{"data":{"id":13241,"title":"Letter from the Chairman: $17 Million!","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/13241-Letter-From-The-Chairman-17-Million","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/13241","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/13241","channel":"Transmission","category":"General","series":"From the Chairman","images":[{"id":737,"name":"ScreenShot0011.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/t01u0x6nicvzcr\/source\/ScreenShot0011.jpg","alt":"","size":289337,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-08-31T22:02:13+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/737","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/737\/similar"},{"id":738,"name":"Voyagerlogo.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/y2n3fpq26z9dnr\/source\/Voyagerlogo.jpg","alt":"","size":63456,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-08-31T22:06:02+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/738","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/738\/similar"},{"id":739,"name":"Holoconcept2.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/19w2802mpz9vvr\/source\/Holoconcept2.jpg","alt":"Holotable concept by Chris Olivia","size":370799,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-08-31T22:44:00+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/739","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/739\/similar"}],"images_count":4,"translations":{"en_EN":"I would like to extend my most heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you! We just hit $17 million at slightly past 12am PST August 31 2013 \u2013 less than seven days after we hit $16M!!! The power of this community is simply amazing!\n\nWe still have a ways to go before we have achieved the goal of being completely community funded but based on our current trajectory we\u2019re going to make it \u2013 maybe even by the end of this year! Which will be another amazing milestone that will have been set by this community. The enthusiasm and support the development team and I have felt is amazing and makes us even more determined to make the best damn space sim ever! (BDSSE!)\n\nThe $17 million mark unlocks a special ship upgrade pack for every pledger who has donated prior to this point. An engine modifier will be added to your account shortly and in the near future you should be able to see it in your hangar! You also unlocked an additional flyable ship class in the finished game: the massive battlecruiser!\n\nThis accomplishment means that it\u2019s time to reveal the $19 million stretch goals. Without further ado:\n\n$19 million\nKnow your foe with a Jane\u2019s Fighting Ships style manual free in PDF form to all pledgers.\n\nManage Space Stations \u2013 Players will compete to own and operate a limited number of space stations across the galaxy.\n\nRSI Museum will air monthly, with a new game featured each time!\n\nHopefully you\u2019ve all been enjoying the Hangar module. It\u2019s been a blast to see the many live streams and videos that people were putting up as soon as they downloaded it!\n\nThere will be much more to come, and we plan to update the Hangar continuously as new content and functionality comes online. The same will also apply to the future modules that we will roll out on our way to full game functionality. It was a scary concept when we first embarked on it, but seeing everyone\u2019s enthusiasm and sheer joy of being able to interact and see their ships in the game engine, makes me feel like it was the right call.\n\nWe think, even at this early stage, that all the ships are cool while we\u2019re developing and it\u2019s very gratifying to be able to extend that same feeling to all of you. And they will only get better!\n\nAs some of you may have noticed we launched the very beginning of our IN-GAME store with Voyager Direct yesterday.\n\nIt had a soft launch (we deliberately kept it back from the weekly email) so we could roll it to get feedback and see how to integrate what is a tricky thing into Star Citizen at such an early stage of development.\n\nEven with a soft launch quite a lot of people started using the store (no surprise the Buggy is the top seller!)