Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

[Navigare Necesse Est]

They pray to St. Vitus, but their true patron is St. Jude.

Is that the patron of those poor in spirit and mind?

 

[Gregstrom]

Hopeless cases, I believe.

(Edit: I seem to recall this was because people kept equating Jude with Judas)

 

[Phlegm]

Is that the patron of those poor in spirit and mind?

Lost causes.

 

[VR Golgot]

Tales from a game dev Concierge...

He seems to work on/off in game dev, possibly as a systems engineer.

My bolds throughout...

---

Opinions of CIG in the game dev world:

Actually I know plenty of folks who work at places such as Microsoft, Bungie, Riot etc, and pretty much all of them agree SC's development and CIG is a joke at this point. CIG does not have a great reputation in the industry anymore. There is some folks at Blizzard who use to work for CIG too that did not have nice things to say.

Everyone agrees the company treats their employees great, but pretty much everyone agrees the actual project management is a massive crapshow at this point. The fact that they are 8+ years in development at this point and still in basic alpha phase is also a joke at this point. They are literally YEARS behind schedule and god knows how much over budget on SC by now, with literally no end in sight. That does NOT look good, regardless of how much fanboys on this sub want to "believe". A executive producer I know said it best once when I asked him why he hadnt backed the project. "CIG talks all kind of amazing stuff, but let me know when they actually ship a functional product with all the features they promised." That was like 3 years ago, and yep, still floundering in Alpha hell with a buggy mess.

(source)

I once tried to get my friend who is an executive producer at a big company to back SC so we could play together. His exact words were, "Im not going to dump money into that crapshow, Ill consider them a real developer when they actually ship a FINISHED product." He also called Chris Roberts a "Diva"

(source)

Hell Im a conceirge backer and even I recognize how messed up development has gotten. This is why CIG is a laughing stock of most other developers in the industry. because they have been working on the game for 5+ (Or 7 depending on how you wanna judge) years and dont even have some simple core mechanics done. Every dev i know, from Microsoft, Activision, Blizzard etc all say the same thing. "All that crowd funding doesnt mean crap if they cant actually manage to ship the game, they will run out of whales eventually, and then run out of money". There are lots of reasons why people think, but some producers I talked to said it all comes down to poor management on CIGs part. just look at Glassdoor. Even if you assume that only 1/4 of the reviews are real(Though I suspect more than that are judging by my own information) almost all of them point to one thing. Extremely bad management.

(source)

Spoiler: Etc etc

I have talked to several people about this game who work for other studios, and its all the same. "Neat tech, but feature creep and are they ever going to actually make it work/ship?" Most of them wouldnt publicly denounce the game of course, (Like someone we know) but they definately dont hold a high opinion of CIG. Then again, who knows, SC may turn out great and prove everyone wrong.

(source)

TBH CIG doesnt exactly have a stellar reputation with other studios, based on various opinions Ive heard around. Maybe its jealousy of all the sweet crowdfunding money, but pretty much everyone thinks feature creep killed the game. Sorry for the unpopular comment, but its true.

(source)

On sentiments of ex-CIG devs:

For what its worth, Ive run into like 6 people who worked for CIG that we hired, all low level folks, and out of them, only I think 2 of them had anything really negative to say about working for the company, it was mostly minor crap you hear about any company, because I was considering applying to a few positions(Crunch time, unrealistic deadlines etc) and that was years ago, so who knows what its like now. I did get a chance once to talk to one higher level manager who worked for CIG that left(He was a team lead I think?), and he actually did NOT have nice things to say about management, but again that was years ago. And also, like i said, that crap happens everywhere. i dont like some of the management at my current employer, but, it is what it is.

