Star Citizen Live | Q&A Industrial Gameplay

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   You gota you got to build the splines and then adjust the thing. >> Jesus. Yeah, you got to build the splines. You got to adjust the splines and everything. So, it's it's just it goes and it's like it's like 28 minutes long or something. I don't quite remember, but but it just never hits the corner. It it it's it's my promise to like everybody in Star Citizen is that, you know, I I will bring you close to satisfaction without ever fully delivering it. So it just bounces and bounces and it gets close to the corner every couple times, but [sighs] show. [snorts] >> Hi everybody. Welcome to Star Citizen Live Industrial Gameplay. I'm your host Jared Hugabye. And if you've never seen Star Citizen Live before, it's where we take about an hour out of the end of our

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   week and we chat with CI developers. Uh sometimes I ask them my questions, sometimes I've asked them your questions. This is one of those shows where I ask them your questions. Uh so we got we got about 30 or so uh pre-taped and then of course there'll be whatever ones pre-taped. It's not pre-taped. It's live syllabus. Uh plus we'll take some uh questions from chat. So we're just going to jump into it. Let me introduce you to our ste our stew [laughter] our two steamed you know steamed. [laughter] They ask like, "Hey, Jared, do you need anything to prep for the show?" And I'm like, "Nah, I've been doing this 11 years. I got it. [clears throat] You got something." Our two esteemed guests uh joining us recently relocated here to the Manchester studio

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   permanently. So, I get to see you every day. I want to and just get to walk up and be like, "Hey, Torston, what's going on?" Look, I didn't put my hand on You thought I was going to do it. You thought I was going to do it and I didn't. I didn't. Audio guy gets angry anytime I do this. Tarstston, tell everybody who you are and what you do for Star Citizen. >> Uh, hello. I'm Torston. [laughter] [snorts] Lead Systems Designer. >> And what does lead systems designer do? Uh so every game play that you encounter in the Star Citizen universe somehow went through our team's hands at some point and that is basically our responsibility. Well, we have [laughter] I was going to say you just said every

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   game play. Okay. Okay. Send your letters to Torson Lyman care of six Manchester Goodyard Street. It's all your fault. Go ahead. Congratulations. >> It's all our fault. >> You just took responsibility for everything. >> Well, >> including my fault. Someone has to take responsibility. [laughter] Yeah, that's that's it. [snorts] How do you think the show's going so far? >> Um, >> you're killing it. >> Yeah, it's okay. >> It's got this light. It's got this light. Anytime I do this, the audio guy's like, "Stop doing this. You make it hard to hear." What if I talk like this? 11 years. Elliot, how's No, it's not. It's above. >> I did this.

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   >> That's a loophole. I don't like >> this is a perfectly natural and normal way to hold your face. >> You look like you're spock reading your own mind. >> Elliot, who my mind to my mind? >> Yeah. >> My thoughts to my thoughts. Uh Elliot, who are you and what are you doing? [clears throat] >> Hi. Yeah. Uh I'm Elliot. Um, I am the lead mission designer and uh I put a bow on Thorston and systems and give players money for engaging with them, I guess. >> All right. You build all the the missions and stuff that drive people to the systems and drive people to exploring and experiencing all the systems that he and his team >> You'd agree, right? To them, right? Don't you >> Does your work work without his work?

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   >> Does my work work? Um, I mean, no, actually, because we need the systems in the game to function. So, yeah, it's true. >> And does your work matter if there's no systems driving people to experience them? >> I don't care about [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's why we're a team. [laughter] >> All right. So, the boss is in Australia. I'm sure he's not watching right now. What time is it there? I'm sure he's asleep. If he is watching, I'm sorry. Uh, so yeah. So, uh, as we are want to do sometimes, we put up a thread up on Spectrum, which is our the bespoke communication platform available on robertspaceindustries.com. Yes, I'm still shilling for it 10 some odd years later. uh where you guys get

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   to submit your questions, vote up on which ones you wanted to see answered most. We ignore the voting whatsoever and pick the ones that we want to talk about. And that's what we've done today. So, uh we've got a list here uh in no particular order. Uh we're going to start uh with the first question. What is your plan to make industrial gameplay actually fun? >> Which one of us is that for? >> Isn't it fun already? No. Well, so, so there are definitely things that can still be improved. Um, but I think we already have some well working industrial gameplay loops. So, mining has a huge fan base. Salvage has a huge fan base. They al also specifically target different type of player groups.

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   Um, we have refueling somewhere still in the background of all the existing mechanics that are still uh there. Um, there are some plans to improve it in the not tooistant future, but uh, >> you heard it here first, folks. Refueling is there. >> Yeah. So, there are a lot of industrial gameplay loops that we already have and they work right now in isolation and they work more, some work better, some work can be improved. But, uh, yeah, overall then, uh, there's the upand cominging. So, some of you might have already played the tech preview for crafting. Um, but yeah, that is basically the end goal that every industrial gameplay loop that we have will actually tie into. So

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   uh moving forward and basically that will be also covered by a lot of the questions that you asked we will always come back to yeah because we have crafting now and because crafting is right around the corner everything will start to tie back into together or tie into it each other and then uh we will finally have a fulfilled a full gameplay loop that is then called the industrial gameplay loop and then way later when we have base building we will basically fulfill a full circle where we then start with the normal playerto-player ship based industrial gameplay loops into crafting into base building and then with the location based industrial gameplay loops. So to answer the question, is it fun?

