Mystic Worlds

Star Citizen Writer's Guide - Audio Version Episode 9

Here's the audio version of the Star Citizen Writer's Guide 9. 

Listen via YouTube

 Show Notes:

• Unofficial Star Citizen Soundtrack used as background music
• RSI published version of Writer's Guide Part 9

 

Link to audio version of Star Citizen Writer's Guide Part Eight 

Star Citizen – Genesis Starliner and Transport Career Unveiled

OH MY GAWD, they had me at profession…

For a long time now, I’ve had a vision of the role I wanted to play in Star Citizen. I saw myself playing out a female version of Mal from Firefly. My love for FF is undeniable.  I create and sell FF inspired jewelry. On some level, this role would also mirror my career in EVE Online, which existed long before there were salvage specific ships available.

In EVE, salvage appealed to me because I liked the freedom to engage random rats and salvage their ships while exploring, salvage kills from riding shotgun during mining ops, leech cleaning around AFK miners and cleaning up after my own PVE missions.  It certainly didn’t hurt that salvage was lucrative, even for freshies, which is what I was when I started.  I suddenly had a license to print ISK in EVE, after a long suffering stint of poverty. As such, my vision for SC was a more RP and environmentally lush version of this.  I knew there would be piracy/PVP, FPS pew-pew, industry/mining, etc., none of which excited me as a primary focus.  I was content and excited about the vision I held.

To cement my vision, I purchased a Freelancer, now upgraded to Freelancer MAX before they announced the salvage specific ship, the Reclaimer. Even so, the FM would be good enough until I upgraded in the future to the Reclaimer. La la la, all was settled in my SC world.

That was until I saw a YouTube video discussing the recently unveiled Genesis Starliner and the accompanying transport career.  My mouth fell open, hit the floor and remained there.  I watched the video multiple times. I went to the RSI website and read the content for myself.  Why oh why, did RSI include interactive content allowing you to see the travel brochures someone might read when planning a vacation and then choose a destination from an airport departures board, which tied to a short RP story of a passenger aboard the ship. It was a sucker punch to my gut that excited me for a SC experience that was very different from the one I had planned in my head.

I could pilot and manage a civilian transport business. I COULD PILOT AND MANAGE A CIVILIAN TRANSPORT BUSINESS. I could do this with friends. I could do this with guildmates! Whatchootalkinbout Willis??

Star Citizen - Finishing up Producing Audio Versions of the Writer's Guide

As you can see, I'm back at it, working on audio versions of the official Star Citizen Writer's Guide.  I hope it's a nice addition for the SC community but I'm doing it mostly for selfish reasons. Becoming familiar with the available SC lore is drinking from a heated fire hose.

RSI is building a rich and elaborate world to accompany the game play.  I play MMORPGs for the world first, with the mechanics and classes a tight second. I also might want to pen pieces of fan fiction, or at the very least, spice up the retelling of my adventures in the SC verse as I've done when playing EVE Online.  I'm positive there will be very tall tales to tell.

With the size and breadth of the guides, I figured it would take a couple of readings for things to sink in.  Bump that! The guide series is a whopping 13 episodes.  It's currently on hiatus but may grow in the future.  I'd rather have the luxury of listening to it as needed or repeatedly, versus re-reading them. And so began my journey into producing an audio version.

Star Citizen Writer's Guide - Audio Version Episode 8

Rolling right along here's the audio version of the Star Citizen Writer's Guide 8. 

Listen via YouTube

 Show Notes:

• Unofficial Star Citizen Soundtrack used as background music
• RSI published version of Writer's Guide Part 8

 

Link to audio version of Star Citizen Writer's Guide Part Seven 

Star Citizen Writer's Guide - Audio Version Episode 7

Here is the audio version of the Star Citizen Writer's Guide 7. Please enjoy.

Listen via YouTube

 Show Notes:

• Unofficial Star Citizen Soundtrack used as background music
• RSI published version of Writer's Guide Part 7

 

Link to audio version of Star Citizen Writer's Guide Part Six 

Star Citizen Writer's Guide - Audio Version Episode 6

Here is the audio version of the Star Citizen Writer's Guide 6. I hope you enjoy.  I'm still finding the extremely long sentences and SC specific vernacular a bit tongue twisting at times. Hopefully, it's not too distracting.

