Re: Star Citizen / Squadron 42

MJDixon Sun Dec 21, 2014 10:51 pm

Beds are overrated - I just undo the harness and float around in the cockpit. Razz

MJDixon Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:47 pm

At least if you get shot down you can go and find a nice rock to use as a life raft. Razz

hinkel1 Tue Dec 23, 2014 10:33 pm

MJDixon Wed Dec 24, 2014 11:42 pm

Turns out that the Military Hornet Trainers in Arena Commander have all been removed now and replaced by the Civilian Hornets (or whichever variant people had), which only have 2 guns - good thing I got a Super Hornet I guess. Razz

Although it certainly is a tremendous dealer of death, I still find myself having more fun in the 300i Trainer they gave me in place of my Gladius (which isn't flyable yet), as it's more of a traditional dogfighter based on speed and manoeuvrability and getting behind the enemy, where as the Hornet is essentially a space turret, where you just spin around shooting a wall of fire at everything (though it does remind me of a Hurricane with that wall of tracers and that tearing noise the guns make - though I think the later is the sound screwing up because of all the gun sounds. Laughing

)

I still have hopes that the Gladius will be superior to the 300 series and Avenger as far as dogfighting goes, as it's a pure military combat ship rather than a combat ship with a bed and a cargo hold, but we shall see. Wink

Funny thing is that the Civilian Hornet now has a top speed of 447mph and 2 x 20mm cannons, and a 1000 year old Spitfire Mk XIV does 447mph and has 2 x 20mm cannons and 4 x .303 MGs, that's progress for you. Laughing

MJDixon Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:19 am

They're adding VAT to sales in Europe starting from the 1st of February, so if you've been holding out for a Gladius or something then now would be the time. Razz

They've also put the limited ships back on sale as a Pre-VAT thing:

Limited ship Sale

In addition, Arena Commander 1.01 has been released, here are the patch notes:

Additions
Weapons
Added fuel system to missiles
Added IR signal to missiles so they can appear on radar
User Interface
Added UI and HUD overlays to display location of missiles that have been fired
Added radar icons to differentiate between friendly and enemy missiles
Buggy has been added to the holotable UI
Added drag and drop sorting to power management menu (F3) on some ships
Added community request to allow ship roll to be bound to mouse input
Added community request for invert option for analogue zoom
Art
Added new skins for the Greycat Buggy

Balance/Tweaks
Ships
Avenger mass increased
Avenger maneuvering thruster values adjusted
Avenger center of mass adjusted
Adjusted Cutlass thruster rotation speed
Vanduul Glaive speed increased
Corrected the amount of splash damage absorbed by shields
Weapons
Increased size and duration of chaff
Increased amount of countermeasures per pod
Flare lighting effect can now be seen further away
Flares potency degrades with time
Reduced missile ability to maintain its target
Increased missile damage due to improvements made to shields
Reduced acceleration of Rattler missile to extend fuel life
User Interface
Renamed “Controls” to say “Control Options”
”Join” has been removed from the lobby UI since the “Launch” button has replaced its function
When searching for a match, cancel and join will no longer display for players that are not the host
Host can no longer cancel a search when a match is found
Other tweaks
Tweaked information that is reported to the leaderboards for changes in damage dealt and taken
Updated some character animations for passing out and recovering from g-forces
AI pilots will sometimes use a break away maneuver after using a flare to deflect a missile