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    Answer the question for yourself. If there's something that you enjoy, it's fun for you. So you're telling him to look inwards, >> of course. >> Okay, there we go. >> It's like you that's the benefit of Star Citizen. We have so many gameplay loops. You can pick what you like and you can enjoy it and you can play it actually like we are one of the few games where you can I wanted to say waste a lot of time in just one gameplay loop, but you can spend a lot of time in that gameplay loop and enjoy your life. >> I like it. I [snorts] told I told uh I told the PE other people in marketing that on the show today I had Torstston and Elliot and no joke they looked at me and went, "Oh, are you still going to have a job at the end of this?" No. Because of him? >> No. No. Because of the the the the the

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    com you you you always I'm going to step in here. You always come from this from a very pragmatic a very a very self-deprecating point of view. But I want to point out that in the years since cargo was first introduced, you know, before your time here, the years since mining was introduced, you know, you got to start with mining and it's like this, you know, these systems have evolved tremendously, you know, since their first versions. You know, we always it's always a is a bit of a Star Citizen meme and there are many Star Citizen memes. You know, this is T0, you know, T1. You know, we have seen mining and cargo and salvage as these industrial gameplay loops continue to iterate, you know, year after year after year. Mining is a a far throw from where it was when it started. We recently just had another big revision to salvage uh where salvage is in the best place it's

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    ever been. Your first version of engineering, you know, it just came out and and I was just in a meeting where they were talking you guys were you were presenting new improvements and the evolutions to engineering stuff. These things continue to evolve and will and will continue to evolve. So, what is your plan to make industrial gameplay actually fun is a bit of a is is is a bit of a trick question because it's it's literally the entire purpose of your existence here. It's >> Yes, [laughter] it's it's it's like I half expected you to say like I spend every minute of my life in this goal. I I hope I achieve it someday. [snorts] >> But I liked your answer like would you say look inward? >> Look inward. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's one of say it's hard too because not every gameplay loop is for every person. >> Yeah, that's salvage and versus mining is actually one good example there. You

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    have the hull scraping which is more relaxing. You put on some music, you do something on the side but you still feel productive in the game >> versus mining where you have to pay attention >> to not blow yourself up. There >> it's like this little cozy gaming kind of thing. You just kind of sit back and and and write your name in the holes of ships and only your name. >> Nothing else. can we have more variety in industrial missions? >> Cool. Moving on. >> Um, yeah. So when we do some missions like this uh we try to go at it and be scalable so that as we build more and more systems and more and more locations these missions can populate into other systems and always give players

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    something to do. So our first delivery was that it was uh something that was scalable um that was fun and open that players can uh sort of choose how they come at it. However, we definitely want to keep adding it and have things like um Schubin are asking you to go mine their mining claim. They own this mining claim. They own these piece of rocks. They've given you exclusive rights and they want you to go there and mine it for them. Uh we want Betaglia back and we want her to have missions where that she's sending you to go do scouting missions. So, you don't have to mine the rocks, but she wants you to go out and she goes, "I need you to find me 10 of uh rock that contain iron." And in the future when crafting comes online, it's like, I want you to find me 15 that have a quality over the value of 400 or

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    something like that. So, we we we definitely want more variety in our industrial missions because what we've got right now is [clears throat] the base level. It's the foundation of industrial missions. It's it's the idea of this location wants a bunch of resources. You choose how to get them. Um, you use whatever tools are at your sandbox control to do it. Whatever tools Torsing gives you and then you look inward for the fun. >> You mentioned Betaglia. We're working to bring What are you laughing at? >> We're We're working to bring Betaglia back hopefully later this year. >> We are. We're working very hard. Um, I have been reviewing the stuff we've been building for it and it's very fun. Uh, so why are you smiling to Austin? Have faith. hater over here. >> No, it'd be good. You know, you know, we

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    experimented with mission givers however long ago and then they they fell to the wayside because other priorities and stuff like this, but being able to bring back mission givers will be will be a nice a nice new addition to that kind of stuff because, you know, you can only look at a movie glass so so much. Yeah. um these new industrial missions uh these new ones that just went online what was it last week about what were those >> in case people don't know that a brand new set of industrial missions went online just last week >> so we introduced um the the new industrial missions and basically inside of that is the salvage and mining. So what what happens is a faction asks you to gather resources for them and bring it to their location. So they'll ask for sort of, you know, x amount of iron, x amount of conundrum [clears throat] or

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    what whatever resources we have in our game, and the player is tasked to retrieve them by any means necessary. So the the main way that players will engage with this is is via the mining and refining loots. That's the most obvious. However, players can also purchase these and turn them in, or players could pirate other players and steal them and turn them in if they didn't want to engage with that mining. So, they're kind of like this um open Lego box and you choose how you build the mission yourself. You kind of go, "Okay, I'm going to do it like this or this." Uh, we also did other salvage ones. So, we we introduced FPS salvage. And by FPS salvage, I don't mean FPS hole scraping. I mean, we give you actual missions that require you to gather components off of a ship, whether it be shields, weapons. We have missions that are like, "Hey, just go get me a

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    bunch of size zero weapons or size this weapons components." Uh, we have some bugs of it that we're looking into and we're trying to fix um to allow you to sort of do the existing salvage claim uh missions that Adagio offer. So, you can do those, pay for the salvage rights, salvage those ships, and then put them straight into the resource gathering mission if you so wish. Um, we also put time into trying to do a simplistic intro for these, um, where the player is sent to a cave uh, near the outpost where they have to drop off and asked to go in and find, you know, one little gem of Afright. Um, and the same thing with the salvage. We give you this first ship so you can understand it and how it works. Um, just so it's a better sort of onboarding experience for new players who haven't ever like engaged, you know,

