Star Citizen Thread v6

[Cobra1984]

I'm stuck with the bandwidth of a DIP switch. I shudder to think what I'm missing, but what is going on?

Imagine a cringe compilation video written and directed by Ricky Gervais.

Erin answered questions with the same comments and promises from almost 2 years ago, I might post a comparison if I get time.

Chris is sticking to the line of 'you already have the game, you are already playing it'

The big sell was supposed to be seamless transitions from surface to space, Swofford was building this up over the last few weeks. Hence the comments in this thread about ED not being 'truly seamless', hence the press releases (only ran in a couple of places) about SC blowing NMS planetary landings out of the water.

This is why I expected it to be a slick standalone build, because they only have a big cube with a spherical map, it doesn't let you travel anywhere. System travel btw was one of the key goals for a 3.0 release according to CR in a 10ftc video, oh, 18 months ago ish.

Interesting comments from Erin regarding AI being "complex" and "difficult". AI was another task farmed out, built, couldn't be integrated and was canned and pulled in house. It doesn't work and "nobody knows why" and that has been the case for almost 2 years.

No idea what they're showing tomorrow, but so far this has got to be the worst thing shown to customers at a trade show of any type or description by a company ever.

 

[Britney]

Remarkable is, by the way, how the presentation of this new version took a different approach than the previous ones. It was less about hiding the bugs and glitches, it still happened through cleverly changing viewpoints, but I was surprised how they openly played with all these strange occurences, actually making them part of the show, turning ridicule into humour, even self-irony. Disco Lando breaking the 4th wall occassionally, throwing a weird stare into the camera saying 'I can't believe this is really happening'.

I am not sure if the reason for that is that it is unavoidable. They have to show something if they still want to ride the open-dev horse and make progress visible, and maybe that - piece of software - is the only software they have in a more or less presentable state. They have to throw it out and make the best out of it.

This might also be a more clever approach for the whole thing and the future. Make fans accept an endless work-in-progress state instead of trying to hide the duct-tape and only releasing 'polished' stuff (what it never was).

 

[Slopey]

Remarkable is, by the way, how the presentation of this new version took a different approach than the previous ones. It was less about hiding the bugs and glitches, it still happened through cleverly changing viewpoints, but I was surprised how they openly played with all these strange occurences, actually making them part of the show, turning ridicule into humour, even self-irony. Disco Lando breaking the 4th wall occassionally, throwing a weird stare into the camera saying 'I can't believe this is really happening'.

I am not sure if the reason for that is that it is unavoidable. They have to show something if they still want to ride the open-dev horse and make progress visible, and maybe that - piece of software - is the only software they have in a more or less presentable state. They have to throw it out and make the best out of it.

This might also be a more clever approach for the whole thing and the future. Make fans accept an endless work-in-progress state instead of trying to hide the duct-tape and only releasing 'polished' stuff (what it never was).

I think it's quite simple - they had to show *something* otherwise their income source, and the backers who still are convinced it's the 2nd coming would be dissolusioned.

But what they have shown is really just a Cryengine map with two ships, a bike, a car, and a few shooty bits. Even most of the interface panels in the ships don't work. There is no depth/mechanics/game loop etc - it's just a sandbox arena vehicle concept, which has several bugs (can't pick up weapons, no damage, ejection, T-poses, nox warping, clipping, collision problems etc) and a 15 min reset - for joe-public-cycling-reasons (if you believe that).

If that's what they're going to show - their only option is to bravado it out, go for the "I've never seen that before", and do it all in a jovial, lighthearted manner. If they were serious about it, they'd be ripped to shreds.

What worries me more is that this is all they could produce after last years Gamescom video (heck, even Alpha 2.0 has more functionality than this!). Goodness knows what CR will present tomorrow, but whatever it is, it will be tainted by last years Sandworm debacle - even more so given the floorshow version is just the vehicle "map". In the German interview, he ummmmed, hummmed and obfuscated his way through "where's the game" style questions, and alluded that there would be staff members controlling the ships in the pres tomorrow, but not using the best input method (what's with that???), so I reckon it'll be another pre-rendered video fest.

