{"data":{"id":13432,"title":"Letter from the Chairman: On Dogfighting","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/13432-Letter-From-The-Chairman-On-Dogfighting","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/13432","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/13432","channel":"Transmission","category":"General","series":"From the Chairman","images":[{"id":8,"name":"ChrisRobertsDirecting-300x201.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/1voadjmwj49znr\/source\/ChrisRobertsDirecting-300x201.jpg","alt":"","size":14938,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-07-19T05:30:42+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/8","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/8\/similar"},{"id":1122,"name":"Screenshot02.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/jgoybqt0vzabar\/source\/Screenshot02.jpg","alt":"","size":281664,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:00+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1122","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1122\/similar"},{"id":1123,"name":"Screenshot01.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/6qh9xyodjlc5nr\/source\/Screenshot01.jpg","alt":"The Dogfighting Module","size":173708,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:09+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1123","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1123\/similar"},{"id":1124,"name":"Hornet_DMG_04.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/mal71u8oi9o2hr\/source\/Hornet_DMG_04.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1033048,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:57+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1124","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1124\/similar"},{"id":1125,"name":"Hornet_DMG_09.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/t7zm0dv2ifc74r\/source\/Hornet_DMG_09.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1228057,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:40+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1125","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1125\/similar"},{"id":1126,"name":"Hornet_DMG_03.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/fc3hw2wj9u720r\/source\/Hornet_DMG_03.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1156339,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:47+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1126","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1126\/similar"},{"id":1127,"name":"Hornet_DMG_06.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/2sl896cry6gxzr\/source\/Hornet_DMG_06.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1296071,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:19+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1127","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1127\/similar"},{"id":1128,"name":"Hornet_DMG_07.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/92qv0y5d54lzbr\/source\/Hornet_DMG_07.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1032027,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:28+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1128","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1128\/similar"},{"id":1129,"name":"Hornet_DMG_08.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/rlhvxgyau778sr\/source\/Hornet_DMG_08.jpg","alt":"Hornet Damage States","size":1065251,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2013-12-17T06:02:38+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1129","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/1129\/similar"}],"images_count":10,"translations":{"en_EN":"Greetings Citizens,\nThe Dogfighting Module!\n\nWhen? Is the question on most of your lips!\n\nThe initial plan was to release a preliminary build for feedback towards the end of this month. However after much deliberation I\u2019ve decided to push this back.\n\nAs I explained during the live stream, we\u2019ve been debating internally what would be the best use of time and resources for the overall development of the game, to keep as close as possible to our original schedule of the Alpha of Star Citizen\u2019s Persistent Universe towards the end of 2014, and the \u201cpublic\u201d release 2015.\n\nThe incredible surge in funding this year has helped the long term picture. We have been able to ramp up sooner and wider than we originally thought. This means more features and content will be in the game at launch. We\u2019re further along than originally planned in building the tech for the persistent and instancing server backend which will ultimately drive Star Citizen. Both Squadron 42 and First Person Personal combat \/ boarding have full teams working in parallel, in addition to the teams in Los Angeles, Austin and Montreal working on the Dogfighting and Planetside components. We have smaller groups of people supporting these efforts from CGBot in Austin & Monterrey, Mexico and Void Alpha in San Francisco.