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    oh, I'm a combat fighter. I've never done this. How do I do it? So, we can give them that sort of the tools to understand if there's fun. >> One of the reasons why we have the signatures now for the for the caves. >> Yes. Yes. We that took a while to get working, but we figured it out. >> And it was Deck who figured it out the night. >> Yes. Yeah. We We had this cave and we had a signature, so when you're like going around scanning for it, it'd pop up. Um, and the marker was never there. And the radius was set to something like 4 million. So 4 million miles away you'd see the cave, but it never popped up for I don't know like it's not been there since I've been here. So like good six, seven years. And then deck looked into it and was like the marker was set to be invisible. >> Yes. [laughter] >> And we're like, >> "Yeah,

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    We fixed it." >> Happens. >> Game dev. It's just fun. >> That that that one. >> Oh This is what the people in marketing were were talking about. Um, >> my colorful language. >> Uh, let's jump around to some some of these industrial professions here. Let's do a cargo question here. Uh, has the team devised any plans for a cargo manifest MFD of some kind that tells you what you have aboard your ship? Possibly where it's located, maybe using the same 3D view from the engineering panel. It seems strange that third parties who scan our ship have a better idea of exactly what we have aboard than our captains or crew do. WTF Torston, that's what it says in

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    there. >> Okay. Uh yeah, so we have plans uh to do a manifest. Um we don't work on it right now to do the precise manifest of you and your ship owning. You can have this nice overview. Um, but there is a feature coming uh soon that also would benefit a lot from a more like precise manifest or you as the player knowing exactly what is on your ship. I don't want to say anything in addition to that, but but it's um yeah, so we are working our way towards a better overview of what you have on your ship. It's small steps that we take here because it's only so much time we can take off for some development to actually investigate here.

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    >> But uh in the end we will end up with hopefully a full MFD or full screen that gives you an overview of what is actually on your cargo grid or on your cargo grids >> depending on the ship. >> What's the other feature that would benefit? You can tell me everybody else. Ear muffs. >> No, no, no, no, no. >> Okay, you can ask Elliot maybe. >> Elliot, what's the feature? [laughter] >> Do I know the feature? >> You should. >> Is that a secret? What's the feature? >> Feature? [laughter] You might have to remind me. >> Let's move on. >> At this point, we we built too much a thing up. It's okay. May maybe I say it randomly and you you can go that's the

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    one. >> Maybe we do that. >> People have changed. I thought you were all about open development. [laughter] >> We still like surprising people. >> Um what's the status on shipbased refining? Seems like a critical role with crafting coming. >> That is correct. It is a very critical role for crafting. Um so yeah, it will not be part of the first crafting release. Um, so what we want to do is like for crafting as well as for engineering gameplay, it's a more long-term investment from our side. So we will like build up on on the basis that we built. And right now what we have in tech preview and some of you might already have played it uh in tech preview. That is the basis that we want to start with. So we start with uh mainly FPS equipment for now and then

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    expand further on. Um, and uh, one of the bits is actually the refining rework because we already talked about it several times, but the way that resources work will behave way different to um, what we have right now in the live game when crafting comes in. So Elliot also mentioned it right now like minutes ago where we have quality suddenly being part of that uh the resources and quality then also needs to be like accounted for in the refining process and that results all in to the refining that we have right now will not exist the way it is exists right now anymore. it will all update and [snorts] we take that time that we use for the update. Um then to also update uh the ship re ship based refining the station

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    refinery and then uh as last step the base building refining step. >> No FPS refining just having to crank a >> well we have the crafters technically the crafters are capable of doing like small re refining jobs but >> that that is >> yeah undecided at this point. Um, in regard to reputation for industrial professions, are there any plans to expand what we get from improving said reputations, rewards and perks instead of just extra missions? Is is more work a good reward? >> Um, [clears throat] well, I don't know. I keep getting it. Um, yes. >> No good deed goes on. >> Yeah, I know. Um yeah, we are everyone is aware that obviously the the the the

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    sort of progression in our game right now is isn't there. Um 100% the way we're going with reputation is that as you grind it out with whatever factions you get rewards like new blueprints to craft, you'll get skins, items, and also new missions will unlock via that. That's that's the ultimate way. So, like if we think about the industrial missions, as you start crafting through that, maybe they give you the blueprint for making the mining heads that you currently have to purchase, they give you blueprints to make mining bags that are empty and bits and bobs like this. And, you know, in the future, they give you the blueprints for actually being able to make the ship to engage with that kind of gameplay or improve your ability in that kind of gameplay, going from like a prospector to a mole, things like that. So, 100% it's something that

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    we want. Um it's it's it's something that we're trying to take baby steps towards because we want it sooner. We have a full design uh but the full design is is like harder to get to. So we do you know as as the memes you've said tier zero tier one all that. So we'll do baby steps towards it. >> Is he right? >> Y okay. >> Uh let's jump to we we've done a little bit of cargo a little bit of mine refining. Let's go to salvage. Uh, are there any plans to generate dynamic salvage claim contracts when a ship goes from owned to game rules? >> Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh, it's something that we want to do. There are plans, just plans. Um, we want to have it so that we can have, uh, missions spawn dynamically

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    based on this. So, if if you, you know, leave your ship outside anywhere, we can have a intelligence system that goes, "Right, this one's going to be salvage claim. not going to be every ship. Performance reasons, we need to just clean some of them up. But there will be ships that we go, "Okay, right. This one we're going to keep and we're going to assign Adagio are going to sell the rights to it or a player is going to get a mission that takes you directly to it." Um because obviously apart from just like, you know, a forceful cleanup to help with performance, we also can utilize players via emissions and paying you uh have you clean the game up for us. Uh, one thing I would love to do because I keep seeing it on Reddit is when people uh go to a shop and there's a load of bottles around the shop and they all pick it up and put it in the bin and I'm like, I want to make that bin work so much. >> We we had a system for that plant where

