The Star Citizen Thread v5

[Stigbob]

I don't know. How believable is that? They spend a humongous amount of $60M on cutscenes (that's a LOT!) and then it isn't even good? I mean making movies is CR metier, he sucks as game dev project manager, but why should the cutscenes be bad? Making cutscenes is nothing exceptional, there is no new tech to be developed, lot's of experience out there. This should be the "save" part of the project, where it is easy to impress. And they did make a lot use of this with all these shiny commercials.

I view the agents leaks more as well observed satire than anything else.

But if you think back about mo-cap over the last five years they've proudly announced building and equipping two of their own mo-cap studios, then hired Gollums Imaginarium (which is apparently the most expensive mo-cap studio in the world). They've announced multiple re-shoots of re-shoots and have a very expensive AAA Hollywood cast. Chris Roberts frequently says "movie" when he means to say "game".

They've definitely gone overboard on 90's throwback mo-capped cut-scenes, based simply on their own marketing releases there's no doubt about that at all.

Have they blown half the money on it ?. I don't know I'd say impossible but look at the way Star Marines development was messed up, they don't have their finger on the pulse things catch them by surprise internally. A runaway mo-cap budget isn't implausible for a company like that, especially when mo-cap is the CEO's baby.

 

[Komemiute]

How can you deliver something bad with this kind of expertise in you back?

*cough cough* ChRoberts *Cough cough*
Basically the inverse of King Midas...

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Shades of the past?

http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/featu...tter&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&nl=weekly

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Shades of the past?

http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/featu...tter&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&nl=weekly

It is like Chris Roberts wants to make same movie game again and again and again and again....

 

[Knightshark]

Ok, another thing. What do they mean with GC 3.0 demo was "staged"? It was realtime in-engine after all. So it must be in some version of the game?

 

[frostypaw]

Ok, another thing. What do they mean with GC 3.0 demo was "staged"? It was realtime in-engine after all. So it must be in some version of the game?

Their thing is that *some* of it was, and some of it clearly not - the link dsmart posted to his blog about it is actually pretty succinct and readable (for anyone) and includes a link to a video that does a breakdown of some of the giveaway parts

The clearest moment to me the second I saw it was when they went into the station and the was a gloriously smooth as silk pan across the scenery pausing at the moments of interest as the 'player' glid gracefully in exactly the right direction. People don't move like that, and there aren't fade-cuts to more jerky normal motion moments later - just watch the demo footage yourself for that if you want to see. The cut as they exit onto the landing platforms is the most unsubtle as the actual player is looking at his feet when the cut occurs when the pre-render bit was looking straight forwards.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Ok, another thing. What do they mean with GC 3.0 demo was "staged"? It was realtime in-engine after all. So it must be in some version of the game?

It was played trough following script, even going on rails in places. It was put together demo for Gamescom purposes - even CR admitted that. That means lot of that is not in actual development build, nevermind build ready to be shipped to player testers.

 

[ianw]

Ok, another thing. What do they mean with GC 3.0 demo was "staged"? It was realtime in-engine after all. So it must be in some version of the game?

There's a how it was done video knocking around somewhere where it shows how they cut between footage that looked like a camera on rails floating around to footage being played.

 

[BurnyBurns]

Ok, another thing. What do they mean with GC 3.0 demo was "staged"? It was realtime in-engine after all. So it must be in some version of the game?

Not if it's its own branch of the game, as a standalone demo that has little to nothing to do with the rest of development.

Take it like this: They showed a fully narrated mission, quest giver NPC, gameplay and all and sold it to us like it's going to be what we can expect from Star Citizen - The MMO. A fetch quest. Fully narrated. Specifically Mo-Capped. With it's own enemy encounter scripting. That doesn't reek like scripted campaign mission to you rather than procedurally generated content? They need hundreds to thousands of such missions in order to fill an open world MMO with things to do. Yet, after four years, they show one(!). Sure, it may be running in real time, but it was also completely isolated from any other game content they have shown before. At worst, it was a completely authored demo with no relation to the game's current status, networking code etc., specifically produced to open the culti... backers' wallets, even if we assume that there was no faked prerendered footage in there.


