This post is a transcript of Around the ‘Verse: Episode 2.30, material that is the intellectual property of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) and it’s subsidiaries. INN is a Star Citizen fansite and is not officially affiliated with CIG, but we reprint their materials with permission as a service to the community. INN edits our transcripts for the purpose of making the various show participants easier to understand in writing. Enjoy!



Around the ‘Verse: Episode 2.30 – Full Transcript

Intro

Jared Huckaby (JH): This week, Jared sits down with Associate Character Artist, Cheyne Hessler with his work on Star Citizen

Loremaker Adam Wieser tours through the Nexus System

And we escape the Javelin in this week’s Fast Forward

All this and more in this week’s Around the ‘Verse.

Sandi Gardiner (SG): They made a giant robot

Jeremiah Lee (JL): They made a Voltron.

SG: Can we call it a vehicular force voltron

JL: Eh, I like lionforce better.

SG: Alright we’ll see what you guys out there think. Welcome to Around the ‘Verse, the weekly look at Star Citizen’s development, I’m sandi Gardiner.

JL: And I am not Ben Lesnick.

SG: No he is not Ben Lesnick so who are you?

JL: I am Jeremiah Lee, Concept Artist here in Los Angeles studio Cloud Imperium Games.

SG: He has to check who he is.

JL: And yes.. Jared forced me to do this so… That’s why I’m here.

SG: Oh, that’s why he has to check. He is the guy in our office or one of the guys in our office who has very cool stuff on his screen all the time.

JL: mmm, thank you

SG: I don’t know if its yours or you just put it there.

JL: Shhhhhh, They don’t have to know!

SG: Unfortunately Ben isn’t with us this week. He and Alexis are on bereavement leave, so all of our thoughts here from the team are with them and all across from all of our studios, we miss you guys and we can’t wait to have you back.

JL: We’re all thinking about you very dearily.

SG: We are. And what is the latest on Star Citizen>

JL: Well the current version on the live server is Star Citizen Alpha 2.3.1 which allows access to Crusader Universe and the Hangar Module and several game modes in Arena Commander.

SG: There you go, we can tell that he’s the character artist because 2.3.1 he had to look down and see what it was.

JL: I did, I did numbers, is not my great forte.

SG: We will forgive Jeremiah because we threw him under the bus with short notice and he kindly obliged.

JL: Well this is fun, exciting

SG: It is fun. The team are currently working on Star Citizen Alpha 2.4. Which is going to go out onto the PTU very shortly. We will keep you updated when it does come out, very shortly. I made it sound like it’s coming out tomorrow, but we will keep you updated on when it’s coming.

In other news, the MISC Prospector sale just ended and it actually was a very, very popular ship. so we know now that people are interested in another profession based ship.

JL: Yes, I think it looks really cool, it’s really great because it really looks like a MISC ship. You can see a lot of the forms of the Freelancer and also the Starfarer and the shapes and also the colours really reflect the Prospector so, I’m really excited about it.

SG: Yeah, I haven’t actually gotten myself one yet, but I have a few too many ships. Have you got any?

JL: I have a Vanguard.

SG: Awe, That’s it?

JL: [Laughs loudly]

SG: You’re so sad, it’s such..

JL: I haven’t bought a ship lately, but there’s so many ships I want to buy.

SG: That’s okay.

JL: Yeah the Vanguard, can’t go wrong with the Vanguard.

SG: Also a reminder that many of you may still have a five percent coupon sitting in your account so maybe check your account, it is valid until the end of this month.,

JL: Do I get a five dollar coupon?

SG: Five dollar coupon? Is that what I said? I said 5 percent coupon.

JL: Oh my God! [Embarrassed laughter]

SG: Yeah you had me confused for a second I was like, “It’s a five dollar coupon?” It’s a five percent coupon.

JL: Five percent okay, I’m sorry Sandi

SG: I think actually the staff get a little more than that.

JL: Oh

SG: So yeah, you should check in when Alexis gets back.

JL: [Laughs]

[Outtake bleep]

SG: With that, let’s check in with our studios around the world to see what’s up in News From Around the ‘Verse

News From Around The Verse

Los Angeles

Darian Vorlick: Hey everyone, welcome back to southern California. I’m Darian Vorlick Production Coordinator at Cloud Imperium Los Angeles and today with me we have our new Art Director

Josh Herman: Josh Herman, nice to meet you guys.