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    you actually rewarded for >> throwing in trash into the bins. >> Beautiful. Beautiful. >> Yeah, it is on hold. >> Ah, right. Chris is always very into systemic solutions instead of artificial rules for stuff and you know we we we have cleanup rules because it's it's a necessity for where we are in in in the game in the game to development. But he has talked repeatedly over the years about wanting if somebody leaves a ship that should become a salvageable thing to if somebody's leaving trash there should be game play to you know to pick it up what you just said and put and put it in the bins. he would much rather design systemic solutions that the players can engage in in order to maintain, you know, the the performance of the universe rather than these

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    artificial rules that just come in and magically make things disappear and stuff like that. It's it's the amount of conversations that have happened over the years about cleaning up bottles and putting them in cans and sal salvaging ships that are abandoned or or or wreckages, you know, that are left over and stuff. It's just >> it's all there. It's just like anything else. It's finding the time and the resources. >> Wait till we start making missions where if people leave the ship and press the button to reclaim it, there's a mission where someone's got to go get the ship and take it all the way to where you live. >> Oh yeah. >> Oh yeah. You don't get your ship back till somebody goes and toes it back. >> Couple of weeks minimum. >> Realism. >> Uh I believe there's a I believe there was a question about the SRV. Yes. Are there any plans to use the SRV in salvage recovery missions? aka tow a

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    shipwreck to hanger a junkyard. >> We have plans for sure. Uh we've we've prototyped it once or twice, but there are issues with it as to why we don't want to release it just yet, like edge cases we need to sort of clean up so that uh it's not abused. >> Um while we're on salvage, why not? Uh can we have a bumper dumping button so we can stop suffering? Actually, that is very high on our quality of life list for salvage improvements. So, yes, >> just just a one button. >> Yeah, it's just clear the buffer. >> Yeah, it's clear buffer. >> Where would it go? Would it just disappear or would it actually >> No, we we No, no, it's just gone. >> Okay. Okay. And when you say very high on your list that it's like next week or

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    >> no high on the list just means it is like we have like every feature we release we always have like lists or of things that we want to improve and if we get the allowance to work on those things then we work from top to bottom and I can tell you this is definitely in the top five. >> Okay. For the guy who goes, "We don't do when questions." You just asked a when question. >> I checked the show with Ben Watt two weeks ago. I was asking a whole bunch of them. I'm at a point in my time here where I'm like, >> if they were going to do anything to me, they would have done it by now. >> God, let's hope he's not watching from Australia. [laughter] [sighs and gasps] >> Hi, Chris. how different will ship refining be

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    compared to station refining? >> Just jumping all over the place here. >> Yeah. Yeah, it it will be. So, station refinery right now will not be the refining method that you will have on your ship. But also moving forward, station refinery will not be what it is right now. >> Back to what you were saying earlier. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, back what I was saying earlier. So, it will be the same game play. um full stop. So we will like the moment that the new refining method comes in, it will be shared between uh player driven and station driven. The only thing that the station does for you is you Yeah, it's it's done by an AI. It's done [snorts] by the station versus you have a player doing it for you, you know. Um just looking at chat, uh spoken like a

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    true doing it for the paycheck. What Ryan Mack gamer are you talking about? >> Bun him. >> You're B. Hold on. Can I Can I time a person out? >> Where's Night Rider? >> Do I have the ability? >> Oh, I do have the ability. Ryan Matt Gamer timed out for 600 seconds. Nice. Doing it for the paycheck. Uh, you wouldn't say that if you saw nothing. Um, uh, all right, we're going to do this next question. It's kind of a big one, and we're all going to try really hard not to piss off half of our fan base. Okay, remember, try really hard.

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    >> Okay, we've got this. Easy. You ready? Many players love the idea of building a second life in the complex highfidelity sci-fi universe you all have worked so hard to realize. Who wrote this? Mom, uh, can you again confirm how you intend for players to enjoy industrial gameplay without their being a need for armed protection, PvP readiness at all times? Your messaging has been mixed and Spectrum continues to flare up on the issue. Thanks. Got this one. Next question. [snorts] so Star Citizen is a [clears throat] living and breathing world. So we the the ultimate plan, the plan that we're

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    aiming towards is we'll have uh systems that have different security rankings, right? The idea that we talked about at Citizen Con was Stanton is a high-SE system and Pyro is lowac. So because of the current implementation of law and sort of we don't have the the you know law ships coming in and responding like as we want in Stanton right now. Players can pirate in Stanton with little to no consequence at all. Um it's the exact same as pyro. There's little to no consequence at all. So, what we want to go towards is that say you're going to, I don't know, craft something, right? And you need X amount of this really rare material, right? It's in abundance in pyro, but it's uh not in abundance in

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    Stanton. The idea is you can mine in Stanton, but it will take longer. Um, and it's quite likely that you're going to be safer because of the law system when we evolve it. You'll be safer, but it's not impossible. You can still get pirated. you can still get attacked by players. You could even still get attacked by uh like AI pirates, right? Whereas if you go to pyro, you know, the the goods will be in such abundance that it's easier to find, but it's so much higher of a risk for you to get attacked by AI or players. So, the answer is ultimately you there's always going to be a risk of being attacked by another player or an AI. The difference will be per system. it will be either higher or lower. Um, so you can make an informed decision. So in Stanton, you're meant to

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    be pretty much safe, but it's not going to rule out the fact that you're going to get attacked. >> You're meant to be more safe than you will in Pyro. Perhaps not as safe as you would in like terror. >> Exactly. Yeah. >> You know, you know, it's it's the the the short answer to this. And Elliot, you actually acquitted yourself very well there. Thank you. It's it's the answer is the law system is not where we want it to be. Yeah. that that that that's that's essentially the the the slug line, the 10-centent version of that. It's there will always be conflict. There will always be there will always be some chance of having your day rained upon just like there is in the real life. But if we do our job right and we continue developing the game the way that we want to, the systems that we're still waiting on, remember how long we waited for server meshing, this if the systems we're waiting on come online as they're

