10 for the Chairman - Episode 14 . March 31st, 2014

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] hello every welcome to another episode of 10 for the chairman uh for those that you haven't watched this before it's where I take 10 questions from uh subscribers and uh answer them as best I can uh for those of you that don't know uh subscribers are the subset of the overall backers of Star Citizen that are kicking in extra money every month to allow us to uh do additional community outreach uh spend uh time answering these questions doing Wing's hanger doing jump point and a bunch of the behind the-scenes stuff that uh helps inform everyone out there in the community uh what we're up to so thank you all to subscribers and of course thank you to backers for um just enabling us to be making the game of our

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   dream so first of the 10 questions comes from mck D who asks how is your Sound Studio developing and what are your plans have you heard of realtime voice p good sound is an essential part of the gaming experience could you please present or say something about your plans so on the Sound Studio front um we're going to be building a uh small Sound Studio in the new Austin offices plus we're actually expanding into a uh additional space here in Los Angeles and the space we're expanding into already has a built-in sound um booth and room uh that will'll be uh taking into our office so we'll have the ability to uh record um actors voice for vo and stuff and and do sound balancing um here and in uh Austin and we'll uh make sure they're both connected we have actual

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   gigabyte uh internet of fiber now running uh from here to uh Austin um so uh we'll be able to do a fair amount of that um I actually haven't heard of real-time voice porting uh so I guess I'll go and Google it and find out what it is um could be uh you're in Austin and you've got an actor in Los Angeles and uh you're basically directing your vo long distance but uh which we will have those abilities to do in our our stages um but yeah we're going to have a full featured sort of uh sound uh setup here and uh sound's an important part of the game so we're really sort of focusing on uh uh quite a few things one um we're uh going to be enhancing the sound system inside uh Star Citizen so we're going to make a move to uh W uh from fod um which will just uh have it

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   just has some more real time filters and plugins that are good for the sound guys the sound guys like to use it for uh the sound editing uh and we're really working hard on um you know how to make a a realistic soundscape and also we're going to have some great Dynamic music so anyway we're pretty focused on the sound although you haven't really appreciated it yet but you will be seeing it down the road okay next question comes from Brin who asked with so many high value accounts existing well before the game is released would you consider supporting security Hardware such as RS say secure ID authenticator or other such two-step verification methods uh well I don't you know that's a that's a good question I you know that's not so much what I focus on John ersin who's sort of head of all our online operations and sort of digital publishing is uh you know and he works closely with turbulent and

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   together they've sort of been working with Jason spanger our CTO on our sort of digital platform uh so we're always looking at um various ways to increase our security and thinking ahead of the game of like when it becomes you know a bigger game than it is now with a lot more people and the case of fraud or stealing An accounts uh because you know we've been lucky we really haven't had much of that so far but um as you become bigger um it always happens luckily we've got some people that have had had uh you know experience at that um you know John actually came to us from uh NC soft and before that he was at origin where he was working on Ultima Online uh so he's actually had a lot of sort of big online MMO experience um so we're thinking about it but uh you know we we don't have anything um you know firm to say yet but that's definitely in our

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   plans okay next question comes from Reus who asks will humans be the only playable species upon launch if so do you plan on adding additional humanoid species such as the Banu Jan to be playable I think as a future add-on it would work nicely as an expansion pack humans are going to be the only playable species upon launch but we've said this before um we are planning to eventually let you play some of the other races like the Banu thejan and they would that would definitely be a sort of big major content uh expansion so you know our plan is that we're going to have regular content updates um you know hopefully maybe not weekly but at least by monthly um as we go but then we'll also have some much bigger content updates uh which would be say another single player campaign like sad 42 or or the ability to play one of the the uh the the um

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   alien races uh so that's all part of our plan but right now we've got so much just to deliver what we've signed up for that um you know that would be sort of stage two okay next question comes from gun rage who asks Mining and Manufacturing will be an important part of the persistent universe will the mining platform in Squadron 42 concept art be available for us to purchase in the Star Citizen Universe what plans do you have for Star Citizen will we have warehouses and silos that we can purchase and expand upon so I'm not sure about whether um mining operation of the size of the shuin one that's uh sort of detailed in Squadron 42 would be available for players to uh purchase a use right off the bat in the game we're definitely planning on allowing players to be able to do um mining operations and get groups together and do it either on a small scale or a larger scale uh and you certainly will be able to uh as

