Star Citizen Live: The Story Behind the Universe

10 April 202001:01:171,784 linesWatch on YouTube ↗

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

00:00:02
Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of Star Citizen Live. I'm your host Jared Huckaby and you're here with me in my living room as we host another weekly episode of our Q&A series. Joining us on the show this week are two people I'm very fond of and Dave Haddock. It's the members of our narrative team. Let's go Let me go ahead and bring them on here. Hi guys. How you doing? Hello. Hello. Hello. And and and we Monday Jared's beef will die, but I don't know what Well, we've lost all saturation for this week's show. I was going to say this is so much more pleasant not being in the same room with you, Jared. So Just I'm struck by how true that is.
00:00:53
I was like, man, it's just yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so for anybody who doesn't who doesn't know who you are what you do, let's just let's just start with some intros and explain why we've lost all saturation. We'll start with you, Dave Haddock. I'm Dave Haddock. I'm the narrative director over here at Cloud Imperium Games. And and why are you in black and white? Well, funny enough, it was actually not something that we originated cuz we get asked about this a lot. One of our designers, Johnny Jaceavius, was actually the first one who did it and Will and I were struck by how cool it looked and so we just started doing it and then he stopped and we just kept it going. And all And also on my laptop like it's an automatic it's a baked in setting now so I can't change it. So
00:01:42
I just it's plus I like film noir so All right. Also the the the team's here is trying to adjust when you when you move back left and right trying to adjust your your camera thing. Although when you try to do it on purpose it doesn't do it strangely enough. Awesome. Uh, Adam. Let's just go Let's go from left to right. Adam, who are you and what do you do for Star Citizen? Who are you? Am I? That's a good question. I ask that to myself every day. Adam Weiser, I am the writer. I work with the Dave and Will on implementing lore and everything into the game. And I just live in black and white, so this is just my existence. I do appreciate you dressing up for the show this week. Absolutely. It's the most dressed up I've been in a while, so I figured might as well might as well celebrate being
00:02:29
with some people for a bit. And last but certainly not least, Will, tell us who you are and what you do for Star Citizen. Hi, I'm Will Weissbaum and I'm the lead writer and I do most of what Dave and Adam do but different. But backwards and wearing heels. So that's where you were going with that. Um. Um, all right. So we have we have we have we have just some of the members of our of our narrative team here with us on the show this week. And and as usual, we put a thread up on Spectrum, which is our communication platform available on robertsspaceindustries.com, and allowed folks to submit questions that they wanted to see addressed by our narrative team and then vote up which ones they wanted to see addressed most. We will So we'll go start going through
00:03:16
some of those. We will also take questions live through the Twitch chat if you're watching us live on Twitch. If you're viewing this later on YouTube, um thanks for watching, but So we do take the questions live? I'm sorry. Today's episode was supposed to focus on ship deliverables and I don't see many questions in the thread about that. So we can just scroll down past these lore questions and see if we can find something. Just kidding everyone. These are great questions. Really, thank you for taking the time to to post these. It's going to be one of those shows. but Uh, Will does touch on a good point though. These are members of our narrative team. So, if you're So, questions should uh Questions that would be appropriate for this week's show would be related to story, related to lore, related to the the the the background of of of elements
00:04:06
from the Star Citizen and Squadron 42's universe. Um I know everybody uh is anxious about 3.9 and where 3.9 is. Um the only thing I can tell you about 3.9 is that obviously our folks are are working as diligently as ever on it and uh we definitely want it in your hands just as much as you guys do. So, I have no other update other than that other than when we feel it's ready it'll be out there. We do We were just in it playing right before we hopped on to this call. It Don't don't rub it into people. I'm just saying we're we're doing work. Washing the bugs. Uh right off the bat the the number one question from the spectrum chat was about the Galactapedia uh which we debuted uh which we debuted at CitizenCon last year. Uh it read "With the release of the
00:04:54
Galactapedia on the web, nice job by the way. I didn't add that. That was them. Uh is there any thought as to how long it will be before we have an app in the game where we can look things up in the database without leaving the game client or will this even be possible?" Uh yeah, I mean that's the goal is that we want it to we ultimately want it to be incorporated and exist in the game as well as on the website. Uh you know, I mean we're we're actually having conversations to try and figure out kind of the best way cuz again, like once we start to get it in game it's obviously loops in a whole lot other aspect of of of development cuz right now we were just doing it for as a web thing, but the beautiful thing was that the way that um Sherry and Turbulent kind of built it was that it was designed kind of like the star map with that same kind of language. So, hopefully the step to transition it from website to game will
00:05:43
be was already thought of. So, hopefully it'll be a lot easier to do. but yeah, we're trying to figure out a a timeline and uh when we can get resources kind of dedicated to transitioning it over, but it's definitely a, you know, on the forefront as well. And it's, you know, actively being discussed and worked on. So, while we don't have a set timeline yet, it's it's something that we really want. And and and for those who haven't checked out the Galactapedia in a while since it launched back in CitizenCon, uh Sherry uh has been working diligently on adding updates really regularly. So, there's a ton of new content there for you to check out. Um there's uh a series of Spectrum posts outlining all the new stuff that's in there. So, really really cool stuff. out. And then of course, you can find a lot of uh first run um
00:06:30
Galactapedia articles in Jump Point magazine, which is the uh monthly subscriber magazine. Yeah, yeah, those those are definitely our our more deep dive Galactapedia articles. Like right now, a lot of the ones on the site are the the shorter blurbs cuz as Sherry Allen, we're going for breadth in this first pass rather than depth, but the ones in Jump Point are those really deep dives that we're hoping to get more and more of as time goes on. Yeah, the hope is that the Jump Point format is like what our final, quote unquote, you know, uh article length will be and uh you know, once we kind of start to dig in deeper. Right. Uh from the live chat here, uh will we ever get to read everything I learned about dog fighting I learned from my fish tank in its entirety? I don't know about its entirety. It's something we have talked about with the
00:07:19
