Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

Ed02350

E
VR Golgot said:
Not sure on their most recent staffing claims but they're aiming for 1k in Manchester. Linkedin has ~816 staff for CIG, ~185 for Turbulent (not all of those on CIG projects).
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Aiming for 1000? Why? it's not like there's much for them to do going by CIG's oputput. Also not like CR is going to put that on his resme like he'd going to find a job anywhere else. It's not even accumulating wealth at this point and all ego.
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Some fun dev sass on Linkedin:

Senior Online Multiplayer Backend Game Developer said:
I actually did "play" it with a bud. Aside from being unoptimized eye candy, it did have potential -- it's just that with the money they had, they should have been able to bring that potential to a reality many times over.

Meanwhile, Baldurs Gate 3 had only a $100m budget and had to create significant, rippling choices throughout (read: difficult and resource consuming). Yet! They launched in only 5 years with the fraction of the budget.

Indeed, a MMO is more difficult, but the actual progress vs funding is quite pathetic.

Edit: the first red flag was that they went with 8k textures and extreme details on env before the game even decided on the direction they were going. Everyone knows to graybox it first, although everyone also knows grayboxes don't get funding.
It's quite the paradox -- if someone actually funded a conceptual idea from grayboxing, you'd have an amazing, optimized game with a realistic launch timeline. Unfortunately, that pretty much never happens.
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Ex Director of International Marketing - Bungie said:
A roadmap later this year… 🤣
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Freelance Game Designer said:
I loved a Wired article that called the ships you could buy "doubly virtual," because they are virtual goods in a game that doesn't exist.

This was in 2015. :)
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And some fun upvotes for the OP sass, from an ex Microsoft VP, and a current Cloud Solutions Architect ;)
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
Ed02350 said:
Aiming for 1000? Why? it's not like there's much for them to do going by CIG's oputput. Also not like CR is going to put that on his resme like he'd going to find a job anywhere else. It's not even accumulating wealth at this point and all ego.
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VR Golgot said:
Because for CR the appearance of success = success ;)
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^^^
This.

That’s why Chris Roberts focuses on having lavishly appointed office buildings filled with artwork, sculptures, and custom fixtures; huge cons celebrating the “success” of Star Citizen; and of course a huge employee count. Successful studios have all those things, so he needs to have them as well. Roberts doesn’t understand that success came first, and the rest of that stuff came later.

The Wastrel Roberts is the epitome of “Fake it to make it.” This is especially true about employee count. Large studios have a large staff because they have multiple games at various stages of development. Quality art assets are usually the last thing worked on, after the rest of the game is finalized and working. At CIG, those art assets are worked on first, and then repeatedly redone as the underlying game is planned, prototyped, tested, and finalized.
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
The ex-Pipeline guy on future monetization...

Star Citizen: CIG Mulls "Conveniences" & More for Future Monetization​

How are we fueling this ship?​


To continue our deeper dive into the future of Star Citizen I want to approach a topic many have been curious about: Monetization. Many are under the assumption that ships will one day no longer be sold to the general public. I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt… Ships will be sold post-launch.

(Obviously.)

Utilizing details from a variety of communications and documents on top of talking to a litany of sources, I will be doing my best to paint a picture of both:

  1. How you will spend UEC in the future.
  2. How CIG intends to earn money in the future.
It’s also important to note as always that obviously not everything is final, especially for something as core to the game as this as early as we are. Things can still, and likely will change.


There will be a total of reoccurring 6 credit sinks in the game.

Insurance (Ships)​

Insurance will be granted to all cash purchased ships to whatever length of time associated with the package, including LTI. Ships acquired through both credits and crafting will need to have insurance purchased on top. Your insurance will allow you to expedite wait times on lost ships, and you can sink more credits for a faster recovery on top. Ships lost in more hostile areas (Lawless systems) will have a higher “recovery” cost.

Insurance will only replace the base ship. Custom parts will be lost on destruction. You will need to return to them somehow, or they will be lost.

Insurance (Health)​

Coverage for your player character. Will determine the quality and cost of care.

Inheritance Tax​

A massive, infrequent credit sink whenever you bite the final bullet for your character.

Base Tax​

”Base Tax” is the reoccurring upkeep cost applied to bases within monitored systems. It will scale based off the relative security of the area, as well as the value and size of a claim. For example; an Organization’s ship factory will cost more in upkeep than a player’s small house.

