Arena Commander from Original Systems out now !

[eastmen]

ah the 4 gigs of ram will actually get you bad. But the original kickstarter footage is on a 670.

 

[Lightman]

i watched the landing / planet demo yesterday evening and was very impressed! Really glad that I've backed this game early on and can't wait for it to come out!

It might finally be the space sim game I always dreamed off!

 

[Malo]

It might finally be the space sim game I always dreamed off!

If there's any chance of getting the space sim we all dreamed of since the days of Wing Commander, this is it. Chris Roberts + shit tons of cash = dream game.

 

[eastmen]

Here are a few of the original ships shown off the avenger , gladius , gladiator and retailiator

 

[-tkf-]

BTW I read all your updates so don't stop posting. I just don't have anything to add since I don't know much about the game. And don't think it will be released in the next 2 years (late 2016 at the earliest IMO), but I do think it'll be worth the wait :smile:

2nd, I am not going to spend a cent on this game before it's released (and confirmed great) but it's the game dreams are made of and i really wish it will deliver. And reading your updates keeps the dream alive..

As did the insane landing in the city video...!

 

[Silent_Buddha]

2nd, I am not going to spend a cent on this game before it's released (and confirmed great) but it's the game dreams are made of and i really wish it will deliver. And reading your updates keeps the dream alive..

As did the insane landing in the city video...!

Normally I would do the same thing. But the money I spent funding this (before it went to Kickstarter) was for the Wing Commander games from the past. If anything actually comes out and if it's actually good, that's a bonus. If nothing ever releases, no big deal. I was paying for the good memories anyway.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Sorry guys I was in Disney world while a lot of news hit.

So first off they had an AMA on redit for the fps guys

here is a summary of the info

The FPS mechanics are "radically new" and the FPS module will be vigilantly balanced.¤ It will be first person only¤ and is built with VR in mind, so your gun isn’t locked to where you’re looking.¤
The module itself will release early next year and receive gradual updates like Arena Commander.¤ There will be many game modes including seek and destroy, team death match, capture and hold,¤ and (not on initial release) co-op PvE.¤ In the PU, the FPS module will be like Arena Commander, playable as an arena mode.¤

The combat will be tactical, similar to games like Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six, Arma, Delta Force, and Killzone,¤and it will be slow paced, with very fast time to kill (focusing on patience and timing).¤ Trying to be all out aggressive will likely get you killed,¤ though heavy armor classes (TITIAN or heavy armor) will be durable enough for face to face combat.¤ It will be more difficult to pick up than your average FPS, but isn’t too hard. The skill ceiling however is extremely high.¤
It is designed to be used around the entire PU sandbox, so it will be available in as many scenarios as CIG can manage,¤ planetary, space station, ship boarding, 0g, and so on.¤ There will be complex mechanics factoring into aim. Recoil, breathing, movement, stance, alertness, iron sights, cover, damage, and 0g all factor into the movement of the gun while aiming¤ and the bullet goes where the barrel is pointed.¤

The current hangar camera is a placeholder which will be replaced.¤ Movement will significantly change from the current hangar movement¤ and will include walking, running, sprinting, crouching, and sliding.¤ The current jump will be redone to be more realistic, and a ledge climbing system will be added as well,¤ but there will not be much "parkour" movement because CIG doesn’t want "gymnasts".¤ There will be no bunny hopping.¤ Impacts and explosions can affect your movement¤ and moving will cause view bobbing,¤ however CIG thinks it has implemented systems to simulate realistic movement well enough that nausea will not be a problem.¤

There will be a cover system, it will be "automated" and allow for peeking, leaning, kneeling, and going prone,¤ it will be more of a free cover system like that of Far Cry 3.¤ The cover itself will be destructible in some areas,¤ and projectiles can penetrate objects, but since most cover and objects are metal, this won’t happen to everything.¤
Weapons are projectile, not hitscan, and their trajectory can be impacted.¤

