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Vapourware Scam Citizen - Only people with too much money can become StarCitizens! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
But what about Kickstarter? Come on, for 90 million I expect to see at least one death!

At this point, most of Star Citizen money was raised outside Kickstarter and its failure will not reflect itself on KS because it stopped being a KS project for well over a year now.
 

JustMyOnion

Educated
Joined
Jul 3, 2015
Messages
97
Didn't it have season pass/DLC? Budget usually includes those while they bring in additional profits.
The season pass includes a 3 hour singleplayer campaign and some multiplayer shit. Hardly something that could conceivably inflate the budget by much. It's also only $20 so even if half the base game owners bought it it would merely even out the losses.
The numbers are bullshit in any way. A $230m marketing budget? You could give the season pass its own GTA5 sized marketing campaign with that. Unless the publicly known budget for that is wrong either and it had actually a $1bn budget.
Saitek / Mad Cats are releasing their own RSI brand Hotas. I suspect they are one of the investors. Basically I would be surprised if they weren't. They are the ones who directly profit from good sims. Even better; sims that are action oriented and graphically pleasing enough to appeal to casuals expanding the market for their products.
By that logic, every PC hardware manufacturer out there is a potential investor. So far, I've seen more or less loose cooperation with Logitech and AMD, but nothing that hints at outright financial stakes in SC. Saitek probably has to pay royalties to use the brand name, maybe a set amount up front, but I wouldn't call that an investment in the game rather than their own hardware.
Remember, Star Citizen is still a "belieber" thing.
 

Duellist_D

Savant
Patron
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
383
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
I seriously doubt that Mad Catz has any budget of significant height to invest in SC.
The last years haven't exactly been ripe with games that require joysticks and Microsoft took a big chunk out of the gamepad market on PC
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,882
I seriously doubt that Mad Catz has any budget of significant height to invest in SC.
The last years haven't exactly been ripe with games that require joysticks and Microsoft took a big chunk out of the gamepad market on PC
Mad Catz sells fighting sticks for fighting games community like mad.
 

Duellist_D

Savant
Patron
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
383
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech
I honestly doubt that the fighting community is of any significant size to make the sales bring in much money.
Only talking about europe, but over here, thats a niche genre among the niche genres and turds willing to shill out for a fighting stick are even more rare.

Sincerely, a guy who had serious problems finding anybody who at least had HEARD about stuff like Guilty Gear.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,882
I honestly doubt that the fighting community is of any significant size to make the sales bring in much money.
Only talking about europe, but over here, thats a niche genre among the niche genres and turds willing to shill out for a fighting stick are even more rare.

Sincerely, a guy who had serious problems finding anybody who at least had HEARD about stuff like Guilty Gear.
In USA and Asia it is a significant community.
 

Archibald

Arcane
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
Messages
7,869
The season pass includes a 3 hour singleplayer campaign and some multiplayer shit. Hardly something that could conceivably inflate the budget by much. It's also only $20 so even if half the base game owners bought it it would merely even out the losses.

I don't think that they have any impact on budget at all, its just that game is cut into pieces and sold in chunks.
 
Unwanted
Douchebag! Shitposter
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
3,059
Why is that faggot not running with the money. What kind of faggot spits on the chance to embezzle 80 Million. It's obvious it's reached it's peak and it's only downhill from there and likely to end in a trainwreck.
 

Aenra

Guest
I recently posed a question here regarding the 32bit version of the engine and how ludicrous using that sounded for a game as "immense" as SC. I also hinted at how this made CSI look like in my eyes, in terms of competence/awareness. I was at the time corrected, and lacking insider info, well, if someone knows better, fine by me. Except i now see professionals raising that very same question, making me once again wonder at the veracity of my own thoughts. And the butthurt imminent if it's to be the case. For those of you that have yet to stumble on to it, do have a look at this, am curious to see what you think;
This is Ascent's James Hicks commenting:

On the status of the Star Citizen project: A professional opinion from Ascent: The Space Game’s James Hicks
The technical concerns
In June this year, Cloud Imperium Games made an offhand announcement to the effect that it had almost finished getting its game engine to operate in 64bit 3D space. To CIG’s fanbase, this sounded like a cool new development (which it sure is!), but in Florida it set alarm bells ringing in Derek Smart’s head, here in Australia it made me very concerned, and I can guess that somewhere in England, if he heard it, David Braben responded with something like, “Come again?”

With the absence of such an announcement until that time, I had been assuming CIG either wasn’t going to need 64bit 3-D space or had done it already and wasn’t going to announce it.

