Wingman's Hangar Episode 37

Issue #8 – Venice, Scenarios and Augments

The team is hard at work on both Issues #8 and #9.

I’m really excited to see all new and deep game and content systems moving closer to launch. Both the Augment and Scenario systems are completely fresh features to The Secret World.

Issue #8 begins in the sunken Council of Venice chambers in Venice, before leading players into the scenario system where they will need to earn their Field Agent certification before being allowed to enter Tokyo.

I had a chance to test the most recent iteration of the scenario system and I was incredibly pleased with how it is coming along. There was a moment when my character, attempting to herd survivors into the Hotel Wahid, was caught out by a sandstorm which swept in: reducing visibility in the entire area and damaging my character. I was forced to find cover to survive, but the survivors I was escorting weren’t so lucky!

The random elements create a powerful difference in the experience and force you to adapt strategies on the fly. During one game, half of the survivors I was protecting revealed themselves as cultists and began slaughtering the rest. Not knowing exactly what is going to happen creates a level of challenge for even experienced groups.

Oh and for those of you who think you’ve “done it all” the nightmare versions of scenarios will be balanced around the highest (QL10.5) gear requirements. However if you like less of a hardcore challenge, the Scenarios will also be available in Normal and Elite mode as well.

Of course, that then leads into the discussion of rewards for completing Scenarios, which in turn leads to a discussion of the Augment system.

Augments fall into four categories. Each category of the wheel contains 10 Augments, and each Augment can be upgraded up to 5 times.

Base Augment items are recovered during Scenarios (in the beginning, but itemization of Augments will continue into future content) and must be crafted into useable items before they can be consumed to upgrade Augments in the wheel. The required crafting materials for each upgrade are clearly explained in the tooltips for the base items.
Once an Augment item is created, it can be consumed at a significant AP cost to learn/upgrade the appropriate Augment in the Augment wheel. In order to upgrade Augments past a certain tier a player must also increase his Augment Skill to the required level.

As you increase your Augment Skills, you increase your capacity to store AP. Players who have fully upgraded Augment Skills can store hundreds of AP.

Augments can be equipped on any of the 7 abilities in the hotbar – though abilities may not be able to slot all types of Augments. Augments can be upgrades which affect your entire character, or they can be narrowly focused and only able to upgrade the active ability that they are equipped on. Augments can only be attached to active abilities.

Overall, there are 200 different upgrades available to characters through the Augment system and in keeping with the general theme of The Secret World, it is absolutely possible to get all of them with enough dedication. We're really looking forward to see what players can do with the augments, and you'd better be prepared, because Tokyo is going to challenge you in ways you haven't even considered!
 

17 Million!

I would like to extend my most heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you! We just hit $17 million at slightly past 12am PST August 31 2013 – less than seven days after we hit $16M!!! The power of this community is simply amazing!

We still have a ways to go before we have achieved the goal of being completely community funded but based on our current trajectory we’re going to make it – maybe even by the end of this year! Which will be another amazing milestone that will have been set by this community. The enthusiasm and support the development team and I have felt is amazing and makes us even more determined to make the best damn space sim ever! (BDSSE!)

The $17 million mark unlocks a special ship upgrade pack for every pledger who has donated prior to this point. An engine modifier will be added to your account shortly and in the near future you should be able to see it in your hangar! You also unlocked an additional flyable ship class in the finished game: the massive battlecruiser!

This accomplishment means that it’s time to reveal the $19 million stretch goals. Without further ado:

$19 million

• Know your foe with a Jane’s Fighting Ships style manual free in PDF form to all pledgers.
• Manage Space Stations – Players will compete to own and operate a limited number of space stations across the galaxy.
• RSI Museum will air monthly, with a new game featured each time!

Wingman's Hangar Episode 36 - Gamescon Edition

Hangar Module Released!

Greetings Citizens,

The Hangar Module is now available for download! Please click here to access the download site. You will be asked to log in and confirm that you have an applicable Star Citizen package. Once you click download, your RSI account will be awarded an additional 5,000 UCE as our thanks for your early support!

The Hangar Module is launching with the following known issues. We’ll be addressing these and everything else you discover in future patches!