Listen via YouTube

 Show Notes:

• Unofficial Star Citizen Soundtrack used as background music
• RSI published version of Writer's Guide Part 6

 

Link to audio version of Star Citizen Writer's Guide Part Five 

Star Citizen - Keyboard and Mouse vs. Controller vs. HOTAS/Joystick

Deciding which peripheral to use for flight has been my biggest decision.  They all have their benefits and drawbacks for different aspects of game play.  You don’t have to use the same one for flying, dogfighting, FPS, etc.  I definitely won’t be.  That said, the only one you can experiment with fully right now is for dogfighting, the bane of someone who’s never played a space simulation game before, much less do it in a combat environment.

Keyboard and Mouse

There are on-going debates on the official forums about the combat advantages of using a mouse over the other options. I experimented with it myself and I did find it a bit easier.  However, issues related to carpal tunnel syndrome, I can’t use a regular mouse. I’ve used a trackball for 15+ years and that’s a no-go in Star Citizen.  Even after using the mouse as Virtual Joystick setting (CTRL C), touching the trackball puts my ship into an infinite spin.  That said, most everyone agrees that for dogfighting the keyboard and mouse is superior.  I suppose it’s a good thing that won’t be my focus in the game. *Smile*  

That said, the advantage of this combo is that you can't get away from using the keyboard in SC unless you're going to setup other peripherals such as Track IR/VR and voice commands.  There are a huge number of commands needed for flight. Going with this combo means you're set on all fronts.

Star Citizen: There’s new player and there’s NEW PLAYER

Calling myself a noob is space is an understatement in a game like Star Citizen.  HA!! I always considered myself a light weight in EVE Online even though I knew quite a bit about my ship and combat mechanics.  None of that means shit in Star Citizen.  I GROSSLY under estimated the learning curve.  I initially shrugged it off as a lot of information to consume without in game assistance.  Now that they’ve started integrating a tutorial and that didn’t help one bit, I realize the hill I climbed to become a decent player in EVE, will pale in comparison.  Just learning how to fly my ships in Star Citizen is proving to be a bear.

The SC experience I’m hoping for is the dream imagined by this fan made video turned official trailer. I want to play out being the female version of Mal from Firefly. I want to do salvage, transport or perhaps search and rescue while playing out a RP existences in the verse.  I don’t have to be great but I do have to be decent.  Unfortunately, there's new player in SC and then there’s NEW PLAYER. I’m not sure which audience the recently implemented tutorial is for but I don’t feel it’s hitting the mark.

I expressed my concerns on Reddit and the official forums to raise awareness and seek some assistance.  Surprisingly, the responses are courteous and constructive.  Maybe all the internet trolls are at E3.  For now, I’ve abandoned the tutorial and am trying to teach myself using player guides and experimentation.  Let’s see how this goes.

SC is behind but the pieces are slowly coming together.  I'm just starting to mess around with flight and FPS aspects.  An early incarnation of the actual FPS module, something else outside of my comfort zone, will be here in a few months.  My goal for SC is to fly cool ships, do PVE, roam the outer reaches of deep space and live among other citizens in the oh so cool cities they've planned.

 

 

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Catching up with Star Citizen

While recovering from abdominal surgery, I decided to catch up on Star Citizen.  I haven’t had a full time MMO for a while and there’s nothing that I’m particularly interested in on the near horizon.  Seems like a good time to see what’s going on with the development of the next virtual world I plan to call home.

Although there have been updates to existing ships and new ships released, very little new content has been deployed.  I wasn’t surprised by this after updating my client.  I expect I would have heard something if new modules had been released.

The next big update should be the introduction of FPS module(s), Star Marines. It was intended to be released earlier this year but is running late.  There hasn’t been a new release date provided from what I can tell.  It would be great if it’s out sometime this summer. I imagine these will come out as small PVP maps to allow us to begin testing the mechanics.  That would be in line with how they’ve exposed flight mechanics in the Arena Commander module.

Late this year, they are scheduled to release the first set of content for Squadron 42, the solo RPG companion game.  THIS is what I’m waiting for – the implementation that ties the features into a storyline. Based on the lore and short stories coming out of the writing team, I have very high hopes we’ll have a very engaging experience.  With this rather lengthy delay of the FPS module, it doesn’t seem likely S42 will hold its schedule but here’s hoping that it does!

For me, all the content before S42 are sneak peeks I can use to try out the mechanics since flight simulation is 100% new to me.  For others, it’s early access to the game and I see plenty of people on Twitch making their own fun with what’s currently available. I decided to give it a spin since I had time on my hands.  Check back to see how things turned out.

 

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