DV: So for this week’s update on Around The ‘Verse, with the production side we’re trying to get 2.4 out the door. So we’re hoping you are going to like what we’ve got planned for you for that release, it’s looking pretty exciting on our end. But more importantly, I wanted to give a chance for Josh to debut his first on screen camera appearance. He’s been what two, three days now?

JH: This is my third day, yeah

DV: So give him a little quick update on what he’s up to.

JH: Yeah, so i’m the new Character Art Director here. Basically going to wrangle all the characters, all the different types of things from the, Squadron 42 stuff to the PU universe. Just really kind of wrapping my head around things right now. I moved over from Marvel Studios and there’s a bunch of stuff to ingest and work through. We’ve been working through all the different famous actor heads and we’ve been just pushing forward on all the different alien races and really looking forward to getting more into a little bit of everything really

DV: Glad to have you

JH: Yeah me too

DV: So that’s it from Los Angeles, once again I’m Darian Vorlick

JH: I’m Josh Herman

DV: Thanks guys!

Austin

Jake Ross: Hey guys Jake Ross here Producer of the Austin Studio and I want to talk to you a little bit about what’s going on here in Austin. So first off talking about 2.4.0. We are in furious bug fixing mode for that. We still have a few more blockers left open before we can get it out to PTU, but we’re looking to getting into you guys hands here pretty soon. We’re itching to get some of this new stuff we’ve been working on, out to you. So we’re working as fast as we can to get these blockers fixed then we’ll get this out to you pretty soon. That’s 2.4.0. And we have let’s see what else were we working on? Port modifications. We talked a little but about port modification in the past. But we want to talk a little bit about some of the design stuff were looking at doing in the, in Crusader.

So we talked about port modification in the hangar but we actually want to get that out into Crusader as well. So Rab Ranniger is fleshing out the initial design for that, he’s going to be passing that off to Carl Jones in the UK and our Lead Systems Designer. Rob right now is working on, kind of what we want to see for first release of port modifications. So we want players to be able to go out after they summon their ship to the landing pad in Port Olisar. We want them to be able to walk up to the ship and modify the ports on the ship. Swap out weapons and components and things like that.

We want to make sure that other players can’t come up to your ship and can’t modify the ports on your ship. We only want the ship’s owner to be able to actually modify the ports. So that’s something we’re working on. We want to make sure that at least for first release, you can’t actually modify any of the ports unless the ship is landed, in a landed state and only in a landing pad. So we’re going to restrict it pretty heavily in first release just so we can test it make sure it is working alright, then we’ll expand functionality after that, as for the port modification in Crusader.

We’re also working on the design on for purchasing at a terminal or kiosk. So talked a little bit about shopping in general, is usually via item by item. So if the shop can handle it, we put the items on the shelves and the racks themselves, and you can actually go up and interact with those items individually. But things like shop components, ships themselves that are too big way too big to fit into one shop we have a kiosk/terminal that we’re working on. So we’re fleshing out that design so that when you go up to a terminal and you pull it up, all the inventory’s there, and you can purchase things that way. So have a couple different options for different commodities. Similar in real life, where not every shopping experience is exactly the same. So that’s in the works right now.

Last but not least, we want to talk about animation implementations. Our Animators here in Austin have a slew of animations that they’ve done over the past couple of years. Unfortunately our resources on the implementation side, that is like a Technical Animator, a Technical Designer that can actually help the Animators themselves put the animations in the game, has been kind of lacking just for lack of resource or prioritization conflicts and things like that.

So we’re finally getting some support on that end, so we can ramp up the rate at which we get these animations in game. So excited about that. We’re going to have a Technical Animator start in the L.A. office here pretty soon that will help support the Austin Animators, we have a couple resources in Frankfurt they’re helping out as well. We’re excited about that, so we can get some more animations in the game and in your guys hands, so you can see the hard work have been doing here in Austin. Yeah that’s my update for this week guys thanks and I’ll see you around.

Foundry 42 UK

Mici: Hi everyone this is Mici over in the U.K. So this week we’ve been working on a few of the ships that are going into Squadron 42 and the PU eventually. So we’ve been focusing on the Javelin, the Idris and the Bengal which are all big capital ships. So that’s pretty exciting. We’ve also been looking at the Argo, and the Reliant, and the Starfarer, which I think i mentioned in a previous video. So they’re all being tested now and making sure they’re all flight ready and everything.

