Star Citizen’s New Planet-Sized Cities Unveiled at Citizen Con

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Megalith

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At this year’s annual Star Citizen convention, Citizen Con, Chris Roberts unveiled a planet that was entirely covered in cities, an early implementation of alien fauna, and other features. The full playthrough of the live demo can be seen here, with gameplay beginning at the 11:35 mark. The first planet seen in the demo is ArcCorp, a world where every inch of the surface has been built upon, and as Roberts himself states, features quite Blade Runner-esque visuals.

This was probably one of the more expansive Star Citizen demos that CIG has held, showcasing once more how seamless the travel is from a planet surface to orbit, and then to an entirely different planet. The presentation was mostly hiccup-free as well; the gameplay was smooth, the visuals were impressive, and there were no crashes to speak of. Note that these features will not be included in the upcoming Star Citizen 3.0 Alpha release, with the demo serving as an early look at what systems Cloud Imperium Games is working on for the future.
 
Merc1138 said:
It'd be nice if they would just unveil something resembling a game. All the stuff they've "unveiled" over the past year could have been stuff to come later to improve upon a released game.
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Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
 
Wait, they have a "citizen con?"

That's ridiculous. What other games in development have their own convention? How are they funding it? Why are they putting effort into a convention and not the game? They've had a convention every year since 2013? Why? As you can see I have so many questions.

I think a video showcasing the city would suffice for a game in development. They should stop with the conventions and focus on the game.
 
bryant12489 said:
Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
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This is the same excuse used every year as to why they keep missing deadlines and still don't have an actual game, when do the excuses stop?
 
FearTheCow said:
This is the same excuse used every year as to why they keep missing deadlines and still don't have an actual game, when do the excuses stop?
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Thats not how fans work. They will defend the game until its cancelled or released.

If cancelled then they explode at everyone for not supporting xyz resulting in cancellation.

If released and meeting expectations they'll told you so.

If released and garbage they'll whine loudly about how bad the developer is.
 
bryant12489 said:
Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
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This is a lazy excuse. Just imagine if every developer delayed their product to include everything in their vision. Nothing would ever get released.

DOS, Windows 3, Windows 95, etc.. no successful development continues on indefinite iteration without first releasing something to iterate on. You call that version 1.

This game's development seems content with moving the post of where that version 1 should be and therefore we're here with this game: 5 years on and not much to show for it but playable tech demos. It's an ambitious premise and I hope to play it one day but their development and management of the game sucks.
 
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scojer said:
Wait, they have a "citizen con?"

That's ridiculous. What other games in development have their own convention? How are they funding it? Why are they putting effort into a convention and not the game? They've had a convention every year since 2013? Why? As you can see I have so many questions.
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Exactly what I was thinking.

kHdpu6n.jpg
 
Some of it is looking promising but I agree with others when they say that they should be concentrating on the game.
 
Ocellaris said:
Graphics look great however I don’t see the point when the “city” will be filled with 99.99999% non interactive content.
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And, if you look closely, half the buildings are clones of other buildings - they've just rotated them. It's not as impressive as it looks at first.

Also, "Note that these features will not be included in the upcoming Star Citizen 3.0 Alpha release, with the demo serving as an early look at what systems."

Did anyone also hear him saying they are "not sure we're actually going to let you get this close to the populated areas." (16:35). So the entire thing has the potential for being bullshit. Showing you things that potentially you'll never be able to do.

Seriously, stop showing us tech demos and show us an actual game. I'll be impressed if they ever do that. Still not regretting getting my refund.
 
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bryant12489 said:
Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
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Hahahahahahaha!
 
maxz01 said:
Star Citizen is not a game, it's an entertaining tv show about game development. That's cool though!
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5 years, $150 million and they're still just kind of farting around in the CryEngine map editor.

I still hope a game eventually drops out of the anus of this production. I don't "hope it fails", even though Chris Roberts is the sworn enemy of progress. But if people keep giving them $800 for ships, it just incentivizes the game never getting completed - they're making too much not to.

- Open ended timeline without deadlines
- Open ended budget
- Open ended scope and featureset
- CEO transfixed by jiggling, shiny keys

= Game finished never
 
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Impressive from an artistic/tech standpoint. I did not back this title, but it's development would have me worried if I had. I want to see how they plan to fill worlds of this magnitude with content. Will it just be a bunch of fetch-quests?

I don't want this game to fail, just so I can see what this kind of money can get you for game development, it might also be good for the industry to let development go "until it's done" (in some cases).
 
bryant12489 said:
Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
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This has been the same excuse for the past 2 years already.

