Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries - Chris Roberts' life support and retirement fund [2012-]

Because the game is so broken that's the only way to advance?
Likely just because they can. There is no advancement in the game yet because that mechanism just doesn't exist yet so there's no comparison for figuring out how quickly one can earn credits and advance in the game until closer to release.
 
Because the game is so broken that's the only way to advance?

there is no game currently. The PU they released is just glorified dog fighting with a walk around fps mechanic

But think about it , people have been buying the monthly maximum since early 2014. They are going to have a huge advantage aside from buying the best ships.

CIGs whole funding system is set up to allow you to be a special snow flake. So Gralls little insult is funny to me that I'm a bad person for wanting what was promised to me.
 
I don't care too much about how this game turns out as I went in with only $65 backing hoping for a bit of Squadron 42 and excellent GPU benchmark. I've played EVE for over a year and know that I have not enough of time on my hands to properly develop in game. I leave that for other minions and in case this game is so unbalanced that you can't even undoc from station without being torn apart then I will not play it and find better games to invest my limited free time in :)
 
From reddit:

"TLDR(Too Long;Didn't Read)

  • Starfarer will be in everyone's hangar regardless if they own or or not for the next several days to give everyone a chance to see the work Foundry42 put inside it
  • Refuelling will come when the Starfarer becomes flyable.
  • Larger ships may be given the Starfarer as a loaner such as the BMM
  • Due to the amount of information Chris gave I will summarize what he talked about for 2.4 and the future. 2.4 will be like 2.0 in terms of scope. It will change how we play Star Citizen on a fundamental level. 2.4 is the start of Persistence where everything that was temporary or local before will now exist serverside and remain there. Loadouts will be server side, things you buy from the stores in 2.4 will be server side. In the future, changes to your hangar, ships, character, etc will all be server side, including ship damage, character health will persist after logging out. Many UI changes will come in with 2.4 and 2.5 that have been held back due to Persistence. The holotable has had things moved into MobiGlas and focus will be more on that rather than the holotable for the time being. Alpha UEC will be introduced which is a beta test for the UEC we have in our accounts currently, but will be wiped throughout testing to allow us to give feedback and hone in the currency for them. 2.4 will have bugs and some issues, but it's the start of Persistence and many things are coming and coming soon as it has been in development for over a year.
  • Vaulting will come in 2.4 and the Push/pull mechanic will come soon, but it will have ongoing tweaks to it just like physicalized EVA to make it feel right.
  • Server desync is something that they're working on, but in a larger scope. Optimization is something they haven't focused on largely because they're been building the game, but are now working on ways to optimize the code in order to reduce desync which is caused by a difference in fps between the client and server. An example is ship spawning where a tali may use 5mb of network data to spawn, whereas the new code will use bits of data(Not bytes) to spawn it. Currently the game sends too much unnecessary data and they are crafting ways to reduce that amount significantly as given the example above.
  • Procedural tech will be used for large things other than planets like moons, anything with enough mass it'll be spherical. Procedural landing will come first and then mining after.
  • Character customization will start in 2.4 by giving people the option to choose from 16 faces, 8 female and 8 male with the more indepth customizable options coming later on the year.
  • The launcher revamp is ongoing and no ETA on it yet, however when it's complete, the amount of data needed to patch will be significantly reduced from 2GB pak files to only what you need which may be 7mb. This is because of how CryEngine's files are designed and they've had to redesign how to break them up in such a fashion that you only download what you need.
  • They're working on Vulcan and DX12 and trying to clean up DX11. CryEngine was built on DX9 and they have to get rid of a lot of old stuff in order to plug in the new stuff.
  • The ability to lock your ships doors wont come till at least 2.6 because they are working towards having the ability to lock, but also force open those doors by hacking or explosives, etc. They want players to be able to get into those who want to keep people out. It is also apart of Item port 2.0 which allows them to do this as well."
Source: https://as.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/4clxwl/reverse_the_verse_march_subscriber_edition_inn/

That sounds very impressive. It will be a huge step forward.
 
Just had a walk through the Starfarer and very impressed by the damn thing, it's huge! I actually got lost in it lol. With all the passages, access tunnels etc. it's such a cool Star Trek vibe seeing whats possible in this game in the future in the midst of a big battle and having to duck into a side access crawl space to fix some panel.

Performance seems to be improved as well and it's nice to see working AA in place.
 
@Malo
For this gameplay the Item System 2 will be very important.
  • means they can optimize things more efficiently. Everything's on one system so they can bug fix better. item system 2.0 is ultimately going to be the core 'entity class'. It's the core concept, and you take the entity, add components, and it gets its functionality from the components you add.
  • CryEngine was built a long time ago so it doesn't have that implementation, so they've been re-writing it so that it will have that capability.
  • They want to have a space station where everything works, but the same on an Idris, etc... Armour suits are powered, have life support, etc... everything needs to be systemic, and that comes with item system 2.0. Probably won't be done that for a couple of months, been working on it for close to a year, but when it's in there' sa lot of systemic behaviour (boarding, defending boarding, etc...) that will come from it.
  • One of the things they want to do on the bigger ships is give lots of roles for people to do, besides just being a weapon officer etc... When a big ship takes damage, parts of the outside will damage, so will parts of the interior, so there'll be a fair amount of gameplay where players can run around and seal off leaks and such. Power node's gone down on the right side of the ship, so you go see how it's blown, take the fuse out, put a new one in, etc... or as an engineer look at the node layout and re-direct the power to another node.
  • Nodes are like power junctions or fuse boxes, so you can shunt power between them, but they can get blown and damaged. As your ship's getting damaged you have to fix fuses or engines or such. It's about the items inside and outside. The Avionics module is a computer and a motherboard, you plug them in to a ship, extends the functionality and behaviour.
Source: https://as.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/4clxwl/reverse_the_verse_march_subscriber_edition_inn/

