It's a bit rubbish isn't it? Reminds me of those 15 year old YT indie channels "I'm making my dream game" full of alpha showcase videos with all the glitches and faults on show here.
Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries - Chris Roberts' life support and retirement fund [2012-]
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its beautifully rendered rubbish and T-poses and unexplainable glitches and too many systems not made to interact together despite the huge budget and effort put in to it
But even the visuals in these two vids aren't anything to write home about.
I dare say this is it entirely. Without a ground-up design that can accommodate everything they now want, I'd expect duck-taped-and-shoe-laces results, and that's exactly what's on show. They should have stopped in creating the game they set out to make, and then learnt from that and made a sequel or two.
I feel this game is a victim of its own success, and all the people ploughing money in gave the devs enough rope to hang themselves. Had they stopped giving money to an unfinished game, RSI would have been forced to release a finished product to sell and operated with a bit of maturity and professionalism.
Blame the players!
Did they though?
Because it seems that from a business perspective, there is a plan, and it's working mighty fine.
Not many game studios can say that they are working steadily on one game for ten+ years.
Only a few successful (you know, fully featured games that actually work) MMOs can say that.
Job stability FTW.
I don't think they will care if at some point, they reach the milestone that makes the game eligible for reviews, and the reviews say the game sucks...
The customers on the other hand
Yea I said the same thing awhile ago when someone brought up this being toxic to peoples resumes. These people have been getting paid for 12 years and funding has dried up. So a lot of people could just make this their career.
From an employment perspective, no. From a creative perspective and in terms of what launched this game, yes. They've failed to make a working game after more hours and monies than any dev gets. With less money and less time, other studios knock out better (working) games. Chris Roberts launched this game on his reputation. That reputation likely lies in tatters.
But if all you care about is money, great. Here's to all the Kickstarters that took people's cash and wasted it and delivered nothing.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯(Note that's not saying Star Citizen is nothing. But the principle here, suggesting it's okay to take people's money and not deliver what they paid for, applies to a lot of KS games and that same "okay, they didn't release the game they said they would but they got paid lots and had some time with hookers and blow so it's been good business" can justify every vapourware endeavour)
Edit: $676 million and 10 years. If this is all you can make with that much resource, you are a failed game developer.
cheapchips
Veteran
The real value is the (slightly delusional) friends that donors have made along the way!
You can't put a price on online friendship.
Subtlesnake
Regular
Most games are nowhere near the ambition of Star Citizen though. It would be closer to compare to something like GTA 6, which is being made over a similar time period and also isn't available.From an employment perspective, no. From a creative perspective and in terms of what launched this game, yes. They've failed to make a working game after more hours and monies than any dev gets. With less money and less time, other studios knock out better (working) games. Chris Roberts launched this game on his reputation. That reputation likely lies in tatters.
But if all you care about is money, great. Here's to all the Kickstarters that took people's cash and wasted it and delivered nothing.
(Note that's not saying Star Citizen is nothing. But the principle here, suggesting it's okay to take people's money and not deliver what they paid for, applies to a lot of KS games and that same "okay, they didn't release the game they said they would but they got paid lots and had some time with hookers and blow so it's been good business" can justify every vapourware endeavour)
Edit: $676 million and 10 years. If this is all you can make with that much resource, you are a failed game developer.
If ultimately Cloud Imperium don't ever release what was promised then yes they will have "delivered nothing". But if they do, then they will have met their obligations, only at a greater time/resource cost than anticipated. But to assess the scope of that "failure" we would need to compare to projects of a similar ambition.
Indeed. And everyone who lost a fortune on a Ponzi scheme actually found a community in like-ripped-off-fellow-investors. Well worth the money!
