[Megathread] Star Citizen

[kenn9530]

Isn't that an oddity in itself, that 6 1/2 years after the Kickstarter we still don't know how or what the mechanics are to counteract P2W?
To be fair CIG have brought it on themselves and really it should be up to them to provide reasons why the game will not be P2W, the fact that they haven't clarified should act as a warning sign, if nothing else.

Personally I don't see how they can avoid it but I would like for them to prove everyone wrong.



Last word was that private servers would be coming after every other thing had been added to the game. Lando said it would be a long, long time after the game had been released so it's not really a valid alternative to the suspected P2W PvP server setup they will be launching with.

There used to be a planned PvE option via the PvP/PvE slider but that got scrapped from what I remember.

Gameplay mechanics are probably already outline at least and should be easy to implement once the game is more complete, they want people to board other peoples ships and such not just blow them up, a real pirate would want to disable your ship board it to steal the ship or the contents and maybe ransom the crew off, there is ships to tow and salvage but stealing the ship whole would make more sense for profit.

If the game launchs and there is a power problem i dont see why they wouldnt implement a PvE only option at least in the safer areas, if you go outside safe space then you can prepare to be attacked.

[Eleccybubb]

God damn son...

https://i.imgur.com/1Z9Rjjt.gifv

Quality product indeed.........

[Justpassing]

Everyone still making sure to send there retirements to this project?

I have my salary put in directly into the kickstarter!

[Cyclone Jack]

God damn son...

https://i.imgur.com/1Z9Rjjt.gifv

LOL That's hilarious! I wonder how they got those spawned in there.

- - - Updated - - -

Quality product indeed.........

*gasp* Bugs in an alpha. Say it ain't so!

[Cracked]

God damn son...

https://i.imgur.com/1Z9Rjjt.gifv

Physics look about as good as in PUBG.

[Katchii]

*gasp* Bugs in an alpha. Say it ain't so!

I think that's kind of the joke. The game has had ~$300 million (or more at this point, I don't know, it was close to that last time I checked) and 6+ years of development and is still in "alpha."

What's the release date?

*ducks and covers/ grabs popcorn*

[Odeezee]

CIG official press screenshots (click image for more):

[Eleccybubb]

I think that's kind of the joke. The game has had ~$300 million (or more at this point, I don't know, it was close to that last time I checked) and 6+ years of development and is still in "alpha."

What's the release date?

*ducks and covers/ grabs popcorn*

Well supposedly the SP is coming out first. So don't expect to see Mutliplayer until 2022 at the latest is my guess.

And even then I have no doubt the launch will be a glorified mess, have a surge on Twitch then go back down to it's usual 1-2k viewers it has now.

[Sezerek]

CIG official press screenshots

Ehm no thats "press art" and not "press screenshots"

[Katchii]

CIG official press screenshots (click image for more):

While the art and screenshots and videos are all great looking....I couldn't care less about them anymore, because until there's a release date or something announced for when the general public will have access to this monstrosity, this is all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors to me.

I truly hope this game succeeds, but this company needs to release a game already.

Well supposedly the SP is coming out first. So don't expect to see Mutliplayer until 2022 at the latest is my guess.

And even then I have no doubt the launch will be a glorified mess, have a surge on Twitch then go back down to it's usual 1-2k viewers it has now.

After everything I've seen, I don't really know how it could be anything else. I have no doubt SOMETHING will get released, but when? And how well will it function?

For the enthusiasts, I'm sure it will be fine, but for everyone else? I can't help but think this is just going to be a MASSIVE disappointment.

We'll see I guess, whenever this thing gets released.

[Dhrizzle]

CIG official press screenshots (click image for more):

I'm gonna be relatively annoyed if there are no long-hair options for male avatars.

[kenn9530]

I think that's kind of the joke. The game has had ~$300 million (or more at this point, I don't know, it was close to that last time I checked) and 6+ years of development and is still in "alpha."

What's the release date?