I assume you have played Elite Dangeorous? Ever taken a look at its missions? They're often little more than a poor man's courier or assassination job. No specific narration, except for generic mission text, no cripted encounters, except for generally spawning interdiction harrassers or mission targets etc.. That's what you ought to expect from a system that procedurally produces missions in an open world. Take that "3.0" mission tehy showed and compare it and anybody without a massive pair of rose tinted glasses ought to realize, that what they're promising is a bit too good to be true.

Although, I personally didn't think that the voice over or NPC acting in any way special at all. Standard fare for todays AAA RPGs, I'd say. It's the context of the open world space game that would make this simple fetch quest special.

 

[Soliluna]

Shades of the past?

http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/featu...tter&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&nl=weekly

God that cutscene, amazing. The camera work is abysmal.

 

[Komemiute]

It was played trough following script, even going on rails in places. It was put together demo for Gamescom purposes - even CR admitted that. That means lot of that is not in actual development build, nevermind build ready to be shipped to player testers.

Admitted? CR admiteed it? Where's that!? - oh wait I mean... Nooes!

 

[ianw]

Here's the breakdown of the video;

[video=youtube;NSrXsbRh6k8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrXsbRh6k8[/video]

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

God that cutscene, amazing. The camera work is abysmal.

OMG this is so bad that it is so good. It is like they act NSL sketch or something.

 

[lysan]

I can't wait to see that PG tech that will blow anything we know away, I'm ready show me!

 

[Komemiute]

OMG this is so bad that it is so good. It is like they act NSL sketch or something.

Hehe, Robochicken...

 

[Knightshark]

Here's the breakdown of the video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrXsbRh6k8

Ok, maybe it is on rails, maybe it isn't. That begs the question why? Nothing supposedly "on rails" shows something special. Why fake going down the stairs? Why fake entering a station? Why fake leaving a station? If all of it can be done in game without fake? Why go through the lengths to build this fake and conspire with few devs to pull that off?

 

[Komemiute]

Ok, maybe it is on rails, maybe it isn't. That begs the question why? Nothing supposedly "on rails" shows something special. Why fake going down the stairs? Why fake entering a station? Why fake leaving a station? If all of it can be done in game without fake? Why go through the lengths to build this fake and conspire with few devs to pull that off?

One could guess, because they actually failed to produce even that?

 

[Knightshark]

One could guess, because they actually failed to produce even that?

But these thing are in game already. You can do these things in the current build (not on a planet).

 

[ianw]

Ok, maybe it is on rails, maybe it isn't. That begs the question why? Nothing supposedly "on rails" shows something special. Why fake going down the stairs? Why fake entering a station? Why fake leaving a station? If all of it can be done in game without fake? Why go through the lengths to build this fake and conspire with few devs to pull that off?

My guess is that it was to give the illusion of more progress than there was/is regarding 3.0 - everything is always just around the corner - gotta keep that cash rolling in!

Dunno - but that's what it looks like to me.

ETA - after all the allegations of the last 24 hours it will be interesting to see how/if they feed into the inevitable presentation video for cit Con.

 

[BurnyBurns]

Ok, maybe it is on rails, maybe it isn't. That begs the question why? Nothing supposedly "on rails" shows something special. Why fake going down the stairs? Why fake entering a station? Why fake leaving a station? If all of it can be done in game without fake? Why go through the lengths to build this fake and conspire with few devs to pull that off?

Because the actual project/game is a complete mess with no such content in an even remotely presentable shape? Because perhaps all the dev effort is focused on SQ42 and there has no coherent story content as shown been produced for Star Citizen, the MMO? Because maybe the interiors etc. are not actually layed out in the shown form, but are clobbered together from SQ42 assets and partially finished SC stuff?

It'd be interesting to know for certain, what part of this is real and what is eyewash.

But these thing are in game already. You can do these things in the current build (not on a planet).

Those stairs? That specific interior? Those stations and settlements at those places? That particular quest at that place? There's a whole lot you can fake by just putting footage of something into a different context.