Star Citizen

[Leshma]

[Xant]

[Xant]

[Kafein]

So, what can I do with my game package and aurora right now?

[Xant]

Chill out in your hangar with your ship, play Arena Commander, social module and racing. 2.0 isn't out yet for everyone, but will be soon.

[Leshma]

Depends on your citizen number. If you are bellow 115000 I think, you get to enter public test universe (2.0). If not, you can play live version (1.3) which includes Arena Commander and Social module (isn't really a game mode).

After two weeks of bugfixing, PTU is currently at version 2.0g. Previous patch was decently stable for those who were able to enter the server without getting kicked out immediately, which unfortunately was huge portion of testing base. Also current and previous build suffer from GPU related bug which greatly affects performance (core clock locked at idle value). People with Titan X can't get more than 30 fps atm, even on lowest settings. Performance was fine two builds ago but stability was not. Every build so far is full of various bugs, physics and collision issues, graphical bugs of all sorts, silly animation bugs and of course bugs that will prevent you to finish certain missions. Ship systems voice is the most annoying thing imho, alongside those helmet lines and shaky camera.

But in general, game is playable, just in broken alpha stage. Missions aren't anything special but aren't bad. FPS is decent. EVA is also cool. Ship flying model still isn't where it needs to be, multicrew is very raw (and prone to bugs), damage model is great. AI exist only as NPC pilots, no professions, you can't land on planets. Other than you there are other players and you'll meat them more often than you do in elite, especially if you go to FPS station which is griefers playgrounds. Best part of the game is atmosphere, it really does feel like you are in space, especially on stations which have Alien: Isolation atmosphere. Too bad there aren't any critters on stations. This could be better Alien vs Predator game than few previous iterations.

Alternatively, you can ask for refund but that will take some time, them asking you in couple emails are you sure and what are your reasons. Or maybe not, depending on your package worth. Those with more expensive packages are refunded in stages, takes few months for it to be finished. But they aren't saying no, just being annoying when it comes to refund process. Still its better than nothing.

[Xant]

[Vibe]

Well color me hyped. What's after 2.0 though, what do they have planned until they consider this a final release?

[Xant]

Well color me hyped. What's after 2.0 though, what do they have planned until they consider this a final release?

More of everything. More missions, more locations, more ships, more weapons, more FPS stuff (like jukes), different armors, salvaging, mining, cargo stuff, planetary exploration, etc. And then, of course, SQ42 will come before the persistent universe is 100% ready.

[Kafein]

So they still need 3 times the budget they already got?

[Xant]

So they still need 3 times the budget they already got?

Uh.. what?

[Leshma]

So they still need 3 times the budget they already got?

No one knows how much they spent so far. If they didn't steal from the pot (talking about our venerable leader, his wife and those muppets they call community managers) then there should be enough left to finish the game. Many of things they say to the public is wrong or simply twisted but thankfully, you can hear what actual developers have to say from time to time. They give good insight in status of this project.

Currently the situation is: they changed Cry Engine in many ways making it unstable. Because of anniversary sale they pushed it before its time to PTU and it was utterly broken. Still is in many ways. They need to make it stable first, to iron out bugs before they can continue adding features.

Three main components that will make or break the game are procedural generation of various things in game, networking and artificial intelligence. First is easier to nail than former because you can see it working in Elite: Dangerous although not really at scale where they need it. Networking will be major hurdle to overcome because in current state it affects performance to a point where server issues can lead from 60 stable fps to single digit fps on same machine. Also they need to push many data over the network while working in cloud environment. Elite uses peer 2 peer which isn't performant as dedicated servers but I think it is more reliable than cloud based infrastructure which is still very young and seldom used for video game servers. But third aspect, AI will be toughest nut to crack. Unlike previous technologies that have been seen in games, AI they plan to build doesn't really exist in any game up to date. They'll probably end with some half baked solution like radiant AI which should be good enough, I guess. Quality of an AI will determine how good this game will be in the end.

As you can see, not even 300 millions can build them the game they pitched. Only very skilled individuals capable of breaking boundaries and time. Not sure they have any of those in abundance.

[Leshma]

Well color me hyped. What's after 2.0 though, what do they have planned until they consider this a final release?

After 2.0 gets released, next milestone will be 2.1 which will be about customization. Basic things at first, clothing options and hair/face presets. Detailed face generator will come after 2.1 and before 2.2, which adds more persistence and some basic economy. Important milestone is AI which is labeled as version 2.3... in the mean time they'll connect planets with PU and some landing zones outside Stanton system which will utilize jump points. Not sure about FPS module, they don't talk much about it. FPS in PU will get improvements and polish, just like everything else.

If they had capable team and ready tech before they pitched the project, we would have baby PU at least 15 months ago.

[Xant]

If they had capable team and ready tech before they pitched the project, we would have baby PU at least 15 months ago.

From reading between the lines, Illfonic seems to have been really shit. And that's why FPS got delayed by so much -- they had to do it by themselves, in the end.

[Xant]

Currently the situation is: they changed Cry Engine in many ways making it unstable. Because of anniversary sale they pushed it before its time to PTU and it was utterly broken

And this is just not true. PTU means "Public test universe." It's meant to be unstable on PTU. PTU is the alpha of the alpha version. Releasing it helped them fix a ton of stuff.