Derek - supposing the purpose of the ships isn't to sell JPEGs but to be part of game action - what's the purpose of having so many ship types in a game (say, any space simulator, not SC in particular)? Is there a way to make that useful/fun? Is it something outside the game action and more related to the way players interact with each other? Just grasping here. I'm just curious about that aspect of game design.
I am no game designer but more ships = a lot more complexity when it comes to getting anything approaching a balanced and rewarding game.
It is all very well Backers beating themselves off over a particular ships aesthetic and its imagined game mechanics but (and we are entering the realms of utter fantasy here) were Star Citizen to be released as an MMO, any significant advantages of one ship over another are going to magnify the advantage players using them get over those that dont (within a particular "profession" lets say)
This means that in actual gameplay, as opposed to the imaginary game Backers are currently playing in their heads, most ships would simply be mothballed or melted etc in favour of those that were game efficient.
In a game like this where your ship has to get you from A to B through a whole range of situations before you get to do the profession you are trying to do to .. make $$ or have fun etc ... the way it flys relative to other ships is a huge part of the game in and of itself/
One of the reasons I sat up and smelt the coffee was the realisation (and I should have known better in the first place) that with all my years playing MMORPGs there was no way in hell that Star Citizen was going to work as an MMO.
Just taking a seemingly simple subset of the advertised gameplay, CRoberts and Erin are so full of shyte about how an MMO plays that there is no way they could deliver an actual MMO.
I dont think there is a single profession that they have come up with that doesnt have huge problems in terms of how it would actually work in SC nevermind work and be fun.
They haven't got a clue.
Most Backers couldn't handle the level of alternative gameplay people like me would visit on their PVE pass times, nevermind the people hacking and/or farming currency to sell in the RMT business. The level of whining from players losing their shit would be deafening.
And at the same time they wont be able to do their professions in any case so getting robbed on top of that is going to send many to the exit.
They cant design an MMO, and they certainly couldn't run one...
As we have seen, they cant deliver a game without huge technical issues and these technical problems sink a game as fast, or faster than game design, gameplay failings.
So CIG are screwed and it is never going to be an MMO..
