Neuigkeiten zum Social Modul:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3ig189/tony_z_in_the_house/
Tony Zurovec (Director of PU) was in chatroll earlier (and a lot of other devs too), here are some random answers he gave to questions we posted to him. Please note that most of these were with respect to the Social Module PTU which just launched:
What time is it for you?
2:18 AM here.....
When asked about ingame chat
Chat is currently totally global. Tomorrow's update will make it global per server instance. Chat channels will come in an update. They're already supported at the network service level, but the user interface doesn't yet expose them.
When asked about chatboxes ingame
I think you may as well allow it. It's a convenience, and if you don't, players will just use TeamSpeak or Skype or their cell phones to communicate in real-time anyways....
When asked about shared hangars
Going into friends hangars will arrive with what I'd call Social Module 2.0. That's the next major milestone, but I'll likely aim to slot a half-point upgrade before that once we've back in the main development stream. Ironically, most of the code to share a friend's hangar is already done. It's just in a different development stream.
Milestones
The fun really starts after the Social milestones.... I'll talk about those with the release text for the public launch of the Social Module. The Social milestones are more about laying groundwork and testing base functionality - network functionality and performance, in particular. Two months ago we couldn't put a dozen players into ArcCorp without cratering the frame rate. Now at 25 the bandwidth is irrelevant...and it will be getting much better over the next couple of months. This particular PTU version? It'll be outdated by tomorrow night.
When asked about ship optimization
The PU's efforts are currently focused on network optimizations for FPS players and characters. Ship optimizations will require a separate effort. It's likely we'll focus on that after getting the character stuff working really well.
Grabby Hands
you'll likely see a grabby hands update with the AI Module, or possibly the earlier Character Customization Module where you'll be able to change your clothing.
When asked about avatars:
Clothing customization will come first. Facial and body customization will come a bit later. The exact elements haven't yet been decided, but the basic thinking is that you'll be able to select your sex, possibly some level of height/weight, hair, skin tone, facial texture, possibly eyes and nose, likely distinguishing marks (like scars), and other such things.
When asked about facial customization on the Sims level
.Unknown at this point, honestly. My preference is to usually go with the base functionality first and then build upon it. So...I'd aim to get the basic facial customization stuff in as soon as possible and release it, and then just add the ability to customize additional stuff later....
Most looked-forward to module?
My favorite will be the AI Module.
When asked about delivery dates/scope:
I'm predominantly focused on what we can realistically deliver over the next twelve months. It's a rolling window, so in six months I'll be worried about what we can deliver 18 months from now.
PU Alpha is too vague. It means different things to different people. The schedule is broken down into PU milestones, each of which focuses on different parts of the basic foundation that's needed for the ultimate game. I'll touch on that a bit with the release text for the Social Module release to the general community. The problem with "PU Alpha" is...can you shop? How are the prices and availability determined? What will the TDD pay for your commodities? Can you mine? What other types of missions are available? Is there AI? To what level exactly - walking around shops? Available for hire? Piloting ships in capacities other than combat pilots? Etc. etc.. It's impossible to try and describe an alpha in a couple of sentences without everyone having a different idea of what's going to be delivered. I'm going to try and add some more specificity to the near-term goals with the text for the Social Module release to the general public.
I don't know what this means, sorry. Question was about players in the bar
No hitching? Yes, tons of work done on NPC blending and interpolation with the new network optimizations to achieve that.
When asked about player limits/networking:
The networking could easily handle 50 players at the moment. It's the graphics performance that's the limiting factor. That graphics performance will take a substantial leap forward as soon as we're back in the "GameDev" stream. It's a long story, but basically Star Citizen split the code base into streams for Star Marine, and we had to do the Social Module in 1.2.0 - which doesn't have access to the latest graphics stuff - because that's where GIM was, and we had to do GIM in 1.2.0 with Star Marine because it needed a more robust matchmaker. That said...obviously we've got loads of low-res LODs to help cope, and the zone system will cull characters very efficiently.
When asked about dev streams:
Merging 1.2.0 and GameDev is a huge priority. It's a long story, but basically the code base split when Star Marine was supposed to launch, and most of the main (not FPS specific) development occurs in the GameDev stream. We had to launch the Social Module from 1.2.0 - without the benefit of a lot of cool stuff in GameDev - because we needed GIM and the other updated networking tech, and that had specifically been done in 1.2.0 for the benefit of Star Marine. So...long story short...we'll take a quantum leap once we're back in GameDev.
Further Quotes
Casaba is still being modified, so we just closed it off rather than show something that wasn't quite ready. ArcCorp is actually getting a facelift as well. The store facades will look much better in the near future...the main building below Astro Armada will get a big bump in its visuals...and we'll go to lower-poly but parallax occlusion mapped objects to get better performance while maintaining high visual fidelity.
The area just past Dumper's Depot ends at a fence. You'll be able to go past that eventually. The area to the left of Casaba and heading away from the Skywalk ends at a fence. You'll be able to go past that as well.
Report all issues you find in the PTU. We'll fix as many as possible this week.
Terra Prime's main "city" takes place on external levels of a huge (probably 0.75 mile or so) skyscraper. Terra Prime is so large that we're focusing on some smaller cities first - the so-called First Five.
Other stuff
They are planning a rollout of a lot of features soon, with daily PTU updates, and at least two LARGE updates of the Social Module this year, with many more smaller ones in between.
The Current Arccorp space in the PTU is about a third of the final size of Arccorp. There are two fenced off areas that nobody can access yet (although by the time I post this I'm guessing someone will have figured out how to clip through).
The Size of Terra Prime will be THREE times the size of any other planetary landing zone. Initially 3 maps stitched together, eventually seamless without any loading.
Nyx should be in by October or so (No promises), and temporarily your elevator will have magic planet-hopping powers. Tardis!
Current plan is to roll out PTU invites for Social Module over this week, hopefully getting everybody in by Friday, but no promises.
First Five systems confirmed. PU Alpha mentioned by Tony Z, but he also noted that the definition of "PU Alpha" varies by individual. Stand by for clarification.
Expect a big Commlink post from Tony Z sometime soon going into expectations for the Social Module.
Bounty Hunting and Piracy commlink articles from Tony Z sometime in the future.
CIG requests that we do NOT share media/pictures/videos/streams of the PTU just yet.
Tony Z asks that we submit bug reports as much as possible. Current bugs found include a falling through the map bug near the M50 and clipping through some objects, as well as gamepads being able to go prone (it's supposed to be disabled).
Josh (Of commlink "Sweet!" fame) was the first Citizen on Arccorp, and possibly the first to submit a bug report (the M50 clipping bug). Congrats.
Tony Z mentions that they are definitely pushing for "more than 50" people in an instance. This was in reference to the Social Module. Not sure if applies to space instances.
Tony Z is expected to drop in chatroll throughout this week. Drop by and have good questions ready!
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3ig189/tony_z_in_the_house/
