Citizens of all ages, welcome to INN’s notes for Reverse the ‘Verse – Episode 56!

Video linked above begins a little over 16 minutes in.

Notes by Erris, LegoRobotDude, sixfsincaps, and Myself

– SOON™

– Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, the show will begin in one minute.

– It’s the Jared show today. I see Disco, and Alexis just rolled in. There’s Darth Alyssa. People are rolling in slowly.

– Cherie is here too. Ben is wrapping something up for the 1.1.5 push, then he’ll be joining as well.

– Two different booths at Gamescom, and they have plenty of volunteers so thank you to those folks!

– Ben just rolled in.

– Alyssa, Ben, and Sandi are working on the presentation over the weekend. Should be good. It’s going to be ‘craazyyyy’

– There will be a raffle ticket if you’re attending, and there will be something very special with those raffle tickets apparently. Something to do with gold stars.

– Ben did a lot of marketing stuff, Gamescom prep, and locked down the modules for the Endeavor. 15-18 different optional modules. Science, medical, engineering ones for people who like ramming turrets places (Phrasing)

– Alexis and Ben built the Slave 1 out of Lego (Erris is currently building a Star Destroyer)

– Disco Lando worked on something special people might see later today.

– Something called Game Commander is coming later today, shows what CR actually does. New video series starring CR.

– FPS update post is being worked on right now. They’re getting images now, going to send those for approval after RtV

– Audio guys have put together a piece on WWise integration that’s happening.

– 1.1.5 is coming live any moment now. Probably what’s causing the RtV video to drop frames.

– A little bit after that, the Merlin sale will start. Lots of people should already have loaner Merlins, but it’s the first ship using all the ‘final’ ship systems.

– Chelsea is in Twitch chat, and twitch chat is going mad.

– Cherie is doing some archiving work collecting pieces of astronomical data that we should see in a few months.

– DragonCon – Ben’s going to DragonCon. Dave Haddock is going. David Ladyman is going. Lots of Daves. Cherie went last year, but can’t go this year.

– Ben really likes DragonCon.

– James Pugh is around the corner, doing some work for Ben.

– Herald probably won’t’ be in hangar before 2.0, not because the Herald is far, but because 2.0 is close

– No decision yet if character slots will be sold before the game goes live.

– Is the Oratani system still in plans? Cherie can’t’ say.

– News on the new CCU system? – Ships will still need to be flyable to CCU, system is coming soon-ish. Ben sent an email yesterday asking where it is. Guys at Turbulent are crazy busy.

– Extensive testing being done on it, because it has to work.

– Endeavor – Same chassis for hospital and science. The hospital variant is the Hope class. They’re building modules – hospital room, op room, ambulance bay, medical storage area, etc… be able to pick and choose which you want. Same things for Endeavor. You have the freedom to make a ship that has telescopes and med beds.

– In the Official Announcements section of the forums, there’s a post by James Pugh there that has the official status of all the ships.

– Retaliator – How does it handle? It’s… you’ll see it very soon. If you played Wing Commander, it’s the broadsword. If you played WWII, it’s a B-17. Heavy and pondering.

– Gamescom event will be livestreamed, most particulars have been worked out, livestream on the 7th.

– Can print tickets for the event a week before the event.

– Will also be an e-mail blast when they’re available.

– When the Connie is out there, there’ll be a writeup on the modules.

– Someone says Ben’s title should be ‘Admiral of Ships’

– Plans for REC items for FPS – not locked down yet. System allows them to do REC items for FPS, but none in the system yet. Traditional unlocks at the start at least, probably. Lots of discussions about it. Currently exploring options

– New launcher is not quite ready for prime-time, probably will show up in 1.1.6. It’s not very good at deleting files for example – currently just ads and adds and ads files.

– mobiGlas soon or after FPS? – After FPS. It’ll come with Planetside.

– Imperator subscribers should get tokens to fly Scythes later today.

– Will there be a Volper sale? – TBD. Volper? I just met her!

– REC community chest is still in the works. Not a priority right now, but it’s still planned.

– REC community chest is an expanded system for REC – can donate REC to a ‘stretch goal’ thing. ‘When we collect 10 mil REC from the community, everyone gets a gun, or something’.

– Ben is running away.