I feel bad for the SC staffers who have to spin out what is effectively an alpha of planetside 1 with no mechanics, but shiney visuals, for 3 or 4 whole days - it must be soul destroying.

 

[GuruNot]

I think it's quite simple - they had to show *something* otherwise their income source, and the backers who still are convinced it's the 2nd coming would be dissolusioned.

But what they have shown is really just a Cryengine map with two ships, a bike, a car, and a few shooty bits. Even most of the interface panels in the ships don't work. There is no depth/mechanics/game loop etc - it's just a sandbox arena vehicle concept, which has several bugs (can't pick up weapons, no damage, ejection, T-poses, nox warping, clipping, collision problems etc) and a 15 min reset - for joe-public-cycling-reasons (if you believe that).

If that's what they're going to show - their only option is to bravado it out, go for the "I've never seen that before", and do it all in a jovial, lighthearted manner. If they were serious about it, they'd be ripped to shreds.

What worries me more is that this is all they could produce after last years Gamescom video (heck, even Alpha 2.0 has more functionality than this!). Goodness knows what CR will present tomorrow, but whatever it is, it will be tainted by last years Sandworm debacle - even more so given the floorshow version is just the vehicle "map". In the German interview, he ummmmed, hummmed and obfuscated his way through "where's the game" style questions, and alluded that there would be staff members controlling the ships in the pres tomorrow, but not using the best input method (what's with that???), so I reckon it'll be another pre-rendered video fest.

I feel bad for the SC staffers who have to spin out what is effectively an alpha of planetside 1 with no mechanics, but shiney visuals, for 3 or 4 whole days - it must be soul destroying.

Isnt Friday the day of the big reveal, which will silence all doubters?

 

[Skizomeuh]

Remarkable is, by the way, how the presentation of this new version took a different approach than the previous ones. It was less about hiding the bugs and glitches, it still happened through cleverly changing viewpoints, but I was surprised how they openly played with all these strange occurences, actually making them part of the show, turning ridicule into humour, even self-irony. Disco Lando breaking the 4th wall occassionally, throwing a weird stare into the camera saying 'I can't believe this is really happening'.

I am not sure if the reason for that is that it is unavoidable. They have to show something if they still want to ride the open-dev horse and make progress visible, and maybe that - piece of software - is the only software they have in a more or less presentable state. They have to throw it out and make the best out of it.

This might also be a more clever approach for the whole thing and the future. Make fans accept an endless work-in-progress state instead of trying to hide the duct-tape and only releasing 'polished' stuff (what it never was).

Sure. Yet, 5 years in, I'm not laughing anymore, and this kind of humour I take it like a big middle finger.

 

[Cobra1984]

Was sent this translation from the French commentary on the gamescon demo, no time to confirm

"Original
"La Nox elle, est très classe ! On a une sensation de vitesse pas trop dégeux et j'ai trouvé qu'elle se maniait bien malgrés le terrain pas trop adapté pour elle."

Reddit
The Nox is a beast! Classy also! The speed feedback is quite good as of today. As you can imagine, the Nox is really agile, even on Daymar's scorched suface.

Actual
The Nox is very classy! You have a sensation of speed that's not too disgusting and I found that it maneuvered well despite the terrain that's not suited for it."

 

[Slopey]

Even my pigeon French can confirm the actual is correct - Reddit is shall we say, embellished.

 

[Marak]

One guys interpretation of 3.0 from Reddit about the interview with Erin (speculation in bold).

