Notes from HK Bar Citizen 2023

[Chimaera]

EDIT 28 June 2023: Wow, this one has blown up after being shared around by Pipeline. I want to make a couple of comments regarding the info below. Remember, these are things from my memory / impressions and condensing information, so there might be some inaccuracies. I've tried to be as accurate as possible and will edit if something was incorrect.

Video has been uploaded, I will add / edit accordingly. All additions or edits will be made in BLUE. Apologies for inaccuracies in the first version.

Ok, so there was a lot of information given out in the Bar Citizen in HK event. Some of it was stuff that everyone already knew, but some of it was new information or less known information. I'll try to make notes from what I remember and @JosephWcan maybe add in things I might've forgotten.

- SQ42 being removed from the store is NOT and indicator of anything remotely imminent regarding SQ42 releasing. There wasn't a denial of anything SQ42 coming out (like previews or some kind of early access/vertical slice) but it was clear that they're not expecting it to come out this year.

- CIG is really excited to see how Starfield performs and they don't see any real issue with "competition". 

- 3.2 wipe will likely happen ONLY if there have been fixes to the duplication mechanics that have been plaguing the game. Wiping without removing the dupe bugs is pointless in their opinion. (but they will wipe whenever they feel like it's appropriate) They prefer to get away from wipes in general unless there's a reason for them.

- CIG is aware of most duping bugs and are trying to squash them. CIG was also aware of some salvage bugs, but the staff that heard about the "infinite salvage bug with a single Reclaimer" were unaware of that specific bug.

- Hull-C coming out will give them a lot of good information on how bigger ships will impact the server performance in the game, but there is a low likelihood of any big ships coming out after 3.2 this year. 

HOWEVER there was a statement made in passing about "...wishing to see something big like the Pioneer coming out this year..." and the comment was made "You really should come to Citizencon this year, I think you'd be happy." 

- Each dev has their own favourite manufacturer/ship type, but the only Drake-o-phile there was Todd Papy. Erin Roberts loves the Tali "For reasons that will become very clear when Squadron comes out."

- Ship designs are going to follow "Old and new" styles from the same manufacturer. As such, ships like the MISC Freelancer (old MISC) will likely not see an upgrade to the aesthetic of the Hull-A (New MISC). 

- AI crew/blades for simple tasks like mining/salvage will not likely be in game until there is more stability otherwise the higher server loads will end up negating their ability to do basic tasks (i.e. when all the AI on a server just freezes in place).

- The Reclaimer's elevator is unique and is the only type in the game, so whenever there are updates to elevators in the game, it tends to break the Reclaimer's elevator. They know it's a problem and they know the other problems with the Reclaimer, but they can only do so much while they're also changing aspects of the game.

- Salvage mechanics for breaking bigger pieces into smaller pieces are still being thought up, and haven't been pushed past concept ideas. In addition, ONLY ships that have been created with the physicalized components systems can be soft-deathed and have their components removed. Older ships that don't have the ability to remove the components manually don't actually HAVE the physical component integrated into the ship, just a placeholder "skin".

- AI Systems like ChatGPT won't be used to supplement things in the game because of proprietary reasons.

- When base building comes into the game, it will be something more akin to Fallout 4's pre-fab house system, not something where you can create a base building panel by panel. Base building is VERY important to CIG because they want to have people creating bases and whatnot, but it won't be coming out until likely around Nyx. Pyro was asked about for Base Building and the response was a resounding "nope".

- Different systems, when they come out, will have different themes and CIG will expect that the way that each system looks and acts will reflect both the theme of the system as well as when it was created. The expectation is that Stanton will feel "old and safe" compared to the "harsh and dangerous" Pyro, while Nyx will be more "off-grid homesteader" themed (which implies heavily that base building will be seen when Nyx comes out).

- Pyro still needs server meshing (as has been said in many videos)

- Smaller side-missions will be given at some point once there's more stability and meshing.

- Eventually, UGF missions could have multiple parts, including where you need to first destroy air assets before going into a bunker on the ground and secure stuff, with also reinforcements coming to try to relieve their colleagues. No time frame on implementation, though.