If 64bit 3-D space is something you need, and you don’t have it, it’s a complete project killer. Without a solution for 32bit vs. 64bit 3-D positioning, your engine will not have enough accuracy to display spaceships in a steady position within a large environment. This is one of the core reasons games usually avoid truly huge environments, and if you are going to “go big,” you run into problems immediately. Between frames, objects will appear to shift positions. Close to the game engine’s “0,0,0,” the effect is so small you can’t see it (less than a pixel). Get a little further away and your spaceship will seem to vibrate a little. Further still and it wiggles. Further again and it’s jittering all over the place — ugly and unplayable.

On the other hand, with 64bits to work with, you can be accurate a huge distance from “0,0,0” — big enough, depending on your implementation, to work with a full-sized star system like ours, as a matter of fact.

The problem is that GPUs are crap at 64bit calculations. You either need to accept hideous performance (accept the unacceptable) or need to be painting a 32bit picture for the GPU, a snapshot based on the larger 64bit picture your game engine has… every frame. If this sounds complex, that’s because it is. Deciding to go 64bit has ramifications all down the line of your project. It complicates absolutely everything that comes afterwards.

And that’s why announcing that you’re almost ready to do it, six months after your initial projected completion date, sets off alarms in the heads of people who’ve been through this issue before.
...
Once you’ve solved the 64bit issue, however you solve it (and there are a few options), you quickly run into the next problem.

GPUs, and therefore game engines, have a limited draw distance. This is called a “far clip plane.” Generally this will stretch, at most, a few kilometers out. You can push it further, but GPUs use even less accurate math to deal with depth, a pathetic 24bits of information. You can stretch the information out by changing the “near clip plane,” or how close the game engine will display things, to go out a little further.

But in Star Citizen, you need to be able to see your hands on the controls less than a meter in front of you and a gas giant that could be a million kilometers away.


Full article at: http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/21/ascents-lead-dev-offers-insight-on-the-star-citizen-controversy/
 

Drax

Arcane
Joined
Apr 6, 2013
Messages
10,986
Location
Silver City, Southern Lands
(sigh)
They didn't need to have that feature at the beginning of the dev cycle, they were mainly working building other, more specific, mechanics and features (mostly related to ship building - which included not only a whole custom system for the way ships work but also all the player interaction coming from ships being worldspaces- and the underlying architecture for the PU - server-client comms, load balancing, etc). The scenario they were using in early alpha was merely a placeholder to test other things, once they started putting all the pieces into a playable alpha, they started working on THAT aspect, including the implementation of 64-bit space coordinates, something that IIRC is not part of the default engine. (I may be wrong about that last part)

They always knew that they were going to use a 64-bit space thingy, having entire solar systems without it is retarded, is not like they just figured it out one day and had to run to add that, it was always part of the dev plan.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,157
I knew running a cult was profitable, but holy fuck.

People like their AAA shit. And to be frank, i don't blame them. Let's not forget that back in the day shit like Wing Commander was also the AAA shit. PC gamers (the regular kind, not the uber elitist Codex types) have been waiting for a proper AAA PC game for a long time now, and Chris Roberts promised them that, so they all jumped into it in droves.

What is interesting here is not so much that gamers would go to any length to get their AAA fix, but that publishers still think the PC is dead as a platform even after looking at the massive response to something like Star Citizen.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
What is interesting here is not so much that gamers would go to any length to get their AAA fix, but that publishers still think the PC is dead as a platform even after looking at the massive response to something like Star Citizen.

Hardly, we just had for the first time a Tales game on PC.

There been a shift towards PC gaming lately, even if they are still multiplatform its a bit odd seeing what 10 or 15 years ago be a single console exclusive not only being the usual XBox/PS we seen in the PS3/Xbox360 era but now also with a PC version.

The current console generation doesnt seem to be catching up and even Japan that been traditionally a Console region have shifted to PC due to the lack of sales on consoles.
 
Unwanted
Douchebag! Shitposter
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
3,059
Publishers have exploited the PC market to the best of their capacities and squeezing yourself between those that dominate the limited AAA catalog is not worth the risk of a transition. No one was making AAA space MMOs, then EA tries the old republic and that didn't work as well as they expected.

It takes an indie to be foolish enough to think charging no lives 15 000$ for a ship in an non existent game will work as a main business strategy. No publishers would have risked themselves in a crazy venture like that.
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
On the status of the Star Citizen project: A professional opinion from Ascent: The Space Game’s James Hicks
The technical concerns

Dude from Limit Theory implemented 64bit precision also mid project and that was one guy and he described why, cost and purope of it in one of his dev videos.
SC has currently like 200+ devs and core staff stolen from crytek (literally people who made cryengine).
And no you don't need 64bit precision for everything.
 

