10 for the Chairman: Episode 40 (2014.10.06)

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of 10 for the chairman. Um for those of you who don't know uh who haven't seen this before, this is where I take 10 questions from the subscribers uh in our community and answer them to the best of my ability. Uh the subscribers are the subgroup of the overall uh community that's backed the game that contribute extra money every month to allow us to do a enhanced level of community content. Um this show around the verse. Um other things like Jump Point which is a very in-depth magazine that we publish monthly that has between 50 and 70 pages of in-depth behind the scenes material of how we're

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   building ships, how we're designing systems, has some fiction, has some other stuff and just also general other pieces. So um you know we do sort of behind uh CIG video pieces to show um various um areas of development and all of that's uh sort of financed by the uh subscribers. So thank you very much uh for that. Um this is uh uh this week's a fairly busy week for us. Um so um going to be bare bones here on 10 for the chairman. We uh have Citizen Con coming up this Friday uh which we'll be live streaming to uh everybody and uh we've got some cool stuff to show. So, uh, and have a bit of a retrospective, uh, of the year. So, hopefully everyone will, uh, will, uh, will like that. And then also later this month, we've got the, um, PAX Australia, um, firsterson shooter demo. So, we're also busily working on that. So, pretty much

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   everyone at all the studios ahead, um, working on stuff to, uh, to push the game forward and show you guys. Um, we've, you know, made some pretty huge milestones recently. We hit 55 million um, just a few days ago. Uh, so, thank you all for that. Um, and uh, it's a great ride that isn't um, hopefully going to stop anytime soon. So, uh, let me get to the questions um, and we'll go from there. Okay, first question comes from Marley who asks, "While piloting within a star system, how will we know our bearing? Aside from the star map and fast travel mechanics, will there be a galactic compass, a grid system, or possibly XYZ coordinate system to help navigate and identify direction?" Well, I mean, you're definitely going to have sort of your navigation uh star map uh which you'll be able to pull up in pretty much any of your ships and be able to sort of lay your waypoint that

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   you'll fly towards that will have some predetermined uh uh navigation points on it. And then uh there will be uh most likely a sort of a grid location. I mean, internally in the engine, we have XYZ and so I'm guessing that we'll have something that will be along XY and Z uh in terms of the coordinate systems inside the the systems. uh we're still uh sort of playing with the possibility of actually having a dynamic all the star systems being dynamic. So uh that means that there would be slow orbits for the various planets. So um so then you always get this issue of like well is the grid system fixed relative to the center of the system of the star or you know is it fixed to one of the rotating planets but I think we'll probably for um ease of use go with a sort of um you know a version of XYZ whether we

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   actually call XYZ that would be based around the center of the system which is where the star would be for the system or the stars and uh then everything be relative to that um and we would uh we we would kind of uh go from there. So um but your navmat would be where you would sort of look to to see how that happens. But as I said, we're still in the development stages of that because originally we were planning to have sort of static systems, but with the new large world system that we're going for and the fact that we're essentially making uh you know, every sort of like planet or moon or any of that stuff will be its own sort of uh anchor point and uh sort of encounter space and it's sort of defined by its position, but its position can move around and then things move relative with it. um we sort of have some more options. So that's sort of the stuff that we're um fleshing out right now and uh Tony Zurvec and his

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   team uh in Austin on the Pacific Universe are actually like deep in that kind of stuff right now. Okay, next question comes from Hellcat who asks, "With salvaging, if we find a military ship, is it possible to salvage it without getting into hot water with the UEE?" Yeah. No, I definitely think so. I mean, if there's a destroyed or abandoned military ship out there, then uh I don't think there'll be any issue with you salvaging it. um you know, splitting out uh you know, un weapons that have haven't been uh destroyed enough that you can't resell them. So, that'd be kind of cool. And uh just taking the the various uh scrap and and uh compacting it and selling it. Um okay, next question comes from the tick, who asks, "While on a mission, would another player be able to complete, hijack, or perhaps destroy your objective? Suppose you were sent to pick up a particular object, but when you arrive at the destination, you discover

