Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

4th Stimpire Queen: May 4, 2022; Contemplate with nice thoughts and utterances.

The hardcore backers, who backed the best space sim ever, more lethal than CoD and that "doesn't hold your hand like all other games do nowadays" are still whining over PvP and losses.

quote:

Suggestion: If a murderer goes to prison, they should pay the expedite fee for the ship they destroyed to the victim.
discussion

If a murderer goes to prison in a certain time frame after they shot someone down, they should pay the expedite fee for the ship they destroyed to the victim. By that I mean an automatic transfer of the UEC by the game as soon as they enter prison.
Compensation is a thing in real life so I think it would be nice to have it in game. If they don't have enough money a % of future mission payouts is automatically transferred until the debt is paid.

I think it's fine if you can get shot everywhere but if it happens for no reason you get punished not only by the loss of time and loot but also by the cost to get your ship back as quickly as possible. It would be nice if we could reduce the frustration for the victim and I think that's fair way to do it.

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...and medical bills.

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I'd say 100% once physical inventory becomes a thing, piracy should come with good penalties.

I.e you steal 1m credits worth of cargo, then get caught and sent to jail, guess what, you have to pay that back, and if you don't your prison time dramatically reflects this. Makes piracy more tactical in what you take and what you leave.

quote:

Heck, if someone (a pirate, outlaw, whatever) is caught, their in-game funds should be fully confiscated, and paid to the known (i.e. cases where evidence was captured due to presence of active comm station) victims to reimburse the damages. There should be an actual RISK for the REWARD.

Taxxe:

https://v.redd.it/0jysgm6m9h291/DASH_480.mp4

4th Stimpire Queen fucked around with this message at 04:42 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 29, 2022 15:48

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# ? Jun 14, 2024 16:21

marumaru: May 20, 2013

i for one look forward to waiting 2 real-life months to get out of space baby prison and then for the next 6-8 months 80% of my in-game earnings go to the commando whose space whale plushy i stole

# ? May 29, 2022 15:55

FishMcCool: Apr 9, 2021; lolcats are still funny; Fallen Rib

I think these are all great ideas. Of course, the game wouldn't cheat like lesser Triple AAA games do: fund repossession would actually be done by fully simulated quanta accountant NPCs, should they be able to locate the accounts in space tax heaven, on the basis of a judge NPC having issued a repossession order following due process by the police officer NPCs providing investigation results and arguing in space court (with fully simulated NPC jury where some jury members might happen to secretly have pirate affiliations therefore potentially skewing the process unless they get caught by space court police NPCs whose work on jury members background is fully physicalised). Space court would obviously take place in several audiences over multiple weeks, providing an opportunity for associates (players and NPCs) of both parties to track jury members or even the judge to their work or home and pressure them to vote the right way. On the judge's whim, the pirate could also be subjected to the worst kind of electricity.

FishMcCool fucked around with this message at 16:04 on May 29, 2022

# ? May 29, 2022 15:58

Kosumo: Apr 9, 2016

FishMcCool posted:

I think these are all great ideas. Of course, the game wouldn't cheat like lesser Triple AAA games do: fund repossession would actually be done by fully simulated quanta accountant NPCs, should they be able to locate the accounts in space tax heaven, on the basis of a judge NPC having issued a repossession order following due process by the police officer NPCs providing investigation results and arguing in space court (with fully simulated NPC jury where some jury members might happen to secretly have pirate affiliations therefore potentially skewing the process unless they get caught by space court police NPCs whose work on jury members background is fully physicalised). Space court would obviously take place in several audiences over multiple weeks, providing an opportunity for associates (players and NPCs) of both parties to track jury members or even the judge to their work or home and pressure them to vote the right way. On the judge's whim, the pirate could also be subjected to the worst kind of electricity.

"I've been space court framed!"

"The truth, you can't handle the space court truth!"

