Home Gaming Star Citizen’s FPS Module sounds – fittingly – complex

Star Citizen’s FPS Module sounds – fittingly – complex

4 min read
63

AimMode_ADS

Judge me all you like, but I’m still not entirely sold on Star Citizen. The insanely successful crowd-funding project is still far off from actual release, and the inclusion of new modes such as First-Person shooting just makes it all seem a little unfocused at times. It is, however, interesting to see just how different this component in particular is going to be from the rest of the market.

Star Citizen prides itself on realistic space simulation, but the last bit doesn’t end once you’ve docked in a station. The FPS module for the game is every bit a simulation as flying, forcing you to juggle Stamina as a precious resource. Just like other shooters, stamina will govern how accurate you are with your weapon of choice, but it has a far more delicate balance in Star Citizen.

Stamina will determine how much your weapon sways in the natural, ready position, and just how accurate you are when aiming down the sights. You can, of course, hold your breath to steady this with any weapon, which subsequently drains the bar. Let it get too low (or run out completely), and you’ll be severely penalized for the next few moments – at least until you manage to fill it up again. The exact breakdown of the entire system is as follows:

Breakdown of full stamina breath pattern:

  • 1 Second pauses at the top and bottom of the each breath
  • 2 Seconds to move from the top to the bottom of the breath
  • Left and right sway and up and down limits are dictated by the weapon and attachments’ values
  • Up, down, left and right sway values should be determined by modifiers on the weapon’s sway

Breakdown of no stamina breath pattern:

  • Very short pauses at the top and bottom of each breath, about .2 – .3 seconds
  • Very rapid up and down travel time of about 1 second
  • Left and right sway and up and down limits can have a modifier on top of the base weapon and attachments’ values
  • Up, down, left and right values should be determined by modifiers on the weapon’s sway
    Holding your breath is the active part of the breath system. By holding a button, you will hold your breath for a specific amount of time before your character releases the breath for you. The longer you hold your breath, the lower your stamina gets. If you have little to no stamina, then you will not be able to hold your breath very long.

Breakdown of full stamina breath hold:

  • Holding [key] will begin the “hold breath” state
  • Sway is reduced to 0 for the duration
  • You can hold your breath for 10 seconds before needing to release (this action will be involuntary)
  • The release will create sway for 3 seconds, with a modifier making it a bit more extreme
  • After the sway, breathing returns to normal

Breakdown of no stamina breath hold:

  • Holding [key] will begin the “hold breath” state
  • Sway is reduced to 0 for the duration
  • You can hold your breath for 1 second before releasing
  • The release will create sway for 6 seconds, with a modifier making it a bit more extreme
  • After the exaggerated sway, breathing returns to the breath cycle based on current stamina

Lowered_Stance_HUD

That’s…pretty complex for a first-person shooter. Or at least more than most of the ones I’ve played. Rather than just running and gunning it, you’ll have to treasure your fitness just like a real-world situation, on top of shifting gravity and varying weaponry. It adds another important layer onto the mode, which jettisons it into the realm of simulation.

It’s not just breathing you’ll have to worry about too. Stance is just as important, with three variables to pick from. Lowered Stance doesn’t allow you to shoot, but you’ll have a faster movement speed and greater flexibility when it comes to jumps and grabs. The Ready Stance is your traditional, on the shoulder view, with limited aim but the ability to fire off rounds. Lastly is Aim Down the Sights, or ADS, which is what you’ll be using to pop most space helmets off your foes. It takes time to transition between all three of these – giving you even more to think about.

It’s small tweaks to existing mechanics, but it already makes the FPS Module for Star Citizen sound a lot more complex than your run of the mill shooter. That, and it immediately sets it apart from the idea of a cheap, shoe-horned in feature – which is exactly what naysayers like me were thinking it would be.

Last Updated: April 13, 2015

63 Comments

  1. Is it just me or is this game getting too big for it’s own good?

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      April 13, 2015 at 14:09

      I mentioned it being similar to a bubble that may burst but was dismissed immediately. hopefully this doesn’t bode true.

      Reply

      • Umar

        April 13, 2015 at 14:10

        I don’t wish it upon them either but damn, this game is becoming overly complex and bloated.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          April 13, 2015 at 14:15

          It’s gonna be the best game ever so it must have everything

          Reply

          • Rock789

            April 13, 2015 at 15:13

            Yes, but does it have karaoke?!

          • Hammersteyn

            April 13, 2015 at 15:37

            Or dance dance revolution?

