[Megathread] Star Citizen

[Koriani]

so, a guy shitting on a scam to advertise a scam while sharing a video of a guy sarcastically calling the scam a scam? Jfc.

scamception!

[banmebaby]

Star Citizen developer plans 1000-person Manchester mega studio

Star Citizen and Squadron 42 developer Cloud Imperium Games plans to open a huge new studio in Manchester, making it one of the UK's largest development houses.

The new office is set to open in May 2022 and rehouse the company's current 400-person team based nearby in Wilmslow, before quickly and dramatically expanding.

A five-year plan will see 700 people fill the building by 2023, before further growth to an eye-opening team size of 1000 by 2026.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...er-mega-studio

We all know that SC development only really started in 2022, since they are a small indie team that started from nothin and all that ^^

[Val the Moofia Boss]

At long last - after nearly three years of silence - CIG have finally talked about the status of server meshing again. It's... good news and bad news. And baffling news.

The good news is that we got a release date for server meshing.

Our current aim is to release Persistent Streaming and the first version of the Replication layer, ideally, between Q1 and Q2 next year. We’ll then follow up with the first version of a static server mesh, barring any unforeseen technical complications, between Q3 and Q4, of next year.

First implementation of static server meshing slated between July and December of 2022. It will have been four years late, but better late than never, I suppose. Adding new planets and star systems also requires server meshing, so the Pyro system isn't coming until 2023.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the devs are uncertain if servers might ever be able to host more than 50 players:

Q: When you have a party moving (quantum travelling or other) from one object to another, and another DGS node, object, or instance is full , will T0 / Static Meshing create another DGS node pre-emptively? Or how will this be handled?

With Static Server Meshing, everything is fixed in advance, including the number of server nodes per shard and which game server is responsible for simulating what locations. This does mean that if everyone in the shard decides to head to the same location, they will all end up being simulated by the same server node.

Actually, the worst case is if all the players decide to spread themselves out between all the locations assigned to a single server node. That way, the poor server will be trying to deal not only with all of the players but it will also need to have streamed in all of its locations. The obvious answer is to allow more servers per shard, so each server node has fewer locations it may need to stream in.
However, because this is a static mesh and everything is fixed in advance, having more server nodes per shard also increases running costs. But we need to start somewhere, so the plan for the first version of Static Server Meshing is to start with as few server nodes per shard as we can while still testing that the tech actually works. Clearly that is going to be a problem if we allow shards to have many more players than the 50 we have right now in our single-server “shards”.

So, don’t expect player counts to increase much with the first version. That avoids the issue of a single server node becoming full before players get there since we’ll limit the maximum player count per shard based on the worst case. Once we’ve got this working, we’ll look at how the performance and economics work out and see how far we can push it. But to make further expansion economically viable, we’ll need to look at making Server Meshing more dynamic as soon as possible.

TL;DR, you might be able to travel to multiple star systems, see hundreds of different players across your journey, but you will never have more than 50 players in the same location together at once. Which means large ship battles between Idris carriers and their fighter squadrons might never happen.

Also, one thing that should be mentioned: even if the magic server meshing tech works as promised and you can fit like 100 people and their millions of polygons in the same room - that doesn't mean your GPU will actually be able to render those 100 high fidelity character models and all of the physics calculations that are going on. When Skyrim released in 2011, people were thinking "wow, a decade from now when GPUs become advanced enough and affordable enough, I could play Skyrim ultra modded at 4K 60 FPS!". A a decade later that's still not really possible, partly because GPUs aren't good enough and affordable enough (also prices just tripled and are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic values now that the manufacturers have realized that they can continue selling at these hiked up prices), and also because the Skyrim engine was really old and just doesn't scale well). By the time dynamic server meshing becomes a thing in 2023 or 2024, the Star Citizen game engine will also be rather old, so who knows if it will be possible. Right now, unless you're out in the middle of nowhere in deep space, Star Citizen chugs at 30 FPS even with a high end GPU and the game set to 1920 x 1080 and low graphics settings.



And now for the baffling news.

CIG has announced that they are opening up a new office in Manchester in May.

International independent videogame developer Cloud Imperium Games today announced it will open a new game development studio in Manchester’s Enterprise City district, scheduled for May 2022. The Manchester studio will create more than 700 jobs in the metropolitan area by 2023, and over 1,000 within the next five years.

