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Squadron 214 is a multi-spacecraft equipped unit (technically, a “multi-level force applicator”) of the United Empire of Earth. The squadron was formally activated in 2675 as part of the military expansion that followed in the wake of Project Far Star. 214 has seen great success in their 270-year service history. The squadron is especially noted for the seven Medal of Imperial Valor winners on its roster, and for their success in short-range bombing missions, being proudly credited with the destruction of a dreadnaught, four battleships, nine “flat tops” and countless lesser fighters in their lengthy history. The 214th has also occasionally been a propaganda darling. “Twelve Went In,” a recruiting holovid, recounted the bombers’ 2720 all-out assault on a Harvester Dropship.
The origin of the squadron’s nom de guerre is shrouded in some confusion. Modern Black Crow pilots and their supporters claim that the name refers to the squadron’s cleverness and penchant for vengeance (Earth crows, now found on over a dozen worlds, are capable of remembering and attacking offending Human faces for years). Historians say that the truth is somewhat less valorous. The squadron was originally known as “Branton’s Braggarts,” a humorous reference to the unit’s overly-vocal pride over achieving the first perfect score in a HARD+ rated simulated bombing run under their first commanding officer, Captain Charlotte Branton. Fed up with the squadron’s braggadocio, ground crews began painting black birds on their spacecraft to show their distaste for 214’s ‘constant cawing.’ By the time Squadron 214 went into action, they were the Black Crows.
Today, 214 is an exclusively carrier-based squadron assigned two flights of Hornets, one flight of Gladius interceptors and an elite flight of Gladiator light bombers, though it is worth noting that one of the Hornet flights is currently inactive as its flight crews undergo transition training for the upcoming F8 Lightning space superiority fighter. The Black Crow’s bomber flights have flown every single-engine bomber in the UEEN arsenal, from the original Typhoon dive bombers to today’s craft, where 214’s illustrious Bravo Flight are using the Anvil Gladiator to further solidify their hard-earned reputation as one of the best bomber units actively operating.
Bravo Flight
The recent exploits of Bravo Flight in the Virgil Raid have become so well known that references to the Black Crows now almost exclusively refer to this distinguished bomber unit. The star of Squadron 214’s service record from the very beginning of training, Bravo Flight has been the exclusive designation of the unit’s elite bomber ships since the squadron’s inception. Bravo’s ground crews and flight engineers claim a spotless record, and only confirmed ace pilots and gunners are assigned to the unit.
Bravo garnered attention during the Vanduul push after 2681. Battling the encroaching horde from Orion to Tiber, their Gladiators pulled double duty as S&R craft up to the last minutes of the Tiber pullout. Since that time, the ‘bloodthirsty birds’ have found themselves forward-deployed to counter suspected Vanduul clan movements time and time again.
The Raid
Dateline: Vega System, just off the heavily guarded Virgil jump point. On the morning of August 9, 2932, a detached UEE Battle Group went to action stations. After a tense twelve hours with guns ready, the force issued an all-clear stand down. Aboard the UEEN Typhon, temporary home of the 214’s Bravo Flight, word quickly spread: Virgil’s aging Early Warning satellite network had relayed a distress signal from somewhere in the system. Admiral Bonds requested permission to jump his force to Virgil to investigate, but was ordered by High Command to abandon any investigation. Remote sensing had identified a 55% probable Vanduul clan in the system’s environs, and Command was not to risk personnel or materials investigating a system that had not been inhabited in a century.
The mood aboard ship was stricken. Here was a military rescue beacon deep in the heart of the site of one of the Empire’s bloodiest defeats. At best, they reasoned, command was letting a fellow pilot die, and at worst they were ignoring an opportunity to settle a very specific age-old score with the Vanduul. “We won’t forget,” flight leader Tam Thackston wrote in a delay-send message to his commanding officer as his crews universally agreed to break ranks and risk court martial to come to the aid of those in need.
Running with low-emission gear, the six Gladiators of Bravo Flight launched with full comm silence (and the suspected collusion of the Typhon’s flight deck officer). Three retained their standard torpedo loadout, while three others were configured with autodocs and other search and rescue equipment. Passing by UEE radar stations and tracking buoys, they were prepared to meet with resistance, but were only met with encouragement and wishes of luck from their fellow starmen. The unit made a low-flash jump to Virgil, and once across, Bravo triangulated the signal and determined it to be coming from the surface of the innermost planet.
Thackston opted to use a larger amount of fuel and proceed in a roundabout manner rather than heading directly to the planet and risking giving away the location of the jump point to the Vanduul. Unfortunately, his caution proved costly: the extended flight plan ran Bravo directly into an enemy patrol. A battle broke out, with the Gladiators attempting to eliminate a quartet of Scythe and a command-and-communications ship before they could call for reinforcements. The fight was over quickly, but with heavy losses: Bravo 3 sustained a direct blade collision during the fracas, killing gunner Paul Ransom and leaving his ship dead in space. The surviving pilot conducted a difficult combat EVA and boarded the S&R equipped Bravo 5.
Once past the Vanduul, the surviving Gladiators approached the planet’s equatorial zone, the apparent location of the now-silent beacon. The flight leader’s ship touched down near the source while the remaining ships provided a makeshift combat air patrol. There, the charred fuselage of a long-lost Wildcat deep space fighter was located in a clearing where its impact had knocked down several of Virgil’s giant trees. Investigating the wreck, Thackston discovered a pair of Human skeletons, one in a tattered flight suit, both wearing Black Crow patches. This ship must have been lost decades earlier in one of Squadron 214’s prior battles with the Vanduul. With some searching, the source of the signal was discovered: the Wildcat’s black box recorder, apparently re-activated in a recent lightning strike.
Thackston hurriedly buried the remains, first removing the dog tags so they could be returned to Kilian, and took off to rejoin his flight, the Wildcat’s flight recorder securely stowed aboard his Gladiator. Believing they had permanently shamed their squadron’s honorable history, they returned home fully expecting to be drummed out of the service for their disloyalty, but upon arrival they discovered that public opinion had come down harshly against Navy command once news of the beacon had spread. With the sack of Virgil still a sore point in Human memory, the pilots of Bravo Flight were feted as incredible heroes for having helped put a small part of that dark day in history to rest, along with revealing the incredible fate of their fallen comrades: the Wildcat and her crew had bravely perished when they opted to stay behind and cover the desperate evacuation in Virgil’s final hours. Together, they are just two more reasons that the Black Crows of Squadron 214 deserves to crow.
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Chris Roberts answers your questions about Star Citizen in the latest edition of Ten for the Chairman! Chris answers ten questions chosen from development subscribers in each show. Want your question considered? Learn more about subscriptions here.
Questions covered in Episode 52: 2:28 – Custom Crew Uniforms. 3:24 – Banu & Xi’An embassies. 4:30 – Missions for more than one ship. 5:04 – How inventories work. 7:22 – Purchasable voice packs. 8:27 – Org contracts. 9:42 – Planetary quarantines. 10:50 – FPS dungeons/instances 13:19 – Tevarin update 14:21 – Organization leader tools
It has recently occured that a sizeable chunk of users are unable to use the launcher and are met with this error. This error is due to your IP being considered as harmful by Cloudflare and is most of the time due to your ISP using Dynamic IPs and someone using it at some point got caught doing bad stuff with it resulting in a blacklisted IP. The other common reason is the use of a proxy.
Rest assured that we are working on a solution for the users affected by this problem. We will release a new installer probably tomorrow containing an updated DSLauncher. It will also contain all updates we've released up to now.
For the users that aren't affected, the update will be deployed through DSLauncher, so you have nothing to do.
It has recently occured that a sizeable chunk of users are unable to use the launcher and are met with this error. This error is due to your IP being considered as harmful by Cloudflare and is most of the time due to your ISP using Dynamic IPs and someone using it at some point got caught doing bad stuff with it resulting in a blacklisted IP. The other common reason is the use of a proxy.
Rest assured that we are working on a solution for the users affected by this problem. We will release a new installer tonight containing an updated DSLauncher. It will also contain all updates we've released up to now.
For the users that aren't affected, the update will be deployed through DSLauncher, so you have nothing to do.[/feedquote]
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Greetings Citizens,
As we announced two weeks ago, RSI is moving into Europe with the formation of Roberts Space Industries International Ltd. To accomplish this change, we have made a major revision to the pledge store’s functionality, which includes the addition of an international store run by RSI International. As a result of this store change, all backers will be required to accept a new ToS, Privacy Policy, and EULA when connecting to Star Citizen game or pledging through the store (these will vary depending on which store you access.)