As for bug fixing for 2.4 we’ve been mainly looking at the shopping element that’s going in. So there’s going to be a lot of shops that are around Port Olisar and the ArcCorp and you’ll be able to buy new flight suits and new weapons and casual clothes. We’ve got a store called Casaba Outlet which is all casual clothes, then you’ve got Guaranteed Defence which is a like new flight suits, you can buy light armor and stuff and then there’s a few of the weapon places. There’s Cubby Blast and Live, I forgot what that one’s called! Live Fire Weapons I think is the other one.

But yeah that’s pretty exciting and you’ll be able to earn cash for doing Comm’s Array’s and use that cash to buy things and we’re testing the persistence as well so you should always keep the money you’ve earned and the things you’ve bought and everything. That’s all being tested right now. And as for Squadron 42 we have the shoot going on right now and they are working on the conversation system that is going in and basically justifying tuning any FPS and AI stuff that needs to be done. And I think that’s it! So I’ll see you in the ‘Verse! Bye.

Foundry 42 Frankfurt

Brian Chambers (BC): Hey everyone Brian from the Frankfurt office here again this week. I typically roll down each department but figure I’ve been doing that the same week after week after week. So this week I’ve brought in Greg that’s not his real name! It’s harder to pronounce so he says Greg is cool. He is the newest member of the System Design Department. How long have you been here now?

Greg (G): It’s got to be four months.

BC: Four months. Cool and I know we’ve been interviewing other guys as well too, so we’re going to grow a little bit more

G: Yes we did. We grow next month by two people I think

BC: Awesome. Cool. So I’m going to pass it to Greg, Greg will chat and let you know what he’s been working on here and what he’s been doing with the rest of the team

G: Sure. So my focus personally has been on inner thought. Which is basically our ‘Use System’. That’s what going to replace the blue ‘Use’ that you have right now in the game with more contextual information. Like when you open the door it’s actually going to be open, when you look out the window it’s actually going to be look, when you’re looting stuff it’s going to be pick up. When you’re talking to someone it might even be the line that you’re going to say. So it’s a unified system that’s going to be used for a lot of, lot of stuff in the game. It’s just that so you guys see it in the game and know it’s going to have interaction happening. It’s always going to be the same, so it’s going to be explorable, all this kind of stuff.

BC: Yeah, yeah. And right now is it primarily on paper, that you guys are sorting out all the details out on?

G: Yeah it’s a, I think some premises of it are being worked for 2.4. But i’m, really super early stuff. Most of it is prototype stage.

BC: You guys working with Francesco and the AI guys then?

G: I’m actually working a little bit with Francesco because some of it is using usable object, which he’s handling, which is going to be the same for player and AI. So the structure of the object has to be able to be read by the AI code but also by the player. And also i’m syncing a lot with U.K right now ‘cause of the Interactor code has defaulted. I think it’s David Gill working on it right now and I’m syncing with him basically day to day basis just to see what’s happening

BC: How is that? Cause I get a lot of questions at times of all the offices working together. And some people are like “Is it hard, is it easy?”

G: It’s different! But I’d say there’s good and bad points. Like when I drop a bug in the evening and I get it solved when I come back in the morning.

BC: Yeah that’s good.

G: With U.K it’s basically like Skyping all the time but it’s kind of the same as having them close.

BC: Yeah I see it myself as an extension of, they might as well be sitting in the same office right?

G: Yeah it’s kind of the same thing. And seeing as how we’re nerds anyway we don’t really like talking to people for real!

BC: Hey, hey he said it not me ok?

G: I’m owning it!

BC: Cool, cool. How’s your time been here so far? Not only at Frankfurt but with the company in general.

G: It’s been a ride. A lot of stuff to get used to a lot of documentation to go through and a lot of directive to actually assimilate, so I can actually make decisions and calls from a design standpoint and go in the direction the company, wants to go in. But now I feel I’m hitting my stride and it’s getting pretty good

BC: I know you guys have amassed a crazy amount of detail in your documentation and I think we’re just now starting to get things a little more mature on the tech ebd and the AI and all that for you guys to actually start progressing and seeing these things

G: It’s good to see that some of the edge case that we kind of theorized before are coming into place and we have solutions for them, that’s pretty cool. We’re still working on documentation a lot.

BC: Awesome, cool. I’m going to shut up because I’m going to run late and everyone will make fun of me. But thanks again for all the support. Thanks for watching and we’ll try to bring somebody new in next week. Cool, thanks guys

G: See you guys, Bye

Back to Studio

JL: This says I’m supposed to say something about the new clips but I haven’t seen them yet

SG: Okay. But just pretend

JL: All my character art is approved and I’m getting a bonus!

