Around the Verse: Episode 1.02 (2014.06.19)

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:20

   hey everybody welcome to the second episode of around the verse I am sandy Gardner I'm been Liz and it gets sick good to see you all again yes we have made some improvements as you can see we have a desk I did it's it's sort of a set where we're borrowing it from reception but it's a kind of a set we've made all sorts of improvements based on your feedback from our first episode you probably know this there's music everything's a little bit tighter and the time slot where we're back in the morning for our European backers yes Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. what else do we have going there was jackhammering this morning so we're taking this again so just in case you hear somebody screaming in the background or some keyboard tapping because we do not have a studio but the the most important change we've made to the program is that

2. 00:01:07

   I will no longer be pointing at my crotch and till I submit feedback that was that was unfortunate what else do we have today we have Dave Robbins coming out later on yeah will be a visiting david huggins let's so let's talk about the news this week the arena commander rollout is going really great Chris had said hundreds last week thousands this week and were actually ahead of schedule and with the new patch this week it's just gonna keep getting bigger I have very little time the other big milestone is that we just hit 46 million dollars in crowdfunding which is incredible we did that was probably a few people

3. 00:01:56

   emailed me saying they picked up a miss so yep yeah the freelancer sale went went really great for everybody hope you enjoyed the commercial and all the variants and the missus back in the CID vault for now so hope you pick one up in time but we have other cool stuff that we're going to take a sneak peek at what's that happening not right now not right now at the end of the program we have another ship to show you your first look at star citizen's previously unseen ships we also the retaliator came out on Friday that's that's my ship that's the one I pledge for personally with my own money and I'm looking really really looking forward to being a bomber pilot you may have read the big physics post right some of you may even have understood it I did not it's you may need to be a physicist to quite understand our arena commander works you were ahead of me

4. 00:02:47

   then Chris and John pressured or physics programmer put that together and it's an exhausting look at how a commander works under the hood short story it's a lot more than a simple arcade game welcome Tony zhirov any member of our team tony is our persistent universe director in Austin he's basically sharing a brain with chris roberts to build star citizen's persistent universe out he's an old-school developer he added a game called crusader for origin and then worked with chris so when you found a digital anvil in the late 90s and he is coming back to gaming after many years much like chris did it's really exciting to have him here i got a chance to sit down with him on Friday for an interview here's a clip hello everyone we have a very special guest here I'm pretty some pretty exciting news we're growing the

5. 00:03:34

   team at cloud Imperium working on star citizen and I'd like you to introduce you to Tony servic I was always interested in computers and games while I started programming in 1979-80 I would just beg borrow steal time from friends that had Apple two's I did a lot of financial analysis trading software etc I also you know happened to have a lot of interest in economic theory and you know a business related stuff I never thought that there would actually be a game that would allow me to put you know some of those principles to work but again it's just kind of fate I guess in regards to Chris coming and saying hey you know we've got this incredibly detailed economic system that we want to drive context for the entire star citizen universe and that's going to be a part of your purview and it's just one

6. 00:04:22

   of those things to where I see that it's like oh that actually sounds really really awesome in 1996 it was already pretty much common knowledge that Chris was gonna be leaving Origen and that was creating all sorts of shock waves because Chris had by far the most profitable group in the company and so when he was going I was definitely interested you know at the time they didn't have any kind of funding in place and then he wound up striking a deal with Microsoft to provide the initial financing wound up bringing AMD and as a partner later we obtained the financing to start the whole thing up and that started in 1997 first quarter 97 and loose-cannon was basically its it kind of goes back to how I look at a lot of games which is I played a game or a duel and I loved the concept it was you could get into a car you could outfit it with

7. 00:05:12

   a variety of weapons you could go through cities and sure shops going out in the countryside but the technology was so incredibly primitive that the game was largely overlooked and there was another one who were you know I could look past all of that type of stuff and forgive it and actually have fun with the game because the concept was just so good it was just a concept that was ahead of its time on star citizen I'm gonna be directing the persistent universe group which is headquartered in Austin that's going to involve a number of responsibilities including the economic system that's basically going to drive you know the context for the entire game the mission creation system and content it's going to involve all of the planetside construction a lot of the interface stuff that you're gonna encounter you

8. 00:06:00

   know down on the planetside thank you all thank you thanks guys alright that was a pretty cool interview and the full clip of the interview is on our site right yep it's a it's a long one but it's worthwhile if you want to learn about the early days of game development and what Tony's gonna bring to star Susan it's pretty cool so now let's go over to our best damn customer support team ever for their report Ally and hopefully Chelsea take it away hello welcome to the customer service report I'm Alexis and I'm Chelsea and this is my nice shirt if you're still waiting for a citizen card we figured out what the delay has been they were sent back to our distributor to be relabeled Andrey shipped we're working on getting them out as quickly as we can hopefully it shouldn't be too