(Let's not delude ourselves here. RSI sold people 'concept ships designs' that didn't exist and might never exist, and weren't transparent about this until the Advertising Standards stepped in. They've had over 2 years to make this Gatac Railen space ship model and release it, but it's still in 'concept' with no timeline even for delivery. They are con artists, just in a frontier market that's not yet been regulated. It's more a cult than a game developer)
(Let's not delude ourselves here. RSI sold people 'concept ships designs' that didn't exist and might never exist, and weren't transparent about this until the Advertising Standards stepped in. They've had over 2 years to make this Gatac Railen space ship model and release it, but it's still in 'concept' with no timeline even for delivery. They are con artists, just in a frontier market that's not yet been regulated. It's more a cult than a game developer)
They could have released what they promised years ago. Instead they kept moving the end-game. They have showcased all sorts of 'cutting edge' technologies as they rewrite and rewrite their game, only to deliver this janky POS. People who invested in SC 10 years ago didn't request a space shooter with turbo-slug mechanics and lighting from 2007.
And yes, let's compare it to GTA VI. You think with 10 years and $600M, GTA VI is going to look like this?? GTA VI is what a game developer can achieve with all the money and resources needed.
Or look at something similar that wasn't great, like Cyberpunk. 8 years, $300 million total budget including marketing. At least the basic physics worked in that game. An extra two years and another $150 million polished it to something reasonable.
You are no longer up to date. A few weeks ago CIG released the biggest and most important patch in years. They are currently transferring fleshed out content from Squadron 42 development to Star Citizen. With Alpha 3.23 they have already solved some fundamental problems and the players are happier than ever before.
Navigation was bad before and now it works perfectly.
EVA had problems before and now it works great. You no longer hit into something annoyingly or fly on your face when transition from Zero-G to non-Zero-G envoronment.
Character creation was unpolished before and now it's polished and one of the best character creators in the business.
Mobiglas and the helmet visor were outdated before and now it is almost completely new except for the ship HUD. As a newcomer you get plenty of necessary information. The ship HUD will also be renewed soon.
Looting now works quickly. It was a bit annoying before.
The weapon handling has been completely reworked and now feels good.
With Master Modes they are now going in the fundamentally right direction. From now on there are only smaller and bigger adjustments here.
The infamous server crash (also called 30k) is no longer a problem since Alpha 3.23. When the server crashes the game freezes briefly and a new server takes over and everything keeps running.
Personalised hangars and cargo lifts are coming in the next few weeks which will improve the game a lot.
Engineering gameplay is announced to come with the next major 4.0 update which will make the big spaceships interesting.
A lot is also happening on the graphics side and there will be a lot to come.
Now came DLSS and even better clouds and new water with water simulation. Vulkan is now also running and the focus is on optimization. Visibility will soon be much higher with virtual textures and the lighting will be pretty good with hardware RT GI. If then the announced Hwardware RT DI, Hardware RT Reflection and then Path Tracing come you have nothing left to complain about in terms of lighting while other games still come without hardware RT and look outdated.
Most of the problems this game has are caused by the low server fps. Currently the problems occur more often because of the rush due to the free play period and the new patch and the Invictus event. I even find it surprising that it is currently running as well as it does. Otherwise the problems were more massive during such periods.
If the server fps are good there are far fewer glitches and the AI reacts well. That's why Squadron 42 will have an easier time there. They are tackling this server problem and perhaps it will be fixed in the next major update, namely 4.0. Regions in the game will have their own servers and this is due to come later this year. Currently you can display the server fps. I always switch to good servers and there are fewer problems.
You can also play the game for 6 hours at a time without any problems. I've done that in the last few weeks and earned millions in the game. If the game doesn't run well, it's usually ground FPS missions. In space, many things go well but have fewer YouTube clicks. Some much better players than me do a lot of missions per unit of time. With them, almost everything runs like clockwork. Complete ERT missions and take out the enemy spaceships, then take the cargo via tractor beam, load it and sell the stuff at a moon station. In between, repair the spaceship, refuel it, etc.
What is a problem is that some old spaceships have not yet released. I don't like that either. But next to missions that you sometimes can't complete due to bugs that's also my biggest point of criticism. Yes the game has too many spaceships all of which need to be maintained by the team. On the other hand, the last few years have gone well at CIG while this was not the case for many studios with Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA etc.
Here someone plays without problems
[/SPOILER]
Navigation was bad before and now it works perfectly.
