Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

[Rubbernuke]

3.16 has been the most stable patch ever, no 30ks, no disconnects, no crashes. It certainly can get very stable.

Its the constant updates that require validation- on PC you can throw them out, on console they have to go through a period of QC that means consoles will always lag behind if the game remains unreliable.

FIFA comes to mind, some of those player cards can set you back a thousand dollars

I mean as in general items, not gray market. Plus, regulatory bodies are becoming less tolerant to these things- not to mention the cards in FIFA actually do something. A lot of SC purchases are nothing more than pictures (or worse ships sold that a month later are nerfed- the Ion as an example).

Perhaps, then again there's the question how good does it need to be to make lots of money?

It needs to be stable and entertaining, as well as easy for CR to expand and update. A lot of people (myself included) wanted a modern WC / Starlancer in S42 and would have paid for it there and then. If CR had stuck to his episodic game I'd be very happy buying mission packs.

 

[Ebob]

You have faith the re-incarnation of Digital Anvil, co-founded by Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts and Tony Zurovec among others, will release a game, any game, at any time this century.

Sure.

Whatever you say, we will see who will be right.

 

[Ebob]

Its the constant updates that require validation- on PC you can throw them out, on console they have to go through a period of QC that means consoles will always lag behind if the game remains unreliable.

True, because of this I doubt that SC will be on consoles at all, but Squadron 42 will. Unless they also delay the PC update and push both updates to both platforms at once, I doubt they'd want their playerbase split like ED is doing.

I mean as in general items, not gray market. Plus, regulatory bodies are becoming less tolerant to these things- not to mention the cards in FIFA actually do something. A lot of SC purchases are nothing more than pictures (or worse ships sold that a month later are nerfed- the Ion as an example).

Aren't those fifa cards general items? I mean you can buy a pack of like 12k points for $99, some of these cards go for sums of 250k points. They could technically exempt consoles from buying those picture only pledges, but by the time SC comes to consoles (if at all) i'm willing to bet all of the ships in the pledge store will have made their way into playerhands in one way or another.

It needs to be stable and entertaining, as well as easy for CR to expand and update. A lot of people (myself included) wanted a modern WC / Starlancer in S42 and would have paid for it there and then. If CR had stuck to his episodic game I'd be very happy buying mission packs.

Depends on what you wanted it to be I suppose. Chris wen't bigger, can't do much about it now.

 

[Xink]

Whatever you say, we will see who will be right.

When do you think CIG will release any game? By what year. Or do you think it will take another 10-20 years? Because I likely won't be around for that and neither will CR for that matter.

 

[LittleAnt]

However, their final statement "I have more to do in one system with Star Citizen than I do in an entire galaxy with Elite dangerous." I simply find laughable. Either they limited themselves in their activities badly when playing ED or they are just talking rubbish.

Or perhaps they have really tested the actual alpha before talking about it ?
Have you ever wonder how players can play hundred of hours in SC if there is nothing to do in it ?
You laugh but you have no clue in fact because you just had a tiny real experience of the game (just quit once the hangar without doing a mission if I recall correctly)

 

[Ebob]

When do you think CIG will release any game? By what year. Or do you think it will take another 10-20 years? Because I likely won't be around for that and neither will CR for that matter.

Squadron 42, perhaps late this year or late next year. (I know, "haha this year +1" I know, grass is green) SC itself? Probably 2024-2025 as a full 1.0 Release.

 

[Factabulous]

Squadron 42, perhaps late this year

They would be brave to go up against Starfield ... it's going to be interesting to see if anything else is willing to go up against Starfield, though I guess since you believe SQ42 will be 'perfect' and Starfield is Bethesda, so will be a buggy mess, maybe

 

[Ebob]

They would be brave to go up against Starfield ... it's going to be interesting to see if anything else is willing to go up against Starfield, though I guess since you believe SQ42 will be 'perfect' and Starfield is Bethesda, so will be a buggy mess, maybe

True, going against Starfield probably wouldn't be the best idea. However we'll see if it gets delayed or not. (Squadron & Starfield)

 

[Rubbernuke]

Aren't those fifa cards general items? I mean you can buy a pack of like 12k points for $99, some of these cards go for sums of 250k points. They could technically exempt consoles from buying those picture only pledges, but by the time SC comes to consoles (if at all) i'm willing to bet all of the ships in the pledge store will have made their way into playerhands in one way or another.

Obviously depending on what CiG offer in the situation, but the business model would have to be radically different on console than on PC as well as the PC model changing too. Its simply crazy any game can offer things for tens of thousands of Dollars, but right now its that escalation which brings in the cash. Its why I talked about having a game that can be played as widely as possible meaning more players and less burden on 'whales'.

CiG is now in a spiral of more promises > more money > more tech debt > more promises to pay tech debt > more money and so on. The model has changed to feed that and I can't see a way out - but from what I can see they are quite comfortable having a pretty tech demo and so are a lot of people and maybe CiG don't want to rock the boat.

