Groshlak posted:

You got my attention. I considered myself well versed in this dumpster fire and I don't get the reference.

mdxi posted:

Quick, someone send Chris the Bolo books, so we can see what happens.

Bolos are basically the tank version of the "what if everything I think was cool happened at the same time" sort of worldbuilding that gave us Star Citizen, and led to highschool nerd slapfights like "...but could an X-Wing beat a Mad Cat?"

Tippis posted:

One of the off-shoots of the flight from Origin and the subsequent flame-ut of Digital Anvil was a not-quite-but-close-enough sister company/subcontractor called Warthog Games, staffed by Roberts alumni such as the Elms brothers and to some extent Erin Roberts. Warthog produced such familiar titles as Starlancer and Privateer 2.

Warthog games was later acquired by Tiger Telematics (the result of a former carpet + electronics company merger), who then went on to try to launch the Gizmondo mobile gaming and communication device. Among the early founders of TT were Johan Enander (wanted by the Swedish police for various economic misdeeds) and Stefan “Fat Steve” Eriksson — a noted organized-crime figure who was into car theft, fraud, counterfeiting, “debt collection”, threats of blowing people up, blowing people up, and slinging cocaine. He would later be famous for wrapping a Ferrari Enzo around a tree at high speed. Coincidentally, the TT company chairman had previously made a living selling luxury cars, a fair few of which turning up to have been stolen. They were forced out of resigned from the company, and the chairman paid a hefty sum of money that had ostensibly been paid to Fat Steve's other software development company in a bid to forestall further investigation.

TT and Gizmondo would soon declare bankruptcy, and the former chairman would later buy the Gizmondo naming and IP rights, in co-operation with a new partner who subsequently got convicted of fraud. But of course, that was the parent company, not specifically the company run by the former-Origin/now-CI¬G old buddies of the Roberts' production posse.

You know. Just regular games development practices in the mid-90s to mid-00s era. Not at all connected to the various entrepreneurial aspirations and money troubles of Chris et al.

L. Ron Hoover posted:

I still think it's funny that apparently tanks got their name from the WW1 effort to conceal what they were before they were known, making it seem like they were shipping water tanks or something else around. What else should we have called them? Iron shooty bois? Actually, sounds too Orkish for my taste.

Gort posted:

That justification only works short-term, though. Long-term you'd just put a bunch of drone AIs in your fighters and not network them wirelessly.

Might be something to be said for a story where you play a fighter pilot AI, at least there'd be a justification for why you never die when your ship explodes that way

quote:

First Act: Loosen the current restrictions on AI research to allow for the exploration of new ideas and innovations that would benefit the entire Empire.

Core Campaign Promises: Increase government spending on education and scientific research initiatives to launch a new era of innovation. Would authorize highly regulated AI research to support these advances.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

In the vein of silly CIG designs, look at this picture:



Why does the space torpedoes have shrouds? Real life torpedoes have shrouds to reduce the noise and cavitation propellers make the water. But these space torpedoes are in space. Are we worried about somebody hearing the torpedoes on their space sonar?

chadbear posted:

On the topic of AI drones: Isn't AI outlawed in CIG's lore or something like that? I remember this being a "hot topic" in the last Imperator elections.

€: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/17782-2950-Imperator-Election#laylani-addison


Riveting

StarBegotten posted:

The word 'scam' appears a fair bit in the user commentary proving, despite CIG and cultist efforts, that this is the public's perception of SC. Time to deploy the Star Citizen Defence Force!

Beet Wagon posted:

Deeply funny to me that the top comment defending SC is all about Derek Smart and Battlecruiser 3000 AD being very bad

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

In the vein of silly CIG designs, look at this picture:



Why does the space torpedoes have shrouds? Real life torpedoes have shrouds to reduce the noise and cavitation propellers make the water. But these space torpedoes are in space. Are we worried about somebody hearing the torpedoes on their space sonar?

commando in tophat posted:

Are those air intakes on the spaceship engines?

StarBegotten posted:

Jesus Christ, he really does live in their head's rent free!

I am going to be so sad once this glorious shitshow is all over.

commando in tophat posted:

Are those air intakes on the spaceship engines?

Beet Wagon posted:

I had to explain who Derek Smart was to a youtuber a couple days ago and it really made me realize the absolutely impossible shape star citizen has bent all of our brains into lmao

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

In the vein of silly CIG designs, look at this picture:



Why does the space torpedoes have shrouds? Real life torpedoes have shrouds to reduce the noise and cavitation propellers make the water. But these space torpedoes are in space. Are we worried about somebody hearing the torpedoes on their space sonar?

Dwesa posted:

Why is there torpedo in space in the first place. How is it different from a missile?

Dwesa posted:

Why is there torpedo in space in the first place. How is it different from a missile?

Dwesa posted:

Why is there torpedo in space in the first place. How is it different from a missile?

