Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

dialhforhero posted:

I am still pissed Hobbes was a double agent all along.

That revelation played out leaving the same taste as Saul Tigh being a Cylon.

He was the most human and flawed and best character and he is a loving Cylon?

Hobbes was cool. We didn�t deserve that heel turn.

No, but you see, the cats are evil. You can't have complex characters in a CRobber game.

You may have some vague memory of there being complex characters in WC2 � Hobbes being one of them, or Spirit, or hell even Jazz to a degree � but what that vague memory often doesn't include is the fact that WC2 was written by completely different people. In fact, WC2 is a surprisingly CRobber-free game for being part of the CRobber-game franchise.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 02:14

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:40

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

https://i.imgur.com/xh13xlp.mp4

# ? Jul 10, 2023 02:56

lobsterminator: Oct 16, 2012

Thoatse posted:

https://i.imgur.com/xh13xlp.mp4

So that's how the pre-allergize those carpets. Learn something new every day.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 06:08

Plan R: Oct 5, 2021; For Romeo

Tippis posted:

No, but you see, the cats are evil. You can't have complex characters in a CRobber game.

You may have some vague memory of there being complex characters in WC2 � Hobbes being one of them, or Spirit, or hell even Jazz to a degree � but what that vague memory often doesn't include is the fact that WC2 was written by completely different people. In fact, WC2 is a surprisingly CRobber-free game for being part of the CRobber-game franchise.

I just want the chance to buy lunch from some guy, in game, that resembles Chris\! Is that too much to ask for my $55,000?!!

# ? Jul 10, 2023 06:26

Fil5000: Jun 23, 2003; HOLD ON GUYS I'M POSTING ABOUT INTERNET ROBOTS

dialhforhero posted:

I am still pissed Hobbes was a double agent all along.

That revelation played out leaving the same taste as Saul Tigh being a Cylon.

He was the most human and flawed and best character and he is a loving Cylon?

Hobbes was cool. We didn�t deserve that heel turn.

What's worse is the cowardly "sleeper personality" bullshit. Because the idea that the likable character could decide to betray you was unpalatable to Roberts, so it just turns out that likable character never really existed lol.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 10:14

FishMcCool: Apr 9, 2021; lolcats are still funny; Fallen Rib

I didn't know better at the time, but now I just can't get over how your pet tiger friend is called Hobbes.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 10:41

dialhforhero: Apr 3, 2008; Am I 🧑‍🏫 out of touch🤔? No🧐, it's the children👶 who are wrong🤷🏼‍♂️

I will say, however, that I loved the cinematics of WC3, 4, and Prophecy. I think Tolwynn�s demise in 4 was cool and honestly a bit prescient with regards to the military-industrial complex.

You can watch all of the cinematics in �canon� order mashed together on YouTube, last I checked (years ago).

# ? Jul 10, 2023 16:10

Mirificus: Oct 29, 2004; Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

Hull C is a perfect illustration of what Star Citizen is posted:

Hull C actually perfectly illustrates the essence of SC and CIG's approach to game development.

Unnecessarily over complicated design (the spindle took 3 years to implement), and because of that takes years to implement, as CIG heroically solves artificial challenges they created for themselves.
And when the ship is finally ready, all you can do with it is watch how nicely it folds and unfolds, because the rest of the game is not ready for it. Proper cargo system is not ready, trade is not ready, economy is not ready, other star systems are not ready.

quote:

It is a perfect illustration of what StarCitizen is indeed, but not necessarily in the negative sense you claim.

The Hull-C perfectly embodies how, with time (and a lot, undeniably), tech can be bent to make even the craziest ideas possible, with a tremendous level of quality.
To me, that's a win.

quote:

You know, I had the same exact feeling and hope when I saw the Cyberpunk trailer back in 2013. And same with Starfield's teaser in 2018.
That's how it always is - these things take time, and we're never sure we do have it for ourselves.
Maybe one of the difference is how we see things unfold progressively. I already have dozens of hours of playtime with SC. If life happens before the game is complete, so be it, i'm still happy to have participated in making it possible for other gamers to dive into. That's actually not the worst legacy :slightly_smiling_face:

quote:

I'm amused (because being upset is pointless). However, I offered a comparison based on someone else's work. I do not profess personal knowledge of any of those games and while not being in the top 5 is perhaps a low bar, it is still a bar. And perhaps yes SC is not in "development hell" - that just reinforces my point however.

