‘Star Citizen’: What’s In Store With The New Stretch Goals?

The crowdfunding run for Chris Roberts’ upcoming Star Citizen is by far the most impressive the world has ever seen. From the Kickstarter campaign that raised over $2 million, Chris went on to private crowdfunding in hopes of raising enough money to be able to release his game without the help of not just publishers, but private investors, a feat he says will require Cloud Imperium Games to raise $20 million.

In exchange for the generosity of his customers, Chris has regularly expanded the scope of the finished game. So what’s being offered now?

We talked previously about Cloud Imperium Games promising to build a motion capture studio if they crossed the $10 million mark and it was confirmed by Chris himself during my interview with him at E3, that all of the equipment had been ordered, purchase orders had been cut and they were looking for a location. Since then, more stretch goals have been added and reached in what I can only describe as a phenomenal show of community support.

The $12 Million Goal

Professional Sound Studio!

This one gives CIG the ability to built out a professional sound studio which, being an audio engineer myself, I can tell you is a big deal. As they say in the announcement:

This will give the team access to professional voice talent and the ability to interact more directly with the team doing the sound portion of the game.

More interaction means better quality work and better quality work means a better game so this is something I’m really looking forward to. Also…

It also means we’re going to push for Oculus Rift support in the upcoming hangar module… so line up those Rift pre-orders!

YES, tasty Oculus support! (I really hope they throw in TrackIR support, too!)

We also got some goodies for some of the $100,000 mini goals. What are those?! Here’s some of them!

System unlock: NEMO

• Ownership: UEE
• Planets: 3
• Planetary Orbital Periods: 344 SED (Ergo)
• Import: Electronics
• Export: Water, Food, Crude Oil
• Crime Status: Medium
• Black Market: Narcotics, Slaves
• UEE Strategic Value: Blue

Nemo is a mid-range human-settled system centered around a tropical waterworld, Ergo. Ergo produces vast quantities of undersea oil and has been settled with a series of orbital-dropped platform cities. Although there is no denying the fact that the planet exists largely to supply other more populous systems, the Ergonians have developed their own unique culture. Unlike most water worlds, absolutely no indiginous life has formed on the planet, so visitors hoping to find an unusual fish will be disappointed.

The highlight of the Nemo system is the so-called “Space Whale.” A naturally forming asteroid located in safe orbit around Nemo III, the planetoid resembles nothing so much as an Earth whale suspended in space. The locals have taken the whale as their own, constructing a nearby tourist trap for visitors to the system. Here you will find readily available t-shirts and shotglasses with phrases ranging from the obvious “I Saw the Space Whale!” to the utterly inexpicable “Ergo, I Got Blubbered.”

Nemo II is a resource and refining world, producing a variety of mid-class alloys.

Also:

System Unlock: Oberon

• Ownership: Lawless
• Planets: 7
• Planetary Orbital Periods: 286 SED (Gonn), 355 (Uriel)
• Import: Oxygen, Reactors
• Export: Heavy Metals
• Crime Status: Medium
• Black Market: Weapons
• UEE Strategic Value: Purple

Oberon IV, Gonn, is home to a robust mining community like those found in the most distant places on Earth: a group of humans seemingly unconcerned with their own welfare in an impossibly harsh environment. The world is not terraformed, and inhabitants must brave extreme heat and cold in order to survive… but the process is worthwhile, with massive exports of titanium, durasteel and tungsten. Countless robotic refineries allow the miners to offer processed alloys rather than simply raw ores.

The historical centerpiece of the system is Oberon V, Uriel. One of the saddest stories in modern terraforming, Uriel represents an attempt to raise the core temperature to make up for the lack of heat from Oberon’s neutron star. The attempt was considered a sure thing and its failure left three sloships of colonists bound for the world trapped and forced to either eke out a life underground or die of exposure. A competitive, family-based society has formed on the world, with seven major clans vying for control of scant few resources.

Several above-ground settlements have sprung up in recent years, although they have a distinct expiration date. In five years, a swarm of 70-year cyclical insects will devour all organic matter above sea level. Attempts at extermination in advance of the deadline have thus far been unsuccessful. As the saying goes, the most valuable thing someone can ship in the Gonn system is Urielians away from it.

So we’ve picked up at least two more explorable systems to go with the 100 that we were previously promised. That’s over 100 systems we can enter, fly around, check out, probably land in, etc. It’s more than any game in recent history and I dare say more than any game I have been able to research. This is hotness. So what are the next perks?