Star Citizen Development Discussion (Is Derek Smart Right?)

[Fanatical Meat]

Well in this case 95% of the product is drama.

Agreed there is a huge amount of Drama surrounding SC.
Either buy it or don’t or if you did bummer it’s not a game you like.
Sure the development moves really slow, sure there is a lot of bloat that’s simply not needed, sure there are ships than can cost more than $1k. Whatever don’t buy it or as I said if you did it’s a learning experience.
We all have bough stuff particularly games that we were disappointed in, this is a reality of life.
Edit: I’m playing it now here and there and I am having fun with it. Could I say something totally different next month? Maybe.
I have no expectation that SC will be the only game in the genre that I ever play.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Edit: I’m playing it now here and there and I am having fun with it.

What are you and your friends doing in it? Dogfighting? Or planetary missions?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

What are you and your friends doing in it? Dogfighting? Or planetary missions?

Frankly I suck at piloting currently I am working on some bounty missions to get experience.
FPS bunker missions can be cool it’s just super easy to shoot the wrong dude and get a crime stat. First mission I did I shot far too many friendlies and next log in I was at the pirate planet. Game patched next day and reset everything so I can’t tell you much about being an outlaw other than there are records you can hack with some amount of effort in game to clear your crime stat. You also can break rocks in a mining colony to clear your crime stat. Nifty game mechanic to slow PvP players who make others experience not so fun.
I have done a lot of mining, mining in the ROC is the most fun IMO, ROCs can easily be purchased in game no need to spend real money on them.
Trading is fun too but it gets boring because typically it’s the same route, same product. At some point they’re going to revamp the economy but who knows when that happens. Trading is still fun just understand it’s not going to bring fun forever. Good starting thing to do.
I’ve also spent some time flying to different ports to equip my ships with different gear, takes a while due to how many locations you typically need to go but I sort of like checking out stuff like that in games.

Edit: if you own the game and want to join me PM me your in game name.
Warning to those who may not have purchased read up the game is certainly unfinished, has bugs, has occasional crashes and lag. You have been warned. It is very unforgiving and can be frustrating. I like that to a certain extent. You may not.

 

[Dannar26]

I don’t get the whole Starfield will kill SC thing. They are different but similar games. One is single player which to me is a deal breaker. Sure both games are shooty space games but there certainly is room for more than one game in the genre.

I agree that you can enjoy multiple games of near similar genre. And I'm glad to see space sims getting some love.

But I think the thing that matters here is the contrast. Star Citizen exploded onto the scene riding the promise of a game that serves an untapped market. In the decade since, the market has course corrected. It seems to me that Starfield is the game closest to SC in terms of gameplay.

At this point CIG is going to have to execute solidly in order for their product to matter. They're losing the novelty of a unique offering.

 

[gorobei]

continuous delays are how duke nukem forever died. every time they should have been getting near a beta much less a gold release, they scrapped everything because in the years since they started work on the game the hardware and 3rd party game engines jumped ahead a gen or two making the visuals and gameplay looking archaic. so they started from scratch with a new engine.

by the time cig even get close to just the squadron42 single player release, UE or unity will have worked with amd/nv/intl and have global illumination thru rt. i guarantee you that the cryengine offshoot they bought almost 10 years ago will not be remotely compatible with future GI functions even on dxr brute force.

all it takes is for starfield to iron out all the launch day bugs in single player, and in a year or two they will be able to offer a limited multiplayer like fallout 76.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

continuous delays are how duke nukem forever died. every time they should have been getting near a beta much less a gold release, they scrapped everything because in the years since they started work on the game the hardware and 3rd party game engines jumped ahead a gen or two making the visuals and gameplay looking archaic. so they started from scratch with a new engine.

by the time cig even get close to just the squadron42 single player release, UE or unity will have worked with amd/nv/intl and have global illumination thru rt. i guarantee you that the cryengine offshoot they bought almost 10 years ago will not be remotely compatible with future GI functions even on dxr brute force.

all it takes is for starfield to iron out all the launch day bugs in single player, and in a year or two they will be able to offer a limited multiplayer like fallout 76.

