Hey who remembers last year when croberts claimed they had played all SQ42 missions?
Gamescom 2017 Interview
GameStarDE & Christopher Roberts
PART ONE
25 Aug 2017
https://www.gamestar.de/videos/star-citizen-chris-roberts-im-video-interview-wo-bleibt-die-singleplayer-kampagne-squadron-42,94222.html
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/169412267?t=47m32s
Q
How much longer will we have to wait [for Squadron 42] ?
CR
Well ya have to wait a little bit longer ah... I mean it's going, it's going really well aah, we're not showing it here at Gamescon, aah... because... I... for me I want to have it at a... certain level of uh... POLISH and um, so... we're working at get... getting it there but, ah, there's a lot of the STUFF that we actually we show in our uh, UPDATES on ATV and a lot of... some of the STUFF in three point zero is specific STUFF that is ah, ENABLING and being used for um, Squadron 42 and in fact some of the STUFF that we, ahm, you know, introduced like the PLANETARY TECH, ehm, we also put into Squadron Um Forty Two, so there are, there is, you know... case... is when you... go down on like a MOON or a PLANET and it's something like that, so...
... ahm, but no, it's going... it's going very well, it's just... a huge amount of uh... HIGH QUALITY AAH PERFORMANCE AAH... and motion capture aah... DATA aah... that we're bringing in and making sure that ahm... when the characters are moving around that they look really great and really fluid, going between like AI pathing like from one location to another... you know... merging into like... scenes that we shot with the characters so we're... we're really trying to... make you feel like you're part of the story and feel like you're hanging out with AI you know just running around and ehm...
... I think it's gunna be really great, uhm-I'm-uh-eh-did... it's... it's ahm... s'gunna be... worth... the wait lemme put it that way
Q
Is there one specific feature right now in the alpha 3.0 that you are especially proud of?
CR
Well I... well I mean the planetary tech... so this is gunna be the first time that the community, ah, can go, and... and LAND on... in the case of Three Zero, mooooons, or in the case of this asteroid planetoid, they're FULLY REALISED, every inch of 'em you can move around and explore and you can cir-cum-nav-i-gate the entire conference (sic) of the moon if you wanted to, ah, and... ah.. it's ah.. you know... the amount of additional playable area that comes into the game now compared to what was in say two point six three, aah it's HUGE and how much the game is gunna OPEN UP cos we're introducing the planetary tech compared to what we were thinking we would have in the game... before...it uh... ah, you know... we sort of made the BREAKTHROUGH so to speak... uhhh... i-it's really exciting, there's a lot of gameplay that's gunna come out of it, it's one of the reasons why maybe things are taking a lot longer than... uhm... you know... SOME OF US... or you know... I'd like to... things move faster too... ah... would LIKE... ahh... but... once we've sort of opened up the potential of these planets we... because of the sort of DETAIL and the FIDELITY we're going for, we also need to make sure that there's... STUFF TO DO ON THE PLANETS
... and uh, you know... we are.. focused on STUFF, we're not just creating the planets but also creating, sort of... ah... SYSTEMS that will uh... allow the... whether it's... ah... you know... ECO SYSTEMS or uh... FLORA or FAUNA... aah... that... you know... MAKE IT ALIVE or THINGS TO DO ON IT or you need to sort of uh.. PROCEDURALLY YOU KNOW... create... little uh, OUTPOSTS or TOWNS or VILLAGES beyond the central landing zones, cos you know, the original version of STAR CITIZEN we were aiming to be a bit more like PRIVATEER or FREELANCER were we had indvidual sort of BEE SPOKE landing zones but you couldn't explore the planet, you would essentially be in ORBIT around the planet and you would have a LANDING and we would have a CINEMATIC that would transition you down and then you were, you know, essentially moving round a small limited FPS area were you could go to a SHOP and BUY THINGS and go to a BAR and TALK TO PEOPLE and get a MISSION...
...aahhh... you know... get your SHIP REPAIRED GO BACK TO SPACE so...
ahh, you know NOW we have WHOLE WORLDS OPENED UP TO YOU so the amount of ah, potential for exploration, long term in the game, and for players to do THINGS, for instance, you know, maybe... CREATE THEIR OWN LITTLE BASE or their own little SETTLEMENT on a moon or you know a planet that no one else has sort of gone to that particular area is... is... HUGE...
...so the gameplay potential is amazing, we're only just seeing the very very very beginnings of it in three point zero and I'm really excited, ahm, as we start to roll out more STUFF for three point one and beyond.
Q
Will there be anything on Friday, maybe a small teaser [of Squadron 42] ?
CR
Ah, no, no, not at Gamescon.
Q
What's the big part that is actually missing and preventing you from finishing Squadron 42? What's holding it back?
CR
Ah, well I mean the... the... the... the big part is kind of what I was talking about before which is sort of... aah... trying... we... we very much want to get the quality of the animation and how the AI move around to be the equivalent to what you see sort of in like pre-rendered cinematics... cos we spent all this time shooting with these amazing actors... we spent about A HUNDRED... just over a HUNDRED DAYS doing PERFORMANCE CAPTURE and that's a MASSIVE amount of time to shoot so, for instance, most big-event movies are $150 to $200 million, they usually don't shoot for more than a hundred days, so... they shoot maybe 80 days, 90 days, ahm... and ah... so... for the amount that we have there, we have all these great performances so it's a vast amount of performance data and animation and motion, ah... and STORY... ah, we really want to make sure it comes across so when you're playing the game and you're moving around in it you're... they're... talking to you, you know, OLD MAN who is played by MARK HAMILL or, ah, you know, the various other characters that you're, uh, playing, uh, the game... like alongside with...
