Star Citizen: Death of a Space Thread?

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Dogeh: Aug 30, 2017; ShitMeter: -------------|- 99%

VictorianQueerLit posted:

It's really weird that the timeline of Derek Smart knowing something exists is so important to you.

It's really weird that you care that it's important to AP that the timeline of Uncle Derek knowing something exists is so important to AP.

That hurt my brain....

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:51

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 00:42

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

We're in the business of examining things that are bad

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:52

Toops: Nov 5, 2015; -find mood stabilizers
-also,

big nipples big life posted:

I'm thinking JACKED TO THE KNEES would have been enough for today, there still may have been some excess.

Called it.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:52

Beet Wagon: Oct 19, 2015

Foo Diddley posted:

*Sandworm cutscene plays twice*

Apparently not prerendered

I'd expound here on the difference between "pre-recorded" and "pre-rendered" but I'm not sure it's actually of any consequence, and I still can't fathom why they'd go through the effort of making an in-game asset only to use it for one single pre-recorded video when it would have been insanely easier to just do it the way you'd normally do a cutscene.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:52

VictorianQueerLit: Aug 25, 2017

Dogeh posted:

It's really weird that you care that it's important to AP that the timeline of Uncle Derek knowing something exists is so important to AP.

That hurt my brain....

Nah what's weird is that when you criticize Derek Smart in any way you become a pariah to his entourage like some kind of mirror universe backers offended you said their game doesn't exist. Apparently in this giant crazy clusterfuck some topics are beyond reproach.

Foo Diddley is currently lying and telling everyone on the discord that I am a nazi sympathizer.

VictorianQueerLit fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 20, 2018

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:56

EmesiS: Feb 5, 2016

If the worm was the creation of a non-Crobberts it should be obvious why it is binned. The fact that the worm would have to be in a game, and no such game exists would also prelude the presence. The fact that worm is stolen from Dune, and Dune use thigh-pads to process urine and feces (at least in stillsuits on Arrakis) means that toilets are not needed so...

# ? Jan 20, 2018 03:57

G0RF: Mar 19, 2015; Some galactic defender you are, Space Cadet.

PC Invasion: Crytek hits back at CIG�s request to dismiss Star Citizen legal case
__________________________

Posted By: Paul Younger
January 19, 2018

The Crytek vs CIG Star Citizen court documents are still going back and forth, and following CIG�s request that this case is dismissed, Crytek�s lawyers have hit back with a response and it�s firey.

This latest response from Crytek holds no punches and they have outlined clearly in this document why the court should not allow CIG to dismiss this case. The preliminary statement sums it up:

quote:

Defendant�s Motion seeking dismissal and other relief is without merit. Rather, that Motion is a blatant effort to impose delay and burden Crytek as it seels to vindicate its rights under its contract with Defendants and its copyrights.

The facts here are straightforward: Plaintiff Crytek GmbH (�Crytek�) granted Cloud Imperium Games Corp (�CIG�) and Roberts Space Industries Corp (�RSI�) (collectively, �Defendants�) a license to use Crytek�s powerful video game development platform, CryEngine, in the development of Defendant�s video game called �Star Citizen�. Pursuant to that Game License Agreement (the �GLA�), Crytek agreed to provide technical support and know-how to Defendants and licensed CryEngine to Defendants at a discounted rate, in return for certain promises from Defendants.

But after accepting Crytek�s assistance � and after raising record-breaking amounts from video game consumers in a crowdfunding campaign � Defendants began to break their promises to Crytek.

Defendants promised that they would develop Star Citizen with CryEngine, not any other development platform. But Defendants now boast that they have breached that promise, and are promoting a competing development platform.

Defendants promised that they would prominantly display Crytek�s copyright notices and trademarks within Star Citizen and in any marketing materials for Star Citizen. But Defendants have admittedly breached that promise.

Even though Defendants had licensed Crytek�s technology to develop only one game (Star Citizen) they later separated Star Citizen�s feature �Squadron 42� into a standalone game without a license to use Crytek�s technology in two games

Defendants promised to provide Crytek with any improvements or bug fixes that they made to CryEngine while developing Star Citizen. Defendants never made a good faith effort to honor that promise.

Defendants promised that they would maintian the condidentiality of Crytek�s valuable technology, But they published excerpts if Crytek�s source code unilaterally and shared Crytek�s technology with a third-party developer without Crytek�s approval.

