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Un videodiario su Star Citizen: Squadron 42 mostra la gigantesca Idris.
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00:13Hello and welcome to another episode of Around the Verse. I'm Sandy Gardner.
00:18And I'm Josh Herman.
00:19This week's episode features our Squadron 42 project update for February.
00:23We'll get a look at the complex AI systems being implemented in the game, using the massive crew of the
00:29Idris Frigate as an example.
00:31But first we'll get a check in with the developers.
00:33That's right. Let's go to Phil Meller now for a rundown on what the Squadron 42 dev teams have been
00:39up to.
00:40Hi everyone, I'm Phil Meller, Lead Designer of Squadron 42 with this month's project update.
00:45So I'll kick off with the techy stuff while you're all still fresh.
00:47The programming team has been looking into issues that affect the performance of the game,
00:51looking into various ways we can optimize the code to make the game run better.
00:55The driving force behind this is to help speed things up for the PE release.
00:59But because we have a shared code base, it means that almost all those optimizations still often help S42 at
01:04the same time.
01:05For S42, the biggest wins are the animations and skeleton updates.
01:08Some of the best optimizations involve discovering where the code is updating items when it really doesn't need to.
01:13To help with our detective work, our lead animation programmer, Ivo Herzig, added some debug rendering
01:18that enabled us to more easily visualize objects in the world that were having their skeletons updated every frame.
01:24That enabled us to see what was being updated but not actually animating.
01:28The debug feature drew boxes around anything with a skeleton with different colors indicating different issues.
01:34This allowed the feature teams to put in changes that made the items a bit smarter about how they tell
01:38their system when their items need to get updated.
01:41We also put in additional debug information to show us when skeletons were getting updated but weren't even visible.
01:47Basically doing a lot of additional work that you'll never see.
01:51And getting from this information, the teams will be made aware of when this was happening
01:55and change the code to be more aggressive about when they need to update.
01:58The downside to this is that it can cause some knock-ons, especially when something off-screen does actually need
02:03to animate.
02:04But because you can't see it, it doesn't.
02:08It's not common but these situations end up as a job for our QA team.
02:12Playing the levels and finding all the situations where the animations are broken and getting the teams to fix them
02:16up one by one.
02:18As always, we constantly look at old component updates and make them more bash friendly,
02:22as well as weeding out the other sections of slow code and with a view to make them more efficient.
02:28We've also been working on object container streaming.
02:30The eventual aim for object container streaming is to allow us to seamlessly load and unload parts of the solar
02:35system as players move around.
02:36That will allow us to greatly increase the amount of content within the solar system without increasing memory or CPU
02:41usage,
02:42as only the parts that are relevant to you will be present in memory on your machine.
02:46Obviously, this all needs to occur without stalls or loading screens.
02:49The focus is currently on making the entity system code thread safe,
02:52so we can safely spawn entities including creating components and loading resources such as geometry and textures from background threads.
02:59This is super important as it will remove the stalls that currently occur when entities spawn into the game.
03:05For example, when you currently request a vehicle spawn,
03:07at present we have over 450 individual entity component implementations,
03:12everything from game codes such as weapons and vehicles to the more behind the scenes things such as the network
03:17component.
03:18We are working through the list, checking and fixing every single one to make sure that they are all fully
03:22thread safe.
03:24Once this pass is complete, we can move on from single entity spawns to entire object containers loading in the
03:29background.
03:29Now onto the Mobi glass.
03:31As you'll all know, S42 is going to have its own military version of the device,
03:35and we've been dialing in the look of the UI.
03:37The visual elements of the reskin have been referenced from real world military HUDs and cinematic sci-fi references,
03:43to further immerse the player into the S42 universe.
03:47Lastly, vital data has been visually prioritized and improvements to the navigation system add up to a better user experience.
03:53Going into the Idris where we do spend a lot of time in S42,
03:56we have continued working on animation and setup for Duncan Chakma,
03:59the master of arms in the armory area of the ship.
04:02Good to see you again, Lieutenant.
04:04With the primary focus of S42 being the fluid, cinematic, tactile feel,
04:08Chris Roberts shot a whole variety of performance capture footage for the armory,
04:12so that when you get or return a weapon or attachment,
04:15you feel like you're interacting with a real character.
