Cloud Imperium Games Spent $4M a Month in 2017 Developing Star Citizen

Just to calirfy some things that are being misstated.

There are 13, space stations / ports in star citizen that you can visit spawn / store ships at, and trade or drop mission objectives.

CRU L1
CRU L3
CRU L4
CRU L5
HRU L1
HRU L2
HRU L3
HRU L4
HRU L5
Grim Hex
Port Olisar
Levski
Lorville

There is one traversable planet with 4 moons and another additional 3 moons at another un-traversable planet (all Moons are traversable). there is also one planetesimal, also traversable and home to the aforementioned spaceport Levski.

Crusader --un-traversable Planet
Cellin -traversable Moon
Daymar -traversable Moon
Yela -traversable Moon


Hurston -traversable Planet
Aberdeen -traversable Moon
Arial -traversable Moon
Ita -traversable Moon
Magda -traversable Moon

Delamar -traversable Planetesimal


[In game available missions to the player from the onset]
(these may be more varied but just relating my experience)

On the planet Hurston there are Missions involving clearing out NPC's from bunkers, this is FPS game play with payout at the completion of the mission.

On the various moons there are routine pick up and drop off missions (albeit a high percentage are bugged and it is hit or miss if they will complete successfully)

More pick up and drop off missions are available between the various stations / ports

Various dog fighting missions to kill a number of, or a certain target sometimes also requires pick up and drop off.

Racing (have not tried these) but one can participate in bike or rover races

Repair / destroy usually these involves some dog fighting with the objective to fix or disable/destroy some object

Investigation go to a location and find items and or objects.

A few NPC Mission Givers where you go and meet them and do various missions for them

Clovis - pick up drop off
Constantine - merc, bunker clear missions
Eckart - merc missions dog fighting
Recco - pick up and drop off
Ruto - pick up and drop off also dog fighting
Wallace - pick up and drop off


[In Game Activities]

Cargo Hauling - various goods can be bought and sold through out the system some more profitable than others

Mining - have not done this my self but you can buy a prospector space ship (in game, cost around million or so credits) and mine various planet, moon rocks and or an asteroid for ore to sell

PVP - jumptown on the moon yela has a really profitable item called widow which players can sell to a couple stations, Players usually form some kind of command an control structure around this place and various pvp elements are had here mostly dog fighting and ganking, but there is also controlled buying and shipping.


Ship Customization - one can out fit their ship with various weapons, shield generators, power plants, jump drives, and thrusters to better tackle the in game missions or pvp

Player Customization - various armors and guns are available to protect ones self or just to play dress up.

Exploration - and of course you can just fly and or drive around on the planet or the moons in game with the various ships rovers and bikes in game.




That pretty much sums up the current state star citizen today in Alpha 3.4 of course its all buggy but that is to be expected, but every thing listed here is doable in game right now.
 
Last edited:
That is quite the post to basically say...

- 13 space stations that are basically empty.

- planets/moons which basically just exist for people to look around.

- basic missions, almost all of which are bugged.

I see you forgot to mention that the AI in the game is pretty much nonexistent.

So I refer to my last post, there really is not much to do, and a lot less to do that isnt glitchy or bugged in some way.

Other than empty planets and moons, what is in SC that hasn't already been done by other games released in the last 20 years?

I think you illustrated my point perfectly though, at first glance, someone reading your post would think that there is good amount to actually do, when there isn't, when you get past the fluff, SC is barely a skeleton of a game.

Do you see $250+ million worth of game when you play? I don't, I visit the SC reddit every once in a while, and 90% of posts are screenshots with the other 10% being about future features that were supposed to be in SC years ago.
 
FearTheCow said:
After spending $250 million and 7 years, they should have the enter foundation of the game implemented and working correctly and really just working on fleshing out the game right now. That's what I can't understand about people who are still defending or think any actual game will be released, the fact that they aren't even close to having core gameplay mechanics finished should have everyone running away from this train wreck.
Click to expand...

Particularly since that's the really hard/expensive part. While getting assets together, getting your engine working, etc is not cheap or trivial, it isn't the part of game development that really costs. The real cost is in putting it all together and making it work as a fun, cohesive, game. Some of the best games out there spend a couple years, or even more sometimes, testing and iterating the gameplay, working on missions, fixing bugs, etc, etc. In fact you usually do a lot of that BEFORE you start doing a lot of the art and other assets. A game isn't "almost done" if it has a lot of assets and no game, quite the opposite.

