The Star Citizen Thread v5

[Snarfbuckle]

The focus on underpants was delightful.

I still cannot see how their player avatar customisation and costume design advances gameplay though - it's not like you can just go out into space wearing anything you like, or nearly nothing at all. Their solid foundation of a thermodynamic and environmental engine based on real physics took care of that.

Oh wait - you still can

Would YOU want to board a trader ship when you look into the bridge and see floating cheetos, wrappers and a fat hairy trucker in a mankini staring back at you while pinching his nipples...

It's immersive intimidation and revulsion.

- - - Updated - - -

To the point you want to smash your keyboard sometimes...

Even better, when you walk up to an area and the USE suddenly disappear because you dont stand at JUST the right place.

 

[Cotic]

Does anyone know if they plan to have characters/vehicles react differently dependant on terrain/atmosphere?

The character on that ice planet runs like he's on your main street, there's no reaction to the supper slippy ice and no effect from differing gravity. It seems odd to make things so reaslistic and immersive and then break it by having a character behave differently to what's expected.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Does anyone know if they plan to have characters/vehicles react differently dependant on terrain/atmosphere?

The character on that ice planet runs like he's on your main street, there's no reaction to the supper slippy ice and no effect from differing gravity. It seems odd to make things so reaslistic and immersive and then break it by having a character behave differently to what's expected.

Their plan is to have several factors, if they succeed with it is another issue.

- Drag and air resistance for planetary flight
- Gravity
- Ground resistance

We have gravity and ground resistance in Elite and I imagine they too want to add a "soup" rating to atmospheric planets as well to act as a drag effect when moving inside a thicker non-vacuum atmosphere.

Both CGI and FD could/would most likely also add atmospheric conditions like corrosive or EM laden atmosphere as well that affect the ships shields and hull.

 

[Skizomeuh]

[*]Also have been working on a very early system for oxygen and the effects of it when it begins to run low.

So... still not done. Ha!

[*]With the base CryEngine/Lumberyard you couldn't swap out geometry, what you saw is what you got which is fine for games with maybe 20 characters, but SC is an MMO with hundreds and hundreds of players and NPCs and requires something different.

Yet another thing on the pile of "CryEngine wasn't a stellar choice to make a feature possible"

[*]This is possible because of the zone system they've devised for clothing.

I hang myself on for a lot of lulz like Assassin's Creed face bugs brought to us back then

[*]The system also can support items like a cape that's different compared to other games in that the cape may collide differently depending on what you're wearing so it's not always the same like other games.

They still can't help themselves, can they?

Yet I confess it looks like it's - at long last - starting to move. Now it's only words till we can really witness these progress.

- - - Updated - - -

Their plan is to have several factors, if they succeed with it is another issue.

<<USE>>. 'nuff said.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

So... still not done. Ha!

<<USE>>. 'nuff said.

Yup.

I make no bones about being a backer and I agree that their time projection is completely borked but I do not doubt they CAN make it but they should have been upfront and said 2016 at the earliest at kickstarter since they wanted to make a high quality fidelity cinematic space opera clone of earlier wing commander games and doing that without even having the company foundation and team already in place was optimistic at best.

Either way this game will never succeed in satisfying the amount of both positive and negative hype surrounding it and I seriously think a lot of people on both side of the discussion need to lower their expectations and suspicions.

It MIGHT be an awesome game, it MIGHT be a damn cool multiplayer experience but at this stage it is a risk investment in a work in progress and games HAVE failed before and gamers have lost money in the games they bought.

Just look at other MMO's that closed down within months or games that failed soon before launch.

Hopefully it WILL be an awesome game that both critics and backers can enjoy.

After all, that IS why we are here, because we like good games.

 

[VidarSnipes]

I'm certainly going to pass SQ42, my only contact with Chris Roberts' writing was the Wing Commander movie, and watching that was a harrowing experience. Even if it's going to be better than that, it won't beat COD:IW's story, and I couldn't stand that as well.

 

[killminster]

Would YOU want to board a trader ship when you look into the bridge and see floating cheetos, wrappers and a fat hairy trucker in a mankini staring back at you while pinching his nipples...

UGHHH!! Okay, I wont come anywhere near your ship let alone even think of boarding it. Thanks for the warning

 

[Snarfbuckle]

I'm certainly going to pass SQ42, my only contact with Chris Roberts' writing was the Wing Commander movie, and watching that was a harrowing experience. Even if it's going to be better than that, it won't beat COD:IW's story, and I couldn't stand that as well.

Yes, that movie was not GOOD.

He has been involved in OTHER good movies though. The Punisher and Lucky Number Slevin are nice.