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    supposed to, eventually this will grow into a place where you can where those changes in security and anything are obvious to the players and you and you will be allowed to make those decisions for yourself. Do I want the high-risk, high reward of Pyro or do I want the safer uh uh more secure experience of Stanton? It's not never going to be as simple as PvP players or PvE players or Carebears or or griefers or whatever pjoratives you want to throw. It's never going to be that simple. It's not that simple in real life. We're not aspiring to build something that simple in black and white for Star Citizen. It's so it's just it's one of those things. It's hard It's hard to always picture where we're going based on where we are and where we've been, but I actually think we've

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    been rather consistent in this messaging. The the question says that we're that we're not. And I think that's more about people hearing this part, not that part on any given stage or people regurgitating this part and not that part. Or maybe there have obviously been times over the years where we haven't been as clear as we should have been. It's a mixture of everything. But the goal has always been the same. A living, breathing, diiogetic universe of risk versus reward. Just where do you want to go? Where do you want to go and how do you want to play? We intend to we intend to uh cater to as many different groups as possible. I think Rich Tyra said it >> it was two years ago >> two years ago. Two years ago during it's it's we're not a PVP or a PvE game. We're an everything game. >> Yeah. We just want to have like areas

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    where you feel very protected. Yeah. So where the security has like very short response times and is able to arrive in time before you explode. >> So those people that are like not that into PVP, they they have the AI protectors helping them. >> Yep. Uh Rhino Separath says, "Actions, not words." uh to which I will say look at the game today versus the game three years ago versus the game three years before that versus the game three years before that. Uh the actions are there. We just have to keep going and we will. All right. Uh let's do another cargo mission or cargo question. Will we be able to pack and unpack uncontracted cargo into smaller or bigger containers?

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    >> Uncontracted >> or contracted. Did I read that wrong? >> Yeah. So, contracted. I'm not too sure. >> Please. >> I'd like it as well. I've got I've got a question about that. But yeah, >> you want to unpack them as well? >> Yeah. Well, you know, if I give if I give the player like one of the problems we have Sorry, we're going a bit off. One of the problems we have is um so you know, when we did the alliance aid event, right? Yeah. >> And we had the cargo missions and we had to give players ASU boxes. Oh, yeah. That's because we have I want to serve an average playership size and 8U is currently the average playership size. >> So what I'd prefer to do is go, hey, here's 200 SU you have to do. And then they use your system and go, okay, right, I'm going to unpackage and repackage. >> I see. I see. >> I can choose it for the massive raft that I've got compared to I'm going to move 2010 one SCU boxes because all I've

43. 00:34:01

    got is like a Pisces or something. >> Well, good news. [laughter] So there is a system already in place. Um so the the design is already written. It's just waiting for some engineers to be able to start working on it which is allowing us to actually like split larger boxes into smaller or even combine uh smaller boxes into larger boxes. Uh it comes with a fee. It's at least the intent as of now. Um but yeah, so we want to give the possibility on the actual like station inventory level that you use it there to repack your boxes into smaller or bigger boxes. >> Perfect. >> Yeah, that I think that's to to your point you had it. It's like not everybody has has the ship that has the the right configuration for doing

44. 00:34:50

    submissions. I think the the Mustang Alpha only has four SCU. Somebody's going to be like that's wrong. How do you possibly not remember what the SEO of the Mustang alpha was? I'm going be like, I'm old. Uh, but you know, and most missions start you off at like what, six? >> Yeah. All the missions start if you're off at six. But yeah. >> Well, we're getting the the courier missions back soon, aren't we? >> Yeah, maybe. >> Yeah. No, we are. We are. We're working on um we we split it up into three. So, we do courier, delivery, and then hauling. And the idea and the separation between them is courier will be one-handed items. So, um I don't want to say a burrito, but an example would be a burrito, uh that you can put in your backpack. Uh a two-handed box, which uh people who played this game a while back might remember the little two-handed

45. 00:35:36

    boxes you walk around with. >> Um so, that's courier. Then delivery is uh how we bridge the gap between courier to hauling. So, delivery will start at uh one SCU box and it will go up to a total of six boxes of one SEU. We don't go above the uh the one SCU size. um which will help bridge that gap and then players can do the hauling. And when I say it links them, it's not that you can't do hauling until you've done a bunch of courier and then a bunch of delivery. We'll offer them all straight away. Um but the idea is if you're a new player and you've only got, you know, the Mustang or a smaller ship like the old Aurora or whatever, you you'd start there. You'd earn money via doing this gameplay and then you'd, you know, rent a new ship or buy a new ship from New

46. 00:36:24

    Deal or wherever. >> Uh people are excited for a burrito delivery mission. So now you have to do just just a solo burrito, you know, interstellar hauling. Could you art our corps one burrito? >> If if if I ordered like takeaway and someone put a singular burrito on a shelf in public and was like, "Yeah, I'll put it over there for you." I'd be livid. Like we >> you're selling it to me, dude. You're not talking me out of it. >> What about an Amazon locker? If you had to go to an Amazon locker to get your burrito out of it. >> You still sold? >> Who knows what the 30th century is going to be like? >> Whatever. We'll do it. What do you think? >> I still want like same location delivery missions. >> Mentally connected also coming. Um, so, um, the DCs, the distribution

