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Chris Roberts, the man who brought us the Wing Commander series, and the Freelancer games is making a next gen space MMO called Star Citizen. There's also a built-in single player Wing Commander-like component as well, called Squadron 42. Seems like the idea is for people to play through the single player campaign before moving on to the multiplayer persistent universe, but it won't force you to. It'll also allow cooperative multiplayer within the single player campaign as well, as you can have friends hop into y our game and fly as your wingmen, etc.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game

Just watch that intro movie for some amazing in-engine shots of the game and to hear Chris Roberts talk about it.

There will be exploration, trading, space combat, everything he's known for. There's going to be rolling sales of backer-only ships between now and the 26th of November, that will all be eligible to put what's called Long Term Insurance (LTI) on, if you arrange buying it from one of the first wave backers. That means even if you lose your ship, it gets replaced for free.

Between the initial kickstarter and the backers since, they're up to $26 million in pledges, and the game is still a year out. Many of the ships are designed to allow more than one person to crew them, so you and a friend can play on a ship, with 1 guy flying it and the other firing the turrets, etc. Some of the biggest ships can have up to 10 people playing different roles.

I've picked up one ship so far, may pick up another before the LTI deadline runs out. I have a space fighter, so I may pick up something to use as an explorer/cargo ship.

Anyone else thinking of getting into this?

-Arlos

I have Avenger and 315p.

I picked up the Super Hornet (the F7C-M) in that sale. Probably gonna pick up the Freelancer (that or the 315p), and maybe the 350r when they put it on sale again.

Too bad I don't have the spare change to get an Idris if they put THAT back on sale... heh.

-Arlos

I was talking to Lyion about it the other, but with X Rebirth coming on the 15th, I will be playing that tide me over until SC comes out.



No multiplayer, but the scale of the game will be great.

I broke down and pre-ordered this today with the Pathfinder package. I hate buying anything this far out, and I despise crowdfunding, but I'm just too excited about this game and it's potential.

I'll get X3 Rebirth, but probably when I can get it for a few dollars off.

I shouldn't have, but I just added a Freelancer to my hanger. Would have waited to get it, but there's a deadline coming up in a couple weeks to be able to have LTI put on ships.

Basically, you need to find one of the original backers who's willing to help you out. Then, you gift them the ship you bought (it needs to be available in the store for > 24 hrs). They then melt it down for store credits once they get it. That starts a 24hr clock before they can use those credits. Once they can, they re-buy the same ship they melted, but because they're an initial backer, THEIR purchase of it comes with LTI. Then, they gift it back to you, and the LTI comes with it. The guy doing it for me isn't really charging anything, just wants either something like one of the $5 skin addons, or owe him a favor in game later.

I figure having an exploration ship that always gets replaced for free if I lose it will be well worth owing a favor or $5. Would do it to my Super Hornet too, but it's not available any more, so the trick won't work as he can't buy a replacement copy.

-Arlos

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm ... 27-Million

27 Million. Wow.

First the Xi’an and now the Banu – Star Citizen’s backers are making it possible to greatly expand the user experience! Here’s the stretch goal you unlocked at $27 million:

Banu Merchantman Unlocked – Banu traders are renowed for their merchant prowess, traveling the spacelanes and trading with everyone from humans to the Vanduul! Their sturdy, dedicated trading ships are prized beyond all other transports, sometimes passing from generation to generation of Banu. At $23 million we dedicated additional resources to making Xi’An spacecraft a unique experience. At $27 million, we will expand that same thinking to the Banu! Starting with the merchant ship, the design team will expand Banu technology to offer players a completely different way of experiencing their universe.

We’re eager to get to work building out the Banu spaceflight systems… watch this space to learn how we’re going to make it a distinct experience from flying a human-designed ship. And since we hit this goal before November 26th, the Banu merchantman will be one of the ships available during the sale (you heard it here first!)

Now that we’ve reached $27 million, the Banu merchant ship will be sent to top concept artists for further development. In the meantime, I’d like to share with you some of the art that has resulted from the previous Xi’An stretch goal: the first concept painting of a Xi’An capital ship!

