CitizenCon 2018 Keynote

Mission: Mana From Heaven

Travel to Crash Site.
Restart Satellite's Internal System
Travel To Prototype TDC-XX-Blade.
Deliver the Cargo. Contract Complete.

Keynote starts.

Chris Roberts (CR) enters the stage and welcomes the viewers. He moderates the Keynote. His Co-Mod is Todd Papy (TP). The player character is played by Glenn Kneale.

The Habitation, 'Hab' system

The player awakes in a appartement. Hub L19, Lorville, Hurston.

CR: "Hurston is the first fully formed planet with a proper landing zone and the goal is to have what we call the habitation system, the 'Hab' system that will give you assistance. You'll start in a small apartment but you can earn money, move your way up, upgrade (to) bigger better places, get a penthouse, get real estate on different locations, and a longer-term goal with the habs. I think with 3.3, the Hab system is gonna be not that different than what we have currently in 3.2, except for there will be persistence when you're in the sessions. (...) But our long-term plan is to have a dedicated Hab that is actually a unique location you can go to and every player has a different one... and we have a city big enough to be able the sort of handle that ... to support a landing zone which you'll see a little bit. (...) This will be a personal choice, you can have a messy Hub (...) It will be completely up to you how you wanna hold your items.

The player activates a coffee machine and inspects a cup of coffee.

Interactions and Persistence

CR: The long-term goal is (to have) pretty much most items in the world will be intractable, you can take 'em, you can move them persistently, you could store them in your spaceship. You can store them in your Hab. Not in 3.3, but we're going to expand the players status system we already have (...), you'll need oxygen, but we're not gonna full core like (a) survival sim, but you're going to occasionally need to drink some liquids or eat some food...(TP: Or breathe.) And it's really just resource management (that is not different) than resource management for your ship that needs fuel, and power and stuff like that.

The player gets dressed.

Physical Inventory System

The other long-term plan (...) but we are moving to what we call a physical inventory system which that you'll have to able to carry the things you've got. There won't be some sort of 'magical inventory' where you just go to your mobiGlas and pull out five different armor sets and 100 different weapons. (...) TP: It's basically that we want the player to make meaningful choices. I'm gonna take this armour set and do this, I'm gonna take this ship and do this. If you can pull it from everywhere you are not making hard choices.

The player leaves the apartment.

CR: The longer term is to allow the [[ to do everything from playing an arcade game to sweeping the floor, to having a drink.

(TP: ...and we will allow the player to do the same things.) CR: You can use the same systems and animations and we wanna build a living breathing city or locations, because the thing is in a multiplayer game if you just rely on the players for the population the problem is everyone's running around trying to do a mission (...) and that's sprinting left and right. So the AI is very important to give locations a sense of life. (...)

Player uses the elevator and goes to the administrative office.

R: Here's the admin office, that's where you can drop off things delivered. TP: I think this area holds 100 Habs. CR: Yeah. Each building holds 100 Habs.

Player watches at the spaceport across the way and then moves to what's CR calls the L19 'worker area'.

Hurston

CR: Hurston's a corporate planet (sic!) and the Hurston Corporation owns and runs it. So you see a fair amount of security. (...) I wouldn't say the nicest employer. They want everyone to not complain even if they don't get paid a lot and the air quality is pretty bad. [The Security] will you stop and do checks on other NPC's (...) I think we are at the main plaza of this particular area.

Player entered a bar called M&V and orders a drink.

Getting Drunk

TP: So again in the future when we're talking about the player status you'll be able to drink too much, stumble around, there's those types of wonderful things...

CR: Maybe you have one drink you have a little bit of courage (...) it will do more strengthen combat, but with too many drinks you'll lose your coordination.

CR: We got an invite to see Clovus Darneely in the Reclamation & Disposal. So this is the mission we're going to show.

Hospitals, Medpens, and Death

TP: So over here we got 'Maria Heart'. (...) Kind of the idea of death of a spaceman where when you die, this is where you'll come back (and) respawn here. Also when you're getting injured and the med pen takes you back to a certain percentage and then it will fade over time and then you'll need to actually get up fixed here, whether it's a hospital or by the Apollo or Endeavor.