9. 00:06:47

   much longer and we've also gotten a lot of questions about freelancer upgrades this week please remember that once you apply an upgrade it is permanent and we can't remove it for you and one more thing if you're waiting for response from customer support please be patient we've had a lot more tickets than usual because of the freelancer sale and the release of the dogfighting module just be patient we'll get to you as quickly as we can we'd also like to say thank you for all the awesome gifts that we get here at the studio we've gotten some really cool ones lately including tickets to Disneyland from Tacoma we got some LTI beer from the goon wrathy some Johnny Rockets gift cards from space con and a big box of snacks from pepper spray and we also got some cupcakes that were crowdfunded by our community ok guys well the cupcakes have arrived

10. 00:07:42

    thank you very much from for everyone buying these for us so it's the UK office and once here like let's get the cakes so go for it guys grab a cake man I wish I had some more of those cupcakes right now back to you Ben and sandy thanks ladies and now I am here with David Robbins I have a few questions from our fans for you so blaze me blaze me would like to know what's your favorite design from popular science fiction movies and shows have you used anything in particular from other iconic science fiction universes in any of your concepts Wow that's a that's a good question there's probably too many spaceships for me to just pick one

11. 00:08:28

    so maybe I'll mention a few of my top favorite ships I think one of my all-time favorites is the slave one which we first saw in the Empire Strikes Back designed by Neil oh and and I just thought it was a very interesting unique shape but also have the the cockpit reorient it for Boba Fett when it was in flight so I thought that was a pretty neat ship the other ship would be the lien off from 2010 designed by Syd Mead this ship was sort of interesting because at the time a lot of practical model makers were starting with one single form and then covering it with a series of gravely and so with this ship they started with a series of compartmental forms that you could kind of see through and light could pass through and then covered it with greatly

12. 00:09:17

    also the discovery from 2001 was a fantastic ship all of Doug Chang's ships and designs and the the Tron replicator would be one of my favorite designs just for the unique shape second question Lin sex pistol says hello mr. Robbins first I would like to say that I had greatly admire your skill as a concept artist and people in your line of work in general how are you able to think up the things you do and then put it down on a piece of paper digital or otherwise is beyond me and I'm a little envious of all the talent well nice thank you were you always good at drawing was it an innate talent or was it something you had to work hard on to

13. 00:10:06

    learn or perhaps a bit of both and does it also include landscapes or characters of some kind if yes can we see some pictures maybe yeah whoa to go to the last class a ladder question yes I I did study other you know specialties within art and I'd be happy to show those so I think maybe some life drawing or gesture drawing would be kind of appropriate nudes as per drawing yes I've always been passionate about drawing you know from an early age drawing Mars bases and fighter planes and little Yoda's or whatever you know that said it really is about mileage in my opinion and and so having that passion will drive you

14. 00:10:55

    through you know to to keep working with you know various drawing mediums and I don't believe that that talent is innate or if it is it's extremely rare Gradius Gradius one four seven wants to

15. 00:13:00

    know in the past we've seen videos that show your design process and interactions with Chris but where and how do you get started on a ship's initial design what initially inspires the shapes and colors of your designs okay that's a good question usually I'm given a design brief and so this was sort of a list of all the key attributes of a ship of how many passengers it's going to carry its function armaments other things that are going to inform the layout and an architecture of the ship they're asking about something more and and and really it comes down to learning about your world going out exploring traveling

16. 00:13:50

    doing museums looking at architecture nature is probably the best form language reference point just that it's had billions of years to come up with so many so much variety so being a good designer it's it really comes down to because we have to perform so quickly on the spot you need in your downtime spare time to to replenish the well and go out and gather this this reference library of foreign languages and and you know mechanical solution so that you know when you do have to come up with something you have this rolodex that you can quickly access Jack T Colton telling us you have great design taste talons

17. 00:14:38

    shadow mantis was the best design you have said before during tngs you like it design to be more daring more cutting-edge the Mustang is a new design language compared to other ships from CIT to date do you think star citizen can be pushed into making even more cutting-edge ships I do I think that you know the star citizen universe is is vast and you know chris roberts wants it to be eclectic and have a whole range of technological levels and and aesthetics so yeah the short answer is I totally think we can push it and and definitely when it comes to alien races are Dane skull punch says Mr Hovind any chance in the future that you will be doing some

18. 00:15:28

    concept art for other ships based off of American muscle cars I think it would be pretty cool to have Firebirds GTOs Hemi Cuda Camaro and don't forget the Cobras you get the idea I'm sure coming up with kick-ass designs doesn't happen overnight so take your time star citizen is going to be around for a while thanks for your time okay that's good I think that's an awesome idea I you know growing up as a kid had you know a passion for muscle cars and their their form language you know maybe this is something that we can put out to the fans and ask them have a poll or a forum about what are their favorite muscle

