Buccaneer Q/A #1 up now:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//15358-Drake-Buccaneer-Q-A-Part-1
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link//15358-Drake-Buccaneer-Q-A-Part-1
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Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 | The 'Verse Awakens
- Thread starter Raticus79
- Start date
Another ship that might not come with a jump drive. I'm really interested in how well that will go when the persistent universe is finally up and running fully. Personally, I think it's cool that newbies learn the ropes in a beginner system until they make enough money to buy a jump drive, but what sounds good on paper might not turn out as good in reality.
Rephin
Member
I'm ready for this inevitable future of Battlefleet Gothic warfare between mega ships.
Zalusithix
Member
It'll make jousting easier. Our gravitational fields will align us on a collision course, and the size will ensure there's no way to miss!
Pushing SQ42 ep1 to anywhere near 2018 means that the entire project is essentially dead. Taking that long to release a thing most people have already bought into, that wont really generate a whole lot of new revenues is a death sentence.
Its expensive to make games. Frontier, which is miles better managed than CIG, burns through 30 million dollars a year in operating costs associated with ~270 jobs in just one location. CIG has to be burning more than that a year given that: 1) Multiple studios increase administrative overhead 2) relocating studios/personnel cost money 3)Bringing in actors to the UK to mocap cost money, etc
Even if you assume that they are just spending 30m a year, that means that they would have to burn 90 million dollars of operating time to get SQ42 at the door (plus whatever meager gains the PU gets during the time). Its not sustainable.
SQ42 EP1 needs to be out at the latest in early 2017. They need to start working immediately on EP2 and hopefully whatever kinks they've had in the production chain are worked out so they can pump it out by the end of 2017. They need fresh revenue from a source outside of concept sales, that well is starting to dry out.
This chart has been recently updated:
What's with the Call of Duty/Star Citizen comparisons? Great, the next Call of Duty is in space, it's still Call of Duty XD. I don't expect any of the space parts to be anything more than set pieces (and I doubt the actually fighter gameplay will be any more in depth than Halo 4's Broadsword gameplay).
I admit, I am looking forward to CoD: IW regardless.
Also, what's Starfield? I did a search but all I've seen is that Bethesda might be making a mobile game called Starfield in the same vein as Fallout Shelter.
I think the picture is partially satire, so that's where the weird comparisons come in.
I thought DS made it? Or at least he posted it and implied it was his.
Regardless, I've seen the comparisons made in a few places, so that's why I brought it up.
Edit:
Around the Verse 2.34
Transcript
One more MoCap shoot in July and they're 100% done with the SQ42 story. That's pretty cool.
Those animations :O
I know AtV is a CIG show, so it's obviously gonna be coloured and biased and propagand-ish, but the devs they have talking about the game and their work on it all seem genuinely excited about what they're attempting. Also, they keep bringing in people with pretty impressive resumes, like this new character art director who worked at Naughty Dog and Marvel, to go alongside a healthy number of out-of-college hopefuls, which is really nice to see.
If a storm is brewing, like Derek and his followers keep reminding us, it sure as hell isn't showing on the radar yet.
If a storm is brewing, like Derek and his followers keep reminding us, it sure as hell isn't showing on the radar yet.
Usually companies this size dont fail because the individuals aren't doing their jobs, its because of gross incompetence by its management. And that can be extremely hard to notice if you aren't part of that management yourself. Sure sometimes you get a whiff that something isn't quite right, but it doesn't really hit till you come in to cash your check and it bounces.
You're absolutely right about that. Still, seeing talented people giving their best has me optimistic for the project's future in terms of 'can they deliver a quality product'.
Comandr
Member
Man what got me with the avenger exit animation was when the guy was like.. finding his footing on the ladder. Whew. So good.
Yeah was about to say the exact same thing.
How exactly have they implemented it? Are these canned for each ship, or is there some AI to drive the animation based on the ship's configuration? If it's the latter, it's mighty impressive. If it's the former, it seems like a ton of work, given the number of ships.
Comandr
Member
Probably the former. As much as I appreciate the little detail going into an elaborate animation, I hope it doesn't play the same animation every time. The magic will be lost.
The chart belongs to a guy who goes under the name G0RF, Derek just tends to link his work alot. Here's his thing on Starfield and how it relates to Star Citizen: http://tinyurl.com/h64ewvr
Dictator93
Member
I see. Well, I'd love for there to be a brand new big budget space MMO, but considering it took Zenimax 7 years to develop ESO, I think we have a few more years to go if they really did start development in 2013. Unless it's just a space game using the ESO engine? If that's the case I'm a bit less enthused.
This.
If RSI ever runs out of money, and Star Citizen ever gets cancelled or released in an unusable state, it won't be because of lack of talent, enthusiasm or productivity.
It will be because management (personified in Chris Roberts) will have squandered the money away.
I'm not thinking of exorbiant salaries, expensive space doors etc. I'm thinking of money (=time) "wasted" on perfection.
One of Chris Robert's strenghts is his perfection. I'm afraid it'll be his downfall too. If he tries to make everything perfect from the beginning, I fear it'll never be finished.
Sometimes I think it's better just to get the thing running, then you can add the bells and whistles later.
So I havent been keeping up with the developments since late last year, are we still expecting the SP to launch this year?
