Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

[Vetinari]

.it just promised to be more than it actually was

.it just promised to be more than it actually was which made the mediocre result larger in some way.

. Most people I remember sampling the PTU were rocked by the sheer potential all of this suggested. The actual gameplay or tech demo wasnt that impressive but extrapolate it to whole systems....thousands of players, never diminishing the level of detail, filled with life-like AI and all of it seamlessly interacting with each other physically simulated in the macro and micro (player metabolism)....it was breathtaking.

it still is for new players...maybe some but not as many as before, who played the freefly, the reality that its not actually going anywhere comes later. Potential can be sold for ever.

CIG obviously has picked up on that underlying message and I assume they are hard at work to polish and stabilize the tech demo to a degree where they can dump it into early access and call it a day

With the major panic that if they do that the will get creamed in the gaming press, it will probably make mainstream headlines, Half a billion company releases cack handed game and fans furious etc

If they release MVP they get creamed and possibly game-over.
If they delay they get overtaken all the time. And probably the public funding gets less and less and private ownership gets more and more, until a release and then its expected the public will pay again, and the more private, the more pressure to release.

Its a conundrum.

plus thinking back I thought the Cobra ship looked so cool on a display monitor in that department store in 1984, I wanted that ship then, and realised that I could have it now,

You can get it on a T-shirt from the store, white wireframe on black, memories

Exposed! I'm a shill!

At no point did Chris et al. sit down to figure out what their main problem was, and thus, here we are.

They did, they just came to a different answer. 'If we could only get $2m we could do this' without looking at what 'this' involved.

Ben apparently got a new computer from CIG.

Is that marekting money from Calder or many many $45 Starter Packages that paid for that I wonder?

No. If the alpha had been a closed one, I would have funded in the same way. The alpha access is a bonus for me.

Fair enough. One question. Do you think as many ships would have been sold and the game would have been released to Beta and release quicker if the public hadn't been involved in the Alpha? If the pressure had been to release, not to make new ships and delay release?

 

[Darkfyre99]

I think if we are comparing DB's Elite Dangerous to CR's Star Citizen - one had a business plan and the other did not, or rather, soon abandoned it when he realised there was an easier way to make money as he got carried away with his kickstarters runaway success. Thing is, Roberts can't run away with the money and his honey to Mexico. He's locked in on a one way never ending path now in full public view. He and his cabal of criminal coders have nowhere to hide. I would call in the FBI if I were the president.

The Roberts Clan doesn’t have to “take the money and run.” Thanks to the magic of Hollywood Accounting, the Roberts Clan have siphoned millions of dollars, quite legally, from their UK shell company alone, which is the only one required by law to make such a public accounting. Who knows how much money they’ve siphoned off, again quite legally, from the dozens of other shell companies they’ve created over the years outside the UK, where such disclosures about the “most open game development ever” aren’t required.

 

[Mole HD]

Fair enough. One question. Do you think as many ships would have been sold and the game would have been released to Beta and release quicker if the public hadn't been involved in the Alpha? If the pressure had been to release, not to make new ships and delay release?

The original idea...long since lost and forgotten... seemed feasible enough. You pay X amount to support and back the project, Ci¬G give you a ship roughly equivalent of that perceived value and gain early access to the live testing of the project. I liken the original idea not unlike LEP backers...or similar. The idea itself isn't a bad one, you pay X amount...you get a special badge, it's what Ci¬G marketing turned it into that's deeply offensive.

Tying the sale of ships into the main function of what Ci¬G have become, an online marketing outlet rather than a game production studio, came with the inevitable corporate greed once the money started flooding in...a lightbulb moment early on... Realising they had hit on a consumer goldmine, the marketing side of Ci¬G geared up to the fact that they could practically print money. Consequently, the development of the game(s) became secondary to the marketing venture...which is what the Calders bought into. These high power investors aren't interested in a space game, simply making money.

 

[Firkrayt]

You're being pedantic just to win a cheap point...

Cool, there are points! Wonder how much I have already!
On a serious note, I did say that it was not what LittleAnt wanted or expected. But SC had failed his expectations, as it almost always does, and now LittleAnt is testing stuff he paid for. I blame Christopher.

 

[Mole HD]

Cool, there are points! Wonder how much I have already!
On a serious note, I did say that it was not what LittleAnt wanted or expected. But SC had failed his expectations, as it almost always does, and now LittleAnt is testing stuff he paid for. I blame Christopher.

There's one whole brownie point for you

 

[Firkrayt]

There's one whole brownie point for you

I'm not sure if it's a good one, given your military background

 

[Agony_Aunt]

And, then, what happens when whale in expensive ship gets ganked vs pleb who did the grind for it (assuming neither has any insurance)? Farewell sweet $$$? I have never got my head around how the in-game ship economy can work with both in-game currency and the same items that have cost maybe thousands of IRL dollars.

Plus according to vintage Roberts, ship sales go away on release. But I can't see that happening.

I've heard different things about this, and CIG did a write up about LTI as well.

I've seen people swearing blind that you will never loose a ship you purchased, with or without LTI... but then, what would the point of LTI be? Some seem to say its a timer, so you can't lose any ship you bought permaently, but you've still got to eat the rebuy and wait for cooldown. That sounds plausible... but then, what does it mean for earned ships? You can lose them permanently?

This is what CIG say on the matter:

Ship Insurance FAQs

The 'Verse is a vast place, and unfortunately not all of it is safe. At some point you may find yourself face-to-face (or ship-to-ship) with an alien fighter squad, a pirate scouting party, or sim...

support.robertsspaceindustries.com

So, it seems as though you won't permanently lose anything as long as you pay the insurance, but those with LTI don't have to pay.

