Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

[Agony_Aunt]

A goon went forensic on the tracker many years back...



It definitely isn't legit. It's a marketing tool used to induce confidence, as you guys are saying. No doubts.

But there's enough reality to CIG's outlays, as AA says, that we do know they pull in serious pasta. So it's likely a question of CIG fuzzing the data, rather than generating it wholesale. (It could just be loophole trickery: not retracting refunds from the pool. Or grey zone massaging via undeclared sources: like pumping in sub cash when desired. Or just flat out spinning the wheels when they feel the need, or whatever.)

All told there's probably still some value in watching its trends and oddities though. Not least because its downward shifts often do sync with the community sentiment dips. Especially ones where whales are riding the froth, like now

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1gzr37h/cig_are_slowly_removing_5_ccus

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1gzr37h/cig_are_slowly_removing_5_ccus/

LOL, some people trying to defend this by referencing GTA's shark cards, a literal pay to win feature.

Umm, guys, holding up a bad practice as defence of CIG's own bad practices isn't the win you think it is.

 

[Viajero]

Oh yeah they're definitely turning every little screw they can this year. And the whale squeaks are testament to that

(But they're still little screws and little squeaks ultimately. At least within CIG's scales of lunacy . Cashflow issues maintaining CR's vainglorious empire, rather than collapse.)

The longer it goes on though, the closer we get to that Bengal glass being broken

(And I'm sure we'll all enjoy Calders Quarter one way or the other )

Tons of little screws can be quite considerable though. It is almost as if a cash strapped CIG was trying to squeeze as much juice as they possibly could to be able to front a potential investor share buy back decision or to comply with any other kind of returns agreement thereof. Definitely does not look as a comfortably managed company,

I personally don’t think that, left on its own, CIG would collapse any time soon though. They can still continue doing redundancies and downsizing gradually as cash dwindles. But that is a slippery slope (which CIG has probably already firmly entered into) that only leads to lower resources and competency, leading to further delays and brokenness of the game, which leads to less sales etc.

The only ways I see CIG collapsing more or less abruptly is if the Calders share buy back option is acted and/or the terms of that deal lead to current CIG’s management to be taken over somehow, internal infighting, or if regulators / authorities get involved.

 

[Mole HD]

Tons of little screws can be quite considerable though. It is almost as if a cash strapped CIG was trying to squeeze as much juice as they possibly could to be able to front a potential investor share buy back decision or to comply with any other kind of returns agreement thereof. Definitely does not look as a comfortably managed company,

I personally don’t think that, left on its own, CIG would collapse any time soon though. They can still continue doing redundancies and downsizing gradually as cash dwindles. But that is a slippery slope (which CIG has probably already firmly entered into) that only leads to lower resources and competency, leading to further delays and brokenness of the game, which leads to less sales etc.

The only ways I see CIG collapsing more or less abruptly is if the Calders share buy back option is acted and/or the terms of that deal lead to current CIG’s management to be taken over somehow, internal infighting, or if regulators / authorities get involved.

There were a few interesting comments from the CCU chaining thread that @VR Golgot linked that I gave a nod to when I read through them, one in particular...overall, the thread was an interesting read through on how the majority of backers actively spend on star citizen year on year. Whale spending or grey market speculators and launderers are something else entirely of course, but they are far from the norm.

This was the particular quote I took note of...

If CIG's spaghetti code can't get Pyro working by the Q1 patch, grey market sales are going to massively spike as people liquidate their accounts, and CIG's funding will continue to tank. Next couple months are do or die for CIG.

I've never consciously played the CCU game myself... but saying that, my spending habits have roughly been in line with how the chaining addicts go about it...minus the spreadsheets and CCU chain apps

I am >$1200 in and haven't spent more than $60 in a transaction ever. It's like ~8 lti tokens and a ton of ccus.

