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[Whataborman]

do you ever reach the point when you like something that you just start thinking..
SHUT THE FUCK UP and start talking when it's out?

Every single game, system, card, etc...

I really don't want to hear anything until I can actually purchase your product.

 

[KyoZz]

OCS is already implemented, so I don't know what you're talking about? Not sure about the fps, but not everyone can get the same fps in the game environment, but it is more than stable. I reach between 50/100fps in star citizen at 1440p and 4K between 45/75fps. The big network/feature implementations that are coming and will make the star citizen grow enormously are:

- iCache (nearly done)
- Physics refactor (done, waiting for iCache)
- Physical damage system + softbody destruction - (in development)
- Server Meshing - (in development)
- Quantum - (in development)

The first 2 are already implemented, and the second one is already ready, but it is waiting for iCache. This will include docking from station to station and ship to ship docking as well as snub craft undocking and mother ship docking. Other things that will eventually work with this technology are the Hull C, Caterpillar command module docking / undocking and escape pods.

Yeah it was the Server meshing that I was talking about, but common you know what I mean right ? 50 players on a MMO ? Continuously reported features? Deactivated things like being able to... sit ?! This is ridiculous. And by the way, the OCS is far from being finished too.
For the FPS, the last time I launched the game it was on 3.09 and the experience was AWFUL, 10/25 FPS and lots of bugs just like we where back to 2.8). Don't tell me it wasn't like this, or it's my PC (RTX 2070, 16GB RAM, SSD and 9750H) because it is not. On Spectrum people make it clear that their was a lots of performance issues and bugs. So yeah maybe a miracle has happened since but I find this hard to believe.
I'm gonna try it by myself but I feel like you have been a little bit over-exaggerating, those performance you describe where the one I had on 3.2.

 

[iHaunter]

How much money did you donate?

$60, basic game package that includes the multi-player. Why would I dump $1k in a game that by design might be too ambitious to not finish? But I have 200+ hours in it with my buddy so it was already worth it for me.

FYI I do not invoke ANYONE spend any money on Star Citizen unless they are okay with potentially losing it.

Fun video of where the game is.

 

[iHaunter]

I mean, I know you think that sounds like a good thing.

Anyone who's ever managed a company (especially start-ups) just sees an absolute nightmare looking at that number. If there's ever a more prominent indication that the development is an absolute mess its that number.

I think they learned a lot. But there was definitely a lot of mis-management in the first few years. They gave a company (I forget the name) millions of dollars to develop the FPS part of the game. They ended up doing a shit job, cost a lot of money, and CIG spent years redoing their work. HUGE mistake.

 

[ShadowNate]

That is partially true. CIG kept changing the specs for the FPS even during late production (of said module) and made it impossible for the third party company to do a proper work.

This is by the way typical of Roberts management throughout the whole project. They keep re-doing the same models and animations because the specifications for dimensions, scale keep changing, and they seem to have to redo those even with (seemingly) small changes.

 

[iHaunter]

A
Are those current employee numbers or just contractors over the years in production? I'm inclined to believe it's the latter as its hardly surprising given the length of the project.

I have no idea, I'm sure their numbers change. I dont work for CIG.

 

[Manstructiclops]

Hiring 760+ employees in multiple studios. Really shitty way to scam money when you're spending all of it. But I don't expect the average gaffer to think that far ahead.

He's bought himself a house and his wife and family is pocketing wages in key positions.

You're naive.

 

[Manstructiclops]

Maybe not a scam, but terminally mismanaged.

Has all of the markers of a bad software project.

Every project he's worked on was a fuck up that required higher management or the publisher to come in and sort it for him.

 

[iHaunter]

He's bought himself a house and his wife and family is pocketing wages in key positions.

You're naive.

He was a millionaire before making CIG. You're ignorant.

 

[ShadowNate]

Was he now?
Did he have that fancy house before making CIG?

 

[Dr.Morris79]

On something of a related topic, I wonder if they have any plans to try and bring Squadron 42 to next-gen consoles.

Next gen consoles? It'd be nice if they actually got it out for the pc first.

 

[FranXico]

When the PR guy has to come out and state, "We are not a scam," it's probably a scam.

I remember a famous politician saying "I am not a crook".

 

[Woo-Fu]

Whens it out?

You can't expect the average GAFfer to think that far ahead. C'mon, man.