\n\nLong term, this is great for the game, but in the short term, getting multiple teams up to speed has definitely taken some bandwidth from myself and the initial team members.\nWhich brings us to the Dogfighting module;\n\nOriginally when I first started this journey I didn\u2019t dream that we would be entirely community funded so early so I thought that if I released an early dogfighting build it would help drum up interest in the project and get some good community feedback on the player versus player fun and balance. I knew this had some drawbacks, the biggest being that we would have to use the built in CryEngine netcode and not our intended persistent and massively multiplayer capable system that we are architecting to handle the large amount of players we hope to have with Star Citizen.\n\nAs time has progressed I\u2019ve become more nervous taking the down and dirty route with the initial dogfighting build, especially as our numbers grow. With so many people in the Alpha we need a whole other level of backend support, which would require serious work on CryEngine\u2019s existing multiplayer structure \u2013 a lobby system, spinning up servers to handle each session \u2013 all things that we are building the new Star Citizen backend to handle. Unfortunately the server backend technology will not be ready for prime time for a couple more months. But this is really what I would like to run the dogfighting on, as it will link into your hangar, friend\u2019s lists, chat and so on.\n\nWe had considered just going single player and having a few combat scenarios available for the first stage of the Dogfighting module, but ultimately we decided this will not be beneficial as even the single player part of Star Citizen, Squadron 42, is built on the multiplayer backbone and is intended to have cooperative play out of the box. And even in this scenario with AI only we would be creating a lot of throw away content as we had always intended for the dogfighting module to be more about head to head than player vs AI.\n\nThe hardest part of dogfighting balance is to make it fun and challenging between two players. We\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking about the various systems and dials you can adjust to add a whole level of strategy \/ skill to dogfighting as we don\u2019t want it to devolve into an endless turning battle with little chance of turning the tables on your opponent.\n\nOutside of having the dogfighting use the proper backend there is a lot of finesse and detail that needs to go in to get the dogfighting ready for the community\u2019s consumption \u2013 The HUD, Damage states, various FX \u2013 these are all in progress and look very promising but in my personal opinion aren\u2019t quite ready for prime time.\n\nI feel that the Dogfighting module, especially with Star Citizen\u2019s greatly increased profile, needs to be more polished than a typical \u201calpha\u201d. There are a lot of eyes on the game, and more than a few people wanting us to fail. Because Dogfighting is the first module that will involve significant gameplay, it has to be good \u2013 I don\u2019t feel that we will get a pass just because it is pre-pre alpha.\n\nSo we had two choices: either fork development and spend time building something that would involve throwing away work in order to meet the December deadline and deliver something that wouldn\u2019t have the level of polish I\u2019m happy with, or stay on course to build something that would lead directly into the finished game.\n\nA modular release schedule, which we delivered the first of with the Hangar, was not something we promised in the original funding campaign. Delivering the game in a modular fashion was an idea we hit on after the initial crowd funding campaign when we realized just how impassioned and engaged this community was. It would help the project and involve the community: you would be able to follow our work and help us improve Star Citizen to a level never before experienced in game development. If releasing dogfighting were to mean throwing away months of work and give an experience that doesn\u2019t advance the final vision of Star Citizen, for the sake of meeting a deadline, we would be poor stewards of the funding which has been entrusted to us by the community.