The Star Citizen Thread v5

[Artemus]

Well, welcome to Alpha ...But they do have more variety of missions coming, but when you EVA etc. to pick up an item/explore a station, yeah it is bit interesting mechanic because people can always ambush you, as you say when you get out of the ship, so will be interesting as more content gets thrown in/mechanics how that plays out. I can imagine lots of tears on forums.

They had quite a long time to think about missions and story. These missions are amateur league and shouldn't have seen the light of day. Do you have a source or a X.XX patch for new missions?

I believe they are finalizing the work on a new patcher, so it should actually only be the small download and not the entire thing. It's one of the reasons I barely ever play the game anymore, while I got no caps, it takes long time to download. But also at the same time lots of people have data caps as well.

Source on this as well? I'd really like to know when it's more feasible to try the game (I do have 2.5 if anyone wants to pirate around!).

Well, $5 million is a lot of money and its not like Iffonic had many things going on project wise for them, they are a pretty small team working on a small portion of the game. But I could be wrong and it could be more, I just remember the $5 million because it was on some news area for Colorado.

They were modeling all the weapons, character animations, and FPS maps. It may have been a vertical slice, but all of had to be interchangeable with everything else.

 

[FuriousMeow]

Except that CR micro manages everything. http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/news/...ds-dim-light-on-cigs-corporate-culture,409742

So either he is the glorious great manager or he's a bumbling oaf that hasn't a clue as to what is going on with a major component of his "vision."

 

[Helfix]

I agree.

I hope that info and reasons for further delays does in fact come from CIG, and it's a critical time now because CIG is putting a lot on its place for deliverables this year: they've outright denied claims that SQ42 is delayed to 2017, they've promised functional Star Marine in 2.6/2.7 while simultaneously merging 2.7 with 3.0 which they claim will be out by the end of the year... that's a lot of stuff to screw up, and judging by their record it's not looking good. Then again, it's a lot of stuff to amaze people with, so maybe they'll finally pull through this time.

I think people who expect SQ 42 at end of year are dilusional. You just have to look at the state of the PU to know that SQ 42 is not ready. Mechanics are shared between the two games, unless they decide for the two games to behave completely different, which would be dumb. I can easily see SQ 42 being Q1/Q2 2017 release, the PU also needs at least a year before its ready. Not having a studio from get go really shows how much it affected development, but at same time CIG are ones who set expectations, its not backers fault for expecting deliveries when CIG sets it themselves.

The issue behind SC is that it still has way too much hype behind it, people expect it to be everything and all of it to be perfect, I can't wait to see the amount of tears when it fails that. Heck, even if it ends up being a great game, it will still disappoint tons of people. Making good feedback on main forums is extremely difficult, just like it is on these, people just love to echo-chamber things out or hide behind "its still alpha", failing to realize, that ALPHA is where things get changed.

I think if CIG does not make some good progress next year that hype train might get derailed, but at same time, I could be wrong, echo-chamber is pretty strong on main forums, just like on these ones here, and there are constant new backers coming in replacing any who really gets disgruntled.

andddddddddddddd I went off on a tangent...

 

[Asylum]

Pocket posted jargon deleted:

 

[lysan]

Well, welcome to Alpha ...But they do have more variety of missions coming, but when you EVA etc. to pick up an item/explore a station, yeah it is bit interesting mechanic because people can always ambush you, as you say when you get out of the ship, so will be interesting as more content gets thrown in/mechanics how that plays out. I can imagine lots of tears on forums.

I believe they are finalizing the work on a new patcher, so it should actually only be the small download and not the entire thing. It's one of the reasons I barely ever play the game anymore, while I got no caps, it takes long time to download. But also at the same time lots of people have data caps as well.

Well, $5 million is a lot of money and its not like Iffonic had many things going on project wise for them, they are a pretty small team working on a small portion of the game. But I could be wrong and it could be more, I just remember the $5 million because it was on some news area for Colorado.



Welcome to CIG, its the same way they tried to pitch Arena Commander as a "omg look at this it can be its own game" or same thing for racing etc...they over hype that and a lot of people eat it up..heck people were like "OMG THIS IS THE NEXT ESPORTS", some people have wild imaginations.....they should be doing more testing instead of being an echo-chamber on main forums, much like this thread here ;-)...



Well yes, he is the CEO, but you don't always know every single detail that is happening within a company, when something happens it takes a while for it to basically cascade to a point for you to notice. At that point it is pretty late, I think right before SM was supposed to come out, CIG was sending many people on over to Iffonic to talk and I think that was probably the time they noticed the issue...But hey we're past that now...will be interesting to see how SM gets delivered, or if it does at all this year.

I wonder if some of the higher profile people who left might have something to do with this as well, I doubt no heads were chopped for this big of a blunder. But that is always speculation.

