It’s no secret that Star Citizen’s next major release is Star Marine, previously known as the FPS module. In much the same way that Arena Commander (or the Dogfighting Module) is helping us build a better space sim, Star Marine is intended to introduce the first person shooter gameplay that will be part of the core of both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen.
Since the days of Wing Commander, I’ve dreamed of integrating a first person shooter with a space sim. It’s such an exciting idea: you might land your fighter on a carrier and then race into battle to repel alien boarders… or you might put down on a seedy border world and fight off pirates eager to steal your cargo! And on a broader level, it speaks to our longtime goal of increasing immersion: you’re no longer taken out of the action with between-mission gameflow menus or worse. Instead, from the moment you start the game to the minute you exit, you’re living in and interacting with the Star Citizen world!
That’s why we kicked off Star Citizen as a ‘First Person Universe’ right from the start, and it’s why we picked an FPS engine to build on. Star Citizen isn’t like my previous games: you aren’t directly ‘playing’ a ship… you’re controlling a character who is flying a ship. You’ve had first person action against fighters in Arena Commander, you’ve explored your hangar… you’ve even drawn your pistol in combat to take shots at other players and their ships! Thanks to the support of Star Citizen’s backers, the framework of our modular development process and the incredible talent of the teams working on the game, melding elements of a first person shooter with a space combat adventure are no longer a distant dream… it’s an impending reality! Star Marine, like the upcoming multicrew module, means a leap far ahead in this process; it’s something many of us (and I suspect many of you) have dreamed about for many years.
Where Star Marine differs from Arena Commander is that we’re not launching it in its most basic game. Instead, we’re trying for something more. It includes animation fidelity and attention to detail that you wouldn’t normally expect in an “alpha” gameplay module. There’s even an entire sci-fi sports game with zero-G movement fully simulated and animated in there! (And don’t worry, there’s traditional FPS action too… with some new ideas that aim to set Star Citizen apart from the crowd.)
We know you’re eager to try Star Marine, and our job today is to get it ready for you. That doesn’t mean releasing the end-all finished product; as with Arena Commander, we’re going to be revising and updating and expanding the game based both on our schedule and your future feedback. What it does mean is that we need to address everything we possibly can before we release the first version, because there’s no sense getting feedback where we know further work is needed. Recent weeks have focused on getting our ducks in a row based on our internal testing, which has lead us to revamp everything from overhauling the network backend to improving the character animations to revamping the zero-g portion of the game to better match our lore.
Today, I’ve asked some of Cloud Imperium’s department heads who are involved in developing the module to update you on the status of Star Marine. Not the broad ‘how cool is it’ information that you get at events and in the press, but the nitty gritty: what are we doing right now? What are we improving and why? I hope you find it an interesting read and that you understand why Star Marine isn’t like anything I’ve ever developed!
— Chris Roberts - RSI
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