Latest Star Citizen Insider Leaks

[Stan]

TheAgent is back with more leaks.

It make sense that they would try and get 3.0 out this year and in time for ship sales

It makes sense that they would reel back in on the MMO such that it is instanced, largely devoid of anything to do and have no flying down to the planet surface in your/a ship.

I love the ambition....we were mining on "planets" almost 20 years ago in MMO's, we had more people in an "instance", we had kill 10 rats missions, we had player inventory.

Nothing here but shattered dreams...

The sentiment of the staffer in the email is fine.   I think most of us know it isn't the regular staff that are taking the piss.

[dsmart]

Doesn't Behavior Interactive only do art? I believe CIG's AI was instead outsourced (in house now (Frankfort)) to Kythera.

http://www.bhvr.com/portfolio-item/star-citizen/

For this very ambitious project, Chris Roberts (Wing Commander) asked Behaviour Interactive to take care of the art for Star Citizen and make sure the quality of every graphic element reaches a level of quality never seen before. The result is a breathtaking universe that already generated more than $73 million dollars.

Yeah, that was a typo. Also AI was also handled by Moon Collider, who apparently exited the project over a year ago.

BI also do entire games btw; so they probably did work on the AI.

[Beet Wagon]

Nah Behavior is a full studio. They've worked on tons of stuff, including Fallout Shelter, Rango: The Video Game, and their latest game Dead By Daylight which is a very buggy (but fun) asymm 4v1 murder simulator that honestly feels like it should be in early access.

[Hater115]

BI also do entire games btw; so they probably did work on the AI.

If t'was a typo then why in your original missive you claimed that the company was Behavior Interactive. Also probably doesn't seem like the correct word to secure your claim on this 100% genuine leak.

[dsmart]

BI also do entire games btw; so they probably did work on the AI.

If t'was a typo then why in your original missive you claimed that the company was Behavior Interactive. Also probably doesn't seem like the correct word to secure your claim on this 100% genuine leak.

This is what I wrote in my linked post:

And that’s precisely why they have not only been downsizing gradually (lots of departures in Q4/16 and in the new year) without making any noise (rumors are that Behavior Interactive is the latest third-party studio no longer working on the project) , but also said to be converting some employees to contractors.

This is what TheAgent posted

We were left last year with almost zero progress on AI thanks to [contracted company] but have since moved all work in-house. Most contracted studios are now gone replaced by in-house people.

The typo (in my forum post) was about naming Behavior Interactive as the company developing the AI. That would be either Moon Collider or Kythera; even though, like Illfonic, BI are also a full service studio, capable of developing AI for a game. Based on the leak post about, it stands to reason that one of these three companies - no longer on the project - was responsible for all or part of the AI work.

And "100% genuine leak" are your words, not mine. I never made those claims. TheAgent only stated

[dsmart]

TheAgent is back with an email leak

If you are asking then yes. We do use internal accounts to prop up funding numbers. These are not backer only funds. We are encouraged to buy ship packages on a bi-weekly basis. Any monies that come to the coffers via internal employee accounts are counted into that number. This includes managers who end up pledging with caveats. These can be sold personally to third parties without supervision. Large packages are sold at discounted amounts to [employees, contracted employees, certain backers and streamers] for heavy discounts. The full amount is represented in the Funding Tracker.

Not sure I believe what TheAgent was told, but it makes sense that they're selling ships and packages at discounts to certain parties. Too bad we can't prove it. And the only way to prove it is if i) someone spills the beans ii) it comes out during the discovery process in a lawsuit

As someone else on SA said

This would make a lot of sense.

There was talk awhile back of how streamers always had $600+ chariots to just give away and how the grey market always has stock of any of the ultra limited one time only ships that cost the most.

Some of the grey market stores being CIG workers would explain a ton of things.

It's impossible to prove too since you could never get an accurate survey of the quantities of the limited ships, or really even find out if Manager #3 was selling $5,000 JPEGs while they weren't available for retail sale, and then more of them got released at a later date.

Then there's this.

I always assumed that steamers were getting paid in ships that they could sell under the table so that they could keep claiming that they are not sponsored by CIG. Crobberts can create a ship out of thin air by moving some numbers around in a database and presto, a streamer has a 300 dollar ship for doing a few hours of talking about how great star citizen is. They probably just flip it on the grey market as fast as they can because anybody playing star citizen for that amount of time has probably figured out that the game is an irredeemable pile of shit that won't ever be fun. It's essentially work, not fun.

But now we have the wrinkle of employees getting in on the action. Even if you sell at a 25% loss, a big enough discount could still generate decent amount of money at high volumes. If you get a 50% discount if you buy, say, a few completionist packages like someone did earlier this week, you could sell them at a net profit of a few grand. And then you could keep repeating the cycle bi-weekly until the bottom drops out and you're left with 30k worth of ships with no game and no suckers to unload them on.

