Inside Star Citizen: Armor Bearer | Spring 2021

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:03

   We want the universe to feel diverse. We're trying to build worlds that have multiple communities, right? And we want the universe to feel like there's so many things out there, so many things that are unknown. So the plan for the character team as far as new PU assets, we are making much stronger push towards new armors. So, all that said, let's look at some of the armors we've been working on. My favorite is going to be the heatsuit because it's the first of its kind where it mainly focuses on fabric. This is not a modular armor. So, the silhouette of it can be quite different because it doesn't have to mix and match like other armors do. So, we could go with a much different uh larger kind of silhouette that shows

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   that there's a lot of protection on this armor from the very high heat surrounding. We had one version that didn't make it to the final, but it's really cool. We had one where it had vents where if the the suit would overheat too much, um the players would push a button or something and just steam would just come out. It's a cool idea. However, the rule of cool doesn't always work. We also want the armors and clothing to look like they serve that purpose of whatever that function is. The players have to feel really good when they wear it. Um, mentally and also visually, they have to be like, "Oh, that's that's exactly what I want to wear. I feel proud to be wearing this." I've uh played too many games where I'm was playing a support or utility and I got stuck in some really crappy looking

3. 00:01:40

   lame uh outfit. I think the one that I'm I'm most happy about uh of this particular group is the Graycat one. It was nice to go and approach like a utility armor and say, "No, you this gun is going to look cool. you could actually rock this thing and it's going to look nice. We had several kickoffs uh before we even concepted this armor. When we were given the manufacturer Greycat, we were like, well, what is something that's already existing in in the Star Citizen universe that we can reference off of? And the multi-tool was a godsend for us because we pretty much took a lot of those design cues, uh added additional references. The concept artists went and did spent about a week just gathering references. we marry the two together.

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   The armor archetypes that were introduced at Citizen Con two years ago have been a really big help for us on the art side of things. Um it's given us the direction for uh really to inform what we want to see visually on on our armors. Uh so when we know what an armor is best at, what is its uh we can help visualize that in our actual concepts. So if an armor is going to be for mining, we can we can show that you know there's function on the armor that it it can gather resources better. It definitely has been good with us to collaborate with design and also with narrative very early in the process so that before we put pen to paper, we have direction and and we are all aligned on what we're going to be making. Most of the time um it starts off with design. design will look at the overall game and be like, "Hey, this functionality um does not exist or this

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   armor does not exist and we need this type of armor." They will run then run that through narrative and also double check with the design directors to make sure that that is in line with what we want to build in the game. Uh and then once they have a general consensus of like this is a this is the type of armor that we like or this is the type of clothing that we would like then they would contact us and the design team will then implement it into the game and then the writing team will write those pretty blurs on in our game that explains all the lore. So, the RS heavy, this one is uh much more bulky and armored. Um, but it still shares the same design language that you see in the RS, the manufacturer influence of um a lot of wrapped cloth areas and uh this is still getting that

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   very tactical sort of vibe, something like a SWAT officer you might see. Similarly, with the variants, uh you can see we carried over the variants that you see before. So the Arctic Ops, the Black Ops, and also the Fallout versions. And similarly, they have new helmet fronts as well. We get the geo changes as well as just the material variants. So this armor here, we don't actually have an official name for it yet. So uh you know, the armor, this is the armor that has no name uh for now. Hopefully by the time it comes out, we've we've solved that problem. One thing that is unique about it, it is a modular armor. However, um there are pieces of geometry like the breathing hose or cowl here that normally would not work with our modular system. There is this one thing

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   that the character team we have talked about before in previous uh panels and stuff and which is theta geo where if we pair two or more items together a very unique geo would then be added on. So uh visually they would look the best. Basically this is geometry that only turns on when all the necessary pieces are there. So when the torso is there and when this helmet is there then you see the breathing tube appear and also the cowl. So this is something we'd like to to feature on other armors going forward um where where needed. So, it allows us to push silhouettes uh and forms that are more unique uh while still working with our modular system. So, I I think for players to be able to

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   have a character that they can modify and and create a look that they really are excited about, I think it's very important. Um I think that um and also when you're talking about an entire player base, um you know, it doesn't have to be for everybody, right? The point is that there's a large variety and we're only going to continue to add to that. The challenge is that there are very specific rules when you have armor that has to be cut up in exactly certain way like there are volumes we have to stick by with this has to be there, this has to be here. Um, and so things don't clip. The challenge is that if you think about dozens and dozens and dozens of armors all you know uh holding that rule set to be true, how do you create unique silhouettes then? Because they all have to mix match. So that's one of the

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   things we are looking into with some of the uh the tech we're pushing right now where certain pieces of geometry only turn on when those specific pieces are connected. Um, and in addition, we are going to make some armors like the heat suit where it is bespoke. It isn't swappable just because it has a very very unique silhouette and we wanted to keep that. So, uh, those might be more the exception, but we will we do have room for that stuff as well. So, um, but yeah, uh, being able to customize your character in a game is is very important. So, that's something we we're only going to be offering more choices, not less. So, with the new archetypes first mentioned at Citizen Con 2949 leading to a new design and feature-driven pipeline for armor creation over the last year, the future