And that would be great again I see no reason why there should be only one game for the genre.

 

[DrMrLordX]

fallout 76.

Ewwww no no no

 

[Skel]

Seems we're now at $600 Million in funding..

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Seems we're now at $600 Million in funding..

Yup I think it happened a few days ago

 

[Dannar26]

What's the major thing holding back this project at this point, in technical terms? Is it still the much talked about server meshing? Is it the engine just not capable of what they want, and they're waiting to port it over to something that can? Do you think there's an element of stalling to allow technology to "catch-up" to what they want to accomplish?

I know there's the profit incentive to keep things the way they are now...if you take their current business model and compare it to what they would make by just releasing the darn thing, which garners more cash?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

What's the major thing holding back this project at this point, in technical terms? Is it still the much talked about server meshing? Is it the engine just not capable of what they want, and they're waiting to port it over to something that can? Do you think there's an element of stalling to allow technology to "catch-up" to what they want to accomplish?

I know there's the profit incentive to keep things the way they are now...if you take their current business model and compare it to what they would make by just releasing the darn thing, which garners more cash?

Feature bloat and just stuff. I’ll give him credit he is trying to build a super immersive world. Just not sure if by the time it’s done it will be relevant.

 

[BudAshes]

Yup I think it happened a few days ago

How could there still be 59 million dollars coming in just this year?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

How could there still be 59 million dollars coming in just this year?

As I have said there certainly is a game to be played and it is very pretty imo.
Also I was t aware of this until recently. A mobile game maker has made one billion on a dumb mobile game. Realizing this has gotten me to stop counting money game folks earn, it makes little sense.

 

[BudAshes]

As I have said there certainly is a game to be played and it is very pretty imo.
Also I was t aware of this until recently. A mobile game maker has made one billion on a dumb mobile game. Realizing this has gotten me to stop counting money game folks earn, it makes little sense.

No doubt people waste money on many things, but I'm just curious is this money coming in through transactions in game?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

No doubt people waste money on many things, but I'm just curious is this money coming in through transactions in game?

In game there is no option to use cash, in game money only. The cash comes from people buying new ships with real cash outside the game. These ships are then usable in game. My tip to people is as of now it isn’t too hard to grind out in game money and just buy a ship, the warning is the ship will ultimately be lost in a new alpha or even a server wipe. A full wipe hasn’t happened in 5 or 6 months however I am sure one will come.

 

[Dannar26]

In game there is no option to use cash, in game money only. The cash comes from people buying new ships with real cash outside the game. These ships are then usable in game. My tip to people is as of now it isn’t too hard to grind out in game money and just buy a ship, the warning is the ship will ultimately be lost in a new alpha or even a server wipe. A full wipe hasn’t happened in 5 or 6 months however I am sure one will come.

And I sure hope they have the will to follow through on that. Whenever they go gold, I really hope there's a clean wipe, even for the whales sans ships that have been paid for...

 

[BudAshes]

In game there is no option to use cash, in game money only. The cash comes from people buying new ships with real cash outside the game. These ships are then usable in game. My tip to people is as of now it isn’t too hard to grind out in game money and just buy a ship, the warning is the ship will ultimately be lost in a new alpha or even a server wipe. A full wipe hasn’t happened in 5 or 6 months however I am sure one will come.

So people are still spending money on ships in this game? And that is adding up to tens of millions of dollars?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

So people are still spending money on ships in this game? And that is adding up to tens of millions of dollars?

Not sure, they appear to be bringing in more money.

 

[DrMrLordX]

In game there is no option to use cash, in game money only.

Hate to say it but even this boondoggle seems like less of a scam than some games with cash shops and premium currency.

 

[BudAshes]

Hate to say it but even this boondoggle seems like less of a scam than some games with cash shops and premium currency.