Or even better, say you had a bunch of Swedish Mafia cash you needed laundered. Buy a bunch of ships at a discount with accounts from employees in Brno, flip them on the grey market for nice clean profit. And CIG looks like it's operating in the black! Everybody wins! (Not the IRS though)

[Narrenbart]

If this is true it's far worse than anything EA could come up with ...

[nightfire]

TheAgent is back with an email leak

Did they somehow block non-member access to the SA forums in the past few days? Until recently, I could view the threads there, but now I get a "To view… you need to register an account" page?

[Narrenbart]

TheAgent is back with an email leak

Did they somehow block non-member access to the SA forums in the past few days? Until recently, I could view the threads there, but now I get a "To view… you need to register an account" page?

Lowtax is changing read only to no access for a few weeks to get more forum accounts :) (he does this a few times in a year lasts 1-2 weeks up to a month)

[dsmart]

Latest TheAgent FUD 

- supposedly CIG working on something "exceptional" for E3
- Roberts has been MIA the majority of the year
- many design and gameplay changes are stalled due to lack of his approval
- since leads left or were fired, almost all decisions sit with Roberts
- CIG is using unpaid interns to help code and complete artwork
- several backers have been selected to help the design team
- special select backers were recently invited for an "appreciation" meeting/dinner
- unsure what the criteria was, but one backer had purchased over $100,000 worth of ships
- planetary module still coming along
- loading screen transition still in
- atmo fighting "in discussion"
- Star Marine a failure, Roberts unhappy with it entirely
- Roberts "imagined a different game" and blame devs that left for problems
- top execs blame recent bad funding on backers unwilling to help more
- "It's like giving a cat an Easy-Bake oven and expecting it to cater the Royal Wedding" on current tools
- "Bullies playing with the nerdy kids toys" on new mocap

[Phraccy]

Latest TheAgent FUD 

- supposedly CIG working on something "exceptional" for E3
- Roberts has been MIA the majority of the year
- many design and gameplay changes are stalled due to lack of his approval
- since leads left or were fired, almost all decisions sit with Roberts
- CIG is using unpaid interns to help code and complete artwork
- several backers have been selected to help the design team
- special select backers were recently invited for an "appreciation" meeting/dinner
- unsure what the criteria was, but one backer had purchased over $100,000 worth of ships
- planetary module still coming along
- loading screen transition still in
- atmo fighting "in discussion"
- Star Marine a failure, Roberts unhappy with it entirely
- Roberts "imagined a different game" and blame devs that left for problems
- top execs blame recent bad funding on backers unwilling to help more
- "It's like giving a cat an Easy-Bake oven and expecting it to cater the Royal Wedding" on current tools
- "Bullies playing with the nerdy kids toys" on new mocap

All these points actually sound reasonable for a change. Could absolutely be possible which makes it only that more sad :(
E3 again?? how about not working on something amazing to showcase like the scripted demo on CitCon last year but actually finish up 3.0?
CR has been MIA pretty much every year so far.

Sadly enough, I can actually believe all these points....

@dsmart but if this is all a big scam, how to you incorporate 300+ employees into your scheme? Thats the biggest blocker for me right now in roder to believe it. That this whole thing is fishy as fuck is no question at all, but a big scam with 300+ people who put their careers on the line? doubt it....

[Narrenbart]

Latest TheAgent FUD 

- supposedly CIG working on something "exceptional" for E3
- Roberts has been MIA the majority of the year
- many design and gameplay changes are stalled due to lack of his approval
- since leads left or were fired, almost all decisions sit with Roberts
- CIG is using unpaid interns to help code and complete artwork
- several backers have been selected to help the design team
- special select backers were recently invited for an "appreciation" meeting/dinner
- unsure what the criteria was, but one backer had purchased over $100,000 worth of ships
- planetary module still coming along
- loading screen transition still in
- atmo fighting "in discussion"
- Star Marine a failure, Roberts unhappy with it entirely
- Roberts "imagined a different game" and blame devs that left for problems
- top execs blame recent bad funding on backers unwilling to help more
- "It's like giving a cat an Easy-Bake oven and expecting it to cater the Royal Wedding" on current tools
- "Bullies playing with the nerdy kids toys" on new mocap

All these points actually sound reasonable for a change. Could absolutely be possible which makes it only that more sad :(
E3 again?? how about not working on something amazing to showcase like the scripted demo on CitCon last year but actually finish up 3.0?
CR has been MIA pretty much every year so far.

Sadly enough, I can actually believe all these points....

@dsmart but if this is all a big scam, how to you incorporate 300+ employees into your scheme? Thats the biggest blocker for me right now in roder to believe it. That this whole thing is fishy as fuck is no question at all, but a big scam with 300+ people who put their careers on the line? doubt it....

It's not this kind of Scam, basically there are companies (alot) and they have people to work for them that get paid.
These people get their missive (do 3D interiour, do programming etc.)

