Star Citizen: Big MoMA's House

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

peter gabriel posted:

I got Star Citizen working in VR and I still feel legit loving ill
No point doing a vid because it looks like a normal video, but fuuuuuckkkkk, getting in a ship / getting out of bed have made me feel worse then I ever did with the DK1 even.
It is horrible

Don't worry they're going to fix it after they finish everything else. On target for availability later this year!

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 00:14

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:10

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

Dusty Lens posted:

I'm glad that Pgabz is some kind of magical folklore animal that eats misery and shits hilarity with a catchy beat but I think that we should curb our euphoria before inflicting sincere harm on him.

Agreed. The nausea and headaches induced can sometimes persist for a long, long time. Seeing how much he could endure for the sake of LOLs would be akin to torture. Not worth the agony!

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 00:37

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

Sorry to derail the thread but for whoever asked, here�s that draft of an article about Star Citizen and VR. I welcome feedback - particularly technical feedback from those who've messed with this.

---

Star Citizen Will Never Be VR-Compatible

With the launch of the Star Wars inspired Wing Commander in 1990, Chris Roberts helped usher in the first golden era for space combat games. 26 years later, Star Wars is back, and a Space Game Renaissance is underway, with 2016 poised to be perhaps its most exciting year on record. Why? Because many of the most promising new titles have been built from the ground up to support the first generation of consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets. They are, in a word, immersive.

Unfortunately, the space game everyone has heard the most about, the "immersive", "high-fidelity", "AAA budgeted" Star Citizen, is all but certain not to see commercial release in 2016. The game is even less likely to ever offer full VR support, despite recent statements to the contrary.

This is due to a myriad of VR-unfriendly design choices imposed on the game, such as the forced, wildly-kinetic animations that play whenever the player enters or exits a pilot's chair, gets out of bed, or climbs a ladder. Once initiated, these animations can not be reversed or exited. Often, they serve as seamless transitions between Star Citizen's FPS and Cockpit game modes. Unfortunately they will be nausea-inducing for those wearing VR headsets.

------------------

�Immersion" vs. Immersion

From the earliest days of his crowdfunding campaign, Chris Roberts has made "immersion" a centerpiece of the Star Citizen gameplay pitch. Forced first person player animations featured prominently in his kickoff video, and have become a staple of the gameplay experience.

Ironically, these animations were imposed in software to give the player behind a monitor a simulated sense of immersion, yet they preclude the possibility of letting VR hardware give the player truly perceptual immersion. They are mutually-exclusive propositions.

Ben Kuchera of Polygon summarizes the matter bluntly:

Ben Kuchera posted:

�Unless a game is designed from the ground up for virtual reality, everything from the camera movement to the heads-up display may make you sick.�

Game developers, used to incremental improvements in display technology like faster refresh rates and higher resolutions often fail to appreciate the paradigmatic shift that VR represents for gaming. They assume VR support can be implemented after the core gameplay mechanics and user experience have been established. CIG clearly holds to this view, as demonstrated by Director of Spaceships Ben Lesnick on a recent episode of Reverse the Verse.

"Ben Lesnick, Director of Community Engagement, Online Strategy, and Spaceships posted:

"We love VR, we will have VR in the final game� But do we want to devote resources to fix it, fix it, fix it� instead of just waiting until the end and saying �Okay, here is the final implementation?' VR is something we�re confident is not a technical challenge, we just need to do it at the right time." (55:16)

This cavalier attitude about VR implementation is reassuring, yet unfortunately naive. Those tempted to believe it would be wise to consider the cautionary tale of Krillbite Studios.

In an apology letter to backers of their crowdfunded game, "Among the Sleep", Kristina Halvorsen with Krillbite Studio describes how forced first person player animations in their game ultimately doomed its VR-compatibility.

�Kristina Halvorsen� posted:

�One of the first things we learned when experimenting with VR is that the player needs to be in control. All the time. When a player puts on a headset to play your game he is basically placed inside the game. This creates a unique and intense connection between the player and the game, a much more powerful connection than you can accomplish through a regular screen, and it�s a connection that requires trust between the game and the player. The player has to trust that he or she will be in control all the time.

