Star Citizen - from the creator of Freelancer & Wing Commander

[Tonci87 163]

It is definately nice to see Space games having a come back. There really wasn´t that much good stuff after Freelancer and sadly the new X game is shit.

No matter how good Star Citizen in the end is I must definatelly applaud it for reviving this almost forgotten genre (a genre that might again vanish if SC turns out to be shit....)

[bonchie 39]

Does Elite have first person elements? Or are you confined to your cockpit?

The thing that's so intriguing about Star Citizen is the ability to move around your ship, exit your ship and enter space ports, etc. It's the whole "Han Solo" experience that is so tempting.

[IndeedPete 1038]

So, I did it, I couldn't resist. Bought a basic package with an Aurora and damn - I'm blasted away! Flying and combat feels incredible and it looks so damn amazing!

Though there's not much content yet and it's still Alpha with all the small bugs and flaws an Alpha has, but I'm really hooked now. Can't wait to see more content coming. Now I really, really hope they don't fuck it up. They have a good concept, a powerful engine and a bunch of cool ship types - enough to produce a solid - and with a good storyline - even amazing space game. Looking deeper into the project I'm a bit afraid they took on too much, with every next step on the money ladder they promise new features and content. (They've raised the planned campaign size like three times by now? oO) I already think the combination of FPS and flying is not really necessary or could be postponed - get the basics done, produce some playable content and then develop new modules. Nontheless it's simply amazing what they've managed to pull off by now, really looking forward to the next years of development.

What bugs me a bit is the (often criticised) business model. Crowdfunding, selling both basic and expensive packages with additional goodies - totally okay. Selling small stuff, extra module passes and single ships for hundreds of Dollars - that's a no go! But seeing that backers spent around 100$ on average on this project makes me think as this is double of what I chipped in. I basically paid for a full price game which is generous enough considering that it's far from being finished. And other people put in double or tripple? Wait until EA gets wind of this.^^ And Roberts' bullshit about "people are not buying something, they're pledging and therefor receive a small gift" - he might as well be a German politician with that attitude. "No, I wasn't bribed, I just took a donation and offered a small gift in return!" :D

[onlyrazor 11]

What bugs me a bit is the (often criticised) business model. Crowdfunding, selling both basic and expensive packages with additional goodies - totally okay. Selling small stuff, extra module passes and single ships for hundreds of Dollars - that's a no go! But seeing that backers spent around 100$ on average on this project makes me think as this is double of what I chipped in. I basically paid for a full price game which is generous enough considering that it's far from being finished. And other people put in double or tripple? Wait until EA gets wind of this.^^ And Roberts' bullshit about "people are not buying something, they're pledging and therefor receive a small gift" - he might as well be a German politician with that attitude. "No, I wasn't bribed, I just took a donation and offered a small gift in return!" :D

The business model is one of my major putoffs regarding Star Citizen, but you can't argue its effectiveness: The money's rolling in. I'm thinking it was CIG's plan to court the big spenders all along. Honestly, I don't mind that as long as they make a good game with good modding tools. Even if the rest of the game sucks, the only thing it needs is decent infrastructure and good modding tools and something will come of it.

[IndeedPete 1038]

That's true, it's pretty effective. The original goal was 2M$ and now they have 60, that's insane! But it also shows some interest in this underrepresented genre. I bet other publishers or studios are going mad for missing that chance. I also don't mind that they sell more expensive packages for hardcore fans, collectors or just people with too much cash. But selling 5$ module passes to "compensate for the higher server costs" smells like a total rip-off to me. Same goes for totally overpriced ships. A few years back it was called "micro-transactions" but what they do in SC are "macro-transactions". Can't wait until the ingame shop opens and players will be able to buy ships and parts with ingame currency they earn through quests and trading - provided the developers stick to their promise to do so.

