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Star Citizen is working on optimising its network code

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Star Citizen has a lot of elements at play. Primarily a space combat game, a genre which was left to rot in a pile with all those horrible licensed cart-racing games, there’s no doubt that the (eventually) finished product is going to put a strain on any system running it. But there’s also concern that a beefy system will need an equally beefy online connection for the Star Citizen universe.

And maybe you will! Or maybe you won’t as Chris Roberts emphasised that performance was favoured over decent connection speeds, in another Ten For The Chairman Q&A session. “Up until now it has been about performance rather than bandwidth and we’re seeing the effects of it in certain cases like players splitting up and going to several comm arrays at once and causing the server to bog down,” Roberts said.

We’re using the Dead Reckoning system which means not sending data that isn’t needed, along with other systems and refining them to ultimately have scalability in the future. The impact on bandwidth won’t be major, but performance on servers and clients is our big focus right now and later on we’ll continue to optimize the network code with a more careful eye when things are looking good on performance.

Roberts also answered questions on ship repairs, targeting modes and influences on Star Citizen. Here’s a transcript of his responses:

What games influenced the design of SC?

SC takes some elements from other popular online games such as World of Warcraft, EvE and DayZ. The objective is to make SC feel like a living universe and keep players invested in the game by the use of and tweaking of various mechanics from other games.

How will docking with other ships work?

Our thinking is that bigger ships with standardised airlocks would be able to do docking and the smaller ones may or may not be able to. It may also vary by manufacturer. In short it is still being designed.

Will there be enough time to actually repair a larger ship during a fight?

Yes, it’s a balance issue which is being worked on but it requires the multi-crew experience to be polished and balanced before the repair systems can be implemented properly.

Are there any plans to populate the space/night sky with celestial objects?

Yes. Longer term we will generate the “sky sphere” or “space sphere” from the data in the Starmap.

Will we see relative and nonrelative targeting modes for turrets?

We already have two modes for turrets although it was broken for a time it appears to be working again. That said we are working to improve turrets so that you have more better UI, better tracking, more information, faster turrets, more natural control, etc. Manning a turret should be fun and you should be able to be effective!

Music in ship like the Cutlass Commercial

Yes, though it’s not a high priority but will be implemented farther down the road after things like VOIP and mood music.

Current plans to continue FPS on Crusader map. Thoughts on continued development of Arena Commander.

Star Marine/Arena Commander of facets of the overall game. Both will be used to hone your skills for the Persistent Universe. Waiting for everything to be properly polished before enabling it, nothing has been thrown out. Both will be supported but are less important than delivering the main experience of the Persistent Universe.

Is it planned to expand the ‘use’ prompt to more things.

Yes, there will be a lot of options based on the environment and certain prompts that will dictate how you are able to use an object in the environment. It will be rolled out, hopefully, in 2.3 or 2.4 with Item System 2.0.

Could we have a system to create a character’s face on the website similar to the Star Map?

The generator is very heavily tied into CryEngine so it would be extremely unlikely to be released in that way. It’s also highly unlikely that it will be released as a stand alone module but it isn’t entirely eliminated as an option.

Right now, the current Star Citizen pot from crowdfunding alone is sitting at over $107.8 million. Or roughly seven Nkandla not-a-compounds.

Last Updated: February 10, 2016

No Comments

  1. Well they’ve got the time and money to do it right.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      February 10, 2016 at 11:57

      You don’t have the time tehehehehe

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        February 10, 2016 at 12:01

        You shut up and get back in your stupid holodeck!

        Reply

        • RinceThis

          February 10, 2016 at 12:03

          You ARE in the holodeckl projecting reality where you are also in a holodeck!

          Reply

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 12:07

            aw no you di-in’t

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:09

            Tehehehe

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 10, 2016 at 12:21

            Does that make you the Oculus Rince?

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:35

            More like Rockyoulass Rince! BOOM!

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 12:37

            Rocky you’ll ass?
            Hmmm

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:39

            Umm 0_O I’ll let John know you miss him?

