Star Citizen Online - The search for more money

Well you need to separate SQ42 from the PU. SQ42 will launch before the PU is ready.

SQ42 needs a few things before launch but we have no idea how far along they are with one of those and that's Infiltration. That will require animations and everything surrounding it. What if the first pass isn't good then they have to re-do it in another pass... so on and so forth. I would put this tech many months away at the earliest and we will probably get 3.0 before this comes to life. This automatically puts SQ42 into 2017 at the earliest.

The other two things they need for SQ42 to launch is finalized Animations combined with this new Vision Stabilization and final Customized Characters.

We already know from recent interviews that they are very nearly done with the Animations and stabilization as it only has to go through a polish pass. So that's coming this year probably with 2.6.

Customized characters they are nowhere near done. They expect an early implementation of this without actual customization beyond choosing heads for 3.0 which "may" come out before they close shop mid December. Again this puts SQ42 squarely into 2017 at the earliest.

That doesn't include planet side stuff that is relatively new and isn't done as most of that tech is still in early R&D and AI which we know won't be done for 3.0 except for an early limited pass. That's not good enough for SQ42.

All of that is without major polish applied that is needed for SQ42.

There is no way to predict if they get SQ42 out by 2017. It seems like it but what it seems like and what's reality isn't the same thing. 2017 is a vague guess at best. I originally said 2017/2018 back in 2015 as the earliest release date for the game and it looks like I might be right. Will see.

Variise said:

Well you need to separate SQ42 from the PU. SQ42 will launch before the PU is ready.

SQ42 needs a few things before launch but we have no idea how far along they are with one of those and that's Infiltration. That will require animations and everything surrounding it. What if the first pass isn't good then they have to re-do it in another pass... so on and so forth. I would put this tech many months away at the earliest and we will probably get 3.0 before this comes to life. This automatically puts SQ42 into 2017 at the earliest.

The other two things they need for SQ42 to launch is finalized Animations combined with this new Vision Stabilization and final Customized Characters.

We already know from recent interviews that they are very nearly done with the Animations and stabilization as it only has to go through a polish pass. So that's coming this year probably with 2.6.

Customized characters they are nowhere near done. They expect an early implementation of this without actual customization beyond choosing heads for 3.0 which "may" come out before they close shop mid December. Again this puts SQ42 squarely into 2017 at the earliest.

That doesn't include planet side stuff that is relatively new and isn't done as most of that tech is still in early R&D and AI which we know won't be done for 3.0 except for an early limited pass. That's not good enough for SQ42.

All of that is without major polish applied that is needed for SQ42.

There is no way to predict if they get SQ42 out by 2017. It seems like it but what it seems like and what's reality isn't the same thing. 2017 is a vague guess at best. I originally said 2017/2018 back in 2015 as the earliest release date for the game and it looks like I might be right. Will see.

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Yeah, that all makes sense, but note - none of the things they need for SQ42 are the "impossible to do" type of things. It's just a matter of time and polish, and like you, I'm expecting this game in 2017, but .... who knows?

Fenz said:

I found this an interesting read:

Inside the Troubled Development of Star Citizen

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Great article and absolutely nothing unexpected since it all was blatantly obvious from the outside, including Roberts' hubris and lack of knowledge about effective development, design & especially management/production.

Jesus, what a shit show. Is there anyone in the industry who isn't a narcissistic, incompetent, douche bag? Over a hundred million dollars and you open 5 studios all over the world and expect everyone to be working symbiotically?

Some real edgy hotshots in here.

Blackwulf said:

Some real edgy hotshots in here.

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Jesus H Christ, here comes Blackwulf to white knight for another game. You still playing ESO?

Release date yet?

Quaid since you aren't too keen on reading perhaps I can get my friend's 8 year old to send you an audio transcript.

Moving right along...

This week's ATV has some interesting bits but the most critical one is the completely revamped flight model.

Again I'll break it down so you don't have to watch what you don't care to. Full video here.

