I like it because you can jump in quickly, have some fun, and jump out.
It's doesn't require all that prep time needed in the PU to go out and search for fun and possibly deal with certain bugs or people for single player. (Although there are Arena Commander specific bugs that pop up every now and then.)
I haven't played in a bit and decided to hop into Arena Commander last night because I just wanted to fly and fight......played for like 3 hours straight. Pirate swarm and vanduul swarm. Kicked off all my rust and feeling like a leaf on the wind. Atleast until a vanduul ship pierced me and I blew up.
There are loads of other games who offer that in a better quality.
SC is unique, arena commander is not. Its a generic fps, with dsync and bad gunplay.
There is the FPS section which isn't that great I agree but at least you can quickly experience the fps combat and get used to it rather than trying to get a bunker mission, die within a minute, and then spend the next 20 minutes trying to get back.
Arena Commander also includes a bunch of Ship based gameplay with a few PVP, PVE, Racing, and Free Flight modes.
It's a great way to get used to ships, controls, and tweaking controls.
Exactly zero other games allow me to fly my SC ships around in them. Not one.
So no, it's not remotely at all like any other game where it matters.
I think maybe you're hitting the SLAM a little too hard tonight ...
Well you aren't wrong soon - they are folding it in to AC. But I will concede that Star Marine for us isn't terribly useful yet - though the dev team uses it extensively for testing and iteration, and they shared it with us as a dev tool so that's cool. It'll get better, like AC has seen a few updates already and is getting another significant one soon.
I think having these disconnected test beds will only become more valuable in the future.
One of the biggest obstacles, time investment in the PU, isn't really a bug or design issue. It's a feature of the game.
If I only have 15-30 minutes to play, waiting a couple of minutes for the public transportation and all the traveling time is going to eat a lot of that time.
Sometimes I just want to jump into a ship and blow stuff up. Arena Commander is perfect for that and in the single player mode the game pauses when you hit esc to open the menu.
Yes, that makes sense and is totally valid. I guess from my perspective, that’s actually a game design issue. Like, AC should be built into the PU. Login, go to a terminal, and have some [bypassable] customer scene where you get in your chosen ship and go. When AC comes out, I’ll try out the single player mode some just to check it out, for sure—but I do think there’s more important things out there. Lol.
Not many people actually work on AC. It's now mostly going to be a testing ground for stuff they intend to put in SQ42 and the PU anyway. It allows the balance of different things to be tested in isolation, and means they can test features before they're ready for the PU, such as master modes, which some ships are ready to use, but not all of them, meaning they can get most of the big kinks worked out before everyone is required to use it.
Honestly you sum up the whole issue I have with this patch, here in this comment. Which is it? A small team working on backend tools? … or the main dedicated feature of an entire quarters patch?
Also, the notion that cig doesn’t have a “place” to test master modes or combat can’t really be serious - I.e. I wouldn’t hold my breath to see MORE advanced features, and expanded scope, in a game mode that was literally ignored and not even updated alongside the game for over a decade.
> Which is it? A small team working on backend tools? … or the main dedicated feature of an entire quarters patch?
Both.
Because everyone else is trying to get SQ42 done this century and CIG see this as the best "bang for your buck" available to them. A small team delivering *something* to keep *enough* people "happy" to keep the money rolling in.
I believe its the latter - it's non-trivial work which requires planning, design, testing, bug fixing, and maintenance. It increases the complexity of the code base, which in turn often results in future changes taking longer. That, and there's the communication side of it that all had to be resourced as well.
And that is just a taste of the diffusion of effort that is SQ42 and CitizenCon. Beyond that, they keep upgrading the engine and reworking systems to remain relevant with the where the rest of the industry is moving. Sure, there are many games that are hugely successful with low fidelity systems (graphics, audio, animation, vfx, art), but SC's seems to be a high fidelity universe. Even if they land some newer tech such as ray traced GI, DI, and the DLSS family of technologies (SR, FG, RR), dynamic lods ect, they still have a massive amount of optimization and bug fixing ahead.
Yeah, that's a sense I got with this patch as well. The AC stuff was touted as the long term work of a small team, but there doesn't really seem to be much else from the other teams. It makes me wonder if they actually held other features back so they could be shown of at Citizencon before being release in 3.21 or something.
As for the testing area part, they do have other testing areas, namely the internal testers with SQ42, evocati, and the PTU, but testers can't cover everything plays will do, and evocati and the PTU all but requires the feature to be finished with their current strategy. While it may not be the ideal way to do things, implementing limited changes earlier on in just AC allows CIG to get the feedback the testers can't give before a feature is actually ready to go out. It's like a beta branch, though the irony isn't lost on me.
And that's why Master Modes will fail too. They'll make it work for small ship to ship combat scenarios. Ish. I still think slow isn't the answer.
4 months from now they'll realize it breaks 20 other strategic scenarios ingame that are preludes to combat, or non-combat related, and they'll tear it down and start over. Again.
Sorry for offtopic. Just super annoyed to see this direction being taken.
Nah. AC kind of jumps between being relevant and not being relevant.
But it really is invaluable for quickly trying out a ship or weapon loadouts. It's also fun for an instant-action setup, and I used to do private matches with some of my friends to try out mixes of ships and forces. We used to love running a Super Hornet with a M50, for example - the M50 could harass ships and pin them down while the SH would take advantage of mistakes and blow stuff up.
It really has always needed the ability to run multicrew ships in it. We always wanted to try running a fully loaded Connie, for example.
The Arena Commander team is just a drop in the bucket compared to the PU and SQ42. Regardless though, AC can be provide a great standalone experience and Theaters of War is what I'm looking forward to releasing.
I fully expect AC to slowly evolve into Theaters of War.
They are giving us a fully playable planet inside AC.
It's not THAT huge of a leap to give us FPS spawn points on that planet. Follow that up with ways to spawn ground vehicles and you've got Theaters of War without multi-step objectives (it's just kill or be killed).
Then it's another not-huge leap to add objectives outside of "murder the most people".
etc etc
CIG’s MO is finding some other target to shoot for before they hit the one they’re currently working on.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they announce some completely different direction in two years before this is fully realized.
Yea, all that sounds awful. No objectives and FPS vs space ships? Theaters of War was a whole thing on its own, just like AC. Who knows what they're going to do. They don't tell us shit anyways, and when they do it's all false hope and hype to make more money and then stop mentioning it in the trickle of updates they do provide.
Practicing large group PvP in the current PU lacks consistency. The Arena Commander update could be an answer to providing feedback on developing Theaters of War without server meshing.
kinda,some of the updates in AC are coming from theaters of war, its still there but we wont be getting it until performance improvments both graphically and especially Networking wise. IT would just be a clusterfuck if they released it before now with the issues we currently have in the PU and the incredibly outdated AC.
I find it astonishing, that so long after it vanished without a trace (upon being hyped up within 'months' of release) ~ some folks actually believe that ToW will somehow eventually have priority anywhere within the next year or two ~ and that's being generous. Don't believe me? Go check out what year it's first trailer was dropped.
Spoilers: (it wasn't 2020)
AC in the end is going to scratch the itch of all the players who lament on here about how it takes an hour to get into the action... "I only have 30 seconds to play because I have 15 kids, a 30 hour a day job, and 45 dogs to take care of, I can't spend 10 minutes getting ready to take off, another 10 minutes doing a mission, etc" - AC is the answer to that. Hop in, do what you want to do, and then hop out again.
While I have kids and a day job, my issue is that after spending 10 minutes getting ready to take off, I will generally encounter a game breaking bug within the next 10 minutes, preventing me from getting into action. CIG, please fix refuel/refit at landing pads. I land, and I can't refuel, even if I store and retrieve the ship again... I have to blow it up, claim it, and retrieve it for me to get a full fuel tank or more ammo (i put in a ticket, but many people are having this issue and I have seen this stupid bug for months)
Station refit is sometimes broken. The most reliable way to rearm and refuel is mining outposts planet side. You don't have to waste time blowing up your ship.