Defendants say this action should never have been filed. Indeed, if only they had kept their promises, the action would never have ben filed. But now Crytek seeks to enforce its contractual rights and copyrights. Defendants deny any enforceable obligation to Crytek and move the court to dismiss Crytek�s claim entirely. Defendants� argument simpy do not withstand scrutiny, and certainly cannot meet the demanding standard required to obtain dismissal of Crytek�s claims as a matter of law. The court should deny Defendants� Motion and permit Crytek to proceed so that it may vindicate its rights.

The full document is lengthy and goes into more detail citing more references to specific areas of contention with links to forum posts made by CIG and other cases that may set precedent for copyright infringement. Whether the court decides in favour of Crytek remains to be seen, but if this case is heard in court, it�s going to be one to watch because as more documents have appeared the more confusing it has become.

At this stage, it is starting to look like there will be a fight in court which is not good news for CIG. It�s money that would be dripped away to lawyers and not into the game. Backers will not be pleased if this goes further.

Dogeh posted:

I made a thing.
For posterity.
Might come in useful.

That�s her in the meltdown meme.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:02

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

I can't even imagine how many times Chris wanted these plates of food refactored.

Looks like that Noctis new hire has already been hard at work.

�I�ve come up with a new recipe!�

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:04

peter gabriel: Nov 8, 2011; Hello Commandos

Beet Wagon posted:

I'd expound here on the difference between "pre-recorded" and "pre-rendered" but I'm not sure it's actually of any consequence, and I still can't fathom why they'd go through the effort of making an in-game asset only to use it for one single pre-recorded video when it would have been insanely easier to just do it the way you'd normally do a cutscene.

It's because CIG are idiots

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:07

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

UNCUT PHILISTINE posted:

--don't bother telling me your name, see if you can survive the assblasting our cafeteria food will give you first.

Says the galaxies ace pilot of heroic standards, stationed aboard a ship with two fighters. This is peak Roberts storytelling logic.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:07

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

VictorianQueerLit posted:

Nah what's weird is that when you criticize Derek Smart in any way you become a pariah to his entourage like some kind of mirror universe backers offended you said their game doesn't exist. Apparently in this giant crazy clusterfuck some topics are beyond reproach.

I mean if you don't post here for weeks and come back to restart poo poo with AP you're probably going to be laughed at. I doubt anyone has a problem with criticizing Derek for whatever occasionally but when the majority of your posts consist of "UMMM DEREK WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT THING YOU SAID WOULD HAPPEN BUT DIDN'T LOL YOU SUCK :smug:

" then again, you'll probably get told to gently caress off.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:10

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

I promise you there's a line in there about how bad the food is while they go to pick up their steak with maybe an egg on the side.

Because it's a war movie so of course they say that.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:10

Trilobite: Aug 15, 2001

Lack of Gravitas posted:

Having to crawl under the table a couple of times each meal to pick up the condiments that dropped through that slot would get real old real fast

I'm convinced that it's meant as a garbage slot: when you're done with your meal, just jam everything through it to clear the table. Eventually the sad space mop man will come by to take care of it.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:13

Beet Wagon: Oct 19, 2015

A thought occurs: Let's not rehash this particular stupid loving slapfight.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:14

big nipples big life: May 12, 2014

Trilobite posted:

I'm convinced that it's meant as a garbage slot: when you're done with your meal, just jam everything through it to clear the table. Eventually the sad space mop man will come by to take care of it.

I hope there is a space mopping leaderboard, my new life goal will be to top it.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:18

Beet Wagon: Oct 19, 2015

Dusty Lens posted:

I promise you there's a line in there about how bad the food is while they go to pick up their steak with maybe an egg on the side.

Because it's a war movie so of course they say that.

You know, I recently started re-reading Flight of the Intruder and while I think it's a stretch saying the entire Squadron 42 is ripped off from it, there are some startling similarities. Granted, "Squadron 42" is just as likely - if not more likely - to be blatant nerd pandering as/than it is to be someone ripping off a Stephen Coontz book from 1986, and calling a CO "Old Man" is a pretty common military trope, but if nothing else it really reinforces how lazy the writing and concepts for SQ42 are.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:19

Wise Learned Man: Apr 22, 2008; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS; Lipstick Apathy

Colostomy Bag posted:

I always love when a dumpster fire catches fire again into the weekend.

CIG is the Centralia, PA of inextinguishable fires.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:24

AlbieQuirky: Oct 9, 2012; Just me and my 🌊dragon🐉 hanging out

peter gabriel posted:

It's because CIG are idiots

This is the One True Answer to all questions Star Citizen. :pgabz:

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:24

Lladre: Jun 28, 2011; Soiled Meat

AP posted:

You should have double downed because this post would be funnier if you had.