The Scam is to sell stuff to people that are near to impossible (and 100% impossible with this team) to do just to make money.
The Scam is also saying that 3.0 release goal is dec 2016 to hype sales when the R&D for the desired technology hasn't even started.
The Scam is selling a DLC for big money (ship hull), nerving it and sell a DLC with almost exact the same unnerved stats 6 months later for more money.
The Scam is producing big Visuals like Ship Ads with features no where to be seen years after.
The Scam is showing off great features in a cryengine editor (sometimes scripted like @citcon > faded out) which are not developed nor build into the client years after.
The Scam is selling basic features of a game engine as new invented technology by CIG.
The Scam is buying their own assets to push the funding tracker for the illusion of steady cash flow (the tracker almost never went under 20k daily)

This is all to build hype and expectations only to keep the money rolling in. By default overhyping leads to fail - everytime.
This time due to extreme sunk cost fallacy and overhyping we have a very aggressive and toxic community and instead to manage the community expectations they are firing them up more and more.
This is not comparable to other projects where just a handful spend > $200 or more - in star citizen the majority is in for over $200 for a game ...

[Narrenbart]

[...]
- atmo fighting "in discussion"
[...]

And the Citizens are discussing how they want to attack base stations on planets with their ships - feature creep like this in every corner

[Phraccy]

Latest TheAgent FUD 

- supposedly CIG working on something "exceptional" for E3
- Roberts has been MIA the majority of the year
- many design and gameplay changes are stalled due to lack of his approval
- since leads left or were fired, almost all decisions sit with Roberts
- CIG is using unpaid interns to help code and complete artwork
- several backers have been selected to help the design team
- special select backers were recently invited for an "appreciation" meeting/dinner
- unsure what the criteria was, but one backer had purchased over $100,000 worth of ships
- planetary module still coming along
- loading screen transition still in
- atmo fighting "in discussion"
- Star Marine a failure, Roberts unhappy with it entirely
- Roberts "imagined a different game" and blame devs that left for problems
- top execs blame recent bad funding on backers unwilling to help more
- "It's like giving a cat an Easy-Bake oven and expecting it to cater the Royal Wedding" on current tools
- "Bullies playing with the nerdy kids toys" on new mocap

All these points actually sound reasonable for a change. Could absolutely be possible which makes it only that more sad :(
E3 again?? how about not working on something amazing to showcase like the scripted demo on CitCon last year but actually finish up 3.0?
CR has been MIA pretty much every year so far.

Sadly enough, I can actually believe all these points....

@dsmart but if this is all a big scam, how to you incorporate 300+ employees into your scheme? Thats the biggest blocker for me right now in roder to believe it. That this whole thing is fishy as fuck is no question at all, but a big scam with 300+ people who put their careers on the line? doubt it....

It's not this kind of Scam, basically there are companies (alot) and they have people to work for them that get paid.
These people get their missive (do 3D interiour, do programming etc.)

The Scam is to sell stuff to people that are near to impossible (and 100% impossible with this team) to do just to make money.
The Scam is also saying that 3.0 release goal is dec 2016 to hype sales when the R&D for the desired technology hasn't even started.
The Scam is selling a DLC for big money (ship hull), nerving it and sell a DLC with almost exact the same unnerved stats 6 months later for more money.
The Scam is producing big Visuals like Ship Ads with features no where to be seen years after.
The Scam is showing off great features in a cryengine editor (sometimes scripted like @citcon > faded out) which are not developed nor build into the client years after.
The Scam is selling basic features of a game engine as new invented technology by CIG.
The Scam is buying their own assets to push the funding tracker for the illusion of steady cash flow (the tracker almost never went under 20k daily)

This is all to build hype and expectations only to keep the money rolling in. By default overhyping leads to fail - everytime.
This time due to extreme sunk cost fallacy and overhyping we have a very aggressive and toxic community and instead to manage the community expectations they are firing them up more and more.
This is not comparable to other projects where just a handful spend > $200 or more - in star citizen the majority is in for over $200 for a game ...

Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense. Misunderstood what scam was meant directly .... reading this just makes me even more sad...

[dsmart]

@dsmart but if this is all a big scam, how to you incorporate 300+ employees into your scheme? Thats the biggest blocker for me right now in roder to believe it. That this whole thing is fishy as fuck is no question at all, but a big scam with 300+ people who put their careers on the line? doubt it....

Everything about this project is a lie.

For the record, this is the contractor/employee count from last Dec



Quite a few of those have left.

And any experienced gamedev who knows anything about the biz, knows that you don't start an indie company to build a crowd-funded project - then go spend money on 4 studios around the world. There is no plausible reason for them to all exist. Other than the fact that F42-UK is the one he built for his brother and friends (Elms and Derek Senior); F42-GER is built from poached CryTek devs; Austin is where they started...until Chris & Sandi decided to set up the base of ops in CA where they can continue to try and rekindle their failed movie careers.

It is important to note that throughout history, vast corps with numerous offices and employees have been shutdown due to fraud. It's irrelevant how many people they claim to have.

Anyone who thinks that having offices and employees makes it less of a scam, is i) an idiot ii) precisely the type of person that's funding said scam.

It's a scam. And someone is going to go to jail over it.