Here's everything that was of interest from Erin Robert's Q&A:
3.0's player count will be at least "what we have now" (I assume he means 24 and not 12 like in the current 3.0 demo)
There will be a 12km station in SQ42. It's going to have an important role in the story. I think it's already been made.
When asked about the 600i they all laughed and looked at each other, then skipped over the question. Looks like that's going to be announced tomorrow.
The ships team has been making ships like mad. It seemed like he was hinting that the 600i + some others will be in 3.0. That seems to tie in with this: New ships Instagram teaser
Mining will not be in 3.0, but will be the next feature in the game after cargo.
Proper persistence will be in 3.0. Where you logout is where you will spawn back in.
You can set your respawn point. I imagine you go to the location and then it will be an option when talking to an NPC or something so you can't just teleport across the system.
Complete network rework for 3.0. They're in the process of converting the gameplay systems over to make it all work.
Seems like 2.6.3 had a memory leak which made the server performance degrade over time.
You can 'link' quantum drive in 3.0, meaning that you can quantum travel with your friends.
The more expensive the ship, the longer wait time for insurance
You can buy ships in 3.0 (Not 3.0, but possibly 3.1) with aUEC.

Speculation is good.

Buy an Idris.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6vqmw7/erin_roberts_qa_overview/

*edit - Added link

 

[Slopey]

I'm really keen to see what sort of ship prices come out of SC in aUEC - that will nail the colours to the mast if it's pay-to-win, or everyone spending money on jpgs has been royally..... extorted.

I'm only in for $60, but it'll be fascinating if people who didn't pony up think it's way way too high, and vice versa if the whales feel they've been ripped off if anyone can get a $500 ship in 20 hours of play.

 

[Yaffle]

Again, stay on topic. Which is not Elite Dangerous, you have a whole forum to chat about that.

 

[VR Mr Teatime]

Just tickling my quirky sense of humour with a little sense of perspective - planetary atmospheric transition in SC = $156mil vs. SpaceX (Elon Musk) doing it for real (last time only an hour or so ago) = $65mil (less if you fly a "flight proven" booster and negotiate a little)...

 

[Cobra1984]

Rumours still of SQ42 playthrough tomorrow and they are changing the funding model once 3.0 goes live!?

This is from background chatter so don't put too much trust in it.

 

[Zetta]

I'm really keen to see what sort of ship prices come out of SC in aUEC - that will nail the colours to the mast if it's pay-to-win, or everyone spending money on jpgs has been royally..... extorted.

I'm only in for $60, but it'll be fascinating if people who didn't pony up think it's way way too high, and vice versa if the whales feel they've been ripped off if anyone can get a $500 ship in 20 hours of play.

Interested in seeing those prices as well, the shot in one of the recent ATVs had them blurred out. I think they'll end up appeasing the whales, it's what happens in every other game.

 

[Slopey]

Rumours still of SQ42 playthrough tomorrow and they are changing the funding model once 3.0 goes live!?

This is from background chatter so don't put too much trust in it.

In the German interview today, CR himself said there would be no SQ42 in Gamescom, plus most of it is "boxed out" with placeholder boxes for levels etc and still waiting for assets/skinning. There won't be any SQ42 stuff - if there is, then CR was lying to the interviewer's face.

 

[Vasea Azure]

Be very afraid of SC, IT is coming!

[video=youtube;o0_Prv2MOg0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0_Prv2MOg0[/video]

 

[Neo-ST]

Be very afraid of SC, IT is coming!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0_Prv2MOg0

Hilarious !

 

[Asp Explorer]

In the German interview today, CR himself said there would be no SQ42 in Gamescom, plus most of it is "boxed out" with placeholder boxes for levels etc and still waiting for assets/skinning. There won't be any SQ42 stuff - if there is, then CR was lying to the interviewer's face.

What on earth have they been doing all this time?

The script was written over half a decade ago. They hired Famous Actors (and Ben Lenslock) to do all the actory things actors do, they built all their own mocap studios, got all the mocap redone in a proper mocap studio, they said last year (or was it the year before) that it was all close to completion and that the studios had switched focus onto SQ42, the Morrow Tour had been re-re-done (nothing like you saw before!) to show off that progress had been made, and the only blockers they had left were some animation issues that were "great, just not quite how Genuine Roberts envisions them" and what colour of box they were going to ship the game in.

