The Star Citizen Thread V2.0

[ykza5]

Let me preface this by saying that I will certainly be buying both. My gut feeling is that FPS will be better in SC than in ED, but that is just a gut feeling.

Having said that, I just watched their conference and couldn't believe that they had yet another problem demoing their product. Much like the rest of their SC product range, the racing promo video looks awesome, but the actual racing gameplay looked dull. It was like WipeOut but without the weapons or speedups ... or the speed.

Again, the FPS teaser looked great in that little promo video, but will they continue the trend of beautiful graphics but lame gameplay? Are they EA in disguise?

I am excited about the FPS module, after all the cryengine was designed for that, this is a chance for CIG to really impress people and there's no reason to mess it up this time.

Btw this could also lead to weapon packs sale how could they pass that up?

 

[Voivod]

The Sq42 writers already said that Sq42 won't have a "chosen one" plot... We'll see.

Don't you start the character creation where you've just been a hero in a big battle but survived with a scarred face so you get to re-create your face with plastic surgery or something along those lines?

 

[Ruskodisco]

anyone else notice how SC is using their newly acquired money on stuff that doesn't even involve the game. like they are making these high end commercial for not the game but for ships, with a professional voice acotr and professional animations like here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbtgqnk

that costs money^
and then i see facebook pics of their newly designed and furnished offices.
now some may argue that they need this stuff or this is just part of the job or whatever excuse. i'm not bashing them for doing this or buying whatever they want, i'm bashing them cause they only have 50 something million to develop this game and all those promises they made. the game isn't out yet and they are spending money like they think they are a AAA game company......the game isn't out yet, they haven't even made profit...then i hear fan-boys who spent their own money on that protecting that decision!! but whatever if they want them to spend money on customized signs and all that hoopla that's their money. eh:S

 

[Thargon]

Don't you start the character creation where you've just been a hero in a big battle but survived with a scarred face so you get to re-create your face with plastic surgery or something along those lines?

Don't you mean Mass Effect 2?

 

[Neo-ST]

anyone else notice how SC is using their newly acquired money on stuff that doesn't even involve the game.

If they deliver the game they've been promising and you get what you wanted, who cares?

 

[Tonberry]

the game isn't out yet, they haven't even made profit...

That's the weird thing about crowd funding - they technically have already made their profits and more due to the inflated cost of entry.

I do agree though, that their ambitions surpass the current funds and as such it doesn't make much sense to be spending so much money promoting a game that is 2-3 years away from completion :/

 

[ykza5]

That's the weird thing about crowd funding - they technically have already made their profits and more due to the inflated cost of entry.

I do agree though, that their ambitions surpass the current funds and as such it doesn't make much sense to be spending so much money promoting a game that is 2-3 years away from completion :/

Can you explain where the profit is made? All the money is supposed to go to development. If on top of that the company is already making profit as a company then they are really going to need people to keep investing or this game will never see the light of day.

Awesome video the one of the freelancer really makes you think you are buying an actual functioning ship in a world already fleshed out

 

[Stoo]

I was watching the latest conference thing, the one with their new Murrey Cup racing module... And on hearing Crofty (an F1 commentator) doing the in game commentary I've decided Roberts has totally lost the plot in managing to get SC to market in a credible state.

Terrible idea.

 

[Mr.Nowak]

I was watching the latest conference thing, the one with their new Murrey Cup racing module... And on hearing Crofty (an F1 commentator) doing the in game commentary I've decided Roberts has totally lost the plot in managing to get SC to market in a credible state.

Terrible idea.

Trying to make everything the best you can with the best people you can is always a bad idea.

