it is being worked on. There is a lot of Dx9 era cruft in the engine that they're slowly breaking down.
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Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 | The 'Verse Awakens
- Thread starter Raticus79
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it is being worked on. There is a lot of Dx9 era cruft in the engine that they're slowly breaking down.
This section at least means the TOS you made your pledge under is still applicable regardless of if you accept the new TOS or not.
To be fair to CIG, a lot of stuff has happened since Feb. 2015 (the last ToS change), specifically a lot of legal threats from people angry about the progress, so it's hard to blame them for trying to cover their own asses.
Back to actual game discussion, I booted up 2.4 and played a bit. It's been a while since I last played, before 2.3 I think), but does the FPS mechanics and movement feel a lot better than before? Still nowhere near perfect, but much smoother, and far less annoying than I remember.
CyberPunked
Member
How do you turn off the constant, "CONTACT. BEGIN SCAN."?
Good question. i'd like to know too.
There's still our twitch chat channel, if anyone wants to use that.
I'm kinda starting to go off the Connie.
Part of me want them to completely scrap it and start again with a new design.
Part of me want them to completely scrap it and start again with a new design.
Holyshit the Merchantman is massive. Much bigger than i thought.
It's behind the Glave, the T shape looking one........ I've just realised, i might be mistaken, aren't i. ?
staticneuron
Member
*sigh* i'm a fucking idiot. Sorry Sorry.
staticneuron
Member
No no. It is understandable because top down I guess they would look similar. It helps me to remember that the banu has sharp edges while the starliner has rounded edges when looking at the silhouette. And you are right in terms of size because the banu is about 15 meters longer and 500,000kg heavier than the starliner.
Ahhh. Gotcha.
Spuck-uk
Banned
Quoted for hilarity.
At least people are starting to see the red flags around this project.
How is making complex game and taking time with it a red flag?
Aztechnology
Member
Yea I guess the entire gaming industry is a giant red flag given how often projects are pushed back. The end of AAA is nigh.
mercenar1e
Member
getting Freelancer/Digital Anvil vibes .. only this time Microsoft wont be able to save CR.
06/12/2000
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_29857
I guess he didn't find a better way.
The red flag would be not realizing how complex your vision/game has become, keeping piling up promises on top of the initial, already very ambitious promises and missing the intially targeted release by probably more than two years without giving any dependable release date. Also financing the whole thing through pledges ranging from reasonable crowd funding average for games to thousands of dollars.
If you're anything but an absolute space game fanatic and/or stoic believer in Chris Roberts' abilities to make his vision a reality, also taking into account the generally unfinished and often broken state of the piecemeal alphas we get to play, then sure, this ought to raise a whole lot of red flags for you. And taking the one other halfway comparable space game project into account (yes, Elite...), which started out at a similar point, released when Star Citizen was initially supposed to release, was and still is in a woefully unfinished state years away from even coming close to its own ambition not to mention Roberts' one (Star Citizen minus SQ42), but is today still more complete and less broken as a game, that doesn't give any hope for Star Citizen's "PU" coming anywhere near its own vision in the next two years. And that's ignoring many of Elite's hair raising design issues which only show because it's a playable game and not a vision of the "BDSSE" in people's heads. Who's to know that the "BDSSE"'s design will be any better or that it'll avoid any of the pitfalls Elite finds itself in? Before it's released and playable, it's mostly imagination, trust and projection. The gulf between those and what they actually have to show for themselves other than impeccable assets is narrowing rather slowly.
I'll eat my words of course, if in the next two years, I'm playing cocktail mixing minigames, commanding AI flight attendants, all in a seamless believable space/ground PU while experiencing "Prevalent use of NPCs" (whatever that means), all without running into a bug that catapults my player character out my civil space craft into the void without hope of returning, chrashes the game to desktop or slows it to a crawl. And of course all without relying on the rampant forced grind we can experience in Elite, the mostly samey and uninvolving exploration game mechanics, as well as the hair raising RNG based game designs leading to more grind.
Apologies in advance as my experience from gaming development is purely from observation, but I feel like the game development in this case is different from what you'd get from a AAA or indie game. Generally speaking, most AAA games (except for cases like call of duty) have a development time of around 5 years.
Basing it here on the development of Halo 4, you spend the first 3-ish years sitting in meeting with most of the studio in vacations and you decide on most of the game's detail like story, maybe get down some prototype for some of the stuff you wanna implement and then you spend the rest of those 2 years ironing it out with your full-size studio.
You have a release date set which you might delay, but in general to get to that date it means scaling your initial pitch to something you believe is gonna be possible to realize within that time frame and even then in the case of most of these games you still see cuts which happens either from bugs that would take too long to fix without delaying, changes in the direction of the game, etc.
