RangerXML
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 6,402
I need to go check to make sure they get forwarded to my new address?
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Greetings Citizens,
It’s good to be home! After a fourteen hour flight home from Australia, it was a nice surprise to see that Star Citizen’s backers had once again hit another milestone. It’s hard to express here how deeply everyone at CIG appreciate what the community has done, and is doing… We all thank you!
The $61 million stretch goal unlocks the Espera Prowler, a Tevarin-designed UEE ship. I’m excited to see where our concept artists take this one, as they’re going to have to design a new style for another alien race and then adopt it for human use. It should be an interesting process. Here’s the description:
Espera Prowler – Named after the UPE military designation, the Prowler is a modernized version of the infamous Tevarin boarding craft from the First Tevarin War. With the recent discovery of the lost Tevarin planet in Kabal System, Espera’s engineers were given unmitigated access to examine the preserved ships found in several of the caches, before meticulously recreating the design choices. The Prowler’s effectiveness as a rapid personnel deployment vehicle was mainly due to its silence. The boarding was constructed using a variety of techniques to minimize its signatures and get close to unsuspecting vessels before quickly deploying their boarders via EVA. With the updated Prowler model, you will find the perfect fusion of two culture: the elegance and effectiveness of the Tevarin war machine combined with the reliability of modern UEE technology. (While lacking some of the upgrades of the modern version, vintage Tevarin-built Prowlers restored for modern spaceflight are prized by owners lucky enough to locate them.)
The winner of the ultimate wave four ship poll was the third starter. When we say a ‘starter’ ship in Star Citizen, it doesn’t mean one you ditch as soon as you can… it just means a smaller, less expensive ship that will introduce you to the Star Citizen world. We had similar starter ships in Privateer and Freelancer, and plenty of players opted to stick with their old reliable hulls for the whole game! Star Citizen’s starter ships tend to be more ‘jack of all trades,’ allowing you to sample different activities in the ‘verse.
When we sat down to choose the ideal third starter we went in knowing that it needed to stand out the same way the Mustang differed from the Aurora without being dedicated to a specific role. What we couldn’t decide on was who was going to make this new ship. We already had starters from RSI and Consolidated… so who gets the next one? A pirate-oriented starter from Drake, a military one from Anvil or Aegis, or perhaps a small luxury craft from Origin or a commercial one from MISC?
In the end, we put together outlines for four possible ships, one from each ship builder (representatives from the fifth company, Origin, turned down our request; apparently, they just won’t build an inexpensive ship!) And now we’re giving backers the ability to choose which one we develop into Star Citizen’s third starter. Here are the options:
Drake Dragonfly: You don’t so much as climb into the Dragonfly as you do put it on around you. In short, it’s the closest thing to strapping an engine and a weapons mount to your spacesuit… or, as the advertising campaign claims, it’s the closest thing to riding the vacuum yourself. Occupying somewhere in the pantheon between a snub fighter and an Aurora, the Dragonfly is a speedy, maneuverable ultralight designed to be cheaply constructed in large numbers and to be readily customized by hobbyists. Dragonfly’s have become the favorite of a particular brand of enthusiast that frequently gather together to share their modifications, off-track race… and other less legitimate “hobbies.”
Aegis Terrapin: A literal tough nut to crack, the Terrapin is the most heavily armored of the base-priced spacecraft on the market. Originally designed for long-range survey missions in dangerous star systems, the Terrapin’s design philosophy involves wrapping the ship in additional layers of armor and reserving a significant amount of engine power to host the largest shield generator in its class. Terrapins are popular among private miners, with an equipment mount and a small storage hold that can be converted for valuable minerals.
Anvil Hurricane: Some ships avoid dangerous encounters with speed, some with stealth and others with maneuverability. The Anvil Hurricane’s philosophy is that it should be able to blast anything that gets in its way out of the sky. The Hurricane won’t win any races and its electronic signature won’t let you sneak behind enemy lines… but it features a wide array of fully customizable small bore weapons hardpoints plus the ability to customize weapons types in several ways. Hurricanes are often used by militia squadrons and private organizations seeking to add a “heavy” to their lineup.
MISC Reliant: With the success of the Freelancer “Built for Life” campaign, MISC has moved to join RSI and Consolidated in the single-seat introductory starship arena. Their silver bullet? A starter ship with more than one seat… and their ace in the hole: Xi’An technology. Where the Aurora is a pure utilitarian platform and the Mustang is a delicate, maneuverable personal transport, the Reliant is MISC’s most Xi’An tech-heavy ship to date. Featuring impossibly sleek lines, two separate crew seats and a vertical fuselage design, the Reliant’s streamlined cockpits glow with some of the finest xenotechnology available!
Please let us know what your favorite is in the poll below; the winner will be Star Citizen’s third starter… and the others will go back in the vault for future reference (I can already see backers writing in to ask if we might ever see the runner ups again; we don’t have space on the schedule for multiple new starters at the moment, but never say never!) I think that any of these four ships would make a great addition to Star Citizen’s lineup, and so I’m confident in letting backers make the choice!
I’ll announce the winner in my next letter. Until then, I’d like to thank you again for your continued support. Our backers are the most incredible group of people in the world, and every time I see how creative you are in supporting the game and spreading the word, I’m all the just more grateful that this has all come together. Thank you.