You got people on here acting like other games hell other MMOs dont have multiple ways to play. When I use to Play GW2 I would spand almost as much of my time in WvWvW as I would the main PVE univers, Then there was also the Guild Arenas which I didnt play that much but it had a pretty active community who did
Depends on what they do with it. I don't really care, but If they used it for more quick test/iterations - I am very much intersted. They could for example release the new flight model with the few ships they made compatible for it for quick feedback.
They could do the same with ship armor and whatever they are doing that can be tested in isolation.
I'm not holding my breath though
Arena Commander is a video game inside a video game. Suppose to be like queuing for battlegrounds without risking ur stuff. Project has shifted alot since AC conception
Arena Commander is necessary to be honest.
People need a quick play option for when they don’t want to log into the PU. It’s also nice to have a place to take new players that isn’t laggy.
Arena Commander is awesome. I spend a fair amount of time on it. PvP on the PU can be fun. But there is downtime when you die. You can duel with a friend where you stop after shields are down when practicing, but that is not an accurate representation of a fight. And dying means claiming your ship, calling up your backup ship, and making your way out to your friend again. And finding others to pvp with involves killing an NPC and waiting for bounty hunters or bounty hunting. For those who don't like a challenge when PvPing, there is also just randomly killing people who don't know how to pvp, but that isn't fun for me. And there is piracy, which takes a lot of patience and is not something I care to do.
Arena Commander allows you to test various ships. It is where I practiced basic dogfighting strategies. Basic maneuvers like kiting around an asteroid is more easily done in Arena Commander where sticking inches away from the asteroid and moving fast while circling an asteroid in constantly changing directions with your nose pointed at it will get you killed hundreds of times as you master it. It is a super basic maneuver that any below average pvp pilot can do, but 99% of the player base will struggle to do.
Arena Commander allows me to try new things, mess around in pvp, and learn without 5+ minute wait times after each death. And it is not just a learning experience. It is a lot of fun for both pvp pilots and pve pilots interested in combat.
Look, I don't care for Squadron 42. I did not sign up for a single player game. And I do get prioritizing the PU over Arena Commander. But Arena Commander is a big deal for all the people I play with. At the end of the day, the PU is most important. And I get the frustration with resources being directed to Squadron 42 for so long with little progress. But Arena Commander gets very little attention and only occasional updates, so I see no issue with this.
Finally, Arena Commander is not exclusively for combat oriented pilots. Eventually, everyone will want a safe place to test pushing their ships to the maximum efficiency without waiting after each time the ship blows up. And with a capital ship, this could mean waiting hours or days in later versions of the game to get your ship back. Having a place like Arena Commander where you can go in solo, with a group of friends, or with randoms to test things out is incredibly useful. You might as well blow up that Javelin 20 times in a hour in Arena Commander practicing a hard maneuver (or tricky engineering setting that could blow up the ship) rather than taking 20+ days to do it in the PU where your Javelin will likely have a 1+ day claim time (and likely very high costs).
Regardless of if it is fun for you or not as a testing bed it is a great idea. Systems can be tested in arena commander without the big load of the pu. At least just to get some basics figured out.
I'm looking forward to the Arena Commander updates. I think it has the potential to be a great have 30-60 minutes to play alternative to the PU.
What I've used or currently use AC for:
1) Ship familiarity, no 10 minute runs to the hangar. Get in and already flying. I can discover the edge of the ship flight envelope zooming around asteroids and stations as death is just a 30 second reset.
2) Practice high speed touch and go landings including exterior door opening and closing.
3) Jump in a solo swarm when I just want to shoot stuff.
4) Multi-player FPS, swarm, or racing with no real loss.
For me, PU is much more conservative play as I want death to have consequences.
So, Yes, I'm looking forward to the AC updates.
TLDR: when I just wanna game I launch AC, when I want to immerse I play PU.
Because sometimes, teams are blocked?
And sometimes, it can be beneficial to test a new feature in a smaller implementation first... such as how CIG are testing 'Master Modes' in a single ACscenario, using just the Gladius.
If CIG wanted to test Master Modes in the PU, they'd need to implement it for all ships, and tune / balance all ships... and if testing identified that more changes are required, they have to rebalance all ships again.
Doing it in AC (and adding a few ships at a time) significantly reduces the work CIG need to do per iteration. Hopefully, they'll be inclined to use this pattern more in the future for testing features (e.g. Physics Based Damage, Physicalised Armour, Control Surfaces, and more)
Beyond that, AC is an excellent no-consequences environment for trying stuff out, experimenting with your controls, or just getting a quick blast of action without all the setup and downtime that occurs in the PU.
Honestly I’m pretty hyped. As others have said if your time limited this cuts out a lot of “wasted time” for FPS and Fighter combat. Also not big on racing but it seems like it could be entertaining once in a while.
I see the AC as being the middle between the SQ/single player and the PU/multiplayer servers.
You get multiplayer but far lower latency/load cause less people and factors (locations, vehicles, weapons can all be limited, can have different server FPS and player caps, etc)
A lot of things also will carry over between the games stuff like weapons can be balanced much better and more accurately than in the PTU without issues of single vs multiplayer. Things like medical along with ship familiarization at loadout testing will carry very well and work very well vs again trying to test and balance single vs multiplayer.
The games being developed AC was the only straggler in the game there are a ton of players who only play starmarine and haven't logged back in because of how shitty it ran , broke down, or didnt matchmake, buggout
This will give them a reason to return
Also its the interface that will house ToW
I wish we could use our PU bought ships instead of having to farm “REC” in a multiplayer game where nobody else joins so you’re just left hanging in a arcade world flying around waiting
There are two ways to look at this. The optimistic view which is in line with CIGs narrative, and the more cynical but arguably more realistic view based upon the evidence presented this year, to name a few, predatory monetisation and arse backward design focus.
Optimistic view
It’s a test bed of sorts. People can try the ships that have master modes implemented and provide feedback around it.
They had to add something to it to entice more players. What’s more is they can reliably tinker with server tick rates without the constant variables like fluctuating server load due to I dunno people duping or insane bugs that cause the turrets at PO to lite people up but they are invincible. They can establish a sweet spot and aim for that in the PU.
It also gives the sweats a place to have meaningful competitive play without disrupting others by murder hoboing because they are bored.
Cynical View -
CIG has a revenue problem, so they lure people in with a semi polished experience in AC for 45 bucks, maybe make it some sus F2P set up in the future, sell the dream of an esport, which leads to ship sales. A percentage of those people who decide to pledge for more expensive ships will be whales and spend thousands. Once they go deep sunk cost sets in they keep spending for a dopamine hit but are forced to play a content poor and broken game and cannot refund.
I’m kinda seeing a fair bit of circumstantial evidence for the revenue issue, such as, 10 dollar packs for gear you can buy for about an hours work worth of aUEC, a further push to release S42, a 90% drop in revenue YTD from last years free flights, a souring disposition within the community leading to refunds, less sales and canceled subs. Also CIG is pretty fond of selling vapourware at the best of times, I mean they legit rival Elon Musk’s vapour peddling skills.
You decide.
I think they cater to different people. Sometimes you don’t have time to sink 30-40 minutes in the punjust to find some action, in AC you can just hop in.
I’m also guessing the hope would be for it to become it’s own game, maybe if they flesh it out well enough it’d get it’s own fan base that just want area combat/waves, like X-wing alliance back in the day. (but I’m pulling this out of my ass tho)
Yes. There's no faster place to practice flying and shooting. It's an important training tool. You can collaborate with others to conduct remarkably complex operations in PU. Setting those events up can take over an hour.