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   that it's gone." Well, that's a good question. So, uh, I think that would depend on the kind of mission. So, we've sort of, uh, been, and this is again speaking of Persistent Universe and Tony Sur, this is sort of the stuff that me and Tony have been going back and forth about, but there probably two kinds of missions. One, there will be certain ones that would be what we would call persistent and would have sort of a unique identity. So, like if you're going to kill a a pirate lord, well, there's only one, you know, that one pirate lord just exists in one place and uh you know, only one player or group of players basically, but you'll only get to kill them once. You won't be able to kill them in 10 different instances. Um, but there will definitely be some cases where we'll have some um missions or action that will be more specific to you as a player. And in those cases, it would be instant. like a you know an idea would be uh you know you've got to

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   um I don't know fix a this is a bad example but fix a uh a navigation satellite and uh perhaps that's a mission that 20 people get because it's a sort of more generic mission you're going to do something well the place where the navigation satellite is when you enter it as a player that particular area itself would be instance just for you and there would probably be NPCs that would be there that could say attack you or whatever like pirates or something but you getting to fix that navigation satellite since you took that mission which is an instance mission would be just about you. So we'll sort of have both in the world. It would sort of depend on what they are. So the more sort of generic ones would be sort of more instance to allow you to go do stuff whereas uh the ones that are sort of more um high uh you know profile as in like taking out a big boss or something like that that would not that

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   would be persistent and wouldn't be instant and only one person would get to do that. Uh uh so I hope that answers the question there. All right. Moose asks, "Thanks for greenlighting the surveyor reclaimer salvage mechanic. What mission types are you thinking might be in the game for salvagers?" Certainly, uh, I definitely think it's a it's a good sort of resource mining, um, mechanic. So as opposed to just the straight mining going to the asteroid fields and you know going after resource seams and uh and gathering that then this is another way to go and uh you know take the remainance of uh you know big space battle and then repurpose it into more raw material that can go back into the economy and the manufacturing cycle. Um so uh that's definitely a large part of it. The other area is sort of stripping um you know functioning weapons off uh damaged ships. So, you

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    know, you can have a ship that's blown up or destroyed, but you know, there could be, you know, a weapon, a gatling gun, or whatever it would be that's still quite fine. So, part of the other part of the salvage mechanic is going in there determining what parts are still useful and could be stripped out, and you strip those out separately and store those in a separate hold from the other just sort of debris bits that you're going to compact and uh and and uh compress. Um, and uh, you know, I I would say that those are kind of the sort of stuff. I mean, we're also thinking about doing some more sort of repair style mechanics where you can sort of patch up and fix up ships. So, we're thinking about potentially doing a specialist ship for that kind of stuff. But, um, I think the salvage mechanic will actually be a pretty interesting mechanic. So if you go to a battle, I mean maybe, you know, I could definitely see an organization has its sort of frontline guys who go there and there's a big fight and behind it, you know,

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    you've got some people like they're coming with the starfare or a ship to sort of rearm, refuel people, plus someone swoops in to sort of scoop up all the, you know, damaged material or reclaim any uh, you know, undamaged weapons and go back and sort of, you know, basically not leave money on the table, so to speak. Uh, Scurry Panda asks, "If an Aurora player heads on a collision course with my big expensive ship full of precious cargo on a suicide run, but doesn't arm weapons, am I allowed to shoot him to protect my ship, or will I be automatically marked a criminal since I'll technically be shooting first?" No. No. I think in that particular case, uh, you know, we would determine whether the ship was on a collision course or trying to ram you. Um, and then if you shot him so he wouldn't ram you, then it would be okay. It wouldn't be you shooting first. Um,

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    of course, you couldn't be heading towards him and saying he was going to ram me, but uh but you know, we'll we'll try to sort that out as best as we can um in the sort of algorithm that determines whether you were an aggressor or not an aggressor, but definitely we'll take into the fact people trying to ram you. Um, next question comes from Ghost Storm 11, who asks, "Will we be able to rent specific items and ship upgrades in game based on a credit system? For instance, if I am in good standing with the UEE in the banks, I could go down to a special equipment warehouse and rent a mission specific item like a high-end telescope camera for an intelligence gathering mission. I think that's a good idea. I mean, we've definitely talked about the ability to allow players to sort of loan out or rent their ships to other players, and there would probably be an equal mechanic where you potentially could rent ships in the game. Um, we haven't