SG: Well I’m not your boss, so I can’t make a comment on that!

Up next is our Community Manager Jared Huckaby who sits down with Associate Character Artist Cheyne Hessler to discuss his work in this week’s AtV interview take it away guys.

JL: Cheyne your character art’s approved and you’re getting a bonus

SG: He’s just dying to say that!

ATV Interview: Cheyne Hessler

Jared Huckaby(JH): Thanks guys, on this week AtV interview we’re sitting with Associate Character Artist Mr. Cheyne Hessler. Cheyne, how ya doing man?

Cheyne Hessler(CH): Good. Doing great.

JH: Now Associate Character Artist?

CH: Mhmm.

JH: What’s that? What’s an Associate Character Artist?

CH: An Associate Character Artist helps the character team develop character assets for the game, whether it’s costumes, or props, or armor. Anything that your player character wears in the game, I’ll be working on that.

JH: Alright. What are you working on now?

CH: Currently I’m working on the RSI jetpack that a lot of the players will use to move around in space.

JH: Gotcha. This is part of the developing item port system we’re taking all the different pieces of everybody’s costume and breaking them into their individual components.

CH: Exactly.

JH: This is… the character now has a jetpack of sorts and this is what will replace that.

CH: Yeah. We’re making it more up-to-date, more Sci-Fi, and making it a lot cooler.

JH: Gotcha. Now you’ve been with the company for what, two months now?

CH: About two months, since early March.

JH: Early March. How ya liking it so far?

CH: Like it a lot. Getting to work on a lot of cool stuff, no holding back what I get to work on. It’s pretty cool to be able to jump onto the team and, basically, work on everything.

JH: Yeah, you were going that first or second day. I remember it’s like, “This is Cheyne, he’s new.” You get the e-mail, and here’s your picture. You’re like [Poses waving] or whatever.

CH: Yeah. First day.

JH: Then I walk by and you’re already hip-deep in stuff.

CH: Yeah. First day was interesting because we have to do all the paperwork, but I’m eager to get started on my first project. I knew coming in the first day, talking to Jeremiah, what my concept art I would be working on was. So the whole first day I was just like, “Alright, let’s get started. Let’s do this.” It’s pretty exciting.

JH: Jeremiah’s actually hosting this episode of AtV.

CH: Oh really?

JH: Say hi to Jeremiah. [Waves] Hi Jeremiah.

CH: [Waves] Hey Jeremiah.

JH: Doing a good job man! You came to us two months ago, where’d you come from?

CH: Before I came to Cloud Imperium, I was doing some freelance work for companies making toys for Disney, and then also working with scanned data cleanup for commercials and TV.

JH: Scanned data cleanup?

CH: Yeah.

JH: What’s that?

CH: So essentially what we did for our game, for all of our actors, with the scanned data and photogrammetry. You take pictures of the actor asset and that gets scanned to the computer, creating a digital form of 3D. That, for my job, was to clean that data up and then reproject textures on it, so it could be used in production.

JH: Oh, alright, cool. And…

CH: Simple answer.

JH: Gotcha. Are you a gamer by choice? Did you play video games before – what makes you work in a…

CH: I was forced into being a gamer! No.

JH: What makes you decide “I want to work in the video game industry?”

CH: I’ve been playing games, like a lot of people, at an early age. Just transitioning through the generations of consoles of Nintendo, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, all the way up to… right now PC is kinda my main thing. PC. What is that. PC… Master Race? It’s just easy, because if I am working on anything at home, I can just play a game real quick and then jump back to doing some work. It’s great.

JH: What games are you playing now?

CH: Currently? Don’t get to play as many games as I used to.

JH: Yes! It’s one of the truths of working in the video game industry. The more you work on a video game, the less video games you actually play.

CH: Yeah. I thought working in the gaming industry, I’d play more video games.

JH: Not the case.

CH: Playing some HearthStone and Overwatch right now. Big fighting game guy, so I play a lot of Street Fighter V. Yeah. A lot of competitive multiplayer games usually. I can jump on, jump off.

JH: Yeah. See you like….

CH: Continue my life!

JH: I see you over there sometimes over there with Elwin, and you guys are battling in your Hearthstone.

CH: Yeah. Whenever we can.

JH: Who’s the better HearthStone player. You or Elwin?

CH: Man. I don’t know, I think it’s 50/50 now. I win some, he wins some, but I think right since the new expansion came out he’s probably better than me.

JH: What?

