Star Citizen - The E.L.E.

[dsmart]

Derek why do you think they can't/won't delay the release of 3.0 into next year ?

If cash is still coming in, they have taken action to slow refunds, they still have some $ coming in from ship sales, they are managing much of the flow of information about 3.0 in Evocati etc ...why would they feel the need to release 3.0 to backers ?

I don't see what they gain.

Because they have a LOT riding on the reception of 3.0. If it's even close to 2.0, it's going to be a disaster for them. Remember they've been hyping it up so much. Then they trimmed the features significantly.

I have no reason to believe that they will release it live this year. Possibly just to the PTU, which has it's own set of perception problems due to no NDA.

It's just not ready. Last I checked, over 80% of the things they had in the 3.0 schedule, simply either weren't there, or don't work. That's the big part of the problem.

And that's why this past Friday's dev schedule was so shocking to those who weren't paying attention.

For months I've been saying the public facing schedule was pure bullshit. So with the year coming to a close, the only reason I can think of for them to have released that schedule now - right after ShitizenCon - is because they have no choice. If they release 3.0 by year end, backers are going to see all the shit that's either missing or plain broken. So they just fessed up to it now in order to deal with the backlash now, rather than in a few weeks when they're trying to raise money during the anniversary stream.

[Motto]

Not to forget that they have been withholding 3.0 with the argument that it just needed some more polishing and tweaking et cetera. When you have been polishing and tweaking something for over a year, it should be a smooth ride over a icy floor with the brilliance shining of the sun. Not the shite that 3.0 currently is. Anything they release now will make it painfully clear that they have been lying to the backers about the actual state of the game all along. And that won't go down well after two years of Games Com and Citizen Con with selling more and more expensive JPEGs.

Ah well, time to wake up! The dream is over.

[dsmart]

Not to forget that they have been withholding 3.0 with the argument that it just needed some more polishing and tweaking et cetera. When you have been polishing and tweaking something for over a year, it should be a smooth ride over a icy floor with the brilliance shining of the sun. Not the shite that 3.0 currently is. Anything they release now will make it painfully clear that they have been lying to the backers about the actual state of the game all along. And that won't go down well after two years of Games Com and Citizen Con with selling more and more expensive JPEGs.

Ah well, time to wake up! The dream is over.

It's almost as if they're lying scumbags.

[Ghostmaker]

Here's a fun one, that I suspect has been hashed over before but bears repeating.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I admit I haven't played it but it seems fairly popular (duh). According to what I was able to dig up, it was fully funded in house by CDProjektRed at a cost of US$81 million, with up to 250 employees. Development time was 3 and a half years.

Fallout 4's costs aren't publicized by Bethesda, but are speculated to be in the US$100-120 million range. This is based on Skyrim's dev cost being in the US$90 million range. Time-wise, it took about 4-5 years, as assets were shifted slowly from Skyrim over to Fallout 4 development.

CIG has ingested (and I use that term deliberately) US$160 million in funding, with SC being in development for --what? Six years now? And they STILL haven't officially launched.

And THAT is why I won't put a dime into this bullshit. I'd be better off buying Powerball tickets.

[dsmart]

I keep telling them that they are their own worst enemy.

Together with CIG, they've created a situation that keeps SEO specialists awake at night. Not that the best VP of marketing since she was a leetle gurl knows wtf she's doing anyway. So there's that.



Someone sent me that image earlier, along with this:

The Google algorithm has associated you with the knowledge graph and is now generating your profiles in relation to searches for the brand.

Honestly, in the "SEO" sorcery space... that means OWNED and would cause a crisis for brand rep. THAT is why Sandi angers me. Don't call yourself a VP when failing at basics with no formal study or true industry experience: BEHOLD THE IMAGE.

What you've done is every SEO "brand reputation manager's" dream.

The #1 request is: Something negative about me shows up on page 1. Realistically, given way algorithm works and signals it detects, hard for 95% of brands to fix it
too long to explain even though I spam you, and like NDA issues, but many brands are internal messes that prevent corrective action.

The thing is, it is often a link to an article A LINK TO AN ARTICLE. Not an individual showing up with his fucking mug shot on page one for a knowledge graph search on google.

