10 for the Chairman: Episode 43 (2014.10.27)

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

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   [Music] Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 43 of Temp for the Chairman. Uh we're trucking along uh quite well here. It's almost a year's worth. Um so for those you don't know, Temp for the Chairman is where I take 10 questions from subscribers and answer them to the best of my ability. Subscribers are the subset of our overall uh backers and supporters of Star Citizen that contribute extra money every month to allow us to do a enhanced amount of community content. So, the show around the verse, uh, the jump point magazine, which is 50 to 70 pages of really sort of in-depth in detail stuff on how we're building things like ships or characters or items or environments, as well as sort of some

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   game mechanic uh, and behind the scenes sort of discussions of say how certain events were put together or certain systems were put together and fiction and all the rest of stuff. So, Jump Point's actually quite a pretty cool read. Uh, and then uh, there's other things that we do on a subscriber basis. Um, there's some cool stuff you get for your hangout, but we're also aiming to do a lot more sort of additional community content as we're going along here. So, we have a lot of sort of behind the scenes inside Cig Studio pieces, uh, and some other stuff that we're planning up and coming. Anyway, so that's all thanks to backers. Uh, although thanks all thanks to subscribers and thanks to backers that I'm just here in the first place. Um, and let me get to the questions because we're all like really uh hard at work uh trying to get um what we call uh release 13.2 2 out the door, which is uh V0.9 uh point.2 for you guys uh which uh

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   should be hitting uh later this week and I think you guys will like it. So, I've been playing it on my uh my uh rig with uh 4K and um you know, I hate Presto. And by the way, I don't use a mouse. I hate using a mouse. So, I always use joystick or a gamepad. And um you can now actually have fun with fixed weapons with a a joystick or a gamepad. and um and you have u anyway you'll you'll see it later on this week but I think you'll like it. All right, first question comes from the tick who is either a superhero or one of our backers or both uh who asks while vandal culture and language remain largely a mystery. Will a player be able to find clues and evidence to unravel their society or maybe discover a strategic weakness within them as a whole? Uh yes. Um wouldn't it be great if I just had one word answers for this whole

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   session? Uh but no. Yes. Uh definitely. Uh and actually we've got a pretty we we've been working on sort of a a back um story to the races overall that I think whether I'm not sure whether you're going to necessarily uncover it in Squadron 42. Maybe you'll get some hints to it, but definitely during the PU that I think you'll evolve uh more because, you know, as as we as humans know them, they're sort of, you know, the Vandal is sort of a uh kind of nomadic uh sort of kind of warrior race, but that's not necessarily how they started or where they came from. Um, so I think we'll sort of unfold that as we go along. Um, next question comes from Mogul, who or Muel maybe, M O Gel, who asks, "In the Hornet commercial, we see the Aurora's lasers or bullets zipping

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   past its target and hitting the nearby asteroids, causing debris, rock to break off and drift into space. This effect is absent in Arena Commander, but can we expect it in the final game?" Yes. All right, I'm not really going to give you one word answer, but no. Yes. Uh, actually there are a few asteroids that you can shoot and blow up into pieces that we already have in Arena Commander or uh I think we do. I mean on the build I'm playing we definitely do. Um but uh that's a longer term thing that we're working on. So we're working on some network prediction so you can actually shoot up and destroy some asteroids or break them into bigger parts and sync that properly over the network without crushing all the data we send around. Um, and that's part of uh um a whole new sort of uh network um prediction scheme that we're putting in for v 1.0 that hopefully will allow us

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   to be able to scale a lot more ships um in space via the network. And uh uh it's uh quite a clever little uh splinebased prediction uh dead reckoning system. So for anyone who's done network stuff, that may mean something to you. Um, but it will also help us do some stuff on things like asteroids and their movement and rigid bodies moving around in uh in space. So we can get more u environmental sort of simulation going on uh in the in the position universe and in arena commander. Uh all right, next question comes from Robinator who asks, "How will engineering in the PU work? I mean, if we choose to change a module, are we going to see NPCs changing it, or does it just appear after we press on apply? Will it take

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   some time until we can use the ship again? Um, well, so definitely my preference is to try and have as much sort of immersive detail so when you change something out, you actually see your character or an NPC character plugging it in and and switching it over. Uh, but that's not, you know, obviously it's not viable to do for everything and there'll be some cases where we'll change something out and it'll just sort of appear. It's kind of like the hollow table right now. You don't see anyone attaching the weapons to the ships. You can change it on hollow table and then it's sort of magically changed on the ship. Longer term, you know, down the road, we'd love to have ways of like having little robots come in and do it for you. And so, we're going to try and add those sort of like kind of atmospheric details. Um, but uh, you know, not necessarily right at the beginning. So, as we can do it, we'll do it for some stuff and carry on kind of doing that.