While his older games indeed have older graphics the gameplay and story is damn good.
Wing Commander 3 and 4 are nice.

GoG have all of them and Freelancer is a good place to start although very arcady gameplay. Freelancer is NOT available on GOG though.

- - - Updated - - -

UGHHH!! Okay, I wont come anywhere near your ship let alone even think of boarding it. Thanks for the warning

I do not avoid pirates, I REPEL them. ^__^

 

[Tippis]

Yes, that movie was not GOOD.

He has been involved in OTHER good movies though. The Punisher and Lucky Number Slevin are nice.

His only contribution to those was drumming up money for financing. The one movie he likes to brag about being “involved with” is Outlander, which posted a $40M loss…

Of course, this being Chris, you have to question how much he was “involved with” it since he was once again just someone who bought himself a producer credit.

While his older games indeed have older graphics the gameplay and story is damn good.
Wing Commander 3 and 4 are nice.

His involvement with WC3 and 4 is generally blown out of proportion. While he did write the “story” of WC3 (which isn't very good, and which retcons a ton of what happened in previous games), his main contribution to both games was to play director for the FMV scenes. And they were often on high-school drama class level, in spite of the actors involved.

Chris' writing and directing CV consists of three items: Wing Commander III (story, FMV directing), Wing Commander IV (FMV directing), and Wing Commander the Movie (story and directing). That's it. Hardly compelling storytelling across a wide range of settings, moods, or genres.

GoG have all of them and Freelancer is a good place to start although very arcady gameplay. Freelancer is NOT available on GOG though.

Freelancer isn't a Chris Roberts game so it wouldn't really be a good place to go anyway. On the other hand, that makes it a pretty good game instead.

 

[GaryII]

Yes, that movie was not GOOD.
He has been involved in OTHER good movies though. The Punisher and Lucky Number Slevin are nice.

If we believe imdb he lost a lot of other people money in Hollywood, even those good movies have bad numbers:

The Punisher
Budget: $33,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $13,834,527 (USA) (16 April 2004)
Gross: $33,682,273 (USA) (2 July 2004)

Lucky Number Slevin
Budget: $27,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: £1,074,550 (UK) (24 February 2006)
Gross: $22,494,487 (USA) (14 July 2006)


and Wing commander...

Budget: $30,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $5,114,365 (USA) (12 March 1999)
Gross: $11,576,087 (USA) (28 May 1999)


..so history can repeat itself with SC...

 

[Snarfbuckle]

If we believe imdb he lost a lot of other people money in Hollywood, even those good movies have bad numbers:

The Punisher
Budget: $33,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $13,834,527 (USA) (16 April 2004)
Gross: $33,682,273 (USA) (2 July 2004)

Lucky Number Slevin
Budget: $27,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: £1,074,550 (UK) (24 February 2006)
Gross: $22,494,487 (USA) (14 July 2006)


and Wing commander...

Budget: $30,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $5,114,365 (USA) (12 March 1999)
Gross: $11,576,087 (USA) (28 May 1999)


..so history can repeat itself with SC...

Not to ignore those numbers but I have a hard time trusting those kind of numbers when it comes to hollywood and their hollywood accounting practices.

Which in no way excuses the poor quality of Wing Commander.

- - - Updated - - -

Freelancer isn't a Chris Roberts game so it wouldn't really be a good place to go anyway. On the other hand, that makes it a pretty good game instead.

Im pretty sure he wrote the storyline for both Starlancer and Freelancer with his brother.

Older WC games were good and strike commander was a refreshing change from the space genre.

- - - Updated - - -

..so history can repeat itself with SC...

Of course, only a fool would deny the risk in any similar development and we have seen countless games crash and burn for various reasons.

But far too many see it as a GUARANTEE that it will happen or that it can only become GLORIOUS.

Balanced concerns kind of drowns in the middle.

 

[Viajero]

Not to ignore those numbers but I have a hard time trusting those kind of numbers when it comes to hollywood and their hollywood accounting practices.

Including CIG´s?

 

[hairychris]

The meta SC game is better than the actual game itself.
Maybe CRoberts needs to add that to marketing. BDMGE - Best Damn Meta Game Ever

And every weekend is a "free fly" weekend!

 

[Tippis]

Not to ignore those numbers but I have a hard time trusting those kind of numbers when it comes to hollywood and their hollywood accounting practices.

That's how they go from gross to net, and from net to no taxes and low payouts for anyone not in a position to get gross points — it does not change the gross numbers.

Im pretty sure he wrote the storyline for both Starlancer and Freelancer with his brother.

Older WC games were good and strike commander was a refreshing change from the space genre.