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   you sort of build up um you know have a silo a warehouse or have your mining operation so I think there will definitely be cases where a player will be able to uh buy um say a mining station and then can sort of slowly Build It Up over time and H other people to help them out and do all the rest of the stuff so it's there I just don't know whether it'll be a Bas size of the shuin one but uh you know maybe that could be down the road so we we're still working out we've got actually a pretty cool Manning um mechanic and we're working uh you know we're going to do sort of voxelization of asteroids and there's a whole sort of there'll be anyway it won't be just holding a space bar and and you know two hours and you've now mined something U and so there'll be a lot of logistics involved in terms of getting the getting the minerals then taking it to somewhere to get refined and all the stuff so all

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   along the sort of um sort of Mining and and Logistics chain people can get involved so I think it'll be kind of a cool game for people that like to do that and that's kind of the idea with Star Citizen to have all these different things you can do that um sort of Suits all different tastes um okay next question comes from uh Tamara who asks because Star Citizen is a Sandbox will it be possible to infiltrate an organization with your character will there be some tools to use your main character for that for example I'm in an organization a that is with at war with organization B will I be able to hide that I'm a member of organization a without leaving my organization so I can infiltrate organization B otherwise it will require a second character so yes we are actually thinking uh about having um sort of um basically uh Spa uh spying uh infiltration uh all built

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    into uh the game mechanic so we've already it's not an organizations yet but there is some stuff that will drop in actually the website that will even allow maybe a little a little bit of that in there and then in the game we will definitely allow uh people to sort of do a little bit of uh of that because it's it's kind of fun it's a whole another sort of meta game that can happen uh you know and quite frankly if you sort of you know when you read about that sort of stuff happening in Eve it actually uh always reads more uh you know it always seems much funner than than whenever you watch the videos of it so uh but we're going to try and build that in it may actually be cooler when you're sort of more visceral in first person so there will definitely be the possibility of that in the game and that's something that we're working towards next question comes from Neo onx 13 given the episodic delivery of Squadron 42 will consequences of our actions between

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    episodes migrate to the new portions of the story for example if I was on a losing track during the first iteration of Squadron 42 would that be the path I would start on in the next installment of the adventure even if I was doing awesome during my stint in the persist Universe while the next episode was being developed um it's probably unlikely the persistent universe is going to be up and fully functioning by the time that um Squadron 42 uh is being played in episonic manner so the the whole concept of us to play Squadron 42 in episonic Mana was we can't really give everyone the whole thing as a kind of a broken Alpha because it's a story so you'd ruin the story so the idea is we're going to probably have well not probably we will have Squadron 42 at a more polished State when you uh first start playing it but it'll only be the first 10 missions because it takes so

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    long to get all these things done and Polished correctly and then uh we're sort of going to run it more think of it like episodic TV or a miniseries event um and so the team basically will be finishing and polishing the levels and when they've got it done then they'll be um you know pushing it out to all the backers out there and and that'll be something you'll be playing while waiting for the full persistent Universe to come up and running so we'll probably have an alpha of portions of the persistent Universe maybe a system or two that you can travel between but in terms of having the full pent Universe you can really go around and explore all the edges that won't be until after Squadron 42 will be completed because the biggest thing we're doing is universe and it has the most amount of content uh so that will definitely take the longest so kind of our our road map really is you know dog fighting which we're working on right now to get dog

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    fighting V1 out which is sort of the single Ceda Fighters then there'll be dog fighting V2 which will be the multi crude ships the bigger things like consolation freelancer and you know something like the Addis uh although that may not make dog fighting V2 at the beginning and it'll be a drop later then after that we would uh debut the sort of firsters combat section which uh will probably have a sort of alpha test level it's on an abandoning Manning Colony that's pretty cool that we're building right now and then there will be a combination of that with the ship so you could you know have sort of dog fighting SL Ship boarding happening uh so you know capture one big ship in the middle and people have to do the fighter cover then we'll um probably have a Planet Side module and then at that point we will start to go to the episodic delivery of Squadron 42 so the first 10 missions and then the next 10 s and uh then at some point in that we'll