Fixes
Ships
Fixed a few issues where running towards the Avenger and using a door would result in an offset animation
Avenger nose mount will now only accept the avenger Tigerstreik
Fixed an issue where the Avenger’s Tigerstreik would continue to play weapons fire sounds when it runs out of ammunition
Fixed an issue where the Avenger could only take damage from some directions
Fixed some situations where the Avenger would deploy its landing gear while dogfighting
Fixed an issue where Aurora LN would load in without a radar sphere
Characters flying an Aurora LN and LX now show g-force animations while flying
Mustang turret weapons are now bound to the correct weapons group
Mustang Delta rockets will now explode when hitting 300 series ships
Mustangs will no longer give the ‘forced error’ message when destroyed
Hornet ladders will now have footstep audio when entering and exiting ship
Hornets have had their missing missile rack returned to them
Fixed an issue where the Hornet would fire its weapons through its nose at extreme angles
Fixed an issue where the Hornet computer would say “Chaff offline” when activating chaff
Fixed an issue that allowed for a Gladius to be flown in free flight
Fixed an issue with Cutlass landing gear not deploying when near landing pad
Characters flying a Cutlass will now show g-force animations while flying
Fixed an issue that caused the Cutlass to be missing its turret
Fixed multiple objects in the base Freelancer variant that could not be used
Weapons
Fixed an issue where flares would only spawn client side
Missiles will now detonate when they reach a flare
Fixed an issue where rattler engine flare would drop out at large distances
Fixed an issue where rattler missiles would not separate into their second stage in multiplayer
Missile icons in the HUD now properly reflect the type of lock the missile uses
Fixed a UI issue where changing power management tabs would show incorrect shield information if custom shield values were in use
Fixed some of the issues that would cause a ‘forced error’ when killing opponents with missiles or ballistic weapons
Fixed an issue where the Tigerstriek would continue to play weapons fire sounds when it runs out of ammunition
User Interface
Blank chat messages can no longer be sent while dogfighting
Closing chat while dogfighting now clears text from the entry field
Holotable item stacks will no longer move position in the item list when they are used
Entering a lobby will no longer request all the information from an accounts contact list at the same time
Toggling gimbal lock and virtual joystick no longer resets virtual center of the screen
Added a space between ‘New’ and ‘Horizon’ for the Old Vanderval race map
Fixed an issue where changing the game mode in a lobby would reset a players ship choice
Gameplay
Fixed an issue where self-destructing would count as a final kill
Fixed players being unable to connect to Vanduul Swarm Coop
Other fixes
Fixed an issue where getting inside the buggy would sometimes teleport characters outside of the hangar
Fixed the attachment point for the characters hair
Second story Self Land hangar bay doors now have audio when opened and closed
Fixed an issue where the camera would snap to a scene of stars when sitting in pilot chairs or ship beds
Fixed some flickering asteroids

Known Issues
350r will sometimes spawn with damaged components
350r is unable to have a Talon Stalker Twin Rack mounted on it in the holotable
Avenger maneuvering effects are green
Aurora weaponry is not venting heat
Mustang Beta can have one of the doors in the cabin float above it if it’s used
Back seat of the super hornet cannot be exited
All ships aside from the Hornet are missing ship trails when carrying a Core
Several ships are having radar visibility issues due to the helmet blocking the view
Freelancer loading ramp has no collision
Ballistic weapons will sometimes be missing ammunition when loading into a match (deleting the user folder fixes this)
Missiles have a small portion of the ship targeting UI on them after being launched
Character will sometimes spawn with the helmet on backwards
Paint objects in the holotable are placeholder
Loading back into a lobby will reset the ship selection to its default (sometimes this doesn’t happen visually but still happens on the backend)
The first player in Team 1 duplicates when the last non-ready player readies up for Capture the Core and Squadron Battle game modes
Ship selection resets to default the 2nd time a player loads into a game mode in the same lobby
Attempting to kick a player from the lobby as they quit out will generate Lobby Error 8, loading into a public lobby again will hang the game on a black screen
Using the Arena Commander menu in a ship, entering a match, and loading back into the hangar will cause lobby errors

So I guess we should see if Multiplayer actually works now. Razz

hinkel1 Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:34 pm

we can have another attempt next week maybe

MJDixon Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:20 pm

You should like this, Speedy.

RSI Orion Mining Platform

Star Citizen Careers: Mining

By eck, it's grim down't asteroid field.

speedy77 Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:59 pm

MJDixon wrote:You should like this, Speedy.

By eck, it's grim down't asteroid field.

