janssendalt posted:

I come to SA for my SC news now


how hosed up is that



hey guys

Foo Diddley posted:

Bullshit. The backers will vanish and never mention it again, like the OUYA

CrazyLoon posted:

Normally, that happens...but SC has grown such a phenomenal cult around it that I'm betting they'll still proudly defend and mention it, like it gives them some sort of special e-cred or some poo poo.

Slow_Moe posted:

This is a real quote from a real citizen, right?

smed posted:

Hi folks,

Sorry for the lack of news or updates. To put it bluntly here part of being a startup means money is tight and funding is a major part of what we have to do as a startup. We're working through some things and I appreciate your patience. Sorry for not being more transparent on this particular issue but the simple truth is sometimes there isn't much that we can say. More info soon.

Smed

Slow_Moe posted:

Others still will blame Derek Smart and his legion of goons/alts for spreading FUD, and refund cascade, etc. etc.

quote:

Production Update

Mitch again. We’re still up to our eyeballs in work (gotta end the year strong) so to keep things focused we’ve put together a list of all the stuff we can remember doing since GenCon ‘16. Since we’re not going for a long verbose explanation of everything (or a super-high level overview of everything either) feel free to hit us up with questions in the ASK THE DEVS section of our forums on battletechgame.com and someone will try and answer you when they get some spare cycles.

Updated, expanded, and refined the combat interface
Added multi-targeting (so you can split your fire between more than one enemy).
Added melee (including Death From Above)
Added commander abilities such as calling in airstrikes and artillery barrages
Added pilot skills and activatable combat abilities
Deepened the Line of Sight and detection mechanics to give more utility to careful scouting and misdirection; pilot skill determines how much information you can get from a radar blip
Implemented the first version of the MechWarrior inspiration system, where continued aggression allows you to build and maintain momentum
Created a plot system which allows maps to reconfigure certain areas based on the encounter that uses them, swapping buildings and entire installations to increase reusability
Refined our map-making process for missions to the point that we can create now a final map (on the design side) in a single day
Made a bunch of neat maps of both the highlands/alpine and lowlands/farm variety
Began constructing many cool enemy encounters to place on said maps.
Tuned the bonuses and penalties from environmental features like forest and high ground to emphasize the role of terrain and positioning
Played a lot of BlazeRush at lunch
Added "Influence Map" system to allow the AI to select intelligent positions and orientations to move to
Increased sophistication of choosing weapons for AI attacks
Configurable AI Heat Management, with tactical withdrawals
AI “personality” support
"Corridor Map" strategic (long range) pathfinding for AI units
Lots of work on weapon visual effects, including lighting effects
Lots of new audio effects
Added heat visual effects for ‘Mechs and environmental features
Added an audio emote system, greatly increasing and prioritizing the list of things MechWarriors could talk about in combat
Massive load time performance improvements
Lots of improvements to overall environment art process to allow for more polish control
Created new road system with several custom art presets to quickly lay out dirt tracks, asphalt roads, and even rivers
Fully revamped rendering with proper physically based rendering and atmospherics
Fog of war improvements, including the ability to coordinate visual effects with mood
Developed a system for mission “moods” which change the atmosphere, lighting, and colors
Set up a proper wind system with better visual results
Made our first pass at water with shallow and deep water effects
Built out a huge set of “environment stamps” for us to quickly create map landscapes
Major improvements to procedural placement of foliage and ground texturing
Revamped and improved environment surface rendering and visuals
Finalized a complete process for creating destructible buildings
Made lots of new buildings and structures
Created two full new “biomes” with distinct geology and vegetation sets
Made lots of small decoration elements like barriers, light poles, decorative vehicles, etc.
Made lots of new trees, bushes and foliage
Made lots of new rocks (Yay rocks!)
Tons of work on animations and ‘Mech functionality
Lots of new ‘Mechs fully animated, textured, and working in-game
Completed an opening cinema for the game. (No, you can’t see it, yet. We’ll release it when the project is ready to get some “buzz”.)
Planned out the entire single-player story campaign, outlined all cutscenes and story events, wrote the opening and closing cutscene scripts.
Planned out the entire mercenary simulation game, and started implementing the infrastructure to support it
Built the first draft of the user experience for the mercenary simulation game
Built the initial skirmish mode interface, allowing you to choose your ‘Mechs, map, and encounter
Ran our first internal multiplayer games!!!
Fixed a metric poo poo-ton of bugs
And even more things that I’m sure we’re forgetting...
So what does all of this work add up to? In a word, “PROGRESS.” The team is focused, collaborating beautifully, and using their time very wisely. The passion for the work is obvious and we’re having fun making and playing the game. I’m pleased to report that the project reached an important milestone last week, as the team completed an Alpha version of the combat game and sent it out to friends and family for feedback. As mentioned in our last Kickstarter Update, this is a major step in preparing for our Kickstarter Backer Beta next year.

