10 for the Writers: Episode 04 (2015.07.06)

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] hi everyone uh I am Adam Weezer I am associate writer here at cig and this is another episode of 10 for the writers uh thanks to all the subscribers for uh being able to make this show possible it's always a lot of fun to come on here be able to answer your questions uh and here to join me today is I'm Sherry hyberg I am the archist here at Cloud Imperium games I'd like to re reiterate thanks to the subscribers for making this all possible you guys are awesome and uh so now that let's let's uh get right into that all right um so the first question we have is from Bjorn Schwarz also known

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   as magnificus and the question is with the name similary to Wikipedia how much user generated content will be allowed and how much will be curated is there special art stuff plann like the famous photo bits with the with the Shian Scout or Retaliator photos well I personally want a lot of user generated content once the game comes online see in my vision users would be able to submit articles about their accomplishments in the game or observations they've made in the game for approval and once they meet certain Contex standards content standards we'll be able to get them published mainly I'm going with this because the game is going to be so huge that it'll be impossible to keep everything perfectly curated without the support part of you the subscribers and backers of Star Citizen and the players and about the art question I haven't confirmed this yet just laying that out

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   there but I want official art from the inside of the company to be in the galac toeda you know like like a real encyclopedia I mean it will be a real encyclopedia just online um and I'd also really like to accept us of submitted art personally I would love to see more art of Coral's Last Stand just so you know and I would really also like to see images from the Orion Colony before the vuel attacked just laying that out there there's any entrepreneurial artistically minded backers out there Sherry has a dream that she's looking to get fulfilled yes so uh now we'll go on to one from dargon and dargon asks when writing and scripting dialogues how do you deal with the possibility that in 2945 humans will be using a bit

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   different language and yeah it's uh it it 930 years into the future we know things are going to be very different if you look back at what English was 930 years before right now I'm not sure how many conversations we could really really have that would that would really be understood and that's our concern is we need to make a game that can be understood by everybody and we you know obviously English is the main language of the game but we also have people who are playing the game who it's their second third language so so we need to make sure that uh when we are writing stuff that that people will be able to understand it right now even though we understand that the the world would be drastically different at that time so from our perspective we try to use f language when the lore requires it uh

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   think you know technology like Moby glass uh ship components um stuff like that uh money like creds it being creds instead of dollars or anything like that you know the the dial of Cathcart is is distinct and uh that was a that was a conscious choice on our part because Cathcart is a lawless system and it has a different history than the uee and that was just a way for for us to be able to distinguish that and be able to add that little flavor so if you are on a planet somewhere and be able to to hear that uh it'll give you a hint to to to their background um as exciting as it can be I know Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner both used used kind of like mutated language to give a sense of uh you know the future and and how it's changed and why it's changed um to do it on that massive level um throughout the

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   game would be extremely difficult especially since first the accessibility issue and second there's also alien races in their dialects that I I think would take precedence in in having to figure out I mean we don't want the humans in the game to sound like we're reading the canterberry tales today that is not the goal we want you guys to be able to enjoy it and not want to bang your head against the wall because you decide to go off and and create our own language but uh yeah that's the idea all right um Vic also known as iner hopefully I'm saying that right ask the question how do you deal with published textual inaccuracies dates that don't match up or something that's just impossible given other law is there a certain priority of what is more important to keep in Canon it is absolutely a priority of what's more

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   important to keep uh this is a very well-timed question because just last week we noticed Adam particularly noticed that there were some published textual inaccuracies uh concerning a system of planets that contradicted the recorded lore that we have behind the scenes and we uh had to go engage in a discussion you know amongst all of us to determine what would be the right one to keep um in this in this instance we decided that it would be better to keep with the internal lore because it was helped Astra physicist helped develop this and so we we want things to be just as accurate as they possibly can be for you and so we went with this choice and this is this the kind of process that we expect to continually engage in in the future if we spot any more of these accuracies again inaccuracies again and in my vision again I would like for the

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   galac opedia to be considered the final word once it is published and I have a few ideas on how this will play out so stay tuned for that yeah there's so there's so much lore out there you know part of you know obviously that's one of the main reasons she here and that's a thing I do a lot too is just you know scour what we have internally and what we've published to to the to to all you subscribers and backers um so that we we understand what we what we have and where we're going and and and everything like that and it's it's a task and sometimes things you know slip through the cracks and that's part of the reason why we're here we're part of the lore team is to help catch those and to and to make sure we do uh have a process to to solve that problem for for when the game does go live and the galactic Pia goes live so uh next question is from far Seeker I have heard that the overall