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    specifically talked about that in terms of items. Um, but in general, I don't see why it wouldn't be part of potentially the same sort of like uh sort of loaning or renting uh mechanic. Hard to say right away whether it's going to be in the sort of version 1.0 because obviously we've got a lot of stuff to do and so you kind of want to get the basis working, but I think longterm we're definitely going to have the equivalent of like you'll be able to get bank loans and you'll be able to sort of lease equipment or lease or rent uh ships just like you can buy them and purchase them. Uh so that would be sort of the longer term plan in the universe. Um okay. Uh so answer I guess would be maybe not right at the beginning but longer term probably yes. Uh all right. Next question comes from Colonel Shaggy who asks how will the cost of insurance scale in relation to ships? Will an M50

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    cost more to ensure than say a constellation because the M50 is designed for a much more dangerous usage i.e. racing versus cargo hauling or will it be based on size or ship price? First of all, all the ships come with insurance, right? So, it's not like you don't have insurance. It's just uh if you have the standard hull insurance, you have to sort of re-up uh carry the policy on versus uh um uh you know have it forever in the case of LTI. And I guess maybe if you um obtain a ship perhaps you have to get uh insurance for it um if you didn't sort of buy it with its insurance um like you found a a derelict or something like that. Uh but I think the the sort of cost of uh the insurance would be kind of factored the way the real world works it which is obviously some component is um the actual cost of replacement some

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    component is uh the age which kind of factors into the cost of replacement and then also some component factors in based on the the sort of role of the ship or you know the likeliness of it to to get into accidents. certainly like in the real world if you drive a sports car they generally take cost a little more to ensure than say a you know a family wagon or a caravan because uh obviously people in sports cars drive faster and maybe potentially get into more accidents. Uh so I think that's kind of how it will get um done. So, uh, you know, we haven't figured out 100% exactly what the mechanic is in terms of, uh, what the sort of re-up cost of the the cost of maintaining your insurance is, but, you know, we definitely, uh, want to make it so it's, uh, affordable, um, you know, and in relation to sort of what you earn. So,

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    you know, obviously if you have a bigger ship, it's going to cost more to sort of re-up it, but then again, on a bigger ship, you should be able to carry more cargo and make more money, etc., etc. Um, okay. Next question comes from General Jack O'Ne O'Neal, uh, who asks, "Within Star Citizen, there are a variety of water planets and various systems. Will there be underwater worlds with cities, communities, and unique opportunities? Perhaps ones that can be visited with special ships that can land in water, or unique submersible crafts that can be dropped out of a bay. There will definitely be uh sort of water style planets. Um, I don't think there's going to be underwater worlds and cities um, day one. Uh but super super cool idea. Wouldn't actually be that difficult to implement to a certain level. Um just because uh you know the engine sort of does handle. I mean

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    there's a really quite decent swimming and water system already in Cry Engine. Uh it's more a matter of sort of resources and production time. So, I would say this is the kind of thing that down the road once the game's out and we start adding more and more content, this will be one of the areas that we could add something that would make it sort of different and interesting. Um, and I guess with the upcoming Avatar movies, it would be pertinent because they're sort of focusing uh in the oceans in those ones. Um, anyway, there you go. Next question comes from uh Scry Miguel, spelled S C R Y M G E O R E O U R. Um, so I hope I pronounced that right. In the Pacific universe, will it be possible to stay anonymous? Think of Transporter, going into a bar, meet the customer, getting paid in cash, and doing a job for him without him knowing

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    who I am. Well, I think we'll definitely have the ability for you to take some anonymous style work in the persistent universe. um sort of depending on what's happening. Um you know, we've already talked about having sort of uh kind of an ID tag for your ship and uh you know, uh kind of like a vehicle VIN number, but then maybe you could sort of jam the broadcast of that. So your ID would not be necessarily visible to other people depending on the equipment you have. Uh, so I do think there potent there would potentially be the opportunity to do some sort of um sort of anonymous style missions in the case of sort of more sort of um you know slightly grayer missions, let's put it that way. Uh but it's still early days. So figuring out sort of the the character uh system and kind of like uh you know all the rest of