"Your honor, I space court object"

"I plead not space court guilty to attacking that space Big Bennies vending machine"

"If the space glove don't fit, you must space court acquit"

Kosumo fucked around with this message at 17:46 on May 29, 2022

# ? May 29, 2022 17:12

Khanstant: Apr 5, 2007

i lament that this game will never be out in a way that people could group up together to harass whales. the 3 player limit before the game shits itself and 50 permanent max cap are just schemes to keep the whales safe from all the kamikaze free flies

# ? May 29, 2022 17:23

Mirificus: Oct 29, 2004; Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

https://twitter.com/Jorunn_SC/status/1530603502644469760

# ? May 29, 2022 18:03

BluesShaman: Apr 25, 2016; She wore Blue Velvet.

Mirificus posted:

non-consensual griefing

B'tak spotted

# ? May 29, 2022 18:22

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

https://i.imgur.com/FVy612I.mp4

# ? May 29, 2022 18:31

FishMcCool: Apr 9, 2021; lolcats are still funny; Fallen Rib

buy buy buy! :toot:

# ? May 29, 2022 18:38

Mirificus: Oct 29, 2004; Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

Mirificus posted:

PSA: STOP giving away millions of aUEC! posted:

There are people who are having their access to the Alpha PU suspended for periods because they are abusing exploits. If players were simply using them for personal advancement in the game it wouldn't be so bad but they aren't, they are also selling aUEC off-site for real money. Gold farming. It would take you literally seconds to go find evidence for this.

The only 'proof' CIG can have of this is if a player is regularly giving away large amounts of aUEC to random people who are not in their orgs or on their friends list. To make a cover for this some went around randomly giving away millions in credits without anyone even asking for it, particularly to new streamers of the game starting a trend... while the 'donator's' might think that all who are benefactors might feel this this is a wonderful thing, actually it's form of non-consensual griefing. The recipient has a choice, ignore the credits or engage in the same practise and give away those credits, many players innocently giving away large sums of credits provides cover for the gold sellers aUEC transfers.

The detractors of the game project know that uptake of the game is in some respects limited by how frequently persistence wipes take place, they even start threads asking about the possibility of wipes to raise awareness of it with newer or prospective players both in this forum and particularly on Reddit.

By deliberately trashing the game economy, and potentially using it to make real world money as well (as they did with the grey market) they are trying to force more regular wipes. This is probably why CIG are using targeted partial wipes to manage misbehaviour, rather than a one size fits all full wipes. Players coming into the forums randomly saying they have had credits reset to zero also benefits their cause, whether it was intentional by CIG or 'accidental', we of course wouldn't know whether the posters complaining of losing credits deserve it or not because they wouldn't say they have been engaging in deliberately trying to defeat the economy and CIG wouldn't comment on it.

The only thing that innocent players can do right now is not to help their cause by NOT transferring large amounts of credits and engaging in using exploits. If you do then you should expect that CIG will take action against you. Accounts have had temporary suspensions applied and it's possible the credit resets are CIG trialling targeted account resets.

These groups of CIG-haters do recruit, they particularly like to influence the disaffected, what's the easiest way to make a player get disaffected with the game? Wipe away their progress. It's a win win for the detractors. The exploits being used are not simply about personal advancement, they are about making the Star Citizen experience less attractive to new players and prospective players while illuminating what they think are CIG's inherent flaws.

quote:
Why do you care?
And why is it that exploiters are "CIG haters"?
Make a loving point instead of trying to push some conspiracy agenda.
I am all for punishing exploiters, but it is really on the devs to stop the exploits being available. Fix your bugs!!!

The economy right now does not matter. If CIG sees this as something worth dealing with at the moment they can easily remove the exploits. But they don't. You need to focus your energy on that.

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Triggered much? The point is very clear. If you join in - innocently or not - you're helping those who exploit for their own gain.

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Not triggered at all, I didn't make a thread.
Put the bottle down and maybe commons sense will rear it's ugly head.

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Snow-storming is not a new or novel tactic.

Look at how many people make multiple new threads to push the threads they don't like off the front page, coordinating voting and commenting to make their threads rise to the top for those who sort by activity, report any social media 'influencers' content and get them taken down if they discuss these issues, making those who rely on that income think twice before making content about it, downvoting on forums that allow it. Making toxic comments in threads to get moderators to close those threads.

...brigade, insult, dismiss as crazy or drunk anyone who speaks up.

