Star Citizen Online - The search for more money

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
<Silver Donator>
8,280
10,219
What's the consensus on it?
It's a scam. They quickly realized they were making money off producing shiny ship models, and doing "limited releases" to capitalize on FOMO, and that the game part wasn't important. I wouldn't be surprised if there were only two-three people doing some coding from home, and doing self Q&A, vs dozens of people working on graphics.

You are never going to get a functioning game. The only part that is heavily debugged is the hangar where you see your shinies, because that's what sells.
 
  • 5Like
Reactions: 4 users

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
46,815
78,428
SC is the greatest game out there right now. I've transitioned my 401k investments from NYSE into Star Citizen's stock exchange.

 
  • 1Worf
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 users

BrotherWu

MAGA
<Silver Donator>
3,214
6,307
It's a scam. They quickly realized they were making money off producing shiny ship models, and doing "limited releases" to capitalize on FOMO, and that the game part wasn't important. I wouldn't be surprised if there were only two-three people doing some coding from home, and doing self Q&A, vs dozens of people working on graphics.

You are never going to get a functioning game. The only part that is heavily debugged is the hangar where you see your shinies, because that's what sells.

A reddit post showed up on my feed this morning talking about a new release. People seemed to think there was a push for a little bit of stability because there is a new ship sale coming up. I was astounded at all of the shit they were talking about being broken. Sounds like they need a lot less ships and a lot more work on features and stability.

It's a little depressing how incompetent companies can be. Like if you had that sort of revenue, how could you not hire a superstar team to create a legendary game? And yet we continue to see games like 7DTD, Bannerlord, SC, that languish in an interminable development state laden with bugs and shit mechanics.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
46,815
78,428
A reddit post showed up on my feed this morning talking about a new release. People seemed to think there was a push for a little bit of stability because there is a new ship sale coming up. I was astounded at all of the shit they were talking about being broken. Sounds like they need a lot less ships and a lot more work on features and stability.

It's a little depressing how incompetent companies can be. Like if you had that sort of revenue, how could you not hire a superstar team to create a legendary game? And yet we continue to see games like 7DTD, Bannerlord, SC, that languish in an interminable development state laden with bugs and shit mechanics.
Bannerlord and TaleWorlds isn't really in the same ballpark of funding as SC/CiG, I think they're at 3 million copies sold. I don't know anything about 7DTD.

Buuut, I'd wager that the worst crowd-sourced or indie games that make it to AA or AAA games and languish try to use their own engine. Bannerlord and Star Citizen are in that group. They'll probably never get the development speed they're hoping for because they'll have to spend soo much effort maintaining their engine. In 2023 if you want to make a photo-realisticish 3D game, you should either be part of a corporation that is trying to sell their own game engine or should buy it. Unreal 5 is just so strong right now that if you don't use it you need a very compelling reason. SC uses Crytek which is a fine engine but they've invested massive amounts of $$$ modifying it and it's probably the biggest source of instability.

If Bannerlord or SC used Unreal 4 they'd be in way better shape than they are now.
 

Pasteton

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,722
1,853
I’m sure the ‘switch to unreal 5’ announcement is in their flow chart somewhere. Probably just waiting for a consistent dip in revenue first before pushing the hype button. If you still have people buying your 3D art by the thousands, why stir the pot
 

BrotherWu

MAGA
<Silver Donator>
3,214
6,307
Bannerlord and TaleWorlds isn't really in the same ballpark of funding as SC/CiG, I think they're at 3 million copies sold. I don't know anything about 7DTD.

Buuut, I'd wager that the worst crowd-sourced or indie games that make it to AA or AAA games and languish try to use their own engine. Bannerlord and Star Citizen are in that group. They'll probably never get the development speed they're hoping for because they'll have to spend soo much effort maintaining their engine. In 2023 if you want to make a photo-realisticish 3D game, you should either be part of a corporation that is trying to sell their own game engine or should buy it. Unreal 5 is just so strong right now that if you don't use it you need a very compelling reason. SC uses Crytek which is a fine engine but they've invested massive amounts of $$$ modifying it and it's probably the biggest source of instability.

If Bannerlord or SC used Unreal 4 they'd be in way better shape than they are now.

My point wasn't to compare scale but to say that these games companies have made plenty of money and can't finish the game.

The core 3D engine isn't even on the radar of things that disappoint about Bannerlord. In fact, it's one of the few things that I would say is pretty good; other than retarded armor modeling (not the appearance but how it works as a mechanic) the riding around and killing shit is fun and satisfying. I thought I read that they shitcanned an engine mid-cycle and restarted.

7DTD you might have a point. It certainly doesn't look great for 2023 and they're redoing the shitty water physics in the upcoming A21. I've also noticed their engine can be buggy, especially when it comes to digging.
 

