Steel~Sparta~ Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 From the RSI website... The battle is over and we - PC gamers, space sim fans, WingNuts, Lancers and the rest - have won. You've not only met every goal we set, you've exceeded them. Star Citizen will be released because of your dedication and your willingness to put your money where our mouths are. Our gratitude is immeasurable; we owe you our livelihoods and will not soon forget it. The question is: what happens next? Our intention has always been to make Roberts Space Industries YOUR site. It's not a public advertisement for the game; it's a private community for those who are making the game happen. We want your input on what we're doing and we want to share our plans with you; the occasional passer-by doesn't concern us. The plan was initially to immediately switch on a wall that would allow only you, our backers, to access features like the Comm-Link and the Spectrum Dispatches. Kickstarter has thrown something of a wrench in this plan: we can't change the site until the Kickstarter backers are integrated, which may take up to two weeks, otherwise we would be blocking thousands of backers from participating. Updates and features will continue, returning to a regular schedule in the next few days. The team needs a few days to collect ourselves and reform before jumping into the immense task ahead (after the last month, our husbands, wives, children and yes, pets, miss us!) We will also be launching new sections which have been in the works for some time: the Galactapedia will tell you more about the Star Citizen world, Engineering will introduce you to game mechanics that are being planned and Holovids will offer you video footage from the game as it takes shape. What about pledges? Good news: those of you who got in on the ground floor are covered. Your ships have lifetime insurance policies and for the next year you will have the ability to purchase further tiers or upgrade existing ones at the initial prices. That's not true of everyone else: if you want to back Star Citizen and participate in this amazing community, you still can. but it's going to cost you a little extra as of now, and you aren't going to have as many extras (no lifetime insurance, for example.) One issue which concerns us is what to do with the funding tracker. So we're going to throw the issue up to you: in two weeks, when the wall goes up, what do you want to see done with the tracker? Without the 'push' of the campaign it probably won't update very dramatically. but it's always possible it will go up enough to reach future stretch goals anyway. Should we keep it, remove it or put it somewhere else? We'll let the community decide. We also have previously outlined the 'behind the screens' subscription plans available now. They're designed for users who simply want to give us a little extra support during the development - you're getting the whole story, regardless - but we will have some extra fun for our monthly contributors. We can't thank you enough for everything you've done for this project. Please see the next update on 'The Pledge' for our promise to you. The next two years are going to be incredible for all involved and we're thoroughly happy that all of you are along for this exciting ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Think it ended up around 6.2M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel~Sparta~ Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Think it ended up around 6.2M Close but not quite... the total amount raised was $6,238,563 they have since raise 150K more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Well Steel at the time of my posting their site was down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel~Sparta~ Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Well Steel at the time of my posting their site was down. I know... am increadable achievement if you ask me. The # contenues to climb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cylawyer~SPARTA~ Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 While browsing the forum at RobertsSpaceIndustries.com, I noticed this thread referring to EVE and offering advise to the developers based on the OPer's experience in EVE. I found it particularly thoughtful, interesting and accurate. Link: TOPIC: 2 lessons for the Star Citizen team from my time in EVE: Cut and Paste from linky: "The Risk vs Reward ratio matters, but not as much as the Effort vs Reward ratio. I?ve seen a lot of discussion on the forums about the proper risk/reward ratio in Star Citizen, and how to balance the rewards of PvP and PvE. This is not that discussion. From what I?ve seen in Eve, the main driver of player decisions is not the risk/reward ratio but the effort/reward ratio. Eve is a notoriously boring game because of its very passive money-making mechanics. You can either shoot little NPC pirates repeatedly, or you can shoot asteroids repeatedly. These are the two primary ways most players (not all) will make money. And what I?ve seen, time after time, is that even if you place a more lucrative source of income in the game, players will almost always choose the easiest source of income, not the best paid. 2 examples: I live on the edge of space, in nullsec, with no empire security. I make most of my money by killing NPC pirates. I have a choice when it comes to my ?ratting? strategy. (Note, this particular strategy has changed very recently due to changes in pirate AI, but it?s the perfect example of what I?m talking about.) I could sit there with my carrier or my ishtar and release drones, small ai-controlled fighter craft, and let the drones kill the pirates while I watch youtube on my other monitor. This might make me 60 million an hour. Or, I could take out my second ship, assign the fighters to it, and actively manage this second ship to kill pirates along with the drones. This would make me 100 million an hour. Guess which one I picked? Always the former. I could almost double my money, but it?s much more enjoyable to watch youtube while my money ticks up slowly than to actually play Eve. Another example, and one that has a real effect on the shape of the game: A significant proportion of players never leave the safety of empire space, where any