          • BacchusZA

            April 13, 2015 at 16:05

            Given how nuts some of the backers on the SC forums are, I would not be surprised if kareoke in station cantinas & so on was a feature that actually was requested……

          • Bob

            April 22, 2015 at 13:34

            I don’t mean to frighten you, but dancing and karaoke were shown at the recent PAX demonstration of the persistent universe……

          • Ghost In The Rift

            April 13, 2015 at 23:15

            My guess is that the games manual is gonna be bigger than a C++ book..:/ at the rate that they are going!!

          • Hammersteyn

            April 13, 2015 at 23:27

            lol add a linux book too

          • Ghost In The Rift

            April 13, 2015 at 23:28

            and the first addition to understanding woman, for dummies addition lol

          • Hammersteyn

            April 13, 2015 at 23:52

            hahahaha winner!

        • Senator SmellyPants

          April 14, 2015 at 05:32

          This is true, which is why it’s a good thing that it’s for PC only. Only time will tell.

          Reply

    • Aries

      April 13, 2015 at 14:10

      I’m also starting to think they lost the plot abit

      Reply

    • RinceThis

      April 13, 2015 at 15:10

      Totally man.

      Reply

    • Rock789

      April 13, 2015 at 15:13

      Yeah, been thinking the same. Sounds absolutely EPIC and amazeballs… If they pull it off. But anything less and those same supporters may burn them at the stake.

      I hope they do pull it off – seriously does sound off-the-charts amazing (even if I won’t be able to play it, seeing as I don’t own a PC that has built in AI)!

      Reply

    • crazylamb452

      April 14, 2015 at 03:20

      Well this is one of the core features of the game, which is why I am a little confused when the author says that the FPS makes it seem a bit unfocused. The game is advertised as a first person universe, not a space simulator with added fps combat.

      Reply

    • Oba Obasanjo

      April 14, 2015 at 11:55

      lolumad?

      Reply

    • Ghazini

      April 15, 2015 at 09:08

      Games have been held back for years because of peasant consoles and its about time a company made a true next gen PC game.

      Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    April 13, 2015 at 14:07

    Console gamers be like…
    https://youtu.be/7sv5DLVs-fo?t=52s

    Reply

    • Codefridge

      April 14, 2015 at 07:50

      Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
      Fantastic!!!!

      Reply

  3. Blood Emperor Trevor

    April 13, 2015 at 14:16

    Also the armour you’re wearing affects your mobility & vision, and your helmet HUD depends on the manufacturer and what systems you’ve plugged into it. Nice.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      April 13, 2015 at 15:10

      Does it also matter what ship you have docked in who’s bay? Tehehe.

      Reply

      • Blood Emperor Trevor

        April 13, 2015 at 15:36

        Actually, yes. :/

        Reply

  4. Galbedir

    April 13, 2015 at 14:17

    While the game itself looks pretty incredible, and from what I saw of the fps mode, looks like it could be damn fun. I have a feeling that the team just doesn’t know when to stop and release. In afew months, someone in a boardroom meeting is going to say “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could (Insert new crazy goal)” and they will push the release another year…They should finish this fps mode, and release ASAP, before everyone (If they havent already) looses interest.

    Reply

    • ChaosPixy

      April 13, 2015 at 15:25

      They actually haven’t pushed release dates back at all it has always been Squadron 42 – E1 for end of this year and the Persistent Universe(PU) Commercial Release by the end of 2016. They have slipped by a few months here and there as far as Alpha releases are concerned, but name a studio who hasn’t. Also remember each Module i.e. Space Combat, FPS, PU and SQ42 are being developed by separate studios. They collaborate quite extensively but ultimately each module has its own devs, producers and directors.

      Not all listed features are scheduled for the commercial release either, as Chris Roberts says he doubts SC will ever be considered feature complete and will be a work in progress as long as people are playing the game, like most MMOs these days.

      Reply

    • CDJay

      April 13, 2015 at 18:06

      The thing is, ship boarding etc was mentioned even in the original crowdfunding run. To actually achieve the goal of the original pitch *requires* an FPS module. It’s not static in a cockpit, it’s the ability to run around the (sometimes massive) ships. To land and get out to trade, accept missions. To board a trade ship, or storm a space station. This was all in there, we’re just seeing how they’re doing it. The only potential difference is that the fidelity and ambition is hiked beyond what was originally played for “commercial release” thanks to an influx of funds enabling hiring of additional staff.

      Reply

    • hammr25

      April 14, 2015 at 03:41

      Why would they “release” when the game hasn’t even hit the alpha stage yet?

      Reply

    • Exitus Caeli

      May 2, 2015 at 08:27

      Chris has had a tendency to do this as long as he has been in game development. But he’s also had n ability to release a game at the point needed that usually blows people’s socks off. This is a niche game area (though a big niche) and a lot of us players have waited decades for someone to try this.