If you have some proof that you all had advanced knowledge by all means post it. Otherwise you sound just as sad as your mentor.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:26

big nipples big life: May 12, 2014

The secret squirrel discord is just another lol in the great pile of lols

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:28

Combat Theory: Jul 16, 2017

Derek Smart delivered :vince:

also pls send someone who knows about 3rd degree burns on the hands after too much rubbing

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:28

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Beet Wagon posted:

You know, I recently started re-reading Flight of the Intruder and while I think it's a stretch saying the entire Squadron 42 is ripped off from it, there are some startling similarities. Granted, "Squadron 42" is just as likely - if not more likely - to be blatant nerd pandering as/than it is to be someone ripping off a Stephen Coontz book from 1986, and calling a CO "Old Man" is a pretty common military trope, but if nothing else it really reinforces how lazy the writing and concepts for SQ42 are.

My take is that you're almost certainly correct on both counts. The number 42 is as much a cynical move as throwing random sandworms into a presentation. You get the nerds to clap like trained seals and maybe they give you money. The pathetic idea that it's there because it's Sandi's favorite number is about as pathetic as trying to wave off the coincidence of giving everyone a towel and "dont panic" galactic guides.

I'm sure Flight of the Intruder and thematically similar works inspired Roberts the same way Das Boot inspired the Wing Commander movie. A true Archerial inspiration.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:29

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Combat Theory posted:

also pls send someone who knows about 3rd degree burns on the hands after too much rubbing

Rub through the pain.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:31

Raskolnikov: Nov 25, 2003

Dusty Lens posted:

I'm sure Flight of the Intruder and thematically similar works inspired Roberts the same way Das Boot inspired the Wing Commander movie. A true Archerial inspiration.

quote:

Ortwin Sam Schneider-Freyermuth (born November 1958) is a German American video game executive, entertainment lawyer and film producer.[2][3] He currently holds the position of co-founder (together with Chris Roberts), vice-chairman and general counsel of Cloud Imperium Games.[4] He is also known for having been the CEO of film production company Capella Films[3][5] and for producing the 1997 director's cut version of Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:38

SomethingJones: Mar 6, 2016; <3

Lladre posted:

If you have some proof that you all had advanced knowledge by all means post it. Otherwise you sound just as sad as your mentor.

'Advance' knowledge, not 'advanced'

Advanced knowledge would be something like how to build a time machine and travel 2 weeks into the future

Anyway proof has already been posted in the thread twice. Thank you for playing Star Citizen.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:38

Beet Wagon: Oct 19, 2015

Dusty Lens posted:

My take is that you're almost certainly correct on both counts. The number 42 is as much a cynical move as throwing random sandworms into a presentation. You get the nerds to clap like trained seals and maybe they give you money. The pathetic idea that it's there because it's Sandi's favorite number is about as pathetic as trying to wave off the coincidence of giving everyone a towel and "dont panic" galactic guides.

I'm sure Flight of the Intruder and thematically similar works inspired Roberts the same way Das Boot inspired the Wing Commander movie. A true Archerial inspiration.

Here's a fun game. Flight of the Intruder, or Squadron 42: A Space Epic?

quote:

If you were a candy-rear end, I was gonna ask for a new pilot. But I figure you'll do.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:39

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Raskolnikov posted:

Ortwin Sam Schneider-Freyermuth (born November 1958) is a German American video game executive, entertainment lawyer and film producer.[2][3] He currently holds the position of co-founder (together with Chris Roberts), vice-chairman and general counsel of Cloud Imperium Games.[4] He is also known for having been the CEO of film production company Capella Films[3][5] and for producing the 1997 director's cut version of Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot.

killbillsiren.wav

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:42

Nicholas: Mar 7, 2001; Were those not fine days, when we drank of clear honey, and spoke in calm tones of our love for the stuff?

D_Smart posted:

Why would they be? They're not using CryEngine. So.

weren't they the ones who wrote the delta patcher?

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:44

AngusPodgorny: Jun 3, 2004; Please to be restful, it is only a puffin that has from the puffin place outbroken.

Dusty Lens posted:

My take is that you're almost certainly correct on both counts. The number 42 is as much a cynical move as throwing random sandworms into a presentation. You get the nerds to clap like trained seals and maybe they give you money. The pathetic idea that it's there because it's Sandi's favorite number is about as pathetic as trying to wave off the coincidence of giving everyone a towel and "dont panic" galactic guides..