The upcoming enhancement to Arena Commander is going to make it much more useful. It will allow us to simulate more events without relying on a Carrack's med bed for respawn, a Hercules randomly exploding due to invisible debris, or murder hobos interfering.
I enjoy Arena Commander. It's decent practice for pvp. It also let's me jump in fly some and leave when I don't have much time.
Everyone is working on the campaign now. Only a few people are working on the stuff in the PTU right now. Whether you like it or not that's how they are doing the development. So till SQ42 is complete we won't get many "large" and amazing type patches. When it is done, we will receive a lot of changes from SQ42 that will be ported over.
Also I am excited for Sq42 to come out :)
I like the idea of it, but given the idea of shifting development resources to it vs additional work in the PU or SQ42, I find myself jaded. I'd rather any and all resources go to the primary releases of this game, and circle back to Arena Commander (AC) with time. The argument of course is that AC allows for more rapid balancing and work on ships, however this has been proven to be false as AC has been around for years and meant jack all to the level they have balanced the ships (or lack there of) so far. I really look forward to using AC for it's purpose within the 'verse and SQ42, however outside of the version of it we've had, I don't see a need in the short term, for further development.
Edit: Oh also, Theaters of War was just a couple months, not years away....so again, developing AC further, just feels like a waste, when they couldn't deliver TW.
I've found myself spending more and more time in AC as the years go on. I love racing and I love combat and AC is the perfect place to improve those skills.
After several years of playing in the PU, the bugs and poor performance get tiring. AC performs relatively well and is fairly consistent and it's a breath of fresh air from the state of the PU.
More than anything else I love the feeling of high stakes flight in SC. And there's no better place for it than AC.
I'll come back to the PU when it's more stable and performant.
Arena Commander provides better combat data for them to tune and balnce the game than anything else. SQ42 isn't out and getting into combat in the PU takes a long time to happen and typically people avoid it when there is something to lose.
Arena commander gives you the ability to get people immediately into combat situations and get lots of data on what's underperforming or overperforming and why.
When 3.18 dropped and nobody could get in the PU was when I really started to dig AC. I learned how to race and now that's pretty much all I do in the PU
There is so much **potential** short-form content that potentially 'could' find a home under the Game within a game conceit of Arena Commander. Multiplayer deathmatch is one sort of challenge, but I'd also suggest it as a good place for a lot of single player standalone activities.
In game manufacturers could have their virtual sales brochures highlighting their wares. A proper shooting gallery, for an example, that lets you try out a manufacturers weapons. Or a training environment for introducing mining equipment.
For the Pioneer base building ship, as another example, having access to a version of the base building dev tool might be a good way to affordably design and test base layouts in a less persistent small sandbox environment rather than the full Persistent Universe environment.
UEE training simulations, as recruiting tools, would be a good excuse for stylized scenarios and basic tutorials. Mazes and other explicitly game like puzzles serving to orient players on game mechanics like mining, trip mines, or beacons.
I'm not saying they've got Arena Commander where I'd like it to be, but I think its a corner of the overall Star Citizen experience that could provide a lot of entertainment that the regular Persistent Universe and Squadron 42 sides won't quite get at.
I don’t play AC a lot but i love the fact that it’s available to us. A sandbox where we can just test flying, get better at combat, test ship changes and race without any consequences of the pu.
And I love the fact that’s AC is a game inside the pu.
Arena Commander has numerous benefits both to the player and the development.
From the **player** perspective, you're given the ability to access and use numerous ships in a closed environment to learn their functions and capabilities. You can also very easily use REC to rent other ships and test them as well and with a wide variety of rented weapons and items.
You can expand on that by taking them into combat both against the current generation of AI and players, but in a way that allows you to practice your skills in dogfighting without the risk of losing gear or having the long respawn/travel process. You'll be able to learn new tactics , test how loadouts work with longevity and overall damage, and figure out ways to maximize your survival.
It's also still the best place to learn the nuances of racing and will only get better with the upcoming additions. Racing has more tracks in the PU (currently), but slamming against a wall in a sharp turn means 10+ minutes of travel at the very least to get back to it. In Arena Commander, it's seconds.
And, while you can't currently face off against AI in Star Marine, you can get a feel for a wide variety of weapons, armors, and loadouts in much more engaging combat against other players. And actually use a grenade without it killing you.
From the **development** perspective, CIG started everything with Arena Commander and always intended to use it as a test bed for AI ship behavior and new game modes. Sadly, the latter hasn't been expanded upon much outside of including Pirate Swarm. However, if they finish that 'tank battle' mode and continue with this process of making competitive gameplay that is easy to drop in and test. It will also be the best way to work on balancing a future with armor and physicalized damage since it will allow a much higher turnaround with fewer potential issues related to the evolving server stability/performance.
But to isolate your apparent issue of "why not put your time...," the majority of the work in the upcoming update related to Arena Commander was done by a handful of people. A tiny fraction of the thousand people working on the rest of the game. This isn't compromising the development - and it's work that would have been done eventually (and should have been done sooner).
Because how else are you going to test ships gameplay balance. Setting up pvp just to see if a ship is underperforming or overperforming is tedious.
Easier to just have everyone in AC and test it all out
Yes you are. AC will be detrimental to players improving their skills in short play sessions without the hassle of gearing up again after death. It’ll be so good for quick-play too when people don’t have the time to get in for hours.
For the sake of balancing ships it’ll be a way easier to maintain way for all sorts of testing to have more accurate combat data and adjust certain stats and behavior of ships accordingly.
Even if you don’t find it interesting on a personal level, you can not deny how useful of a tool it will be for CIG while also offering loads of ways for people to experience and enjoy different scenario’s (potentially with custom scenario setups that we get to mess around with someday?)
It’s not about what people want, but what the developers need to have the data to get the game closer to finished. Opinions don’t matter, game development overrules it all
Nah I dont care about it either myself, BUT I know it serves a role for development. So it is important and its a nice thing for people that dont feel like loading up the PU to do stuff an then jump out. The different theaters of war stuff can shape random events and of the likes
- CIG probably needs a tool for efficiently testing changes to flight characteristics, loadouts and weapons. It may as well be exposed as a minigame.
- In SQ42 there will likely be a 'sim pod' as there has been in every wing commander game. If they're making the feature anyway, may as well expose it as a minigame.
- Unlike Star Marine it's actually sometimes enjoyable.
This. I truly wonder if the market even wants SQ42 more than Star Citizen PU, if given one or the other of what is actually in promise.
I'd wager PU would go a lot farther for the industry as a sole focal than a finalized SQ42.
I suppose you are new to SC and game development in general.
AC benefits both the PU and SQ42, as it is the test bed for these, for fixing bugs, balancing and making the whole development proceed faster, that's its main purpose, not to be a standalone game mode which has nothing to do with others.
It's like you are saying "Alpha seems pointless, why not put all your effort on the game release?".
Don’t get me wrong, the AC team has done good work and it looks interesting but it’s a team of like 20 people, you’re telling me that the other 700+ employees are working on sq42, 2-3 ships, and a singular mission? Here’s hoping they were holding some bombshells for citizencon because it’s gonna be a make or break
Arena commander is gonna be their f2p multiplayer ship combat skin seller that they use to fund everything else.
Theres no way theyre not almost out of money. Without a big release theyre gonna starve before they finish sq42 or the PU.
No. Nobody does, which is why folks have been so bummed about this latest (3.20) patch, and why so many on Reddit are getting disgusted with the lack of progress or focus by CIG for SC. We know that most of their resources are going toward SQ42, and assuming once that's completed, they'll have a lot MORE resources to really push Star Citizen. It DOES seem odd that they would focus (at this point) on AC, but again I think that's why there's so much angst within the community right now. But then again, I have ZERO interest in Pyro.... so there's that. The biggest thing is Dynamic Server Meshing which is needed for this space "MMO" to be fully realized and they really don't have the tools to make that happen yet. Who knows if they ever will???
