Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 released to live server.

[BlackHawk*K]

they just released 2.0 to the live servers. the download isnt much larger then 1.3 was, around 30 gigs. this is a HUGE step forward in many ways and a very large number of features were added to the game. find the details here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/feature-list

[Hammer]

finally something that might be playable.

how are control devices handled?

[BlackHawk*K]

umm. i really cant tell you how yours are going to be. but i know people who use a hotus with foot pedals with a second stick that are playing that do ok. i havnt had any problems myself. right now, im using the sidewinder stick with the x52 throttle. once work gets going better ( if ever...) am and looking at that t16000M stick maybe. ive heard a lot of people say its a good stick.

2.0 is still buggy, and it does crash from time to time. be, again, this is still alpha and this is the first live version for this setup. as long as you keep that in mind. its ok. just dont expect a finished game experience.

the multi crew thing is kind of cool. i havnt gotten into all the stations and everything, ive only been in the gunner seat. but still the concept is something im looking forward to.


before the end of the year they are going to be doing another patch. ( alpha 2.1) i know they are adding the freelancer ship. plus i am THINKING they may add some other ships. plus, maybe a new landing zone addition. at least thats our hope.

[Bronurstomp]

This is on the website, and I think we should all recognize Blackhawk's contribution to the test servers.

"We’d like to extend a massive thanks to everyone who participated in our PTU playtests. We couldn’t have accomplished this without your assistance, and with your help, we’re now in a position to reveal the very first elements of the Persistent Universe to all backers."

<S>

I'm going to put in some time this weekend on 2.0 and see what kind of trouble I can get into

Bron

[BlackHawk*K]

yea that was all me ;)

no it wasnt lol. on a serious note though, this was one hell of a testing stage. first off, keep in mind there is 1 mil people who have bought ships at this point. out of that 1 mil, the first stage of testers were limited to 100.000 i didnt get into that stage. that stage was reserved to those who posted the most bug reports and/or twitch streamers who played the game often. ( why streamers? the devs can watch the stream, and see any bugs in action in real time. plus twitch streams are achieved so they have future reference.) the second batch of testers were chosen by play time and bug reports. i got into this group. so there was about 250K in that bunch. then they opened it up to around the halfway mark around 500k. mostly these were people who backed earlier and they went off peoples backing number on the last stage. ( my backing number is somewhere in the 600K area.)

the build process started out with 2.0.a and went to 2.0.m so we went threw 13 builds in about 2 weeks. you would think that testing video games might be fun lol. its actually frustrating. the amount of crashes and frame per second issues that would pop up are astounding. the build is stable now, that why it went live. there are still a lot of bugs. things like you will be exploring the abandoned station, next thing you know your catapulted out of the station and end up stopping around 4K away from your ship. and dozen of little bugs that do different things. for me i find it interesting to be a small part of the process. often times, Game Devs will show up in the stream chats and talk to us Grunts. see how things are going.


the only BIG downside i see right now, is the Large map area is a open sandbox area, without many AI. the only interaction you get with the AI right now is helping the port security guys fight pirates. and some Vandull flying around in remote regions. so you mainly come across real players. unfortunately there are a lot of griefers who hanker for a fight, or people will just come in blow up your ship on the repair pad, or while your doing EVA to turn on a com relay station. right now there is no monetary function to the large map. but im hoping once they get that in, then maybe they will have a system to put bounties out on people who go around shooting people up. it would be fun to go around hunting down bounties for money hehe. and it would probably slow the griefing down quite a lot.

anyways, dont expect perfection at this point, but right now its sort of a taste of what they are shooting for game play wise.

[Bronurstomp]

I was able to get around a little. There's a lot of content it seems. and I like the eye candy.
But I wasn't able to activate anything like doors or anything real quick. Plus I started it and walked away so missed some of the intro.

I'm going to be on coms tonight.

Bron

[Bronurstomp]

Hey BH they added a good bit.... Kinda fun. I was able to run around and explore some seedy sections of town. I also found a misssion to fix the com arrays
Then, I went to reserve my ship. Found my way fairly easy to the dock, then went through the airlock process outside and jumped into my Hornet, and took off
I flew for a while, and I like the physics still of piloting.
I was running all kinds off stuff to see if it was glitchy. I had TeamSpeak, Fraps, Chrome browser running Pandora, and resource monitor all running
When I also tried uploading a 400Mbyte video file to photobucket, it overloaded Star Citizen, So at 4FPS I bailed

I got some screen shots though, I'll put up some stills. I was afraid it was going to be really dark but am pleasantly how visible things are
Looks good so far! Sounds effects are decent, use of activations is the f key, which is ok. Lots of other things to figure out like how to EVA and complete the comm array mission
My thinking was maybe to guard someone else doing it from greifers.
I retried after the mission test slowed to 4FPS, and tried to enter the same number but it would only take the news ones drat
Oh well, I'll try again lkater.
Bron

[Hammer]

i am more concerned with how or if they have worked on hotas setup. does it still say joystick, joystick (1) and joystick (2) instead of really identifying what the controller actually is?