the props came before uh and something that we have Adam kind of thinking about this quarter is how do we do more of that kind of fun interactive being able to read stories in the game. Uh most likely we will go along with the direction that a lot of games take of where we have a select excerpt for you to peruse rather than a full 300-page fish tank book. But that is kind of the the hope and direction that we're going into. Like we've seen fun tests where you can actually hold up the prop and look at the contents inside the book stuff, which is pretty neat. Or whether you're going to be able to download it to your MobiGlass and read it there. Yeah, you already know how many pages are in it. Yeah. I mean one of our long-term one of our long-term dreams that we've
00:08:06
talked about and then it's all coming down very long-term is the idea of once we have the Star Citizen app as well that when you get reading content that you find in the verse, you'll be able to then later on read it offline on your phone or tablet or whatever. Um and enjoy it that way. So rather than sitting in the game reading those pages, you can take it offline. So that'd be fun. Uh follow-up question. If you could make any one of those books that that we've that we've seen in game and flesh it out, what what would be the first one if you had the resources and you had the time? What what would be the first one? Ooh, I got to to go to the back to the everything I learned about dog fighting learned from a fish tank. I'd make that a children's book cuz then you could do it kind of like do it mainly through
00:08:56
illustrations and kind of use water and space and stuff like that. And we could make a full book that way without it being too intensive. Be a fun little starter's guide to how to how to kill people with your spaceship for all the kids out there. That was That was more than I expected. I'd probably actually go with a full full length um fully illustrated gift for Baba. That would be mine. Just cuz I like the pictures. Oh, yeah. We have like if we add with the 890 jump like these kind of activist books by Lawrence Guido that I think would be really funny to write these very angry This author that just writes a lot of like very aggressive political books like Silent voices and easy mark and stuff like that. So I kind of want to put on that hat. the one who wrote the squadron uh was it 42 lies?
00:09:44
Hopefully I can check that. I think so. Yeah, that was a funny title. Anyway. That he he made a guest appearance on to Blind Truth. Probably Blind Truth, yeah. next question from the thread while Will looks that up. In 3.7 there were cryptic messages broadcast around the verse in the PU. Uh what happened to those and what is the lore behind those messages? Are we are we are we ready to reveal that yet? Um well there was lore behind it. They're they're they're still kind of cryptic for a reason. I'll I'll say that. Um and hopefully we'll have more for that soon. All right. So the thing that those messages are leading up to hasn't happened. Nobody's missed it yet. No.
00:10:31
So I get what it would Okay. All right. So All right. So uh what is the current status of Earth in 2950? Uh it's a planet. Is it? I believe so. Uh still? I think so. As far as I know. Unless we're we're losing mass. yeah. I mean it's a I mean there was a funny enough like I mean I think Earth is sort of stabilized a bit. Um it had a real rough go of it uh early on in sort of weirdly enough sort of between now like now now now and uh the successful terraforming of Mars. Uh that was when Earth sort of hit a really really bad patch because it had a real serious overcrowding problem
00:11:19
and uh you know, water wars and and stuff like that. And so basically it was like uh the terraforming being able to kind of that's what drove the the the to develop this terraforming technology. And then once that kind of uh succeeded and we were able to kind of spread out onto Mars and then spread out from there, it sort of like deflated the problem on Earth. So, I think at this point it's probably kind of probably been sort of okay like you know, it they've probably it's probably not as inhabited as it probably used to be. Uh People are just preferring Terra. Well, hello. Damn. Uh Going Going there, Jared. Shots fired. Hey, Terra's the planet that humanity
00:12:06
chose. That's That's fair. But yeah, I mean again, like we you know, obviously once we kind of we can get the kind of the art team to kind of focus the the eye of Sauron on that uh on Earth, we'll we'll kind of dig in a little bit deeper into it and be able to kind of really kind of get nuts and bolts of like no, really what is Earth like? Um but again, from a lore perspective like you know, it's it's it's still kind of the ancestral home of of humanity, so there's a lot of like, you know, um historical ties. That sort of notion of like the where who we were and where we came from and blah blah blah blah to kind of keep hammering that point of like the difference between Earth and Terra, where Terra is all about looking towards the future, Earth will probably be more about looking towards the past, uh
00:12:54
which again kind of solidifies that argument about why people, you know, would stay with Earth or or or go with Terra and stuff like that. So, we would I feel like we'll probably try to kind of hammer that point or at least kind of give subtle nods to it uh just to kind of heighten that disparity between the two place like We have that that concept art that we released of like the Manchester in the year it was like 2945 or something like that. That was kind of a cool indication of one direction we might go if that kind of mix of like preserving the history and emphasizing as well as like the new high rises and stuff. But I I I think we envision like a a prettier, cleaner Earth than than what we have now that they've been able to wrangle that after the diaspora
00:13:42
and with all the new future tech as Dave said. So Yeah. I mean one of the things that we called it that was I kind of called out in cuz Lost Generation Tanya went to Earth. But was this sort of idea that like a lot of the older buildings were sort of encased in these sort of shells to protect them from elements and from ships ramming into them and you know, so like they there is a sort of weird museum quality to it, I think. Which again would be kind of fun to play with once we get there. chat is is chat has a number of people Oh, good. People are watching. That's great. commenting about Antoine Louder. And and I I'm I that's a that's a reference to the
00:14:30
ongoing elections for Yeah, that's one of our feared candidates. But there seems to be a lot of support for Antoine in the in the Twitch chat right now. And I know in the last two issues of Jump Point we've had a a breakdown of our of our candidates for for Imperator. Um If you had if you if you guys Do you guys have any particular favorites? Is there anybody that you're pulling for? Like if you if you had to vote today, who would you vote for? Just to refresh my Louder is the one who wants to dismantle the UEE, right? Yeah, I believe so. Yes. Okay. Yeah, put power power back in the systems hands. Okay. Okay. Yep, exactly. Basically Yeah, empower the systems, kind of like pull apart the the UEE as one kind of governing body overall overall system
00:15:20
and yeah, let let local government kind of rule all. Um Gosh, to pick one ah, that's that's tough because I I I've had to go through and and basically write all 10 kind of perspectives. So, to be able to do that I had to get into their headspace and try to try to understand what would motivate them or I believe it was it Leilani? I think my that that would be my favorite. Let me let me double check really quick. Yeah, this the science first one Well, man, you picked mine. was always yeah, sorry to jump on that but um This is me not as like a a narrative writer. This is me as like a a human voter. That she would probably be who I would steer towards.
