Lammasu posted:

Kind of a stupid question but do servers cost more to run when they have more players in them?

quote:

quote:

I sign for "the biggest sandbox spacesim simulation" not for multiple simulations. By far I prefer 1 server like a mmo.

It's not a question of 'If' it's a question of 'When' (and of course money).

In the future I'm sure there will be hardware far more powerful than we have now and so current limitations are based upon hardware limits for all games and all gamers. CIG are about pushing the limits of the current hardware, which means as hardware improves the technology to most efficiently harness that raw power improves too. Servers will improve, and we know AWS has been upgrading their server architecture so improvements in CIG's player count and system expansion may be partially accounted for by that, but once the meshing of servers removes the cap(s), then the limitation becomes signal travel time. Will there be new technology to improve signal travel time significantly? Yes, almost certainly. You know? What if CIG take the usual industry approach and just sit and wait awhile they won't need to simulate space travel to other planets, you'll be able to do it IRL, if you live that long.

Some clever predictive AI can offset signal travel time limitations and CIG have said they are looking into that, in the meantime even if they remain restrained to regional shards as they are now they can do what virtually no other game designers can do, because they have it built into their system from almost the beginning- as well as going high with player counts, they can go deep and wide with content for those players. The limitations of FPS single-palyer vs MMO become thinner and thinner.

Part of the reason we knew we had to go the crowdfunding route, a big part, is that what they were planning for and what the SC player base was asking them do would take so long and use so much resources (time and money) that few if any private investors would tolerate the risk or the wait, it's easy to look at it now and suggest sure, of course they'd all make games this way - but not 10 ago they wouldn't. People often say things like... by the time it releases other games will overtake Star Citizen, or Chris Roberts is unrealistic and should have stuck to limited traditional models of game development.. what would be the point in that? It would have been a huge waste of the very best resources we have, the enthusiasm and drive of a gaming community. We can rely on other game developers to squander that... they are limited by investor confidence to follow the hardware technology trends, not push them. Despite the hype no other game developer has had the input and time to develop the tools and resources in depth that this community has given to CIG - and basically you ain't seen nothing yet as far as those tools and resources are concerned. Bethesda said they have upgraded their game engine to make Starfield, but an ex-employee says they haven't upgraded it that much, from what I can see the ability to climb ladders seems to have 'self-impressed them' by quite a bit.

Level design is one of the most costly parts of game development because traditionally it is done by hand with small armies of experienced level designers over years with fairly minimal interaction with those tool designers who make the level design tools, it's why game levels are traditionally quite small, what CIG have been doing is automating game level design (from weeks to hours in some cases) and large structure construction so that now the limitation at the entry stage is artists... and there's always plenty of them, and in later stages engineers which unfortunately there aren't so many of them with the skillsets required - but CIG uses the similar approach - maximise the work done by the engineers and remove that time limit to allow them to do what they wouldn't normally get the opportunity to do. The thing about the work that engineers do is, it's a one off deal, they aren't like artists constantly having to churn out more and more of basically the same thing with a few variations.

Here's an interesting note to consider about Starfield and Bethesda (one the biggest game developers with plenty of staff and resources, enough to dwarf CIG), Starfield will be single player just like Skyrim and Fallout were, and remain - as far as Bethesda is concerned - yet modders with access the Skyrim Creation Kit used to make their Skyrim and Fallout games have now made those games multiplayer, with up to 8 players at a time. It's likely they will make Starfield multiplayer BEFORE Bethesda does. So much for Bethesda 'beating anyone to it'.

It's it interesting isn't it, gamer lead projects always seem to do more with less (given the time) don't they?

Most games are realised 'as is planned from day one', with some features even being removed usually - with a few bug-fixing updates and paid expansions for a few years. What few outside (and even some inside!) understand about this project is that it was always supposed to be in continual expansion for decades - these screams of 'feature creep!' are somewhat amusing to those of us who knew what the will of the community predominantly was back in the first few years. What we have now is better than the original plan by far and many understand that the 2012 - 2014 version would likely have been very dated by now coming to end of life some what like Elite Dangerous is. So when you play Starfield (and I hope you do) it might be worth remembering that 'this' is what Squadron 42 and Star Citizen was going to look like back in 2016 and yet a huge company like Bethesda and all it's resources couldn't have done it with the budget we had by 2016, or even with their corporate budget they couldn't have done it in 4 years... and they didn't have to start from a blank page, 12 employees, with no tools in a basement of a home.

What we can look forward to now with Star Citizen and Squadron 42 is the way it was planned since around 2014/2015 when we knew we had the incredible community support to allow it.

The tables have turned, instead of game developers blowing the minds of the consumers, it was now the backers/gamers who would blow the minds of the developers and open up possibilities they never thought possible a few short years ago. I think that huge cultural change in game development was worth the wait.