— Chris Roberts
Bone Lesnick ‏@banditloaf
I predict a tough race between the space motorcycle (Dragonfly) and the Xi'An death egg (Reliant.)
I'll probably melt my 325 to try the 315. No LTI so I don't have to worry about losing anything. The 315 seems like the kind of ship I'd want to actually play the game with. Jump engine, tractor, scanners, and still has Omnis.
315p in the patch friday, wonder how that will perform with the TR4 it is supposed to have.
Wow. I got shipping confirmation from SC about shipping goodies. Not sure what is shipping, but something is heading to me I guess.
The specs for what the 315p is shipping with hasn't been finalized yet and says "coming soon", max size equip-able is a TR4, but that is the same for all the other 300i which all come stock with TR3.
I'll probably melt my 325 to try the 315. No LTI so I don't have to worry about losing anything. The 315 seems like the kind of ship I'd want to actually play the game with. Jump engine, tractor, scanners, and still has Omnis.
I'd lose alpha access :-\... 325A was my initial pledge package.
I'm not sure I dare to ask... I'm pretty sure that they have been bitching about people asking them to transfer alpha access.if you would really prefer the 315p try to contact support about getting alpha moved into a 315p package.
they would likely have you melt the 325a package and buy the 315p with credits and then add alpha to the new 315p package.
or if you have another package without alpha they can move it into one of those packages leaving you with the 325a package to melt.
they have moved my alpha access a few times, once from a hornet package into a 350r package and again from the 350r package to finally resting in an AMD Omega package that i cant melt because its worth 0 store credit so i told them that was the best place to store the alpha access so i didn't have to ask them to move it again later if needed.
not sure if i am just getting special treatment from having Concierge service tho.
but one of my AMD packages is sitting with Alpha/Beta access.
I noticed the RSI subforum for Freelancer, which I've never played. I looked into it and...holy crap, how have I never played that game? It must have came out during my gaming 'lost years' playing WoW.
A few graphic mods later and it looks pretty good, I can definitely see how SC would be an evolved version of that.
I'm not sure I dare to ask... I'm pretty sure that they have been bitching about people asking them to transfer alpha access.
I really wouldn't sweat 325a vs 315p right now. You'll be able to make one into the other with equipment swaps eventually and right now the 325a is better in AC as it has missiles and a gun that you can use now vs. a tractor beam and jump engine that will do nothing for a while.
They mentioned that we'll be able to earn AC credits to buy AC only items once they get the simulation pods in the game in the last RtV. I'm betting we'll see engine upgrades as well as just weapons shortly after that.
I noticed the RSI subforum for Freelancer, which I've never played. I looked into it and...holy crap, how have I never played that game? It must have came out during my gaming 'lost years' playing WoW.
A few graphic mods later and it looks pretty good, I can definitely see how SC would be an evolved version of that.
Yeah there was this guy named Chris Roberts who wanted to make Freelancer - overpromised, delayed, got years behind schedule and then had to be removed from the project for it to be shipped. Killed him in the games industry and he spent the 00's pretending to be a filmmaker, was ultimately laughed out of hollywood. Look up his history with that project. He didn't see it through and lacked the skill to pull off any of his promises and the project management chops to lead the team effectively. If the same thing happens with SC, you won't be wondering why.
If he can deliver a playable Squadron 42, I'd forgive the $600 ships and all the other nonsense and be happy I had a playable game. But it's getting more and more hazy, the demands are piling up, the cracks in CryEngine are showing up bigtime, and his promises are sounding a LOT like the whole Freelancer debacle. You have to admit, it's a HUGE job they are taking on and the only way it's going to work smoothly is that if each and every department and subcontractor across the globe absolutely nails it. We're talking about human beings here. Good luck.
Yeah there was this guy named Chris Roberts who wanted to make Freelancer - overpromised, delayed, got years behind schedule and then had to be removed from the project for it to be shipped. Killed him in the games industry and he spent the 00's pretending to be a filmmaker, was ultimately laughed out of hollywood. Look up his history with that project. He didn't see it through and lacked the skill to pull off any of his promises and the project management chops to lead the team effectively. If the same thing happens with SC, you won't be wondering why.
If he can deliver a playable Squadron 42, I'd forgive the $600 ships and all the other nonsense and be happy I had a playable game. But it's getting more and more hazy, the demands are piling up, the cracks in CryEngine are showing up bigtime, and his promises are sounding a LOT like the whole Freelancer debacle. You have to admit, it's a HUGE job they are taking on and the only way it's going to work smoothly is that if each and every department and subcontractor across the globe absolutely nails it. We're talking about human beings here. Good luck.
I remember seeing the trailer on G4TV for Freelancer (may have been on Cinematech) and being blown away by the promised scope. I was given the game on release and was surprised it was missing quite a few features, but still was a great game. I backed this title early on hoping for a freelancer sequel, but I'm a bit leery now that the player hosted servers may not anything more than dogfight arenas.
A friend of mine gave me a jukebox for my hangar. I thought it would be cool. I linked my music collection to the JukeboxMusic directory.
Loading takes about a light year since every load it scans the entire directory - all 9500 songs - and then it won't play any of them. I can link smaller subdirectories and they'll work. They still make loading take longer, but they play. Loudly if you're standing next to the jukebox.
I wish they'd enable playlists for the Jukebox. <sigh>