Inside Star Citizen: Welcome to Invictus | Spring 2020

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

1. 00:00:13

   Invictus is basically an annual event that the Navy holds for people to get together and sort of send off new recruits who are entering into military service. The origin of it dates back already to the First of Arm War where they had to physically send a transport ship to go collect new recruits to join the Communities would come out and kind of celebrate, you know, all the people who are volunteering and leaving. But also the Navy uses it as an opportunity to showcase some of the new ships that they've purchased for their fleet. Your tax money has gone to buying these ships so you get an opportunity to see them up close. So one of the the things that's actually pretty exciting for me about the the

2. 00:01:02

   Invictus in general is just the fact that this becomes our sort of weirdly unofficial first unveiling of the Navy inside the Persistent Universe. It's been such a large, overwhelming part of the Star Citizen history and obviously Squadron 42 is very, very steeped in in the Navy and its inner workings and stuff like that. But in the PU we've never really seen them. We've talked about them, we've heard about them, but you know, you don't really see them. So this is like a really cool opportunity to really kind of dive in and get that sort of sense of the military into the PU, which is really fun. The Bevic Convention Center came around kind of a happy accident because we needed a uh we wanted to put some mega structures in Area 18 and not just kind of tall skyscrapers. So we came up with uh the kind of big round mega building and

3. 00:01:51

   originally had no purpose. And then it just kind of seemed very natural for it to be a shopping center or convention center to host events. So, by the time the anniversary of 2019 came around, we decided, "Let's host it there." The UEE celebrates Invictus for sort of two reasons. It's a naval holiday that commemorates sort of the beginning of military service. So, the kind of things we we wanted to differentiate from the IAE is wanted to get a lot more of the lore infused into the location both visually and kind of things to read and find out about that kind of sets it apart from a standard kind of man a ship manufacturing display. And secondly, the Navy also uses Invictus as a way to showcase some of the ships that they've purchased over the past year. And so, they invite the

4. 00:02:40

   ship manufacturers to come and provide sort of models for the public to to get a closer look at. And this year's pretty exciting because the Navy just recently acquired some of Origin's brand new ground vehicle called the G12. G12 Origin Rover is basically Origin's entry into this market. It's a I guess competitor to the Ursa Rover. Um, but this is classic Origin, good-looking, cool styling, high quality. It's essentially a two-man vehicle, and the base version has capacity for two SCU. There are three variants of the G12. There's the base version, there is the racer version, which is for the enthusiast, and then we have the third

5. 00:03:28

   and final, which is the combat variant, which is why it's here to show. It was built for the UEE. I'm sure that the the question will come up of Origin and the Navy seems like an odd group uh to to come together. The thing to remember is that even though Origin is known for luxury, they manufacture actually a lot of sort of military and law enforcement ships. You know, it's also probably again like the sheer quality of the workmanship. They tend to be pretty solidly made ships and they're well designed. I mean, they also just look cool as hell, which I feel like somebody, you know, they can justify it all they want, but like it's probably one of those things where like the dude who first presented it was like, "Yo, this thing is sweet. I'm sure we can come up with a reason to have our admirals roll around in one of these things." So, in addition to the ship halls and or

6. 00:04:17

   vehicle halls, as well, we have our sort of main floor of the Bevic Convention Center has been sort of converted into a sort of naval event space where we have several different areas that people can go visit. As you kind of get off the transit shuttle in at the Bevic Convention Center, you're kind of met with a historical timeline of the different dates and events of the Invictus launch. So, that's kind of a nice historical timeline that's very reminiscent of kind of war memorials. And then, as you go through into the lobby of the convention center, I'm met with a diorama of some uniformed characters as another memorial and a kind of recruitment drive to kind of show these are the kind of roles you could be serving in the UEE Navy. And there's a plaque with an oath inscribed

