Squadron 42: Around the Verse - Flight Intelligence

This week, Sean Tracy and Eric Kieron Davis host our latest Squadron 42 special, where we get a detailed project update and a look into the intricacies of Ship AI.
------------------------------------------
Roberts Space Industries is a spacecraft manufacturer within the persistent-world game "Star Citizen" and its companion single-player spaceflight sim, "Squadron 42." RSI is also your portal for information, updates, and purchases of your very own spacecraft with which to trade, plunder, and protect the citizens of Star Citizen.
Be sure to visit Roberts Space Industries here and on your favorite social platform:
RSI - RobertsSpaceIndustries.com
Facebook - bit.ly/RSI_Facebook
Twitter - bit.ly/RSI_Twitter
Twitch (Star Citizen) - bit.ly/RSI_Twitch
Instagram - bit.ly/RSI_Instagram
Google+ - bit.ly/RSI_GooglePlus

[@KungLiGaming]

Good morning Mr. Freeman! Welcome to Black Mesa.

[@teoea]

Also my thought! xD

[@Technauts]

Fun fact, Mark Abent (bugsmashers) Was the programmer on Half life Black Mesa

[@KungLiGaming]

HELL YEAH :D

[@Jugbot]

Secretly SQ42 was half life 3 all along...

[@KungLiGaming]

fixed: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5-ygaSidquJjZY

[@AndrewJHayford]

That monorail on the ship is pretty awesome. GJ

[@tbone9474]

There's a monorail inside a... flyable capital ship??? Oh my gosh

[@Xenthorx]

New Skin Shader looks awesome, and oh boy i love Mark Hamill hehe

[@vonklinkenhoffn1]

I thought the first one looked much better and more detailed on all of them. Did they show the wrong ones maybe?

[@Dilligaf777]

This game is insane even the food will look different..

[@m.s.8927]

Dilligaf when other game developers criticize sc: "even the food is more detailed then what you ever created"

[@Dilligaf777]

M. S. Randomly generating the food on the plate, i have never seen that before.

[@XkriskrossX]

Dilligaf Procedurally generated egg McMuffins are overpowered, CIG please nerf

[@raf.nogueira]

Last update 3 years ago, is this game Squadron 42 abandoned?

[@TeaRex67]

Everything about this is satisfying, thank you for taking the time you need to polish this. This will be a game to be remembered.

[@veliostv9089]

Amen, dude :)

[@rinzler289]

I agree, good things take time I suppose. Sadly I am going to have gray hair when I start playing it.. I feel kinda silly still playin games as old as I am but its what I love.. PC Master Race Gamer all the way until I die.

[@ressivdj]

Nah, this is a game which wil never come to be. Maybe in year 2030?

[@TeaRex67]

Meh, I think you're being a bit too pessimistic to be fair, but I don't really care for a release date anymore, all I want Is a polished game. Theres a ton of other good games to play meanwhile. Edit: le typos

[@djbpresents9584]

Tea Wrex gamr will never come out its a dream they sucking money for

[@DonBilboism]

Alien stuff was awesome. Everything else also 😀. Nice update. Thanks for your hard and dedicated work @allCIG

[@markmaynard6551]

They are going to have the AI so believable they will be hosting "Around the Verse" all by themselves.

[@MagiofAsura]

Mark Maynard lol that doesn't make sense. They aren't making actual AI's ya know.

[@kriegjaeger]

Just make sure to keep them fed and hygenic or they might run off!

[@satannstuff]

With decision trees? I don't think so.

[@Bnryzombie]

Sean You are my favorite person to hear info from. YOU ROCK MAN!!!

[@kobked-x]

well, he is Canadian so, ya :)

[@seantracy9848]

THANKS I still hate reading a prompter though...LET ME LOOSE! :D

[@sequorroxx]

Even their models for food are built using tech that is beyond what most games use for their best features: 5:17

[@naples8989]

lol

[@RyoMassaki]

Not true. Substance Designer is used literally EVERYWHERE in the industry. The difference is that other companies use the tool to crunch through work faster, while CIG uses it to make the end result even more detailed and better.

[@Mindbulletz]

I busted out laughing when I heard the words "procedural food." Squadron 42 mess halls are OP. Watch, they're our secret weapon against the Vanduul.