CH: I think Jeremiah might be better than me too.

JH: Jeremiah’s pretty good.

CH: That’s why we need to do in-house tournaments, so we can set the record straight on who’s the best Hearthstone player.

JH: Alright, we’ll see about setting that up once we’re done here. Associate character artists, what’s the pathline? Associate character artist, then character artist, then… ? When you gonna be a character artist? Are you not good enough to be a character artist?

CH: Well, hopefully, I believe I’m in a probational period? No one really told me.

JH: Yeah. We had to wait before we could…

CH: Yeah.

JH: We had to wait before we could interview you. Know that if you’re here doing your interview, you’re doing a good job. So, good job man.

CH: Yes. That’s awesome.

JH: Good job man.

CH: I feel good. No one’s yelled at me really, so that’s awesome.

JH: Do you know what you’re working on next after the jetpack?

CH: I believe I’m working on the, a BDU engineer for Squadron 42.

JH: Nice.

CH: I know there’s a lot of work to be done, so it’s exciting.

JH: Oh yeah! I saw that thing, that one you had with the turntable. It was really good!

CH: Oh yeah!

JH: It was really good!

CH: I actually first got to see my, first thing I’ve done in engine lit and animated.

JH: Yeah.

CH: That’s really cool to see. You spend like hours and hours on working on an asset, and then you see it in game. It’s pretty cool.

JH: I you don’t…

CH: I was gonna ask if you use Waze!

JH: Yeah. Yeah. Hennessey’s Waze App is Waze’ing how to get to Little Caesar’s for lunch.

CH: How do I get out of here?!

JH: Hennessy is already done with this interview!

CH: He’s gone!

JH: He’s already halfway to Little Caesar’s.

Thomas Hennessy(TH): We have a very tight schedule!

JH: Alright. We went off the rails there.

TH: Shut up!

JH: Oh my God! Hennessey’s phone be quiet!

TH: Alright there we go. I don’t know why it started.

JH: I was going to ask you about how cool it was to see Chris Roberts, you know, comment on your thing. “This is awesome! This is amazing!”

CH: Oh yeah, yeah. It’s always good to hear, because Chris has a say in everything we do to move forward and be able to put it into the game. When he says it looks good, or he’s impressed, or… It feels good.

JH: It’s never happened to me yet, but I imagine it feels great.

CH: When the game comes out, and everyone likes it, he’ll be like, “Good job, Jared.”

JH: Yeah. Yeah. Alright man, we’ll let you go because somebody’s got a pizza to pick up apparently. Cheyne Hessler, associate character artist here at… I was about to say Foundry 42, Los Angeles, I’m thinking about that pizza now. Cloud Imperium Games, Los Angeles.

CH: Papa John’s!

JH: Thanks for taking the time… No!

CH: Thanks a lot.

JH: Back to you guys, Sandi and Jeremiah!

ATV Rewind: Galaxy Map Tests

Galaxy Map Tests

Loremakers Guide To The Galaxy: Nexus System

Adam Wieser (AW): Hi everyone, my name is Adam Wieser and I will be the host of this week’s Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For those who haven’t seen this before it’s a segment where the various lore makers on Star Citizen sit down, walk you through a particular system, give you a little bit of the history, a little bit of the science data behind why it is the way it is.

So this week we are going to be talking about a pretty interesting systems because it is technically a UEE system but for those who live there, on both sides of the law, there’s pretty strong agreement that UEE doesn’t have full control of it. So this week we are going to check out the Nexus system. So to do that we are just going to hit forward slash here on the Starmap so you can bring up the search bar. And we’re going to put in “Nexus”. There we go. And here we will travel from Sol to the Nexus system.

So we’re going to do a broad overview to start. This is a five planet system, that has an asteroid belt here between Nexus III and Nexus IV. At the center of this system is a … wow that’s a very, very close in zoom we’ve got here … this is a Type A main sequence star, that is bluish-white in colour and just … it’s about 1.8 times larger in solar mass than the Sun at the center of our own system. But to really set the table for what Nexus is I want to start by talking about Nexus II.

Now Nexus II right here, this is a terrestrial smog planet. So it’s got this very thick and soupy atmosphere which gives off this really interesting glow. I don’t think the skin colour on this will be the actual colour in the game, but we’ll see about that. But this atmosphere is going to glow a little bit because of something up … that’s a part of it called the “aerosols”. And aerosols are basically solids and liquids, particles that are in a gas or, in the case of Nexus II, in the atmosphere of this planet. Now you’re familiar with aerosols because when they get big enough they draw your attention to them. Think of a hazy, smoggy day. Think of that red hue you see on the horizon during sunrises and sunsets. Those are all be cause aerosols are absorbing and scattering light, because they’ve gotten big enough while up there in the atmosphere.