 

[Factabulous]

I think Pyro will launch by the end of the year to Live. It will be a buggy mess, and people will be up in arms over the state of it, but they'll get used to it, just as they have the rest of this year - people really want to see Pyro. Because of the static server meshing some people (probably in Stanton) will have an Ok experience (low player counts work ok - at least on a fresh server), and others will have horrific server recovery chains as all 380 people try to get into Pyro.

Only question is what ships will they put on sale to make $$$ from it I think there are a few they've announced and didn't show up in IAE on the expected manufacturer day - maybe those?

 

[Mole HD]

I think Pyro will launch by the end of the year to Live. It will be a buggy mess, and people will be up in arms over the state of it, but they'll get used to it, just as they have the rest of this year - people really want to see Pyro. Because of the static server meshing some people (probably in Stanton) will have an Ok experience (low player counts work ok - at least on a fresh server), and others will have horrific server recovery chains as all 380 people try to get into Pyro.

Only question is what ships will they put on sale to make $$$ from it I think there are a few they've announced and didn't show up in IAE on the expected manufacturer day - maybe those?

I've noticed that Ci~G have changed tactics with their marketing drives to target the larger orgs...constantly quoting 'end game' content and multiplayer fleet battles, station or territory wars and the like.

Personally, I think Ci~G's marketing snakes have seriously miscalculated in their desperation to keep the funding levels afloat on how the average backer plays...and accordingly... spends on star citizen ...They really don't understand their backers or how the majority of them view or imagine the game going forward...and it's not player/org owned stations or MMO style fleet battles any more than ED is. The days of the large orgs are done already...since even the best of them struggle to get more than half a dozen players online at the same time on any given night.

They're really pushing this re-imagination or re-invention of Eve online with cockpits with an almost willful ignorance...In reality, the majority of hardcore Eve players have long since given up waiting on SC, sold their accounts and ships on the grey market and went back to Eve years ago

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I've noticed that Ci~G have changed tactics with their marketing drives to target the larger orgs...constantly quoting 'end game' content and multiplayer fleet battles, station or territory wars and the like.

Personally, I think Ci~G's marketing snakes have seriously miscalculated in their desperation to keep the funding levels afloat on how the average backer plays...and accordingly... spends on star citizen ...They really don't understand their backers or how the majority of them play the game and view or imagine the game going forward...and it's not player/org owned stations or MMO style fleet battles any more than ED is.

They're really pushing this re-imagination or re-invention of Eve online with cockpits...in reality, the majority of hardcore Eve players have long since given up waiting on SC and went back to Eve years ago

One thing that is funny is early on there was a lot of scorn from certain backers poured on the goons who had bought into SC because they criticized it and decided it was all a scam. But now CIG does seem to be focusing more on selling that sort of dream.

 

[VR Golgot]

I think Pyro will launch by the end of the year to Live.

...others will have horrific server recovery chains as all 380 people try to get into Pyro.

That's why I reckon they'll grey scale it again. Just get it to open PTU. Then it's in everyone's hands, but they have an extra handwave for it being sub-functional. (And they can claim they're taking the time to make it right etc. Then just dump it to live in Q1 as a bonus 'delivery'... still fundamentally busted )

Only question is what ships will they put on sale to make $$$ from it I think there are a few they've announced and didn't show up in IAE on the expected manufacturer day - maybe those?

Yeah, tons of sillouettes from the Citcon grid of tease to come.

Although look what just fell into the PTU in the meantime

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1gzzf4x/ummmm_hellooo

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1gzzf4x/ummmm_hellooo/

 

[VR Golgot]

I've noticed that Ci~G have changed tactics with their marketing drives to target the larger orgs...constantly quoting 'end game' content and multiplayer fleet battles, station or territory wars and the like.

Yeah this is clearly where their paydirt plans lie. Station building will be eye-watering $$$. Base building will cater to everyone from happy campers up to kings of industry. Crafting grind and subscription speed-ups will cover a similar spread.