 

[Tfault]

CIG headcount to 2018

 

[Snake29]

Yeah it was the Server meshing that I was talking about, but common you know what I mean right ? 50 players on a MMO ? Continuously reported features? Deactivated things like being able to... sit ?! This is ridiculous. And by the way, the OCS is far from being finished too.
For the FPS, the last time I launched the game it was on 3.09 and the experience was AWFUL, 10/25 FPS and lots of bugs just like we where back to 2.8). Don't tell me it wasn't like this, or it's my PC (RTX 2070, 16GB RAM, SSD and 9750H) because it is not. On Spectrum people make it clear that their was a lots of performance issues and bugs. So yeah maybe a miracle has happened since but I find this hard to believe.
I'm gonna try it by myself but I feel like you have been a little bit over-exaggerating, those performance you describe where the one I had on 3.2.

3.9 was so far the worst patch of all. 3.10 is overall really stable and i haven’t encountered any 30K, so that’s a good sign. 50 people on server has to do with server meshing. When this is implemented, there is nothing that will stop them

 

[Ixiah]

Holy fuck, just what is that the plan here ?
Develop a game for 10-15 years, and only THEN release it into EARLY ACCESS for another 5-10 years ?
You would think the people leading the Studio are people with Game Development experience that could avoid feature creep.

 

[SF Kosmo]

So why's this game been taking so long anyway?

Scope creep?

Scope creep? The game was promising a massively multiplayer universe with fully explorable buildings/ships/cities/planets/solar systems, like 9 types of gameplay and every feature under the sun. That was the starting point. Yeah, there is a scope problem, no creep required.

 

[luffie]

Star Citizen will be the new Shenmue , you guys can quote me on this when it's released.

 

[MadYarpen]

OK, so when do they plan to release the S42?

At the moment I mean.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Odd thread. I don't know why, but I keep hearing...yeah, I keep hearing the Duke Nukem theme playing somewhere in the distance. Like it's been playing...

...forever.

 

[Buki1]

CIG headcount to 2018

I would love to see what those people are actually doing. Like in what departments they are working. And how many of them are actually making that game and how many are in pr, hr, finances, marketing, accountancy etc.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I would love to see what those people are actually doing. Like in what departments they are working. And how many of them are actually making that game and how many are in pr, hr, finances, marketing, accountancy etc.

Going by the non-dev employees, the studio has a combined 113 people doing non-dev office work (51+17+26+19).

And another 408 of dev team members for the 521 total.

Insane. Probably right up there with the GTA of the world.

 

[Starfield]

OK, so when do they plan to release the S42?

At the moment I mean.

Nothing official. If you trust insiders, q2 2021

 

[Sybrix]

As someone who has given this company zero funding, its fascinating to watch how this has been playing out, ill keep my eye on it on and off and see what happens.

I suspect it will end in uproar.

 

[Metnut]

Most of the fiercest defenders of multilevel marketing and other scams are often the biggest victims of these scams who have been taken the hardest.

It’s honestly sad to see.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Although there exists no reality in which Star Citizen comes out and lives up to the hopes and promises, I do think there is a non-zero chance for a Squadron 42 to call me out and be decent.

 

[EDMIX]

Hiring 760+ employees in multiple studios. Really shitty way to scam money when you're spending all of it. But I don't expect the average gaffer to think that far ahead.

Look, I don't think Star Citizen is a scam, but I do believe the game development is in some trouble. and fyi one could still scam people by even hiring the 760 developers and give the appearance that they are not just randomly using some of the millions for themselves.

That being said, I don't feel this game needed to be developed across 3 fucking generations..... at this point its even a question if this game will release during the NEXT GEN Cycle....

 

[iHaunter]

Look, I don't think Star Citizen is a scam, but I do believe the game development is in some trouble. and fyi one could still scam people by even hiring the 760 developers and give the appearance that they are not just randomly using some of the millions for themselves.

That being said, I don't feel this game needed to be developed across 3 fucking generations..... at this point its even a question if this game will release during the NEXT GEN Cycle....

If they had that money right away and the dev team at the start, I agree with you. They only had a couple of years with those resources. I don't disagree it was mismanaged.

 

[ShadowNate]

OK, so when do they plan to release the S42?

At the moment I mean.

Last official word was third quarter of 2020 for beta release (to which it was already pushed back from 2nd quarter). Whatever that means we should have a solid sample of it, of how it looks like, how it plays and performs, what is its story, its NPC AI, flight, combat and other mechanics. Complete mechanics and game loops that is. No pre alpha tier 0 excuse crap.

Afaik there is no official word about them missing this deadline, other than you know, the roadmap to a roadmap being a telltale.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Y'all gonna be collecting SSR before this game is completed.

Tom Hanks character in Green Mile wouldn't be alive long enough to see it done ffs.

 

[Trimesh]

Last official word was third quarter of 2020 for beta release (to which it was already pushed back from 2nd quarter). Whatever that means we should have a solid sample of it, of how it looks like, how it plays and performs, what is its story, its NPC AI, flight, combat and other mechanics. Complete mechanics and game loops that is. No pre alpha tier 0 excuse crap.