– Details on the Star Map – Cherie – Can’t confirm anything or deny anything about that at this time. It is being worked on though. Not a lot of details, cause there are many ideas still in development, but it looks gorgeous. Cherie wants to talk about it, but she can’t.

– Fully interactive, works all in the browser, etc…

– Cherie is now populating the star map with things. stuff.

– Plans for melting Voyager Direct purchases? – Currently no plans, it’s still being discussed. It’s a high-level ongoing discussion. The tech is there (same tech used to melt ships), but there’s more factors in it than just that.

– Ship skin system – being played with upstairs. It’s coming. It comes once everything gets converted over to the new damage system. The new damage system has to come first, the skin system goes on top of that.

– Gamescom event will be the biggest event in some respects. Gamescom is the biggest event. Twice the size of CitCon. They’re doing their best to make it excellent. lots of work going into it. Lots of cool giveaways and such.

– Ships they’re selling – nothing new, list will be available the week before the event.

– Cherie wants narration for the Galactapedia.

– Objects in the new ‘big’ map? – There’s a gas giant bigger than Jupiter in the large world map (DL originally said Pluto, everyone’s laughing now). DL ‘ if I could tell you what I was up all night doing… ‘

– Number of moons in the large map as well. ‘cool stuff’. Anything more than that would be spoiling it.

– Several people in the office have switched to Windows 10, and they haven’t had issues with SC.

– Physics based damage system is the new damage system. It’s in, it’s on the Merlin, on the Connie remake, the Retaliator, the Freelancer, etc… it’s in the game, just a matter of converting the ships over to the new system.

– Probably no chance of a PTU patch disabling mouse stuff. They don’t want to balance by disabling things. Add balance, not disable balance. Need a designer to talk more about that though.

– Looking at all kinds of Star Marine stuff to add into the VD store as well.

– Three cheers for Chelsea Day in the chat.

– Sometimes they catch lore discrepancies, they happen.

– Vanguard is coming along. Gurmukh is the concept artist for the Vanguard, he’s here now.

– Interior for the base model is complete, looking good. Some artwork in last month’s Jump Point.

– Full interior is now complete, Chris OK’d it. We’ll be seeing it soon.

– Then Gurmukh has to work on the variants.

– Vanguard variants are on the near-term schedule.

– 1.1.5 is going now. Merlin is available, there’ll be a sale post with blueprints later today.

– Post should be going up soon with WWise stuff.

– Merlin is 20$.

– No changes to controller balances to talk about right now. They’re just not there right now. That’ll come later.

– [Reskin interiors?] Down the line for sure. TBD about on launch.

– Hoping for the new game launcher in patch 1.1.6

– The new GIM is in 1.1.5 though, should fix some problems, cause others.

– General Instance Manager means Battle Royal and Squadron Battle are now up to 16 players. Capture the Core and Racing are currently limited, but they’re working on getting them up to 16 players soon.

– Priority now is getting other modes to going higher than 16 players. lots of work on that now.

– Ben hopes the Connie refit will be in AC 2.0. First fully functional multicrew ship is the Tali. Connie is second. It’s theoretically possible they’ll get to a point when AC2.0 is ready, and only the Tali is ready, but 2.0 will probably launch with the Connie and the Tali.

30 Minutes

– Matt Sherman is now here.

– Endeavor concept – No date yet. One of Ben’s goals is to have everything as design-focused as possible.

– Probably sometime after Gamescom.

– Matt Sherman says players probably can’t launch a Merlin out of the back of a Freelancer Max. Connie is probably the smallest thing that can safely do launch / recover on a snub fighter. Might still be able to bail out the back of your ship, but not everything’s a pocket carrier.

– They want to see how many Merlins people can cram into things though.

– CIG are actively looking for character artists. If you are one, if you know one… go apply. They want character artists. Lots of art and engineering jobs.

– A character artist is an artist who creates characters. Looking for the people that do the 3D work.

– Role for the Cutlass has always been bulkier combat ship, for raiding

– The Cutlass is meant to be attacking the initial multicrew ships, like the Lancer and the Connie, but those don’t exist yet. You wouldn’t have a pirate going against a battle group, they’d go up against an unsuspecting person. Cutlass won’t go into a hardcore military engagement – they’d be shredded.

– Merlin in REC store? Should be later today. Turbulent are connecting space-wires right now.