0g maneuvering is possible both inside ships and in EVA. It will include thrusters, suction boots, and pushing off surfaces. When pushing, you can get stuck by pushing yourself out of reach of an object. When thrusting, colliding at high speed will injure you.¤ Suction boots only work in 0g and only allow for standing and clunky movement¤, but can be used to walk on ceilings.¤ Changing stance will be important for 0g navigation.¤ Generally, recoil will not affect momentum in 0g.¤

There will be ballistic, energy, air, and radiation based weapons,¤ "classic" weapons (old, but they will be rare, and usually weak),¤
grenades (implied to include gas)¤ gadgets (holograms, mines, med kits, drills, personal shields, and trip wires),¤ and melee / hand to hand combat, including disarming, stealth kills, brawling,¤and non-lethal knockouts.¤ However melee may be limited to knives and fists,¤ "There is nothing like a katana."¤

Stealth is a major component. Players without heavy armor will have to rely on it. Levels will accommodate both stealth and non-stealth gameplay.¤ There will be a radar indicator for enemies based on noise and visibility.¤

Weapons and equipment must be carried on your body, and can be damaged by shooting (or for grenades, triggered). Armor type dictates how much can be carried,¤ and there is only a crosshair (outside of iron sights) if you have a compatible helmet.¤ Magazines have persistent ammunition. You will hold partially depleted magazines in your inventory, and they will not automatically refill.¤ Magazines have a physical location on your character, and the reloading animation will not reset to the beginning if interrupted half way through.¤ Currently the loading system will automatically pick the fullest magazine to load.¤

Weapons will decay, but not too punishingly,¤ and can be affected by the environment (oxygen, radiation, temperature, and gravity).¤ Weapons will have customization (both attachments and ammo)¤ and there will be deployable personal shield devices.¤ Different weapons have different amounts of customization.¤
There will be 1-shot-kills, depending on the player’s armor and weapon.¤

Armor will include small mech suits (TITIAN armor, ~8 feet tall), ¤ and while Vehicles probably won’t make it into the early FPS, they will be added eventually¤ (The final game will have combined arms combat).¤

Ships can be boarded at set breach points (not just airlocks) by damaging them¤ or using hull cutting devices.¤ You can also sneak aboard ships.¤ Ship systems¤ and select areas of the hull can be damaged by FPS combat just as they can be damaged by ship weapons. Hull breaches can vent anything not bolted down into space,¤ however most ships have automatic airlocks which will engage.

The health system will include a total health (to which each limb contributes), limb damage effects, and bleeding out.¤ Med kits won’t fully heal you and come in a variety of strengths/types¤ and healing actions will have time delays to make you vulnerable.¤ Severely injured people can be moved, but won’t be able to move themselves,¤ you have to drag wounded allies (and enemies).¤

At least initially, there won’t be too much gore, instead, particles, decals, and animation will show damage.¤ Limbs probably won’t be severed, but they can be damaged beyond use and need to be replaced.¤ This damage to the player’s body will affect their actions and will be limb specific (left arm can be crippled, but right arm still functions fine)¤ the effects will influence character movement and aiming.¤
Cybernetics can be used to replace destroyed limbs, and will have both advantages (ex: less recoil) and disadvantages (ex: damaged by energy/emp).¤

Though it is part of Squadron 42, FPS will be avoidable in the PU,¤ even if you’re boarded you can delegate it to other players.¤

Visual customization is limited by animation and graphical implementation (ex: the HUD is on the helmet,¤ FOV would change such displays making it tricky¤).

Here is a video and some images

 

[eastmen]

THe other news is the drake herald is going on sale Friday/ Saturday at $80

This weekend is pax aus and apparently there will be a big live stream this weekend.

 

[Malo]

What a funky design, I love it.

 

[eastmen]

well its up for sale now

Attached to this dispatch are the final specifications and 3D holo-model of what you have worked all these long months to accomplish! Our Herald prototype will now enter the construction and testing phase, with a planned Q2 2945 rollout for the first sales units.

On the surface, the Herald represents a significant advance in interstellar data transfer… but as we Drake team members know, its long-term implications for data interception, stream interruption and even outright piracy are enormous. I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished, and now I can’t wait to see this baby fly!