A very common technique in story driven first person games is to take away the players control of the camera when you want to tell some story. You want the player to see the spaceships approaching over the mountain, the skyscraper collapsing over the military troops or the mom feeding you cake. Basically the game grabs hold of your virtual head for a few seconds or minutes, points it in the right direction and tells you to look at this before you can continue playing.

This feels horrible in VR.

If you do this in VR it basically feels like someone is physically grabbing your head and forcing you to watch something. Suddenly your entire body is paralysed and the sense of freedom of perspective and immersion that VR does so well is shattered. It�s a violation of the trust you are building up between your game and the player.�

Those who haven't yet personally experienced virtual reality may assume the issue of transition animations is a minor matter; an inconvenience they could put up for the sake of Star Citizenship. After all, it must be earned, right?

Yet the transition animations are only one of several ways in which Star Citizen's "immersive" player experience precludes experiencing true immersion through VR. Many of the other "immersive" features of the game stand in defiance of Oculus's best practices guide for VR development.

Consider just a few of them:

�Oculus VR Best Practices� posted:

� Do not use "head bobbing" camera effects; they create a series of small but uncomfortable accelerations.

� Acceleration creates a mismatch among your visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses; minimize the duration and frequency of such conflicts. Make accelerations as short (preferably instantaneous) and infrequent as you can.

� User input devices can't be seen while wearing the Rift. Allow the use of familiar controllers as the default input method. If a keyboard is absolutely required, keep in mind that users will have to rely on tactile feedback (or trying keys) to find controls.

(NOTE: Still working on summary paragraph here. Want to discuss things like the five speeds of running movement, in-game interfaces, etc.)

------------------

�Fidelity�

"Immersion" is unfortunately not the only impediment facing a virtual reality experience for Star Citizen. Chris Roberts speaks often of his commitment to creating the highest "fidelity" PC gaming experience available.

While the word has many meanings, even when limited to PC gaming, in this particular case "fidelity" is short-hand for the creating the most visually-detailed, highest-resolution experience possible in gaming. Unfortunately, particularly in games built using CryEngine, this commitment usually comes at a cost to frame rates. The problem is made worse in multiplayer games due to its notoriously inefficient netcode.

Yet high frame rates -- ideally stable at 90 frames per second -- are a requirement for creating enjoyable gameplay experiences in VR. As Oculus notes:

�Oculus VR Best Practices� posted:

�Your code should run at a frame rate equal to or greater than the Rift display refresh rate, v-synched and unbuffered. Lag a dropped frames produce judder, which is uncomfortable in VR.�

It should be noted that, four years into development, Star Citizen remains in a pre-Alpha state. Optimization of game code to boost frame rates is understandably low-priority and likely will remain so for at least two years. The possibility exists that frame rates might be considerably improved in subsequent iterations shouldn't be discounted. That CIG's current approach to optimization appears to be reactive rather than proactive suggests that future improvements may come at cost to "fidelity".

As author Eric Preisz notes in his book Video Game Optimization:

�Eric Preisz� posted:

�Unfortunately, optimization is often reactive or an afterthought, although surprisingly, optimizing reactively does work since hundreds of developers ship games this way. That doesn't mean, however, that being reactive is the easiest or best path to achieve the performance goals that deliver the experience you designed for your end-use. Usually, reactive optimization leads to the removal or reduction of features to accommodate for an underwhelming framerate.�

If Star Citizen is to one day offer a fully VR compatible experience, it may require the wholesale elimination of many of its most "immersive" and "fidelity"-rich features. As these have been the primary selling proposition of the game, it is far easier to believe Roberts will eschew VR-support instead, or limit it to only a portion of the game. Backers who expect anything more should prepare for disappointment.

------------------

Overpromise Now, Underdeliver Later?

It is difficult to believe that Roberts, himself an original Kickstarter backer for Oculus, is oblivious to the seriousness of the challenge. Yet he has thus far acknowledged little of it and instead has given backers cause for optimism about a VR-friendly future for Star Citizen.

As the detailed history of Star Marine reveals, Roberts often relies on Molyneux-like tactics of "overpromise now then underdeliver later" strategies when engaging with media or customers. He prefers the short-term financial and esteem rewards of boosting enthusiasm for his game, even if the price he will pay in the long-term is a loss of credibility and trust.

