Squadron 42: I Held The Line

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] no s of H we copy stand Archangel 6 come in go for six I'm getting a faint contact on bearing 287 you picking that up yeah got it scanning now we're clear commercial vessel out of V 3 reminded them that civilian traffic is restricted at the lockdown copy that Arch Angel Arch Angel this is

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   Kruger come back Kary redirector sector 7 Bravo Echo for immediate task copy that on our way position3 reap re I know I just wrote you but a couple of

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   hours ago proximity sensors on the other other side of the jump got twigged word it is it might be that Clan we've been battling with I guess that last fight didn't scare them off quite like we all hoped it would honestly we've been out here so long I don't know what to pull for anymore I just I just wanted to let you know I'll ride as soon as I can stay safe your loving son never gets old does it sir it

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   is I used to do the same thing when I was first coming up post up to the flight deck whenever I could to watch the launchers have you seen the f8s up close no sir the think's a beast Nimble too 12 maneuvering thrusters and three Mains it sure sounds like it sir Captain McLaren to the bridge kept McLaren to the bridge I saw you apply to the Flight Academy again yes sir keep your head up took me a couple times before I got

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   in thank you sir [Applause] Welcome to Cloud Imperium games Manchester Studio I'm Chris Roberts and I'm pleased to announce we have just passed the major Milestone Squadron 42 is now feature complete and has entered its polish phase to celebrate this Milestone we've gathered some of our core leadership together to share what this means

6. 00:05:07

   as Chris says we've moved into the Polish phase of Squadron 42 which means extra emphasis on ensuring things feel fun this means focusing on the small and large elements of the game such as dialing in combat encounters but also looking at the feel of how you control your character or vehicle and making sure it's immersive as possible we've paid extra attention to how your character reacts when in their ship so that you feel like an actual pilot whether that's firing your weapons taking hits or punching the afterburners to get to cover ship AI has also seen huge improvements with closer engagement distances and more varied behaviors and with our new Precision targeting mode the action has never been as close with the AIM now on polish we've

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   organized the project into self-sufficient strike teams so we can focus on individual areas to deliver the best experience get out of sight the C is going to spot you this allows us to bring all disciplines together with a unified vision of enhancing the gameplay by seamlessly blending it with polished visuals final cinematic performances and our ever improving technology you didn't see the boat kid you're good to keep going we're also dialing in gameplay

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   features such as the ship flight model for both atmosphere and space which covers Master modes control surfaces and our gold standard HUD and mfds our interaction system for both the world and your character have also seen additional improvements allowing us to hone and craft environmental puzzles unique to each location while allowing us to tell the story of the world around you the military multitool is an essential piece of equipment for every pilot that

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   integrates all attachments into a single handheld device and allows us to create really interesting challenges including physics based puzzles using our updated rope Tech unidentified vessels this is the UE Navy power down your ships and standby for processing you go fck off the coils ass godamn it our scanning targeting and marker system has also seen an overhaul allowing us to highlight only the essential information that you need such as key objectives Mission targets and high level scan information while keeping your overall view as clean as possible

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    damn skag take them off me no no no no no tactical FPS combat and stealth which has seen a suite of improvements from improved looting weapon feel and balance realistic Scopes and smoother Locomotion alongside our new and improved FPS radar and scanner that provides you an overview of the battlefield but at the cost of ramping up your own emissions we've also seen the introduction of our melstrom powered destructible environment which adds a layer of dynamism to the experience alongside her improved AI that can now have hundreds of combinations of traits that allow us to create unique and challenging combat encounters that

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    really push your Tactical awareness and skill grenade we play and review the builds regularly

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    and call our action points in each level from start to finish and where we need to improve the game play this is an incredibly rewarding stage of development for me and the team as the ultimate vision of the game is realized allowing us to craft an experience that we can be really proud of one specific area that I'm excited to dial in is the feeling of the player interacting with the world around them catching you in as it's a core component of squad and really grounds the world that you inhabit we've made sure that any interaction in the environment is physically represented by a character animation to keep you in the moment and fully immerse you in the experience that

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    we've created ultimately this is the final phase of gameplay iteration before we fully transition into optimization and stability on the road to release need your try hole this is Colton come back always trips me out to see terraforming setups like this web tried explaining how atmosphere processors work really shows how far we've come and hell is she with the transition of Squadron to polish phase we've had the opportunity to find additional moments within the existing narrative to add subtle interactions where're appropriate it's been tremendously exciting to play through these areas and find places to augment the mood support Gam play and

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    further embellish our story and characters so yeah and then I I I can't believe it they said I got to wait another 2 years before I can reapply so um so that's why I figured I'd get a job trying trying insecurity because that's um you know I can get some hours fying in the cockpit and whatnot can't hurt right exactly we've also been capturing pickups for our lead female player character as well as wild lines for our various enemies that you all will encounter throughout the game on both foot and in a cockpit these consist of a range of responses and reactions that you as the player can trigger which has been the culmination of efforts by the gameplay and AI teams this means that you're going to have to tangle with some very smart and reactive bad guys to complete your mission at the heart of this immersive Adventure

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    you'll find Cutting Edge cinematic storytelling thoughtfully crafted to fully immerse you into your story we fight today so in 40 years from now when you're surrounded by everything and everyone you hold dear and they ask what did you do in the bottle of Vega you can look them in the eye and say I heard the line men and women of the second Fleet I am proud to stand with you today good luck B out nice

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    speech any word from the Recon team not yet let's get into position throughout the Polish phase our team is taking every opportunity to push things to the next level tell me you're expecting company this is not good the cin team is focused on finalizing added lock on all of our big action as well as all smaller character sequences I could have pulled this off of the galac