Ah, them were the days. Gives me a chance to dig out (see what I did there) my old Welsh mining rescuer get up. Very Happy

Star Citizen / Squadron 42 - Page 6 _48784377_minesrescueposter2

Looks strangely like my ROF get up.

It takes a particular sort of person to mine for a living in RL. Therefore it must take a even stranger person to choose to do it in a space sim for fun.

MJDixon Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:56 pm

I see they're wearing some sort of oxygen masks though, Speedy - I can't see them being of any use in an Aero machine, seems about as useful as those para-chutes they keep going on about.

speedy77 wrote:
It takes a particular sort of person to mine for a living in RL. Therefore it must take a even stranger person to choose to do it in a space sim for fun.

I hear that in space mining it's quite cold outside - there's no sign of atmosphere, and you're all alone, more or less...

That said, there's probably more money in space mining. Razz

MJDixon Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:32 pm

Seems the Gladius is now on the Public Test Server (not entirely sure why an Alpha needs a test server, but there you are. Laughing

)

Soon (tm)

The back end reminds me of an F-14, with the spacing between the engines, apart from them being rectangular of course.

You know you want one. Razz

speedy77 Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:36 pm

Ohhh that does look ace. I might have to invest in one of those.

Is it from the UK development team? if so sheer patriotism means I must. Very Happy

MJDixon Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:57 pm

The Gladius was the first ship designed from top to bottom in the UK (Manchester to be precise, good old North West of England Razz

), however they're also the studio primarily responsible for developing Squadron 42 (as in the Single Player 'Wing Commander' style game/prologue for Star Citizen), so they're designing most of the military ships, including capital ships (who says the British ship building industry is in decline? Wink

), as well as the alien military ships presumably.

Also there's a trend of late where the US Studios develop a ship, then it turns out that ships don't actually make any sense with regards to where to put things like engines and cargo holds - so they send them to Manchester to be redesigned. Laughing

They've also just opened a new studio in Germany, but it's mostly concentrated on engine development I think (as in the game engine, not the woosh engine).

Also seemingly most of the personal weapons are being made by a German company (it turns out people create companies to design virtual guns for other people, like virtual arms dealers!), but you have to admit those Germans do make good guns...

MJDixon Sun Mar 08, 2015 7:14 am

Good news is the new patch has multiplayer free flight, with landing platforms - so seemingly you can land and try each other's ships - just don't scratch the paint. Razz

MJDixon Sun Mar 08, 2015 12:17 pm

That better not be my Gladius! Shocked

New Damage System

MJDixon Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:47 pm

Here's the video of the presentation Chris Roberts did at PAX East about what's coming up soon in Star Citizen - i.e. the new patch, which should be out tonight, as well as the FPS update, which is coming in two weeks (be sure!)

MJDixon Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:50 pm

The Retaliator is now Hangar ready on the test server:

Reminds me a lot of Silent Hunter V, though in Silent Hunter V's case they just made 1 submarine that detailed and called it a finished game. Laughing

I still think the single cockpit doesn't feel right, a two seat bomber cockpit would be better - as a single seat it just seems like this lonely Pilot stuck on to the front, and makes the cockpit look out of proportion with the rest of the ship.

The Gladius has had it's speed increased to 240 m/s as well, which I think is faster than most of the Space BMWs (sorry ~~Speedy~~ Slowy Razz

) apart from the 350r racer and M50.

v1.1 has been pushed back to next week, but the free fly week is happening now until Friday, so you can fly any of the current in game ships.

speedy77 Sun Mar 15, 2015 7:56 am

MJDixon wrote:

The Gladius has had it's speed increased to 240 m/s as well, which I think is faster than most of the Space BMWs (sorry ~~Speedy~~ Slowy ) apart from the 350r racer and M50.

Wtf ? The whole point of the space BMW was it is supposed to be the fastest with the trade off being less firepower. That settles it I'll be upgrading to a gladius.

MJDixon Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:22 am

Military Interceptor in 'faster than bed equipped, cargo carrying civilian touring ship' shocker! Razz

That said, stats are subject to change - so might be the other way around next week, plus the stock versions can probably be upgraded by varying amounts.

