Questions of Cosmic Importance that I'm Too Lazy to Google or RSI lookup.

[CrudeSasquatch]

I was asking @Blind Owl various questions about the logistics of how Star Citizen will operate, as he's watched all of the movies and videos and developer interviews and read the forums, and done his homework, and he wasn't able to answer them. Then he said I should ask you guys. Or maybe he said I should ask Chris Roberts...
I wasn't paying attention.

1: How's this "Fifty people in an instance" thing going to work?
Let's use Sol the Solar System as an example.
A: I'm hanging out on earth. Are there fifty people in San Francisco with me? Are there 50 people on earth or fifty people in the entire solar system? Are there 50 people in the entire galaxy?
B: I fly into space around earth. Did I leave my friends behind?
C: My ship has room for 20 people, my wing-man has 15 people, his wing-man has 15 people... does that mean we have no chance of ever meeting PC enemies for PVP?


2: PVP/PVE
I crash my Aurora into the landing bay of Big Bad Enemy. I fight my way to the bridge. I find awesome weapons along the way. I set the autopilot to "Fly me to Home Base" mode. Then I kill wave after wave of Bad Guy. I fly my new Carrier Class Super Bad Enemy Spaceship back to Home Base... can I buy insurance for it? Sell it for scrap? Sell it to @Montoya as the new seat of his empire? Can I insure my new weapons? If I die and all is lost, I'm back to having a pistol and an Aurora?

3: I'm having trouble seeing the screen right now. I'm going to go get more beer.

 

[CrudeSasquatch]

4: Will there be cattle prods and stealth suits? In Tribes... 2... I used to like to sneak up behind people and Cattle Prod them to death. There's nothing quite like slamming a 6" pole of electric strobe light dance into a frienemy and squatting over his twitching form... and it's fun to do in video games too.

 

[CosmicTrader]

1. There will be instances within instances within instances.

A. There are 50 people in San Francisco with you and perhaps many more in different sub-instances in San Francisco. Ex: You are at landing pad 12 with 50 people, there are 50 people at other landing pads (coming & going), 50 people downtown, 50 people in an industrial area etc. etc. As you move through the city, you move through instances.

B. Yes & No. You all will remain in the 'basic' instance but now you are in the instance surrounding the planet while they are in the instance planetside. (Same with on a ship - The Idris is one instance with several instances within it and as you or others move about the ship, you each traverse from instance to instance while remaining in the 'Ship' instance. The ship remains within the 'Space' instance that it is in, containing your friend's ships (this also has multiple instances to traverse - Ex: different systems or planets etc). [The 'Verse that you and your friends entered is the 'BASE' instance that we are all in].

NOTE: Each ship will have it's own Party system for the crew and all your friends ships can join the same 'Party' ie. instance. Thus you will all be playing together as a Fleet.


C. As stated in B, each ship is an instance within the same instance of the other ships.
[This is quite confusing until you take some time to think about it. Take ArcCorp as an example - as you enter a shop/store/bar you are entering a separate instance within the instance - the same thing happens as you walk down an alley or to a different part of the city. - Yet your friends and you all remain in the same ArcCorp 'instance' even though you might not see each other all the time.]


2. If the Big Bad Enemy had a Bounty on him then Yes to your question. The ship is yours to do with as you wish. (Big Bad Enemy will eventually have his/her ship replaced by the insurance - it is a game after all).

A. If you are a seized the Big Bad Enemy's ship illegally then NO unless you find an insurance co. doing business with criminals.

B. If you die (Perma Death) your Beneficiary will inherit everything in your account minus the Death Tax (amount TBD) and your Reputation.


3. I'm having the same problem but I need more coffee. It is early morning here.


4. No. And I doubt that there will be spaceships in Tribes.


*** The answers to # 1 above are based on the explanation provided by Chris Roberts on several occasions (find the link yourself if that interested). This is, after all, the reason that Star Citizen and indeed SQ42 are very different from all others games. With the 64 bit conversion, the Star Citizen Universe will be extremely huge and persistent. (Instances will be handled by different servers with the Persistent Universe handled by a Central server for everyone).

*** In Arena Commander, as an example only, as you are dogfighting do you 'see' your friends fighting? No. Are they in the same instance (Map)? Yes. Do each of you traverse the 'Map' together? Yes.