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This is a rare universal Illuminati Pepe. Only appears once every 500,000 memes. Upvote to be included in the conspiracy.

quote:

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If that was all it was then I say yeah... Ok more fool them but unfortunately it isn't. Putting my former drug and alcohol counsellor hat back on for a moment I can tell you that organised crime gets in anywhere they can make a quick buck. If someone has a weakness these nasty types can squeeze, they will use it.

In the USA for example you hear strange stories of someone who is already on 2 strikes and they go and get caught stealing 10 DVD's from a local store knowing they are looking at life behind bars for 10 DVD's - you think 'What a jerk' deserves all he gets! Thing is, this is almost always because they are getting threats to them, and their family, from gangs... these types are really not nice people. Shoplifting (stealing by gangs from stores) is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide.

Why should I give a drat if a few rando players get a few million credits to swan around in the game? I don't, couldn't care less. They aren't the problem.

There is no need to gift 10's of millions of credits in the game, you can help players out with a few thousand. Is that player spinning a story about how they worked and lost millions really a good 'ol boy, or is that a tactic to use the generosity of players to collect UEC to sell - you don't know, I don't know. But if there is a possibility then it's best avoided... it really isn't necessary. The amounts getting sold by individual sellers cannot be from one person using exploits while playing the game casually, even exploits take time.

# ? May 29, 2022 18:59

Blue On Blue: Nov 14, 2012

Mirificus posted:

https://twitter.com/Jorunn_SC/status/1530603502644469760

I really dislike this person

# ? May 30, 2022 00:51

Lammasu: May 8, 2019; by VideoGames

Blue On Blue posted:

I really dislike this person

I feel kind of sorry for him. Can you imagine having your identity revolve around the Star Citizen fandom?

# ? May 30, 2022 00:53

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

I think the details of cig are pretty obvious.

About 20-30 people working on sc itself. Maybe about that also working on sq404.

A metric boatload of people doing world class art and movies. Probably not Marketing type pellet who also far outnumber the pellet working on yet Video games.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if lots of people are doing movies and film art/animation without even knowing they work for cig, as a mysterious shell company.

# ? May 30, 2022 03:05

Scruffpuff: Dec 23, 2015; Fidelity. Wait, was I'm working on again?

The Titanic posted:

I think the details of cig are pretty obvious.

About 20-30 people working on sc itself. Maybe about that also working on sq404.

A metric boatload of people doing world class art and movies. Probably not Marketing type pellet who also far outnumber the pellet working on yet Video games.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if lots of people are doing movies and film art/animation without even knowing they work for cig, as a mysterious shell company.

I think the ex-employee pointing out how many artists Chris had working on murals for the office walls speaks volumes. Chris opened up this project with the overwhelming stench of presumed success, and I've always had a very strong impression that he uses Blizzard as a benchmark for what that means. I don't mean the games they make (or used to make), obviously. It was the peripheral poo poo. Multiple studios splitting the workload, an annual convention just for them, and shitloads of murals, artwork, and statues all over the place depicting elements of their IPs. That's what Chris is building. The game is just the means to get the free money that he's blowing on creating a world-wide emulation of a game development company; a monument to himself. Then he sits in his office, the Stench King atop poo poo Mountain, and that just reinforces the delusion that he's a rockstar game developer. This is the guy who believed that of himself after being forcibly ejected from the industry and being laughed out of investor meetings. It's impossible to imagine he has the slightest idea that SC is a loving joke, like himself, when he already has a pathological misconception of who and what he is. How likely is it he'll have some sort of realization when he's surrounded by physical manifestations of what he considers overwhelming global success?

I can't even predict how this whole debacle finally stutters to a halt. Evidently there is a critical mass of damaged people out there who can and will fund this to eternity. I doubt Chris has even launched the game a single time since that livestream. He just wanders around multiple offices, looking at what's on the screen, and no matter what he sees, he has a "suggestion" to make sure they know that he's the guy with the "vision."

CIG is not a dead or dying company by now. It's an undead company. It lurches along with no sense or purpose, producing nothing of value, mindlessly changing direction here and there, and likely to do so until after its current supporters are long dead.