[@MagiofAsura]

Seriously is an unnecessary addition. Who cares about the food? What a waste of resources.

[@K4ninchen]

FF XV has a lot of good looking dishes. I like the level of detail. That's something you remember. Maybe not the food in SC/SQ42 but other details.

[@SaneNoMore]

6 years, I've been following and backing this game. I still get amazed by the FIDELITY. The original ships were impressive, the updated ones are simply amazing. As an older guy I never imagined a game looking like this.

[@az_3kgt714]

ship so big you need a train to traverse it hrmms lol

[@darthkevin95]

The Bengal Carrier has a length of around 1.000 meters ;)

[@Mister-Tea]

I'm sure the first iteration of this train, will work better than our French SNCF XD

[@darthkevin95]

You complain about SNCF? I'm German, ask me about our wonderful trains from the DB :D :D

[@makslol1]

Oh come on, french trains are better than any european trains I can think of

[@cherub3624]

And this is how ww3 started.

[@Vadixamil]

Okay UK team, now you all are just showing off................ keep it up. \o/.

[@tticd]

"LARGER Xi'An ships..." Oh? DO GO ON...

[@tticd]

chiffmonkey the big, sideways boomerang, sure - but this is a seemingly fully realized interior. Those images you're thinking of were bare concepts drawn from a distance. Someone's been busy...

[@tticd]

Darrin Newlander like a million wallets screaming out in pain

[@tticd]

chiffmonkey thanks! But I've seen them.

[@VTRDC27]

As someone who loved long flightpaths in WOW vanilla and hates instant waypoint teleportation stuff... YAS to more things like subway systems and time-to-travel being something in the game. I want to feel the scope. Modern convenience be damned (it kills the social aspect of games when you can just teleport everywhere and are never forced to communicate or mingle) I would love if quantum was more like elite's supercruise and less like a waypoint teleport system too... but that's just me.

[@Arthillis]

You may already know this, but quantum only feels like a waypoint teleport system. Your actually moving through space in this game and can be knocked out of quantum by players and NPC's. The fact you can't really change course means it would be better to think of quantum as a very fast monorail that you can stop when you feel like it or be stopped before reaching your destination. Also unlike Elite when your in say a 30 minute quantum jump across a system you will be able to get up move around take a shower (if your ship has one) and do other things. Also depends on how big your ship is and what features it has.

[@mobiuscoreindustries]

Arthillis just try to not be IN the shower when the ship get unrestricted, it would scramble for the nearest pressure suit and end up slipping on the soap.

[@VTRDC27]

I am aware of that, but I would really like to have to control my speed, judge when to slow down or change course. I don't like control being taken from me, and the "waypoint system" they are currently using would be fine with me if we also had a supercruise-style setting with high speeds. Maybe you need to power down weps/shields to use it to be fair and have a wind-up. I just want the approach to a planet to be exciting and not just popping into existence, if that helps describe what I'm looking for.

[@MagiofAsura]

The quantum travel thing will definitely need a rework if the time periods are too long. Most didn't get this game to be waiting to do the fun stuff or too hook up with friends with your ships.

[@jonmkl]

Oh jeez! Flightpaths in Vanilla WoW... That is a throwback... Haven't played since Burning Crusade. Loved that persistence, and never been a fan of "Fast Travel" in general. It's worth noting however that the current space being traversed in the PU is only a single planet and its satellites, so of course it's almost immediate. The distance between other planets in a system will be _much_ longer. That's not to mention traveling between systems which will likely be very time consuming, especially because you'll likely have to travel through multiple systems via gates to get to the one you want to go to. Trust me man, this game is gonna have a LOT of waiting around.

[@jonathansimmons8256]

Now we need a space train so big you need a ship to get around it.

[@subbss]

This needs more upvotes LOL

[@AlexMRL]

Driving around in a ship would be cool.

[@poncho4068]

and that's about it folks

[@uncoveringthelost]

In 2025, This game will be amazing!

[@frighteningspoon]

uncoveringthelost Hopefully we get our hands on SQ42 waaay before that!

[@TimTheMain]

2025? An optimist.