Also, the RSI International pledge store will begin charging VAT on orders placed by backers in the European Union. In order to reduce the impact of the VAT changes for users paying in Euros, we are keeping the dollar-to-euro exchange rate steady rather than matching it to the recent loss of value to the USD. While it may become necessary to adjust the exchange rate in the future, the immediate impact should will be positive for many European backers and offset a large part of the VAT tax! While this does not impact backers now being able to pay in GBP, the launch of the international store does mean they will no longer be charged a foreign transaction and currency conversion fees.
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Greetings Citizens,
I’ve seen a number of questions from backers who would like to know what we are going to do about stretch goals and Chairman letters in the future. As I indicated in the last letter, I would like to celebrate the goals with increasingly in-depth design posts, one of which you find yourself reading today.
These posts take a lot more work than the average chairman letter, but I think they add quite a bit more to your knowledge of what we’re doing with Star Citizen. And as with every aspect of the game, crowd funding means that we can do them right rather than fast. Going forward, we hope to have one for you roughly every other week.
And before you think I’m just trying to get out of my correspondence, we will also have a monthly ‘Letter from the Chairman’ where I can celebrate Star Citizen’s backers, poll you on important questions and let you know what’s on my mind. Starting February, we intend to do these around the middle of the month, split between the monthly reports.
Below, you will find what may be our most comprehensive design post yet, beautifully crafted by the team at BHVR responsible for developing the mobiGlas system. It’s everything you wanted to know about Star Citizen’s in-universe AR device… plus a lot you wouldn’t have thought to ask!
mobiGlas is going to be an important aspect throughout Star Citizen’s world, and something that speaks directly to my goal of removing immersion-defeating outside menus from the game world. I’m very pleased with what BHVR (working with the rest of the teams) have come up with, and I hope this post lets you see the amount of work we’re putting into making this exactly right.
- Chris Roberts
Design: mobiGlas
by Dave Richard, Lead Designer at BHVR
//COMMUNICATION RECEIVED.
//OPENING MOBIGLAS COMM.
Greeting Citizens,
When we started working on Star Citizen, we were trying to wrap our minds around the daunting amount of mechanics and features that would be present in such a rich game universe. Part of the team was tasked with designing character customization and the in-game shopping experience. We were trying to figure out a way to make shopping into something intuitive, immersive and viable in a multiplayer setting with the least amount of edge cases possible.
At that time, we knew very little about the mobiGlas, except that it was going to be the mobile device of the future and that it would be built from a very strong piece of polymer known as Glas. We had a hunch that the answer to our problems rested upon this device.
As we iterated on various ways to create the shopping experience of the future, the first augmented reality (AR) design of the mobiGlas was born, and from that point, it became clear that AR interfaces would be used widely across the game.
We pitched it to Rob and Chris (more than a year ago now). The goal of this concept was to present a unified user interface for Star Citizen. We proposed a personal electronic device that all players have with them all the time. It could be used as the ultimate replacement to traditional game menus and heads-up displays, while staying true to Chris Roberts’ vision of a totally immersive experience where shopping, messaging and customizing is made in a physical way with diegetic interfaces.
Since then, collaborative work between talented individuals has made the mobiGlas grow into the current design, while staying true to its original purpose. The following article is a deep dive into the mobiGlas current design state. We’ll go over the device itself, its uses, and some of the Augmented Reality Systems, as well as an overview of the apps you’ll be using every day.
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“Compact and light, it comfortably attaches to your wrist. Easy to use, it augments your life everywhere, all the time. With a mobiGlas, transform the ordinary into microTechordinary! Like all microTech products, the new mobiGlas has stunning visual design that conjugates style, power and usability without compromises.”
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As Chris Roberts put it: “I’ve charged the mobiGlas team with a very difficult task: creating a realistic interface that will help keep your affairs in order in an expansive galaxy that we hope players will further expand in unknown directions. It’s almost like building our own in-fiction operating system for an imagined future, and it’s very different task than building spaceships.”
And it’s exactly that! Our team is imagining an operating system from the ground up. It is incredibly challenging and satisfying!
Our first goal when we initially came up with the augmented reality feature was to integrate the game’s interface in-line with Chris Roberts’ vision for a fully immersive experience. Not only do the mG and all its functions fit in fiction, they come from the fiction. The hardware is built by the in-game mega corporation microTech, while the apps are developed by various fictional in-game developers. It’s important to us that you feel the personality of each developer when using its products.
Holding a series of apps made by different companies, they need to have their own branding. So like the rest of the universe, brands are created for every single one of them. This helps advance the idea of a living, breathing universe. Like today, everything has a brand. We want to put that forward in every aspect of the mobiGlas. If you enter a shop, you might be tempted by its new arrivals, or a seasonal sale. No worries, it won’t be like the worst shopping websites you can imagine, far from it. No spam mail on your mobiGlas!
The mG is a device used by your character(s). NO gamey shenanigans. This is called diegetic interface, where what you see is the same as what the character(s) sees.
This is really exciting to us, as we get to design an interface that is an integral part of the Star Citizen universe and not just an overlay that takes you out of the experience every time you use it. The augmented reality takes advantage of the high-definition environments, as interface elements are found in the 3D space amidst the game’s reality.
One of the biggest challenges when pushing for innovative interfaces is to make them intuitive. No matter how cool it looks, an interface is only as good as its simplicity to use. Obviously we’re keeping this in mind at all times. One thing you’ll notice when playing with the mobiGlas is that even though the device is set 900 years in the future, and looks like it, the flow and controls are based on what you know and use at the moment. We’re inspired by the real world’s best interfaces, taking the systems we like and giving them a new voice in the mG. We want to keep you in the comfort zone of current user interfaces, but still offer a far-future aspect.
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Augmented reality is a technology that is already available in our day and age. We wanted Star Citizen’s interface to be something more than a gimmick. It’s not just about the visuals; it’s about interconnecting every single feature of the game. The cool thing about what we’re designing is the fully contextual aspect of the interface. It adapts to your context, situation and position. The interface systems and the compatible entities found in the universe (practically anything) are interconnected, allowing us to link objects and characters to any relevant database and giving you fast access to the information you need. Aim at a character to know her affiliations; aim at a gun to get its market price in the current system; aim at a Consolidated Outland Mustang advertisement in the Terran subway to plan a route to the closest retailer. The uses are infinite and we intend to make the most of it.
The mG is an essential tool no matter your aspirations. It helps you track missions, review trades, plan routes and directly interact with the world in so many ways. It supports every gameplay role you can imagine. Not just a replacement for traditional menus, it is a tool in combat, space and planetary exploration, mining, scavenging, role-playing and more.
I’m sure by now you’ve gotten the point: your personal mobiGlas will be your best companion throughout your adventures in the ’verse, and we’re incredibly proud and excited to be working on it.
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The first thing we’d like to clarify is that the mG can show 2D and 3D information (text, panels, objects) in two concurrent ways: through augmented reality, using an AR display such as contact lenses, and through a holographic “screen” projected from your character’s forearm. It’s important to understand that this is not a choice — both AR and holo-screen interfaces are used at the same time to create the full experience.
On top of that, we intend to make the mobiGlas connect to external devices such as ships and screens in the environment. Imagine guild members in their hangar’s conference room seamlessly exchanging information by flicking it from their mG to a giant screen.
If we get a bit deeper in the visual style of how we are developing the mobiGlas, we based our initial concepts on the work done on the ship HUDs. Because they are part of the same universe, a mobiGlas needs to feel familiar to ship pilots. We took a lot of references from sci-fi movies that utilize a futuristic UI. We had to bring a lot of thought into them, because the style seen in those movies isn’t made to be used by a normal user. They are made to seem usable, when in reality complicated screens should display only the most pertinent information and clear user experience (UX) rules. We also looked at references in the video game world, such as the Dead Space series, one of the best examples of diegetic UI. They had a different challenge though, being a (mostly) single player game with a 3rd person camera.
A key part of this FUI (fictional user interface) style is having clear shapes, mostly geometric. Also important is a strong use of straight pixel lines. Since the menus are floating screens, we are using solid color backgrounds to help separate sections visually. We used just a few colors, with strong complementary accent colors as the main visual scheme. Mainly, blue is the general color used throughout the mG screens. Blue is the culturally recognized color for holographic effects; using this helps place Star Citizen in the classic sci-fi realm. To feature light effects, most of the text is white or a paler color from the background. We are already blurring the background and putting in a subtle color filter to help legibility.