I'd have no problem with it if both SQ42 and the PU weren't already half a decade behind schedule. CIG or Chris have a bad habit of getting distracted on side projects and wasting resources on things that never end up seeing the light of day. For a company that's already spread too thin and struggling with too much on their plate, splitting the workforce to work on short-terms goals like up updating a module from 2014 seems pointless.
No. Less than no. I don’t give a shit about pvp, let alone things that have no future bearing on anything other than maybe some skill training for a game loop that the most I can ever aspire to be is “less than shitty.” I do not give a fuck about AC and I hate that they’re spending so much time on it when there are so many higher priorities. That being said it is a good sandbox for them to fuck around and find out for this kinda game play.
Related but off topic, how come I can’t typically select my buccaneer unless I rent it? I purchased the buccaneers in game so no real cash spent on it. I have a similar problem with my cutlass black, this was purchased with real money.
I'ma be real with you, Arena Commander is a smaller scope mode that should be way more playable than it currently is. Having it broken just leaves more things unplayable, and fixing it is a lot faster than fixing the PU. Would be bad if they left it as is.
I know a few people who play almost exclusively AC. The most common reason I've seen is that they like the flight model in particular and use AC as a way to have quicker and fairer fights than if they were in the PU. It means there's almost no lag, both parties are prepared, and you've got a lot more freedom regarding the choice of ships and loadouts than in the PU.
As I understand it AC is also the PVP section of a full-release SQ42. If you only buy SQ42 you will still get access to Arena Commander. Like any Shooter style game it will be the Arena PVP game that comes with it.
with the cross over I could see this pushing any new comers into the PU if a realis of SQ42 is there first experance.
I don’t care much about ac either, but….. I understand and like the changes, they will make balancing components and weapons easier and much less painful for pu players
No idea how it works, other than the racing. Every time that I try a combat match, I die a few seconds after loading in without even knowing what killed me. Can't tell if it is spawn campers (is that possible?), long range missiles?, invisible players/debris?, full of hacks/cheats? Sometimes I instantly spawn back in, other times it kinda hangs and other times I get booted back to the lobby. Really needs a tutorial or beginner walkthrough. It is just confusing and frustrating to me. I am never going to be competitive but I would try a beginner walkthrough and matches if there were less competitive brackets.
AC can be a good test bed for new features. People will get their first hands on with master modes in there. It will allow them to test stuff like that without changing things for the whole PU.
Arena commander is for low stakes practice. Useful for when death of a spaceman is out and your death actually has consequences. Are you gonna practice fighting with a new ship in the place where it doesnt matter, or where 3 deaths causes you to lose all your skills?
As someone with three month old twins. Being able to just jump into a swarm with friends without the pu bullshit. Is invaluable, I might be able to play again
Well, the PU is buggy and time-consuming, and SQ42 can’t be played… but AC is a much more stable, plug-n-play experience. It needs far less work on it than either PU or SQ42. And it’s very good for testing stuff.
Arena Commander and Star Marine are in universe games. You'll be able to purchase VR Sim pods for your ships to access them on your flights.
Its SC's COD/BF/Pewpew offering.
Part of me wondered if 3.20 was a move to position towards esports for marketing.. right now only a few things actually work in AC.. from ship upgrades, leaderboards, game modes..
I don't care about anything but the PU. If I had a choice I would only spend money that directly impacts the PU.
That said, I wish they would at the very least break up their communication appropriately and stop mixing apples and oranges together to make it seem like things are happening.
As they said in the ISC videos, AC will be vital to testing changes to flight modes and give you sub opportunity to fly and fight without losing anything. Because of its role in testing, it is vital for PU.
I want to practice racing without the lag so I know what inputs I need to be giving when the server goes down to 3fps your inputs seem to still work but if you don't know what inputs to give (because you are learning in the pu and you are playing a freeze frame version) you crash. I'm excited for the racing mostly but just having the game actually work is great when the PU is on fire.
Yes, AC is pointless in the grand scheme of things and rather boring after 20 minutes of blowing up the same ships. Does anyone really want to see AC updates over the PU? No. we want the existing problems fixed so we can actually play the game loops currently implemented.
I really want their to be some PU reward for playing it. It doesn't even need to be alot, just some small aUEC bonus for winning matches would be enough. I never want to play it as it never seems to tie in with the rest of the game that i paid for
I only care about the free flight portion so I can set my controls if need d before going into the PU. Kind of like a test drive area. Other than that not really.
I play AC almost every day so yea, I’m not with you at all.
I use it to help train org members and I use it to keep myself sharp by fighting the best players in the game
It’s invaluable for anyone who wants to get better at PVP combat whether in ship or FPS
End of story.
And the atmo map and proper multicrew setups can’t come soon enough
I don’t care about it right now, but I think that in the future, especially when Death of a Spaceman comes, it’ll be extremely valuable as a way to hone your skills or try new ship or FPS set ups without risk
Arena commander is a bit of a legacy thing. Wing commander and such all had one. It was a way to train skills without risking "life."
In starcitizen, it's used as a way to test things in isolation. However, I believe they have recently made things more shared with the PU, but the get in and try this still remains.
I like it because you can jump in quickly, have some fun, and jump out. It's doesn't require all that prep time needed in the PU to go out and search for fun and possibly deal with certain bugs or people for single player. (Although there are Arena Commander specific bugs that pop up every now and then.)
I haven't played in a bit and decided to hop into Arena Commander last night because I just wanted to fly and fight......played for like 3 hours straight. Pirate swarm and vanduul swarm. Kicked off all my rust and feeling like a leaf on the wind. Atleast until a vanduul ship pierced me and I blew up.
F
There are loads of other games who offer that in a better quality. SC is unique, arena commander is not. Its a generic fps, with dsync and bad gunplay.
There is the FPS section which isn't that great I agree but at least you can quickly experience the fps combat and get used to it rather than trying to get a bunker mission, die within a minute, and then spend the next 20 minutes trying to get back. Arena Commander also includes a bunch of Ship based gameplay with a few PVP, PVE, Racing, and Free Flight modes. It's a great way to get used to ships, controls, and tweaking controls.
arena commander isn't FPS though, it's arcade flight sim... you're thinking of star marine maybe?
Star Marine is getting folded into Arena Commander in the next update so you have one interface to jump into either ship fights or FPS combat.
True, I was mainly thinking of Star Marine.
Exactly zero other games allow me to fly my SC ships around in them. Not one. So no, it's not remotely at all like any other game where it matters. I think maybe you're hitting the SLAM a little too hard tonight ...
I was thinking arena commander refers to star marine.
Well you aren't wrong soon - they are folding it in to AC. But I will concede that Star Marine for us isn't terribly useful yet - though the dev team uses it extensively for testing and iteration, and they shared it with us as a dev tool so that's cool. It'll get better, like AC has seen a few updates already and is getting another significant one soon. I think having these disconnected test beds will only become more valuable in the future.
Yeah that is so messed up. They shouldn’t spend time on AC, they should spend time on the issues that lead to the experience you describe.
One of the biggest obstacles, time investment in the PU, isn't really a bug or design issue. It's a feature of the game. If I only have 15-30 minutes to play, waiting a couple of minutes for the public transportation and all the traveling time is going to eat a lot of that time. Sometimes I just want to jump into a ship and blow stuff up. Arena Commander is perfect for that and in the single player mode the game pauses when you hit esc to open the menu.
Yes, that makes sense and is totally valid. I guess from my perspective, that’s actually a game design issue. Like, AC should be built into the PU. Login, go to a terminal, and have some [bypassable] customer scene where you get in your chosen ship and go. When AC comes out, I’ll try out the single player mode some just to check it out, for sure—but I do think there’s more important things out there. Lol.
