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As Scam Citizen turns eight years old, the single-player campaign still sounds a long way off

manfestival

Member
Got into the $45 pledge through a friend. They talked me into it some years back. I go into the game mainly to play with those friends every now and then. The combat and everything just feels so dull and lifeless. Start feeling sleepy playing the game about 10 minutes in.... that is even 10 minutes of walking around just to get to my ship so I can fly to a mission that will take another 10 minutes to get to.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte
Btw since they prepped this shit before 2012 and I kickstarted in 2012, I'm going to say it has been 10 years since. They also said no more than 5 years to finish everything a week or so ago. Despite my 0% trust in this project these days, I would LOVE to be proven wrong, but I just don't see that happening. Of course all the nuts keep saying 'the scope has changed, we voted for it, we all wanted it to grow infinitely'... to which I say, I sure fucking didn't ask for that. It is not unreasonable to ask for a strong estimated time frame and a solid wrap up of a product for a full release. 🤪
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
The order in which they are doing things is weird. It's like they focus more on ships than anything else. There's one star system with a handful of planets, maybe 6 or 7, The ships are the best part of the game and seem to be the most polished aspect, but even they have bugs and balancing issues. Missions they released years ago are still bugged and a lot of times cannot be completed.

Cargo sometimes leaves your ship with no explanation barely any of the npcs are interactable. Space combat is fun, but there's just not enough to do. You either hunt down bounties, go destroy some other target, transport cargo or mine. I'd like to see conflicts between planets. Some sort of war between the factions. Larger space dogfights.

That being said, there are some very cool things in the game. You can put yourself in the hospital and they have hospital beds where you lay down and a console comes above your head and you use the touchscreen to choose your treatment or administer drugs.

I like that weather plays a larger role than I've seen in No Man's Sky. You got your hot and cold environments, but also wind can have a huge effect on your ability to land properly or keep your ship stable once it's on the ground. It's annoying to combat with the elements like that, but it's realistic. Land on a planet with hurricane force winds and its hard to land...and if you have a small ship, no guarantee it won't be blown down the landscape.

I like searching wreckage for loot and sometimes coming across AI scavengers who may have gotten there first.

Being able to store ground vehicles in the cargo bay of your larger ship is awesome. The mining minigame is unique and fresh. There's surely a lot to love about Star Citizen. I think they should just debug the game, polish it up as is and then just keep building on it.

Right now it has a flimsy foundation that they keep stacking features on without giving it's supporters the chance to really enjoy what's already there.
 

Honey Bunny

Member
Wait, wait, wait...

You're telling me despite how nowhere near finished this game is, they managed to get all this Hollywood talent? Is this a full single player game within their unfinished game?
Thats right, the original game was just thr singleplayer before the KS money flooded in. Theres some very flashy trailers of it from I think 3 years ago and we havent seen anything since. Original release date November 2014!
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Their roadmaps are not worth the paper they are printed on.


They said Squadron 42 would come at the end of 2015. Their latest update only had 3 of the promised features in it which is less than a FOURTH of what was supposed to be there.


Their "roadmap" is worthless.

3.15 took longer, that’s why. 3.16 was always a smaller patch compared to others.

Jigsaah Jigsaah You can’t always polish a game if other systems are not yet online. The Pyro system will come online together with server meshing. Then they can expand the game drastically. They have a dedicated team in montreal only working on star systems. There are already multiple systems in the works or done, but can’t be implemented because of some tech that isn’t online yet.
 
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bitbydeath

Member
Probably beta release next year if were lucky
A comment from two years ago.
Captain America Lol GIF by mtv
 
If bernie madoff had been doing something wrong, he wouldn't have had any investors.

Oh wait..

People throwing money at something unfortunately isn't at all a sign that something is sensible, or even legitimate.

Having said that, I don't think star citizen was, or is, intended to be a scam. If it was, Chris Roberts wouldn't employ and pay nearly a thousand people (he could've run a scam with much much fewer people at lower costs to keep it going).

I do however think the guy most be an absolutely awful manager and game developer. It's absolutely fine - nay, great even - to be ambitious. But if you're overambitious and can't deliver, it reflects very poorly on your competency.
If after almost a decade and record breaking funding, you have very very little to show for and no clear release timeline.. It's fairly evident which category of person he is.
Chris Roberts gets to LARP as a big time game developer and enjoy a pretty decent millionaire lifestyle in LA.

We are looking at a real life rendition of this
 
There's a reason why snake oil salesmen travel from town to town. Because they don't want to be around when the townsfolk realize they've been sold super expensive aloe vera.

NeoGAF has very specific feelings about what a game is. When a project breeds success that doesn't adhere to that narrow vision, it's often labeled a scam.

Take for example Horizon Forbidden West (a NeoGAF type game). It's taken 5 years of development. It hasn't been playable to anyone.