The base model mobiGlas is a holo-projector on your wrist that projects a layered series of grids above it. In that sense, our visuals all rest on a grid system. The device creates a projected cube, and the mobiGlas screens are spawned inside. The grid system is then reflected on the general layout of screens.
Fully Diegetic
What I find exceptionally amazing about the mG is the fact that it exists 100% in the game world. As opposed to the AR interface that you can only see through a contact lens, the holographic screen projected from your forearm can be seen by the other characters as well. This allows us to create powerful immersive scenarios: Imagine exchanging information by showing your mG to another character, or at the opposite extreme, spying on someone else’s mobiGlas to steal sensitive information.
Some establishment might jam or block your mG to avoid scanning patrons. Try bounty hunting in these locations without the ability to get the names and IDs of people around! We always keep in mind the in-fiction parameters on how the mobiGlas screen system and augmented reality lens would work. We want to bring immersion and gameplay even into the menu systems.
Interconnection
Probably the most important thing to understand about the mobiGlas is that it is connected with practically every other component in the universe, from player characters to Takuetsu ship models. Thanks to the TAG system, which we’ll explain further another time, the mobiGlas can fetch data on anything that has been tagged, and interpret it depending on the situation.
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Through AR or through the holographic screen, you are able to collect information and cross-reference it. You can interact with the world and use it as a shortcut to a relevant app and its data. For example, while visiting planet X, you see a big billboard showing off a video commercial for a ship sale at Astro-Armada. You activate your mG AR mode to discover various holographic “buttons” floating right there beside the billboard. From here you can activate mG.compass, an app that shows you the way to Astro-Armada (think GPS), access the galactapedia network to get more information on the ship, or compare the ship stats with one of yours through mG.shipWorks. So many possibilities.
With such a wide and broad game universe the ability to connect game components through the various apps for comparison and specialised information is critical. Mastering this functionality will give you the edge in many fields.
h2. New Technologies
The mobiGlas interface is being developed so that it can be used and reused with different hardware. The Oculus VR is definitely a device that makes the mobiGlas look particularly stunning. It brings you close and personal with your mG device, putting an emphasis on the parallax effects of the holo-projector screens.
Even closer to our reality is the reuse of interface elements on your tablet or other mobile device. The idea is that the Star Citizen companion app is your character’s mobiGlas wrist device (kinda old-gen though!). The visuals would be the same as in the game, but more importantly, the functions and data would cross from the PC to the tablet and vice versa for one seamless experience.
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The mobiGlas is a forearm mounted electronic device capable of projecting a holographic interface and render an augmented reality interface through any AR display, such as contact lenses, glasses, visors or screens. It is developed by microTech, a corporation specializing in electronics, based in the Stanton System. The mobiGlas is now used in a wide range of fields, both civilian and military. Here is a breakdown of the mobiGlas main components:
-Wrist mounted case
Physical part of the device, solidly attached to the wrist. Fits most space suits and civilian clothing, or can be attached directly to the arm.
-Universal mobiGlas Connector (UMC)
The male part of the UMC.
-Holographic Projector
Made from a super resistant glas lens, the projector sits in a protected crease on top of the wrist case.
-Holographic Screen
Counts as a component even though it’s not physical. The layered screen is entirely holographic. 3D holographic objects can be projected, as well as flat (screen) holograms.
-Back Panel
While you see the main interface on one side of the holographic screen, the other side is displaying something else, an opaque image for example.
-Biometric Battery
This component feeds your device with power and monitors your vitals for security reasons.
-Primary Scanner port
The mobiGlas comes with the default MT.Scanner, used to get info about your surroundings. It is a short range multifunction scanner. Can be upgraded.
-Specialized Scanner Port
An opened slot ready for custom specialised scanners.
-Data Drive
This is where data is stored. The data drive is synced on the user’s genetic signature and shuts down or is destroyed if it loses contact with the user.
-Intra-System Comm. Card
For intra-system communication. The comm. Card can be changed for specific needs.
-Power Chip
The P79xx is the most powerful chip yet used in a personal device. Its technology is based on microTech’s high-end experience on ships’ electronic components.
-Chip slots
Open slots to insert augment chips. There is a large collection of chips, mostly by microTech but also by other developers.
-Wireless Emitter
This is to be connected and synced to any ship, power suit, environmental suits or power armor equipped with an AR display visor or other compatible devices.
-Optional Armor Cover Add-on
To protect the mobiGlas from hazards.
mobiGlas Series
As mentioned earlier in this article, Star Citizen’s interface is another chance for us to expand on the fiction. The mobiGlas, as we present it, is but the first and most widely used model of intelligent device you’ll be able to own in the PU and in SQ42.
Just like ships, we aim at building various models and series of mobiGlas-like devices. Don’t be surprised if a competitor to microTech appears with their own intelligent devices introducing the type of competition we see among mobile devices today!
Different generations of mobiGlas would present different functionalities, performance and capacity. The goal here is not to limit some models but rather give a wider array of functions to some models versus less varied but more specialised functions in others. For example, the UEE navy mG and the Advocacy mG are special models built for those organizations with specific apps, functionalities and access rights.
Obviously different models have different aesthetics even in the same series. The visuals of the physical device and the interface style would be custom for each model. “Princess Glitter Pink” mobiGlas was the fad in 2942 you know.
You can modify or change your mobiGlas for another model as long as you can afford it and can find the model you want. Some are rare! mobiGlas, mobiGlas S, mobiGlas+ ?
The first models available in the PU are the standard mG and the exploration mG, which was awarded to all backers before the “42 million” pledge goal:
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_ “Explorer-class mobiGlas Rig – Every player who backed before we hit $42 million will start the game with their own, visually distinctive mobiGlas “ExoGlas” rig which can be used to access the Observist at any time. This backer-exclusive mobiGlas kit comes pre-loaded with additional galactic information that new players would ordinarily need to explore or barter to fill out; it’s our way of honoring the information you’ve collected about the Star Citizen universe through the RSI site and community over the past year!”_
Add-Ons, Chips, Apps & Hacks
Just like many other components in Star Citizen, we want you to be able to have a lot of choice when it comes to customizing your experience. The mobiGlas is no exception, from shady corners of the universe to top notch UEE computer science laboratories; you’ll find experts that can alter and tweak the standard mobiGlas.
Upgrading brings new or enhanced functionalities to the mG, and sometimes at a cost, either monetary or worse … try to stay legit, Citizens, or you might lose an arm in the process!
Add-Ons are physical devices clipped to or inserted in the mobiGlas case. They range from specialized scanners to shielding shells. The most diverse add-ons on the market are called augment chips. These little pieces of hardware contain code and sequences that enhance functionalities into advanced, specialized tools.
Last but not least, you’ll have a variety of apps to choose from. As you might have guessed, apps are software that are either part of the basic mobiGlas package or bought (with UEC) and downloaded from the mobiSTORE. We aim at providing many apps to choose from, that present similar content but in different ways. Beyond the basic packages, these extra apps might feature specialized content that are great for some of you and near useless for others. It’ll be up to you to find and make best use of your favorite apps.
Functionality groups
The mobiGlas is a very complex device that features many possible functionalities. To help organize them and interpret them in various game systems, such as damage states, they have been classified in four functionality groups:
Group.A
Essential Functions: These functions are at the very foundation of the mobiGlas. They are critical to the mG experience and to the core game components. These functionalities appear no matter what, even in an extremely damaged or cheap version of the mobiGlas. A good example of an essential function is the ability to access your communication availability options.
Group.B
Advanced Functions: These functionalities are part of the core design of the mobiGlas but are not essential. They usually are more specific to a particular system, and if they don’t appear in a model or get disabled, you could manage without them. An example of an advanced feature is the planetside map and radar functions.
Group.C
Specialized Functions: These super advanced features are to be used in very specific cases for specific character profiles. They are usually linked to chip add-ons or special models. For example, a biometric scanner is a Group.C function.
Group.D
Extra Functions: Extra functions are inconsequential to gameplay. For example, these include themes and styles. In case of a damaged mobiGlas, the system cuts off Group.D functions in order to prevent further damage from unnecessary functions.
Damage
Like pretty much any item, the mobiGlas is not impervious to damage. The mG damage level follows the left lower arm damage status as explained by [REDACTED]-illfonic in the “Design: Healing Your Spacemen” article.
Normal: In its normal state, the mobiGlas features are all working perfectly. Smile.