 

[huzeeta]

anyone else notice how SC is using their newly acquired money on stuff that doesn't even involve the game. like they are making these high end commercial for not the game but for ships, with a professional voice acotr and professional animations like here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbtgqnk

that costs money^
and then i see facebook pics of their newly designed and furnished offices.
now some may argue that they need this stuff or this is just part of the job or whatever excuse. i'm not bashing them for doing this or buying whatever they want, i'm bashing them cause they only have 50 something million to develop this game and all those promises they made. the game isn't out yet and they are spending money like they think they are a AAA game company......the game isn't out yet, they haven't even made profit...then i hear fan-boys who spent their own money on that protecting that decision!! but whatever if they want them to spend money on customized signs and all that hoopla that's their money. eh:S

But you know that a commercial for a ship/ship sale would make more money than the commercial costs.

 

[Shootingstar]

Trying to make everything the best you can with the best people you can is always a bad idea.

Its a good idea IF you have the best people in their respective jobs. Not the case at CIG. I mean some Duke Nukem Forever Devs between other mediocre guys should produce the BDSSE?

 

[Jenner]

Ultimately Star Citizen, like any other game, will be judged mostly on its merits and not on its advertising campaign. As the project hits more milestones and the public gets a better picture of the full product I think a lot of the harsh criticism on ship sales and p2w will evaporate.

Of course if Roberts fails to deliver a compelling product then it'll be a disaster for him and everyone involved. I don't deny that.

Time will ultimately tell. Until then most of this conversation is academic, I think. Of course it's fun to speculate - but that's all it is.

I, too, welcome friendly competition between ED and SC. Roberts and Braben do, too. In fact they've actually said before that they don't really see it as a direct competition, as both games are striving to achieve different things.

Always worth mentioning the video interview that both did back when their respective Kickstarters were getting off the ground:

http://youtu.be/NvPU8e2ezgo

 

[Fivebyfive]

Trying to make everything the best you can with the best people you can is always a bad idea.

Spending your crowdfunded cash on fluff when the last project you attempted to do ran out of money and you had to hand it over to Microsoft unfinished, losing all creative control in the process, is always a good idea.

 

[Hermit]

Well, Chris Roberts has got about 2 years to pull something out of the hat before release. What worries me is that if it's not as good as the hype and reviews start slating it for various reasons, then the blind loyalty he's gotten from many backers could turn very nasty indeed.

An angry mob of former devoutees on the SC forums? That could happen if these players don't get all that they've been promised. Even if the game is half decent (which is all I'm expecting). That won't be enough for them.

 

[Fivebyfive]

Ultimately Star Citizen, like any other game, will be judged mostly on its merits and not on its advertising campaign. As the project hits more milestones and the public gets a better picture of the full product I think a lot of the harsh criticism on ship sales and p2w will evaporate.

Of course if Roberts fails to deliver a compelling product then it'll be a disaster for him and everyone involved. I don't deny that.

Time will ultimately tell. Until then most of this conversation is academic, I think. Of course it's fun to speculate - but that's all it is.

I, too, welcome friendly competition between ED and SC. Roberts and Braben do, too. In fact they've actually said before that they don't really see it as a direct competition, as both games are striving to achieve different things.

Always worth mentioning the video interview that both did back when their respective Kickstarters were getting off the ground:

http://youtu.be/NvPU8e2ezgo

I think the game will be great for what it's trying to be if you take out all the marketing fluff talk. A sort of Freelancer/Mass Effect mashup played in an MMO setting. Already sounds like a very exciting game premise.

The problem is that there are a lot of people so lost in the hype, that they can't really see in front of them anymore. The biggest example is when a dev posted on the forums saying that the FM and controls are WIP and that he personally cannot play the game like this and there were people below his post professing that the FM/controls were perfect and anyone saying otherwise doesn't "get" how revolutionary the game is. "The Fm is so good, it's perceived as bad" as one thread jubilantly exclaimed.

I don't think there's anything that can live up to the perfect representation these people have inside their heads. This problem has been made worse by CIG employing a very vague narrative when answering questions that seems tailored to let the buyer fill in the gaps with his imagination.

Another possible problem with the ships being sold as virtual assets, is that I suspect at some point, the value of the ships will come crashing down once people see them being blown up or traded like peanuts in the PU. That is IF the time to acquire a ship is close to a traditional space-sim and not close to an F2P game which will cause a whole different set of headaches.