Star Citizen is probably 100x more ambitious than Horizon Forbidden West, but it's multiplayer focused, it has been playable, and we're only on year 8 of development.

I honestly don't see the problem.

More ambitious projects should take longer.

Errrr.... Horizon Forbidden West isn't funded by one of the biggest if not the biggest crowdfunding project of all time.

Neither does it swab up even more funding by selling digital space ships to whales for 10s of thousands of US dollars per ship.

I'm frankly utterly baffled and dumbfounded that you would attempt to make such an absurd comparison without acknowledging the two colossal fucking elephants in the room.
 
Starfield and Creation Engine 2 will be eye candy for sure. But I agree: Squadron 42 is different level. Plus they constantly upgrade their pipeline quality.

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This is the problem.

The longer development takes, the more likely they will be left behind technologically when the game eventually ships. But they can't do that, so they spend even more time upgrading their tech in order to keep up with the technological trends... only that that means they have to rework all their assets too, so they spend time that should be spent on making new content to finish the game, reworking the stuff they've already made.

It's a neverending chasing after a moving target. Anyone that has even an iota of an idea about project management will tell you that the number one thing you need to do to ever have a chance at delivering a project is define the project scope and stick with it. Star Citizen's scope is just ever-increasingly ballooning. If you think the game will ever be finishing you're delusional.
 

Utherellus

Member
Wait, wait, wait...

You're telling me despite how nowhere near finished this game is, they managed to get all this Hollywood talent? Is this a full single player game within their unfinished game?

They are making 2 games at the same time which share the same universe: Star Citizen(MMO) and Squadron 42 (single player campaign)


Why are you surprised about the cast? Chris Roberts made several Wing Commander games back in 90s with Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies.

Squadron 42 is spiritual successor of Wing Commander.


MV5BNjdlYjQ3ZTktNmFlMS00Y2Q3LWI4Y2UtMTQxYmJiZWRiMDQ5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxODYyODI@._V1_.jpg


ru2o1cbluqr11.png


Performance capture was done in Imaginarium - UK based Mocap studio of Andy Serkis, who also took a role himself ingame.

Most of actors are UK based, who always had contact with Chris Roberts - british himself.



 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Errrr.... Horizon Forbidden West isn't funded by one of the biggest if not the biggest crowdfunding project of all time.

Neither does it swab up even more funding by selling digital space ships to whales for 10s of thousands of US dollars per ship.

I'm frankly utterly baffled and dumbfounded that you would attempt to make such an absurd comparison without acknowledging the two colossal fucking elephants in the room.

I didn't fund Horizon Forbidden West.
I didn't fund Star Citizen.

It's all the same to me.

Let people buy what they want. The market is richer and healthier when we have a bunch of different business models producing a wider variety of projects. Star Citizen is filling a niche that people want to see filled. More power to em.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I didn't fund Horizon Forbidden West.
I didn't fund Star Citizen.

It's all the same to me.

Let people buy what they want. The market is richer and healthier when we have a bunch of different business models producing a wider variety of projects. Star Citizen is filling a niche that people want to see filled. More power to em.

The fact that you keep comparing Forbidden West to Star Citizen shows how little of an argument you really have.
 
No, I’m not really close to the situation at hand. But if they were doing something wrong, they wouldn’t have any users. From what I can tell, this game is huge, and we know that all games with a giant scope Have unforeseen issues with them. But from what I can tell, this game is much larger than cyberpunk and somehow manages to have fewer bugs.
you underestimate stupidity.

i mean people sold mountain air in bottles……
 
I only bought in a few years ago for like 40 or 50 bucks and never donated or spent a dime more....I think its pretty wack(And while not a scam by legal means, its definitely a huge finesse lol) and I usually only install it once every few months just to test it out and then uninstall it.

But ever since this new update hit(3.16) I can't even get it to install(I click install on the RSI Launcher, it prompts me to agree with the terms...then it just sits there lol)...On a system with a 5950x 32gb of RAM and an 3090..Trying to install it to one of my 980 Pro's...It does nothing..Tried all the troubleshooting I could so I dunno..might go try it on the other PC downstairs

For the people who so strongly defend it here why don't you show some raw gameplay footage of it...of you doing something..I always see folks who defend the game showing off youtube videos from personalities...nah just turn on twitch, and stream some raw footage? Howcome that never happens?
 
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They are making 2 games at the same time which share the same universe: Star Citizen(MMO) and Squadron 42 (single player campaign)


Why are you surprised about the cast? Chris Roberts made several Wing Commander games back in 90s with Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies.

Squadron 42 is spiritual successor of Wing Commander.


MV5BNjdlYjQ3ZTktNmFlMS00Y2Q3LWI4Y2UtMTQxYmJiZWRiMDQ5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxODYyODI@._V1_.jpg


ru2o1cbluqr11.png


Performance capture was done in Imaginarium - UK based Mocap studio of Andy Serkis, who also took a role himself ingame.