- Art aesthetics for different cities, especially human cities, are inspired by their in-game lore, with a lot of tie-ins to sections of current-day Earth. HK was specifically mentioned for making A18 and Lorville alleyways and advertisements. However, as Alien lore and aesthetics get built out, we'll see some amazing Alien architecture.

- When asked about why they don't release specific systems and allow people to navigate either by a menu or a loading screen, the response was simply "That's not how we want to do it, we want to get the server meshing thing figured out so we can start rolling in new systems." When followup asked about "how many systems" the response was "Well, we want to have Pyro and Nyx in as soon as possible, but we haven't built too much of other systems yet."

- Land beacons that are owned can be sold in-game or the land that the beacon claimed can be sold, but players are not able to "claim land" themselves and sell it "officially" to others, as the only types of land claims that are recognized come from governing authorities (i.e. UEE).

- There will NOT be "player ownership" of stations in-game. Players and groups can "control" stations if they have people on them and block people from entering them, but the idea of owning them (i.e. POS owning in EvE) won't happen.

- Player housing and ownership will absolutely be a thing, but it's expected to be instanced and like "owning an apartment", but because of server instancing/meshing, you could have any number of people actually owning "Flat 23 B" in a hab tower. Players will also be able to own multiple housing units around the 'verse.

- TOW assets aren't coming into Arena Commander and ToW IS BEING WORKED ON, BUT NOT WITH A LARGE TEAM/PRIORITY. There is a group that is testing different game modes when they're doing work on it. One feature from TOW team that the AC update has is the ability to spawn into other people's ships, but TOW "maps and assets" aren't being put into AC. (Impression from other conversations later was that TOW is being worked on, but the priority focus is on other gameplay aspects)

- 600i rework is still being considered but it's not on the tracker because it's taken a back seat to many other things.

- There was a long and complicated discussion about the economy and the effect of the Hull-C on the economy, but the gist of it is that certain ships are considered as "haulers" while others are considered as "delivery" ships. Ones that are able to land are "Delivery" while "haulers" carry stuff from one station to another and have inter-stellar capability. Todd Papy did state he didn't particularly see the Hull-C as inter-stellar. Which is a bit weird. But the long and short of it was that they don't really have a projection on how the Hull-C will affect the economy yet. Most of this conversation was focused around how players could move things between Pyro and Stanton, nothing was really said about the Hull-C's effect on things when it comes into 3.20.

- CIG realize what a mess the "updated Cutlass" price debacle was and double, double pinky swear that any time there will be a price increase on existing ships, it will be advertised well beforehand on Spectrum.

-FPS Sliding and additional animations will be a thing, no ETA given.

- Passenger transport missions will come after freight transport missions.

- Quanta isn't seen as virtual economy gameplay, more NPC focused and adjusting shop prices in-game.

-Persistent hangars are slated to come out when the next iteration of cargo systems come into the game.

-AI Blades aren't really being worked on right now, but NPC crew stuff with "wingman commands" are being tested, but no idea when we will have implementation.

[Chimaera]

There were other things discussed/answered, but they were all generally things that CIG has already answered in recent videos or they were "when" questions that didn't get answered.

[GRIZZ]

Great intel, the dupe bugs and a threat of a wipe has gotten me to enjoy missions for the mission rather than grinding for aUEC.  When money is not an issue box delivery missions are quite fun and rewarding.

I wonder what the reasoning is for no player built/owned stations. Is it better for server performance to keep player structures out of space?

Land beacon claims statement is interesting.  That's one aspect of the game i actively chose to avoid as I did not agree with the sale of land claim tools. 

[Camural]

Very good info!
 

 

[vahadar]

Thank you for the info Chimaera!

[Bathord]

Ok, so the post has now obviously been changed several times...

Which statement applies to TOW now?  
...is it on ice?
...is it being worked on?  

This non-transparent mess is not exactly conducive and CIG could really finally make clear and unambiguous statements.

 

 

[Chimaera]

The blue statement / correction is the "correct" bit based off of condensing the info from the Q&A. There's a team that does work on ToW and some dynamics going into the updated AC modes came from that team, but it doesn't have a huge priority. My initial statement about it being shelved came from me misremembering a part of the Q&A and once I was able to watch the recording I fixed it.