-
Becke Linns
Senior Spacecraft Designer
Drake Interplanetary

Please consider the environment before holographing this dispatch

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...EE-Intercepted-Signal-The-Drake-Herald-Threat

Its $85 and comes with life time insurance but its stand alone so you would need a package like the aurora to get game acess. Its not a bad ship but it has such a limited role I'm not sure its worth it. However if you want something else that is no longer sold with lti you might want to pick this up and then side grade or upgrade to another ship.

For example if you buy this at $85 with LTI when they offer cross chasis upgrade to the freelancer you'd have to pay I believe $25 bucks more and you'd have the freelancer with lti

 

[eastmen]

Arenea comander 0.9.2 was released today

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14258-Arena-Commander-092-Released

Arena Commander 0.9.2 (aka Star Citizen 13.2) is here!

As far as updates go this one feels pretty special. This is the first time I’ve felt that the control and targeting in Arena Commander is beginning to achieve the level of control and sense of dogfighting that I had in my head when I first pictured how the space combat should “feel” back when I started the journey that is Star Citizen.

Over the past months, I’ve been observing the ongoing debate about Arena Commander’s control setup… and if there’s one thing I’ve learned is that Star Citizen’s backers are passionate about their flight control mechanism of choice! The long term goal is to make Star Citizen fun to play regardless of the tool you use to fly your ship… and today’s build represents some major changes aimed to help realize this goal.

The biggest issue that the team and I have struggled with is how to balance the feeling / ability for fine control of your ship with the full physical simulation of how a spaceship would really behave when you change its orientation and velocity via maneuvering thrusters. The inertia inherent in a correct simulation of spaceship movement makes precise control much more challenging.



In the first Arena Commander release, v0.8 we had given all ships gimbaled weapons and auto-aim (where the gimbaled weapons would automatically aim towards you target as long the target was within a certain field of view). This made it fairly easy to hit your targets but wasn’t particularly skillful. This was always a stop gap solution and so for v0.9 we switched to a system that took away the auto-aiming and forced you to lead your target to score hits. This was definitely more skillful but combined with the clumsy fine control on joysticks and gamepads made lining up a target very frustrating on anything but a mouse and a ship with gimbaled weapons (like the Hornet).

Since the release of v0.9 the team in both the UK and in Santa Monica have been hard at work at making the control and targeting feel better and smoother across all input devices.

I’m happy to say that v0.9.2 achieves this via something we’re calling ESP. It’s not for reading your brain waves, though! Enhanced Stick Precision is our attempt at improving controls for flight stick and gamepad users that feel they have problems in lining up their target without overshooting. You can find a full description of what ESP does and how it works below. We also use ESP for the new virtual joystick mode of the mouse.



In addition to this we have introduced a number of new flight mode control options and have also made significant changes to the ITTS system and the HUD. How predicted impact points are displayed is calculated differently, as is how you target ships. More details are available in the FAQ below. There have also been a host of community-demanded fixes to the controls: joystick device sorting has been improved, the throttle and strafe-forward no longer conflict, roll on pedals with yaw and pitch on mouse now works, aiming on the gamepad/joystick no longer automatically re-centers and we’ve switched the default joystick X-axis to yaw instead of roll!

Beyond this we’ve made one other big change. The Arena Commander map sizes have been doubled! This means there is a lot more room to engage other players or AI. We plan to increase the map size again once the 64 bit world space engine changes are completed, but for now having double the size will allow for more interesting engagements.



You can find the complete patch notes, which include numerous bug fixes and other changes, here. And please, give your ships a shakedown cruise and then let us know what you think on the forums.

— Chris Roberts

ITTS Enhancements



A significant change has been made in the way the targeting computer predicts the impact points of each weapon equipped on a ship. Rather than displaying lead targeting indicators that extend out from the target ship, the targeting computer now projects a Predicted Impact Point (PIP) for each distinct weapon. These PIPs lag behind your fixed gun cross or line-of-sight (LOS) reticle depending on if the weapon has fixed or gimbaled convergence.