For all of these reasons above, skepticism about a VR-friendly Star Citizen is warranted. A new era of truly immersive Space Games is about to begin, and unfortunately, the person who practically invented the genre in 1990 and returned in triumph promising to build "the best drat space sim ever" will likely have to sit this revolution out.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 01:11

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

orcinus posted:

This might be relevant to your interests:

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/2g55qj/vr_in_star_citizen_from_vrtgo_conference_2014/

Note the year.

Thanks for sending this, Orcinus. I'd seen it way back when but forgot about it-- but some of those quotes will be useful.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 01:56

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

Tippis posted:

It's time for Guess the game!!

The XXX project took more than four years and over a million man hours on background development. Very little of that production time turned out to be actually usable in the final product, as at least one and possibly several complete project "reboots" were required to refine the graphical engine to a playable state. Nevertheless, some successful gameplay elements from XXX were re-used by other more notable ZZZ products. [�]

In YYY6, the magazine ranked it as the 13th top vaporware title in computer game history (due YYY1, delivered YYY3), stating "The haze you see from the cockpit is emblematic of this title's troubled development on the bleeding edge of technology."

Since we're talking Strike Commander trivia, here's some arcana worth revisiting.

Chris Roberts wrote a letter that was included in the manual. It's too good not to include in its entirety:

Chris Roberts' younger self posted:

"STRIKE COMMANDER
A Game Designer's Apocalypse

Recently, I watched the film Heart of Darkness, which chronicled the tremendous struggles that Francis Ford Coppola went through in creating Apocalypse Now. In many ways, the creation of Strike Commander has helped me identify with his plight.

It was two and half years ago, just after the release of Wing Commander, that I started out on what I then estimated to be a one-year project. I set out to create an industry shattering flight simulator that would encompass a revolutionary new 3-D system, a system that I planned to use for Wing Commander III and hoped would form the basis of a whole new generation of ORIGIN games. This system, which we later named RealSpaceTM, became the heart of Strike Commander.

To make RealSpace truly revolutionary we decided to gamble on two major graphics techniques: Gouraud shading and texture mapping. Both of these techniques are used extensively on high-end military flight simulators costing millions of dollars. Their application gives rendered 3-D images a much more realistic and fluid appearance. Because of the power needed to implement such a 3-D system, nobody had previously dreamed of doing so on a PC. For us to pull this off in software, we knew we had to make some risky assumptions. First, that the power-to-price ratio of PCs would continue to decline, thereby delivering affordable PCs of adequate speed to our target market.

Second, and more importantly, that the same forces that had created a demand for Wing Commander those power-hungry 386 owners � would generate a demand for games that exploited the next generation of PCs-- the 486. When creating Wing Commander, there were many who doubted the game would sell because of their lack of faith in the high-end PC market. This time, however, everyone believed in the market and, as time went on, the doubts revolved around our ability to create the engine.

In the spirit of wanting it all, we set out to design a game that would have more realism than the best flight simulator, better storytelling, more fun and more accessibility than Wing Commander, and the best sound effects, music and graphics of any game ever created.

Our biggest mistake was thinking that we could achieve all of this in a single year. Our biggest setback was the realization that it would take more than two. But our journey had begun and there was no turning back. Perhaps the greatest heartbreak came months after the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991. Believing ourselves to be a few months from completion, we showed a demo of Strike in front of the press and our competitors. Months later we were little closer to completion, but a subtle change had come over our competitors' development plans. All of the sudden, parts of the technology we had shown at CES were showing up in their software. It wasn't as if they had stolen our ideas � after all, the techniques we used to make RealSpace revolutionary for PCs are very well known in the high-end graphics field.

The trouble was that nobody believed it could be done on the PC. With a single ill-timed demo, we had changed that belief and inadvertently given our competitors a heads-up on where we wanted to take the industry a full year and a half before we arrived there. During these revelations it was difficult to resist the temptation to push Strike out early and prevent our competitors from stealing any more of our thunder. But to stop short of our vision would have been unacceptable. We were in the middle of our journey and were determined to complete it, regardless of what lay ahead. And what lay ahead was the hardest part: long hours, short tempers and huge expectations.