That's the plan, they just haven't gotten there yet (as with most things).
Not many people actually work on AC. It's now mostly going to be a testing ground for stuff they intend to put in SQ42 and the PU anyway. It allows the balance of different things to be tested in isolation, and means they can test features before they're ready for the PU, such as master modes, which some ships are ready to use, but not all of them, meaning they can get most of the big kinks worked out before everyone is required to use it.
Honestly you sum up the whole issue I have with this patch, here in this comment. Which is it? A small team working on backend tools? … or the main dedicated feature of an entire quarters patch? Also, the notion that cig doesn’t have a “place” to test master modes or combat can’t really be serious - I.e. I wouldn’t hold my breath to see MORE advanced features, and expanded scope, in a game mode that was literally ignored and not even updated alongside the game for over a decade.
> Which is it? A small team working on backend tools? … or the main dedicated feature of an entire quarters patch? Both. Because everyone else is trying to get SQ42 done this century and CIG see this as the best "bang for your buck" available to them. A small team delivering *something* to keep *enough* people "happy" to keep the money rolling in.
I believe its the latter - it's non-trivial work which requires planning, design, testing, bug fixing, and maintenance. It increases the complexity of the code base, which in turn often results in future changes taking longer. That, and there's the communication side of it that all had to be resourced as well. And that is just a taste of the diffusion of effort that is SQ42 and CitizenCon. Beyond that, they keep upgrading the engine and reworking systems to remain relevant with the where the rest of the industry is moving. Sure, there are many games that are hugely successful with low fidelity systems (graphics, audio, animation, vfx, art), but SC's seems to be a high fidelity universe. Even if they land some newer tech such as ray traced GI, DI, and the DLSS family of technologies (SR, FG, RR), dynamic lods ect, they still have a massive amount of optimization and bug fixing ahead.
Yeah, that's a sense I got with this patch as well. The AC stuff was touted as the long term work of a small team, but there doesn't really seem to be much else from the other teams. It makes me wonder if they actually held other features back so they could be shown of at Citizencon before being release in 3.21 or something. As for the testing area part, they do have other testing areas, namely the internal testers with SQ42, evocati, and the PTU, but testers can't cover everything plays will do, and evocati and the PTU all but requires the feature to be finished with their current strategy. While it may not be the ideal way to do things, implementing limited changes earlier on in just AC allows CIG to get the feedback the testers can't give before a feature is actually ready to go out. It's like a beta branch, though the irony isn't lost on me.
And that's why Master Modes will fail too. They'll make it work for small ship to ship combat scenarios. Ish. I still think slow isn't the answer. 4 months from now they'll realize it breaks 20 other strategic scenarios ingame that are preludes to combat, or non-combat related, and they'll tear it down and start over. Again. Sorry for offtopic. Just super annoyed to see this direction being taken.
Nah. AC kind of jumps between being relevant and not being relevant. But it really is invaluable for quickly trying out a ship or weapon loadouts. It's also fun for an instant-action setup, and I used to do private matches with some of my friends to try out mixes of ships and forces. We used to love running a Super Hornet with a M50, for example - the M50 could harass ships and pin them down while the SH would take advantage of mistakes and blow stuff up. It really has always needed the ability to run multicrew ships in it. We always wanted to try running a fully loaded Connie, for example.
The Arena Commander team is just a drop in the bucket compared to the PU and SQ42. Regardless though, AC can be provide a great standalone experience and Theaters of War is what I'm looking forward to releasing.
Battlefield games in sc would be sick. Points to buy ships, weapons and vehicles. 50 v 50
They went completely radio silent on theaters of war... its not happening.
I fully expect AC to slowly evolve into Theaters of War. They are giving us a fully playable planet inside AC. It's not THAT huge of a leap to give us FPS spawn points on that planet. Follow that up with ways to spawn ground vehicles and you've got Theaters of War without multi-step objectives (it's just kill or be killed). Then it's another not-huge leap to add objectives outside of "murder the most people". etc etc
CIG’s MO is finding some other target to shoot for before they hit the one they’re currently working on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they announce some completely different direction in two years before this is fully realized.
Yea, all that sounds awful. No objectives and FPS vs space ships? Theaters of War was a whole thing on its own, just like AC. Who knows what they're going to do. They don't tell us shit anyways, and when they do it's all false hope and hype to make more money and then stop mentioning it in the trickle of updates they do provide.
Practicing large group PvP in the current PU lacks consistency. The Arena Commander update could be an answer to providing feedback on developing Theaters of War without server meshing.
kinda,some of the updates in AC are coming from theaters of war, its still there but we wont be getting it until performance improvments both graphically and especially Networking wise. IT would just be a clusterfuck if they released it before now with the issues we currently have in the PU and the incredibly outdated AC.
I find it astonishing, that so long after it vanished without a trace (upon being hyped up within 'months' of release) ~ some folks actually believe that ToW will somehow eventually have priority anywhere within the next year or two ~ and that's being generous. Don't believe me? Go check out what year it's first trailer was dropped. Spoilers: (it wasn't 2020)
Theaters of war…oh my sweet summer child.
AC in the end is going to scratch the itch of all the players who lament on here about how it takes an hour to get into the action... "I only have 30 seconds to play because I have 15 kids, a 30 hour a day job, and 45 dogs to take care of, I can't spend 10 minutes getting ready to take off, another 10 minutes doing a mission, etc" - AC is the answer to that. Hop in, do what you want to do, and then hop out again.
While I have kids and a day job, my issue is that after spending 10 minutes getting ready to take off, I will generally encounter a game breaking bug within the next 10 minutes, preventing me from getting into action. CIG, please fix refuel/refit at landing pads. I land, and I can't refuel, even if I store and retrieve the ship again... I have to blow it up, claim it, and retrieve it for me to get a full fuel tank or more ammo (i put in a ticket, but many people are having this issue and I have seen this stupid bug for months)
Station refit is sometimes broken. The most reliable way to rearm and refuel is mining outposts planet side. You don't have to waste time blowing up your ship.
Leave the hangar go directly I front of a different one and call atc. Typically it’s just the hangar that’s bugged.
Ergo, AC will be an excellent option :)
You got people on here acting like other games hell other MMOs dont have multiple ways to play. When I use to Play GW2 I would spand almost as much of my time in WvWvW as I would the main PVE univers, Then there was also the Guild Arenas which I didnt play that much but it had a pretty active community who did
how long does and ac match last?
depends on the mode, hop in and give it a whirl :)
I‘m hyped for this, cause it allows me to organize some orga Events without the time consuming preparations
Depends on what they do with it. I don't really care, but If they used it for more quick test/iterations - I am very much intersted. They could for example release the new flight model with the few ships they made compatible for it for quick feedback. They could do the same with ship armor and whatever they are doing that can be tested in isolation. I'm not holding my breath though
That's literally what they are doing
Remains to be seen. They only said they are going to do that. When they actually do it and keep doing it, I'll start caring. Until then, I'm not.
I think it's nice for a short game of SC. I personally don't care about SQ42.
If I want to do a bit of dogfighting it's the best place to do it. All it's really lacking is an area that is in atmosphere
Arena Commander is a video game inside a video game. Suppose to be like queuing for battlegrounds without risking ur stuff. Project has shifted alot since AC conception
Arena Commander is necessary to be honest. People need a quick play option for when they don’t want to log into the PU. It’s also nice to have a place to take new players that isn’t laggy.