So you are saying because the world has gotten worse it makes this fiasco seem less bad?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Hate to say it but even this boondoggle seems like less of a scam than some games with cash shops and premium currency.

Well there certainly are things that can be bought with real money that don’t translate to something sensible in game. For example buying an armor starting set, costs like $10 or $15 and that armor can easily be acquired in game with minimal effort. Same with buying the ROC, $50 real world dollars to avoid a minimal grind in game to earn the cash.

Edit
To be clear those are items that will not get you into the game they’re basically add on items. I find it unlikely someone would buy those and not want early access. The armor still is a pretty sucky deal.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Well there certainly are things that can be bought with real money that don’t translate to something sensible in game. For example buying an armor starting set, costs like $10 or $15 and that armor can easily be acquired in game with minimal effort. Same with buying the ROC, $50 real world dollars to avoid a minimal grind in game to earn the cash.

Edit
To be clear those are items that will not get you into the game they’re basically add on items. I find it unlikely someone would buy those and not want early access. The armor still is a pretty sucky deal.

It gets worse. Think of all the stupid mobile games where you just buy more turns. Granted Farmville was doing that ages ago, but companies like King have perfected it. All this time and Star Citizen/Squadron 42 has hit $600 million while King pulls in billions every year.

So you are saying because the world has gotten worse it makes this fiasco seem less bad?

Not sure if it's less bad or if it's just puny compared to the greater scams.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

It gets worse. Think of all the stupid mobile games where you just buy more turns. Granted Farmville was doing that ages ago, but companies like King have perfected it. All this time and Star Citizen/Squadron 42 has hit $600 million while King pulls in billions every year.


Not sure if it's less bad or if it's just puny compared to the greater scams.

Exactly and to my knowledge nobody around here is saying “look at the plane the ceo of king got” or “I wonder what the ceo of king is doing with all this money” or “I’m super excited for the next game from king to release, seems like it’s been taking a long time”.

 

[Dannar26]

So you are saying because the world has gotten worse it makes this fiasco seem less bad?

It has gotten worse. That's objective. Does it make this all seem less egregious? I feel that's far more subjective...

I feel like these forums are frequented by "older" gamers as far as the landscape is concerned today. As I type this, I'm 38....if you're anywhere near my age or older you can remember a time where the gaming landscape is significantly different. But what about the gamers that grew up with buying premium currencies and turns in tablet games? I wonder what it looks like to them?

We remember. But does the greater gaming landscape? And if CR pushes this project back another decade?

Well there certainly are things that can be bought with real money that don’t translate to something sensible in game. For example buying an armor starting set, costs like $10 or $15 and that armor can easily be acquired in game with minimal effort. Same with buying the ROC, $50 real world dollars to avoid a minimal grind in game to earn the cash.

Edit
To be clear those are items that will not get you into the game they’re basically add on items. I find it unlikely someone would buy those and not want early access. The armor still is a pretty sucky deal.

Bad deal or no, are we trading real life money for a non-cosmetic in-game advantage, however "sucky?" If so, that's a bit of slippery slope right?

Exactly and to my knowledge nobody around here is saying “look at the plane the ceo of king got” or “I wonder what the ceo of king is doing with all this money” or “I’m super excited for the next game from king to release, seems like it’s been taking a long time”.

Yeah, but I don't think this is apples to apples. Expecting content like SC to come out of an entity like King is like expecting S-Tier writing from a porno. We all know the sleezy business model they have. While I think there's a greater conversation to be had about gambling and micro-transactions, I don't know if it's a fair point to make.

 

[DrMrLordX]

“I’m super excited for the next game from king to release, seems like it’s been taking a long time”.

It's because we all know they're awful. Plus they don't release new games, they just reskin the old ones.

Star Citizen comes from a development pipeline that, years ago, people were hoping would produce a legitimate title of quality. It quite clearly has failed to do so which is why so many of us still follow that train wreck with avid interest. Mobile crap is beyond hope.