Star Citizen: CitizenCon 2949 - Locked Up

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:03

   Thank you. Um just a bit of forewarning. Um I'm not very charismatic when I'm reading from notes, and I have a lot of notes. So, um apologies if my head's down for half of this, but at the end we'll be doing a big Q&A. I'm sure you'll have a lot of questions. So, let's crack on. Hello, and welcome to Locked Up. I'm Luke Presley, lead designer and uh Star Citizen with PU aspect of it. Um and in this presentation, I'm going to be talking about the design and development of a first prison in Star Citizen. But first, I'm going to explain why it's necessary. Yeah, people like being bad. But Star Citizen is more than just a space simulator. Um and already players enjoy freedoms unthinkable in most games.

2. 00:00:52

   But freedoms bring with it the scope to misbehave. Uh lots of scope as it turns out. Um these are just some of the laws we've had to implement to try and rein you guys in. Yeah, these aren't achievements. Yeah. Uh So, we've all heard the phrase crime pays. But the truth is it only pays as long as there's a functioning economy underneath to exploit. Um without an effective system of law, crime runs rife and economies collapse. And this is as much the case in video games as it is in the real world.

3. 00:01:39

   Um and normally, uh to avoid having to deal with this, games impose arbitrary limits on what the player can do. Sometimes preventing actions which the game's mechanics would otherwise allow. And obviously, this is something that we don't want want to do in uh Star Um and it's why we've been working so hard on our law system. Uh, uh, it's a system that's complex enough to allow players the freedom they want to, um, so they can do anything they want. They can play the game however they'd like, but always at the risk of losing their, uh, the freedoms for a time. Um, but before I get too deep into the design, I want to quickly go over the purpose of prisons. Because the parallels between game and real life are actually quite startling. I've got a few, uh, legitimate and

4. 00:02:27

   illegitimate, uh, purposes of prisons here. So. Uh, retribution means that victims will feel justice is served. The issue with Star Citizen right now is that once a criminal is killed by bounty hunter or law enforcement, the arrest function is triggered. Um, it's pretty empty at the moment, I'm afraid. Um, all it currently does is remove the crime stat from players. And this is just so you don't get stuck in that endless loop of, um, waking at a, uh, landing zone and being shot dead by the security and rinse repeat. So, basically you're getting off scot-free. Um, you receive no punishment and your victims can't be satisfied that justice has been served. Then you've got in the real world, incapacitation means that players are

5. 00:03:14

   taken out of society for a a time. This should be the case in, uh, Star Citizen. But currently criminals immediately respawn, ready to offend again, giving their victims no respite. In the real world, serving prison time is a deterrent to criminals. And it will be the the same in Star Citizen. As prisons take the player out of the main gameplay loop, inhibiting their ability to learn, uh, earn money and reputation, and heavily restricting the mechanics available to them. Now, this isn't something a game designer does lightly, taking players out of the main game loop. Um, and it's another reason we're introducing this early because it's going to take time, it's going to take testing, it's going to take your guys' feedback, and a lot of iteration to ensure that prisons feel both fair and offer enough options to keep players engaged.

6. 00:04:05

   Rehabilitation, possibly the only function that prisons serve where real life and game parallels break down or not depending on your opinion of how well real prisons reform their inmates. In the real world, there are very lit few reasons a person would actually want to go to jail. But in Star Citizen, I'm going to make sure there's a many reasons. I'll give you a few examples. Like for example, there may be a mission giver in prison whose trust you have to earn to unlock missions on the outside. There may be an inmate who needs breaking out. You could be sent to intimidate, kidnap, or kill a target within the prison. Or there may be a VIP who's been

7. 00:04:52

   arrested and needs protection for the duration of their sentence, possibly requiring you to up your sentence in line with theirs or maybe work with them to lower their sentence. The list goes on. But I know you'll be good to see what these prisons look like in Star Citizen. I have a video here and a little disclaimer. This is the work of many different different disciplines. So I feel very privileged to be one to show you for the first time. Gameplay isn't a stage where I can show you this at the moment. This is very art and atmosphere heavy demo. Although I did try to create a little a little story and excitement in it. This is not made by our marketing department. I made this yesterday