Drax

Arcane
Joined
Apr 6, 2013
Messages
10,986
Location
Silver City, Southern Lands
Update thing.
StarCitizenDev-2015-10-16-16-13-07-17.jpg
StarCitizenDev-2015-10-16-15-50-08-00.jpg
Ship-Spawn-Globe.jpg

Welcome to the first Star Citizen Alpha 2.0.0 Status update! We want you to know that we haven’t taken our foot off the pedal, and so we are expanding the weekly Star Marine update to include what the team is doing to prepare for the Alpha 2.0.0 launch.

It feels like June 2014 again when the whole company pushed together to get the very first “Arena Commander – Dogfighting Module v0.8” release out to the fans. Every department has been working flat out to get all of the exciting new content and gameplay in there, whilst making our systems robust enough to build a whole universe upon!

It’s a really exciting time for the project and as always we have been pushing the fidelity, improving the performance, fixing up bugs and iterating on new and existing gameplay features around the clock to make this a really enjoyable and solid release… and what we think will be our best yet!

As you will have seen from our CitizenCon demo, the Planet Crusader map is huge! We placed several new points of interest for you to explore around in your ship and on foot, introducing several basic missions and AI encounters for you to experience a variety of encounters in this beautiful star system. All of these encounters will have a random element to keep you guessing and should give players a taste of what Star Citizen is becoming with unique experiences every time you play, and layers of immersion such as one mission that asks the player to seek out Audio Datalogs from the space stations. It’s moments like this that will help build a story behind the environment and add a rich social history to our Universe.

Brace yourselves for some brand new gameplay elements! We’ve now got our basic implementation of the refuel, repair and restock systems in-game so pay attention to your Quantum Fuel Tank reserves and choose your Jump Points wisely to make sure you don’t get stranded out there! Then when you’re not busy hurtling around at 0.2c, or fighting pirates in asteroid fields, you can also experience the first taste of “rules and regulations” in the Universe with the introduction of our first “Green Zone” that enforces a non-combat area on all players. This is an important step towards building the bigger picture.

As I’m sure you’re all aware, the FPS team are working hard at getting the basic movement and gunplay feeling good so that we have a solid foundation to build on from, just like we did with our IFCS system for ships. The new additions of IFCS systems have been in test for the past few days so we’re balancing all of that out with Design and QA. Super Cruise, SCM (Space Combat Manoeuvring) and Precision Mode will soon be ready for you to hone your space flight skills even further; and we’ve even given EVA the “IFCS makeover” to harness all the hard work that went in to that system which will give us a much more natural and precise version of EVA manoeuvring.

Meanwhile, work on Star Marine proper continues. Some of the deeper features are taking a back seat this week we roll out the basic movement and gunplay that will be available to all players on the Crusader map. This allows us to focus our attention on making the time players are outside their ships a good experience. What’s not included in Star Citizen Alpha 2.0? Game systems such as the score screen and Star Marine lobby UI, as well as some gameplay engineering and design work that is needed for Headquarters game mode. Have no fear, though, for Star Marine will return and your appetite for first person combat will be whetted by the action on Bravo station in the Crusader map. We will continue developing features and gameplay modes that are ultimately for use within Star Citizen, and we will continue to use Arena Commander and the Star Marine modes as a test bed for them. For now, and into the future, the FPS experience will be an integral part of Star Citizen Alpha, and we can’t be more happy about that!

We hope you like the sound of what is to come in this huge release for Star Citizen and the team will keep you posted every week of how it’s all coming along. Thanks for your amazing support as ever, we’re confident that this will be a release for everyone to remember!