We don't need to have this all work together from day 1, we want a game, features can be added later. The feature creep was out of hand for this projects years ago, and while they may have quit with the ridiculous stretch goals, they keep piling on more and more features that they're working on simultaneously while getting nothing out the door that actually resembles a game.
 
This game will take so long it will have developmental growth rings. Large parts of it won't match up. Like one of the Gran Tourismo games that took so long to arrive it was a real mismatch of gaming graphics fashions.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the most recent Citizencon announced more new features being added, more new (and very expensive) ships to buy and another demo of content that is entirely disconnected from the rest of the tech demos they've done so far?

If there is actually something solid, like a release date or real gameplay, then feel free to correct me. I'd kill for something that's even a shadow of Freespace 2 and Tie Fighter with the more interesting elements of Eve thrown in.
 
Stryke1983 said:
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the most recent Citizencon announced more new features being added, more new (and very expensive) ships to buy and another demo of content that is entirely disconnected from the rest of the tech demos they've done so far?

If there is actually something solid, like a release date or real gameplay, then feel free to correct me. I'd kill for something that's even a shadow of Freespace 2 and Tie Fighter with the more interesting elements of Eve thrown in.
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Almost, you forgot the cake. If you had guessed that there was also a cake, you'd have been spot on.
 
I've obviously struck a nerve with some of you here, so I apologize for that. I'm definitely not as die hard a fan as some out there though. I won't try to defend the game too much here, since as a few of you mentioned, it's the "same lazy excuse". They've definitely had their share of problems that's pushed back development a lot, and I'm not blind to that fact. From my point of view, it just seems that Star Citizen gets a lot more shit because they're transparent about everything they do. The good, and the bad ( of which there was a lot the past two years). If they were a normal game studio making a giant AAA title, we'd most likely be hearing about it just now, after it being in development for almost 5yrs. Maybe that's why a lot of people are losing patients with the game. I think we more or less expect all AAA games to release withing a 2-3 year time frame, without really understanding that there were previous years of work on said games before they were announced to the public. As I mentioned in my first post though; I fully expect them to be picking up the pace this coming year with a date driven model vs a feature driven model.

In closing.,

I didn't have the chance to back them on Kickstarter, but I did eventually buy a simple ship to play around with in the alphas. I know my money is essential a donation towards development, and I'm completely fine with that. It's the type of game I've been wanting to play forever. Some people follow the development very closely, and are very involved with the community., Others (like myself) just check in periodically during the Con's and alpha updates to see what new things are ready. If the masses really believed that Chris Roberts, and CIG are just scamming them, then their development funds would of dried up 1-2 years ago. People obviously still want them to succeed, and choose to support them.




Please be gentle with me...
 
bryant12489 said:
Alpha 3.0 is the core of what the game will be. Half the time I think people don't realize the scope of what they have to create to make this all work together so they can actually release the game. I for one am most excited about the change from feature driven to date driven. We'll be seeing a lot more alpha updates compared to last year, and this should help them to iterate and fix bugs faster than before.
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This is not the impression I got reading their own patch notes for it. The patch notes list bullshit like cockpit switch control animations and other stupid bullet points about crap that's not of any significant substance. Why do people keep saying what you are saying?
 
bryant12489 said:
I've obviously struck a nerve with some of you here, so I apologize for that. I'm definitely not as die hard a fan as some out there though. I won't try to defend the game too much here, since as a few of you mentioned, it's the "same lazy excuse". They've definitely had their share of problems that's pushed back development a lot, and I'm not blind to that fact. From my point of view, it just seems that Star Citizen gets a lot more shit because they're transparent about everything they do. The good, and the bad ( of which there was a lot the past two years). If they were a normal game studio making a giant AAA title, we'd most likely be hearing about it just now, after it being in development for almost 5yrs. Maybe that's why a lot of people are losing patients with the game. I think we more or less expect all AAA games to release withing a 2-3 year time frame, without really understanding that there were previous years of work on said games before they were announced to the public. As I mentioned in my first post though; I fully expect them to be picking up the pace this coming year with a date driven model vs a feature driven model.

In closing.,

I didn't have the chance to back them on Kickstarter, but I did eventually buy a simple ship to play around with in the alphas. I know my money is essential a donation towards development, and I'm completely fine with that. It's the type of game I've been wanting to play forever. Some people follow the development very closely, and are very involved with the community., Others (like myself) just check in periodically during the Con's and alpha updates to see what new things are ready. If the masses really believed that Chris Roberts, and CIG are just scamming them, then their development funds would of dried up 1-2 years ago. People obviously still want them to succeed, and choose to support them.