CIG right now has 700ish employees and 6 offices (Los Angeles CA, Austin Texas, Montreal Canada, Wilmslow UK, Derby UK, and Frankurt Germany), and is also partnered with at least two dozen other companies.

I have no idea what these hundreds of new employees are supposed to do. At this point, I think Blizzard and Riot Games might be the only game studios bigger than CIG, and they're facing the same problem as CIG where for the past few years, they have had hundreds of people but have embarrassingly little stuff to show for it. The SC content drought will get even worse as the current devs will have to take the time to train the new hires how to use their tools, the workflow, how to navigate the databases, etc, rather than working on the game. Also sounds like a bad idea now that working from home has become acceptable for the software industry.

[Gorsameth]

Oh look, another window they can miss. No, static server meshing will not be in the game in a year. How do I know this? Because this is CiG we're talking about.

[Easo]

So who is gonna take bets that they will miss this window as well?

[Kyanion]

The even more amusing info out of that is that large space battles, well you know one of the reasons to expand the game into this mess likely won't be able to happen because more than 50 people is WAY too much! Guess that isn't a MMO now is it?

[Koriani]

The "best space game anyone's ever seen"... a "space game like noone's ever done before..."

That's true. A mulitplayer Space game where its not possible to have big space battles will be a space game like no one's ever done before... =D

At least the universe will feel as empty as it does in real life with only 50 people per area.. shard...whatever the heck word they want to use. Lots of silent and empty space in the universe!

Most amusing quote: "Actually, the worst case is if all the players decide to spread themselves out between all the locations assigned to a single server node. " Involving an MMO SPACE game. That's ironic comedy gold right there. Right up there with "It just works!"

[kenn9530]

The "best space game anyone's ever seen"... a "space game like noone's ever done before..."

That's true. A mulitplayer Space game where its not possible to have big space battles will be a space game like no one's ever done before... =D

At least the universe will feel as empty as it does in real life with only 50 people per area.. shard...whatever the heck word they want to use. Lots of silent and empty space in the universe!

Most amusing quote: "Actually, the worst case is if all the players decide to spread themselves out between all the locations assigned to a single server node. " Involving an MMO SPACE game. That's ironic comedy gold right there. Right up there with "It just works!"

You do know the universe will mostly be populated by NPCs right, as soon as you are close to an NPC they will load into the server and you have the option to interact with them, there will be plenty of areas with plenty of activity and some areas with barely or no activity.

They are also talking about static server mesh which is a stepping stone to dynamic mesh, we already know the limits on static server meshing from all the games that currently use it, thats why they are planning to go with a dynamic one so all areas that are not being used are not taking up server resources and can be used 100% on where its needed. Do some basic research at least before making unintelligent comments.

[Kyanion]

You do know the universe will mostly be populated by NPCs right, as soon as you are close to an NPC they will load into the server and you have the option to interact with them, there will be plenty of areas with plenty of activity and some areas with barely or no activity.

They are also talking about static server mesh which is a stepping stone to dynamic mesh, we already know the limits on static server meshing from all the games that currently use it, thats why they are planning to go with a dynamic one so all areas that are not being used are not taking up server resources and can be used 100% on where its needed. Do some basic research at least before making unintelligent comments.

If the game can't let you have more than 50 people in one area then who gives a shit. You can't have massive space battles in ships requiring MULTIPLE people to be in them if the game just fails on a basic level of you know 'having people there'. For as much shit as YOU put on WoW and other games for FAILING to have people in the same area. Guess what? SC is going to be W O R S E than those games. Have fun with that.

[Ripster42]

Oh look, another window they can miss. No, static server meshing will not be in the game in a year. How do I know this? Because this is CiG we're talking about.

The good news: people still buy our bullshit when we lie!

I swear, this thread is by far the funniest thing on this site.

barring any unforeseen technical complications

Unforeseen...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If the game can't let you have more than 50 people in one area then who gives a shit. You can't have massive space battles in ships requiring MULTIPLE people to be in them if the game just fails on a basic level of you know 'having people there'. For as much shit as YOU put on WoW and other games for FAILING to have people in the same area. Guess what? SC is going to be W O R S E than those games. Have fun with that.