00:16:08
Like she like so that's not indicative of who I wanted as the lead writer to win. Yeah, you you make a good you make a good point. It's it who you would want as a citizen is not necessarily who who you would want to unlock the biggest narrative potential. You know, as as a as a writer. So, you know, Will as a person could want one person but Will as a writer who wants to see where the universe would go, you know, could want somebody else. So, so why do you do you like her Adam? I I jumped on you. I'm sorry. Oh, no, all all good. I think it was I don't know. I think just for some reason when I started to kind of dig into to what motivated her to to lead her down this path of like let's let's trust science. Let's open it up and kind of like both my parents are educators and teachers. So, I'm I'm a big believer in
00:16:56
that too. So, there was just something about her as a young child and she comes from What is it? Was it Oya? Yeah. Yeah, so she comes from Oya which is basically UEE system that has this Xian settlement that's in the middle of it. It's a historical Xian settlement. It's been there for generations. So, it's this one chunk of the UE which it technically has like, uh, Xian occupation in it. So, she grew up kind of with this mixing of human and Xian cultures. And I thought that was really cool to to be able to to to give her this perspective of of wider science and and uh, greater understanding of different things. And like, the more you learn about something, the more you kind of can can see other perspectives and grow and
00:17:44
learn. So, there was there was just something really uplifting about that. And since so much of politics can get kind of like nasty and dirty, it was it was fun to kind of like be able to to get in the the mind and perspective of someone that that was trying to to raise people up and try to try to fight for a a better future rather than just fight for political power or or or greed or purposes like that. So. I find her stance on AI unsettling. I'm just going to say it. Yeah, I know. That definitely is a another hot button issue, too. Which is down that path so many times before and it has never led to anything good. So, I'm just going to say. Matt, you you mentioned AI and that's actually the topic of our next question. Uh, this this comes up every once in a while because every time we do one of
00:18:31
these shows, we we gain uh, thousands and thousands of people between them. So, they they don't know the history here. It's been a couple of episodes we've said said it. So, yeah. Why aren't there any robots or or or sophisticated AIs in the Star Wars universe? See, yeah. That's two different questions cuz we got we got robots. We got drones. are robots. Uh, yeah. I guess it's it's I mean, it's a This is one of those points I mean, to get into the larger question about just the AI thing. Uh, you know, is Synthetic life, I suppose. Yeah. Uh, it's it's not a like scientific reason or anything like that. Uh, it's really it's again, purely the fact of like when when setting out to create something like this, like what is the the world that you want to make? Uh you know, I mean again like with any any
00:19:18
large universe, people sit there and go, "What are their influences and what are their personal tastes and stuff like that?" Like uh you know, from the earliest conversations with Chris was you know, he wanted it to feel like a very tactile world that you know, he wants people to be out doing stuff and you know, you get to be the baddest pilot in the in the universe because you are that cool and you know, so it was a it was a it was a stylistic, artistic, creative choice to kind of say like, you know, didn't want AI kind of cuz again, obviously, you know, uh AI developed will be the you know, most efficient, best pilots, you know, crack shots. If you read like the Ian Banks stuff, uh you know, where it's like armies are waging war across galaxies and just firing shots and just
00:20:06
destroying each other and stuff like that. Like it's a that's a very specific type of sci-fi space opera type thing and and Chris again wanted to feel more gritty, people-driven type thing. So it was it was really just that was the thing and then we had to come up with a reason to back explain it. So it was like, you know, I don't like you know, the the original statement of you know, I'm not really a fan of AI or sort of synthetic humanoids, you know, just because of A, B, and C and then so I was like, okay, so we could pepper all of these incidents that happened throughout history where AI attempts to make AI have gone horrifically wrong. Uh you know, in every 20 or 30 or 50 years, someone's like, "Oh, I think I I can finally crack it." And then that goes wrong and everyone goes, "You know what? This AI thing is just not really our bag." Uh so
00:20:55
that's that's the core of it. Again, like it's it's a break from sort of you know, forward projection of like what will life actually be like in you know, the 30th century and stuff like that. Like this is just how did we want to tell the game? So, yeah, so we had these horrible like kind of experience with people developing and trying to get AI there that created these laws that we live under, but like there are those fears that if so much of our technology in the in the game is is connected through the comms and spectrum and the idea of that if you have an artificial intelligence, the danger that it would pose to our way of life potentially, not even if they they are malicious and mean to harm us, but there is that threat there, like that modern thinkers always warn us
00:21:42
about like, "Oh, the next big threat's going to be AI." So, you have those people still existing in lore who are like, "We can get most of what we need done with our advanced computers with really smart intelligent computers without them being able to think freely for themselves, like Like we've just set the mark somewhere else of what have they have the capacity I think of like, you know, it's I think it's called dumb AI, where it's like there's the systems are smart and can do really really cool stuff, but they need that input. You tell them to do it and then they can do really really cool stuff, but it still needs that human aspect, because again, like you know, if you want to be the coolest pilot or the best hauler, like it's about getting out there and doing it, not just kind of chilling out in your your penthouse and you know, sitting on tablets and sending
00:22:30
out an army of hauling drones. Yeah, which you know, it's going to be interesting when we get that game play in because we do have these cargo moving drones, we do have the idea of combat drones. So, people I think are going to get a little bit more of that fictional flavor that they're looking for once we get these uh drones running in game and have the different kinds of them, so that you will have your robot helpers coming along with you and doing stuff for you and you'll when you're in the city, you'll start seeing them moving around and stuff and and that'll be like another level I I that we're striving for in kind of that science-fiction fun that we're not at yet. Okay, switching gears here from the live chat. Uh where does the where does the meat for the burgers and hot dogs come from in the universe? Are there space cows? Is there different kinds of meat?
