Dying Sucks... But it'sa Living

~or  The Strange Case of Me and My Many Corpses

Yup...  that's me...  (sigh)

I have settled down into a simple, sweet, very lucrative and yet decidedly deadly pattern of late.

But First...
"Location, location, location!" Where you live is important so I have moved. I finally took a hard look and realized that Hurston is the closest planet to the sun... ie the most "central" world... therefore it has the shortest flight times to ANYWHERE in Stanton... duh.

Hurston Flight Times to planets in Stanton

So I moved there and I did not reset my toon to do so, this is important. A Character Reset (done outside of the client via your RSI Account) allows you to change your Home location.

Your Home location is where all your "stuff" goes by default. All of your ships, subflair (Subscriber Flair items are permanent because "real-world money") and any ingame items that you have purchased (with aUEC) that have survived to date are spawned there after a wipe or after a Toon Reset. And as I decided not to do a reset, I had to MOVE all of my ships and ALL of my stuff... by hand, so to speak.

This is actually really easy as far as the ships go... I went to Everus Harbor, the main space station in geosync orbit over Loreville, Hurston's main, well, only city... then I simply worked my way down my fleet, "claiming" every ship to EvHarbor... boom done. But the rest of my stuff, not so easy.

I warp back to Bajini Point, New Babbage's geosync station over Acrcorp, pull out my trusty Freelancer and start in the laborious, tedious, mind and mouse finger numbing task of draggin' and droppin' EACH and EVERY single damn item... by hand, into my ship's cargo (inventory)... dear gods.

The Future of Stuff...

We are still waiting on the "Cargo Refactor" (Alpha 3.18.0 we hope), whereby we will have REAL Cargo Containers we can actually fill with "stuff" and use to move large amounts of "stuff" around in... you know, like IRL, like in EVE (Yes, I said it!)... and MAN do we NEED those Uhaul Boxes!

But until we get them... Imagine moving from one house to another by walking into your house, picking up EACH THING, no matter how small, walking that one thing out to your truck, placing just that one thing into the truck... then walking back into the house, picking up the next "thing" (no matter how small) and walking that one thing out to your truck, placing it into the truck then... Oh My Gods.

But, in the end and after a massive, nay near fatal case of carpal tunnel had set in... I got it done. I then warped out to EvHarbor and yup... UNLOADED each and every single damn item from my Freelancer into my Local Inventory... and I was home.  =]

Everus Harbor Station, view from the Concourse

As for why, well logistically Hurston is the most central location so flight times are optimum and... I have been splitting my time (6 to 8 hours a day on avg!) really enjoying the amazing content available at Hurston!

OH! Wait! I mean I WOULD enjoy it if we only HAD "real content" in Star Citizen... (that's a nod to all you SC haters out there)  =]

(1)
"Combat Assist Service Beacons", or CASBs are FPF missions.  CASBs are broadcast by NPC 's who are under attack by random pirates. You accept the mission, warp to the marker, engage and take out all "reds".

There are 4 levels of difficulty (Alpha 3.17.3):
I  Combat Assistance - LOW THREAT
-Reward - 1,500 - 9,000 aUEC
-Complete x8 for higher tier
II Combat Assistance - MODERATE THREAT
-Reward - 15,000 - 25,000 aUEC
-Complete x2 for higher tier
III  Combat Assistance - HIGH THREAT
-Reward - 45,000 - 95,000 aUEC
-IV  Combat Assistance - CRITICAL THREAT
333,000 aUEC Reward

(2)
"Assist in Defending Site", or ADS are FPS "Bunker" missions. As I am now based out of EvHarbor, the merc work is mainly offered by Hurston Security.

Mission Brief:
"A HurSec bunker and personnel are under attack by Nine Tails. HurSec has an open mercenary contract to respond to the location and eliminate any hostiles.

You are cleared to engage with hostiles ONLY. Assault on any HurSec personnel at the site will result in breach of contract, loss of compensation and potentially a Crime Stat."

-HurSec personnel are in Yellow Armor
-HurSec personnel (should) have a "triangle" marker
-Nine Tails personnel are in Purple Gear
-15,000 aUEC Reward

Generally speaking, I wake up and armor up with this basic setup:

Basic FPS/FPF Kit

-Stoneskin Undersuit
-Morozov Heavy Armor
-Gemini "C45" 10mm SMG
(fav of Nine Tails, easy to re-ammo and re-gun)
-Behring BR-2 12 ga., pump action, drum fed Shotgun (also a Nine Tails fav)
-Kastak Arms "Coda" .50 cal revolver (my Fav!)