Some of the client work I am dealing with now? They would have a heart attack  if someone, an individual let's say a product critic with a well researched arsenal of content on his website showed up under their profile in the right hand bar as "also searched for".

Not only your name shows up for also searched for, beautiful google algorithm quirks and flaws picked up your profile pic. This is a neutral, no history, opt out of all ads, doesn't browse view tool I use for keywords to see visibility for terms when not influenced by a logged in gmail account nor cookies from google apps and api bs

SIR YOU ARE SHOWING UP ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE GRAPH FOR BRANDED KEYWORDS.

That would cause a fucking crisis.

If Sandi, was a true VP of marketing, she would be all over it... the funny bit is, because "link building" is still a thing, the most "authoritative" alternate source regarding SC is you in the google algorithm's mind currently (sans some manual manipulation internally at Google)

So to fix their search situation, they would literally need to work with you as long as you keep your domain and site active.

New consumers searching for "roberts space industries" or "star citizen" will see your profile unless they take serious corrective action to protect the brand on search. Sandi isn't doing that. A "marketing manager" or director could do what that VP is not.

LOL!!

[dsmart]

Here's a fun one, that I suspect has been hashed over before but bears repeating.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I admit I haven't played it but it seems fairly popular (duh). According to what I was able to dig up, it was fully funded in house by CDProjektRed at a cost of US$81 million, with up to 250 employees. Development time was 3 and a half years.

Fallout 4's costs aren't publicized by Bethesda, but are speculated to be in the US$100-120 million range. This is based on Skyrim's dev cost being in the US$90 million range. Time-wise, it took about 4-5 years, as assets were shifted slowly from Skyrim over to Fallout 4 development.

CIG has ingested (and I use that term deliberately) US$160 million in funding, with SC being in development for --what? Six years now? And they STILL haven't officially launched.

And THAT is why I won't put a dime into this bullshit. I'd be better off buying Powerball tickets.

It's $163M that we know of. Factors to consider 1) funding chart is bullshit 2) loans 3) investor money

[Kyrt]

Here's a fun one, that I suspect has been hashed over before but bears repeating.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I admit I haven't played it but it seems fairly popular (duh). According to what I was able to dig up, it was fully funded in house by CDProjektRed at a cost of US$81 million, with up to 250 employees. Development time was 3 and a half years.

Fallout 4's costs aren't publicized by Bethesda, but are speculated to be in the US$100-120 million range. This is based on Skyrim's dev cost being in the US$90 million range. Time-wise, it took about 4-5 years, as assets were shifted slowly from Skyrim over to Fallout 4 development.

CIG has ingested (and I use that term deliberately) US$160 million in funding, with SC being in development for --what? Six years now? And they STILL haven't officially launched.

And THAT is why I won't put a dime into this bullshit. I'd be better off buying Powerball tickets.

As far as I can see, there are several reasons for CIGs lack of progress.

First - Chris Roberts

Second - From my understanding of what CR was originally working on, it was a game that was like Wing Commander, but with multiplayer, Privateer and FPS aspects tagged on.
From my understanding of what CR is looking to develop now, he has changed this into the development of a "life simulator" - right down to intended to simulate eating and sleeping and including mindless boring tasks such as cargo handling. Among the changes was a change in emphasis from Multiplayer to MMO.

As far as I can see, that rendered any prototyping or feasibility studies on his original idea null and void, effectively sending him back to square one.

Third - Chris Robert doesn't appear to have gone back to square one for feasibility studies and prototyping, he appears to have tried using his original plan anyway, hired on third party devs experienced in CryEngine development  and then realised that CryEngine, while feasible for his original plan, was not viable for the type of game he now wanted. So rather than heading back to square one, he forged ahead and decided that CryEngine was still perfectly viable.

He just needed to update it from 32 bit scaling to 64 bit, replace the AI system, update the flight model, replace the netcode, add server meshing back end stuff, rip our the physics engine and replace it with a new one, create new lighting systems and a thousand other changes major and minor.

But he could keep the animation engine. Mostly. So it was still CryEngine.

The end result of that was that the developers who were developing for CryEngine suddenly had to provide work that was compatible with Star Engine...and engine that was still in flux and as of Nov 2017, still isn't fully formed.

All of this, and a bit more, means that the first three of four years of development effectively never happened.