*ducks and covers/ grabs popcorn*

GTA 5 for example took 5 years and 1000 staff to create and 250 plus million, SC is a much larger game with much more depth and has 500 staff with a much more complex game to build, SQ42 should be in beta early 2020 with the PU following not too far behind that.

SC is not a sandbox game that can be made in less than 5 years, there is probably far too much detail in everything being made so while it may take a little longer we should get a much more complete and interesting game in the end. I still dont see why people don't understand the scale of the game being made.

[Katchii]

GTA 5 for example took 5 years and 1000 staff to create and 250 plus million, SC is a much larger game with much more depth and has 500 staff with a much more complex game to build, SQ42 should be in beta early 2020 with the PU following not too far behind that.

SC is not a sandbox game that can be made in less than 5 years, there is probably far too much detail in everything being made so while it may take a little longer we should get a much more complete and interesting game in the end. I still dont see why people don't understand the scale of the game being made.

No one's forgetting the scope, I personally am just sick of hearing about how it's the reason they have so little to show for their game after spending ~$300 million on it, with no end in sight for Star Citizen specifically. 2020 is the target for Squadron 42, we'll see if they hit that deadline, though it looks feasible I suppose.

GTA V technically only took ~$137 million to develop, the rest of it's $265 million budget was spent on marketing. A very brief look at the financial report CIG published last year shows they spend maybe ~10-15% of their budget on marketing? A little more? Let's call it 20% on the high side, that's still only ~$60 million of their ~$300 million, which puts development at ~$240 million, over $100 million more than one of the most expensive games in history to develop and we don't have a game to show for it. And that report is old, AFAIK there's nothing detailing their 2018 spend, not to the depth that 2012-2017 report does.

I get it, the game is big. How much bigger is it going to get? How much more needs to be spent on it before it gets completed? How much longer until it gets completed?

[kenn9530]

No one's forgetting the scope, I personally am just sick of hearing about how it's the reason they have so little to show for their game after spending ~$300 million on it, with no end in sight for Star Citizen specifically. 2020 is the target for Squadron 42, we'll see if they hit that deadline, though it looks feasible I suppose.

GTA V technically only took ~$137 million to develop, the rest of it's $265 million budget was spent on marketing. A very brief look at the financial report CIG published last year shows they spend maybe ~10-15% of their budget on marketing? A little more? Let's call it 20% on the high side, that's still only ~$60 million of their ~$300 million, which puts development at ~$240 million, over $100 million more than one of the most expensive games in history to develop and we don't have a game to show for it. And that report is old, AFAIK there's nothing detailing their 2018 spend, not to the depth that 2012-2017 report does.

I get it, the game is big. How much bigger is it going to get? How much more needs to be spent on it before it gets completed? How much longer until it gets completed?

Sq 42 will be comprised of multiple star systems so its very likely most of the MMO part will be ready by the time SQ 42 is fully released, 221 million is the amount raised so far with an investment of around 40 million, this company had to be built from the ground up so its going to take extra time and money for the game to be completed.

There is actually a game to show for it currently, we can test everything the game has available, most gaming companies are already fully established so games costs much less, even more so on sequels to games as the next game is just an upgrade of the previous, not many gaming companies could even pull off a project like star citizen as they would try and release the game in a much more basic state and we would get a fraction of what we actually want.

I would rather wait extra time for the game to be actually compete than what most companies these days do and release a half finished product and dissappoint everyone.

[1001]

No one's forgetting the scope, I personally am just sick of hearing about how it's the reason they have so little to show for their game after spending ~$300 million on it, with no end in sight for Star Citizen specifically. 2020 is the target for Squadron 42, we'll see if they hit that deadline, though it looks feasible I suppose.

GTA V technically only took ~$137 million to develop, the rest of it's $265 million budget was spent on marketing. A very brief look at the financial report CIG published last year shows they spend maybe ~10-15% of their budget on marketing? A little more? Let's call it 20% on the high side, that's still only ~$60 million of their ~$300 million, which puts development at ~$240 million, over $100 million more than one of the most expensive games in history to develop and we don't have a game to show for it. And that report is old, AFAIK there's nothing detailing their 2018 spend, not to the depth that 2012-2017 report does.

