Chris Roberts Back in your wallet - STAR CITIZEN

[Falconeer]

3) The current state of control is not what it will be. Over the past week, I have been refining the response to controller inputs to make the game easier to control without sacrificing realism. I personally cannot play the game as it was released. We had to release it to get the ball rolling, but I'm working on the fix to a lot of these issues as we speak. In fact, I should be working on that instead of reading and responding to this thread.

Honestly, I think this is important not just because it means that the game will get better (which is great, because I was going to sell my account if they weren't going to update the flight model), but because it proves the level of mass hypnosis the Star Citizen community is deep into at the moment. After almost two years (first "gameplay/tech demo" video of Star Citizen dogfight is from October 2012) of working with the CryEngine all they managed to release is an offline arena with the whopping amount of two ships... and it pilots so shitty that even the man who's making the game can't pilot it, but everyone is out yelling how fantastic it is. How is it even possible to not be constructively disappointed?

This is not Falconeer shitting on the Star Citizen's forums. It's the man making the game saying it drives like ass. I hope the player base will get the memo now.

[Pennilenko]

I hope the player base will get the memo now.

There are people, large numbers of people, that have so much money invested into this that there is no way they are going to be able to handle any criticism at all. I mean shit, people get so defensive about games they are interested in but don't even have money into yet and they will fucking cut you if you criticize their game. Large amounts of money invested just ups that type of fanaticism to 11.

[Hoax]

I hope the player base will get the memo now.

There are people, large numbers of people, that have so much money invested into this that there is no way they are going to be able to handle any criticism at all. I mean shit, people get so defensive about games they are interested in but don't even have money into yet and they will fucking cut you if you criticize their game. Large amounts of money invested just ups that type of fanaticism to 11.

I found the founders/investors in Warframe and MWO to be insufferable. I tried to voice this when this thread was tiny and we were first seeing/hearing about the $100 space ships. I think that SC will have a community that is so toxic, so obnoxious and distorts the concept of "good feedback" so heavily that its a massive turn off for people who might consider buying it when an actual game comes out. These people are going to be just fucking awful to share virtual space with.

[Stormwaltz]

...star citizen sounds like a cartoon or cheap 80's sci-fi movie.

Cheap 1999 sci-fi movie, you mean. 

Come on, someone had to post this.

[Merusk]

Heh. That movie killed careers.

[Sir T]

Heh. From the scuttlebut that came out of it they did all the preprodiction and special effects work, and then the Movie company pulled the plug on the money and told them to make a movie with what they had, so they half assed a new script. One thing that was layed at Roberts door however was his total refusal to use the puppets from the wing commander games, so then the Movie company yanked the money they had to half ass the Kilrathi as well.

[Miasma]

People who care about movie stuff from game people always point out that he also produced Lord of War, which was pretty good but that basically comes down to are you getting good Nicolas Cage or bad Nicolas Cage?  He got lucky and had good Nicolas Cage.

[ajax34i]

Have seen this before and I think it's (a bit) unfair. SC comes across as slower and less involving than it feels when actually playing. Not that I could say why that is though. Elite on the other hand looks great. Didn't know anything about it until the video but definitely going to get it now

I think it's because:

1.  SC has some blur effects to represent g-forces, which is realistic I suppose, but stupid. 
2.  Elite fights seem to always be 3 (players?) vs. the target, so the fights are fast and "fun" because each target gets destroyed fast.

Wish both games would implement Doppler effect on the weapon sounds to represent overheating, rather than that annoying verbal message at the end.

[DraconianOne]

People who care about movie stuff from game people always point out that he also produced Lord of War, which was pretty good but that basically comes down to are you getting good Nicolas Cage or bad Nicolas Cage?  He got lucky and had good Nicolas Cage.

No, it came down to the fact that it was written, directed and produced by Andrew Niccol. 

Giving credit to Roberts for how Lord of War turned out is like giving credit to anybody who pledged to SC for how it eventually turns out.  All he - or rather his company - did was shove money at the filmmakers, not be involved creatively. In fact, I bet he probably ended up with some of the credits on his resume mostly because of the deals his partner Christopher Eberts made - he was an experienced independent film producer who used to be a production VP at 20th C. Fox. Which is why Eberts was an Executive Producer on Lord of War while his business partner, Roberts, was just a producer.

[calapine]

Talking about films, here is a new Freelancer clip

It's very...country.

[Malakili]

Built MISC tough.

[Samprimary]

This is not Falconeer shitting on the Star Citizen's forums. It's the man making the game saying it drives like ass. I hope the player base will get the memo now.

They won't. I mean, this is pretty cool for a super early alpha proof of concept style test, sure. If the game makers themselves fall for the kool-aid, all is lost. And that's pretty likely.

lol @ built misc tough

[Stormwaltz]

It's very...country.

I was hopeful that meant they were trying a Firefly vibe, which would make sense for the tramp freighter.

But, no, Malakili's right. It's a Ford commercial.

[Draegan]

I thought that was pretty awesome. Regardless if this game works.

[DraconianOne]

Talking about films, here is a new Freelancer clip

It's very...country.

Is that Lance Henriksen doing the VO?

[calapine]

Yes, it's him.

HACKETT OUT

[Lucas]

Here's an Arena Commander presentation done by Roberts at the E3 Gamespot booth:

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/e3-2014-star-citizen-stage-demo/2300-6419567/

Combined with this interview with Associate Producer Travis Day (transcript from Reddit)...

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/145953/

....And with the tidbits offered yesterday by two community managers...

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/2787047/#Comment_2787047

...confirms they're basically working on tweaking and improving every aspect of AC, although, especially judging from the CR video, they're firm in their intention to follow a different path compared to Elite Dangerous when it comes to the flight model.