\n\nOn top of this, finding a new space for the growing team in Austin has taken a lot longer than originally anticipated \u2013 we are now scheduled to move in on Dec 28th! As our backend and network ops is run out of Austin it would be pretty risky trying to push out a module that relied on this over the holidays.\n\nSo rather than force the team to crunch through the holidays chasing something \u2018good enough,\u2019 I am going to make the tough choice to delay the dogfighting module for a couple of months to allow us to take our time and deliver something special.\n\nOur goal isn\u2019t just to make Star Citizen good enough. Big publishers make games that are good enough; this is about creating a game that matches a vision. The beauty of crowd funding is that it allows us the creative freedom to do exactly that\u2026 and the one great downside, is that I feel your disappointment in a way I never would otherwise. I don\u2019t just want to make a great game\u2026 I want to play and live it. But even more than that, I have come to find myself a part of the Star Citizen community, in a way that I never expected.\n\nHowever, as it is the holidays, we\u2019re not about to send you off home without a few treats. There\u2019s going to be an update to the Hangar at the end of the week with some fun new functionality. But better than that the team and I invite you to join us Friday, December 20th to show you some of the dogfighting work that is in progress; you\u2019ll see us fight in a multi person fur ball, and hopefully appreciate some of the detail and care we\u2019re adding to truly push dogfighting in Star Citizen to a level beyond anything achieved yet in a space sim.\n\nWe think you\u2019ll be happy with what you see!\n\nSo please join me at 9 AM PST on Friday, December 20th for a special Christmas two hour livestream that will have updates on Squadron 42, The Hangar and Dogfighting!\n\n\u2014 Chris Roberts","de_DE":"Gr\u00fc\u00dfe B\u00fcrger,\nDas Dogfighting-Modul!\n\nWann? Ist die Frage auf den meisten deiner Lippen!\n\nDer erste Plan war, gegen Ende dieses Monats einen vorl\u00e4ufigen Build f\u00fcr das Feedback zu ver\u00f6ffentlichen. Nach reiflicher \u00dcberlegung habe ich mich jedoch entschieden, dies zur\u00fcckzudr\u00e4ngen.\n\nWie ich w\u00e4hrend des Livestreams erkl\u00e4rte, haben wir intern dar\u00fcber diskutiert, wie Zeit und Ressourcen f\u00fcr die Gesamtentwicklung des Spiels am besten genutzt werden k\u00f6nnen, um so nah wie m\u00f6glich an unserem urspr\u00fcnglichen Zeitplan f\u00fcr das Alpha of Star Citizen's Persistent Universe gegen Ende 2014 und die \"\u00f6ffentliche\" Ver\u00f6ffentlichung 2015 zu bleiben.\n\nDer unglaubliche Anstieg der Mittel in diesem Jahr hat dazu beigetragen, das langfristige Bild zu verbessern. Wir konnten fr\u00fcher und breiter aufsteigen, als wir urspr\u00fcnglich dachten. Das bedeutet, dass beim Start mehr Features und Inhalte im Spiel sein werden. Wir sind weiter als urspr\u00fcnglich geplant beim Aufbau der Technologie f\u00fcr das persistente und instanziierte Server-Backend, das letztendlich Star Citizen antreiben wird. Sowohl die Staffel 42 als auch die First Person Personal Kampf \/ Boarding haben komplette Teams, die parallel arbeiten, zus\u00e4tzlich zu den Teams in Los Angeles, Austin und Montreal, die an den Komponenten Dogfighting und Planetside arbeiten. Wir haben kleinere Gruppen von Personen, die diese Bem\u00fchungen von CGBot in Austin & Monterrey, Mexiko und Void Alpha in San Francisco unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nLangfristig ist dies gro\u00dfartig f\u00fcr das Spiel, aber auf kurze Sicht hat es definitiv etwas Bandbreite von mir und den ersten Teammitgliedern in Anspruch genommen, mehrere Teams auf den neuesten Stand zu bringen.\nWas uns zum Dogfighting-Modul f\u00fchrt;\n\nUrspr\u00fcnglich, als ich diese Reise begann, tr\u00e4umte ich nicht davon, dass wir so fr\u00fch vollst\u00e4ndig von der Gemeinschaft finanziert werden w\u00fcrden, also dachte ich, dass, wenn ich einen fr\u00fchen Dogfighting-Build ver\u00f6ffentlichte, es helfen w\u00fcrde, das Interesse am Projekt zu wecken und ein gutes Community-Feedback \u00fcber den Spieler im Vergleich zu Spielerspa\u00df und Gleichgewicht zu erhalten. Ich wusste, dass dies einige Nachteile hatte, vor allem, dass wir den eingebauten CryEngine-Netcode verwenden mussten und nicht unser beabsichtigtes hartn\u00e4ckiges und massiv multiplayerf\u00e4higes System, das wir entwickeln, um die gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Spielern zu bew\u00e4ltigen, die wir mit Star Citizen hoffentlich haben werden.