Most of actors are UK based, who always had contact with Chris Roberts - british himself.




This looks phenomenal and the upgrades look generational.
 
Got into the $45 pledge through a friend. They talked me into it some years back. I go into the game mainly to play with those friends every now and then. The combat and everything just feels so dull and lifeless. Start feeling sleepy playing the game about 10 minutes in.... that is even 10 minutes of walking around just to get to my ship so I can fly to a mission that will take another 10 minutes to get to.
Yep.

That's what I get looking at gameplay of this game. So tell me how many people will enjoy simple things like that when it takes 3 or 4 actions and minutes to accomplish these things.
There's a video where entering a planets atmosphere takes like 2 mins.
I get that this game is trying to add realism to things but there's a moment where you have to draw the line and finalize the game.
With these devs there isn't a line.
It's just add more stuff here and add more stuff there as it goes on and on. Where do you say lets stop adding more features and release the full game for everyone to play.
 

luffie

Member
Elden Ring 2 and Cp2077-2 will be out before Sq42.

While SC copers still remark about their fidelity, most games will utilize Lumen tech like Unreal, leaving SC in the dust

I say 2030 for sq42 release, and I'm being generous.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
This is the problem.

The longer development takes, the more likely they will be left behind technologically when the game eventually ships. But they can't do that, so they spend even more time upgrading their tech in order to keep up with the technological trends... only that that means they have to rework all their assets too, so they spend time that should be spent on making new content to finish the game, reworking the stuff they've already made.

It's a neverending chasing after a moving target. Anyone that has even an iota of an idea about project management will tell you that the number one thing you need to do to ever have a chance at delivering a project is define the project scope and stick with it. Star Citizen's scope is just ever-increasingly ballooning. If you think the game will ever be finishing you're delusional.

That’s not a problem. Look at the tech from their latests Citizencon and tell me if some other game even comes close to that? The graphics and engine team are not sitting and eating out of their noses or something.

I only bought in a few years ago for like 40 or 50 bucks and never donated or spent a dime more....I think its pretty wack(And while not a scam by legal means, its definitely a huge finesse lol) and I usually only install it once every few months just to test it out and then uninstall it.

But ever since this new update hit(3.16) I can't even get it to install(I click install on the RSI Launcher, it prompts me to agree with the terms...then it just sits there lol)...On a system with a 5950x 32gb of RAM and an 3090..Trying to install it to one of my 980 Pro's...It does nothing..Tried all the troubleshooting I could so I dunno..might go try it on the other PC downstairs

For the people who so strongly defend it here why don't you show some raw gameplay footage of it...of you doing something..I always see folks who defend the game showing off youtube videos from personalities...nah just turn on twitch, and stream some raw footage? Howcome that never happens?

First you say you have access yourself, then people needs to provide footage of them playing the game? I mean there are s lot of random gameplay footage from SC on youtube. What “raw” gameplay do you need? Really a stupid argument…just give me a break with this negativity.
 
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Utherellus

Member
Bored Gamer is the largest Star Citizen shill on YouTube. He wouldn't put anything on his channel that bashes CIG or SC.

His financial stability relies on SC being a success.

How he dares not hating the game he constantly plays with friends and enjoys.

P.S. Actually he criticizes and talks about problems of problems very often. But for that to know, you should have seen more than 3 videos of him.
 

Inviusx

Member
How he dares not hating the game he constantly plays with friends and enjoys.

P.S. Actually he criticizes and talks about problems of problems very often. But for that to know, you should have seen more than 3 videos of him.

I wouldn't call anything he says as "criticising" in the slightest. He sweeps everything worth criticising under the rug and pretends that everything is OK.

He drinks the cool-aid more than those die hards over on the official Reddit.

If Star Citizen were the Republican party, he would be Fox News.
 

Utherellus

Member
And i thought kojima was the worse when it comes to wasting money on famous actors...

Oscar winning films have worse cast than this thing...
As I said earlier, Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies already took roles in Wing Commander games back in 1995.

These two are back as reunion for spiritual successor of Wing Commander. Others are mostly UK based actors who crossed Chris Roberts in Hollywood through decades.

queegmovie19.jpg
 

GymWolf

Member
As I said earlier, Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies already took roles in Wing Commander games back in 1995.

These two are back as reunion for spiritual successor of Wing Commander. Others are mostly UK based actors who crossed Chris Roberts in Hollywood through decades.

queegmovie19.jpg
You still have to pay them a buckload of money i think...
 

GymWolf

Member
ye, I guess.

But it's still nice to see those all together. Most of them genuinely have passion for Sci-fi epic.
It is nice but i'm always strongly against super famous actors...it is a waste of money and an excuse to have middling writing because people are just gonna like the digital acting performances anyway, just look at death stranding where actors can say lines like princess beach and journalists\fanboy eat that shit up with a grin in their face.
 
