Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

Phlegm

P
Viajero said:
Watching that guy defending it throughout that painful half hour despite all the bugs was really something, wasn’t it.

I would not say it is a cult though. I would argue it is rather on CIG. CIG has found a hole in consumer protection, regulation and game press behavior which is exploiting to the fullest in order to abuse customers (and perhaps benefit from 3rd parties money laundering in the process). Well, that and the fact they have elevated constant misrepresentation, bait and switch, to an art level. Some could argue it may actually constitute fraud.
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Nah, it's a cult. Has been since the Kickstarter.
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Some fun oddities in this interview with a student turned AI Programmer III

Part 1 | Part 2​

This set of interviews was done by Arkvenger (A Spanish Content Creator), going over a lot of the details surrounding the AI improvements in the works behind Star Citizen. Some of this work is implied to be coming with the new Blockade Runner event in 3.24, and beyond. I highly recommend watching both, and am somewhat posting these in hopes that someone more thorough will do a deeper dive. I've been working with some automated translation tools in order to pick apart some of the information that was included, and have went through great lengths to verify them, so I will be including them below!

Part 1​

  • Diego joined CIG three and a half years ago and began working on the vehicle team.
  • He helped develop the intoxication mechanics when joining the company.
  • Diego says that CIG is different from other video game companies because of its lack of publishers and its community.
  • He doesn't get to play the game very much himself, but has been trying to play with friends more often. On top of this there are 2 hour sessions with the AI team every Friday.
  • Many teams work on these features, such both Programming and Mission Design teams, Vehicle Design, and AI Design.
  • There are plans to make AI better represent a range of difficulties, from entry-level to higher difficulty missions that'd necessitate assistance, preparation, and/or improvement.
  • The AI now features a range of traits, such as cautious or reckless.
  • Developers have taken inspiration from player behavior in designing the AI, paying attention to how players acted in recordings.
  • Developers are working on enabling NPCs to seamlessly transition between roles within the game, such as switching between piloting and gunnery positions, and reacting to Soft-Death. According to Diego, this is technically possible already, just not yet to be implemented fully.
  • They plan on curating the design of encounters on smaller scale missions on the level of Blockade Runner, or XenoThreat.
  • Future updates aim to balance the AI difficulty, responding to player feedback and ensuring that challenges remain engaging without becoming overly frustrating, an example here being certain fighters causing headaches for players.

Part 2​

  • Diego has seen significant improvements in the game over his time at CIG.
  • He thinks that the open development process is beneficial because it allows players to see how the game is made and to provide feedback.
  • Diego acknowledges the delays, and assures that the team is working hard to make the game the best it can be.
  • The AI in Star Citizen is designed to be fun and challenging, and it will not be able to do everything a player can do.
  • There are plans to improve the AI's ability to attack players and NPCs on the ground, as well as to introduce AI-controlled ground vehicles. A prototype of the ground vehicles was made last year by Diego.
  • There are 25 Spanish-speaking people working on Star Citizen.
  • There are 68 people working on Star Citizen in the UK office alone.
  • Diego believes that Star Citizen offers a lot of gameplay and that it will continue to improve over time.
  • He understands that some players are skeptical about buying the game in its current state, but he believes that it is worth it.
  • Diego is excited about the future of Star Citizen and believes that it will be a great game when it is finished.
  • 13 comments
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  • NPC crew are technically possible already, just not implemented...
  • They will have different levels of difficulty! And be based on player behaviours. And be defeated by a mop. (Ok, he didn't say that last bit).
  • Remember when FDev were on the hunt for a specialist to get NPC vehicles working on generated landscapes? And it came to nothing? Well CIG found a cheaper way to achieve the same thing. Give the task to a freshly promoted jnr dev ;)
  • There are 68 people programmers working on SC in the UK offices? (The largest and swankiest of the offices. Aiming to house ~1000 staff, and the recent target for a bunch of 'move it or lose it' relocation pushes...)
 
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Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
VR Golgot said:
There are 68 people working on SC in the UK offices? (The largest and swankiest of the offices. Aiming to house ~1000 staff, and the recent target for a bunch of 'move it or lose it' relocation pushes...)
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Yeah, that 68 for the UK bit was weird. I thought there were already several hundreds at least even before the move to the new super duper building no?

The question he answers to is about "how many people are currently programming for SC". So not sure if Diego is being literal and the answer is excluding any SQ42 dedicated staff. He also responds using the word "programmers". So not clear either if he is also excluding everyone else.