Freelancer was written by Adam Foshko and Jörg Neumann; Starlancer has no writing credits, but its missions were designed by Zuby Ahmed, Nick Elms, Brian J. Flanagan, Simon Harris, Philip Mervik, Steve Routledge, Darren Vaile and Will Whitehead. Chances are pretty minute that Chris would have had anything to do with Starlancer, since that was Erin's “lesser” project and Chris was occupied with failing to make the “greater” one made during the same time (and with making WC the Movie).

Older WC games were not written by Chris, neither was Strike Commander. Maybe that's what made their otherwise very derivative and trite stories “good.”

I've done the write-up earlier, but the short version is this: Chris has only really done 3½ games. In spite of having his name and IP plastered across a whole bunch of boxes, his CV is very low on the kind of credits his fans commonly want to credit him for. Writing, in particular, is not something he ever did to any extent, much less something he was any good at.

 

[VidarSnipes]

Yes, that movie was not GOOD.

He has been involved in OTHER good movies though. The Punisher and Lucky Number Slevin are nice.

While his older games indeed have older graphics the gameplay and story is damn good.
Wing Commander 3 and 4 are nice.

GoG have all of them and Freelancer is a good place to start although very arcady gameplay. Freelancer is NOT available on GOG though.

In this case I agree with Tippis. CR is listed as a writer in Wing Commander, Wing Commander: Academy and few games, he was just a producer of those movies you have mentioned. That's the problem because it's not his ability to acquire capital I doubt, but his writing skills.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Including CIG´s?

When it comes to hollywood accounting there have been several instances where it's blatantly obvious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

According to Lucasfilm, Return of the Jedi, despite having earned $475 million at the box office against a budget of $32.5 million, "has never gone into profit".[7]

Expenditures can be inflated to reduce or eliminate the reported profit of the project, thereby reducing the amount which the corporation must pay in royalties or other profit-sharing agreements, as these are based on the net profit.

At most this would affect any kind of royalties in regards to hired actors depending on their agreements but hardly any actors work for NET points nowadays because of this practice.

We have so far not seen any PROOF of CIG using hollywood accounting to inflate production costs.

 

[hairychris]

When it comes to hollywood accounting there have been several instances where it's blatantly obvious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting




At most this would affect any kind of royalties in regards to hired actors depending on their agreements but hardly any actors work for NET points nowadays because of this practice.

We have so far not seen any PROOF of CIG using hollywood accounting to inflate production costs.

To be fair we haven't seen any accounting from CIG. I'd assume that backers (sorry, pre-order customers ) like yourself would like to know that your cash was being used in a sensible fashion?

 

[Snarfbuckle]

In this case I agree with Tippis. CR is listed as a writer in Wing Commander, Wing Commander: Academy and few games, he was just a producer of those movies you have mentioned. That's the problem because it's not his ability to acquire capital I doubt, but his writing skills.

You are entirely correct my bad. He was NOT the writer in those games.

Chris Roberts is NOT the writer of SQ42 and Star Citizen either.

It's Dave Haddock...assistant director of Outlander and have no prior recorded writing experience on IMDB.

So it's a bit of a wild card there and hopefully Dave Haddock CAN write but it seems at least that Chris stays out of that part.

- - - Updated - - -

To be fair we haven't seen any accounting from CIG. I'd assume that backers (sorry, pre-order customers ) like yourself would like to know that your cash was being used in a sensible fashion?

True, but they have filed taxes, made their quarterly reports and no alarm has been heard from the responsible accounting firm.

And if im not entirely incorrect their reports are more or less publicly available, just not down to individual notes, contracts and invoices.

 

[VidarSnipes]

You are entirely correct my bad. He was NOT the writer in those games.

Chris Roberts is NOT the writer of SQ42 and Star Citizen either.

It's Dave Haddock...assistant director of Outlander and have no prior recorded writing experience on IMDB.

So it's a bit of a wild card there and hopefully Dave Haddock CAN write but it seems at least that Chris stays out of that part.

My bad, then. It doesn't help much, though, as he's still a director of SC and SQ42, and that's a position with a direct creative input. The only other film he has directed is still Wing Commander, and that fact, I think, speaks for itself.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

My bad, then. It doesn't help much, though, as he's still a director of SC and SQ42, and that's a position with a direct creative input. The only other film he has directed is still Wing Commander, and that fact, I think, speaks for itself.

Well, he HAS been a director or producer in MOST of his games and movies, And apart from the Wing Commander movie the movies and games HAVE been good.

But sure, that is PAST works which in itself is a pedigree of sorts but not a guarantee for success.