(Citizen Star News) - by Citizen Ed - 2015-04-25

This week’s new Citizen Star - /u/HunterSCcomic aka Adrian Nitisor - Brings to us “Hunter” - A very promising Star Citizen Fiction Web Comic. Great work so far and hope to see much more.

Correction: /u/HunterSCcomic is the artist Adrian Nitisor's Reddit account. Thanks to /u/Zudratha (which we initially listed as the author of the work) for straightening this out and pointing out the Hunter webcomic in the first place.

Citizen Star - This week’s T3ller pics

from /r/MobiGlas

(Full Gallery)



(Reading /r/mobiglas on my mobiglas.)

(Grappling Attachment)

(No time for questions, get in…)

(Gravity Turned Off)

(Freelancer smugglers hold)

(Overboard)

(Random Skyline/ Digital Set)



Teller’s piece “No time for questions, Get in!” Inspired me to write a piece I am calling, “Fear and Loathing in Lost Vega”. A mashup of Star Citizen and Hunter S. Thompson’s seminal work the “Wave Speech” from “Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas”. It was interesting mixing in the Vanduul Threat to the Vega System, as well as the Terra centric progressive counterculture. Ironically CIG released the Vega Galactic Guide a few days later.

Had a lot of fun making it. I think there is more that could be done with that if you are interested.

Space Plant reveal

$49 Million Stretch Goal - Xi’An Space Plant – Similar to a bonsai tree, the Centennial Bloom is a very famous Xi’An plant indigenous to Eealus III that blossoms for one night every one hundred years. They sell the plants in sealed terrariums to traders. Ever since their introduction to the UEE, Humanity has been fascinated by these beautiful plants and the wait for them to bloom.



DevPosts - What you may have missed

Opt out Leaderboards on the way. Being implemented now. - Ben



1.1.1 Stress Test Post-Mortem - Will Leverett

We throttled up debug logs on the Live service early last week, then analyzed the data which in turn resulted in a variety of fixes. For a first run, this went exceptionally well. We learned a ton from running a Live service stress test, plus we had a lot of fun with you in the process! We're thrilled that so many of you not only took the time to test, but also to provide the feedback. We're very pleased that service stability has improved and it held up to load, though there's obviously still many items to work on. We knew we hadn't fixed all of the Kicked Back To Lobby and Infinite Load Screen errors, and this test helped clarify what we need to work on. We've got a long list of client-side bugs to address.

Sandi’s Images

(Cut from audio/video for time)

(Ships Weapons Selection concept art)

(Knife Company logos)

(Greyboxing Nyx)

(Sniper Rifle Sights)

CIG Staffing

Meet the Devs - Lisa Ohanian interviewed

New employee in AtV - Sr Producer Erik Kieron Davis (Reddit Discussion)



Marc Toscano - Lighting and Look Development - Former ILM Movies guy with a long IMDB Filmography. Also worked with CryEngine with Warframe and Uncharted (Story broke on the /r/starcitizen Subreddit).

Interviews AtV

Lance Powell (Art Director) and Steve Bender (Animation Director) Extended version here.



Matt Sherman and Mark Abent talk Game Balance

Alexis Lesnick interviews Christine Marsh (Lead UI Designer) and Dave Richard (Lead Game Designer) of Behavior Interactive

Crytek

(Cut from audio/video for time)

No news this week except some closer looks at their impressive VR work.

As a side note, I’ve started digging into using CryEngine. Props to those who’ve been doing this. Using Star Citizen Assets is harder than I though.

Estimated release schedule

No Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.2 this week - slipping into Soon(™) - Featuring the new Tutorial and Multiplayer fixes.

1.2 FPS “StarMarine” still hoping for May.

Will feature a new retooled launcher. Travis says all this back end work is delaying FPS, but that it’ll mean a better FPS.

credit /u/Lonestar_the_Kilrath

Lots of focus on SATABall which they are using a proving ground for the enhanced animations and other improvements. This will be replacing the 16x16 team elimination. Other game mode will be 8x8 on gold horizon station.



1.3 Planetside is still expected about a month after FPS ships.

Not really sure if any of this is affecting SQ 42 estimates. Squadron 42 performance capture is underway in England as we speak.