CR: The medpen is a short-term solution that stops bleeding unless you'll be operating for a little while, but if don't go (to the hospital) long-term fixed up the bleeding it will come back and you'll eventually die. Even with med pens you still need (...) medical help.

Meet Clovus

Clovus Darneely: *coughs* Apologies. The air is especially dreadful today *coughs again* Ergh... Still alive I think...Hello, welcome to R&D. My name is Clovus Darneely. Wonderful to meet you. What can I do for you on this fine day?

Player: Looking for work.

CD: It's an excellent question. If you're are not particularly concerned shades of morality and may i have a lead on some, ...well it's just call it, questionable materials in need of forceful collection. The devil's in the details, I believe. Read them well.

CR: Okay, a satellite has been fallen from orbit and it has a prototype Blade in it.

CD: Wonderful. Best of luck.

A Comm with Face-Over-IP

Player do a comm-call with another player, Chris from CIG.

CR: That is an example of Com-calls in RTT with the Face-Over-IP. (...)

Get an Outfit - Abilities of a Multi-tool

Player head to Tammany & Sons. Buys armor (a RSI Odyssey Suit) and a Multi-Tool.

TP: Think of the multi-tool like your personal utility item that will have different attachments that you can actually use, whether that be cutting or welding, or salvaging, (and) hopefully mining.

CR: Small-scale mining. TP: Very small-scale mining.

The Metro System of Lorville

Player put the suit on. Leaves T&S. Passing by the mining metro route.

CR: There's actually a functioning transit system. (...) When you're flying outside, you can see the trains on their tracks going to the different stations.

Players enters the metro center and rides the train to the Teasa Spaceport.

TP: There are six different gates the player can enter into the city, plus the spaceport. (...) The AI in the future will be able to transition between the spaceport and L19.

The Scale of Lorville

CR: That's the Hurston Dynamics (main) building which is 4 kilometres high. (sic!) Lorville itself is about 24 kilometres [in] diameter. [The Metro] will have multiple stops including multiple Hab stops.

Customs, Safety Checkpoints & Smuggling

Players leaves metro station and enter a Customs checkpoint.

CR: Depending on what you carry there'll be checkpoints, so you won't be able to necessarily carry weapons or contraband. They're not fully operating yet (...) won't be in 3.3, but there are a law and order system comes in (...).

TP: Just for the smuggler's, it makes things a bit more interesting. CR: Yeah, you got to find a backdoor entrance or how to hide it and smuggling is a specific kind of gameplay we are going to add.

Player looks from the main concourse to a parking Kraken.

Lounges

CR: (...) there will be different lounges, one for the Chairman's Club (...) and we have various guilds, if you become a member. They may have their own sort of lounge in the various space ports.

Player retrieves the ship, the reworked Mustang.

Buying and Renting Ships - or - Let a Starliner Drive You

CR: In 3.3 you'll be able to buy ships and also rent ships over here. So we'll have ship rental too, you're not able to gonna buy every ship. Long-term you're also going to be able to take like transit - commercial transit to different locations on the planet or off-world. (...) As an NPC you can fly your own ship or you could take a ship, (...) basically a starliner.

Players enters his hangar.

CR: In 3.3 we have two hangar types - a large - and an extra large. (...) For 3.4 or after, the small hangar will come online. TP: This is how we scale, we take those big elements and then we can bring them down and build smaller elements out of that. (...)

CR: [The AI] will be moving carts when you land, bring stuff over to your ship (...) give it a sense of life (...) coming out to refuel your ship, (...) to fix it up.

Visiting the HD Building.

Players enters ship and starts. He flies over the city and the Hurston Dynamics main building, then flies over the 'Polluted Coast' biome, heading towards the mission.

CR: The Goal is in 3.4 this opens up as a separate area, that you take the train to go visit.