19. 00:16:17

    cars I'm sure there's you know back to the last question there's enough you know vehicles and ships coming up in this university somewhere that would work or at least be inspired from it subtly so maybe to add kindling to that I'd say that some of my favorite Mustangs or muscle cars were sort of a Mustang Shelby gt500 or there's actually a cool place in Burbank that people park all their muscle cars I think it's called Bob's diner or something exotic cars in the fields and they all just line up there it's super cool you get a milkshake a no let's go milkshake the inspiration there you got all right thank you very much mr. Robbins David haben and over to you William

20. 00:17:10

    hey everybody I'm Liev moderator will here to bring you this week's MVP this week's MVP is strudel Baron because he used the program voice attack and combined it with sounds from Star Wars so that when you tell the program to lock-on you can hear r2d2 beeping in the background it's pretty cool so be sure to check out his thread because he includes instructions on how to do it yourself so thank you very much strudel Baron you're this week's MVP back to you guys thanks William and now let's check in with the fans thank you guys I'm here with Steve Schneider Steve are you doing good so what you tell us a little bit about yourself um a fire captain in a large Department Southern California and did some time in the military and got really interested in this game when I

21. 00:17:58

    saw what was involved in it thank you you're in the military and now you're a fire captain right yeah I know it's a weird transition baby let's go what you in the military through I'm asking I was in reconnaissance so I used to fly a fair amount and when I got out the Air Force I started doing that reconnaissance for road maps in Southern California flying in a plane doing the same thing and then I started doing photography for arson and that's how I got in the fire service so everything fit and kind of fell into place so up in the fire department so you're in a flight so that what kind of piqued your interest in Star City well a little bit I was I just fly a lot need to get flight simulators early on I boys had those so ever since I came out with him and then I got into it FPS is our first-person shooters and I started

22. 00:18:45

    getting to way back and Wolfenstein Stein and doom and quake and then I started getting the battlefield and that's what got me into this believe it or not because I was watching videos by Frankie on PC in 1080p a British gentleman that does these things about battlefield and I was watching it one day and he was showing off this really cool what I thought was a jet it turns out it was a spacecraft I know it's a Super Hornet and he was telling about the game itself and I got really interested and I looked it up and the next day I bought myself a constellation awesome yeah there's a lot of things about the game it's because I love first-person shooters especially something like Battlefield where you work as a team mhm and I see that more in this game that I've seen anything else where you have friends that help you out you have a common task and the flight simulating part of it

23. 00:19:32

    first-person shooters all that stuff yeah it's it's really interesting how many different types of genres like coalesce in this one game yeah that's amazing I'm curious did you ever play any of Chris's older games I did I played privateer and freelancer originally I didn't know was they were all chris Roberts games originally and I kind of look back at him now and think wish I'd gotten into Wing Commander and so forth I also flew some of his flight simulators I think was a falcon I believe he had out for a while anyway it was one of his flight simulators like every sometime I find a flight simulator I'd try it out play with it so I just liked that so much and I never saw his face emulator the dueting like that freelancer or privateer did you play any other like space way games they're just like no not really just the FPS is in flight simulators I never really I didn't do either any of the other big you know online space games so because

24. 00:20:21

    it did it didn't have the same feel to it I mean the idea that you're actually in your ship and you're communicating with your own crewman you know a lot of common goal yeah it's pretty cool well I mean that's probably speaks to your experience of militaria well it's funny military but also the fired at service I mean we work as a team and you're the crew and basically this is what you're doing you've got a four-man ship and you've got exactly the same size as an engine company or truck company and you're you know trying to do a common common goal and you're working together and the camaraderie there is huge your lives are in each other's hands like if you are in the military or in the fire service so it's similar to that I mean it's obviously a virtual life it's not okay you know not the real thing that that's breathe wait tell me star citizens not real oh well yeah it's gonna be real pretty soon I think sir so other people in your station do they

25. 00:21:12

    know how in Star City my car goes and yeah I recruited my wingman from the fire service he's a fire captain - I have to tell you about my name in game is track tra okay so I'm calling this the track method of getting a wingman I did was I invited him to join me for beers a you know on off shift at a bar so I got to the bar early and I found a dark corner of the bar and I said you know join me in the corner I kind of looked around the room to make sure usually that's not a good start to any story I know your friends from there you know but yeah right around here you know catching up yeah and I said I have a business proposition for you and I looked around the room make sure the way you know act like I'm really clandestine about it and said it's very risky your life is gonna be in danger at times it's