8. 00:05:41

   on a very dodgy build and I'm no cinematographer. So apologies it's quite generic. Um so if you can just imagine that it has the usual polish that videos from CIG do, then uh we'll be good. All right. Oh, and assets are obviously working progress. Progress. Should go without saying. Unlike Glenn, I made that jump in one

9. 00:09:19

   go. Um Okay. Um so, what you saw there, um obviously, you wake up in your cell. Uh I believe there's about 64 of those in each cell block. Uh we're only doing one cell block um for now. Um you walk out into the main cell block. what you see in the middle is the guard tower. Now, this this place is entirely automated. There'll be um automated turrets on there. Um and in the middle of of bottom of it, there is um they're like information uh consoles where you tell you how much of your sentence is left um and it's where you can also transfer merits back and forth uh between players, between other inmates, um which I will get to. Sorry, I'm kind of jumping ahead here. But um you also then saw him uh walk walk into

10. 00:10:09

    the mine uh part of it. Now, there's an in and out uh part. There's There's a section where there's a machine where you'd pick up your mining tools and any other additions that you you want to pay for on the way in um and a way out where you get showered like the the mines are pretty um noxious and uh you're not allowed to bring anything back in from the mine. You You get like forced uh showered as you walk walk um back in. Um and yeah yeah, the mines uh they are a lot like the caves that we have, but you can see there's like equipment in there, better lighting and such. But as you get deeper into the caves, it turns more into uh the like the caves that you recognize, a lot a lot less um like man man-made objects in there. But I'm going to give you I should have taken a drink during that, shouldn't I?

11. 00:10:57

    Uh 1 second. right. Okay, a bit of background on the prison then. So, the writers have named this extremely difficult to to read out loud. Um the prison is run by Pleasure Pleasure Rehabilitation Facilities on behalf of UEE. Pleasure is a private corrections provider who's committed to providing safe, secure rehabilitation facilities. Or at least that's what their brochures say. In reality, inmates pay off their debt to by mining in hazardous environments with woefully inadequate inadequate equipment. Uh the prison cell blocks are fully automated. The guards are unmanned turrets. The commissaries are vending

12. 00:11:43

    machine. And attempts at rehabilitation come in the form of motivational announcements played on a loop. Um the prison is by no means secure, either. Underinvestment and poor monitoring have led to escape routes being developed, which while no means easy to navigate, have allowed multiple successful escapes. And yet, Klescher isn't too I I pronounce that differently every time I say it, by the way, so uh bear with me. Uh Klescher is not too concerned because they thought ahead. They built their prison deep, and they built it on a moon called Aberdeen. Um and this is where I need to pause and give you a little background uh on some tech that we're we're making. Uh you may have seen it in the weather demos and everything, but um soon we'll be adding things such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed to planets.

13. 00:12:31

    And these will have realistic effects on the player. Some planets will be dangerously hot or cold and require specialized suits to remain outside. Feasibly, some planets may even be too hot or cold during periods of the day, no matter the suit worn. Aberdeen will have a similar atmosphere to Venus. A runaway greenhouse effect with temperatures of around 400° C. So, you can imagine that Klescher feels fairly confident that even even if an inmate was to make it to the surface, they may not make it much further. what kind of gameplay can you expect in the final version of prisons? And again, I stress final version because what I'm about to cover is ambitious and not something we can deliver in a single release. So, before you can be sent to prison,

14. 00:13:20

    you obviously have to be arrested. This occurs when a player die is killed or dies in proximity of a bounty hunter or law enforcement and that their body could conceivably be recovered. Or when the player surrenders themselves or their ships to one of those factions. After arrest, the player will wake up on a transport ship having just landed at the prison. On board will be others that are arrested around the same time and those players will be taken to the cell block. There, they will have been issued a cell of their own in which they will be able to persistently store items collected within the prison and this is where they'll respond should they be incapacitated. Right. I hope you guys are still with me because here's where it gets a bit complicated.