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MrTentakel

Member
Let people buy what they want. The market is richer and healthier when we have a bunch of different business models producing a wider variety of projects. Star Citizen is filling a niche that people want to see filled. More power to em.

Yeah, thanks for DLC, loot boxes, GAAS and our new "I don`t care what people do with their money" NFT economy in games.
 

Sentenza

Member
On a side note I just recently started using Voice Attack with this game.
It's a little software also available on Steam that allows you to set and use voice commands to use macro and functions in games.
I tried it once with Mount & Blade Bannerlords, but holy shit if it isn't a match made in Heaven for these types of space sims.

Sitting on your ship flying around and turning things on and off with a brief voice command is a fucking blast.
 

manfestival

Member
Yep.

That's what I get looking at gameplay of this game. So tell me how many people will enjoy simple things like that when it takes 3 or 4 actions and minutes to accomplish these things.
There's a video where entering a planets atmosphere takes like 2 mins.
I get that this game is trying to add realism to things but there's a moment where you have to draw the line and finalize the game.
With these devs there isn't a line.
It's just add more stuff here and add more stuff there as it goes on and on. Where do you say lets stop adding more features and release the full game for everyone to play.
It can be confusing when trying to exit the atmosphere. There are also certain things(more like many things) that aren't just known and have to be figured out. Even exiting the atmosphere won't happen unless you have the correct angle since you won't have enough to get through. The other thing is, if your ship explodes then(depending on insurance) you will have to wait anywhere from a minute(maybe?) to like 15 minutes for insurance to "recover/replace" your ship. Also the last place you slept at is your "home" unless you have a ship that allows you to register to it. So if something kills you like.... taking an elevator across the galaxy. Well then you go back to your home and your ship remains there until you claim it on insurance lol.
 
That’s not a problem. Look at the tech from their latests Citizencon and tell me if some other game even comes close to that? The graphics and engine team are not sitting and eating out of their noses or something.
The comparison would be valid if Star Citizen is an actual game. It's not. So when you compare to "other games" your logic falls flat.

Regardless, this is not even a meaningful rebuttal of my point. Updating the base technology often requires a re-work of art assets and the images I quoted in my post of the SQ42 assets represent a prime example of this.

No one is arguing that the tech teams should be sitting on their hands, but the fucking game isn't finished and so the remaining tech required to finish the game should be prioritized, but instead, they prioritize working on new and updating existing tech so that they can show ever more impressive demos at their annual Citizencon.

That should raise red flags! If every Citizencon they're showing flashy new tech, it demonstrates a focus on being able to show new flashy shit to keep the scam going, instead of actually making progress on the tech that will allow them to finish the fucking game.
 
this game is much larger than cyberpunk and somehow manages to have fewer bugs.
Haha, what?!?! There isn't even a "game" here. Nothing is fully fleshed out. How can we call it a game? It's a glorified demo right now with 80% of the content completely missing.

- There is one system and its stripped bare of almost anything.
- There are basic missions who's rewards are meaningless.
- There are basic NPCs who do nothing.
- There are basic environments to walk around that do nothing and have nothing.
- Everything in the game is "work in progress" and waiting on something else we're told.

"Oh the NPCs are hollow shells because we need the missions that involve them but the missions that involve NPCs are waiting on the rewards system that is waiting on the stations in space to have events which are waiting on the asteroids which are waiting on the NPC shell to give you missions."

This is the type of circular development and explanations that get told. Follow the discussions and map they've provided. They complete 2/20 things and throw a party. They literally have CREATED ships that are useful for features not even in the game yet!
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
The comparison would be valid if Star Citizen is an actual game. It's not. So when you compare to "other games" your logic falls flat.

Regardless, this is not even a meaningful rebuttal of my point. Updating the base technology often requires a re-work of art assets and the images I quoted in my post of the SQ42 assets represent a prime example of this.

No one is arguing that the tech teams should be sitting on their hands, but the fucking game isn't finished and so the remaining tech required to finish the game should be prioritized, but instead, they prioritize working on new and updating existing tech so that they can show ever more impressive demos at their annual Citizencon.

That should raise red flags! If every Citizencon they're showing flashy new tech, it demonstrates a focus on being able to show new flashy shit to keep the scam going, instead of actually making progress on the tech that will allow them to finish the fucking game.

They are showing what they've worked on every fucking week. Do you even follow the project, almost everything on the roadmap are stuff that they already have announced with some new things.

Should we call early access games "not actual games" anymore from now on then, because i bet you play games that are early access for years without a 1.0 release but everyone enjoys it.

Star Citizen is a MMO...it really doesn't need to have a real release. The only game that needs a release is Squadron 42.
 
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