\n\nUnfortunately there seems to be some misunderstanding in our intentions with the prototype in-game store, as the forums erupted with a significant amount of \u201cdiscussion\u201d last night!\n\nI have read all of the criticism and there have been many great points. One of the great things about Star Citizen\u2019s development is that we can get feedback like this\u2026 and use it to figure out how to make things better.\n\nThe intention of creating Voyager Direct right now was the very opposite of what a lot of people are upset about. It is not supposed to be a cash shop! It\u2019s meant to be the very opposite!\n\nI felt that it was important that we should make clear what are in-game items, earnable via game play. This was the whole reason of segregating these new items into the Voyager Direct store rather than the pledge store. We intend for players to be earning UEC in a limited fashion as early as the dogfighting module (say for fighting so many test battles, or winning a team battle competition) and felt Voyager Direct would be the first step in getting the basic systems in place. Ultimately you will be purchasing all these game items inside the game from in-game vendors on various planets but this won\u2019t come online until the Planetside module. Since the web team at Turbulent had already built a store interface and the team here was already creating items to outfit the hangar and ships, it seemed like an easy option to create Voyager Direct now to allow all of you to play with and check out some of the game items as they are created rather than waiting for Planetside module to see them in engine. The concept was that people that wanted to show their support and contribute towards the development cost of the game could buy some items to play with in their hangar but by establishing the prices in game terms it would also make it clear that these items are all earnable in game. I should also point out that Voyager Direct is intended only to sell cosmetic items or basic ship items that would be available on pretty much any planet \u2013 the better items will always have to be bought by actually flying to the appropriate planet or earning the via gameplay. There is no need to buy anything from Voyager Direct \u2013 it is all OPTIONAL and should be viewed the same way that you view paying for a subscription or buying a skin. All of this will be earnable in the game, without too much time invested.\n\nI\u2019m very opposed to having a game where ANY of the items, outside of your initial game \/ ship package can be only purchased with cash. I hate the bifurcation of items in most online games, even when they are just for flair items. I want Star Citizen to allow players to earn everything they need in-game for ships, upgrades and even flair.\n\nOur plan is once Star Citizen is launched the games ongoing running and content costs (which will be significant as we\u2019re a data & content heavy game) will be supported by the ongoing purchase of new game packages as well as the money the game will earn by some of the players choosing to buy some UEC credits with real money as they don\u2019t have the time or patience to earn the item in game (and for this I wanted to establish a cap so someone can\u2019t just come in and buy everything, although with a skill based game with a heavy rock paper scissors approach to ship design and weapons this won\u2019t help that much as you think). We are making the bet that this will be enough to cover the game ongoing running costs and we will not need a subscription like other big online games live Eve Online or World of War Craft. But it is a risk as we\u2019re taking some of the things that games use to support on-going running costs like sale of flair items and making them not require money just gameplay.\n\nI was disappointed to see so many people feeling that we were trying to gouge people or do a money grab. I thought I had been very clear in my post yesterday that everything was optional and only should be done with the intent of supporting the game financially as opposed to something that was required. The whole team is incredibly grateful for all the incredible support we\u2019ve received but as far as we\u2019re concerned anything beyond the most basic pledge is optional and should be done to support the game\u2019s development and not because you feel like you have to.