Star Citizen , whats your opinion?

Just About Video Games - "Star Citizen , whats your opinion?"

Paul · 2024-08-21T22:16:30.654Z

So with the two space adventuring communities, its made me remember the game Star Citizen. If you arn't aware of it, SC is a huge, ambitious space game not unlike eve and elite however this is a very detailed simulation where to opperate a ship you need to press buttons and activate levers. You can fly to and take off from planets No Mans Sky style and you are free to follow your own path....

Horror and Cats 8/17/2024, 5:06:44 AM

I’m an “other please comment” because I had to google what it was lol. Having googled it, I think it’s not my kind of game though

Sturmer 8/17/2024, 6:40:21 AM

I played it about 10 years ago. The developers clearly have issues getting things done; it's a meme project.

CelestialFlea 8/17/2024, 10:37:19 AM

I've played it often, but on and off depending on the patch. I've also invested a modest amount of money over the years by upgrading my package here and there, it's a pretty affordable way to do it rather than all at once.

But here's my problem, many people ignorantly write this game off as a 'scam' without understanding (or even trying to) the enormity of what CIG is trying to do. People just see "10 years, lol". And?

CIG has had to create entirely new technology to be able to do what Star Citizen can do now, especially with the level of detail and fidelity. Server meshing for instance, is a crucial piece of technology to allow for efficient management of physicalized items, the streaming in and out of those objects as needed on the fly whilst also making room for new content we wouldn't have been able to get without it.

Then we have all the physical components of the ships that can be taken out, moved around and put on other compatible ships.

Along with the modular and generative tech used to create all the planets and buildings and tech used to control the ai, where it goes and how it responds to any given player activity.

If the game was a scam, why would CIG reinvest hundreds of millions back into the game and years of painstaking work? It simply makes no sense to me. So what if it's taken 10 years? Plenty of AAA games have had similar development time-frames, GTAV, 2077 and look how 2077 ended up launching? That's with existing tech.

It's also important to consider CIG is working on two projects, Star Citizen and Squadron 42 which is in the polish phase. Most of the resources have gone into getting that finished, and when that is finished StarCitizen development will undoubtedly speed up.

So tldr calling the game a scam is ignorant, childish and very silly. Has there been mismanagement and snowballing scope? Absolutely, do I want to know where the several hundreds of millions have gone? Absolutely. But I have faith that we will see the game realized along with Squadron 42 (which has some BIG celebrity names attached to it by the way), sooner or later. It's everything I ever wanted from a space game and then some.

Fear the crabcat!

Paul 8/17/2024, 11:42:46 AM

CelestialFlea

I agree, having seen what they are doing with the game its obviuos the money has gone back in to SC. The majority of people just compair this to Duke Nukum forever or Crackdown 3 however I dont feel SC is in development hell, its just taking a long time to create their vision.

It has been a while since I played as a combination of my laptop screaming at me and the bugs turned me away at the time however I am still interested in what the devs are doing.

Thank you for your imput 👍

CelestialFlea 8/17/2024, 11:35:52 AM

Paul

Progress is definitely being made and I think we might see Alpha 4 in evocati by the end of the year, it's already been playtested quite successfully. Once Alpha 4 is ironed out, I think SC will be in a much better place to move forward, it's a huge technical hurdle for them to overcome.

I haven't played since before the new physicalized cargo loading and unloading stuff was added, it looks pretty cool.

S

StoneyChan 8/17/2024, 5:49:12 PM

would like to give it a go but the monetary aspect is brutal , latest patches look sweet though

CelestialFlea 8/17/2024, 6:01:34 PM

StoneyChan

Wait for a free flight week which often happens around new patches. You can also get a starter ship for less than the cost of an AAA game, about $40.

You can actually progress in game fairly easily and have enough money to purchase ships with in game money, something that wasn't possible in the very early days before Micro tech was added.

The StarCitizen community is also one of the absolute best for being helpful and welcoming to new players.

Paul 8/18/2024, 8:50:18 AM

StoneyChan

I picked it up for about £25 and buying ships is optional. I might jump back in as i havnt played it in a couple of years.

Paul 8/18/2024, 8:10:25 PM

StoneyChan

Its currently free to play if you want to give it ago

https://www.eurogamer.net/star-citizen-is-free-to-play-as-it-kicks-off-its-annual-ship-showdown-event?fbclid=IwY2xjawEvNBBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbYLHwePsApCWfI194-P0vnZBthyhzlR_SX9tBmVHIcHiaoHsk-EtLhhAg_aem_x5z1_Z_0pa5nGrrzXh00Jg

E

EidLeWeise 8/19/2024, 11:31:59 PM

Paul

Whilst I love that SC does Free Fly weeks etc, they are honestly the WORST time to play the game... I think that the biggest issue with SC is their back end servers where "one server" is curretly covering everything from > 100 players and whatever they are doing anywhere and these days most things that players have done too. This poor server has to worry about the NPCs in the bunker that you're in as well as all of the other bunkers on the other planets. It also has to keep track of where we all are (at distances varying from CM through to say 10km away through to your buddy < 12 parsecs away on your Hud) Then it also has to worry about the other NPC ships be they pirates or general civies just trying to live their best life... And then it has to worry about that damn can you threw on the ground on Everus Harbor... plus way way more. In short at the moment the poor servers are getting hammered and that's just by normal players. On a free fly weekend that server is hammerd ten fold.

