Space, er, I mean, Star Citizen

[Holman]

I guess I should be proud that I lasted more than a decade without spending a penny on this grift.

[coopasonic]

Technically I bought in at the very beginning for whatever they were asking but at this point I have no idea how to access what I purchased... and I'm ok with that.

[Punisher]

You can google roberts space industries and find the login.
I've honestly had fun with this when i played.
Ive played onand off since it was first available.
They keep releasing more and more gameplay.
It mighr be more fun playing with other people especially for multicrew craft. I think i have one that i will use as a combat ambulance.
I cant remember what i have but i think i have about 4 or 5 ships right now that ive bought during various sales.
I really dont see it as a scam or grift but thats my opinion.

[Brian]

Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal

Didn't exactly get a release date like I was hoping for. They do, right at the end, show an expected release in 2026.
So, not the 2025 release I was also hoping for and they've certainly missed release dates before but Squadron 42 is what I really put my money down for back in 2013.
I'm sure Star Citizen will be a great game when it eventually gets a full release but the single player game is why I signed on.

They did the prologue demonstration with live play during CitizenCon and it crashed twice and had a few bugs and screen tearing in spots but I thought it was pretty ballsy to do it live, warts and all.

The video below is the full prologue without the crashes and bugs.

[Max Peck]

I wouldn't place any bets on them actually hitting that 2026 release window.

[Brian]

I wouldn't place any bets on them actually hitting that 2026 release window.

Hence:

expected release in 2026

and

they've certainly missed release dates before

[Max Peck]

As a card-carrying Rear Admiral (well, I have a card -- I don't actually carry it) I'm entitled to one bitter comment per Citizen Con. It's somewhere in the Kickstarter fine print. Probably.

I guess I should cut them some slack, since they did produce an actual deliverable on that one.

[Brian]

Yeah, I feel ya. It's become sort of de rigueur to bag on Star Citizen/Squadron 42 because of it's long development cycle. I originally pledged in 2013 and have spent [Redacted] dollars on ships for Star Citizen.
Thing is, other than logging in to walk around their yearly ship shows, I haven't even played it yet.

When they drop 1.0 with (they claim) a total of five playable systems, I might finally fire it up and tackle the (very) steep learning curve.

Or maybe I'll just wait for Sq42 and then jump into SC once I complete that.

[Max Peck]

I was very into Kickstarter back in 2012 and 2013. Some of the projects turned out great, like Elite: Dangerous, Pillars of Eternity, or Wasteland 2. And some of them were Star Citizen, Shroud of the Avatar or Godus. I think the main lesson learned for me has been that, for the most part, a good Kickstarter project will become a good product that I can just buy when it's finished (although every once in a while I'm still tempted to back something interesting).

[Paingod]

The way it sounds like this is being developed, it'll never -ever- see the light of day.

Shame. I was very excited for this when I was a young lad.

[Max Peck]

I recently read some similar reporting from Insider Gaming: 12 Years and $700 Million Later, What’s Going on With Star Citizen’s Development?

This part of the article brings to mind how Microsoft had to sideline Roberts in order to get Freelancer over the finish line.

“Pushing the boundaries of game development” is often a phrase used by management, said sources, who use it repeatedly to explain CIG’s unorthodox game development processes. This includes rationalizing almost all processes of the development pipeline, including creative to its teaching processes on how to work on CIGs Star Engine, a heavily modified version of CryEngine that has been the cause of years of delays and pushbacks. Staff describes the engine as Frankenstein, a mishmash of parts that is difficult to work with at the best of times, never mind when features are added, changed, or removed daily.

Both current and former staff say that one of the fundamental issues at CIG is the creative process, which will see the head honcho of CIG, Chris Roberts, make game-defining changes daily that can cause weeks of issues. Roberts is relatively well-known in and out of the Star Citizen community for being a perfectionist at the best times. Still, developers feel that his constant changes in vision and scope have become one of the most significant burdens to Star Citizen, Squadron 42, and CIG as a development studio.

Staff say that this isn’t just on the prominent game features either, but down to the minutest of details. They said that decisions that should take a matter of seconds creatively can sometimes take hours, or even days, due to his micromanagement. “I’ve genuinely been sat in meetings that got derailed for 30 minutes so that the placement of objects that players are likely never to interact with could be discussed in detail,” said one former employee, “there’s just no actual focus on getting the game done,” they continued.

“Sometimes the most basic features can be reviewed by him [Roberts] half a dozen times, for it then to be scrapped or changed on the 7th review,” said another employee. The constant changes in scope are made worse by inappropriate deadlines, many of the employees said, which will see months’ worth of work expected in weeks or even days, which still ultimately runs the risk of being scrapped.

A deep dive into exactly where all that backer money went would probably make for some interesting reading.

[Daehawk]

Heres the CGI video from GamesCon that Brian posted above but at higher resolution.

[NickAragua]

I think I got a copy of this when I bought a video card a long time ago.

I've had two kids since that happened. One of the kids is 11.

[Brian]

Heres the CGI video from GamesCon that Brian posted above but at higher resolution.

Funny, the one I posted above is in 4k. I think it defaults to 480 when it's embedded.
Just full screen it and check the resolution.

And verified. Yours does the same thing, Dae.

[Daehawk]

oh. hmmm.. Want me to remove mine?

[Brian]

Nah. No worries.