\n\nIm Laufe der Zeit bin ich nerv\u00f6ser geworden, die Route mit dem ersten Dogfighting-Build herunterzufahren und zu verschmutzen, besonders da unsere Zahlen wachsen. Bei so vielen Leuten im Alpha brauchen wir eine ganz andere Ebene der Backend-Unterst\u00fctzung, was eine ernsthafte Arbeit an der bestehenden Multiplayer-Struktur von CryEngine erfordern w\u00fcrde - ein Lobbysystem, das Server f\u00fcr jede Sitzung aufspannt - alles Dinge, f\u00fcr die wir das neue Star Citizen-Backend entwickeln. Leider wird die Server-Backend-Technologie noch ein paar Monate nicht bereit sein f\u00fcr die Prime Time. Aber das ist wirklich das, was ich gerne mit dem Luftkampf weitermachen w\u00fcrde, da er sich mit deinem Hangar, den Freundeslisten, dem Chat und so weiter verbinden wird.\n\nWir hatten erwogen, nur Einzelspieler zu werden und ein paar Kampfszenarien f\u00fcr die erste Stufe des Dogfighting-Moduls zur Verf\u00fcgung zu haben, aber letztendlich haben wir entschieden, dass dies nicht von Vorteil sein wird, da selbst der Einzelspieler-Teil von Star Citizen, Staffel 42, auf dem Multiplayer-Backbone aufbaut und f\u00fcr ein kooperatives Spiel out of the box vorgesehen ist. Und selbst in diesem Szenario mit nur KI w\u00fcrden wir eine Menge wegwerfbare Inhalte erstellen, da wir immer beabsichtigt hatten, dass das Luftkampfmodul mehr von Kopf bis Fu\u00df als Spieler gegen KI ist.\n\nDas Schwierigste an der Luftkampf-Balance ist, dass es zwischen zwei Spielern Spa\u00df macht und herausfordert. Wir haben viel Zeit damit verbracht, \u00fcber die verschiedenen Systeme und Zifferbl\u00e4tter nachzudenken, die man anpassen kann, um dem Luftkampf ein ganzes Level an Strategie\/F\u00e4higkeiten hinzuzuf\u00fcgen, da wir nicht wollen, dass er sich in einen endlosen Drehkampf verwandelt, mit wenig Chancen, den Spie\u00df umzudrehen.\n\nAbgesehen davon, dass der Luftkampf das richtige Backend verwendet, gibt es eine Menge Raffinesse und Details, die reingehen m\u00fcssen, um den Luftkampf f\u00fcr den Konsum der Community vorzubereiten - The HUD, Damage states, various FX - diese sind alle in Arbeit und sehen sehr vielversprechend aus, aber meiner pers\u00f6nlichen Meinung nach sind sie nicht ganz bereit f\u00fcr die Prime Time.\n\nIch denke, dass das Dogfighting-Modul, insbesondere mit dem stark gestiegenen Profil von Star Citizen, polierter sein muss als ein typischer \"Alpha\". Es gibt viele Augen auf das Spiel, und mehr als ein paar Leute, die wollen, dass wir scheitern. Da Dogfighting das erste Modul ist, das ein bedeutendes Gameplay beinhaltet, muss es gut sein - ich glaube nicht, dass wir einen Pass bekommen werden, nur weil es Pre-Pre Alpha ist.\n\nAlso hatten wir zwei M\u00f6glichkeiten: entweder die Entwicklung von Gabeln und die Zeit damit zu verbringen, etwas zu bauen, was das Wegwerfen von Arbeit mit sich bringen w\u00fcrde, um den Dezember-Termin einzuhalten und etwas zu liefern, das nicht das Niveau an Poliermittel haben w\u00fcrde, mit dem ich gl\u00fccklich bin, oder auf Kurs zu bleiben, um etwas zu bauen, das direkt in das fertige Spiel f\u00fchren w\u00fcrde.\n\nEin modularer Releaseplan, den wir am ersten Tag mit dem Hangar geliefert haben, war nicht das, was wir in der urspr\u00fcnglichen Finanzierungskampagne versprochen hatten. Die modulare Bereitstellung des Spiels war eine Idee, auf die wir nach der ersten Kampagne zur Finanzierung der Menge gesto\u00dfen sind, als wir erkannten, wie leidenschaftlich und engagiert diese Community war. Es w\u00fcrde dem Projekt helfen und die Community einbeziehen: Sie k\u00f6nnten unsere Arbeit verfolgen und uns helfen, Star Citizen auf ein bisher unerreichtes Niveau in der Spieleentwicklung zu bringen. Wenn die Freigabe von Luftk\u00e4mpfen bedeuten w\u00fcrde, monatelange Arbeit wegzuwerfen und eine Erfahrung zu vermitteln, die die endg\u00fcltige Vision von Star Citizen nicht vorantreibt, w\u00e4ren wir um der Einhaltung einer Frist willen schlechte Verwalter der Mittel, die uns von der Gemeinschaft anvertraut wurden.\n\nDar\u00fcber hinaus hat es viel l\u00e4nger gedauert, einen neuen Platz f\u00fcr das wachsende Team in Austin zu finden, als urspr\u00fcnglich erwartet - wir sind nun am 28. Dezember eingezogen! Da unser Backend und unsere Netzwerk-Ops aus Austin herausgelaufen sind, w\u00e4re es ziemlich riskant zu versuchen, ein Modul herauszudr\u00fccken, das sich \u00fcber die Feiertage darauf st\u00fctzte.\n\nAnstatt das Team zu zwingen, durch die Feiertage zu gehen und etwas \"Gut genug\" zu jagen, werde ich die schwierige Entscheidung treffen, das Dogfighting-Modul um ein paar Monate zu verschieben, damit wir uns Zeit nehmen und etwas Besonderes liefern k\u00f6nnen.