Maybe Sandi is just a huge fan of Jackie Robinson, who probably used a towel to dry off after showering, and who was able to break the color barrier without panicking.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:49

SomethingJones: Mar 6, 2016; <3

G0RF posted:

PC Invasion: Crytek hits back at CIG�s request to dismiss Star Citizen legal case
__________________________

Posted By: Paul Younger
January 19, 2018

PC Invasion pretty much saying that they'll be writing stuff about Space Court. Excellent.

An ace high came out on the flop, and Skadden's suited hand is on for the straight. CIG's comedy lawyer is staring at ten high and a four kicker. Ortwin is in the bathroom. We're all in. Death or glory.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:53

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

What's more annoying blocking someone and still reading their posts or not blocking someone and not reading their posts? I'm sure this important question will be answered soon.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 04:58

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Colostomy Bag posted:

I take it your usual candor when approaching twitter folks was the result of said blockade.

Another poor burger analogy: I'm sure Skadden's filing will be a Whopper(tm) of a document.

It's strange. I post our dumb memes from this page to lesnick, or jared's, twitter and I get a "You're dumb, but that's funny" and they have never blocked me.

Post it to some citizen defender and I'm blocked before my page refreshes.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:06

Virtual Captain: Feb 20, 2017; Archive Priest of the Stimperial Order

Star Citizen Good, in all things forevermore. Amen.

Dusty Lens posted:

I promise you there's a line in there about how bad the food is while they go to pick up their steak with maybe an egg on the side.

Because it's a war movie so of course they say that.

Actually its the first thing out of an NPC's mouth in the vertical slice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHR1aEdTA4M&t=125s

:laugh:

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:10

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Virtual Captain posted:

Actually its the first thing out of an NPC's mouth in the vertical slice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHR1aEdTA4M&t=125s

Six writers ladies and gentlemen.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:16

big nipples big life: May 12, 2014

Six writers desperately trying to write something croberts won't make them rewrite.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:29

SpaceCurtisLeMay: Sep 30, 2016; We're at war with Goons. We were attacked by Goons. Do you want to kill Goons, or would you rather have Citizens killed?

PST posted:

Non-practising lawyers from 3rd rate universities talking about areas of the law who aren't their specialties are one-step up from random people relying on wikipedia for their answers.

I spent 6 years of my publishing career dealing with copyright, and kept running into lawyers who didn't specialise in it who knew gently caress and all about it, especially international complications. French is just a.n.other internet lawyer who happens to have a degree but is more interested in his hits on youtube than the actual subject he's bloviating about.

I don't see him listed on the USPTO website as having passed the Patent Bar. I know that copyright isn't patent law, but generally speaking someone who specializes in IP law should be admitted to the Patent Bar. This is what I went to law school for, but ended up starting a company instead of practicing law...and ended up marrying another lawyer.

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:30

boviscopophobic: Feb 5, 2016

Spectrum posted:

3.0 - When its so bad you lose all desire to play the game

I'm not here to complain about crashes

Signed into 3.0 with a ton of ships & 5000 aUEC

1. Loaded up 2500 aUEC into an Avenger & off to trade - Hop a Grim Hex, then Daymar, then Olisar to price compare & my ship decides to auto kill me on exit. 1st time this has happened EVER with an Avenger

2. Glad I only spent half money (easy enough to make it back right?) I load up 2500 aUEC of tungsten on my Freelancer, while jumping to Olisar my game crashes - I am now at 0 aUEC

3. Spend 5 days grinding out missions that pay you NOTHING - even P.I Mission is bugged, so you can't get 1,600 aUEC anymore - I grind up to 2600 aUEC and try my luck again

4. This time I stupidly put all my aUEC in my Cutlass - and when I go to leave planet my Cutlass rear door only comes down half way. I spend 2 hours trying to get into my Cutlass and can't

5. Spend 5 days grinding out missions for 2400 aUEC this time, & load it up into my Caterpillar - no way I can get locked out or killed by door exit, right????

6. I get into atmosphere, go to land and the Caterpillar flips upside down and starts rolling like a bread pin when I try to correct - my ship finally blows up - 0 aUEC

Lost all desire to play Star Citizen. You made missions give you so little aUEC now that even combat missions are a LOSS of aUEC after repairs. Trading is the only way to make aUEC worth a drat now. But unless you get lucky with all the glitches, bugs, crashes, & non-working game mechanics, you're stuck grinding out the same old missions for next to nothing. Heck, all i wanted with a complete armor set & weapons. Now SC will sit back on my shelf till 3.1.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/4/thread/3-0-when-its-so-bad-you-lose-all-desire-to-play-th

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:32

boviscopophobic: Feb 5, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WIIiZWyRt8

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:32

G0RF: Mar 19, 2015; Some galactic defender you are, Space Cadet.