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   story arc of the uee in the Pu will be inspired by the decline and fall of the Roman Empire will the Pu progress to a state closer to the 3r century ad a time of unrest and Civil War But ultimately resulted in stability for several decades or the early to mid fifth century ad when the Western Roman Empire was basically Beyond saving so um yeah great question it is a great question and I it's it's why I chose it I I I love Roman history and I love that this game is inspired by Roman history uh that being said uh the game is not a mirror for Roman history um if it was it would be pretty anticlimactic because we would all know kind of kind of where this would be going but um uh the game does have elements the the Roman Empire

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    did Inspire different um you know systematic problems that did come up um you know in the the reference here to the Century that uh that was Dian basically ended up dividing the Empire and there is a bit of an internal discussion within our universe whether Soul should stay the capital of the uee or Tera Tera supporters whether it should be moved there more Progressive Capital so again that uh that is inspired by the Roman Empire but it's it's definitely not determined yet in our game the fifth century was the Roman Empire really came to a close uh with the the Barbarian and vanuel raids of of of the empire um and we do have the vanuel that are consistently pushing into UE territory so that that's something that that we also have worked into the game again

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    it's uh there's there's nothing saying that uh that they're going to take over um to be quite honest that's what the backers and the players are here to do is to help write the history of the uee and maybe try to steer it on a different course uh than uh than was set by the by the Roman Empire so good question good inspiration but um yeah it's uh we're not we're not opening the timeline and planning stuff out bit by bit we are actually using it to kind of like set up the system set up the set up the the parameters and then uh hopefully um creating a Sandbox that'll be a lot of fun for you guys to go in and and play and have have some fun affecting effect history anyway so the next question comes from Aragorn BH um someone asked a similar question to the second half so

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    I'll be I'll be covering that later but firstly you asked have you already determined what would be required for a player to be entered into the galopa for example will the discovery of a new Jump Point planet or animal species get someone in what about when a player kills or captures an Infamous pirate how famous would that pirate have to be now this is a comp complex question because um the determination of whe whether something is super influential is kind of a kind of fuzzy it's like relevance and it's something that comes up again and again on Wikipedia there's so many arguments about that's not relevant no no that is relevant that it sometimes gets articles taken down but in a in simple terms yes the discovery of a jump Point planet or an animal would absolutely Merit entry in the

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    galactopus you know important discoveries that kind of thing that's that's definitely worth recording as far as the pirate question is concerned the pirate would have to be pretty famous I mean if you if you take down like a minor pirate someone who hasn't made much waves you know that's definitely an interesting thing for your character to do but if if the pirate isn't well known then I would say that it most likely wouldn't be recorded but again this is just it it it there's so many other factors that come into play like how many systems has that pirate rated has have they raided any systems have they how many people have they attacked like I guess it's the the difference between taking down a criminal who's shoplifting and uh someone on the FBI's top 40 most wanted list yeah I know from a pirate perspective and and even when the the the lore Builder articles were done uh

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    like last year the year before um there was a request for people to submit ideas for different pirate organizations and one of the parameters for that was to to realize the context and realize how big the Empire is and that um when you are creating your own pirate character organization most likely you won't be able to have a grip over the entire Empire because if that if that happens the weight of the the verse would literally come down upon you so at at this point they're probably the the pirate system is still something that that you're right there there's not going to be many like big big dogs and you know out there for you to go hunt down not to say that someday we won't create one and that uh if we do do that if something happens with that we might be able to to get you in there but um yeah as as of right now it's still something that uh yeah it would heavily

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    depend upon the circumstance that for sure absolutely and uh yeah just like anything in history you need to consider how it impacts everybody else I suppose that was a good thing to consider yes yeah go on all right next one uh consider history folks uh Gundam asked does the UE have a system or area where it does its military testing is it if so is it something along the lines of Area 51 where it's an Open Secret SL restricted area or is it something completely unknown to the General Public and is there a name for a place that you can share other than redacted there is but I'm going to hold off for a second um so we do have a lot of systems planned out we do have a lot of areas

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    designated specifically for the military some of them you know about some of them you will know about some of them you might not know about um some are going to be accessible you can go visit and hang out and do certain things there and some you may not get the warmest welcome if you end up trying to to to land or or get close to that system that said um that that's all there um that is some of that's redacted um there is uh this the moon of Odin 2 called villy which is uh unn uh testing ground for experimental weapons uh technically in the in the lore of the verse um bearing Applied Technologies does a lot of testing there um and for those who are unfamiliar with that um go check it out there's a really good Galactic guide post about it but in