04:17Our job here included identifying all the common poses that the actor was hitting during the performance,
04:22then matching those with the state machine while focusing on maintaining the maximum amount of performance from the actor.
04:27Some of this performance has already been seen in the livestream event,
04:30but we're polishing up the assets to a full shippable release quality.
04:33In tandem with Chakma's animations, we are continuing to develop the grab and inspect animations for the player.
04:39These are more heavily keyframed assets as we need to come at them from a different angle
04:42and really take the player's view into consideration, more than we need to do on an AI character.
04:48There's still some way to go to get these finalised,
04:50but once they're in, they will really connect the player to the weapon
04:52and make the armory a believable, tactile environment.
04:56Now for an animation update.
04:58Our animation department on S42 have been continually implementing
05:01more of the performance capture Chris Roberts shot into fully functional, game-ready assets.
05:05This now means we have unique walk cycles for a lot of the people in the game.
05:09It greatly helps to add personality to each character we see moving around.
05:13We take performance capture data and analyse it for the best case game functional loop.
05:18We always aim for the maximum number of cycles possible to keep as much variation in the walk as we
05:22can.
05:23Once the animator has cleaned up the motion capture data and got it seamlessly looping,
05:27we export it into the game engine and start to plug the assets into the character-specific blend space to
05:31see how it looks in situ.
05:33Once the animator has cleaned up the motion capture data and got it seamlessly looping,
05:37we export it into the game engine and start to plug the assets into the character-specific blend space to
05:42see how it looks in situ.
05:44Staiando con l'idris, un'altra area di focus ha avuto il subsumption e stabilità per le crew attività.
05:50Abbiamo avuto l'applicazione del verticale e continuiamo ad ottimizzare le primarie e le secondarie attività,
05:56le wilde line, eccetera, con further tweaks e updates a tutti i logics graffi.
06:00Usi il sistema di refined, abbiamo now sette più scena per altri captersi in il game,
06:03come come conversazioni tra gli AI che il player può vedere, come vedo in V.S.
06:08Questi sono più complicati scena che coinvolte molte AI caratteristiche per i lunghi periodi.
06:15Come and get it.
06:22Scusate.
06:22Scusate.
06:22I think it's close to being done, hold on the head, I can do that.
06:24So hopefully it's a rescue shift.
06:26Oye, Chef?
06:26I'll let you know either way.
06:28I've got to.
06:29There's been a lot of work going into improving the pipeline for getting these scenes into the
06:32game via the subsumption system.
06:34For example, August Beck is the quartermaster from the Stanton.
06:38She now has her activity set up and is in the game.
06:41Quartermaster generally takes charge of stock, distribution and oversees the work done by
06:44the support crew characters to do a similar job.
06:47All the AI usables that are in the cargo bay are now going into the game for the AI to
06:51interact with, so we will now see a moving around the area much more believably checking
06:56stock and generally chatting to other AI characters.
06:59Finally, as part of the mission set up, more of the game's interstitial moments have been
07:03worked on using tech develop as part of the vertical slice, meaning more of the ambient
07:07life moments are being implemented into the other chapters and locations within the game.
07:12So that's it for me this week, I hope you enjoyed the update, and thanks for watching, see you
07:16next month.
07:18Thanks, Phil.
07:19Yes, thanks, Phil.
07:20Back in December, the vertical slice that premiered right here on ATV gave us a look at a UEE Idris
07:26frigate and its substantial crew.
07:28The developers have been working on some impressive tech that will help bring that crew to life.
07:33Now let's take a closer look at the AI systems working together with story and player interaction
07:38to turn the Idris into a fully immersive experience in this month's feature.
07:50Living Idris to me means, as a player you can walk around the ship, you can soak in what
07:55everyone else is doing, like it's this sense that everyone's got their own life, their own
07:59sort of routine, their own personalities as well.
08:02Like so, for example, if an AI is walking by a guy who he doesn't like, you know, he might
08:07not say hello, but if he walks by the player and he does like the player, you know, he's
08:10going to say hi or he's going to go out of his way to sort of greet him and interact
08:14with
08:14him.
08:14So it's just, it's all like this minutia, all this like minor details that make up the
08:20whole story of what like an AI can do.
