So the long awaited Arena Commander (the pre-alpha dogfighting module for Star Citizen) is available for download (~13GB) now by the pledged backers. I played it last Saturday Night and have many good and a few not so good comments about it.

First off the graphics are beautiful. The sound is professional and you do feel like you are in another universe. I had the graphics cranked up to maximum levels and even my super high level machine strained just a bit during the fight with some NPC's (51 frames/second). Of course this is pre-alpha so I'm sure that the final release will be optimized better.

There are 2 different maps to fly around but the area you are allowed to fly in at this time is rather small. But it is enough to get the feel. You can select a mode for just flying around or you can select another mode in which you and some NPC buddies can fight 5 NPC enemies at a time.

At the start I was a little frustrated with the controls using mouse and keyboard. I am accustomed to Freelancer which has nice quick, crisp moves but there seems to be some delay on Arena Commander. In thinking about it the delay is probably more realistic because of mass and inertia. Anyway after about 30 minutes of flying I was doing a much better job and killing a lot of NPC's. I think after a few more hours I should be able to handle the control much better.

There will be an update at a later date which will allow multiplayer fighting against other people.

So at this point I give Arena Commander a 1 thumbs up. It is still a long time before the final release but I like that they are giving us a chance to try out the game at different stages of the development. With the enormous budget (currently $47 million) this game is sure to be a big success.

it took my pc 29 hrs to dl war thunder. prob 24hrs for that dl. my isp strikes again.

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lol XXX i no how u feel buddy sometimes mine takes justa day to download a big file. a 8gb download
or somedays it will download high speed. lol

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all my posts that i post either new topics or replies, will always be a LOL , LMAO, Factor reply :) :)
kind regards

[GLTC]darkdaz-[M]
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It's a joke, The mouse controls for flying my ship is too buoyant and even though I managed 5-6 waves of NPC's, there's nothing in this game that even comes close as to what is claimed to be like Freelancer per pilot ability. There's no strafing at all, it's all roll over using the A & D keys which, sucks. He should have bound that to the Q & E keys. I found no way to remap any keys at all. As you can see in any video when Chris is playing the game, he doesn't use M & KB, he's using a controller or, game pad. So, Imho, this game is not actually base on PC gaming only that, it's a PC game. I got tired of struggling with it. Very disappointed and even more-so that, he's paying more attention to people developing new ships and getting those in game than the actual game itself. I don't really care about adding new ships by closet developers, I want to see an actual working demo without a restricted filed of play. Also, I want to see my ship launch, not a load screen and then, be in space. I want to see the bay doors open and my ship move out into space.

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The recent patch finally allowed me to get into a Multiplayer fight. There were 3 of us in the fight. Unfortunately the one guy who payed more money for the hornet was tearing me and the other guy to shreads. He had 4 guns and a missile where we had only 2 guns. Well I guess that is realistic. He who has the most money wins.

At least the patch fixed the multiplayer problem. It is still a long time before the release so I am hopeful that I won't be just a sitting duck for all the players that payed more. I need to practice a more conservative approach against the heavy hitters. I am still hopeful that this will be one awesome game.

You playing with M & KB? I know that it sucks playing it with them. There's no real control over the ship like Freelancer and it all was supposed to function the same. It's all game pad/controller, Imo. Yeah, it's M & KB compatible alright but, I've never seen Chris playing the game with one. All the vids show him using a controller.

Yes, those with the most money will prevail in this game. Those that have capital ships will be out to just slaughter the weaker ships, like on any Freelancer server you go to. I've seen videos of some of the payers that got money and they own practically ever ship in the game, so far and fully equipped.

One good question. Did they fix the roll-over? It is bound to other keys instead of the A & D keys? Did they return those back to being able to strafe?


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strafe



Verb
# transitive - To attack (ground targets) with automatic gunfire from a low-flying aircraft.
# transitive video games - to sidestep; to move sideways without turning. A core mechanic of most first-person shooters.

Noun
# An attack of machine-gun or cannon fire from a low-flying aircraft.
# video games - A sideways movement without turning.

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Hmmm.....

Thank you Moon and HK for letting me/us know about this, I appreciate both of your input on this game. I was looking forward to star citizen but think I know where this is headed and that saddens me and I'll leave it there. ;)

*chokes on 47mill.....* IT'S A GAME!!

