Star Citizen: Preview

There was a time in our country when almost every child, when asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?”?" could confidently answer: "Astronaut!“Of course, only a select few became space explorers, but many among the older generation still have a love for the stars. And not only here – the space race has left its mark on the souls of people abroad. One of these dreamers is an American computer game developer and film producer Chris Roberts (Chris Roberts). Fans of games about space battles and travel need no introduction to this man: the author of the series Wing Commander and Freelancer they know well and respect no less, despite the fact that Roberts in 2002 he left the gaming industry for cinema. As it turned out, these ten years were just a respite before the main task of his life – creating the game of his dreams.

According to the developers, in the release the view from the cockpit will be much more pleasing to the eye without sacrificing information content. You can also decorate the cabin of your ship the way your heart desires. Perhaps I’ll hang the “Herringbone” fragrance on the windshield.

From the world by thread

Now Star Citizen well-known primarily due to the record set during the collection of money for development. Having set out to accumulate “only” two million dollars, after a little over a month Cloud Imperium Games Corporation received over seven million at its disposal, leaving Project Eternity far behind. The reason for this is not only authority Chris Roberts, but also the fact that the developers did not come for the money empty-handed – even then they had something to show. And I must say, what I saw was impressive. And having read the multi-page promises on the website and forum, many of those who are not at all “sick” about space and don’t know about Wing Commander and its author, willingly shelled out money – at the end of the fundraising campaign, the counter was accumulating several thousand payments per hour, which is why the site periodically collapsed offline. No one counted on such success, not even Chris himself – “stretch goals” (“features” that they promise to add to the game when a certain amount of donations is collected) ended at around six million.

Having acquired such a considerable wage fund, Roberts and the team got down to business, promising within a year to give everyone who invested in the game (and there are currently over one hundred thousand of them) an alpha version, scheduling the release itself for the end of 2014. All this time they promise to provide us with news, videos, pictures and other small and not very joys that are so important for each of those whom Star Citizen did not leave indifferent. However, a lot can be said now.

“My God, it’s full of stars!»

In fact, work on Star Citizen began long before the first announcements of the future game, which allowed C.I.G lure potential buyers not with lengthy discussions about how cool the new project will be, and not with vague concept art, but with quite tangible game videos and screenshots. It was these small videos that served S.C good advertising – everything looked very attractive.

Walk around a huge https://sector777casino.co.uk/ space aircraft carrier from first and third person views; a gorgeous view of the deck from where small fighter jets take off; finally, the main character’s flight into outer space on one of these machines – and all this in a “seamless” world without a single hint of loading levels. Vast open spaces often come at the cost of graphics quality, but Star Citizen This is clearly not the case: here the capabilities of CryEngine 3 are used to the fullest, but what we were shown is far from the final version. But now Chris says with a smile that those who want to experience all the delights of graphics S.C you will have to fork out for an upgrade – the pilot model will have a hundred thousand polygons, and the number of polygons for the largest ships is already in the millions. However, why use words – you can see everything yourself.

Huge aircraft carrier. For aesthetes there will be an opportunity to watch the progress of the battle from the captain’s bridge.

Citizen of the Galaxy

Despite all the beauty of the videos and screenshots, the developers’ stories about how they see their creation in the future are much more interesting. There are so many promises that it seems even impossible to fulfill them all Roberts, despite all the fan support.

Star Citizen – this is, in fact, only one of the two halves of the brainchild C.I.G: another one is called Squadron 42. No, we are not talking about splitting an unreleased game into several episodes or DLC. “Squadron 42” is the basis: a full-fledged single player mode and multiplayer battles “straight into battle” (something like World of Tanks, as Chris himself says in one of the interviews). Star Citizen but something more. The most important thing is one universe on a single server for all players in the world. The world is the same as in the single-player game, but the plot will be created by the players themselves with the help of developers who promise to release small updates every week and spoil the inhabitants of this multiplayer universe with various events.

“Citizen status” will have a great influence on relations with the outside world, depending on which NPCs will behave differently in different systems. Law-abiding taxpayer, hero of two Star Wars with a perfect profile? Please, here’s a discount on service at the docks and priority in protection against pirates. True, this is all in central systems where the rule of law is strong. On the edges of the populated areas, where anarchy reigns, life is good for completely different heroes – lovers of easy money, smugglers and other dregs of society.