Now why this makes sense for the Nexus system, is because prior to 2930 this entire system was basically, even though UEE in name, was basically a pirate free for all. And it wasn’t until Kellar’s Run in 2930 that the UEE actually saw the … how big of a pirate problem was in the system and what needed to be done to put a stop to that.

Now Dean Kellar was a lifelong criminal. He was an assassin for various pirate crews. He was a very, very skilled pilot. And on May 20th of 2930 he shot an undercover UEE agent in a Cathcart bar. What proceeded from there was a five system run he went on with the UEE Advocacy in pursuit which culminated here in the Nexus system. Now what really shocked the UEE Advocacy was that they came into this UEE system hoping that they could finally corner him only to see the pirate clans there not back down from their presence but actually come at them while they were there. And that was shocking for them.

The Advocacy wasn’t even the group that finally ended Kellar’s run: it was a civilian by the name of Anna Flynn who finally did the last shot that took him down. After seeing the spectacle on the Spectrum she joined the hunt to end Kellar’s Run and wound up with the big bounty she got for making the most famous, probably, catch in bounty history.

So, once again, that happened in 2930. It’s right now 2946 in the UEE and by all accounts, even by the UEE’s own account, this system is still not fully within their control. There’s still a very heavy pirate presence here. And part of the reason to understand why this has happening is if we go out to the bigger view here.

So Nexus only has four jump points into it. They are all all-access. I’ll turn all these on so you can see. There’s medium. And there’s the small. But still Nexus only has four. And out of those four, three of them as you can see are unclaimed systems that probably see a lot of unlawful activity in them. So it’s very hard for the UEE, even to this day, to control the pirates and other unlawful people coming in and out of this system.

As you can also see here, Nexus got it’s name because because it does sit at the center of these pirate systems. And that’s one of the other rumours that went around: that the UEE pushing hard to claim the Nexus system was less about Kellar’s Run and it was more about the strength of Cathcart and the strength of Nexus as pirate havens that they might start their own independent government. There were rumblings of this in the underworld at the time. And so some believe the UEE actually pushed into the Nexus system to be able to break up this little swarm of pirate systems. So they didn’t have a completely uncontrolled neighbourhood in the UEE that they had nothing to do with.

So, of course, the real question is “How did this even start?”

Nexus was discovered a long time ago. It was discovered back in 2445 by a UNE Navy pilot, by the name of Dominic Thapa. Now Dominic Thapa actually found this system from Cathcart. So let me back up here, so you can see this again. So he actually came in from Cathcart, which you see is an unclaimed system, but in the 25th century was actually a military classified system. So the military had the system, that’s how they found this jump to go to Nexus, but they also had an issue: if this was a military classified system how do you get civilians, how do you get Citizens into Nexus without going through this part of space that you don’t want them to go through? So for the first 20 plus years of the UNE … of the Nexus being known to humanity, this was known simply as the military designation, which is UDS-2445-3-09: just the discover date UDS.

And the military came on and they decided, “Well if we don’t want to let anyone get here, let’s see what we can do with it.” So what they did with it, is they set up their operation … the main operation here on Nexus III, which is a naturally habitable planet, so the perfect place to set up their operations. We come out here. They also started to terraform Lago, because Lago is a … has a ton of minerals and resources on it so they began the terraforming process there.

And then let’s go back to Nexus II, the place we started that I thought was so interesting. This like I said is a smog planet, so it’s got a very thick, soupy atmosphere. That atmosphere is actually made out of nitrogen: it’s a majority nitrogen atmosphere, which is not all that common. In our solar system Earth has a majority nitrogen atmosphere and the only other one that’s like that is Titan, the … a moon of … one of the moons of Saturn. So this being the 25th century, this being humanity’s first real starting to strike out into the universe they figured, “Well let’s see if we could possibly terraform this smog planet to make it human habitable.” And they dropped a lot, a lot of money into doing that. Unfortunately nothing they did stuck. But what they did do, is they did rack up big budget deficits: terraforming this planet, terraforming Largo, having this entire system that unfortunately they weren’t quite getting any resources out of yet.

