Neurotic Roleplay posted:

jesus christ how broke is your brain if you keep up with and talk about this dumb loving game. and no, you aren't doing it "ironically"

iospace posted:

Tell us how mad you aren't, thanks.

Tolth posted:

What the hell is wrong with people who fall for this? How much of a mark do you have to be?

monkeytek posted:

How much are you in for commando?

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

My favorite part is learning the game uses the Crysis engine, but in order to have outer space adventure in an engine built for a single island, everything in the engine is itty bitty, and a ton of the physics glitches are because of how tiny everything is and the engine literally not being designed to handle it.

I said come in! posted:

People like talking about this Kickstarter because there is nothing like it. Development started in 2011, it is still pre-alpha, there is $27,000 DLC packages that normal people have paid for, and the game is nearing $300 million dollars. Something like this has never been seen before, and it really shows a critical fatal flaw in both the way capitalism works, and how broken the game industry is. That something like this is acceptable to millions of people, is just completely wild to me.

intardnation posted:

what happened?

Bargearse posted:

One of my favourite bits of Star Citizen bullshit right there. Either the switch to Lumberyard was trivial and only took a few days as they claimed, meaning it’s all built on bog standard Cryengine and they’re lying about replacing half of Crytek’s code, or they had to devote serious time and resources, in which case they’re lying about the switch being trivial.

Either way they’ve outed themselves as liars.

RBA Starblade posted:

Jesus Christ

LuiCypher posted:

On top of that, releasing it would offer concrete proof that all the negative things people said about him are absolutely 100% true.

People have said he's a bad manager: He can't fight scope creep, he can't decide on a solid vision and stick to it, he can't stop throwing the baby out with the bathwater because x isn't as perfect as he wants it to be.

People have said he's a terrible director: He can't write a script worth a poo poo, he can't keep things consistent within a given universe that he created, he can't develop meaningful characters, and there's nothing about his directorial style that is remarkable/interesting/good.

Star Citizen is incontrovertible proof that not only is all of the above true, but the reality is so, so, so much worse than anyone could have imagined.

I said come in! posted:

What is the backstory to this image?

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

OK, you're ugly too!

Rap Three Times posted:

The same day as the S.C.A.M thread closes... Coincidence?...

Scruffpuff posted:

LOL never. I backed despite Chris. I knew he was a tool, but very early on there were some promising demos and actual game devs involved. It basically looked and felt a bit like Freelancer 2013 so I figured what the gently caress, here's $45. I played the "fly out of an asteroid base" tutorial and it all worked first try (try to believe that seeing it today).

When the PU was announced I hopped in and immediately regretted everything, and saw what this actually was, and what it would eventually fail to become.

Zazz Razzamatazz posted:

Before that it was regular old Object Container Streaming that was going to save the game right?

tooterfish posted:

That's not a unity feature, it's a C# one. Serialisation isn't a game development concept, it's a basic bitch programming one.

CIG making a big thing out of it is like Chevrolet bragging about how their cars come with wheels.

Danknificent posted:

SSOCS is great and all, but I'm not holding my breath for really smooth performance until CNN, ESPN, and LMNOP are implemented.

RabbitWizard posted:

I'm trying to explain what these cool things do for the noobs in this thread:
-Save on sending/calculating totally useless poo poo. (Which may have been ok in small single player maps, but isn't cool with a galaxy)
-That's it.

Rotten Red Rod posted:

CIG's great communication at work!

Bayonnefrog posted:

Posting in this new Scam Citizen thread for posterity. I'll be here when the trial starts. ETA?

Agony Aunt posted:

I recall the same.

Klyith posted:

absolutely true but it's also very funny how they keep inventing buzzwords to describe stuff that nobody else would even mention, let alone consider an achievement

TheAgent posted:

backers often go "see!! they said it couldn't be done, but we have a city planet!!" when in reality we argued that making an entire city planet that could be fully explored, with NPCs correctly navigating streets, landing zones and air space is pretty much impossible and that most likely it'll be stripped down into a few hotspot waypoints with the rest locked off

which it turned out to be, much like how their proc gen planets are anything but

I remember the backers from 2017 and 2018 imagining meeting a NPC in a dark hidden alleyway and all the endless gameplay possibilities you'd have from that single interaction

Jonny Shiloh posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McDhkXZv6ck

Twerk recaps the latest Star Citizen news and tries to make sense of what the company is currently saying.

