Chris Roberts Back in your wallet - STAR CITIZEN

[Paelos]

Star Evangelist

[Stormwaltz]

Part of my regular gaming circle has formed a "faith" group, but our MMG guild name has been "Cult of [redacted]" for over ten years now.

[Der Helm]

If any player base was ripe for faith-based monetary extractions, it is this one. Good plan.

Isn't that what this thread is about ?

[Margalis]

I like how the game industry pretends that "Physically Based Rendering" is some sort of new technology.

[Lucas]

Today's "Wingman's Hangar" showed some nice stuff related to Squadron 42:

- First of all, here's concept art, sketches and modeling WIP of a mining station and robots. It seems that the first few missions of the single-player campaign will revolve around a mining operation (and will also introduce players to the Mining mechanic, which will be one of the activities in the Persistent Universe...hopefully a little more involving that in EVE :P)

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/13585-Gallery-Squadron-42-Concept-Art

- Even better, here's some WIP in motion (still a lot of "grey boxing" going on at this stage, but hey...DAT HUGE mining droid  ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllp5o5Qkq0  (from 4:47 'til 9:40)

- Also, toward the end of the show, (from 23:50 to 24:46), there is a Skype session with S42 Lead Designer Phil Meller; he declares that, hopefully, the first 10 missions of S42 will be ready for public consumption within the end of the year; then, 10 missions every month after the initial batch (so, he basically confirms the shift toward episodic content)

[Sir T]

Might I suggest the Church of the Pyramid, who invited the faithful to enlightenment by following the meditation steps of the most holy Ponzi.

[Lucas]

Here's the first "monthly report", a new feature on the SC website. It's a long but useful read if you want to know the current status of the project, how teams are split around the world, what they're working on and more:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13610-Monthly-Report-February-2014

[Paelos]

212 developers on the project? This thing has Curt Schilling disease.

[Margalis]

Oh look, it's more shit about fundraising. What a surprise.

Meanwhile the December dogfighting module is coming out, in half-finished form, in April.

They have 212 developers. Apparently 210 of them are busy writing fundraising status reports, leaving only 2 to actually work on the game.

[Rasix]

The bitcoin integration stretch goal is within sight!

[Stormwaltz]

212 developers on the project?

This number gives me pause. The project has bloated up to "AAA" on manpower and scope, but the budget is not growing at an equal pace. Unless there are private investors in the background.

[satael]

40 million for 212 "developers" to make the game goes a long way but I wonder how much more they will be able to get once the game actually releases since the most ardent fans have spent their money by that time.

[Miasma]

He first said 212 "people" and then he said 212 "developers".  I have to assume he meant the former so that includes admin, legal, clerical, accounting and so on.  Even including contractors in developing nations if there were actually 212 programmers/artists/story people that would be crazy huge considering he has "only" forty million to work with.

Oh man I'm going to have to delve into the dark pit of official boards and assume he has retreated from the 212 "developers" statement.

[Ingmar]

Maybe we missed a donation tier that gets you to be listed as a developer, like in the McQuaid game.

[Lucas]

Yes that number is quite worrisome, especially in light of what happened in the fairy land of Rhode Island  ; no matter the fact that Roberts seems to be actually a bit more competent on the business side of things (and hopefully with good advisors as well).

The usual argument used when talking about crowdfunded projects and related development costs, is that a really tiny percentage goes to marketing and other fluff, so that most of that money will be used to actually pay those who are working for you, but yes, 212 IS a huge number. Currently, as far as I know, there are partners working with CIG for the current show "The Next Great Starship", so that should be off the pledgers' shoulders. Plus, I don't know how wealthy is/was Mr. Roberts before kicking off this whole thing and/or if the (very good) prototype he showed back in 2012 was financed by external sources.
-----

Regarding the Dogfighting Module, well, first release never meant to be "final", just like the Elite:Dangerous one (actually, if all goes well, v1 of the DFM will be both single and multiplayer)

[Paelos]

I stand by my statement that this is a scam where they know they will deliver on 20% of their promises or less by the time the cash runs out.

[Lucas]

Ok, time for the "real" March Monthly report. Lots of stuff happening on all fronts, and in 8 days they will unveil the Dogfighting Module at PAX East:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13785-Monthly-Report-March-2014

[KallDrexx]

[Lucas]

See? He's ruling and coordinating the studios with an iron fist! 

[Pennilenko]

While not as fervently hopeful as many of the people interested in star citizen, I still think we are going to get at least a decent space game. My reasoning is that will happen mostly because Chris Roberts himself wants a decent space game to play himself.