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    toeda yeah probably but I think their solar mass calculations are wrong though well this is ridiculous how so we are now able to adjust our shot composition to final cameras thanks to recently crafted space wiers and level art being content complete now it'd be nice to know how much of a storm we're flying into too more like a hill storm blue one you ain't going to fly out of shut up now I hadn't seen another ship that wasn't trying to kill me in days let alone a Haller let alone a jean so you can imagine my surprise detailed lighting passes can be done on hero sequences so we can show our cast and convey their emotions in the best light possible and we're making sure our cinematics are triggering as fluid as we can craft them so they form a coherent coner with the rest of the player's

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    narrative experience Mr Wexler this is Lieutenant Commander Colton oh Commander hey Julian Wexler I'm the field manager of this little operation welcome board the archon what brings the Navy to this little corner of the universe we got you flying with Lieutenant Commander Colton he's one of our best as others will share this is the most rewarding chapter of development which allows us to truly experience the visceral and often times emotional moments that our narrative provides how did you handle it after Vega I'm not sure I handled anything it helps to remember that stuff like this is supposed to

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    hurt I've never been good at dealing with problems I can't fix well this is one that you don't have to do alone let's it's good to know for the animation teams polish phase means refining the social aspects of Squadron 42 that occur between the various missions and getting the behaviors implemented across all of its chapters here we're dialing in the hanger to make it as immersive and believable and experience as possible we'll do it done Pap right right let's do this to switch out some interch onang getting a

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    weird I feel that anyway I'm off for example we're launching off a space carrier but we still ground the feel in real world actions refueling repairing and inspecting and making sure that your next flight mission is a success this means we're looking out for pops hiccups or awkward Transitions and ensuring that everything flows and looks like all the great map performances captured let's ready some extra ice packs out of storage whenever Gunners are on full rotation you can always count on at least one of them getting hurt we also have you covered in everyday

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    life the medical staff work diligently for their patients whether they're players or crew we really want you to feel part of an authentic crew an important part of the UE Navy and an enormous Universe of people going about their everyday lives let's go ahead and clear for takeoff ground crew prep Bay for takeoff copy that hanger ready for launch takeoff approved Baron two you have the ball Square the deck that's slide it up

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    ready and hold on as you're launched off the deck of the carryer baron 2 you are clear for launch have a safe FL Baron 2 we want you to not only decide how you play the game but to feel as if the people you interact with are in that world with you I would have never thought a shotgun could be so pretty damn this r97 is Sleek as hell like a lot of other weapons in Gemini's Arsenal it has a higher rate of fire than most guns of its type we're working to support a feel of

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    authenticity through World traversals running jumping and climbing interactions with objects and the environment solid weapon gameplay and enemy reactions as well as combat realities such as weapon malfunctions or in Close Encounters of the more lethal kind that's going to hurt in the morning as we continue to focus on the

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    quality experience we've been working closely with our art teams and it's been exciting to see their environments come to life alongside us while animation design whove been populated in locations polished phase for my teams means making huge advancements in the quality of our characters and environments we've established our standard with recognizable characters like Mark Hamill Julian Anderson and Gary Alman and we're now applying this to the rest of the cast and identifying any remaining Tech requirements that need to be closed down the story of Squadron 42 takes you through a variety of diverse locations of varying scales and styles we shared glimpses of several environments before and there's still plenty out there for

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    you to discover one of the main challenges the art team has had to face during the development of Squadron 42 is ensuring the visuals are complimentary to The Narrative of the script the mood and feeling of a space is just as important to us as it is making sure we hit the visual quality that cig has become known for oh good we can't ha it from this side Graves we got a locked door can you give us access no I'm afraid that's a negative St I would have to add you to our system to give you override permissions and uh there's a lot involved and that won't happen quickly okay we'll figure something out everything you see during the

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    campaign has been heavily inspired by the Classics of ' 7s and ' 80s sci-fi but with a modern twist we want everything you see to feel like it has a soul its own personality and tells of a history long before you arrived crafting interesting flight spaces and their connecting tissue has been one of the more unique challenges we've needed to overcome for squadron developing our VDB Tech to blend seamlessly between tighter traversal spaces and into wider space Vistas and planets has proved incredibly difficult but rewarding ensuring that Squadron flows seamlessly from one chapter to the next without interruption creating a diverse array of locations is essential to us our

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    environments need to work from a variety of scales we need to pay close attention to detail whether we're working in a dirty engineering vent or navigating the debris of a Dying star wondering what may be around that next corner or even who may live there how would they have survived and what state of mind may they be in yes speak we've worked closely with our social teams in delivering a cohesive social experience when you're taking some downtime from our refined flight and FPS missions or even missions of the more eerie

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    kind we'll be introducing new space stations on a massive scale all brought together and designed to be as tangible as possible we thought about their function their age and tried to ensure there's a progression in artistic style with each station as you progress through the game as you can see today the teams are working incredibly hard ramping up the detail and quality to match the breadth of our vision for squadron 42 now I know you're all asking when can I

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    play it when can I play it when we have the locked release date you'll be the first to know now we're in polishing phase on Squadron 42 you will start to see a lot more things coming to Star Citizen as well as overall progress on the persistent Universe polish phase can take some time we have come this far and we want to make sure Squadron 42 delivers on the promise of being this generation's Wing Commander now even though there's only a few few of us in this video I'd like to extend a big thank you to all our staff around the globe who have been putting their heart and soul into bringing Squadron 42 to life and I would like to thank everyone in the community for your patience and your support to paraphrase amiral Bishop when people ask what did you do in the development Squadron 42 we can look them in the eye and say I held the line I'm proud to stand with you thank you for making this game with us

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