________________________________


"Editors note: There was an error in the TLDR where I stated facial character customization would come in 2.4. This is not correct as clothing is the first character customization we will see in 2.4. Facial customization is TBA and has no set date at this time. I apologize for any misunderstandings or grievances this has caused within the community, thank you."
 
Funny video about Smarts Elite Dangerous' and Star Citizens "predictions".

I know people who have been buying the maximum amount of in game creidts they are allowed to each month.

The maximum amount of in game money you can have right now should be 170 000 UEC. This is not much. I doubt that one can even buy a Freelancer with this. More something like an Aurora. I have already about 40 000 UEC and I paid nothing for UEC.
 
Funny video about Smarts Elite Dangerous' and Star Citizens "predictions".



The maximum amount of in game money you can have right now should be 170 000 UEC. This is not much. I doubt that one can even buy a Freelancer with this. More something like an Aurora. I have already about 40 000 UEC and I paid nothing for UEC.

You were supposed to be able to buy a connie with 30-40 hours of in game play. A freelancer should be less.


Also that video is annoying. I guess the guy thinks he is edgy or something with the voices. A lot of his predictions are correct. We still have a broken flight model , we still don't have a real pu and so much more. The FPS stuff is still missing .
 
There is fps at Kareah.

Smart had announced an ELE (Extinction Level Event) for Star Citizen last week. He have wiritten it on Twitter over and over again that the end of CIG is coming. He said that he was right since the beginning. He had even announced a live stream for ELE. His "proof" was based on a "CIG employee" who claimed that at least 11 CIG employees would leave on 1. April. 7 of "high level devs". Meanwhile, none at CIG knows something about the CRYENGINE. The code is not documented and no one knows more what change making. Or whatever bug caused it. Star Citizen (the Baby PU) would be on the "maintenance mode only". They would not continue to work - and they would focus on Squadron 42. The Austin Studio will be closed. Foundry 42 Frankfurt are massively reduced. CIG would again haven no more money.

It turns out that the "CIG employee" was a Goon who just joked at Smart. Haha

And there was another Goon who talked that the "industry" knows that SC/CIG is bad and that the emplyees would leaving. As a proof, he led a link to a website where a 14 hour countdown to Star Citizens "ELE".
Then there were a reload again after 14 hours at each and an allusion to Smarts eternal "two weeks" is when it comes to something what he says wanting to do (action, FBI contact, FTC write, show evidence, etc.) and actually means as much as "never comes".

The ELE day (1 April) came and nothing happened. CIG is still alive. Smart had then published a Youtube video called "The Smart Code" where at the end was standing "W4, S3, V11, P203". In addition there was very long hex code. Decrypts came "let me fucking finish."What was another joke from the Goons to Smart. Because the next "I know things thes is". "Thats all The End". Period", which where one of his most popular sayings.

No one can take Smart seriously.
 
Lol why does Smart care so much about CIG?
I assume it's sour grapes...

One can respect Smart in a way for being a master of his own destiny so to speak, having developed games and such, but he's also such a weirdo crank that it's hard to take him seriously. :p
 
The only reason Star citizen hasn't collapsed yet is because people are funding it fast enough for them to stay one step ahead of bankruptcy.

Its a catch 22 however since they keep promising more and more. Just look at the new concepts they announced of huge space stations the players can buy. its juts going to keep going and going.


I'd be all for this content if it was after the game relased and was playable and with all the features they promised for the first year or so. But its simply not happening
 
Chris Roberts and CIG have achieved more in a few years than he has over the last 20 years for his own abortion games of similar scope.

He should care more about his game.
But he also claims that the Planetside developers had stolen many ideas from him.


eastman
I do not think so. Once I posted a link here where was written that their by far biggest studio in GB has cost them about 15-17 million USD. They have about 140 employees there. They even hire many employees.

It says that they still have 62 jobs to offer.
https://cloudimperiumgames.com/jobs


No, they will not sell space stations. Where did you get that?
 
No, they will not sell space stations. Where did you get that?
He probably means you'll get to buy them in the game, I suppose. *shrug*

I don't keep up with all the news, but I do think it's time RSI stops coming up with/announcing new ideas, and start implementing the ideas that were promised years ago by now. We know that feature creep is quite literally a game-killer. Roberts himself knows this - or he should know, considering how long he's been in the games industry.
 