Hurt: In the hurt state, some functions are disabled and glitches can be experienced in the interface. Some Group.B functionalities are disabled. Group.C functionalities are mostly disabled.
Damaged: In damaged state, the advanced features (Group.C) such as the chip add-ons and the scanners cannot be used at all. Furthermore, the mobiGlas interface becomes very glitchy. Even more Group.B features are disabled.
Ruined: In ruined state, non-essential mobiGlas features are practically useless. Frequent glitches make it harder to use.
GLITCHED INTERFACE
When damaged, you’ll experience visual glitches with the mG and its AR display. The goal here is not to make your lives difficult when trying to interact with the interface, but just to dress it up and offer a fun challenge. Effects such as phasing, displacement and color inversions could be used sporadically to illustrate a glitched interface.
For example, the words on screen could phase and be displaced. Large chunks of pixels could move around or stay stuck to the screen until the next refresh. Portions of the screen could have inverted colors.
MOBIGLAS ZONES & RANGES
“Ranges” or “AR zones” are used to know if an object looked at through the mobiGlas AR display should be shown and if it can be interacted with. They are custom per object, relative to their size, position and context. For example, massive objects such as billboards or capital ships have mid and long range zones that go much much further than the ranges of a Thorshu Grey!
All objects that are interactive with the mobiGlas have a range and angle of interaction. In order to interact with the object you must aim at it, be close enough and see it clearly on the screen. This avoids any confusion or conflicting selections.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the interface zones used by the mG:
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A-Holo-Screen: The projected holographic screen takes 95% of the player’s display space when open. The main screen is where the bulk of interactions are made in the mobiGlas and the main medium for on-screen interface. In case the players have no AR display devices, it can be used as the “window frame” to the augmented reality.
B-Extended Holo-Screen: Some apps necessitate an extended, panoramic view.
C-Close Range AR: In AR, objects seen in their close range usually display low to no information as they are too close to render properly or to be read properly. In some situations a special icon tells the player the object is too close.
Being too close (zone c) to an object makes it unselectable. This is to ease the selection of components within other components (e.g. a shot of whiskey on a table). The table itself is too close to be selected, making it easier to select the shot glass.
D-Mid Range AR: In AR, this zone is the sweet spot where an object’s full AR information and interactions are available. When the object stands inside the mid range, the object shows that it is selectable. At this range, the player can select and interact with the object.
E-Far Range AR: In AR, objects in their far range appear and show minimal information. The far range objects’ information and feedback are disabled when mid range objects are in front of them. In some contexts, long ranges can be infinite.
h1. USING THE MOBIGLAS
“Your day starts with putting in your AR contacts, or AR display glasses, which automatically connect to your mG. Following a quick boot-up sequence the augmented reality interface is displayed. Now you have access to a massive amount of meta-data found in the world just by looking at things around you.”
You’ll be using the mobiGlas in practically every context. Considering that all citizens are allocated a mobiGlas, it’s everybody’s personal assistant device, as ubiquitous as smart phones are today, if not more!
As it connects to all sorts of things around you, it syncs pertinent information contextual to your situation. Whether you’re reading the planetary news while taking it easy at Café Mussain or reviewing your ship’s armor status whilst in the heat of battle, the mobiGlas apps are tailored for a wide array of gameplay situations.
The AR interface is very powerful and intuitive, offering an experience closer to reality, while putting traditional interfaces in a coherent, in-fiction context. When shopping at a location, rather than getting a big scroll list of items for sale as in a traditional game interface, your shopping is done via AR overlaying actual, physical items. AR is dynamic; the interface shown in the world is filtered based on several factors such as your location. For example, while entering a shop like Cubby Blast on ArcCorp, your display shows off a connecting icon and boots the mG.easyShop app AR interface. In this context, items available for purchase are shown and highlighted right there in the world, with the addition of AR labels showing you the prices and specs of these items.
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The idea is that your mobiGlas device is constantly linking to local servers for information depending on the location (so each store serves up specific local data that your AR interface can display). At any time you can choose to change the AR filter to another mode to be able to access other type of information. For example, while still in that same shop, you could switch to the exploration filter which shows AR labels for players’ information such as player handle, bounty, etc.
The mobiGlas wrist device is used for entering commands and to display objects or extra panels projected from the holo-projector. Some apps use only the holo-screen, while others rely heavily on AR. The holo-projector is similar to the ship HUD in the sense that it uses 3D objects in combination with panels and text to give you the right information.
“Forget about the old ways of touching a screen. The mobiGlas finally replaces the 900-year-old technology with an ultra-precise portable holographic interface. With the Holographic Augmented interface, project critical information directly in your reality with unprecedented clarity. What you see around and over real objects and persons becomes interactive; you can literally touch the meta-data.”
Moving things around
Where it gets interesting is with the advanced uses of AR in combination with the attached wrist holo-projector. For example, you can take and move objects around in AR for various reasons. While shopping, you can “pick up” the AR version of a shelved object, effectively creating a new AR object with following labels that you could keep “on the side” for quick comparison with other products elsewhere in the shop.
The same goes for mG.shipWorks, an app allowing you to customize ship loadouts directly on your ship, using holographic representations of ship components which can be “grabbed” and moved around.
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The real power of the mobiGlas comes from its augmented reality interface. Since AR requires more exploration and explanation we decided to share more information on that mode. The system is quite simple in theory: 3D Interface objects are placed directly in what you see instead of flat on your screen.
As you might have guessed, implementing an AR interface is easier said than done. Various systems must be put in place to make sure the information and interactions are well interpreted and easy to use, avoiding frustrations. I know I’ve rage-quit games because of appalling user-experiences; how about you?
AR Objects
AR objects are what appear in the AR display. There are several categories of these special objects:
ENHANCED ENTITIES
Enhanced entities are real world objects or life forms with an added effect such as outline, lighting or shader seen through the AR display. The objects are part of the environment. They move, act and collide normally. Enhanced entities have short, mid and long range values, and states that alter their appearance.
HOLOGRAPHIC OBJECTS
Holographic objects have very similar rules to enhanced entities, but are not real and thus have no collision. They are attributed a special material that makes them invisible by default but visible while looked at through the mobiGlas. Like enhanced entities, they have short, mid and long range values, and states that alter their appearance.
Navigational icons and signage are notable holographic objects that appear only in augmented reality to avoid cluttering some of the more pristine areas of the universe.
AR LABELS
AR label, or “larbels” as we like to call ’em, are 2D panels placed in the 3D world. Labels are used to view additional information and data about objects found in the environment, such as prices, descriptions, names, etc. They vary in style, shape and form, depending on their location and use.
AR labels are either always there; appearing when in long, mid or short range; or appearing when in focus. This is defined per label. On top of all this, labels can update and expand with more information the more attention you give the related object.
AR Object Status
AR objects, no matter what type they are, appear differently depending on the range at which they are viewed and the state they are in.
[Out of Range – Long]
When an object is further away than its long range zone, it is invisible, even through the AR display.
[Out of Range – Short]
Objects that are too close are out of range. They cannot be selected.
[Idle]
AR objects are idle when seen at a long range. An idle object can be seen through the mobiGlas but cannot be interacted with or even selected. The highlight or holographic object should be dim.
[Selectable]
Every AR object seen through the mobiGlas in mid range is in a selectable state. Selectable objects have brighter highlights and the holographic objects are almost opaque.
[Selected]
When you focus on a selectable AR object with the mobiGlas it becomes selected. A selected object’s highlight becomes very bright and animated to clearly show what is selected.
AR Object Limitations
AR information can be blocked or altered in many ways and for various reasons. Here are the various status names and descriptions.
[Altered]
The mobiGlas can be hacked to display deceitful information. Altered labels are hard to detect without proper equipment and appear as legit labels with altered information.
[Blocked]
Blocked information is made unavailable by the user who owns the information. This is done in multiple ways using mobiGlas advanced features like jammers. Blocked labels don’t appear at all or show the following label: [UNAVAILABLE].
[Contextual]
Contextual labels only appear to a user who’s in the right context to see them or needs the information at the moment based on the context. For example, to normal folks, bounties only appear if they currently own the bounty contract, but to a licensed bounty hunter with the appropriate app, all bounties are visible.
[Restricted]
Only members of the same faction as the restricted object/player and of a clearance level equal to or higher than the restricted level can get this data. Everyone else gets the following label: [RESTRICTED].
[Unavailable]
Sometime there is no data available for the label to show. In those cases, the label doesn’t appear at all or displays the following: [UNAVAILABLE].
