Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Letter from the Chairman: $25 Million!
Last week, when we reached $24 million, I wrote that you must like Hornets. It turns out you REALLY
like Hornets: Star Citizen’s backers have propelled us to $25 million
in crowd funding! This milestone also means that October has been our
single biggest month for crowd funding yet… that’s truly astounding.
At $25 million, you allow us to build a stronger infrastructure for the Star Citizen alpha test:
$27 Million
Thank you for your continued support of and trust in project. You have empowered the team to make Star Citizen something truly special… the Best Damn Space Sim Ever!
— Chris Roberts
At $25 million, you allow us to build a stronger infrastructure for the Star Citizen alpha test:
- Enhanced Alpha – We will use additional funding to build a wider alpha test than we had originally intended for the first phase of Star Citizen’s launch. The initial plan was to first launch servers in North America and then expand to areas such as Europe and Australia to decrease latency in these areas, perfecting the game as we improve the experience around the world. This funding will allow us to invest in a wider infrastructure for our early testing, spinning up remote servers earlier. Hitting this goal will also allow us to increase the number of remaining alpha slots. Extra alpha slots not only means more Star Citizens will travel the ‘verse at launch, but that we will receive more feedback and more stress testing. This in turn will allow us to better balance and enhance the Star Citizen experience!
$27 Million
- Banu Merchantman Unlocked – Banu traders are renowed for their merchant prowess, traveling the spacelanes and trading with everyone from humans to the Vanduul! Their sturdy, dedicated trading ships are prized beyond all other transports, sometimes passing from generation to generation of Banu. At $23 million we dedicated additional resources to making Xi’An spacecraft a unique experience. At $27 million, we will expand that same thinking to the Banu! Starting with the merchant ship, the design team will expand Banu technology to offer players a completely different way of experiencing their universe.
Thank you for your continued support of and trust in project. You have empowered the team to make Star Citizen something truly special… the Best Damn Space Sim Ever!
— Chris Roberts
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Letter from the Chairman: $24 Million!
It looks like the Hornet commercial and
brochure were a resounding success; the president of Anvil Aerospace
should expect a bonus this quarter! In all seriousness, the community is
continuing to set funding records and is allowing us to do more with
Star Citizen. At $24 million, you’ve unlocked the following stretch
goal:
Pictured here is a monorail car, which will be used by the player to
travel from place to place on Terra! A public transportation system may
not seem as sexy as a new bomber or a cruiser, but it speaks directly
to the goal of making Star Citizen an immersive, world-building
experience. Instead of having a simple ‘fast travel’ option like an MMORPG,
Star Citizen will feature a living, breathing system to support that
gameplay requirement… a system that will be impacted by the economy and
player actions in all sorts of exciting ways!
We’re also revealing the $26 million goal, which I think will interest a lot of players. We have become increasingly fascinating with the possibilities for larger capital ships in Star Citizen and would like to dedicate some of the additional funding to expanding their functionality:
Finally, one small change to the Hornet rollout. We’ve had a number of requests from backers eager to purchase the limited edition Super Hornet who will not be able to do so until the end of the month. Federal employees in the United States who are just getting back to work after the recent government shutdown are especially affected. We are grateful for your passion and would like to help however possible. With this in mind, we are going to keep the Super Hornet available an extra week through Monday, November 4th. We hope that helps give all of our existing backers an opportunity to upgrade to the F7C-M!
— Chris Roberts
- Public Transportation System – Need to get from one place to another but don’t have a starship? We’re building a galactic transportation system. You can travel via transport from system to system in Star Citizen and even ship items (like a ship you need moved to another hangar.) With this stretch goal, we’ll expand this system: star liners, long range transports, charter ships and flyable shuttles!
We’re also revealing the $26 million goal, which I think will interest a lot of players. We have become increasingly fascinating with the possibilities for larger capital ships in Star Citizen and would like to dedicate some of the additional funding to expanding their functionality:
- Enhanced Capital Ship Systems – In addition to the command and control systems we’ve already outlined, we’re going to expand capital ship functions! Lead a damage control team to fight fires and repair key systems during battle, control internal bulkheads to slow boarders and man a number of consoles, like navigation and engineering, that will make commanding a capital ship feel even more immersive.