SomethingJones posted:

PC Invasion pretty much saying that they'll be writing stuff about Space Court. Excellent.

An ace high came out on the flop, and Skadden's suited hand is on for the straight. CIG's comedy lawyer is staring at ten high and a four kicker. Ortwin is in the bathroom. We're all in. Death or glory.

Paul Younger is fighting the good fight and Godspeed to him.

These are such interesting times. Quietly and with few obvious tweening points, the last two years have seen a turnaround in consensus about crowdfunded gaming. Even when the story about a particular project isn�t about Star Citizen, it�s about Star Citizen.

I know very little about Camelot Unchained or Mark Jacobs besides that it�s late. But man, what a refreshing thing to see a guy acknowledging �it�s late, backers SHOULD be mad, it�s on ME to deliver not them to forgive because Miyamoto-san / �muh Games Development� / �Diablo 3 took 10 years��. Maybe he�s a slicker con man but his tone is so starkly contrasted against the duplicitous, revisionist moneygrubbing of the Roberts and Garriott types out there.

This guy is explicitly positioning himself to be on the right side of a future reckoning. The potential collapse of Star Citizen (and lesser giants) is clearly a big concern.

EUROGAMER: Why the people behind crowdfunded Camelot Unchained won't sell spaceships or castles

quote:

"We are getting close to a tipping point�"

By Robert Purchese
19/01/2018

When Camelot Unchained ran out of crowdfunding money, Mark Jacobs did something unusual by today's standards: he put his hand in his own pocket and paid for development himself. Camelot Unchained didn't begin offering houses or castles or spaceships (let's call them horses) for real money, didn't become an intoxicating shopping mall for pledging support. Being delayed was developer City State Entertainment's fault so why should the community foot the bill?

"It hurt," Mark Jacobs told me on the phone. He had already added $2 million of his own to the game's $2.2m Kickstarter tally to get the game made, but that was back in 2013, when Jacobs was talking optimistically about a 2015 Camelot Unchained release. He didn't realise programmers would be like gold dust and near impossible to find; he didn't realise the game's ability system would fail and need rebuilding; and he couldn't predict his wife would battle with breast cancer. $4.5m only took a team of 30 people so far. Something had to be done.

"It hurt my bank account a lot because I wasn't a billionaire or super-rich by any standard," he said. "But look, I made a deal, and I told backers I would do it. It's our fault. It was on us as a development team to deliver the game; we did not. The bottom line is we did not meet what our projections were. I made a choice and it wasn't an easy one: do I honour our commitment to those same people who gave us this chance by not treating them as walking wallets, or not?

"I understand why these other games do it but that was not for me. That's not how I wanted to live my life and run this studio. There were some very strong arguments to be made that if people are willing to spend the money, you should try to get it from them. I don't buy that. I don't. I want to treat gamers the way I want to be treated. There's a better way to do things."

Jacobs' way was to - in a deal only announced yesterday - secure $7.5m to finish Camelot Unchained. "That amount... Even if we didn't get a single other penny from crowdfunded donations, we'd be fine to get this game out," he said. Incidentally, Jacobs has known the investors for decades and nothing operationally will change.

Now, the plan is to do a Camelot Unchained beta this year, with battleground brawls - Saturday night sieges as they're known - from the spring. "We are also shooting for a release in 2019 if - and it's a giant if - we can hire enough programmers," he said. "If we can, I am very confident we can deliver this game in '19. It may be late in '19 but I think we can deliver it."

As it stands, Camelot Unchained looks a long way off. What videos there are resemble technical demonstrations of lots of characters running around in one big field; there's no discernible game, with a shape and direction, on display. But what we're seeing is very important.

The core promise of Camelot Unchained was always to have hundreds - if not thousands - of people fighting in huge three-way wars, with no server crashes and slideshow game performance. The videos show Camelot Unchained partially achieving that. They show players and bots - simulated remote clients - in their hundreds, even thousands, engaging in basic combat with simple spell effects. I remember Dark Age of Camelot falling apart with 300 people fighting - Camelot Unchained once topped 3000.