The lagged PIPs refers to where the projectile of that particular weapon will intercept given the distance, vector, and speed of the target ship, as well as the projectile speed of that weapon. Pilots should direct these PIPs to be over the target ship before firing.

There are very good reasons for showing the PIPs in this way. First, the pilot’s focus is directed onto the actual target object itself instead of an icon extending out from it. This will allow the pilot to keep track of the target’s orientation and movement more effectively in addition to hit impulses and damage effects.

The lagged PIPs also allow a pilot to easily call out individual parts of the target ship in order to perform sub-targeting, such as directing fire toward a wing, cockpit, or power plant. This will come in handy especially when we start to introduce larger capital ships into the fight.

Each PIPs also conveys weapon status through different visual states. If the color of the pip is in the critical color space with a line through it, that means that particular weapon is out of range and will not be able to intercept the target. The pip will also switch to the positive color space if it is in range and has been placed directly over the target and is therefore certain that the projectile of that weapon will intercept.

When firing a weapon, an element sitting just outside of the PIP will flash which indicates that particular weapon is currently firing. If the projectile fired from that weapon intercepts the ship, a hit impulse will briefly display in place of the PIP to indicate that the target was hit by that weapon’s projectile. Finally, the shape of the PIP is differentiated for each weapon type. This will allow pilots to be more strategic in deciding which firing groups to engage at certain times in order to minimize heat output and wasted ammo.

Improvements to the Targeting HUD



We have made some much needed improvements to the targeting HUD in order to give pilots a much clearer view of their focus target. The new targeting reticle is now comprised of four individual brackets which align along the longitudinal axis of the target ship, along with a forward cone. This will give a clearer indication of the target’s orientation. As the target draws nearer, the brackets will expand out along the bounding box of the ship. This will give pilots a better sense of how fast the target is approaching which should go toward reducing unintentional collisions, and this also gives more visibility on the target object as it gets nearer because the brackets “open up”.
Unscanned target markers no longer show identities next to it. This removes a major contributor to the clutter in the HUD and will also now encourage pilots to scan and utilize their targeting dock system in order to keep track of known targets.
The look reticle been revised to be made less prominent, but it also now contextually fades out of view when you’re looking straight ahead at your fixed center reticle. This goes toward further reducing unnecessary elements in the HUD to only what is needed.

Enhanced Stick Precision



What is Enhanced Stick Precision (E.S.P.)?

E.S.P. (Enhanced Stick Precision), a little bit of magic created by John Pritchett our resident flight model and physics expert, bridges the gap between the pilot’s intended input and the input device’s ability to accurately register that intent. As a result, the players are better able to track their targets and perform finer precision movements when aiming. E.S.P. was designed primarily for the gamepad sticks and joystick devices, but it has also been adapted for both virtual joystick and relative mouse modes as well. By balancing the strength of E.S.P. across these various input devices, we should be able to achieve and maintain better controller balance overall.

How does E.S.P. work?

E.S.P. works by calculating an ideal pair of input values (typically pitch and yaw) relative to a goal (typically moving an aim reticle over a target point), then scoring the actual input against the ideal input and, depending on how closely these two pairs match, blending the two. What this does is effectively deaden the sensitivity of your input which allows for much finer aiming control when very close to a target and prevents accidental overshoot. If the input values are not well matched to the ideal values, either on direction or magnitude, the input values passes through unmodified. This allows you to still break away from a target without any kind of deadened control or “stickiness” since input values that are clearly not intended for fine aiming are not deadened. As the input values approach the ideal values, the blend amount increases. As a result, E.S.P. doesn’t move for you or prevent you from moving anyway you want, it merely magnifies your intended input and rewards accuracy. The better your input, the more E.S.P. will magnify your intent. Also, because E.S.P. doesn’t force your input to any particular value, you can easily adjust your actual aim point relative to the ideal aim point. This is important with lag pip aiming where you’re often aiming at a specific part of a ship rather than just at its center.