My CEO, and that is in a +10000 employee company, knows the status of every single project running. Every month we the program managers update him in person and give recommendations regarding each project. So that is just plain bull.

It's terrible management period.

 

[lysan]

Can I be the t-posed guy in the turret?

Sure, thruster nibbles included.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Can I open a kiosk and sell soothing balm for over-chafed thrusting units?

And yes - it's meant to look and smell like cat food - keeps the vandals away!

Only 5 quid per use - no refunds!!!

 

[Ian Skippy]

I agree.

I hope that info and reasons for further delays does in fact come from CIG, and it's a critical time now because CIG is putting a lot on its place for deliverables this year: they've outright denied claims that SQ42 is delayed to 2017, they've promised functional Star Marine in 2.6/2.7 while simultaneously merging 2.7 with 3.0 which they claim will be out by the end of the year... that's a lot of stuff to screw up, and judging by their record it's not looking good. Then again, it's a lot of stuff to amaze people with, so maybe they'll finally pull through this time.

They also refuse to confirmed 2016 is still the release for Sq42. Their stance is that there is no delay as there is no release date...

 

[lysan]

They also refuse to confirmed 2016 is still the release for Sq42. Their stance is that there is no delay as there is no release date...

LOL so the 2016 in the various trailers was just a estimated date? CIG is just the most unreliable company I've ever seen, and I've see a lot.

 

[metatheurgist]

They also refuse to confirmed 2016 is still the release for Sq42. Their stance is that there is no delay as there is no release date...

Same stance as citizens. There is no game so there are no problems.

 

[SkUnimatrix]

$40m on mocap, bloody hell.

Yeah if that turns out to be the number....

When I and others figured the amount they were burning through last year most of us assumed around $15M for Sq42 production costs between mo-cap, paying actors, etc. with a few saying that number could be as high as $20M. Which given some of the names involved at the time I could see that being the high end number. But to have spent twice that? I'm not surprised at this point, but that's the production budget for many AAA games. And I'm not talking the total cost with marketing, but usually the sum of money given to do the nuts and bolts work of production a video game on multiple platforms.

 

[milligna]

he was also a producer on a lot of very successful movies as well. Calling him a "failed producer" is pretty laughable.

Good thing I didn't call him a failed producer, then. And no, he was NOT a producer on a lot of very successful movies. Go look at the budgets and box office of the features he was attached to among 6 or 7 other producers.

Here, I'll do it for you:

Outlander:
Domestic Total Gross: $166,003
Production Budget: $50 million

(Might as well have just poured all the money down a well - this is Heaven's Gate-level bomb, the kind of bomb that ends careers. Whaddya know -- it did.)

Lucky Number Slevin:
Domestic Total Gross: $22,495,466
Foreign: $33,813,415
Budget: $30 million

(Hey! This looks better! Then we remember what the producers actually see back once the distributors/theaters take half or more.)

Who's Your Caddy:
Domestic Total Gross: $5,713,425
Budget: $7 million

(b-b-b-bomb.)

Ask the Dusk:
Domestic Total Gross: $743,847
Foreign: $1,716,210
Budget: $2.5 million

(bob-omb!)

Lord of War:
Domestic Total Gross: $24,149,632
Foreign: $48,467,436
Production Budget: $50 million

(Better but that budget is too hard to make back. If they shot it for 25, they would've seen a profit.)

The Big White:
Domestic Total Gross: n/a
Foreign: $367,241
Production Budget: $14 million

(Huge stinking bomb)

The Jacket:
Domestic: $6,303,762
+ Foreign: $14,822,463
Production Budget: $19 million

(look! another bomb)

The Punisher:
Domestic: $33,810,189
+ Foreign: $20,889,916
Production Budget: $33 million

(Fun exploitation, maybe has turned a very small profit for some parties)

Wing Commander: The Movie
Domestic: $11,578,059
Production Budget: $30 million

(Ended his directing career before it began with numbers like that...)

Only a few of those MAYBE made a little money for the producers over time with video and tv deals... So no, he has NOT produced a lot of very successful movies... he put some money into films that generally didn't make their money back and he hasn't ever produced one authentic hit. Of course, we're not including costs of marketing OR P&A for any of that so any actual profit is even lower. Most of those lost millions of dollars for investors! The Outsider utterly wiped out any chance of continuing to dabble in producing.

I called him a failed moviemaker because his only attempt at anything with any kind of creative control was one of the worst science fiction films of the past fifty years.

Now back to Star Citizen, where history repeats itself.

 

[Osmanthus]

Mr Roberts is very good at spending money and, it seems, raising it, his useless director of marketing notwithstanding, and precious little else.

Producers spend money, directors make movies, Chris has done one of those things passably well, and the other abysmally poorly.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Well, i must say, i actually enjoyed Lord of War.....

