The Star Citizen Thread v5

[Red Anders]

My cursor hovered over the Star Citizen launcher for a second.

Who am I trying to kid? As soon as you mentioned Spectrum I fired up Thanatos and am having a laugh burning, dropping, drowning, crushing and flinging little blue men from the CIG website, and biting the heads off white knights

Ah the glory days lol. Eight colours whether you needed all of them or not and software piracy involved a mate with a tape-to-tape deck...

Last thing I played on an emulator was Knight Lore I think. Can you believe this - Ultimate released Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Knight Lore in 1984. Putting that in some sort of perspective for anyone under 30, it would be like the same company releasing COD Infinite Warfare, Witcher 3 and GTA V in 12 months.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Unfortunately - game development hasn't changed much since then.

Of course things have advanced, we have unimaginably powerful machines compared to the 8 bits, and gaming has become a great deal more well, not quite "sophisticated" but more "expectant".

Vapourware hasn't changed at all. Change Bandersnatch for Star Citizen, Imagine for CIG - and the story is eerily similar.

oops - this one http://www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm

 

[Red Anders]

Unfortunately - game development hasn't changed much since then.

Of course things have advanced, we have unimaginably powerful machines compared to the 8 bits, and gaming has become a great deal more well, not quite "sophisticated" but more "expectant".

Vapourware hasn't changed at all. Change Bandersnatch for Star Citizen, Imagine for CIG - and the story is eerily similar.

oops - this one http://www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm

Oh Imagine, I remember them. Alchemist wasn't bad but their port of Yie Ar Kung Fu was total crap, Way of the Exploding Fist was far better. Then as you say they disolved in a puddle of vapourware, acrimony and lulz.

Having said that, wikipedia informs me that Psygnosis ultimately (arf) grew out of that, who of course published Lemmings (which nearly drove me insane) and Hired Guns which was amazing for it's time. Both of those being coded by DMA Design, who went on to make a little-known game called Grand Theft Auto.

Gaming history is full of vapourware and crapware as you say. I mean who would have thought that Romero would have taken the lengthy cruise on the failboat that was Daikatana back when he was at id?

Err... something something Star Citizen.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

So, was checking out the numerous release schedule threads on the SC reddit, and looks like the natives are getting restless.

This comment phrases it well...

The "jesus what are you guys doing in there" people are finally starting to outnumber the "take 500 years I don't mind as long as you get it right" people which is why you're seeing more salt in the community.

They are pinning their hopes on 3.0, but 3.0 still won't be a product that could be called a release. It (theoretically) will have many needed features for release, but from what I see, its still going to be Alpha, not even ready to be called beta with all that stuff in.... but that is assuming 3.0 is even released this year, and has all the content they plan for it.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I don't think CIG can do much else but to continue to push Alpha (pre-pre-pre-pre) builds for a long, long time.

If ship sales end with release, what is going to keep them afloat once they go gold? Everyone who wants Star Citizen already has it - in fact fewer people who wanted Star Citizen have it now because a lot of people demanded refunds as Star Citizen has been in a sorry state for a very, very long time now.

You can only protract development for so long. One famous game developer even stated back in 2012

Really it is all about constant iteration from launch. The whole idea is to be constantly updating. It isn’t like the old days where you had to have everything and the kitchen sink in at launch because you weren’t going to come back to it for awhile. We’re already one year in - another two years puts us at 3 total which is ideal. Any more and things would begin to get stale.

Genuine Roberts could do well to pay attention to that guy, take note and listen to what he said, because nobody else quite understands game development.

 

[Zetta]

So, was checking out the numerous release schedule threads on the SC reddit, and looks like the natives are getting restless.

This comment phrases it well...

The "jesus what are you guys doing in there" people are finally starting to outnumber the "take 500 years I don't mind as long as you get it right" people which is why you're seeing more salt in the community.

They are pinning their hopes on 3.0, but 3.0 still won't be a product that could be called a release. It (theoretically) will have many needed features for release, but from what I see, its still going to be Alpha, not even ready to be called beta with all that stuff in.... but that is assuming 3.0 is even released this year, and has all the content they plan for it.

I see people also talking about a 2.6.2 patch as well. Before we know it 2.7 will be revitalised like Star Marine.
Lots of "2.6.x isn't holding up 3.0" etc but if that's the case why doesn't CIG publish the schedule for 3.0?

 

[Britney]

It really puzzles me how people can take these version numberings serious. Obviously these milestone patches are marketing to suggest progress because there is nothing deeper behind it then a powerpoint slide and very small info bits open to interpretation in some of the talkshows they produce.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I don't think CIG can do much else but to continue to push Alpha (pre-pre-pre-pre) builds for a long, long time.

If ship sales end with release, what is going to keep them afloat once they go gold? Everyone who wants Star Citizen already has it - in fact fewer people who wanted Star Citizen have it now because a lot of people demanded refunds as Star Citizen has been in a sorry state for a very, very long time now.

You can only protract development for so long. One famous game developer even stated back in 2012



Genuine Roberts could do well to pay attention to that guy, take note and listen to what he said, because nobody else quite understands game development.