TP: Hurston is actually built out of six biomes, we've got desert, savanna, acidic, strip mines, trash and polluted coasts.

Scaling: 1:6 ratio for main planets

CR: Hurston is about 2.000 kilometres of diameter, so it's about earth size based on our ratio, we're doing one (to) six (1:6) for the main planets and that's just for traversal reasons, because it already takes quite a while to fly not even that far of distance. [The new flight model]...even more enforces it, (...) atmosphere the thicker it is, the harder is for you to go fast. We can get higher up you'll be able to go faster. (...) [1:6] is a nice balance between having the size and scale and been allowing you to traverse it in reasonable times.

CR This mission can spawn around different locations around Hurston. TP: And also have multiple branches.

Scanning

The goal for scanning is obviously to give you a general area that you need to go and scan it. You need to ping and then it's about hunting and finding what you need to actually do.

CR: We went to the general mission marker and scanned it. The scanning gameplay is an ongoing thing, we have more stuff to come in in terms of scanning (...) there's already some of it for mining (...) but in terms of what ships have in their cargo, whether you can have things to block the scans figuring out what resource amounts are in distant areas...

TP and that's what we would consider kind of short-range, mid-range scanning. Long-range scanning would be a different aspect, that is more about exploration...

Player lands near the satellite wreck.

Animals, Weather

CR: We're going to have animal creatures to be natural wildlife depending on the place. There's going to be weather systems, so dynamic weather: rain, snow. I'm looking for (...) that sort of jungle planet in Hurston's sort of be polluted (sic!) The most you get is either this sort of sparse savanna or you're gonna get the executive gardens.

Effects of Fire

In the current game fire doesn't damage you, but longer-term the fire will damage you. I will be part of the Player Status System, to measure the temperature and the heat. Over a certain amount (of time) it will start to get you damaged. If you're in a tight area we will actually have the fire itself sucking oxygen out of the air so like if there was a fire aboard one of your ships and if you don't put it out it's pulling the oxygen out of the air. TP: It's not just fire. It can be acid, radiation or other different hazard types that we can actually think of.

Action

Player climbs on the satellite and salvages an access panel. He didn't found the Blade. The player opens the coverage of the satellite's internal system with the Multi-Tool. The mission marker shows a new target. His ship gets destroyed by a cutlass.

The search for the Protoype continues...

Another player arrives with a Valkyrie.

CR: The Valkyrie will launch with 3.3.

[Valkyrie Ad]

Short firefight with AI-Turrets near a basement, called HD-VMS 2506/16 on the ground. Player's drop out the flying ship with a cyclone and enters the basement followed by a firefight with AI soldiers. He accesses the Prototype Blade.

CR: We would say that Valkyrie which has been flown here is a special Citizen edition if you buy a Valkyrie during citizencon or within this week, I think, you get this colour opposed to the standard.

Player fly with the Valkyrie to Gate 2 - Perimeter Gate. He flies over the strip mine biome then over the outskirts with ruined buildings. He drives to the gate the rest of the way.

Back in Lorville

CR: There is a road system for the procedural planet set up, we aren't using yet. The same system will be used for rivers and other things.

TP: As we got closer to the city, this is a no-fly zone. This is our early implementation of no-fly zones and eventually, we will have paths that you will need to stick on or to follow.

CR: In the outskirts of Lorville, you know there's a bit of a shanty town, so these people have been pushed out of the inner city. But people still hang on the outside gates sell their wares to people come and go from Lorville.

Player places the Prototype in a Fast & Reliable 'machine' (made by Covalex Shipping).

CR: Here's the use of some sort of dropbox, that we're put into 3.3

Player takes the Perimeter line than drives back to the spaceport.

TP: This thing is moving about 200 kilometers / hour, about 120 miles. It covers about 12 Kilometres.

Player arrives at New Deal.

CR: In 3.3 you will be able to rent ships and also buy ships. Here some of the ships coming with 3.3

The Phoenix, the new Mustang, (...) the Hammerhead.

The player purchases a Prospector.

Chris Roberts gives a short retrospection. Panel ends.