1. They're inventing something called an iCache system which sounds super exciting.
2. Something something mining assets.
3. A mission giver audit is on the cards, so missions should be awesome from now on.
4. NEW SHOPPING ITEMS!!!!
5. VoIP is getting some love.
6. Character customisation is progressing.
7. NEW HAIR PIPELINE!!!! (apparently this is super important for immersion).
8. Vulkan support is coming (it's not coming).
9. Shipjacker armour is on the way (designed for gameplay that doesn't exist).
10. Salvage is moved to 4.0.
11. Security system moves to 4.0.
12. "Social AI" is the new focus - no, I've no idea either.
13. Prison gameplay is in - can the inevitable consequences of piracy be far behind?
14. In-game guilds have been delegated to Tony Z - I guess that means we'll never see it?
15. Video content - he loves this week's video content.
16. "Personal commodity inventory" - more bullshit made up terms for your inventory, basically, except it only stores commodities. Duh!
17. *dreams.txt*
18. E-war gameplay on the Vanguard Sentinel is shown - e-war will never be a thing.
19. Torpedo gameplay, you'll be able to see the torpedos exiting your ship - this doesn't exist.
20. Hover mode refactored again to "proximity assist" because it sucked, basically - do they not test this poo poo before punting it out to the backers???
21. Star Citizen Live! Todd Papy and Brian Chambers wing it, basically. "Cadence" is a new buzzword apparently.
22. Persistence in the PU - err, yeah... not yet.
23. Re. roadmap grumbling - yeah, well roadmaps are hard, we can't produce them and be accurate at the same time, I mean honestly.
24. 4.0 is a vertical slice. Praise be to Crobblers!
25. Ship station docking? Erm no, probably not.

Star Citizen looking pretty good now fudsters

Agony Aunt posted:

More to do with lust being on their mind.

Scruffpuff posted:

No, you see, you can't trust the sub-ether network in the Space Future™ because of the risk of interception (as anyone who has watched a sci-fi program will tell you, decrypting encrypted communications is easy once you hack the first 3 firewalls). That's why CIG talked about "Data-Runner Ships" which you can use to transport important data the old-fashioned way. It is much more difficult to track a small ship through the vastness of space, unless of course you use a mine-layer ship with mines that have an incredible range of 10km which are sure to lay waste to your target, because in Star Citizen small ships are both difficult to track and great for running secret data but it's also a universe where it's very easy to predict the trajectory of an enemy target with sub-10km precision in advance.

I suppose you could use the mine-layer to protect important stationary data in a container in space which is a fantastic way to store sensitive data, as evidenced by the fact that Fort Knox keeps its valuables out in the open in the middle of nowhere with no guards and a handful of landmines around it. Those don't even have a 10km radius so that's another point for Star Citizen!

Foglet posted:

iCash, obviously.

quote:

The first major part of the iCache has been completed and tested. The iCache is a highly distributed and fault-tolerant storage/query engine that greatly out-performs their current pCache. It provides an indexing and query system that can be utilized by other services for specific and complex item queries. This system is important going forward, particularly as the Persistent Universe sees greater volumes of players and server meshing comes online.

quote:

The first major part of the iCache has been completed and tested internally, too. The iCache is a highly distributed and fault-tolerant storage/query engine that greatly out-performs the current pCache. It provides an indexing and query system that can be utilized by other services for specific and complex item queries. This system is important going forward, particularly as the Persistent Universe sees greater volumes of players and server meshing comes online.

quote:

August saw the Backend Services Team focus on fixing various bugs with new and existing systems. The iCache underwent significant testing, including checking its overall robustness and recovery. Work began on the new resource service, which is responsible for placing and tracking natural resources on planetary bodies throughout the solar system. The new Star Engine Services received enhancements to its core technology and is now ready to be used for gameplay and other supporting roles.

Grubby Hobo posted:

It would be funny if this just meant "We switched from Amazon's MySql to Amazon's Aurora." That would involve trivial effort, and there's nothing in this quote that contradicts it.

Would CI(G) puff up a simple task this much, and give it a grand and exalted and Apple-like name, to make it sound like they are the Wizards Of The Code?

Yes. A million times yes.

Agony Aunt posted:

If they can't handle 3 month release cycles they are not going to handle the much more complex "staggered" 6 month cycles.

Agony Aunt posted:

Its going to increase the risk of regressions massively unless they separate tasks out between the two development branches very carefully. Imagine if a dev on the "A" branch makes a change to a method that the "B" branch is not aware of until time it comes to merge.

Dementropy posted:

Sarsapariller posted:

TLDR: Planets in this game are big stationary objects that turn in place to produce day/night cycles but do not otherwise have any form of newtonian motion.