Finally, one small change to the Hornet rollout. We’ve had a number of requests from backers eager to purchase the limited edition Super Hornet who will not be able to do so until the end of the month. Federal employees in the United States who are just getting back to work after the recent government shutdown are especially affected. We are grateful for your passion and would like to help however possible. With this in mind, we are going to keep the Super Hornet available an extra week through Monday, November 4th. We hope that helps give all of our existing backers an opportunity to upgrade to the F7C-M!
— Chris Roberts
Friday, October 18, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Letter from the Chairman: $23 Million!
Greetings Citizens,
Thanks to your efforts, we have reached $23 million in crowd funding! We are in uncharted waters here; the community is allowing us to do something truly new, for which you have my eternal gratitude.. Our unlock for this level is the addition of a Xi’an scout plane. The goal here isn’t simply to add an extra ship to the game, but to add a new type of ship which can be expanded upon as we go. Once we’ve put the effort into building an alien experience for the Khartu, we can apply it to other Xi’an ships moving forward. Essentially, the extra funding lets us build an even more immersive universe. Here’s the official unlock statement.
23 Million
25 Million
Finally, I would like to share two new images that have just come in from concept artist Ryan Church. When the artwork we released last week
came in, I asked Ryan to follow up with the cockpit because I wanted to
see how cool it would be to get behind the ‘stick of this ship… and I
was not disappointed! I hope you enjoy.
Thank you for your continued support of Star Citizen and for helping us build a bigger, better game than I had ever dreamed possible.
— Chris Roberts
Thanks to your efforts, we have reached $23 million in crowd funding! We are in uncharted waters here; the community is allowing us to do something truly new, for which you have my eternal gratitude.. Our unlock for this level is the addition of a Xi’an scout plane. The goal here isn’t simply to add an extra ship to the game, but to add a new type of ship which can be expanded upon as we go. Once we’ve put the effort into building an alien experience for the Khartu, we can apply it to other Xi’an ships moving forward. Essentially, the extra funding lets us build an even more immersive universe. Here’s the official unlock statement.
23 Million
- Xi’an Scout Unlocked! The Khartu is the light attack craft of the Xi’An military. Contrary to Human ship design, the Khartu doesn’t have a traditional main thruster, instead featuring an array of maneuvering thrusters on articulated rigs. This design allows for incredible agility, making them the bane of UEE pilots, who bestowed the nickname ‘Quark’ because when all of the thrusters are firing, the ship looks like a spark flying through space. The Xi’an Aopoa corporation also manufactures an export model, the Khartu-al, for sale to human civilians as a dedicated scout/explorer. The export model features the same Xi’an maneuvering rig, but control surfaces modified for human use and a more limited armament. (Designer: Aopoa)
25 Million
- Enhanced Alpha – We will use additional funding to build a wider alpha test than we had originally intended for the first phase of Star Citizen’s launch. The initial plan was to first launch servers in North America and then expand to areas such as Europe and Australia to decrease latency in these areas, perfecting the game as we improve the experience around the world. This funding will allow us to invest in a wider infrastructure for our early testing, spinning up remote servers earlier. Hitting this goal will also allow us to increase the number of remaining alpha slots. Extra alpha slots not only means more Star Citizens will travel the ‘verse at launch, but that we will receive more feedback and more stress testing. This in turn will allow us to better balance and enhance the Star Citizen experience!
Thank you for your continued support of Star Citizen and for helping us build a bigger, better game than I had ever dreamed possible.
— Chris Roberts
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Augment System
Issue #8: The Venetian Agenda is nearing completion. This
update contains two brand new and important game features – the Scenario
and Augment Systems. Today we are going into detail about the Augment
System and talk in depth on how everything works.
At the bottom of this article you can also enjoy the all new cover for Issue #8!
The Secret World's game system has one core principle: You can learn everything and choose exactly what you bring to each fight yourself. Giving the players freedom and choice is always most prominently on our mind.
The new Augment System coming with Issue #8: The Venetian Agenda follows this principle to the letter.
The Secret World already has an immensely deep character development system, with more than five hundred Abilities to learn and choose from. The continuous expansion of the Auxiliary Weapons System has added even more choice and depth to the game since launch, and now yet another layer gets added to this rich cake of game systems.
