This is not correct. CIG opens up to EVO, PTU and LIVE after their gamebranch has mostly finished the core development and they need further multiplayer testing that their internal QA can't cover. And majority of the studios do the same thing but they just do it internally and for live games they only do experimental/ptu builds before sending it to the masses. What CIG is doing is adapted to the conditions of a LIVE game that is an Alpha.
Gamedev branch > Evocati > PTU > Live.
It is one of the best ways to do it and it allowed them to really prepare everything developed internally in the past 3-6 months into a live environment. The studios I worked in had a similar process but we had fewer steps. It went from gamedev to a public opt-in testing build to a live patch. Evo is just one step closer to the gamedev branch and is absolutely necessary because SC is being developed on an engine that is constantly changing which increases the amount of issues they face and in turn increases the need of testing.
It's pretty professional just more public. Also CIG has a lot of ex-Ubisoft, Crytek, Blizzard, Rockstar, Techland, CD Projekt people. It has many developers who worked at other AAA companies.
The LIVE build is the Alpha state. EVO is a few steps forward of Pre-Alpha as some functionality is still being wrapped up with user feedback and testing. It's just different cycles. I talked to several CIG devs and they said that everytime they go from the live build release back to gamedev branch to develop the next quarterly patch a lot of the stuff breaks down again. Which is normal because they are constantly iterating and developing new things. So each quarterly patch requires an extensive testing and fixing process to get to that Alpha standard even.
Developing a game that is also developing an engine is immensely complicated. Some of my colleagues that had to update their game's to the latest UE version spent half a year doing so and that is not even developing new things just updating. CI is in this position every quarter and they have to always pass through the gates to get that LIVE patch we play.
I have several! Here you go.
There is more if you guys are interested. Stuff from the main stage, hall and other places.
Sadly missed the cosplay stage to see the other talk on the Croshaw Auditorium. Yea I got to talk to Chris for a bit. Much shorter compared to the 2015 but he is very happy and excited. Pretty much the same person and energy like the one from four years ago. I asked some questions about meshing and how that will finally kick things off at a real MMO scale. He said that it is a challenge and that he wants it more than anything. Though his expectation was about a year of development to go on.
Gotta say last time I got killed by a ramp or clipped through a wall in SC has been a year or so. But the event place didn't have any glitches luckily
From some of the directors and leads I talked to it seems like Chris still has a lot of input and engagement in the project.
Saw him but didn't get to chat with him sadly. I wanted to but he was with his wife and kid right infront of us. Didn't want to be too annoying. Our last chat back in 15 was great but this time I didn't get a chance to talk to him. Also saw Ortwin around as well and didn't catch him either.
I mean live and let live right. I appreciate any convention and community event in the gaming industry. You have a lot of passionate people come together and finally see face to face after hundreds if not thousands of hours of playing games together. Also with CitizenCon you have much more contact with devs. I spent several hours talking to a few and even saw developers from Creative Assembly, Rockstar Studios and Ubisoft that were backers who were attending! That was insane.
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Overall I was very satisfied with the event. Glad that they showed the jump point and remained true to the concept of it.
Planet v4 and SOCS v1 is coming with 3.8 which is exciting. Talked about the tech to some of the devs who said that the immediate effect should be notable but that the tech would best work if 50 players were in one area as the entire server would be unloaded and that one container would only be active. Yet even when 50 players spread out to the most taxing containers, the majority of the system won't be loaded leading to better network performance overall.
I was expecting SOCS to come in 3.9 from all the messaging of CIG but they are pushing the initial implementation out. That is positive. We are getting more detailed mining with new heads, melee combat and non-lethal takedowns, multi-crew mining with the Mole, MicroTech the planet, Orbital space stations with habs to spawn in, More detailed missions like hostage rescue, Paying fines for the detailed law system, Rest-stop interiors and a lot of other stuff.
Oh and most importantly. Platform persistence for in-game cash earning and purchases allowing them to reset databases less in a quarterly cycle or even not wipe between two quarterly patches. This was received very well because many players are now grinding ships and renting stuff. The wipes are discouraging for people that actively progress now to get the bigger and more rewarding cargo ships.
Curious to see if they will break the 40mil record this year. Not long to go until the end of December...
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