Zushio posted:

Just want to say, this thread is great. I have only paid a little attention to SC drama in the past, but the full scope is a little staggering.

This reminds me, I bought Interstellar Marines a long rear end time ago in Early Access, and was so in to it I even bought a 4-pack for my friends. I messed around with some of the multiplayer awhile ago but it ran like rear end on my PC, and then promised campaign never materialized outside of a few levels with very basic objectives and weird AI. It was fun and had promise, but everyone hosed off I think. Haven't checked in ages.

What I'm saying is that I wasted $20 bucks on a game that went nowhere, and I still feel like it offered a more complete gaming experience than SC.

Scruffpuff posted:

Star Citizen is the game development version of that episode.

Mirificus posted:

intardnation posted:

but they dont have a giant worm do they!

Quoth the Crobbers posted:

Only a few days ago, I wrote the $54 million letter which is truly incredible. I think everyone should take a moment to appreciate the enormity of what you as a community have achieved. Two years ago, the idea that a group of people who love space sims, PC gaming and the promise of a huge new universe to adventure around in could unite to raise $55 million to fund a game was unthinkable. Every one of you, from single Aurora pilots to those building their own fleets, has been part of something unprecedented. Today, we’re in the Guinness Book of World Records, and not as the largest crowdfunded game of all time, but as the largest crowdfunded anything of all time!

I’m very glad to see that the Reclaimer is so popular! This is a ship that you made possible, and I think it speaks to exactly what’s cool about Star Citizen: we’re going beyond the traditional dogfighting game and building a living universe. The fact that so many players want to take part in salvage ops makes me more hopeful than ever! How many have we sold? Well, in the Reclaimer’s description, we mention that it can store roughly a single Constellation worth of scrap. In the current stats (always subject to change!) a Bengal carrier weighs in at about 1,400 times a Constellation… meaning that it would take 1,400 Reclaimers to haul it away as wreckage. Well, the UEE had better watch out: we’ve released enough Reclaimers so far to dismantle THREE Bengals! I’ve included a new piece of Reclaimer concept art which has just come in; here you can see the ship’s claw salvage mechanism in action!

I sometimes get asked why continue to raise money. Haven’t you already raised enough to make the game? The answer is that Star Citizen isn’t a normal game. It’s not being developed like a normal game and it’s not being funded like a normal game. I’ve had to toss aside a lot of my knowledge from the old way of developing and embrace a completely new world. There is no publisher. There is no venture capitalist wanting a massive return in three years. There is no need to cram the game onto a disc and hope we got it all right. Star Citizen is not the type of game that will be played for a few weeks, then put on a shelf to gather dust. Instead of building a game in secrecy we can be fully open with you as a community who have made this game possible. We can involve the future player base in the creative feedback loop as we develop and iterate core systems. As a group we are all involved and united in our quest to make the best game possible.

I have a lot of industry friends pat me on the back and say, “Wow, it must be so great to be operating in profit even before you ship!” Their look usually turns to incredulity when I explain that my intention is for all the money we bring in before launch to be spent on development. It is the community, from the existing backers who continue to support the game, to new members who join every day who are setting the level of ambition and budget for Star Citizen. Every effort is about enriching the game’s vision. Funding to date has allowed us to go so far beyond what I thought was possible in 2012. You’re still getting that game, no question, but it will be all the richer and so much more immersive because of the additional funding.

Long ago I stopped looking at this game the way I did when I worked for a publisher who gave me a fixed budget to make a retail game. I now look at our monthly fundraising and use that to set the amount of resources being used to develop this game. We keep a healthy cash reserve so that if funding stopped tomorrow we would still be able to deliver Star Citizen (not quite to the current level of ambition, but well above what was planned in Oct 2012). If you combine our in-house staff and outsourced developers, we now number more than 280 people. Your support has created a significant number of jobs in the gaming industry. (And no matter what you might have heard, only a small number of our team is tasked with designing new ships!)

If we had raised the original amount and no more, we wouldn’t be able to deliver involved capital ship systems or the level of FPS gameplay that we are now planning for planets in the Persistent Universe. Nor would have the time or budget to continually upgrade the game with new features like Physically Based Rendering (PBR), or continually strive to make the art assets better. Just compare the Hornet from October 2012 to the current PBR Hornet in Arena Commander. Our ability to iterate in Arena Commander, to try different flight or targeting schemes, or add new game modes that are test beds for future Persistent Universe gameplay is all due to our increased funding, as is the ability to deliver FPS, Planetside and Squadron 42 as modules or episodic content for the community all before the game is “done.” And in the process, you’re giving us the time to get it right, and you’re giving us more opportunities to share our work with you.

