Star Citizen

[Talolan]

Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts is back with a new space combat simulator aimed at high-end PCs. Today at the Game Developers Conference Online in Austin, Texas, Roberts announced Star Citizen. The game is due out in about two years.

Star Citizen has been in development at Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games for 12 months. The game itself includes a "sophisticated storyline" that is set in a persistent online universe. According to Roberts, it will fuse elements of his previous games, Wing Commander and Freelancer.

“In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” Roberts said in a statement. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular."

Much like Guild Wars 2, Star Citizen will be available through a one-time purchase, but will not require a subscription. Players can also purchase virtual items with real-world money to customize their ships.

If you like me at all, I'm giving you 2 years notice. This is where I will be! I'm a HUGE Chris Roberts fan. I think I may have cried when he left the games industry 10 years ago, but now he's back, and we're all going to space.

[Talolan]

Link: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/17 ... are-requi/

If you're looking forward to Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen title, you'd best be saving your pennies for a PC upgrade. Much like Roberts' 1990s-era Wing Commander series, the new game will push the limits of your hardware, this time courtesy of the CryEngine 3.

The space combat sim's website has updated with a new FAQ that outlines the game's projected system requirements (it recommends an i7 CPU and a GTX 670 or better graphics card, but keep in mind that launch day is two years away). The FAQ also mentions Star Citizen's modding philosophy and its payment model.

Modding is encouraged, as Roberts says that players are free to tweak the game however they wish on private servers. The devs also "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," according to the FAQ.

In terms of payments, you'll need to buy the game initially and that's basically it. There will be no monthly fee, though "some in-game items may be available as microtransactions." Unlike most free-to-play titles, Star Citizen's cash shop "will never sell anything that can't be acquired through honest (and fun!) gameplay."

[Gilen]

I am also a big fan, especially of Freelancer. I loved that game and would love trying it out online!

[Talolan]

Mr Roberts did an AMA on Reddit. Lots of information.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1 ... commander/

[Talolan]

Chris Roberts appeared on Massively's Massively Speaking podcast.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/23 ... terviewee/

[ryverwynd]

I played several of these games while in college. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this game as it gets closer.

[Talolan]

Star Citizen is finishing up its crowd funding push. They've posted some new videos of the game to show that it is actually live an in an engine at this point. Find them at Massively.

Just a note, I am a crowd-funding supporter of this game so when the Alpha and Betas are available to play I'll say whatever I can here on the NOR forums (depending on what NDA requirements are in those phases).

[Talolan]

Link: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/15/ ... -fantasies
Gallery: http://www.ign.com/images/albums/constellation-images

IGN has a new, very early, preview of Star Citizen up. Be sure to check out the gallery of the cargo ship they are talking about. Its got schematics, interior (because you can walk around in your ship) and exterior views, and a detachable figher.

This is all part of Chris Roberts' greater vision for Star Citizen, that it earns the sim part of the space sim title. This is exemplified by the Constellation's cargo bay. Roberts says "the goal is to be able to walk back into your cargo hold while flying and actually see the cargo you’re hauling. There’s a big focus on simulating and showing everything that you would imagine to be inside and functioning on a spaceship in Star Citizen. So if you’re hauling it you should see it in your hold (if you can walk back into your hold), if you activate a system, you should see your pilot avatar lean over and switch it on, and so on."

[Talolan]

This is from Kotaku:

Want proof that people want to soar through the cosmos in video games again? The people who've helped Chris Roberts' upcoming space sim Star Citizen smash through more than $5.7 million of crowdfunding pledges are giving doubters all the evidence they might need. That's more than any other video game project has raised via crowdfunding.

$3,821,900 of that comes from direct contributions on the Roberts while Kickstarter accounts for the other $1,910,818. (These numbers are as of 9:30 AM ET.) Now, Roberts has the benefits of being synonymous with Wing Commander, one of gaming's true cultural phenomenon. But he's also making an ambitious new game on a platform that's taken for granted in a genre that's supposed to be dead and forgotten. And when news of Star Citizen first surfaced, it was impossible not to gawp at the huge sum Roberts was stumping for. So the fact that $2 million goal was eclipsed by a margin of more than double is a pretty impressive accomplishment. Star Citizen is about two years away, but now Roberts and crew have the cash to deliver a game that will be worth the wait.

[Talolan]

This is from MMORPG.com:

Want to know how things are going with Star Citizen since Chris Roberts and his team secured over six million in funding via crowd-sourcing? Want to ask him some questions about the game's design, its offline and MMO features? Want to just tell him how grateful you are for Wing Commander? Tune in tomorrow on our live-stream at 5pm EST (2pm PST) for all this and more!

Feel free to ask some questions here, and we'll take some of the best to Chris tomorrow evening!

Chris and our own Garrett Fuller will take your questions and talk about the game tomorrow at 5pm EST on our Stream Page.

Link for the stream: http://www.mmorpg.com/streams.cfm