AR BASIC CONTROLS
Maybe you are wondering if AR is something that would always be there, ALL the time. The answer is no. AR is necessary to access a lot of information and features but doesn’t have to be ON all the time. You decide what your experience should be. While the AR display is off, some objects can be interacted with that automatically opens the mobiGlas’ AR display with the relevant filter ON.
MOVING IN AR MODE
While in AR mode, you can move freely, even though you need to be in first-person view to see the AR interface. There is no restriction on the type of movement you can do with the AR vision ON. For example, walking, running, crawling and horseback riding are all super cool in AR.
SELECTING/INTERACTING
AR objects sometime have complex interactions. To access those interactions, you must select the object first. To select an AR object, you just have to walk in the mid range of the selectable item and center your view on it. This is called focusing. When selected, the object is highlighted in the 3D space with a very bright holographic outline. To start interacting with the object and accessing all its options, hit the accept/action button.
CHANGING FILTER MODE
It’s possible to cycle between the various filtering modes (more on that later) by using a set of buttons yet to be determined. It is also possible to access a specific filtering mode automatically and contextually by focusing on an object, by entering a world area tagged with a filter type, or by interacting with filter boxes.
MOVING AR OBJECTS
One powerful thing the AR mode can do is let you move holographic objects around. This is done automatically in some modes, such as with the hangar customization furniture placement. The controls are similar as “holding” an object in most FPS games. The object stays centered in the screen except if it collides with environmental boundaries or anchor points.
We soon realised that with so many AR objects in the world, the environment would be quickly cluttered with interface items, which is something we wanted to avoid for readability. This brings us to:
AR FILTERS
There are so many interactive items available in the world that we decided to add a filtering system to focus on the objects you are interested in at the moment. While your AR display is ON, you can switch filtering modes at will. Each filter shows different categories of AR objects. Some filter modes use a combination of categories. We might even let you create your own filters at some point.
Practically any app found in the mG has its own AR filter. Here is list of filter examples:
Exploration mode
This is the most global AR filter there is, and is the default filter. With the exploration filter, every AR object is shown. When an AR object has additional information that would appear in a different filter, that additional information is indicated by a specialty filter icon, allowing you to switch to that particular mode in order to display the info. Interacting with AR objects in exploration mode switches the AR filter to the correct specialty filter automatically.
AR.easyShop
Syncs with shops and other mobiGlas devices that are broadcasting items for sale. Your mobiGlas shows AR information for any object that can be bought or traded.
AR.shipWorks
Focuses on any shipWorks AR objects available, such as ships and ship components.
AR.hangarService
Focuses on room customization. Shows anchor points and customization grids, and highlights movable objects.
Others
This filtering list is forever expandable. Upgrades, mods and hacks can potentially add new filtering modes as well.
AUTO-FILTER FOCUS
To ease the use of AR mode and limit the amount of button pushes necessary to get information from it, the filters are set automatically, based on the object viewed prior to opening the AR mode. For example, while you’re walking around Casaba Outlet (a clothing store) and looking at cool jackets, when you activate the mobiGlas AR vision, the system interprets that the current focus is a coat in a shop and thus switches to the shopping filter automatically.
AUTO-FILTER AREA
Opening the AR mode in auto-filter areas activates the corresponding filter automatically. That said, it does NOT force you into using that specific filter; you can always switch to another. Note that the Auto-Filter Focus has a higher priority than the Auto-Filter Area. For example, a character enters Dumper’s Depot and opens the mobiGlas in AR. The AR automatically sets itself to the Shopping Filter since Dumper’s is a shop.
FILTER ICON
Filter boxes are AR objects that show a specific object has additional AR functions in another filter than the one selected at the moment. For example, while in Exploration filter in your hangar, while looking at an expansion door you’ll spot an AR hangarService filter box. Selecting the box in mid-range switches the AR filter to the corresponding type.
AUGMENTED OBJECT TAGS
Augmented information found in the world is tagged with content type using the TAG system. This is used to filter what is to be shown in the various modes of the mobiGlas.
When an object is a locked selection, the outline of the object becomes brightly highlighted. If, by object movement or your movement, the locked selection exits the soft selection circle by 50% or more, the object is automatically unselected and the bright highlight disappears. While in this state, you can interact with the object. Any items inside the soft focus area get softly highlighted and some additional information is displayed.
C-Soft Selection Circle
This large circle defines the area where the locked selection can move without AR information being lost. When the locked selection exits the soft selection by more than 50% of its total area, the object is unselected automatically. The soft focus circle is static in location and size. All other items, which are not inside the soft focus area, show only their anchor icon and name.
Other AR Systems
FOCUS SYSTEM
The focus is how much attention is given to an AR object. This is measured by how much time you look/aim at an object in the world. As your focus is prolonged on an item, its labels will expand and display more information about the object.
LAYER SYSTEM
In terms of aiming, the mobiGlas interprets what is aimed at by using the ordering of what is seen. So for example, looking at a coffee mug on a desk, the coffee mug is on top of the desk so it is prioritized.
DENSITY SYSTEM
When multiple objects are cluttered at the same spot, you are able to move the cross-aim slightly to switch between the different objects. The system cycles between the various items that are in the same general area.
Labels appear relative to density. The aimed-at or locked object information appears in priority, while the rest appear only if the current label density is judged acceptable for readability.
MOBIGLAS APPS
You might have been wondering exactly what kind of apps you can expect to find in the mobiGlas. As a last treat, we’d like to share with you short descriptions of some of the apps we’re currently developing.
MG.HOME
HOME is your hub; it’s from this customizable menu that you’ll access the rest of the mobiGlas content. Being an operating system holding various apps, the home page will have a dynamic app layout to facilitate your experience.
Mainly, HOME is a portal to the other applications that it displays with branded icons. The app selection is contextual to the current situation, featuring content that makes the most sense to you at that moment. Favorite applications and recently used applications are also found on this screen. HOME analyzes what apps you’ll likely need to see and offers quick links to them.
HOME is built with widgets that can be modified and rearranged to fit your play style. You choose which information shows up where and in how much depth this information goes. For example, I keep my alertCenter widget handy in HOME to have a glimpse at any notifications that came in recently. The news and economic data widgets are also very useful to see what kind of contract could be available in the neighboring systems.
The more you use your mobiGlas and customize HOME to fit your needs, the more accurate and efficient you’ll be.
MG.ALERTCENTER
This app is exactly what it sounds like. Anytime any of your apps receive new data, for example when you receive a contract update or a hangar invitation, you will receive a notification, which appears in the alert queue of alertCenter. Notifications also appear in a dedicated section of your AR display. That way, you’re always notified when something important happens, no matter your situation.
alertCenter offers a slew of options to customize which event should appear as a notification and when. Most of you are going to have busy, busy days in the Star Citizen universe! Use alertCenter and never miss anything.
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MG.EASYSHOP
EasyShop is the mobiGlas application that allows you to buy and sell things, from ships to handkerchiefs. It is what links you to a store’s inventory and facilitates your shopping experience.
The shops in the persistent universe feature actual physical products that can be looked at and bought just as in a real world shop. To buy an item, you use the AR display with the shopping filter ON. The mobiGlas syncs with the broadcasted information of the shop to show data on shelved products.
While most shops takes advantage of the AR display, some stores choose to show their products via a catalog. easyShop is also a platform to access these catalogs. Catalogs are dynamic and feature beautiful holographic projections of products. They can be re-arranged, searched, sorted and filtered at your discretion.
MG.CARGOMANAGER
Simply put, cargoManager lets you search and manage your entire inventory. It consolidates every possible cargo you might have: hangar warehouse, ship cargo, pants pockets, etc., and categorises them into a database.
It allows you to access your entire inventory from ship to weapons, from hangar to resources. It is like an encyclopedia of your possessions. Therefore, it provides the tools needed to track, compare and manage your possessions, guiding you towards informed decisions.
MG.CONTACTS
The contacts directory is the complete repository of the contactable entities you have met, collected from the persistent universe or added manually. Primarily, it allows you to find, add, remove, ignore and block other Characters. Other functionalities, such as grouping, search options and filters, allow you to find, organize and manage your contacts. Contact entries include players, NPCs, planets, corporations, orgs and so on.
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MG.SCHEDULER
mG.scheduler is a planning application. Missions, contracts and special events are automatically or manually entered and tracked by scheduler. It allows you to quickly get information about important events such as starting/end date, who issued a contract, what’s the goal, a backlog of conversations and so on.