Add in that the engine is still not finished, that CIG are polishing assets and systems that should be polished in Beta to avoid the need to do massive reworks, and that CR is developing not according to what the game needs, or even according to industry best practise, but according to what he can hype the most and use to persuade people to fund the project and you get a setup where the basic core systems still aren't finished and where the development seems to be so slipshod it is run in a manner which encourages issues.

Overall, I don't think there is any real mystery of why the game is taking so long to develop. The real mystery is why the backers are so forgiving.

[Motto]

Well now, this is interesting. A Reddit where people are discussing if releasing 3.0 now would be a good idea. Even the backers are starting to realize that that's not wise at all.

Now, if they only would connect the dots between hearing Chris stating 3.0 is almost done and hearing themselves not advising to release 3.0 more than a year later  :D

[dsmart]

Well now, this is interesting. A Reddit where people are discussing if releasing 3.0 now would be a good idea. Even the backers are starting to realize that that's not wise at all.

Now, if they only would connect the dots between hearing Chris stating 3.0 is almost done and hearing themselves not advising to release 3.0 more than a year later  :D

I hope they're dumb enough to release it. We'd be set with lols right through to 2018.

[Motto]

Starting from here, The Agent is dropping some hints about the current affairs at CIG. Like buying into a movie for 300K for Sandi - with zero result - or doing things that have nothing to do with making the BDSSE. If those are true 

imagine putting in, say, $300,000 into a film to ensure you got at least 10 speaking lines in or roughly 90 seconds of screentime, only to find our your entire scene had been cut and that the movie is a tremendous failure and will, without a doubt, net an extreme loss even after the streaming and tv rights are sold

so your 300k is just gone but that's okay since the company kicked in for it anyway but goddamn are you pissed about not seeing yourself on the big screen

And

at what point do you mention to the backers that you're financing film careers? that you're starting to broadcast yourself as a digital effects company, with access to superior motion capture and CGI technologies? don't you think someone on this great big internet is going to loving find out about it?

I mean, I guess you can hope that the game comes out to rousing success before then, and of course, of course! hollywood and special effects are a perfect fit for chris roberts, so its no big deal he's spending a lot of time and resources and backer money doing hollywood things

but goddamn chris, y'all playing with loving fire

And

like hey, here's a bad thing: we are running out of money to develop a game

and yeah, we've taken out a few loans and are really, really hoping no one looks too closely at this whole UK tax credit thing and yeah, yeah we are down almost 30% in revenue from last year so far

but also! intel paid for our last two shows, amazon floated us some monies and we're only a wee bit behind

but hey, here's a good thing: we got a loving major cash injection from a movie production company to do their digital effects! the company is saved

also I need all the art teams focused on the movie stuff because we have a four month deadline for our portion of the vfx, but this is also okay because we need six months or so to get our programmers to finish our engine

[dsmart]

Starting from here, The Agent is dropping some hints about the current affairs at CIG. Like buying into a movie for 300K for Sandi - with zero result - or doing things that have nothing to do with making the BDSSE. If those are true 

Yeah, I just saw that. I find it hard to believe that he would fund any part of a movie, and then Sandi gets cut completely from it.

As to the effects company side of things, it's possible. After all, they don't the game is fucked, so they've probably been setting up their plan B.

[Motto]

The response from The Agent about the latest gossip from him:

I mean I just tend to post whatever shit I heard/read, and a lot of it evaporated

but some of it has been spot on, especially the January leak about 3.0 in 2018 (the same guy who said the scope of the game has decreased)

derek don't even tweet me out no more, so the r/ds guys don't even care about me

Chris and Sandi trying to save/move everything possible from CIG to something that'll keep them in Hollywood does seem plausible. I'm guessing Chris realized himself now that he is a total moron when it comes to developing games. So basically making his comeback in games to be able to make his comeback in Hollywood.

[dsmart]

I just penned a response to that:

I mean I just tend to post whatever shit I heard/read, and a lot of it evaporated

Gee, maybe it's because it's all made up bullshit?

but some of it has been spot on, especially the January leak about 3.0 in 2018 (the same guy who said the scope of the game has decreased)

Oh really? Please cite where you posted that and when. Here, I'll go first. :colbert:

derek don't even tweet me out no more, so the r/ds guys don't even care about me

That's because at some point you have to realize that being in it for shits and lols is fine. But at the end of the day, I never entered this fray to capitalize on the angst and anguish of gamers - my install base. Regarding Star Citizen, I do what I do specifically for accountability and vindication. I have been consistent throughout; and along the way there were some lols to be had.