In hindsight, knowing what a truly Herculean task Strike Commander turned into, the heartache and disappointment it created when its release date was constantly pushed back, and the amount of time from our personal lives that it consumed, we probably should have designed it differently. We wouldn't have tried to do quite as much or shot quite as high. In our arrogance we had set out to create something that was not only better than everything else, it was several orders of magnitude better. And it was several orders of magnitude more expensive as well � in fact, the most expensive game ORIGIN has ever developed. Like Francis Ford Coppola and his film crew on Apocalypse Now, we knew we were in way over our heads, but we also knew there was no turning back.

And now, a little humbler, we've reached the end of our long and arduous journey. We look at Strike Commander and see a game that every member of the team can say, "Yes, It was two years of hell, but at the end of it we've created something that is very special and I'm proud of it." I have never seen such selfless dedication from such talented individuals as the team that created it. Strike Commander is the game it is because of them. Each time I think about the dark circles under eyes, the unshaven beards, the late night pizzas and the neglected spouses and girlfriends, I wonder what it is that makes us do this. One reason might be that the entire Strike Commander team, which has grown to as many as twenty people, are all avid computer game players. We buy and play all our competitors' games, looking forward to the latest developments in our field. If we weren't writing games as a profession, we would be hating our day jobs and writing them at night. I hope this makes us as demanding and discriminating as anyone that plays our games. Although it sounds cliched, for us it is much more than a job. I can think of no greater pride it would bring a team member than to have someone approach him at a computer store and tell him that Strike Commander was the best game they've ever played.

We hope you'll agree, CHRIS ROBERTS

G0RF fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Mar 22, 2016

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 06:24

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

ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:

what a loving cocksucker

You can tell he's learned a great deal from the experience...

It's funny to me that he's written several "with the benefit of hindsight" articles or given the same as soundbites. He did it after the Wing Commander movie, after Freelancer... He should, in theory, now have the benefit of hindsight. And yet here he is, once again repeating the same mistakes at a much larger time/money scale...

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 06:41

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

Can somebody make this as a smaller gif? It's too good.

This is perfect thread material but I'm on a phone and the only option is to embed the giant animated gif...

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 06:43

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

Smorgasbord posted:

Hey, this is your brother posting from 8 pages back - don't try to read the whole thread, there's a whole lotta nonsense postings in 2500 pages. What you should do is read the transcripts posted by SomethingJones, these are CiG's own words. Also read the posts by G0rf who really knows his poo poo and tries to be as dispassionate as possible in explaining why this game will not work. There's a few other high quality posters too but start with those two. To read all posts in the thread by a user click the ? under their avatar.

Here's a link to g0rf's posts in this thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3748466&userid=214315

Also you may have heard of Derek Smart - yes he posts here and most of us share a lot of opinions with him but at the same time he's kind of a joke because he's an arrogant blowhard who has had a long history of being mocked by this site until we found common cause on SC. He's not some puppetmaster of this thread like the brown sea would have you believe.

If he can wait a half day I have a reply post to T-Minus that will save him wading through the noise in my own history (and there's a lot of that). I was working on a reply to him with links to a few of my effort posts, links to Allen Stroud's fantastic essays (the best starting place I think for those looking for a balanced take on the big picture CIG issues), comments about other great posters in the thread, etc.

Beyond that it includes some suggestions to him about the categories of questions worth asking: moral, technical, legal, historical, etc. The technical question "Can Star Citizen be built?" should really be broken into a great many subquestions-- like "Can it be built in CryEngine?" Or "Is the team Chris Roberts has assembled capable of building it?" Etc.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 07:16

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

After a long drought, a new Glassdoor review appears-- though it's really for Foundry, Sounds considerably more authentic than all the post-Escapist happy talk about the CIG LA office...

quote:

"Solid UK Studio"

Former Employee - 4 of 5 stars

Positive Outlook
I worked at Cloud Imperium Games full-time

Pros
- World class team, one of the best I have worked with, the guys and gals know their stuff and really care about creating a great game.
- Good salary, the company pays a very competitive salary.
- Exciting project

Cons
- Project has effectively an endless scope, makes it hard to get management to focus on a core experience and then improving it from there
- You won't have much say, an idea you suggest won't be listened to until CR hears something similar from the community.

Advice to Management
Focus on the core experience and add the fluff later, e.g not every brand needs a custom UI for crew stations, make one and focus on a new mechanic, go back later and add more variation.