Mundane events such as appointments and shipping estimates can be automatically entered as well. You can enter your own notes and events or sync with the scheduler of a particular individual or org. Adding custom events, reminders and appointments to the scheduler is a breeze. Enter the name of your event, a starting and end date, along with an optional location and contact label, and move on to your next task.
The scheduler is the go-to app to plan ahead and stay at the top of your game. Important events, urgent missions and critical deadlines are clearly identified. Filtering options allow you to see what is relevant to you at this moment. The scheduler automatically warns you of upcoming events and milestones, with reminders of varying degrees of urgency. Never miss a contract deadline or your mother’s birthday ever again.
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MG.HANGARSERVICE
Your Hangar customization and upgrades are done through the mobiGlas by interacting with AR objects through the hangarService, an app designed to access hangar-specific functions. hangarService is provided by your hangar manufacturer to expand your hangar, customize your living quarters, purchase specialty rooms, design your interiors, change your hangar access rights, modify your ships’ placement, and more.
MG.SHIPWORKS
shipWorks is akin to the holo-table, but with added functionality that allows you to interact with your ships in augmented reality. It is an engineering app. shipWorks allows you to easily search ship components in your inventory or equipped on a ship. With the smart sort and filter features, compare similar assets to make a strategic choice and customize your ship with the perfect load-outs.
Get direct access to repair, refuel and re-arm options, tag parts of ships to be serviced, and review power management configurations and cargo space before taking off to the dangers of space travel. Get a full statistical report on your ship. Analyze the damage state of your ship’s individual parts and hull.
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MG.SKYLINE
mG skyLine is the mobiGlas version of the galactic map directory and navigation planner found in ships. It features a full-blown star map to find your way around the known galaxy and its myriad of systems.
skyLine’s strength comes from its ability to be synced with other apps for dynamic information, such as market data, pirate sightings, tourist must-sees and much more. It’s a NavMap++. It’s a complete atlas, “GPS” and repository of your planetary and galactic data.
CCB FINANCE
CCB Finance app is everything about finance, economy and money. You can review your transactions (old and pending), review the market data and see your current balance. You have access to the data needed to analyze the economy. Link CCB Finance to the AR display to get market data on what you are looking at.
AND MORE
mG.handShake helps you to create contracts with the aid of templates; mG.sleeve is your collection of passports, licences and other official “papers”; mG.spectrumGate grants you access to the spectrum and the galactapedia; mG.smartTrade simplifies trading with other players. These are the first applications that will be found in the mobiGlas.
NEXT STEPS
As with any game, we can only get to a perfect result by testing it in its real context. The next steps, as features planned for Star Citizen become real, are to build, test and polish the mobiGlas, and to give you access to those features in an easy and intuitive way while staying true to the fiction.
With our internal tests, team of experts and your feedback, we can make the mobiGlas experience a fantastic one.
The next steps we have in mind are to:
Give you access to the mobiGlas to get your feedback. User testing is the only way to make a user interface near perfect.
Push the visuals. There are all sorts of little tricks to make the AR interface sit in the world in a believable way, but these little tricks necessitate a great deal of effort.
Create more apps and iterate on the first handful of functionalities already in the game as they become available to you.
We hope that once you get your hands on the mobiGlas you will find the experience pleasing even though, in the beginning, it will be far from the high-level vision we have for it. Until then, enjoy the game and see you in the ’verse!
END TRANSMISSION
DISCLAIMER: As with any design post, this article represents our current thinking for the systems covered. All content is subject to change as a result of testing. The numbers provided here represent data that is current as of publication, but which will likely be altered in a number of ways before launch to create the best possible Star Citizen experience.
You will notice the changelog is pretty slim. It's incredibly hard to remember all the little things that have been done as they were not completely kept track of under the previous development system so we have listed them all under "various".
You will also notice the Omicrons update isn't listed here. That's because just like the Rheinland modifications, they will be released shortly after via our new patcher. The main objective of this update is to complete our migration to the new development and release system, which we cannot do until we finally push out this update.
The patch will hit the server this week, unless something really really horrible happens.
At any rate, here's the changelog for the initial update.
Quote:Discovery 4.88.0
Patch Notes
[General]
- Added DSLauncher, our new Launcher specifically crafted for Discovery. A subforum has been created under the Help & Support section of the forums to provide assistance related to its usage.
- Added Adoxa's zone plugin.
- Fighter NPCs have been toned down. They are now all stuck with a 2.00 fire rate. They also cannot use Mines and Missiles anymore.
- Capitals will be toned down at a later point.
- Preparations for Hyperspace Beacons.
- Mining Machinery icon replaced due to copyright issues. Thanks to whoever thought it was a brilliant idea.
- Corsair Battleship NPCs will no longer use the Osiris and instead use their own tech.
- Client-side mining config updated with revised drop rate modifiers for all factions.
- Lots and lots of various little tweaks.
- Various bugfixes.
[Guns]
- CODENAME weapons now use a unique weapon type that deals 90% damage to Graviton, Molecular and Positron shields.
- DULZIAN, PHOENIX, SOLARIS and Nomad Prototype Gun have seen their energy usage revised.
- Firestalker and Sidewinder (fighter) missiles now have the same tracking they used to have in Discovery 4.86. This is, most likely, a temporary adjustment until a better way to balance them is found.
- Cannonball and Catapult missiles have been redesigned and are now both dumbfire missiles.
[Ships]
- Persephone reverted to 4.85.3 model.
- Sunburst replaced with 's model.
- Added 's unique ship, Obsidian.
- Added 's unique ship, Feanturi
- Arbeiter VHF has been rebalanced.
- Centurion VHF has been rebalanced.
- Greyhound VHF has been rebalanced.
- Sabre VHF has been rebalanced.
- Sichel VHF has been rebalanced.
- Nomad Assassin VHF has been tweaked.
- Blossom HF has been tweaked.
- Chimaera HF has been tweaked.
- Katana HF has been tweaked.
- Kusari Capitals have seen their LODs range fixed.
- Heavy Fighter & Very Heavy Fighter hitboxes have been reviewed and tweaked.
[Items]
- Cloaks now use ammo instead of commodities. It can be found on any base.
- Nomad cloaks now also use ammo.
- Scanners have received range adjustments.
- Fixed reputation requirement to buy generic civilian guns.
- Pilots and Credit Cards have returned.
[Systems]
- Salisbury has been culled.
- Fukuoka has been culled.
- Oita: transferred Osumi Base.
- Hiroshima: transferred Renzu Shipyard, revised layout, added Jump Gate to New Tokyo.
- Ellesmere: revised Jump Hole connections. Omicron Minor connected to Sigma-17.
- Londonderry has received significant changes and has been de-guarded.
- Chester has received significant changes related to atmosphere and layout.
- Bethlehem Station, Pennsylvania will now be home to Liberty Lawful NPC spawns.
- Added a Jump Gate between Ontario and Alberta.
- Added a Jump Gate between Texas and Minnesota.
- Shortened/revised path between Omicron Alpha and Omicron Gamma through the Hispanic Omicrons.
has also been hard at work to provide an updated map of Sirius. This map does not contain the changes of the Omicrons update. Kudos to him!
.NET FRAMEWORK 4.0 OR HIGHER IS REQUIRED. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY WITHOUT IT.
If you have Windows 7 or above you should be fine, but in the event you want to be sure, you can download .Net Framework here from microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download…s.aspx?id=17718
DO NOT START FREELANCER VIA FREELANCER.EXE, USE DSLAUNCHER.EXE
Or you will have some really bad surprise
IF YOUR ANTIVIRUS COMPLAINS ABOUT AWESOMIUM.DLL ADD AN EXCEPTION
I have no idea why a library that's so massively used would be flagged anyway.
And considering you've been a nice community member you can get the link:
With the update being released, server population increasing and the newly instituted Official Faction perks, the Admins have decided to reinstate activity requirements for all Official factions enforced March 1st.
The new requirements are twenty four (24) hours of activity per month and five (5) active members.
Factions failing to achieve these standards will be warned after the first month. If a faction remains below activity requirements for any of the following three months, they will lose officialdom.
We know that some factions will have more difficulty reaching the activity requirement than others. This can be due to any number of reasons. If, as a faction leader, you feel it impossible to reach the activity threshold, you may make a Player Request stating your hardship, with ways you feel we can improve your situation for you. The Admins will discuss your options with you. I would suggest doing this ASAP and not waiting until your faction is about to be dropped for lack of activity.