# ? May 30, 2022 04:00

Gravity_Storm: Mar 1, 2016

Bought a new GoPro last weekend and was cruising for some epic GoPro footage online to see what it can do. Searched for 'wreck diving' as I love that stuff, and bugger me with a Mustang if the fourth video suggested wasn't 'wreck diving in Star Citizen'.

I have so many questions.

# ? May 30, 2022 04:20

Popete: Oct 6, 2009; This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs; Grimey Drawer

I think CIG might be more akin to an Herbalife or Amway at this point. Everyone knows it's a scam but hey it keeps making money so why not buy in?

# ? May 30, 2022 05:13

TheDeadlyShoe: Feb 14, 2014

Gravity_Storm posted:

Bought a new GoPro last weekend and was cruising for some epic GoPro footage online to see what it can do. Searched for 'wreck diving' as I love that stuff, and bugger me with a Mustang if the fourth video suggested wasn't 'wreck diving in Star Citizen'.

I have so many questions.

Google correctly classifies anyone posting in this thread as a wreck diver.

# ? May 30, 2022 05:47

Kosumo: Apr 9, 2016

LOL, just watching the latest JackFrags Star Citizen video about the free fly week.

I don't think CIG pay him, I think he does it cos it gets views. Even with his good editing and trying to be fair - I don't think the game comes out positively from these.

He's got a very sarcastic sense of humor and I don't think that some Citizen get it and think that he is parasing the game.

Jack know gameplay and know that Star Citizen is far from it.

edit: In saying that, he does have 150 million UEEc which is very strange.

Kosumo fucked around with this message at 06:30 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 30, 2022 06:19

no_recall: Aug 17, 2015; Lipstick Apathy

I can definitely see CIG changing lanes and becoming a VFX house. They should have all the talent required to run such a shop.

# ? May 30, 2022 06:44

no_recall: Aug 17, 2015; Lipstick Apathy

AbstractNapper posted:

drat that looks so cheap and reminiscent of early 2000's failed MMO attempts.

The big question is here is why. Why go through all this trouble to end up exactly where you started? CIG could've simply divided the world into much smaller maps, and made the illusion of a huge world - it's definitely doable, then make jump points between the two.

But no, CR wants to go all theoretical physics where wormholes will be generated by the game server on the fly depending on gravitational waves algothrims. Everything has got to be as real. So that's the result of chasing reality when you're attempting to build a game.

Buy an Idris.

# ? May 30, 2022 06:54

no_recall: Aug 17, 2015; Lipstick Apathy

The Titanic posted:

Imagine having super future armor with lights and lasers and it has a head up display and is like 4 inches thick all around your body and it's like multiple plate armors together except made of super future metals that are mostly indestructible...

And some dude kills you with a knife.

Didn't you watch dune?

# ? May 30, 2022 06:54

Kosumo: Apr 9, 2016

The Titanic posted:

I think the details of cig are pretty obvious.

About 20-30 people working on sc itself. Maybe about that also working on sq404.

A metric boatload of people doing world class art and movies. Probably not Marketing type pellet who also far outnumber the pellet working on yet Video games.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if lots of people are doing movies and film art/animation without even knowing they work for cig, as a mysterious shell company.

Do you have anything to back up this train of thought?

Unless you do, I just don't think that is the case.

I'm 110% sure that Chris Roberts could mismanage and 'turn that pixel blue' out of a team of 500 graphic artist and only produce the work of 40ish people*

Why would movie studios look to get a Chris Roberts company envolved with anything they are doing when there are 100's of VFX companies than can already do that work, and better and most likely cheaper?

I'm just wondering if you have anything more to back up your conspiracy?

Not saying that it's not true - this is Star Citizen we are talking about!

# ? May 30, 2022 06:59

Scruffpuff: Dec 23, 2015; Fidelity. Wait, was I'm working on again?

Kosumo posted:

Do you have anything to back up this train of thought?

Unless you do, I just don't think that is the case.

I'm 110% sure that Chris Roberts could mismanage and 'turn that pixel blue' out of a team of 500 graphic artist and only produce the work of 40ish people*

Why would movie studios look to get a Chris Roberts company envolved with anything they are doing when there are 100's of VFX companies than can already do that work, and better and most likely cheaper?

I'm just wondering if you have anything more to back up your conspiracy?