I fit silencers on everything, grab 4 grenades, 4 magazines for the S45, 4 drums for the BR-2 and 2 reloads for the Coda hand-cannon.

I also take 4 medpens (I don't use a Medgun. It takes too many actions to use, the Medpen takes just 2... "C" + Mouse Click).

Then I pull out whichever ship is not currently needing to be "claimed"... In order of preference,

(1) Anvil, F7C-M Super Hornet
(2) RSI, Scorpius
(3) Drake, Buccaneer

I undock and...

Ok, I gotta digress here for a minute.

Sittin' at "0" at Everus Harbor, waitin' on a mish.  I LOVE THIS SHIT!

I played EVE online for 10 years... 10 YEARS.. and I spent that whole time wishing I could undock and just sit in my ship gazing out of the cockpit canopy, watching the goings on around the space port just as if "I" was actually there.

In EVE you cannot leave your ship. YOU are Canned Space SPAM, A Pressure Packed Pod Pilot... tucked away in a lightless, airless, goo filled, pressurized armored POD, buried deep in the guts of your ship...  sigh.

I hated that, I really did... but SC is THE SHIT!!!!

Chillin' watching the dock from INSIDE... (can't do this in EVE or ED)

Being "there" as "yourself", In Person as 'twere. To walk out onto a station's Concourse and gaze out the armored window-wall. Enjoying the amazing view of the planet, watching the ships come and go... and it all LOOKS and FEELS REAL in every aspect. Amazing!

And none of that damn magical being "Teleported" into the station, like in EVE... And no, SC's physics are not completely and fully "real world"... but they are close enough, and they are a DAMN sight closer to the real than EVE or ED will EVER BE.

This shit ROCKS... 'nough said, back to my irregularly unscheduled rambling...

So... while I am hanging out at "0" outside of EvHarbor I peruse the open contracts. I have been hammering away at the Low Threat CASB's and raised my HurSec Rep enough to unlocked the Med Threat CASB's... moar Pew-Pew FUN and a nice credit bump.

I saved him!  I'm such a giver!

But if I don't see any CASB's (1) close enough and (2) high priced enough (I don't take ANY that are over 100km away and many are around Crusader, too much flight time), so then I check the ADS "Bunker" missions for HurSec and if one is open I take it, warp to the marker, land and do the pew-pew.

This is where the many corpses of Tur come in. You see you don't often leave a body behind when you lose a CASB... it IS Space Combat after all... pretty much if things go BOOM... that's usually it, that first mistake is all you get.

But FPS "boots on the ground" missions are different... you very often DO leave a bloody and slowly cooling and yet well attired and kitted out corpse behind as "you" are re3Dprinted at your re-spawn location... Ev Harbor is mine... remember, where all my ships and stuff is...  =]

Uh huh... me again. Caught from behind...  again... (sigh)

So, I re-suit, re-arm, re-gear, re-ship and re-turn to the site and now I have a serious reason to do it right, to kill them all... I want my STUFF BACK!!

And as long as you don't log out or crash the client your mission should remain active... I mean you only died you know, it's not like you perma-died for reals... (GASP! SHOCK! HORROR!)

Of course all this dying, gettin re3Dprinted, and Leroying back in causes another issue I had not forseen... abandoned ships...  sigh.

Yup... all are mine.   Well, they say the third time is a charm.

But all in all my gaming in SC had been very full and fun and overall quite lucrative seeing as I am basically playing solo... (also something not really supported in EVE).

At an average of 20K to 40K aUEC per Med Threat CASB and 15K aUEC per ADS I can pull down an easy ~100K to 500K creds per night... definitely covers my running costs... Suits, Armor, guns, gear, food, fuel, repairs and ammo with a decent profit left over.

"I got a bad feeling about this..."

All in all I am very satisfied with Star Citizen and the gameplay we have right now in Alpha... and if this is that good now... I cannot begin to imagine what the future and CR and CIG will bring to us in the years to come...

One other thing... I don't just fly missions and run bunkers... oh no. I will often just take off and explore... low-fly at high-speed "Nap of the Earth" style... or I will break out a ground vehicle and roam far and wide.

Recently I took a day off, flew out to Arccorp and found a really beautiful, secluded spot... Man would I LOVE to build a base, or a cabin! here.

A really lovely valley, remote and unspoiled.

I'd build my cabin right here...

Later, on Hurston, I found a lake... and went swimming...  let's see you do THAT in EVE or ED!