I get it, the game is big. How much bigger is it going to get? How much more needs to be spent on it before it gets completed? How much longer until it gets completed?

That's the concern for me as well, how much will the game finally cost and what is the likelihood that people will continue funding it like this for the forseeable future?
Right now they have the basics in place, everything is literally "Tier zero". There are so many things that they have said they will add to the game. They have another 99.5 star systems to implement. I can see it becoming a hugely cut down version of what it was meant to be as dreams meet reality.

[Katchii]

Sq 42 will be comprised of multiple star systems so its very likely most of the MMO part will be ready by the time SQ 42 is fully released, 221 million is the amount raised so far with an investment of around 40 million, this company had to be built from the ground up so its going to take extra time and money for the game to be completed.

There is actually a game to show for it currently, we can test everything the game has available, most gaming companies are already fully established so games costs much less, even more so on sequels to games as the next game is just an upgrade of the previous, not many gaming companies could even pull off a project like star citizen as they would try and release the game in a much more basic state and we would get a fraction of what we actually want.

I would rather wait extra time for the game to be actually compete than what most companies these days do and release a half finished product and dissappoint everyone.

I pretty severely misquoted how much was raised, but I'm a little confused. According to the website, it's at $221 million, but I remember it being over $200 million last year and that was before a $46 million donation late 2018. So I'm not really clear on exactly how much it has, but it's not $300 million.

I understand you in regards to not wanting them to release an unfinished and unpolished product. I'm just not convinced that it absolutely NEEDED this amount of money for it to get to that point. According to that report I mentioned, in 2017 CIG spent an average of ~$4 million per month. If we assume they spent that same amount in 2018, that's $48 million, and if a game isn't meant to release until at least 2020, that's ANOTHER $48 million. But I highly doubt that their monthly spend stayed static since 2017. So it's probably more like $60+ million each year. for an additional $96-120 million spent since 2017, and that's assuming it will release in early 2020.

I also understand how established companies can do it cheaper, but that IMO, has less to do with them not having to start from the ground up, but because they have better overall project management than CIG has shown. I feel like a not insignificant amount of money was spent simply to get CIG to a point where they're competent at making a game and getting the personnel all aligned and on track as far as project management goes.

I think some people are forgetting that when this whole project launched, it was initially supposed to launch in 2014...we're a bit passed that at this point. For a few good reason, I'll admit, but the fact remains that the project has failed to meet SEVERAL deadlines since it's conception. It's gotten better in the last year or so, but at this point it's really starting to feel like one of those vacation plan meetings where they tell you if you sit for 2 hours you get a free vacation some shit, and 4 hours later you just want to GTFO.

They need to publish a release date (not a tentative target release year), I don't even really care what it is at this point so long as it's not like 2025 or something, and release it.

[kenn9530]

I pretty severely misquoted how much was raised, but I'm a little confused. According to the website, it's at $221 million, but I remember it being over $200 million last year and that was before a $46 million donation late 2018. So I'm not really clear on exactly how much it has, but it's not $300 million.

I understand you in regards to not wanting them to release an unfinished and unpolished product. I'm just not convinced that it absolutely NEEDED this amount of money for it to get to that point. According to that report I mentioned, in 2017 CIG spent an average of ~$4 million per month. If we assume they spent that same amount in 2018, that's $48 million, and if a game isn't meant to release until at least 2020, that's ANOTHER $48 million. But I highly doubt that their monthly spend stayed static since 2017. So it's probably more like $60+ million each year. for an additional $96-120 million spent since 2017, and that's assuming it will release in early 2020.

I also understand how established companies can do it cheaper, but that IMO, has less to do with them not having to start from the ground up, but because they have better overall project management than CIG has shown. I feel like a not insignificant amount of money was spent simply to get CIG to a point where they're competent at making a game and getting the personnel all aligned and on track as far as project management goes.

