Forbes Explores Star Citizen History (May 4, 2019)

[ChrisReid]

Well, I kinda do . I do genuinely think Chris Roberts has stuck pretty close to the original pitch. Granted, there are many things that are much more detailed than the original pitch indicated - but then again, the original pitch doesn't spell out point by point how each feature will look. It would be a different story if we were comparing the current project with some sort of full design document - then we'd undoubtedly see massive differences. But his pitch was basically, for a complete universe with complete freedom to do anything - there's a lot of room for expansion in that statement without going off pitch.

There's levels to this. You're right that maybe he said on day one that he wanted to build the open-universe do-anything game that he wanted to play, and that was true then and now. But other people also have a point regarding the real out there stuff. A key example is the Animoji head tracking Face Over IP. Why would anyone build that? It's a gimmick of a feature if your main product was a communications app. It's excessive as a side feature in your space sim. I started to type out several lines about why this is a bad idea, but I just shouldn't even have to do that. Same for biker gangs. Did you know they're adding player character swimming next?

 

[gevatter Lars]

Yes there are some oddities in the priorities. FOIP is one. I like the idea behind it a lot, same with the loudness of other persons speaking is correct to the distance they are talking to each other, the bikes are cool and basicly everything they have are cool features but its all stuff that should be done when the basics are done.
To me that would be finialising flight model, trading, fighting, mining, salvage. When you have that covered, then add in all the neat stuff like beeing able to make coffee. Seriously I found out two days ago that the coffee machine in your quarters lets you make coffee. Complete with animation, picking up the mug and drinking. Yah its a prototype thingy for more complex stuff but it seams like a wast of time to add this when trading or mining, the important gameplay, is still not better then Privateer....I think even Privateer had a better trading mechanic then SC has after 7 years.

About swimming, I guess that is because the 800 luxus liner has a swimming pool and I aspect a small riot when people find out they can't use the pool. ^_^

 

[Jdawg]

Yes there are some oddities in the priorities. FOIP is one. I like the idea behind it a lot, same with the loudness of other persons speaking is correct to the distance they are talking to each other, the bikes are cool and basicly everything they have are cool features but its all stuff that should be done when the basics are done.
To me that would be finialising flight model, trading, fighting, mining, salvage. When you have that covered, then add in all the neat stuff like beeing able to make coffee. Seriously I found out two days ago that the coffee machine in your quarters lets you make coffee. Complete with animation, picking up the mug and drinking. Yah its a prototype thingy for more complex stuff but it seams like a wast of time to add this when trading or mining, the important gameplay, is still not better then Privateer....I think even Privateer had a better trading mechanic then SC has after 7 years.

About swimming, I guess that is because the 800 luxus liner has a swimming pool and I aspect a small riot when people find out they can't use the pool. ^_^

lol and all I wanted wa a cool single player story like wing commander

 

[Pedro]

lol and all I wanted wa a cool single player story like wing commander

Ditto, and that's what I would say Squadron 42 was pitched as. For me I don't really care what happens with Star Citizen; I just care that it's development issues are impacting S42.

 

[AllTinker]

Although it had (and still has) issues of its own as a game/crowd-funded project, I definitely prefer the approach Elite: Dangerous took in building a simple but quite solid foundation - in a technical sense at least - then expanding from there. At the very least the approach itself earned them a lot less ill-will... Star Citizen's approach of building everything at once... Well, obviously that hasn't worked out well, even if the end product turns out to be everything people (including myself) hope for.

Like others here most of my excitement is reserved for Squadron 42 anyway, although the dropping of coop did hurt my enthusiasm a little...

 

[ChrisReid]

About swimming, I guess that is because the 800 luxus liner has a swimming pool and I aspect a small riot when people find out they can't use the pool. ^_^

Ahh, I missed that. I did see that they'll be adding complex foot-stair animation mechanics so that the characters legs and everything will be perfectly aligned as they're walking down stairs. So I suppose the transition will be well articulated when they're walking from poolside down into the pool.

 

[gevatter Lars]

The inverse Kinematic (I think it was called) for walking correctly down stairs or on other surfaces is another detail that could have been done later I think.
Its allready in the game in a basic form, you can see it when you look down while walking down stairs, that the program tries at least to set the foot on the stairs but in the end, its a nice to have detail not a "must have".

Games use the flat-surface for stairs approach for years and people hardly notice it. Well I notice but I am the guy that is also noticeing missing reflections or bad ahadows and takes a close look at textures for 5min .... and even I say its okay NOT to have it in the first release but in a patch later on.

What makes me worry a bit more is something that happend during gameplay. When the QT changes came I tested it and had the luck that one of the devs was online. Lots of people asked about the idea and decissions behind QT and that we don't like it and he said "Yes we know, we also have our opinion about it, please report it on spectrum and Issue council."

He didn't say exactly what the opnion of the staff is but from the conversation I got the impression that at least part of the team is also not happy but have to ask the fans to report it?

Then there was the last livechat with the devs and the zig zack thing where they seam to have very different opinions that are so different that they don't want to even talk about it?

I know that the current QT mechanic is Chris idea so could it be that the team tells him that its not a good idea and from reading spectrum I also got the impression that a lot of others also think its not the best idea.
Well testing should be starting next month for 3.6....also they tell us that 3.5.1 will be released first so I guess 3.6 will not make it to release date?