But taken at its simplest form, question and answer could suggest there are indeed only 68 pople working for CIG in the UK? That would be highly surprising.

Below is the latest headcount split CIG published for their 2022 financials recently. Even if we just take the "development" figures, that would be 527 developers (programmers?) outside the US. If we divide that by 3 to roughly estimate for each Montreal, Frankfurt and Manchester that still is around 175 developers per office outside the US assuming all are equal. Except Manchester was supposed to be the largest of all, so the figure there is probably much higher, around 200-250, more?

Either Diego was really narrowing it down to a very specific subset of developers in the UK (AI only related or some such) or there has been a very significant downsizing in the last couple of years.

1722327756250.png
 
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Ed02350

E
Viajero said:
Yeah, that 68 for the UK bit was weird. I thought there were already several hundreds at least even before the move to the new super duper building no?

The question he answers to is about "how many people are currently programming for SC". So not sure if Diego is being literal and the answer is excluding any dedicated SQ42 staff. He also responds using the word "programmers". So not clear either if he is also excluding everyone else.

But taken at its simplest form, question and answer could suggest there are indeed only 68 pople working for CIG in the UK? That would be highly surprising.

This is the latest headcount split CIG published for their 2022 financials recently. Even if we just take the "development" figures, that would be 527 developers (programmers?) outside the US. If we divide that by 3 to roughly estimate for each Montreal, Frankfurt and Manchester that still is around 175 developers per office outside the US assuming all are equal. Except Manchester was supposed to be the largest of all.

View attachment 398337
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The most transparent game company ever.
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
Viajero said:
Below is the latest headcount split CIG published for their 2022 financials recently. Even if we just take the "development" figures, that would be 527 developers (programmers?) outside the US. If we divide that by 3 to roughly estimate for each Montreal, Frankfurt and Manchester that still is around 175 developers per office outside the US assuming all are equal. Except Manchester was supposed to be the largest of all, so the figure there is probably much higher, around 200-250, more?
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They have an army of developers (527 (rest of the world) + 83 (US) = 610 (2022)), yet cannot implement server meshing after 11 years. SC remains a buggy and shallow mess with pretty graphics. This means:

1. Terrible project management (Chris Roberts is mainly responsible as the CEO)
2. The Star Engine (Lumberyard) is difficult to modify and consists of spaghetti code. They cannot fix the core tech issues, no matter how many developers and money they throw at it.

 
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Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Viajero said:
Yeah, that 68 for the UK bit was weird. I thought there were already several hundreds at least even before the move to the new super duper building no?

The question he answers to is about "how many people are currently programming for SC". So not sure if Diego is being literal and the answer is excluding any SQ42 dedicated staff. He also responds using the word "programmers". So not clear either if he is also excluding everyone else.

But taken at its simplest form, question and answer could suggest there are indeed only 68 pople working for CIG in the UK? That would be highly surprising.

Below is the latest headcount split CIG published for their 2022 financials recently. Even if we just take the "development" figures, that would be 527 developers (programmers?) outside the US. If we divide that by 3 to roughly estimate for each Montreal, Frankfurt and Manchester that still is around 175 developers per office outside the US assuming all are equal. Except Manchester was supposed to be the largest of all, so the figure there is probably much higher, around 200-250, more?

Either Diego was really narrowing it down to a very specific subset of developers in the UK (AI only related or some such) or there has been a very significant downsizing in the last couple of years.

View attachment 398337
Click to expand...

He says there are 68 people working on SC. He probably means dedicated to SC, not SQ42 or the JPG store or ToW or Sataball.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
VR Golgot said:
Yeah suspect that's the answer. 68 SC-dedicated programmers in the UK is less eyebrow raising.
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And yet we have been repeatedly told about how fluid developer assignments back and forth between SC and SQ42 are, especially as of late. And especially given how AI, where Diego works, is paramount for SQ42. I suspect there is very little real organisational division there.
 
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HansAcker

HansAcker
Viajero said:
Most of those would still be for the most part programmers in their respective disciplines, no?
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The number includes graphics artists, AWS wranglers, UI/UX designers, QA testers, dialogue/sound/music designers, animators, writers, translators, motion capture teams, and all that. The lore and economy teams, too. Where does TonyZ's skunkworks team, if it exists, figure in?

(I looked at the open positions that are not Corporate Ops, Publishing or Marketing and not a programmer: https://cloudimperiumgames.com/join-us/studio/uk#open-positions )
 
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