I wonder...

Oh yea!!!  The water is FINE!

Swim like it's your own Private Lake
I hope to see YOU in the 'verse!

=/|)=

By Space, Atmo or... Sea?

~or "How You Get There is Important."

Tur, contemplating traveling...

Hi there. Been a while. Been Busy.   =]

You see my wife and "sold it all" to buy a 53' sailboat to liveaboard and travel the world in our retirement. She may not be a Drake or an Origin, but she's good enough for us.

She is a 1995 Gozzard 44 MK 1 "A". She is 53' long, 14'6" wide, a Cutter rigged Clipper, a true bluewater, ocean-going Sailing Vessel... currently named "Black Beauty".

She is, in all actuality, my real world Cutty Black   =]

In the middle of May we sailed her 100nm (nautical miles) south down the Chesapeake bay from Annapolis MD to her new home port on the Corrotoman river in VA.

She is now what we call "on the hard", meaning out of the water, on stands on the ground for a few minor repairs, to sand and paint the bottom, etc., etc. We spend our weekdays on the boat, and keep our weekends free for Fam & Frens and sailing and such.

CJ & I on the bow of Black Beauty

OK, on to Star Citizen stuff...   =]

Needless to say my free time for SC has been somewhat hampered since May. But I have been loggin' in when I can, and it's been so worth while!

Not only worth while in that a few hours in space are just the break I need after the hot & sweaty grind of working on the boat outside... all day... for a week... (gods). BUT all the amazing changes and additions to the game!!

Spent over an hour just 6-wheelin all over Celin

And for me personally the way the games stability and play-ability have shown steady improvement as CIG bug-stomps it's way from patch to patch has been very satisfying. Alpha 3.17.2 has been really fun just spending my time boofing around the verse... seein' the sights, shootin' the baddies and deliverin' them boxes!!

I even upgraded to a Scorpius (WOW!), then flew out to Port Ollie and started running the newly upgraded Service Beacons. Sticking with the Low and Med Beacons I have been hammering down some pretty good cred. They pay from ~1,800cr. to my personal best of ~65,000cr. for one, two-tango mission.

The Scorp in Warp!

Flying the Scorp and running Low & Med Beacons is almost a waffle-stomp... almost. You still really do need to know how to fly in SC, and while I'm no Maverick, I do hold my own quite well thank you very much.

Spaceman Spliff, to the Rescue!!

I set myself a goal of 1mil credits. After the wipe I had over 6mil cr., schweet!! ...Then after CIG "fixed" that little faux pax, I was left with only 20,000cr. (sigh) But it took me only 3 really fun nights of flying to make it back to 1mil. I died a few times of course, to the usual suspects... my own stupidity and the game itself killed me the most of course... it's SC in Alpha... but yes, I also had a few losses to the NPCs.

I have been to the Ghost Hollow Reclaimer homeless shelter... WOW... I was so totally blown away that I forgot to take any pix... then I got shot... deserved it too, just wandering around the site with my pie hole wide open.

I even went to prison again... and once again, I do NOT know why. Oh I have been to prison for things I did, I have no problem owning up to my bad deeds. This was different. I ran a Beacon, killed the bad guys, saved the dude and POP! Crime stat, Level 2, crap.

But what was really weird was that when I died and re-spawned in Kleshcher, my dead body spawned in with me... in my cell... in my BED!! Gross and weird like you don't wanna know... Yuch.

All I know is waking up with your own dead body can lead to some really weird conversations with the guards.

Then I realized... I had ALL MY GEAR!!! INSIDE Kleshcher!! Spacesuit, Armor and GUNS!! Fat lot of good it did me, could not "equip" to save my life.

Oh well... I decided (IRL) to get a bite while Tur took a nap and waited out his sentence.

ZZZ Zzzz ZZzzz zZZzzzZZ...

After I got out of the joint... I decided to take a break so I got out my Conny Taurus, the most comfortable of my small fleet of ships.

I requested clearance, took off and warped out deep into the black...

After I dropped out of warp and shut down the engines I changed into something comfy and had a bite to eat while I looked out into the cold harsh unforgiving eternal night... contemplating the twists and turns life, and death, can take, both in the verse and IRL.

All I want, is a ship all my own, and a star to guide her by...

Fly it like it is your HOME.
=/|)=

An Undramatic Life

~or "Money or Immersion?"

What do I fear...

Fear Factor...

I have found my niche, my place in the UEE and in Stanton. I am a freelancer, not the ship but the title of an independent man of many trades. One who works solely for himself, or takes contracts for his various services, a man beholden to none.

