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[DirtyManos]

Thanks samjaza.

Hmmmmm. Probably leaning more towards the 350r for hit-and-run shenanigans and cargo ability.

Everything in the ship is designed to at least adhere to some rules of physics.

The trade off for the 350r's speed is it has lower mass, only 5t of cargo space compared to the 10t in the other 300 series ships (making it the lowest equal to the basic Aurora, which can at least be upgraded for more cargo space). It has much weaker weapons as well due to the upgraded engine's power consumption. Armor and shield are weak. Upgrades on the other hardpoints will likely also be very limited.

Basically it's going to be a pretty poor dogfighter or merchant vessel, and you'd better suited going for something else if thats what you want from your ship. I think it's being designed specifically for courier/smuggling (using its speed to outrun rights rather than engage) and racing.

 

[Gordon0Freeman]

Does this game span an entire universe?

 

[spindoctor]

Cross posting action:

If you can't decide, I'd say just get the cheapest package which gives you a starter ship and the full game when it releases for $30. For $40 you can get the game with the starter ship and alpha/beta access which is scheduled to start later this year.

The good thing about the site is that it allows you to modify and upgrade your packages as you wish so even if you can't decide what role you'd want to play right now, you can always change to a package with a ship that you want later.

 

[DTKT]

Well that kind of sucks, I bought the 300i package during the Kickstarter and it seems that it doesn't give you the Aurora.

 

[Danthrax]

One reason to pledge for more ships right now, aside from helping with development of the game, is to give yourself something else to fly in the dogfighting alpha. Chris Roberts said during last week's livestream event that we'll only be able to fly ships we've pledged for.

I want to try out more than just the Hornet, so I'll probably get at least one more ship, even if it's just the Aurora LX.

This makes it sound like there is going to be first person combat too. Man that would be a hell of a game if you could mix an fps together with a really solid space combat. Imagine raiding a space station. An Eve type of game that had real gameplay instead of being "spreadsheets in space" mixed with an fps would be amazing.

There will be, for boarding actions, like when pirates have disabled a ship, docked with it and are trying to take it over. The pirates have to go into first-person mode and kill the occupants of the ship they're boarding. There's going to be weaponry and body armor to go along with this. People can defend their ships with the same armor and weaponry, as well as auto-turrets and whatnot.

Disabling ships will range between stuff seen in Wing Commander like leech guns and missiles to new stuff like hacking into ship computers to disable systems.

It can't be exactly like EVE because encounter numbers have to be smaller, but yeah that's the spirit of the thing. Also FPS combat will probably be restricted to the inside ships. They still have a lot of details under wraps.

Yeah, Chris Roberts has said there won't be any combat on planets, like when you're in bars and whatnot. Those are safe areas, basically.

 

[I H8 Memes]

There will be, for boarding actions, like when pirates have disabled a ship, docked with it and are trying to take it over. The pirates have to go into first-person mode and kill the occupants of the ship they're boarding. There's going to be weaponry and body armor to go along with this. People can defend their ships with the same armor and weaponry, as well as auto-turrets and whatnot.

Disabling ships will range between stuff seen in Wing Commander like leech guns and missiles to new stuff like hacking into ship computers to disable systems.

This sounds amazing. I never played a Wing Commander game before, but a space combat game together with an fps in even a semi-sim type gameplay would make for an awesome game.

Now I actually wish it did have a persistent universe.

 

[Mindlog]

Well that kind of sucks, I bought the 300i package during the Kickstarter and it seems that it doesn't give you the Aurora.

The 300i is more expensive than the Aurora. They're both highly adaptable.

Now I actually wish it did have a persistent universe.

It does. All instances take place in the same world.

 

[Ephemeris]

Thanks for the input gang

If you can't decide, I'd say just get the cheapest package which gives you a starter ship and the full game when it releases for $30. For $40 you can get the game with the starter ship and alpha/beta access which is scheduled to start later this year.

The good thing about the site is that it allows you to modify and upgrade your packages as you wish so even if you can't decide what role you'd want to play right now, you can always change to a package with a ship that you want later.

Hmm.

I responded to someone in the other thread, I guess the cross-posting shall continue since the bulk of the responses are on here:

That's something I hadn't really considered. What do you think of a 350r + Aurora LX combo?

That's probably the limits of what I'm going to spend on the game. Especially if Rift support is awesome.