Perhaps my point was missed. Just because SC has taken a long time to get to release (which it isn't at yet) is not actually as big a problem as everyone wants it to be. SC has done something NONE of those other games did (regardless of how long they took to release) in that it has let us, the people funding its development, a view behind the normally closed doors of development.

Accept it for what it is. Sure, we can expect more, but at the end of the day all they promised at this point in development was we, the backers, would have the opportunity to participate in it.

Arguments can be made for "iterate faster", "work on making it playable and release more later" but that isn't what they are doing and I, for one, am comfortable with that. Sure, I'd like some of the more "basic" things to work well and consistently. But in general I am happy with the state of things.

So, if you feel you need to tear down other people to make yourself feel better about things you have no control over (and which I do not either), you go right ahead and do that, I can take it.

quote:

Most people drawn to this project because they see this as a game. But to me, the most interesting achievement to this project so far is to bring web technologies into a game engine.

For example, Adobe Flash is the old way to bring 3D to the web. Initially CIG adopted Flash to create UI but eventually identified its limitations. CIG superseded Flash with in-house created Building Blocks which is based on the principle of CSS. Right now, CIG is working on the Building Blocks Editor so that designers can create UI without coding skills.

Another innovation pioneered by CIG is the creation of Zone System, which is invented to overcome the limitations of using octree to model a solar system using 64bit coordinates. Because of the similarity of Zone System and Document Object Model, which is used in organizing data in a webpage, CIG can leverage the graph database to implement Full Persistence.

Finally, combining the strengths of game engine, graph database, and Building Blocks, the latest innovation from CIG is RaStar which will allow players to create home base similar to how WIX and Squarespace allow people to easily create custom home page.

Over the years, people created standard like VRML, Flash, WebGL and WebXR to bring 3D like experience through the web browsers. But CIG leapfrogs everyone by integrating best web practices into their custom game engine, without sacrificing the potential benefits from implementing features like physics, ray tracing, and spatial audio.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 18:10

Mellow_: Sep 13, 2010

dialhforhero posted:

I will say, however, that I loved the cinematics of WC3, 4, and Prophecy. I think Tolwynn�s demise in 4 was cool and honestly a bit prescient with regards to the military-industrial complex.

You can watch all of the cinematics in �canon� order mashed together on YouTube, last I checked (years ago).

there is no warcraft 4

# ? Jul 10, 2023 19:15

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

dialhforhero posted:

I will say, however, that I loved the cinematics of WC3, 4, and Prophecy. I think Tolwynn�s demise in 4 was cool and honestly a bit prescient with regards to the military-industrial complex.

You can watch all of the cinematics in �canon� order mashed together on YouTube, last I checked (years ago).

WC3 in particular has all those lovely �*sigh* [awkward pause] <cut>� endings of every last clip, as if someone didn't know how to yell cut and/or how to cut dialogue properly. I wonder who was responsible for that part�?

# ? Jul 10, 2023 22:04

TheDeadlyShoe: Feb 14, 2014

I never played the wing commander games (other than WC:Prophecy), but I did read the tie-in books which were reasonably competent airport fiction. Going from one book to another and reading 'it's too bad Hobbes was a secret sleeper agent and betrayed everyone between books, guess there is no such thing as a good Kilrathi' was just...baffling. Confusing. Total whiplash.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 22:15

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

And anyway, if you want to binge-watch FMVs from the franchise, there's always Privateer 2: The Darkening. Always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpSapWeghJY&t=3434s

# ? Jul 10, 2023 22:21

JammyB: May 23, 2001; I slept with Mary and Joseph never found out

Mirificus posted:

For example, Adobe Flash is the old way to bring 3D to the web. Initially CIG adopted Flash to create UI but eventually identified its limitations. CIG superseded Flash with in-house created Building Blocks which is based on the principle of CSS. Right now, CIG is working on the Building Blocks Editor so that designers can create UI without coding skills.

I'll definitely believe it that CIG are the only developer building tooling based on the principles of cascading stylesheets in TYOOL 2023. True innovation.

You can tell this guy must be a very experienced developer though. Yes, designers love nothing more than putting down their crayons for a few days so that they can struggle to vertically align something in CSS.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 22:38

Sassy Sasquatch: Feb 28, 2013

Tippis posted:

WC3 in particular has all those lovely �*sigh* [awkward pause] <cut>� endings of every last clip, as if someone didn't know how to yell cut and/or how to cut dialogue properly. I wonder who was responsible for that part�?

