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How Star Citizen Plans to do Much of What No Man's Sky Doesn't

T

Trace

Banned
Dougald said:
Is Star Citizen ever actually coming out? The game seems like a textbook example of scope creep for any software development class to use

Elite: Dangerous may have been lampooned as doing far less, but they were both kickstarted at the same time and Elite has been out a couple of years now, even having its first expansion, whereas Star Citizen seems to be trying to do way too much
Click to expand...

mario_O said:
So when are the finally going to release this game? I guess I can always buy a $300 ship in the mean time. Any aprox date?
Click to expand...

I really should make an infographic or something sometime. Starting from 10 people, getting to a studio with hundreds and then making the most ambitious game of all time takes longer than a normal game. It's been 4 years since the kickstarter, in no way is that a long time to make a AAA game. As long as it's out by this time 2018 it will have been in development for an acceptable amount of time.

Can I nominate Star Citizen for "most shitposted game on GAF"?
 
mario_O

mario_O

Member
So when are the finally going to release this game? I guess I can always buy a $300 ship in the mean time. Any aprox date?
 
D

Dougald

Member
Trace said:
I really should make an infographic or something sometime. Starting from 10 people, getting to a studio with hundreds and then making the most ambitious game of all time takes longer than a normal game. It's been 4 years since the kickstarter, in no way is that a long time to make a AAA game. As long as it's out by this time 2018 it will have been in development for an acceptable amount of time.
Click to expand...

The game has way too much, they should have done what Frontier did and roadmap everything into expansions. David Braben may have already had a studio but he did far more with far less money in far less time

Trace said:
Can I nominate Star Citizen for "most shitposted game on GAF"?
Click to expand...

I'd certainly nominate its fans for most dedicated
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
Trace said:
I really should make an infographic or something sometime. Starting from 10 people, getting to a studio with hundreds and then making the most ambitious game of all time takes longer than a normal game. It's been 4 years since the kickstarter, in no way is that a long time to make a AAA game. As long as it's out by this time 2018 it will have been in development for an acceptable amount of time.

Can I nominate Star Citizen for "most shitposted game on GAF"?
Click to expand...
No man's sky has that title right now. In which case you would now be called defense force by now
 
C

CHC

Member
Dougald said:
Is Star Citizen ever actually coming out? The game seems like a textbook example of scope creep for any software development class to use

Elite: Dangerous may have been lampooned as doing far less, but they were both kickstarted at the same time and Elite has been out a couple of years now, even having its first expansion, whereas Star Citizen seems to be trying to do way too much
Click to expand...

It is not in any way, shape, or form a normal development cycle. They basically have nearly unlimited funds (over $100 million as of right now) and free reign to do whatever they can dream up. It's going to be a long time before each "module" of gameplay is finished and tied together, but bits and pieces are being made and slowly connected. It's probably going to be at least 4 years before something truly "finished" reaches regular consumers, but work is proceeding pretty transparently.

For example, the 3.0 update is due very soon and that will basically be the demo you saw at Gamescom. Granted, it won't be much more than that demo, but it's there and playable - they're not showing something fake.

But like I said, if you're someone like me who is basically waiting for a complete or nearly complete game, it's probably best to just forget about SC for the time being and come back in a couple years.
 
Electret

Electret

Member
This prompts a tangential question I've had on my mind for a while. How far away is the tech required to implement something like adaptive tessellation to get rid of abrupt LOD transitions? I know GPUs have had the ability to tessellate for a while, but ostensibly the available power for tessellating is not sufficient to carry out for a planet worth's geometry. Are we heading in a direction where this will be feasible? Is there another technique that might get the job done? Any information would be appreciated.
 
A

AwesomeMeat

PossumMeat
Dougald said:
Is Star Citizen ever actually coming out? The game seems like a textbook example of scope creep for any software development class to use

Elite: Dangerous may have been lampooned as doing far less, but they were both kickstarted at the same time and Elite has been out a couple of years now, even having its first expansion, whereas Star Citizen seems to be trying to do way too much
Click to expand...