I do as I please. I mine a little, I trade a little, I do a little "security work" and a little "wet work" from time to time... It all adds up and I like it all and I am happy and happy is... well, it can be a little dull. Seriously, being "Happy" is dull. Not so much the living of it, but the telling of it can be.

Oh there are still the occasional 30Ks, though those have been getting quite rare in the last 2 months. And yes, there are still the noticeably more occasional glitches, to some of which you can still lose ships and gear and while you can still lose cargo, that is extremely rare now.

30K Protection Works! Thank your local RSI Rep Today!

No, nowadays our collective fears have changed from "Unexpected Loss of Everything to The Game" to "Unexpected Loss of My Stuff to..." well, that's the hard part for many players, you see...

In Star Citizen as it was in EVE, Loss is REAL... Different in detail, but still real.

We now fear that when we lose a ship, whether we "pledged" for it or bought it ingame, we also lose all the gear we are wearing and/or carrying and all that was stored inside our ships. It does not matter if it is to a pirate or a griefer or a glitch... or the worst, to a stupid mistake.

Add to this that your body & gear does "persist" for a while, and it can be looted by other's or by you if you get there in time. Plus your ship will drop the stuff that was stored inside, again lootable to all. Because of this many players now eschew any extraneous gear at all.

Of course I "might" lose this stuff. So? I'll still play my way.

No expensive undersuits, the cheapest armor, or no armor at all... the noob pistol and the one mag it comes with, and maybe a few Med Pens but that's it... They are all too scared of losing those "precious things" they bought... to use... in the game. Huh. I guess they are waiting for the game to get "safer" or something.

It's like the VPTSD we all share about the next time... and there WILL BE a "next time"... that you die to Breathing Vacuum. IE, forgetting your helmet. These are the "logistics" and the "costs" of Death and Loss that we now live with in Stanton. The same ones I have lived with in New Eden for 10 years... I say bring it ON! I was regenerated for this!!

So it has been very interesting to me as I watched the players switch from wearing cool undersuits and using the the whole range of available Armors... from the perfectly matched sets to wild, and oft really horrid, mix-and-match armor suits.

But nowadays a lot of players live in a noobsuit all the time because... "Don't wear (or carry) what you don't want to lose."  The SC variant of the age old EVE, "Don't fly what you can't afford to lose." mantra.

Is it Safe? Is is Secret?

Fear of Gear Loss controls player reactions and actions. I'm different that way. With every wipe and every ship-loss I still carry a full set of gear on all my ships. I STILL wear undersuits and armor ONLY when appropriate. Meaning when I am going to need to deal with vacuum or a inhospitable environment I wear an undersuit and at least Med Armor. I also gear up with guns and meds if the expected situation warrants it.

But if I am going to be landing at Area18 or New Babbage to sell cargo or refined ores, I change into civvies, "civilian wear" meaning T-shirts, pants, jackets, etc. Whatever I feel is appropriate for the business and the climate I will be in then.

As I pull each ship out after a claim, I stock each with a BSL, a "Basic Ship Loadout" including 2 undersuits, 1 to 2 sets of Med or Hvy armor (depending on the ships storage capacity), a basic set of guns & ammo, Med supplies, several days of food & water and a selection of civvies.

Basic Ship Loadout

I do this for EVERY SHIP I own. And yes every time I have to claim a ship I have to resupply that "new" ship with another BSL of gear because you do loose all your gear every time you lose a ship... so what?

You want IMMERSION right? Well, that's the cost. You are welcome to play the game and enjoy ALL the amazing immersive aspects of a virtual life... you are also welcome to run around in a noobsuit forever because you fear losing a few credits. Take your pick.

And yes it is "a few credits", I spend around 5K to 10K aUEC for each Basic Ship Loadout. I bank enough cred from trading and mining to buy SPACESHIPS so I barely notice the cost of a BSL for each ship.

Basically when I buy anything on the BSL list I buy 10 of each every time and I have yet to run out of anything and I really LIKE having the choice of a suit, helmet, armor and guns when needed, or street clothes when not. I like playing ALL of the game.

It feels real... and I like that.

Recent Events...

I have been living in my Andromeda mostly. I always bedlog out deep in the black, powered down and on the float and it's been working great, bedlogging and the game as a whole lately. Yes I have seen a few 30Ks, but like 2 in 2 months... and yes, I have lost stuff to a few glitches... but again fewer, much fewer than I am used to. Bed-logging and living full time aboard ship has been rock solid for me at least, and that is HUGE to me.