Those two aren't going to be real money makers for me, and looks like dogfighting is out of the question (unless I am really good), but using the 350r for smuggling/evading and the LX for just about everything else sounds like a plan atm.

I don't see myself doing the racing thing, but it could end up being fun.

 

[Mindlog]

One thing about the new website. It's kind of a mess sorting out all the packages.

A 350r/Aurora combo could work. Remember at least one of them has to be a package. You could have fun in your 350r while hiring NPCs to fly your Aurora and make you money. Keep in mind every ship will be available to purchase in-game. It's really easy to get carried away building yourself a fleet.

 

[Ephemeris]

One thing about the new website. It's kind of a mess sorting out all the packages.

A 350r/Aurora combo could work. Remember at least one of them has to be a package. You could have fun in your 350r while hiring NPCs to fly your Aurora and make you money. Keep in mind every ship will be available to purchase in-game. It's really easy to get carried away building yourself a fleet.

Yeah, the Lightspeed package has the 350r and a measly 2k credits, in addition to the SP campaign and beta access.

Didn't realize I could have a NPC to fly the Aurora either. Awesome.

And yeah, this stuff adds up.

They did mention the LX costs 10k credits in game. Meaning the 350r/hornet etc may be around 40~50k

 

[1cmanny1]

I am sort of sceptical about this game now. I thought it was basically a single player game with multiplayer elements. Now it turns out the only single player option is a linear story.

I like games similar to Mount and Blade, where you can just mess about. I hope the private servers let us be able to populate the universe with NPCs.

I also would like to know where all this money is going.

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Got the Hornet and went halves on a Connie with my bud, keeping it on my account. Gonna be an explorer/vigilante team. Been a backer since day one, trying my absolute damnedest to not get too hyped. But there are seriously days where we both go "AAAAAAAH" for a few hours about the ideas the game gives us.

Totally going full Rift with it, too. Absolutely no choice in the matter.

I am sort of sceptical about this game now. I thought it was basically a single player game with multiplayer elements. Now it turns out the only single player option is a linear story.

I like games similar to Mount and Blade, where you can just mess about. I hope the private servers let us be able to populate the universe with NPCs.

I also would like to know where all this money is going.

From the very beginning, they've said Squadron 42 was your Single Player, Wing Commander-esque campaign mode that's supposed to be pretty substantial after hitting all the stretch goals. The actual meat of the game is the Persistent Universe, which you can unlock after finishing Squadron 42 (Or pay an in-game money fee to jump right to it.) But the multiplayer element was always the goal. It's going to be more like Freelancer multiplayer with hundreds of people, there'll still be NPCs and quests, content you do yourself. People will be populating the rest of space on their own agenda, though.

 

[Danthrax]

I am sort of sceptical about this game now. I thought it was basically a single player game with multiplayer elements. Now it turns out the only single player option is a linear story.

I like games similar to Mount and Blade, where you can just mess about. I hope the private servers let us be able to populate the universe with NPCs.

I also would like to know where all this money is going.

The persistent universe will be mostly NPCs. Like 80 percent or so NPCs, they've said. And you'll be able to use a PVP slider to basically turn off encounters with other players and just play Star Citizen like an HD version of Wing Commander Privateer.

Also, private servers will be allowed, so you can do that, too. And they'll be full of NPCs — or not, I suppose, if you mod them out. Mods will be allowed on private servers, too.

 

[CTLance]

Aw man, I just remembered that I haven't gotten my card yet. Bought the metal upgrade, too. Dammit. Time to poke them with a stick and see what happens. :-/
Edit: IT WORKED! I SENT THEM A MAIL AND NEXT DAY THE CARD FROM CHINA HAD ALREADY ARRIVED!
....Dammit, now I need to send them another mail to disregard the first one, I hate causing this kind of busywork.

I'll have an Aurora LX, a Cutlass (pirate pack), and a 300i (pledge).

I guess that's a bit of a weird loadout for someone who will be more of the explorer/merchant persuasion, but at least I'll be able to gloriously explode against pirates... And maaaaybe even steal their ship. Unlikely, but if I could pull it off it'd be hilarious.

 

[samjaza]

Got my rear admiral metal card a couple of weeks ago and its nice quality, I got the m50 as a small fast ship (14t 2x TR4, Huge thrust to mass ratio), the avenger for medium and the freelancer for large, since i'm planing on being mostly a solo player i didnt really want the stella

 

[Wiktor]

It's funny, I was the only one amongst my friends who wanted to actually see Wing Commander for the movie and not for the attached Phantom Menace trailer. I looked like such a tool afterwards for trying to hype that movie up.