That guy was wise. lol

 

[metatheurgist]

It really puzzles me how people can take these version numberings serious. Obviously these milestone patches are marketing to suggest progress because there is nothing deeper behind it then a powerpoint slide and very small info bits open to interpretation in some of the talkshows they produce.

Hush, don't burst that progress bubble some have been hanging on to.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

It really puzzles me how people can take these version numberings serious. Obviously these milestone patches are marketing to suggest progress because there is nothing deeper behind it then a powerpoint slide and very small info bits open to interpretation in some of the talkshows they produce.

As i wrote in one of the reddit threads, the numbers do not matter. They can call it release number elephant. What matters is the content within the patches. The numbers are otherwise just smoke and mirrors.

 

[Asp Explorer]

What matters is the content within the patches.

Content? That was already in almost exactly a year ago

It’s definitely in and Star Marine was originally our idea of how to get people to play the FPS before we could put everything together, but since that obviously took longer than we expected to get FPS to the level that we are comfortable with. By the time we got it to the level we said, ‘Okay you guys can play this.’ Well we already had all the other things combined with the large world and the 64-bit coordinates and the zone system so that was it. So there you are, we will have Gold Horizon, we will have Star Marine, but that will come online once all the basic FPS features are out in and live in the mini PU.

Whatever happened to SATA Ball?

 

[Cmdr-Wotherspoon]

As i wrote in one of the reddit threads, the numbers do not matter. They can call it release number elephant. What matters is the content within the patches. The numbers are otherwise just smoke and mirrors.

"Elephant" as in "elephant in the room"? Which is that Chris Roberts is horribly out of his depth attempting to manage a project this big and is unable to share internal release schedules beyond an event horizon of the next four weeks, meaning that the published schedules create more speculation than they quell?

The thing about the slideware that is 3.0 is that it finally ought to have the fundamental game mechanics that will start to show us what sort of game Star Citizen will be. It will be taking a step away from being all things to everyone. If it doesn't look right, ship sales might take a downturn, and development can only continue while ships continue to be prepurchased.

Smoke and mirrors. Yes....

 

[Asp Explorer]

I've been saying this for years, but someone else has put far more effort into this than me and produced a delightful video.

[video=youtube;akwVVi6weKQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akwVVi6weKQ[/video]

The word "netcode" still fills my lulzbucket though - such a thing simply does not exist.

"I'll be back in a minute honey - I'm off to Tesco - we've run out of netcode!"

 

[Viajero]

So, was checking out the numerous release schedule threads on the SC reddit, and looks like the natives are getting restless.

This comment phrases it well...



They are pinning their hopes on 3.0, but 3.0 still won't be a product that could be called a release. It (theoretically) will have many needed features for release, but from what I see, its still going to be Alpha, not even ready to be called beta with all that stuff in.... but that is assuming 3.0 is even released this year, and has all the content they plan for it.

The only restlessness that really matters to CIG is the "wallet" one. Last month was the lowest funded December since 2013 (although backer wallets were duly squeezed in November, second highest). And, as of today, it would seem this month is going to be aswell one of the lowest January since 2013. Usually the first half of the year is always a slow funding period for CIG, and the December blip may just be a consequence of a great November. It is way too early to conclude anything, but hey.

Of course asuming the funds counter is real and accurate and all.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Of course asuming the funds counter is real and accurate and all.

I make $45998 a week selling brides to princes who cannot otherwise legally move funds out the country just by using one simple trick that google doesn't want you to know about.

You too can join in my endless wealth happiness programme by simply following the three steps to buying an Idris, and purchasing an anti-lulzbucket charm for you and your loved ones.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Lol so no 3.0 in Q1 or any taster or SQ42, just 2.6.1 in middle of March.....ohh this is depressing.

 

[Knightshark]

You just don't understand versioning.

One Two Six One patch equals Three

Of course it's obvious. -2+6-1=3!

- - - Updated - - -

So, was checking out the numerous release schedule threads on the SC reddit, and looks like the natives are getting restless.

This comment phrases it well...



They are pinning their hopes on 3.0, but 3.0 still won't be a product that could be called a release. It (theoretically) will have many needed features for release, but from what I see, its still going to be Alpha, not even ready to be called beta with all that stuff in.... but that is assuming 3.0 is even released this year, and has all the content they plan for it.

Didn't CR himself say that 3.0 will be a complete game?

 

[DLewth]

I make $45998 a week selling brides to princes who cannot otherwise legally move funds out the country just by using one simple trick that google doesn't want you to know about.

You too can join in my endless wealth happiness programme by simply following the three steps to buying an Idris, and purchasing an anti-lulzbucket charm for you and your loved ones.

Dammit, out of rep.
[up]

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Of course it's obvious. -2+6-1=3!

- - - Updated - - -



Didn't CR himself say that 3.0 will be a complete game?

Do we trust anything he says these days?

I think he has been incredibly vague what 3.0 will be, but for sure we can say it won't be anywhere near even beta. 4.0 sounds more like MVP Chris aims for.

 

[Toumal]

I'd like them to be able to show *all* core game mechanics in game this year. But i doubt we will see trading before 2018.