Have fun with it my friends and good luck!

~J

My intention is not to turn anyone against the game, just update everyone on the status to date. At this point everything is pre-alpha so a lot of things will change before the final release. Yes HK I am playing with M & KB and with practice I am getting very good now at controlling the ship. But you are correct that the realistic physics of mass and inertia designed into this game do make it much more difficult to control the ships than in Freelancer. Still with the excellent graphics and the promise of an extremely large and diverse universe I am still very excited to see where this one will go.

Hopefully, it will change from what it is now if, he's actually intending it to be a PC game. I hope it's never released for consoles. Too many console games being sold for PC game out there today with bad ports for PC. Some are so bad that, the only way you can play them, is by going out and getting additional equipment like, a controller, just so you haven't wasted your money on the game and are able to play it at an extra cost.

There's so many fantastic looking game out but, they're not for PC. Destiny is one I wanted and followed until I found out it wasn't ever going to be released for PC.

I do know one thing, about placing my order, I purchased the hard disc of the game and all I have right now, is a digital copy but, like you said, it pre-Alpha right now.

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Good news HK. Check this out

http://m.pcgamer.com/2014/07/14/consoles-couldnt-possibly-handle-star-citizen-developer-says/

Good to hear but, it will take a higher end PC than PC Gamer claims. I'm struggling with a 5xxx series video card as it is. yet, I can play any other game out today with it. I'm sure I could over-clock it some but, I really don't want to do that right now because, it's still in pre-Alpha. I hoping some of those issues will be sorted out in the near future. However, Chris has expressed several times, he wants to take advantage of the high-end, next generation tech being released in order to produce the best video game for PC ever. I'm not there yet. Good news though, console babies can play their own games. We don't need 'em.

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Update:
With the newest patch there is finally a stable Multiplayer experience and I have to say it is AWESOME. It's like Freelancer on graphics steroids. There are 3 modes of Multiplayer each allowing up to 5 players on each team: (1) Battle Royale is an FFA to reach a target score to win, (2) Capture the Core is like Capture the flag in which you protect your core and capture the opponents to make points, (3) Squadron Battle you try to reduce your opponents to zero. I don't fully understand (2) & (3) yet but I was having a blast ripping opponents apart in (1) Battle Royal, even the Hornet ships. I have a 300i which has 2 weapons but the Hornets have 4 weapons including a missile I do not have. It was a big challenge but I was usually able to take down 2 or 3 opponents before they got me.

If you are new I do suggest practicing with the Drone Sim Vanduul Swarm which is a fight against some relatively easy NPC's. It takes a little while to get used to the controls which take into account the ship's inertia and mass that are not a part of the Freelancer experience.

With each patch the Star Citizen gets better. I can't wait to see the final release.

I don't know why but, I can't play it. I've checked out all specs required and I should be able to with flying colors. Idk what it is? Sluggish, controls aren't good at all. Looks like all my ships will be hanger icons for a while. I have not one problem playing other games of today. I think the game and Chris' testers need to be using more platforms and working on optimizing them for more players. The Options Menu doesn't give you much to work with. I use an AMD App and it scans for my games to Optimize them for my system and it doesn't even locate this game. Their optimization isn't always my choice but, I have it set for performance anyway.

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UPDATE:
Arena Commander has had plenty of time to work out the bugs now. The problems that plagued the early release are now gone. You can easily get into the fights without the system dropping you now. The flight model is working very well. It does not overcompensate for intertia and mass like it did in the past. I find that I need to practice more now because the realism of this simulation requires that you be very good at using the Guns. Missiles are available but in limited amounts and firing times. They do have Spam Boats (bombers) but I do not have one to try out.

The development schedule looks like this:
Hanger Module - Complete
Arena Commander - Dogfighting module is complete
First Person Shooter - You will be able to land on stations or planets and battle enemies
Planetside - A living planet in which you can trade goods and battle enemies
Squadron 42 - A single player experience
Persistent Universe - The final multiplayer universe

I took a video of a recent battle with NPC's (Vanduul Swarm). You can see how much fun it is by viewing the following clip:

http://youtu.be/B-RsaLMiQMM

I have not done very well yet against real players because I need more practice with the guns. But since the final release is more than a year away I have plenty of time to practice.

Nice