Star Citizen ProjectNOTE: This page will be updated often, and will only grow in design and scope.
About Star CitizenCore Concept“We want to build a huge sandbox … that allows the players to explore in whatever capacity they want.”
The core concept of Star Citizen is that it’s a destination, not a one-off story. It’s a complete universe where any number of stories can take place. Players will have the opportunity to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or soldier. It’s a universe we’ve always wanted to create. We want to build a huge sandbox with a complex and deep lore that allows the players to explore in whatever capacity they want.
Squadron 42The project also includes Squadron 42, a single player campaign that takes place within the Star Citizen universe. Able to be played off-line or with friends, you essentially sign up to fly for the UEE fleet, manning the front lines, protecting settlements from Vanduul warbands. If you prove yourself, you might get asked to join the legendary 42nd Squadron. Set up like the French Foreign Legion, they can always be found in the toughest war zones and always manage to come out on top. Once you complete your tour however, you re-enter the persistent Star Citizen universe with some money in your pocket and Citizenship to find your way.
Open World ArchitectureThe great thing about this is that you don’t have to do Squadron 42.
“The single-player military campaign sits inside this open world architecture in a holistic fashion.”
You can basically decide that you’re going to be a merchant or pirate and never join the military. Having that choice for the player is fantastic. What we’re talking about here is a combination of everything that made Wing Commander great along with everything that made Privateer great. The single-player military campaign sits inside this open world architecture in a holistic fashion.
While you will probably spend a majority of time in the cockpit there will be first-person mechanics built into the game. When you are flying on some of the bigger ships (transports, carriers, etc.), you will be able to wander the halls of the ship while a friend pilots, jump on a turret if you get attacked, even repel attempted boarders if needed.
Physics“…the physics in the game are dynamic and procedural…”
One of the most exciting things is the capacity for true Newtonian physics. We have also designed the ships with a Fly-By-Wire system similar to an F35. In short, the computer will make the physical calculations in order to pull off what you want to do. The ship’s computer takes your input on the joystick, throttle and pedals, crunches it into the necessary vectors and velocities needed to achieve it then utilizes the appropriate thrusters and engine to execute it. The idea is that the ship’s computer is simplifying things because it’s just too complicated for you to figure it all out on your own. This means that the physics in the game are dynamic and procedural and not script or data-driven. It’s a full flight dynamic system that will work for bigger ship as well as the smaller ships.
Level of DetailBeing on a PC allows us to create the world in a greater level of detail and fidelity than we could on a console platform. We want it to be open and not be bound to legacy technology of consoles or their revenue models. For example, most AAA games use about 10,000 polygons for their lead characters. We are using over 100,000 polygons for ours, allowing you to see such details wires, the equipment, even creases in their clothing which all contributes to the immersion of the player. It also allows you to find the same level of detail carry over from a character (1.8meters in size) to a fighter (27 meters) even up to a carrier (1 kilometer in size.) All without a load screen or loss of visual fidelity.
Frequently Asked Questions about Star CitizenHow does Citizenship factor into the game?Even though there are other alien races, we’re beginning with the human side of it. This future has evolved into a futuristic version of the Roman Empire. We thought it would be very interesting to have Citizenship be something that you don’t automatically receive. It’s something you have to earn through civic duty or military service. It’s a way to create a class system, which creates the potential for conflict among the various groups and players.
We wanted to put a lot of social ideas in the universe. Since the universe is dynamic, it will create some divisions and factions. For example, there’s a perfectly valid choice not to be a Citizen but we wanted to include all these social divisions so players will gravitate to one or the other and operate like the real world operates.
Will there be story updates or expansions?We’re going to be constantly updating the universe from our end. I’m not interested in having yearly updates. We will have a team of people adding content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. So we’ll be always adding data, stories, and campaigns as well as reacting to what the players are doing.
So the universe will change based on what the players do. They can also become a part of the history of the universe. Say there’s a player who’s an explorer, if they find a space anomaly and successfully navigate it, which is not easy to do. If they’ve recorded the Nav-Data of their jump, they’ll be able to sell it for a great profit to a space company and they’ll have the system and jump-point named after them.
The goal of Star Citizen is build a living, breathing universe that is its own entity. It will be a constantly shifting and evolving place for people to go and escape to.
My community account is not showing my pledge!We are currently working to sync our pledge database and our community database. Your pledge will show correctly soon and we will send out a message when this process is complete. If you pledged from a different e-mail than your RSI account, we will contact you after the database sync to incorporate your pledge manually. We’ll ensure everyone is connected.
Is my Golden Ticket gone?No! We have a record of your Golden Ticket and it will be returned to your account in the near future. We won’t forget our earliest fans!