[@user-qv1mx5iv1z]

the Walking Dad))

[@Desotho]

The newest monthly update .. from 2018 :D

[@studiopacha4097]

I love TRAINS !

[@GoMitchUrSelf]

It’s weird watching these now

[@AceTycho]

Keeps getting better and better. This will be one to remember.

[@reillybrangan2182]

1:22 Those reflections... they're so... beautiful.

[@NOOBIFIER1337]

SQ 42 HYPE!

[@LandscaperUSC]

I can't lie... I creamed my pants a little bit. :)

[@fmartingorb]

SQ42 hype will be PU Hype too!!!

[@michaeltraydor1806]

Hype lool thats stupid. Its in a fcking pre.alpha LoooL that means atleast 4more years

[@fmartingorb]

Michael Traydor go and play in the ptu and shut it :)

[@kobked-x]

Ignore Martin.. oh wait that's not even in spectrum yet.. however, Traydor has a solid point, don't expect much for at least two more years maybe even more. It will be well worth it to be fair.. maybe we can eat fried eggs long before there is much of a game...

[@parktoid]

3:15 I need a human for scale for the Vanduul for scale.

[@Kingdomkey123678]

parktoid They’re Seven feet tall

[@m.s.8927]

parktoid whats with a banana for scale?

[@DJB10T1C]

Just noticed a visual bug from the video, the white part of the eye looks almost luminescent in the dark and sometimes in the light. ooo cant wait for this game, keep it going guys, the excitement is building in all of us!!

[@Tharindu87]

Wow last update video redirected from the website was set 5 years ago?! When do you intend to release ?!!!

[@TheOneSourceOfTruth]

Everything shown here looks very good, I am loving these SQ42 focused ATVs. The offline-singleplayer is why I am here.

[@Chroniton_TJ]

Space Trains Confirmed!!

[@CorpSanct]

Black mesa!

[@TorianArmrag]

Bengal

[@Meichie228]

Can't wait for the next SQ42 update. Keep up the good work!

[@Kotwurf]

A railroad? :-O !!! So say we all!!

[@paulbarlow9981]

Great episode, thanks! I LOVED those planes as a kid, used to get them all the time!

[@davism131]

Please give us another one of these! These were so great. I'm literally watching this over 3 years later.

[@TimTheMain]

Don't worry you can keep watching it for few more decades.

[@mr3lion]

I love everything about flight AI. Great idea

[@asifdomo500]

9:40 *AI is now Compeltely Character Centered, so it is not the Ship that is Ai but the pilot itself* therefore the npc can be better one than another!

[@nahuelcutrera]

awesome show guys !! the AI looks outstanding !!... can't wait for this game.

[@d34d10ck]

3:50 The Xi'An design looks absolutely amazing. The shapes, flowing lights, the console and door animations as well as the holographic displays are absolutely fantastic looking. I can't imagine it being any better than that.

[@hugocoty1970]

They really did a animation for an egg

[@azaral8200]

Reminds me of the train in Halflife

[@WarrawTIG]

Watching those effects is thee ultimate nerdgasm.

[@sgtbjack]

I primarily only care about SQ42 at this point. I love these updates.

[@coreyhoward2503]

can we make sure there is a way to shut the tram down in the PU if necessary from the bridge? wouldn't want a boarding party to have an easy ride around the ship.

[@lord_alderaan9283]

(Boarding party) "Hey cap'tn how we get to engineering?" "Easy soldier. Says here on this direction panel we just need to catch the tram for 10 stops and then take a right turn." XD

[@avidian888]

Damn the alien ships are way more elegant than the human ships! Good job on reflecting the fact, that the humans are the newcomers. Good design always tells detailed stories. +42

[@illgottengains1314]

Those fried eggs tho

[@MagiofAsura]

illGottenGains fried eggs don't make a game though.

[@abigacha8864]

@Albastine S., fried eggs do make a game though, as it is the preview of the environment artist to make locations more believable for immersion with as much detail as they can muster. Think how odd it would be to go the cafeteria on a Idris, or Bengal and see NPC going through eating animations with nothing on their plates.

[@AChungusAmongUs]

I love the look of the new lasers. I was not expecting to see Vanduul and Xi'an stuff. That was a treat!