      You can look around at developers and see how many others are–zero.

      Worst case scenario is this game will be an instant cult classic with people playing it on private servers a decade after it closes it doors.

      Reply

  5. Scorpion V SubZero

    April 13, 2015 at 14:58

  6. Dutch Matrix

    April 13, 2015 at 15:17

    Duke Nukem Forever, anyone?

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      April 13, 2015 at 22:14

      lol

      Reply

    • Ken

      April 14, 2015 at 05:32

      Are we naming games that have nothing to do with the article or subject?

      Oo oo, let me try!

      Sonic the Hedgehog!

      Reply

  7. manzes

    April 13, 2015 at 16:11

    This FPS module will be just one more delayed, barely playable and totally unfinished pre-alpha tech demo with shiny graphics that they will launch… just another tool to be used to justify more “unforeseen events” that will delay the core of the game, as originally promised to be released by 2014, for 2020… they need more time to sell ships (and weapons) seasonally after all – because they promised only to sell “cosmetics” after release, so, the expectation is clear: a gigantic fall in the level of income after “public release”, one that definitely does not help to motivate the devs to advance to that target, justifying that meanwhile they can continue to sell their stuff, absurdly expensive ships, for people with Pokemon complex.
    All those bullets will remain in a piece of paper for a long long time… possibly some of them will never see the light of the day… they barely advanced their hangar and AC modules and are talking about all that, as well as talking about a Squadron 42 Trilogy, when barely started to build the first.
    Obvious “selling hype is better than sell reality” tactics. An approach that they liked so much, that in the recent months have been making “limited-sales of concept ships”, which summarizes in to produce only a JPEG, a set of features and put them on sale by hundreds, or sometimes thousands of dollars in their online store.
    Anyway, only a few people felt in the televangelist talking of CR and they also put in the minds of the most of these excited backers that is their responsibility to make sure that the game will survive for 10 years. So, let them be milked. By 2020 all the rest of the game community can START to have a good/average game to play and Roberts will have built another mansion on Bora Bora. Everyone wins (well… maybe not the crowd-funding reliability, becoming more and more source of cash grabbing for “Molineux” kind of devs)… and if some fanboy got frustrated, it was their own fault in not seen the obvious cash grabbing focus, schemes to make people deluded about “advance”, and trusted in the very cheap/colored/fairy tale speech of the company’s owner.
    For those who did not jump in the bandwagon yet, don’t be a fool to give them money to play it now. If it was really good as its fanboys wants to make you believe and Roberts wants you make you believe with his speech, fancy trailers and tech demos, you would see more than just 5k-10k people playing their most “popular” multiplayer modes, in each new patch release during the entire life cycle of the patch, as their leaderboards in their own website ends showing (not with this objective, but you can figure out analysing that). From who claims to have about 850k+ backers, that is pretty much a pathetic number of people playing, which shows how “good” it is.

    Reply

    • eveplayer77

      April 13, 2015 at 16:28

      .. they barely advanced their hangar and AC modules and are talking about all that, … What ?? i agree that they have a crapload of bugs, but every patch has new content and ac has advanced from a crappy techdemo to a really fun online space shooter that atually works well.

      Reply

      • manzes

        April 13, 2015 at 16:30

        Most don’t agree, as the numbers shown.

        Reply

        • G?r?ld ?z?n?r?

          April 13, 2015 at 17:25

          Meh. I’m in for $50. I’ve gotten close to $50 in enjoyment already just messing around in the AC. I’ve definitely spent more for crappier games.

          Reply

          • CDJay

            April 13, 2015 at 18:11

            I know, it’s inexplicable that anyone could feel satisfied by the progress made so far. Manzes seems to be missing the upside of the big spenders throwing money at ships; it’s additional funding for a PC centric project on a scale and level of fidelity not really seen in a very long time. Still, I’m sure Captain Buzzkill derives pleasure from his incessant bleating which means…. STAR CITIZEN IS HIS FAVOURIST GAME EVAH! How much fun must he be having albeit indirectly, as a result of it? Lots. I reckon he’s probably spent more time talking about Star Citizen than he has playing any game ever. STAR CITIZEN FTW! 😀

          • manzes

            April 13, 2015 at 18:23

            “it’s additional funding for a PC centric project on a scale and level of fidelity not really seen in a very long time.”

            Or… It’s just profit and additional sources of excuses, as well as motivation to achieve the release target as later as possible. The “level of fidelity never seen” was promised from the beginning anyway, when they had only 6 million dollars or 20-23 million dollars.