I have been trying something different in mining. Everyone, including me, mines Quant because it's the highest profit ore. I wondered what simply mining whatever I found, regardless of what it was, would bring in. Turns out, it's ain't Quant, but it ain't crap either.
.
I have been seeing what kind of ores are available right off the door step of ARC-L1. I literally am mining basic ores just barely out side of the Armistice Zone... and making way more than I'm spending. It's easy, simple and very fast. No warping, thrusters alone and you can do a LOT of trips out and back lemme tell you! To me personally the ease, simplicity and yes, the safety of this method more than make up for the difference in ROI over Quant.

Down to 892cr, but once I sell my refined ores...

New Balance, 28,495cr, a profit of 27,703cr

The Inventory System has seen some love because I no longer have to move everything three times to get it from a Loot Crate to Local... YEAH!! But you do still have to move Each Damn Item one-at-a-time... but it's better, much better and headed in the right direction.

So, I am happy. I wake in my rack in my ship. I go about my day, usually with a few trade runs. I love the short quick moon runs. Buy Agricium or Laranite on Lyria or Wala, sell at the TDD at Area 18. Later, if I have any completed refining jobs, I might run the refined products to market. Sometimes I switch over to my Prospector and either head out to th' Belt for Quant or fly lazily out into the local rock garden and munch on whatever is closest... both are enjoyable and profitable.

Oh, and I moved from Orison to Area 18. That 10 to 15 minute climb up out of atmo from Riker is a killer. I could have moved my Image to Port Olisar, but who would want to live at Port Ollie?

So Area18 is now my home of record and I moved my Image to Everus Station. But, as I said, I live in my ships... on the float out in the black... where I am safe, happy and at peace.

Nude Mining anyone??  =]

Fly it like it has a Mortgage!
=/|)=

PS
My take on the recent Spectrum Drama over Changes to the Release View.

Seems CR/CIG decided to roll back the Release View to ONLY those things that were ACTUALLY close enough to actually be released to Evocati, the first actual step in bringing any feature to the PTU and hence to the PU.

The Progress Tracker is what we should be looking at anyway as it tracks actual progress. Meaning work that IS actually being done now.

The Release View DID just "get in the way" because so many saw the Release View as "Written In Blood on a Stone that Feature "X" WILL BE DONE BY..."

It was seen as a Promise... but it wasn't and no one wanted to accept that it wasn't so yes, taking it down a notch was a good move.

As for how it was said... well, if we are all honest here much of the things CIG and CR and the Devs have been called have been WAYYYY beyond the pale for years now. That they hit back a little, if they did... 

Good on them I say.

Day Four and Counting...

~or “The Liveaboard Lifestyle”

Breakfast, day two

So with the advent of the Star Citizen Alpha 3.15 “Deadly Consequences” patch I began an experiment that I have wanted to do since I first logged into the 'verse... To live full time onboard a spaceship. This has been a dream of mine for over 11 years now.

In EVE Online we lived in our ships... hell, as we were basically a component, a “module”, plugged into our ships we really had no other choice but to live aboard. Except it wasn't “me” and it really wasn't “living”.

You see in EVE our bodies are packed away into capsules... armored buttplug shaped single person escape pods (with warp drives no less!). Inside these “pods” our bodies are pressurized inside and out with life sustaining “pod goo” with electrical umbilicals plugged into ports all over our bodies connecting our nervous systems directly to the ships systems.

This is the basis for the idea that just one person can fly and fight every ship in EVE from the lowliest noob ship to a Titan. Really? Titans are capitol ships up to 18 KILOMETERS long... I mean, seriously, an Eighteen Kilometer Long Single Seat Fighter?

When we are docked instation in EVE we can have the “pod” removed from whatever ship we were in and then actually exit the pod ourselves. You would be “decanted” to the floor in a pool of pod goo... hacking and coughing and needing a towel and some clothes (yes, that is how the Lore graphics made it look). But then we would have been able to be our actual selves in our actual bodies actually in the world.

First Person Experience in EVE...    (yuck)

 

With this idea of creating new FPS Gameplay for EVE back in 2011, with the attendant whole new FPS playerbase and the new income and the new content and the well, you know the GROWING-the-godsdamned-game-is-good-for-BUSINESS-thing, CCP had been working on WIS (Walking In Stations) which could have let us get OUT of the damned “pods” and play the game on foot, on the ground, in stations and maybe even inside our ships!!