[BlackHawk*K]

@Bron,

yea there is a lot of cool stuff. and it looks like its starting to come together. sorry i missed you on Coms, i could of helped you figure things out a bit faster. i had some family stuff happen with an uncle, so had to go up and visit him for awhile. i just got home and checked email.


@hammer,

there we guys asking about controller refinement a few days ago to one of the devs. they said that they are not planning on any major revamping of the control setup until get to a point they actually know what they are adding into it. i dont know enough about the hotas setup in other games to understand the real issues your having with it, so cant really help you myself.

meanwhile, its been a long day, so going to go pass out now lol
<S>!

[Bronurstomp]

I spent a couple hours messing around. It's pretty neat, but way too broken to be much fun yet ;)
At one point, as I was about to get into my ship, it exploded, and I had to go request it again. Not sure what was up with that.
Then, during a comm array mission, the whole thing froze, but when I rebooted and came back, I managed to repair one of the comm arrays, but still not sure how I did it.

[Bronurstomp]

Really looking forward to this game fully released.
Some eye candy so far...





Bron

[BlackHawk*K]

yea its still has a bunch of bugs like that Bron. but you should of seen it before

not sure if you know these commands or not. but here are a few that makes it a bit more interesting.

F9 key= Mobi Glass. the mobi glass is the device on your arm, its like your personal computer. so far the only active parts is the journal and the mission manager. in the mission manager you can activate a mission, and it will show you the way points.

(side note: once you repair a com station, by killing the pirates, going inside and finding the start panel, a new way point will appear, the ICC station. once you warp there and get closer it will activate a new mission, this one is a distress beacon misson. i enjoy these ones the most lol )

F10 key = alt reality. this is like a implant in your eyes. what this does, is help you identify players and objects you are looking at. in stores on planet side, it will help you by displaying details on merchandise you are looking at.

F11 key = contact list. once this pops up, you have to hit ALT+SPACE to get your mouse cursor once you so you can type in the box the handle of a friend. then you have to reverse the process to get out of it. just a note though, both parties have to be added to the contact screen before you will show up as online.

F12 key = in game chat window. this is just like it sounds. the only problem with this right now, is it dosnt show you what was typed before you opened it. and will clear each time you shut it down and reopen it.

hope that helps some.
i have some errands to do. will try to get on a bit later.

[Hammer]

it is really easy, i wrote it above. why is every controller called joystick? that is ludicrous.

for instance i have 3 gaming controllers. saitek pro flight pedals, warthog throttle, warthog joystick. in DCS world, each of them shows up as what they actually are, same with windows control panel. but in star citizen? no. let's call the pedals joystick. oh wait, let's also call the throttle joystick. and guess what we are going to call the joystick? joystick of course! retarded.

[Slamhammer]

you guys are going to have to completely walk me through this....once I can get a couple of hours to my self....

[Bronurstomp]

Hi Slamhammer. Nice to see you still hanging out with us.

If you click on the "universe" button, you'll get to walk around the station and explore. There's not much to interact with yet, but you can see where it will be a little like Privateer, or Freelancer. Like, you walk into a storefront, and talk to the guy/gal there, same in the bar, there will be AI folks around with missions etc... I'm assuming, BH? But just not yet.
Also, there's a terminal room, where you go up to the monitor screen, and when you get close enough, you'll see the <<USE>> thingy, then hit the f key, and you can request one of your ships. Then it will tell you what dock it will be at. Then, find your way (follow signs) to the outside airlock for that dock#, and when you get outside, you;ll see your ship. You get in just like you did in the hangar. Then you can take off and fly around. Weapon systems are off near the station. I think it's the B key, will call up targets on your HUD, and if you center your mouse and (on mine) hit the mouse3 button, you'll go into warp speed to your target. That is kinda cool. Once a certain distance away from the station, your weapon system will be active, and so will anyone else's out there...

I'll try to get on in the evenings after work, and jump on TS.

Cya yall,,
<S>

Bron

[Bronurstomp]

Mine crashes pretty much all the time. Reboot, reload, play 2 minutes, crash.
Not fun yet

[Hammer]

that sucks. any indication why?

maybe our resident expert BH can help?

[Bronurstomp]

Haven't really figured out anything specific that I'm doing. Once it was when I ordered my ship, it froze. Once, I got all the way out to the comms array, and when I tried to EVA, it froze.
Once I wasn't able to interact with anything at all, but it didn't freeze. A couple times I got a server full error.
With the event going on with MWO, I'm spending time there instead this weekend.

Taking the son and wife to see Star Wars this afternoon!

Can't wait

Bron

[Bronurstomp]

Woohooo we had 3 of us playing together Sunday night. I must admit, I THOUGHT it was Saturday night lol. Anyway, while the game worked, it was fun. We kicked ass like we usually do, and got a bunch of kills.
I think I have an install issue. When I get some time at the computer, I'll reinstall the whole shebang, and make sure it's running from my solid state drive, and not the big slow hard drive...

Oh, and just FYI, I joined the Corporation. They look like an active, eclectic group.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/CORP

<S>


Bronurstomp