Chris Roberts new project... Star Citizen

[raess2013]

As far as I know they didn't say anything but it is possible I just missed that. If they said anything about it I hope it was "when it is ready"

Fair enough. I just wondered if they live up to what they said - That they'd include a 'roadmap to completion' in this announcement/video. But nope.

Why should they include the roadmap in this video? I think after the 2018 strategic meetings in January they are going to add the roadmap to the schedule page.

The way they are going to present their progress will change quite a lot. You can read this on the SQ42 page if I am not mistaken.

[Golden_Gonads]

Why should they include the roadmap in this video?

Because thats what they said they would do. From the October 13th weekly newsletter:

Squadron 42 will be the focus of our Holiday Livestream in December, where we will preview some gameplay and share our roadmap for its completion.

It's just (yet) another statement they didn't live up to. And seeing as they made said statement barely two months ago... Bah!

[raess2013]

CIG and PR... Seems people haven't even realized or forgot about it XD

I have to admit, that I never thought they share a roadmap in the video. Doesn't make much sense to me.

On the other hand, I can play the Alpha 3.0 quite stable with 27-30 fps. Flying from Port Olisar to a planet, land, run around, doing some cargo runs and some dogfighting in this beautiful universe is quite nice. It shows a lot of potential and I have enough other games to play.

Perhaps don't be so salty about every tidbit, eh?

[Golden_Gonads]

Perhaps don't be so salty about every tidbit, eh?

It's the fact they don't live up to promises. Squadron 42 was supposed to be released in 2014, then 2015, 2016 then surely in 2017 and now possibly not 2018... I'm grumpy.

[Chips]

Perhaps don't be so salty about every tidbit, eh?

So does this mean that as long as they showed you something you thought "cool" or "liked", that they'd never have to actually do a release? You'd be happy for eternal updates and posts about stuff they're doing?

There really is no need to defend CR, he's a big boy and I'm positive knows what is being said. People's criticisms and concerns are valid; there's nothing wrong with criticising along reasonable lines.

Of course they'll have to keep waiting, and hopefully this game really will be everything to everyone. Of course it won't, but as long as it gives 1/10th of what I hoped then it'll still be fricken brilliant.

But I cannot really criticise people for pulling them up on things they've said/promised, yet failed to deliver. That's fair enough...

[raess2013]

Perhaps don't be so salty about every tidbit, eh?

So does this mean that as long as they showed you something you thought "cool" or "liked", that they'd never have to actually do a release? You'd be happy for eternal updates and posts about stuff they're doing?

There really is no need to defend CR, he's a big boy and I'm positive knows what is being said. People's criticisms and concerns are valid; there's nothing wrong with criticising along reasonable lines.

Of course they'll have to keep waiting, and hopefully this game really will be everything to everyone. Of course it won't, but as long as it gives 1/10th of what I hoped then it'll still be fricken brilliant.

But I cannot really criticise people for pulling them up on things they've said/promised, yet failed to deliver. That's fair enough...

You realise that I agree with you? The difference is, that for me this roadmap thing is not a big deal, they will share it eventually. It's typical CIG, they most likely have good reasons to not show the roadmap, but they are unable to follow up on it and inform the backers (and they are by far not the only company that has problems with this).

The video showed clear progress, I liked what I saw and for me the Alpha 3.0 - performance wise - is in a good enough state to test some things and make some nice screenies.
So why should I be worried at all?

They will release SC and SQ42 eventually if these games are fun to play, I just wait and see, I have much more important things to worry about than a computer game in development.

[Chips]

The point others are making is that if you do not hold promises to account, then promises are seen as optional / meaningless.

Yes, it should be questioned and every time they do something like this they should be questioned about it. Hopefully they'd start to think "hang on a minute, maybe we shouldn't say X this time as we're not sure it'll actually be ready".

That way it will create trust. Failing, even "trivial" things creates more scepticism instead.

[Golden_Gonads]

The difference is, that for me this roadmap thing is not a big deal, they will share it eventually. It's typical CIG, they most likely have good reasons to not show the roadmap, but they are unable to follow up on it and inform the backers (and they are by far not the only company that has problems with this).

For you, yes. For others (me), it is a fairly big deal. Oh the lack of the roadmap isn't that big a thing, it's more the fact that they said it would be there and they reneged on that just two months later without a whisper of why. The only reason I can think of as to why, is that they're going to delay it still further (which reading comments about the video (not watched it myself, I want to enter the game if and when it surfaces completely clean) would be to get the space combat up to a decent standard).

CIG have got terrible communication. They've acknowledged such in the past and... Done almost nothing to improve it. This latest lapse to me is more egregious than the rest of their broken statements due to the pitiful amount of time between saying they would do something and then... Not doing it.

