Dwesa posted:

Crobear already wears black turtleneck in an attempt to emulate him. The rest will certainly appear on its own as a result of it.

Viscous Soda posted:

Isn't there that stupid Murry cup thingie?

Mirificus posted:

Another example is ships thrusters.
Ships in Star Citizen (and SQ42) have directional thrusters that output forces which cause the ship to move. In many games, your control inputs would cause the ship to move, and animations will play to correspond. In Star Citizen your control inputs cause thrusters to fire which cause the ship to move.

This has direct impacts on how different ships feel in the universe, how they perform in atmosphere vs space, and even better, how damage affects ships. Each individual thruster on a ship is a separate game entity with it's own states and they can individually be damaged, causing them to fail, which directly changes how a ship handles.

Slow_Moe posted:

It's a pity he doesn't really have the body shape for it. Instead he looks like a garbage sack full of yoghurt.

quote:

quote:

SQ42 isn't reinventing the wheel.

They are. Maybe not in all aspects, but they are building a game that is doing things you might recognize, but in unrecognizable ways.

They are building things more complex than any sane studio would do, because no other studio would make those choices because it would take too long and those providing them money wouldn't wait that long for a return on their investment.

CIG have the luxury of being able to take a very, very long time thanks to the backers.

You might enjoy reading the old "The Shipyard" posts like https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/16179-The-Shipyard-Ship-Thrusters-And-You

They aren't perfectly up to date, but they might give you some insight into how they are building incredibly complex systems that will act on each other to cause gameplay to emerge without having been specifically built for.

For example, take their "pipes" they build into ships: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/52xkvtfk898oxr/post/Systems_table_2.png

These pipes are used for a ship to internally communicate with itself. In a normal game, your shields display on your HUD because a programmer set up your HUD to have an animation around a number saved somewhere in your ships representation in the code. When your shields take damage, that number changes and the HUD updates. This is "normal" and a totally fine way to make a game.
In SC and SQ42 instead, some programmer set it up so that when your shields take damage, they output that data to the "Info" pipe. The HUD is paying attention to the "Info" pipe and sees the data change, so it displays differently.
At first glance this actually feels like more work for the same result.
However, here is what sets it apart. In the completed game, that "Info" pipe will have a physical representation inside your ship. An enemy is using ballistic weapons which can penetrate shields and armor to a small degree. They hit the same area of your ship 20 times causing some bullets to pierce through and hit the "Info" pipe right where it connects to your shield generator. Now the shield can't put it's information on the "Info" pipe, so your shields on your HUD disappear. You still have shields, but you have no idea what their current state is and have to play differently.

Now maybe the shape of your ship means that the Coolers were behind the Shield generator on that Info pipe, so even though the damage was near the Shield generator, now you also can't see that your overheating. But maybe a different ship is built more robustly and doesn't have that problem.

Now take those same ideas and expand that complexity to Shields, Coolers, Thrusters, Weapons, Power Plants, Engines, ship mass (i.e. how loaded with cargo), component layout (i.e. ship mass is toward the front, huge engine is at the back, you lose vertical thrusters and now your big engine will cause you to tip head-over-heels if you punch it too hard), etc. etc.

People talk about how other games are comparable to Star Citizen, without any understanding of what CIG is actually trying to build here. I dare you to find a game with that level of detail, that also looks this good and also covers as vast of playable area. You won't.

edit
I just invented a gameplay loop using those pre-existing systems, because this book wasn't long enough already. CIG already have "hacking chips" in the game. They can add one with a transmitter. Now I sneak onto your Idris and get to your engineering section because I know the Info pipe runs near a bulkhead on an Idris. I stick that hacking chip to the wall in a hidden place and sneak off your ship. Now I have your ships full Info pipe transmitted to me. I know the state of your shields, your ammo count, how overheated you are, what cargo is onboard, what players are on your ship, whether your turrets are powered up, what components you have in every damned thing, etc.
That's a possible gameplay loop that could be created in the future, using systems CIG are intentionally built to allow for future complex changes.

Quavers posted:

Citizens slapfighting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DsrEPzJlOQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz7dCoUXrjM

Sarsapariller posted:

I can answer that!