15. 00:14:08

    Prisons, right? Sorry, the prison if a player's prison sentence is not measured in time, but in a prison prison-specific currency called merits. Um from the moment the player enters the prison and for as long as they remain well-behaved, they will accrue merits at a slow rate. For the sake of simplicity and I'm going to massively over simplify this. Let's say that they earn one merit for every minute of good behavior. So, if in this example, a player has a 40 merit sentence, they would be in jail for 40 minutes were they to simply wait it out. But pleasure want to encourage their inmates to generate the money. So, were you to pick up your prison-issued multi-tool and go mining resources for them, they would allow you to work off your sentence at a much faster rate. You

16. 00:14:55

    could easily half your sentence or even more by mining resources or doing other odd jobs for the prison. However, merits aren't just used to buy freedom. Nothing for comes free in a pleasure prison. Prison players with hefty sentences will want to spend merits to make merits by investing merits in commodities and upgrades to their equipment. This is done at the commissary, a glorified vending machine which carries everything inmates need to remain productive all at a price. These upgrades will allow players to take more damage, carry more resources, or mine faster or longer um because tools the tools the prison supplies for free will be basic and their suits will come with limited

17. 00:15:42

    oxygen storage and storage capacity. This is because the prison uses oxygen as a means of control. New inmates are not trusted with the larger oxygen tanks which would make escape escape easier. They must earn they must first earn trust through earning merits. Only the main cell block has a constant supply of breathable air. Away from the cell block players will have to rely on oxygen refill stations. But deep the deeper these are in the mine the longer these will take to replenish their supplies. So players may find there's competition for access to possibly life saving refills. Going back to merits for a moment to create a prison economy it's important that players be able to transfer merits.

18. 00:16:30

    This opens up many avenues of gameplay beyond simply mining your way to I'll give you a few examples. So say me and my partner in crime are arrested at the same time but their sentence is double mine. I could choose to donate my merits to them as I earn them um until we both have a similar release time. Or a group of inmates could pool their resources and create a constant production line with one player fully upgraded and mining deep in the most profitable profitable parts of the mine kept in constant oxygen supply by runners who then deposit the mines the mined materials in the hoppers back at the entrance to the mine. And then there's gambling. With our new melee combat system, boxing

19. 00:17:18

    bouts could be arranged with players able to bet merits on the outcome. Yeah, um I mean, you got guys will have to do that yourself until we get a few NPCs in there, but I'm sure you'll manage it. Um and merits will be earned for things other than mining, legal or otherwise. For example, pressure mate might decide to make a saving on food bills and pay merits to inmates who collect them cave fungus. Or maybe a another player or NPC needs muscle to protect one them while they mine. Or perhaps an NPC wants another inmate knocked out and tossed into the mine's deepest, darkest hole where they won't be found found. Speaking of which,

20. 00:18:07

    death. Um in prison, uh if a player is incapaci- incapacitated, they'll wake up in their cell. They'll have to pick up a new mining tool, but a basic one will be provided for free from the commissary. If an inmate contravenes a minor prison rule, they will receive an incre- increase to their sentence in line with their infraction. But inmates caught murdering others will be flagged as violent inmates and receive much heavier penalties. Not only this, they will be marked for other inmates to avoid or even hunt as the prison will put a bounty on their head for other inmates to claim. Once a player has earned enough merits to fulfill their sentence, they will be told to report for processing for release to proce- processing for

21. 00:18:56

    release. After which, they will wake in their last spawn location with their previous loadout restored. Escape. Prisons will have escape routes. Players must discover these themselves and learn to navigate them. These routes will be dangerous and labyrinthine. Their purpose is to use up an escapee's oxygen. Players intent on escape will have to memorize the route if they want to make it to the surface without suffocating. Even then, it would be wise to have friends waiting in a ship. But if not, they may find means to escape by stealing one of the prison's ground vehicles. Just a note on communication within the prison. Um players will find that they are unable to communicate with the outside world by chat or mobile glass. Though they may find a way to um communicate outside

22. 00:19:45

    deep in the mine where the prisons um kind of dampening fields or whatever they generate don't reach down there. Um but even then, we understand that we aren't able to stop players using external communication software. Um so this is really just for players who want to roleplay. And it's the way that if we had a choice, we'd like it to be played. Should the player escape the prison, the tracking chip they are implanted with upon arrest will activate and a bounty will be placed upon them. Due to this chip, there will be no way for no way for the player to hide. So this may be, you know, there may be people bounty hunters out there who make it their sole career to chase down escapees rather than, you

23. 00:20:33

    know, doing the the level five wanted kind of um bounty job. Um should the player die and conceivably be located by law enforcement, they will be returned to prison with a hefty escape infraction added to their existing sentence. Players are able to delete their prison record by hacking the criminal database. This removes any record of their incarceration, but it may take some So I'm going to open it up to um questions at this moment. Well, in a moment. But first, I'd like to answer a question that I've been asked a few times, and that's why now. Uh why are we implementing prisons at this point in development? Uh I've obviously I've given some reasons in this presentation, but I wanted to answer from a more logistical point of view.