Not saying that it's not true - this is Star Citizen we are talking about!

There's not enough time to directly mismanage 500 people, the mismanagement would have to be consistent from the top down, across all studios. I think with that many people, probability dictates that at least a few of them would be far enough away from Chris Roberts that they would eventually make something good. Hell with that many people some of them should have made something good by accident.

Either they're not working on the game as theorized, or they're compartmentalized into workgroups that are isolated and worthless. This 25 person group is "lore." Worthless. This 100 artists is working on pizza, shoelaces, and bedsheets. Pointless. This group of 100 people are "designing ships." They will generate income, but their work does not fit into the "game" in any way. These 100 are "marketing" and it's their job not to advertise or sell the game, but to post bullshit all over the internet to make it look like the game has been out for years and it being fully enjoyed by countless people.

There may even be programmers somewhere in there but I don't know what they've been doing.

I guess my question is, where is the tiny good part that indicates at least a few people doing good work? Where's the shred of something that indicates someone somewhere had an idea? It beggars belief that literally nothing of any worth is in this product, but you can log in right now and see that's exactly how it is. Some of the worst games ever made have at least one or two things that show someone cared, it could be a sound effect, or a lighting effect, or something as simple as a single voice over. But in Star Citizen it's all poo poo all the time, to the point where it looks like deliberate parody. In fact, even someone making a parody might accidentally put in one good thing if they're not careful.

I just find it hard to believe it's only mismanagement. The world is filled with mismanaged companies that nevertheless work just well enough to do something. Star Citizen is what happens at the end of the Neverending Story if the hero doesn't help.

# ? May 30, 2022 07:29

no_recall: Aug 17, 2015; Lipstick Apathy

Scruffpuff posted:

There's not enough time to directly mismanage 500 people, the mismanagement would have to be consistent from the top down, across all studios. I think with that many people, probability dictates that at least a few of them would be far enough away from Chris Roberts that they would eventually make something good. Hell with that many people some of them should have made something good by accident.

Either they're not working on the game as theorized, or they're compartmentalized into workgroups that are isolated and worthless. This 25 person group is "lore." Worthless. This 100 artists is working on pizza, shoelaces, and bedsheets. Pointless. This group of 100 people are "designing ships." They will generate income, but their work does not fit into the "game" in any way. These 100 are "marketing" and it's their job not to advertise or sell the game, but to post bullshit all over the internet to make it look like the game has been out for years and it being fully enjoyed by countless people.

There may even be programmers somewhere in there but I don't know what they've been doing.

I guess my question is, where is the tiny good part that indicates at least a few people doing good work? Where's the shred of something that indicates someone somewhere had an idea? It beggars belief that literally nothing of any worth is in this product, but you can log in right now and see that's exactly how it is. Some of the worst games ever made have at least one or two things that show someone cared, it could be a sound effect, or a lighting effect, or something as simple as a single voice over. But in Star Citizen it's all poo poo all the time, to the point where it looks like deliberate parody. In fact, even someone making a parody might accidentally put in one good thing if they're not careful.

I just find it hard to believe it's only mismanagement. The world is filled with mismanaged companies that nevertheless work just well enough to do something. Star Citizen is what happens at the end of the Neverending Story if the hero doesn't help.

The projects I've worked on normally start with a group of 8 leads. They build the proof of concept, often with their own teams of 5 or 6 people. Engine, game mechanics, overall story, art direction (budgeting, engine, a lot of scenario sketches, framing, general design colors (lots of this)). Once all this is cemented, then comes the paperwork. The leads generally will write documents, a lot of documents, detailing the direction of each portion.

All of these are then presented to management for approval, and the whole process is reiterated until approval is granted. Once that's done, then a prototype is built and evaluated. This goes through another iterative process to see if it passes some blind tests. Then its down to milestone detailing by the production team (project management). Once timelines are down, the work is then disseminated down to the associated teams and the real work begins. Ironically Star Citizen went big from the get go, and its been an interesting train wreck for me.

# ? May 30, 2022 09:05

Sandweed: Sep 7, 2006; All your friends are me.

Kosumo posted:

LOL, just watching the latest JackFrags Star Citizen video about the free fly week.