I think some people are forgetting that when this whole project launched, it was initially supposed to launch in 2014...we're a bit passed that at this point. For a few good reason, I'll admit, but the fact remains that the project has failed to meet SEVERAL deadlines since it's conception. It's gotten better in the last year or so, but at this point it's really starting to feel like one of those vacation plan meetings where they tell you if you sit for 2 hours you get a free vacation some shit, and 4 hours later you just want to GTFO.

They need to publish a release date (not a tentative target release year), I don't even really care what it is at this point so long as it's not like 2025 or something, and release it.

we already have a time of when to expect a beta of SQ42 Q2 2020, chris himself probably didnt realize how the game would evolve since his first idea of the game, i like the amount of detail being put into everything of which no game is even coming close, some of it is probably over the top but it should provide a complete space game that we have yet to see.

People may hate to admit it but this game goes far out the box in terms of normal game development, current alpha of the game is very enjoyable with more than enough to do to keep you occupied. Current development time is within a more than reasonable time frame considering the scope of the game being made. Current road map of the PTU is showing up to patch 3.8 at the end of 2019, we are currently on patch 5 with the introduction of the city wide planet and a few new moons to explore, end of the year we should know the outline of 2020 concerning the MMO version of the game.

[1001]

we already have a time of when to expect a beta of SQ42 Q2 2020, chris himself probably didnt realize how the game would evolve since his first idea of the game, i like the amount of detail being put into everything of which no game is even coming close, some of it is probably over the top but it should provide a complete space game that we have yet to see.

The question here is why would anyone trust that date? How many times has CR given a date in the past only to blow past it in the most spectacular fashion?
If the only thing keeping him to a date now is the existence of external investors then does that not show how little regard he has for crowdfunding backers.

People may hate to admit it but this game goes far out the box in terms of normal game development, current alpha of the game is very enjoyable with more than enough to do to keep you occupied. Current development time is within a more than reasonable time frame considering the scope of the game being made. Current road map of the PTU is showing up to patch 3.8 at the end of 2019, we are currently on patch 5 with the introduction of the city wide planet and a few new moons to explore, end of the year we should know the outline of 2020 concerning the MMO version of the game.

The thing is, so much of this is subjective.

I disagree with development being in a reasonable time-frame given the scope because based on what has been accomplished so far would put the full game into decades of development and that is not reasonable at all.

[CogsNCocks]

No one's forgetting the scope, I personally am just sick of hearing about how it's the reason they have so little to show for their game after spending ~$300 million on it, with no end in sight for Star Citizen specifically. 2020 is the target for Squadron 42, we'll see if they hit that deadline, though it looks feasible I suppose.

There's more "stuff" plus the tech development in Star Citizen than the vast majority of games already. They have plenty to show for the money spent, but what the game lacks is the economy/subsumption system to tie everything together into a compelling gameplay loop, but I'm not sure we'll see huge gains on that front until server meshing is ready to connect all the servers into a single universe. Then you have SQ42 which exists behind closed doors, we got a glipmse into some of the big set pieces in the last trailer(such as Gary Oldman looking over the burning wreck) and that kind of stuff takes a ton of time and is really expensive to create(kind of like set pieces in blockbuster films taking a massive chunk of the budget). There's multiple varieties of huge human and alien capital ships that have full interactable and on-foot traversable interiors still to come and those take thousands upon thousands of man hours to build so they can't be cheap either. So obviously, not everything available in the SC alpha build at this time is indictive of where the money is being spent.

They also haven't spend anywhere near $300 million, they barely even spent $200 million yet lol jeezus you people worming your little lies into everything.

[1001]

They also haven't spend anywhere near $300 million, they barely even spent $200 million yet lol jeezus you people worming your little lies into everything.

But we know that is not true.

In the financials they released it showed they had spent $193 million or so by the end of 2017.

With each year now costing them in the region of $45 million - $50 million they will now have spent approximately $250 million to date.