Sounds like sound advice. Maybe somebody should suggest it at the RSI forums so there's a chance CR will take it seriously?

Wonder why he or she left?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 08:31

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

ManofManyAliases posted:

I'm in for around 4k. I don't doubt the game will be made, but I do feel management is all over the place right now. Some indicators point to the notion that they'll find their groove and start to turn over content. I just don't think that content will be released in the near future, but I can wait for the long haul.

Can I ask how much you've spent on your PC rig? Just curious.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 17:13

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

ManofManyAliases posted:

It's modest. i7 4770k, 970 gtx SSC, 4 TB HDD storage, 2TB SSD. 27in IPS monitor, etc.. I'm not planning to upgrade again until full release of PU.

That's understandable, though I should warn you, you might be waiting awhile.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 17:51

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

Ravane posted:

Morrowind is wrong, it should be 8 years, if it was 1996 to 2004. Star citizen only started development in 2014. Elite: dungaroos started dev in 1994 (when I was born).

ta-da!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 18:06

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

Madcosby posted:

Hey EightAce (is he still around)

what sort of reaction do the employees have to Ten for the Chairman episodes?

It's been awhile since he's posted. EightAce, if you're out there, you're missed, bro!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 18:36

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

Rhubarb94 posted:

Nah eightace is duct-taped to a chair somewhere and Sandi is trying to find a radio station with good mutilation music.

Endless loops of "Full Burn", her with the blow-torch.

"Who told you that story-- WHO?!?!"

Goobs posted:

Whatever happened to Bootcha and Fuzzknot? I know she was probated for awhile but I haven't seen Bootcha post in a long time.

She was probated and then a while later Bootcha decided to take a break. Unclear if permanent.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 18:49

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

After listening to Dolvak talk on that recent interview about how INN was going to really get with the program and embrace the new media rules for maximizing their audience, I'm listening to him and 3 other guys talk about their gonads and muse as to whether or not this should just be the purpose of the show...

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 18:51

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtgcFBLAdos&t=3452s

:bang:

FrankieGoes posted:

Exactly. And on top of that, I'd say multiple high quality devs have effectively spoken up, by getting the hell out of that shitshow and getting a job elsewhere. Plus there's the Jennison letter, and the Irving interview.

Plus the sources in the Escapist article who specifically mentioned their guilt and empathetic concerns about backers spending too much money on ships.

The Escapist posted:

There was a grim and near-universal feeling of guilt that almost all of the people who spoke out shared. �You have to ask 'at what point are you taking advantage of someone?' There's a certain responsibility,� CS3 said in regards to the backers who have contributed large sums of money. �Like, I felt like we should have gone to their homes and made sure their kids were eating and dressed. It starts to feel like a gambling addiction after a certain point. It was hard not to feel guilty.�

The Escapist posted:

"Fans would come into the studio, and I wanted to be like 'Dude, run. Take your money and run.' I felt like I was part of a con,� CS2 added. �This could really severely damage crowdfunding, at least for games. Who's going to want to do that again? People will look at everything and think 'but what if it's another Star Citizen?��

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 19:35

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

ManofManyAliases posted:

And yet, frugal enough to stick with the stock avatar...

I was asked about my "investment." I never volunteered it in my opening post. You guys pride yourselves on being accepting to those who join and are just so quick to pounce on an opportunity for salt-spreading as soon as you see fit (let me clarify, else my words are once again misinterpreted: I'm only talking about a few of you).

The 'investment' was done over the course of 2.5 years. If it so pleases you, call it "contribution to a dream" funding . . .

There's been some ribbing but as MeLKoR said it's your money, man. Since we mostly believe this entire thing isn't ever going to come close to delivering upon the promises made and think the project might be at risk of imploding before even hitting half the targets, there's an empathetic element, too. I sincerely believe you'd be better off clawing back your $4,000, even if you could afford to lose it, because you shouldn't have to lose it this way.

We also believe-- and have ample proof-- that Chris and Sandi engage in incredibly wasteful spending, that they aren't honest, that they do not believe the have moral obligations to their backers (despite 'THE PLEDGE'). It is no exaggeration to say that tens of millions of dollars thus far raised have been effectively LIT ON FIRE due to terrible decisions or incredibly indulgent ones. (The relocation of the entire HQ from Austin to Santa Monica so that Sandi could pursue her Hollywood dream is but one of them...)