Elite Dangerous plans to do most of what SC is doing albeit in different ways. Yes, ED is currently in far better shape and seemed to have a more focused timeline.

I love ED and currently it is one of the games I play the most. SC is just approaching it differently. ED wants to release "seasons" that add big game play mechanics while SC is releasing smaller individual modules with hopes of combining them later.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Scrooged said:
The two games are going for completely different experiences. The whole point of NMS is to explore a near infinite galaxy without handcrafted worlds. This feels like they're just using the negative backlash at MNS to prop up their own game.
Click to expand...

They? It was Gamespot reaching out for a piece that was apropos to the 3.0 reveal at Gamescon and contrasting it to the recently controversial release of NMS.
 
A

Antilurker77

Member
Trace said:
They already said the AI isn't fully done for now. If that's the only thing they "faked" in that demo I couldn't really give a shit.

Are you one of those "Star Citizen is a scam" people?
Click to expand...

Are you one of those "twentieth time's the charm" people? Literally every single release from CIG has been a broken, buggy mess of half-implemented features. 3.0 will be no different. It's history repeating itself over and over again.
 
R

RK9039

Member
Caddyshack said:
An enjoyable game?
Click to expand...

Sure, to you and many others I imagine.

However empty promises, shallow gameplay, tedious progression and an endless grind is something Star Citizen hopefully won't have. Let it cook, we literally got our first taste of what this beast actually is.
 
D

Dougald

Member
CHC said:
It is not in any way, shape, or form a normal development cycle. They basically have nearly unlimited funds (over $100 million as of right now) and free reign to do whatever they can dream up. It's going to be a long time before each "module" of gameplay is finished and tied together, but bits and pieces are being made and slowly connected. It's probably going to be at least 4 years before something truly "finished" reaches regular consumers, but work is proceeding pretty transparently.

For example, the 3.0 update is due very soon and that will basically be the demo you saw at Gamescom. Granted, it won't be much more than that demo, but it's there and playable - they're not showing something fake.

But like I said, if you're someone like me who is basically waiting for a complete or nearly complete game, it's probably best to just forget about SC for the time being and come back in a couple years.
Click to expand...

This is correct and I feel the amount of money has allowed them to do everything, which is great, but at the end of the day you have to lock down what's going into the finished product and what's going into updates/expansions, rather than trying for everything. Otherwise you end up like Duke Nukem Forever, a game restarted umpteen times because it wasn't perfect

I admire Chris Roberts' vision and enthusiasm but that's not the way to create a finished product


AwesomeMeat said:
Elite Dangerous plans to do most of what SC is doing albeit in different ways. Yes, ED is currently in far better shape and seemed to have a more focused timeline.

I love ED and currently it is one of the games I play the most. SC is just approaching it differently. ED wants to release "seasons" that add big game play mechanics while SC is releasing smaller individual modules with hopes of combining them later.
Click to expand...

Personally the frontier model is the "right" way to do it, even though SC looks far more impressive, one gives you an actual finished title to put out and improve as time goes by, and the other leads to perpetual development hell

I'd be interested to see if Elite has most of the same features as Star Citizen by the time it releases
 
nekkid

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Tagyhag said:
While I would LOVE for Star Citizen to be all its hyped up to be, I hope after NMS people don't fall for the exact same cycle and end up being disappointed again.

I feel it's a bit ironic media and some gamers are basically like "NMS might have failed to do this, but this time it's different!"
Click to expand...

I agree, but in this case I don't think Star Citizen is surrounded by questions about "what do you do?" which makes people at generally more confident about enjoying it.
 
R

roMonster

Member
nekkid said:
I agree, but in this case I don't think Star Citizen is surrounded by questions about "what do you do?" which makes people at generally more confident about enjoying it.
Click to expand...

The question about this game is, "What is it?" Which imo is much more dangerous than what happened with NMS.

This game has the NMS hype + peoples money. Good luck to 'em.
 
L

Lime

Member
Trace said:
You want either this or this. Those both get you a starter ship, along with the singleplayer portion Squadron 42 and the MMO Star Citizen when they release. Every other ship that's being sold will be attainable in-game.
Click to expand...