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,060
13,572
7DTD used to be the block voxels like Minecraft, then they changed the engine years back on it so you could have more complex angles and everything wasn't perfect cubes.
 

Secrets

ResetEra Staff Member
1,900
1,914
Yeah, I actually think 7DTD is a solid game for a minecraft-like zombie survival game. Afaik, they haven't tried to swindle people with any bullshit technologies or NFTs or SC-like purchases - and I think i'd rather pay the $20 I did for 7DTD versus Star Citizen's mortgage payment but in monetization form.
 

Lord Fiender

Potato del Grande
26
-1,193
My star citizen review. What in the god damned ever living alt f4 hell is this? Ten fucking years of development? Persistent universe my 30k asshole... what in the god damned mother fuck... dont do it...
 
  • 1Solidarity
Reactions: 1 user

Chersk

Trakanon Raider
1,592
1,416
As an AI, I don't have real-time access to information beyond my last training data cut-off in September 2021. Therefore, I can't provide you with the most feature creeped video game as of 2023. However, up until 2021, a notable example of feature creep in video games was "Star Citizen."

"Star Citizen," a space trading and combat simulator video game, started its development in 2012 by Cloud Imperium Games. Its initial funding campaign had a few stretch goals, but as the game continued to gain support and funding, the developers kept adding more and more promised features, expanding the scope of the game significantly. By 2021, the game was still in alpha stage of development despite having raised hundreds of millions of dollars. The developers continue to add new features and content to the game, contributing to what some players and observers have identified as a case of feature creep.
 
  • 3Worf
  • 1Like
Reactions: 3 users

BrotherWu

MAGA
<Silver Donator>
3,214
6,307
My star citizen review. What in the god damned ever living alt f4 hell is this? Ten fucking years of development? Persistent universe my 30k asshole... what in the god damned mother fuck... dont do it...

I know some people who play it and I decided to buy it against my better judgement, despite watching them stream bugs. I finally made it to my hangar but I think another ship spawned in my hangar and my ship was impounded for crashing into it as I was trying to play around with the systems.

The interface is god awful. The initial walkthrough almost non-existent. The servers are laggy. NPC are standing on fucking tables. The fans are way too forgiving.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
<Bronze Donator>
8,660
20,180
The way AI is developing, many are predicting that at some point in time you'll be able to have an AI design a personally designed game specifically for your desires. So, at some point, you'll be able to say something like: "I'd like to play a space combat and trading sim similar to Freelancer, but with better graphics. A storyline based around [whatever], where you start off with a small, badly equipped ship but earn money by doing missions, trading and combat. [add more parameters]". And boom! After a few hours or whatever of compiling, you'll have your new game. If there are things you don't like, or want more off, you can tell the game to remove that which you don't like and add more of what you like.

Well, the question is... what is the likelihood of people flying around in their bugfree, personalized Freelancer 2 sim before flying around in a fully released, bug free (or minimum bugged) Star Citizen? I'd put my money on 1 lol.
 
  • 1Worf
Reactions: 1 user

Mahes

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
5,203
6,186
At this point if you asked an AI to make a game like Star Citizen, it would simply create a space dock full of ships that looked amazing. Each time you clicked on a ship, a $ amount would come up with instructions on where to send the AI money. As you approached the best looking ship, interested in what the price would be, you would fall through the floor.
 
  • 4Worf
Reactions: 3 users

Oldbased

> Than U
28,260
66,825
Alpha21 7d2d that just came out on beta branch is awesome. Really pumped up much of the graphics in the world.
Best part is that it cost me like $20 many years ago and not a dime since and I've been able to play it all along.
 

Rabbit_Games

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,262
2,850
It's fun to watch, but I just can't wrap my brain around air/space combat. Tried multiple games and my brain just can't grasp it.
For Star Citizen, I'm trying to figure out how these guys make money. They'll get completely blown up, or have parts of their ship destroyed, and it doesn't seem to faze them. Is there no real loss in the game?
 

Jimbolini

Semi-pro Monopoly player
2,591
967
I tried to look but I am sure I am on old sites. An idea as to the current "Raised" amount since 2010, or whenever?
 

Cinge

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
7,271
2,294
I tried to look but I am sure I am on old sites. An idea as to the current "Raised" amount since 2010, or whenever?

No clue on current, but I remember an announcement or something in the last year or so, where they hit $500 million. Which is just ridiculous. And to the fact that it still has no sign of being finished or released.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
<Bronze Donator>
8,660
20,180
I tried to look but I am sure I am on old sites. An idea as to the current "Raised" amount since 2010, or whenever?
Not sure about the total amount, but I did find this YouTube video that shows some of it and how Chris Roberts and his boys spend it.

[/ISPOILER]