[kohlrak]

Duke Nukem: Forever

[Golden_Gonads]

Duke Nukem: Forever

It's got another decade before it's delayed THAT long.

[muppetts]

Jesus now they are selling Tanks for 100 Euro, WTF has Tanks got to do with a Space Sim, at this point I can't see how anyone who originally backed (pre hype, back with Wingman's Nutz) could still be expecting anything like we originally thought, i.e Modern Wingcommander/Freelancer type game.

At what point do you not just finish the core game, why on earth are they spending money and assigning staff to develop bloody Tanks rather than the core experience.

[Morkonan]

Jesus now they are selling Tanks for 100 Euro,...

I just had to look that one up.

Yep, here it is, $95.99 USD - https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pled ... -Nova-Tank

Friggin' stupid.

This isn't a game. It's a dream seller. "Give us money and you can imagine yourself having this cool tank while playing a game where it does stuff and things."

They call these "Pledges" right? But, you actually don't "pledge" to give something - You hand over cold, hard, cash, right?

[Chips]

Erm, wut?

As usual, will just keep waiting... developing ground doesn't mean the space part won't be super awesome - but i'd imagine most would sacrifice ground for actually getting to play the space part?

Meh, just waiting and waiting and waiting

[Observe]

I'm figuring this won't be ready in my lifetime. Or, if it is ready, I'll have lost interest in gaming by then. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the parade of new features and items and would be happy enough if that's all it ever amounts to.

[Morkonan]

I'm figuring this won't be ready in my lifetime. Or, if it is ready, I'll have lost interest in gaming by then. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the parade of new features and items and would be happy enough if that's all it ever amounts to.

When it does finally come out, you'll be able to play it on your own space-station. In space. With space stuffs. It'll be an whole new retro era for gaming!

"Lookit! They did it in "3D" using "graphics!" Lolz. What'ya think of that $@GWWRKLIOngbrug%?"

"Beep bork snizzlefit"

"I know, right? Lolz."

[muppetts]

Star Cit has $175 million, I think (top off my head) GTA V was 150 with marketing and a 1000 person team (SC has about 400 I think), plus GTA took 5 years and had motion capture as well.

I get you cannot compare like for like but GTA V was a AAA release with 1000 crew on it + marketing and was/is huge, plus was released on multiple platforms.

Even as a rough example the question needs to be asked, what the hell is all the money being used on because with more than half the staff of GTA it's not people!

[segmentationfault]

Even as a rough example the question needs to be asked, what the hell is all the money being used on because with more than half the staff of GTA it's not people!

But do we know how much money CIG has spent so far..?

Thinking how much money and time was spent to make GTA V is more surprising to me. GTA V feels just a further iteration from GTA IV. They already had a development company and staff available so no money or time had to spend establish/find those either.

[muppetts]

No the main dev team was 200, the other 800 + was 3rd party developers they employed into the team but anyway, for sure the comparison is not like for like but there is enough to look at, especially as GTA budget included multi platform, marketing and 60% more staff.

+ No your right we do not know how much they have spent as they will not say....however the entire GTA project was completed in 5 years, scope and size of assets is considerable and they finished. SC is still pushing very very hard to raise funds and not in a subtle way, wanna buy a tank? They have more than the GTA team had in resources and they have no multi platform or mass AAA marketing, so the question is, why are they so far out (lets be honest here they are not finishing in 2018, they won't even BETA in 2018, maybe Christmas 2019 for release).

The answer of course is massive feature creep, totally out of control feature avalanche! For every new feature, you increase dev time and you increase blockers and bugs.

If you are still 2 years away from releasing a game you published (not us Chris R) would be done in 2014/15, why are you making Tanks, why are you trying to shoehorn players land buys, why are you not saying 'Right finish space section with stations, launch, polish bug crush, then work on additional features such as FPS, Tanks, land grabs, face scanning/lip syncing (FFS), more sectors, more planets etc.

I was huge supporter and I gave allot of slack but this development is in full tail spin and even the most generous would have to be skeptical, I certainly am not too proud to say I got allot wrong but I can see now!

[segmentationfault]

It is also good to remember that not all the years are equal - Star Citizen at TwitchCon 2017

The answer of course is massive feature creep, totally out of control feature avalanche! For every new feature, you increase dev time and you increase blockers and bugs.

Well, some people would prefer them making much more simpler game but I, for one, am more than happy they are working on something enormous and ambitious.

[Chips]

It's also fair to point out that GTA probably had infrastructure to start with, whereas Chris Robert's team will have needed to obtain buildings, computers and so on. True, GTA will have ongoing costs of updating and maintaining (renting) various places, but things like desks, chairs, monitors, and blah blah are unlikely to cost as much per year as for a company having to obtain all that first time.