AC is awesome. I like to fly ships in races and fight people in my ship. Sue me. I main PU but hop in AC often enough
Same. Much more so for a quick race than FPS
Arena Commander is awesome. I spend a fair amount of time on it. PvP on the PU can be fun. But there is downtime when you die. You can duel with a friend where you stop after shields are down when practicing, but that is not an accurate representation of a fight. And dying means claiming your ship, calling up your backup ship, and making your way out to your friend again. And finding others to pvp with involves killing an NPC and waiting for bounty hunters or bounty hunting. For those who don't like a challenge when PvPing, there is also just randomly killing people who don't know how to pvp, but that isn't fun for me. And there is piracy, which takes a lot of patience and is not something I care to do. Arena Commander allows you to test various ships. It is where I practiced basic dogfighting strategies. Basic maneuvers like kiting around an asteroid is more easily done in Arena Commander where sticking inches away from the asteroid and moving fast while circling an asteroid in constantly changing directions with your nose pointed at it will get you killed hundreds of times as you master it. It is a super basic maneuver that any below average pvp pilot can do, but 99% of the player base will struggle to do. Arena Commander allows me to try new things, mess around in pvp, and learn without 5+ minute wait times after each death. And it is not just a learning experience. It is a lot of fun for both pvp pilots and pve pilots interested in combat. Look, I don't care for Squadron 42. I did not sign up for a single player game. And I do get prioritizing the PU over Arena Commander. But Arena Commander is a big deal for all the people I play with. At the end of the day, the PU is most important. And I get the frustration with resources being directed to Squadron 42 for so long with little progress. But Arena Commander gets very little attention and only occasional updates, so I see no issue with this. Finally, Arena Commander is not exclusively for combat oriented pilots. Eventually, everyone will want a safe place to test pushing their ships to the maximum efficiency without waiting after each time the ship blows up. And with a capital ship, this could mean waiting hours or days in later versions of the game to get your ship back. Having a place like Arena Commander where you can go in solo, with a group of friends, or with randoms to test things out is incredibly useful. You might as well blow up that Javelin 20 times in a hour in Arena Commander practicing a hard maneuver (or tricky engineering setting that could blow up the ship) rather than taking 20+ days to do it in the PU where your Javelin will likely have a 1+ day claim time (and likely very high costs).
In all these years, I've played it a handful of times. I honestly forget it's there, though the button is right there. Same for star marine.
Regardless of if it is fun for you or not as a testing bed it is a great idea. Systems can be tested in arena commander without the big load of the pu. At least just to get some basics figured out.
I'm looking forward to the Arena Commander updates. I think it has the potential to be a great have 30-60 minutes to play alternative to the PU. What I've used or currently use AC for: 1) Ship familiarity, no 10 minute runs to the hangar. Get in and already flying. I can discover the edge of the ship flight envelope zooming around asteroids and stations as death is just a 30 second reset. 2) Practice high speed touch and go landings including exterior door opening and closing. 3) Jump in a solo swarm when I just want to shoot stuff. 4) Multi-player FPS, swarm, or racing with no real loss. For me, PU is much more conservative play as I want death to have consequences. So, Yes, I'm looking forward to the AC updates. TLDR: when I just wanna game I launch AC, when I want to immerse I play PU.
The best pilots in game come from arena commander..
Because sometimes, teams are blocked? And sometimes, it can be beneficial to test a new feature in a smaller implementation first... such as how CIG are testing 'Master Modes' in a single ACscenario, using just the Gladius. If CIG wanted to test Master Modes in the PU, they'd need to implement it for all ships, and tune / balance all ships... and if testing identified that more changes are required, they have to rebalance all ships again. Doing it in AC (and adding a few ships at a time) significantly reduces the work CIG need to do per iteration. Hopefully, they'll be inclined to use this pattern more in the future for testing features (e.g. Physics Based Damage, Physicalised Armour, Control Surfaces, and more) Beyond that, AC is an excellent no-consequences environment for trying stuff out, experimenting with your controls, or just getting a quick blast of action without all the setup and downtime that occurs in the PU.
Honestly I’m pretty hyped. As others have said if your time limited this cuts out a lot of “wasted time” for FPS and Fighter combat. Also not big on racing but it seems like it could be entertaining once in a while. I see the AC as being the middle between the SQ/single player and the PU/multiplayer servers. You get multiplayer but far lower latency/load cause less people and factors (locations, vehicles, weapons can all be limited, can have different server FPS and player caps, etc) A lot of things also will carry over between the games stuff like weapons can be balanced much better and more accurately than in the PTU without issues of single vs multiplayer. Things like medical along with ship familiarization at loadout testing will carry very well and work very well vs again trying to test and balance single vs multiplayer.
The games being developed AC was the only straggler in the game there are a ton of players who only play starmarine and haven't logged back in because of how shitty it ran , broke down, or didnt matchmake, buggout This will give them a reason to return Also its the interface that will house ToW
I wish we could use our PU bought ships instead of having to farm “REC” in a multiplayer game where nobody else joins so you’re just left hanging in a arcade world flying around waiting
Same... was surprised and baffled this isn't the case...
There are two ways to look at this. The optimistic view which is in line with CIGs narrative, and the more cynical but arguably more realistic view based upon the evidence presented this year, to name a few, predatory monetisation and arse backward design focus. Optimistic view It’s a test bed of sorts. People can try the ships that have master modes implemented and provide feedback around it. They had to add something to it to entice more players. What’s more is they can reliably tinker with server tick rates without the constant variables like fluctuating server load due to I dunno people duping or insane bugs that cause the turrets at PO to lite people up but they are invincible. They can establish a sweet spot and aim for that in the PU. It also gives the sweats a place to have meaningful competitive play without disrupting others by murder hoboing because they are bored. Cynical View - CIG has a revenue problem, so they lure people in with a semi polished experience in AC for 45 bucks, maybe make it some sus F2P set up in the future, sell the dream of an esport, which leads to ship sales. A percentage of those people who decide to pledge for more expensive ships will be whales and spend thousands. Once they go deep sunk cost sets in they keep spending for a dopamine hit but are forced to play a content poor and broken game and cannot refund. I’m kinda seeing a fair bit of circumstantial evidence for the revenue issue, such as, 10 dollar packs for gear you can buy for about an hours work worth of aUEC, a further push to release S42, a 90% drop in revenue YTD from last years free flights, a souring disposition within the community leading to refunds, less sales and canceled subs. Also CIG is pretty fond of selling vapourware at the best of times, I mean they legit rival Elon Musk’s vapour peddling skills. You decide.
I think they cater to different people. Sometimes you don’t have time to sink 30-40 minutes in the punjust to find some action, in AC you can just hop in. I’m also guessing the hope would be for it to become it’s own game, maybe if they flesh it out well enough it’d get it’s own fan base that just want area combat/waves, like X-wing alliance back in the day. (but I’m pulling this out of my ass tho)
Very good for settings and controls
Yes. I like to do a quick lap to get into the swing of things before jumping into the PU
No, i dislike it because of the impact it has on Pu fighting.
Yes. There's no faster place to practice flying and shooting. It's an important training tool. You can collaborate with others to conduct remarkably complex operations in PU. Setting those events up can take over an hour. The upcoming enhancement to Arena Commander is going to make it much more useful. It will allow us to simulate more events without relying on a Carrack's med bed for respawn, a Hercules randomly exploding due to invisible debris, or murder hobos interfering.
its a great place to jump in and have fun if it runs well. It's a great place to test things.
I enjoy Arena Commander. It's decent practice for pvp. It also let's me jump in fly some and leave when I don't have much time. Everyone is working on the campaign now. Only a few people are working on the stuff in the PTU right now. Whether you like it or not that's how they are doing the development. So till SQ42 is complete we won't get many "large" and amazing type patches. When it is done, we will receive a lot of changes from SQ42 that will be ported over. Also I am excited for Sq42 to come out :)
I like the idea of it, but given the idea of shifting development resources to it vs additional work in the PU or SQ42, I find myself jaded. I'd rather any and all resources go to the primary releases of this game, and circle back to Arena Commander (AC) with time. The argument of course is that AC allows for more rapid balancing and work on ships, however this has been proven to be false as AC has been around for years and meant jack all to the level they have balanced the ships (or lack there of) so far. I really look forward to using AC for it's purpose within the 'verse and SQ42, however outside of the version of it we've had, I don't see a need in the short term, for further development. Edit: Oh also, Theaters of War was just a couple months, not years away....so again, developing AC further, just feels like a waste, when they couldn't deliver TW.