In short, there will be a lot of ****** off Constellation owners once,a week after the PU launches, they see hardcore grinders run around with Constellations of their own that cost them $0 instead of $400.

 

[Mr.Nowak]

Spending your crowdfunded cash on fluff when the last project you attempted to do ran out of money and you had to hand it over to Microsoft unfinished, losing all creative control in the process, is always a good idea.

So a commentator is eating away in SC funds? I am glad he is in.

 

[Renideo]

Got to agree with Fivebyfive, good appraisal overall.

You either have a situation where you're paying for a significant advantage (pay to win), or a situation where you paid real money for something that others will quickly get for free using in-game currency.

There's no easy way to balance that, because the value of real money is such that you'd expect a very significant advantage, but that advantage cannot be sustained when *everyone* has paid for the game, even if not for the ships. Forcing non-ship-buyers to grind forever simply because they didn't spend real money on an advantage is not a good policy.

Advantage here doesn't mean winning every battle because of the money you spent, but getting something desirable without the time and effort.

I think that while obviously it hasn't attracted the money, Elite has a lot going for it by way of expectation-management. FD has kept everything low key, and generally tried to exceed their promises at every given stage. If the game succeeds, it will likely be only on its merits because that's all anyone has seen of it. There's something to be said for not having a wholly open production process, sometimes early access can just destroy the game's credibility, and sometimes hype can do the same in the long run, even if it benefits in the short run. Expectation management is a big deal in this new arena of development.

I'd guess a lot of people here heard kerrash talking on his stream about DB enthusiastically going on about tons of detail, but not wanting it to actually get out. I often wonder precisely how much is already in the game, but not accessible.

 

[Zetta]

Got to agree with Fivebyfive, good appraisal overall.

You either have a situation where you're paying for a significant advantage (pay to win), or a situation where you paid real money for something that others will quickly get for free using in-game currency.

There's no easy way to balance that, because the value of real money is such that you'd expect a very significant advantage, but that advantage cannot be sustained when *everyone* has paid for the game, even if not for the ships. Forcing non-ship-buyers to grind forever simply because they didn't spend real money on an advantage is not a good policy.

Advantage here doesn't mean winning every battle because of the money you spent, but getting something desirable without the time and effort.

As I see it, the value is that you save time when the game goes live. The advantage is that you get dibs on territory, dibs on jump points etc. The ships are in many ways irrelevant, it's what they enable for you or your org that will make the difference, especially in the first month.
Perhaps making them easy to earn is an attempt to rebalance some of that advantage?

 

[Toumal]

So a commentator is eating away in SC funds? I am glad he is in.

Sense. This response does not make it.

 

[Mr.Nowak]

Its a good idea IF you have the best people in their respective jobs. Not the case at CIG. I mean some Duke Nukem Forever Devs between other mediocre guys should produce the BDSSE?

I would advise you to get better information next time. And if you are going to judge a few developers on just 1 project their worked in their career and on top of that generalise their whole 270+ man operation all I can say is that it is a bad judgement if at all one. CIG has top talent on board and is already significant in the video game industry as a studio.

Sense. This response does not make it.

Cloud Imperium Games has all the business intellect to see that adding a single commentator as flair on top of a mode in game will not hurt them financially but will improve the gameplay experience. I just don't understand how people can say it's bad they had people like Lance Henrikson or Crofty do some voice acting. First everyone says that CIG is catering to the majority of the backers and gets angry at them. Now they are doing what they think is right and some people judge them for having nice talent on board. They can never do right I guess.

--

Economic Development Commission approves $9.6 million in incentives

Of the five film incentive requests, the largest, worth $763,953, came from Cloud Imperium Games Corp., which plans to spend $3.8 million with a Denver video game developer for a game called "Star Citizen."

http://www.denverpost.com/business/...nt-commission-approves-9-6-million-incentives