I don't think CIG pay him, I think he does it cos it gets views. Even with his good editing and trying to be fair - I don't think the game comes out positively from these.

He's got a very sarcastic sense of humor and I don't think that some Citizen get it and think that he is parasing the game.

Jack know gameplay and know that Star Citizen is far from it.

edit: In saying that, he does have 150 million UEEc which is very strange.

People are throwing UEEc at the streamers.

# ? May 30, 2022 10:16

FishMcCool: Apr 9, 2021; lolcats are still funny; Fallen Rib

Sandweed posted:

People are throwing UEEc at the streamers.

Well, duh. You wouldn't want the streamers to have to play the game.

# ? May 30, 2022 10:28

Dwesa: Jul 19, 2016; Maybe I'll go where I can see stars

it seems all they need to do is sell more chariots more often

stolen from refunds sub

Dwesa fucked around with this message at 10:32 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 30, 2022 10:28

colonelwest: Jun 30, 2018

The Titanic posted:

I think the details of cig are pretty obvious.

About 20-30 people working on sc itself. Maybe about that also working on sq404.

A metric boatload of people doing world class art and movies. Probably not Marketing type pellet who also far outnumber the pellet working on yet Video games.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if lots of people are doing movies and film art/animation without even knowing they work for cig, as a mysterious shell company.

To me it's gotten to the point where it just stretches my incredulity to the limits. The mismanagement is definitely there, it lurks in the background of almost every piece of promotion or community engagement they've ever put out. But CIG is at such a huge scale now, that if 800+ people were really working full time on SC just random chance would produce more than what we see in the game today, even if it was just more art assets.

With this new round of studio expansions in the US, UK and Germany, there has to be some sort of profit motive behind it other than just continuing to fail at making a game. Why would their investors be ok with an exponential increase in operating expenses if it couldn't generate new revenue? They don't need 800 people just to sell more ships to whales, a skeleton crew of a few dozen could keep that grift going for years for a fraction of the cost.

# ? May 30, 2022 11:30

MedicineHut: Feb 25, 2016

colonelwest posted:

Why would their investors be ok with an exponential increase in operating expenses if it couldn't generate new revenue?

That is the thing, it seems they can. The funding is getting to extremely ridiculous levels. If it is not accurate then CIG is just really taking the piss out of everyone.

MedicineHut fucked around with this message at 12:07 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 30, 2022 12:05

colonelwest: Jun 30, 2018

MedicineHut posted:

That is the thing, it seems they can. The funding is getting to extremely ridiculous levels. If it is not accurate then CIG is just really taking the piss out of everyone.

I'm talking about them showing some correlation to people like the Calders between investing in new studio space and employees and being able to generate more revenue than they are currently bringing in. At some point they have to show that additional investment is going to bring in more money, not just inflate costs for no reason.

Ship sales and progress on the game have become wildly uncoupled at this point, so just scaling up the company even further isn't going to be profitable, and it would be a hard sell in year 10. At some point they're going to/or have already make a pitch along the lines of "investing $10 million in a new studio in Crumpetville, UK will yield a $15 million return in X years". The only way I can see them doing that is branching out into other projects.

# ? May 30, 2022 15:46

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

no_recall posted:

I can definitely see CIG changing lanes and becoming a VFX house. They should have all the talent required to run such a shop.

My bet is they already have.

The backers will never know. :trustme:

# ? May 30, 2022 16:05

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

Kosumo posted:

Do you have anything to back up this train of thought?

Unless you do, I just don't think that is the case.

I'm 110% sure that Chris Roberts could mismanage and 'turn that pixel blue' out of a team of 500 graphic artist and only produce the work of 40ish people*

Why would movie studios look to get a Chris Roberts company envolved with anything they are doing when there are 100's of VFX companies than can already do that work, and better and most likely cheaper?

I'm just wondering if you have anything more to back up your conspiracy?

Not saying that it's not true - this is Star Citizen we are talking about!

The only thing I have is 20 years of software development experience knowing how much even mid-tier to low quality people can produce just by sheer numbers, and none of it adds up to what cig is putting out.

On the other hand, I see nothing but Lucasarts quality movies coming out from them and mystery movies made by high level people, starting those same high level people, and also knowing how much work goes into that world to make it look right.