New Flight Controls & Mod

Dynamic Zoom

Activate: Mouse Wheel / Left Trigger+Dpad up-down / (JOYSTICK / HOTAS mapping?) (1st person view)
When this mode is active (i.e. when zooming in on geometry or targets) your focal point changes depending on what you are looking at. This mimics and expands on the optics of the human eye, to give a clearer image and removing other distances from focus.
Veteran’s Tip: With the increased zoom and focus, it can be used to hit specific parts of an enemy ship. Want to slow them down? Pew-pew, destroyed engine! Too much firepower? Aim for the guns. Who said don’t play with your food, eh?

Drag to Move

Activate: Ctrl+C (Toggle)
A mode for Keyboard and Mouse; this is where the mouse only turns the ship, and the guns fire toward where the ship is facing.
Veteran’s Tip: Great for fine shooting or precision maneuvers, as the ship will become more controlled/less ‘floaty’. Also useful in ships like the Aurora, with non-gimbaled weapons.

Target Focus

Activate: ‘L’ / R3 / Button 11 (rebindable)
When enabling this mode your view will drift to focus on your currently selected target. All you need to do is keep your target within set view constraints. If the target moves out of your view for more than 3 seconds you will lose your “focus” on the target. Target Focus is very useful for pilots that use joysticks (or gamepads) as their primary input method as it allows the player / pilot to keep eyes on target as long as the flying skill of the pilot keeps the target within his field of view, allowing for greater situational awareness and tracking.
Veteran’s Tip: Good to use with ships with gimbaled weapons when you have an input device such as a joystick or gamepad as it allows you to bring your gimbaled guns onto the target with a little help of your flying skills.

Look Ahead

Activate: Right-Alt (Toggle)
This mode turns the pilots’ head and reticule in the direction that you’re pitching or yawing, offering a better view in that direction. This gives a more natural feel to piloting, and makes it easier to keep targets in your sights. This mode works with Joystick and Gamepad users, whereas the Keyboard and mouse users already have this feature as default (for instance, when using the hornet)
_Veteran’s Tip: Ideal for users who prefer look and ship direction being linked, in conjunction with a greater field of view. Ships like the M50 or Hornet benefit from this mode. _

HOMAS

Activate: Right-Shift (Toggle)
Also known as ‘Aim-only Virtual Joystick’, is primarily intended for joystick users. It was introduced in a previous release as part of the CIG2 keyboard preset but can now be use in the default layout by pressing the right-shift to enable. Great for ambidextrous pilots who love flying and using gimbaled weapons as separate entities, to offer greater combat potential.
Veteran’s Tip: Particularly good to use with the hornet and other gimbaled ships.

Gimbal Lock

Activate: Right-CTRL (Toggle)
Also known as Move-Only Mode. This means you fire directly ahead with all weapons including gimbaled ones whilst being able to use the mouse to look/control the ships pitch and yaw.
Veteran’s Tip: Love it or hate it, there will always be a use for this as it allows you to bring both your fixed weapons and gimbaled weapons to bear on the target when flying using a mouse.

 

[eastmen]

The crazy bastards did it. When you run your breath fogs up your face mask....... Oh and the fps looks amazing even at this early stage. I will post more as there is more.

illfonic is now the official team doing the fps portion.

Zero G FPS is possible if your doing an eva or the ships gravity gets knocked out

they did a 4 vs 4 raid and it looks great , about on par with what I remember of destiny. Chris said they plan on having the fps avalible to us by march

Arena commander 1 will have

Lobby system and imrpovements to missle and counter measure , proximity warnings and other things. Along with all single seat ships to be in.

It should be avalible by the end of the year


Road map

FPS - early 2015 marchish

Planetside/social will follow close behind

Arena commander 2.0 (multi crew ships) depends on the transition to 64bit

squadron 42 chapter one (15 to 20 hours of game play)

Planetside expands to persistent universe alpha

THe road map is picking up speed thanks to them being able to hire more employees with the continuous cash flow

 

[eastmen]

http://a.pomf.se/dvwlec.webm

http://a.pomf.se/dxrzro.webm

http://a.pomf.se/fujdub.webm

here are some videos of the demo

9 minute video of the demo