\n\nUnser Ziel ist es nicht nur, Star Citizen gut genug zu machen. Gro\u00dfe Publisher machen Spiele, die gut genug sind; es geht darum, ein Spiel zu entwickeln, das einer Vision entspricht. Die Sch\u00f6nheit der Massenfinanzierung besteht darin, dass sie uns die kreative Freiheit gibt, genau das zu tun.... und der einzige gro\u00dfe Nachteil ist, dass ich deine Entt\u00e4uschung auf eine Weise empfinde, die ich sonst nie erleben w\u00fcrde. Ich will nicht nur ein tolles Spiel machen.... Ich will es spielen und leben. Aber noch mehr als das, ich bin gekommen, um ein Teil der Star Citizen Gemeinschaft zu werden, in einer Art und Weise, die ich nie erwartet h\u00e4tte.\n\nDa es jedoch die Feiertage sind, werden wir Sie nicht ohne ein paar Leckereien nach Hause schicken. Es wird Ende der Woche ein Update des Hangars geben, mit einigen lustigen neuen Funktionen. Aber besser als das, das Team und ich laden Sie ein, uns am Freitag, den 20. Dezember, beizutreten, um Ihnen einige der laufenden Luftkampfarbeiten zu zeigen; Sie werden sehen, wie wir in einem Mehrpersonen-Pelzball k\u00e4mpfen, und hoffentlich sch\u00e4tzen Sie einige der Details und die Sorgfalt, die wir hinzuf\u00fcgen, um den Luftkampf in Star Citizen wirklich auf ein Niveau zu bringen, das noch nie in einer Weltraumsimulation erreicht wurde.\n\nWir denken, dass Sie mit dem, was Sie sehen, zufrieden sein werden!\n\nAlso bitte kommt am Freitag, den 20. Dezember, um 9 Uhr PST zu einem speziellen zweist\u00fcndigen Weihnachts-Livestream mit Updates zu Squadron 42, The Hangar und Dogfighting!\n\n- Chris Roberts","zh_CN":"Greetings Citizens,\nThe Dogfighting Module!\n\nWhen? Is the question on most of your lips!\n\nThe initial plan was to release a preliminary build for feedback towards the end of this month. However after much deliberation I\u2019ve decided to push this back.\n\nAs I explained during the live stream, we\u2019ve been debating internally what would be the best use of time and resources for the overall development of the game, to keep as close as possible to our original schedule of the Alpha of Star Citizen\u2019s Persistent Universe towards the end of 2014, and the \u201cpublic\u201d release 2015.\n\nThe incredible surge in funding this year has helped the long term picture. We have been able to ramp up sooner and wider than we originally thought. This means more features and content will be in the game at launch. We\u2019re further along than originally planned in building the tech for the persistent and instancing server backend which will ultimately drive Star Citizen. Both Squadron 42 and First Person Personal combat \/ boarding have full teams working in parallel, in addition to the teams in Los Angeles, Austin and Montreal working on the Dogfighting and Planetside components. We have smaller groups of people supporting these efforts from CGBot in Austin & Monterrey, Mexico and Void Alpha in San Francisco.\n\nLong term, this is great for the game, but in the short term, getting multiple teams up to speed has definitely taken some bandwidth from myself and the initial team members.\nWhich brings us to the Dogfighting module;\n\nOriginally when I first started this journey I didn\u2019t dream that we would be entirely community funded so early so I thought that if I released an early dogfighting build it would help drum up interest in the project and get some good community feedback on the player versus player fun and balance. I knew this had some drawbacks, the biggest being that we would have to use the built in CryEngine netcode and not our intended persistent and massively multiplayer capable system that we are architecting to handle the large amount of players we hope to have with Star Citizen.\n\nAs time has progressed I\u2019ve become more nervous taking the down and dirty route with the initial dogfighting build, especially as our numbers grow. With so many people in the Alpha we need a whole other level of backend support, which would require serious work on CryEngine\u2019s existing multiplayer structure \u2013 a lobby system, spinning up servers to handle each session \u2013 all things that we are building the new Star Citizen backend to handle. Unfortunately the server backend technology will not be ready for prime time for a couple more months. But this is really what I would like to run the dogfighting on, as it will link into your hangar, friend\u2019s lists, chat and so on.\n\nWe had considered just going single player and having a few combat scenarios available for the first stage of the Dogfighting module, but ultimately we decided this will not be beneficial as even the single player part of Star Citizen, Squadron 42, is built on the multiplayer backbone and is intended to have cooperative play out of the box. And even in this scenario with AI only we would be creating a lot of throw away content as we had always intended for the dogfighting module to be more about head to head than player vs AI.