"Guys, Wing Commander is an amazing game series! They already have movie like scenes with real actors! Plus the movie is being made by Chris Roberts, the GUY WHO MADE THE GAMES! THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT!"

... yea.

But you got your revenge later on right? When it turned out that as bad as WC movie was, it was still better than Phantom Manace

 

[Joco]

One thing about the new website. It's kind of a mess sorting out all the packages.

A 350r/Aurora combo could work. Remember at least one of them has to be a package. You could have fun in your 350r while hiring NPCs to fly your Aurora and make you money. Keep in mind every ship will be available to purchase in-game. It's really easy to get carried away building yourself a fleet.

Even after launch? I really like the look of this game but that sounds like a distinctly unfair advantage to players who can afford to drop large sums of real-world money into the game.

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Even after launch? I really like the look of this game but that sounds like a distinctly unfair advantage to players who can afford to drop large sums of real-world money into the game.

Everything will be in-game for in-game money, even these specialty models. The only difference is pledge ships (Before a certain date) have Lifetime Insurance, which saves backers a little in-game money.

Backers will start out with nice ships but there's nothing you CAN'T do with a starter ship, just how well you can do it.

 

[samjaza]

Also you have to remember that the game is as much about skill then what you could buy, a good experienced player in a hornet could take out newbie or inexperienced player in a connie.

 

[Danthrax]

Even after launch? I really like the look of this game but that sounds like a distinctly unfair advantage to players who can afford to drop large sums of real-world money into the game.

Nah. Someone could have dropped $1,250 on an Idris corvette during the livestream last week, but someone else who earns a Gladiator bomber in the game probably can torch that thing, with its 10-person crew, with a couple torpedoes on their own.

Everything has strengths and weaknesses, and player skill will be the main determining factor in survival.

 

[spindoctor]

They did mention the LX costs 10k credits in game. Meaning the 350r/hornet etc may be around 40~50k

Actually the LX upgrade alone is what costs 10k. The Aurora itself will be around 40k or so if I were to guess.

I'll have an Aurora LX, a Cutlass (pirate pack), and a 300i (pledge).

I guess that's a bit of a weird loadout for someone who will be more of the explorer/merchant persuasion, but at least I'll be able to gloriously explode against pirates... And maaaaybe even steal their ship. Unlikely, but if I could pull it off it'd be hilarious.

You could consider exchanging your Cutlass for a Freelancer which should be good for exploration. They cost the same AFAIK.

 

[YuShtink]

With the price of the larger ships I wonder how much in game work would be necessary to buy one?

 

[spindoctor]

With the price of the larger ships I wonder how much in game work would be necessary to buy one?

Chris Roberts mentioned offhand that getting a Stella in game could take about 60 hours of playing time. That's a $225 ship in 60 hours. It's not much but you can use this single point of data to extrapolate for other ships if you want.

 

[Danthrax]

Yeah, they said they haven't figured out what the "exchange rate" will be, but so far it seems like it's about 1,000 credits equals $1.

 

[subversus]

how frequent updates on this project btw?
and how long till they stop getting preorders?

 

[EviLore]

Looks like this new website design doesn't have the ability to link your Kickstarter pledge to your RSI account...

 

[Blizzard]

I'm still a bit confused since I haven't followed this game from early on. I recently picked up the $75 Explorer pledge. Two dumb questions:

* Is the game going to have any sort of monthly fee planned?
* Is the game planned to have microtransactions (and the 2000 credits with the pledge I got count torwards that)? If so I assume there are ingame ways to earn the credits too?

 

[Rommel]

Looks like this new website design doesn't have the ability to link your Kickstarter pledge to your RSI account...

Email support, they can sort it out. Been an issue with kickstarters who didn't register on the first site.

 

[MrBig]

I'm still a bit confused since I haven't followed this game from early on. I recently picked up the $75 Explorer pledge. Two dumb questions:

* Is the game going to have any sort of monthly fee planned?
* Is the game planned to have microtransactions (and the 2000 credits with the pledge I got count torwards that)? If so I assume there are ingame ways to earn the credits too?

The game is B2P, it will not be free to play or have recurring payments. Absolutely no content is exclusive to money purchases, everything can be earned in-game.

