Star Citizen General BS

[Wipeout]

I probably don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said multiple times here and elsewhere.

I finally let 3.0 on to my machine and fiddled around with it for about 20 minutes.  My system is merely a 6-core i7 running at 4GHz with 16GiB RAM and an NVIDIA GTX-970 (the only "weak" part of the rig).  This machine happily tears through just about every game I've thrown at it.

...And boy is this thing choppy.  Just walking around Olisar has the disk thrashing it's brains out, presumably as it's loading assets.  I didn't even bother to fly my ship; I walked around Olisar, then EVAed from one half of Olisar to the other.

It seems they've spent all their time polishing the visuals -- everything does look rather more impressive.  There was an interesting "sheen" on the glass of the space ships that wasn't there before.  A nice detail, but utterly insignificant to game play.

You're started with 5000 aUAE.  Available missions don't seem to offer more than 200 aUAE or so, which feels grind-tastic.

Previously, when you looked at something in one of the stores, a description of the item would appear.  Now all you see is an invented brand name and a price.  "Um, what is this, and what does it do?" are kind of important questions when looking at armor, space suits, and spaceship parts.  Shopkeepers repeat the same lines of monologue far too often.

The clothing store is still a complete waste of time and space.

Saw a couple of NPCs stuck behind planters, chairs, and other random bits of geometry.

Certainly there has been an attempt to make things more "realistic."  Your EVA suit now has a limited O2 supply.  You can become exhausted by running everywhere, depleting your O2 supply more quickly.  Definitely realistic.  Also: No damned fun.

I actually became comfortable flying the Aurora ES around in the previous release.  But I'm anxious they've changed all the flight controls and dynamics, so I'm afraid to take my ship out for a spin.

All in all, there's still no "there" there.  It feels like a dying amusement park -- the only reason anyone is there is out of sheer habit.

I just have the basic package, Mustang ship.  I have not even been able to get the game to not crash, or not be a slide show.  So I quit trying, hopefully their next update in 3 months will solve my issue.
I have an i7-4770k, 32GB memory, GTX 1070 FE, so my PC is plenty capable for the game.

I really hate how they are bring in to much "reality" into the game.  It could make it tedious and not really fun.  Hopefully over time with enough feedback they decide to get rid of it.

[Backer42]

I actually became comfortable flying the Aurora ES around in the previous release.  But I'm anxious they've changed all the flight controls and dynamics, so I'm afraid to take my ship out for a spin.

There was a time before they implemented insurance mechanics, when bugs randomly exploding your ship were without consequence. That was the right time to ask for a refund. Now you accepted the new ToS.

[ewhac]

I just have the basic package, Mustang ship.  I have not even been able to get the game to not crash, or not be a slide show.  So I quit trying, hopefully their next update in 3 months will solve my issue.

One of the ways I wasted time in the previous release was to exit Olisar, EVA up to the ring between the two struts, and just watch the "traffic" -- people trying to take off, people trying to land, people zooming through the rings at full throttle, people ramming Olisar and other ships (sometimes even accidentally), etc.  Sometimes a ship would be adrift near the station, so I'd EVA over, get inside, and land the thing (because I was bored and it was more interesting than zapping over to yet another comm relay and pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL).  However, this only worked about 50% of the time, since getting the program to let me sit in the pilot's chair was a crapshoot, especially if the ship was tumbling too rapidly.

There was a time before they implemented insurance mechanics, when bugs randomly exploding your ship were without consequence. That was the right time to ask for a refund. Now you accepted the new ToS.

To avoid going crazy, the way I look at it is that, dollar-wise, I bought a triple-A game and ended up not really liking it.  Oh well.

[Wipeout]

Hmm, strange that a recent drive update fixed my issue, cause I already considered that perhaps my drivers were corrupted and reinstalling the drivers or older drivers didn't change anything.  Anyways when I woke up this after noon to get ready for work I let my computer update the video drivers. I started up SC, and then let my 8 year old son play around, he the ship a lot into the space station  :D.  Anyways, it didn't look like a slide show, and the game never crashed on him the whole time I was getting ready for work.  So this weekend when I get to play I'll see how it is over all.

[Wipeout]

Well that didn't last long.  Finally got to play it this weekend and it is back to being slide show and crashing.

Why did they release this when they did? That was a bad move.

[dsmart]

Well that didn't last long.  Finally got to play it this weekend and it is back to being slide show and crashing.

Why did they release this when they did? That was a bad move.

Maybe update your drivers again?  :thumbsup:

[Spunky Munkee]

I think it was clearly an  attempt to claim that they finally met a certain milestone in development. The fact that it killed any meaningful gameplay seems to have escaped them. Their YouTube brigade of advertisers gloss over that fact in favor of showing the pretty graphics only available to those with dual Titans and 16 core CPUs on an empty server. Even then there is almost no content.