08:22What the Idris shows is that every NPC has a meaning, has a background story and you can
08:28actually talk with them.
08:29They can tell you some, you know, rumors or, you know, each of them has a different personality.
08:33So the goal of the Idris was always to create a ship for people.
08:38And we want you to walk around the ship and see these people going about their lives, doing
08:44whatever their role is and generally just doing what they want or have to do.
08:50So in doing that, we have every character on the ship has their own name, their own rank,
08:59their own role on the ship and that's spread among all of the different disciplines.
09:04So we have lots of bridge crew, engineers, gunners, deck crew, even janitors and medical
09:11personnel and they're all spread out quite well, given whatever that role might be.
09:17And then we have to spread that out across different shifts as well.
09:21So you might see somebody doing a certain role or in a certain shift on one chapter of the
09:28game, but then on the next chapter of the game, they might be off duty and you'll see them
09:32in the mess hall talking to people and everybody is doing their role on the ship regardless
09:36of where you are.
09:37So you could be at the complete other end of the ship and they'll still be doing their
09:41thing.
09:41It's not like they de-spawn as soon as you've turned the corner.
09:44The day to day of an AI on the Idris is essentially governed by this concept of a schedule.
09:51So on a Monday, like all this means is that on a Monday, someone might be a Marine and going
09:57about their business as a Marine might do.
09:58So he might go to the shooting range, he might go to the Idris bridge and stand guard, do
10:02all this sort of stuff.
10:04And then on a Tuesday, he might be off duty.
10:05So all that means is he'll go to the mess hall if he's hungry, you know, he'll go and
10:10lay down if he's tired.
10:12He might go to the shooting range again if he's feeling like he wants to shoot some stuff.
10:16There's also things like arcade machines if he's feeling bored.
10:19And it's this idea that everything is kind of governed by what an AI wants to do.
10:23So, you know, again, if he's hungry, he's going to go eat.
10:26If he's tired, he's going to go lay down.
10:28We just give them options and then they go do it, depending on what they want to do.
10:32Our game has this kind of huge opportunity to be a simulation in first place.
10:37So you want to feel real.
10:39And having a character that stays there forever, it doesn't really feel real.
10:43For example, we might have a Marine who, by default, is supposed to be on a guard post.
10:50And he will go to the guard post.
10:53But if somebody else is already on the guard post, he may say, oh, well, I can't do that.
10:56So he'll decide he wants to go do some training, go over at the shooting range or just simply
11:00running around the ship and doing that sort of thing.
11:02We really want that the AI can tell a story to the player.
11:06So to achieve this, of course, there is not just one tool that can do it or one feature, let's
11:13say.
11:14We try to embed inside the subsumption tool a lot of different functionalities so that designers
11:19can create a behavior that can tell a story.
11:22We want to have the systemic behavior to feel real.
11:25Two characters talking in the mess and not just eating.
11:28Three guys walking together or two joggers running around while they run.
11:34They try to keep their pacing and talk about something.
11:37But you also want a mission to tell its own story.
11:41So on top of the regular systemic behavior, you might need the story to follow a specific storyboard.
11:50If we look at the prisoner scene that I think is particularly fantastic in the live stream, that achieves very
11:59well.
11:59So you arrive to the pilot room, you start to talk with old man.
12:04And then there is a moment in which if you don't interact with the game, the game takes control.
12:11And you just, you know, you have this really cinematic moment.
12:14You can look at the face of the character, you're just not listening from very far.
12:18This brings more immersion.
12:20And the immersion is kept persistent with the fact that you still are in control if you want to, you
12:26know, move around,
12:27interrupt the cinematic camera.
12:29And then you can go close to the prisoner and actually look at them and they are actually performing all
12:33their actions.
12:35The mission on that way can also tell the characters suggestion of what to perform next.
12:41So after you take off from the Idris, you want old man to fly towards the next position for the
12:49next mission to do, right?
12:50So the activity setup we've been doing has been really interesting over the last few months.
12:54We've done a big refactor of all the guys on the Idris.
12:57We've got guys like Marines, engineers, off duty characters, bridge crew, all the deck crew guys, even janitors.
13:05And the way I've been approaching it is I would sort of role play it a little bit.