*** Expand this theory to a person on a ship with friends, above a planet, in a system, within the 'Verse. Do you have other friends in other ships in different systems with the 'Verse? Yes. Can some of you leave the ship and go shopping while others get drunk in the bar and yet others are 'exploring' different sections of the city? Yes again.
[PROMOTION - CityBoppin & BarHoppin]


Anyway, that is gist of it as explained by Chris Roberts.
That is why the numbers of players per instance and the Party System are so important and is being worked on daily.
In the near future, we will have others Planets to fly between in the Stanton system and then other systems to Jump to. This will the first real TEST of instancing (as we will be flying multi crew ships).


You may need several beers to get your mind around this concept.
Cheers,
Cosmic

 

[Blind Owl]

Jesus, @CosmicTrader. You're a goddamned rocket surgeon. @CrudeSasquatch and I were discussing the mechanics, drunk of course, and I told him to pose his query's to someone who cared (the community) - we ARE brothers. And my beer was empty.

Thanks for the indepth and awesome answer. Still looking forward to flying into the unknown with you. My favourite TESTie . . .
;)

 

[CrudeSasquatch]

Cosmic, you are the best.
I have developed a new sense of reality, and now understand networking and the interconnection of server systems in a way that was never explained to me before.

 

[GeneticPredator]

Cosmic is Important.

 

[CrudeSasquatch]

Not gunna lie.. I went on Discord and @CosmicTrader learnt me something good. Like... holy shit.... questions i didn't know I had. Questions I had but didn't know how to phrase them. Cosmic is the man. THE MAN!
Y'ALL gonna learn today!

 

[Blind Owl]

you gunna learn taday boy!!

 

[Xian-Luc Picard]

Hey, @CosmicTrader . Based I how instances work, is it going to be like I am in the movie Inception? You blew my mind with that explanation.

 

[CosmicTrader]

Hey, @CosmicTrader . Based I how instances work, is it going to be like I am in the movie Inception? You blew my mind with that explanation.

Can't say as I never saw Inception.

 

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

4: Will there be cattle prods and stealth suits? In Tribes... 2... I used to like to sneak up behind people and Cattle Prod them to death. There's nothing quite like slamming a 6" pole of electric strobe light dance into a frienemy and squatting over his twitching form... and it's fun to do in video games too.

This is scary and hilarious at the same time.

 

[Xian-Luc Picard]

Can't say as I never saw Inception.

Basically dreams within dreams within dreams. You never know what reality is actually reality.

 

[maynard]

so what happens if an instance is maxed out with capital ships and they want to launch smaller ships from their hangars?

 

[Black Sunder]

so what happens if an instance is maxed out with capital ships and they want to launch smaller ships from their hangars?

They probably bump one of the caps to a new instance or put the fighters themselves in a new one.

 

[SirDigby]

so what happens if an instance is maxed out with capital ships and they want to launch smaller ships from their hangars?

It'll be interesting to see some of the nuances of how instancing works in this game and whether it can be exploited or not. Games that have instances or cross server capabilities always seen to have work arounds that popup letting somebody flood a zone with players.

Hypothetically lets say an instance is 24 players. I could see scenarios where an org piles 20 players on comms in the zone to gank anybody who happens to be unlucky enough to grab one of the 4 remaining spots.

 

[marctek]

So what you are saying is there will be nested instances. I'm assuming some mechanism where instances are visible to each other such as capital ships.

 

[ErnoCor]

Very much text
Brain filled with the informations now
Overheating, cooldown process imminent
Status: Seeking cold beverage for cooling down

 

[Soven Taliesyn]

Hypothetically lets say an instance is 24 players. I could see scenarios where an org piles 20 players on comms in the zone to gank anybody who happens to be unlucky enough to grab one of the 4 remaining spots.

I think they said they have or are working on a solution to this conundrum to make sure this kind of scenario doesn't happen.

I think it was brought up with the concern of mass fleet battle taking place and few guys of one org in an instance, that do to game mechanics is swarmed with an enemy org. I don't remember what all was said on this point.

 

[Grimbli]

I thought stealth was mentioned. Maybe not stealth suits, but light armor will be the quietest. Heavy will be so clunky CR said you could hear them in the next room. Also, they do have tools, such as knockout and emp grenades as well as barrier shields, so they may have a stealth option. Like GTA where you can call Lester and pop off radar for a minute, that'd be cool. But I seriously doubt there will be invisibility or even Predator shimmery invis.

 

[maynard]

The epic character of the game rides on this question

Will battles be limited to a handful of capitals and their support, or will they scale to where the well-being of entire orgs are on the line?

I want both advantages and raised stakes from being in a large org