People continue to take CIG's rancid bait. Roberts keeps raking in his bloated salary regardless of his failure to create a GAME.

[dsmart]

LOL!! So Matt Sherman, "designer" was on a podcast. And SomethingJones transcribed parts of it.

Raed this shit. They're so fucked.  :lol: :lol:

Devtalk Podcast Ep01 with Matt Sherman, Tech Designer on Star Citizen
https://soundcloud.com/user-321126684/devtalk-podcast-ep-01-matt-sherman

@14:50

Q:
You have a core idea and then as you develop it some more ideas come out, how do you handle tertiary ideas from possibly exanding that core gameplay? How do you control or gauge that as a technical designer?

Matt Sherman:
Ahh... I... in... in part, like... like there's... earlier checks and balances I had mentioned where it's having... knowing... whatever I'm thinking of, I'm gonna have to get it gut checked by damn well everyone. Um... and that sort of creates a good... ah... a good padding around those ideas where it's going to be shot to hell... you know it's gonna be shot to hell as you're submitting it, but that's also (mumble) you... you... make something where it's like shot at with criticisms or concerns or just basic gut checks from other people and you know you've started reinforcing and creating a design on something where fewer and fewer of those shots actually hit the mark, ah, where... you can be like, 'oh no!', you're... you're gonna say that, but... this is already in place to counterbalance that or... these structures are here to, ah... provide those certain gameplay elements, ah... whatever the scenario is for it


Q:
I feel like you don't just create a design doc. There's got to be some sort of inspiration that you receive. Do you have any notable source of inspiration?

Matt Sherman
Uh... for a lot of that stuff, eh... it would go back to just some of the different games that I've played or the styles of games that I've played... ahh... probably one of the biggest ones I'd still say is like System Shock, ah... and especially now because the studio that is sort of heading the idea that... um... had... they did an enhanced edition about a year ago... and when they released it it's like, 'oh you get it with both the classic edition with the enhanced controls in the enhanced edition', and... especially now it's an amazing case study in...

...look at just what a key bind shift really does for a game, ah... cos their classic controls from 1994 were before WASD controls were a thing and it really showed like the game was very very cumbersome, it was still a very incredible game... like oh, here's a 6dof game, ah, the same year Doom II came out, um... it's got jumping, leaning, crouching, ducking through air vents, just homicidal AI... ah... amazing first person adventure elements to it at the... it... it's one of those things like... at the time... the control was fine enough for what it was, here's this really cool experience, you know the Ultima Underworld games were its predecessors aaaand... it's like, ok, I understand what they're doing and what the systems are, then when you fast forward 20 years it's like, 'wow, this is clunky, this is cumbersome, how was I faster as a kid and not minding this stuff', um... and that's why they're enhanced edition is like, 'oh hey! You know those modern control sensibilities we've picked up over the years? We've applied those to what the actual commands and actions are for those games', so there's a brand new keymap and one or two QoL things with like mouselook, um, and suddenly you know, this game can play as well as... ah... System Shock II, the Deus Ex games, all that kinda stuff, it still shows its age a little bit but... it... immediately became insanely playable.


@44:40
Q:
As a game dev and as an avid gamer, what is your take or your thoughts on the state of the game industry today?

Matt Sherman
Yeah. Um... it's definitely interesting because... it's like at that cusp of a lot of potential.... and you don't know how things are going to get realised and... if you'd also like start considering like the external socio-policital climates like, 'Ok! What... what can and can't we make still... what... you know... is there going to be... are there any challenges you know, into the future even, ah, what... known challenges or known things, it's like, ok, people haven't tried progressing THIS type of a gameplay model or THIS genre or whatever... um... sort of finding THOSE things and I think there's... there's enough of the... the industry still sort of doing THAT cos... even like a lot of the, you know, triple A games that will get lambasted for being, ah... sequel heavy or whatever the hell people wanna say... um... there's still that... that notion where... they're always pulling pieces of multiple different genres and they're still also trying to blend stuff together... CREATE... something different so it... they don't... they aren't always trying to make exactly the same... there is always that... that attempted something a little bit different, another layer of edition ah... kinda just one new major gameplay feature...

And I still think some of that gets lost because people don't always think back to just how far we had to go, ah, to get to that point where it's like, 'yes we've got these giant, GIANT ASS SANDBOXES right now, have you ever played ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ON THE INTELLIVISION? Because you'll break your fucking skull in half trying to play through that if what you're acclimated to is...

There is that thing were you have to really step back all the way and see it's like... this is where we've really come from and how far we've gone and how big of incremental jumps we've made each step along that way

[dsmart]

They have a new show. It's a lol riot.

Transcript courtesy of SomethingJones

Q:
How many land claim licenses will fit on a planet or moon?