00:23:18
Uh there there is different kinds of meat. Some of it a lot of the the cheaper stuff you'll see is synthetically grown meat, still technically meat. Um and some of it there is actual livestock still being raised. We have land and grain is not so much of an issue anymore. It is a little more luxury because you um have to fly it around and ship it and all that cost involved, but we do have space. You know, literally whole planets to to do the stuff on. So yeah, it comes from a a variety of sources and some some pro- like you'll see in some of the descriptions some things are just protein, which is, you know, to give you the nutrients you need, but it's not trying to simulate any kind of flesh-eating
00:24:05
experience. So. I- is Whammer's real meat? Or is it synthetic? Uh Whammer's is synthetic. They're they're beef. to hear. It's beef. But it's not it's not from an animal. Mm. Uh as far as I space cows go, uh I'm going to I'm going to tell people to stay tuned. You'll learn more about space cows. What is that? Were you foreshadowing? I am foreshadowing. We'll see how much trouble I get into. How do you imagine a lot of the questions I'm going to repeat the questions. dream. Um uh one of the questions that comes in and it comes in in a number of forms
00:24:54
here, so I'm just going to kind of synthesize all of them. Um, how do you imagine players will be able to affect the lore of Star Citizen? Uh, we've talked a little bit about them being able to participate in the elections for Imperator in some way or another. Uh, but as far as including that, but as far as just playing the day-to-day Star Citizen, how are you envision how much how much influence are you envisioning players would have in in affecting your lore? Um, I mean again, like ever since the very very the earliest days of this, I mean, you know, the the example that always gets brought up is the Dread Pirate Roberts thing of, you know, if you if you're the pilot who kills the notorious Dread
00:25:41
Pirate Roberts, like, you know, that that goes down in history as you were the person that tagged that person. Uh, I mean, for me it's it's it's one of those things that's like, you know, we're not we're not really creating the like any kind of, you know, you're the one type scenario here. So, you are just one of a couple billion person universe. So, uh, I I think it would be one of the things that like we we do we're trying to figure out ways that the players can can uh, affect the flow of the lore, but it have to be something of note and significance. I mean, we've talked in the past about jump points, discovering jump points, um, you know, uh, you know, even sort of trying to figure out ways that we can add gameplay to to existing jump points as well. So, there's there's additional stuff for for explorers to kind of try and do in the
00:26:29
meantime about like, you know, can we can we make routes more efficient? Uh, that the sort of, you know, tried and true path is stable and da da da, but are there more potentially like, can we do unstable routes that you can discover that can show up and then disappear, stuff like that? Like, we're trying to figure out a bunch of different ways. Obviously, all of this needs to go by design and, you know, and test it out to see if it's it's fun, but but yeah, well, I mean, trying to keep figure out ways to to have the players affect the world around them has always been sort of a thing on the forefront. I mean, I mean, we we saw, you know, Tony and Jake's presentation at CitizenCon with the new economy stuff, and that's something that we as the narrative team are very excited about that coming online is cuz that's going to be another tool, hopefully,
00:27:17
that we'll be able to tie into as well as from what the players are doing perspective. So, again, the idea that there are small percentages of the population, but if enough players, if enough of big enough of an org starts interrupting trade to an area, we hope in real time to be able to have that area affected in it so that you might see a city get dirtier and the crime rate start going up and like security start coming in. And that's a one way that I I see the players kind of, you know, interacting with narrative and design on the on the same level of seeing the world change slowly because of what they're doing. Well, and conversely with that that same example, like, you know, players start an area starts getting affected and starts kind of going down economically,
00:28:05
and they start putting out a bunch of ads for hired guns to come in and kind of help restore security, and players come in and fulfill those roles, then they they feel responsible for bringing you know, the economy back up because they've kicked out the the outlaws and swept the area clear and stuff like that. So, Uh Um Yeah, there's a bunch of different ways, basically. A- And even on a simpler level, we we love your input on on Spectrum, um on everywhere. Like, we read a lot more than we're able to comment on, unfortunately. Reading is faster and commenting because we have to be very careful with how we respond to make sure that it's coded takes a little bit longer, so we're not as active with that as I would like to be. Apologies, but um I I love hearing it and and hearing your thoughts and it does influence what we do. Um
00:28:55
a lot like this election stuff we're we're reading everything that you guys are saying on it and it's really fun and it makes us think of stuff. So, that's great. Keep doing that, please. Yeah, we I was I was going to be part of my follow-up there. We we we we we were talking about systemic ways in which uh players could maybe affect the lore, but what about their effect on just you personally? Can you think of an example? We've been at this for a little while now where the things that you've seen from players, either their actions in the game or uh well, I guess specifically their actions in the game or or or or how they've reacted to something has influenced your the creation of lore on your behalf on your behalf. Um Benny Henge is a great example. Like that was player inspired from all the
00:29:44
the Big Benny vending machine collection and then we wanted to do kind of an homage to that and we were thinking like we always try to really bury stuff in the narrative of the game so it wasn't just building this fun site that was cool. We had to think of why someone would do this and so it came up with a story to do spoilers for people who haven't discovered it of this eccentric artist who was trying to make a name for themselves who met a slightly tragic end out there. And so, that was all inspired by this kind of back and forth conversation between the players, the game, and the designers. And so, that was pretty neat. I mean, there's another good one, too. This was this was years ago, but I remember the um I think it was Consolidated Outlands. There was an uh we came out with a an ad and there was an org that had a logo that was very similar to the Consolidated Outlands
00:30:31
one, so they tried to send a cease and desist letter to Consolidated Outlands. And so, we we organized a response uh and we shut down their org uh or said that they were on lock because they were under investigation from the advocacy for libel and it was just a little fun back and forth thing but um but that stuff is always I don't know I always get a kick out of doing stuff like that. I imagine I imagine Jump Town could be Oh Jump Town was yeah. as a as a direct response to a lot of player input. Yeah. Yeah, that was I mean that was fascinating to see just how again how people how that uh all came together and how people were sort of there were people that were trying to game the system and people trying to just do runs and it created a whole criminal infrastructure uh that was just Yeah and we literally folded that back
00:31:20
into the lore also um regarding Crusader getting into trouble for basically playing with their crime stats and basically saying crime is lower than it was there and so the head of Crusader had to go in front of a Senate subcommittee and testify about them kind of improving their security and one of the points that came back around was like oh well what about this place called Jump Town which is a very notorious kind of like kind of like drug running kind of like location in your system that you're doing nothing about we know about it here but you so it was because of the popularity of Jump Town and people sharing the information and and doing the runs there that we then folded it back into where it uh it it became a part of the lore itself that it it had become so notorious it was known in the Senate and and throughout the universe.