Here’s a high level breakdown of action from the different departments…

Gameplay and Engineering
  • Added extra missions in to the Asteroid Fields.
  • Added Research Stations as well as Storage Stations.
  • Green Zone system now works to prevent combat fire around the main base.
  • EVA and animation system improvements including “Fall and Play” to make death and hit reactions look super realistic.
  • Added Quantum Fuel Tank functionality so now the player’s fuel reserves deplete and the player will need to refuel at the stations.
  • Improvements to procedural FPS camera sway.
  • Improved AI to avoid obstacles in space.
  • Repair respawns turrets.
  • Zero-G out of airlocks.
  • Added a toggle for identification signal; meaning the ship emissions that make you appear on radar can be switched on and off.
  • Journal improvements.
  • Added notifications for player entering a Green Zone.
  • Improved network syncing for crew members of a multicrew ship when entering/exiting Quantum Travel.
  • Smoothed out the exit sequence from Quantum Travel.
  • Optimised the radar for landing areas.
  • Ship selector now takes ship size into account when assigning it to a landing pad.
  • Vehicle destruction and how we handle the interior physics upon destruction is in progress.
  • Putting P-capped animations onto the FPS character rig.
  • Discussion about character loadouts in regard to weapons and armour for the Crusader map.
UI
  • mobiGlas mission manager initial implementation has been completed.
  • Quantum Travel HUD additions.
  • Quantum fuel gauges.
  • Quantum travel point of interest marker improvements.
  • New airlock screens are now being implemented.
  • Branding for vending machines are also being implemented.
  • 16:9 Engineering Screens art and implementation.
  • A new reticule for repair landing pads has been implemented.
Art
  • Repair drone VFX improvements.
  • Constellation, Cutlass and Retaliator final art, set up and balance.
  • Crusader map environment final art and optimizations.
Animation
  • Iterations and new assets for EVA, Death and Hit Reactions, and Fall and Play.
  • The full no weapon animation set is being finalized, work will continue into next week.
  • Lots of FPS basic movement and gunplay iterations and tweaks
  • Gun sway, weapon canting, and recoil procedural animations were tweaked by a strike team of animators, engineers, and designers this week, and we’re on track to finish this next week.
  • Fixed up pistol reload animation.
  • Continued work with IK look poses and aim poses
  • Submitted ragdoll improvements for testing.
  • Ship, prop and environmental interactions for the player.
Audio
  • Reviewed audio from the CitizenCon demo and identified areas to improve.
  • Began work on dialogue editing.
  • Working to improve ship audio as a whole by changing our in-house process.
  • Implementation of more music to improve the immersion and emotion in the map.
  • Investigations on how to best improve the breathing manager for ships and FPS combat for the sounds and the code behind it.
  • Tweaking audio on FPS weapons and gadgets, with a focus on pistol and ballistic assault rifle audio, and the medpen.
  • Tweaking to laser recharge ammo audio.
  • Expanding the variety of footsteps heard on surfaces.
  • Addition of audio for HUD notifications when picking up/downloading datapad information.
  • Improvements to the breathing manager.
Blocking Issues
  • Mainly the network and multiplayer issues are holding us back on a functionality side.
  • Then it’s sum of the work that’s needed to get it ready for release because we have lots of bug fixing and polish to do including performance improvements.
  • AI do not spawn into encounters, as their triggers aren’t playing correctly! Players can fly to the locations to trigger events but no AI will spawn in. Thankfully they trigger in Missions.
  • The interior physics grid for single seater ships has a bug meaning that you can’t walk around them during flight and will fall to the back of the ship. Fun, but impractical!
  • The No Weapon animation set is not done yet, and not ready to ship. Should be in better shape next week as the team in Austin continues work on it.
  • EVA flight is difficult so needs fine tuning to be able to handle the character better, engineers will look into this next week.
  • EVA look and aim poses need to be created and implemented for the use of weapons.
  • Pistol motion sets need integration, this will be done next week.
  • The prone motion set is now a problem, as we have changed the way we do standing and alerted aim poses. This will change how players aim while prone, whether they be prone forward, or rolled on to the back. Needs some R&D love next week.
  • Issues with some ship and environment terminal UI not working properly
 

Blaine

Cis-Het Oppressor
Patron
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
Messages
1,874,662
Location
Roanoke, VA
Grab the Codex by the pussy
The very fact that Cloud Imperium Games staff members use phrases such as "folks who have absolutely no insight into our finances" on a regular basis when speaking officially is a massive red flag.

Also, wow, what a load of BS. :lol:
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
16,947
Location
Pannonia
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
The very fact that Cloud Imperium Games staff members use phrases such as "folks who have absolutely no insight into our finances" on a regular basis when speaking officially is a massive red flag.

Also, wow, what a load of BS. :lol:
I don't get it. In Hungary it is mandatory to make the yearly fiscal report public. I can go into the registry court and ask for the report of any company. I can't see specifics of course, but I can see their yearly income, assets and liabilities etc. Isn't this the case in the US.
 

Blaine

Cis-Het Oppressor
Patron
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
Messages
1,874,662
Location
Roanoke, VA
Grab the Codex by the pussy
The main flaw in his argument is that any moron can open Google and see that they've been given tens of millions dollars, and could easily "set their own price" based on that.

His little speech is clever in a way (if your audience are idiots) because it strongly implies that CIG might have lots of extra cash lying around and that business partners would then be free to take CIG to the cleaners, knowing that they're flush.

There's absolutely no way that this is the case, hence the chance that Ben isn't full of shit is approximately 0%. They're strapped, but whether they're barely keeping afloat or fast sinking into the Red Sea is still up for speculation.
 

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