\n\nI do agree that pricing structure feels off \u2013 part of that is the problem of a blend of real world prices (cosmetic items to show support had been established at $5) and the in-game prices we need to manage. One of the other things we have been focusing on is the idea that the pledge or add on ship you opt for now should be cheaper in real money terms than its equivalent in UEC when the game is live, so the few weapons have been priced to our best guess as to what these should be relative to the actual in-game costs of a ship once the game is live. This leads to a dichotomy in value \u2013 of course a poster should be a lot less than a laser gun! It also doesn\u2019t help that we\u2019ve established an exchange of 1000 UEC to $1. 5000 UEC for a poster just sounds a lot more than $5! I am inclined to halve the prices in the Voyager Direct Store, with some of the smaller flair pieces, like posters getting a reduction even beyond this.\n\nIn addition there\u2019s been quite a few complaints about having to \u201cpay to test\u201d. Which absolutely was not the intention! From a testing perspective what everyone can do now with their basic hangar (and don\u2019t forget you can move items around between ships now) we have everything we need on the testing front. There is no need to buy a poster to help test it. The real testing will happen when you can earn UEC in-game and you then buy all these items. But we appreciate everyone\u2019s eagerness to help out, so I\u2019m investigating the difficulty of implementing \u201cTEST UEC\u201d now rather than waiting for the dogfighting module \u2013 the idea would be that everyone would get a certain amount of TEST UEC at different periods and could use the credits to buy items that would exist for a day in your hangar to check them out, try them on your various ships, walls and so on. This is doable but does require some significant work on the web side, so if we take this route it will be a little while before it can be implemented. We had originally planned this for the dogfighting module (as it is useful for people to try different load outs in balancing) but we can move up the schedule if enough people think it\u2019s important.\n\nIn the spirit of community involvement and discussion and as a big thank you for reaching $17M I think the best thing to do is to give everyone a further 5,000 UEC and let you voice your opinion on some of the proposed solutions (and know that if you vote to reduce the Voyager Direct prices we will credit back the difference in UEC to people\u2019s accounts for people that have already spent UEC)\n\nSo let us know!\nThe team and I THANK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!","de_DE":"Ich m\u00f6chte mich ganz herzlich bei jedem einzelnen von euch bedanken! Wir haben gerade 17 Millionen Dollar kurz nach 12 Uhr PST am 31. August 2013 erreicht - weniger als sieben Tage nachdem wir 16 Millionen Dollar erreicht haben. Die Macht dieser Gemeinschaft ist einfach erstaunlich!\n\nWir haben noch einen langen Weg vor uns, bis wir das Ziel erreicht haben, vollst\u00e4ndig von der Gemeinschaft finanziert zu werden, aber auf der Grundlage unserer aktuellen Entwicklung werden wir es schaffen - vielleicht sogar bis Ende dieses Jahres! Das wird ein weiterer erstaunlicher Meilenstein sein, der von dieser Gemeinschaft gesetzt wurde. Die Begeisterung und Unterst\u00fctzung des Entwicklungsteams und ich habe das Gef\u00fchl, dass es erstaunlich ist und macht uns noch entschlossener, die beste verdammte Weltraumsimulation aller Zeiten zu machen! (BDSSE!)\n\nDie 17 Millionen Dollar Marke erm\u00f6glicht ein spezielles Schiffs-Upgrade-Paket f\u00fcr jeden Pfandgeber, der vor diesem Zeitpunkt gespendet hat. Ein Motor-Modifikator wird deinem Konto in K\u00fcrze hinzugef\u00fcgt und in naher Zukunft solltest du ihn in deinem Hangar sehen k\u00f6nnen! Du hast auch eine zus\u00e4tzliche fliegende Schiffsklasse im fertigen Spiel freigeschaltet: den massiven Batlecruiser!