But in this case, as you mentioned they promised alot of things, and without having a publisher imposed release date it means they don't have to cut content or promises to fit that time frame.
A game doesn't need a release date either. Obviously MineCraft didn't promise as many features as Star Citizen did, but it didn't have a release date until more than 4 years of beta.
I don't think its unrealistic to expect CIG to hold their promises, I'd rather like them to succeed and wouldn't mind waiting if it means they fully get to deliver on those.
At the same time, I don't think its realistic to expect them to give a release date when the scaffolding of the game isn't even set. The alpha is still far from having all the planned mechanics. I'd expect a release date when the game is in beta, not when its still implementing its basic components.
fixed =P
Seemingly not.
To be honest, I never signed up for what this project has become. I pledged during the Kickstarter expecting Wing Commander Privateer with better graphics and some netcode, plus a Wing Commander-like campaign with Chris Roberts' trademark storytelling and characters. I didn't want it to turn into this gigantic boondoggle, and yet here we are.
I've never requested a refund and I don't plan to anytime soon. I gave money to Chris Roberts expecting a couple games and I'll wait to see whatever he's able to make. It's all I can do! Filing a lawsuit, jokes aside, doesn't accomplish a whole lot and is counterproductive. Getting super uppity about a new ToS and refusing to sign it doesn't accomplish anything, either. Writing angry forum posts and emails gets a message to CIG, but I think the powers that be already know what we expect and they already feel the pressure.
If Chris Roberts decides to screw everyone over by not completing a game in half a decade with more than $100 million, leaving behind just a shuttered series of studios, a buggy almost-game and a lot of broken promises, well, that's on him and it would be a huge shame. His legacy would forever be tarnished, and a lot of people would be out a ton of money with little to show for it, but we're stuck at this point hoping that we don't end up in that darkest timeline.
A little handwringing is natural, but patience is really all we have.
At least Star Citizen in it's current state is more enjoyable than Elite after a major expansion.
mercenar1e
Member
If they announce another delay ill most likely request a refund and wait it out until its full release. I backed in 2013 ($200) so im not sure if they will grant it.
Zalusithix
Member
Pretty much. I view this journey as a one time experience. There will very likely never be another thing like this. For better and worse. Best case basis I get a nice single player game and a stupidly ambitious multiplayer game. Worst case, and I get one hell of a story to carry for the rest of my life.
I mean, I'm one of the "whales" in this game, and yet I'm not freaking out. That's not due to being under some illusion that it can't fail either. It's amazing what having the right mindset and understanding of the challenges from the beginning can do for expectations. Will I be upset if it all snowballs to hell? Sure. Not a raging upset though. Certainly not "I'm not going to sue Roberts and everybody connected to him!" upset.
If anything, lawsuits and refund demands can make the worst case basis even worse. They'd force the selling of all digital assets in addition to physical. That'd kill my ideal fallout of everything going public domain. Source code, assets, the works. If SC outright died, at least that'd give life to any number of other projects.
I don't see why "delays" would matter, the game is already playable. If anything should be a measure on the health of the game and whether I want a refund or not, it should be the state of the game at a self-imposed date. For me, that's the end of this year. If the gameplay still looks like it does now, I'll be worried. But if we start seeing some of the major game mechanics they keep talking about, like mining, trading, player created missions, etc... and those mechanics are fun or at least show potential to be fun, I'll be satisfied.
But if by the end of the year we're still stuck in Crusader, with just a few new ships and the same boring comm-link missions, I'm going to seriously consider getting a refund.
I'm not saying that will be the case, I'm just saying that's what it would take. The progress we can see with every patch is the only thing keeping me on board honestly. The promise of progress with the "secret" SQ42 stuff just doesn't do it for me.
mercenar1e
Member
The next big update will include a Port Olisar like spawn location exclusively for pirates. I haven't heard of anything else.. its not exciting.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
S42 is my marker when I'll consider pulling out by refund or grey market.
My biggest issue is that the game is not fun. You can look at stuff you can go places but the core gameplay is still a complete mess. The ship flight behavior is still as bad as it was despite their big song and dance about changing the flight model. We're at a point where EVA feels more like a proper space flight game than the ships themselves. Dogfighting is still basically "just kiss" when you want to engage. Missiles have no definable role and Blanche between controller types is still nonexistent. S42 and how they design and frame their missions will be directly influenced by the gameplay. If it is still a mess then S42 will be just as bad.