Is Star Citizen an MMO?No! Star Citizen will take the best of all possible worlds, ranging from a permanent, persistent world similar to those found in MMOs to an offline, single player campaign like those found in the Wing Commander series. The game will include the option for private servers, like Freelancer, and will offer plenty of opportunities for players who are interested in modding the content. Unlike many games, none of these aspects is an afterthought: they all combine to form the core of the Star Citizen experience.
What are the “Citizen Cards”?Citizen Cards are physical props to prove that you have supported Star Citizen and will be one of the first pilots in space when the testing process starts. They will be wallet sized cards that you can carry with you anywhere you go. Citizen cards will also appear in the game itself, showing your character’s social standing, credit account and so on. We’re hoping to make them available to backers by Christmas 2012, so you can gift the game to friends and have something to show for it!
Can you tell me about the different ships?We’re working on concept art right now that will show you the different levels of ships! For now, imagine the sort of ship advancement you encounered in Privateer or Freelancer, with the Aurora being the basic ship and others being improved or more specialized craft. The top-of-the-line ship in our pledge campaign is the RSI Constellation, which is a multi-person craft that includes a turret and a smaller fighter that can be manned by your friends!
How will modding work?Players will be given full control of their game! When operating private servers, players will be able and encouraged to mod the game. It doesn’t stop there, though: we hope to institute a ‘mod approval’ process that will allow the best of the best player created ships and other additions to be integrated into the central persistent world as well.
Can I upgrade to a bigger ship?Yes! You will always have your ‘pledge’ ship, but you can purchase and fly others to your heart’s content in the finished game. Star Citizen will feature plenty of other ships and we expect players will want to earn credits and figure out which suits their particular style of play best. You can also upgrade to a bigger ship during the crowdfunding phase by pledging additional money.
What platforms will Star Citizen be available on?Star Citizen is a PC game through and through and could never be played on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or WiiU. We currently plan to support Windows and are examining our options regarding possible Linux and Macintosh releases. The Cloud Imperium team includes many Linux and Macintosh fans!
How can I work for Cloud Imperium Games?Please e-mail
[email protected] with your information.
Will Star Citizen only be in English?No, we plan to support many languages. A huge percentage of space sim and PC gaming fans come from Europe and especially Germany, and we want to make sure Star Citizen is accessible to everyone. The game will initially be localized to French, German and Spanish with plans to handle other languages afterwards.
Can you explain the stretch goals?The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences.
Why Direct And No Publisher?Publishers are useful in the old physical distribution world, but the Internet is the great equalizer. Notch didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million Minecraft fans. Riot games didn’t need a publisher to reach 30-million League of Legends players, and Wargaming.net didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million World of Tanks gamers. If we were building a big “AAA” console game it would be crazy to try without a publisher. But we want to build a PC game and publishers increase costs because of their need to recoup their sizable overhead cost. We want to make sure all the money raised goes directly to the development of the game. So we’re throwing ourselves on the mercy of the PC gamers out there that share our vision and passion for the platform and the space combat genre to raise money outside of the “cartel” of traditional publishers. The game will cost less, be more creatively pure, and, most importantly, be built for the real “core” audience – not some corporate suit worried about including all the casual gamers.
Is Star Citizen “free to play”? A subscription game?To play Star Citizen you need only to buy the initial game. There will never be a monthly charge for usage. Some in-game items may be available as microtransactions, but we will NEVER sell anything that can’t be acquired through honest (and fun!) gameplay.
What will the gameplay be like?Star Citizen will feature gameplay similar to the original Wing Commander and Privateer, with a more realistic physics system. This means that it is NOT a ‘click to kill’ interface like most modern MMOs; your success in combat is going to depend as much on your skill with a space fighter as it will with your ship upgrades and your pocket book.
Why did you add Kickstarter?We’ve always loved Kickstarter. When we started the Roberts Space Industries campaign the goal was to create a single, seamless site that would allow people to pledge and then join the community to interact and help us develop the game. We were very concerned that Kickstarter does not support European payments which would exclude a major portion of the Wing Commander and Freelancer audience. Unfortunately, the seamless experience didn’t work out: the amount of interest in the project crashed the server and it cost us days of the campaign getting it back up to functioning, with many features still not available. And as we interacted with our fans in the aftermath of our launch it became clear that many of them wanted to be using Kickstarter, a tried and true solution for crowdfunding. So, we listened! The original campaign is still going and we encourage anyone who can’t use Kickstarter or would prefer to use a credit card or Paypal to sign up that way.
Can you estimate the system requirements for Star Citizen?There will be a lot of optimization in the next 24-months, plus the usual fast pace of technology, so it is hard to say absolutely. At the moment you will be able to play it on a dual core PC with a GTX 460 or greater and 4GB of system memory. If you’re running an i7 2500, 2600, 2700 or better with a GTX 670 or greater then the stars are the limit! Since the game is built on CryEngine, their system requirements will stay roughly the same as ours.
http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen-project/