47. 00:37:15

    centers, >> um, one of the things we're going to do for the delivery pilot missions is you're going to get missions to move boxes between the wings of the same DC. So, you get your little vehicles, load it up on boxes, and truck on round, then take them off again. >> I used to I used to uh beg Todd Papy for the stupidest mission in the world. And and and this this is the absolute truth. I I said, "I want a mission. I would love a mission where it's just it's like from Jared. It's from Disco or whatever." And it says, "I've lost my keys. Can you help me find my keys?" Like you get it from a kiosk and the keys are sitting right on top of the kiosk. You're just like >> pick great deliver. And you just like there you never have to take a step anywhere. It's just the dumbest most

48. 00:38:02

    pointless mission with my name. >> How much are you going to pay them for that? >> Okay, we'll talk with economy about it. But I used to like just a mission to find my keys and they're right there. I just tried um bring back the racing It's not really industrial. >> Well, no, but um the we have a bunch of missions like the courier ones that um I don't want to say died, but broke when we did 4.0. The systems changed and it was quite a lot to get back. The racing missions are also one of them. um they they require um it's kind of like a multifaceted thing to get them working. It requires a little bit of us, a little bit of engineering, a little bit of UI sort of to get it all together. However, we also want to look at the experience of it. One thing that we found really frustrating and I know players did as

49. 00:38:50

    well was I get my ship, I fly 30 minutes to get to the racetrack, I bungle out on the first corner and then I'm like, "Right, let's get that flight suit. Let's reclaim that ship. Let's wait. We want to have a and try to get a nicer experience for racing missions than what is currently, you know, ages ago there was all sort of talks about having some form of like a little little a little platinum bay right next to the station, you know, maybe a little med zone. Boom boom back in the ship round the track. Um because yeah, we want racing in. We also want it to be fun and accessible. >> Um we're going to need to get a a button next time Elliot's on the show. What's my button for? Oh, right. Yeah. I'll uh I'm I'm making an active effort.

50. 00:39:40

    It's just >> I know. No, no, no. It flows. >> The the We we we we we we have the same vocabulary. The only difference is I'm trying to crush it here. >> Yeah. You've you've had 11 years. Yeah. Outside of the show, um you you I'm very blue. Um I mean sad. Not I'm just kidding. Uh what is the plan to make industrial multi- crew gameplay more impactful and a force multiplayer i.e. mining and salvage? >> We did already [sighs and gasps] a lot to improve the the multi-cool experience there. Uh I think we did more on the mining side than we did on the savage side. Um so I don't know if Yeah. So one thing we did was the making

51. 00:40:28

    use of the instability for example for mining >> multiple lasers being able to shore up short. >> So if you're in different ships, multiple lasers will increase the instability. If you're in the same ship, multiple lasers actually won't affect it too much. So that encouraged players to use the mole especially for the instability rocks. The harder to crack instability rocks or at least that was our intention back then and it somehow worked. Um, there's definitely still like room for improvements in regards to like true multi- crew multiplayer gameplay. Um, I think like not industrial but engineering gameplay also like already moves into that uh segment. Uh for salvage it's a bit harder to achieve because of just the the

52. 00:41:16

    mechanics that we have for salvage because they are like either you point a scraper beam on the surface or you basically align a ship in into a yeah deconstruction field. Um so there it's a bit harder to find like uh like meaningful uh multi- crew or multiplayer gameplay um mechanics. But um like especially on the salvage side, we have like huge ships where it's like very very beneficial if you have a lot of players on the ship. Like talking about the reclaimer, it is like very useful if you have someone in the the cargo hold already unpacking um the filler stations. But moving forward, what what our goal is here is also like less like being like in this island features where we

53. 00:42:05

    want to have the multi- crew because we are like this like we really want to tie in all the features together with crafting and um that means that we rely or players will re have to rely more on other players to do their job in a very very good way so that they also can benefit from it. Like what I'm talking about is if you have a minor that basically is very effective in finding and mining the high quality resources and then in the f far future or in the not so far future um you have then the refiner that then brings in the refining process they have on their ship and then refine it like even increase the quality or retain the quality or do something that that helps the then crafter to

54. 00:42:53

    actually be able to craft the perfect gun, the perfect chip component for you. So, this is like sure you can do it alone, but that time and effort you have to put in alone is just tremendously like lower if you if you have friends or if you even don't have friends and you just pay people in the verse to do your your job. >> Which one are you? >> Second. Yeah, I I was thinking that that almost every uh Star Citizen developer can be divided into one of two camps. The one the ones who say soon a little too easily and the ones who say far far future a little too easily. Uh chat's picking up on how often you say the far far future. I'm just I'm saying that >> my far future is the next weekend. Yeah,

55. 00:43:42

    it's it's it's one of those things where I I've actually been thinking for the last 20 minutes, h how do you explain this difference? There are people here who have to live what what's the line from Fast and Furious? I live a quarter mile at a time. There are people here who live like one patch at a time. Like it's the ones It's the ones who have to deliver what's happening right now. They're actually down in the code, down in the stuff. It's so anything beyond the next patch seems like a universal way and it really skewers the uh the timetable for years with multiple weekly shows and stuff. I couldn't I could never think of something more than three weeks away. Three weeks away was this is impossibly far. So I'm just what I'm saying is just like I would caution you to you know what you read into when someone says soon. Caution the same

56. 00:44:31

    thing when Dorston says far. We're not, none of the people in here are in charge of the schedule, so we're not making any comments related to that. Um, Elliot. >> Why do event missions keep using a bunch of smaller boxes for the mission size instead of the larger ones? >> Did we rewind to the conversation me and Torson just had a couple minutes ago? >> Uh, so, uh, >> but why do you do >> but why? So we we it's the same thing I I I'll go over it again what I talked about with Thorson a few minutes ago is so when we do an event we are we make it for uh everybody. We wanted to engage uh every type of player we had because we have so many different types of players. And one of the fun things about events or that can be fun and we saw with