... because you're in... you're basically inside this MOVIE as opposed to sort of... you know the WING COMMANDER 3 and the WING COMMANDER 4 was sort of... you... you... you were like the STUNTMAN flying the ship, you got on the back of the ship, you would see what MARK HAMILL did and you would say, "No! Go... sort of... take this choice or this choice!", and, well in this case it's YOU and you happen to be the LEAD STAR in the MOVIE...
... so getting that to be the fluidity that we want, uh, because it's a huge story, ah, and dialling that in, ahm... is... you know, has been taking a BIT LONGER than we ANTICIPATED...
Q
So what you're saying is the other parts, for example the missions and stuff like that, they are further along?
CR
Well yeah, no... no we have... we don't... we... we... well we... we've... you know we've still... we're still working on, uhm... say, the final like ASSETS AND STUFF but we've blocked out all the MISSIONS and chapter... what we call CHAPTERS... we have these CHAPTERS
...uh, that each one would sort of be the equivalent of... you know, several missions in ah, say a WING COMMANDER because they would be sort of... LINK...
Q
You can already play those missions from start to finish?
CR
Well so, so YES... we haven't BLOCKED what you... what you... what you would call sort of DESIGNER... somewhere between white and grey boxes and levels we're going to take to a more finished state but we're taking ah, certain ones... we're taking, so for instance we were talking about showing, ah, a sequence last year that was, ah, you know ONE SECTION of the story that we were gunna take to a finished level... and you know we're still basically doing that, we're in production on all of them... um... we, you know... we'll be showing some things at some point... ah, just it's not gunna be at Gamescon and I would hate to make promises because, ah, you know, last year I said, "well we're planning to show, uh, ah, uh... you know... a... a... piece of some Squadron 42 gameplay" and then we ended up not getting it to the point where we were happy with... but we didn't show it and everyone was very UPSET and ah, I felt kinda BAD because, one, we also showed some amazing stuff on the planetary tech... Homestead and all the sort of the next level of what the planetary tech was like and...
... that was actually like, in my mind, really great stuff, but... it was sort of... partly the HIGH of that was... was AFFECTED by the, uh... the fact that we didn't show Squadron 42. But no, you know I mean, I would say it's sort of the ANIMATIONS and the AI because we're going for a level of AI that you don't normally have so we want... ah... you know... when you're on, say... the ship you're serving on, at the beginning of the game it's the STANTON which is an IDRIS CORVETTE, you know all the crew have their full, you know... they have a SCHEDULE, they get up in the morning they EAT BREAKFAST, they go about their JOB, you know they go GET LUNCH, go back to their JOB...
... have CHIT-CHAT over DINNER, maybe UNWIND...
... then go back to SLEEP...
You know, there's a whole SCHEDULE and CYCLE and they're... so we... it's almost... like a level of sort of SIMS SIMULATION FOR THE AI, we're also using that... the planet's using that for the PERSISTENT UNIVERSE and uh... so just DIALING THAT IN WELL, ah, getting that WORKING, so that's the SUBSUMPTION SYSTEM which we're making GREAT PROGRESS ON so it's in three point zero... all the missions run on subsumption... now all in Squadron, everything runs in subsumption whereas before it wasn't, it was using sort of an older CryEngine system.
So just getting all that in, getting that all up to the level, and making sure that it's ah... you know... PERFORMING WELL and LOOKING GREAT... DIALED IN to look as great or better than anything else... which is what it's going to do... it's just taking some time unfortunately.
Q
What is the best way to experience Star Citizen? Are you going to play it on one monitor or two? With a gamepad? With keyboard & mouse? Is it for joystick? What is your personal preference?
CR
Ah. Aaaaahhhh. That's... ehm... kinda hard to qua... I mean we basically build the game and support the game for everything so... whether it's... joystick, ahm... you know, gamepad... ah, keyboard mouse... ah, and they all have sort of pros and cons it's sorta hard to say, I mean obviously for running around on foot and sort of the FPS stuff, um, keyboard mouse is probably the best
Ah, for flying I'd say that joystick, I mean I know there's some people that feel like the MOUSE FLY is too easy and it gives people an edge but... I... I mean, I'll just say that, like, when we do STUFF when we're trying to fly stuff around, so for instance we were, ah, you know... ah, in the PRESS we were sort of showing a preview of what we'll do on FRIDAY and I'm hoping people will like what we show... ah, so I don't really wanna spoil it, it's pretty cool, ah... but it would definitely have been better to have a joystick, ah, for the, ah, you know... so we had... a sort of mix of... of PR PEOPLE PLAYING and sort of, some were playing HOE TAS and some were playing MOUSE AND KEYBOARD... some of the things were easier to do with the KEYBOARD than they were with MOUSE... ahm, so for me, ah... I would say, ah...
...you know I HAVEN'T SET IT UP YET but ah... um... my... a nice little wide monitor, you know, the one that's kinda sort of... 4k across, one of the curved ones... ah, and then uhm... you know... I tend to sort of ah, switch between a HOE TAS and a mouse... a keyboard... a mouse keyboard for running around doing stuff, HOE TAS for the flight stuff.
