The Star Citizen Thread

[Mu77ley]

Finally got it downloaded and installed, and.... oh dear!

The game wouldn't recognise my X52 Pro for some reason, so I had to play with Mouse/Keyboard.

There's absolutely no sense of movement or speed at all. It just feels like you're turret floating in space, so you might as well sit at a standstill and shoot the AI like fish in a barrel... seriously unimpressed.

TBH I've seen more playable free space shooter web-games than this (OK, they didn't look as pretty).

They'll need to do a serious overhaul of the whole flight mechanic and control system to make this even remotely playable...

 

[Vargur]

I agree entirely that community feedback is needed to drive development. I just hope it drives it the right way...

That's gonna be pretty hard for them at this moment since theres so many thousands of people yelling in the forums at thesame time.
It will be difficult to figure out who speak for a majority/minority and who makes the best arguments.
It's too late now, but what they should really have done was release some really early alpha, single player free flight to their biggest backers, say the top 100 or so. That would have given them a dedicated group of people to get feedback from before they start with the polishing phase.

It's something that FD handled right, be that intentionally or it just happened that way. With the staggered release of alpha/beta to small and bigger audiences they had a controllable feedback group to work with. And they also had a few hundred people in the DDF section to give a voice to the people about steering development.
On top of that, FD and their private investors still supplied the majority of the funding for the game, so that kind of gives us, the player, an assurance that they won't screw around since their own investments are on the line aswell.

 

[Yari]

Is this a case of clichés being based upon reality ?
The childish Americans and the mature Europeans ?
Instant gratification against learning to master a skill?
.

 

[Daffan]

Finally got it downloaded and installed, and.... oh dear!

The game wouldn't recognise my X52 Pro for some reason, so I had to play with Mouse/Keyboard.

There's absolutely no sense of movement or speed at all. It just feels like you're turret floating in space, so you might as well sit at a standstill and shoot the AI like fish in a barrel... seriously unimpressed.

TBH I've seen more playable free space shooter web-games than this (OK, they didn't look as pretty).

They'll need to do a serious overhaul of the whole flight mechanic and control system to make this even remotely playable...

This is how i played it too

press t to lock on enemy

hold down shift to zoom towards enemy

when in 400 meter

press caps lock (enable turret mode)

now i am no longer moving instead i am purely rotating

hold down left mouse button with auto aim twin lasers

repeat

 

[FabulousFab]

Wow 2 messages in one day, i'm not used to speak that much...
Sorry for my english par ce que bordel c'est pas ma langue...

1st a question : for those here who tested the 1st Alpha of ED.
How was it compare to what i can see in premium beta to understand how much improvement/change they have done thanks to feedback.

As for reflexion for the futur of SC, don't forget that this game should extensively moddable (Freelancer is still played & modded as we speak).
It means that some very talented modder could setup mod to disable 3rdPV, and mouse control.
I'm almost sure that they will be abble to tweak flight model because ship creation, as stated, will be possible. (Next Great Starship was a realy good idea and prove that comunity can make great asset to the game).

So may be we won't be enjoying the full persistent universe, but it will still be possible to enjoy the game with people who have the same expectation on a private server.

But I'm still optimistic.
For years I've played hard core car sim : Grand Prix Legends, Nascar 4 (Papyrus games).
But later i've played a little game name Trackmania.
It was fast learning, fun, car were flying in the air, even played with KB at start then with pad (I would have burn anyone that told me to play a car game with a pad 1 year before).
5 years later I still play Trackmania. Searching to gain 0.01s.
I realized that what I thought was a dumb enjoyable arcade game has a depth in gameplay I would never have imagined.
So may be arcady gameplay can be surprisingly good if well done (good control, good reaction & good feelings).
I think if SC embrace this side it will be a good thing : hard core sim will go to Elite, others will go to SC to enjoy something else.

@Mr Nowak.
When read all the posts, I must admit that your dedication merit admiration. You must feel a little lonely. But I respect your point of view : you chose to hope for the best even if what we see now raise a lot of questions & aprehension. I can sense your dedication to SC, and to tell you the truth I was a little more SC than ED until the Premium Beta because SC does a lot more in communication.
And even if I see people here having really different opinion with you, I didn't see bad words or things turning really ugly. It still looks like a debate.
That's reassuring.

As for me, tomorrow I'll test the damn thing a little, and as I am very fresh on both games, my point of view as a rookie may be useful.
And next week I will received my Warthog and then I'll go kick I-War ass !