Dave Haddock:
Uhm... that is a... very good question, uh... we have... when we were actually doing the um... sort of, the... the BUILD to the... um... the... the ANNIVERSARY SALE like that... there's a lot of conversations about like these LAND CLAIMS and stuff like that, and I... I remember, um... in one of the conversations talking with... with TONY, uh... that... apparently, based off of every single Star Citizen... uh... like... getting one of the big ESTATE pieces... uh, if every single one of them got one they still wouldn't be able to fill up a single planet.

1.9 million Star Citizens wouldn't be able to fill a single planet. That's the calculation.



Q:
What is modularity?

Matt Sherman:
So... yeah, like you said it definitely does have multiple interpretations, ah, the... the core is gonna come down to PLAYER FACING MODULARITY, that's gonna be the moment to moment choices anyone gets to make with... how is their ship kitted out, what are their components, weapons, all that good stuff, but then at the same time we've also got DEVELOPER FACING MODULARITY and that's a lot of the stuff for how are we actually going to be able to CREATE and ITERATE all of this CONTENT that's gonna populate the world of STAR CITIZEN, um... so... right now the biggest thing for PLAYER FACING MODULARITY is... is... really gonna be your COMPONENT OPTIONS, ah, it's definitely something we're looking to keep FLESHING OUT, I mean we've got, ah, you know... the ALTERNATE ROOM OPTIONS for the RETALIATOR, ah, looking at a number of different things for various ships but a lot of it does become more CASE BY CASE and... and... how... how... BIG of a WING can we get for... you know I know we saw modules planned for the CATERPILLAR cos that's its nice big segmented rooms...

BUT at the same time that MODULARITY doesn't mean it's just gonna be just LEGO, you know we're not just gonna be I'M JUST GONNA PICK THIS DESK UP AND MOVE IT AT A HALF METER OVER TO THE SIDE

So there's still gonna be some... some STRUCTURE, form to it, ah, ahm...

And... and we also have been recently showing off a lot more of the DEVELOPER SIDED MODULARITY, just a month or so ago when you (Lando) did your... the... ah.. urr... OUTPOST HAPPY HOUR with the UK team, that's a great example of DEVELOPER FACING MODULARITY because it's HEY SET UP THESE WALL PREFAB, set up these NODE PREFABS for, 'OK, this is these BED SET APPS for THIS manufacturer THIS style, ah... ah... the... PLANET DEMO that we showed, ah... ah... you know like the planet generation demo, ah... um... the building out of like the IDRIS and the JAVELIN videos that are about a month or so back where it's uh... hey, here's these AEGIS...GIANT... SHIP HALLWAY CHUNKS, so that's a lot of that DEVELOPER FACING MODULARITY where it's... it's how we're able to build a giant, you know, multi star system GAME, ah, without KILLING OURSELVES



Q:
The inner thought system and player interaction in general, is that it? Are we done?

Calix Reneau:
Yeah, as usual, as usual we're finished from the gate... no, that's, ah... so much of... of this is coming together still, um... we're... we're ITERATING ON IT and doing all kinds of things and doing a whole other ASPECT to it, basically, ah, the interaction system is really good for finding things in the world to click on and... and... interacting with them in bespoke ways, just... go out there and see what you get, um...

But it's not so great at things that don't really have a, you know, a logical place out in the world like, where would you click exactly to EXIT SEATS or to HOLSTER YOUR WEAPON or to do your EMOTE, so, ah, we have a little personal THOUGHT RADIAL WHEEL that comes up and gives you access to all that, you know I'm actually working on that now



Todd Papy:
Steve's on the beach drinking BEERS, ah, RELAXING, I'm... I'm in the office working, so...

Yeah it's basically I was here for a couple of days, they put me at Steve Bender's desk, I don't know why, it needs to be DOUSED and basically SANITIZED 

Q:
I don't suppose you want to answer a question about dance emotes do you?

Todd Papy:
No

Q:
Tell us about 3.1, what are we looking at for 3.1?

Todd Papy:
Well... I think... haha... well, for us... uhm... we saw 3.0 and... and... as Erin stated and... and, um... there... basically we stated in development letter, that... you know, in order for us to move over to this, ah, DATE DRIVEN RELEASE, you know we needed to get 3.0 out the door.

But 3.0 going out the door there was a lot of stuff that we felt, um... WASN'T UP TO SNUFF and... and we needed to get optimisations better... ah... uhm... just because the overall frame rate, ah... then there were other, ah... I think USABILITY, ah, aspects that we felt we needed to improve... uhm... and even just on... player's understanding of what they can do and what they can't do, and... uhm... then even if you think about like the... the... ITEM 2.0 COMBAT VISOR SCREENS and those... those... those types of things were we worked really hard on that was... just... they didn't get to... the quality level that we all wanted them to get to, ah, so...

