Star Citizen

[Jarhead0331]

Aren't these freeflight events like a open house event by exotic car dealers ? If you let people fly the coolest ships for a bit they'll be more likely to spend (even more) cash on your digital wares. :)

Yes. They result in millions in revenue for Cloud Imperium and crashed servers for players.

[Yskonyn]

I wish a similar thing would happen for me if I'd run a free to play weekend for outsiders on our family's  Minecraft server...

I'd even go out of my way to fix the crashes for players! 😄

[Jarhead0331]

Anyone here go by the name Rotho98?

[Pete Dero]

Anyone here go by the name Rotho98?

UK based :

https://www.instagram.com/rotho98/
https://twitter.com/Rotho98

[Destraex]

Well, the propaganda efforts are ramping up for Squadron 42 (SQ42), today the devs released a new quarterly video series on squadron42 updates called "the briefing room".

They intend to do quarterly sq42 videos hence forth. The first two videos are first an update video and then the first quarterly video. The videos scare me. On the one hand they could be spoiler rich, on the other they might confirm my fears that sq42 is nowhere near ready. One things for sure, its gotta be better than the squadrons campaign. Should I give up and simply absorb all I can of the story from these videos?

An explanation of Briefing room for Squadron42

Briefing room: Episode 1

[Yskonyn]

Why the doom and gloom of 'giving up'?
The thing isn't ready and it won't be for quite a while. Nothing changed there.
With each update, however, they are closer to release.
Are you thinking about trying to get a refund?

[Pete Dero]

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/star-citizen-birthday-ama

Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Announced [Oct 10, 2012)

Chris Roberts, who helped define the space sim genre in computer games during the 1990s with his Wing Commander® and Privateer® franchises, is back in the cockpit again with a new title he says will change the way people perceive games for the PC and will breathe new life into space combat games. The new game, Star Citizen™, was officially announced today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online taking place at the Austin Convention Center. The game is being developed by Roberts' Cloud Imperium™ Games studio, located in Los Angeles.

Roberts' re-entry into gaming comes after he spent more than a decade as a director and producer in the Hollywood film industry. In 1990, he introduced Wing Commander to the world of PC gaming and the franchise went on to sell millions of units and spawned multiple sequels, a feature film and another highly successful game franchise, Privateer.

Star Citizen, already 12 months into production, will be launched on the PC and will include all the Chris Roberts hallmarks that fans of his games have come to expect over the years: high quality cutting-edge visuals and technology, a virtual world that is immersive and detailed, a sophisticated storyline that is wide in scope and visceral, heart-pounding space combat.

"In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre," says Roberts. "I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.

"There is a lot of noise out there regarding social and mobile games right now, and I think PC gamers are feeling a little left out of the mix. But the PC is still incredibly capable of presenting an experience that doesn't take a back seat to any other platform out there, including consoles. With my game, I want PC gamers to stand up, be counted and get excited again about all the great experiences their computer can deliver."

At GDC Online Roberts also announced a program to bring his devotees and other interested parties much closer to the development process. A crowd funding site has been posted at www.robertsspaceindustries.com to help raise the necessary funds for completing development of the project. "Our purpose today," said Roberts, "is to allow our fans to join us in this process early. It will likely be another two years before the full product is ready for release, but early backers will be able to play a version of the game a year from now.

"We are taking this approach to fund-raising for several reasons," said Roberts. "For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game. Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past. Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game."

Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either. Roberts says the game will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

Chris Roberts [Oct 10, 2020)

You're not really asking about what is being worked on Squadron 42, you really just want to know when it will be done. The best answer for your question is Squadron 42 will be done when it is done, and will not be released just to make a date but instead once all the tech and content is finished, polished and it plays great. I am not willing to compromise making a game I believe in with all my heart and soul, and even though everyone (including me) wants Squadron 42 sooner than later, it would be doing a huge disservice to everyone working really hard on the project and all of you that are looking forward to it to deliver something that isn't great.

The new roadmap will show how we are doing towards that goal and as we get closer to the end it will be more accurate but it will never be a perfect crystal ball of the future as there is always a certain amount of unpredictability in game development, especially when the game is hugely ambitious and has a very high quality bar; Red Dead Redemption 2, Last of US 2 and now Cyberpunk have all taken a lot longer than originally communicated and those projects didn't even announce a release date until very deep into their production, when most of their tech had been resolved.

We still have a ways to go before we are in Beta, but everyone on Squadron 42 is working very hard to deliver something great.

[Yskonyn]

Everyone knows the history and the statements made by Roberts. The two games are far from going gold in the traditional sense, but that has been a known fact for a long time now and isn't likely to change in the near future.
So why the 'giving up' remark after the latest AMA, is what I ask. Just curious because, it isn't like this piece offers a sudden revelation, does it?

[Destraex]

Why the doom and gloom of 'giving up'?
The thing isn't ready and it won't be for quite a while. Nothing changed there.
With each update, however, they are closer to release.
Are you thinking about trying to get a refund?

No not thinking of getting a refund or giving up on it. Just thought they would have some campaign play in one form or another by now. I am not getting any younger and it's been 8 years or so if you consider they say they were 12 months into production when it was announced. Another two years and it will be a decade, but it is looking like it will be that long.

[steve58]

We are able refund pledges up to 30 days after the order was made. Anything outside of this time frame is no longer refundable.

https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002466313-Refunds-FAQ

As a pledger who was mostly interested in the SQ42 side, I wish I had requested a refund way back when they were allowing them.  At the rate this game is moving along, my new-ish rig won't be able to run it if/when it gets released/finished.   :-\

[Jarhead0331]

Over the last few alpha updates, flight has become much more complex in a lot of ways, particularly with respect to targeting. In my opinion it's actually too complicated, but I'm still getting used to it. Both space and atmospheric flight is also much more complex and it definitely feels closer to a sim now with something approaching Newtonian principles and much less of  an arcade style experience.

The space stations have also grown much larger and more complex. Overall, this is a good thing, as it adds to the immersion, but I find it annoying that at times after logging in to the PU, I sometimes need to take 5 to 10 minutes to get to a spaceport or hangar area where's I can spawn one of my ships.

[Pete Dero]

Another two years and it will be a decade.

Not just thinking about this game, doesn't it create major problems to develop something over this period with rapidly evolving hardware and software?

[Jarhead0331]

They already had to transition from Cryengine to Lumberyard. Because cryengine had too many limitations and bottlenecks for what they are developing. Since the transitions, the pace of development has increased substantially, but it did create significant delays (and litigation) in development overall. Hopefully Lumberyard can evolve over time and integrate with new hardware capabilities so that future moves to new engines are not necessary.

[Skoop]

To be honest, I wish they'd dump the SQ42 bs and just focus on the the PU, that is where the real brilliance lie in the game.  They've vest too much into it though and it's like squadrons campaign, only meant to get you going like an intro. 

[Destraex]

To be honest, I wish they'd dump the SQ42 bs and just focus on the the PU, that is where the real brilliance lie in the game.  They've vest too much into it though and it's like squadrons campaign, only meant to get you going like an intro. 

For me squadron42 was always the meat of the game. It's not just an intro and will be coming out in paid "seasons" or chapters after the initial release. I expect it to take a fair while to complete the first release. As it did in wing commander. Additionally it's coop.

@Jar: I don't think they are too complex, for us at least.