[Lucas]

Meanwhile, the newest HUD mockup is a nice desktop wallpaper (1920x1200 image):

[Lucas]

So, as I write this there are only 2,800 alpha slots left; CIG just released an "Alpha Slots FAQ":

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13802-Alpha-Slot-FAQ

What are Alpha Slots?

Packages with Alpha Slots will be allowed free access to all of Star Citizen’s pre-release modules, including the Dogfighting, First Person Shooter and others. Our goal was to make Alpha Slots available to our earliest backers, the people who first helped make Star Citizen’s existence possible!

How was the number of Alpha Slots generated?

The initial number of Alpha Slots was calculated based on the number of ‘universe servers’ the programming team believed we could reliably budget for our module rollout. As Star Citizen’s funding has increased, we have been able to go wider and increase the number of first pass slots (you may recall that an earlier stretch goal created more slots by dedicating funds specifically to this purpose.)

Do I need an Alpha Slot to play the Dogfighting Module?

Every account with an Alpha Slot will be eligible to play the Dogfighting Module. If your package does not include one of the ships scheduled for the first release, you will be able to play with a ‘loaner.’ Later backers who do not have an Alpha Slot on their account will be given the option of purchasing a Dogfighting Pass to join the fun!

Can I still play without an Alpha Slot?

Players who join Star Citizen after the slots are gone will have the option of purchasing $5 passes to play the individual alpha modules, with the money going to cover the additional server bandwidth necessary. (For phased launches, like the upcoming Dogfighting Module, passes will not be available until servers have been allotted to all existing backers.) Note that you will need a separate pass for each future module.

Why didn’t I need an Alpha Slot for the Hangar Module?

Since the Hangar Module does not have online multiplayer enabled, we felt comfortable making it available to all backers regardless of Alpha Slot status.

Will you ever add more Alpha Slots?

No. Once the current allotment is over, no more Alpha Slots will be added to the counter. Going forward, players who miss out on the free Alpha Slots may test individual modules by purchasing a module pass (which covers the cost of additional hardware) in addition to their ship package.

What are Beta Slots?

Beta Slots refer to those assignments for joining the future beta test of Star Citizen’s persistent universe. As this launch is further in the future, we have not yet made a final decision on the number of Beta Slots that will be necessary.

* Current price for the cheapest "alpha slot" package (all modules included,) for new backers : $40 (also includes single-player campaign and Star Citizen proper)

* Each, standalone "module pass" will cost $5 (will include only the specific module you purchased the pass for and won't include the finished game(s), of course)

* If they plan some sort of "staggered"/ phased release of any module, priority will be given to alpha slot packages, then standalone "module pass" buyers.

[Velorath]

Nice, it had been a while since they'd given us an update on what new microtransactions they're going to offer to keep the money coming in.

[Paelos]

[Goreschach]

That's really an unfair comparison.




If this was a pyramid scheme, someone other than Roberts would actually have made money.

[Miasma]

Yeah there is one vendor and no one is trying to get teams of people under them to resell spaceships.

I thought people had settled on ponzi scheme?

[ezrast]

A few people have to see a return on their investment for it to be a Ponzi Scheme. I think it's just "taking people's money."

[tazelbain]

"Selling the Brooklyn bridge" i.e. straight up confidence scheme. Odin would be proud.

[Paelos]

It's the worst kind of pyramid scheme. There are different levels of commitment and buying in, but nobody is getting anything except Roberts! 

[jakonovski]

They've probably blown through most of the money already, with all the new premises and gigantic number of employees. Gotta get some more!

[ajax34i]

My prediction is that this won't end with a bang, just will get fewer and fewer updates until it's forgotten, Chris Roberts MIA.  Was on page 2 here for a bit.

[Falconeer]

As much as I really disliked the way they kept pushing for money, way before delivering anything, and the way people got obsessed with it, I predict it will be a real game at some point and most likely a decent one. Possibly good too, after many fixes and patches. I also predict it will have lots of excuses. Loooooooooots of it.

[Paelos]

I think I've said it before, but I predict they release 15% of what they promise, make apologies, and then fold up shop since they have no legal liability or actual creditors.

[Yegolev]

Ever the optimist.

[Goreschach]

If I wanted to give them too much credit, I'd suspect that this is Springtime for Hitler.

The reason for them setting up such a large development outlay, with the multiple divisions and the mocap studio and all that, then becomes obvious. All they need to do is ship a half baked product to avoid fraud charges. After the game bombs and they run out of money, they then turn around and sell the studio itself for a good 20 million.