Interdiction: There is nothing to interdict in the game
Racing: There are no races in the game
Pathfinder: There is nothing to scout or otherwise mark in the game
Scout: Nope, still nothing
Recon: It is a ground vehicle for scouting and there is no scouting no matter how many ways you write it
Passenger: There are no passengers in the game
Exploration: There is nothing to discover in the game
Medium Data: There is no data to transport in the game
Light Science: There is no science mechanic in the game
Dropship: There is nothing to ship or drop in the game
Support-Medical: You have a bed in your ship and people can respawn at it. That's it- seriously.
Reporting: There is no reporting in the game
Search & Rescue: There is no searching and no rescuing in the game
Salvage: There is no salvage in the game
Medium Repair/Refuel: There is no repairing or refueling in the game.
Heavy Refueling: There is no heavy refueling in the game
Heavy Repair: Guess what
Heavy Science: You bought a space telescope and farm, congrats
Mining: You can mine with this ship and ONLY with this ship. It costs 150 dollars to start.
Heavy Construction: There is no construction in the game
Transport: You can carry boxes
Heavy Lifting: It is a Transport
Heavy Military Lifting: It is a Transport but Green
Cargo: You can carry boxes on the ground
Light Freight: You can carry boxes in space
Medium Freight: Best loving ship in the game, by which I mean you can carry boxes
Heavy Freight: You can carry a lot of boxes
Blockade Runner: There are no blockades in the game. You can carry some boxes, instead.
Touring: You can carry boxes but it looks like a yacht and costs 1,000 dollars
Combat: It is a ground vehicle with a gun in a game that spreads 50 players across 20 planets and 50 billion miles of space. The gun has a range of 20 meters.
Heavy Tank: It is a ground vehicle with a gun etc etc but this time it's very slow
Anti-Air: It is a ground vehicle and this time the gun is designed to shoot at space ships but you won't see any space ships.
Tugging: It is for masturbation
Snub Fighter: It is the shittiest fighter and cannot fly farther than the spawn point
Light Fighter: It is a lovely fighter and costs the least
Medium Fighter: It is a so-so fighter that punches at exactly its weight and no higher and coincidentally costs 100 dollars or more
Stealth Fighter: There is no stealth in this game
Gunship: Now you're in the 175 dollar range. Punches above its weight.
Heavy Fighter: Ah, I see you have finally paid to win. Congratulations.
Heavy Gunship: Okay there's such a thing as paying too much to win. You crossed the line around 500 dollars ago.
Electronic Warfare: Doesn't do anything
Minelayer: Doesn't do anything
Corvette: Isn't even in the game
Frigate: Like a Corvette, but even more not-in-the-game
Multi-role Light Carrier: The most not-in-the-game you can ever be
Destroyer: More not-in-the-game than the Carrier, somehow
Light Bomber: It costs 165 dollars and they haven't updated it in about 5 years, it does nothing
Heavy Bomber: There is nothing to bomb in this game. It can fire missiles at ships. The missiles do not work.
Starter: It is poo poo.

Mirificus posted:

They aren't perfectly up to date, but they might give you some insight into how they are building incredibly complex systems that will act on each other to cause gameplay to emerge without having been specifically built for.

For example, take their "pipes" they build into ships: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/52xkvtfk898oxr/post/Systems_table_2.png

These pipes are used for a ship to internally communicate with itself. In a normal game, your shields display on your HUD because a programmer set up your HUD to have an animation around a number saved somewhere in your ships representation in the code. When your shields take damage, that number changes and the HUD updates. This is "normal" and a totally fine way to make a game.
In SC and SQ42 instead, some programmer set it up so that when your shields take damage, they output that data to the "Info" pipe. The HUD is paying attention to the "Info" pipe and sees the data change, so it displays differently.
At first glance this actually feels like more work for the same result.
However, here is what sets it apart. In the completed game, that "Info" pipe will have a physical representation inside your ship. An enemy is using ballistic weapons which can penetrate shields and armor to a small degree. They hit the same area of your ship 20 times causing some bullets to pierce through and hit the "Info" pipe right where it connects to your shield generator. Now the shield can't put it's information on the "Info" pipe, so your shields on your HUD disappear. You still have shields, but you have no idea what their current state is and have to play differently.

phosdex posted:

just loving lol

dynamic
centralized
database

WaltherFeng posted:

They should just make a Star Citizen tabletop rpg. They could still sell JPEGs, miniatures and on top of that the game would actually work like you tell it to.

That or mobile gacha.

Hire me Chris.

WaltherFeng posted:

They should just make a Star Citizen tabletop rpg. They could still sell JPEGs, miniatures and on top of that the game would actually work like you tell it to.

That or mobile gacha.