FearTheCow said:
Other than empty planets and moons, what is in SC that hasn't already been done by other games released in the last 20 years?
Click to expand...

As I noted, Frontier: Elite II had planets and moons, which you could land on, in 1993. Empty, proceduraly generated planets and moons, but a galaxy full of billions of them on a floppy disk. Sheer amount of content does not equal quality.
 
FearTheCow said:
That is quite the post to basically say...

- 13 space stations that are basically empty.

- planets/moons which basically just exist for people to look around.

- basic missions, almost all of which are bugged.

I see you forgot to mention that the AI in the game is pretty much nonexistent.

So I refer to my last post, there really is not much to do, and a lot less to do that isnt glitchy or bugged in some way.

Other than empty planets and moons, what is in SC that hasn't already been done by other games released in the last 20 years?

I think you illustrated my point perfectly though, at first glance, someone reading your post would think that there is good amount to actually do, when there isn't, when you get past the fluff, SC is barely a skeleton of a game.

Do you see $250+ million worth of game when you play? I don't, I visit the SC reddit every once in a while, and 90% of posts are screenshots with the other 10% being about future features that were supposed to be in SC years ago.
Click to expand...



Unfortunately your posts are biased and more akin to propaganda driven by an unkown agenda.

of course the game is buggy, to continuously harp on the bugginess is kinda absurd. since its pretty much common knowledge that Alpha means bugs.

The outright dismissal of what there is to do is honestly disingenuous, dont you think ? whether its fun or not is debatable but there is content in game that is doable.
i know there is no changing your mind but the constant laboring on and on about hows there is nothing in the game is frankly a lie. i suggest re-framing your argument here, and start talking about fun as
those legs will walk.

20 years of games is a rather large metric to measure star citizen against and im not sure why you are doing so, i guess yeah, star citizen is just like any other game today is doing the same ol same ol go here kill this or pick up that game play that we have been playing for over 4 decades now ...

Only thing really illustrated here is your outright prejudice, another disingenuous statement about how there is nothing to do in the game when in fact their is . again whether its fun or not, yeah thats debatable but its not a skeleton.

annnd .. no i dont see 250 million dollars but then again i dont see the 100s of millions of dollar of game play in most games released today so exactly why is star citizen to be any different ?

we hope it will be, and there is a good chance it wont be. just like every other damn game released, but thats the thing .. star citizen is not released so we really have no idea what to expect until we get to a closer approximation of the game in it its finished form. if ever ....
 
Last edited:
I haven't hidden my disdain for CR and CIG.

What is there to do on the planets?
What is there to do on space stations?
How is the AI?
How many people can play on the server at a time?

Now after answering those questions, how many of those missions arent seriously bugged for one reason or another?

With the $46 million CIG received, they have less than 2 years to release SQ42 and SC, do you really think that's remotely possible?
 
FearTheCow said:
I haven't hidden my disdain for CR and CIG.

What is there to do on the planets?
What is there to do on space stations?
How is the AI?
How many people can play on the server at a time?

Now after answering those questions, how many of those missions arent seriously bugged for one reason or another?

With the $46 million CIG received, they have less than 2 years to release SQ42 and SC, do you really think that's remotely possible?
Click to expand...


On Hurston, you have Clovis that provides pick up and drop off missions and Constantine that provides merc missions for the various bunker clearing tasks.
also the in game mobiglass displays various other merc, investigation and pick up and drop off missions that all invlolve flying to locations on hurston. and its moons. as well as the other moons in game

levski has eckart wallace and recco with their various missions.

as for the moons its cargo hauling and pick off and drop off on the lunar surfaces with merc mission involving dog fights in their orbits.

space stations pick up and drop off, buy and sell goods fix refuel your craft restock on ammo/stims or buy weapons.

ai is crap, laughable so. but you can still shoot em and they will kill you if your more crap than they are.

50 players at a time, stability who knows if its maintainable, but apparently over 40 player run ops have been a ongoing success.

the moon pick up and drops are quite bugged, the station to station missions seem reliable, the bunker missions are somewhat bugged but completable if you can find that 1 last npc bugger.

the dog fighting missions are completable , bounty hunting missions are bugged , cargo running is doable but risky because of game disconnects or server crashes. investigations also bugged but most are completable, repair and destroy seem to be working .

almost none of these bugs are complete show stoppers so it just a matter of picking up a different mission.


i have no idea if sq 42 wil meet that deadline or not i wouldnt bet on it either, just by the very nature of games always being delayed time and time again. as far as SC, no way it will be done in 2 they have to many things yet to still implement. will be interesting to see what comes along this year.
 
chaos4u said:
Unfortunately your posts are biased and more akin to propaganda driven by an unkown agenda.

of course the game is buggy, to continuously harp on the bugginess is kinda absurd. since its pretty much common knowledge that Alpha means bugs.