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    essence it's the the versus worst kept secret that that this division of bearing basically does super secret super awesome military weapons and testing and stuff like that so even though it's technically a private company it's pretty much well known that they're they're they're doing stuff to to Advance Warfare to advance uh kind of military components uh again that's on villy uh the moon of Oden 2 um you can land there at a place called Raleigh station you're not going to get too far because of the you know the the secrecy that's surrounding it so you could say it's in essence an area like uh like Area 51 where there's a knowledge that it's out there I'm sure there's plenty of rumors as to what exactly is being done there you could maybe drive up to the yeah you could maybe drive up to the

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    gate but you uh you definitely won't be invited in uh and there won't be a lot of Civilian activity there so if you do have an interest in that in that aspect of the gameplay um I would suggest that maybe you go hang out there or kind of like look into that a little bit M excellent idea definitely knock on the door of the secret military base yep just say hi just say hi here for a tour yeah just like just like our Studios come knock the door the door tell them you're cool and they'll let you in totally not a pirate all right so uh the next question comes from swordfish lpar hello how will the galac toeda and the Galaxy map be updated as player and presumably in PC discoveries of new systems planets and other items of Interest are made public and this is with public as in sold SLG given to an official UE information Bureau well what I

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    want and uh what hasn't been implemented yet which I'm going to emphasize is that the game will have an behind the-scenes mechanism way of recording discoveries um this this won't lead to immediate publication on the gpedia of course this will just be behind the scenes like a like a record that's kept so that we know know who discovered it who has been to the location etc etc so we have these internal records to compare to when you as the player report the discovery the second part of this question is that when you make new discoveries like this and items of Interest pop up is that you the player should have the choice whether or not to report it I want this because what if you are coming back to Pirates what if you're playing the game as a pirate what if you discover a jump point no one else has discovered it yet

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    how strategically valuable would that be to keep that jump point to yourself and to fight people off to make sure that no one can discover this jump point but you and if we have it so that it automatically publishes in the galac toeda that you have discovered this jump Point well there's no secrecy anymore so why bother to defend the point why do anything yeah so I I feel like that makes a lot of sense as far as like a very interesting kind of like strategic uh ability whether you're a corporation that's trying to to get a better trading route um and there are there are plenty of jump points out there that uh that'll be up for grabs and may be beneficial to to players out there so um I think that's a very good yeah the short answer to the question is that if you make a new discovery you will need to report it in order for it to be recorded in the galopa for you to get the recognition you also asked a little bit about

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    certain triggers happening in the game like NPC revealed things and that that information on the other hand would be published if an NPC discover something yeah you know just like ingame planned events I mean this is this is all my my personal Vision this is what I want to happen and I think that this is the best route for the players and the characters that they want to be very cool yes all right and now we're going on to a question from Nostromo 1977 oh very good hi writers uh with the introduction of medical ships hope class hospital and cutless red has Sig ever considered creating lore for principle of non-interference with medical services in times of War similar to the medical neutrality protection act of the Geneva uh convention yeah we've gotten

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    plenty of uh questions about the this kind of development of the game and and there being uh kind of like medical rescue and stuff like that and it it is really interesting and from a lore perspective uh it makes a lot of sense that there would be some sort of treaty that the UE would have uh um kind of implemented or or kind of like caught a you know this idea cuz it it it it does seem to be you know an important one um that said much like in the real world just because we maybe create this in lore doesn't mean that it's going to function in the game there are plenty of examples even unfortunately recently of um the the Geneva Convention being you know uh uh this act in the genev convention not quite working out so well

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    with with various Civil Wars around the world so uh I don't think think the vanuel would ever agree to that uh I doubt that um a lot of Lawless systems would also probably not care there's probably other players and and even other Pirates um that that in UE territory would you know Target that for for their for their own means so um though it's an interesting idea I you know I wouldn't be surprised if something shows up I don't think it would ever be like a game rule or a game mechanic it may just be more of a moral compass that'll be there that if we create this in the lore then you can understand you can basically help Define your character better by having them in that situation and then making the choice of whether do they help do they

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    protect do they just let it go do they attack do you know it's so it's a it's I think it's an important aspect of the game but again I I I I don't think it'll ever be quite a game rule where if you do attack it you know it it automatically means something bad's going to happen mhm yeah I mean again we just we don't want to infringe on the way you want to develop your character this is this game is all about how you build the universe yeah yeah but um our my my final question comes from Steve Hunter also known as Steve 2001 and Steve asks can you make a guesstimate as to how large you see the galactia being by the time we finally launch we know that it will be large but just how huge do you see it becoming big large and huge is the answer but no I can't um give you an estimate right now but I can