This isn't me being an apologist for CIG or making excuses, we've all seen the memes of NPCs all standing on Chairs their Arms out stretched! It sucks and the server's messing up can ruin your whole day with Doors not working, Elevators or Trains just killing you NPCs teleporting about and your buddy being nowhere to be found even though on Discord they say they are right next to you! BUT (and it's a big butt) I understand vaguely why this happens and I've seen how they are planning to fix it. Even better I've seen actual progress to that fix being implemented (this does not mean the game is fixed!!! It's maybe 1 step forward, 2 steps back!)

Now all of this being said when it works the game can be truely amazing. I have walked around a space ship, that is inside another spaceship, that is flying around a planet. I can get out of that ship and then walk around the 1st ship, then go back into my ship and fly out of the parent craft, all whilst the parent craft is still flying. This may not sound like much but think about it from a technical perspective and from adjusting frames of reference. I've driven a tank (along side other friends) out of a Large Space Ship whilst 100km in altitude, then had us all fall through the air to the ground. I've had a situation where one of my ships main engines was shot off, this meant that any time I tried to accellerate my center of balance is offset, but I can counter that kinda using lateral thrusters, only to fall into a planets gravity well and see myself fall... I've made the mistake of not entering zero g properly and doing an eva only to realise that my ship (who's thrusters were working to stop her from de-orbitting) is falling away from me.

On more positive things I've rescued complete strangers working as part of a team like trauma team from Cyberpunk (deploying from a mothership, 2 snub fighters to scout out and provide air support, 3 combat medics in a surface vehicle dashing in whilst we cover them, they then fight to get to the client, rescue them and everyone walks away safely) I've also done the same idea but just on my own and you can picture the embarassment of rescuring a client, only to get shot in the back by an npc that you didn't see! Some of my most fun was working on a salvage ship, one pilot 2 people salvaging ships 2 people working in the salvage decks sorting stuff out and one person in the cargo bay filing stuff away.

The game is not for everybody, and I sure as heck don't play it every day but I've had many hundreds of hours of enjoyment and I love how open they are about their development processes and the videos that they put out most weeks. Yes the game invites you to invest in it, but you don't need to. In fact I'd argue that by spending thousands, and buying the biggest ships you're loosing out on the whole progression aspec when the game goes live. However if you can afford it, then you do you and I'll not judge. You can definately get by with just the pledge ship and then work your way up to something better (and so on)

This year I feel is a critical one for Star Citizen. I strongly suspect that Squadron 42 Chapter One will be officially announced with a release date. We're also getting Version 4.0 which introduces a 2nd Star System, but more fundimentally that 2nd system means we're finally getting sever meshing and that means that the poor "one server that rules them all" I mentioned at the start of this wall of text will be knocked down and we'll have one server to do the stuff that it feels it can do with another server doing its thing and you (in theory!) seemlessly moving between them! We've already seen this in testing where it was janky, but it worked. The future is looking bright, I hope they can deliver I believe they will deliver and until then, well I too have Elite Dangerous, No Mans Sky, Starfield and hundreds of other games to play. I can be patient...

Eid

Kane Carnifex 8/18/2024, 9:08:10 AM

Still EA... so i will give you a comment once its polished and ready for customer.
Remind me 5 Years or so.

I have it, i have played it, its something.
But 5-10 Years by the amount of momentum they have.

Amoni P 8/19/2024, 11:19:57 AM

For a hot minute I was excited about Star Citizen and thought about giving it a go. I'm a regular EVE Online enjoyer and have played Elite Dangerous as well as No Man's Sky. The thing that felt sketchy to me was how long its been in development and how big the budget has ballooned with seemingly only marginal gains. They've made a lot of promises over the years of its long development, even for a AAA studio game this is long and the budget is absurd. The only conclusion I can reach is that while there may be some fun to be had, the game is largely a bungled job with mismanaged financials and developmental gridlock that will ultimately doom the game unless there is a serious course correction.

Phoenix_Dfire 8/22/2024, 10:17:49 PM

I backed this game back in 2012, and I still update it from time to time. However, I haven't had much luck.

It was no good until I upgraded my PC to a beast that could run it, but every time I run it. I seem to fall out of the train before I can even get to my ship.

Once we have the promised 'Vertical Slice' of the game, then I'll give it another try. But I'll wait until then.