This new layer is made for experienced players who have already acquired most Skills and enough Abilities to be effective in many situations. It gives them a new opportunity to customize their characters, try out more tactics and acquire more power!
As the players learn more and more about wielding Anima powers they also learn new ways to fine tune these Abilities. The better the resonance with the Anima they can create, the more powerful their Abilities can become. This is what Augments are – tuning forks which lets the players channel the power of Gaia better than ever.
The basics of Augments
The Augment System offers four brand new Skill lines and a total of forty Augments which each has five different Quality Levels. Any player can learn any, and potentially all, of these Augments if he is diligent enough.
There are four main groups of Augments: Damage, Support, Healing and Survivability. Each group consists of ten unique Augments. These ten are divided into different degrees of rarity: One Green, four Blue, four Purple and the rarest is the one Yellow.
The new Augments have gotten their very own Augment Wheel, where all of them can be studied and progress monitored.
You use Augments by attaching them to the active Abilities on your Abilities bar. Each Augment group has a color and each active Ability uses this color coding to show which types of Augments can be attached to it.
For example: The Assault Rifle builder Ability Suppressing Fire is a pure damage ability and therefore can only have damage Augments attached to it, while the Blade builder Blade Torrent can have both Damage and Survivability Augments.
The bonuses you get
The power of each Augment depends on several factors, such as its rarity, what QL it has and what Ability it is attached to.
Damage Augments do things like increase the chance of Critical and Penetrating hits, increase Attack Rating and Hit Rating or in their rarest form give a significant damage increase. Survivability Augments can boost Health and protections or Block, Defense and Evade Rating, and also increase Hate generation or give a handy self heal based on total Health.
Support Augments can increase team healing or damage and even reduce the amount of damage taken for the whole team. The most helpful Support Augments may still be those which reduce the recharge cooldown on either your own Abilities or those of the entire team!
Healing Augments give you a higher Heal rating, buff Heal over Time effects, Barriers or Leeching Abilities. They also increase the chance to do Critical Heals or Critical Power. The rarest Healing Augment gives the Ability it is attached to a big boost in the amount it heals per use.
The tactical choices
Most Augments only augment the Ability they are attached to, and since the diligent player quite quickly will have many Augments to choose from, which Augment he attaches to which Ability is critical.
These are the choices which add another layer of depth to The Secret World's character development system. Knowing which Augments to use on which Ability and for which situation is the key. Perhaps some added self healing might be the way to go for soloing and PvP? Perhaps going all out with Damage Augments will be the way to go in Dungeons or perhaps buffing the entire team with Support Augments is even smarter?
The process
Augments are acquired as loot in the game, but not in their finished state. What you get from defeating bosses in Scenarios are unattuned Augments. Only the least rare (green) Augments can be used straight away when you loot them.
The rest of the Augments must be crafted together with both Pure resources and Runes to attune them. When you have a finished Augment you must also posses enough Ability Points to learn it and have the appropriate Augment Skill.
As you learn the new Augment power the Augment is removed from your inventory as an item and instead becomes active in the new Augment Wheel. The required number of Ability Points is consumed by this process.
To increase the QL of your Augments you just repeat this process. The only difference is that you need to combine two finished Augments to get to QL 2, three to get to QL 3 and so on. The number of Ability Points required increases for each QL of the Augment and you of course need to have invested more in your Augment Skills to use them.
To learn more and more Augments you need to get your hands on the right loot, gather crafting resources and save up both Ability Points and Skill Points. Then you can build the Augments you want, consume them in your inventory with a right click and finally choose them in the Augment Wheel and attach them to an active Ability.
So look forward to Issue #8 people! Soon you will get the chance to fine tune your Abilities with Augments, get tons of new tactical choices and increase the power of your characters to new heights!
At the bottom of this article you can also enjoy the all new cover for Issue #8!
The Secret World's game system has one core principle: You can learn everything and choose exactly what you bring to each fight yourself. Giving the players freedom and choice is always most prominently on our mind.
The new Augment System coming with Issue #8: The Venetian Agenda follows this principle to the letter.