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 12:39

            Wait…Where has John been lately?
            I do miss him.

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:41

            Ovg and I played Helldivers for 5 hours with him this past Saturday. Seeing him this coming too. You are welcome to join us at Barristers.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 12:43

            I’ve been eyeing Helldivers on Steam…it’s only R200 now.
            Looks awesome.
            I’d love to man, but will have to see how my wife is doing by then. She’s in today again for some x-rays to check up on this. Been a damn rollercoaster year so far :/

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:47

            Shit bro. We are here for you as you know dude.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 12:48

            Thanks man.

          • miaau

            February 10, 2016 at 12:51

            Good luck with thatever ails your wife. Never fun!

            Do it well, Mrs JJ.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 10, 2016 at 13:53

            Thanks man. Hopefully it’s all finally over now.

          • miaau

            February 10, 2016 at 14:24

            I hope so too.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 10, 2016 at 12:47

            Rock? More like…

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:51

            What’s wrong with Fruity Pebbles you stuck up ponce!?

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 10, 2016 at 12:52

            EVERYTHING. And I prefer the term “elitist prat”, thank you very much.

          • RinceThis

            February 10, 2016 at 12:59

            You are no where NEAR as cool as Pratt!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 10, 2016 at 13:11

            Oh dear, I forgot about that unhealthy obsession of yours.

  2. HvR

    February 10, 2016 at 11:56

    “Yes, it’s a balance issue which is being worked on but it requires the multi-crew experience to be polished and balanced before the repair systems can be implemented properly.”

    Wonder how many guys are polishing off their Scottish accents

    Reply

  3. Captain JJ 'saurus

    February 10, 2016 at 12:08

    If the developers of ARK can get that game optimized one day, then I’ll believe anything.

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    February 10, 2016 at 13:13

    *sighs* No one else saw Ash’s face on the on monitor but me?

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      February 10, 2016 at 13:38

      I saw it, I just didn’t know if it wasn’t part of the UI improvements because I haven’t climbed into my ship in over a year.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 10, 2016 at 13:40

        lol

        Reply

  5. Osvaldo Paniccia

    February 10, 2016 at 13:37

    Finally an informed article (and not a clickbait)! Great job Lazygamer!

    Reply

  6. zimmah

    February 10, 2016 at 17:07

    For anyone who would like to try star citizen make sure to use a referal code when you register, it will give you a free 5000 UEC ($5 worth of in game currency).

    STAR-TW4N-BLN6

    Also, I’d advice to register and purchase a package before february 14 as that’s $15 cheaper than buying it after that date, and you can also test the game for free right now until february 14th.

    Reply

  7. RustedFaith

    February 10, 2016 at 21:37

    Nice article Darryn!!!

    Reply

  8. Nojan

    February 11, 2016 at 00:15

    nice and informative , thanks

    Reply

  9. Stan

    February 12, 2016 at 16:47

    The “pot” is emptying fast. There still doesn’t seem to be coherent plan how to develop this game.

    Reply

    • JustThinkOfThePossibilities

      February 16, 2016 at 00:08

      Please go back under your bridge.
      Many experts and other game devs have come forward saying its possible to make this game.
      You don’t know how the money is being spent so this is all conjecture.
      I’m getting mighty tired of reading the half-assed comment stating the exact same thing on every single gaming media outlet out there… all from the same 10-15 people. All those arguments have been destroyed previously.
      How many time do you people have to rip on our dream, if you think it will fail, just…. I don’t know… let it happen… then you will be justified in ranting online.

      Reply

      • Stan

        February 16, 2016 at 03:04

        It is POSSIBLE there are little green men running 3/4 of the universe.
        We know that a lot of the money has been spent on mocap filming, reworking ships and paying Illfonic to develop Star Marine !
        You getting tired is as irrelevant to the discussion as your dreaming
        Please point out the rest my posts on star citizen, you are just making this all up !

        Reply

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