Mystic Worlds

Star Citizen – Genesis Starliner Q&A II Provides more Insight

CIG's Genesis Starliner Q&A II has been posted.  I’m going to discuss the elements that stood out to me as emergent gameplay options for the ship and career.

Licensed Pilot for Hire

Holo view of Genesis Starlner

Owning a Genesis isn’t the only way to make use of your newly acquired commercial pilot license. You’ll be able to hire yourself out to NPC managed transport businesses.  You’ll be paid a salary that has a performance modifier which reflects customer service ratings. Good performance will yield better payout.  Bad performance equals less pay.  Horrible performance will get you fired.

The profession that was announced alongside the Genesis is getting better and better.  One of the reasons stated for pricing this concept ship at a whopping $400 USD, is that it’s considered an end-game goal for a licensed commercial pilot.  They don’t want thousands of these flying the universe.  Pilots and commercial airlines are relatively SMALL in number, with only few notable carriers.  They want it to play out similarly, in Star Citizen.

It’s great to know that you can still participate in the profession without owning a Starliner.  You can work for another player or more reliably, for one of the NPC corporations while saving up for a Genesis, if owning one is desired.  They fully expect this profession to be good at generating income.

Visual and Cockpit Alerts for Customer Service Needs

If your onboard flight attendants are other players, they will have visual cues alerting them to passenger needs and in-flight service issues.  If you’re flying solo and using NPC flight attendants, you will monitor service and direct/interact with your NPC flight attendants, using a holo information system in the cockpit.  You can also have the ship on auto pilot and interact with passengers yourself.

This is excellent news.  As much as I hope to engage real players to assist me, undoubtedly there will be situations where this isn't possible and I’ll pilot the ship alone.  I’ve also been known to have moods where I prefer playing solo.  Happy to know that I can when I want to.

Star Citizen – A Piece of this Vision

I own a piece of this vision, the Genesis Starliner.  I believe this will be an exciting profession and lifestyle in the Star Citizen universe.  I doubt I’ll see passengers boarding dressed as elegantly as those depicted here. Even so, I’m in thrilled by the idea of playing such a role.

Concept art for Genesis Starliner

Based on what we know so far, after you obtain the proper license to dock and transport passengers from a particular location, there will be in-game mechanics to support NPC passengers purchasing tickets.  How many and the type of accommodations purchased, will be based on your customer satisfaction rating and how YOU have configured your ship.  How many economy seats vs. first class vs. suites, etc. does your ship contain, as compared to the needs of potential customers?

I was disappointed initially, that the planned ticketing system revolves around NPCs – not players.  That doesn’t stop you from selling seats to other players.  However, it seems that will be done much like trading in other MMOs.  I suppose that’s not awful.  It mirrors how Sheppard Book first met the Serenity crew in Firefly.

Star Citizen – How to add Voice Attack Profiles

Voice attack can be useful for executing multi-step commands where direct pilot/ human interaction isn’t necessary or beneficial.  For example, finding the next/closest target, bringing up the weapons overview, controlling shields, diverting power to different aspects of the ship.  For interactions such as these, it’s not going to happen better or more precisely if I do it myself.  In fact, for some, it will happen faster than me fumbling around with the keyboard while flying.

RSI supports and is endorsing the use of Voice Attack Profiles.  They published a Fan Spotlight thread dedicated to Voice Attack Profiles on the official forums, with links to a few authors and their websites.  I tried all of the ones posted and for my tastes, A.N.N.A was the best. 

Here’s a link to a YouTube video that provides an excellent guide for installing VAP.  The video description has all of the relevant links as well.  Using this guide, I had A.N.N.A installed and running in a few minutes.

 
Yes, my aim sucks.  I'm still learning to become one with a HOTAS :-)

Using VAP feels fun and it's RP cool.  I can imagine many non-combat uses for such a too. I was so pleased with the outcome, I want VAP as a standard part of my SC flight experience and decided to invest in a voice that was more pleasing to me than the default Text-to-Speech voices available in Microsoft Windows. Again, I sampled many different vendor’s options and went with what I liked the best for the cost, which was a voice from Cepstral.

You can also edit, delete and create new commands or profiles. Editing the VAP is very simple. 

While the Voice Attack application is open:

1. Click the Edit Profile icon at the top (gray person/bust)
2. Locate the command you want to edit. 
3. Double-click the command to display the edit window.
4. You can modify the speech text that initiates the command, the keystrokes that will be sent when the command is activated and what A.N.NA will say after executing the command.

 VoiceAttack Home Page

 

 

List of commands for currently loaded profile

 

 

Edit Command dialog window

 

 

Related articles

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

Star Citizen - Genesis Starliner and Transport Career Unveiled

There's new player and there's NEW PLAYER

Star Citizen Writer's Guide - Audio Version Episode 10

Here's the audio version of the Star Citizen Writer's Guide 10. 

Listen via YouTube

 Show Notes:

• Unofficial Star Citizen Soundtrack used as background music
• RSI published version of Writer's Guide Part 10

 

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