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    probably be giving some Alpha of the persistent universe and then by the time Squadron 42 is finished hopefully the position universe will be ready at least in a beta format for all the backers and then sometime after all that all these things will be done and Polished and we'll call it done although nothing's ever done in an online world because we're always going to be constantly tweaking and improving it as far as that goes you're not really going to be able to sort of play Squadron 42 and then just drop out into the persistant universe between the 10 missions um you're doing because you're in the military it's just like time will have suspended for you and you come back and pick up the story where you left it off uh generally the Lo losing paths that are in the segments of missions we're doing will be in the that sort of you know whatever you want to call it episode or whatever um so uh they're fairly self-contained in terms of like

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    chapter segments the different the different missions uh so those probably you know at the end at the end of each one you've either you know failed left the military or you're bam onto the next thing you've got a cliffhanger and what's happening in the next 10 episodes and that's kind of the structure that we've been working towards next question comes from Yaman car given your background as a producer in Hollywood and with the full motion videos in the wing commander games what do you think the potential would be for a star s and TV series well uh I think the universe uh we managed to do it right will be pretty compelling uh and I think at that point it's really just going to be about people who want to spend time in the universe I mean primarily obviously flying around themselves but you know I think there's already quite enough people that like to read David hadock fiction online and that's just sort of in the written fashion so uh longer term you know we've been toying around doing

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    some sort of linear content that would enhance essentially the game experience where there would potentially be characters that we would do some like kid Crimson is a good example that we had back on on our web um you know our website a while ago and he would be a great character to run around the universe and it would be great to sort of have his stories but not just be written in text but actually sort of visually see them in environments in the world and then occasionally in the game run across that kid Crimson character so um so that's kind of where we're thinking that's obviously down the road it's uh you know game first uh and then sort of segue to that but we'd probably want to try and do it in a holistic manner so it works with the whole um you know the whole universe so we wouldn't really want to license it out somewhere and we'd probably want to use a lot of our assets right so um you know if we were going to do it we're not sure whether it would be all digital

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    characters or it would be actors against um uh green screen and then the rest would be all the uh the universe of Star Citizen using the incredibly detailed environments and ships and all the rest of stuff uh but that way down the road but we think there potentially could be some uh you know great uh potential there I mean obviously there's you know a lot of maim stuff out there that people like and uh I think people you know like anything if it's if it's if the story in the universe connects enough I think people like to experience it in more than one manner I mean I certainly you know have myself in something like Star Wars um so uh longer term that would be something we would consider but shortterm heads down just building the universe in the first place and getting the game out there okay next question comes from assarian who asks are there any plans to bring back some of the voice actors from the previous Roberts Productions Chie Caro David sua

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    John re Davis or use other well-known voice actors Jennifer hail Ron pilman or start with fresh actors PS can we have a character's voice acted by Chris Robert Sandy Gardner Eric wingland Peterson better yet all three um so uh well we haven't uh disclosed uh you know who we're going to get I mean I don't really want to do that until we finished um the Squadron 42 script which we're in the process of writing we've got the outline and everything but we haven't finished it it's going to be 700 Pages plus of uh uh you know fairly large that's what happens on something that is this scale um but uh yes we are going to have um some you know definitely be bringing back uh a few people that I've worked with before um and also we'll be bringing back or not bringing back but bringing in some really interesting and

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    good character actors I mean obviously I have a lot of experience from making my movies and have a lot of relationship so like for instance I've worked with Ron pman he's a great guy I mean we made Outland it together uh you know and there's a whole bunch of other people that um I think would be great uh and to use in our in our game and we probably if we bring the actors in we you know we're doing full body motion capture full um uh you know facial capture and also head scanning and all the rest so you know if we did have a Ron pilman or you know someone else that's a fan favorite in it would look like them which would be kind of cool so we'll do that and I'm sure there's going to be some cameos from the various uh development people here I mean uh you know if you remember Wing three and Wing four uh and actually the wing Commander movie too um you know I have a cameo in