 

[Helfix]

That's gonna be pretty hard for them at this moment since theres so many thousands of people yelling in the forums at thesame time.
It will be difficult to figure out who speak for a majority/minority and who makes the best arguments.
It's too late now, but what they should really have done was release some really early alpha, single player free flight to their biggest backers, say the top 100 or so. That would have given them a dedicated group of people to get feedback from before they start with the polishing phase.

It's something that FD handled right, be that intentionally or it just happened that way. With the staggered release of alpha/beta to small and bigger audiences they had a controllable feedback group to work with. And they also had a few hundred people in the DDF section to give a voice to the people about steering development.
On top of that, FD and their private investors still supplied the majority of the funding for the game, so that kind of gives us, the player, an assurance that they won't screw around since their own investments are on the line aswell.

Why is it too late now? This is a Pre-Alpha release of Arena Commander which has two versions. One is a single player version whom everyone has access to (450,000 players) and there is a multi-player version which has been stagger released to < 5,000 people. Yes while the Single Player forums are cluttered but the Multi-player ones are not since not everyone has access to them. So it will be a lot easier for CIG to pick things out, but they also have two forums to get feedback from as well.

 

[Mazhurg]

Fully agree!

And it's even worse. I completely dislike the idea of having a hangar on some planet. Wanting to be a pilot is exactly the contrary idea. It's more like being a space cowboy. Your ship is your horse. And the whole space is your home - not a stupid hangar!

So when i first heard about " ' hangars ' " i was completely disappointed and understood immediately what way they are willing to go.

Don't worry, the 'instant-hyperwarp' for grouping with your buddies is coming, in addition to the 'replace an NPC' in ships that is planned.

Casual all the way, that's the way it will end up.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Ok I've played a couple of hours of AC now.

I'm really not sure what to say. I agree with a lot of people in that the flight system could do with some work.

The weapon effects are, shall we say, unimaginative and for me, visually quite dull.

AI needs work. Combat feedback needs work. Visuals need work. Audio needs work.

When it looks good - it does look very good - the problem is that isn't as often as it should be, and you spend more time chasing a mouse cursor than enjoying the scenery.

Control implementation is just weird. The whole joystick/mouse/controller argument I'm staying out of - I've tried all three and they all need tweaking.

I can't compare different ships against each other, I only have a Hornet thing to actually fly - and it's not even mine. Actually having to get into your ship is cool the first few times, and thankfully I've not seen a helmet flip yet.

I can see where they are trying to go with this, and I wish them all the best of luck, but I honestly believe there are some serious design flaws present, even if they just could outright say they want a Wing Commander remake with frogs instead of kittens - it would need some panelbeating to get it there.

I don't want to compare it with Elite until both are much further on in development, but I can honestly say I've been much more impressed on multiple levels by Alpha 1 than AC 0.8.

And yes, I know it's a pre-pre-pre-Alpha. All 12Gb's of it. I'm not a rabid fanboy, Elite has it's problems too.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

While no fan of SC, I personally like that they finally released DFM. It was way too long, and I understand there can be issues, but people got really twitchy.

Now, judging by videos, there are some really good things there. Graphical fidelity is there, no buts about it. Damage models are yet to come to ED, so CIG is clearly showing their best stuff there. Still, all nice planet stuff is very beautiful skybox a la first person shooter. In fact, all game feels very FPSsque. Maybe that's their goal. Certainly it feels stuck on, not proper space sim.

Not really sure why sound is unfinished...I mean six month delay with 44M in bank you can hire high level sound editor. Flying is unchanged, so it seems they have decided this is direction they go. Not a bad thing, just very different.

3rd person view is 3rd person view - not enjoying this, but I see clearly how people will be forced to use this a lot, because radar don't help that much regarding this.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Hence my feedback is irrelevant because I dont represent that majority of xbox controller using space shooter fans who they are workin.

Hey what's wrong with the 360 controller!?

I happen to be pretty handy with one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxz3LJLosTs&t=6m0s

 

[Tonberry]

I remember that a while ago, during an early reveal of the dog fighting, Chris Roberts was playing the game with an xbox pad - anybody had a chance to try one out and compare how it plays to m/k?

 

[Obsidian Ant]

I remember that a while ago, during an early reveal of the dog fighting, Chris Roberts was playing the game with an xbox pad - anybody had a chance to try one out and compare how it plays to m/k?

I prefer 360 pad to the mouse+keyboard in Arena Commander.

But then I also prefer 360 pad in ED too, along with my afterburner dockings...