MJDixon Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:23 pm

Here's a stats comparison between the 325a and the Gladius (bearing in mind stats change every week, and are rarely accurate. Laughing

)

Aegis Dynamics Gladius

Mass: 16,000kg
Crew: 1
Cargo Capacity: 0 Freight Units
Engines: 2x Size 2
Manoeuvering Thrusters: 8 x Size 1
Power Plant: Size 2
Shield: Size 3

Origin Jumpworks 325a

Mass: 20,085kg
Crew: 1
Cargo Capacity: 16 Freight Units
Engines: 1 x Size 4
Manoeuvering Thrusters: 12 x Size 1
Power Plant: Size 3
Shield: Size 2

So from that it seems that the the Gladius is lighter, but the 325a has a bigger power plant so can probably balance power management better, I'm not sure how the engine sizes scale, but the 325a has 1 engine, while the Gladius has 2 smaller engines - also the 325a might be able to mount larger missiles, at the moment they both have 2 wing guns and a nose gun - but the weapon loadout changes a lot so who knows. Razz

MJDixon Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:07 am

To add contacts to your contact list (so you can invite them to servers) go to the Star Citizen page and click the 'My RSI' tab at the top right, the the 'Contacts' tab (on the left side of the new drop down page), then 'Add Citizen to your list'

And our names are Boken, conflict111 and TheSpacer, incase you've forgotten, speedy77 Razz

MJDixon Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:33 pm

Patch is out!

Star Citizen v1.1.0 wrote:
Additions:

Gameplay

Added Free Flight Multiplayer
Added backend functionality for IFCS to turn off when a ship lands
Added Landing/Docking mode to Free Flight (engaged using N)
Added ability for ships to request landing permission in Free Flight (engaged using middle mouse button while Landing/Docking is active)
Added Automatic Approach landing mode to Free Flight (engaged using M when in range of a landing zone after having been given permission to land)
Added groundwork tech for new ship damage state system
Added the Rental Equipment Credits system. Our community team have a walkthrough here
Added a system for ships to generate turbulence when using their thrusters to hover over something

Ships

Gladius is now combat ready
Added new ship damage state system to the Gladius
Retaliator is now hangar ready

Components

Added Aurora SXSW paint skin
Redesigned ballistic weapons so they have their own loadouts which will allow them to automatically be attached with ammunition

User Interface

Added a visual overheat warning to the HUD to accompany the auditory warning
Added identifier numbers to the end of non-unique Vanduul in Vanduul swarm
Added HUD element to display status of ESP toggle (no keybinding option yet but it can be turned on and off in the Main Menu)
Added HUD element to display when landing gear is deploying and deployed
Added an altimeter for Landing/Docking mode to show ships how far away from the platform the ship is
Added Rental Equipment Credits to scoreboard (the total value of credits earned is not calculated until the match is over)
Added ping value to scoreboard (currently doesn’t work)
Added custom sensitivity curves to control options
Added backend support to allow the creation of subgroups within subgroups in control options

Environment

Added Simpod to hangar (replaces ship cockpit arena commander menu)
Added Xian ship miniature
Added Khartu-Al ship miniature

Balance/Tweaks:

Gameplay

Increased number of landing platforms in Free Flight to 8
Changed friendly fire system – Pilots now receive “Infractions” for doing an amount of friendly fire damage in a short space of time. Too many of these causes them to be kicked from the game
Comstab is less aggressive in how quickly it decelerates the ship which will lead to some drift
Scoreboard is now bound to the tab key
Freelook is now bound right ctrl+tab
Crouch is now bound to ctrl
G-safe now limits based on ship velocities rather than set points