Please be gentle with me...
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No, they aren't transparent and that's where the trouble stems from. They had even promised an audit years ago that was supposed to take place in 2014 if they didn't meet goals, that never happened. There is no transparency about the operation of the company or production of the game.

What you seem to be referring to as transparency, is a nonstop flood of marketing bullshit that people have been sick and tired of for ages. I don't want some cities to fly through, I don't need space ship #253 to buy, I don't need an 8th variant of a fighter. I don't need some lame brochures for a buggy photoshopped against some desktop wallpaper from Finland. None of that is being "transparent" it's begging for more money.
 
its not a scam

you give them all your credit card numbers see.

and if one of them is lucky....
 
daglesj said:
This game will take so long it will have developmental growth rings. Large parts of it won't match up. Like one of the Gran Tourismo games that took so long to arrive it was a real mismatch of gaming graphics fashions.
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Very few games don't have some form of this in one way or another. The re-imagining of Half-Life, Black Mesa, is affected by this to some degree.
IMHO developmental growth rings are the least of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 worries.
 
Merc1138 said:
No, they aren't transparent and that's where the trouble stems from. They had even promised an audit years ago that was supposed to take place in 2014 if they didn't meet goals, that never happened. There is no transparency about the operation of the company or production of the game.

What you seem to be referring to as transparency, is a nonstop flood of marketing bullshit that people have been sick and tired of for ages. I don't want some cities to fly through, I don't need space ship #253 to buy, I don't need an 8th variant of a fighter. I don't need some lame brochures for a buggy photoshopped against some desktop wallpaper from Finland. None of that is being "transparent" it's begging for more money.
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That's a good summary. A saying I always liked that we used as kids, "shit or get off the pot."

My big pet peeve is that the "game" isn't fun at all yet. There's no wow factor at all with space combat. The physics system can be fun to dick around with for a little but the combat is boring. There's no balancing at all. Not even sure if that's a thought for them.

I loaded up ground combat, which I had high hopes for considering the original engine, and holy shit was that terrible.

In the simplest form it doesn't feel like a labor of love at all.
 
LOL! You people absolutely know nothing at all.

GTA 5 took 7 years to develop.

You know what Rockstar ALREADY had from the beginning of that SEVEN FUCKING YEARS?! Let's see...they had, among TON'S of other things:

Giant massive established studios across the globe
Billions of dollars
Underlying ground work (engine, physics, online, etc) already in place and laid out
Art assets and animations
Motion capture studios
Clear focus with set budget
Made name in the industry

I mean, GTA 5 had everything going for it and still took them seven years and the game isn't a fraction of what Star Citizen is trying to accomplish in neither size, scope, vision, or wants.

On the Star Citizen side however we have ~6 years development with:

A team that started with one man and very little direction
A budget of $0 that went to $100+ million
NO UNDERLYING GROUND WORK...at least nothing even near what even a shitty AA developer would have
No art assets and animations
No motion capture studios
No massively upgraded and implemented technologies they'd have to develop IN-HOUSE to get what they needed game wise
A SINGLE PLAYER AAA GAME and a MASSIVE MMO all at the same time

Look, I'll just say this. It makes perfect sense to me if you look at it and to all my friends that are actual programmers and do shit like this every day...not a SINGLE ONE OF THEM has an issue with how Star Citizen is progressing.

Look at this shit guys...they went from nothing to this in a matter of years from SCRATCH.

It's not a scam.

They have direction and plans and things they're prioritizing...it's right there in the schedules they post for people to see and the daily/weekly updates from around the company.

Now, I will admit that things do seem a bit rocky and the lack of updates isn't very awesome, but it's in development.

I also LOVE how all of you BITCH and COMPLAIN the moment a unfinished AAA game is released and always say "They should have delayed it! It's not finished yet!"...yet when a dev that isn't being pushed by a greedy publisher is taking their time and trying to do things right you ALL have a problem with it. Why is that?
 
Mut1ny said:
LOL! You people absolutely know nothing at all.

GTA 5 took 7 years to develop.

You know what Rockstar ALREADY had from the beginning of that SEVEN FUCKING YEARS?! Let's see...they had, among TON'S of other things:

Giant massive established studios across the globe
Billions of dollars
Underlying ground work (engine, physics, online, etc) already in place and laid out
Art assets and animations
Motion capture studios
Clear focus with set budget
Made name in the industry

I mean, GTA 5 had everything going for it and still took them seven years and the game isn't a fraction of what Star Citizen is trying to accomplish in neither size, scope, vision, or wants.