\n\nDiese Leistung bedeutet, dass es an der Zeit ist, die 19 Millionen Dollar Stretch-Ziele zu enth\u00fcllen. Ohne weiteres:\n\n19 Millionen Dollar\nKennen Sie Ihren Feind mit einem Handbuch im Stil von Jane's Fighting Ships, das allen Pfandgebern kostenlos im PDF-Format zur Verf\u00fcgung steht. Raumstationen verwalten - Die Spieler werden darum konkurrieren, eine begrenzte Anzahl von Raumstationen in der gesamten Galaxie zu besitzen und zu betreiben. Das RSI Museum wird monatlich ausgestrahlt, wobei jedes Mal ein neues Spiel gezeigt wird! Hoffentlich haben Sie alle das Hangarmodul genossen. Es war eine gro\u00dfe Freude, die vielen Live-Streams und Videos zu sehen, die die Leute hochgeladen haben, sobald sie es heruntergeladen haben!\n\nEs wird noch viel mehr kommen, und wir planen, den Hangar kontinuierlich zu aktualisieren, wenn neue Inhalte und Funktionen online gehen. Gleiches gilt auch f\u00fcr die zuk\u00fcnftigen Module, die wir auf dem Weg zur vollen Spielfunktionalit\u00e4t einf\u00fchren werden. Es war ein be\u00e4ngstigendes Konzept, als wir uns zum ersten Mal daran machten, aber die Begeisterung und Freude aller daran zu sehen, in der Lage zu sein, zu interagieren und ihre Schiffe in der Game Engine zu sehen, gibt mir das Gef\u00fchl, dass es die richtige Entscheidung war.\n\nWir denken, schon in diesem fr\u00fchen Stadium, dass alle Schiffe w\u00e4hrend der Entwicklung cool sind, und es ist sehr erfreulich, dass wir dieses Gef\u00fchl auf euch alle \u00fcbertragen k\u00f6nnen. Und sie werden nur noch besser werden!\n\nWie einige von euch vielleicht bemerkt haben, haben wir gestern den Anfang unseres IN-GAME-Shops mit Voyager Direct gestartet.\n\nEs hatte einen Soft Launch (wir haben es bewusst von der w\u00f6chentlichen E-Mail ferngehalten), so dass wir es rollen konnten, um Feedback zu erhalten und zu sehen, wie man in einem so fr\u00fchen Entwicklungsstadium etwas Schwieriges in Star Citizen integrieren kann.\n\nSelbst mit einem sanften Start begannen viele Leute, den Shop zu nutzen (keine \u00dcberraschung, dass der Buggy der Verkaufsschlager ist!).\n\nLeider scheint es in unseren Absichten mit dem Prototyp-In-Game-Laden ein Missverst\u00e4ndnis zu geben, da die Foren gestern Abend mit einer erheblichen Menge an \"Diskussion\" ausbrachen!\n\nIch habe die gesamte Kritik gelesen, und es gab viele gro\u00dfe Punkte. Eine der gro\u00dfartigen Eigenschaften der Entwicklung von Star Citizen ist, dass wir so Feedback bekommen k\u00f6nnen.... und es nutzen k\u00f6nnen, um herauszufinden, wie wir die Dinge besser machen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDie Absicht, Voyager Direct jetzt zu gr\u00fcnden, war genau das Gegenteil von dem, wor\u00fcber viele Leute ver\u00e4rgert sind. Es soll kein Cash-Shop sein! Es soll das genaue Gegenteil sein!\n\nIch hielt es f\u00fcr wichtig, dass wir deutlich machen, was im Spiel Gegenst\u00e4nde sind, die durch das Spielen verdient werden k\u00f6nnen. Dies war der Grund daf\u00fcr, diese neuen Artikel in den Voyager Direct Store und nicht in den Pfandleiher zu trennen. Wir beabsichtigen, dass die Spieler bereits im Dogfighting-Modul (z.B. f\u00fcr so viele Testk\u00e4mpfe oder den Gewinn eines Team-Battle-Wettbewerbs) in begrenztem Umfang UEC verdienen und waren der Meinung, dass Voyager Direct der erste Schritt zur Einf\u00fchrung der Basissysteme sein w\u00fcrde. Letztendlich wirst du all diese Spielgegenst\u00e4nde innerhalb des Spiels von Anbietern auf verschiedenen Planeten kaufen, aber das wird erst mit dem Planetenseitenmodul online gehen. Da das Webteam von Turbulent bereits eine Shop-Schnittstelle aufgebaut hatte und das Team hier bereits Artikel zur Ausstattung des Hangars und der Schiffe erstellte, schien es eine einfache Option zu sein, Voyager Direct jetzt zu erstellen, damit Sie alle mit einigen der Spielelemente spielen und sich diese ansehen k\u00f6nnen, w\u00e4hrend sie erstellt werden, anstatt darauf zu warten, dass das Planetenmodul sie im Motor sieht. Das Konzept war, dass Leute, die ihre Unterst\u00fctzung zeigen und zu den Entwicklungskosten des Spiels beitragen wollten, einige