24. 00:21:22

    So, the mission team has two coders, and those guys, as well as a lot of our designers, have been focused on the conversions of conversion of missions to work with server-side object container streaming. So, prisons offered the chance for artists and designers to work without need of code support during this time. So, that that that is the main reason. So, I'll open it out to questions, and my runner is going to pick pick someone. So, you've mentioned that there's this arrest mechanic where your arrest flag gets turned on, which is great. Right now, that just triggers a bunch of guards to turn around and shoot you to

25. 00:22:09

    little bits, and you die. So, now that this gameplay is going to be implemented inside of the game, what's going to happen when that arrest flag is turned on? Are Are you going to have a bunch of NPCs, you know, shooting your position? What happens if you get found in space? How How does that How's it going to work? So, um the the same way that it works now, like they turn up when you're spotted. So, you'll be spotted by like say you're a wanted level five, the navy's after you. Right? But, if you get spotted by any kind of security, that they call for backup, and they arrive. Um what what will change now is that um you will have the option to surrender. Surrendering will be to power down your ship, like turn your shields

26. 00:22:56

    off, and wait. They will stop shooting at you, and they will approach. Um they will be constantly offering you the chance to surrender as well. Like you you know, bellowing it at you. Um, but when you uh when you're arrested now, you'll obviously fade down. Everyone on your ship will um like your ship will be taken. Everyone on your ship will be um whether they're criminals uh if they're not criminals they'll spawn at their last place or maybe at the when we have like police stations as it were, they'll spawn in the lobby of that and have to arrange, you know, their way back. Um, but anyone who's found that has um you know, a warrant out on them, those guys will be taken to prison. Um, and yeah, they have to work off their sentence. So, uh

27. 00:23:47

    to build on his question uh about what happens, Oh, there you are. Sorry. right now NPCs in Louisville shoot you to death. Yes. So, uh I'm assuming that they too will fall under this land surrender dynamic or if they do kill you instead of clearing the crimes that you uh automatically respond into the Yeah, well, so if you if you have um Yeah, obviously if if you have a crime stat, you will go to prison if they were to shoot you or and we will be give giving them the uh the option to surrender. Whether that be done with um like you know, the amount I think we already have the hands up emote. Um, or whether it be, you know,

28. 00:24:36

    down on your belly, go prone for now. Um, but we'll give you the option, yes. Hi. Um, uh just a quick question is uh I like the system of issuing merits and the merit is equal to a certain amount of time. Um, but is that time in-game time or real time? Could say a criminal who gets issued 40 minutes of jail time just log off for 40 minutes and then when he logs back on, he's released and can go for release or is that just purely in game time you need to be spending in prison? we're thinking right now that it's going to be in in game time that you have to generate this good behavior. Like we we looked into like real prisons and you know, um you actually kind of go in with

29. 00:25:24

    you the your good behavior is almost taken off. It's only when you can do bad behavior that um they take that away. Um it's the same case here. You will generate good behavior merits like in a trickle kind of thing as you're in there. Those you'll be able to go and spend on just food or you know, or just like accrue until the point that you are free. obviously it would be way better to go spend maybe upgrade your multi-tool or upgrade your suit backpack kind of thing and go and mine and and you'll be out of there so much faster. Um but yeah, the idea that you could you know, you know, get away with it basically by logging off is is not something we want to allow. That actually allows us to keep those um those

30. 00:26:12

    um like sentences much shorter as well. Um yeah, anyway. Hi. Uh Uh so, um NPCs can arrest you, but what about players? So, if if I have a bounty, so I'm wanted level five, can a player accept that bounty kill me or can I surrender to a player? How does that work? Yes. Yeah, you can surrender and you can um them killing you will send them to jail. Um it's not just bounty hunters as well. We are implementing a new mission in 3.8 um that allows you Well, one of the things we want to do is um allow you to get perks from orgs. Uh Um there'll be an org called the Citizen Defense force. Thank you.