          • Kuari

            April 13, 2015 at 22:03

            And yet those in the know know that every that’s happening in Star Citizen’s development is just normal game development even for some of the best games out there :). Not their fault that you over react because you’re finally getting to SEE the reality behind development. Either way, they’re not going to be able to put off a release for too long. I’d take the time to actually ready both the SC website’s ToS and Kickstarter’s to get some idea why. There’s one pretty damning line that both of them share.

          • CDJay

            April 13, 2015 at 18:11

            I know, it’s inexplicable that anyone could feel satisfied by the progress made so far. Manzes seems to be missing the upside of the big spenders throwing money at ships; it’s additional funding for a PC centric project on a scale and level of fidelity not really seen in a very long time. Still, I’m sure Captain Buzzkill derives pleasure from his incessant bleating which means…. STAR CITIZEN IS HIS FAVOURIST GAME EVAH! How much fun must he be having albeit indirectly, as a result of it? Lots. I reckon he’s probably spent more time talking about Star Citizen than he has playing any game ever. STAR CITIZEN FTW! 😀

        • CDJay

          April 13, 2015 at 18:08

          I’m not spending much time in arena commander because I’m waiting for things to get a bit further along. Most people I know who backed are doing the same. Does this mean we think the progress to date isn’t enough? No. Does this mean we’ve lost faith in the project, and feel burned out of the money invested to date? No. Will this stop you bleating in every single article ever about SC? No. Ah well.

          Reply

          • manzes

            April 13, 2015 at 18:12

            No… just mean that the game is bad enough to do not keep your interest playing it. The entire objective of these “earlier” releases, was to keep you busy playing… it just mean that they failed on such objective… and failed hard.

          • AngryGuyBrazilNB1

            April 13, 2015 at 19:44

            lololol still angry at SC I see

          • Guest

            April 15, 2015 at 09:24

            Clearly the kid needs help or needs to get a life.

          • Pheonike

            April 14, 2015 at 01:54

            The objective of these “earlier” releases is to test the games systems and fix issues early on before release. A games of this magnitude has never been developed like this before. It’s not a finished product yet. Just think, every piece of this game will have undergone millions of hours of play testing.When it is fully released, it will be rock solid. Hell, they even have the creators of the Cryengine itself working on the it!

          • manzes

            April 14, 2015 at 05:14

            If the objective was “to test game system and fix issues” they would not create tools to prevent peoplt to test game systems in different rigs, as many people have.

            No. The objective clearly is cash grabbing. When they added a feature to make people “earn” something earlier, it was actually a scheme ot make people just test-drive some better ship, better weapon, for a while, and feel the need to buy them by real dollars to have it available all the time instead for a few connections.

            “A games of this magnitude has never been developed like this before. ”

            Definitely without reciprocity and milking backers and not trusting in themselves to receive enough sales does not sound the best way to make a game of this magnitude. Time will show you. Only thing that you get is more people disappointed and they screwing with a niche, when they should have more care with that.

            “When it is fully released, it will be rock solid. ”

            I highly doubt. While all this speech sounds nice, all this talking was said for any single release that they made… all them delayed. They always talk about “passing from a Roberts level of quality”, but in the end, it just reproduces in a seriously badly released tiny module, or additional patch that only brings more issues and very few actual progress ot the final target. They embraced too many things that are capable to deliver as a brand new company, and now are struggling to deal with their own hype and promises made, while persist more and more on creating new opportunities to millk more and more their backers and raising the expectation of everyone else as a side effect. You won’t end well… That is pretty obvious.

            “Hell, they even have the creators of the Cryengine itself working on the it!”

            They basically hired a few guys recently. This is the kind of role to be filled long ago, when the things started, not months after what should be the full release of the game, as originally advertised by them. It just reveals how caothic and focused on profti this whole thing has been done… only starting to hire people that really can start to bring progress too late in the development cycle… because they are more expensive, and they try to save money for profit… again, not trusting that would be able to sell a single copy of the game, which is pretty much, a ridiculous attitude. How a person want that everyont trust on him, when by his actions, he shows that do not trust in his own project to stop cash grabbing attitude, even after having 4 times the money that HE told that would all the necessary to deliver the ultimate AAA Space Sim experience (as advertised by him and repeatedly stated in earlier interviews).

          • The third one

            April 14, 2015 at 06:52

            Of course not, this is they really need for testing.

          • manzes

            April 13, 2015 at 18:12

            No… just mean that the game is bad enough to do not keep your interest playing it. The entire objective of these “earlier” releases, was to keep you busy playing… it just mean that they failed on such objective… and failed hard.