Gegenst\u00e4nde kaufen konnten, mit denen sie in ihrem Hangar spielen konnten, aber durch die Festlegung der Preise in Bezug auf das Spiel w\u00fcrde es auch deutlich machen, dass diese Gegenst\u00e4nde alle im Spiel eintr\u00e4glich sind. Ich m\u00f6chte auch darauf hinweisen, dass Voyager Direct nur dazu bestimmt ist, Kosmetikartikel oder grundlegende Schiffsartikel zu verkaufen, die auf so ziemlich jedem Planeten erh\u00e4ltlich w\u00e4ren - die besseren Artikel m\u00fcssen immer gekauft werden, indem man tats\u00e4chlich zum entsprechenden Planeten fliegt oder das Via-Gameplay verdient. Es besteht keine Notwendigkeit, etwas von Voyager Direct zu kaufen - es ist alles OPTIONAL und sollte auf die gleiche Weise betrachtet werden, wie Sie es von der Bezahlung eines Abonnements oder dem Kauf eines Skins kennen. All dies wird im Spiel verdienstbar sein, ohne zu viel Zeitaufwand.\n\nIch bin sehr dagegen, ein Spiel zu haben, bei dem JEDER der Gegenst\u00e4nde, au\u00dferhalb Ihres urspr\u00fcnglichen Spiel-\/Schiffspakets, nur mit Bargeld gekauft werden kann. Ich hasse die Verzweigung von Gegenst\u00e4nden in den meisten Online-Spielen, auch wenn sie nur f\u00fcr Flairartikel gedacht sind. Ich m\u00f6chte, dass Star Citizen es den Spielern erm\u00f6glicht, alles zu verdienen, was sie im Spiel f\u00fcr Schiffe, Upgrades und sogar Flair ben\u00f6tigen.\n\nUnser Plan ist, sobald Star Citizen gestartet ist, die laufenden Spiele und die Inhaltskosten (die erheblich sein werden, da wir ein daten- und inhaltsintensives Spiel sind) werden durch den laufenden Kauf neuer Spielepakete sowie das Geld, das das Spiel verdienen wird, unterst\u00fctzt, wenn einige der Spieler beschlie\u00dfen, einige UEC-Credits mit echtem Geld zu kaufen, da sie nicht die Zeit oder Geduld haben, den Gegenstand im Spiel zu verdienen (und daf\u00fcr wollte ich eine Obergrenze festlegen, damit nicht einfach jemand reinkommen und alles kaufen kann), obwohl bei einem Geschicklichkeitsspiel mit einer schweren Stein-Papierschere der Ansatz f\u00fcr Schiffsdesign und Waffen nicht so viel hilft, wie du denkst). Wir machen die Wette, dass dies ausreichen wird, um die laufenden Betriebskosten des Spiels zu decken, und wir brauchen kein Abonnement wie andere gro\u00dfe Online-Spiele live Eve Online oder World of War Craft. Aber es ist ein Risiko, da wir einige der Dinge, die Spiele verwenden, um die laufenden Betriebskosten zu unterst\u00fctzen, wie z.B. den Verkauf von Flairartikeln, \u00fcbernehmen und sie nicht nur mit Geld, sondern auch mit Gameplay verdienen.\n\nIch war entt\u00e4uscht, als ich sah, wie so viele Leute das Gef\u00fchl hatten, dass wir versuchten, Menschen zu mei\u00dfeln oder Geld zu schnappen. Ich dachte, ich w\u00e4re gestern in meinem Beitrag sehr deutlich gewesen, dass alles optional war und nur mit der Absicht getan werden sollte, das Spiel finanziell zu unterst\u00fctzen und nicht mit etwas, das erforderlich war. Das gesamte Team ist unglaublich dankbar f\u00fcr die unglaubliche Unterst\u00fctzung, die wir erhalten haben, aber was uns betrifft, ist alles, was \u00fcber das grundlegendste Versprechen hinausgeht, optional und sollte getan werden, um die Entwicklung des Spiels zu unterst\u00fctzen und nicht, weil Sie das Gef\u00fchl haben, dass Sie es m\u00fcssen.\n\nIch stimme zu, dass die Preisstruktur sich schlecht anf\u00fchlt - ein Teil davon ist das Problem einer Mischung aus realen Weltpreisen (Kosmetikartikel zur Unterst\u00fctzung wurden auf 5 $ festgelegt) und den Preisen im Spiel, die wir verwalten m\u00fcssen. Eines der anderen Dinge, auf die wir uns konzentriert haben, ist die Idee, dass das Versprechen oder das Hinzuf\u00fcgen eines Schiffes, f\u00fcr das Sie sich jetzt entscheiden, unter realen Geldbedingungen billiger sein sollte als das \u00c4quivalent in UEC, wenn das Spiel live ist, so dass die wenigen Waffen nach unserer besten Sch\u00e4tzung zu einem Preis angeboten wurden, was diese im Verh\u00e4ltnis zu den tats\u00e4chlichen Kosten eines Schiffes im Spiel sein sollten, sobald das Spiel live ist. Dies f\u00fchrt zu einer Dichotomie im Wert - nat\u00fcrlich sollte ein Poster viel kleiner sein als eine Laserpistole! Es hilft auch nicht, dass wir einen Tausch von 1000 UEC zu $1 etabliert haben. 