I'm not really feeling the ship designs and the 3 month insurance thing is kind of stressing.
 
R

RK9039

Member
roMonster said:
The question about this game is, "What is it?" Which imo is much more dangerous than what happened with NMS.

This game has the NMS hype + peoples money. Good luck to 'em.
Click to expand...

Well to me this game is basically a better version of Elite Dangerous, if that's all it ends up being I'll be more than happy.
 
W

_woLf

Member
tci said:
Impressive, since SC isn't even close to launch. Opinions like this is even worse than people hyping shit for no good reason.
Click to expand...

It's almost as if because it's not even close to launch is exactly why I'm disappointed in it!

It's as if they took my money almost 4 years ago and promised a November 2014 release date on their kickstarter, yet we still have practically nothing and the stuff we do have runs like garbage on even the best machines. Meanwhile they continue to charge hundreds of dollars for more ships that you may at some point get to actually pilot.

Imagine that.
 
A

Armaros

Member
_woLf said:
It's almost as if because it's not even close to launch is exactly why I'm disappointed in it!

It's as if they took my money almost 4 years ago and promised a November 2014 release date on their kickstarter, yet we still have practically nothing and the stuff we do have runs like garbage on even the best machines. Meanwhile they continue to charge hundreds of dollars for more ships that you may at some point get to actually pilot.

Imagine that.
Click to expand...

It runs like garbage because of server netcode from the cryengine that can't handle it, which is why they have stated they are working on it.
But you would know this if you actually kept up with information.

rubes7844 said:
At least No Man's Sky released and when it promised the moon, it didn't ask for crowdfunding.
Click to expand...

At least Cloud Imperium is being transparent about what they are working on instead of hiding behind e3 videos and appearances on the Colbert Show.
 
C

Cartman86

Banned
Rising_Hei said:
Can't they hype this game without shitting on No Man's? they are growing really really tiresome.
Click to expand...

Roberts name dropped No Man's Sky and Elite in the demonstration. In a perfectly valid, non-confrontational way to demonstrate how similar and how different Star Citizen is.

People should just watch the Gamescom demonstration.
 
E

epmode

Member
rubes7844 said:
At least No Man's Sky released and when it promised the moon, it didn't ask for crowdfunding.
Click to expand...

A game with Star Citizen's scope would never have been funded otherwise. Publishers tend to play it safe, especially when it comes to big money projects.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
Dougald said:
Is Star Citizen ever actually coming out? The game seems like a textbook example of scope creep for any software development class to use

Elite: Dangerous may have been lampooned as doing far less, but they were both kickstarted at the same time and Elite has been out a couple of years now, even having its first expansion, whereas Star Citizen seems to be trying to do way too much
Click to expand...

Star Citizen is highly unique in the fact that they have no incentive to actually release a cohesive finished product that is labeled with any sort of finality, which of course can then be countered with reviews criticism from critics and bring the funding down a notch. Their business model is literally profitable on being a hype machine full of potential and feeding the community pieces along the way. Im not doubting there isnt a big working game world somewhere down the road but there is so much money at play here, with a fanatical fanbase that is eating everything they do up, that skeptical is the only way to approach the project until it launches, let alone dump hundreds of dollars on it. I paid the initial kickstarter fee way back in the day and thats it.


Dictator93 said:
By having gamespot write the headline and frame the article as such?

YEAH, TOTALLY CIG'S INTENTION AND NOT GAMESPOTS.
Click to expand...

Roberts directly mentioned NMS and took subtle shots at it during its hype-conference-payfornewships presentation last week so they obviously are comparable in some way.
 
W

_woLf

Member
Armaros said:
It runs like garbage because of server netcode from the cryengine that can't handle it, which is why they have stated they are working on it.
But you would know this if you actually kept up with information.
Click to expand...

Oh, they released something that was broken as fuck, but they're working on it with no timeline -- that makes it okay?

Maybe they should have done more research into the netcode issues associated with their engine of choice instead of bloating their promises with hundreds of stretch goals.

Star Citizen suffers from complete lack of any kind of project management. It always has.

Even the hangar module runs like shit. It's a complete joke.