EVA had problems before and now it works great. You no longer hit into something annoyingly or fly on your face when transition from Zero-G to non-Zero-G envoronment.
Character creation was unpolished before and now it's polished and one of the best character creators in the business.
Mobiglas and the helmet visor were outdated before and now it is almost completely new except for the ship HUD. As a newcomer you get plenty of necessary information. The ship HUD will also be renewed soon.
Looting now works quickly. It was a bit annoying before.
The weapon handling has been completely reworked and now feels good.
With Master Modes they are now going in the fundamentally right direction. From now on there are only smaller and bigger adjustments here.
The infamous server crash (also called 30k) is no longer a problem since Alpha 3.23. When the server crashes the game freezes briefly and a new server takes over and everything keeps running.
Personalised hangars and cargo lifts are coming in the next few weeks which will improve the game a lot.
Engineering gameplay is announced to come with the next major 4.0 update which will make the big spaceships interesting.
A lot is also happening on the graphics side and there will be a lot to come.
Now came DLSS and even better clouds and new water with water simulation. Vulkan is now also running and the focus is on optimization. Visibility will soon be much higher with virtual textures and the lighting will be pretty good with hardware RT GI. If then the announced Hwardware RT DI, Hardware RT Reflection and then Path Tracing come you have nothing left to complain about in terms of lighting while other games still come without hardware RT and look outdated.
Most of the problems this game has are caused by the low server fps. Currently the problems occur more often because of the rush due to the free play period and the new patch and the Invictus event. I even find it surprising that it is currently running as well as it does. Otherwise the problems were more massive during such periods.
If the server fps are good there are far fewer glitches and the AI reacts well. That's why Squadron 42 will have an easier time there. They are tackling this server problem and perhaps it will be fixed in the next major update, namely 4.0. Regions in the game will have their own servers and this is due to come later this year. Currently you can display the server fps. I always switch to good servers and there are fewer problems.
You can also play the game for 6 hours at a time without any problems. I've done that in the last few weeks and earned millions in the game. If the game doesn't run well, it's usually ground FPS missions. In space, many things go well but have fewer YouTube clicks. Some much better players than me do a lot of missions per unit of time. With them, almost everything runs like clockwork. Complete ERT missions and take out the enemy spaceships, then take the cargo via tractor beam, load it and sell the stuff at a moon station. In between, repair the spaceship, refuel it, etc.
What is a problem is that some old spaceships have not yet released. I don't like that either. But next to missions that you sometimes can't complete due to bugs that's also my biggest point of criticism. Yes the game has too many spaceships all of which need to be maintained by the team. On the other hand, the last few years have gone well at CIG while this was not the case for many studios with Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA etc.
Here someone plays without problems
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Subtlesnake
Regular
The original pitch was a space combat and trading game. Yes, they should have easily been able to deliver that by now. But it was later expanded to include planet-side exploration with first person combat and seamless planetary landing across a persistent universe of up to 100 star systems. It's perfectly fair to criticise them for not delivering on their original vision, but if you're assessing how well they're executing on their new vision, you have to take into account the complexity of what they are trying to achieve. (A single shared universe supporting thousands of players interacting in real time).
Right now the game is an Alpha state so is full of bugs, as expected. Now that Cloud Imperium have been able to get server meshing working, they plan on rolling out their second system Pyro in Q3 this year (already released as a tech preview), with the Alpha 4.0 update. I think that will be a good point to take stock as to what they have achieved.
Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are also two separate titles though.
did you watch any of the videos i linked to? the guns are still really weird with reloading being especially inconsistent
Neither will be available before GTA 6.
He didn't understand that he reloads the magazines from the backpack when he has shot all of those empty who are on the armor. When he takes them off the backpack it takes much longer.
If the magazine is sometimes empty after reloading it may also be due to the server. But this has nothing to do with weapon handling itself.
Subtlesnake
Regular
According to Cloud Imperium, Squadron 42 was feature complete in October 2023, so I don't think a late 2025 release is impossible.