5000 UEC f\u00fcr ein Poster klingt einfach viel mehr als $5! Ich bin geneigt, die Preise im Voyager Direct Store zu halbieren, mit einigen der kleineren Flair-St\u00fccke, wie z.B. Plakaten, die eine Reduzierung auch dar\u00fcber hinaus erhalten.\n\nAu\u00dferdem gibt es etliche Beschwerden dar\u00fcber, dass man \"pay to test\" bezahlen muss. Das war absolut nicht die Absicht! Aus Testperspektive, was jeder jetzt mit seinem Basishangar machen kann (und vergiss nicht, dass du jetzt Gegenst\u00e4nde zwischen den Schiffen bewegen kannst), haben wir alles, was wir an der Testfront brauchen. Es besteht keine Notwendigkeit, ein Poster zu kaufen, um es zu testen. Der eigentliche Test wird stattfinden, wenn du UEC im Spiel verdienen kannst und dann alle diese Gegenst\u00e4nde kaufst. Aber wir sch\u00e4tzen den Eifer aller, zu helfen, also untersuche ich die Schwierigkeit, \"TEST UEC\" jetzt zu implementieren, anstatt auf das Luftkampfmodul zu warten - die Idee w\u00e4re, dass jeder eine bestimmte Menge an TEST UEC zu verschiedenen Zeiten erhalten w\u00fcrde und die Credits verwenden k\u00f6nnte, um Gegenst\u00e4nde zu kaufen, die f\u00fcr einen Tag in deinem Hangar existieren w\u00fcrden, um sie ausprobieren, sie an deinen verschiedenen Schiffen, W\u00e4nden und so weiter auszuprobieren. Dies ist machbar, erfordert aber einige umfangreiche Arbeiten auf der Webseite, so dass es, wenn wir diesen Weg gehen, noch einige Zeit dauern wird, bis es umgesetzt werden kann. Wir hatten dies urspr\u00fcnglich f\u00fcr das Dogfighting-Modul geplant (da es f\u00fcr Leute n\u00fctzlich ist, verschiedene Load Outs beim Balancieren auszuprobieren), aber wir k\u00f6nnen den Zeitplan nach oben verschieben, wenn gen\u00fcgend Leute es f\u00fcr wichtig halten.\n\nIm Geiste des gesellschaftlichen Engagements und der Diskussion und als gro\u00dfes Dankesch\u00f6n daf\u00fcr, dass Sie 17 Millionen Dollar erreicht haben, denke ich, dass das Beste ist, jedem weitere 5.000 UEC zu geben und Sie Ihre Meinung zu einigen der vorgeschlagenen L\u00f6sungen \u00e4u\u00dfern zu lassen (und zu wissen, dass, wenn Sie f\u00fcr die Senkung der Voyager-Direktpreise stimmen, wir den Unterschied in UEC auf die Konten der Menschen f\u00fcr Personen zur\u00fcckbuchen werden, die bereits UEC ausgegeben haben).\n\nAlso lasst es uns wissen!\nDas Team und ich danken JEDEM und JEDEM von euch!","zh_CN":"I would like to extend my most heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you! We just hit $17 million at slightly past 12am PST August 31 2013 \u2013 less than seven days after we hit $16M!!! The power of this community is simply amazing!\n\nWe still have a ways to go before we have achieved the goal of being completely community funded but based on our current trajectory we\u2019re going to make it \u2013 maybe even by the end of this year! Which will be another amazing milestone that will have been set by this community. The enthusiasm and support the development team and I have felt is amazing and makes us even more determined to make the best damn space sim ever! (BDSSE!)\n\nThe $17 million mark unlocks a special ship upgrade pack for every pledger who has donated prior to this point. An engine modifier will be added to your account shortly and in the near future you should be able to see it in your hangar! You also unlocked an additional flyable ship class in the finished game: the massive battlecruiser!\n\nThis accomplishment means that it\u2019s time to reveal the $19 million stretch goals. Without further ado:\n\n$19 million\nKnow your foe with a Jane\u2019s Fighting Ships style manual free in PDF form to all pledgers.\n\nManage Space Stations \u2013 Players will compete to own and operate a limited number of space stations across the galaxy.\n\nRSI Museum will air monthly, with a new game featured each time!\n\nHopefully you\u2019ve all been enjoying the Hangar module. It\u2019s been a blast to see the many live streams and videos that people were putting up as soon as they downloaded it!