57. 00:45:20

    Alliance Aid is all of these peoples of different walks of life coming together, right? Everyone being in this station in Levky running around all doing the little bits whether they're going out to go murder a load of uh you know marine gang or they're maybe they're like transporting goods. So with that, we look at the average ship size that's owned by players. Um, and it comes out at the SU is around 8 SU. So we sometimes go lower than eight, sometimes we stay at eight, but we don't want to give really big boxes because then some people can't engage in some form or fashion. Um, but that's only a temporary thing we're doing until the system Dawson was on about comes online where where you can uh choose the size of your box because that means in the future when we do these missions, we're just

58. 00:46:07

    going to tell you how much SCU we need at the end destination. And how you split that up into box sizes is completely up to you as the player doing this. >> Yeah, it feels like either the system Torston was describing where you could split the box or something dynamic in mission 2.0 know that that looks at what ship you currently have spawned and goes, "Okay, this thing has a storage capacity of this, so I will generate boxes of this side. There's some combination of the two." Maybe >> the problem with like the mission auto detecting it, right? Is is say um say me and Thorson are mates and we're both playing and we've both got a dead small ship. Um we'd then want to split it up maybe may maybe for uh his ship because he's got owns a bigger one or maybe we're going to do one run at the same time in two small ships. So instead, I want to break it up into smaller boxes.

59. 00:46:55

    So yeah. Yeah, we we know it's not perfect. It's it's something we we want to get better at, but we uh we need the we need the system to be able to do that. >> Uh we touched on this a little bit to want to get it in and get it clearer here. Any plans to release fueling or towing missions this year? >> Yes. Uh trying to think of what I want to say. Yes. Yes. And there'll be there'll be there'll be a discussion on that uh uh uh soon. The the the poor starfare has languished languished for some time. Four years. >> Huh. >> Four years.

60. 00:47:42

    >> You know Starfare Starfare came out in 2016. >> Yeah. But but the the functionality came out for it. It was my first thing I worked on here. >> Yeah. But [snorts] but but you know there but there there haven't been you know missions for it. It's it's re refueling. Refueling is interesting because I was I was talking about this uh uh I was talking about this been talking about a lot because there might be a new refueling ship coming. >> Barry says it. There is a new refilling ship coming um >> in a while >> in the very far far. >> Not soon or far, just in a while. Uh so we we've been talk we've been talking about this as [laughter] the loop.

61. 00:48:31

    Refueling sort of sits with with with the uh medical gameplay is this one where it's not really it's not really supported by the game play like like the story and the gameplay we provide. It's it kind of relies on other players. Like you have to wait for another player to get shot and wounded to before you have something to do as a medic. And with refueling, you kind of have to wait for another player to run out of gas and be like, well, that's what I'm getting at. Go ahead. >> Uh so we're actually currently working on refuel emissions. Um and we're doing uh two types for the initial release. We're going to do player to AI refueling. Uh, so this is where I have my starfer. I can take a contract um from the faction, which I'll leave as a surprise for later, not because I forgot

62. 00:49:18

    the faction name. Um, we'll offer you the uh the contract. You'll go there will be a ship that's out of fuel u and you will uh go up to it and you'll fill it full of fuel. Um, and that might not all, you know, that depending on where you are or potentially what system you are, you know, you might turn up and they didn't need fuel, but they want your fuel bags because maybe it's >> what someone abusing the service beacon system. How dare they? >> Um, we might also have ones where um, you know, you're you've you've refueled the person and then maybe some some people come to finish the job off or something. uh you know some pirates or whatever. Uh and then we have the opposite which is going to be a AI two-player refueling. This is where um you put up a beacon. Um and this is

63. 00:50:08

    because the work to get the PVP be beacon done just a little bit extra. So what we're going to do for the first release is have it so you can make one, but we have an AI ship to come to refuel you. So the AI ship will come will uh you'll you'll ask it to dock. It will dock with uh you'll dock with it. Close. uh and then it will give you your fuel uh for a sort of set fee. >> Yeah. So, I mean that second one is certainly interesting for the broader community, but it it it having the missions that spawn an AI who's run out of gas and what and actually have a purpose, you know, having having something to do with your starfare and and other potential refilling ships that isn't just isn't just waiting for another player to choose not to backspace, you know, kill themselves and what it

64. 00:50:55

    It's a long time coming. >> Y, >> but we also have the intent of making the player two player refueling more accessible. Yes. In comparison to what we have right now, >> to has plans. >> I always have plans. >> Quality of life. >> Always. Always. >> The gaming tribunal says in all capitals, stop adding combat into industry. To which I will say, no. We just had a whole big conversation about that. It's all mixed, guys. It's all mixed. That's the game we're making. It's all mixed. Uh we we what we've been saying that for years. Whatever whatever conversations people are still having it's all mixed. It's just like just like the world. It's different security sectors. You'll be less likely to have it happen in in terra less, you know, a little more likely to have it happen in

65. 00:51:42

    Stanton. And if you're in pyro, you know, go with God or the next closest approximation. when it come Okay, when it comes to salvage gameplay, what to few more salvage questions since we got the mole out or moth out recently. Mole moth. When it comes to sal I was about to say something really. Uh, when it comes to salvage gameplay, is it still planned that we will be siphoning fuel and oxygen or using salvage charges to gain access to Rex? >> So, I think back in the days we talked about siphoning the is it sifing or siphoning? >> Siphoning. >> Siphoning siphoning fuel and oxygen from from derelic chips or from uh recently

