The Star Citizen Thread v5

[CMDR_Orlando]

Elite currently has far more hand crafted content than Star Citizen... an order of magnitude in fact.

Incorrect. You just have to check the size of both games. Star Citizen alpha sits at 30GB in size while Elite sits at merely 6.5 GB. Why? Because every single asset in Star Citizen right now is handcrafted, from the human avatar, to the clothing (6 types of armour, 9 flight suits), the FPS props (6 weapons + medi-pen), the city ArcCorp, ships modelled inside, out plus interior mechanics:

Spoiler

P-52 Merlin
M50 Interceptor
Aurora Series (x5)
Mustang Series (x5)
300 series (x4)
Hornet series (x5)
Gladius
Avenger Series (x3)
Vanduul Scythe
Vanduul Glaive
Gladiator
Xi’An Khartu-Al
Reliant Kore
MPUV Cargo
MPUV Personel
Cutlass Black
Freelancer Base
Vanguard Warden
Sabre
Retaliator Bomber
Constellation Andromeda
Starfarer Series(x2)

4 Hangars and Furniture/props. 4 Space Stations, modelled inside and out.

Yeah. There was a guy on the SC forums who kept waffling on about how ED would never have planetary landings. He shut up when Horizons was released.

I'm sure the same happened in this forum and other's, remember when Star Citizen was never going to have massive maps to accommodate a solar system? Or how it wouldn't have seamless landings and instead would need to go with loading screens? [rolleyes]

I'd ask Sunleader to list the ways in which he considers Star Citizen to be innovative, rather than getting tied in knots over the things it "was influenced by", but it would probably use all the words.
Although, if you stopped listing things that SC "will do" as if they bear comparison with games which already exist, it would help. Did people learn nothing from No Man's Sky?

I'd rather ask CR I don't see a single thing the SC demos and let's plays that hasn't been done before. I'm not even certain SC will do anything better than has been done before. I'm reserving judgement of course until there is a finished product, but i'm skeptical.

Show me another game doing something remotely resembling the Gamescom Demo quality all seamlessly (no loading screens please):

Spoiler

[video=youtube;3l-epO6oUHE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-epO6oUHE[/video]

There's no need to go deep into the under the hood technical aspects needed to make something at that level of detail and size work as it's been talked to death. 64 bit point precision, multiple physical grids etc. It's never been done with CryEngine (because they made it from scratch) and I haven't seen any other game do that kind of demo presentation, but there might be some out there that I've missed, please share if so.

 

[govny]

1.
Any PG uses Modules and Assets to do Creation. Nothing Strange.
And yes Engineer Bases are for a Reason after all looking very very Different.
As for SC. Well I would assume they at least got the Money to do much much more Handcrafting than ED.
But most of all. Its a Big Difference to use Assets and Spawn these Stations with a Random Mix all around.
And Using Assets to actually make Stations which all look slightly Different and Unique and then Handwork them for NPCs etc to work.


2.
Space Legs are Planned. But FD themselves said it was not Originally Planned.
I could be mean here and say. It was stolen from SC I guess *gg*
But I wont. Cause just like the stuff in SC. it was not Stolen. Its simply something the Community of Space Games has been Demanding for Years everywhere. So it was Adopted.


3.
Dont compare this Pls.
SC will Offer the Option of you Running a Server for you and your Friends in the Base Universe.
That does however also mean that your not Affected by Players outside your Game Server AT ALL.
Its pretty much just that they are allowing Private Servers.
WoW for example has alot Private Servers as well. Just that in WoW these are Illegal.

its a very very Different Thing.
And the Persistent Universe Online will likely very fast be very Different from the ones on Private Servers.


4.
I am German. In German you Capitalize alot more Words than in English.
This is a writing habit which just carries over. Its easy to change the Language itself. But changing habits like this is really hard.
I really need to concentrate and proofread things if I were to not capitalize these. Which is way too much effort for an Internet Forum. So I just leave it at that.

And yes.
As you can see I am very often also answering stuff which was posted before I actually made two other Posts already.
Maybe you noticed. But this Forum is Growing at quite the Speed.
So usually when I check between Playing. I find like 3 Pages of Stuff. Including several Posts Aimed at me.
And even just while I answer them. Another Page has grown onto it containing more Posts Aimed at me.

I am just Human Mate.
If I am Bombed with 3-4 pages of Text which partially Grow while I am just writing one Post. I end up missing stuff as well.
If your really Interested in something being Answered Feel Free to Post it again.
But pls dont Expect that I see each and every Post which is done while I am writing here.