 

[Danthrax]

Looks like this new website design doesn't have the ability to link your Kickstarter pledge to your RSI account...

I think Kickstarter pledgers were supposed to migrate their pledges onto the RSI site like six months ago. If you didn't do that, do like Rommel said and email or call CIG.

I'm still a bit confused since I haven't followed this game from early on. I recently picked up the $75 Explorer pledge. Two dumb questions:

* Is the game going to have any sort of monthly fee planned?
* Is the game planned to have microtransactions (and the 2000 credits with the pledge I got count torwards that)? If so I assume there are ingame ways to earn the credits too?

No monthly fee, as MrBig said. You'll be able to earn credits doing all kinds of things in the game — doing missions, selling cargo for profit, pirating other ships and completing the Squadron 42 campaign. Chris Roberts has said that credits will be able to be bought with real money, but only at a limited quantity per month. He said he's allowing that to facilitate people who have limited time to play the game, but want to have experiences with bigger ships, better weapons, etc., and don't have the time to work up to that in a reasonable amount of time. (Also, I'm sure it's because they like money.)

And yes, the 2,000 credits with your pledge will count toward your total credits in the game when it launches.

 

[EviLore]

Messaged support about my Kickstarter pledge.

For people who haven't pledged yet, I'd suggest going with the $45 pack that gets you the aurora + lti + squadron 42 + alpha/beta access, or the $65 pack that gets you the 300i instead of the aurora. The 300i looks like a nice all-around platform to do whatever you want with and the price difference isn't extreme, so that looks like the sweet spot to me.

Only spend more if you're a space combat superfreak with money to burn, who's going to get a high end stick + an oculus rift just for this game. Seriously, no guarantees when it comes to crowdfunding pledges, and Star Citizen looks jaw-droppingly awesome so far but nothing is for certain.

I have my Hornet, of course, and I'll probably get another ship or two for shits and giggles. ;b

 

[Kageshinzo]

Finally got my T-shirt and my Bounty Hunter backer card last week. Pumped!

 

[Rommel]

Messaged support about my Kickstarter pledge.

For people who haven't pledged yet, I'd suggest going with the $45 pack that gets you the aurora + lti + squadron 42 + alpha/beta access, or the $65 pack that gets you the 300i instead of the aurora. The 300i looks like a nice all-around platform to do whatever you want with and the price difference isn't extreme, so that looks like the sweet spot to me.

Only spend more if you're a space combat superfreak with money to burn, who's going to get a high end stick + an oculus rift just for this game. Seriously, no guarantees when it comes to crowdfunding pledges, and Star Citizen looks jaw-droppingly awesome so far but nothing is for certain.

I have my Hornet, of course, and I'll probably get another ship or two for shits and giggles. ;b

The ship creep starts slow... then its just one more... until the concierge button lights up... and you realize... you've spent a grand!

You flying solo Evil?

 

[MrBig]

Only spend more if you're a space combat superfreak with money to burn, who's going to get a high end stick + an oculus rift just for this game.

All I've put up for so far is the advanced starter package, but now I've got the itch to upgrade that to the Freelancer package

I'm already dead set on getting v1 of the Rift and I'll probably end up getting a stick just for SC, too

 

[danthefan]

So... can I upgrade from the $30 to the $60 package? I don't want to spend another $60 anyway.

I see there's an option to reclaim the $30 for my original package, will I lose my original backer status if I do that?

 

[CTLance]

You could consider exchanging your Cutlass for a Freelancer which should be good for exploration. They cost the same AFAIK.

Holy carp, I hadn't noticed the pirate pack was actually worth 100 bucks. I remember getting it for way less? Wasn't it 60 bucks at some point in time? Did I really spend a hundred bucks on that? So many questions!

Anyway, I did that, I had been lusting after the Freelancer since forever. I'm ecstatic that I managed to grab life insurance on that hunk of metal. Aw yiss, motha fuckin exploration.

...Now I'm missing my Pirate Pack. Dammit, me, stop wanting to spend money on virtual space ships!

 

[Danthrax]

Messaged support about my Kickstarter pledge.

For people who haven't pledged yet, I'd suggest going with the $45 pack that gets you the aurora + lti + squadron 42 + alpha/beta access, or the $65 pack that gets you the 300i instead of the aurora. The 300i looks like a nice all-around platform to do whatever you want with and the price difference isn't extreme, so that looks like the sweet spot to me.