He should care more about his game.
But he also claims that the Planetside developers had stolen many ideas from him.


eastman
I do not think so. Once I posted a link here where was written that their by far biggest studio in GB has cost them about 15-17 million USD. They have about 140 employees there. They even hire many employees.

It says that they still have 62 jobs to offer.
https://cloudimperiumgames.com/jobs


No, they will not sell space stations. Where did you get that?


Oh trust me space stations are coming.


CIG has over 250 employees right now they are burning through a lot of money yearly on employees. 250x an average of 70k + another 15k for a standard health care package and your looking at $85k x250= 21.25m a year in just employee costs. so with 2014/15 in the bank already they have spent 42.25m on just employees. Then you have to add in all the physical items they promised but have yet to deliever , add in the cost of bandwidth considering everytime they update we have to download the whole thing again , rent , travel and all that good stuff. Then the cut kickstarter took off the original amount , the cut credit cards take when you buy something , taxes and the like. I am sure they are running just a little bit beyond going broke. If funding slows down they are screwed.

citizenemployees.jpg



And here we can see the game collapsing under its new weight

Star-Citizen.jpg



And just look

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/346936

The big news today is that we've reached the $3.25 million overall mark and, as promised, we're releasing the details on a new ship: the Starfarer tanker. Hopefully this description will help explain what all this extra money is going… expanding the Star Citizen world beyond the boundaries of the original Privateer or Freelancer and letting us make it a more vibrant, living universe. Keep going: you'll get another star system at $3.3 million!

So we the backers funded extra to get the starfarer in the game.

Then they sell us the ship for a day
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/351480

For today and today only, we're making a number of the ship unlocks available for sale: the Gladiator bomber ($150), the ORIGIN M50 ($150), the MISC Starfarer Tanker ($17), the Retaliator Heavy Bomber ($250) and the Idris Corvette ($1,000.) Again, we need to stress: these ships are for sale to raise money to build the game. They are not unique to this pledge drive: you will be able to buy them (without lifetime insurance included) using credits you earn in-game when Star Citizen is released.


They then reoffered the shipped 2 more times (first anniversary and second) then they sold it again with an upgrade. And now they sold it a 4th time at double the price.

They need to keep that money going even if it means breaking promises or double , triple , quadrupling and so on dipping on ships that have already been paid for time and time again by us. They know the game is way to big and its getting out of control and they are finding ways of bringing in more money without having to create new content .
 
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Even the original scope of work was a bit beyond doable IMO. Now it's all clearly a pipe dream and I don't understand how people can't see this.
 
CIG has over 250 employees right now they are burning through a lot of money yearly on employees. 250x an average of 70k + another 15k for a standard health care package and your looking at $85k x250= 21.25m a year in just employee costs. so with 2014/15 in the bank already they have spent 42.25m on just employees. Then you have to add in all the physical items they promised but have yet to deliever , add in the cost of bandwidth considering everytime they update we have to download the whole thing again , rent , travel and all that good stuff. Then the cut kickstarter took off the original amount , the cut credit cards take when you buy something , taxes and the like. I am sure they are running just a little bit beyond going broke. If funding slows down they are screwed.

citizenemployees.jpg



And here we can see the game collapsing under its new weight

Star-Citizen.jpg



And just look

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/346936

So we the backers funded extra to get the starfarer in the game.

Then they sell us the ship for a day
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/351480

They then reoffered the shipped 2 more times (first anniversary and second) then they sold it again with an upgrade. And now they sold it a 4th time at double the price.

They need to keep that money going even if it means breaking promises or double , triple , quadrupling and so on dipping on ships that have already been paid for time and time again by us. They know the game is way to big and its getting out of control and they are finding ways of bringing in more money without having to create new content .


-You know that there was a survey. 80-90% wanted that they continue with the donations.

-I have already explained why they need the money. Without constant revenue, it is much more difficult to obtain staff.
-Without constant revenue you dont get the best programmers in the gaming industy (like Crytek employees). But they are needed for tech like Star Citizens revolutionary local physics grid

-20 % of the money which is spent in the UK they will get back from UK again. This also applies to the perfromance capture shoot.
- But you can already see that they had in the beginning of 2014 only 100 emplyees?

- We have FPS at Kareah
-They dropped Multi Crew Ships in Arena Commander because it came with the Mini PU. Technically, it would be very easy to perform. There are already some people flying around with the Starfarer in Arena Commander.
-At this time they wanted to release Squadron 42 in different episodes. So that players could test it 2015. Now you will get one full game with higher quality. Is see no problem here.
-The Persistent Universe was released in 2015
 
-The Persistent Universe was released in 2015
What exactly does this "persistent universe" consist of? AFAIK there's no actual universe, or game, to play in yet. You can't go places, you can't trade, do missions or much of anything. You can dogfight in some limited fashion, yes? With terrible performance, from what I hear.
 
Sure there's no trading in place but you can certainly go into the PU, see other players running around, jump into your ship and do a mission. You're thinking of the arena dogfight module which isn't in the PU, it's the fighting and flight mechanics test part.

As far as performance is concerned, it seems to have definitely improved. I'm getting mostly 60fps at 2560x1080 maxed out settings on my 970.
 
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