That reminds me, the first time I aggressively noticed the VA in a game was in neverwinter nights 2. The french version was full of bloopers where the voice actor read their line, coughed or let out a "ooooh ok I get it now" and then read their lines all over again in a different tone. Sometimes they would start a sentence in english and switch to french halfway through. The best one I caught was the VA stumbling on a name multiple times, letting out a heartfelt "poo poo, not again !" *sigh* and then starting over.

Some mighty tier 0 implementation but it had a lot of charm.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 22:50

Quill: Jan 19, 2004

Tippis posted:

And anyway, if you want to binge-watch FMVs from the franchise, there's always Privateer 2: The Darkening. Always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpSapWeghJY&t=3434s

This one brings back memories. It was a wild ride and a pretty fun game.

# ? Jul 10, 2023 23:51

lobsterminator: Oct 16, 2012

Mirificus posted:

custom game engine

Is it now.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 02:20

Torquemada: Oct 21, 2010; Drei GlÃ¤ser

Just a reminder that Friday is the most Stimpirical of days, Deskeletonization Day!

# ? Jul 11, 2023 12:43

Neo Rasa: Mar 8, 2007; Everyone should play DUKE games.

Rotten Red Rod posted:

There was a lot of discussion about SotA both here and in its dedicated thread when it was on the downward slope, but there's just not that much to say about it anymore. It's pretty much in maintenance mode and seems to make enough money from the rubes who stay play it to keep existing somehow.

Didn't they even combine forces for some kind of crossover event where you could make your house in Shroud a Star Citizen ship? I remember someone (was it a goon?) even made a shop next to someone's spaceship and named the shop "LOL this guy bought this dumb ship" or something so that would pop up any time someone went near it.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 14:14

Psycho Society: Oct 21, 2010

I got to some pirates in privateer 1 and kept getting my rear end beat, worth it to try the game again?

# ? Jul 11, 2023 14:16

Jonny Nox: Apr 26, 2008

Psycho Society posted:

I got to some pirates in privateer 1 and kept getting my rear end beat, worth it to try the game again?

Rebel Galaxy Outlaws exists

# ? Jul 11, 2023 14:42

Rotten Red Rod: Mar 5, 2002

Neo Rasa posted:

Didn't they even combine forces for some kind of crossover event where you could make your house in Shroud a Star Citizen ship? I remember someone (was it a goon?) even made a shop next to someone's spaceship and named the shop "LOL this guy bought this dumb ship" or something so that would pop up any time someone went near it.

Yeah, although it's a steampunk airship house to fit into the games aethsetic instead of being anything actually from SC. And like everything else in the game it looks like a store bought asset.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 15:37

JammyB: May 23, 2001; I slept with Mary and Joseph never found out

New Golgot100 recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAtN7EtLeHE

This one is on CIG's multi-year study into whether building ship art assets first, before having working gameplay and systems, is a good way to deliver a working game. Isn't it fantastic that the rest of the industry can benefit from this pioneering research.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 16:49

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Psycho Society posted:

I got to some pirates in privateer 1 and kept getting my rear end beat, worth it to try the game again?

Fighting in Privateer 1 was truly rear end, 95% of enemies flew the exact same ship and 100% of enemies fought the exact same way - head-on run, turn around and fly directly away, head-on run, repeat forever.

I still liked it.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 16:55

lobsterminator: Oct 16, 2012

JammyB posted:

New Golgot100 recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAtN7EtLeHE

This one is on CIG's multi-year study into whether building ship art assets first, before having working gameplay and systems, is a good way to deliver a working game. Isn't it fantastic that the rest of the industry can benefit from this pioneering research.

Out of the major players in this scam, Jared for some reason annoys me the most. He has an aura of unlikability.

Maybe it's just because he's basically the propaganda minister of CIG, trying to make it sound legit.

CRoberts is at least openly contemptuous towards the project and barely there, focusing mainly on vitamins.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 17:02

Blue On Blue: Nov 14, 2012

lobsterminator posted:

Out of the major players in this scam, Jared for some reason annoys me the most. He has an aura of unlikability.

Maybe it's just because he's basically the propaganda minister of CIG, trying to make it sound legit.