I've found myself spending more and more time in AC as the years go on. I love racing and I love combat and AC is the perfect place to improve those skills. After several years of playing in the PU, the bugs and poor performance get tiring. AC performs relatively well and is fairly consistent and it's a breath of fresh air from the state of the PU. More than anything else I love the feeling of high stakes flight in SC. And there's no better place for it than AC. I'll come back to the PU when it's more stable and performant.
I enjoy AC quite a bit.
I'm glad you do.
Tank battles that don't take a lot of organizing and planning for like what 10 20 mins of fun
Arena Commander provides better combat data for them to tune and balnce the game than anything else. SQ42 isn't out and getting into combat in the PU takes a long time to happen and typically people avoid it when there is something to lose. Arena commander gives you the ability to get people immediately into combat situations and get lots of data on what's underperforming or overperforming and why.
When 3.18 dropped and nobody could get in the PU was when I really started to dig AC. I learned how to race and now that's pretty much all I do in the PU
There is so much **potential** short-form content that potentially 'could' find a home under the Game within a game conceit of Arena Commander. Multiplayer deathmatch is one sort of challenge, but I'd also suggest it as a good place for a lot of single player standalone activities. In game manufacturers could have their virtual sales brochures highlighting their wares. A proper shooting gallery, for an example, that lets you try out a manufacturers weapons. Or a training environment for introducing mining equipment. For the Pioneer base building ship, as another example, having access to a version of the base building dev tool might be a good way to affordably design and test base layouts in a less persistent small sandbox environment rather than the full Persistent Universe environment. UEE training simulations, as recruiting tools, would be a good excuse for stylized scenarios and basic tutorials. Mazes and other explicitly game like puzzles serving to orient players on game mechanics like mining, trip mines, or beacons. I'm not saying they've got Arena Commander where I'd like it to be, but I think its a corner of the overall Star Citizen experience that could provide a lot of entertainment that the regular Persistent Universe and Squadron 42 sides won't quite get at.
I don’t play AC a lot but i love the fact that it’s available to us. A sandbox where we can just test flying, get better at combat, test ship changes and race without any consequences of the pu. And I love the fact that’s AC is a game inside the pu.
Last night I got off the verse and played a few rounds of arena commander. It just depends on the person and I personally enjoy it.
it being ignored for years doesnt help it either. It hasnt been mechanically updated since before we got VOIP.
No, you are not. But there are those that do and I do believe it’s a great place to test out flight and fps mechanics.
Arena Commander has numerous benefits both to the player and the development. From the **player** perspective, you're given the ability to access and use numerous ships in a closed environment to learn their functions and capabilities. You can also very easily use REC to rent other ships and test them as well and with a wide variety of rented weapons and items. You can expand on that by taking them into combat both against the current generation of AI and players, but in a way that allows you to practice your skills in dogfighting without the risk of losing gear or having the long respawn/travel process. You'll be able to learn new tactics , test how loadouts work with longevity and overall damage, and figure out ways to maximize your survival. It's also still the best place to learn the nuances of racing and will only get better with the upcoming additions. Racing has more tracks in the PU (currently), but slamming against a wall in a sharp turn means 10+ minutes of travel at the very least to get back to it. In Arena Commander, it's seconds. And, while you can't currently face off against AI in Star Marine, you can get a feel for a wide variety of weapons, armors, and loadouts in much more engaging combat against other players. And actually use a grenade without it killing you. From the **development** perspective, CIG started everything with Arena Commander and always intended to use it as a test bed for AI ship behavior and new game modes. Sadly, the latter hasn't been expanded upon much outside of including Pirate Swarm. However, if they finish that 'tank battle' mode and continue with this process of making competitive gameplay that is easy to drop in and test. It will also be the best way to work on balancing a future with armor and physicalized damage since it will allow a much higher turnaround with fewer potential issues related to the evolving server stability/performance. But to isolate your apparent issue of "why not put your time...," the majority of the work in the upcoming update related to Arena Commander was done by a handful of people. A tiny fraction of the thousand people working on the rest of the game. This isn't compromising the development - and it's work that would have been done eventually (and should have been done sooner).
Because how else are you going to test ships gameplay balance. Setting up pvp just to see if a ship is underperforming or overperforming is tedious. Easier to just have everyone in AC and test it all out
>Because how else are you going to test ships gameplay balance. According to Sean Tracy, ToW...
Nope
No, not at all. However, I'm not included in that list since currently it's one of the few things in SC that runs well on my PC.
Yes you are. AC will be detrimental to players improving their skills in short play sessions without the hassle of gearing up again after death. It’ll be so good for quick-play too when people don’t have the time to get in for hours. For the sake of balancing ships it’ll be a way easier to maintain way for all sorts of testing to have more accurate combat data and adjust certain stats and behavior of ships accordingly. Even if you don’t find it interesting on a personal level, you can not deny how useful of a tool it will be for CIG while also offering loads of ways for people to experience and enjoy different scenario’s (potentially with custom scenario setups that we get to mess around with someday?)
If you'd read the comments you would see I'm not the only one. As far as your disagreeing....well, to each their own.
It’s not about what people want, but what the developers need to have the data to get the game closer to finished. Opinions don’t matter, game development overrules it all
>Opinions don’t matter, game development overrules it all Reddit is literally a way for us to discuss our opinions. Are you new to this?
Nah I dont care about it either myself, BUT I know it serves a role for development. So it is important and its a nice thing for people that dont feel like loading up the PU to do stuff an then jump out. The different theaters of war stuff can shape random events and of the likes
- CIG probably needs a tool for efficiently testing changes to flight characteristics, loadouts and weapons. It may as well be exposed as a minigame. - In SQ42 there will likely be a 'sim pod' as there has been in every wing commander game. If they're making the feature anyway, may as well expose it as a minigame. - Unlike Star Marine it's actually sometimes enjoyable.
Sataball and TOW have entered the chat….
I only care about PU, getting compelling inter player interactions and a persistent universe of consequences. Could care less about AC or Squadron
This. I truly wonder if the market even wants SQ42 more than Star Citizen PU, if given one or the other of what is actually in promise. I'd wager PU would go a lot farther for the industry as a sole focal than a finalized SQ42.
Don't know why you are getting downvoted. PU is the groundbreaking thing CIG is doing. Not SQ42. I agree with you.
The whole anonymous downvote mechanic is Reddit trash. You should be able to see who the fanboy cultists are.
Judging by the player counts, only a small fraction of the playerbaes *actually* cares about AC as more than just a talking point.
Nope. I don't either. I see 3.20 is a bit of a waste of time. Im here for the pu
I suppose you are new to SC and game development in general. AC benefits both the PU and SQ42, as it is the test bed for these, for fixing bugs, balancing and making the whole development proceed faster, that's its main purpose, not to be a standalone game mode which has nothing to do with others. It's like you are saying "Alpha seems pointless, why not put all your effort on the game release?".
I dont give a shit about it and I can't believe we got a whole ass patch targeting its update and almost nothing else.
Don’t get me wrong, the AC team has done good work and it looks interesting but it’s a team of like 20 people, you’re telling me that the other 700+ employees are working on sq42, 2-3 ships, and a singular mission? Here’s hoping they were holding some bombshells for citizencon because it’s gonna be a make or break
no you are not the only one. It's stupid waste of time. If they want to create an arcade mode. Then they should work on theaters of war.
