I thought I start a thread for backers and people interested in this game. It's a hugely ambitious game with a targeted full release sometime in 2016.
What is Star Citizen:Star Citizen is an upcoming space trading and combat simulator video game for Microsoft Windows and Linux. Star Citizen will consist of two main components: first person space combat and trading in a massively multiplayer persistent universe and customizable private servers, and a branching single-player and drop-in co-operative multiplayer campaign (known as Squadron 42). The game will feature Oculus Rift support.
Both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are set in a 30th-century Milky Way centered around the fictional UEE (United Empire of Earth), an analogue of the late Roman Empire. A central theme of the game is citizenship (or lack thereof) in the UEE, which must be earned through player actions (such as completing a period of military service). It is anticipated that Citizens will enjoy certain in-game benefits, for example paying a reduced tax rate or having easier access to interspecies trade, but the exact details are yet to be determined.
Star Citizen is currently being developed by Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games, founded in 2011. Roberts' previous works include games such as Wing Commander, Wing Commander: Privateer, Starlancer and Freelancer.https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-gameBeware of wall of text about the game! I have highligted and added interesting facts from this post:
https://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=830383The development plan for Star CitizenStar Citizen is being developed in a concurrent (meaning separable aspects will reach dev milestones at different times) fashion rather than a linear (as in alpha > beta > release) fashion, and as certain aspects reach a shareable quality they will be released in modules that will each be continually iterated upon leading up to the full release. Each module will be available to backers with alpha access. New backers will be able to buy tokens to each alpha module separately when they are in a state capable of supporting more players entering testing.
Hangar Module [August 29th, 2013]
Walk around your starting hangar and view the ships you have purchased. As ships and hangars reach a presentable state they will be added to the hangar. Testing access is not required to access the hangar, but a game package is.
The Hangar Module is the basis of the Dogfighting Module, when you start Star Citizen you can still look around your ships if you choose not to put on the helmet and enter Arena Commander.
Dogfighting Module [June 3rd, 2014]
Enter the VR "Arena Commander" arena-mode simulator with any available ship you have access to. This milestone release is the core essentials of Star Citizen's ship to ship combat system, encapsulated in a traditional small scale arena game format with specific maps and accompanying gametypes. This special arena mode will eventually be a part of the SC persistent universe, as a VR sim system, that can be accessed for tournaments, training, and the like, but is not representative of experiences to be found elsewhere in the game.
Arena Commander V0.8 Launch TrailerCurrently: Version 0.8 is available for backers but will gradually be updated into version 1.0 by adding more ships and multiplayer access.
Arena Commander version 1.0 Single seater ships
Arena Commander version 2.0 will add Multi crew ships [end of 2014]
Arena Commander Game Modes:
Singleplayer Free Flight
Vanduul Swarm - Singleplayer vs AI
Battle Royale - 8 Player FFA Deathmatch
Squadron Battle - 4v4 Multiplayer Team Deathmatch
Capture the Core - 4v4 Multiplayer Team CTF
Maps:
Broken Moon of Taranis
Dying Star of Pyro
Gameplay videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhKrA0MjH8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Wf5rhimaAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ullfnNrWM6AUpcoming modules:
FPS Module [Reveal at PAX Australia]
Board ships and engage in firefights with combatant ship crews. Introduction of Zero-G combat
Planetside ModuleTravel to the surface of planets to socialize with other players and visit the NPCs, businesses, etc that populate the environments.
Squadron 42 [First episode around Q3-Q4 2015]
Branching single player missions (Dark Souls/Journey-like online co-op component), in which you enlist in the UEE military in hopes of making it into Squadron 42, a team of the most elite pilots of the UEE military. Squadron 42 will be released to backers episodically but will be one continuous story that will be finished and released in whole for SC's live release.
This campaign is a prequel to the time of the persistent universe. Playing through SQ42 with a character you intend to continue using will have consequences, eg if you served the military well you will be offered UEE citizenship status, and you can build relationships with NPCs to learn of or gain access to things in the PU. The campaign can be played at any time but will not affect your PU experience unless a new character is created that then goes on to enter the PU.
Squadron 42 - Full Cinematic Trailer (Old video from 2012)Persistent Universe Module [available for backers by the end of 2015, with a full release sometime in 2016]
The primary component of Star Citizen, the PU is the open galaxy for you to explore, you create your own gameplay with the tools you find. One 'server' will host everyone playing the game. After the PU has been released and stabalized for alpha testers, SC will be made available for beta testers.
Live Release [Targeted release Q3-Q4 2016]
Initial release version available for purchase. Continued support is planned, with updates on a projected ~two week cadence delivering new content, progressing the living story of the universe, and improving the game in addition to paid expansion packs to the single player campaign at some points.
Links:
Robert Space Industries - Star Citizen's official site; new lore and updates are released daily and each dev branch at CIG has a thread on the forums for you to interact with them
About the Game - An intro to Star Citizen
RSI Youtube - CIG team interviews and game content. Wingman's Hangar is a weekly series produced by CIG with news about the game, Wednesdays at 17:00 gmt
Star Citizen FAQWhat makes up a ship? - Overview of the components of the ships in SC, how their individual components function and interact
The SC Economy - An overview of some of the in-game economic systems
SC Ship Stats - Listing of all available technical specifications for the ships in SC
Community supported links:
SC WikiGalaxy Map - known position and information of the systems in SC
SC Economy - Compilation of knowledge about how the economic/crafting/upgrade systems will work in SC
My personal reasons for supporting this project:#What kid didn't dream about exploring the universe in a game. This is the kind of game I always wanted but at the same time knew it was to difficult to make.
#There is no major publisher pushing the development. This game is 100% crowdfunded by fans that wanna support the game development. They started as a kickstarter campaign and have up to this point raised $47 million wich to me is mind boggling in a time were most people are highly critical about what to spend their money on. I guess that tells something about the quality of the project and that people really wanna see this project come to life.
#They are not going for a pay-to-win model. You pledge to the project by buying ships and items from their store if you wanna support the project but once the game is released you can't do that anymore. You are able to earn all the ships in the game without buying anything. You do that by playing the game and earn UEC (In game currency).
#I have followed this project for about a year now and one thing is clear to me. Chris Roberts and the dev team is extremly passionate about this project and constantly share updates on what they are doing.
#The modular releases is a brilliant move because the backers can get a glimps of the game and at the same time the devs have the opportunity to bug test and get feedback from the community and sort out all kinds of problems before they go on to the next module. Not to say they aren't working on modules simultaneously. 268 people are working on the game devided into 3 main studios (Austin, Los Angeles and Manchester) and two external studios (Montreal and Colorado) and they all handle diffrent elements of the game.
Manchester works on the Single player campaign (Squadron 42)
Los Angeles focus on combat elements.
Austin and Montreal develops the Persistent Universe and Planetside action.
Colorado are working on the FPS sections of the game.
#The sci-fi sim genre is on an up-swing at the moment with alot of other cool games like Elite: Dangerous and No man's Sky. So it's an exciting time for sci-fi gamers.
End my rant with some cool in-fiction commercials:MISC FreelancerOrigin 300iRSI AuroraAnvil Aerospace Hornet F7C