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    in terms of like your handle and name and and how you're getting the missions. That's all still in the process. So that would be something that would probably follow folded into what we're trying to do. Um because I think, you know, longterm it would be quite interesting to have a little bit of that. Um so we'll see. Um but um yeah, I don't have a great answer for it right now because it's a lot of that stuff's still in just the basic stages of getting it working and then you start to layer on sort of the more nuances like that. Uh, okay. Last question comes from Matt Behavior, um, who asks, "Will we be able to revive players that died, for example, five or 10 minutes ago, and we are near with our hospital ship to apply first aid from permanent death?" Uh the idea with sort of like a medbay uh and a few other

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    things is that uh like for instance in the first person combat stuff which we're going to get into at the end of this month um uh like part of the mechanic because you know we don't have a respawn mechanic like you would normally do in a first person shooter or even uh you know out in space right so in the persistent universe if you die you're going to essentially you know sort of get recovered out in space and end up getting essentially respawned back on the nearest friendly planet, which is sort of the idea is you your sort of almost lily body was recovered. You were getting taken down to a a medbay on that planet and they sort of revived you. I think Luke Skywalker in the big um uh sort of med tank in the Empire Strikes Back and uh you know now you're slightly worse for maybe you've got a scar, maybe you got cic implant, but you know that's one of your lives are burned and you're you're walking

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    around. Uh so we don't have sort of this instant respawn mechanic that you get in you know most sort of uh FPS games and the same so you know obviously the same is true when we're when we're like doing shipboarding or combat is you know you can't just sort of counter strike style fire dive start game you know uh you know team fortress style all that sort of stuff. So, uh, um, our our combat sort of obviously going to be, uh, more, uh, I don't know how to more tactical and, uh, will involve, um, you know, more sort of you getting incapacitated to hit. Now, of course, this is the future, so obviously the ability for you to patch someone up is probably a bit easier than, uh, maybe it is in today's world. So, we have a sort of mechanic that you'll be able to sort of you're injured. Someone gets shot, taken down, and then within a certain amount of time, they're going to bleed out. So if

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    you get to them before that and pull them back and patch them up, then you can go back out there. It's sort of like saving the life, so to speak. And and there's a certain level of bleed out and damage that can get fixed by med packs. But then if you have a med bay, you could do more. A hospital ship potentially could do more. So, like one of the d one of the whole um ideas that we're going to have in sort of the boarding missions is if it goes really badly, you know, you want to recover your friends, get them back on your ship and get them within a very, you know, within a period of time to a facility that will patch them up so they won't actually lose a life in the sort of whole death of a spaceman mechanic. Uh so that's where the sort of medical ships will be coming in. So we have a whole drag mechanic for FPS and stuff like that. So it should be pretty cool and so that would be a good reason to have uh flying around with a hospital ship. um to you know basically be able to patch up people um in a in a closer

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    proximity than be able to have to take them to the nearest sort of hospital on the planet. Um so I think that answers your question. Uh so there you go. Those are the 10 questions for this week. As I said, this week's a pretty busy week because we have Citizen Con coming up on Friday and uh a few weeks later, we're going to be heading off and uh going to Australia, which will be a lot of fun for uh PAX Australia and and there we'll be showing the uh first person uh the first preview of the first person uh shooting stuff. And we're going to be showing some uh some stuff at um Citizen Con this Friday. So, uh, I'm looking forward very much to, uh, well, meeting the people that will be there, uh, in person and also, um, live streaming and broadcasting to everyone, uh, you know, the second year anniversary of, uh, us launching the crowdfunding for Star

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    Citizen. And thank you all so much for supporting the game. Uh, we wouldn't be uh, here today making this game at this scale, at this level ambition without your guys' support. Uh, it's amazing. I mean, we're getting to make a game that has literally a level of ambition I think is unmatched by pretty much any other game out there. And it's only because you guys out there have supported us to do that to a level that I think no publisher ever would. So, thank you all and uh I will see you this Friday. Bye. Hey guys, thanks for watching um 10 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

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    here. And uh if you guys would like to watch episodes of Round the Verse, go here, please. And I will see you in the verse.