Afaik there is no official word about them missing this deadline, other than you know, the roadmap to a roadmap being a telltale.

"Q3 2020" - so that would mean "within the next two weeks"? Interesting if true...

 

[IShowUBasics]

Funny how having employees somehow "proofs" its not a scam. You guys know that the people that are getting scammed arent the developers but the backers, right? The facts are that after many years there is a buggy mess with still barely any progress and no real gameplay loop. CR giving all of his relatives top positions in the company without ANY qualifications is proof enough for it to be a scam.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

I would love to see what those people are actually doing. Like in what departments they are working. And how many of them are actually making that game and how many are in pr, hr, finances, marketing, accountancy etc.

It takes a lot of people to hide a lot of money I guess.

 

[MadYarpen]

Nothing official. If you trust insiders, q2 2021

Last official word was third quarter of 2020 for beta release (to which it was already pushed back from 2nd quarter). Whatever that means we should have a solid sample of it, of how it looks like, how it plays and performs, what is its story, its NPC AI, flight, combat and other mechanics. Complete mechanics and game loops that is. No pre alpha tier 0 excuse crap.

Afaik there is no official word about them missing this deadline, other than you know, the roadmap to a roadmap being a telltale.

Thanks. Regardless of anything I will be happy if it is released.

 

[ShadowNate]

Thanks. Regardless of anything I will be happy if it is released.

I'll be happy too. Some closure to this mess would be nice to have whatever the outcome.

And if it's good then I'll buy it for the right price (for my wallet and standards).

I don't think there's any way of them honoring this official deadline though.

 

[Tfault]

I would love to see what those people are actually doing. Like in what departments they are working. And how many of them are actually making that game and how many are in pr, hr, finances, marketing, accountancy etc.

Edit - Wrong one

Edit 2

Interesting to note

Employee numbers increased again in 2018 but the growth has slowed compared to prior years, up only 57 in total on 2017 numbers. Also, much of this increase was in the marketing and publishing disciplines, with additional recruitment into general and admin, with development only increasing in the rest of the world. This reflects the consolidation and increasing maturity of Cloud Imperium’s operations with a growing marketing and publishing activity.

 

[magaman]

There's a lot of salt going around in this thread. I'd say the majority of which comes from people who haven't played a single minute of the game. I was a naysayer until recently.

I played it during the free fly and can safely say that I had some of the coolest moments I've EVER had in gaming. If they pull this off, this WILL be my GOAT.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This game is the future of AAA PC gaming, get used to it.

 

[Halo is Back]

*Please give me more money*

 

[Snake29]

There's a lot of salt going around in this thread. I'd say the majority of which comes from people who haven't played a single minute of the game. I was a naysayer until recently.

I played it during the free fly and can safely say that I had some of the coolest moments I've EVER had in gaming. If they pull this off, this WILL be my GOAT.

Funny that i also have the same experience with SC and DayZ. That last one is also a game that got a propper release after almost 10 years. I had some of the best moments in gaming in DayZ, and look...it was never finished when i was playing it, and it had a lot of bugs.

 

[magaman]

Funny that i also have the same experience with SC and DayZ. That last one is also a game that got a propper release after almost 10 years. I had some of the best moments in gaming in DayZ, and look...it was never finished when i was playing it, and it had a lot of bugs.

It's a little ironic that seemingly half of the game that come out nowadays are in "Game Preview" or early access. Everyone seems cool with this, and cool with the fact the incomplete games are in active development.

Somehow SC gets the scarlet letter and is branded a scam.

To those who say that: Why? Have you played it? Are you aware the game is in active development? It's not like this title has gone dark with zero updates in months. They literally have 3-4 updates per week. Saying "it's not coming fast enough" is not a reasonable reason to cry.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Generally keep anything Star Citizen at arm's length myself, but what is Squadron 42? Is it like a bite sized version of Star Citizen that supposed to be fully releasing soon?

 

[Snake29]

It's a little ironic that seemingly half of the game that come out nowadays are in "Game Preview" or early access. Everyone seems cool with this, and cool with the fact the incomplete games are in active development.

Somehow SC gets the scarlet letter and is branded a scam.

To those who say that: Why? Have you played it? Are you aware the game is in active development? It's not like this title has gone dark with zero updates in months. They literally have 3-4 updates per week. Saying "it's not coming fast enough" is not a reasonable reason to cry.

Even now...Evocati started for Alpha 3.11 last night, and i'm going to update the evocati build after work (in 1 hour for me), and check and test the first new features and testing focus.

 

[ShadowNate]

To those who say that: Why? Have you played it? Are you aware the game is in active development? It's not like this title has gone dark with zero updates in months. They literally have 3-4 updates per week. Saying "it's not coming fast enough" is not a reasonable reason to cry.