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    of Star Citizen's character defense has never been brighter or more versatile. But up next, the upcoming Alpha 314 is scheduled to bring with it the addition of Stanton's newest landing zone. So, let's take a brief look at the currently in development industrial platform of Orizin and get a refresher on who Crusader is and what they do in the Star Citizen universe. Crusader Industries is one of the ship manufacturers in the game. They got their start way back at around the time of the fall of the Messers. August Dunlow, the founder of the company, he saw the new economy about to take off and thought that there was a way that he could make money and redirect it back

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    into the community. And that was at the very foundation of Crusader Industries. Back in the late 29th century, when the Stanton system was discovered, the UEE was kind of hurting or funding. This idea was put into place of maybe they could sell the land of these inhabitable worlds to private corporations to make funds for the UEE. And so Crusader saw this and saw the potential for how it could change the way they built ships. They wouldn't need their full teams to be EVA and wearing full suits and protective gear. They could have them in breathable environment. And so in 2863, Kelly Kaplan, the CEO, convinced Crusader to purchase one of these worlds. And that's how the planet became known as Crusader.

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    So when Crusader bought the planet, they needed a base of operations and started building out the Providence platform, which was the original naval shipyard. When they were building Orson, Crusader really wanted to have it be a nice place to visit. We also like this idea of this veneer and sheen pleasantness that comes to it. So there is those elements of like almost a theme park with like the tour shuttle that you can go on and with the parks. So there's this feeling of just a beautiful place to visit. So the three main locations that players are going to visit when they head to down to Orison is August Dunlow Spaceport, named after the founder of Crusader Industries. uh Cloud View Center, which is the main kind of

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    habitation, relaxation, hangout area. There's shopping, there's dining, there's entertainment. And from there, you can head out to Providence Industrial Platform, which is one of the main manufacturing hubs where Crusader is building their ships. So, this is Providence Industrial Platform. Um, we're in a debug mode right now, which is white albido, because we're going through our lighting pass at the moment. So when the when the patch comes out properly, you'll be able to experience it in its full glory with all proper lighting and whatnot. So starting from the very beginning, so this is the kind of ingress point for this particular platform here. So we've got a a part where we come from the commercial district and then we have a landing where you come from the

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    spaceport. One of the things that uh we really wanted to chuck in and Chris really wanted to have this was that um it's like if you go to a car like one of the big car companies, they have like exclusive tours and whatnot. So, we kind of have this tour shop that's in here. So, if you're not a worker or you're not coming over for business or anything like that, you would come in here, you could buy merch, you can look at all the Schwanki ships that are being made, and then you can go on a tour of the actual manufacturing plant. Down the right here, we have a a workers entrance, which is for the actual platform itself. We're going to have a uniform shop here for those guys if they forget something. And then we have the official workers entrance here which will go to a train which allows them to travel up and down the colossal uh dry dock that we've got

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    here. So that's one side of the the workers area. You're not going to expect any like huge die presses or anything over here. This is more big ships are coming in and dropping off like raw materials to help in the construction. Kind of an interesting space the way that it's been situated within the platform itself. And then coming out the other side, you can see the rest of Providence platform that we're on right now. And then down here, we have on this deck in particular, we actually have some escape pods. So, this is actually an escape pod here. So, this is like in case of an emergency, people can escape and like become neutally buoyant within the atmosphere. And then continuing along this way here, if we go up this little walkway up here, we kind of have

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    this mid deck. So if I zoom out, you can kind of see where we are. So this is that admin fluid buffer area and logistics are over here. So we've kind of got this in between deck here. As part of that, uh we've kind of thought about how we can add a little bit more um functionality to these spaces so that we can have the potential to expand upon them in the future. So we've gone in and we've added in a lot of uh screens around the place that uh potentially could be interactable. We also have a little port here which lets us go down and uh service some of the equipment potentially. Part of what we were really trying to achieve here was like really getting that sense of vertigo. So when you're like just floating above nothing but cloud, you kind of just it's just you

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    and nothing basically at that point, which is something we don't really have anywhere on our planets apart from in in space. Right. On that note as well, this is not the the proper level. This is just a construction level that we're using. Um, and trying to get a vibe of what this could potentially look like in the actual proper level. Just to make sure before everyone gets too excited, this is not what the final product is going to look like. This is not the actual Crusader. It's just a construction. So, for the first release, there's going to be a lot of cool stuff to go and check out and explore on the platform. And but what's great is that we're planning to add even more down the road in future releases for the players to do there. So what do we learn this week? Well, we learned that the new armor archetypes aim to add more function to the already impressive styling of Star Citizen's character

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    armors. That even if you play a support role like Mighty, you deserve to look just as badass as everyone else. And that Crusader is more than just a planet and a brand. It's a whole way of life. I really need to I really need to be in the clouds for Inside Star Citizen. I'm Jared Huckabe. We'll see you all next week. [Music]