Star Citizen reaches 1.5M Backers, $120M Funding

[Pedro]

I'm somewhere in the middle. Yes it's admirable that they upped the scope of the title in order to match the money that had come in - but the games industry is a different beast to what it once was. Jumping right into a project of that scale as a studios first project (or even second) isn't wise no matter how much money you have available. You need to get the right internal structure first, expanding too fast is a nightmare (I could go on for hours about the various issues fast expansion caused Free Radical going from Timesplitters to simultaneously developing Haze and Battlefront 3). My own experiences in the industry have very much curbed my enthusiasm for Star Citizen as its scope has expanded.

Personally I'd have produced squadron 42 as quickly as possible to get the basic tech in place, balancing, controls etc etc. The CryEngine was picked and I'm increasingly hearing from those (comparatively very small number of) studios using it that it has more than its fair share of development difficulties. Star Citizen has tried to merged multiple genres in an expansive open world and persistent online; any one of those is a significant challenge. Personally I'd have pushed Squadron 42 out under CryEngine and realizing the funds available have gone with custom engine to meet the expanded Star Citizen requirements.

That said, I'm biased - I was only really ever enthusiastic about Squadron 42 as the days where I had the free time required for online games are long behind me.

 

[Lilja]

I am in two minds about Star Citizen.

I gave to SC a long long time ago, not much just enough to get a ship and help them along. I followed the project for quite some time, but lost interest after it started to become 'playable' as I just didn't have enough bandwidth to deal with all the updates. I have tried to get interested in it recently, but it seams so big now I don't know where to start, and will most likely wait for Squadron 42 before getting involved again.

The other factor that I don't like is how much money is involved. But at the same time I think that it is fantastic. $120 million . . . wow, but at the same time it really hurts to think what else that money could be used for.

I think how Chris has shaken up the games industry is brilliant, an ambitious crowd funded game that was laughed at by the big companies, and now he has broken numerous records. Had a company (such as EA) actually taken his idea on at the start, SC would not have grown to what it is today.

Long term I think that SC could be very useful to this community and allow the recreation (or perhaps preservation) of wing commader.

 

[AD]

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I have tried to get interested in it recently, but it seams so big now I don't know where to start, and will most likely wait for Squadron 42 before getting involved again.

As it's alpha the documentation for new users is... lacking. There was a tutorial level but because of the nature of development it was broken and has been disabled. The best way to get used to flight is to check out the key mappings in the menu and then load up a drone sim in "electronic access." Pick "free flight" and then just get a feel for the movement and controls. Once you're comfortable, give vanduul swarm a try. It's basically a gauntlet style level.

If you want pointers there's several streamers with youtube channels full of tutorial type videos.

Alternately, if you do load up the crusader level, if you have legit questions there's usually no shortage of helpful people in the in-game chat. Most users are more than happy to have you tag along on their ships or fly on your wing and give you pointers... Yeah there's a few jerks in game but overall the community is pretty postitive and helpful.

 

[dennis12]

Hopefully it will be great, No Man's Sky was a great disappointment for me :\

 

[Oceankhayne]

I just read this. It's a beastie, so wait until you have a good 30-60 min to knock it out.

 

[Whiplash]

I just read this. It's a beastie, so wait until you have a good 30-60 min to knock it out.

I read through it last week. It's a surprisingly unbiased and honest article, considering how poorly researched or one-sided gaming reports tend to be. Interesting peek behind the curtain of making something as ambitious as Star Citizen.

 

[Deathsnake]

I think I see what you're getting at. Fair enough. At least we agree that SQ42 should be worth the wait, regardless of how the rest of the game turns out.

I think what we see @Gamescom Demo Show what SC is going to.

Maybe Chris told in this interview again too much
CitizenCon:

"CitCon will be showing an Earth like planet demonstrating V2 of their procedural planet tech with forest, canyons, deserts etc."

“Sean [Tracy] is working hard on it with a bunch of talented people, so that's [how] we're showing off the potential of V2 planets and some of the cool stuff and play action that can happen in 3.0. We're […] taking one of the missions that's in Squadron 42 and showing how that would feel, from the briefing, to the ship, to taking off, to the mission, and the combination of flying and FPS stuff, so those are the two things we're going to show. We're going to show full-focus this is what V2 planets can do for you, then this is what Squadron 42 is going to feel like and play like, and this is the experience of a mission in SQ42.

"This is the first time we will show more complete gameplay. We showed last year at CitizenCon the walking around, talking character stuff, but it was very early. Our character tech has come on -- if you look at that and quality of characters compared to last year, it's night and day. I truly feel like our character stuff that we're showing is best in class at the moment. We're going to show a more complete: Here you are, you wake up on the ship, you get your briefing, do your mission. This is what one sequence of events, or what we call 'chapters,' of the game would feel and look like

So take your Dragonfly Space/Hoverbike and fly around a Forestmoon like Endor! And what we see again at Gamescom:

Before 2014 Autolanding like Privateer 2 - now we can land manualy
Before as a Stretch Goal in the distant future FPS on some planetareas - now we can fly from Space Combat above the Planet down to the Planet and give Ground Troops Air Support. And have there your Rovers and Dragonfly (until we get hover tanks!)

 

[Whiplash]

As cool as the Gamescom demo was, it hasn't convinced all the detractors. We'll see if the Citizencon SQ42 demo plus updated v3.0 stuff will deliver the goods. I'm very excited.

 

[Whiplash]

So if anyone is interested, Gamersnexus did an interview with Chris, and another with Sean Tracy which will be posted later this week.

Part 1:
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/2613-...-citizen-procedural-planets-alpha3-citizencon

Part 2:
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/2617-chris-roberts-on-character-technology-weather-system-engine-arch
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/2617-chris-roberts-on-character-technology-weather-system-engine-arch
Some really interesting tidbits in there about the upcoming CitizenCon demo.

In part 2, CR talks at length about why they try to build a game system the "right" way, taking the long term view, as opposed to the "get it out quick" way. I found it quite interesting.

 

[Toast]

I just read this. It's a beastie, so wait until you have a good 30-60 min to knock it out.

The title was a little clickbaity with the use of the word "troubled". Work at most tech companies, gaming or otherwise, is rarely what you'd call a smooth, trouble-free ride. Trouble is par for the course unless the work you're doing is utterly routine and the people have no personalities. I wouldn't necessarily blame the author for the title, however, since the title is often the choice and province of the editor, so regardless of the extent of the author's intent, credibility, or accuracy, it's Kotaku's editor who likely gets to name the piece, regardless of whether the author likes it or not.

Nevertheless, the title tickled me a bit, so here's my response:

pictured: troubled

Hey, I think I'm allowed a little dig at them. While I do think it was an uncommonly even-handed piece of gaming journalism, they nevertheless also reported this place right here as a Freelancer fansite. I dare someone to mistake a Klingon for a Romulan and try to pass that off as a minor mistake in front of a Star Trek audience.

 

[Deathsnake]

Meanwhile we are at 140 Million.

in the german Gamestar mag is a new article about Star Citizen. I post some after the sale of the mag is over.

But now to this
https://gfycat.com/TestyGleamingCrab
If this would not be Star Citizen - i would say - Angel, Hunter, Maniac and Bossman of a Wing Commander Rebirth