Mirificus posted:

Thoatse posted:

sound
https://i.imgur.com/8yw75HR.mp4

Mirificus posted:

Monocle cat's jerk off material

Mirificus posted:

https://twitter.com/TwidgetTV/status/1549018871071264770

quote:

gamer lead projects always seem to do more with less

.random posted:

Normally his posts are somewhat coherent albeit totally ridiculous and based off of made up talking points. This particular post is way more unhinged and scattered than usual, and I say that as a connoisseur with deep appreciation for Monocle Cat’s lunatic ravings. I hope he gets the opportunity to orally pleasure someone for hours before things get any worse

The Titanic posted:

Just from the start, which is as far as I got, it looks like he's admitted that technology has failed cig and only the technology of the future can make it work because cig is too good.

Some day people will make the connection that this is not "looking ahead", it's failing to understand technology at your disposal and using it wisely, and bad programming techniques and methodology used.

It's just failure, sorry.

cmdrk posted:

Star Citizen: gamer lead projects always seem to do more with less

Cimber posted:

So having browsed this thread for a bit, it seems like i should not buy this game and should instead smash my dick between two bricks for a better time?

Lammasu posted:

Or you could just slam it in a car door. You do you.

Mirificus posted:

Monocle Cat insanity.

Cimber posted:

So having browsed this thread for a bit, it seems like i should not buy this game and should instead smash my dick between two bricks for a better time?

Plan R posted:

I'm still convinced Monocle Cat is a deep-cover troll. The alternative is too terrible to think about.

Plan R posted:

I'm still convinced Monocle Cat is a deep-cover troll. The alternative is too terrible to think about.

eta: Wait, it's page 2126! I bet this forum will surpass the year Star Citizen is supposed to be set!

Dwesa posted:

https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/1548638789022760965

Only Kindness posted:

This is from a few days ago. There I go, dredging up the distant past. Citizens hate it!



Exhibit 1: There's 4 million Citizens, right? Says so right in the picture.

Exhibit 2: A tweet from the official account: 3 days later, 250 likes, 30 comments.

Now, I'm no math jenius, I'm no Alan Turing or John Nash, with their "find x" nonsense (x isn't a number, it's a letter, silly!), but that looks like an engagement rate of 0.00625% to me.

Something isn't adding up.

knowledgeable commando posted:

Modern Fighters can virtually do this already. Google it. Now add a few centuries of tech advances.

Dwesa posted:

The best drat physics and flight model in any game.

The elusive Avenger courts a female.

https://v.redd.it/2lmkqalu4kc91/DASH_480.mp4

knowledgeable commando posted:

Modern Fighters can virtually do this already. Google it. Now add a few centuries of tech advances.

Dwesa posted:

The best drat physics and flight model in any game.

The elusive Avenger courts a female.

https://v.redd.it/2lmkqalu4kc91/DASH_480.mp4

Plan R posted:

eta: Wait, it's page 2126! I bet this forum will surpass the year Star Citizen is supposed to be set!

Mirificus posted:

https://twitter.com/TwidgetTV/status/1549018871071264770

NumptyScrub posted:

Much like CoD Infinite Warfare / Elite Dangerous / No Man's Sky have done to SC, and Starfield is likely to do on release

Only Kindness posted:

This is from a few days ago. There I go, dredging up the distant past. Citizens hate it!



Exhibit 1: There's 4 million Citizens, right? Says so right in the picture.

Exhibit 2: A tweet from the official account: 3 days later, 250 likes, 30 comments.

Now, I'm no math jenius, I'm no Alan Turing or John Nash, with their "find x" nonsense (x isn't a number, it's a letter, silly!), but that looks like an engagement rate of 0.00625% to me.

Something isn't adding up.

Zero_Grade posted:

https://twitter.com/cmd_Terada/status/1549521872504717312

I imagine this took a ton of coordination to put together as some sort of crowning achievement, and it still looks dull and boring as gently caress (also wait for the couple of ships that randomly blow up anyway towards the end).

Zero_Grade posted:

https://twitter.com/cmd_Terada/status/1549521872504717312

I imagine this took a ton of coordination to put together as some sort of crowning achievement, and it still looks dull and boring as gently caress (also wait for the couple of ships that randomly blow up anyway towards the end).

commando in tophat posted:

I also seem to remember that you also burned from front when you were reversing.

Zero_Grade posted:

https://twitter.com/cmd_Terada/status/1549521872504717312

I imagine this took a ton of coordination to put together as some sort of crowning achievement, and it still looks dull and boring as gently caress (also wait for the couple of ships that randomly blow up anyway towards the end).

Cimber posted:

So having browsed this thread for a bit, it seems like i should not buy this game and should instead smash my dick between two bricks for a better time?