26. 00:22:00

    very rewarding you'd be traveling long distances and you'll finally see things you've never seen before but I bought us a couple of ships if you're interested in being in this business with me and these go as eyes are lighting up yeah fireman you know they love adventure and exam about it I said it's probably gonna be profitable to will hope you know that happens so I look around the room and I pull out a manila envelope like slide across and here's the ship I bought for you gossip I've got another ship that I'd like you be my first mate on but anyway this is a ship I bought for you if you're interested in being a partner in this in this business and he's his eyes are lighting oh my God he's like I could sign him up right now yeah who knows what and he opens its up and he pulls out the Aurora brochure and he's looking at it and he's gone what and he's looking at me and I go oh I forgot to tell you this is a space simulator game chris Roberts called star citizen so he was hook line

27. 00:22:49

    and sinker at that point and I explained to them the game yeah and he was gone this is amazing so far guys I don't think they'd be perfect for each other your police officers anybody who wants to get immersed in something and get away from reality you know doctors nurses anybody that's in the military would you know understand how this works and I'm not sure how many people want to do the same thing they did in their real life you know for instance I don't know how many cops might be in the the what are the advocacy or whatever or it being advocate it's on me the cops are foggy pirates yeah probably I mean you know how many firemen are gonna be wanting to be putting out fires I don't know so I mean it looks like it's gonna be he's into it too so I don't know how many firemen are into it as far as my people that but they know I do it but but also that I have no idea they're gonna find out now I guess if they were looking at this like alright well I

28. 00:23:36

    think that about does it thank you so much for hanging in pleasure thank you for being a hero twice over well you know what after following a Lando I don't know I was hoping it would be too hard but it's like long a big band and you know gone oh gosh I gotta come up after him I think you guys served him black ice last time I saw hi guys reactants one drinks again and guess what you can win the Plexiglas art that David Hoffman's made and how do you do that Ben well I head over to the forums we want you to create your ideal mustang very basically pitch it to us however you want and the most creative entry will win Dave Hubbard's art that's pretty cool it is I would look pretty cool in

29. 00:24:23

    my living room I can't draw so I'm not part of that what else have we got well we're announcing right now we have a surprise ship sail tomorrow we are bringing out the GR on scout and here is your first look at it ever I actually got one of those I did like you got the retaliator I got a John scale and I actually got a better merchant vintage it's pretty cool it's really good no that's all for a show this week next week we have writer Dave haddock he's going to talk to us about the lore behind star citizen and ready for squadron 42 charging them to do a little snippet every week however you know like being on camera so much so yes it turns

30. 00:25:12

    out writers don't don't like to appear in the flesh but we'll see if we can ferret them out for at least one interview exactly so uh we will see you next week please post your feedback on the forums we want to know how to do this better it's it's your show you're gonna help us make it great see you next week and thanks for joining us on around the verse see you around the verse everyone gay playing programmer mark abent here here to show off some fun bugs the first one we got here is dealing with the Gatling guns apparently if you you know keep shooting and shooting and shooting your guns will explode up and then all sudden your guns make no more sound that's kind of a big problem so I'm here to show you what it what caused it and how we fixed

31. 00:26:00

    it let me show you guys the implications of this fun little bug so I'm gonna hop into my Hornet and I'm gonna show you a little pee bug screen that shows a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes basically we have we use this thing called mannequin and we are able to play animations on different layers so we could have the gun playing a sound while playing an animation and what happens with this bug is let me shoot off my gatlings is after time when our guns get destroyed our model will switch and during this switching it will actually as you can see just stopped all the animation to stop to all the sounds

32. 00:26:50

    and everything which is a huge problem for us because when our models damage we want them to continue to you know make sounds through the animations and so forth what I first did was look at the xml setups to see if they were linking to the right models if the animations were looking at the right things i'm looked into mannequin to see if all the scopes were set up correctly and from what i could tell they're fine won't work and apparently this bug only happens when you switch between damaged states so i had to look at the differences between the pristine Gatling gun and the damaged vert variant and if there's any difference between those or if it's something funky transitioning to and from so i popped in to the code and looked at where the transitioning stuff

33. 00:27:44

    was happening and I noticed the animation scopes from Anakin were getting cleared anytime you change the geometry which is a bad thing because that stops all the sound the animation what we did in the end was basically pause all the animations that were happening on the mannequin scope prevent them from getting flushed out go through the scopes to make sure that we can play them on this new model set up on the mannequin back end so it could use the correct new model and any other shenanigans and then we are able to resume what was happening on the animation scope so now I'm back in game hop into the Hornet turn on my debug and you can see all the animations and sounds playing once again then once my

34. 00:28:34

    hornet gets damaged zoom out a little bit we just switched the damaged state and we're still playing our sounds and all that up this time I blew up my wing so it won't actually show it but it did continue playing the sounds and animations when it got damaged