We are promised that everyone will be able to find something to their liking – fans of PvP battles, researchers, and, of course, traders and miners. A pirate who is particularly successful in robbing caravans will soon see his face on the news and learn about an increased reward for his capture, and the pilot who discovers a new jump point will be able to call it by his own name. Something like EVE Online, only with more emphasis on research and the social component and much less on confrontations between clans and corporations. It will not be the huge alliances of several hundred pilots that will be in the spotlight, but that same Star Citizen plus several of his comrades.

The developers want to achieve this using the “instance” system, widely used in MMORPGs. Yes, like that – a single server, but divided into small copy zones. Each zone will be able to host about a hundred ships at the same time (with an exact number C.I.G haven’t decided yet). Once the limit is exceeded, the game will create a new zone to which all other pilots who arrive in this location will be transported. It seems that this breaks the very principle of the very single universe in which events will take place Star Citizen, but its authors promise that a smart server will bring into one zone those players who are in some way connected with each other. If there is a bounty on someone’s head, then everyone who signed a contract to deliver the victim to the customer “dead or alive”, if they are in the same location with the target, will definitely end up next door to it – in the same copy of the zone. And by default, members of one team will end up in one “instance”.

An early model of the Freelancer truck has already caused a wave of heated debate on the game forum – as it turned out, many people did not like this design. The developers promised to fix it.

For a single universe, a single economy is also envisaged – players will determine the prices for goods and services themselves, will be able to buy not only ships, but also real estate, hire security guards and couriers from among the same pilots. It sounds very tempting, but you shouldn’t relax: the authors Star Citizen It’s worth taking a closer look at the experience of the developers of the same EVE Online – they already know what unpredictable consequences such a free market can lead to.

Chris Roberts close to the category of players who are commonly called “hardcore”. Those who are not afraid of difficulties and even in the game rely only on personal skills, and not on the “pumping” of their character. Star Citizen – just for those. Not the level of the hero, not the number of experience points invested in a certain skill, but only direct hands and the contents of the ship will help you win. All this is closely interconnected – a well-aimed shot at a certain part of the ship can disable one of the ship’s many systems, which will most directly affect controllability, and an emergency release of cargo will increase speed and maneuverability. No "Excel simulator" style combat, as EVE Online is often called. Here we are waiting for something similar to the IL-2 Sturmovik, but still not with such hair-raising realism.

Of course, S.C will support additional control devices – from gamepads to HOTAS joysticks and a steering wheel with pedals. However, the use of all these pieces of hardware is unlikely to affect the balance – this is more a question of convenience and depth of immersion in the game, rather than an advantage over the “mouse breeders”.

The matter will not be limited to pilot-versus-pilot battles. Full-scale battles involving dozens of players on ships of various classes – from the simplest fighter to a huge aircraft carrier, which will have to be controlled not by one person, but by an entire team. Plus to all this – attention – boarding enemy starships (yes, with character control, like in a shooter) with the opportunity to seize the ship at your complete disposal. And no one will return the ship to the owner, just like if it is lost in battle – we are hardcore, don’t forget? No, of course, there will be opportunities to insure yourself (and in the literal sense – they promise ship insurance), but the likelihood of being bankrupt after a couple of unsuccessful battles and having to start all over again will remain very high – it’s more interesting to play this way, as he says Roberts.

Hornet – the main combat vehicle of the Fleet. At the helm of this particular boat, Chris showed the capabilities of the game engine at the first presentation of Star Citizen.

The only tangible negative Star Citizen at the moment – this is that the game, no matter how you look at it, is doing too well. The developers, apparently, themselves did not expect such agility from fans when they distributed “stretch goals” on the donation line – will they be able to fully fulfill their promises?? Now there’s no way to get away with it – the hundred thousand who invested in “Star Citizen” will closely monitor the development of the project, and this control will be no worse than the supervision of the publisher, which they managed to get rid of through crowdfunding.

Let’s hope that Chris’s team will be able to cope with the task to the fullest, especially since not only Star Citizen, but also the very idea of ​​collective financing of video games, bypassing the giant publishers.