The Secret World already has an immensely deep character development system, with more than five hundred Abilities to learn and choose from. The continuous expansion of the Auxiliary Weapons System has added even more choice and depth to the game since launch, and now yet another layer gets added to this rich cake of game systems.
This new layer is made for experienced players who have already acquired most Skills and enough Abilities to be effective in many situations. It gives them a new opportunity to customize their characters, try out more tactics and acquire more power!
As the players learn more and more about wielding Anima powers they also learn new ways to fine tune these Abilities. The better the resonance with the Anima they can create, the more powerful their Abilities can become. This is what Augments are – tuning forks which lets the players channel the power of Gaia better than ever.
The basics of Augments
The Augment System offers four brand new Skill lines and a total of forty Augments which each has five different Quality Levels. Any player can learn any, and potentially all, of these Augments if he is diligent enough.
There are four main groups of Augments: Damage, Support, Healing and Survivability. Each group consists of ten unique Augments. These ten are divided into different degrees of rarity: One Green, four Blue, four Purple and the rarest is the one Yellow.
The new Augments have gotten their very own Augment Wheel, where all of them can be studied and progress monitored.
You use Augments by attaching them to the active Abilities on your Abilities bar. Each Augment group has a color and each active Ability uses this color coding to show which types of Augments can be attached to it.
For example: The Assault Rifle builder Ability Suppressing Fire is a pure damage ability and therefore can only have damage Augments attached to it, while the Blade builder Blade Torrent can have both Damage and Survivability Augments.
The bonuses you get
The power of each Augment depends on several factors, such as its rarity, what QL it has and what Ability it is attached to.
Damage Augments do things like increase the chance of Critical and Penetrating hits, increase Attack Rating and Hit Rating or in their rarest form give a significant damage increase. Survivability Augments can boost Health and protections or Block, Defense and Evade Rating, and also increase Hate generation or give a handy self heal based on total Health.
Support Augments can increase team healing or damage and even reduce the amount of damage taken for the whole team. The most helpful Support Augments may still be those which reduce the recharge cooldown on either your own Abilities or those of the entire team!
Healing Augments give you a higher Heal rating, buff Heal over Time effects, Barriers or Leeching Abilities. They also increase the chance to do Critical Heals or Critical Power. The rarest Healing Augment gives the Ability it is attached to a big boost in the amount it heals per use.
The tactical choices
Most Augments only augment the Ability they are attached to, and since the diligent player quite quickly will have many Augments to choose from, which Augment he attaches to which Ability is critical.
These are the choices which add another layer of depth to The Secret World's character development system. Knowing which Augments to use on which Ability and for which situation is the key. Perhaps some added self healing might be the way to go for soloing and PvP? Perhaps going all out with Damage Augments will be the way to go in Dungeons or perhaps buffing the entire team with Support Augments is even smarter?
The process
Augments are acquired as loot in the game, but not in their finished state. What you get from defeating bosses in Scenarios are unattuned Augments. Only the least rare (green) Augments can be used straight away when you loot them.
The rest of the Augments must be crafted together with both Pure resources and Runes to attune them. When you have a finished Augment you must also posses enough Ability Points to learn it and have the appropriate Augment Skill.
As you learn the new Augment power the Augment is removed from your inventory as an item and instead becomes active in the new Augment Wheel. The required number of Ability Points is consumed by this process.
To increase the QL of your Augments you just repeat this process. The only difference is that you need to combine two finished Augments to get to QL 2, three to get to QL 3 and so on. The number of Ability Points required increases for each QL of the Augment and you of course need to have invested more in your Augment Skills to use them.
To learn more and more Augments you need to get your hands on the right loot, gather crafting resources and save up both Ability Points and Skill Points. Then you can build the Augments you want, consume them in your inventory with a right click and finally choose them in the Augment Wheel and attach them to an active Ability.
So look forward to Issue #8 people! Soon you will get the chance to fine tune your Abilities with Augments, get tons of new tactical choices and increase the power of your characters to new heights!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
$22 Million and Hangar Patch Live!