We’re going to devote the $29 million stretch goal to more resources for the single player game, Squadron 42. With Erin Roberts and the other veterans at Foundry 42 hard at work on the game, you can trust that it’s going to be great. Now we’d like to give them some extra resources to work with!

Enhanced Mission Design for Squadron 42 – The team at Foundry 42 has big plans for Squadron 42, and we’re going to provide extra funding to make it a true spiritual successor to Wing Commander! Squadron 42 can go above and beyond anything you’ve seen before. From opening with an epic battle instead of a training patrol to missions that seamlessly combine boarding and space combat, we aim to put you right into the action! Additional funding will let the team realize this, with enhanced mission design and more resources and animations to enhance fidelity.

Big publishers haven’t been willing to invest this kind of money to improve PC games in a long time… we’re going to prove it’s worth it. That wouldn’t be possible without your support; thank you to all backers for helping make this game possible.

— Chris Roberts

The special sales start today. Almost all of the limited ships will be on sale this week for 24hr periods, then gone for good. As a plus, all the ships this week come with LTI.

There are a few that won't be sold again. The Idris-M, the Vanduul Scythe, and the Super Hornet.

Here's the sale schedule:


Monday, November 18 – ORIGIN M50
Tuesday, November 19 – ORIGIN 350R & Lightspeed Package
Wednesday, November 20 – Drake Caterpillar
Thursday, November 21 – RSI Aurora LX
Friday, November 22 – Anvil Gladiator & Aegis Retaliator (running through the weekend)
Monday, November 25 – MISC Starfarer


REALLY REALLY tempted to get an M50 or 350R. zooooooooooooooom

-Arlos

http://www.somethingawful.com/news/star ... ravytrain/

Some screenshots from my hangar. Not the highest res in screenshot form, in engine they're VERY detailed.



Side shot of my Freelancer. (aka the Space Potato). Think small tramp freighter, exploration ship, etc. Kinda in the same mold as the Millenium Falcon, if I can be forgiven the heresy of such a comparison.




Front shot of the Potato




view from inside the cockpit




My Super Hornet. Near mil-spec single-seat fighter class of ship. Very heavily armed, fast & highly maneuverable, but no cargo space at all. This particular model has a 2nd seat that can be used for a few uses: carry someone you captured on a bounty hunter mission, a 2nd player to operate the dorsal turret, etc.




Front view of the Hornet




Rear view. The primary thruster can rotate up to 90 degrees for improved thrust vectoring.




Hornet cockpit view




Both ships in 1 view

That looks so good

Foolish Arlos! Everyone knows you should have gotten this:

Meh, not sold on how that looks. Not to mention, the Hornet will kick its ass all over the sky in a 1 on 1 dogfight.

You want beautiful ships, look at the Origin ships. The one I MOST want is the 350r, the racing version.



/drool


Of course, all the origin ships are amazing. Even the base model is gorgeous.




-Arlos

Organizations update:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm ... tem-Launch

Beautiful ships in those screenshots. So this game hasn't released yet, right?

It makes me yearn to play a starship/space-themed game again.

Sometimes I really miss playing a primitive-by-today's-standards game called 'Starflight' on my old Amiga 2000. The 'Mass Effect' series came close to replicating that old feeling of adventure and exploration in a vast and uncertain space.

Something like those games in spirit with full ship/crew customizability would be the cat's ass, IMHO.

Menelvir wrote:Beautiful ships in those screenshots. So this game hasn't released yet, right?

It makes me yearn to play a starship/space-themed game again.

Sometimes I really miss playing a primitive-by-today's-standards game called 'Starflight' on my old Amiga 2000. The 'Mass Effect' series came close to replicating that old feeling of adventure and exploration in a vast and uncertain space.

Something like those games in spirit with full ship/crew customizability would be the cat's ass, IMHO.

They released a version of Starflight for Genesis. I still have a working copy kicking around. Great game.

Bump.

Arena Commander/ Dog Fighting Module is rolling out as I type.

how many earth dollars does all that cost

If all you want to do is check out the game as is, you can fork over $5.00 to get access. This doesn't give you anything in the finished game, just access to alpha.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/stor ... ander-pass

Here is an example of the damage modeling. This ship is still flyable, albeit not as agile as it was before I crashed belly first into a piece of space junk.



screen capture software