But CCP dropped that ball like a radioactive potato when the playerbase lost its collective mind over WIS, the Incarna character creator and Micro-transactions and a huge number of players thew a Vehemently Anti-WIS “Space ships ONLY!” tantrum, IE the Jita Riots of YC113.

So CCP backed away from WIS and that was that... I'd never ever be able to walk around inside the Caldari Navy Assembly Plant, better known as “Jita 4-4”, the greatest trade hub in New Eden... or walk the concourse in the Emperor’s Family Station in Amarr Prime where I stored my shadow fleet while I lived and died in my beloved home, Anoikis.

And so for 10 years I “lived” in my ships and I was as content as I could be given the limitations in EVE. But no more! With the new features of Physicalized Inventory, Loot Generation & Server Crash Recovery (scroll to Core Tech), Medical Gameplay and Regeneration brought to the PTU & PU through Alpha 3.15(.1) now I can!

The Experiment.

I just bought one of the new Entry Level Medium Cargo Haulers showcased at the recent 2951 IAE, the Argo Astronautics RAFT (Reinforced Advanced Freight Transport).

My Argo RAFT, SV “Kon-Tiki” on Wala loading up 96 SCU of Laranite

I am SO smitten! I LOVE this ship! First off I love the ARGO “HTFU” Industrial aesthetic, very similar to Drake, my other fav ship maker.

Second, this is a dedicated medium cargo transport designed for long range deployments with 2 crew and it has all the necessary “liveaboard” amenities... Bunks, nice galley, wet head and ample Locker storage (1.5 SCU) for provisions such as food, clothing, armor, guns, ammo and medical supplies. She also carries 3 external 32 SCU containers to give her 96 SCU total capacity. She is lightly armed with just 2 S3's in a remote turret and 2 S1's for the pilot, but she comes with a very tough hull, tougher shields and a comprehensive countermeasures suite.

After I bought “Kon-Tiki” I immediately provisioned her with water bottles, cola, beer and a variety of sandwiches, fruit, snack bars, candy, etc. I bought Med-pens, Med-guns and refills, a spare undersuit, a spare set of armor, a selection of firearms and ammo and 2 Multitools with attachments and a selection of clothing for all occasions.

Then I started doing some trading. Mainly quick one-way Agricium or Laranite runs, with Titanium to fill in the corners, from moons to the planet hubs. I haven't been doing any 2 way hauling as Scrap is still not a viable commodity.

Even so I have still been banking roughly ~130k cr per day (login to logoff) without really working too hard for it. So financially it has been quite decent so far but... the real thing is, I have been able to live full time on my ship for the last 4 days and nights.

See those bottles? been there 2 days, full backpack still there from last night

THIS was AMAZING... for the last 3 days I pulled and re-racked as needed

I wear whatever I feel like, sloppy clothes aboard, business casual or a uniform if I'm gonna be in atmo or in public, undersuit and armor if airless... I go armed when needed, unarmed when warranted. The FEEL of it all is absolutely amazing.

I now usually wear pants and a T-shirt or something comfortable while shipside. I change into whatever is appropriate to my destination, land, do my business, take off and change back to comfy clothes for the flight. GODS how GOOD this feels!! It feels REAL.

Feels good to be out of my armor... time to make the run to a market hub

After I finish for the day, I warp out somewhere far far away from the madding crowds (is 50 players a crowd? have you met us?)... then I MANUALLY drop out of warp deep in the black or maybe somewhere out in the Belt. I go on the float, power down my engines, go aft to the hab, change into sweats and a ratty but comfy old sweater and make some dinner (while “I” do the same IRL).

Then I chill out watching ancient vids from old Earth... SxyBisuit, BoredGamer, Citizen Kate or Cobra TV until I decide to turn in then I undress and simply go to bed... (as “I” do the same IRL).

Looks like the pantry is getting low again...

For the last 4 days I have spent my time in Stanton running cargo, banking cred, shopping for supplies and living full time aboard my ship... and in general, I have been as happy as I believe I can be in a virtuality.

When 30Ks happen (they have been few thank Bob) Crash Recovery has been working great. I either log right back into my ship in space where the crash happened or, at worst I find myself planetside and simply pull the ship back out finding that everything, cargo and supplies, are all in perfect order so I just get back to work.

Has it been glitch and bug free? Nope. Last night I lost the ship and everything in her. I had had another profitable day, It was late and I was on the float eating dinner... Bacon Club sandwich, apple, chocolate bar and a water. After I was done, I went to get up from the table to throw away the empty bottle... but, the game decided to exit the booth to my left. To my right was the interior of my ship, to my left was... the rear window.