While shooting down some alien dudes who looked pretty much like Battlestar's Cylons I also caught myself thinking: Hell, if this game had an editor like Arma does... :D

Edited November 4, 2014 by IndeedPete

[Tonci87 163]

That's true, it's pretty effective. The original goal was 2M$ and now they have 60, that's insane! But it also shows some interest in this underrepresented genre. I bet other publishers or studios are going mad for missing that chance. I also don't mind that they sell more expensive packages for hardcore fans, collectors or just people with too much cash. But selling 5$ module passes to "compensate for the higher server costs" smells like a total rip-off to me. Same goes for totally overpriced ships. A few years back it was called "micro-transactions" but what they do in SC are "macro-transactions". Can't wait until the ingame shop opens and players will be able to buy ships and parts with ingame currency they earn through quests and trading - provided the developers stick to their promise to do so.

While shooting down some alien dudes who looked pretty much like Battlestar's Cylons I also cought myself thinking: Hell, if this game had an editor like Arma does... :D

I would like to remind everybody that they raised 60mil through crowdfunding alone

The ship and shipconcept sales are not included in that and they are making some really serious money with it. The Grey market for that game (users selling and buying ships) is absolutely insane. I don´t think that RSI will simply accept a reduction in income once the game launches and therefore I will be very carefull with this game until I see if you can really enjoy it without pumping real cash into it or spending most of your time grinding.

[Dwarden 1125]

AFAIK the ship and other package sales in Star Citizen are actually included toward the constantly rising count (as they form of pledge)

I would like get some of the LTI packs but 300-2500 USD ... hmp ;)

[IndeedPete 1038]

I would like to remind everybody that they raised 60mil through crowdfunding alone

The ship and shipconcept sales are not included in that and they are making some really serious money with it. The Grey market for that game (users selling and buying ships) is absolutely insane. I don´t think that RSI will simply accept a reduction in income once the game launches and therefore I will be very carefull with this game until I see if you can really enjoy it without pumping real cash into it or spending most of your time grinding.

Do you have a source for this one? I'd think the package sales (and everything else listed under pledge) would contribute to the total amount of crowfunded money. If it's the contrary it would only underline my point, I'm just curious.

Didn't know there was a possibility to sell ships to other players. Well, eventually I'd expected some sort of an auction system like in WoW or just the posibility to trade in old ships for ingame cash.

---------- Post added at 10:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------

I would like get some of the LTI packs but 300-2500 USD ... hmp ;)

It's just too much! Even for a rich BI dev. :P

[froggyluv 2136]

Go back and forth on this one. After all the failed Alpha demo dates and them sittin on that big bag of cash had me real skeptical....When it finally came out it looked pretty but gameplay was pretty ho-hum with no sense of speed or movement thru space. Took a long break and just updated the 12 patches for 896 gigs, and alls I can say is "Damn this shit looks pretty". Real pretty. Never to be one to favor graphics over gameplay however I fired it up and it seems they have listened quite abit to the community on the rather underwhelming speed, sounds and click to win targeting. Without a doubt it's headed in the right direction spaceship combat wise.

The sheer amount of prettiness attributed to every fricken thing you look out just reeks of money, lots of money. So it's pretty safe to say the money is going back into the game -mostly because I think Roberts is a batsh*t madman on a mission who just don't give a f*ck.

[IndeedPete 1038]

Go back and forth on this one. After all the failed Alpha demo dates and them sittin on that big bag of cash had me real skeptical....When it finally came out it looked pretty but gameplay was pretty ho-hum with no sense of speed or movement thru space. Took a long break and just updated the 12 patches for 896 gigs, and alls I can say is "Damn this shit looks pretty". Real pretty. Never to be one to favor graphics over gameplay however I fired it up and it seems they have listened quite abit to the community on the rather underwhelming speed, sounds and click to win targeting. Without a doubt it's headed in the right direction spaceship combat wise.