We want each and every faction to succeed and grow, but we also don't want dead factions lying around not doing anything either. If you help yourselves, we will try and help you.
[feedquote='Discovery RP Feed','http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=125221']
With the update being released, server population increasing and the newly instituted Official Faction perks, the Admins have decided to reinstate activity requirements for all Official factions enforced March 1st.
The new requirements are twenty four (24) hours of activity per month and five (5) active members.
Factions failing to achieve these standards will be warned after the first month. If a faction remains below activity requirements for any of the following three months, they will lose officialdom.
We know that some factions will have more difficulty reaching the activity requirement than others. This can be due to any number of reasons. If, as a faction leader, you feel it impossible to reach the activity threshold, you may make a Player Request stating your hardship, with ways you feel we can improve your situation for you. The Admins will discuss your options with you. I would suggest doing this ASAP and not waiting until your faction is about to be dropped for lack of activity.
We want each and every faction to succeed and grow, but we also don't want dead factions lying around not doing anything either. If you help yourselves, we will try and help you.
Official faction leaders and their members have long complained about the lack of benefits that arise from being part of an Official faction. Faction Rights have not sufficed to serve as a reward for being Official, nor has it induced players to join/create Official factions of their own. The Staff have been looking at ways to grant Official factions perks without taking away from what indie players currently enjoy. One way we did this was by creating an added Core to POB's and making it available to Official Factions only. This was a start, but we believe more perks are needed for those factions that act in a way that contributes to the excellence of this server.
In order to accommodate these perks, the Admins have decided to make individual Player Faction ID's for each Official Faction. They will start out nearly identical to the Open ID that their faction represents. The names on the IDs will differentiate themselves from their Open ID counterparts, thus making it easy to distinguish an Official Faction member from an indie Open ID user. When necessary, the ID will either be labeled as a Primary Fleet ID or a line will be added to the ID stating that this ID belongs to the Official Faction.
By giving each Official Faction their own ID apart from the one indies carry, it allows us to reward the conduct and RP Official Factions generally exhibit. It also allows us to make changes to the ID, in accordance with agreed upon movement in the faction's lore and diplomacy without enforcing it upon the Open ID, and without having to wait for another update in the mod. These Official Faction ID's would be made available to Faction Leaders upon the next update and placed on a TBD base where only those with the appropriate ID may purchase it.
What about the poor indie player? Indies may receive a trickle down benefit from a perk chosen by the Official Faction representing their ID. The Staff will examine each approved perk and decide if a 'lesser' version of this perk might be suitable for the Open ID. Nevertheless, these perks are designed primarily to reward and promote activity for Official Factions.
Types of Perks
Mining perks.
A mining bonus would be a good example of a perk that could be added to an Official Faction ID. Of course, any perks doled out to non-Mining factions should be less than what Mining factions currently operate with, otherwise we either cannibalize the Mining factions, or we run the risk of making every official faction ID indistinguishable from the other. Obviously, Mining factions should be able to benefit the most from the mining perk, Trading factions less so and Military/Police/Unlawful the least, but still possible. This will continue our ability to distinguish the defining characteristics of Official factions, one from the other. The Admins will decide the amount of the bonus and whether indies might benefit from it in some way or not.
Commodity perks.
With a Commodity perk, an Official faction could develop RP leading to the existence of a new commodity for the mod, purchasable only with the ID of the Official Faction. The Official Faction could choose to 'unlock' this new commodity for use by other factions if the RP warranted it. A line could also be added to the ID of the Official Faction allowing them to demand cargo of anyone else caught transporting their exclusive commodity. This, along with a good sell price, would provide a nice perk for Official factions, giving them the opportunity to engage in creative RP. Of course, the longer and more dangerous the trade route for this new commodity, the higher the sell point becomes. The Admins will decide on the final sell point based on the above criteria.
Additionally, Official factions, with strong RP support, can request "Super Economic Events" over a duration of two months. These events would make use of an existing commodity and be available to all, but with a higher sell point.
As with the mining perks, this would be something that could be made available to all factions, but on a sliding scale. Trading factions/Unlawful factions would benefit the most from this since trading/smuggling commodities are their defining characteristic. Mining companies would benefit less and Military/Police factions the least.
Techcompat exemptions. The ability to RP the use of an allies ship/guns, without a nerf, was done away with. However, we can carefully implement exceptions to this in Official Faction's ID with well thought out RP. Of course, there are absolute limits on what tech a player can use. For example, [LN] would not be using [RM] tech under any circumstances, but they could make full use of an ally's, or even an Official faction that was diplomatically neutral if the RP warranted it. This would give back to Official factions a lost perk, but this time, the Admins would have more control over it. Thus, we could mitigate the behind the scenes Skype deals that ruined this for everyone and created the technerf in the first place. Depending on the request, the Admins will consider if the RP warrants a full exemption or a partial one. In many cases, an approved perk in this area might result in a partial percentage increase, but still nerfed somewhat. It may take two, three or more requests to gain up to 100% use of another faction's tech. This will enable the Admins to determine whether an unfair imbalance is occurring as well as provide additional opportunities for the Official Faction to RP this perk. Again, as was stated with the other two perks, this one would act on a sliding scale as well. Military/Police/Unlawful factions would benefit the most from this. Trading and Mining factions less so.
Zone of Influence.
Some factions have tried to RP with a view to making adjustments to their ZOI, but have been hampered by ID restrictions. Now, with the ZOI perk, they can potentially see some real movement with their faction and faction lore. Obviously, there has to be limits here. We cannot have House military/police factions with Sirius wide ZOI. However, there are tweaks that can be made here and there based on RP. Even Official factions with a Sirius wide ZOI could benefit from this perk. They may decide that certain actions could be permissible in specific systems and RP toward that effect. Of all the perks discussed, this is one that would have to be the most cautiously implemented as it could disrupt game balance severely. Small, carefully considered tweaks are probably best.
Ship Class Perk.
This is another perk that would benefit the factions that possess a limited shipline. Upon qualifying, they could take advantage of their relationships with other factions and upgrade their ID's to allow for heavier class ships. Military factions, who possess the full complement of the ship class wouldn't see a benefit from this, but a few factions out there might enjoy it immensely.
Dispensation of Perks
How often will these perks be awarded?
Every two months an Official Faction leader may request, in Official Faction Perk Request subforum, a perk from the list above. In order to qualify for this request, they must present to the Staff the RP supporting this request. The RP should be something that takes place over a period of weeks, not a day or two. It should be well thought out, well documented on the forums and involve, if possible, ingame activity/events. Admins will then vote on the perk request.
The Admins will be very stringent in handing out perks. Some requests will undoubtedly be beyond what we are willing to fulfill. Others may be handed out, but in a reduced fashion. Some perks may be a 'one and done' type of situation, where the perk only lasts for a specified period of time. Still others may be put on hold until we are certain of any game balance issues. Whether the perk is approved or not, the faction will have to wait two months before making any additional requests. We want to emphasize that perk requests are like a spice in cooking. Too much, and you ruin the meal. However, in the right amount, it can enhance it. This is the way Official Factions should view perks, small adjustments over an extended period of time, that enhance the game.
What are some of the questions the Staff will be asking when considering perk requests?
Has the Official Faction provided reasonable RP leading up to the perk desired?
Is the reputation of the Official Faction a positive one within the community?
How does the Official Faction respond to negative feedback?
How active is the faction?
Will this perk create a severe imbalance within the game?
How has the Official Faction made use of the perks they have, if any?
Does the requested perk make sense for the Official Faction?
How does the Official Faction treat new players or indies?
OPTIONAL CONSIDERATION:
Is there a way for indies to benefit from this perk to some extent? (It would be nice if there was a trickle down effect for indies from the perks. Maybe they wouldn't benefit to the fullest extent, but it would be good if they saw some kind of positive out of the perk.)
How to Lose Perks Quickly
Anything that can given, with regard to perks, can be taken away. The goal is to reward excellent behavior and quality RP, however there are occasions when the conduct of an Official faction proves harmful to the server.
OORP hate manifesting itself as Metagaming/Powergaming will not be tolerated.
Breaking server rules in the use of any perks one might receive will result in its loss.
Low Activity in the Official Faction.
If the perk is discovered to create a severe game imbalance.
The Admins reserve the right to remove any perk if they see that it creates harm to the server.
The Admins reserve the right to alter any perk request.
If an Official Faction is found abusing their perks in any way, the first offense is loss of that perk. The second offense is loss of all perks. The third offense will result in loss of Officialdom. If a faction loses a perk in this manner, they will have to wait an additional two months from the date of its removal before applying for an additional one.