Yup... to my left is the window I fell out of...   sigh>

I glitched through the window and out into space... found myself gently spinning, gasping, freezing and dying in sweats and a ratty sweater while holding that empty water bottle.

So is it perfect yet? OH Hell no! It is still very much in Alpha and still definitely a Work In Progress but... AMAZING PROGRESS!!!

Even in “Alpha” Star Citizen is still THE MOST deeply detailed, MOST deeply immersive and simply THE MOST FUN MMOG that I have ever experienced in my entire life.

Please be Neat, Wipe the Seat! and don't forget to Flush!

 Fly it like you actually LIVE in it!
=/|)=

Cargo, Cargo, Oh Where Will it All Go?

 ~or “I Need a Bigger Storage Unit”

Whatta mess...

Physicalized Inventory... Making Virtual Stuff Real.

I love trading gameplay, but I didn't used to. One of the games Chris Roberts is best known for is Freelancer, a SciFi space based trading and combat game released in 2003. I never played Freelancer or any of the other titles CR produced or even worked on until Star Citizen.

I came to PC gaming through DOOM and Descent. The very definition of simplistic FPS gaming. Immediate gratification without complications like logistics and supply. Everything you needed simply lay all over the gameworld and once you knew where they spawned, you just ran over them and BOOM!, you had a BFG9000 with limitless ammo, BAM! you were Perfectly Healed, WHAM! you are teleported instantly hither and yon.

Logistics, mining, refining, manufacturing (crafting) and buying, selling and trading did not exist in those games and, TBH while I knew about Freelancer and such games and I was just not interested... at all. But I was wrong, it's not that I was not interested at all, it's just that the gameplay that existed back then for logistics... mining, refining, manufacturing and buying/selling/trading... was not at all interesting to me.

Even in EVE, I never got into manufacturing or trading. I tried it of course but found it deadly boring. I did get into PI (Planetary Interaction), the process of setting up automated mining, refining and manufacturing on planets, but that was because it was (1) enjoyable in that it was fiddly and rubbed some OCD part of my psyche but (2) mainly because it was, aside from hauling to market and selling, it was passive ISK, but that was all. It was logistics gameplay I could sorta deal with for the profit.

I played Elite Dangerous pretty much just for the joy of flying spaceships in a game where the flight mechanics are really damn good and the stations are realistic in size and more so in operation. EVE's stations and POSes are a joke in this regard. In ED I didn't like the fighting and mining gameplay, so I tried Rares Trading. And yes I did enjoy making credits but it was more just a reason to fly, still not a reason in itself.

Then I tried trading in Star Citizen. TBH I was thinking it would be a lot like trading in ED... until the first time I walked up to my ship and lowered the ramp and saw the stacked crates of actual virtual cargo... I nearly cried. It was fascinatingly beautiful to me.

A full cargo hold, so strangely satisfying...

Then I realized, it's not the game aspects I like about gaming so much, it's how close to reality gaming is now getting. I feel I have always been chasing that indefinable feeling of reality, of what we in SC call Immersion... the reality in the virtual.

I want exactly what Chris Roberts wants... what ALL of us who love what SC is now and what we hope and dream it will become. A true SciFi Space Based Virtual Reality, a Virtuality. Only Chris doesn't want to create an Oasis, or re-imagine the real world as Hogwarts or Arrakis or Reach or even The Shire... he wants to create a whole new 'verse where things are not all Quests & Magic or Fantasy Make-Believe... he is creating a 'verse grounded in science and well... reality. It's a very interesting form of escapism to leave one reality for another.

I also believe that the detractors, the naysayers, all those who hate Star Citizen, Chris Roberts, Cloud Imperium Games, and incidentally look down on those of us who love and support this game, they hate it because they don't have the same dream. They don't want a virtuality, they want just another “game” to play. They don't have the same passion we do for this project, well except when it come to hating on it, then they can get pretty passionate indeed.

As for me, I have that passion. I spent the last 2 weeks 30King (server crash) and Client Crashing and warping deep into planets, and exploding, or warping off into uncharted space and dying over and over and over. There have been multiple updates now to the Alpha 3.15 build on the PTU and finally, on Halloween night FFS, I was able to play a whole session and did not lose any ships, equipment or cargo and died only once, and that by my own hand... helmets, it turns out, are IMPORTANT in a vacuum.

An MSR full of Medical Supplies...  just wow.

