spacegg

I have never been into MMORPG genre but this game has some features which makes it sound more interesting than others. Especially how they have planned to make dynamic world to work sounds interesting.

$150 was (Kickstarter) / is a bit too much for me to get access to Alpha version myself but it will be interesting to see how its dynamic world / node system will work out. Soon we should know much more ...

Star Citizen: Great fun alone and with friends. Waiting for SC PU Alpha 3.14

Sindome: The best cyberpunk game I have played.

X4: Foundations: One of those games I start from the beginning again and again. Despite its weak points it is definitely one of the best games I have player recent years. Looking forward upcoming "multiplayer" support.

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War: Just got it from Steam. After couple of hours it has made good enough impression to play it much more.

@turtlefish:

Sure - but there's a difference between a tech demo and a fully functioning game. And it's not just graphics (though, obviously that's a big part of the draw) - it's game physics, it's enemy AI, it's object tracking, it's UI/UX, it's all sorts of things you can do when you have more CPU cycles to burn and more memory to cache objects in.

This exactly. It is common to see someone coming with (usually) UE4/5 demo and start to praise how amazing upcoming games will be compared to current ones. As you said there is still a long way to go to have those amazing games. New improvements in UE5 could make that work much more easier when certain burdens are off your chest and many resources are saved.

I have no concerns about Star Engine and I kind of need to just have faith that they keep improving it as they have done all these years. There are more detailed information about the improvements in their monthly reports.

But there are exceptions. I wish you luck, and maybe CIG will be one of them.

I hope Star Citizen is an exception. I would be greatly disappointed to not have a game like it. No matter how many great space games there are released already I just don't see them as an alternative to SC. Of course I hope that someday they will be.

I wouldn't pay that much for current AAA games but I have paid that and even more for indie games just to show support. It would great to finally discover some AAA game which would look so interesting that I would be ready to pay $70 for it.

@bigsocrates:

I'm still not aware of games which has had all the same core techs in use for decades. You guys keep saying they exists and I would definitely like to hear about them and give them a try. More great games to play, the better.

Chris has made clear that they will not cut corners until it is totally necessary. They have been in a position that there has been no need to cut corners so far and this is one reason why I think the current way of development has worked well.
I'm personally much more willing to wait than have some simplified version which wouldn't nowhere near match even with current alpha versions.

It is impossible to say how things would have go but to me it feels like that spending few years of making extremely more simpler game with limited features and without all these core techs would have not made projects like SQ42 and Star Citizen PU possible as we know them now.

And I don't even understand how any of these things affect Squadron 42, which, again, was supposed to be a single player Wing Commander-like experience.

Sure, not all core techs, like server meshing, are affecting to Squadron 42 but some of them are like (S)SOCS and iCache. If I remember right the game was planned to be first-person space adventure with few focus areas. That is already pretty vague but SQ42 is very different project today anyway. So in current projects things like physicalized inventories/containers and objects, physicalized ship components, Mag stripping/refill (bullet by bullet), etc. are very relevant.

@bigsocrates:

People have explained what they could have done differently. Lock the specs. Finish making a fully functioning playable version of the game. Add additional features and systems over time, like a half dozen other games people have mentioned in this thread.

This is exactly what they are doing. But since the core techs are not ready they currently have to use placeholders.

• Missions are not dynamic or chained because Quantum, etc. are not ready yet (Tony's video in OP)
• All players are not sharing the same universe because server meshing, etc. are not ready yet.
• No physical inventories or one is not able to take a battery out of radio, fly to planet X, drop battery there, some other player go to pick it up and use it another radio because iCache, etc. are not ready yet.
• ...

Core techs affects every aspect of the game. What they could do is release very bare bone version of Star Citizen PU and start to iterate it. Alpha 3.14 is the next iteration.

Squadron 42 depends on many of these core techs as well. As you can see from their Jira (Roadmap) they are working on these core techs and systems which are using them. It is not possible to make fully fuctioning playable version of SQ42 and SC PU with current specs without those techs and systems.

@bigsocrates:

Look at @spacegg. He's not saying "I love imagining what this game could be." He's saying that he thinks production is going well because they have roadmaps and plans. I mean buddy is out here diligently filling out bug reports. BUG REPORTS. He's paying to do playtesting, which is a beautiful inversion of how it's supposed to work. Buddy does not think it's just about daydreaming.

Well, I think the current way of development works because CIG is able to continue developing their two projects without restrictions and backers gets new versions to test. I don't see how it is not working for CIG and what would be better and faster way backers to get SQ42 and SC PU with planned features while still having possibility to give different iterations a try.

I'm not paying to do playtesting. You made a ~$45 pledge one time to get SQ42 and SC PU and also you got access to alpha versions. Testing is voluntary.

Sending bug reports is a common practice when one is doing alpha or beta testing but no one is forced to do so. Just doing anything in test versions gives them data and helps them on development. Test phase gives also a good change to send them feedback.

I test Star Citizen because it is more fun than playing most of the released games. It is a good way to support projects you like.

@bigsocrates:

What bothers everyone is your insistence that this has been a well-managed project and denial that CID has been deeply dysfunctional in a development process where they have continually failed to hit their goals and are still in a state where they have to pull stuff from the alpha build because their code hasn't come together yet.

I look this project pretty simple way. CIG has been able to continue the development thanks to solid support and they have been able to release test version for backers which has kept them, me included, happy so far. That's pretty much it.

Then what comes to project management and missed goals. Yes, they have missed goals and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons behind it. For example as far as I know they had iCache implementation already in testing in-house, but they pulled that version back because found regressions. I'm not going to bash Mark and other core devs and blame them because they had to delay features because of that - yet another missed goals. Next try in Alpha 3.15.

In the end we know very little about the development. What is happening in their repos, meetings and about all the issues they have with these core techs. These techs is all new to them as well so more issues (and delays) is still expected. I really hope that once they get them "done" things gets easier when the rest of the project can lay on solid foundation.

I still don't believe that making some much more simpler games without all these techs would have been better way to go. Yes, we would have got an "modern Wing Commander" but what about Squadron 42 and Star Citizen PU as we know them now?

How am I disrespecting any other developers? I enjoy playing many space games but none of them provides Star Citizen experience. I play X4: Foundations because Star Citizen doesn't provide the same experience.

I take this easy and enjoy the ride.

@gundato: Maybe you could finally reveal these other project which provides Star Citizen experience so me and other backers could start to play them already.

No, I don't know any other project that would give me Star Citizen experience. Yes, the project may very well fail.

Should me and others just give up and stop testing and enjoying it? Just keep continuing playing E:D, Empyrion and others and hope that one day they will be like Star Citizen.

The topic of this week's ISC is upcoming Alpha 3.14

Not the most exciting release but there are some nice features I'm looking forward like new UI/HUD, power management v2 and missile operator task.