– Space wires are made of space goo.

– Ben wants to do a Wing Commander stream some weekend at some point. Probably after Gamescom.

– No plans for playable children, Ben says childrens in MMO’s are a terrible idea

– Merlin will be a permanent addition to the store

– The Merlin is not named after a wizard. It’s named after the engine from a P51 mustang.

– Will there be children as AI? – As needed, only if they get more character artists

– What happens when you reach the edge of a star system in the PU? – Not sure yet. Still being built out. Definitely something they’re trying to get the answer locked down though. No way there will be an invisible barrier though. Chris would not allow that.

– Lisa Ohanian is now here.

– No progress on the Lego Hornet yet. All that depends on Lego now.

– Yesterday Lisa went to a barcade. A bar with arcade machines.

– What’s the role of the Merlin if you don’t own a ship to transport it – It’s a good racer, decent dogfighter. It’s like the Ferret in Wing Commander 2. It’s a sportsman’s ship. You should be able to get it from system to system in game as well either by NPC shipping or other means.

– Calix Reneau posted in the Controller Balance katamari. He’s run away now.

– When they joke about controller balance, they’re kidding. They’re sarcastic dudes. They’re not out to get you. Calix doesn’t hate anyone, he’s just afraid of everyone.

– [What are the ships that the Merlin would be able to effectively dock with?] All Connies except Taurus, 890 JUMP, Idris… large ships (but not all larger ships).

– [Will the Redeemer pilot be able to slave the turrets?] Possibly? It’s not something that flies yet. Those decisions are made when it’s on paper, then it gets forgotten forever cause they have to switch hats to other things. Calix will sink himself into that again when it comes time for the Redeemer. It’s written down somewhere, but yeah.

– Freelancer design review – not before GamesCom. After that point, they want to get all “stuck” ships “unstuck”.

– Snub fighters do not have quantum drives. Will be distinct from other ships.

– Not all ships will be able to do everything.

– Don’t want one ship that is the best at everything, need to have different ships that are better at different things.

– Merlin and Archimedes should be interchangeable in the dock on the Constellation.

– Archimedes will be special and distinct.

– CIG congratulate themselves for stealing the term Snub Fighter from Star Wars.

– Caterpillar will not be in 2.0 at launch, but they will continue adding ships, just like they did with AC 1.0

– Will launch with at least the Retaliator

– Will do the loaner thing where people with multicrew ships will get loaner multicrew ships

– CIG cannot talk about the new HOTAS (then they giggled a bit). Hope is we’ll hear more at Gamescom, but… we’ll see. ‘Things are happening, and there’s a very high chance you’ll see something at Gamescom’

– Connie will fly more like the Millenium Falcon than a B-17. Though the question is akin to ‘does this taste more like apple or freedom?’

– Lisa’s gone now. Calix is the new Lisa.

– Economics system is being worked on by Austin and Behaviour. They mention another studio working on this in Colorado but can’t remember the name (Nehkara says Wyrm Byte).

– The Hornet will not get s4 mounts on wings. Those were reduced a long time ago.

– They’re looking at doing specialized mounts, so you could replace the Ball turret with a fixed s4 weapon. You’d be able to swap that out so that there are more choices to make.

– Options for ball turret on hornet, both the canards on the Mustang, give us more customization things to play with

– The sneak peek this week was the Captured vanduul scythe missile trails R&D.

– Lee Banyard and the audio team in the UK are doing some really ‘sound’ work (Ben… Ben…)

– A week before Gamescom there’ll be a post about things like what ships are available, etc…

– Every Retaliator has a front and a rear bay. The idea is the you can take out one or the other, put in cargo quarters, living quarters, drop bays, etc… Planning to show off the first 5 of those modules soon, that make up 3 variants – cargo variant, living variant, drop ship variant.

– Will the Takuetsu models be sold individually? – They’ll be available in the world.

– You can shoot your own ship with the turret

– The Firing Range disappeared, the stunt ramps disappeared, they’re in a plan to come back, but not immediately.

– The nose array for the Vanguard is custom for the ship, and fixed to it, other weapons are swappable.

– Space Whales are not happening.

– They’re going back to having a streamer come up right after RtV (stay tuned to the August 14th show, when INN will be streaming after RtV!)