 

[StuartGT]

 

[Ebob]

CiG is now in a spiral of more promises > more money > more tech debt > more promises to pay tech debt > more money and so on.

But really, which promises? They stopped offering stretch goals with new systems long ago. The only new "promises" made are new ships.

The model has changed to feed that and I can't see a way out - but from what I can see they are quite comfortable having a pretty tech demo and so are a lot of people and maybe CiG don't want to rock the boat.

Alternate source of revenue such as Squadron would be the way out, depending on how much that makes. But yeah, a little competition or pressure probably wouldn't hurt.

 

[Darkfyre99]

What I mean is- the people who want SC have bought it. Unless it releases for consoles where there is new blood CiG are not going to make huge amounts from core sales of just the game alone.

Don’t be too sure. I still want Star Citizen, just like I wanted it when I backed it in 2012 (to give me something to do until Elite Dangerous at least approached the gameplay available in FE2/FFE). I may have refunded after diving into why it was so horrendously late, and learned about Chris Roberts Hollywood Accounting scheme, but I still want it.

I just won’t buy it at full price, primarily because I consider this whole project a particularly egregious and utterly unethical abuse of crowd funding, and I sincerely doubt the gameplay here will be ever worth more than $20. But I could be wrong.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Don’t be too sure. I still want Star Citizen, just like I wanted it when I backed it in 2012 (to give me something to do until Elite Dangerous at least approached the gameplay available in FE2/FFE). I may have refunded after diving into why it was so horrendously late, and learned about Chris Roberts Hollywood Accounting scheme, but I still want it.

I just won’t buy it at full price, primarily because I consider this whole project a particularly egregious and utterly unethical abuse of crowd funding, and I sincerely doubt the gameplay here will be ever worth more than $20. But I could be wrong.

I want it too, but CR missed the boat for sustainable income from having a functional game. If he had sold the base + 1 campaign it would have opened the door to having more and really develop SC from the ground up lore wise, business wise and reputationally.

If he had done that at the time he could have charged premium for it- $50. As time has gone on its eroded that pricepoint and simply fed the Maw™ CiG rely on as the base game is really a gateway to selling in game things.

 

[Rubbernuke]

But really, which promises? They stopped offering stretch goals with new systems long ago. The only new "promises" made are new ships.

And that they struggle on, or that things are sold with gameplay TBA or not at all / changes.

 

[Ebob]

And that they struggle on, or that things are sold with gameplay TBA or not at all / changes.

To be fair those are not inherently "new promises". For example the medical gameplay is pretty much spot on as described in their design documents series:

Comm-Link - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42

Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.

robertsspaceindustries.com

Concept ships also have the disclaimer that anything can be changed about it in the development process.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

This conspiracy theory that "they're not aiming for a release, scam! scam! scam!" is utter horseshit.

I agree. Its not that they don't want to release, its that they can't. They are years away from even a limited hard release. If they would try to release it now, this "best game i've ever played in my life" (according some backers) would rightly get trashed.

It is a valid question though how CIG will continue to fund itself at greater than its current rate (CR's plans to massive increase staffing plus increased server costs) in a post-release world where, according to CIG, they will not sell ships.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I want it too, but CR missed the boat for sustainable income from having a functional game. If he had sold the base + 1 campaign it would have opened the door to having more and really develop SC from the ground up lore wise, business wise and reputationally.

If he had done that at the time he could have charged premium for it- $50. As time has gone on its eroded that pricepoint and simply fed the Maw™ CiG rely on.

Absolutely agreed. If CIG had given me the game I backed in 2012 in 2014, when they promised it would be ready, then that would've been the game I primarily played from 2014 until today, not Elite Dangerous. It would've been the game I spent money for cosmetics on, perhaps bought a subscription, the expansion packs, and been a cheerleader for.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I am probably missing something but the redditor author of that post seems to have created his account on 21 December 2021, no?

A lot to say in a short amount of time

Also, their posts about covid are... questionable.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Very high. They know this is make or break. They're not gonna ship a half baked product,

Have you seen Wing Commander the movie?

 

[Ebob]

Absolutely agreed. If CIG had given me the game I backed in 2012 in 2014, when they promised it would be ready, then that would've been the game I primarily played from 2014 until today, not Elite Dangerous. It would've been the game I spent money for cosmetics on, perhaps bought a subscription, the expansion packs, and been a cheerleader for.

Are you sure about that? The 2014 game would have been a on rail planetary landing space trading sim with ship interiors. WIth ED coming along, albeit without ship interiors I doubt SC of that year would have lasted long.

I also have this theory that Braben deliberately kept ship interiors and all that fancy stuff out of ED as that would have extended dev time by a lot, he thought SC would release in 2014 and wanted a competitor out as quickly as possible. If Roberts had went with the 2014 release plan, SC would have not lasted long at all, and ED would be the "ambitious space game".