The sheer amount of prettiness attributed to every fricken thing you look out just reeks of money, lots of money. So it's pretty safe to say the money is going back into the game -mostly because I think Roberts is a batsh*t madman on a mission who just don't give a f*ck.

Got the same feeling - there's a lot of stuff in terms of details, minorities (hell, you can go take a nap in your fucking fighter) and atmosphere. Things that other game studios wouldn't do or leave out probably because of tight budget / time but which really add something. It takes a good concept, graphics, gameplay and story to make a good game. But it takes details and small extras that make it a great one. Yes, we players actually notice when an ambient AFF helo flys by in the distance in Drawdown 2035 or some known NPC is doing something or just passing by in the background. Then again, with every new promised feature the development time increases and I'm afraid of Star Citizen becoming a new Duke Nukem Forever. Not sure if Roberts should really aim for perfection or just make a solid basic game and then incrementally enrich its content post release. I don't care if they make 60 more star ships with custom commercials - great, if they have so many ideas - but I want gameplay, story, content. I don't mind if there are only the ships that are in the game already, as long as I can roam the universe like I did in Freelancer for countless hours. (Similar goes for BI, love the new helos but would love completion of the East Wind's story line even more. ;))

[Tonci87 163]

Seems as if I was wrong 60mil is indeed the total ammount.

Eurogamer had a really good article on the Grey market thing

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-08-inside-star-citizens-grey-market

Some people are making real money with that stuff....

From the comments:

PC Gamers are nuts.

A grey market for items that don't even exist yet and that you have no idea when they will be available? As they used to say 'some people have more money than sense'

Star Citizen has more in common with a pyramid scheme than a game.

I really want Star citizen to be good, especially if the campaign has an awesome story

Seems as if I will have to get a joystick sooner or later :)

Edited November 4, 2014 by Tonci87

[froggyluv 2136]

Seems as if I will have to get a joystick sooner or later :)

Your telling me, it forced me to buy one for the first time since those red clown nosed topped ones for the C64 -the ones with the TWO giant red buttons on the bottom. And at 44year of age, now have to slyly duck the joystick under my desk when my wife walks by and play off like I was doing something,erhm, more adult...

That said it's freakin awesome and trying out Arma 3 flight model for the first time pretty freakin good. Also, download Ivona Voices for your flight computer -nothing quite like hearing "Raising shields, Commander" from the Australian Nicole.

[Tonci87 163]

There is nothing more adult than playing with your Joystick :D

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Got in while it was still on kickstarter and never believed it would gain this sort of momentum. 60mil is a crazy arse figure. I put it down to the fact that there was a starving market out there just begging for some one of Chris Roberts talent to make a game for them. And I'm not really seeing any real feature creep that makes me think think the project will fail. They never put a timeline or order on the features and they seem to be going for engine features and the SP campagain first and expanding the public universe later, as they should. Also looking how the last few million has only promised a ship a piece, it seems they are keeping plenty in the kitty for contingencies.

I actualy went and saw the FPS reveal live, those sorts of things dont happen in my neck of the woods very often. The FPS stuff itself was a bit,,,, um how you say WIP but CIG have always made a piont of keeping its community informed, so the early state isn't that surprising. I noticed the guys from Illfonic mentioned ArmA and Delta Force amonst thier inspiration, as well as a Farcry3 style cover system so I'm confident they are aiming higher than the recent presenation. Pretty sure its just a matter of time before we see a solid shooter aspect. Reality is, they have untill the SQ42 release to get it right and thats still about a year out.

WIth such a gorgous spaceship component already inplace, the promise of an expanded 64bit cryengine, SP campaign alone is enough to get me rezed.

[x3kj 1247]

now have to slyly duck the joystick under my desk when my wife walks by and play off like I was doing something,erhm, more adult...

Machines like this also increasingly get equipped with additional joystick now. Adult enough? The future is joysticks, no reason to be ashamed to have one already.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Fennek

[onlyrazor 11]

I got a joystick. I don't regret buying it, but I can't really use it because it slides around the entire desk. Time to nail it down, I suppose.