Only spend more if you're a space combat superfreak with money to burn, who's going to get a high end stick + an oculus rift just for this game. Seriously, no guarantees when it comes to crowdfunding pledges, and Star Citizen looks jaw-droppingly awesome so far but nothing is for certain.

I have my Hornet, of course, and I'll probably get another ship or two for shits and giggles. ;b

High five on the Hornet, that's my package, too. I'm tempted to get the Aurora LX before it's gone ... I'm not ready to drop a ton of money on just a ship, but $25 is reasonable, and I want something else to fly besides the Hornet in the dogfighting alpha.

And I'm definitely getting a HOTAS and Oculus Rift for this game if I can afford it next year.

So... can I upgrade from the $30 to the $60 package? I don't want to spend another $60 anyway.

I see there's an option to reclaim the $30 for my original package, will I lose my original backer status if I do that?

I don't think so. The site knows when you originally pledged, so you should keep your status even if you melt down your original package for a new one.

 

[Stimpack]

Haven't seen the Wing Commander movie?

I envy you.

But it starred Matthew Lillard as Jake Busey!

 

[Nibel]

OT title needs to be |OT| Star Citizen Kane of Videogames

 

[danthefan]

I don't think so. The site knows when you originally pledged, so you should keep your status even if you melt down your original package for a new one.

Thanks. Just noticed that I have until November or something to upgrade so will find out a bit more before doing so.

 

[Mindlog]

So... can I upgrade from the $30 to the $60 package? I don't want to spend another $60 anyway.

I see there's an option to reclaim the $30 for my original package, will I lose my original backer status if I do that?

Yes, you can upgrade without losing your backer status. Your backer status is locked in once you migrate your account to the new website.

The game will likely cross $13 million in funding later today. Average price per copy keeps rising and last I heard they still plan on releasing Hornet, Freelancer and Constellation variants before the pledge drive is over.

 

[elyetis]

Beeing able to upgrade from 300i to a 325a was a limited in time thingy ?

 

[Rommel]

Beeing able to upgrade from 300i to a 325a was a limited in time thingy ?

Just melt down your 300 and buy the 325. Price is the same, just different way of upgrading now.

 

[Danthrax]

Beeing able to upgrade from 300i to a 325a was a limited in time thingy ?

No, they say here that the 315p and 325a will be available even after this Saturday. You'll be able to melt down your 300i and get a 325a whenever you want.

The game will likely cross $13 million in funding later today. Average price per copy keeps rising and last I heard they still plan on releasing Hornet, Freelancer and Constellation variants before the pledge drive is over.

Looks like it crossed over $13 million in the last hour! Unfortunately, CIG took the day off, so we may not get a "hurrah for us" post until Monday.

I think they'll raise $16 million or $17 million by the end of the year, depending on if they have another livestream event. If they really want to raise $21 million through crowdfunding alone, I think it'll take at least until next spring to get there.

 

[danthefan]

Is say $15m for development into AAA budget territory? I'm assuming the marketing budget is going to be fairly small.

 

[Harlock]

Is going to be a beta for backers before late 2014?

 

[vazel]

Wing Commander has been sitting on my DVR for weeks. I know it's a bad movie and I've seen it before long ago but I want to see it one last time. I'm just going to have to muster up the courage to sit through all the awfulness.

Is say $15m for development into AAA budget territory? I'm assuming the marketing budget is going to be fairly small.

It's in the low triple-A range. The first two Uncharteds had a budget of $20 million, but there are games that are much more expensive like God of War: Ascension which had a budget of $40-50 million.

 

[elyetis]

Just melt down your 300 and buy the 325. Price is the same, just different way of upgrading now.

Isn't it only an option for someone with the Origin Jumpworks 300i - LTI ? from a Digital Bounty Hunter - LTI owner wouldn't that mean loosing the credits, alpha/beta access, etc ?

 

[MasterOfPastures]

Can't wait for the hangar module. Hopefully they have the three "styles" ready by release in August. I got the Freelancer package, that i'll use for exploration and trading to make credits and aim for a larger spaceship. I also got the 325i, as a bounty wolf for dog fighting.

 

[MrBig]

Is going to be a beta for backers before late 2014?

Alpha is starting next month, parts of the game will be released as they're ready for testing up until the full beta in late 2014, yes.