13:08So when I'm setting up to an engineer, I would think like, what's an engineer going to do today?
13:13Like, what's his job? Is he going to inspect all the ship parts, you know, see if they're broken, if
13:18they are broken?
13:19What's he going to do then? Is he going to call up a repair guy, ask him to come and
13:23repair it and then like move on or and all this sort of stuff.
13:29Once I've got like this big clear picture of a day to day of what an AI can do, I'll
13:34start setup.
13:34And I'll just start from like ground one, like, you know, he gets out of bed, puts his clothes on
13:40if he's not dressed already and goes about his job.
13:42Designers can actually give assignments. So an assignment can be I suggest you or I request you to fly to
13:49this position.
13:50I request you to defend the player from this fight.
13:54This is very similar to what, you know, in a systemic situation you also have as a wingman commands, right?
14:00So the system is going to be very similar for the player and for the designer to ask the AI
14:05to do something.
14:06An assignment doesn't need to be necessarily a full behavior, like defend an area or defend the player, but it
14:13might be a suggestion.
14:13It might be I really want you to fly as close to the player as possible.
14:19So you can just execute your normal behavior, but, you know, telling the story that the mission wants.
14:26You know, it might be that in the moment old man has to fly next to you because you are
14:32in a very low health state and, you know, you need protection.
14:35And we can communicate these to the system behaviors through assignments.
14:39In the prisoner arrival scene, Lars, who's on the elevator doing his guard duty, now suddenly there's a group of
14:46prisoners about to arrive.
14:48So Lars is then informed of this and at that point he suddenly says, right, well, I've got to go
14:52down to the hangar and make sure to basically guard them as they arrive.
14:55So he will suddenly leave his behavior and then be told that his priority is to go and make sure
15:00that these prisoners arrive safely.
15:02So he will then walk down to the hangar and he will basically wait in the hangar until this ship
15:08with the prisoners arrives, basically.
15:09And it'll be the same for the other guards who are there as well.
15:13And then likewise, when the cinematic scene is finished, we obviously need to seamlessly blend them out of this cinematic
15:20sequence
15:21and basically put them back into their natural behaviors.
15:24So at this point, like, Lars is then given a completely new objective, which is to basically go off and
15:30prepare the holding cells for the prisoners that have arrived.
15:33So after the cinematic sequence takes place, Lars is then put back into a new behavior and his behavior is
15:39then told that he needs to prioritize sorting out the holding cells.
15:43So he'll then wander up to the break and then start doing a completely different behavior, which is, again, all
15:47part of his natural life.
15:49All the things that you see happening in the Idris are real, are actual behavior running.
15:54So from our perspective, it's really interesting to create a tool to allow you to create a lot of content
16:00that is not fake.
16:01For example, talking about repairing an instrument in the Idris.
16:05That process basically evolved during our development.
16:10So it started as a bit more like an engineer work that, you know, goes around, search for objects to
16:16repair, and then it just repairs them.
16:19But that felt a bit too much robotic.
16:21So with the designer, we looked at this and we were like, well, you know what it would be interesting
16:25is to try to have like a lead engineer that goes around,
16:30inspects objects, and then he calls repairing engineering work.
16:34So like you will see him going around, look at stuff, then talking and calling out another NPC.
16:41This NPC will come and he will repair and maybe the lead engineer will be there to inspect that the
16:47work has been done correctly.
16:48And this is really what is described in the behaviors and in the subsumption activities and sub-activities.
16:53So you can imagine the subsumption activities to be the regular job that the schedule is assigning the different NPC
17:00to do.
17:00And then the sub-activities are the actual kind of action.
17:03So it's like an engineer can repair something or can inspect something or can just going around because it gets
17:09cold, you know.
17:11And this is like the way we describe the flow and the content in subsumption.
17:16One bit of tech that we made as part of the secondary sub-activity sprint is this ability to trigger
17:22something based off what the player is looking at.
17:23So for example, as you're roaming around a place like the Idris, you know, as a player you might be
17:28interested in things like the engines,
17:31underneath like the coolant or piping that carries power all across the ship.
17:36What this tech does is say, if the player is looking at these things, the other AI nearby are going
17:43to notice that.