 

[ianw]

I think people who expect SQ 42 at end of year are dilusional. You just have to look at the state of the PU to know that SQ 42 is not ready. Mechanics are shared between the two games, unless they decide for the two games to behave completely different, which would be dumb. I can easily see SQ 42 being Q1/Q2 2017 release, the PU also needs at least a year before its ready. Not having a studio from get go really shows how much it affected development, but at same time CIG are ones who set expectations, its not backers fault for expecting deliveries when CIG sets it themselves.

The issue behind SC is that it still has way too much hype behind it, people expect it to be everything and all of it to be perfect, I can't wait to see the amount of tears when it fails that. Heck, even if it ends up being a great game, it will still disappoint tons of people. Making good feedback on main forums is extremely difficult, just like it is on these, people just love to echo-chamber things out or hide behind "its still alpha", failing to realize, that ALPHA is where things get changed.

I think if CIG does not make some good progress next year that hype train might get derailed, but at same time, I could be wrong, echo-chamber is pretty strong on main forums, just like on these ones here, and there are constant new backers coming in replacing any who really gets disgruntled.

andddddddddddddd I went off on a tangent...

They have two big problems.

The first is CR himself - it's now clear that his redo it 100 times till you prove it won't work is the biggest drag on the project. If it worked one time out of 20 he'd see that one time as validation of his method and just ignore the 19 times it didn't work.

The second is the money. They don't have an infinite supply and it's clear by any sensible estimate that their monthly outgoings easily outstrip their average monthly incomings. Backers that think GIG/RSI can take as long as they need are deluded.

And that's before we factor in other things like - the total re-programming of the engine and the dysfunctional setup of the production spread over several studios vying for the top support and access to resources.

The longer this goes on it seems the hype and evangelism is inversely proportional to any reasonable assessment of the chances of success. The louder they get the worse it is..

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Well, i must say, i actually enjoyed Lord of War.....

Lord of War and Lucky Number Sleven were not that bad, I really enjoyed them both. However, they didn't take a box office. It is one of main responsibilities of producer.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

There are two things in SC affair which I think is big liabilities for project to succeed in releasing *relatively finished* product:

* CR ego, lack of skill and micromanaging everything. He is a boy with a dream of "everything" sci-fi game (he finally came out on that one for us). Problem is, he doesn't have what it takes to pull such project off. That combines obsession of controlling everything and not being sure what kind of gameplay SC should have. It definitely have to have needlessly complex gameplay - "depth" as some people would like to point out - because hey, that's fun right, and that's actually we all want. He lacks basic understanding what makes games work - and let's be clear WC series have very little gameplay besides space shooting, Privateer and Freelancer took Elite formula and just added "omg in-depth story" aaand basically it. Gameplay has never been strongest of CR suits. That's why he seems to be picking ideas from other games left and right;

* Another - I would say major - issue IS idea of "everything" sci-fi game. I just got asked yesterday what kind of expansions Elite plans to have in future - aaand I went trough and I understand that besides space legs and other smaller gameplay elements that will be most likely it. FD won't add gameplay to use WC via cutscene or feeding your fish, they will add elements like NPC comms and will see where it takes them. Every time I read about SC development is is SO unfocused to actually make game work, but SO foccused to make demo about how some parts of it could work....and the rest is tedious. 3 years we have seen walking and space flight - and NONE of those things work properly yet. It is power fantasy essentially. CIG is so desperate to hit that sweet dream button inside people's heads, that's why project essentially has becoming an experience of DREAMING about EVERYTHING GAME. That's why lot of fans are OK with that, because as long as they don't have to see actual product which will tear it all down, it is OK to DREAM about it;

That's why ED can't beat SC for so many people. I just asked few and answer was that gameplay is boring, then I asked what they liked - and they openly said they like to play around with SC ships and fantasize about possibilities they convey.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Chris Roberts said in a recent interview that it's easy.

That's really all we've heard.

really..... in which case they should get on it then

thanks for the info, hope he is correct

 

[Mu77ley]

Les Dennis in SQ42?

Why does SQ42 need French Fire Engines again?

 

[Soliluna]

Star Citizen: Lifts Are Lethal Edition....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFn7K37p7So#t=5s

How many gamers do you think are being put off by the obnoxious levels of motion blur (not to mention the low fps I'm guessing the motion blur is trying to disguise) in most of these videos? lol

Well, i must say, i actually enjoyed Lord of War.....

Me too, it was quite funny. But I didn't watch it in the cinema, I watched it at my friends house on a DVD he had picked up on the cheap. I also wouldn't have gone and seen it at the cinema, even knowing that I enjoyed it. It's not really a decent cinema flick nor is it good enough to warrant the time spent in the day to watch it.

It's a good "I have nothing better to do" watch, which is true of a lot of films.