00:32:07
Yeah it's it's That's one of That's one of the things I I really like about Star Citizen and there are quite a few things but uh that you know while we're waiting for more systemic things like we like Dave was talking about the discovery of jump jump points and stuff uh that you guys specifically are still looking for avenues where the where the uh the community can affect the the the story of Star Citizen and incorporating those bits where they're natural and where they where they they conflict with the other things you're trying to do and I I I appreciate that at the very least. Well, I mean it's one of those things that's like, you know, we we we only come up with so much. Like it's nice to getting that sort of outside influence is great cuz you could just get to react to it and just go, "That's awesome." Like we don't we wouldn't have thought of that. Like and
00:32:56
yeah, you know, incorporate it in there. question from the live chat, will there be a continuing narrative in the PU to give the feeling of time and history passing in the verse? That's the hope. Um yeah, I mean we've been we've sort of been outlining stories as far as like and you're seeing some of it. I mean again the the thing Adam was referring to about the the crime situation outside of Crusader becoming an issue and them not being kind of well equipped to handle it is sort of one of the story lines that we have uh developing in Stanton. Um and uh yeah, so the hope is that because you know, like Squadron 42 is a much more
00:33:43
you know, blinders on single player experience cinematic adventure type thing, you know, we're trying to figure out ways to make to still have that kind fun but obviously in a larger multiplayer Yeah, I think a lot of our larger plots that we introduce and you can see some of these in the elections with these like hot button topics of how should security work? Should it be more these government-run type organizations or should we offload it more to private security are our topics that we want explored through gameplay that we have a bunch of ideas for what the different outcomes could do. So, like you know, um you know, the Karen Civil War, Synth World, all these high uh level topics,
00:34:33
it's not that we have one set narrative where we know how it ends. We're hoping to put these things into the universe and see how the players interact with them and see which way that goes from that and then have it. And and hopefully these storylines will develop and then end and then we'll introduce more ones. And so on that way you'll feel the passage of time that we'll do. and and also too like having the sort of the multi multiple tiers of levels like of stories. Like having the larger storyline about like the you know the sort of Vanduul war effort and what does that mean? And then you know having just again to kind of take our existing uh you know the the uh PUS stands like there's a sort of larger storyline going on with like uh you know obviously the upcoming election. There's the the Vanduul
00:35:22
military conflict, all that stuff. But then within Stanton we're having the sort of question of you know they're a technically they're a UEE system but uh they're not a recognized one because they're all corporate owned. So the corporations are trying to figure out how to rally crime within their their system uh because Crusader's is obviously not doing a great job and that's screwing it up for everybody else. Uh but um but then you know we'll have stories that are on on a more local level. Like Lorville has its own storyline about you know activists versus Hurston Dynamics and you know fair pay and you know uh you know not toxic work conditions uh type thing. So that's you know and then hopefully we'll get interpersonal storylines where you come across characters who have something at stake
00:36:10
that they really care about uh that you can get involved with. So hopefully you know between all of those levels of stories that are all kind of moving in different paces obviously but uh you know we get a sense of a interwoven universe. Yeah. And then hopefully as well down the road we're going to start introducing more kind of special events, which are these bigger story moments where they'll have some kind of effect at the end of it that'll change things a little bit. But, those will be more special case because a lot of these times like the Hurston versus the Hurston and Activists, we want that to carry on for a long time and play with that storyline so that we're not just introducing a bunch of content and then having it go away after one quarter or something like that cuz it's just too expensive development-wise in terms of time and and development resources. So, by having these long-brewing storylines that lead
00:36:59
up to a big event that we then can, you know, have an outcome happen. Now, you you mentioned Synth World and that's a sore subject for me. I'll I'll come back to Synth World. But, uh you mentioned you mentioned the story about Hurston you about the Hurston family. Uh there there are several stories that go on for each of our planets, but one of the principal stories for Hurston is, like you said, the Hurston family versus the Activists. Uh what would you say is the principal story for ArcCorp? Like that is ArcCorp have a have a story like that? yes, it's not as defined because they're much more it's much more of a weird melting pot. cuz they let just I mean they they bring
00:37:47
in a bunch of different companies and it's it's a it But, yes, there's a there's a sort of a crime element uh going on uh there that Twitch is a part of. Yes. It like Stanton as a whole is like all these different takes on capitalism and we've talked about this before a little bit, but but like ArcCorp is like the free market gone gone completely wild is kind of the idea that and so like we hinted at in one of our short stories, the idea that people kind of can get stuck there because there's so many people going there for work and that it's a hiring market so people arrive there can't find work and kind of get stuck on the planet because they can't get anything other than like low-paying subsistence jobs
00:38:37