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   Uh we definitely are looking at doing some various mechanics in terms of things like engineering and some of the various other functions you would do on a bigger ship and that's something that the uh UK team is hard at working on building sort of you know not just squadron 42 but the big capital ship um sort of systems and and play mechanics. So we're going to uh not ready to talk about it yet because we're going to have some sort of u reveals and discussions of that um later on in the future. But um but anyway, the idea is to sort of almost have some uh level of mini games aboard um big ships that uh kind of engage you when you're playing one of the roles. So, next question from Tom Winger, who asks, "What will jump point travel be like? An instantaneous hop to another system or a more or less dangerous race through some kind of warp tunnel?" Uh well, so okay, it's

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   definitely going to be more of a a transition through a sort of warp tunnel effect. uh if you're navigating the jump point for the first time, it's definitely pretty dangerous and you'll have to sort of almost surf it like surfing the inside of a huge breaking wave or something like that. Uh and then once you've done it and if you've charted it right with the right equipment, then you could navigate the warp tunnel without having to fly it again. And then that you' sort of be on autopilot, but you would still have the effect of going through the tunnel um you know, sort of the the rip in the time space contenium between the various areas of space you're traveling. Um, so it won't be an instantaneous hop. You'll have some sort of uh sort of warp uh environment that you're going through. Um, okay. Next question comes from attack at who asks, "What plans do you have for healing repair roles during

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    multiplayer combat in the persistent universe? Are we going to have any ships tools that will allow for repair supply drops during a battle?" We are planning to have a fair amount of sort of healing repair roles uh in multiplayer combat both in space and even on foot. Um, so, uh, this week, or not this week, but this Saturday, I guess would be the best way to think of it, is uh, Saturday Australian time. So, that'll probably about Friday for everyone else. Uh, we're going to sort of show off, uh, what we're doing with FPS. And there's some pretty cool healing, uh, stuff in that um, that I think will sort of change the gameplay around from a typical sort of respawn gameplay cycle you have in most FPS shooters. Uh, and, uh, we're also going to do the same for ships and have tools. So, you know, we'll definitely be able to have people that can play the role of sort of, uh, repair or support. So, you know, bring

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    ammunition, uh, fuel, um, you know, and basically, uh, refuel or rearm other players or, um, you know, potentially patch up damage ships enough they can go back into the battle. So, we're definitely going to have those kind of setups and and roles, uh, to do during a battle. And uh we'll probably later on Arena Commander create some game modes that will show that off cuz kind of the idea of Arena Commander is sort of a test bed for all the stuff that'll be in the Persistent Universe. So, you know, we're going to start building scenarios that sort of reflect things that we think could happen in the Persistent Universe. So, um you know, we're definitely going to have sort of the idea of two sort of areas like landing pads and it's a refueling depot that you can refuel and land and someone's probably going to have to defend it and and you know, two teams are sort of fighting over the space and stuff like that. And so that'll be sort of a proving ground for some of that stuff.

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    And then later on when we have the bigger play areas and the multi crew stuff ships, we'll start trying to combine different roles and ships in Arena Commander before it's going live in in the position universe. Um, okay. Next question comes from Soan, who asks, "With the reveal of the new Aegis Reclaimer, I was wondering if its salvage arm could have other uses, such as latching onto another large ship like the Constellation and hold it in place while another ship boards and takes over the ship with minimal damage." Well, that's actually a pretty cool idea. I don't know if the salvage arm is going to be quick enough uh to sort of grab a uh constellation if it's flying around. Um, but definitely if the constellation isn't moving, you probably should be able to use the arm and then, you know, it's all sort of physics simulation. So, we'll see what happens uh at that point.

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    Um, but it probably would be quite difficult to capture constellation in a reclaimer if the constellation didn't want to be caught. Um, but if you could, then you probably could hold it. Uh, all right. Next question comes from Apollo. How will customizing a new ship in the persistent universe work? Can we configure every option before checkout like buying a customizable PC or must we purchase a preconfigured model and then buy install part uh buy install all our parts separately. Plan right now is to sort of buy uh a preconfigured model from the ship dealer and then you can buy additional parts and then you can modify and change it how you want. Um, also you'll be able to um work on the paint schemes and put some decals on. And we're actually working on uh some tech right now um that we will actually be debuting uh not necessarily in 13.2, but it'll be in v 1.0 that we'll have a

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    sort of base paint tech that we're going to use for stuff in it. Uh you ne you won't necessarily be able to do the sort of painting yourself, but you'll be able to choose um uh you know, primary color, secondary color, uh those kind of things. and later on will allow you to potentially there'll be potentially some option for like doing your own particular uh paint job or skin and also like placing decals. Uh so that's kind of the the the plan. Um not sure if we'll have the user ability to to use the new sort of paint scheme in the very first version 1.0, but we'll probably have some uh sort of additional skins because we first of all a bunch of you guys have some of these and so it' be nice to support them. the shader tech is now in for us to support um a pretty efficient um sort of kind of painting scheme on a what's called a second UV set. Um so there you go for the 3D