I know some people are afraid of “feature creep” and the game never being finished as we keep adding functionality and content to the mix with increased funding. I would say that this would be fair criticism if we were delivering this game at retail and on disc. However, we are online and already pushing out builds, well before Star Citizen reaches what anyone would consider a “finished” stage. Just because we haven’t implemented a planned feature or built a certain asset yet doesn’t prevent us from sharing the game with everyone right now. It’s this evolved process which gives us the Hangar and Arena Commander and so many modules yet to come. We’re sharing the game as it’s being built and it’s an amazing opportunity for everyone who has backed, to have input on the direction the game is going. You just don’t get this in the traditional game business.

Ship sales and new members of our community are the two main fund raising sources. I want to stress that no one has to or should contribute more than the basic amount for a starting package. Everything is earnable in the game with enough time (and skill). However, if you like the direction we are taking and want to contribute more to the development of Star Citizen, then purchasing different ships with diverse roles are a great way to give back for this support. The new ships add interesting new gameplay and populating the future Persistent Universe with a range of different ships, flown by players pursuing all kinds of professions, will only add to the richness of the game once it’s fully live.

That’s what Star Citizen is about : the creative freedom to build something unlike anything that has been done before and the ability to do it with the support of a community that is as passionate about this game as I am. We want to make the Best drat Space Sim Ever, and with your continued support I know we will.

Now, on to the stretch goals! This time around, you unlocked a user-voted ship upgrade!

Ballistic Gatling – Preacher Armament Inquisition XXII: Preacher’s Inquisition XXII is the weapon to turn to when you want complete target saturation. Its dual-ammo feed allows you to hotswap feeds without exiting your ship, giving every owner the ultimate flexibility to pick the ammo based on the situation. This Arena Commander upgrade will be given to all players who pledged before we reached the 55M goal.

We’ll be placing two of these guns on every account that backed before $54 million, and they’ll be available in a future Arena Commander patch! (These guns will be among the first to come off our new component pipeline.)

For our next series of stretch goals, we’re going to ask you to pick ‘wave four’ of Star Citizen’s ships! Now that the previous set, also selected by backers, are exiting the concept process, our artists can start on another group. We’ve selected ten ship concepts we think are interesting and which would improve the Star Citizen universe. Some are combat-oriented, others speak to the larger Star Citizen universe… and the next one we build is in your hands! With each upcoming letter, we’ll select one winner and eliminate the least popular, until five have been chosen. Please vote for your favorite in the poll below.

I’m excited to see what you choose; I know my favorite already. Your input helps create Star Citizen just like your pledges. We couldn’t do this without you; thank you for making the Best drat Space Sim Ever happen.

— Chris Roberts

Colostomy Bag posted:

So new space court action on pacer? Basically pushing court back another 3 months?

Joint Counsel posted:

1.Crytek filed its initial complaint on December 12, 2017 [ECF 1] and its First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) on January 2, 2018 [ECF 18]. On January 5, 2018, CIG moved to dismiss the FAC. ECF 19.

2.CIG moved to stay discovery while its motion to dismiss was pending. ECF 29. On April 17, 2018, Magistrate Judge Mumm denied the motion to stay as moot, holding that the Court’s Standing Order did not require the parties to engage in discovery until the Court issued a Scheduling Order. ECF 34.

3.On August 14, 2018, the Court granted in part and denied in part CIG’s motion to dismiss the FAC. ECF 38.

4.On August 16, 2018, Crytek filed its Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”). ECF 39. CIG moved to dismiss the SAC on September 6, 2018. ECF 42.

5.Also on September 6, 2018, the Court set a Scheduling Conference for October 12, 2018. ECF 43. In anticipation of that conference, on September 28, 2018, the parties filed a Joint 26(f) report requesting a trial date of March 24, 2020, with associated pre-trial deadlines. ECF 46. On October 11, 2018, the Court vacated the Scheduling Conference. ECF 48.

6.On December 6, 2018, the Court granted CIG’s motion to dismiss the SAC, granting Crytek one final opportunity to amend. ECF 49. On January 16, 2019, Crytek gave notice that it would not further amend the SAC. ECF 52. CIG answered the SAC on February 6, 2019. ECF 53.

7.On March 7, 2019, the Court entered the Scheduling Order, which set the trial for the March 24, 2020 date the parties previously proposed on September 28, 2018. ECF 55.