Any idea of how big it is, or the nature of the SP? Is it just a linear story, or open world? Like can we explore different planets and stuff like that.
Any idea of how big it is, or the nature of the SP? Is it just a linear story, or open world? Like can we explore different planets and stuff like that.
I don't think it's official but the single player campaign is almost certainly going to be delayed.
CIG has talked a lot about the campaign structure and it's going to be similar to the Wing Commander series; Linear missions (with branching paths depending on your performance) interspersed with downtime where you can walk around the base and talk with the crew.
I'd wait until Gamescom to see if they release the vertical slice. If they do, it's possible. If they don't, it's definitely delayed. Until we see what they show-off at conventions we really don't know because CIG is being so tight-lipped about SQ42.
As far as gameplay, I found this translation of a gamestar interview that explains it a bit. Spoiler warning, there are story spoilers if you care about that thing. I'll quote the relevant non-spoilery stuff.
The scope part I'm pretty sure is talking about all 3 episodes, not just the first.
Yeah, they did say they were targeting around 20 hours.
There is no way that they will release vertical slice on GC. I was thinking that they can show something, but release it only at the end of the year if they will delay the game.
From the monthly report it seems that they are finishing VS, so maybe they will showcase it on GC.
"We are still pushing forward on Final Art for our VS level, everything from lighting, materials, atmospherics, props, terrain, rocks, and buildings are being worked on.".
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AWESOME!
I'm not saying it's likely, just possible. And it is possible, that quote and the monthly report in general just don't give enough context on exactly how much work is left.
I will say the game mechanics themselves need a ton of work, so if anything delays it, it's probably that.
What this now. ?
I didn't have any tags. Neither did anyone I know.
On a non-drama note, the extra weapon Buccaneers came with was this:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15365-Drake-Interplanetary-Press-Release
CIG started categorizing their customers in their CS system by using terms like "High Maintenance" "Snowflake" "Goon" "Grey Market Trader". Seemed pretty shady at first, thought it was just photoshops. Then CIG decided to turn off their webtool for CS and its now "Under rework".
I didnt even have an account since I've never sent a cs ticket. Would have still though it was people fucking around till CIG kneejerked.
That's shitty if true. That's why you should never use these kinds of things even if you think you're the only one using them, they'll leak out eventually. But are these some kind of programmed thing or just personal tags that only Customer Service created? Kind of like how you would tag your mail in your inbox. Because it's a difference between personal policy that might went unnoticed and company wide supported behavior.
Ahh. That's a shame.
Thats harder to know. They arent really tags by themselves even though they functioned as tags. They are whole organizations that people are added to, similar to how you add people to OUs in exchange or active directory.
So I dont think its just the lower CS drones doing it. Someone higher up must have instituted or at the very least condone the actions.
What company have you worked on that condone this sort of behavior because I can tell you from my own experience working in education/military/corporate that if I did anything similar to that the least of my problems would be a letter of reprimand. Its CS101 not to label anyone in any way shape or form even if you think the person "deserves" it primarily because of the PR disaster that would happen if it leaked out or because the person you've labeled is way above your and your bosses pay level. The person thats going to be shat on is your boss first and then I assure you your boss is going to shit all over YOU afterwards.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
As someone who has worked in the CS sector in the past, that is really unprofessional and not something I would expect - or tolerate - one bit.
Zalusithix
Member
Yeah, seems rather par for the course. People are free to disagree with the practice, but you'll be kidding yourself if you think that similar tagging ability isn't available and in active use elsewhere. Just be thankful they're not changing your name to random insults ala Comcast.
The thing is none of these tags are actually harmful, or particularly insulting, they're more candid than I would choose though. For example if someone submits lots of support tickets, sometime unnecessarily do you a treat each ticket the same, at the cost of thousands of other tickets thus depriving other people of support or do you tag people so that you can prioritize tasks? Also the goons category, I can figure exists because some moron told that lot to waste a lot of people's time with nonsense support requests.
It should be noted those were the only categories that people found. As noted, they weren't outright insulting people.
Ahh. Gotcha.
Jesus. LOL.Just be thankful they're not changing your name to random insults ala Comcast.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
I understand the tags like 'Goon' and 'Grey Market trader'; they make sense as categories. "High Maintenance" and "Snowflake" aren't categories, they're personal labels. That crosses the line into unprofessionalism in my view.
The snowflake one I don't think is particularly helpful, but High Maintenance is definitely worth noting, though usually in some abstracted euphemism, but clearly understood to mean "this person needs a lot of follow through".
Anton Sugar
Member
I've worked in Tech Support for over ten years at 4 different offices and have never seen or utilized a tagging system for identifying certain customers. One of the main reasons it's a bad idea/practice is that it can lead to confirmation bias or is biased based on the experience of *that* particular CS rep or call.
It's perfectly acceptable to log the nature/atmosphere of the call, whether or not it got "heated", customer was upset, etc., but I've never seen a customer-specific tagging system used. Seems very unprofessional, agreed.
It's perfectly acceptable to log the nature/atmosphere of the call, whether or not it got "heated", customer was upset, etc., but I've never seen a customer-specific tagging system used. Seems very unprofessional, agreed.
The Dear Leader
Banned
Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 | High Maintenance Goon's on the Snowflake Grey Market
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