It seems CIG is implementing "never been tried before, or even thought about" ideas to be used in Star Citizen. It would be cool to have a list with explanations on what it means for players in one post posted:

That way everyone can appreciate the obstacles CIG has had to overcome and have to overcome yet.

quote:

Everything CiG is doing has been done before. It's just never been done before all in one game. That alone creates some issues. Those issues are the only thing CiG is doing that's new and never been tried before.

quote:

Not really true ; For example force reactions inside ships i don"t know another game with this feature
multi gravity fps neither
push and pull troley
volumetric "nebula"

Mirificus posted:

Sammus posted:

Now expand that to spaceships. My brain hurts just thinking about it. In order for this to work, someone at CIG has to be capable of designing and engineering fully functional spaceships. Literally. And even if it works, it will still run into a billion edge case scenarios where it just doesn't work.

cmdrk posted:

Obviously CIG will not do anything they promise, but just pretending they did try to build a materials engineering simulator.. why would you get paid slave wages at CIG vs making really good money in the actual aerospace industry making actual things that go to actual space?

Just look at the tank model and Shaman Tank Spec's awesome effort posts about why their tanks are so painfully stupid.

Sammus posted:

Unless CIG cheats and creates some class of new materials. Things with unrealistic young's modulus', expansion coefficients, thermal efficiencies, hardness...... Things that are unobtainable in the materials we use now. They could call it Unobtainium, and use it throughout their spaceships to avoid running into pitfalls like "why do all my ships split in half the moment our maneuvering jets kick on," and "My ship crumples like a tin can whenever I fire the on-keel rail gun with the engines running," and "My off-keel railgun detached the moment I fired it."

Mirificus posted:

Lammasu posted:

What's this about Roberts saying you can swim in space?

L. Ron Hoover posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxxlrKlLO9g

DigitalPenny posted:

They have a ship already that just has LCD screens lined cockpit which solves like 100 gameplay and design problems.

Instead Chris has insisted on almost every ship having a glass cockpit at the front with struts every where so you can't see anything.

It's like even when they have the right answer they refuse to apply it.

I'm sure though there will be screen shots of tank commanders poking there head out the turret with binocs to look cool while getting a better view, because even the periscope will have struts somehow.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

The controversy over the Kotaku article is of particular interest to me. I actually lived through the winter storm. Texas really took it on the chin. Our energy production wasn't winterized enough for the artic cold that we got, and millions of people lost power. When the power went out, widespread pipe bursts started happening. The combination of pipes bursting, and people dripping their pipes in an attempt to keep them from freezing, resulted in massive losses to water pressure and the issuance of water boils noticed to millions - if you could get water at all. I was one of the ones that went several days without water.

For many, there was no power, no water, busted pipes and water damaged houses with interior temperatures in the 40s or 50s. Travel was also very hazardous. Most of the roads iced over. Most Texans drive two-wheel drive vehicles equipped with summer tires, and most of us don't know how to, or have any experience with, driving on ice or snow. The fact that almost all the traffic lights were out due to no power didn't make the driving any easier. Hard to get any supplies, because most stores were closed due to the lack of power and hazardous travel. Same went for getting food. I remember the big air ports in most of the cities closing for several days. I was exposed to a couple of apparent deaths where people froze due to doors not being secured well enough, and the cold getting inside the house while people slept. There was also a number of carbon monoxide poisoning deaths from cars and generators, like the garage door somehow closing when the generator was running in the garage. There was a story in the news if I remember correctly of almost a whole family being lost this way.

It was a pretty rough time for Texas. Our infrastructure and houses weren't designed for this type of cold. It was designed to handle very hot summers - the record in Austin is over a 110 degrees, I think. Our houses are designed to shed heat as quickly and efficiently as possible, not keep heat in. The winter storm was the coldest air we've experience in at least a generation, maybe several generations. During the storm, it was colder in Austin than it was in Alaska. It was a pretty rough and demanding experience for almost everyone in the state. CIG's management being caught with its pants down and tone deaf to the situation if its employees doesn't surprise me at all. Nothing about the company gives any indication of leadership, preparedness, responsiveness, or situational awareness. But seeing the reaction to article from other CIG employees at different locations reminds me of another article I read (if I'm remembering it right) about a non-game company that was likewise founded around a cult of personality. In this article, it argued that presence and influence in the company was determined about how favored you were by the power brokers with access to the person at the center of the cult of personality. This lead to a toxic work environment were coworkers were suspicious of other coworkers throwing them under the bus as they jockey for influence with the power brokers, and secretive cliques formed that competed against other secretive cliques in the company. This reminds me of non-Texas CIG employees falling over themselves on Twitter to say how great CIG is and how much CIG takes care of them.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

In the vein of silly CIG designs, look at this picture:



Why does the space torpedoes have shrouds? Real life torpedoes have shrouds to reduce the noise and cavitation propellers make the water. But these space torpedoes are in space. Are we worried about somebody hearing the torpedoes on their space sonar?

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

Groshlak posted:

At this point I think they are working for their own mental stability. To face the cold harsh truth would be a blow too hard for their psyche, so they double/triple/quadruple/octuple down instead. I console myself by thinking that at least the money funnelled isn't ending in a more nefarious endeavour than CR cronies enrichment.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

How is SC still making money? You'd think after 9 years all the whales would have bought all their ships they'd want by now.

quote:

Star Citizen has now raised a whopping $351,026,475 from over three million customers.

quote:

Today, we stand at 1,177,919 Paying Accounts

Bofast posted:

Ah, but space can be underwater in CryEngine