\n\nThere will be much more to come, and we plan to update the Hangar continuously as new content and functionality comes online. The same will also apply to the future modules that we will roll out on our way to full game functionality. It was a scary concept when we first embarked on it, but seeing everyone\u2019s enthusiasm and sheer joy of being able to interact and see their ships in the game engine, makes me feel like it was the right call.\n\nWe think, even at this early stage, that all the ships are cool while we\u2019re developing and it\u2019s very gratifying to be able to extend that same feeling to all of you. And they will only get better!\n\nAs some of you may have noticed we launched the very beginning of our IN-GAME store with Voyager Direct yesterday.\n\nIt had a soft launch (we deliberately kept it back from the weekly email) so we could roll it to get feedback and see how to integrate what is a tricky thing into Star Citizen at such an early stage of development.\n\nEven with a soft launch quite a lot of people started using the store (no surprise the Buggy is the top seller!)\n\nUnfortunately there seems to be some misunderstanding in our intentions with the prototype in-game store, as the forums erupted with a significant amount of \u201cdiscussion\u201d last night!\n\nI have read all of the criticism and there have been many great points. One of the great things about Star Citizen\u2019s development is that we can get feedback like this\u2026 and use it to figure out how to make things better.\n\nThe intention of creating Voyager Direct right now was the very opposite of what a lot of people are upset about. It is not supposed to be a cash shop! It\u2019s meant to be the very opposite!\n\nI felt that it was important that we should make clear what are in-game items, earnable via game play. This was the whole reason of segregating these new items into the Voyager Direct store rather than the pledge store. We intend for players to be earning UEC in a limited fashion as early as the dogfighting module (say for fighting so many test battles, or winning a team battle competition) and felt Voyager Direct would be the first step in getting the basic systems in place. Ultimately you will be purchasing all these game items inside the game from in-game vendors on various planets but this won\u2019t come online until the Planetside module. Since the web team at Turbulent had already built a store interface and the team here was already creating items to outfit the hangar and ships, it seemed like an easy option to create Voyager Direct now to allow all of you to play with and check out some of the game items as they are created rather than waiting for Planetside module to see them in engine. The concept was that people that wanted to show their support and contribute towards the development cost of the game could buy some items to play with in their hangar but by establishing the prices in game terms it would also make it clear that these items are all earnable in game. I should also point out that Voyager Direct is intended only to sell cosmetic items or basic ship items that would be available on pretty much any planet \u2013 the better items will always have to be bought by actually flying to the appropriate planet or earning the via gameplay. There is no need to buy anything from Voyager Direct \u2013 it is all OPTIONAL and should be viewed the same way that you view paying for a subscription or buying a skin. All of this will be earnable in the game, without too much time invested.\n\nI\u2019m very opposed to having a game where ANY of the items, outside of your initial game \/ ship package can be only purchased with cash. I hate the bifurcation of items in most online games, even when they are just for flair items. I want Star Citizen to allow players to earn everything they need in-game for ships, upgrades and even flair.