Ships

Adjusted handling for multiple ship families
Updated lighting system for 300 series
300 series have had their wing mount size changed to the correct value of size 2
Aurora headlights system updated to use multiple light sources
Hornets have had their ball turret weapon mount size changed to the correct value of size 2
Hornets now fold their wings back while landing
The Cutlass have had their turret weapon mount size changed to the correct value of size 2
M50 can now mount size 2 weapons on its wings if it is not using gimbals
Mustang nose turret adjusted to hold size 1 weapons

Components

Replaced Mass Driver Cannon fire sound with something more appropriate for a 60mm Ballistic (was laser)
Gimbaled weapon mounts have been adjusted so that they now hold weapons that are one size smaller than the mount
Fixed mounts are now a part of the ship and allow weapons equal to the slot size to be attached to the ship without the need of an additional equipment
Adjusted damage and heat per shot for Sledge II to normalize it vs other size 1 weapons
Adjusted missile mass to a more realistic value
Rattler second stage rockets are slightly faster and have better acceleration

User Interface

Removed Arena Commander UI from all ship cockpits (available through Simpod and escape menu)
Removed landing pads from ship radar sphere unless ship is in landing mode
G-safe light deactivates when boost is held down
Self-destruct is now a customizable binding
Holotable now sorts items based on type, subtype (where applicable) and name
Holotable can now be interacted with after pressing F (no longer need to press tab)
Changed importing custom control setups so that it allows the entire default profile to be overridden based on forum feedback

Fixes:

(PTU) – Denotes an issue from PTU that was fixed

Gameplay

REC now reports to the website(PTU)
Ships are now able to take off if a pilot reenters a seat after they land using automatic approach(PTU)
Fixed multiple issues where landing a ship would prevent it from being able to take off(PTU)
Fixed issue where using AMD crossfire would cause the new damage state system to display incorrectly(PTU)
Fixed an issue that was causing AI pilots to misjudge the position of a ship they were trying to avoid
Fixed final kill alert sound playing any time a ships is destroyed after a pilot reaches 13000 points in battle royale
Fixed a bug where calculated torque was occasionally incorrect causing instability in the ship
Fixed issue that was causing thrusters to twitch back and forth
Fixed Vanduul missiles skipping their flight phase in Coop Vanduul Swarm
Enemy and friendly NPC ships are now spawning correctly in Dying Star Vanduul Swarm(PTU)
Fixed an issue that was causing time played to be reported incorrectly
Fixed an issue where opening the holotable after equipping certain weapons would cause the game to crash(PTU)
Increased distance that ships will deploy their landing gear to prevent them from pushing themselves off the landing platform(PTU)
Fixed an issue where passengers entering a ship while the pilot is still sitting in the cockpit will cause the pilot to go through the same animations(PTU)
Characters should now die when hitting collision at high speed instead of going through it(PTU)
Fixed an issue where using HOMAS or TrackIR whilst using Target Focus causes the players head to shake and move uncontrollably
Fixed issue where character will sometimes spawn with the helmet on backwards

Ships

300 series have their starboard cooling components back
350r now respawns without damaging its components
350r center of mass was in the wrong location and has been corrected*
Mustang Beta will no longer have one of the doors in the cabin float above it if it’s used
Mustang variant ships were using the incorrect thrusters(PTU)
Retaliator now appears in the hangar(PTU)

Components

Fixed several shield generators having visible one sided geometry in the holotable
Adjusted weapon tech setup that was preventing the 9-Series Longsword from animating when fired
MaxOx NN-13 Neutron Cannon has had its name corrected
Tigerstriek is no longer missing collision

User Interface

Fixed an issue that was causing the game client to steal mouse focus when loading into the hangar
Fixed an issue that was causing the scoreboard to appear when modifier keys were pressed with the tab button

Known Issues:

Gameplay

Network divergence can cause situations where it appears like a ship is not taking damage when the shots are actually missing
A combination of sprinting and shaking the mouse can cause the character to clip through a number of game objects
Sprinting and jumping into walls will sometimes cause the character to fall out of the game world
Weapons fire can appear offset from weapon muzzle when fired while moving
Entering or exiting a ship will cause other clients to see the character T-pose
Characters rolling while prone is not seen by other clients
Characters will sometimes fail to animate correctly when exiting the pilot seat after landing
Lateral G-Force head animation is too fast which causes the camera to jerk around while strafing