It's working towards and finalising a lot of the issues that we felt were, uhm.... should have been part of 3.0 but just, you know, kind of... kept on limping on and... the... the guys were working very hard... it just didn't come to be



Q:
The 300i, where is it, where's our rework? What's happening, when?

Eric Kieron Davies:
When. It's the production part of me that's why you get to ask the 'when' question, right? A lot of whens, ok... ah... ahm... THREE HUNDRED EYE! It's a GREAT question, ah, the REWORK is... I believe the last of our original FIVE PLEDGE SHIPS and from what I understand it's one of the most owned ships... so there's a few people interested in what's going on with the 300i, fair enough...

So, the 300i... I'm going to have SO much information for you, ah... is DEFINITELY ON OUR RADAR, it's definitely one that we wanna REWORK, it is on the AGENDA to work on as you'd expect, I can't give you more information of what the date is, I know you're asking for it, we're looking at 2018, we're looking at a lot of what the long term is for a lot of the SHIPS, being one of the last reworked ships we're DEFINITELY SUPER INTERESTED in actually getting that done and out from under us and getting it into everybody's hands so we can keep moving on with the NEW SHIPS that are coming up, I can't give you any more than that but it's DEFINITELY ON OUR RADAR...

[David-2]

So now we see that 3.0 was supposed to be a gem, and almost was, if it wasn't for the final polish on the ITEM 2.0 COMBAT VISOR SCREENS that, you know, they tried really hard to finish but it just didn't make it.  And so because we're missing the ITEM 2.0 COMBAT VISOR SCREENS which were so close that's why 3.0 is the crapfest it is today.

Oh, and I definitely need a THOUGHT RADIAL WHEEL in my life, boy would that simplify a lot of things.  Talking to some of my (unfortunately) boring friends, you know, I could just pick the right thought from the THOUGHT RADIAL WHEEL and be done with it, you know?  Just able to get on with other things while that thought was been expressed.  Or just thought.  Whatever.

[DemonInvestor]

Wow the last two answers of the transcript are really painful to read.
'We just needed to get shit out and we knew it was shit' - really shows how the perception of kickstarted games having no pressure is off.
And another ship rework - in my uneducated (in terms of game development) mind this raises 2 thoughts.
1) Why rework a ship, when the basic systems to differentiate ship types are seemingly far from finished?
2) How many artists are currently really working on ships for this space-fighter simulation? So far most ships seem to be stuck in the pipeline, while they had 60 months for their 78 ships so far.
But then again - uneducated mind ... maybe it's all normal.

[Aya Reiko]

Wow the last two answers of the transcript are really painful to read.
'We just needed to get shit out and we knew it was shit' - really shows how the perception of kickstarted games having no pressure is off.
And another ship rework - in my uneducated (in terms of game development) mind this raises 2 thoughts.
1) Why rework a ship, when the basic systems to differentiate ship types are seemingly far from finished?
2) How many artists are currently really working on ships for this space-fighter simulation? So far most ships seem to be stuck in the pipeline, while they had 60 months for their 78 ships so far.
But then again - uneducated mind ... maybe it's all normal.

1- Because CRoberts is more concerned with the window dressing and appearances, whereas any dev worth their salt would concern themselves with building a solid foundation first.
2- Probably because CRoberts wants constant re-writes and/or re-designs, so ultimately nothing of substance ever gets done.

[justme]

 :lesnick:

[Motto]

Clearly he doesn't understand alpha JPEG development.

[dsmart]

Tony Z, who is only a tad worse than Chris and Erin on the bullshit scale, gave some incredible numbers to Dave Haddock for that interview. Here's bovis on that

So if 1.9 million of the largest land claims fit on a single planet (which, incidentally, would represent $190 million of revenue, or more than CIG's entire claimed funding total to date):

1.9 million land claims at 64 km^2 (8 km x 8 km) comes out to at least a 3110 km planetary radius, assuming no packing losses from trying to fit plots onto a sphere -- maybe they can be arbitrarily shaped so that they'll all fit in, as long as they have the stated total area. I guess I am also assuming that land claims are not instanced, so that it is impossible to have multiple claims in the same physical location.

For comparison, Reddit says the following about current moon sizes in 3.0:

In game (PTU 3.0). Delamar has a 75km radius, Daymar has radius of 295km, Cellin has a radius of 260km and Yella has a radius of 313km. Diameter = 2r, Surface area = 4(PI)r2. You can verify this using the altitude gauge and the moons map marker at the center of the moon. These compared to Jupiters moons (Io-Daymar, Ganymede-Cellin, Europa-Yella) and (Asteroid Ceres-Delamar) are between 1/10th to 1/5th smaller in radius.

So CIG are promising planets that are 10-40 times the diameter of the current moons, or 100-1600 times the surface area. And here I thought the current moons already looked barren...