What's gone on with it all? What do they have to show for themselves?

 

[Ian Skippy]

Seems like a bit of an overreaction going on.

A live gameplay presentation is just that, a presentation. A proof of concept in a controlled environment to showcase tech, game design direction and the overall feel of the gameplay.
It is not the same as having a build ready for playtesting by thousands of gamers.

And the game is not crashing every 15 min's... Server reset's every 15 minutes so that people who are waiting in the line get a chance to test the game. Lot of people interested btw with the line going all around the booth so it seems the 3.0 build is at least intriguing for people to wait and hour or more to play it.

It's better than last year when streamers played the current build, at least this year there's new cool stuff to see like blowing people up with a railgun.

Spoiler

https://giant.gfycat.com/GivingPoliticalBunting.gif

Tomorrow we will have the big presentation where they will most likely reveal more cool stuff.



They showed the cutlass landing gear today and it was compressing, quite nicely too.



CIG is a one game company created 5 years ago to make Star Citizen/Squadron42 through crowdfunding alone. As you may well know they started with a hand few of dev's and have grown steadily thanks to the help of the community, that help is rewarded with CIG showcasing their work much sooner than in traditional AAA game development, that's why we get to test early builds and see the sausage getting made. CIG has in their top ranks Dev's who've released plenty of "viable and money-making games to market", multiple times in the last decades actually. Nothing in their development is out of the ordinary in what concerns game development. We are just getting a bit of the inside look of it, it's not supposed to be pretty, as much as CIG tries to filter it out.

There's a book coming out that should be interesting for anyone that likes game development or just follow crowdfunded and early access games called Blood, Sweat & Pixcels by Jason Schreier (kotaku) who goes into the deeps of some big games development stories. (DiabloIII part here)

Knowing the insides of game development and contextualization is quite useful not only to understand that some of the "problems" in Star Citizen are general problems that all big games go through.

James Shore who wrote the book The Art of Agile Development and is the redditor u/jdlshore analyse's CIG's 3.0 Schedule said this about CIG development process and bugfixing iteration:

"Their development process seems very normal and ordinary. No surprises whatsoever. It's a very classical approach to development combined with intelligent big-cycle iteration, incrementalism, and evolutionary design (refactoring) along with small-cycle sprints. I prefer a more aggressive approach to incrementalism but that doesn't mean their way is wrong, and their approach is much more common in the industry than mine.

Polishing is an essential part of pre-release bugfixing. How much to do is a business call based on strategic priorities. Their focus on polish is very consistent with what they've said about their goals. I think it's the smart business decision."

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6unav3/no_bamboozles_release_forecast_for_august_18th/

Cool story bro.

So, when do you think we're gonna get the promised game? Care to give your estimated date?

 

[Marak]

What on earth have they been doing all this time?

The script was written over half a decade ago. They hired Famous Actors (and Ben Lenslock) to do all the actory things actors do, they built all their own mocap studios, got all the mocap redone in a proper mocap studio, they said last year (or was it the year before) that it was all close to completion and that the studios had switched focus onto SQ42, the Morrow Tour had been re-re-done (nothing like you saw before!) to show off that progress had been made, and the only blockers they had left were some animation issues that were "great, just not quite how Genuine Roberts envisions them" and what colour of box they were going to ship the game in.

What's gone on with it all? What do they have to show for themselves?

A quick question to people here that know about game development (I've been told many times that I know nothing about this topic) -

Is it normal for a game to use mocap for all character animations? I thought mocap was more expensive than standard animation.

I always assumed that games companies used animators for this stuff. Is using mocap cheaper than animation? Or am I showing my ignorance here?

 

[Ian Skippy]

Interested in seeing those prices as well, the shot in one of the recent ATVs had them blurred out. I think they'll end up appeasing the whales, it's what happens in every other game.

They will, until 1.0 releases. Gotta milk them cows first!