My biggest issue is that the game is not fun. You can look at stuff you can go places but the core gameplay is still a complete mess. The ship flight behavior is still as bad as it was despite their big song and dance about changing the flight model. We're at a point where EVA feels more like a proper space flight game than the ships themselves. Dogfighting is still basically "just kiss" when you want to engage. Missiles have no definable role and Blanche between controller types is still nonexistent. S42 and how they design and frame their missions will be directly influenced by the gameplay. If it is still a mess then S42 will be just as bad.
Well, they say Nyx is coming. As well as the rest of the Stanton system (like 4 populated planets with landing zones).
mercenar1e
Member
yeah they said that 9 months ago lol
Yeah, I'm not sweating it, the TOS stuff pretty much lines up with my expectations going in.
That Endeavor master set is really looking like a long shot - the thing requires about six new gameplay systems on its own. I'm curious to see how that plays out. Wouldn't want to be stuck waiting a year or two after launch for that since I could probably afford one in-game by then.
By the way, the winners for the Orion writing contest were announced. The submissions are included.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15372-Shubin-Contractor-Reward-Program
That Endeavor master set is really looking like a long shot - the thing requires about six new gameplay systems on its own. I'm curious to see how that plays out. Wouldn't want to be stuck waiting a year or two after launch for that since I could probably afford one in-game by then.
By the way, the winners for the Orion writing contest were announced. The submissions are included.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15372-Shubin-Contractor-Reward-Program
I couldn't tell. Did three attempts to play it since alpha 2.0, one ending in my pilot being catapulted away from the landing platform 300km away from the station, another was spend waiting for a connection for 15 minutes on a black screen and a third went comparatively well until the game crashed to desktop when I attempted entering a deactivated satellite.
For all the mechanics I find decidedly un-fun in Elite, the general ability to play the game has been a definitive high point.
I know, alpha and all. But it contains such a tiny slice of Star Citizen's vision and is (was?) still so thoroughly broken, that I don't have much faith in a released stable "1.0" PU in the next two years, unless they go the Elite route of calling a small extract of their vision "1.0", polishing and releasing it.
CyberPunked
Member
I think that's an old Hornet model.
Well, to be fair, it's kind of a major milestone they need to get to. I'm pretty sure they're working on it.
Zalusithix
Member
I wouldn't be so sure. Given the seeming direct correlation between time spent on a ship and the resulting size... If the Endeavor isn't released for a couple years after whenever SC goes 1.0, extrapolation would make it roughly as large as Crusader. ;P
staticneuron
Member
Agreed.
TBH though Burny, you have been banging the same drum for a very long time now, even your first entry in the previous thread was positive about Elite and a negative about Star Citizen. In Elite threads I have seen people how came to this thread only to post once in a while disparage SC in favor of propping up elite.
Take for instance when you posted this
Except that there hasn't been any new features announced in over a year and a half. They only have been working on what is promised. Which makes the accusation of feature creep not only horribly misinformed but almost borderline FUD because they have been so open about this and it isn't as if this information was a mystery or flew under the radar.
But then again, I doubt having a straight convo is your aim here. I just want to point out to you and the others that I see do driveby's here. It's one thing to have an opinon, it is another to pathetically to purposely put out FUD and poorly researched ones as well.
In the nature of vaporware or scam artist, people must realize you don't hire 300+ people including people who have recognizable names in the industry, actually release content that takes time to create and TS, then try to abscond with the rest. Normally people do not actually spend the money they are trying to make off with. So with the idea of vaporware being thrown out, the rest comes down to engine modification and size of team over the years. CIG has not always been this size and at time of kick starter there were like 14 people.
People aren't stupid, and the agenda can be seen for miles away. Please give it a rest.
Zalusithix
Member
Why the hell is the retrothruster firing in the bottom shot?
You're liable to to have hit the infinite loading bug. It is an old Cryengine issue.
Try this fix:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/49ajay/any_fixes_to_infinite_loading_screen_yet/
He has is probably moved the joystick/ control pad while trying to frame the screen shot, your manuvering thrusters will still fire in quantum, they just don't do anything.
#MakeSpaceGreatAgain
Star Citizen Main Theme Final
Apparently this is the new Main Theme found in the 2.4 game files. Sounds absolutely perfect.
Apparently this is the new Main Theme found in the 2.4 game files. Sounds absolutely perfect.
Zalusithix
Member
If nothing else, SC has resulted in lots of high quality assets. Models, textures, audio effects, music, etc. Getting the actual game behind these things finished might be a challenge, but the individual parts are second to none. By far the highest production quality for a crowdfunded game so far. Not surprising given the amount of money taken in, but still.
We'll build invisible walls and let the Vanduul pay for them!
This is pure bliss. Love the transition halfway through.
Never has a scam looked and sounded so great.
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