On the Star Citizen side however we have ~6 years development with:

A team that started with one man and very little direction
A budget of $0 that went to $100+ million
NO UNDERLYING GROUND WORK...at least nothing even near what even a shitty AA developer would have
No art assets and animations
No motion capture studios
No massively upgraded and implemented technologies they'd have to develop IN-HOUSE to get what they needed game wise
A SINGLE PLAYER AAA GAME and a MASSIVE MMO all at the same time

Look, I'll just say this. It makes perfect sense to me if you look at it and to all my friends that are actual programmers and do shit like this every day...not a SINGLE ONE OF THEM has an issue with how Star Citizen is progressing.

Look at this shit guys...they went from nothing to this in a matter of years from SCRATCH.

It's not a scam.

They have direction and plans and things they're prioritizing...it's right there in the schedules they post for people to see and the daily/weekly updates from around the company.

Now, I will admit that things do seem a bit rocky and the lack of updates isn't very awesome, but it's in development.

I also LOVE how all of you BITCH and COMPLAIN the moment a unfinished AAA game is released and always say "They should have delayed it! It's not finished yet!"...yet when a dev that isn't being pushed by a greedy publisher is taking their time and trying to do things right you ALL have a problem with it. Why is that?
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There it is. The other guy wasn't a fanboy, he was obviously just enthusiastic about the game and still had a positive outlook on the matter. This guy is the fanboy that this thread was missing, coming to tell us how we're all wrong and he knows better than anyone else in this thread and fuck everybody that doesn't think Chris Roberts is the second coming of gaming Jesus.
 
scojer said:
Wait, they have a "citizen con?"
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Yes. It keeps backers interested, sells ships for ongoing development and introduces new people to the game. It also showcases new tech being worked on the game.
scojer said:
That's ridiculous. What other games in development have their own convention?
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I agree, it would be ridiculous for a non-crowd funded game. However, for SC, these types of events keep the crowd funding going and introduce the game to new backers and show old backers what new tech is being worked on.
scojer said:
How are they funding it?
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I believe previous Citizen Con events were funded by "subscribers" (backers that want to pay a monthly pledge to fund the various Youtube videos and periodic events produced by CiG). Shows like "Around the Verse", "Bugsmashers", etc. are all funded by subscribers which is separate from the regular backer funding generated by ship sales. Subscribers also get perks for display in their hangars - trinkets if you like - that do not affect gameplay or give any advantage.
This year, Intel partnered with CiG and funded Citizen Con and also used the event to announce the Intel Optane SSD 900P series of SDD drives. Intel also gave CiG a bunch of these drives for use in their development and build servers to speed up game builds. Apparently, a build that used to take 4 hours now takes 1 hour, so they can now iterate more quickly.
scojer said:
Why are they putting effort into a convention and not the game?
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So they can only do one or the other? :rolleyes: I believe many of the backers begged for this kind of event, so CiG caved. This year's event was more expansive than previous ones. Mulitple rooms were set up for demos and talks. Multiple discussion panels with developers showing design and art elements, etc. The SC YouTube channel has all of the presentations: https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/videos
scojer said:
They've had a convention every year since 2013?
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Yes. Here is the 2013 presentation: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13310-Citizen-Con-2013-Live-Stream
It's 1 hour and 22 minutes long and pretty cringe-worthy in spots. It was recorded in Austin, TX which was the home studio at the time.
scojer said:
Why?
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Many of the backers begged for this kind of event, so CiG caved and decided it was a good way to market the game to keep interest and get new backers and media coverage.
scojer said:
As you can see I have so many questions
I think a video showcasing the city would suffice for a game in development. They should stop with the conventions and focus on the game.
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They want to keep the crowd funding going and the backer interest strong because they don't have other sources of funding, such as venture capital. And if they can get someone else to pay for it, like Intel, even better.
 
Merc1138 said:
There it is. The other guy wasn't a fanboy, he was obviously just enthusiastic about the game and still had a positive outlook on the matter. This guy is the fanboy that this thread was missing, coming to tell us how we're all wrong and he knows better than anyone else in this thread and fuck everybody that doesn't think Chris Roberts is the second coming of gaming Jesus.
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There it is. The random dude that proves my exact fucking point and doesn't know what they're talking about.

I'm not defending shit, I'm just not being a blind thick headed young fool that can't see what's right in fucking front of me.
 
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