At some point Star Citizen might be a good game. But it's been nothing but smoke and mirrors tied behind tons of stretch goals and project bloat with practically no tangible results for those who believed in their vision 4 years ago.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Star Citizen's planets are just the epitome of boredom from what I've seen. Lifeless rocks and not a blade of grass or fauna in sight.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
Star Citizen is one of those games I will only buy into when an significant single player part is done and released, and not one second before that. I hope they pull of what they want to do, but I don't trust them to do it at all.
 
R

RK9039

Member
Pie and Beans said:
Star Citizen's planets are just the epitome of boredom from what I've seen. Lifeless rocks and not a blade of grass or fauna in sight.
Click to expand...

It's a work in progress, they're going to show version 2 planets in October. They already talked about forests and oceans.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
I enjoy what Elite is doing, I'm loving my time in No Man's Sky, I'm greatly looking forward to the finished version of Star Citizen('s singleplayer).


Really amazing time to be a fan of the space sim genre after a couple of dire dire years.
 
V

Vaga

Member
5-10 years and $100 mil later maybe. Outside of the visuals and that streaming tech everything else about the demo felt stale. Silly comparison though.

It's gonna be a long time till we get that interstellar game we look for.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
~Kinggi~ said:
took subtle shots at it during its hype-conference-payfornewships presentation last week so they obviously are comparable in some way.
Click to expand...

It is comparison by way of contingency and genre. Roberts or CIG did not develop a massive 1 hr long demo for months on end with the sole purpose of drawing under-the-table comparisons to NMS or Elite. The decision to frame it in that manner (as the title of the article implies) is all on the outlets covering it in such a way.

Here for example is Polygon's article, which does not do that.
 
M

Maddanth

Member
Wow this game looks incredible. When is supposed to release? This was first video I watched on this game, I guess I should look more into it though as allot of people in the thread don't think it will be what it promises ? I only watched about 20 minutes of video but from what I watched and what there saying this game is supposed to be sounds pretty incredible. Will it turn out that way tho? I guess only time will tell.
 
T

Theanine3D

Member
I hope I live long enough to actually play this game.

I don't like that Elite is charging for all of the new stuff they release (Horizons for $30, forget it). I want to buy 1 product and know that it's got everything I want already. So I've passed on Elite in hopes that this one won't disappoint.
 
K

KKRT00

Member
Heh, new thread where most people didnt watch the presentation and shitposting has begone again...

---
_woLf said:
Oh, they released something that was broken as fuck, but they're working on it with no timeline -- that makes it okay?

Maybe they should have done more research into the netcode issues associated with their engine of choice instead of bloating their promises with hundreds of stretch goals.

Star Citizen suffers from complete lack of any kind of project management. It always has.

Even the hangar module runs like shit. It's a complete joke.

At some point Star Citizen might be a good game. But it's been nothing but smoke and mirrors tied behind tons of stretch goals and project bloat with practically no tangible results for those who believed in their vision 4 years ago.
Click to expand...

Seems like you should apply for a project management position there. You would probably did network handling of a solar system with a microscale in a month or two.
 
Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Member
Oh so we're already jumping on the next dream bandwagon where we imagine the potential of a game with rose tinted glasses and just kinda hope it'll be everything we have been hoping for since decades?

That could not possibly disapoint gamers again, could it? Noooo

Let's not learn anything from the whole NMS ordeal.

SC is already so inflated with hope, its fans (especially reddit) are already pretty much turning this game into a sect, just look at the gamescom conference with fans orgasming over a ship's door opening. It'll have the same result as NMS in the end, because the SC bubble keeps inflating and is already larger than anything else out there.
 
H

Huge Succeeded

Banned
Buggy Loop said:
Oh so we're already jumping on the next dream bandwagon where we imagine the potential of a game with rose tinted glasses and just kinda hope it'll be everything we have been hoping for since decades?

That could not possibly disapoint gamers again, could it? Noooo

Let's not learn anything from the whole NMS ordeal.
Click to expand...

I want you to think hard on the word 'transparency', what it means, and how it differentiates those two projects.
 
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