RSI Concludes Big Week

It's been a huge couple of days for Roberts Space Industries! Initial response to the Kickstarter has been phenomenal with over $300,000 raised in just 54 hours. At the same time, RSI's pledge site crossed $1.2 million for a combined total over $1,500,000! Five dedicated fans have even pledged for the $10,000 category. The main page has started to sell out of certain slots, including the $30 "First Responder" and $1000 "The Stars My Destination." It is still currently possible to contribute these amounts via KS. The Star Citizen FAQ continues to expand, but a number of questions have been answered on forums or via social media. Here's a couple answers to things we've heard people asking about.

On the subject of dual-pledging to both Kickstarter and RSI (not upgrading an individual pledge at one single site):

Don't worry. You don't have to trade in your ship - you can have multiple ones at the same time (but only fly one at once of course). I was just using this an example of a possible upgrade if you wanted a different type / style of ship than the one you start with. I fully expect players to go both ways - some will collect all the ship types as a goal, and some will be more concerned about hone one ship into the perfect fighting / trading ship.

So on the "double" backing - if you pledge for say a SCOUT package and then get a WINGNUT Package - you will have both ships in your "space" garage, your credits will be pooled and you'll get all the physical rewards promised in each package.

When asked if it's possible to lose the ship you pledge for:

Its not technically correct that you don't lose your pledge ship - you do. BUT all pledge ships come with lifetime insurance, as opposed to the ones you can purchase in game. So when your ship is destroyed you'll get rescued and returned to the nearest friendly base / planet and will have your ship minus its cargo and any upgrades you bought along the way. You can purchase insurance in-game for upgrades, ships & cargo (think Loyds of London).

I'm really wanting to model a "real" world situation. So just like in the real world you're not forced to buy insurance - if you're in the safe parts of the empire you probably don't need it, but if you're trading in areas that you can be attacked by pirates its probably a smart thing to have - but its always your choice. The concept is that in the safe parts,where there is heavy law enforcement you pay landing tariffs and taxes on the goods you sell - to pay for the infrastructure and law and order. But on the outer part of the galaxy, that doesn't have law and order and therefore will have pirates & PvP there are no tariff or taxes and therefore greater profit. But also greater risk. By modeling a full ecosystem like this I hope that different sets of players gravitate to different roles and take different amounts of risk. Some will hie others to take risk trading runs, others will gravitate to it. Some will band together to from a pirate clan, others a merchant guild.

There have been two new RSI articles posted. The first is a chapter of an adventure story and the second is Chris Roberts' take on physics. You can check out a video on the game's physics here.

I will admit that the ship doesn’t need to have wings or fans on the front, but the idea behind that is for possible atmospheric flight (this is not a promise of planetary action for the early build but allows for expansions in this direction), and as a RAM scoop. Plus it just looks / feels cool!

In the days ahead, RSI plans to release stats/images for more ships and allow members at the RSI website to upgrade their contributions. They are also shooting for a Reddit AMA with Chris Roberts on Monday.