31. 00:27:01

    Um and they um they they work for the advocacy or a part of the advocacy and they allow you to um basically be deputized. So, you're not a bounty hunter necessarily. You're not chasing individuals, but if you scan a ship and you find that it's got a player with a crime stat on there, you can like lawfully ask them to surrender and take them down and those guys will go to Hey, I'm on the left view. Yeah, yeah. so, the question I was going to have is um once people figure out how to escape, what kind of dynamic elements are you thinking about putting in to make an escape a thing of skill rather than memorization? right. So,

32. 00:27:50

    if you go straight into jail, you'll have terrible kit. Like you'll have terrible equipment. You you probably won't be able to make it out of that with just the suit you have on there. So, that means you either have to first work a little bit or you have to however you want to get merits out of other players, you know, maybe you find a ways, maybe you've got friends already in there, you know, maybe you've got um like NPCs in there like that you've built a reputation with and they can donate you some to get you the oxygen that, you know, you need to get out of there. dynamic things, we've we've not really looked at anything like that for now. It is really just a case of um we chew up your oxygen, you you memorize this and then you get out with enough

33. 00:28:38

    because obviously just getting to the planet's surface is only the first step. what I should have said in that video is that there were no turrets firing um as they approached the prison. They just didn't work that day. So, like those players will be shot at. They will have like ballistas parked outside firing missiles. They'll be They'll be security ships dispatched. what we want to be able to create is is you know every every trope you see in in prison films, right? So, I arrange an escape and I arrange it for this time. Like I'm down in the mines and I actually call out. I'm not using Discord. So, like I say in 15 minutes I'm going

34. 00:29:26

    to meet you out on the outside. And I break the whole way out, you know, barely escaping with the oxygen I need to get out. Only to find like a smoking wreck of that ship. And all I can do is like like and suffocate and then wake up back in prison. Yeah, so there's skill and challenge every time. Yeah, that's pretty cool. All right, thanks. Yeah, we've we've tried to work in a few little bits of gameplay. Like for instance mining your way out. Like so you know there's rocks in the way and stuff. So, like you know, you can actually end up blowing yourself up if you're not careful or you know, sometimes mostly when you mine you want to take a lot of time and and get it right. Whereas you want to get out quick. So, you run up, you put as much energy into it as possible and then you run away, let it

35. 00:30:14

    explode and kind of get out that way. So, we've been trying to use all the the little pieces of gameplay that we have currently to make some interesting routes. Thank you for that answer. Hello. Hi. I was thinking about if you have a prison system, there surely has to be a working law system with every aspect of a working law system. So, will there be NPC lawyers which have quality levels maybe and you have a lot of money, and they can punch you out or lower your sentence in the beginning. You can defend yourself against the charges. Maybe some of them are faulty or a bit high. Will there be something like that? Not yet designed. I mean, designing how a court would work um

36. 00:31:05

    and a jury and a judge like is is we haven't got there yet. I don't know if we will get there. There are a few little fun things you'll find in 38 where when you do go into the criminal database and hack your hack record, you have now hacked them individually. Um and when you're hacking them, you So, you you only hack your way into the system. Like you're then logged on as a user. So, you you just use it like they would and and they get rid of your crimes by like picking a reason. So, one of the reasons is diplomatic immunity, you know, you know, there's there's a bunch of like fun reasons on there that you can select as to why, and these things will stay on your criminal record as well. So, you could like the fact that you were pardoned for

37. 00:31:54

    you know, diplomatic immunity or what it people infallibility. I don't know what else there is. But um But uh you know, you can imagine that yeah, there's a possibility there that that you could get some time knocked off with something like that. It's a It's a good idea. It's not something we've investigated yet. So, good contacts maybe help you. Yeah. You have good contacts and maybe you know a diplomat and Yeah, maybe maybe so. Like I say, it's it's the idea that there are that you could have made friends with gangs on the inside that then can help you out, so you can get out of prison faster by like there will be progression in jail like as well. It's not just like we take you out of the game. You can also make progression in in jail, make friends, and so that the next time you get in,

38. 00:32:41

    you don't have to start from scratch. Uh uh sorry, that's all.