        • CDJay

          April 13, 2015 at 18:08

          I’m not spending much time in arena commander because I’m waiting for things to get a bit further along. Most people I know who backed are doing the same. Does this mean we think the progress to date isn’t enough? No. Does this mean we’ve lost faith in the project, and feel burned out of the money invested to date? No. Will this stop you bleating in every single article ever about SC? No. Ah well.

          Reply

    • babuinix

      April 13, 2015 at 22:16

      Hey look is manzes spilling hate against Star Citizen again 😀 this might be the only forum you have left hey! Manzes aka JCRG99 aka Brazilian Jean Gonçalves born in 99 in Brasil aka ponymilar aka tufao aka whatever he makes up is a sad boy that resents being banned from Star Citizen foruns and now spits hate in every new’s about the game, be aware.

      All about him here:

      > https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/192262/what-s-the-story-of-jcrg99/p1

      > http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xLBUnzsK6NUJ:https://www.facebook.com/wedonotforgive.wedonotforget.expectus/posts/758598494156790+&cd=1&hl=pt-PT&ct=clnk&gl=pt

      Reply

      • Exitus Caeli

        May 2, 2015 at 08:35

        Wow. This explains everything. Does he have a life?

        Reply

    • Ken

      April 14, 2015 at 05:32

      Nut job.

      Reply

    • Sheikh

      April 15, 2015 at 09:23

      Oh look its manzes taking trash about Star Citizen again.

      Stay salty manzes.

      Reply

    • Exitus Caeli

      May 2, 2015 at 08:32

      Most players aren’t interested in or up to stomaching actual alpha testing. Right now it’s a mess to try to “play” the game. It’s testing.

      Most of those of us who backed, backed because we know this sort of game would never get made unless players stepped forward and made it known they wanted it.

      I didn’t spend a fortune and am happy waiting. When the game gets released, there won’t be anything else like it to play. It’s the game concept a LOT of us wanted and on release, with marketing, I suspect you’re going to see a lot of those silent backers flying in game. All that’s happening now is building and debugging.

      Reply

    • Leperray

      August 13, 2015 at 07:14

      Manze/Tufao/JCRG99 warning sticker:
      Sick, mentally twisted mind, banned from CIG years ago for harassment.
      Sicne then, his life’s work is to spit at SC development.

      Readers, do not trust him, do not trust me, make your opinion by
      yourself. Check latest Multiplayer Demo Gamescom 2015 and decide if it
      looks promising or crap for a AAA game project in Alpha stage.

      Reply

  8. Zander Boshoff

    April 13, 2015 at 20:21

    2nd life space edition?

    Reply

    • Exitus Caeli

      May 2, 2015 at 08:35

      No crafting. ; )

      Reply

  9. hammr25

    April 14, 2015 at 03:39

    As long as I don’t have to do any of this FPS garbage I’ll be fine with it.

    Reply

    • Exitus Caeli

      May 2, 2015 at 08:36

      You don’t. You can actually hire NPC’s as crew to do fighting for you.

      Reply

  10. Ken

    April 14, 2015 at 05:31

    “and the inclusion of new modes such as First-Person shooting just makes it all seem a little unfocused at times. ”

    FPS mode has been planned since day one. Look t the original stretch goals.

    Reply

  11. Lemonscampi

    April 18, 2015 at 19:21

    “and the inclusion of new modes such as First-Person shooting just makes it all seem a little unfocused at times”

    So a feature which is an integral part of the game and was in the crowdfunding pitch is a new mode???

    You don’t even know this yet you think you are qualified enough to claim it lacks focus?…..silly.

    Most people that follow SC have no problem with being critical about it thats just common sense, the problem as usual is that all you people moaning about it know sod all and argue from an uninformed position so these news articles just end up full of nonsense and false hoods…..and you wonder why the SC supporters call you out all the time?

    Amature.

    Reply

  12. CleanInternet

    August 16, 2015 at 20:45

    It is now mid August, SC Multi Demo gamescom 2015 does demonstrate live that things are shapping up nicely for a development started only 2 years and half ago. AAA games take 4 to 5 years.

    Arena Commander moved from a size of 8 Km to 8 Millions Km, Solo seat ships and multi crew ships flying and fighting around, information about release of Social module, FPS and AC2 by the end of 2015.

    This is unbalanced (Alpha). Current pledge amount is enough to finance development for a couple of years but
    each pledge allow to hire either contractors or more artists to populate SC with even more high quality content and textures. That what backers are looking for while testing every modules released.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

NZXT’s H1 PC case finally recalled for being too spontaneously flammable

PC hardware is expected to do a lot at any given time, but at the bare minimum, users do r…