17:44They're going to pick up on it and then they're going to talk to the player about it.
17:47So anything that the player might be interested in, you know, they can get information about it just by looking
17:54at it.
17:54You know, in the same way that, you know, if you were looking at something in real life and some
17:59other guy knows all about it,
18:00he might pick up on that fact and then talk to you about it.
18:03There's the ability for it to feed into missions and gameplay in any way that we want really.
18:07say, you know, a big explosion happens or say there's some fire going off as you're walking down a corridor
18:13or running down a corridor, I should say.
18:15An AI might comment on that and say like, oh, this is on fire because of this, you know, and
18:20that might have gameplay implications.
18:22So the way the POI tech works is it's basically just a raycast from the player.
18:26And all that means is just like a line drawn from the player's eyes to any objects right in front
18:31of them.
18:31So for example, the engines that the player might be interested in because he's looking at them, this raycast would
18:37happen.
18:38A little timer would go off and any AI interested or knows about that thing that the player's looking at
18:43nearby.
18:45They'll wait for that timer to go down. Once it's gone down, they'll get an event and that will trigger
18:50some logic to say,
18:51oh, the player's interested in that. So I'm going to try and talk to the player about that, you know,
18:54and give them some information because it seems like they're interested.
18:57So as we're building the tech, we want the AI to be more aware of one another and to react
19:04to one another in more intelligent and systemic ways.
19:07Like similar to the spoil tech, we don't necessarily want to know what they're going to say or do, which
19:12makes it more interesting for everybody.
19:15And one of those ways might be to react to one of your own attributes.
19:20Like say, say you hadn't taken a shower and you were a bit smelly, then the AI might comment on
19:25that.
19:26Maybe even take a shower. One nice thing about the older engines on the Stanton, plenty of hot water to
19:33go around.
19:34One of the things that we're very aware of is how repetitive and jarring something could be if it said
19:41again and again and again,
19:43every couple of moments, like Lieutenant.
19:46Lieutenant. Lieutenant. Lieutenant. Lieutenant.
19:50So yeah, we're trying to avoid that.
19:53So spoil stands for Systemic Point of Interest Look Tech.
19:57And it's basically our way of giving an AI the ability to look at interesting things.
20:02So for example, an engineer, he might be interested in things like wall panels that he can fix or monitors
20:09that display the status of the ship.
20:11So he's going to look at those things. He's going to be super interested in them.
20:14Whereas a Marine, you know, he doesn't care about that stuff.
20:17He's bothered about weapons and, you know, the armory and the brig and that stuff.
20:21So he's not going to look at all the stuff an engineer might be interested in and look at all
20:25the stuff that he's interested in.
20:27Similarly, on places like the bridge, the pilot of an Idris, for example, he might look at approaching ships.
20:34So because that's something that he's actively interested in, he doesn't want ships to like collide with him.
20:38So he's going to, so spoilers going to allow him to take a look at those ships and maybe watch
20:42out for him.
20:43It's all part and parcel of our layered animation systems that we have.
20:48So the very basics of that kind of system would be you'd have an AI character walking down one of
20:55the passageways and that's all well and good.
20:59But then you might want to have them walking down the passageway whilst also scratching their arm.
21:04And that would be laid on top of that initial walk.
21:07Now a spoil is a way for us to mark up anything in the game as a point of interest.
21:15So then the character would be walking down the corridor, they'd be scratching their arm, but they could also be
21:21looking up at a screen as they walked past it.
21:24And that was really great because it means that you don't know what the character is going to be looking
21:28at any given time.
21:29And that makes it more interesting for us because we don't know either.
21:34Every AI has their own personality.
21:37And part of what that means is if the player interacts with AI in like a negative or a positive
21:41way,
21:42the AI are going to pick up on that and treat the player differently.
21:46So for example if the player just straight up punches an AI, that AI isn't going to say any more
21:51greetings to that guy because he punched him.
21:54Whereas if the player maybe fetched something off a mission and gave it to the AI as a request, the
22:00AI is going to think more positively of that character.
22:03And therefore he's not only going to say a greeting to him, he might say a really positive greeting, or
22:08he might stop in his tracks and try and talk with the player.
22:11So it's this idea that every player's journey through a squadron is going to be slightly different.