\n\nThe hardest part of dogfighting balance is to make it fun and challenging between two players. We\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking about the various systems and dials you can adjust to add a whole level of strategy \/ skill to dogfighting as we don\u2019t want it to devolve into an endless turning battle with little chance of turning the tables on your opponent.\n\nOutside of having the dogfighting use the proper backend there is a lot of finesse and detail that needs to go in to get the dogfighting ready for the community\u2019s consumption \u2013 The HUD, Damage states, various FX \u2013 these are all in progress and look very promising but in my personal opinion aren\u2019t quite ready for prime time.\n\nI feel that the Dogfighting module, especially with Star Citizen\u2019s greatly increased profile, needs to be more polished than a typical \u201calpha\u201d. There are a lot of eyes on the game, and more than a few people wanting us to fail. Because Dogfighting is the first module that will involve significant gameplay, it has to be good \u2013 I don\u2019t feel that we will get a pass just because it is pre-pre alpha.\n\nSo we had two choices: either fork development and spend time building something that would involve throwing away work in order to meet the December deadline and deliver something that wouldn\u2019t have the level of polish I\u2019m happy with, or stay on course to build something that would lead directly into the finished game.\n\nA modular release schedule, which we delivered the first of with the Hangar, was not something we promised in the original funding campaign. Delivering the game in a modular fashion was an idea we hit on after the initial crowd funding campaign when we realized just how impassioned and engaged this community was. It would help the project and involve the community: you would be able to follow our work and help us improve Star Citizen to a level never before experienced in game development. If releasing dogfighting were to mean throwing away months of work and give an experience that doesn\u2019t advance the final vision of Star Citizen, for the sake of meeting a deadline, we would be poor stewards of the funding which has been entrusted to us by the community.\n\nOn top of this, finding a new space for the growing team in Austin has taken a lot longer than originally anticipated \u2013 we are now scheduled to move in on Dec 28th! As our backend and network ops is run out of Austin it would be pretty risky trying to push out a module that relied on this over the holidays.\n\nSo rather than force the team to crunch through the holidays chasing something \u2018good enough,\u2019 I am going to make the tough choice to delay the dogfighting module for a couple of months to allow us to take our time and deliver something special.\n\nOur goal isn\u2019t just to make Star Citizen good enough. Big publishers make games that are good enough; this is about creating a game that matches a vision. The beauty of crowd funding is that it allows us the creative freedom to do exactly that\u2026 and the one great downside, is that I feel your disappointment in a way I never would otherwise. I don\u2019t just want to make a great game\u2026 I want to play and live it. But even more than that, I have come to find myself a part of the Star Citizen community, in a way that I never expected.\n\nHowever, as it is the holidays, we\u2019re not about to send you off home without a few treats. There\u2019s going to be an update to the Hangar at the end of the week with some fun new functionality. But better than that the team and I invite you to join us Friday, December 20th to show you some of the dogfighting work that is in progress; you\u2019ll see us fight in a multi person fur ball, and hopefully appreciate some of the detail and care we\u2019re adding to truly push dogfighting in Star Citizen to a level beyond anything achieved yet in a space sim.\n\nWe think you\u2019ll be happy with what you see!\n\nSo please join me at 9 AM PST on Friday, December 20th for a special Christmas two hour livestream that will have updates on Squadron 42, The Hangar and Dogfighting!\n\n\u2014 Chris Roberts"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":1736,"created_at":"2013-12-16T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"12 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-14 03:53:49","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":13431,"next_id":13433}}