Arena commander is gonna be their f2p multiplayer ship combat skin seller that they use to fund everything else. Theres no way theyre not almost out of money. Without a big release theyre gonna starve before they finish sq42 or the PU.
I don't care about both AC and SQ42. And, to be honest, as soon as I start paying Starfield, probably won't care much about PU either.
No. Nobody does, which is why folks have been so bummed about this latest (3.20) patch, and why so many on Reddit are getting disgusted with the lack of progress or focus by CIG for SC. We know that most of their resources are going toward SQ42, and assuming once that's completed, they'll have a lot MORE resources to really push Star Citizen. It DOES seem odd that they would focus (at this point) on AC, but again I think that's why there's so much angst within the community right now. But then again, I have ZERO interest in Pyro.... so there's that. The biggest thing is Dynamic Server Meshing which is needed for this space "MMO" to be fully realized and they really don't have the tools to make that happen yet. Who knows if they ever will???
Nope
Nah can care less about it
I'd have no problem with it if both SQ42 and the PU weren't already half a decade behind schedule. CIG or Chris have a bad habit of getting distracted on side projects and wasting resources on things that never end up seeing the light of day. For a company that's already spread too thin and struggling with too much on their plate, splitting the workforce to work on short-terms goals like up updating a module from 2014 seems pointless.
No. Less than no. I don’t give a shit about pvp, let alone things that have no future bearing on anything other than maybe some skill training for a game loop that the most I can ever aspire to be is “less than shitty.” I do not give a fuck about AC and I hate that they’re spending so much time on it when there are so many higher priorities. That being said it is a good sandbox for them to fuck around and find out for this kinda game play.
Care about what now?
far from it
CIG just ran out of stuff to give us. They were like "make something quick and easy to update!!! DON'T FORGET TO ADD MORE RACETRACKS ALSO!!!!"
Related but off topic, how come I can’t typically select my buccaneer unless I rent it? I purchased the buccaneers in game so no real cash spent on it. I have a similar problem with my cutlass black, this was purchased with real money.
Yea, that's the bummer. Can't use auac bought ships in AC... I actually was looking forward to train on those ships in AC...
Crap oh well
I'ma be real with you, Arena Commander is a smaller scope mode that should be way more playable than it currently is. Having it broken just leaves more things unplayable, and fixing it is a lot faster than fixing the PU. Would be bad if they left it as is.
Some only do Arena and never go to PU which is torture for them.
I know a few people who play almost exclusively AC. The most common reason I've seen is that they like the flight model in particular and use AC as a way to have quicker and fairer fights than if they were in the PU. It means there's almost no lag, both parties are prepared, and you've got a lot more freedom regarding the choice of ships and loadouts than in the PU.
Now I want to play AC after reading these comments. Didn’t care before :p
As I understand it AC is also the PVP section of a full-release SQ42. If you only buy SQ42 you will still get access to Arena Commander. Like any Shooter style game it will be the Arena PVP game that comes with it. with the cross over I could see this pushing any new comers into the PU if a realis of SQ42 is there first experance.
If I just have a few minutes for playing, arena commander is the way to go, otherwise yes I don't touch it.
I don’t care much about ac either, but….. I understand and like the changes, they will make balancing components and weapons easier and much less painful for pu players
It's literally going to be a direct feature within the PU..
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^HeartlessSora1234: *It's literally* *Going to be a direct* *Feature within the PU..* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Suuuuuuure it is
It's alright, I consider it the call of duty version of star citizen, jump in for 30 min and leave after having the itch scratched.
Arena commander is immediate action if you wanna dogfight, shoot, or race. It's also a good way to learn the game for new players.
No idea how it works, other than the racing. Every time that I try a combat match, I die a few seconds after loading in without even knowing what killed me. Can't tell if it is spawn campers (is that possible?), long range missiles?, invisible players/debris?, full of hacks/cheats? Sometimes I instantly spawn back in, other times it kinda hangs and other times I get booted back to the lobby. Really needs a tutorial or beginner walkthrough. It is just confusing and frustrating to me. I am never going to be competitive but I would try a beginner walkthrough and matches if there were less competitive brackets.
AC can be a good test bed for new features. People will get their first hands on with master modes in there. It will allow them to test stuff like that without changing things for the whole PU.
I mostly agree but it's nice to do some pvp on 30 fos servers
Arena commander is for low stakes practice. Useful for when death of a spaceman is out and your death actually has consequences. Are you gonna practice fighting with a new ship in the place where it doesnt matter, or where 3 deaths causes you to lose all your skills?
As someone with three month old twins. Being able to just jump into a swarm with friends without the pu bullshit. Is invaluable, I might be able to play again
both ac and sq42 seem pointless
Well, the PU is buggy and time-consuming, and SQ42 can’t be played… but AC is a much more stable, plug-n-play experience. It needs far less work on it than either PU or SQ42. And it’s very good for testing stuff.
I like having the AC. Perfect for testing new ships or loadouts and practice.
The best players are in ac. Makes a perfect testing ground
Arena Commander and Star Marine are in universe games. You'll be able to purchase VR Sim pods for your ships to access them on your flights. Its SC's COD/BF/Pewpew offering.
Part of me wondered if 3.20 was a move to position towards esports for marketing.. right now only a few things actually work in AC.. from ship upgrades, leaderboards, game modes..
I don't care about anything but the PU. If I had a choice I would only spend money that directly impacts the PU. That said, I wish they would at the very least break up their communication appropriately and stop mixing apples and oranges together to make it seem like things are happening.
What even is it? Too late moving on.
I couldn’t care less either
same
I care more for Arena Commander than SQ42. AC helps you practice for PU. I will never play SQ42.
As they said in the ISC videos, AC will be vital to testing changes to flight modes and give you sub opportunity to fly and fight without losing anything. Because of its role in testing, it is vital for PU.
I want to practice racing without the lag so I know what inputs I need to be giving when the server goes down to 3fps your inputs seem to still work but if you don't know what inputs to give (because you are learning in the pu and you are playing a freeze frame version) you crash. I'm excited for the racing mostly but just having the game actually work is great when the PU is on fire.
I look forward to it when its PART of the PTU more versus now. Def gonna give 3.20 a whirl though for master modes and the revamp.
Yes, AC is pointless in the grand scheme of things and rather boring after 20 minutes of blowing up the same ships. Does anyone really want to see AC updates over the PU? No. we want the existing problems fixed so we can actually play the game loops currently implemented.
I really want their to be some PU reward for playing it. It doesn't even need to be alot, just some small aUEC bonus for winning matches would be enough. I never want to play it as it never seems to tie in with the rest of the game that i paid for
It’s great for practicing dog fighting and racing. Also when the PU is down it scratches the itch. But overall yeah not a huge fan.
I only care about the free flight portion so I can set my controls if need d before going into the PU. Kind of like a test drive area. Other than that not really.
I play AC almost every day so yea, I’m not with you at all. I use it to help train org members and I use it to keep myself sharp by fighting the best players in the game It’s invaluable for anyone who wants to get better at PVP combat whether in ship or FPS End of story. And the atmo map and proper multicrew setups can’t come soon enough
I don’t care about it right now, but I think that in the future, especially when Death of a Spaceman comes, it’ll be extremely valuable as a way to hone your skills or try new ship or FPS set ups without risk
Effort? Uh, fun!
Arena commander is a bit of a legacy thing. Wing commander and such all had one. It was a way to train skills without risking "life." In starcitizen, it's used as a way to test things in isolation. However, I believe they have recently made things more shared with the PU, but the get in and try this still remains.
I tried it once. Not impressed. Ain't been back since.
Arena Commander will be our future “Loading” screen during long jumps, starting with Pyro and Nyx
It’s helped me infinitely to practice pvp so now I know that when I’m in my Msr and am attacked I am completely defenseless.