\n\nOur plan is once Star Citizen is launched the games ongoing running and content costs (which will be significant as we\u2019re a data & content heavy game) will be supported by the ongoing purchase of new game packages as well as the money the game will earn by some of the players choosing to buy some UEC credits with real money as they don\u2019t have the time or patience to earn the item in game (and for this I wanted to establish a cap so someone can\u2019t just come in and buy everything, although with a skill based game with a heavy rock paper scissors approach to ship design and weapons this won\u2019t help that much as you think). We are making the bet that this will be enough to cover the game ongoing running costs and we will not need a subscription like other big online games live Eve Online or World of War Craft. But it is a risk as we\u2019re taking some of the things that games use to support on-going running costs like sale of flair items and making them not require money just gameplay.\n\nI was disappointed to see so many people feeling that we were trying to gouge people or do a money grab. I thought I had been very clear in my post yesterday that everything was optional and only should be done with the intent of supporting the game financially as opposed to something that was required. The whole team is incredibly grateful for all the incredible support we\u2019ve received but as far as we\u2019re concerned anything beyond the most basic pledge is optional and should be done to support the game\u2019s development and not because you feel like you have to.\n\nI do agree that pricing structure feels off \u2013 part of that is the problem of a blend of real world prices (cosmetic items to show support had been established at $5) and the in-game prices we need to manage. One of the other things we have been focusing on is the idea that the pledge or add on ship you opt for now should be cheaper in real money terms than its equivalent in UEC when the game is live, so the few weapons have been priced to our best guess as to what these should be relative to the actual in-game costs of a ship once the game is live. This leads to a dichotomy in value \u2013 of course a poster should be a lot less than a laser gun! It also doesn\u2019t help that we\u2019ve established an exchange of 1000 UEC to $1. 5000 UEC for a poster just sounds a lot more than $5! I am inclined to halve the prices in the Voyager Direct Store, with some of the smaller flair pieces, like posters getting a reduction even beyond this.\n\nIn addition there\u2019s been quite a few complaints about having to \u201cpay to test\u201d. Which absolutely was not the intention! From a testing perspective what everyone can do now with their basic hangar (and don\u2019t forget you can move items around between ships now) we have everything we need on the testing front. There is no need to buy a poster to help test it. The real testing will happen when you can earn UEC in-game and you then buy all these items. But we appreciate everyone\u2019s eagerness to help out, so I\u2019m investigating the difficulty of implementing \u201cTEST UEC\u201d now rather than waiting for the dogfighting module \u2013 the idea would be that everyone would get a certain amount of TEST UEC at different periods and could use the credits to buy items that would exist for a day in your hangar to check them out, try them on your various ships, walls and so on. This is doable but does require some significant work on the web side, so if we take this route it will be a little while before it can be implemented. We had originally planned this for the dogfighting module (as it is useful for people to try different load outs in balancing) but we can move up the schedule if enough people think it\u2019s important.\n\nIn the spirit of community involvement and discussion and as a big thank you for reaching $17M I think the best thing to do is to give everyone a further 5,000 UEC and let you voice your opinion on some of the proposed solutions (and know that if you vote to reduce the Voyager Direct prices we will credit back the difference in UEC to people\u2019s accounts for people that have already spent UEC)\n\nSo let us know!\nThe team and I THANK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!"},"links_count":2,"comment_count":781,"created_at":"2013-08-31T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"12 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-08 08:00:51","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":13239,"next_id":13242}}