Whatever programming staff cig has is far outnumbered and outgunned by professional artists, animators, and video editors.

The bonus piece of it is in your world, those millions of vfx studios that cig would need to compete against actually do need to compete and produce content.

Cig has a magic free golden ticket where they don't actually need to live off of what they produce. This gives them a unique edge in the business world where you can't compare them against another group.

Maybe once cig gets their butts off of the mysteriously shady "fund my life" campaigns and infinite free handouts from people wanting them to make a video game, you'll see where cig has cast their priority and money making engine.

They've basically had 10 years and counting to make whatever company they really want to, while saying they're making a hyper complex, impossible to achieve game.

At the end the way off the hook is simple. "Oh gosh guys at least we tried." "Gee whiz making games is hard and we just couldn't do it." "Golly if only technology was better to realize our super advanced needs."

Etc etc.

Cig shuts down. Some still unknown shell company pops publicly up with a surprising headcount of skilled people, blah blah blah.

The Titanic fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 30, 2022 16:14

The Titanic: Sep 15, 2016; Unsinkable

Scruffpuff posted:

There's not enough time to directly mismanage 500 people, the mismanagement would have to be consistent from the top down, across all studios. I think with that many people, probability dictates that at least a few of them would be far enough away from Chris Roberts that they would eventually make something good. Hell with that many people some of them should have made something good by accident.

Either they're not working on the game as theorized, or they're compartmentalized into workgroups that are isolated and worthless. This 25 person group is "lore." Worthless. This 100 artists is working on pizza, shoelaces, and bedsheets. Pointless. This group of 100 people are "designing ships." They will generate income, but their work does not fit into the "game" in any way. These 100 are "marketing" and it's their job not to advertise or sell the game, but to post bullshit all over the internet to make it look like the game has been out for years and it being fully enjoyed by countless people.

There may even be programmers somewhere in there but I don't know what they've been doing.

I guess my question is, where is the tiny good part that indicates at least a few people doing good work? Where's the shred of something that indicates someone somewhere had an idea? It beggars belief that literally nothing of any worth is in this product, but you can log in right now and see that's exactly how it is. Some of the worst games ever made have at least one or two things that show someone cared, it could be a sound effect, or a lighting effect, or something as simple as a single voice over. But in Star Citizen it's all poo poo all the time, to the point where it looks like deliberate parody. In fact, even someone making a parody might accidentally put in one good thing if they're not careful.

I just find it hard to believe it's only mismanagement. The world is filled with mismanaged companies that nevertheless work just well enough to do something. Star Citizen is what happens at the end of the Neverending Story if the hero doesn't help.

All this, with the exception being top quality graphics, art, and movies.

You kind of know where the money is going. :shrug:

# ? May 30, 2022 16:17

FishMcCool: Apr 9, 2021; lolcats are still funny; Fallen Rib

# ? May 30, 2022 16:39

4th Stimpire Queen: May 4, 2022; Contemplate with nice thoughts and utterances.

Moar from Spectrum.

Fyi, I have no loving idea what he's trying to say in the first paragraph.

quote:

10 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT AND...

...keep developing anyway. We've made great progress.

Imagine the following situation: a small company decides to do a project that is only possible, with the technology we have today, to be done by a large team, or a large company? I see the development of CS in this way, in all aspects, including the eventual absence in experiences that, over time, have shown to require attention. The first challenge was to make something small into something big, this takes a lot of time, a lot of investment capital and planning. Easy to understand the 'sell an idea before it's ready' perspective. Over time, some ideas became real, others still need more time. That's part of the development.

Okay, sure, many, like me who have high expectations, are bothered by seemingly common issues like server stability, but as Chris Robert said, 3.18 and 4.0 are on the way and tend to change everything (hopefully).

Well, I also have ideas about 'how to run things', it would be interesting - since the SC idea is an idea that has become collective - to debate that too. Maybe an online conference, something where community members - elected?!? - discuss 'live' topics concerning the development of SC and that as 'ideas' - give ideas to CIG. I don't know, it's just a suggestion. Anyway, something is a fact, the CIG always tries to do absolutely everything to explain what it does and how it does it. I don't see any other company doing anything even like this in this game business.