When you keep flooding people with bullshit, eventually they become de-sensitized to it. And that's also how fake news, used correctly, works. That's why even those cultist ass-clowns on /r/ds aren't even paying attention any more.

It's also the reason that I no longer even post leaks. And even when I do, I tend to run it through 2-3 people I trust as sources, before I make anything public. The situation is so fluid, that something can change at any time. But there is a difference between things like "they have 90 days worth of funding left" that ends up changing due to external sources, and something like "croberts financed a movie with backer money" which, while having a hint of plausibility, is just preposterous - all things considered.

A lot of industry people connected to this shit-show are talking. But it doesn't mean that everyone is blurting out bullshit, let alone making shit up on the fly. All that does is take away from the seriousness of the issue regarding the loss of over $163 million in public gamer money - and the huge impact that the impending collapse will have on our industry as a whole.

Let's examine your latest for example:

imagine putting in, say, $300,000 into a film to ensure you got at least 10 speaking lines in or roughly 90 seconds of screentime, only to find our your entire scene had been cut and that the movie is a tremendous failure and will, without a doubt, net an extreme loss even after the streaming and tv rights are sold

so your 300k is just gone but that's okay since the company kicked in for it anyway but goddamn are you pissed about not seeing yourself on the big screen

This is all bullshit.

For one thing, there is no way anyone who doesn't have first hand knowledge of this, could possibly know how much money - if any - croberts and/or Sandi put into a production.

That aside from the fact that the way the movie business works, there is no way they could have funded any part of it, only to see Sandi's part completely cut from the movie. I mean, seriously.

In contrast to my reporting of this from years ago. Sandi is an aspiring actress. It's like a side gig, no different from us who have hobbies. But back when I leaked news that she was not only making films on company property, but also using company funds to do it, a lot of people called me crazy. Until I started posting the pics as proof. It wasn't long before she was forced to cop to it on social media; and to the extent that she even had to deny using company funds for it. Then even more video proof showed up; some showing performances by staff (e.g. Alex Mayberry), and again on company property. Then I found and linked the production company to her and Ortwin. The rest is history. It's in the blogs.

And there is no fucking way that they're dumb enough to use company money, especially not to that amount, to fund external activities that have no bearing on the company's goal of building two games for which they were funded. Paper trail and unjust enrichment claims aside, that's just recipe for fraud charges down the road. Not so long ago, the Lily drone fiasco, as well as the FTC own guidelines, have made it clear that using crowd-funding money for other purposes, was legally actionable.

If croberts and his entourage are using their own personal money (from backer funded paychecks) for things like this, then it's perfectly legal. The issue at hand would be if they were starving the company of funding, while lining their pockets, and using those gains to benefit themselves. And that Red flag would be the sort of things already seen in the UK financials whereby they they are taking money out of the company, lining their pockets, while putting the company into debt via loans.

at what point do you mention to the backers that you're financing film careers? that you're starting to broadcast yourself as a digital effects company, with access to superior motion capture and CGI technologies? don't you think someone on this great big internet is going to fucking find out about it?

I mean, I guess you can hope that the game comes out to rousing success before then, and of course, of course! hollywood and special effects are a perfect fit for chris roberts, so its no big deal he's spending a lot of time and resources and backer money doing hollywood things

but goddamn chris, y'all playing with fucking fire

Gee, shocker.

Chris, Ortwin, Sandi come from the dregs of the movie industry. So it's not far-fetched that they would still be involved in it somehow. Especially knowing that the games they're supposed to be building, are FUBAR.

Here's the thing. They can do wtf they want with the money; whether or not they deliver any games. Making plans for the future after this dumpster fire stops burning, makes perfect sense. Always have a plan B. And seeing as he knows that he's completely fucked as far as gaming is concerned; unprepared, he'd be back selling (yes, this is an absolute fact, and there are public records to prove that he was selling exotic cars, along with a partner) cars if he's not sitting in jail when the flames die down.