8.On March 29, 2019, CIG filed its motion for a bond pursuant to Cal. Civ. P. Code § 1030. ECF 57. On April 5, 2019, the Court entered an order upon a stipulation between the parties setting a briefing schedule on the bond motion and staying CIG’s discovery obligations until the earliest of 30 days after (a) Crytek’s compliance with an order granting CIG’s bond motion; (b) the Court’s entry of an order denying the motion for bond; or (c) August 27, 2019. ECF 59.

9.On May 29, 2019, while CIG’s bond motion was still pending, Crytek substituted its former counsel from the Skadden firm with its current counsel of record. ECF 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 77.

10.On July 18, 2019, the parties participated in a Settlement Conference before Magistrate Judge MacKinnon. ECF 80. The case did not settle. Id.

11.On July 22, 2018, the Court granted CIG’s bond motion, ordering Crytek to deposit a bond in the amount of $500,000. ECF 81.

12.On August 6, 2019, the parties submitted a Stipulated Protective Order for the Court to enter. ECF 83. To date, the Court has not entered the Stipulated Protective Order.

13.On August 19, 2019, Crytek posted a cashier’s check in lieu of the bond. ECF 84.

14.Following the Settlement Conference, the parties have worked cooperatively and in good faith to narrow the issues in this case and to streamline discovery. However, although this case was filed on December 12, 2017, due to the unusual manner this litigation has unfolded (including multiple amendments to the pleadings, the motion for a bond, the absence of a protective order, and the de facto stays of discovery discussed above), and despite the parties’ best efforts, the discovery and trial schedule set by the Court on March 7, 2019 does not give the parties enough time to complete fact and expert discovery, file dispositive motions, and prepare this case for trial. Good cause therefore exists for a continuance of the trial date and of the related dates set in the Court’s March 7, 2019 Schedule of Pretrial & Trial Dates.

15.Moreover, the remaining claims in this case require extensive computer code review that involves both non-expert and expert discovery. The completion of this code review is crucial to the parties’ abilities to bring any dispositive motions. Thus, good cause exists to adjust the current schedule to allow the parties to complete both non-expert and expert discovery prior to the dispositive motion cut-off date.

16.This is the parties’ first request for a continuance of the trial date and associated pre-trial deadlines in this case.

Based on the foregoing, the parties jointly request that the Court continue the current March 24, 2020 trial date to Tuesday, June 16, 2020 or an alternative date convenient for the Court, the parties, and their counsel.

kw0134 posted:

Yeah, shock and surprise, when one party is all about being dilatory it causes delays in the case. (Though to be fair, some of the MtD stuff had better legs than I had thought, but the essential core was always going to have to go to trial if it didn't get settled; novel theories of damages aside, a contract case looks like a contract case.)

Dementropy posted:

https://twitter.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/1172185736008753157

Rotten Red Rod posted:

I agree it looks great but never preorder, ever

Scruffpuff posted:

I think my first video game was a cocktail table version of Surround in the back bar of a Bonanza steakhouse.

quote:

Amid the new cosmetic items are a pair of utility items. The refrigerator lets you store food and drink to slow down the speed at which they spoil. The collectron station, meanwhile, sends out a wee robots to search for scrap and junk. They cost 700 and 500 Atoms respectively.

While Atoms can be earned in-game, they can also be purchased for real cash in bundles. Together, they cost 1200 Atoms, so you'd need to buy a 500 and 1100 bundle, amounting to £12/$15. These items, then, cost more than a lot of people paid for the game itself.

Originally, Bethesda said that only cosmetic items would be sold, but that quickly ceased to be true when repair kits were added to the shop.

Drunk Theory posted:

I see, all paths lead to whale. There is no escape.

Mirificus posted:

trucutru posted:

The great wheel of Shitsara, according to the backers.

Sanya Juutilainen posted:

These things he quotes are nothing alike, 3-body problem has no three layers, I wonder if he even realizes that.

Zzr posted:

Star citizen : not a game, and also not a game.

h3isenbug posted:

Who's gonna pay for this?

Bootcha posted:

Hey gang.

So here's a question.

Espresso Machine cost about $17,000.

Space Door cost about $40,000.

What single, used-once item would cost $100,000?

You've seen it. You've absolutely loving seen it.

Aussies, you've absolutely loving seen it.

Bootcha posted:

What does your heart tell you?

shrach posted:

Obviously untrue.
However, if it is true I reserve the right to later adjust my position as follows: This is actually good for Star Citizen and is a shrewd bargain because Sandi always looks like a million bucks.