So with the universalist lead government at the time in the UEE realising that they were in some serious budgetary constraints they had kind of a brilliant idea. Once again we can’t just let anyone and everyone pass through Cathcart, pass through this classified system, to come visit Nexus so they decided to sell the entire system to one company. Now to some of you this might sound familiar because this was actually a strategy that the UEE government would use a few hundred years later in the Stanton system. Instead of selling the entirety of the Stanton system, there they sold each specific planet to a corporation as a way to raise fund for the government.

So this is where it all started in Nexus.

And so in 2468 the Hather Group bought Nexus from the UNE and basically moved in and brought in their own contractors to start the mining process. Now like much like the UNE they set up their main operations here on Nexus III and they started to work the Elcibre Asteroid Belt here which is just chocked full of resources. They also … I’m going to swing this around … started to really strip mine Lago. ‘Cause remember this was a company that has spent a lot of money on this entire system. They weren’t worried about building up civilian infrastructure or anything like that. They just wanted the most efficient way in which to extract these ores and these minerals from this planet and that was literally just stripmining them away.

So over the next like 200 years this … this system wasn’t really known as Nexus. It was known as Hather, because of the … because of the company that owned it. At that time also a few things happened that seemed to affect the fate of Nexus. We are going to go back out to the wide view here. First, the Cathcart System which was military classified, the UEE walked away from. They decided that they didn’t need it anymore. That it wasn’t going to be of any benefit to them, so they left. And a pirate presence, a very unlawful … strong unlawful presence started to move in and turn Cathcart into the system we know it as today. Within that 200 year period also these three other jumps were discovered into Nexus which meant there were now new routes or new ways for people or pirates to get into this system. So for those 200 years while Hather ruled this there were really only two businesses that were functional in this system, the Hather Mining Group and criminality. People coming in to drink and gamble with the … with the miners that were working the system.

Eventually in 2672 the Hather Group looked at their books and they realized they’d ripped out most of the resources on Lago. They’d kind of depleted the Elcibre Belt and the money they were spent protecting the shipments in and out of the system finally exceeded any of the profits they were making here. So the Hather Group just left. They … they were done with it. They had gotten what they needed out of it, and they turned it over completely to the pirates. So at that point in the late 27th century into the 28th century is one that pirate presence in Nexus really grew. That’s where it got the name Nexus for being a nexus of jump points connecting pirate systems. That brings us up to 2930. That … that presence only grew until Keller’s Run in 2930 where the UEE finally decided to push back in and try to reestablish their authority in the system.

So now that you have an understanding of the complicated and tumultuous history of this system. Let’s get back into a little more details on what is actually here. So Nexus I is a rocky protoplanet that you can see is extremely close to the … well it’s close to the star. Again these … these aren’t quite to scale, but you can tell by the distance that it’s been charred thoroughly. Hather Group did do their due diligence and they checked and made sure there were no resources of anything of worthwhile on this planet to mine. Nexus II we talked about, that’s your terrestrial smog planet. Once again right now there’s nothing to really do there. You can’t live there. Nexus III as I mentioned before was naturally habitable, so it became the main base for basically every group that kind of had control over the Nexus system. It’s where the UNE first established their operations. It’s where the Hather Group central kind of like mining command was all based here. And after they left it where the pirates immediately moved in to kind of like … you know some of the main pirate groups were based here too.

So in 2930 when the UEE decided to retake this system, this planet, Nexus III, is where they primarily focused to start. So once they had pushed the pirates off this planet they basically turned this into central command for this system. And it still is that to this day. It is a military classified planet, so when you visit Nexus System unless you have the proper clearance codes please do not go anywhere near this planet, because they will not take kindly to it.

The next thing in the system to really talk about is the … you’ll see rimmed here is the Elcibre Asteroid Belt. Again it was filled with minerals and ores which the Hather Group mined away, but recent advances in scanning technologies have revealed that there are pockets of really valuable … really valuable minerals and ores here that haven’t been discovered before. So it’s another one of the conspiracy theories out there about the Nexus System is the UEE wanted to push back in not because of the pirate presence, but to insure that they had access to these valuable minerals and ores here in the Elcibre belt. This belt was also the location for probably the most famous moment in Keller’s Run. After spending hours kind of like dodging in and around asteroids and kind of like killing pursuers, Dean Keller had to make an emergency landing inside an asteroid to do some repairs on his ship. Now when he did this a bunch of bounty hunters surrounded that asteroid and kind of covered every exit out and began to negotiate his surrender with them. Now while he was negotiating with them he was also EVAing out of the asteroid and sneaking up on one of the bounty hunter’s ships. He got inside, he threw the bounty hunter out of the airlock and then took his ship, turned it on the other bounty hunters and continued on his way. So that very exciting event happened right here in the Elcibre Asteroid Belt.