Because there is no legal mechanism in place for them to be held accountable as stewards of YOUR money, this is the wild west and the justice you make is your own. But do what thou wilt, man. It's your money.

D1E posted:

Here's something I know for certain:

There is absolutely no way Chris Roberts wrote that "personal letter" to Strike Commander buyers.

The guy is borderline illiterate, based on his personal letter to The Escapist.

The irony is David Ladyman (main editor on it) probably wrote it for him.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 19:50

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

Wafflz posted:

This isn't an 80's teen movie where the bumbling idiots go through a transformation montage, get the girl and win in the end.

I'm dying, Wafflz.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 19:54

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

ManofManyAliases posted:

$20. I REALLY wanted to see what was in the platinum highlighted texts . . . .

Think of your $4000 as platinum highlighted texts. Then ask yourself what happens if you paid $20 two-hundred times, only to click on it 4 years from now and realize you'd been had.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 19:58

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

Brazilianpeanutwar posted:

Ok next one to talk about mr mysterious and his dumb 4k mistake has to write a job application for CIG and mention how great sandi is and how they can't wait to meet her.

Starting....

NOW!

GORF it's you....

Oh man...

G0RF fucked around with this message at 11:06 on Jul 12, 2016

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 20:32

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

Daztek posted:

oh god look at the similarities

"I got ABP on CIG; it's SOL and DOA. Copy?"

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 20:44

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

Google Butt posted:

this guy is 100% an octopode rereg

This is

I can believe in.

ManOfManyAliases, what is your opinion of the allegation of serious workplace toxicity at CIG LA? (Stop me if you answered this before and said "IDGAF as long as I get my game".)

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 21:56

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

SomethingJones posted:

The only mention of insurance I can find is below.

From 10 for the Chairman: Episode 71
Published on Dec 7, 2015 @ 17:40

Q: How will insurance work for pirates? (Trade routes, alien systems, being aggressor etc)

A: Eh, well, so we sort of talked...

(hilarious ensue...)

---

G0RF fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Aug 2, 2016

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 22:14

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

EightAce posted:

Had to come back on as I see a couple of ex cultists are amongst the 'awakened'.

While you're here, how are things going now that Chris is back on your side of the pond, EightAce?

EightAce posted:

I will provide a full and honest breakdown in the am. this whole thing is beyond hosed. Even beyond professor Smarts wildest wet dreams.

That well, huh?

Derek Smart is soon to have posted:

"IT HAS BEEN BEYOND hosed SINCE CHRIS PICKED CryENGINE! AS I HAVE BEEN SAYING SINCE JULY!!!"

G0RF fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Mar 22, 2016

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 22:58

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

EightAce posted:

Real progress ends the second that the Stimporers vessel docks in 'Wimslow, the heart of Manchester'. However more people internally are waking up . This project will see completion , 20% what was promised ... In and around .. 2021! Seriously, that is what is being bandied around. 'There's plenty of cash, ignore the noise . It gets done when it gets done.'

I was only slightly too pessimistic then... I will revise.

Rest well, mate. We look forward to further updates.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 23:11

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

Sperglord posted:

This is a great line, coming after cig's latest sale turned out a fat stinking turd.

If that is being talked about around the office, then we're approaching the end. Nobody who is self evidently financial solvent talks about "plenty of cash"

Yeah but they've got a backup plan that is good as gold. It's like printing pure cash. In fact, I'm surprised it's still legal!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 23:34

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

Chalks posted:

Click his posting history filter button (the ? symbol at the bottom of his profile) to see what he's said in the past. I didn't believe him until he told us about the departure of some CIG CS reps before it was announced. He claims to work for CIG, at the very least he has solid insider information.

I think he's been intentionally murky there. Clearly he's in the UK and seems closely connected-- but whether he's a past or present Foundry employee, very closely connected to one, or a firmly entrenched 3rd party (vendor, contractor, etc.), he certainly conveys the impression of having real-time line of sight into the operations.

If he's legit (and I assume he is because :lol:

), it's more surprising to me that mole hunts aren't underway. If he worked in LA, his head would be mounted on Sandi's wall, right above two pretend diplomas and a trophy that fans gave her to make her feel even more special than she already does (which technically isn't possible).

