change as things go on?
A: Everything is alpha and subject to change.

Q: Holiday/Real World Events in game?
A: Yes, if they make sense (UEE is Earth based). will also be new ones (UEE Formation day!)

Q: Will Food/Drink affect characters? (getting drunk, etc..)
A: No… that’s tedious

Forum Feedback was followed by this week’s 10 for the Chairman:

Q: Will CIG allow videos of Star Citizen?  [note: this is in reference to monetization on YouTube, and the recent issues with some games]
A: Yes.

Q: Will insurance premiums go up, if you lose your ship more?
A: If it’s due to insurance fraud/bad behavior..possibly

Q: How will we disengage from combat? Do we have to have a faster ship?
A: Balance thing, not 100% figured out yet.. running away/radar image manipulation/hiding in environment

Q: How will in game ship buying/selling working.. search for appropriate vendors/negotiate prices?
A: Buying/Selling immersive.. showrooms/salespeople.. some negotiation.. some travel

Q: How in depth will banking/account system be in PU?
A: Organizations will be able to have finances (charge membership fee, taxes, etc.. purchase property…)

Q: Able to improve efficiencies with equipment/jobs/tasks?
A: Not a traditional MMO.. so, most dependent on your skill..but getting better equipment could make you better at a task (mining, for example)

Q: What happens if you fail during the first transit of a jump point
A: Charting a new JP.. you could go boom, or end up in a random system.. if it’s already been charted, you’ll automatically make it

Q: Asteroids, and other objects built modularly like ships?
A: R&D for procedurally creating some items (like asteroids)

Q: Whatever happened to the Starmap that was showin ingame in old videos?
A: That was an early prototype mocked up in engine.. still lots of work to do on it

So, yeah, 10 for the Chairman, was only 9 this week..but, still had some very solid information in it.. like knowing you can’t screw up a jump through a known system.. that’s comforting for the traders to not have to worry about that.

Dan Tracy has moved out to LA, but was back in Austin doing some training on the ‘mannequin’ system.  Which is a character/vehicle/everything animation subsystem that all the groups will be using, since it ‘touches’ everything.

There will be some ‘Inside CIG’ videos coming next week, containing some ‘behind the scenes’ video from the upcoming summit!

If you don’t watch the whole episode, make sure you watch from 35:45 onwards (yes, after the ‘credits’)!

DANCE BREAK!

Check out the moves on Ben!

 

That’s it for this week, stop by next week for another round up of your Star Citizen weekly news.