Which totally reeks of pay to win.

 

[Vetinari]

Are you suggesting that there is a way the designers have come up with to not only minimise profit making (3 boxes not 1) but then also to 'bleed' that money from the player to keep the profit even lower? That this suggests that this would encourage people to instead pay for the same credits or credit bought purchase (eg ships) with real world money?

Someone should tell CIG, they will be appalled that their actual behaviour would have this unintended consequence and 'real life cash penalty' for the casual or regular player. This would be effectively pay to win bordering on pay to play and they certainly dont want that, they've said so many times. Someone email CIG immediately so they can stop.

 

[Firkrayt]

Oldie but goldie:

"We apologize for the inconvenience."
Then it freezes.
Then Christopher mashes some buttons.
And then he is fine, it's early alpha.

SC surely went a long way in these 5 years.

 

[Mole HD]

I've heard different things about this, and CIG did a write up about LTI as well.

I've seen people swearing blind that you will never loose a ship you purchased, with or without LTI... but then, what would the point of LTI be? Some seem to say its a timer, so you can't lose any ship you bought permaently, but you've still got to eat the rebuy and wait for cooldown. That sounds plausible... but then, what does it mean for earned ships? You can lose them permanently?

This is what CIG say on the matter:

Ship Insurance FAQs

The 'Verse is a vast place, and unfortunately not all of it is safe. At some point you may find yourself face-to-face (or ship-to-ship) with an alien fighter squad, a pirate scouting party, or sim...

support.robertsspaceindustries.com

So, it seems as though you won't permanently lose anything as long as you pay the insurance, but those with LTI don't have to pay.

Which totally reeks of pay to win.

It's all about perception again...a marketing incentive to spend more... or spend new cash as it's now become. All my ships have LTI since I usually upgrade ships in one of the ship/game packages I have costing a few bucks rather than pay full price of the standalone ship. Any upgraded ships added to the package gain the LTI from that package whether the individual ship purchase has it or not, it means I can go for the cheaper option which is upgrading...buying a non LTI ship used to be the cheaper option, not now, since warbond sales are an attempt to attract new money instead of sales via store credit through melting something else since you can't buy warbond ships with store credit. Ci¬G have almost effectively stamped out zero dollar purchases with the promotion of LTI being something special...it's not... and it's practically worthless.

As for pay to win...of course it is. It's part of the promotion of the exclusive club mentality Ci¬G have fostered since the start.

 

[Cairton]

There's one whole brownie point for you

You were in the brownies?

 

[Mole HD]

You were in the brownies?

I was kicked out of the Scouts for throwing a bag of phosphorus powder in the campfire at a sausage sizzle party in 1970. The resulting flash rivalled the light of a thousand suns from an atomic bomb detonation...the dastardly act (as described by the Scout master in a letter to my parents) might have been a qualifier for the Brownies...but I passed on that one

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

You're being pedantic just to win a cheap point...I can see where Ant is coming from. Me personally, I just wanted the ships

Few users actually test. Most just play. In every game beta. It is up to the devs to derive their data from the testing users and the mob just playing.

 

[Cairton]

I was kicked out of the Scouts for throwing a lump of phosphorus in the campfire at a sausage sizzle party in 1970. The resulting flash rivalled the light of a thousand suns from an atomic bomb detonation...the dasdardly act (as described by the Scout leader in a letter to my parents) might have been a qualifier for the Brownies...but I passed on that one

Ha! I learned to march and stand still. But somehow Boys' Brigade points never achieved the same cachet

 

[Xink]

New idea for helping fund development. Sponsor your own planet! As a limited time offer, we allow Citizens to purchase and own their very own planet, subject to availability. A purchased planet is then solely owned by the player, once in game, and directly contributes to the expanding 'verse.

As building planets to our level of fidelity is an expensive process, this once in a lifetime opportunity to own your own planet to go along with a fleet of ships carries a suitably exclusive price of 10k per planet - warbond only.

Limited availability, do not miss out.

Coming soon - buy your own star.

 

[Vetinari]

Do they know people will pay to name stuff in game?

I was kicked out of the Scouts for throwing a bag of phosphorus powder in the campfire at a sausage sizzle party in 1970

Aaah the '70s, the good old days when a child could obtain and walk around with a bag of phosphorous. They were different times.

 

[Mole HD]

Do they know people will pay to name stuff in game?



Aaah the '70s, the good old days when a child could obtain and walk around with a bag of phosphorous. They were different times.

Nicked from the chemistry classroom...as we all did back then. Different times indeed. I mean...as country kids, at the age of 14 most of us were legally given 4/10 shotguns by our parents so we could earn our own pocket money by shooting crows and pidgeons for thruppence a head...we used to thread the birds heads on a piece of fence wire to present to the local farmers for payment. After decimalisation in the UK in 1971, the price went up to 5p a head...a whole shilling, as I thought back then

 

[LittleAnt]

On a serious note, I did say that it was not what LittleAnt wanted or expected. But SC had failed his expectations, as it almost always does, and now LittleAnt is testing stuff he paid for.

Grab the popcorn
Fascinating !

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Nicked from the chemistry classroom...as we all did back then. I mean...as country kids, at the age of 14 we were all legally given 4/10 shotguns by our parents so we could earn our own pocket money by shooting crows and pidgeons for thruppence a head...we used to thread the birds heads on a piece of fence wire to present to the local farmers for payment

Found lithium once and knowing this is a volatile element I deposited into a glass of water so it wouldn't react so much with the environment. Had I not done this it might have become worse than white clouds and battery stench filling the corridors.

 

[Cairton]

My new graphics card has arrived a day early . I guess Chris must have had a word with DPD. 24 fps here we come!