Oh and considering the Post I am answering Below this.
I assume in some cases it will also Happen fairly Soon that I am going to simply put People on Ignore given they only Troll anyways and are unable to keep any sort of Acceptable Tone for an Discussion.





1.
And here we go with the Sniping....

Timetables and Deadlines. Are usually set on Behalf of the Publisher. Which has nothing to do with the Development Directly. But wants to Ship and Sell this Game.
Meaning he is usually the Drive behind the Dev Team to Limit themselves to the Stuff they Consider most Importand. And which sits in their Neck if they Delay the Release of the Game.

2.
I am Prohibited to tell you this by NDA Contracts.
I can tell you I am not a Programmer Tough. And while I do have some Knowledge of Programming this is Self Taught over Time and thus not very Extensive.

3.
Well Mate. That Depends on how many more Modules they are Planning to make.
Once you got all Modules Ready and go over to Simply Create Stations by Mixing these Modules. You get much Faster than you were for doing the First 10 or so Stations which are made by Creating new Modules.
Currently. As I said before. If SC wants to get out by 2017-2018 as the current Estimate Goes. I would guess they will get maybe 20-30 Systems Done. Meaning maybe 50 Stations and 100 Planetary Bases.
The Good thing about this. Is that such Design Work. Can be Done by Adding more People and simply Distributing the Work.
If the Stations Modules are within the Systems you got. You can have 100 Different People have Create 100 Different Stations from those Assets.
Which as you can Imagine will work Fast enough.
How long they need for the Promised 100 Systems. Is something that Depends on how much Staff they Hire for it.
If they have 1 Guy doing all of this Work. You can assume that he.ll not Finish this for 20 Years
But I doubt SC will be having just one Guy doing this.
They will likely have several Smaller Groups Work on this. Which means after the Games Released. You will be seeing around 20-30 new Stations each Year.

it also Depends on how they Focus on it.

They could for Example make only 1 or 2 Big Stations OR Bases for an System.
But have 4-5 Smaller Outposts. Which would only consist of small Number of NPCs thus requiring maybe a Tenth of the Work of one of the Major Big Stations.

Given the System. I would also Assume that Big City Like Stations and Planetary Bases are going to be Unique. Meaning that only 1 out of 20 Systems will have one like this.
An Station in City Size with like 50 NPCs takes a Ton more Work than some Outpost with 5 NPCs.


It also Depends on wether they will use an Area AI for NPCs.
For example. When I crafted an Base for an Multiplayer Mission.
I wanted this Base to look Alife. (I really Pay attention to this. And consider this stuff as an Very Importand Part)
So I used several Base NPC Builds which I set up with Base Behavior Scripts.
For example. NPCs had base Scripts which would make em use a Chair or other Objects within their Area if one was Around.
NPCs carried a Certain Group. So at an Certain time of the Day. All of these Soldiers moved to Barracks and got a thus Automaticly used a Bed there.
This could be Copy Pasted to an entirely Different Area and the NPCs could be placed entirely Differently. They would still at an Certain Time go to the now in a different place sitting area and get a Bed.
This Routine also allowed a Different Use. By for example having them go to the Cantine to an Certain Time. And again as they were set to use Objects in the Area they went. They would then Sit down at the Tables.
Meaning that I could place such Routines with different Objects and Areas.
This can even be used to have NPCs upon Alarm grabbing Arms and going out to Fight the Intruder.
Add to that an Routine for NPCs Respawning after Death. But not the exact same NPC. But just an NPC of the same Type.
Meaning that in the Backround there was a Timer. And when this Timer ran out. NPCs would be Spawned in an Inaccessable Part of the Base or be Delivered by an Vehicle. To Replace the Fallen.
They would Automaticly carry the same Subroutines. And thus Carry over in the Flock as usual. Until the Maximum Set for this Base is Filled again.

Such stuff is not exactly hard to do. To be Precise. It is really really Basic stuff.
Even someone with extremely Limited Knowledge in Programming like me can do this if he has some help for doing the right lines of code.

Now for the First Base I needed almost a Month. Only working on that.
But after having Finished about 5 Different Bases. I had enough Modules to basicly Create a Base in a Day or Two.


Now for Fairness Said. This does not have the Detail Level and Size of Star Citizen. So Star Citizen will likely take longer. And SC has to do the Voicecovers etc for this as well.
Meaning that they will have much more Effort on the NPC Aspects. And also need to keep much much more Triggers and Systems in Place. Because their Stations needs to Function with 100s of Players being there constantly and having much more Interaction Options than what I had to cover for back then.