person who attacks you is 100% guaranteed to die to NPC police (although they might take you down with them). These players will park their mining ship in an asteroid belt or ice belt and mine all day. This is obviously horrendously boring in Eve, where you just click a button and wait. And it makes a lot less money than my pirate killing on the edge of space or even running NPC missions in safer space, perhaps 10-20 million an hour. If you were just balancing risk/reward ratios, you would probably come to the conclusion that my method of moneymaking is superior, or at least that the situation appears balanced. I take on more risk; I make more money than they do. But if you look more deeply, the situation is actually pretty confusing. For starters, the risk/reward ratio is not at all balanced. I take only slightly higher risks than the miners. Yes, I can be shot at, but as long as I?m carefully watching the system, it?s trivial for me to escape to safety before I?m attacked. Over a year of playing, I probably lose 1-2 ships to enemies while I kill NPC pirates, which is more than balanced by my increased income. But the miners still do it. Despite all the risk/reward metrics stating otherwise, they choose this moneymaking method. Why? Because it?s easier, and, ideally, can be run AFK or even with a bot. It?s just like my choice, but on a much larger (and more significant, as I explain later) scale. What I?m saying is that you can very carefully balance the numbers on risk/reward. You can have your beta testers run missions in empire space and further out, figure out how often they lose their ship, and make the payouts scale nicely. But a significant proportion of your players, perhaps the majority, are going to make their playstyle choices based on what?s easiest for them to run with the minimum amount of effort, even if it makes them less money. So when you?re doing your balancing, take that into account. What takes more player attention and player skill needs to be better paid?on top of just the risks taken?or you?re going to end up with a skewed economy. You will be confused as players flock to the most boring, least interesting, most soul-crushing work?you will be frustrated as they ignore all your other lovingly produced content?you will be furious as they refuse to participate in the larger game mechanics and economy?unless you take this into account. An understanding of the importance of the effort/reward ratio leads directly to lesson 2: Every playstyle you make must NOT be bottable! No matter how poorly paid, no matter how boring or unpleasant, no matter how many technical barriers you put into place, anything that can be run by a bot or macro will be. The vast majority of the minerals in Eve?s economy come from miner bots. The vast majority. And it?s not surprising, if you think about it. If players make decisions based not on risk/reward but effort/reward, then botting is the clear solution, since it?s virtually 0 effort. Add in the fact that mining in empire space happens to also be near 0 risk, and it?s clear from every metric why so many AFK miners and mining bots appear. Not only is this unfair to players who follow the rules and don?t cheat by botting, this skews the entire game?s economy. Cheap, bot-mined minerals have harmed the economy in two ways. First, they have encouraged the massive overproliferation of supercapital ships by making them much cheaper to build and replace, which has thrown off the entire balance of PvP in nullsec. Second, they have stifled the normal rewards that used to provide for a rich nullsec and lowsec environment. In ~the good old days~ players would mine minerals everywhere, even in nullsec space, because it was legitimately good money. This led to a natural, healthy PvP ecosystem where people would mine, others would attack the miners and haulers, and others would have to defend them. Lots of opportunities for moneymaking and small scale PvP. With the advent of empire-based bot miners, though, mineral prices have dropped to the point where it?s just not worth it to mine in nullsec. Without miners, there are fewer and fewer raids, leading to a nullsec and lowsec stagnation. Now, the majority of fights are at a fleet level, much harder to get into. I love this type of fighting, but it?s clear to see that we?ve lost something, and it was directly because of botters. So when you?re designing your mining system, be it asteroids or gas giant planets, you absolutely must consider not only risk/reward, but also effort/reward and bottability. You need to ask yourselves, ?Is it possible for a player in the safest part of empire space to run a mining/missioning/hauling/whatever bot unmolested?? It?s not good enough for it to be poorly paid?you will see botters if it?s at all possible. Afterall, who can beat an effort/reward ratio with 0 effort?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KalXen~SPARTA~ Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Well written, and I agree. I've seen the risk/reward or the effort/reward ratios kill games. Anywhere something can be botted or "automated" will do that. Let me correlate that to Minecraft Tekkit. Minecraft is fun for me in survival mode, because digging for minerals is not always safe. But after a while (give or take a year), its boring cuz the content is limited. Along comes Tekkit addon, and you have so much more content to build nifty things like solar panels, and laser guns, etc. Yippie! But at a certain point you can craft things that can just spit out of thin air any kind of material you need w/o the need to mine/collect it. And the armor/weapons you eventually craft make you invincible, as the risk of the environment doesn't keep pace. So, a good chunk of the gameplay mechanic is gone because at that point, I have no need to interact with my environment. No need to explore. Why mine? Monsters aren't threatening anymore. Just harvest whatever material you need and build in safety. And once you get to that point, why go back when the risk/effort is 0 and reward is infinite. You might as well just be in creative mode in the first place. So I hope they find the magical balance. I'd rather see someone in game with an amazing epic weapon and have the feeling of awe and admiration for someone's hard work, than