Hire me Chris.

quote:

The information about how the simulated population of the PU is represented goes back over years, it is very dense and tends to use quite a bit of technical jargon... for example that word 'instantiated' might seem like a slightly made up word to say 'instanced, or put in place' etc, but it isn't, it has an actual meaning in computer science. It's when one part of a representation of a game asset or phenomenon is handled by one system when it is merely virtually simulated and then transferred to another game system when it becomes a possible player encounter. The player does not see this transfer take place. Game designers have spent decades learning how to 'fake' things that the player sees or experiences, NPC scripting is a part of this fakery. Scripts are triggered by what the players do and where they are, but they cannot change. If you go to Whiterun you will see Heimskr sometimes, but he will always be in Whiterun and his behaviour won't change. If you go to the market you will see NPC's and they will have dialogue and actions t perform, if however you are wearing an Amulet of Marra you will have a different script running for that NPC interaction. It's faked to look like the NPC has choice and autonomy, when they don't. The same in Mass Effect etc, if you hit the right dialogue tree options then the character interaction script options change. It's not dynamic, it's faked. The difference is that Chris Roberts will always take the opportunity to not fake it if he possibly can.

In Star Citizen the NPC's (both AI and Quantum) can change, they have personality traits and goals which can be affected by events, environment and player interactions. The Quantum system tells the AI NPC probability controller whether a player is likely to encounter an NPC at a particular location and time, and what type of NPC they will likely encounter. Once spawned the AI system takes control and the player interaction also governs what happens to that NPC, they may go 'out of sight' and back into the Quantum system, or they may persist with the player for as long as the player continues that relationship.

It is also not necessarily 'things' that are instantiated it could be a change in a condition. For example an NPC is a shop vendor that you encounter regularly since you have a home nearby where (s)he works. As they build up a r record of interaction with you the possibility of them changing roles begins to emerge the game system dynamically changes the options for that AI NPC according to the amount of player contact they have. You may get the opportunity to ask them to accompany you wherever you go, they then leave their job and have completely different set of goals from now on. If you then decide to part ways, the NPC will go off and find other things to do according to the environmental influences that exist at the time... but they have a record of what happened which stays with them even if they become 'virtual again', if you go to a place where they are 'virtually', there is a chance you will meet them again and they will remember you.

Will there be an exact ratio of 9:1 NPC's to a player wherever they go? Not necessarily, it depends upon the local environmental conditions. If 50 players go out into deep space, then the likely ratio to NPC to players will be near 0:1 for the majority of the time, but if those players now choose to go to an abandoned area where the economy has run down according to local conditions or lore then it wouldn't be appropriate to 'instantiate' 450 NPC's in a place that is supposed to be virtually deserted. So you may get a 1:1 ratio or perhaps 2:1 ratio. Now let's say that one of the group of 50 decides to go off to TEASA Spaceport, he's the only live player in there - it's supposed to be a busy bustling spaceport, they won't put in 9 NPC's just to maintain a strict 9:1 ratio - they'll put in whatever seems appropriate to the environment.

To answer your question specifically with the above in mind, if 100K player congregate in one area in the game (extremely unlikely and in a lot of places not even possible due to physical space constraints) then the NPC:PC ratio would be appropriate to the local conditions for that place. In your mind you are now thinking, well if 100K players turn up at TEASA Spaceport that's a huge number of NPC's in a small geographic region - but TEASA Spaceport couldn't physically hold 100K players, so it's not going to happen. The vendors will be there, the maintenance personnel, the security checkpoint guards and the mission giver NPC's will be there no matter how many PC's there are.

This 'environment appropriate' population is unique, most games simply have scripted events and that includes where NPC's are placed and what their actions are. Star Citizen NPC's (AI controlled) will be location and environment aware they have goals and personalities - they have homes, jobs and a 24 hours life cycle which includes places they like to hang out after work and which 'friends' they hang out with, if one area is far too crowded they will avoid it. If a place becomes run down or crime ridden, they will leave and go somewhere else. The quantum system merely deals with what the local environment 'should' look like according to the economic drivers and local conditions, the AI controllers take this into account when deciding which NPC's, and how many, to spawn in an area. The game server will also take into account how many players are in that area and they become part of the 'local population calculation' for the time they are present. They have told us that the Quantum system can handle up to 2 million virtual NPC's. If these were simple scripts then there would be no limit, the fact that there is a limit tells us that even Quanta have data to manage not simply a static database of scripts to draw from when an event is triggered.

One thing that Star Citizen does that is not usual practise is to layer simple variables and systems so that the possible numbers of variations become infinite. The DNA tech to create an infinite number of unique looking NPC's for example and also the reputation system. There is no game that has ever been created that has the possibility that you will meet an NPC and know that no other human has ever seen this face before, not even the developers who made the game and now that you have met him/her, every other player will now see that face - only on that NPC. This means they can do things that no other game does like have NPC's that live, grow old and die and you'll never see them again. When a player or NPC kills an NPC that NPC is gone, it will not respawn AND the record of that kill stays on the NPC's or players historical record which is a part of the reputation system. You may encounter NPC's who were once friends to other players but now have moved on. NPC's can be dynamic, the player interaction with the NPC can change the goals, skill levels and personality of that NPC.