But once they are Up to Working Order. I would assume that each of the Teams they Got. Can likely Finish a Base each Month while still doing other Work.
So given their current Teams. You get the Idea.
Dont underestimate what Handywork can Archieve.
4 Billion Stars wont be Possible by Handcrafting. But 100 Systems are Possible.


Greetz Sun

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Didnt know.
And dont get me wrong.
I assume if nothing else. SC has some Pressure to Add stuff. Based on Elite Players which look for stuff they dont get here or which they want to have there as well.


As for the landing Method.
Thing is. I have seen this before. But despite Checking all over I just cannot find where I saw this already.
I think it was an Aircraft Game where you got an Small Animation in an Extra Screen when Landing. To show your Position above the Base.
But heck I dont know where this was so I dropped it.

However. Even if its Influenced by ED. It is an very General System.
And the Split Camera showing you your own Position and Movement on certain Actions. Is something that was definetiely used in other Games before.
So Claiming its stolen from ED is quite the Empty Claim.

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As an sidenote.
I am heading to work now.
So dont expect me to answer stuff till tomorrow.
Yesterday I checked the Forum on my Cellphone. But heck most of the Posts here are quite extensive. So its not something I am going to do on my Phone xD

what a great effort to write so mutch crap.

 

[dsmart]

Yeah, but their flight model was really cumbersome and the Apollo missions were SO repetitive.

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Do you seriously think any of us care that an infamously cocky space sim developer was cocky about his indie space sim? He's said good things about Frontier and Elite in the past too, but the slightest criticism about ED doesn't trigger a damn jihad like it does with SC. This is SUCH a lousy tactic that really says a lot more about you than DS. Almost EVERY regular poster on this thread has issues with certain aspects of ED, we're not some weird lockstep gang.

Stick to Star Citizen and lay off the FUD. Nobody attacks Star Citizen by ripping apart what YOU do for a dayjob, and you're really not going to get under his skin by making comments about his games. Nor will you make Elite fans froth at the mouth and on your side because at some point some guy said something about the game. So stick to the topic, hmm?

That's why I ignored it. Thing is, while we can excuse people's ignorance, language barriers etc, these guys are deliberate in their attempts to shape the narrative, deflect from the discussion, and inject all manner of ludicrousness into ANY discussion about Star Citizen.

To wit: This is what I stated Which is why my in-depth games are still popular today. Right now you can have more fun in Universal Combat than you can in ED depending on what it is you want to be doing..

This is the original comment I made on Blues News, a legacy watering hole that I still go to from time to time. And yes, they follow me there too, as you can see in the thread whereby they immediately proceed with the attacks, en masse.

The point I was making has to do with people claiming that ED is boring, while others have said the same about Universal Combat (the successor to Battlecruiser 3000AD); which happens to be the only space combat game in existence that even comes close to matching the expanse and scope of ED. And it focuses on exploration, trading - and capital ship combat, with an AI crew you can interact with in fps mode in capital ships or off-world.

Which is why, since people are still buying (it remains one of my most profitable game series) I am in the process of upgrading the visuals, while leaving the game's feature set alone; as I don't plan on doing another massive game like that again. LoD isn't even 10% of that game; in any regard. In fact, come to think of it, Star Citizen can't even do 25% of what that game does. The only feature missing is the ability to walk around inside capital ships & stations - which is something that's already now done in LoD. But shuttles have open access, so you and your AI crew can enter them, flying through space and planets. The stuff that SC still struggles with.

So they took the post, screen capped it a section they want to use out of context, then ofc started sharing it to make it look like I was attacking ED. Which, anyone with more than few brain cells, can clearly see that wasn't even the context in which I made the comparison.

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - revolutionary or ground breaking in SC. Everything it's trying to do, has already been done before by either myself, David or any number of devs who are still making these kinds of games. And even if, by some fluke they manage to finish (lol!) the game, it still would only have features that came before. Not to mention the fact that games like Infinity Battlespace and Dual Universe, are pushing that even farther, though they too only have a sub-set of features; none of which come close to anything I've done decades ago.

This is the bitter pill they can't swallow. It's all been done before. And good, bad, or ugly, I have pioneered a lot of things in the genre. That's why a select group of gamers, much like those who buy historical flight sims and other fringe genres, still buy games so that I can keep making them. As I type this, there's no space combat game in existence that even has 50% of the BC/UC feature set.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Guys no offense. But thats not a Roadmap.
Its 3 very rough described Features with the line *Soon* written above.