 

[Vreynn]

Because the controls aren't rebindable, I had to use a joystick profile to force the x-axis to emulate the z-axis, and vice versa. Now the ship pitches and yaws on stick motion, and rolls on twist. This is far more comfortable, and I've been having a lot of fun fighting in all three ships.

 

[Boomotang]

Is this a case of clichés being based upon reality ?
The childish Americans and the mature Europeans ?
Instant gratification against learning to master a skill?
.

Please. Don't hold back your prejudices.

I can only assume that you bring the same level of bias towards your game assessments.

 

[M.E.A.T]

Ok I've played a couple of hours of AC now.

I'm really not sure what to say. I agree with a lot of people in that the flight system could do with some work.

The weapon effects are, shall we say, unimaginative and for me, visually quite dull.

AI needs work. Combat feedback needs work. Visuals need work. Audio needs work.

When it looks good - it does look very good - the problem is that isn't as often as it should be, and you spend more time chasing a mouse cursor than enjoying the scenery.

Control implementation is just weird. The whole joystick/mouse/controller argument I'm staying out of - I've tried all three and they all need tweaking.

I can't compare different ships against each other, I only have a Hornet thing to actually fly - and it's not even mine. Actually having to get into your ship is cool the first few times, and thankfully I've not seen a helmet flip yet.

I can see where they are trying to go with this, and I wish them all the best of luck, but I honestly believe there are some serious design flaws present, even if they just could outright say they want a Wing Commander remake with frogs instead of kittens - it would need some panelbeating to get it there.

I don't want to compare it with Elite until both are much further on in development, but I can honestly say I've been much more impressed on multiple levels by Alpha 1 than AC 0.8.

And yes, I know it's a pre-pre-pre-Alpha. All 12Gb's of it. I'm not a rabid fanboy, Elite has it's problems too.

I don't have access to DMF, but after reading some threads on SC forum its look like the game is best played with K&M. Many player complaints that its a point and shoot fight model (like WarThunder arcade mode). Is that true?

 

[Slawkenbergius]

It took a while to get over the fact that it's not Elite, and I've never really been a pitch 'n' yaw fan anyway, but that aside I quite enjoyed it. There are loads of things that I would pout and scream about if it was in Elite though! 3rd person is definitely rather useful in a bad way, and there's quite a bit of 'follow the arrow' and 'match the shapes'. The ship models might be super-polygonised, but they're not really very visible 99% of the time. Also, it looks like the Aurora is going to fail against Hornets and 300i, so multiplayer seems very pay-to-win right now...

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised though - especially after reading some of the stuff on here.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I don't have access to DMF, but after reading some threads on SC forum its look like the game is best played with K&M. Many player complaints that its a point and shoot fight model (like WarThunder arcade mode). Is that true?

Essentially, yes. If you steer with a joystick your guns don't autoaim. If you steer with a mouse, it's like playing solitaire.

 

[Mazhurg]

It took a while to get over the fact that it's not Elite, and I've never really been a pitch 'n' yaw fan anyway, but that aside I quite enjoyed it. There are loads of things that I would pout and scream about if it was in Elite though! 3rd person is definitely rather useful in a bad way, and there's quite a bit of 'follow the arrow' and 'match the shapes'. The ship models might be super-polygonised, but they're not really very visible 99% of the time. Also, it looks like the Aurora is going to fail against Hornets and 300i, so multiplayer seems very pay-to-win right now...

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised though - especially after reading some of the stuff on here.

Aurora was never really about combat.

 

[M.E.A.T]

Essentially, yes. If you steer with a joystick your guns don't autoaim. If you steer with a mouse, it's like playing solitaire.

That is my greatest fear for SC after watching CR and the gang plays DFM vid on youtube. I am glad ED didn't take that route. I guess i will be playing SC with my xbox controller or KBM.

 

[Dr Wookie]

Wow 2 messages in one day, i'm not used to speak that much...
Sorry for my english par ce que bordel c'est pas ma langue...

1st a question : for those here who tested the 1st Alpha of ED.
How was it compare to what i can see in premium beta to understand how much improvement/change they have done thanks to feedback.

Hi, the first ED alpha was essentially the same combat scenarios we have today. The flight model hasn't really changed, most of the improvements have been in balancing the weapons and AI. Apparently FD took a tremendous amount of care over getting the feel of flying just right.

There seem to be many people who are very happy with the way AC plays, and I say good luck to them . There's always been room for both games, but this is especially true if one is more of a sim and the other is more arcadey