Mirificus posted:

One thing that Star Citizen does that is not usual practise is to layer simple variables and systems so that the possible numbers of variations become infinite. The DNA tech to create an infinite number of unique looking NPC's for example and also the reputation system. There is no game that has ever been created that has the possibility that you will meet an NPC and know that no other human has ever seen this face before, not even the developers who made the game and now that you have met him/her, every other player will now see that face - only on that NPC. This means they can do things that no other game does like have NPC's that live, grow old and die and you'll never see them again. When a player or NPC kills an NPC that NPC is gone, it will not respawn AND the record of that kill stays on the NPC's or players historical record which is a part of the reputation system. You may encounter NPC's who were once friends to other players but now have moved on. NPC's can be dynamic, the player interaction with the NPC can change the goals, skill levels and personality of that NPC.

peter gabriel posted:

edit: what are the chances of getting a ps5 this xmas? Is it gonna be easy or what?

Mirificus posted:

for example that word 'instantiated' might seem like a slightly made up word to say 'instanced, or put in place' etc, but it isn't, it has an actual meaning in computer science. It's when one part of a representation of a game asset or phenomenon is handled by one system when it is merely virtually simulated and then transferred to another game system when it becomes a possible player encounter.

I said come in! posted:

Most likely impossible. Sony massively over reported how many PS5's they would have available for pre-order as is.

Popete posted:

That's not what the word "instantiated" means in computer science or any other context.

Citizens have this weird obsession with the idea of video games "faking" everything. You cannot perfectly represent real life with a computer, everything is "faked". Like at what arbitrary point do you consider something no longer being "faked"? Star Citizen doesn't model electrons orbiting a nucleus, sounds pretty fake to me!

Mirificus posted:

Sarsapariller posted:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community/citizen-spotlight/13425-Star-Citizen-Board-Game-Brettspiel-Deutsch-Englisch

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1050622/wip-star-citizen-boardgame

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/5f51aj/fanmade_star_citizen_boardgame/

Also there was a kickstarter from the actual team at one point that was some kind of lovely space board game but I can't remember the name of it now

Larz posted:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/193577/star-traders

Popete posted:

That's not what the word "instantiated" means in computer science or any other context.

Citizens have this weird obsession with the idea of video games "faking" everything. You cannot perfectly represent real life with a computer, everything is "faked". Like at what arbitrary point do you consider something no longer being "faked"? Star Citizen doesn't model electrons orbiting a nucleus, sounds pretty fake to me!

Jonny Shiloh posted:

Is that not the one that ended up in trouble because Ryan Archer had been up to his old tricks but the old guy who designed the game wouldn't believe it and doubled down on the old "you don't know what you're talking about" defence?

quote:

The artist Ryan Archer plagiarised other artists and passed the work off as his own. The designer David Ladyman ignored all the evidence and defended Archer. Even when another artist was brought on board to "help" with the project (read replace all the ripped off work) there was no admission of error.

peter gabriel posted:

Literally none of this is in game or ever will be.
the DNA system will just be a random character creator and the AI will be simple scripts

peter gabriel posted:

From the reviews section:


I loved that period of time, so many imbeciles

phosdex posted:

https://ogn.theonion.com/gamers-we-need-to-come-clean-cyberpunk-2077-is-just-1845368691

"Unfortunately, we also aren’t able to refund any of your pre-orders. That money is already spent."

Replace Cyberpunk 2077 with Star Citizen and I think this is a future Letter from the Chairman.

DigitalPenny posted:

So as a mighty man I have +80% resistance to the PMS debuff... So I may not be up to speed on the current meta of menstral game play

But surely not even the inferior woman class needs to go the toilet to Inspect for a blood puddles before they cast cotton wool dispel spells ?

Is ice cream the tier two dispel PMS?

Asking for a freind obviously...

TheAgent posted:

and where the gently caress is erin roberts lol

Mirificus posted:

quote:

for example that word 'instantiated' might seem like a slightly made up word to say 'instanced, or put in place' etc, but it isn't, it has an actual meaning in computer science. It's when one part of a representation of a game asset or phenomenon is handled by one system when it is merely virtually simulated and then transferred to another game system when it becomes a possible player encounter.

Larz posted:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/193577/star-traders

Dark Off posted:

cheating in star citizen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUXEIKI9Jc

my favorite bit is the comments where they wonder if its developer going around making players miserable