I've played it back when I was a backer. I no longer am. The project is crowdfunded, which means I supported it originally and expected them to honor that trust; they didn't. Instead they expanded the scope to unmanageable levels, kept releasing ship videos, missed all the deadlines they set, kept largely ignoring SQ42 and kept pushing it back for years, sold land on their planets, and used the pre-alpha excuse to dodge criticism.

I cannot in good consciousness support their crappy project and their marketing practices. Also, I strongly believe now that it is a scam.

So it's not "it's not coming fast enough" that's the complaint. It is "it is a mismanaged perpetual crowd funded project, that broke the trust with (many of) its backers, with lies, macro-transactions and huge delays, way - way overdue according to their own words and old (missed) deadlines, missing most of the promised features, having few game loops that are very bare bones, and under-delivering tier-0 implementations".

I also seriously doubt there's some design document leading the development. It's just "here's a bunch of stuff we threw against a wall, now let's focus on this particular bartender AI".

See, it's a bunch of stuff that's wrong, and none of that is that I want it rushed out the door.

Generally keep anything Star Citizen at arm's length myself, but what is Squadron 42? Is it like a bite sized version of Star Citizen that supposed to be fully releasing soon?

It is a campaign, single player (and also supposedly have some missions supporting co-op). Basically think of it as something closer to a new Privateer or Freelancer. It's the one that will feature all the big name actors they advertised and Chris Roberts huge script that he once threw on-stage.

No one really knows how big it's going to be. Or what exactly will be released first from it. They already have talked about sequels / additional chapters (that some early backers already "own"), they have said they would release a prelude or the prologue.

It's as you would expect from this project a mess and mist of promises and thin air.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

That being said, I don't feel this game needed to be developed across 3 fucking generations..... at this point its even a question if this game will release during the NEXT GEN Cycle....

I like how you are measuring time in console generations as if that is relevant to Star Citizen backers or PC gamers in general. Look at the bright side, that's one bit of scope creep they managed to avoid, wasting time on console devkits.

 

[EDMIX]

I like how you are measuring time in console generations as if that is relevant to Star Citizen backers or PC gamers in general. Look at the bright side, that's one bit of scope creep they managed to avoid, wasting time on console devkits.

Yet wasting time of backers.....

When a game fucking starts development in 2011 and they still don't have a release window, its time start worrying. I only bring up generations because when this game was announced, they made a big deal that it just couldn't work on consoles (at the time being PS3 and 360).

Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts discusses upping the ante on PC gaming

Storied developer talks to Ars about lofty promises, Wing Commander connections.

arstechnica.com

So I only bring up generations because of that statement as....well the argument that it couldn't work on current gen systems at that time has become pretty funny if you now consider just how many generations have now past waiting for it to release......

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Yet wasting time of backers.....

When a game fucking starts development in 2011 and they still don't have a release window, its time start worrying. I only bring up generations because when this game was announced, they made a big deal that it just couldn't work on consoles (at the time being PS3 and 360).

Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts discusses upping the ante on PC gaming

Storied developer talks to Ars about lofty promises, Wing Commander connections.

arstechnica.com

So I only bring up generations because of that statement as....well the argument that it couldn't work on current gen systems at that time has become pretty funny if you now consider just how many generations have now past waiting for it to release......

Ahh ok, got it, so you're a console warrior carrying a grudge because he said PC was more capable than PS4 ahead of its release. Well, we backers are very grateful for all your concern. PS5 looks like it's going to be a pretty nice machine all things considered, enjoy!

 

[EDMIX]

Ahh ok, got it, so you're a console warrior carrying a grudge because he said PC was more capable than PS4 ahead of its release. Well, we backers are very grateful for all your concern. PS5 looks like it's going to be a pretty nice machine all things considered, enjoy!

? huh? I own both console and a gaming PC. I literally backed Star Citizen.

smh. Jumping the gun and projecting waaaaaaaay too much.

The comments regarding console at the time where only about PS3 and 360 cause PS4 and XONE were not even announced yet. So the joke is simply that its taken so long for the game to release, that tidbit is irrelevant at this point. Has nothing to do with PC vs Console as I own both, simply talking about the remarks from the developer and the irony of how long its been in development and feature creep etc. Not even sure how you got to this whole "console warrior carrying a grudge" lol.

 

[TTOOLL]

What if this game is a big laundering scheme? I just thought about it the other day. It would be amazing.

 

[EDMIX]

What if this game is a big laundering scheme? I just thought about it the other day. It would be amazing.

Could be. At this point I would not be shocked if it was a scam, money laundering scheme etc At the very least, that game is mismanaged greatly.