66. 00:52:34

    deactivated chips. Um, so we didn't find a meaningful place of that in the entire gameplay loop because right now fuel we really would like on the fuel side we would rather encourage refining and the fuel gathering. So there's I think there was also a scooping uh question um in regards to that. So we rather would like to focus on um on those gameplay mechanics. So mining to get quantanium, refine it into quantum fuel also. Um then the the scooping part to get hydrogen out of like gas clouds or atmospheres and then refine that into the corresponding fuel rather than you like invading ships and then like putting in a a a plastic tube and moving

67. 00:53:24

    it from one ship to the other. So, so that that like like all jokes aside, I think the more interesting gameplay here is more on the scooping part and on the refining and mining part. So, we decide, okay, this is not the most necessary part of the savage gameplay. So, we put it on hold for the time being. Uh same for the atmosphere. Right now we like when we were talking about that the concept of the life support generator as we have it right now with the engineering gameplay isn't or wasn't that well defined yet or wasn't at the point where we are at now because it also went through a lot of iterations. Um and right now with the actual life support generator with the filter items there that can actually generate the the oxygen for or the gases for the ships. This is also like an unnecess

68. 00:54:12

    unnecessarity at this point about the charging breaches though. Yeah, they are still on the on the on the table. So we are discussing them very regularly but then we realize we don't have the time to do them or we don't have the people to do it in time and then we're like ah yeah sad and then we move on and we talk about it at a later point again. >> Yep. Um, I'm I'm gonna address this because it came up, but Commander Tanith says, "Your industrial players don't want constant combat in their industrial missions. A rare chance is one thing, but adding combat into every aspect of the game is lazy." Um, Commander Tanith, I'm not saying we're going to add combat into every aspect of the game. That's that that's a that's a kind of a gross

69. 00:55:00

    misappropriation of what we've been talking about here when we talked about this earlier. It's there will be a chance is what we said. The chance changes depending on what system you're in system you're in. As the law system continues to develop, those chances will reduce in the systems that you expect it to. It's we don't there's there's a continual struggle. >> But didn't even Elliot say that there is missions where you can get, but there are also others where you will not. >> So, it's it's also like should be very clearly visible in the >> Yeah, exactly. The mission will tell you there there's a continual struggle in building an MMO out over the last, you know, PU's been up and running since December 2015, so about 10 years at this

70. 00:55:48

    point. Uh, running a live environment in the middle of your your game development and stuff. And it's that it's this constant pull between developing for today and developing for tomorrow. Anything that you build for today is almost guaranteed to have to be redone because of something you know that's coming down the line for tomorrow. So when possible, you're you're all you're you're you're you're faced every single day with a hundred little micro decisions that are do we build it this way for today or do we build it this way for tomorrow? Because we know where we're going. And most of the times most of the time you want to build for tomorrow. You want to build systems that can scale and that can evolve into this into this vision that you're going towards. Uh people have noticed I've mentioned Terra a couple times. I'm simply referring back to the road road

71. 00:56:37

    to 1.0 uh from Rich Tyra's presentation at uh Citizen Con two years ago where he said, you know, the road to 1.0 includes five systems with the last one being Terra, the safest of all the systems. You know, the idea being, you know, it's towards the middle there. towards the middle of the empire is you're safer and then as you get farther and farther out from the empire you find more and more danger and risk. Uh that is not the same as what commander Tanith says adding combat to every aspect of the game is lazy. It is building a living breathing system of measured risk and reward that then you get to choose. You get to have the agency of playing in the areas that you want to play in and accepting the risk versus the reward reward that you want. Uh it's not lazy. It's allowing

72. 00:57:25

    you the agency to choose and that's what we're building towards. That's not always easy to see at this moment. And so I understand where the frustration comes from. I mean I've experienced the frustration myself. You log into Twitch streams, you see the frustration every day. I just encourage folks to remember that decisions are made based on often made based on where we're going, not necessarily weird things showing up in the not >> not necessarily uh where we are right now. It's just a continual balance and you know I think we're doing a pretty good job. It's last year two star systems we're we're going whenever the the crafting system crafting system on the way inventory rework. It's just it's hard. It is hard to be to look at some aspects of the game today and be like,

73. 00:58:15

    "Oh, why don't you just fix that and whatever." It's like the issues with the moth right now. There are people who have just bought a moth and they have the issues with the the buffer size being wrong and and the salvage beams be being uh is they're slow. Is that what's happening with the salvage beams? I'm not I don't have the I don't have the the issue counseling here in front of me. And these are all things that are being adjusted and worked on for 47. And so like this is just that's the next time we can do major code additions to the game. We can't fix everything with hot fix. It's just it's difficult. And I saw some of the responses there. It's I want to encourage people rewatch that section. Elliot was very eloquent in in his answer and I encourage you to to see it again. It's about giving you the choice to play how you want and with the

74. 00:59:04

    amount of risk and the amount of reward that you seek. >> One more thing to add on to that is Star Citizen is very unique because of scale. And when you're building content for something that's got an infinite scale, you need variability. So, chances of other things happening so that it doesn't get stale. Uh, and that's what it is. And it will be controlled as you've said per the systems, per the law, but we need variability to achieve the scale and make it feel not the same old same old. >> All right. And with that, we'll wrap up the show, guys. Thank you so much for taking the time to to be here and to answer questions from the community. Uh uh we'll be back next week. I think I think our next week is with the audio

75. 00:59:52

    team. So, uh, uh, there'll be a thread up on Spectrum tomorrow, uh, collecting your questions. We'll do the same like we did today. You guys submit your questions. We'll pose them all to the audio team. I think we're going to do a focus on spaceship audio, which they've been doing a whole lot of work on. So, look for that thread on Spectrum tomorrow. Uh, until next time. Uh, Torston Elliot, thank you so much for hanging out and for answering questions and for being candid as always. Bye, everybody.