Star Citizen's First Person Shooter Module Revealed at PAX Aus

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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Star Citizen's First Person Shooter Module Revealed at PAX Aus

Chris Roberts shows us how the FPS combat will look in his upcoming crowdfunded space sim, Star Citizen.

Star Citizen [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/star%20citizen] is a game (mostly) about spaceships fighting each other in space. But sometimes in the Star Citizen world, you'll want to use a bit more... subtlety than simply obliterating your enemies from orbit. That's when those spaceship pilots will have to get their feet on the ground, and exchange the joysticks for rifles in the game's first-person-shooter module. Today, at a world-exclusive reveal during a Star Citizen fan event in Australia, Chris Roberts has offered us a glimpse into how FPS combat will look in his ambitious space sim.

First, check out the video to the right, which offers a full 10-minute rundown of a typical 4-player co-op FPS firefight.

While it certainly draws some parallels to other sci-fi shooters (Halo especially comes to mind), Star Citizen hopes to differentiate itself with a couple of cool features. For instance, 3rd person and 1st person animations are synced, which means your allies will see what you are doing, as you are doing it, and when a teammate is down, players will need to physically drag them to safety before they can recover. Arm and head movements will also be separate, meaning that players can look in one direction while firing in another.

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The FPS module will also be incredibly detailed, with each individual item that a player equipped being visible on their third person model, and some crazy over-the-top stuff like full eyeball animation, where your model's eyeballs actually look at whatever it is you're looking at.

In the presentation, Roberts talked a bit about the timeline for the game's staggered module launch. He told us that we can expect Arena Commander 1.0 in late 2014, with the FPS module, the Planetside/Social module, Arena Commander 2.0, Squadron 42's first chapter, and Planetside's persistent universe alpha arriving in 2015, and in that order. Squadron 42 is the game's single-player mode, and should last somewhere between 15-20 hours.

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P-89 Scorpion

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Soviet Heavy said:
Does a space sim really *need* an FPS mode?

It's so you can raid space stations and larger ships to steal anything even in the case of space stations other players ships.
 

FakDendor

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May 30, 2012
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Veldie said:
Soviet Heavy said:
Does a space sim really *need* an FPS mode?
No


OT: This seems pointless and a waste of resources
I respectfully disagree. I don't believe it's a waste of resources, because a different studio (Illfonic, I believe) has been brought in to do the FPS stuff. The only "resources" that would be taken away from the main product, then, would be money (at least in the development stage).

I don't believe it's pointless because I know quite a few people who are genuinely psyched to play in a persistent universe with fps. One friend of mine wants nothing more than to be a "bounty hunter," with a ship mainly to get to his bounties.

FPS also allows players to perform actions only represented by game mechanics in prior space sims, such as boarding operations for pirates and marines.

However, while I definitely do not believe this is pointless or a waste of development resources, the FPS parts of the game do need to be handled properly, so they do not unbalance the final product.
 

Grimh

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Feb 11, 2009
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Oh yeah I seem to remember it being mentioned that you'd able to board enemy ships and stuff.

Looks neat.

The TACTICAL! speak in these kinds of things always sounds off to me though.
 

Jadwick

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Jan 4, 2013
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Some games that have cost $50 mil or more to make:

DC Universe Online - $50 million
The Secret World - $50 million
Watch Dogs - $68 million
Defiance - $70 million
Destiny - $140 million
Star Wars: The Old Republic - $200 million

So... $50 mil is on par for a AAA MMO but, oh my god, think of what will happen if this game flops.

Also, this stuff was planned since... the beginning? It was supposed to be a space sim where you are a person - not a talking space ship. So walking around your ships bays and cockpit was always supposed to be a thing - this just takes it to an extreme.
 

FakDendor

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Jadwick said:
Some games that have cost $50 mil or more to make:

DC Universe Online - $50 million
The Secret World - $50 million
Watch Dogs - $68 million
Defiance - $70 million
Destiny - $140 million
Star Wars: The Old Republic - $200 million

So... $50 mil is on par for a AAA MMO but, oh my god, think of what will happen if this game flops.

Also, this stuff was planned since... the beginning? It was supposed to be a space sim where you are a person - not a talking space ship. So walking around your ships bays and cockpit was always supposed to be a thing - this just takes it to an extreme.
It's interesting to see that all of those but Watch Dogs were MMOs. That can't all be server costs?what makes them so expensive?
 

Laughing Man

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WOW I mean just WOW, I am stunned I mean truly amazed they have spent a huge amount of cash and time on this game and the results are just amazing...