[@StephenBlane]

An SQ42 ATV? This is my lucky day!

[@MrLuc420]

Mr_StephenB they're doing these every month now :)

[@blaubar8838]

Great video. Funny T-Shirt Francesco Roccucci is wearing at 18:04

[@deeplogicstudio6706]

I like the emmisive particle effects, nice job on those particle shaders.

[@donrosmarin1812]

The best looking food in Videogame History :D

[@kovenmaitreya7184]

Don Rosmarin We've come a long way since the orange goop from the first sims games

[@tbrws]

Yes finally procedural food!!! This is what we want.... who needs a Bengal when you can have procedural Bacon

[@Areanyusernamesleft]

But CIG will give us Bengals *with* procedural bacon!

[@ganaelschneider]

hahaha i don't mind

[@ganaelschneider]

S42 is looking soo good! the art pass on the skin is night and day with the old one. And the Bengal and Xian ships :O

[@tomcyclope]

it reminds me half life 1 when the hero is coming in the station at the start. So impressiv.

[@blaubar8838]

awesome sound and music at 4:14.

[@steve-on7kl]

Looks amazing!

[@brucalizer]

One of the most interesting atvs we've ever had imo!

[@tlove21]

A ship with a monorail, future hurry up and come...

[@Excalabur50]

Wow things are looking good

[@vickloken974]

Just one word : Awesome !

[@MrStickyMouse]

2:57 '' Fighters and the Liiiiiikeeee''

[@Luis-lq5yk]

That was GOOOOOD!

[@flashbackflip]

Absolutely stunned with Xian tech reel. Unbelievably cool! Also - fantastic insight into ai design PS. 2019 here

[@bamamedic1877]

Procedural food for the galley. This game continues to amaze me after all these years.

[@Fiasco3]

Bengal mono-rail looks like the Mass-Effect one.. I love Mass Effect and the Bengal just got even cooler if that was possible.

[@nyx290]

The walking dad😂

[@developement]

Behold Christ Roberts!

[@Vlusion]

The scale of variation in this game is unbelievable.

[@1ChilledDude]

Love the new shader passes on the character models. Amazing!

[@KWW0321]

Awesome!

[@LittleLightUwU]

on the webside this is linked as the latest update, is it?

[@zanderfeder77]

The development of SQ42 has not been shown publicly for about 4 years and therefore there are no recent clips or videos of the game. Currently Chris Roberts has moved to England and wants to lead the completion of SQ42. Presumably the game will be released in 2024/2025.

[@LittleLightUwU]

@@zanderfeder77 thanks for the info^^

[@chrish813]

@@zanderfeder77 yeah Alot of the resources have been moved to finish SQ42

[@KiraHellhammer]

Hype hype hype... Doing great things here RSI and folks. Keep it up

[@VictorECaplon]

GEEEZZZ !!! HOW GOOD CAN IT GET SERIOUSLY ?!!

[@stentheman]

who else got a half life flashback ? 2:05 X)

[@VictorECaplon]

STENTHEMAN I got more of a halo 2 flashback...

[@calihead12]

Amazing!

[@anony88]

I hope this game gets updated over the next 20 years or so like for example what runescape has done. This game has a ridiculous amount of possibilities. I'd like to see even larger ships for end game players.. Graphic cards in 5 or 6 years from now should be able to handle much larger ships. It would be awesome to see flying cities basically. I'd like to see a star trek style of gameplay where there are a bunch of missions on the larger ships..as well as deep story lines with each npc.

[@yasinzeydulusoy]

5:57 OH MY GOD FİNALLY. PLEASE PUT THİS İN STAR CİTİZEN.

[@Espana2942]

Oh my Hype! Tank You! grettings for España2942 !

[@plillevold]

Love your t-shirt, Francesco! at 17:58

[@parasecglenkwyst4835]

Am i the only one who thinks the old shaders look better? not as pale as the new ones.

[@moldoveanu8]

I need to change my pants. This is turning into Halo and I love it.

[@kovenmaitreya7184]

Michael S. That is music to my ears. I seriously love Halo, one of my best gameplay experiences and probably my favorite game series of all time.