(now my little suggestion: hey Chris, implement Vulkan )

Le comments:

quote:

Chris has had this project driving him for over 26 years, failing twice to achieve it before. It's HIGLY unlikely that he's suddenly going to change his vision now.

quote:

My biggest fear is developers caving to the wants of the masses. Never seems to end well.

It is nice to see that CIG has stuck to their plan here.

quote:

We directed the game just fine when we agreed collectively to expand SQ42 into the PU.

Collectively, yeah... :lol:

quote:

Ten years is not bad when you consider that it took an established company seven years to make Destiny.

4th Stimpire Queen fucked around with this message at 17:47 on May 30, 2022

# ? May 30, 2022 17:43

Trilobite: Aug 15, 2001

no_recall posted:

I can definitely see CIG changing lanes and becoming a VFX house. They should have all the talent required to run such a shop.

I dunno, isn't the VFX industry still hard to turn a profit in? I remember reading articles about it some years back, explaining why so many effects companies go under even after they work on blockbuster movies. Why give up free money from idiots who don't even want you to finish the product they're supposedly buying just to bust your rear end trying to break even doing real work?

Plus, the VFX industry has to meet deadlines. Nobody at CIG knows how that works.

# ? May 30, 2022 20:33

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

https://giant.gfycat.com/WelllitShadowyDungbeetle.mp4

# ? May 30, 2022 21:56

Blue On Blue: Nov 14, 2012

The Titanic posted:

My bet is they already have.

The backers will never know.

the backers will simply praise them for the smart move of branching out to ensure the continued and long term success of CIG

"microsoft did it so its fine for Chris" etc

or

"how ELSE did you expect them to stay afloat all these years, of COURSE they were going to open multiple other companies and use the backers money to fund it EVEN AN IDIOT could see that"

i believe it was the same tired lines when someone thought they spotted Chris on vacation in Vegas

"OH Chris is just being smart with the CIG coffers, if he doubles it all tomorrow they won't need anymore donations!!!"

# ? May 30, 2022 22:10

Thoatse: Feb 29, 2016; Lol said the scorpion, lmao

Trilobite posted:

I dunno, isn't the VFX industry still hard to turn a profit in? I remember reading articles about it some years back, explaining why so many effects companies go under even after they work on blockbuster movies. Why give up free money from idiots who don't even want you to finish the product they're supposedly buying just to bust your rear end trying to break even doing real work?

Plus, theVFX industry has to meet deadlines. Nobody at CIG knows how that works.

The only lines crobbler knows involve punches or vitamins

# ? May 30, 2022 23:34

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# ? Jun 14, 2024 16:21

Trilobite: Aug 15, 2001

Blue On Blue posted:

the backers will simply praise them for the smart move of branching out to ensure the continued and long term success of CIG

"microsoft did it so its fine for Chris" etc

or

"how ELSE did you expect them to stay afloat all these years, of COURSE they were going to open multiple other companies and use the backers money to fund it EVEN AN IDIOT could see that"

i believe it was the same tired lines when someone thought they spotted Chris on vacation in Vegas

"OH Chris is just being smart with the CIG coffers, if he doubles it all tomorrow they won't need anymore donations!!!"

Yeah, this seems very, very plausible. It would let the backers believe that Star Citizen's endless development can continue and that they have to keep "pledging" for things they're not going to get (because otherwise how will CIG know that Star Citizen is still the most successful AAAAA game in alpha ever and don't do the Valve thing of realizing that making games is a distraction from making money?). CIG must be good enough with shell companies at this point that they can fund basically anything with backer money without having to worry too much about getting caught.

i just don't see them going into VFX. Not if they're hoping to spin off a successful business that makes money, anyway. Then again, there's always the possibility that it's another way for the top brass to line their pockets by getting paid with someone else's money while waiting for their golden parachutes to deploy, or that someone else might run a successful scam on Chris ("This is how you get back into Hollywood, like you always wanted! You'll be the next George Lucas! Only BIGGER!"), I guess?

# ? May 30, 2022 23:41

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Citizen: $48,000 is only $334/month for 12 years

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