The core gameplay was much better than the FPS but still has a great deal of work to go. The interfaces to use objects can be very clunky, I was able to get to a ship finally but could not get it out of the bay, NPC just stand there with a blank face, some blended into the floor. I know it is still an Alpha but after all these years and nearly 300 million invested I would think it would play much better than it did as well as look better in some areas. I noticed it was using the Amazon Lumberyard engine so I am sure there switch of engines is still causing some issues.
The question is: will the moderators authorize my comment ?
Star citizen staff watch those numbers 200 millions…250… 300… and think they can keep on adding feature after feature, until 2030 !
Today, the game already has 20..30…100 different ‘blocks’… one block being gameplay… alien languages…2,5,or 10 different planets…. collision detection… interior views.. external views… cockpits… characters animation…npc dialogs… characters dialogs… lighting… shadows…antialiasing… animation…game gui…. assets manager gui… different ships… weapon animation… trading… piracy… game copy protection… dx11 or 12….main story… additional quests…. mo-capture…and hundreds others.
Each of this block, or department..or division, needs dedicated employees… resources… time… money… and a perfect timeline…. and everything must work flawlessly with the other elements, to finally compose one single block, one single game.
But it seems like every single day, someone comes up with a new great idea… if they adopt it, they will have to put 3..6..or even 15 people, working on it full time, for 3..6…or 12 months.
What it looks like, is, the game must have hundreds of these blocks, these independent features… but nothing is really finished.
Npc AI – Maybe 35% finished ?
Trading – maybe 47% finished ?
User interface – maybe 64 finished ?
In game purchases/microtransactions- for sure, 100% finished ?
Combats cockpit view- maybe 34% finished ?
Alien languages – maybe 13% finished ?
And so on and so on.
And each day, more stuff is added !
That’s why we’re close to 2021, stil no beta version, let alone a full, finished product…
One thing is sure, Star citizen will NEVER have a boxed version being sold at a local store. No.
SC will foreve be a alpha, and the studio will eventually release it, by 2023 or 2024, as a V0.3.5.8 version !
There will be one day, when the studio managers will announce “guys… we had a dream.. blah blah… unfortunately, there’s only a little cash left… we fear we won’t be able to fulfill our dream…BUT if you don’t want to lose everything, and you want us to pursue the development of the game, YOUR GAME, we would need a little extra cash from you”
And 2 days later, the community will raise another 250 millions, for a total of over half a BILLION.
And with that cash, instead of quickly finishing all the famous “blocks’, and deliver a proper beta, the studio will instead add 40 or 50 new features, that will require years to finish.. and nothing will change!
One day, the studio will have to cranck the microtransactions to 11, with $150’000 ships, $50 10- missiles packs, or $1000 furniture packs for cockpits, and even fans will run away from the game.
Another major problem, the game will have been in perpetual development, for so long, that the day a miraculous, unlikely Beta version is released, the graphics engine, the animations, 3d models, Antialiasing, textures quality, etc etc, EVERYTHING will look so outdated, so clunky, so ugly, so “BASIC”, that people will look at it, and feel like they are playing a skyrim, or fallout 4 game, 25 years after release…
The Studio needs to release the game by 2021, by quickly finishing all the work in progress…
But probably, today, there isn’t a lot of things to do in the game… I wonder how many planets we can visit… and what can be done there…?
A game like this, I want to buy it, and i want to have hundreds of hours worth of content, story, missions, things to do, that can occupy me 1..2..3 full years…
If I buy it, and the game is only a kind of big sandbox, I go here, do this, go there, do that, and it’s over… why even bothering ???
A game like this, the first thing that should have been integrated, is a kind of major modding toll, where the millions of users could be creating new content, new planets, new species, new quests, etc… so the game can still be played 15 years from now.
But because the studio want to have full control on the created content, and the microtransactions, no such tool will ever exist !
How cool it would be, If users could create a new planet from a template, select fauna,flora, create buildings, modify textures, even create new characters… create missions and quests, place collectibles (like the assets we could earn in little big planet games), that could then be used, like a chair, sofa, tv cabinet, …even create and invent new materials, new alloys, that could then be used to craft new things…
Modders would be able to create hundreds, if not thousands of perfect planets, each one with its content, quests, small villages, or even towns….
Unfortunately… gamers will have to rely on the (little) content the studio might decide to integrate.. or not.
The studio and devs need to hurry up… time is running out, less and less money exists, each day.. and a game engine will eventually become obsolete…!
Thank you for a very detailed reply. I think the biggest issue is that as long as money keeps flowing in they have no incentive to complete the game anytime soon.
If a studio was backing or releasing it they set a production schedule and a budget. At a certain point the studio decides what the release date is, if more money is needed, or if the project needs to change or be scrapped.
When time/money runs out studios can extend production or finance but more often than not demand the game be released.
This is not the case for this game as money keeps coming and nobody is demanding the game be completed by a certain date. I was surprised the game was in the state it was as after all the years of production it is still very raw in many areas.
I do not expect this to change as they will keep adding on until the money stops and people demand a playable release.