[@DayLateGamerWill]

God I miss when thursdays shows were worth watching, I miss these deep dives

[@thedarknightnicht]

Procedural F O O D

[@jacobrabon2745]

that Bengal/Shubin rail gave me some serious dead space 2 vibes, I can't wait to get lost in there

[@MrKraignos]

Monorail gets me a half-life nostalgia

[@Jamie-666]

Awesome

[@AQDuck]

BENGAL IS BACK IN ACTION BABY!

[@BakerPeter]

Mad props to Gary Sanchez for the Xian work.

[@connorwieland8155]

So Star Citizen is going to have the nemesis system from Shadow of War on top of everything else?! CIG is just getting better and better!

[@AndreasElf]

Wow, are those flying gliders still being sold? I remember having two or three as a kid.

[@RyoMassaki]

Baking procedural smart foods in Substance Designer....awesome. But isn't it a little overkill to create dedicated unique node-soups for every food material?

[@MagiofAsura]

OK I thought I was the only one who was kinda turned off that they wasted their time with this instead of having 2 meals available like a normal cafeteria.

[@Exsulator2]

I really hope they did that because the team was blocked from higher prioritized work... Fidelity is good and all, but this is just excessive. (very cool, though)

[@RyoMassaki]

Well i just thought about it. The good thing about substance designer is that everything is procedural and can be adjusted in a second. It even goes further than that and can be made available in the engine. Meaning all the stuff they did in Designer (like they showed here, making the egg smaller, adjust the noise cutout, etc.) can be adjusted in engine at runtime. It also means that if they build it cleverly that these nodes can be adjusted for other food. Eggs are very special but anything that gets mashed up on a plate could be made with the same kind of Substance node graph. They could have 10 variants of beans (small, big, dark, light etc) or anything looking like beans, 10 variants of meat with noodles/rice etc. and while it takes time to build the Substance node network for the first variant, the others are basically done at no additional costs except a littlebit of time. (couple of minutes, really) Which could be done by a level designer, if and when needed. So it is actually future proof and highly customizable.

[@Arthillis]

Depends on your cafeteria Albestine. The one at the hospital I work at has multiple things served daily and change it up daily as well. Also you have to consider they aren't making food for only one cafeteria but for multiple planets and systems. Lets not forget the possible alien dishes as well. Be kind of weird if you visited Earth and they only had 2 meals available everywhere you looked.

[@Dark-Lord-Of-The-Sith]

Rylo Ken I do as well, I have a couple of recipes for slow roasted Ewok I am killing to try!

[@thomasjoyce7910]

They didn't talk about meeting a pilot outside of their ship. Will their approach to a gunfight be similarly aggressive/cagey or will they play to their (possibly very different) strengths, weaknesses and personal weapons. Say you are a bounty hunter and your target is sooo good in their superhornet that your only chance to safely confront them is when they are landed somewhere. Also it looks like this game will be a convenient way for various real-world governments to test combat AI for their drones. - Atmospheric flight of course.

[@chexmax2848]

Can’t wait to see squadron 42 completed! Also, on the topic of player takedowns, will there be an option for non-lethal attacks?

[@TheAzurite]

Yes, there will be non-lethal ones, will be useful for future bounty hunters and militia.

[@chexmax2848]

Azurite thanks! I’m planning on being a bounty hunter when they implement the role

[@theodorewinston7625]

I just came here for the eyecandy. More space trains!!!

[@rafaelaguila4640]

Too much goodness. Won't be able to sleep tonight. Those shaders though...WOW!!!

[@lord_alderaan9283]

Next month CIG, can we please get a Bengal tour. Maybe even a Bengal layout guide uploaded to the RSI website. That way we backers can get a better understanding of the Bengal-class Carriers layout. I ask this because during this video I couldn't even tell where these Bengal interior shots were from on the ship. Maybe the hangar?

[@Hamuelin]

I focus mainly on the mmo side of SC. But this could be really good. Hopefully it comes soon(er) and is a solid space campaign.

[@MagiofAsura]

It's more of a question if the story is any good and the dialogue better than that of the vertical slice.

[@Hamuelin]

Albastine S. aye, that’s why I hope it’s a good campaign/story

[@chaadlosan]

Mark has never looked so good.

[@Typek83]

"The Walking Dad" t-shirt OWNS! ;p