If you call that a Roadmap SC stretch goal list is 10 times as good lol.



I love that obvious double standard......

Thats a roadmap: an indication of what I can expect to have soon. Your list of stretch goals isnt anything of the sorts, as CIG already said some wont be in the release version at all, and the release version itself has no release date, release year or even release decade. Meanwhile, I know that in one month I will have ship-launched fighters. I have seen how they work, I know I can fly it myself, I know I can hire NPC to fly it for me, I have seen the interface for it and know which ships can carry them and which can not. I also know which ships can be launched, and have seen all three.

As I said earlier, you have no interest in a sincere discussion. Otherwise you wouldnt bother claiming 'you may get something at some point' is a better roadmap than 'you'll get these features in oktober'. Which is fine, its fun to remind myself what I am about to get.

 

[frostypaw]

I'm sure the same happened in this forum and other's, remember when Star Citizen was never going to have massive maps to accommodate a solar system?

ooooh! Does it have that now? can you show me a video of someone playing that?

i do hope so, it would be a shame if this is still just stuff you've made up in the hope it's coming soon.

Show me another game doing something remotely resembling the Gamescom Demo quality all seamlessly (no loading screens please)

This has been show to you so very often you really should bookmark it.
[video=youtube;kiO3o6cIDuQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiO3o6cIDuQ[/video]

you will however ignore this and we'll go through this again next week or so because learning and progressing discussion just isn't the purpose of this.

 

[Marak]

If you call that a Roadmap SC stretch goal list is 10 times as good lol.

.

The problem with SC's stretch goals is that they are "Paid for" promises i.e. "Give us this amount of money and we will include these features".

These features have to be delivered as CIG has taken money for them, and they are unambiguous - such as "The game will have 100 systems at release".

Things like Alien languages, VR support & pets have been promised and can't be dropped if they turn out to be difficult, they've already raised the money on the promise of delivering them.

 

[ianw]

Well said, when I laugh at major tom's videos I always feel there should be a little asterisk afterwards with an explanatory note to say I understand the conditions they're working under

To be fair I think the pointing and laughing is mostly a reaction to - and pointing at - the ludicrous claims by some of the fans - which are of course encouraged by the hand waver in chief and the "community team".

I don't think anyone is really having a pop at the hard working permanently crunching poor saps that are actually doing the work against all odds in spite of the "direction" from above.

Lions led by donkeys was a phrase once used elsewhere that may well be somewhat applicable here with a slight twist..

 

[dsmart]

Well I could've pointed out that I agree with him that Mice should have attributed that quote as it's an very true old-school saying.



But not to Derek Smart as he implied. That quote was said by Warren from Epic.

http://www.gamesflightsimulation.info/bcm-beta-preview-over-at-computer-games-online

As Derek knows, or used to know, guess old age has taken its toll. [rolleyes]

Nice try. Sometimes Google doesn't yield precisely what you're looking for.

If you want the origins of the original quote, how it came about, and how that version came to be attributed to me, you should go look for it on www.planetcrap.com

ps: in fact, the version you used also came from me, as it's different from the version that's right there on the front page of my website www.dereksmart.com

 

[frostypaw]

I am in the process of upgrading the visuals

Instructions Derek, instructions

But that's a whole other sidetrack for another thread. I wouldn't bother going into too much depth defending yourself against him, it's all taken with an ounce of salt.

 

[Toumal]

Dsmart, i gotta say though, LOD needs a lot more polish. No offense. BC was intriguing but impenetrable. I never figured out how i could fire orbital defenses for example, or whether that even works.

 

[lysan]

Incorrect. You just have to check the size of both games. Star Citizen alpha sits at 30GB in size while Elite sits at merely 6.5 GB. Why? Because every single asset in Star Citizen right now is handcrafted, from the human avatar, to the clothing (6 types of armour, 9 flight suits), the FPS props (6 weapons + medi-pen), the city ArcCorp, ships modelled inside, out plus interior mechanics:

Spoiler

P-52 Merlin
M50 Interceptor
Aurora Series (x5)
Mustang Series (x5)
300 series (x4)
Hornet series (x5)
Gladius
Avenger Series (x3)
Vanduul Scythe
Vanduul Glaive
Gladiator
Xi’An Khartu-Al
Reliant Kore
MPUV Cargo
MPUV Personel
Cutlass Black
Freelancer Base
Vanguard Warden
Sabre
Retaliator Bomber
Constellation Andromeda
Starfarer Series(x2)