I don't believe for one second that they're promoting the company as a digital effects company. It's pure bullshit. There are literally DOZENS of those companies right there in Hollywood and it's their core business.

A game company which has never shipped a product of any kind, and which is primarily funded by public money, promoting itself as a digital effects company is so ludicrous, it beggars belief. Aside from the fact that they could never - ever - keep that secret. Heck, croberts is in Comcast Spectrum ads, has done promo deals with AMD, Intel, and Saitek. But yeah, the big one is the one they're going to keep secret, because it's so fucking special.

Because it was rumored that croberts used part of the Freelancer funding to make effects for the Wing Commander movie, is probably where this bullshit "leak" comes from. Low hanging fruit if you ask me.

like hey, here's a bad thing: we are running out of money to develop a game

and yeah, we've taken out a few loans and are really, really hoping no one looks too closely at this whole UK tax credit thing and yeah, yeah we are down almost 30% in revenue from last year so far

but also! intel paid for our last two shows, amazon floated us some monies and we're only a wee bit behind

but hey, here's a good thing: we got a fucking major cash injection from a movie production company to do their digital effects! the company is saved

also I need all the art teams focused on the movie stuff because we have a four month deadline for our portion of the vfx, but this is also okay because we need six months or so to get our programmers to finish our engine

I don't even know where to begin with this one.

- Running out of money? Gee, you think?

- Hope nobody looks too closely at the UK tax credit?

Why? Unless they've committed fraud, and Coutts (who loaned them money) is in on it, there's nothing here. Other than they took out a payday loan due to low funds. Of course, anyone paying attention to the financial filings for the UK, already knows that their financial situation is in the crapper, and that they've been ripping off backers by taking money out of the company for personal gain, while saddling the company with debt. And we don't even have 2017 figures yet.

- Intel funded two shows?

That's not how that works.

In my entire industry tenure, having done exclusive deals, promo deals, E3/GDC and similar showcases with partners etc, money tends not to change hands just because you showed up as a partner. It's a marketing partnership that is usually about getting paid on units sold through the promo you are attached to. e.g. the AMD video card giveaways, the Saitek branded controller etc, are all most likely standard backend deals. The Intel SSD is no different. That's why they have a ship tie-in for which the redeem code can be used to track the number of units sold, and on which they get paid. Same with the video card. In some cases, depending on the deal, you may get some advance on a number of units. e.g. when I did my exclusive deal with Electronics Boutique for Battlecruiser Millennium Gold, I got a cash advance, which was then recouped against a number of units sold. When I did my exclusive deal with Turner GameTap for the original Echo Squad game, same thing.

- Amazon floated some money?

No, that's not how that works either. They have ZERO incentive to give them ANY money. There is no product. There is nothing of value for Amazon in such a deal. Not to mention that Amazon is actually building several game studios in their on-going bid to justify their LumberYard (a Trojan horse for AWS) investment which they have yet to recoup seeing as NOTHING has been produced from it - not even from their own studios.

- cash injection from a movie company?

Yeah, OK, whatever, man.

At some point, I am hoping that you have enough sense to know that the bulk of the shit you're posting, even in a tongue-in-cheek manner, expecting to get a rise, does more harm than good because it just creates more noise which then detracts from the real issues.

Stop this bullshit, because you're NOT helping.

[Ghostmaker]

And there is no fucking way that they're dumb enough to use company money, especially not to that amount, to fund external activities that have no bearing on the company's goal of building two games for which they were funded.

Really? I mean, you make a good point -- let's not clutter up the signal with obvious bullshit -- but let's be honest here, there's a reason the most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

[dsmart]

And there is no fucking way that they're dumb enough to use company money, especially not to that amount, to fund external activities that have no bearing on the company's goal of building two games for which they were funded.

Really? I mean, you make a good point -- let's not clutter up the signal with obvious bullshit -- but let's be honest here, there's a reason the most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

I concede the point. 

But seriously, given the amount of money involved, and the massive about of aggravation they're going to get when this eventually collapses, doing anything blatantly obvious and stupid like that, is just like wearing a t-shirt with "I should be in jail" on the front and back. It's bad enough that you can't retroactively roll back malfeasance, but to make it easy and obvious is the height of stupidity. And that's precisely how some White collar criminals end up in court, then in most cases, jail.