Second, you never leave game dev with the expectation of not going back. Ive flip flopped between it and other engineering stuff before in other parts of the IT world. And I always leave the door open because, when you need a job, sometimes you gotta take what you can get, especially if you dont want to move. And reputation DOES matter. There is an actual real blacklist that filters out resumes for some of the bigger companies I worked for. This includes yes, game dev companies. They auto filter out resumes based on it. Some of the folks on there are people who got caught badmouthing the company on reddit, twitter, facebook etc.
That doesnt even take into account that ive had to sign NDAs that basically forbid me from publicly talking about the company without approval, or getting sued if I do. And yes those NDAs go on AFTER employment.

Either way, I cant think of anyone I ever asked who i knew for sure worked for CIG that really had anything that bad to say that you wouldnt hear from any other game company. I did hear that some of CIGs pay scales are a bit low in comparison, but that depends so much on your resume etc, that who knows if thats true.

If you want the real gossip though, there is some ... spicy crap talking about CIG from devs of other companies that I have heard a few times, that definitely happens.

(source)

Bonus:

Spoiler: Their slide into Concierge

Yeah... I don't know man. I don't drink, don't go party. Don't go out a lot, and I make $80k USD a year, and still, I've spent, maybe... $200. We have no idea if this game is even going to make it yet first of all, or what the finally outcome is going to be.

Second, it's a damn video game here guys. Put that money away for retirement, invest in something that will give you returns, improve your life.

I would consider myself pretty well off, and you know why? Before I went and blew a bunch of money on crap, I paid off all my bills. I own my house outright, I own my car. Everything has been paid for, I dont have credit cards, I dont have debt.

But even then.. $1000's of dollars on a video game? Jeez..

(source)

Hey Dolvak. SOmething we agree on. I have given CIG roughly ~$700, and I have pretty much written it off as a loss if things turn out poorly.
My biggest beef is people KEEP giving them money, which IMO is encouraging poor behavior on CIGs part. Why worry about keeping a schedule for production costs reasons when you have basically an infinite supply of money flowing in? (Im even guilty of it, bought a damn Super Hornet this last sale)
But the gravy train so to speak, wont last forever, I just hope once all the whales have been milked for all they are willing to give, and the market is full, and nobody is as willing to contribute or buy anymore, they have enough to get the game they promised out, and not some cut down shadow of it AKA Freelancer.

(source)

Having over $1500 in and waiting, what, 8 years now? Yeah Im pretty annoyed at this point. I dnt expect a refund, but I clearly feel Chris lied about how quickly progress could be made, and tried to downplay the implications of feature creep, which actually a lot of us had a problem with. Its not like we REALLY had a choice to stop the feature creep, even if people point out a stupid poll at the end of a news post that only a tiny fraction of backers saw or voted on. Hell i wasnt even notified of the poll.

(source)

 

[Viajero]

Spoiler: The curved targeting laser

This shows you exactly how CIG works internally.

The dot should've been projected from the emitter below the barrel in a straight line, because that's how light works.
It's where Star Citizen's fidelity and immersion's at.

But then the people responsible for the functional design are adamant that it needs to be in the center of the viewfinder/scope on top of the barrel.
So now the dot of the laser is put there, because that's the only way your work gets approved.

And then there's the requirement of Chris to make it look smooth and slick.
Thus they've put in the work to use a spline to generate the geometry for the laser itself.

Now realize that they go through this circus for every single feature in the game.

As of 3.22, still looking great!

 

[VR Golgot]

Possessions intensify...

(That one started liked this)

 

[Viajero]

As of 3.22, still looking great!

Hold on, it gets better:

Source: https://youtu.be/ZWSqT5aQvLg

 

[rootsrat]

Oh dear.

 

[Viajero]

Oh dear.

View attachment 378821

CIG is a direct enabler of this kind of scams by their not actively condoning and preventing the grey market. I suspect they know that speculative traders and money launderers, not just regular players, are probably key for their finances. CIG´s sales and commercial premise is just as disgraceful as is careless about any and all abuses and scams around it. They just do not give a flying frack about actual players.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Oh dear.

View attachment 378821

People gullible enough to fall for Chris' horse manure getting scammed? Well, i never!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Oh dear.