The outright dismissal of what there is to do is honestly disingenuous, dont you think ? whether its fun or not is debatable but there is content in game that is doable.
i know there is no changing your mind but the constant laboring on and on about hows there is nothing in the game is frankly a lie. i suggest re-framing your argument here, and start talking about fun as
those legs will walk.

20 years of games is a rather large metric to measure star citizen against and im not sure why you are doing so, i guess yeah, star citizen is just like any other game today is doing the same ol same ol go here kill this or pick up that game play that we have been playing for over 4 decades now ...

Only thing really illustrated here is your outright prejudice, another disingenuous statement about how there is nothing to do in the game when in fact their is . again whether its fun or not, yeah thats debatable but its not a skeleton.

annnd .. no i dont see 250 million dollars but then again i dont see the 100s of millions of dollar of game play in most games released today so exactly why is star citizen to be any different ?

we hope it will be, and there is a good chance it wont be. just like every other damn game released, but thats the thing .. star citizen is not released so we really have no idea what to expect until we get to a closer approximation of the game in it its finished form. if ever ....
Click to expand...

That is all they have to show after SEVEN YEARS of work. Sorry, but there is absolutely no way to put a positive spin on that without making it seem like you're knee deep in CIGs own propaganda campaign. They are several years late from their promised releases and at their current pace it could take up to another decade before they get every little thing they have promised into the game. SQ42 won't even see the light of day until the end of next year and only in beta form, assuming they don't miss that date as well. That will be EIGHT years of work. For a beta of a single-player game. There is no world in which their timeline is not ridiculous.
 
Derangel said:
That is all they have to show after SEVEN YEARS of work. Sorry, but there is absolutely no way to put a positive spin on that without making it seem like you're knee deep in CIGs own propaganda campaign. They are several years late from their promised releases and at their current pace it could take up to another decade before they get every little thing they have promised into the game. SQ42 won't even see the light of day until the end of next year and only in beta form, assuming they don't miss that date as well. That will be EIGHT years of work. For a beta of a single-player game. There is no world in which their timeline is not ridiculous.
Click to expand...

The problem here with your statements and your previous statement at me, is that you aren't addressing what people are actually saying. You are making your own assumptions skewed to what you want to say/hear. The discussion was about how far along SC is and whether or not they could finish the game. There was no argument about whether they met deadlines or whether they have met all the promises. The point was, people were saying there was basically nothing in the game and they had nothing to show. But in actuality there is quite a bit in the game and that they can show. They have shown a broad range of things to do in the game. So as stated, many of the core components are there, they just need to be tweaked to fix the bugs and then start adding in the rest of the content. The great thing about content is it can be done alongside all the tweaks, and most games don't release all that content until the full game releases.
 
keep-calm-and-stay-on-topic-2.png
 
chaos4u said:
annnd .. no i dont see 250 million dollars but then again i dont see the 100s of millions of dollar of game play in most games released today so exactly why is star citizen to be any different ?
Click to expand...

Robberts said that since they don't have a publisher 1 dollar to them was like 4 or 5 dollars to a normal studio, so you shouldn't just be seeing ~200 million dollars worth of work, you should be seeing ~1 billion.
 
Nafensoriel said:
That's not much honestly. Average costs are 10-15k/head/month.
Click to expand...

No, that's a reasonable cost for 200 to 300- man team per-month, at a AAA developer...in full crunch time (i.e. 6 months form release or less). Otherwise games would cost a whole lot more than 50 million to develop.

But the game they're making is moving at about ONE QUARTER the pace of a AAA developer while burning CRUNCH TIME funds. And the end result is buggier than anything a AAA studio would be willing to release.

So it's going to take them another 400 million in donations to finish this thing (multiple star-systems, anyone?), and maybe another 200 million to fix the performance inconsistencies / stability issues. and I just don't see that happening.

They just don't have enough interested people anymore who are willing to drop 10k on Concierge Level bullshit. They have already milked a majority of willing Whales.

I'm glad to hear that this has forced them to make their finances public. Other than pledged amounts, there has never been anything like this level of financial transparency.
 