7. 00:05:06

   onto the marble there. And then, as you go up the stairs, you're kind of met in the center with a quite a striking diorama, some characters kind of climbing up a mountain precipice with their arm reaching down to you. It's very much a kind of a propaganda recruitment kind of drive saying, "Come and join us." The guy's reaching his hand hand out to you. So, it's a kind of a nice moment for players to kind of look up and, you know, it'd be like a selfie opportunity and that kind of thing. And then, we've got a special memorial for the 999 squadron, which is kind of a nice little display with the 999 lettering done as contrails of ships. And then, there's like a an Invictus kind of diorama which shows just ships coming out of the logo right into the

8. 00:05:54

   space. So, and then all around the lobby there's banners and flags and everything kind of reinforcing that military kind of feel. So, yeah, it's really actually fun that we now have basically a venue uh that we can have large large scale events at uh the Bevic Convention Center. But yeah, so basically it's like as we did it with IAE like we get to do kind of a similar thing with the uh Invictus. But there's more to see outside the convention center. But I don't think they're going to let me tell you what that is. But players will have to discover it for themselves. Invictus Launch Week starts tomorrow, May 22nd, with activities on Spectrum and social media. Introduces us to new concept vehicles like the G12 Rover and the newly flyable Cutlass Blue. And there's something happening up in space.

9. 00:06:43

   Check out the website to find out more, but before we let you go this week, here's the sprint report. Up first, let's talk some go no go. Last week, the actor feature team presented the very first tier zero implementation of body dragging for director review. Now, body dragging is a feature initially necessitated by work on Squadron 42, where the ability to both pull compatriots to safety and hide the bodies of subdued enemies are essential elements in progressing through the aspects of the campaign. But as with most things, work on one means work on both. And with the upcoming Alpha 3.10, this very first iteration of body dragging is a go. Now, with time between now and the patch release, the team will work to improve the grab targeting to accommodate for various armor types and minimize that space you're currently

10. 00:07:31

    seeing between player and target. But we've no doubt the shenanigans players will get up to when this feature makes its way to players in the upcoming Alpha 3.10. In ship news, it was announced earlier this week the Cutlass Blue will be arriving into the hands of those players who pledged for it previously in Alpha 3.9.1, while being made available for everyone else on Invictus Launch Week's Drake Day. So, here's a brief look at what you can expect from Drake's law enforcement offering. And a quick look at the updated cockpit being worked on for the Origin M50 with its flashy new seat and slick updated cockpit lighting. In ship-related updates, the graphics team has been prototyping a new dynamic brightness feature for UI that can automatically adjust elements to a brighter level against brighter

11. 00:08:18

    backgrounds, and then lower again against the darker elements of space. What you're seeing here is an early proof-of-concept work, but the next step will be to continue dialing in the proper levels of brightness among the various backgrounds players may find throughout the persistent universe. Finally, moving on to locations, we've got these images of additional work expanding the raceway and hanger areas of GrimHEX, which aim to provide new opportunities for players that operate outside the law. And as a special treat, this first look at the current state of Pyro 1, the planet charred by the constant violent solar flares of the system star's prolonged nova phase. Now, it's worth noting that the planet seen here is in both an early state and outside of the Pyro system itself. So,

12. 00:09:08

    let's take that work in progress down in the corner to heart. See, there it is. Still, it's an exciting look at the different surface types and even plant life being explored for what was once thought to be a completely lifeless system. So, what did we learn this week? Well, we learned that the UEE Navy, long associated with Squadron 42, is about to make its first presence felt in the persistent universe with Invictus. That in-game convention centers can be just as flexible in meeting the needs of any promotion as the ones we find in the real world. And that the Navy and Origin alike clearly think capable ground vehicles don't have to sacrifice sleek looks with the currently in development G12 Rover. So, be sure to log in to the Persistent Universe tomorrow and each day of the following week to see everything we covered here and a few

13. 00:09:57

    surprises we left for you to discover. For Inside Star Citizen, I'm Jared Huckaby. We'll see you next week.