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    tell you that we are having a kickoff meeting with turbulent to put together a plan of action for the gooped this week very exciting I'm I'm very pleased that we're at this step um there's a lot of stuff that I want to tell you but can't but I would like to also add that the great thing about publishing this online is that we essentially have an infinite space to develop the gocopia in which is not to say that it will be infinite because that's a and that that's a complex number that you know we can't we can't reach the boundaries of infinity a philosophical thing it's a philosophical thing it's a mathematical concept that maybe we don't quite understand but anyway yes it I see it becoming very big like as as players affect the universe as we reveal more lore as more of it's expanded I just see it growing and growing and growing and uh we will need that growth yes yeah

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    again our Internal Documentation is massive even from a lore perspective and that's just stuff we've created to to get us to where are right now there's a lot of places still to come and there's a lot of stuff that's going to happen and be added once you guys get to be you know a part of the Pu so um yeah preparing the Baseline for that is I I think I think doing that will be a good way to kind of like start to judge exactly what we're going to be dealing with so uh definitely more to come once uh you know once tomorrow's done yes yeah one final question uh this one is from kraay knights hi guys uh how is writing of the Star Citizen lore constrained by the known game mechanics yeah this is uh it's it's uh it's a balancing act um and it's uh you know

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    sometimes uh to be quite honest lore is not so much constrained by the known game mechanics but more often by the unknown game mechanics it's the stuff the elements of ships or weapons or worlds that um uh we're still in the process of getting final approval on so when moments like that come we need to avoid getting too Ultra specific on technical issues and in in in that regards from a m perspective what it it makes us do is is probably Focus Less on on those specifics and maybe more on the emotional story or the emotional specifics which from a storytelling perspective is actually helpful uh it makes you kind of like realize what is this really about emotionally what can what can we kind of tap it into um but it it does also cut both ways um because uh for example with the recent Genesis

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    Starliner sale um if you look at the flight board um all the places you see where you be you might you know have trips coming into uh we all approved uh The Landing zones that would be on that board because from a lore uh perspective um you may be be able to F fly a Starliner into let's say the Hades system um but there's no place for you to land there from a lower perspective because it is a pirate world and it it is a dead world to a certain degree and stuff like that uh Jared made a really great funny card about Hades why would you ever go there and it's it's an Easter egg that you can find on on the flight board if you if you if you search for it if it's there at the right time um and it was a fun little joke at the beginning but from a lore perspective we had to come in and be like oh we we need to do something else with this because this type of company would not really fly or or probably would not want to fly

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    into this system so yeah there's definitely there's definitely other stations like the Raleigh station from on the the moon of Odin 2 I mentioned earlier that's it's also a place where commercial uh uh you know kind of like Starliner is not going to not going to go anyways so from a low perspective also it's kind of like us being able to you know go in and be like well the mechanics of the game doesn't make sense for for that to to head there because because of all these reasons we've built in so um again it's it's a balancing app it's actually a good thing too because what it does do is that it promotes um uh in-depth discussions between departments whether it's art or whether it's design uh they come to us asking things we go to them to to be able to get clarification so I think I think I think that that makes for a good healthy creative process all around yeah yeah and I feel like working with constraints

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    can really really help you narrow down what it is you finally want to do if you're given just like here here do whatever you want in this space you can get Choice paralysis and not be able to develop your idea but since we have these conversations we can have these uh these rules that we can write by and that's super super helpful yeah absolutely is so uh we'll thank you all for for tuning in and sticking through another 10 for the Riders I'm Adam Weezer I'm Sher hyberg and we' like to thank all the uh subscribers and backers and people out there following in the community thank you so much for for your support uh and for for being a part of this it's it's been a lot of fun uh and Dave and will should be back very soon from the Squadron 42 shoot I'm sure they'll be excited to sit down tell you what they've been doing um they're the

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    real uh uh engines of the L team we are just here to kind of like project the spirit of of what we're doing we're valuable too we are valuable they uh feel good about yourself I do uh thanks guys uh for tuning in we'll see you next time bye hey guys thanks for watching um temp for the chairman if you guys would like to uh see more episodes go here if you guys would like to subscribe to our YouTube channel and always keep up to date with all our video content go here and if you guys would like to watch episodes of R the verse go here please and I will see you in the verse