Maybe Foundry is more chill about it because a 'rogue' employee sounding the warning bells online actually could have a constructive purpose in a toxic Diarchy like CIG where speaking truth to power is a firing offense. Stranger things have happened.

Of course it could be an elaborate con, too-- you always have to allow for that in circumstances where it sounds to good to be true. But I prefer not to. Disgruntled leakers hit Ion Storm -- it's a rite of passage for high profile 'troubled projects'. As you note, given how troubled things appear to be its surprising there aren't more of them by now.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 23:55

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

AP posted:

The last 24 hours have included 10 or so limited ships on sale for most of that time (gladiator still on sale for some reason) + The LTI Vanduul Blade.

They made 46k during that 24 hour period.

Engage panic mode.

Man this is interesting if this isn't an anomaly. Whale capitulation is coming sooner or later. If ship sales lose their juice, then I'd bet they'd really start cranking out more trailer porn and 'in engine' proofs of concepts in hopes of snagging newer suckers ASAP.

We will know soon enough.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 01:47

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

ManofManyAliases posted:

But, I'm not trying to rationalize it? You guys want me to .. I don't need to.

Well, some might, but I don't expect you to rationalize it, MOMA.

---

G0RF fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Aug 2, 2016

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 04:28

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

Colostomy Bag posted:

Next concept sales by my estimation:

3) Polaris class Corvette - This is the big daddy, and after the failure of the Blade sale I expect this to roll out next. $750-$900. Cash cow.

This would make more marketing sense than a low-cost scrub-mobile-- but then again, they can get little ships into the PU without THAT much difficulty (in CIG terms).

The new Corvette seems like a buttload of new engineering debt. Does it still take 23 people to fly it (human and NPC)? Or was that the earlier version?

Whatever they roll out next, I'd assume it's for the mega-whales. They'll be the last to capitulate.

If CIG is close to unveiling female NPCs, they'd probably make a fortune selling hot ones to accompany lonely smugglers and space heroes on their adventures in spaaaaaaaace.

G0RF fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Mar 23, 2016

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 05:49

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

EightAce posted:

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 13:56

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

Eonwe posted:

is anyone else savoring EightAce's post

I don't mean think its a good post, I mean actually savoring it

I have read and re-read it several times, Eonwe.

There is so much there to chew over, but what I appreciate most is EightAce shining light on internal communications and the organizational dynamics between CIG and Foundry.

I feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of the cultures at CIG LA and Austin but Foundry UK/Germany are more opaque to me. I take as a given that they are much better run operations and have long assumed that CIG LA has been an affront and embarrassment to them professionally and source of ongoing grief and frustration.

Yet this begs a lot of questions. Most notably, "How long will they put up with this?"

Foundry is, among other things, the heatsink to CIG LA. Yet even heat sinks have limits to how much they can displace. So EightAce's periodic updates-- especially this latest one-- help shine light on a mysterious area.

On of the many terrible ironies of all this is that Erin could probably turn Star Citizen into a pretty neat Lego Game if given the chance. Destructible environments? DONE. Build your own ship and fly it? Easy. Procedurally generated lego environments-- a neat new challenge for the team. Flying lego ships in space and shooting at other players-- blowing off wings and screwing up their flight physics? Could be hilarious...(Of course, Lego would demand their pound of flesh-- if anyone was going to make bank selling in-game super-ships as DLC, it would be them...)

Star Citizen: Other than that, it's business as usual...

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 20:27

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

D1E posted:

G0RF: can you no-bullshit write a book on Star Citizen?

If you publish it on Amazon and I can read it on my Kindle I will 100% buy it.

It sometimes feels like I'm doing that here, D1E!

Honestly, I can't help but think this story is best told as a documentary. It's one thing to read about botched year end live-streams, jank player animations, endless credential embellishments, on camera eye-rolling, Peter Gabriel parody videos, hilarious Derek Smart moments of scene-chewing monologuing and all of that--- but to hear and see it unfolding, it's just hold-your-sides laughing funny "I can not believe this stuff ACTUALLY HAPPENED!" cinema. It would be funny even if it was only $10m raised but $110M+ is A Story Of Our Times. Yet it's infuriating and tragic, too-- for reasons we know too well. So it has all the requisite ingredients for a fantastic documentary-- even if you didn't get participation from CIG players.