So we’re going to step back and go to Nexus IV, which is known by Lago. Now Lago is a name which came from a … it came from a 26th century vid about a pirate paradise. So again this came … this came later on after the Hather Group left. This became known as Lago based on that 26th century vid. That’s how it earned this name and the UEE just hasn’t been able to shake it. The real battle for the Nexus System is centered right here on Lago for … for one main reason. And that’s because the Hather Group stripmined the surface which means there are … the pirates are really, really imbedded … there are a lot of encampments imbedded into the planetside here. It was a lot easier to clean out Nexus III. Lago has been a lot, lot more difficult.

So as the UEE has made small stride in kind of pushing the pirates off this planet, they are trying to figure a ways to hold … hold that land and maybe start to make it habitable for respectable UEE citizens and civilians. They decided to do this by offering sweetheart land deals to people in the military, ‘cause again Nexus III has a big military contingent. So they’ve offered family members and extended family of the military deals to come in and live here. So you can go, you can visit Lago III. The … the encampments there are still pretty small. They … they do have what you need. They … they do have Casaba outlets. They’ll have … they’ll have bars. They’ll have advocacy agents. The little … they’ll have all those things. They’re still just going to be heavily fortified, because pirate attacks do still happen pretty frequently in … on this planet. Also if you are an entrepreneurly hauler that’s looking to making a little bit extra on some basic goods, this might be a good place to take it. That is if you are willing to accept the risk of being adventuring into the Nexus System in the first place.

And finally the last … the last planet here in the system is a gas giant called The Red God. Now I warn you that this is not to scale. This is … this is way too small for what it should be, but you get the idea. I’ll zoom in a little bit. So again this is just a gas giant on the … past the green band here in the Nexus System. It’s got a reddish hue or reddish color to the atmosphere which is how it earned the nickname, The Red God by a it is believed a … a cryptic group of pirates based on Lago by the name of The Sang Guestos actually worship this planet. And called it their Red God and their … their worship of this … this planet and their affiliation to it is what kind of earned it this name which has stuck to this day.

So that’s it for the Nexus System. You’ve got again five planets, star at the center, this one asteroid belt and an ongoing battle between pirates and the UEE. For … for anyone out there that’s interested in this game this could be a pretty fun place to go and explore and see what kind of trouble you can get into or how you can help. So thanks again. My name is Adam Weiser and this has been another episode of Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

MVP w/ Tyler Witkin

Tyler Witkin (TW): Hello again, Tyler Witkin, Community Manager in the Austin Texas studio here to bring you this week’s MVP. This week we have not one, not two, but three MVP’s for the epic video journey to Voltron which features some exciting and emergent gameplay in Star Citizen. So a big congratulations Anarckos and Jeff Craig for gathering all this footage and putting this together and Wakapedia for producing his own sound “Journey” to accompany it.

First we had big bennys deliveries, then we had Bowling with ships, now we have journey to Voltron, I’m looking forward to seeing what the community comes up with next. Congrats again guys, you are all this week’s MVP’s. Back to you guys.

ATV Fast Forward: Aegis Javelin Destroyer

JL: I still think Lion force Voltron’s better, but congrats on the MVP!

SG: Congrats on the MVP and thanks Tyler.

Each week we take a look ahead at something in Star Citizen’s Development. So let’s take a look at this week’s ATV Fast Forward.

[Video]

Outro

JL: Be sure to tune in to Reverse the ‘Verse tomorrow at 11am pacific on twitch.

SG: Yeah, will you be there?

JL: I’ll be here.

SG: Well on Reverse the ‘Verse?

JL: I promise, I promise.

SG: Alright.

JL: I have to be.

SG: We’ll have Jeremiah Lee answering all of your character concept questions that he can’t talk about.

JL: [Smirks and giggles]

SG: Do you like ATV and you’d like to show us? Hit subscribe below and like us. It has actually helped move our numbers because we just hit 200,000 youtube subscribers.

Both: Yay!!

SG: And we will maybe do something a little special when we think of something a little special.

JL: oooo

SG: And as always thank you to subscribers for making this show possible, we will see you next week on Around the ‘Verse.

JL: [Claps].

Enjoyed the transcript and want more? Check out Contributor Psylence interviewing MikeWillisUK in MVP INNterview.