Cloud Imperium Games has begun a special monthly progress report to help keep certain fans in the loop that don’t have time to hunt info themselves. Inside February’s report is a date for the Dogfighting Module.
It will be premiered ”just prior” to PAX East in a special ”Citizens-only event” but it will go public online after the April event if everything works out. Star Citizen is almost at $40 million.
The Dogfighting Module lets us take select ships out the hangar to try them out in space, with the focus of course on practising our space combat skills.
”We plan to premiere dogfighting at a special Citizens-only event just prior to PAX East. If all goes as planned, the Dogfighting Module itself will launch shortly after PAX and you will finally get your hands on your flight sticks! The team is scurrying to take care of thousands upon thousands of necessary details: variable damage states, HUD detailing, weapons cameras, engine sounds and countless other things that go into creating an immersive space combat experience. At this point, we can now regularly dogfight here in the office,” informed Chris Roberts.
The biggest ‘threat’ to the Dogfighting Module is the server backend, he explains.
”You may recall that we pushed the release because we did not want to use the standard CryEngine server and net-code. Instead, we decided it would be more efficient to use the system which will form the nucleus of Star Citizen’s persistent servers in the future. We have high hopes that the solution will be ready in time for launch… and that that solution will stand up to the hundreds of thousands of Citizens waiting to battle it out.”
PAX East runs April 11-13 in Boston, MA.
The February report goes on to summarise the progress at each of Star Citizen’s teams, including those contracted to work on the space simulator. There are currently around 100 Cloud Imperium employees staffed, with over 210 contracted workers around the globe. None of this would be possible of course without the huge generosity of backers.
As of press time, Star Citizen is just $220k shy of the huge $40 million milestone.