22:15You might have one player whose relationship with Moro is really positive.
22:20Moro gives him like loads of gossip and stuff like that.
22:23Whereas another player's journey might be super negative towards Moro.
22:27Like Moro essentially hears the player.
22:29And that's always reflected through things like wild lines, spoil tech, the way AI interacts with the player in general.
22:37A really good example of spoil tech is whilst I was designing the executive officer behaviour on the bridge.
22:45Now she's in charge of everybody and she's got to walk around and she's going to be observing people.
22:51Just generally walking around making sure everything's going well.
22:56And that was all nice but it felt a little bit flat and wooden at times.
23:01So you might want her looking at something but she would potentially just looking straight ahead.
23:07Whereas now with spoil tech we could have it so that if she was looking out a window she could
23:14be looking at a ship as it's flying past.
23:17So she'll actually follow the ship and it just makes it so much more dynamic and just more real and
23:22tangible.
23:22It really just opens it up.
23:24If you look at Idris documentation online right now you'll see that the crew complement is supposed to be somewhere
23:29between 30 and 50.
23:31But as we were testing out the Idris and the crew and filling it up, 30 and 50 people just
23:38wasn't enough.
23:39We were walking the passageways, it just felt too empty.
23:43We didn't feel like we were getting that sense of vibrance that we wanted in life.
23:49So we added more and more people until it felt right.
23:53And now the Idris is at about 81 people including the player.
23:59And to put that into perspective, if you look at the livestream demo, we had 12 people just on the
24:05bridge.
24:06And that was without the captain or a co-helmsman in there.
24:10So you can see how it would quickly fill up everywhere else as well.
24:14From a designer perspective, of course, it's interesting to create a universe and an environment that is very complex,
24:21where interaction of NPC can happen, interaction with the player can happen.
24:26From a developer perspective, especially for us as an AI programmer,
24:29the interesting part is to create the tools that allow designers and also ourselves to define this world
24:37and define the restriction and define the rules where things are happening and the rules of the game pretty much.
24:46One of the big things we have around the Idris and throughout the game is we have what are essentially
24:50conversations
24:51where you can walk past several AI and obviously they might kind of wave or nod to you and kind
24:57of do something,
24:57but there's nothing, it's more of what we call the wild line.
25:00Whereas there are certain AI on the ship that have specific things they want to say to the player or
25:06even to other characters.
25:07and say like if you're the player, you walk past a certain character that has something they want to say
25:12to you,
25:12they'll actually break out of their behaviour, their activity and they'll say, actually call you over and then have a
25:19conversation with you.
25:21And these things can actually be seen, but a change in the depth of field with the vision.
25:25So if the player is actually looking at something, they will, like for example in the VS demo that we
25:30showed,
25:31you can actually see Lars on the bottom of the elevator, he's in his guard post and when you approach
25:38him,
25:38he actually reaches out to you and starts the conversation with you.
25:40And one of the things you'll notice is that the camera kind of zooms in, almost like you're then focusing
25:45on the character.
25:46And at that point, we have a conversation. We might have like at the start of Lars's conversation,
25:50he will actually talk to you and the player will respond and then he'll obviously finish off talking.
25:54But then part way through a conversation, there might be multiple options for a player to actually have player choice.
26:01And in this case, we'll actually pause the conversation timeline and basically wait for the player to make a decision.
26:06And then based on which decision they make, they'll actually branch out the conversations so that they could basically go
26:12down one of two paths or three or four paths,
26:15depending on obviously how many options.
26:16Wildline is this all encompassing term that we use for anything an AI can do as like a one shot
26:21dialogue line to the player or to each other.
26:25So things like greetings, busies, what we call busies essentially is an AI saying, I'm busy, I can't talk.
26:32Like somewhere to be is another one, which is another thing, another term that we use to say, like, don't
26:39you have somewhere to be?
26:39Like, why are you lingering around? I'm doing something.
26:42Also things like mission comments. So when the player gets back from a mission, say you did really well, the
26:47player is going to comment,
26:48the AI is going to comment on that. If the player didn't do too great, then the AI is going
26:52to say like, you know,
26:53kind of sucked on that last mission, you know, do better next time.
