Idris Update
-It's not necessarily being withheld from backers because of SQ42 (I've read this a lot so I asked)
-Idris is missing Items 2.0 stuff like doors, etc. being wired up properly so it's not completed yet
-Idris is so large with the number of items and complexity it's spawning would cause the PU servers to struggle. The example he gave was how the Starfarer already causes current servers to struggle and image how much more so with the Idris being so much larger and more complex. This means StarNetwork (net code) has to be completed and polished.
-Chris doesn't want to put it into the PU until the StarNetwork (net code) can supported at minimum two Idris (Idri?) and several other ships so there can be a good battle between them. It's no fun for there to be just one in the game. It's inclusion needs to provide fun and meaning. So the back-end needs to comfortably support more than one Idris.
-The Idris has 50~ NPCs living on it in SQ42
Capital Ship NPC Crews
In the long term, you should be able to fly the larger ships without other players using just NPCs; it just will be very limited in efficiency and quality. Obviously, NPCs will be far less quality than humans since they will be able to plan and react instantly to your commands. This gave me hope concerning the numerous multi-crew ships I've pledged.
Star Marine
SataBall is coming in the future
Exploding Planets
I asked whether we would see a reprise of Wing Commander III where the Kilrathi home world gets destroyed by the Temblor Bomb. Basically, would we be able to see a planet get destroyed in Star Citizen. He laughed and said they had kicked it around but not anytime soon.
Retribution
I asked about the Retribution and whether it was a set piece or would be able to interact with it.
-SQ42 EP 1: It's under construction
-SQ42 EP 2-3: It's flying and doing stuff
He didn't give much more than that about it. So we should see it around in EP 2.
UPDATE: Tagged with Spoilers so to warn people that didn't want to know about SQ42 stuff.