It's not a totally flawed plan. (SC is kinda built on the 'dreamcrafting captain' who's built his fleet in his mind. That guy doesn't even really need an org. He just needs to dream about one. I've chatted with a bunch of those guys. They're just happy whooshing their multiple Idrises about in their mind.)

But it is a flawed one all told. Because CIG won't be able to get any of it working reliably. And that repeat behaviour does add up over time...

(Not to mention the whole 'insert new base-building ships by downgrading the existing roster' thing has been spotted pretty quick. They'll still get bought. But enthusiasm is gushing out of the bubble somewhat...)

 

[cigwatch]

But it is a flawed one all told. Because CIG won't be able to get any of it working reliably. And that repeat behaviour does add up over time...

(Not to mention the whole 'insert new base-building ships by downgrading the existing roster' thing has been spotted pretty quick. They'll still get bought. But enthusiasm is gushing out of the bubble somewhat...)

On the other hand, so far CI has been only failing upwards, financially

 

[McGlashan]

I wonder how long its going to take for them to realize that Squadron 42 is litiraly sinking the company

S42 isn't a mistake that's dragging down CIG, it's a symptom of a company that's so broken and mismanaged it can't even deliver a bog-standard single player pew-pew campaign let alone an open world sandbox MMO. It should have been the "easy" game to produce, without the technical debt or unknowns, even for Chris Roberts. Activision knocked out CoD:IW (a somewhat underrated game IMO) in 3 years, and if that had been S42 it would have satisfied the brief and CIG would now be a legitimate game developer and could have been phoning in additional episodes and DLC for the last 8 years.

 

[rootsrat]

"Interesting" observation from someone in my community (excuse machine translation):

There's one thing on Pyro that's not well-designed... in the elevator you take down to the PvP zones at stations, you're still in a no-weapons zone before you step out. So there's already camping going on—one or two people position themselves to see the elevator and shoot you before you can take a step forward. Then they drag the bodies aside, loot them, and wait for the next one

 

[Darkfyre99]

I've noticed that Ci~G have changed tactics with their marketing drives to target the larger orgs...constantly quoting 'end game' content and multiplayer fleet battles, station or territory wars and the like.

CIG’s marketing team has truly mastered the art of the sidestep…

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AALREbJZEZk


They probably hold classes in it for their astroturfers and evangelizers. The petite picnic pillager was particularly adept at it.

 

[Phlegm]

"Interesting" observation from someone in my community (excuse machine translation):

NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Factabulous]

Wasn't the Polaris $750 yesterday - when you couldn't actually buy it?

(Might be a different variant, they have so many prices )

Edit: Seems so (edit: thread was nuked)

- Star Citizen Spectrum

Wallet is closed. Pull your head out of your ass CIG. What happened to giving us a heads up? Natural disaster between marketing and community managers bring down communications?

robertsspaceindustries.com

 

[VR Golgot]

Oo, now that's a bigger turn of the screw...

(Or of the tip of the spear, as it were.)

 

[VR Golgot]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSi_Wa_3phI

 

[Garix]

Wasn't the Polaris $750 yesterday - when you couldn't actually buy it?

View attachment 409652

(Might be a different variant, they have so many prices )

Edit: Seems so

- Star Citizen Spectrum

Wallet is closed. Pull your head out of your ass CIG. What happened to giving us a heads up? Natural disaster between marketing and community managers bring down communications?

robertsspaceindustries.com

It does say "Special Upgrade Offer"
It didn't specify what they'd upgraded

 

[Factabulous]

Nothing is more Star Citizen that watching Berks fail to play 4.0 due to constant bugs while his chat talks about all the ships they are buying for said game

 

[Factabulous]

gonna be a big day

 

[thistle]

Wasn't the Polaris $750 yesterday - when you couldn't actually buy it?

Paying $225 for digital chariot is a disgrace, never mind a $225 increase.