...amazing just how god damn boring the game looks. I mean really dull, I've seen a good number of lets play videos of this game, from the space combat, to the racing, to the none stop circle jerk videos of people wandering round hanger after hanger getting all moist over how stunning their stupidly overpriced ships look and now we have THIS, this 'FPS' and my god not one of the videos has shown anything even a little bit exciting. The only videos that look even a little bit exciting are the launch videos.
 

Floppertje

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Soviet Heavy said:
Does a space sim really *need* an FPS mode?
No, it doesn't. But it's freaking awesome, so I'm glad it's there. Did Black Ops *need* a segment where you blow shit up with rockets while Sympathy for the Devil plays in the background to be an fps? No, but it was the highlight of the game for me.
 

K3nzz0

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FPS was originally planned, it is not done by the main studios in LA (ship design/Arena commander), Austin (Persistent Universe/ Planetside/Social) or Manchester UK (single player Squadron 42 + military assets like frigates, etc)
The FPS part falls under Illfonic, they have been working on it since 2012.

Also sidenote: Squadron 42 will be released in chapters, where you will have 10-12 hours of gameplay per chapter. Total gameplay hours will be close to 50 hours for the full singleplayer campaign.
 

mad825

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I was expecting a more dynamic space sim not a Halo/COD/Battlefield MMO. Perhaps all of the good things will come later.
 

mythgraven

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Mar 9, 2010
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Jadwick said:
So... $50 mil is on par for a AAA MMO but, oh my god, think of what will happen if this game flops.
"If" it flops? Oh Lordy.
I have this weird nagging sensation that if this game is indeed, not a scam, and it releases at some point within the "20-teens" (2013-2020), that the players will just crap all over it anyway. After so many decades of anti-social behaviour I just dont feel like players can handle this sort of game the way it needs to in order to thrive.
 

fix-the-spade

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Soviet Heavy said:
Does a space sim really *need* an FPS mode?
YES.

You are looking at it wrong, it's not a space sim and an FPS, it's an actual real Star Wars game. Not some licensed RPG or Battlefield clone, start a fight in space, take the fight to infantry level, take the fight back out into space, no breaks in between.

Or it's Aliens, or what Halo keeps pretending to be, or it's something entirely new (although lets not mention Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter and it's space and on foot sections).

Or it's what Destiny was supposedly promising, actual exploration and real time combat, instead of Borderlands with your ship flights being purely cosmetic.

It reminds me of a cross between Quake 4's aesthetic and something like the old Rainbow Six games, certainly looks good to me.
 

TheCaptain

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Feb 7, 2012
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Laughing Man said:
...getting all moist over how stunning their stupidly overpriced ships look...
While it doesn't seem like it's worth the effort to try and convince you of how fun I expect this game to be, I feel obligated to point out that the ships are technically free, since all ships "purchased" at this point are backer rewards.
 

Ajarat

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mythgraven said:
I have this weird nagging sensation that if this game is indeed, not a scam, and it releases at some point within the "20-teens" (2013-2020), that the players will just crap all over it anyway. After so many decades of anti-social behaviour I just dont feel like players can handle this sort of game the way it needs to in order to thrive.
I was just thinking something along the same lines.

I'm willing to bet that the people that expect SC to flop are the same people that drool over each release of CoD and Battlefield WHILE complaining that the current VG industry is "watered down." Here in development is a product that is beyond the scope of most titles, is being designed by a team with a near impeccable history, and it's being expected to flop before it even reaches an alpha-state? All these naysayers are clearly retarded to some degree.. I have a feeling people like Jadwick are going to flop as soon as the finished product releases.
 

the doom cannon

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Ajarat said:
I'm willing to bet that the people that expect SC to flop are the same people that drool over each release of CoD and Battlefield WHILE complaining that the current VG industry is "watered down." Here in development is a product that is beyond the scope of most titles, is being designed by a team with a near impeccable history, and it's being expected to flop before it even reaches an alpha-state? All these naysayers are clearly retarded to some degree.. I have a feeling people like Jadwick are going to flop as soon as the finished product releases.
Um no. Have you ever heard of feature creep? Have you heard about the kickstarter busts? It is perfectly reasonable to expect the game to flop. It is clearly retarded to think this will be a flawless and amazing game before it even enters alpha state.
 

Silvianoshei

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May 26, 2011
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I doubt the game will flop. They've already got space flight modules out the door (racing and dogfighting) and are well on schedule to release the Persistant Universe Beta in a years time. I do a podcast for SC, and have had lots of contact with the devs...they are incredibly competent.