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    artists out there. Uh all right, next question comes from John Hibbinder who asks, "You've said that lack of resources can drive a planet's economy and that a failing economy now can impact the state of decay of a planet. Will it be possible to besiege planets and space stations, cutting them off from resources, driving up the value of those items to force the planet to go into recession, or make a claimable space station uninhabitable by say blockading it from needed supplies like food, water, and oxygen? Most planets are um you know, not uh you know, the space around them isn't uh unique. It's usually instanced. So if there's a planet and you got you know I don't know 50 people in orbit and our limit is 50 people in an instance and the 51st the 52nd person comes into orbit they get put into a second instance around the

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    planet again but they just don't see the other 50 people and that builds up until that overflows and so on and so on. So uh you know in unless it's a unless the space around that's uh reaching it which is true for some of the astro basin space stations is a uh persistent unique space then doing a full blockade would be very difficult. Now, of course, the way the game works is that if you're blocking off uh trade, like ships going to trade and you're say destroying them, and so pretty much people flying in uh aren't getting to the planet, um then that will have an effect on the economy. And even though we're instance, of course, when there's, you know, the instances aren't fully full and that's where the say the cargo ships would show up. And even if it was full and some cargo ships were showing up and you were killing them but someone making in

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    another instance, you still would be sort of decreasing the amount of uh goods coming to the planet because what we do is when a cargo ship for instance that was going to planet A gets destroyed then you go into the economy and say okay well these goods never made it to you and uh so in general you have the ability to have impact and you probably would have the ability to uh you know affect what's going on on the planet and the economy but you I would not have the ability to 100% completely block it. Um, if that makes any sense. Uh, but it definitely I definitely think people will see the impacts of their actions. Um, okay. Next question comes from live who asks, "As a captain, will a crew member's former transgressions hurt my own reputation? If they don't commit a crime while part of my crew and no one else from my crew commits a crime, will bounty hunters still be

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    allowed to attack my ship to collect an older bounty on one of my crew members?" I think the way that we're going to run the bounty uh system is it's sort of associated more with um the ship plus the owner of the ship. Um so, you know, I I think if you know, you were um a wanted criminal and you uh served as a crew on someone else's ship on that ship, you wouldn't be altering the reputation of the ship. Now, of course, when you were down on a planet or on an asteroid base and wandering around by yourself, then people could see you and maybe if people have bounty hunters and they scan you and they can see that you're wanted, then they can sort of look at you and and uh you know, tag you and um you know, that's kind of how they could get on your trail. But I don't think that the crew members uh themselves on the ship uh will affect

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    the reputation. It's more the uh ship itself and the and the the owner, the captain of the ship that really sort of owns the reputation. If that makes if that makes sense. Uh last question comes from Xan uh CAO who asks, "If I hire a few NPCs to crew my retaliator, will they have a dayight cycle on the ship? Well, I need to do a crew rotation so that after an hour or two of real time, I'll need to assign members to the offduty crew station so they can recharge up to 100% effectiveness through resting, eating, and sleeping. Well, I would say so. I mean, we're planning on sort of having a dayight cycle for Squadron 42. I mean, you're going to be on a big capital ship. Um, you know, running missions and people will go about their um, you know, jobs and and life during the day and go to sleeping quarters and all the rest of

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    stuff. So, I don't see why we wouldn't sort of extend that system into what happens uh in the persistent universe on a ship. And so, you know, you're you basically would have to probably at some level uh manage your crew, but I mean that would only really sort of be effective in like if it was on, you know, really long uh journeys cuz I'm assuming most of the time uh it's not necessarily quite as long and you'll sort of be at the planet before everyone's um you know, needing to go sleep. Uh, but I I definitely think that potentially uh will be there. I mean, it's why we have uh beds on ships also so you can save the game when you're out in space. Um, so but yeah, I think uh we probably would bring that across from Squadron 42 into the position universe. I don't see why I won. Um, so there you go. All right, that is the end of these

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    10 questions. uh you know, fairly brief by my standards, but uh like I said, we're all working pretty hard uh this week because 13.2 comes out and I'm getting on a plane to go to Australia uh for um PAX Australia where I'm hoping to see uh uh you know, a lot of Star Citizen fans and backers, especially the uh of uh the Australian uh Star Citizen fans, which is you know, we've got a really great uh support base in Australia. you guys are some of the uh the the the keenest and uh you know u most energetic of uh of our of our backers and it's pretty awesome. So it's one of the reasons why we're going to Australia. So I'm looking forward to meeting a bunch of you in person and I'm looking forward to showing you the uh first person uh uh sort of um early preview of the first

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    person uh shooter module which I think you're going to like because we're doing some pretty fun stuff with it. Uh, and again, it will just sort of show the level of ambition and detail and texture that we're going for overall the game. Uh, because we're making something that I think is just going to be when it all comes together, pretty awesome. So, um, I'd like to thank you all for your support. Uh, and, um, well, I guess I will see you in the verse. Hey guys, thanks for watching. Um, temp for the chairman. Uh, 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 uh, if you guys would like to watch episodes of Round the Verse, go here, please. And I

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    will see you in the verse.