Every time I died or 30K'ed or just glitched out I just smiled and logged right back in. Why? Because it's worth it to me. I understand and accept that I am taking part in the creation of a game that is fulfilling my dream of what a SciFi Space Based Virtuality can be. And I understand that this is the process that leads to the end product and I really like being a part of that. And a really fascinating and newly introduced mechanic in that process is...

Physicalized Loot... and Shoplifting

As part of the new Inventory system, CIG also kicked off the Loot Generation system that will spawn containers throughout the PU (crates/lockers/boxes) that will contain dynamically populated randomized loot. Stuff just lying around that you can steal... hey, just being honest... grand theft firearm, Crime Stat 1 anyone?

Anyhoo, I have been toiling away at the credit grind. Hauling Agricium around ArcCorp. I buy Agricium, and/or Titanium when the Agricium stocks run low, from Shubin SAL-2 on Lyria and sell at the Area18 TDD. It's decent income especially as it is a really short moon-n-back run. Plus I'll occasionally make a few Med Supply runs out to Jumptown on Yela. Yea, that Jumptown, the drug den that actually has “history” in Stanton.

On the ground at Jumptown with a hold full of Med Supplies

Look at us will you? The Game that is a Permanent Scam, this Game That Will Never Be, this Pre-Alpha Tech-Demo, already has Player Lore. And yup the genesis of that lore was a glitch, a software bug, but the interactions, the player experiences and stories that came out of that... are pure player lore.

Anyhoo, back to Looting. After I sell the Med Supplies, I check all the buildings for lootable crates and boxes. Hold “F” and sweep the area you are in. You don't have to be close, just close enough and the crates will “highlight”... as they do.

See it over there?  Hold “F” and sweep around to find lootable crates.

Go ahead, click on it... you know you want to...

Move close enough to get the “LOOT” pop-up... Now remember your Bad Guy Training, hunch over a little and glance around furtively while wringing your hands with evil sanitizer... you are about to steal stuff that just ain't yours. This is Shoplifting at best, and if the value of the purloined goods is over 1,000cr... man, that's outright grand theft.

The act of Looting opens your inventory. On the Right you see “External”, this is the Loot Crate. On the left I switch tabs to “Local” then I drag & drop everything in the crate over to my Local Inventory.

Loot All The Things from External to Local

I quickly check every building on the site and empty every crate and box into Local. Once I am back on my ship, I open the Inventory, select tabs for “Local” and “Vehicle” and move everything to Vehicle.

In for a penny as they say... I steal every thing from every box every time, even the low cost stuff because (1), most of that is free “food” and (2), Guns, weapons and ammo are useful and (3), I sell everything that can be sold because a credit is a credit is a credit, and they all add up.

Move all from Local to Vehicle... (one trip to Jumptown)

You can't sell the guns and accessories yet, but you can now sell the consumables listed above. I have so far only tested this at ArcCorp. There you sell your trade goods at the Trade & Development Division but the consumables have to be sold at the Trading Terminals in the lobby of the IO-North Tower in Area18.

Finally, stuff other than cargo that we can sell.

My only complaint is one born of the simple fact that you can't “create” a finished game, it has to go through stages from idea to finished product, it just fekkin' takes time. This is the first iteration, “T0”, of the Inventory system and so of course it is very rough, we need all kinds of details and actions added that we can perform with and to cargo and loot... but everything is rough when it's brand new, so meh.

I know they are working to add things like Right Click action menus for stacking, grouping and moving items. I expect we will be able to “pack” and “crate” goods and assets something along the lines of how we did in EVE. It just takes time and lots of effort and so far, IMHO, CIG is showing excellent results in the effort category. I am well pleased.

To Sum Up...

Physicalized Inventory is one more step deeper into a truly Immersive Virtuality. To make All The Things in the 'verse Real. Making all the objects that surround us and that we interact with into 3D models we can make, buy, use, store, enjoy, lose, etc., etc., etc. just like any real 3D object outside of your computer screen. The end effect is to make the game more and more Immersive and THAT is the Holy Grail Chris Roberts is seeking.

Are we there yet? Well, no. As you can see when we buy cargo, such as the crates of Agricium below, you do get them delivered to your ship (yes magically, for now), and when you sell them they are (again magically for now) offloaded when sold, but the crates themselves?

Well, yea they are still just placeholders at the moment, not actual crates with actual stuff inside... but it'sa Good Start and to get to The End you gotta Start somewhere.

<sigh>

Fly safe and...  can someone help me out of this?
=/|)=