and kind of end up there destitute a bit even though they're working they can't afford to get back out which is a different kind of entrapment than Hurston's kind of tight contracts. and so like trying to play around with the idea of that and like you know you have MicroTech which we just dropped down we're starting to hint at this is like they're a company that means well but this kind of what happens when they don't have to follow a lot of the making their own laws from this corporate entity and so you start seeing this like party scene developing and these kind of more liberal attitudes and going on and what's going to come out of that. And versus Crusader which is a company that really tries to care and take care of people but maybe they're not equipped to be a government. So it's
00:39:25
interesting. That that was actually my next question. How does We talked about Hurston we talked about ArcCorp. Uh let's talk about MicroTech before we move on to Crusader. What's the What what's what's what's the key story going on with MicroTech? New Babbage. I mean it's basically again like you know MicroTech obviously is a developer of MobiGlass. Uh we we sort of have it on this sort of the the sort of water cooler description of of New Babbage was sort of Silicon Valley / Cabo or or Vale uh cuz it's basically this this very weird mishmash of it's a lot of like tech developers and they really are trying to foster like innovation and bringing smart minds together and and stuff like
00:40:14
that and this is I I something we discussed when Will and I were walking through halls carrying lattes. Uh sort of the idea that um you know, to them like recreational drugs is not good. You know, people abuse it, but like you know, people need to blow off steam and and party a little bit like they'll kind of turn a blind eye to it. But, you know, uh intellectual property theft on MicroTech is like sacrosanct. Like, do not you don't do that. Uh So, yeah, they're they're kind of like what what I was saying? Like, they're they have sort of fallen in this sort of interesting spin on capitalism or corporate culture of they're very lax with a lot of things, but they're super hardcore with other things. So,
00:41:02
how does that exactly play out as far as for their employees and and you know, so obviously with there there's a a huge market for uh corporate espionage. So, that would be sort of a big thing we get to play with there of like because again, the stakes are so high that you know, people are looking to and but there's a lot of like really cutting edge development going on. There's a lot of interest in that next billion-dollar idea. Uh and if people are willing to shed some blood to get the next, you know, hot app. Yeah, it's um it's interesting cuz it's almost like uh corporate campus culture taken to like a planetary level. So, it's almost the the inverse of Hurston where they try to lock you into these contracts where you can't leave. In MicroTech, it's like Brave New World style where they're like, "Well, let's give you all this good stuff so you
00:41:50
don't want to leave." And we'll put you in these domes and you'll have all these kind of like yoga services and rock climbing walls and things like that. So, it's it's just a different way to try to entice people to want to stay there and just stay working and active all the time and essentially not leave the planet. So, it's uh yeah, it's It's kind of a weird thing. Go uh handcuff uh type of thing. You get all of these opportunities and they're like, "Well, you know, why do you need to take a vacation? Everything you were Any place you'd want to go is right here." And so, they get to kind of trap them into working a little bit longer. It's not that insidious, but like it's that type of All right. So, we we've got ArcCorp where it's the free just the free market, everybody fends for yourself, run amok. We've got Hurston where it's rather oppressive contract, uh
00:42:39
indentured servitude, maybe, if if you will, at least that's my interpretation. MicroTech where it's we're trying to wow you with um enthusiasm and look how much look how much we do for you. You want to work You want to work for us and and protect our interests. What's Crusader? Uh the nice guys who are probably too nice. yeah, they the Crusader and also again, too, I mean, just to say like we we're trying to not have it be ultra ultra pessimistic. I mean, I'm pessimistic by nature, so that's just going to happen. Uh but uh but just that idea of like, you know, with Crusader, like we actually wanted them to be genuinely like, we care about their you know, their their workers and want
00:43:27
to make a good environment for them in a safe place and a place for their families and a place that they're proud to work at and uh you know, know that their sort of higher-ups really take care of them. But the double-edged sword of that is that, you know, are they able to make the hard calls uh to make decisions that aren't nice, uh you know, if as far as And so, that's where the sort of their their willingness to sort of empathize almost becoming a detriment to them because, you know, with their outlaws, they're like, "Well, you know, I mean, they're clearly desperate and they're having problems and stuff like that, but they're not So, it's it's kind of staying their hand a little bit as far as like being able to really clamp down on them from a security standpoint, which unfortunately, you know, like a lot of these outlaws are going to take advantage of and capitalize on. Uh, so
00:44:16
So, that was sort of the fun twist. Yeah, that they wanted like all these tourism to come cuz, you know, building like the Starliner and and stuff like that, they were trying to attract people. And then with those tourists came people looking to prey off those tourists. And then like, you know, the question is is their security up to snuff and they're having a hard time of dealing with this. And it's just that thing that we're seeing of running a company is not the same thing as running a government. And they're not equatable. And that's what Crusader is learning in real time and trying to get on top of. Yeah, and one of the core principles of Crusader has always been to donate a percentage of their profits to kind of like a non-profit organizations or to, you know, so to to not basically So, they have all this money that they've also dedicated other causes, which is now becoming a kind of something for them that can consider.