"Do I think an 800-person battle is doable? Yes, no question about it. Do I think a 1000-person battle is doable? Yes, no question about it. Do I think a 2000-person battle is doable? We've had 2000 bots running around with players and, just as you see in the video [unedited footage from Dragon Con 2017], you can do it.

"No one's been able to do the same thing with either players or bots," he added. "No MMO, none. Not Dark Age of Camelot, not even The Elder Scrolls Online. We have shown our backers that we can do both."

But where is everything else? Camelot Unchained had some big and bold ideas about reinventing typical MMO mechanics. There was the idea for a stealth mechanic based around exploiting another plane (a bit like the Fade in Dragon Age); a magic system where players could combine powers to make, for instance, even bigger ice walls, and then melt the ice walls with fire to create steam, and blow the steam with wind to create a cloud of cover. There was siege gameplay based on a micro-Minecraft block building system, where towers could be brought down by targeting load-bearing sections. None of that can be seen in the videos (although the block-based building has been up and running in the separate Camelot Unchained Building Environment - CUBE - application for a while).

Even with the time-consumingly reworked ability system up and running - where you can make your own abilities from skill components - and the engine on track, it still leaves a heck of a lot of work for a 30-40 person team to do. "In terms of how much of a game there is, in terms of game-game, in terms of progression, in terms of finished areas: not a lot," Jacobs said. "We haven't even started on it." It hardly instils rock-solid confidence in a possible launch next year, does it?

Remember, though, there's a lot Camelot Unchained doesn't have to do. With no levelling, no one-to-whatever level grind, there's no need for all the quests and hubs and monsters and equipment which go with it. In this way Camelot Unchained relieves itself of a huge development timesink, allowing the team to focus on the core systems and tools players need to make content for each other instead, be it through combat or crafting or whatever.

Whether the ambitious gameplay systems will work as Jacobs imagines, I don't know, but he's not wedded to them so much as the requirement they be "fun", which I like. I also like how he's doing business, and the refreshingly simple and poignantly moral message it sends. Camelot Unchained does not have an Imperial Palace for sale for nearly �6000 like Crowfall does, staggeringly; it doesn't have a whole real-money real-estate business like Shroud of the Avatar did before it could proverbially walk; and it doesn't sell the fantasy equivalent of spaceships for hundreds of pounds like Star Citizen so controversially does.

These games still haven't launched; they are cashing in on to-be-fulfilled promises. But things are coming to a head, fulfilment is due, and if these games fail to deliver - the biggest of the crowdfundees, the torch bearers - the whole business model could disappear for games like them.

"We have a duty as a crowdfunded game to deliver on what we said we're going to deliver on, to do the best job we can, spend the money wisely, and treat our patrons and their money in the same way we would treat our own: with respect," said Jacobs. "And if that doesn't happen - and it doesn't matter if you're a small game or a big game - there's going to be a reckoning.

"If enough Kickstarter games fail then the reckoning can be very bad. It can be bad from a legal standpoint, it can be bad from a customer relations standpoint. We are getting close to a tipping point with a number of games, including ours where if we don't start showing we can deliver the goods then there's going to be even less faith in crowdfunding and Kickstarters then there is now.

"And if any of the really big ones just totally fall on their face and not deliver - not a game that is great but just fail to deliver, and can't explain where all that money went - both and civil and criminal penalties could be involved, and I say this as an ex-lawyer.

"I don't want to see Kickstarter and crowdfunding go away because it's the single best change in the publisher-developer relationship I've seen in a long time. And when you combine that with Steam and other digital distribution services, which have destroyed the businesses of the brick-and-mortar, it couldn't be a better time for developers. It's fabulous. We just can't muck it up."

In other words, 2018 and 2019 will be crucially important years.

Boy, I�d love to be a fly on the wall when he�s talking to his new CIG hire about these things... I�m tempted to back them just on principle, though :lol:

at sword wielding fantasy game nerds. Real men play Space Games, amirite?

Toops? Scruff? Hello? Guys? (taps mike) Is this thing on?

But seriously good for him for at least talking the Lawful Good talk. It beats Chaotic Moronic Evil.

G0RF fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Jan 20, 2018

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:50

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 19, 2024 00:42

SpaceCurtisLeMay: Sep 30, 2016; We're at war with Goons. We were attacked by Goons. Do you want to kill Goons, or would you rather have Citizens killed?

Wise Learned Man posted:

CIG is the Centralia, PA of inextinguishable fires.

More like the west lake landfill fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Lake_Landfill

# ? Jan 20, 2018 05:58

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > Star Citizen: Death of a Space Thread?

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