A book could never be half as fun or funny. Plus, the gaming press (or business press) when they DO finally, finally pull their heads out, nut up and actually start telling this story are going to feast on it for months. It will get skinned, gutted, and sold for meat for ages, so that might dampen demand for 3rd party accounts. (There's much they'll miss of course, because they're lazy, incurious and will focus only on the obvious but hey, that's what they get paid for!)

This is however why an SA compendium would be a gem-- I know I can't stop reading it. I think a chronological compendium of the best posts of the SA Star Citizen threads (going back to thread 1) would be an incredible book-- better in some ways that a straightforward narrative account. It would be an editing nightmare but drat, what a way to give readers a realtime picture of the rise and fall. (Derek's eventual arrival on the scene and eventually into the thread itself is STILL AMAZING to me sometimes-- yet it's just one bizarro plot twist in a story that never stops serving them up.)

Derek's blog posts and other outside material would of course be needed too but I can't imagine any book providing more laughs while also serving the useful historic purpose of depicting the story arc of Star Citizen.

Still, the world needs a documentary of this. And not the one CIG is wrapping up.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 22:05

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

iron buns posted:

Is anyone else disappointed in Star Citizen? https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/4bo82j/is_anyone_else_disappointed_in_star_citizen/

I love seeing it when guys like A Neurotic Jew jumping into these threads and drop truth bombs, even though they'll get downvoted to oblivion. It's like watching little pieces of the dam break and seeing spergs racing to plug the holes with their fingers.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 22:10

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

ZenMaster posted:

I'm dying!

(And brilliant stuff like this is why it has to be a documentary...)

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 22:21

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

AP posted:

Yesterday wasn't a fluke, sale is poor, they'll be hoping to pick up at the weekend, maybe push something special on Friday to generate buzz.

They did that wink-wink, nudge-nudge about a Friday reveal but I wonder if that means surprise ship sale, new PU addition (the sales floor!), more trailer porn, or something else? (It's times like these CIG actually creates real suspense so good on them.)

I'm also really curious if a lackluster ship sale even bothers Chris/Sandi/Ben. If they have more money than we think they can shrug it off. If they're sensitive to the monthly cashflow, though, I'd be getting a bit nervous. Delusory though the Roberts are, I'm sure there's at least that nagging voice in their back of their minds, "What if this stops working? What then?"

Addition: just saw Daztek's reveal-- trailer porn it is!

G0RF fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Mar 24, 2016

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 01:37

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

Happy Sisyphus posted:

how much would you guys pledge if you had to do so to keep this thread going and you believed genuinely that lowtax really needed your money to make this the best thread possible?

I'd kick in-- but it would be nice to see some additional features added to make it easier to read.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 01:51

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

Dapper Dan posted:

We just might be witnessing the beginning of a cascade failure, in which everything continually fails, tumbling down and down in which nothing can be done to rectify its inevitable collapse. The fact that they haven't prepared for the most obvious event in crowd funding (people stop giving you money no matter what you offer) is pretty loving hilarious. But typical.

But to be honest, the whole thing is pretty Shakespearean. Like, it is a parable that can appeal to anyone outside of game design.

This is a great summary of it, Dapper Dan.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 02:51

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

A Neurotic Jew posted:

http://youtubedoubler.com/hV2T

loving lol

I can't believe it's that close-- hilarious!

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 04:10

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:10

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

Cosmic Owl posted:

Quoting again because I cant get over this. I knew this game was shaping up to be a deadpan ripoff of Starship Troopers, but a shot-for-shot ripoff really was not expected. There really is more and it is always worse. really is right to be finally distancing himself from this mess.

Next comes the icy polite email from :gary:

's publicist to Sandi.

Gary Oldman's publicist posted:

" would like you to stop using that pic of him on your Facebook profile. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but 's likeness has been shall we say abused as a result of his work on that project. As a highly-esteemed actor with a legendary film career, would prefer not to be made the butt of jokes. Frankly he just would like to put the whole thing behind him. Thanks for your understanding and compliance."

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 05:29

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > Star Citizen: Big MoMA's House

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