00:45:05
Do you stop doing that to increase security? You know, do you give up one of your core principles as a way to kind of protect yourself? But if you don't protect yourself, does the entire thing just go away and then you have no money to give away? So, they're they're kind of stuck in this this catch-22 to a certain degree. Uh, Twitch chat has already equated Crusader to space Canadians. No comment. Uh, but it it's it's it it would seem on the surface that that MicroTech both MicroTech and Crusader care about their people. Is the is the implication here that maybe Crusader's a bit more truthful in that stance and and maybe MicroTech's a bit more uh disingenuous?
00:45:52
Uh, not not disingenuous. I think MicroTech has read a report that says you get better productivity. Like they noticed a 0.3 increase if people do exercise every 2 hours in their creative function and so they provided that you know, people do better if they have healthy food to eat so they made sure that's that's there, you know. And that's kind of how they approach this. They they did city planning. You know, they looked at reports. They decided that these colors are best to improve your mood and that's why this stuff's this color like that kind of thing. Like that's I mean again like you'll see not to again not to rub it in but there's some some really fun aspects of when you walk around New Babbage uh some of the the announcements in the shopping areas are sort of part of that
00:46:43
self-help. They hired a self-help guru basically to kind of give you bits of inspiration to take on your take with you on your day that are really fantastic. And uh just to round out our trip through the Stanton system uh it's not a planet but let's talk about GrimHEX. What what what what's what what what are the people who run GrimHEX? What what are the people who run GrimHEX like? well, they're just trying to keep their heads down. I mean again it was this was a uh it used to be a sort of a legitimate uh housing exchange which is where the hex comes from. So it's basically like staging area for local miners uh to kind of rent rooms and dock their ship and basically like they can go out and they can you know
00:47:30
uh mine an asteroid and then have a place they don't have to travel to another system to go home. Uh they can kind of dock pretty close. Um but the sis the station shut down and uh but was not uninhabited so basically people started to either stuck around or moved back in and start squatting there and so it's it's a sort of an off-the-grid uh type establishment and then the sort of new power was an outlaw pack uh known as the Nine Tails basically moved in and kind of set up shop there. And so that's their basic haunt. So they're basically the the security obviously not, you know, conventional police, but that's where they sort of that's their their sort of
00:48:18
headquarters for operations in the system and they're they're basically they're kind of messing around and hitting Crusader really hard and they're part of the the probably one of the biggest thorns in their side at the moment. Are there other functional hexes in the throughout the universe throughout the galaxy? That was that's the hope that again to kind of help us allow us to reuse assets was the hope is that we create like kind of a standardized you know, housing station and then you know, this was just a sort of the dilapidated version. Um so fingers crossed. I'm hoping that we see some more. Yeah, just kind of like a a more permanent setup for people that's not just renting easy Habs at kind of an R&R station that these like floating space
00:49:06
apartments would be much more affordable than living planet side and if you work in space doing like asteroid mining in a big belt that you would maybe want to live in one of these rather than you know, going down to a world and back up every time. Yeah, that's sort of more long-term rental type thing rather than yeah, and nightly easy have. You want to a couple rooms to be able to walk through and stuff like that, but And while it's not a permanent fixture in the Stanton system, it it it is visiting. Let's talk about Delamar little bit. What what what's who runs Delamar? Uh that's What's the story of Delamar? Delamar I mean again it's supposed to actually supposed to be situated in the Nyx system which is an unclaimed system basic it was was a refugee started off
00:49:57
as sort of a refugee base, people who were trying to flee, uh, the, fascist Messer regime. Went there to kind of try to set up their own society, uh, and community and, uh, called themselves the People's Alliance and so it's basically this sort of like they wanted It's kind of a similar thing to Crusader actually, um, that they wanted to set the goal was to set up this really egalitarian like society and, you know, the Messers are are evil and doing it all wrong, so we're going to do it right and it's all going to be about people and celebrating each other and sharing and blah blah blah, but, you know, and and not kind of cracking down on people and and, you know, uh, shutting down their ways of belief and stuff and but unfortunately like that there are people that are taking
00:50:44
advantage of that freedom, which are a criminal element that are slowly kind of moving into uh, using them as a, uh, shelter, uh, to hide from authorities and so it puts the People's Alliance in sort of a precarious position because they're like, well, like like what I was saying earlier, like, you know, we don't want to sacrifice our beliefs of like ratting out these people who are clearly a bad element, uh, but at the same time they're preying upon people and even people in our system, so they're not good. How do we reconcile those two? Yeah, and basically they kind of reached this this kind of imperfect balance where as long as there's no crime actively in the station, they're willing to turn a blind eye to it. So like the criminals are keeping it kind of low-key for now
00:51:33
and everyone's just kind of ignoring each other to maintain this truce. So we'll see if that breaks or bubbles up or something. Uh, I thought we might get through the entire show without this question coming up, but with 10 minutes to spare, I hear it is. I see it now. Uh how did Arc Corp Corporation manage to build and populate an entire mega city like Stan 3 in less than 85 years? Uh I mean that seems personally rational to me. Uh one of the things that's coming up with one of the future planet techs is hopefully like it's still in discussion if the city texture isn't going to cover the entirety of the planet. There is going to be areas that don't have the mega city. It's mostly covered but it's not going to be as uniform as it is right now. And we also I mean we shifted the
00:52:20
date, right? Did we publish that? Yeah, yeah. That's the 85 years. Yeah. 85 years. Oh, that's right. It used to be much shorter. Yeah, it used to be much shorter and this person is still giving you crap about the 85 years now. No, no. That's fair. I mean again a thing that we were trying to also say was sort of part of the hand wavy of it was was the idea that a lot of the planet is sort of um you know, uh large swaths of uh you know, mostly flat kind of like factory stuff or you know, that sort of warehouses and stuff. Warehouses and and stuff that's kind of relatively easy to throw up. Uh and also you know, our hand wavy of it was that they drew a lot of inspiration from some of the Xian production worlds that are very also that sort of very so you know, single focus
00:53:08
uh type world allocation. So hopefully that there would be they would have magic you know, space brushes that could just you know, spray down urban sprawl uh but but we haven't really gotten into that but that was that was And there's been discussion about the oceans on Arc Corp and That's what Will was saying was that yeah, hopefully we can we can get to a point where we can start to blend cuz I think that was I can't remember if that was the issue. Yeah, it's the biome blending that they're Yeah, that was the that was the problem. Cuz Arc Corp is built differently than other planet. Yeah, so it's easier to right now just slap city over everything. Yeah, every time the the planet team releases a new round, I'm just blown away again. I keep thinking like, "Wow, like how can I get better than this?"
