Star Citizen Discussion Thread v11

[StuartGT]

I've always thought Evocati testing was useful for CIG since they provide the devteam with:

• large, focused testing - from hundreds of free, enthusiastic testers willing to please the devs
• minimal costs requirements of internal testing teams - i.e. use the free testers instead
• extra funding - the regular testers are all paying backers, with many (majority?) being $1000+
• extra community-hype - driven by said testers & high-paying backers talking about new things

The NDA I can understand, but I don't think it's necessary. It conflicts with CIG's Open Development policy, and leaks are prevalent, efficient and exhaustive anyway.

 

[Dementropy]

Despite the cognitive dissonance of "open development" with the Evocati, it could serve two purposes:

1. Separate those who are just there to play and screw around from those who are serious about actually testing out the latest releases and funding bugs.
2. Segment the audience for higher-level marketing

Supplemental:

3. Encourage those who are outside of the Evocati to spend more time testing and reporting bugs to get into the inner circle.

 

[Tippis]

…now imagine would could be done if they had spent one of the last eight years on creating a proper testing environment and debug tools.

 

[Mole HD]

Despite the cognitive dissonance of "open development" with the Evocati, it could serve two purposes:

1. Separate those who are just there to play and screw around from those who are serious about actually testing out the latest releases and funding bugs.
2. Segment the audience for higher-level marketing

Supplemental:

3. Encourage those who are outside of the Evocati to spend more time testing and reporting bugs to get into the inner circle.

They recently added first wave PTU access to the subscriber perks...which turned the last few wave 1 PTU sessions into a reproduction of everything that is wrong with the PU. We had the ship stealers, pad rammers and general silly griefing and ganking from the PU directly inserted into the PTU resulting in very few folks taking part actually testing gameplay mechanics but simply continuing the PU silliness with the added benefit of having 5m aUEC and ships they don't have access to on their own accounts to carry it all on with. I can guarantee not many of them filed a single bug report via the issue council either.

I'm not one to pointlessly complain about peasants invading the PTU since the intent was good, but first wave was by and large an extension or expansion of the Evocati phase and folks involved with 1st wave were again by and large...testing. If perhaps Ci¬G had continued to reserve subscriber PTU access to 2nd or subsequent waves as it used to be, I'd be slightly more convinced it was a good idea. For now, the entire PTU phase is all about Joe ganker and his mates buying in with a one off $10 or $20 payment to play around with loads of in game credits and a ton of ships they don't have in the PU and very little else.

As for Evocati, you don't necessarily need to be concierge level, simply test the game and fill out appropriate issue council reports consistently (ie 'useless crap, doesn't work' won't count)...Concierge level only guaranteed first wave PTU access plus first freefly of new concepts for a week or so....now all you need is a one off $20 subscription. $10 Centurion sub grabs you first wave access...a $20 Imperator sub adds the freefly of new concepts.

 

[Firkrayt]

They will get most of the stuff running at an Alpha state for the LIVE patch as they did with most patches.

Dear sir, are you saying that PU that is accessible to all backers is, actually, NOT Alpha?

I mean, really? Given how broken it is, it's not Alpha? We are doomed.

 

[Skizomeuh]

It's alpha of tier 0 of an alpha. 0.0.0.3.8.

 

[Mole HD]

Anyway...besides all the important discussions decrying Ci¬G as villains and ne'er-do-wells, I awarded said villainous scum a single Mole brownie point today since I noticed they'd fixed the skin on my pirate cat...a small detail, but it's been missing in action for years.

Spoiler

previously...

 

[Mole HD]

Dear sir, are you saying that PU that is accessible to all backers is, actually, NOT Alpha?

I mean, really? Given how broken it is, it's not Alpha? We are doomed.

Read that sentence again from Mr Nowak... I read it the same way as he intended it. But then again, I'm not pursuing brownie points from the disingenuous

 

[Jenner]

So how does one check out one of the rotating ship manufacturers vessels during the free fly event? I've logged in a couple of times and whenever I go to a console to summon a ship I only have one choice: an Aegis Avenger. I thought we could sample some different ships?

 

[Mole HD]

So how does one check out one of the rotating ship manufacturers vessels during the free fly event? I've logged in a couple of times and whenever I go to a console to summon a ship I only have one choice: an Aegis Avenger. I thought we could sample some different ships?