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    every one of them and uh I'm pretty confident we'll be putting uh myself and Sandy and Eric and probably a few other people in uh the universe it's a big universe so we got to populate with a lot of different people okay next question comes from Bor the red who says given the nature of the persistent Universe with fringe systems also being the most Lawless are PVP and exploration intrinsically linked will I need to always be ready to fight for my life while exploring and bring an Idris full of battled Harden friends wherever I go I don't necessarily think so because that's sort of making the assumption that if you're exploring and finding new systems that system is teaming with pirates or PVP which uh won't necessarily be the case so some of the exploring stuff is going to be off the Beaten Track and therefore won't be somewhere that everyone will naturally go to and uh so

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    in certain cases in the exploration mode uh we're probably going to have it tuned in such a way that uh the ability for sort of a PVP enounter um in that sort of off the uh expiration mode wouldn't necessarily be as high as being in a notorious sort of Lawless pirate system now that's not to say there won't be any chance of of it at all cuz it definitely will be because there has to be some risk and there has to be some tension when you're in the unknown you don't know who you're going to come across I think that's definitely going to add to the game experience uh but the goal would be to sort of balance that so there's I mean there's a whole bunch of uh you know things that we're going to try and do I mean I know we always have raging debates between bvp and PVE uh on the forums uh and everyone's pretty much dug in it's intractable uh you know it's like an argument on religion or politics uh but you know my naive hope is I think

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    I have a pretty good take and a system that will hopefully make both sides be pleasantly surprised uh and kind of deal with most of the the issues that everyone's worried about um but we'll see right so I have to wait till we get there so I would ask everyone that you sort of wait till it happens and we're also going to be key balancing but we've got some we got some sort of tricks up our sleeves I think we'll make it work well um and everyone's got to remember that there's going to be a huge amount of people from both sides PVP and PVE playing this game so uh you know I know that everyone on the PVP side feels like well if there aren't PVE people there that I can fight then uh then who am I going to be able to take out easily which um doesn't make much sense because there's no reason why NPCs aren't going to be that hard aren't going to be as

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    tough as as a normal player and vice versa on the PVE they said oh well if it was a PVP they're just out to gank me which also I don't think it's necessarily true but we certainly can make sure that uh people that have a preference one way and other tend to be grouped together when they play uh and that affects kind of what we're um uh doing in the game but um it's sort of a delicate balancing system there's a lot of metrics that will go into it uh I have some pretty good strong ideas I mean all I can say is that you know people should take Faith in the fact that you know the game will be balanced in the way that I kind of like it to be played and for the way I like it to be played is I sort of I'm not extreme on either side so some days I like to be competing doing PVP and some days I like to be doing PVE and I don't want to be dealing with other people so the game is going to allow you to be able to sort of have those experiences and in such a way

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    that it won't be detrimental to the other experience um so there you go I'm sure there'll be a massive Forum war waged on this right after this episode um okay last question comes from Nomad who asks will Squadron 42 or the Star Citizen persistent Universe contain content that pays homage to some of your past games EG Wing Commander or freelancer that fans will pick up in NPC dialogue UE news bulletins hidden Easter eggs or the like um so all I can say is yes in fact I mean if you notice we've already did if you look at the Squadron 42 um cinematic trailer we did back in October 2012 there's lots of wing command homages there so we've definitely got some even in the dog fight that's coming up um we have a homaged wing Commander so um you will see in the virtual network uh that you

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    join to um do the dog finding simulation and the the company that has created it in 2019 44 um it's all kind of a homage so we will definitely continue to do that and it will be fun all right that brings us to an end of another episode of 10 for the chairman thank you all for listening uh to my rather long rambly responses or answers to your questions and uh you know again thank you to subscribers for um contributing money every month to allow us to sort of do this extra level of content and thank you in general for backers out there for uh putting up the money to enable us to make the game uh to the level and ambition that we are making it for which I think is pretty unprecedented in the uh games industry and so thank you all and I'll catch you next week bye [Applause]