26:57Wildlines add a lot to AI behavior. It adds a lot of life.
27:00It means that, well, it's the difference between you walking by an AI, them looking straight forward,
27:05or them looking at the player and maybe greeting them and, you know, asking them how they are.
27:10So it adds a lot of life basically to the address.
27:14The way it interacts with all the primary setup is very easy. It's essentially just layered on top.
27:21The idea is once you've set up one greeting, the logic for that greeting, it can be applied to any
27:26AI who has a greeting line.
27:27So for example, Captain White, he has greetings. Kelly has greetings. All our cast characters, even some of our, what
27:34we call red shirt characters,
27:35who are like minor characters, they have greetings. And the good thing about the secondary logic is that once you've
27:42set it up once,
27:43it can be applied to everyone. You know, you don't have to do that setup over and over and over
27:46again.
27:47In the perfect scenario, if the player wants to play the story as we intended, then they will have the
27:53perfect playthrough.
27:54If they want to influence the scene and the story, then they can still do it and they will enjoy
27:59that fact that everything systemic is not like a baked scene.
28:04It's really something that is using the real time AI. So if an AI changes loadout or changes outfit, you
28:10will see that impacting the cinematic scene.
28:13Our big challenge is to make sure that the system is the most robust and stable as possible so that
28:19designers, content creators are not worried to bring more content.
28:25They are not worried about, let's say, experimenting with the gameplay because a cool game, it's coming from experimentation and
28:34iteration.
28:35And if you don't allow people to iterate, then you pretty much are getting stuck to the first test and
28:43then people don't want to change it.
28:45And then it's going to be like, it's not great, but if I now change this script, then everything is
28:51going to break and I don't want to do it.
28:52And we don't have time. It's really interesting for me to try to speak a lot with writers, to level
28:58designers, to system designs,
28:59to other AI programmers, because we want to make sure that everything we do doesn't have big ripple effect on
29:07the other systems,
29:08but they just build on top. They expand functionality. It's sort of a composition method.
29:14So you want that every system can be composed by multiple elements and you can create more without breaking the
29:21others.
29:22And I think this is the big, interesting challenge of Star Citizen.
29:27As you can see, the cutting edge AI tech integrating with cinematic moments aims to give players an experience that's
29:33story driven,
29:34but also extremely personal and adaptable.
29:37We'll have another Squadron 42 project update for you next month.
29:41That's right. And in the meantime, you can head to the game's web page to sign up for the dedicated
29:45newsletter,
29:46check out past updates, and stay on the front lines of development.
29:49This weekend will be our last chance to supersize your Star Citizen starter package and add Squadron 42 for just
29:55$15.
29:56The price for the upgrade will increase on Monday, so grab both games and take advantage of this special while
30:01you still can.
30:03In Star Citizen news, this week the PU teams branched to Alpha 3.1 as planned,
30:07and continue to stabilize and gear up for deployment to Evacati as we get closer to release.
30:12You can always stay up to date on what we're planning for that release and beyond with the live roadmap
30:17on our website.
30:17Last week's installment of ShipShape introduced the first new concept ship of 2018, the Aegis Vulcan.
30:23This versatile utility ship will be an entry point for Star Citizen players interested in support roles,
30:29with the ability to refuel, repair, and rearm ships in need of assistance.
30:33You can pledge for the Vulcan now, so make sure you head to the store and check it out.
30:36Also released today, the Aegis Wrecking Cruise Ship Pack gives you an instant self-sufficient mini fleet with five ships
30:43handpicked to work together in formidable harmony.
30:46You can learn more about the Vulcan and the mechanics involved in its repair, refuel, and rearm functions tomorrow
30:51in the episode of Reverse the Verse, airing live at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
30:56Thanks to our subscribers for sponsoring Reverse the Verse, Around the Verse, and all of our shows.
31:00We look forward to seeing some of you at our upcoming subscriber events in L.A. and Darby.
31:06And thank you to all our backers and supporters for the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
31:10That's it for us today.
31:11Until next week, we will see you...
31:14Around the Verse!
31:41Thanks for watching!
31:42So if you want to keep up with the latest and greatest in Star Citizen and Squadron 42's
31:46development, please follow us on our social media channels.
31:49See you soon!
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