Biggest problem is that SC has sold several capital ships that require dozens of players to operate, and yet they require so many people to crew that they might never be flyable, let alone be able to engage another capital in combat. IIRC the Idris was sold for $1,300 and is predicated on the idea that you and your guild are going to crew this small carrier. There is the Kraken, a $1600 capital ship which is supposed to be a small, mobile player city with landing bays for other players to come refuel and repair, and player owned shops and stuff. Also needs a lot of players to man the guns. There is the Hull-E, a capital sized freighter that is going to require dozens of people just to move the cargo containers. The Javelin was sold for $3,000 and is a battleship that needs dozens and dozens of players to man the guns. Also these ships needs engineers running around putting out fires. Then there is the even larger Pegasus assault carrier. Then there is the humongous Bengal Carrier which is pretty much a battlestar and can hold multiple squadrons of fighters. And then there is the Retribution, which as of the latest model in the game files is 2.5x the size of the Bengal...





EDIT: IIRC the Reclaimer is actually bigger than the 890 Jump and can be flown ingame right now, but it's a salvage ship and salvage hasn't been implemented yet, so it's a useless fuel guzzler nobody flies around, hence why I forgot about it

- - - Updated - - -

[Thestrawman]

You do know the universe will mostly be populated by NPCs right, as soon as you are close to an NPC they will load into the server and you have the option to interact with them, there will be plenty of areas with plenty of activity and some areas with barely or no activity.

They are also talking about static server mesh which is a stepping stone to dynamic mesh, we already know the limits on static server meshing from all the games that currently use it, thats why they are planning to go with a dynamic one so all areas that are not being used are not taking up server resources and can be used 100% on where its needed. Do some basic research at least before making unintelligent comments.

Because that's why people play MMOs to interact with NPCs.

[Henako]

TL;DR, you might be able to travel to multiple star systems, see hundreds of different players across your journey, but you will never have more than 50 players in the same location together at once. Which means large ship battles between Idris carriers and their fighter squadrons might never happen.

Alright, Kenn. Time to bust out those comparisons to WoW performance again.

[Corvus]

It's going to be hilarious if they release ships that require more crew to operate than can actually play the game.

[kenn9530]

snip

In regards to the bengal carrier they never promised it to be available to players to own, you can fly it and potentionally capture one flying around the PU but a player will never own one at least for a long time, CiG heavily limit the availabilty on players owning full military ships, most are just civilian variants with some upgrades.

The stretch goals for the bengal carrier only mention it being available for persistant universe play just like it is in the current dynamic mission system, no mention of players owning one.

- - - Updated - - -

It's going to be hilarious if they release ships that require more crew to operate than can actually play the game.

largest ship ingame a player can own can be operated by a crew of 12-20 players the destroyer javelin, fully operated at 80 players but that would include a dropship and just soldiers to attack or defend but operating the ship can be done with a small crew, do you also not understand what they are going to do with server meshing in the future, a large ship and crew will be on its own server but all the server will interact with each other so large battles can happen with lots of ships and players.

[Calfredd]

largest ship ingame a player can own can be operated by a crew of 12-20 players the destroyer javelin, fully operated at 80 players but that would include a dropship and just soldiers to attack or defend

And a server that could hold 80 players.

[Kyanion]

And a server that could hold 80 players.

lol. I can see it now, "Okay guys we're going to fully man this ship and be ready to go, so the 80 of us are going to get on this ship.....wait, we can't do that because the cap is 50 or bad things start to happen..ok so we'll take a DIFFERENT ship and fully man it...fuck too many people." Great MMO right there.

[Easo]

In regards to the bengal carrier they never promised it to be available to players to own, you can fly it and potentionally capture one flying around the PU but a player will never own one at least for a long time, CiG heavily limit the availabilty on players owning full military ships, most are just civilian variants with some upgrades.

The stretch goals for the bengal carrier only mention it being available for persistant universe play just like it is in the current dynamic mission system, no mention of players owning one.

Stupid players, believing implied things

[XDurionX]

snip

Ahahahah, SC is an exceptional game...if you like to fly through very limited very empty spaces, without interacting with anyone or anything. Glad they finally admitted that their JesusTech(tm) will never do what they promised and they failed to deliver.

[hulkgor]

It's kinda shocking that they have big capital ships, that won't be able to be fully manned because of the shard\layer player limit. Yet alone engage in combat with another similar sized ship... lol.

Yet another red flag that will be ignored by the "dedicated" fanbase.

This game is the gift that keeps on giving.