Is almost certainly affecting PU, which is meant to build on Planetside. We still expect to see slow progress as features are added over time to successive patches throughout this summer.

Arena Commander 2.0 has not been mentioned much recently, but progress has been made on getting the Freelancer and Connie flight ready. May actually not be very heavily impacted by current delays. We’ll see if we get this done for summer release.

Breaking News Update

Being introduced this week are the ships of the Hull Series, The surprisingly sexy Utilitarian Cargo Haulers. Designated Hull- A thru E in increasing size. Ships finally offered late Friday night. Technically on time in CIG’s LA office pacific TZ.



(Full Gallery)

(Series Expanded)

The previously teased unique feature of these ships is that, when not hauling the cargo bearing structure can collapse into a smaller ship.

(Collapsing - Animated)

This is a fascinating zero-g adaptation of a container ship. Bravo CIG. Clearly very efficient for hauling, but a nightmare in combat. One hopes shields helps the whole thing hold together under fire.

Quote from the COMM-LINK: “The standardized ‘spindle’ found on all five members of the Hull series is capable of securely attaching many types of cargo containers. These range from standard Stor-All “Big Box” containers to specialized freight units equipped for liquids, perishable goods, dispatch parcels, livestock and more. Owing to the ubiquity of the cargo pallet system, many manufacturers have created third party addons capable of taking advantage of the Hull superstructure. These range from additional ship upgrades (shield generators, sensor suites and the like) to ‘stealth’ cargo pods to gimbaled turrets and other weapons which can take the place of some cargo pallets on larger ships (with a corresponding reduction in cargo capacity.) As a result of these “expansion ports,” the Hull series is one of the most modular starships available; many view it as a platform upon which to build as much as the bulk hauler it was designed as.”

The Hull-A and Hull-B are said to be able to land fully laden.

(Hull-A In flight)

Hull-A seems clearly designed for that.

(Hull-B)

Not quite sure how the Hull-B accomplishes this feat, with this design that has cargo protruding below it’s hull.

(Hull C Blueprint)

The Hull C and larger must unload to land, (though they are equipped for the water landings favored on low gravity worlds). The Hull C is called the most common ship in the galaxy. So loading and unloading facilities must be common place.

(Size Comparison)

Quote from the COMM-LINK: "PLEASE NOTE: The Hull series measures carrying capacity in Standard Cargo Units, or SCU. The SCU value for previously released ships (that used Freight Units) can be determined by dividing the total capacity by four. The stats page will be updated with proper SCU data shortly"

Comparisons to other known Haulers is a bit difficult at this point as we’ve also been told there will be adjustments to the existing ships.

At this point the Hull A is about the same Hauling capacity as the Freelancer Max. Hull C can carry as much as three Banu Merchantmen:

Aurora (4/9 for CL) much smaller than a Hull A (75)

Freelancer (42/70 for Max) comes in a bit smaller than a Hull A (75)

Constellation (275/475 Taurus) smaller than a Hull B (600)

Merchant Man (1500) significantly smaller than a hull C (4800)

Hull D (21600)

Hull E is the king at 156,600 SCU



(HULL-E being loaded)

Each of the Hull series uses the same standardized cargo containers and sports flat panels on the outside of it’s superstructure for the sale of advertising.

Not defenseless, all the hull series sport relatively light weaponry for staving off the odd attacker, clearly would not stand up in a fight against determined attacks.

The LTI concept sales come in at A-$60, B-$90, C-$200, D-$350, E-$550 and the surprise combo package called the HULL-A-PALOOZA comes in at a whopping $1,250

Cargo Interaction Deep Dive Design Document.

Actually quite a bit more than just cargo. Detailing how we will be interacting with props, including the capability to perform coinflips, and then toss the object into a cargo container.

Star Citizen logo’ed Hats are on sale. Limited Quantities, Velcro going fast, snap backs holding a little longer.

And that’s all the news for Citizen Star this week! Hope to see you next week … in Star Citizen

See Also

CIG Official Weekly Rundown

Reddit Discussions: /r/starcitizen - /r/mobiglas