• Some ships are missing sound effects and or interior footstep sounds

• Post processing artifact effect present in Deluxe hangar

• Character feet can have a jittering effect during walking animation

• Exiting the Freelancer animation is offset

• Exiting the 300i and variants ships animation is offset

• Hornet missing floor geometry

• Unable to enter turrets in Freelancer and Constellation

• Unable to enter bathroom in Constellation

• Mounting discount hangar ladder in first person then switching to third person causes character to be stuck in climbing animation and character is unable to navigate normally until restart

• Buggy will go live via Voyager Direct on Friday

16 Million!

Greetings Citizens,

We have just hit $16 million in pledges for Star Citizen! The entire Cloud Imperium team is humbled at your dedication to our game, space sims and the PC. With the imminent release of the first Hangar Module we are going to show our dedication to sharing game development with our fans by giving them the earliest ever look at a AAA game… and with this new funding achievement you have shown your dedication to this project once again!

With this milestone you have unlocked the following stretch goals. You will learn more about each in a more detailed post later in the week!

• Arena mode: The next generation of Wing Commander’s TrainSim allows pilots to test out their combat skills against friends or strangers in a simulation. Gain valuable combat experience without the downside of losing your ship in the game universe! Place bets on competitions across the galaxy.
• Every pledger who backs before $16 million will receive a laser pistol. Keep your ship safe from boarders with a pistol by your side.

We are also now pleased to reveal the $18 million goals:

• Exclusive star system for pre-launch backers. Only players who support the game before its
  launch will receive the computer coordinates needed to allow their jump drives to access this system.

Wingman's Hangar Episode 35: Gamescon Edition

The Business (Model) of WildStar

By Jeremy "Gaffer" Gaffney - August 19, 2013 

I've got two big-ticket things to talk about this week: our anticipated launch date shift and our business model.

Hopefully you saw last week's State of the Beta blog post by our Design Director (and Beta Pope) Mike Donatelli, so you know we've got some big changes in store for WildStar.  We’ve been watching and listening to the outstanding feedback from our Beta community over the last few months and right now, with the changes planned, we’re projecting a Spring 2014 launch. Over the coming months, we'll also dive into some of the smaller (but just as important) changes we've been planning in reaction to beta feedback we've seen, so you know what to expect when we ramp up beta again later this year.  Our number one commitment is quality; we think that having a ton of fun, polished content and deep top-level gameplay is a big chunk of what separates the big boys from the also-rans in the online business.

Now, let's talk about the WildStar business model. Have a seat and let's talk this through.
The short-form is this: We've decided to go with two major options at launch for how you can play the game. We figure at this point in the biz, most players are pretty passionate about what models they will or won’t play – so why not provide options? 

First thing's first: you buy WildStar (either via a box or downloading) – this will give you 30 days of free gameplay. After that, you have two options to play, or pay, for your game time.

Option 1: Monthly subscription

Option 2: C.R.E.D.D.

A monthly subscription is pretty standard fare – you probably know what that’s all about.  Subscribe, and every month you pay for another 30 days of game time.  Straightforward.

But some people don’t like subscriptions. Maybe they just want to play for free, maybe they’ve been burned by a subscription game before and dislike the model.  OK, we hear you – for you guys we have C.R.E.D.D.

This is an item that can be purchased online at the WildStar website, and can then be bought and sold with other players in-game.  This trading happens via the Commodities Exchange – basically a stock market that lets you trade C.R.E.D.D. to other players for earned in-game gold.

So for those of you who don't want to pay a subscription fee: you can use your first month of gameplay to earn gold while playing WildStar. When the next month comes around, instead of paying the monthly subscription fee, you can use gold earned in-game to purchase C.R.E.D.D. from other players on the CX. Boom, you cash in a C.R.E.D.D for a month of game time. You can continue this cycle over & over again, enabling you to “play to pay” for WildStar.

So that sounds good – but what about those players who don’t have as much time as they'd like to play WildStar, but want a little extra in-game gold? Those folks can purchase C.R.E.D.D. online from our store and trade it on the CX for gold: basically trading their extra cash to help another player play for free in return for a pile of gold. We see this as a safe and secure way for players who want to buy gold to have a way of getting some in-game cash without funding gold farming outfits and all the hacking and scamming that can entail.

We’ve put together a handy guide and collection of Frequently Asked Questions regarding our Biz Model, which you’ll find here. Like all things WildStar, your feedback is crucial to refining and defining the FAQ information found at that link, so we’ll provide regular updates to that page throughout this process, letting you know when we’ve added important information.

We're at Gamescom this week and will be at PAX at the end of the month, and we'd love to continue the conversation there if you want to come visit us! Check out all the details here to see where and when you can find us.

Wingman's Hangar Episode 34

Patch 5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar Trailer Unleashed