Greetings Citizens,
Two pieces of great news: after a long night of hard work, the promised Hangar patch is available! You can check out the Avenger, the privateer outfit, the Aurora LN, the fish tank… and a few other surprises. The second piece of news is that in just four days, we’ve hit $22 million in crowd funding! Between the hangar patch, the bomber reveals, the Aurora LN, CIG Manchester and the start of The Next Great Starship, this has been a big anniversary week… and the best is yet to come!
At $22 million, you’ve unlocked the following goal:
- Facial Capture System. We’ve researched a technology that uses a series of cameras to capture real heads and import them into the game. This will let the team more easily create a variety of realistic characters. In addition, the technology is mobile enough to allow us to take it on the road and capture select fans during special events! You can learn more about this technology at Infinite-Realities.
- Public Transportation System – Need to get from one place to another but don’t have a starship? We’re building a galactic transportation system. You can travel via transport from system to system in Star Citizen and even ship items (like a ship you need move to another hangar.) With this stretch goal, we’ll expand this system: star liners, long range transports, charter ships and flyable shuttles!
- Chris Roberts
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Letter from the Chairman: $21 Million!
I’m proud to announce that the Star
Citizen community has brought us to $21 million in crowd funding just
shy of our first anniversary! Your support is now allowing the project
to expand on ideas in ways we didn’t originally think possible. Every
additional pledge makes Star Citizen a better experience. At the $21
million, you unlock the full salvage mechanic, which allows us to
produce the assets needed to make salvaging an in-depth game mechanic
akin to exploration or piracy!
Xi’an ship design will be focused on a vertical aesthetic and maneuvering jets that can combine to thrust in multiple directions. Gimbaled, larger-than-normal thrusters sit on the four points of a star in the centerline, allowing each thruster unobstructed hemispherical coverage. The Xi’an scout can rotate on all axes and direct four thrusters to the rear or front! Because of this configuration the Xi’an ship has superb linear maneuvering abilities on all axes. This extra maneuverability comes at a cost however. Xi’an ships favor maneuverability over heavy armament or defensive protection.
Instead of picking up an alien ship that simply looks different, it will feel different!
Here’s the description:
As always, thank you all for your tremendous support. Please continue to spread the word about Star Citizen. You’re making this all possible! I hope you will join me on Thursday for our anniversary livestream, where you’ll see some of the latest and greatest work we’ve done to date and get a sneak preview of what’s coming soon.
- Chris Roberts
- Salvage Mechanic: Salvage isn’t an aside: it’s a career, with its own mechanic, story tie-ins and universe-shaping endgames. Search the galaxy for a host of valuable and interesting secrets using both the flight and FPS components. Discover the secrets of the ancient Hadesians, locate valuable components and cargo… or go down in history the first to make contact an entirely new alien race!
Xi’an ship design will be focused on a vertical aesthetic and maneuvering jets that can combine to thrust in multiple directions. Gimbaled, larger-than-normal thrusters sit on the four points of a star in the centerline, allowing each thruster unobstructed hemispherical coverage. The Xi’an scout can rotate on all axes and direct four thrusters to the rear or front! Because of this configuration the Xi’an ship has superb linear maneuvering abilities on all axes. This extra maneuverability comes at a cost however. Xi’an ships favor maneuverability over heavy armament or defensive protection.
Instead of picking up an alien ship that simply looks different, it will feel different!
Here’s the description:
- Xi’an Scout Unlocked! The Khartu is the light attack craft of the Xi’An military. Contrary to Human ship design, the Khartu doesn’t have a traditional main thruster, instead featuring an array of maneuvering thrusters on articulated rigs. This design allows for incredible agility, making them the bane of UEE pilots, who bestowed the nickname ‘Quark’ because when all of the thrusters are firing, the ship looks like a spark flying through space. The Xi’an Aopoa corporation also manufactures an export model, the Khartu-al, for sale to human civilians as a dedicated scout/explorer. The export model features the same Xi’an maneuvering rig, but control surfaces modified for human use and a more limited armament. (Designer: Aopoa)
As always, thank you all for your tremendous support. Please continue to spread the word about Star Citizen. You’re making this all possible! I hope you will join me on Thursday for our anniversary livestream, where you’ll see some of the latest and greatest work we’ve done to date and get a sneak preview of what’s coming soon.
- Chris Roberts
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