4 Hangars and Furniture/props. 4 Space Stations, modelled inside and out.



I'm sure the same happened in this forum and other's, remember when Star Citizen was never going to have massive maps to accommodate a solar system? Or how it wouldn't have seamless landings and instead would need to go with loading screens? [rolleyes]





Show me another game doing something remotely resembling the Gamescom Demo quality all seamlessly (no loading screens please):

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-epO6oUHE

There's no need to go deep into the under the hood technical aspects needed to make something at that level of detail and size work as it's been talked to death. 64 bit point precision, multiple physical grids etc. It's never been done with CryEngine (because they made it from scratch) and I haven't seen any other game do that kind of demo presentation, but there might be some out there that I've missed, please share if so.

Step dancing Jesus in sandals! the size of the game is NOT equal to quality, you do know that right?
And my ED folder says 15 GB so I don't know.

4k demo in 1080p

[video=youtube;jB0vBmiTr6o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB0vBmiTr6o&index=2&list=PLA5E2FF8E143DA58C[/video]

 

[dsmart]

Not sure if this got posted? Dataminer finds city in Star Citizen code.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/star-citizen/star-citizen-city

Not new. It's been in the game files forever and a day. Someone only just found it, and managed to export it.

The hilarious thing is, this was created as part of one of their proof-of-concept demos. That was before they realized that the "engine" they were working with, couldn't possibly render that, let alone plonk players in there.

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/gallery/2VTeG

 

[CMDR_Orlando]

ooooh! Does it have that now? can you show me a video of someone playing that?

i do hope so, it would be a shame if this is still just stuff you've made up in the hope it's coming soon.

This has been show to you so very often you really should bookmark it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiO3o6cIDuQ

you will however ignore this and we'll go through this again next week or so because learning and progressing discussion just isn't the purpose of this.

Where's the rest of the movie? I missed the part when they seamlessly travel across space, landed on a planet, went into a underground breathing and living city, talked to a believable NPC, got a quest and went back to outer space to explore and derelict ship thousands and thousands of kilometres away... [rolleyes]

 

[lysan]

That's why I ignored it. Thing is, while we can excuse people's ignorance, language barriers etc, these guys are deliberate in their attempts to shape the narrative, deflect from the discussion, and inject all manner of ludicrousness into ANY discussion about Star Citizen.

To wit: This is what I stated Which is why my in-depth games are still popular today. Right now you can have more fun in Universal Combat than you can in ED depending on what it is you want to be doing..

This is the original comment I made on Blues News, a legacy watering hole that I still go to from time to time. And yes, they follow me there too, as you can see in the thread whereby they immediately proceed with the attacks, en masse.

The point I was making has to do with people claiming that ED is boring, while others have said the same about Universal Combat (the successor to Battlecruiser 3000AD); which happens to be the only space combat game in existence that even comes close to matching the expanse and scope of ED. And it focuses on exploration, trading - and capital ship combat, with an AI crew you can interact with in fps mode in capital ships or off-world.

Which is why, since people are still buying (it remains one of my most profitable game series) I am in the process of upgrading the visuals, while leaving the game's feature set alone; as I don't plan on doing another massive game like that again. LoD isn't even 10% of that game; in any regard. In fact, come to think of it, Star Citizen can't even do 25% of what that game does. The only feature missing is the ability to walk around inside capital ships & stations - which is something that's already now done in LoD. But shuttles have open access, so you and your AI crew can enter them, flying through space and planets. The stuff that SC still struggles with.

So they took the post, screen capped it a section they want to use out of context, then ofc started sharing it to make it look like I was attacking ED. Which, anyone with more than few brain cells, can clearly see that wasn't even the context in which I made the comparison.

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - revolutionary or ground breaking in SC. Everything it's trying to do, has already been done before by either myself, David or any number of devs who are still making these kinds of games. And even if, by some fluke they manage to finish (lol!) the game, it still would only have features that came before. Not to mention the fact that games like Infinity Battlespace and Dual Universe, are pushing that even farther, though they too only have a sub-set of features; none of which come close to anything I've done decades ago.

This is the bitter pill they can't swallow. It's all been done before. And good, bad, or ugly, I have pioneered a lot of things in the genre. That's why a select group of gamers, much like those who buy historical flight sims and other fringe genres, still buy games so that I can keep making them. As I type this, there's no space combat game in existence that even has 50% of the BC/UC feature set.