View attachment 378821

Makes a deal via Paypal. Asks citisn'ts how to deal with trade gone wrong. Scam Citisn't is a school for life to teach the gullible and idiots harsh reality. Maybe it's a necessary lesson.

 

[VR Golgot]

But SQ42 is so close! Think of your résumé!

[...] this week will be my last at CIG [...]

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of my colleagues for making my time at CIG so enjoyable. Everyone is super friendly and just a delight to work with. I will genuinely miss working with you all.
I am excited to see what you all make of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen

If you should take anything from this message, is that the devs at CIG have a heart of gold and deserve the best.

Tell that to his sassy ex colleagues

Wasn't expecting you to leave chapter 1 so soon! Who will fix the bugs now?...

And 6 months ago:

Looking forward to finally playing your work when S42 releases ...

Spoiler: OP's resume as it stands

I have... a strong eye for working toward a final, releasable product.

At CIG, I have worked on & 'owned' many different story-driven linear levels, working closely with many teams to get them to a 'content-complete' state, guiding individuals or supporting where needed. This includes setting up complex mechanics with the in-house 'blueprint-like' software, working with various animation teams to get smooth playing, epic moments, plus pacing and plenty of debugging.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I am excited to see what you all make of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen

A pigs ear I suspect.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

A pigs ear I suspect.

Wassat? We have those at the bakery. It's crispy puff tastry in flat heart shape and dipped into chocolate at one end.

 

[VR Golgot]

Who's going to tell him?

In your many years working in video game development, what is one of your favorite things that you’ve implemented in a video game?
...

At one point on Star Citizen I had a procedural push/pull system working for the arms. When you would approach a surface in microgravity, it would automatically reach to the surface and drag along to provide some acceleration parallel to the surface. Don't know if that's still a thing.

Home - IllFonic

www.illfonic.com

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Who's going to tell him?

It sounds like "ground effect". DCS has something like that modeled. You can go 180 mph over ground at 5 ft and have no issue handling the collective in a helo. The ship is just that stable at extreme low altitude. It's quite something - I found flat part of the map slightly inclined and raced down the soft slope, opened the door and smoked a cigarette. I passed several APCs at close distance before the overland transmission lines forced me to return to normal flight operation.

 

[VR Golgot]

It sounds like "ground effect". DCS has something like that modeled. You can go 180 mph over ground at 5 ft and have no issue handling the collective in a helo. The ship is just that stable at extreme low altitude. It's quite something - I found flat part of the map slightly inclined and raced down the soft slope, opened the door and smoked a cigarette. I passed several APCs at close distance before the overland transmission lines forced me to return to normal flight operation.

It's more that Ilfonic's push-pull work all got Chris-cycled.

IE bigged up on stage, rolled into a ball and thrown away, rebuilt, and bigged up on stage again...

At some point it might even get in the game

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It's more that Ilfonic's push-pull work all got Chris-cycled.

IE bigged up on stage, rolled into a ball and thrown away, rebuilt, and bigged up on stage again...

At some point it might even get in the game

Like a dog's bone? You think it's durable but then dog says "hold my beer" and you keep looking for that stinky bone everywhere. Not sure whether it's rotting salivatedly in a forgotten corner of the house of if dog has really nommed it all away.

 

[Viajero]

It's more that Ilfonic's push-pull work all got Chris-cycled.

IE bigged up on stage, rolled into a ball and thrown away, rebuilt, and bigged up on stage again...

At some point it might even get in the game

It´s not just the throwing away bit for many of CIG hyped up features, that is shameful enough. It is mostly the money CIG extracts out of the market with that bait and switch advertising.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It´s not just the throwing away bit for many of CIG hyped up features, that is shameful enough. It is mostly the money CIG extracts out of the market with that bait and switch advertising.

Imagine all the dolla spent for nothing. Teams building some stuff and one morning some clueless guy come in and say that all the work is cancelled. And yet even those that allegedly worked there have words of praise despite they mostly have nothing to show for.