Last edited:
Lizard Testes said:
What's there to discover on the moons?
Click to expand...
as it stands right now , rocks for mining , and arguably habs for better trade routes, and possibly but unconfirmed derelicts like the one on daymar. and maybe reaching for it another jumptown ?

buts so far rocks for mining.
 
defaultluser said:
No, that's a reasonable cost for 200 to 300- man team per-month, at a AAA developer...in full crunch time (i.e. 6 months form release or less). Otherwise games would cost a whole lot more than 50 million to develop.

But the game they're making is moving at about ONE QUARTER the pace of a AAA developer while burning CRUNCH TIME funds. And the end result is buggier than anything a AAA studio would be willing to release.

So it's going to take them another 400 million in donations to finish this thing (multiple star-systems, anyone?), and maybe another 200 million to fix the performance inconsistencies / stability issues. and I just don't see that happening.

They just don't have enough interested people anymore who are willing to drop 10k on Concierge Level bullshit. They have already milked a majority of willing Whales.

I'm glad to hear that this has forced them to make their finances public. Other than pledged amounts, there has never been anything like this level of financial transparency.
Click to expand...
I've had my popcorn and sunglasses ready for the inevitable nuclear-powered dumpster fire explosion for quite some time.

I was simply pointing out its not really a terrible sum of money for a proper studio to spend per month at the stage they keep claiming to be at. CIG isn't a proper studio and I highly doubt this title is going to release unless someone swoops in ala freelancer and saves the day again by booting Roberts.
 
chaos4u said:
Just to calirfy some things that are being misstated.

There are 13, space stations / ports in star citizen that you can visit spawn / store ships at, and trade or drop mission objectives.

CRU L1
CRU L3
CRU L4
CRU L5
HRU L1
HRU L2
HRU L3
HRU L4
HRU L5
Grim Hex
Port Olisar
Levski
Lorville

There is one traversable planet with 4 moons and another additional 3 moons at another un-traversable planet (all Moons are traversable). there is also one planetesimal, also traversable and home to the aforementioned spaceport Levski.

Crusader --un-traversable Planet
Cellin -traversable Moon
Daymar -traversable Moon
Yela -traversable Moon


Hurston -traversable Planet
Aberdeen -traversable Moon
Arial -traversable Moon
Ita -traversable Moon
Magda -traversable Moon

Delamar -traversable Planetesimal


[In game available missions to the player from the onset]
(these may be more varied but just relating my experience)

On the planet Hurston there are Missions involving clearing out NPC's from bunkers, this is FPS game play with payout at the completion of the mission.

On the various moons there are routine pick up and drop off missions (albeit a high percentage are bugged and it is hit or miss if they will complete successfully)

More pick up and drop off missions are available between the various stations / ports

Various dog fighting missions to kill a number of, or a certain target sometimes also requires pick up and drop off.

Racing (have not tried these) but one can participate in bike or rover races

Repair / destroy usually these involves some dog fighting with the objective to fix or disable/destroy some object

Investigation go to a location and find items and or objects.

A few NPC Mission Givers where you go and meet them and do various missions for them

Clovis - pick up drop off
Constantine - merc, bunker clear missions
Eckart - merc missions dog fighting
Recco - pick up and drop off
Ruto - pick up and drop off also dog fighting
Wallace - pick up and drop off


[In Game Activities]

Cargo Hauling - various goods can be bought and sold through out the system some more profitable than others

Mining - have not done this my self but you can buy a prospector space ship (in game, cost around million or so credits) and mine various planet, moon rocks and or an asteroid for ore to sell

PVP - jumptown on the moon yela has a really profitable item called widow which players can sell to a couple stations, Players usually form some kind of command an control structure around this place and various pvp elements are had here mostly dog fighting and ganking, but there is also controlled buying and shipping.


Ship Customization - one can out fit their ship with various weapons, shield generators, power plants, jump drives, and thrusters to better tackle the in game missions or pvp

Player Customization - various armors and guns are available to protect ones self or just to play dress up.

Exploration - and of course you can just fly and or drive around on the planet or the moons in game with the various ships rovers and bikes in game.




That pretty much sums up the current state star citizen today in Alpha 3.4 of course its all buggy but that is to be expected, but every thing listed here is doable in game right now.
Click to expand...
So, about 3% of the promised game is completed. Right on schedule. Humanity will sooner fly amongst the stars than players will get to do so in finished Star Citizen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top