It's a silly system in place at the moment, you need to visit the expo in area 18, go to the show floor and rent the ship/ships of choice for free for a 24 hour period simply by highlighting it. The expo is limited to different manufacturers on successive days (it's the alien ships today) which seems unusually restrictive for an advertised free fly event...perhaps on the last few days they'll open up all the show floors so you can pick through the entire flyable range...I certainly hope so anyway.

I'm guessing Chris Roberts required everyone to gaze at the ridiculously plagiarised scenery from Corusant and Blade Runner he brow beat his devs to insert into his masterpiece....

 

[MTBFritz]

CitCon was a blast. Met so many cool people and mingled with the devs. Gotta say insanely passionate community. I have been to my share of game conventions and events but this was a few steps up in enthusiasm from those. The journey was well worth it and I also observed how drunk Brits can get...

About the Evo stuff. If any studio did Evo level testing with their community it would also be halfway broken just because of the fact that the features are halfway implemented and are at a very early state. Majority of the games don't do it precisely because some of the comments here and that is also why EVO is behind NDA. They will get most of the stuff running at an Alpha state for the LIVE patch as they did with most patches. No news there.

Glad to hear you had a good time. You dont have any photos to share I take it?

 

[MTBFritz]

…now imagine would could be done if they had spent one of the last eight years on creating a proper testing environment and debug tools.

I try to not think about what any of the real games could ve achieved in 8 years and that kind of funding....its criminal even. When single dev projects achieve more then SC in terms of depth and complexity and yes....even scope.

 

[Mole HD]

I try to not think about what any of the real games could ve achieved in 8 years and that kind of funding....its criminal even. When single dev projects achieve more then SC in terms of depth and complexity and yes....even scope.

They don't involve Chris Roberts...there's the key right there

 

[Jenner]

It's a silly system in place at the moment, you need to visit the expo in area 18, go to the show floor and rent the ship of choice for free for a 24 hour period simply by highlighting it. The expo is limited to different manufacturers on successive days (it's the alien ships today) which seems unusually restrictive for an advertised free fly event...perhaps on the last few days they'll open up all the show floors so you can pick through the entire flyable range...I certainly hope so anyway.

I'm guessing Chris Roberts required everyone to gaze at the ridiculously plagiarised scenery from Corusant and Blade Runner he had instructed his devs to insert into his masterpiece....

Ah thank you!
I agree it makes more sense to just have all ships open all the time for this, but i assume their intent is to maintain interest every day bu switching the set of ships.

As for the heavy influence of Blade Runner on the city... I agree Chris loves to copy influential works but at least he picked an awesome thing to plagiarize. I

 

[Firkrayt]

To be honest, Blade Runner aesthetics influenced pretty much everything

 

[MTBFritz]

To be honest, Blade Runner aesthetics influenced pretty much everything

Theres no denying this....

 

[Agony_Aunt]

CitCon was a blast. Met so many cool people and mingled with the devs. Gotta say insanely passionate community. I have been to my share of game conventions and events but this was a few steps up in enthusiasm from those. The journey was well worth it and I also observed how drunk Brits can get...

About the Evo stuff. If any studio did Evo level testing with their community it would also be halfway broken just because of the fact that the features are halfway implemented and are at a very early state. Majority of the games don't do it precisely because some of the comments here and that is also why EVO is behind NDA. They will get most of the stuff running at an Alpha state for the LIVE patch as they did with most patches. No news there.

Did you see the Crobear on the wall? Did you get to meet bag on head man? Did you clip through any walls or get killed by any ramps?

 

[Mole HD]

.... Did you clip through any walls or get killed by any ramps?

Now that's funny

 

[CMDR Dizzy]

Anyway...besides all the important discussions decrying Ci¬G as villains and ne'er-do-wells, I awarded said villainous scum a single Mole brownie point today since I noticed they'd fixed the skin on my pirate cat...a small detail, but it's been missing in action for years.

[/spoiler]

Signs of life at CIG. Maybe the rumors are true and Chris has been divorced from development.

 

[n4p0l3on]

Indeed, and I'll not argue with that point...but that's a broken top management and marketing issue. All in all, it still amazes me how Ci¬G devs manage to get anything even resembling a working build past the idiot that's running the ship. The devs certainly aren't incompetent...not by any measure, the management is crippled by incompetence at the highest level, but we all know that already since that was general knowledge way before Star Citizen even registered as a project.

Star Citizen is failing, Ci¬G are running out of money and still the master idiot continues interference tying up limited resources with pointless visual trivia more appropriate to film production than game production.

I don't think that the people hired by cig are actually competent. Incompetent leaders breed incompetent followers.