00:53:56
And then they they show me. So, the new the new stuff going in in in 3.9 is stunning. Um also from the live chat, how much space magic should we expect to see in Star Citizen? Are there any advanced learning or civilizations with heightened senses or or innate abilities? We're We try to stay a little more crunchy sci-fi than that. There is a few things that we've talked on uh that we're not going to get into now, but that kind of start dipping our toe into the more mysterious science stuff. Like we have our our our gravlev technology where like you see on like
00:54:44
the the Xi'an spaceships where they have little floaty bits. And we kind of understand the science behind that, but it you know, it is heading that way. Um And so, Yeah, we we don't plan on having like a whole team of like elite esper like fighting forces or something coming out and mind controlling everyone or anything like that, so it's not in the cards Fair enough. Uh when will Synth World ever be finished? That is the question. That's what every citizen wants to know. I'm paying taxes. So So, this is something David and I were talking a bit about before just to to touch on is that uh a lot of times we wanted to introduce these um
00:55:33
kind of cool stories into to and but we don't want them to resolve until you know, people can experience them in the game. So, it might be sometimes a little bit of time goes on without anything like major happening, and that's because we're kind of holding off a little bit narratively until we can resolve the stuff in game. So, sure, we could write a story being like, it's done or it failed, but we don't want to do that right now. Like, that's that's going to be later on. Same thing with the like Karen Civil War then it gets to be kind of a thing where it's like, all right, well, then it doesn't matter. Like, you know, the If the synth world If we resolve the synth world before you get to actually kind of hopefully go to Chronus system and see something about it, then it it it loses a lot of magic because you hear about something you hear about a cool story that happened that you kind
00:56:21
of didn't get to experience. So, it's just sort of like Yeah, and that's that's another way for players to engage actively with the story. If if a lot of players are bringing supplies to the synth world to help it be completed, then there's always a chance that you know, maybe it kind of goes in the right direction. If people aren't taking it there cuz it's not worth it, then that might influence the story for why it fails. So, Uh Dennis showed up in chat. He wants to be space paladin. He's asking me to add space paladins. Yeah, just tell him to introduce everyone he meets in game that he's a space paladin. Uh and just and just shake his head at people who were gambling. Uh and Uh Dennis is our IT uh guy from the LA studio. So, Dennis Hi, Dennis. Hey, Dennis. Um I guess following up on
00:57:09
the on the question about the space magic stuff. Uh what about genetic modification? Uh do do do you What what what's the What's the UEE stance on on on genetic manipulation? I mean, we had sort of I kind of covered that a little bit in the writer's guide. I mean, I'd sort of gone with the kind of the Gattaca approach where it was that sort of initial like, you know, we kind of they kind of cut down on a lot of pre-existing like conditions that they could. So, there's a certain aspect of genetic modification. I mean, again, it gets it just It doesn't feel like that's our our universe in a weird way cuz we don't want it to get like super weird where
00:57:56
it's But again, I don't know. We're It's still kind of up in the air. It It's fairly limited. They found out like I think we're going kind of the problems that arise from too much genetic modification is that generationally you start seeing these issues spring up which they quickly identified that if you start messing with DNA too much, either you end up with homogeny which is the is a big issue for the human race as a whole or you start getting these unintended side effects a couple generations in. So, I I think it ended up being a little more controlled and limited to making sure that these diseases were kind of wiped out or or nipped in the bud. I think a lot of times you end up having later in life gene stuff happen or like you know, grow lab-grown
00:58:47
body parts or organs and stuff like that coming into the road and that's where medical science kind of headed versus trying to build the perfect human in a lab through genetic modification. Awesome. Uh we're just we're just about done. Last question is about the Yeah, last question is about the elections. Um I know we're not ready to reveal our full plans and what not. It's It's still in the beginning of April. But uh one of the questions that's come up throughout the entire show and it was voted up on the thread was I Are we going to let people actually influence who becomes the next Imperator? Yeah, that's the hope. I mean, we're still working out exactly how how we want it to how we want to
00:59:35
structure it. Um, but but yeah, I mean, I think it'll be fun. And what if they pick Antoine? Uh, well, then we have to figure out how to deal with that or we assassinate him. A space piano falls on his head and Uh, well, guys, uh thank you so much for hanging out with me on a on a Friday morning. Yeah. I do I do appreciate you you taking the time. It's uh these are some of the only times I get to hang out and and chat with people now that we're all, you know, dealing with the work from home stuff, so. Yeah, I hope everyone out there is safe and well and thanks for hanging out with us as a distraction. Much appreciated. And uh yes, we did confirm uh space pianos.
01:00:22
Uh well, we already have them. There's one of those in there. Yeah. Yeah, well. Yeah. Why do you think we made the space piano? The whole world exists so we can drop it on Antoine. Foreshadowing a cannon. Yeah. If you if you fools vote for We play the long game. You know us. All right. Uh so, for Dave, for Adam, for Will, uh I'm Jared. Uh thanks for joining us uh this week on our Star Citizen Live, uh the story behind the universe. Uh take care and we'll we'll see you next week, everybody. Bye.

Transcript from YouTube’s automatic captions — punctuation and Star Citizen jargon are approximate. The video itself is hosted by CIG on the official channel.