knowing they could buy it for $15 of credits from a "pay to win" store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel~Sparta~ Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Insureance ... Insurance One major issue we?ve seen come up time and again in the past week is that of ship insurance. What does it mean, how do you get it, who is eligible and so forth. We?ve put together the following short FAQ document to try to explain the topic: What is insurance? Pilots in Star Citizen can purchase insurance policies for their ships, modifications and cargo. This ensures that your ship will be replaced and/or its modifications and cargo will be subsidized should you be destroyed in a fight or accident. As in real life, insurance policies must be maintained: you must pay a regular fee in galactic credits (the in-game currency) or your policy will lapse and you will not receive a payout or a ship replacement when your ship is destroyed. Will this Insurance cost a lot? Like in real-life insurance should be a relatively small part of your regular in game expenses which will also include paying landing fees, trade tariffs (if in a system with lots of infrastructure and law and order), fuel (if you don?t collect it yourself from a gas giant), buying cargo to trade, hiring help, making upgrades to your ship or even buying a whole new ship. Some of the additional policies like upgrade or cargo insurance will be rated based on risk levels. Risk level 1 being the safest systems and risk level 5 being the most dangerous system that is insurable for cargo or upgrades. Any risk level over 5 is un-insurable. A risk 3 policy for cargo will cover you for all cargo losses in a risk 3 system or below. The higher the risk level of the policy the more it will cost. As with the base insurance this will not be crippling financially but instead be a reasonable running cost that relates to the risk / reward profile of the systems flown. How do I get lifetime insurance? Anyone who pledged for a copy of Star Citizen before November 26, 2012 automatically has lifetime insurance on their pledge ships; this protects the investment you made in the game in perpetuity. Anyone who pledged for a copy on or after November 26th starts with a finite insurance package for their ship. This can be anywhere from 2 months to 12 months depending on the ship and policy type. Lifetime insurance does not exist for modifications or cargo. What happens if I don?t have insurance? Your character will have to buy a new ship with any credits he has, or if he doesn?t have enough credits fly missions for a third party (both NPC and player) until he?s earned enough to buy his own ship again. Will ships I add to my account have lifetime insurance? Users who registered and bought at least one ship before November 26, 2012 can purchase additional ships with lifetime insurance for the next twelve months of development. Users who registered on or after November 26, 2012 can purchase additional ships with variable length starter insurance policies ranging from two months to twelve months. Can I trade my lifetime insurance ship? Yes. The lifetime insurance will follow the ship hull when it is legally sold or gifted. If the ship is stolen or otherwise captured, the policy will not transfer. Will my insurance carry over to ships I earn in the finished game? No, and you cannot transfer insurance policies from one ship to another. Can I use my insurance as an excuse to simply ram other ships to death knowing I will get my ship back? You can, but this will be a very bad idea as it is inconvenient and time consuming in getting your replacement ship ready to go again. Additionally there will be an increasing delay in replacing your ship every time you make a claim within a certain period of time. Can I insure alien or one-off ships? No. The only exception is the limited number of Vanduul fighters sold through the RSI site during the pledge campaign; these ships do have lifetime insurance included. What will you do to combat insurance fraud? A ship cannot be sold without a legitimate hull id code. Claiming on the insurance policy invalidates the hull code on your previous ship, so if it was captured or stolen the new owner will be unable to sell the ship at a regular ship dealer. Additionally if you have claimed on a policy and someone is flying the stolen ship in a well policed system, the hull id will mark it as a stolen ship, the law will be after you and landing privileges will be denied on any lawful planet. You will be able to fly a ?hot? ship to the less savory parts of the Star Citizen universe, where you will probably be able to land and may be able to purchase a fake hull id code, but it will take effort and not necessarily be cheap. Finally the Advocacy takes insurance fraud very seriously. If it can be proven that a player has colluded with another player to defraud the insurance company, that hull?s lifetime insurance will be invalidated and the player may have to pay a large amount of credits to keep their record clean and not be marked as a wanted criminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarrok Posted November 29, 2012 Author Share Posted November 29, 2012 Concept to 3D environment video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE0o_g2hMbk&feature=plcp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinobi_EBDA Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Only just found this post. This game looks like awesome fun! Can't wait to see a release date for this one - although I think I'll have to upgrade my computer a bit before then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 LOL!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Look what I got in the Mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MH6~SPARTA~ Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Look what I got in the Mail Nice, me too. Got a white one. Though the Chinese packaging of the thing made confused the hell out of me until I opened it and saw what it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightspeed~SPARTA~ Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 I am def going to sink my teeth into this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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