Now that the combat game has reached “Alpha” (note, just the combat game, not the campaign or multiplayer!) we’re rapidly expanding from that foundation, with development of the Mercenary sim-game, story campaign, cinematics, and multiplayer. And from a schedule POV, we’re tracking well towards our Kickstarter Backer Beta target. As a long time Producer and Executive Producer, I can tell you that this is one of the best managed games I’ve ever been a part of and that my overall confidence is quite high. Of course, that experience also tells me that poo poo happens and to expect the unexpected. I’m still not worried, though. The BATTLETECH team’s ability to “improvise, adapt, and overcome” is fantastic and I’m impressed by their ability to efficiently and unflinchingly attack any problem they encounter.

CrazyLoon posted:

Normally, that happens...but SC has grown such a phenomenal cult around it that I'm betting they'll still proudly defend and mention it, like it gives them some sort of special e-cred or some poo poo.

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

I was what notorious closed game development studio Harebrained Schemes is working on with their limited scope game development?


<sub>Oh. poo poo.


I feel like there's some kind of allegory here.</sub>

Okay, sure, GIFs are like a superior JPEG, but what about actual PROGRESS?


Actually I'm being a bit unfair to HBS. They don't have the countless videos that other, real open development studios have, but they do have a forum where developers give answers that supposedly aren't just their opinion at the time. So maybe quasi-open development? Pseudo-open development?

Mirificus posted:

I.N.R.I posted:

Actually, this antisemitism is starting to make me uncomfortable .. just because some jews have a well-documented and storied history of harvesting baby foreskins and sucking the babies off during their rituals doesn't mean that they all do

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Slow_Moe posted:

This is a real quote from a real citizen, right?

Fat Shat Sings posted:

Tijuana Bibliophile posted:

Very likely imo, but not quite yet

Fat Shat Sings posted:

would have suffocated on his own tongue or something even 100 years ago. But now society has let him and thousands of people like him build a gigantic sandcastle of childish dreams for the world to watch it get kicked over in real time.

Fat Shat Sings posted:

I think the amount of people involved come into play here. With hundreds of thousands of people involved you'll get a wide sampling of various reactions

Some will treat it like humanity's greatest error that we just couldn't support the world's most visionary game developer to make dreams reality
Some will pretend it never happened and try not to think about it
Some will have legendary meltdowns which is what we are waiting to see
Some will loudly rationalize the decision while trying to appear reasonable and addressing concerns while justifying the situation mostly to themselves
Some will not be able to let go and devote themselves to a fan community trying to purchase the assets or create their own MMO

The internet is pretty fun sometimes since this guy



would have suffocated on his own tongue or something even 100 years ago. But now society has let him and thousands of people like him build a gigantic sandcastle of childish dreams for the world to watch it get kicked over in real time.

Tijuana Bibliophile posted:

People were stupid way back when too, it's just that the internet finally gave them a voice

DogonCrook posted:

That name.. god drat. Its like he looked at some fetish drawing on deviant art and was like "the description of this abomination will totally make a great name and will add some real weight behind my speeches about videogames"

The letter is aug thread material.

TheAgent posted:

hello, some of this is prob rehashed

• 2017 is now looking like the last full operational year for CIG (*from the perspective of 2 people who recently left)
  
• several office/staff moves (including the Brno move, disco lando, ben, etc) are still planned
  
• roberts joked at one point "the cheap labor must flow"
  
• the "must deliver" deadline is still march/q1 of 2017 for the sqlude
  
• might be much less than what was planned to be released (think less than an hour of story content, highly repetitive missions to pad playtime, grind, etc)
  
• sqlude will include the new footage shot earlier this year of hamill
  
• direction/management are being shuffled around, some people with no experience are now in charge of dozens of employees
  
• several employees and execs are now gone, including cashing out on promised bonuses or other monies when they left
  
• motion capture problems include missing payments to studios where work was done (backend, most likely)
  
• "If [we] didn't have money in the tank for refunds, delay. Delay, delay, delay. Promise, then delay. That was standard, yes."
  
• had to cut one or several major characters from SQ42
  
• additional mocap is required "to have the story make any sense" thanks to "constant" changes to the script
  
• entire maps, levels, mocap, VA, music and SFX have been thrown out, reworked and thrown out again
  
• what was promised for 2.6, especially networking, won't be in until late Jan/Feb 2017 at the earliest (maybe midyear)
  
• 3.0 networking is a massive, complete mess and won't be anywhere ready for 2017
  
• "They are walking the design back on a massive scale. Try and get a refund."
  
• ^^ moma that one is for you because the guy who said it, lol, just lol
  
• crunch time has continued now for over six months, some people over a year
  

if you're in this project for anything over $40, get a refund. get a refund like now. after 2.6 releases to the PU you're going to have a hard drat time getting anything back unless you pledged for the SQ42 package only

Godmode Enabled posted:

http://kotaku.com/crytek-closes-five-studios-after-rough-year-1790315044

Godmode Enabled posted:

http://kotaku.com/crytek-closes-five-studios-after-rough-year-1790315044

aleksendr posted:

Thank to the recent industry trend of short first player story mode, a single hour of story for a prelude (if its a good story) is not that bad. Many first player AAA story (TIF2, IW) are now roughly aroung 2.5 hours long.

peter gabriel posted:

I am very excited today