Repped, because true. We all have issues with ED, however it has something no other game can offer. A 1:1 scale of the milky way galaxy including all the real known data available collected from various space programs, and they still update the galaxy.

That combined with the BGS, coop play, great sound scape, awesome flight model for ships and SRV makes ED one of a kind.
I haven't tried any of your games, however I will do that one day as I always like to judge the results by myself and not by hearsay.

 

[frostypaw]

Where's the rest of the movie? I missed the part when they seamlessly travel across space, landed on a planet, went into a underground breathing and living city, talked to a believable NPC, got a quest and went back to outer space to explore and derelict ship thousands and thousands of kilometres away... [rolleyes]

lol

breathing and living city = few static NPCs and a lift to you? this is why it's becoming apparent you're not actually here to discuss things, just to dream and ignore realities. It's like watching stick-figure animation and imagining Avatar. I just can't take your points seriously.

there's a second part of the video, and seriously dude. we're not going to be impressed by anything measured in kilometres to start with.

 

[CMDR_Orlando]

Nice try. Sometimes Google doesn't yield precisely what you're looking for.

If you want the origins of the original quote, how it came about, and how that version came to be attributed to me, you should go look for it on www.planetcrap.com

ps: in fact, the version you used also came from me, as it's different from the version that's right there on the front page of my website www.dereksmart.com

I was not the one that used, I called you out for trying to appropriate it when you know god damn well that it's from Warren as you used to give him credits before remember?
But now suddenly it's "yours"... [rolleyes]

 

[Tippis]

Incorrect. You just have to check the size of both games. Star Citizen alpha sits at 30GB in size while Elite sits at merely 6.5 GB. Why? Because every single asset in Star Citizen right now is handcrafted, from the human avatar, to the clothing (6 types of armour, 9 flight suits), the FPS props (6 weapons + medi-pen), the city ArcCorp, ships modelled inside, out plus interior mechanics:

…and ED has an order of magnitude more of that handcrafted content. All SC has is far too many polygons to make it viable as the kind of high-performance game it needs to be in order to beat the likes of ED, CoD, MA et al.. That's why SC is unproportionally large for how little is actually in the game.

 

[lysan]

Not new. It's been in the game files forever and a day. Someone only just found it, and managed to export it.

The hilarious thing is, this was created as part of one of their proof-of-concept demos. That was before they realized that the "engine" they were working with, couldn't possibly render that, let alone plonk players in there.

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/gallery/2VTeG

It is impressive, but nevertheless if the engine can't render it, useless. How are they going to fill it with life? We haven't seen any NPC AI that actually works, non what so ever.

When FD says that they can generate 20.000 NPC in one instance, I believe that, remember that is in SP mode, not MP. The amount of crowds will be connected to what can be handled by the bandwidth. I don't know if FD will user servers to control crowds, but it is going to be interresting to see.

[video=youtube;GKTkehnqGKg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTkehnqGKg[/video]

 

[dsmart]

Dsmart, i gotta say though, LOD needs a lot more polish. No offense. BC was intriguing but impenetrable. I never figured out how i could fire orbital defenses for example, or whether that even works.

Absolutely. I wrote several blogs explaining this, and what I am planning on doing. In fact, the roadmap has several entries for art passes, some of which we've already finished and are in the current build; while others are still in progress.

The biggest issue for the game is that, given the size and scope, we simply couldn't go overboard with the visuals without severely impacting the performance. Especially since we are working with a potpourri of middleware; most of which (e.g. Triton for water bodies, Silverlining for clouds/atmosphere) are performance hogs and don't play well with each other. Plus we don't have the luxury of PBR.

With the engine now finished, the game content complete, and all features either completed or stubbed in, we've already started on the visual improvements, while taking care not to change the game's colorful visual style. Not having the benefit of a large team, let alone top art talent which costs a LOT of money, we have to made do with what we have.

Spoiler

http://lodgame.com/15-10-27-state-of-play/
http://lodgame.com/15-09-04-state-of-play/
http://lodgame.com/15-07-31-state-of-play/
http://lodgame.com/in-pursuit-of-awesomeness/

The BC/UC games are an acquired taste. You have to put in the time it takes to learn how to play them. It's a simulation; and comes with all the baggage attributed to those types of games. Which is why topics like this come up from time to time.

 

[Ian Phillips]

Big Sigh.

Guys - yet again a request to keep on topic - Star Citizen anyone?