Conclusion
Official Factions are a valued part of this server. In order to qualify for Officialdom, they must exhibit excellence in RP. They must be active. They must respond well to negative feedback. Any decision they make, whether good or bad, they have to live with.
Since their standards are high, it has been hard for them to induce players to join. It's far easier to play an indie, where accountability is negligible and any bad decision can be erased with a name change.
Therefore, the Staff wishes to implement this Official Faction Perk concept to the community in an effort to reward those that choose to live up to the high standards of becoming Official and to provide them a way to induce others to join their ranks.
You will notice the changelog is pretty slim. It's incredibly hard to remember all the little things that have been done as they were not completely kept track of under the previous development system so we have listed them all under "various".
You will also notice the Omicrons update isn't listed here. That's because just like the Rheinland modifications, they will be released shortly after via our new patcher. The main objective of this update is to complete our migration to the new development and release system, which we cannot do until we finally push out this update.
The patch will hit the server this week, unless something really really horrible happens.
At any rate, here's the changelog for the initial update.
Quote:Discovery 4.88.0
Patch Notes
[General]
- Added DSLauncher, our new Launcher specifically crafted for Discovery. A subforum has been created under the Help & Support section of the forums to provide assistance related to its usage.
- Added Adoxa's zone plugin.
- Fighter NPCs have been toned down. They are now all stuck with a 2.00 fire rate. They also cannot use Mines and Missiles anymore.
- Capitals will be toned down at a later point.
- Preparations for Hyperspace Beacons.
- Mining Machinery icon replaced due to copyright issues. Thanks to whoever thought it was a brilliant idea.
- Corsair Battleship NPCs will no longer use the Osiris and instead use their own tech.
- Client-side mining config updated with revised drop rate modifiers for all factions.
- Lots and lots of various little tweaks.
- Various bugfixes.
[Guns]
- CODENAME weapons now use a unique weapon type that deals 90% damage to Graviton, Molecular and Positron shields.
- DULZIAN, PHOENIX, SOLARIS and Nomad Prototype Gun have seen their energy usage revised.
[Ships]
- Persephone reverted to 4.85.3 model.
- Sunburst replaced with 's model.
- Added 's unique ship, Obsidian.
- Added 's unique ship, Feanturi
- Arbeiter VHF has been rebalanced.
- Centurion VHF has been rebalanced.
- Greyhound VHF has been rebalanced.
- Sabre VHF has been rebalanced.
- Sichel VHF has been rebalanced.
- Nomad Assassin VHF has been tweaked.
- Blossom HF has been tweaked.
- Chimaera HF has been tweaked.
- Katana HF has been tweaked.
- Kusari Capitals have seen their LODs range fixed.
- Heavy Fighter & Very Heavy Fighter hitboxes have been reviewed and tweaked.
[Items]
- Cloaks now use ammo instead of commodities. It can be found on any base.
- Nomad cloaks now also use ammo.
- Scanners have received range adjustments.
- Fixed reputation requirement to buy generic civilian guns.
- Pilots and Credit Cards have returned.
[Systems]
- Salisbury has been culled.
- Fukuoka has been culled.
- Oita: transferred Osumi Base.
- Hiroshima: transferred Renzu Shipyard, revised layout, added Jump Gate to New Tokyo.
- Ellesmere: revised Jump Hole connections. Omicron Minor connected to Sigma-17.
- Londonderry has received significant changes and has been de-guarded.
- Chester has received significant changes related to atmosphere and layout.
- Bethlehem Station, Pennsylvania will now be home to Liberty Lawful NPC spawns.
- Added a Jump Gate between Ontario and Alberta.
- Added a Jump Gate between Texas and Minnesota.
- Shortened/revised path between Omicron Alpha and Omicron Gamma through the Hispanic Omicrons.
has also been hard at work to provide an updated map of Sirius. This map does not contain the changes of the Omicrons update. Kudos to him!
We are currently working on a ID update, to make them easier to understand for new players/and all other players as well and to close some very confusing points that have caused issues in the past. This will also serve as an overall ID update of sorts which could be used to integrate recent RP into the IDs.
The process for this is going to be pretty simple, we have created more or less standard templates for the different faction types (Military, Police, Corporate, Pirate, Terrorist, Guild & autonomous, Quasi-Lawful). Now we need information on how to make them fit to your factions.
Be reasonable with what you submit, we will only include things that make sense for the faction and dont make the ID overpowered compared to others.
In cases of factions without official representative, no reply, or contradicting replys of multiple factions we will design the ID ourselves, unofficial factions are however allowed to bring in a proposal as well in these cases.
What we need is:
-
Your faction name
-
Name of the NPC faction
-
Description of the NPC faction)
-
Which type of faction does your faction belong to (See above)?
You could integrate those in the ID templates below as that would likely speed things up a lot:
-
What does your faction do/What should it be allowed to do and where?
-
Which special enemies/special cargo dislikes does your faction have?
-
Which ships does your faction use (keep it reasonable)?
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What is your ZOI?
Just to show you what the new IDs could look like:
Quote:Military ID (RM, BAF, LN, KNF; different version for LSF,...)
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the MILITARY FACTION who:
Is allowed to do the following anywhere:
-Can defend itself
(-Can trade)
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
-Can demand contraband, levy fines and attack ships if they refuse to comply
-Can attack ships which violate HOUSE laws or belong to a house or organisation considered hostile by HOUSE
-Can defend allied or neutral ships and bases against anyone
-Can escort traders
Is not allowed to do the following:
-Cannot ally with unlawfuls
-Cannot participate in unlawful actions
-Cannot use transports with more than 4300 cargo
ZOI: House Core systems + surrounding systems + warzones
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers, Battleships.
Quote:Police ID (BPA, RFP, LPI, KSP)
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the POLICE FACTION who:
Is allowed to do the following anywhere:
-Can defend itself
(-Can trade)
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
-Can demand contraband and levy fines, and attack if ships refuse to comply.
-Can attack ships which are in violation of HOUSE laws or belong to a house or organisation considered hostile by HOUSE
-Can defend allied or neutral lawful ships and bases against anyone
-Can escort traders
Is not allowed to do the following:
-Cannot ally with any unlawfuls
-Cannot participate in unlawful actions
-Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.
ZOI: House Core systems + surrounding systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers.
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The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the CORPORATION who:
Is allowed to do the following anyhwere:
-Can trade
-Can defend itself, ships and bases of the same affiliation and allied ships
-Can escort ships of the same affiliation and allied ships
(-Can engage in piracy against ENEMY TRADING FACTION outside of House systems) - for factions that might need this RP wise
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
-Can attack ships belonging to houses or organisations considered hostile by HOUSE
-Can engage in piracy against corporations affiliated with houses at war with HOUSE
-Can collect lawful bounties
Is not allowed to do the following:
-Cannot ally with any unlawfuls.
-Cannot participate in unlawful actions
ZOI: House Core systems + systems with FACTION bases
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats.
Quote:Pirate ID (Pirate and Criminal groups)
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the PIRATE FACTION who:
Is allowed to do the following anyhwere:
-Can trade
-Can defend itself
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
-Can attack any ships except transports
-Can demand cargo and credits from any ship and attack them if they do not comply
-Can collect unlawful bounties
Is not allowed to do the following:
-Cannot ally with any lawfuls
-Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.
ZOI: House Core systems+ systems of interest
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, (Cruisers), (Battleships)
Quote:Terrorist ID (House terrorist factions)
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the TERRORIST FACTION who:
Is allowed to do the following anyhwere:
-Can trade
-Can defend itself
-Can attack ARCHENEMY and treat ARCHENEMY transports as combat targets
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
-Can attack any ships except transports.
-Can demand cargo and credits from any ship, and attack them if they do not comply.
-Can treat transports carrying MEAN THINGS as combat targets.
Is not allowed to do the following:
-Cannot ally with any lawfuls.
-Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.
ZOI: House Core systems + systems of interest
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, (Cruisers), (Battleships)
Quote:Guild ID (Guilds and autonomous groups)
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the GUILD
-Differs too much from Guild to guild, so nothing here yet
Is allowed to do the following anywhere:
-Can trade
-Can defend itself
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
Quote:Quasi-Lawful ID (Q-L factions)
-See above
The pilot carrying this ID is a member of the Q-L FACTION
Is allowed to do the following anywhere:
-Can trade
-Can defend itself
Is allowed to do the following within their Zone of Influence (ZOI here):
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