Anyway, a new patch should come this week; no custom keybindings, which should come in v1.0. They'll also open multiplayer for a few hundred backers, and start ramping up from there (my citizen number is #20971), although I prefer waiting for more tweaks to the flight model. And yeah, while it was already a known fact, Travis Day confirms that some of the features of AC won't be present in the "proper" dogfight, like the damage numbers and maybe the off-screen arrow pointing to the enemy.

[Lucas]

7GB patch available for download, but still an interlocutory one (no major changes to AC gameplay):

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//13942-Star-Citizen-Patch-122

[schild]

7GB patch that doesn't effect gameplay? What the fuck does it do?

Edit: I just read the patch, what the actual fuck?

[Lucas]

7GB patch that doesn't effect gameplay? What the fuck does it do?

Edit: I just read the patch, what the actual fuck?

Animations and sounds, as written in the notes, plus some "under the hood" texture adjustments/replacements, probably.

[calapine]

The patch also (very slowly) introduces multi-player. 250 people have been invited and the first streams are up. Ramp up of numbers will supposedly begin next week.

Flight controls have been improved [or I am getting used to them]: Joystick feels less jerky, there is less oversteering and thus easier to aim.

Pew-pew wise I haven't gotten beyond wave 12 yet. *grumbles*

Edit: Patch also introduced some bugs. I have to delete the 'USER' directory after every game session or else it will crash on next launch. And there is some graphic corruption which can be fixed by switching the graphics quality back and forth once.

Alphafun!  

Edit2: Wave 13!

[Falconeer]

What the hell, is this new? Basically, you can already subscribe to the "game" for 10$/month...

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/store/149-centurion-plan

New record? Pay a monthly fee for a game that will be eventually released in about two years? This is better than the Brad McQuaid shit. And then people wonder why atheists call Star Citizen a church?

[schild]

I bet their delivery rate is worse than the f13 "Nothing for Something" subscription plan (of which we still have 2 members, thanks guys!) (one's a staff member, lol)

[Maven]

Beginning to covet game development as a tightly-guarded process kept away from the unwashed masses. The general public might be getting the first glimpse of how chaotic and uncertain the development process can be.

[Venkman]

It's their own damn fault. You can't design the modules first and then hope they all magically stick together later. And if that is your approach, you definitely shouldn't be inviting your backers into the day to day. If you don't get it, your audience certainly won't.

Unless of course you've developed a religious following 

[koro]

Subscription revenues contribute to the Star Citizen project’s development by funding Wingman’s Hangar (Wednesdays at 9AM PST!) and Jump Point, the monthly digital magazine of Star Citizen. The revenues also fund the development and release of subscriber-exclusive perks and merchandise!

Jump Point is released once a month, usually the last Friday of each month. The Vault can be updated up to 2-3 times a month with abandoned concept art.

Abandoned concept art.

Garbage. You are paying for literal garbage. There are also apparently enough people who've dropped down for a year+ of the $20 a month sub that the "get your name on a mural" bit has already had all its name slots reserved.

[Pennilenko]

Subscription revenues contribute to the Star Citizen project’s development by funding Wingman’s Hangar (Wednesdays at 9AM PST!) and Jump Point, the monthly digital magazine of Star Citizen. The revenues also fund the development and release of subscriber-exclusive perks and merchandise!

Garbage. You are paying for literal garbage. There are also apparently enough people who've dropped down for a year+ of the $20 a month sub that the "get your name on a mural" bit has already had all its name slots reserved.

I don't understand why people would pay for that or thousands of dollars for ships as well. I thought $45 was reasonable,for a single player game and the multi-player variant, but approaching too much for a game that was unreleased. I just found out that I have an ex-coworker that has $4100 dollars spent on Star Citizen. That shit is a disease, pure and simple.

[Rendakor]

Holy shit that's absurd. I know what some of us have spent on Hex (myself included) was a bit much...but that's just nuts.

[calapine]

Subscription revenues contribute to the Star Citizen project’s development by funding Wingman’s Hangar (Wednesdays at 9AM PST!) and Jump Point, the monthly digital magazine of Star Citizen. The revenues also fund the development and release of subscriber-exclusive perks and merchandise!

Garbage. You are paying for literal garbage. There are also apparently enough people who've dropped down for a year+ of the $20 a month sub that the "get your name on a mural" bit has already had all its name slots reserved.

I don't understand why people would pay for that or thousands of dollars for ships as well. I thought $45 was reasonable,for a single player game and the multi-player variant, but approaching too much for a game that was unreleased. I just found out that I have an ex-coworker that has $4100 dollars spent on Star Citizen. That shit is a disease, pure and simple.

Crazy people are crazy. Not sure if there is more to say about this than that, really.

[satael]

What's the reasoning behind investing thousands of dollars into this game? Are people hoping to make a profit by selling their ships after launch or is it just for "pay to win" ?

[Lantyssa]

It's pay to dream.

[Pennilenko]

It's pay to dream.

You need to copyright that as quick as you can.

[Sir T]

You get... A SHIP!!

[Simond]

What's the reasoning behind investing thousands of dollars into this game? Are people hoping to make a profit by selling their ships after launch or is it just for "pay to win" ?

They saw the kickstarter for this before the Elite: Dangerous one, and then walked face-first into the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

[Falconeer]

Interestingly enough Elite: Dangerous seems to be much more similar to EVE with real dogfighting than Star Citizen is aiming to be (maybe because EVE was actually inspired by Elite?). But Star Citizen has the shiny, and the brand recognition since we recently found out that while Elite was huge in Europe (including Iceland, heh), it wasn't popular at all in North America, unlike Wing Commander.