Ships

All ships aside from the Hornet are missing ship trails when carrying a Core
Multiple ships will sometimes tilt back when landing on landing platforms
300i jitters after having landed on a landing pad
Aurora intakes aren’t displaying paint
Aurora are not showing lateral G-force animations for the character
Avenger has some doors that cannot be opened in multiplayer
Entering the back seat of the Gladiator plays the animation for entering the front seat.
Freelancer loading ramp has no collision
Cutlass isn’t attaching its Trireme thrusters for its default loadout
Cutlass Trireme thrusters are not able to be attached in the holotable (this will be left this way until they are ready for use)
Character is sunk into the seat when sitting in the Cutlass Blue and Red
There will sometimes be an invisible block of collision in the cargo area of the Cutlass after landing the ship
Freelancer loading ramp has no collision
Freelancer main thrusters are missing
Multiple objects in the Retaliator are missing use prompts
Retaliator maneuvering thrusters are not in landing mode when in the hangar

Components

User folder issues can cause weapon ammunition to go missing as well as other ship component malfunctions
Rattler Cluster missile second stage rockets will all use the same trajectory
Missiles aren’t inheriting velocity from the ship that launches them
Seal Corporation shield generators will not be visible when equipped to Hornets

User Interface

Lag pips will drop out with increased distance depending on how quickly a ship is approaching their target (only happens within a few hundred meters)
Scoreboard is not able to be opened when in spectator mode
Shield hardpoint in the holotable is too small for Mustangs and 300 series
Ship status HUD for Gladius will display damage incorrectly
Missiles have a small portion of the ship targeting UI on them after being launched
Multiple in game items and ships are missing text and are displaying their internal names
Paint objects in the holotable are placeholders
Loading back into a lobby will reset the ship selection to its default (sometimes this doesn’t happen visually but still happens on the backend)
Power throttle doesn’t work

Environment

There are several locations in the hangars where the character can fall out of the world

You need to uninstall the game, then download the new launcher from here and reinstall, then download the 25GB patch, so have fun with that. Razz

MJDixon Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:42 am

First impressions are that the Gladius is extremely fast and agile, but still able to hold its own, so what you would imagine an interceptor fighter to be like, also seems the 300 series (minus the 350r) speed has increased from 220 m/s to 230 m/s, so there's that at least, Speedy (Gladius is 240 m/s).

They've also added some nice stuff like a landing system, which shows a little top down projection of your ship so you can line up on landing pads better, and also an automatic landing system if you just can't land at all - even if it is just a copy of the one from Elite Dangerous. Laughing

Performance is still pretty crappy, but I'm going to try some performance tweaks and see if they're any help.

MJDixon Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:39 pm

They've also made a change to the way that weapon mounts work, in so much that if you want to have a gimballed weapon (i.e. one that rotates, like an Apache nose gun) then it lowers the size of the maximum weapon size, so for example if you had a Size 2 Wing Hardpoint you could either have a Size 2 fixed weapon, or a Size 1 gimballed weapon.

They've also given us all 5000 REC, which is the currency used in the Electronic Access (any resemblance to a certain Publisher is purely intended) Store, in order to rent ships and weapons and the like Electronic Access Store

Seemingly each rent gives you 7 lots of 24 hours worth of testing, so the first time you 'use' it you can use it for 24 hours (real time I presume, rather than game time), after which you can use another one when you want another 24 hours.

speedy77 Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:14 am

After uninstalling the game, I was trying to download the patch all day yesterday. Around 9.30 in the evening it announces there is not enough space on the hard drive!!

So I started the download again this time onto my secondary drive, but it said the update would take 4 days!! needless to say I gave up. I'll try again during this week.

MJDixon Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:24 am

Ouch, I got about half way through the first time but there was an error, but the second attempt only took 12 hours or so (only!).

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