1. Radar/Scanning (both Ship and Character): The same code and UI implementation is used for both ship scanners and personal ones for characters as anything in the real world would give off the same information (EM, Thermal etc.) be it ship or character. The UI will simply feed you different information based on the tech you are using. A ship's Radar will feed you things like EM and Thermal while a personal one would feed you Sound and Thermal. It's a unified system. It looks like the later stages of a first complete pass on this feature. This is a fundamental requirement for a bunch of PU jobs that deal with information including a bunch of non-combat jobs such as exploration and data gathering. Might end up in 2.6 but definitely required for 3.0.
2. Vanguard dropship variant Hoplite: A ship they needed for the single player game Squadron 42 after the planetary tech was determined as viable for single player gameplay.
3. Ship Shape: Flight Model: This is a fundamental reshaping of how ships fly in Star Citizen and how combat will take place. What they did is half the speed of everything and increase acceleration both to make things feel like real objects in space and get rid of sliding. This one has been probably the biggest and most divisive topic apart from changing the original direction of the game. I know a bunch of people quit SC a year or so ago when the flight model kept increasing in speed. Chris at the end actually admits he made the same decision with Strike Commander about 24 years ago to bring that game's dog-fighting feel closer to Wing Commander and away from real world numbers that were not as fun. Fun > Real This is currently with player testers now in an alternate 2.5 build before it gets a final implementation in 2.6. It includes changes to shields and weapons including how missiles are stored on ships their sizes and general characteristics to bring everything in line. They haven't done this for about a year and I'm not sure they went quite this far the last time either. Anyway final decision will be up to players if they like it or not.
4. UI Update: New Lobby Interface And Mobiglas Redesign: This is part of their UI overhaul they have been working on for months. It's a complete re-do which IMO is much needed as the current system leaves much to be desired. We already knew they were doing this for ships from a previous ATV and it's why some ships have broken UI right now in 2.5 since 2.5 pushed some underlying UI code changes they couldn't leave for later and it broke some helmet UI. The new UI implementation is slated for 3.0 and I would assume that would fix the ships too but they didn't mention that so hopefully that comes sooner.

I am glad they finally change space combat so that regular chumps like me can enjoy it. WIng Commander is the only spacegame I enjoyed (and finished) and the relative slow pace certainly had something to do with it. I find it a bit unsettling that Roberts apparently had to "rediscover" that fun > real. The "real" angle is fun for graphics, but for the rest (animations, movement, combat, distances) not so much. Thanks for the updates, Variise, I enjoy and read them for sure. I can't currently be bothered to really dig into SC right now, so.

Variise said:

Quaid since you aren't too keen on reading perhaps I can get my friend's 8 year old to send you an audio transcript.

Moving right along...

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Release date?

Only took them 5 years to figure out what kind of fundamental flight model they should be using for their game. That must be some sort of record.

What production for 5 years? There wasn't even a studio or actual work being done on the game for nearly 1.5 years into your 5 years.

The first year it was Chris, Sandi (not a dev), Ben (not a dev), Dave (writer) plus Sean and two guys at CryTek volunteering their off the clock time over the course of a year to build 3 ship assets, 1 uniform and modify a CryEngine level so you could see if it was possible to do the project. None of those things were usable and had to be immediately scrapped.

CryTek was the one who volunteered their guys time to work on that pitch video in hopes of Chris choosing CryEngine.

Actual work being done on the game would put development time at about 3 years and 10 months right now.

Also the flight model kept getting faster due to some player feedback but that got away from the original intent of the game. It's at a point right now where you don't even see the other player half of the time when you kill them. The community is split on this so it's going back to its roots. Actually the speeds will only be slightly slower than what they were when the first ship flew in Star Citizen Alpha in June of 2014.

So technically the flight model has only been revised for little over 2 years. Not that I expect anyone to actually know this since no article breaks down the timeline correctly to date.

Quaid said:

Release date?

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EDIT: Let me rephrase in terms you can understand.

According to you I have been saying every year this game is coming out next year.

According to me I said the earliest this game is coming out is 2017/2018.

I'm not revising my statement.

Come on Quaid, don't be lazy and at least insert a Simpson "are we there yet" clip.

So your defense of me mocking them is that they spent the first critical year of pre-production pointlessly making art assets and not actually working out their fundamental gameplay? Do you realize how stupid you sound?

You are a shining example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You know so little about game development you don't even realize what you are saying makes their decision-making look even worse than I implied.

Variise said:

EDIT: Let me rephrase in terms you can understand.

According to you I have been saying every year this game is coming out next year.

According to me I said the earliest this game is coming out is 2017/2018.

I'm not revising my statement.

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So no word yet on an official release date, then? No info on beta?

Ill be back in a few months for an update.


















Keep watching the skiis!