CRoberts is at least openly contemptuous towards the project and barely there, focusing mainly on vitamins.

not only has he been unlikeable from the start of this mess, now he is egotistical and has a huge complex because he's been enabled to be a part of this scam

so in his mind he can justify his smarmy nature and snake oil salesman persona

# ? Jul 11, 2023 17:26

Mirificus: Oct 29, 2004; Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

https://twitter.com/Morphologis/status/1678227005404483584
https://twitter.com/Morphologis/status/1678236592467582977
https://twitter.com/Mitauchi/status/1678372012866060291
https://twitter.com/WeirdWizardDave/status/1678416590591623173
https://twitter.com/Mitauchi/status/1678419294714048513

# ? Jul 11, 2023 21:13

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

lobsterminator posted:

Out of the major players in this scam, Jared for some reason annoys me the most. He has an aura of unlikability.

Maybe it's just because he's basically the propaganda minister of CIG, trying to make it sound legit.

CRoberts is at least openly contemptuous towards the project and barely there, focusing mainly on vitamins.

Sov Citizen has been going for so long that much a like lots of original backers, a bunch of the classic meme's hosting have died. This used to be BaddadJared.jpg :rip:

https://s4.postimg.org/t325x244d/Kl9t_Jed.png

# ? Jul 11, 2023 22:05

Blue On Blue: Nov 14, 2012

Mirificus posted:

https://twitter.com/Morphologis/status/1678227005404483584
https://twitter.com/Morphologis/status/1678236592467582977
https://twitter.com/Mitauchi/status/1678372012866060291
https://twitter.com/WeirdWizardDave/status/1678416590591623173
https://twitter.com/Mitauchi/status/1678419294714048513

this is the guy that streamed it with a big name but i forget who, and the whole time he was basically 'look over here! look at this cool thing but don't look over there at that bug.... over here is way better to look at!'

he was just shilling super hard for the game and would NOT accept that there were bugs, it wasn't complete or even playable, and good for him to forcing a smile through the pain but come on my dude at least let people point out the bugs don't just shout them down instantly

# ? Jul 11, 2023 22:31

Sandweed: Sep 7, 2006; All your friends are me.

It was Linus tech tips. They even had zyloh spawn in a Idris as they flew around.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 22:59

Blue On Blue: Nov 14, 2012

Sandweed posted:

It was Linus tech tips. They even had zyloh spawn in a Idris as they flew around.

oh poo poo that's right

i even forgot about the idris flying around which was totally unplanned and not a sales tactic just for the viewers linus brought in

# ? Jul 11, 2023 23:00

colonelwest: Jun 30, 2018

Sandweed posted:

It was Linus tech tips. They even had zyloh spawn in a Idris as they flew around.

I�m a big LTT fan but their video on SC fell into all of classic traps of uniformed people reporting on a scam, and trying to hold all of their punches and give every benefit of the doubt possible in the fear that they�re missing some key insight and will be later made to look foolish. It came off like mainstream journalists talking about Crypto/Metaverse/Web3 nonsense, and given its large number of views I�m sure it brought in a lot of new suckers.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 23:27

Rotten Red Rod: Mar 5, 2002

It's kind of understandable because trying to explain the scam of SC to someone who isn't already brain poisoned like us is akin to explaining a magic eye poster to a blind person.

# ? Jul 11, 2023 23:34

Mellow_: Sep 13, 2010

It was linked in the other thread but I'm linking (re-linking? its 5 years old) it here because :wtc:

https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/839631816612962304

# ? Jul 12, 2023 00:11

Trilobite: Aug 15, 2001

Rotten Red Rod posted:

It's kind of understandable because trying to explain the scam of SC to someone who isn't already brain poisoned like us is akin to explaining a magic eye poster to a blind person.

The worst part of being asked about Star Citizen by someone who hasn't been wallowing in the catastrophe is that moment about three seconds in when you want to mention some especially ridiculous red flag that's been waving frantically over the project for years because it makes you laugh, but then realize that if you explain that, you'll have to explain six other things in order for it to make sense, and common human decency kicks in to stop you from inflicting that on the poor innocent soul standing in front of you. So you just say "oh yeah, they're over a decade in and have burned through half a billion dollars to make a half-assed tech demo in a modded CryEngine, having delivered next to none of the promises they made, and with no prospect of ever delivering any more of them" and leave it at that, which...yeah, it's true, and it's really all anyone needs to know in 2023, but it also makes you realize that you would probably be more contented if that's all you knew about it, too.

# ? Jul 12, 2023 02:03