[froggyluv 2136]

Alpha just hit 1.0 the day before holiday break and it actually broke the game for all of us -lol. They were really rushing to get it out before the holidays as the sheer amount of bitching had they not would have been heard astronomically. You would think everyone would be in full meltdown mode after downloading the 20 GB patch only to have it constantly give us Login errors (for SP as well)maybe every 10-20 min into gametime -but that didn't happen. Why? Because it's outright, sheer f*cking amazing is why!

Hands down the best space battle flight experience I've ever had bar none. I'd actually be pretty happy with just the current module as a full game so any yet to come is gravy.

[maddogx 13]

Hands down the best space battle flight experience I've ever had bar none. I'd actually be pretty happy with just the current module as a full game so any yet to come is gravy.

Arena Commander as it is right now is extremely cool (especially in a Super Hornet :D) but there's still too little to do for it to have any kind of longevity. I think it will get a lot better once they introduce the mechanic to earn "AC credits" next year (supposedly in AC 1.1) and let us rent out other ships, weapons etc. Hopefully that will be tied in with the planetside and fist person modules to create a kind of pre-PU experience, once those come out.

[froggyluv 2136]

I didn't realize the Super Hornet was in yet? Well after feeling inadequate and insufficient because my lowly Aurora LN was seemingly neglected during last patch and had only 2 working weapons due to mismanaged energy output, I decide to grab a limited Mustang Delta. Man can this thing move!! Longterm problem is it has no bed a no cargo space so lots of sleepless nights I guess..

In other news, proof that gamers lost their damn minds https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Combos/The-Completionist-Digital

[Sgt.Spoetnik 10]

lol 20k for all crafts in the game,you can buy a new(real) car for that amount,geez! looks like the devs dont have enough money still, 60 something mill and counting and still they want more. hope they REALLY deliver wat they promised!

[Tonci87 163]

I didn't realize the Super Hornet was in yet? Well after feeling inadequate and insufficient because my lowly Aurora LN was seemingly neglected during last patch and had only 2 working weapons due to mismanaged energy output, I decide to grab a limited Mustang Delta. Man can this thing move!! Longterm problem is it has no bed a no cargo space so lots of sleepless nights I guess..

In other news, proof that gamers lost their damn minds https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Combos/The-Completionist-Digital

That is not for gamers, it is for brokers. Those guys will buy ships en bulk and sell them separately.

[onlyrazor 11]

I would suggest avoiding the SC-oriented social media if you're squeamish about people spending conspicuous amounts of money. It's mostly people talking about buying ships right now.

I'm hoping the FPS module will give me something palpable until I manage to bolt my X65F to the table to keep it from sliding around all the time.

[maddogx 13]

That is not for gamers, it is for brokers. Those guys will buy ships en bulk and sell them separately.

Except that those packages cannot be split up, so the ships can't be sold individually. It's all or nothing at the moment. :)

As far as I know, the big multi-thousand dollar packages are supposed to be for large player corporations who want to pool their resources and get their hands on some otherwise unavailable ships from time-limited sales, like the Idris and the Reclaimer. Most of those rare ships require several players to operate, so there's really no point in a single person buying them anyway. These groups have to wait until the ships can actually be traded in the game universe though, so until then basically one guy has all these ships on his account.

I didn't realize the Super Hornet was in yet?

Yup, all four civilian Hornet variants are in since 1.0, and the F7A military version ("Hornet trainer") was switched back out again.

[kavoven 4]

I must admit that the game looks quite good and I really like the way how they're promoting the ships, like you're really buying one for your own garage... Thats pretty clever!

Edited January 17, 2015 by kavoven
grammer

[froggyluv 2136]

Yep, it literally feels like your buying and owning a vehicle. Thep fact that the ship has so many components that actually play out with pretty good physics makes it that much better. Can't wait to buy components and paint my baby.