Equipment Repairs​

“All items will degrade past the point of viable use.”
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A core feature to the future of the game will be item degradation. This is due to the potential fact that on top of standard durability loss, permanent damage will slowly build as well, which will further necessitate constant item refreshes through, ideally, player-to-player trade.

Crafting​

“A capital ship may take months to obtain resources and then crafting time.”
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Crafting is the “End-Game” of the Star Citizen experience, and will be essentially required for late-game progression. It will be where everything comes together from the Base Building game loop, allowing players to craft blueprints of items of a variety of tiers. These blueprints will necessitate players to “research them” with dedicated science Ships (or science Base modules), and will allow the crafting of a simple P4-AR, to the mighty Idris carrier. Crafting is planned to be a time consuming process, as the previously mentioned Idris has been mentioned to take a period of “Months” per individual construction (including both accrual of materials and assembly).


Now that we’re up to date on the various UEC sinks of Star Citizen, let’s talk about how they intend to sink your real wallet. Four distinct monetization avenues are detailed as of this time:

  1. Ships and modules.
  2. Cosmetics.
  3. Land (and possibly other related items)
  4. Subscriptions.
Ships and modules are self-explanatory and will likely not depart too far away from our current standards. Cosmetics have already slowly been introduced more and more, but to clarify on one pitched future of their recovery - Players will receive blueprints for their purchased items to replace if lost. Land is something that I’ll cover more in-depth in the future, but it will likely be sold again. An estimate on the number of potential plots in the game has been placed by a developer at 15 million.

Speaking with those privy to internal discussions, a few mentioned upcoming changes to the currently available Subscription Program. According to documents, these new changes will offer “a wide range of benefits that offer convenience - not power - to the player”. Two pitched ideas included on the documentation provided include both insurance (ship and player health) and Base upkeep being reduced or even removed by the subscription cost.

“Subscription offering a wide range of benefits that offer convenience - not power - to the player such as insurance on ships or no base tax.”
Quote from Design Document, under “Monetization”
Speaking about Base Building more specifically, discussion has taken place in regards to the various gameplay items they may sell upon its arrival. According to a few sources familiar with these discussions, players would have the ability to purchase blueprints of “later tiers” of research progression, while only a “basic tier” is given by default. In addition to their potential purchase, these blueprints would be obtainable through either trade, theft (as blueprints are planned to exist physically), or mission reward. Discussions of monetization were (according to one developer) focused heavily on shrinking “gameplay timers” inherent to various planned processes in the final game.

I have sent the following three questions to a community manager involved in the project for public comment:

  1. Is it true that CIG intends to sell ships and modules post-launch with few changes?
  2. Is it true that CIG intends to bundle “gameplay bonuses” such as insurance with their subscription packages?
  3. Is it true that CIG intends to shorten “gameplay timers” as incentives for their subscriptions and future monetization?
  4. Is it true that CIG intends to sell additional gameplay-affecting items related to Base Building, such as material production modules?
Given several days to respond, I was met with silence. I will update this article with any comment that may come, or updates on the particular monetization practices such plans might bring.


We’ll have more coming as soon as possible. My apologies to those who want something more solid as “proof”, but at this point I’m going to opt for my record to speak for itself. Would hate to gain a reason for a C&D after all by posting imagery of materials I do not own.


also space bases
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h115.substack.com

Star Citizen: CIG Mulls "Conveniences" & More for Future Monetization

How are we fueling this ship?
h115.substack.com h115.substack.com

All aligns with stuff my guy's heard. Won't be super surprising if they double down on P2W. Probably won't be super popular either though ;)
 

Mole HD

Mole HD

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Screenshot_20240601_134925_Chrome.jpg
 

HansAcker

HansAcker
VR Golgot said:
The main sub's reaction is pretty funny...
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This post literally needs to be deleted...Crap like this should never be on this sub reddit nor discussed..
This in no shape way or form is a legitimate leak. Get it outta here, we have a lot of new people here that can easily believe this to be true. And it would automatically steer them away.
Once we have a legitimate leak or an announcement of stuff like that, we can all gather and cry and all together. But for now, DELETE!
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"Newwhales can't handle the truth!"
How does one figuratively delete a post?
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
VR Golgot said:
View attachment 394280
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Even the last 2 without a cross in that image are questionable:
  • SC universe is far from rich or epic as it is still majorly incomplete and core features and mechanics just do not work and constantly break.
  • Persistent Universe not yet persistent at all as there are regular wipes, and no faction or economy persistent states in the game that can make the game evolve or become meaningful over time. At the moment SC is just a bunch of gloried but broken War Thunder servers in space.
 
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