Star Citizen fans call on CIG to post an update on Squadron 42 development progress [See Threadmarks for Updates]

[Sidebuster]

A small but important update.

I got banned for asking about the status of squadron 42 on their forum "spectrum".
also other users are getting banned for questioning CIG:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

We really need someone like Jason Schreier to investigate those shady actions.

Even longtime supporters and backers since 2014 who put in thousands of dollars are getting their access completely REVOKED.

Click to shrink...

Not a good look. I'm pretty much with the rest of the fans reaching their wits end on this game. Doing stuff like this is just going to stir the pot.

 

[Netherscourge]

Do we even NEED all these systems?

Will people notice these systems without purposefully stopping gameplay and just staring at NPCs for several minutes and watch them like fish in an aquarium?

Will you stare at NPC feet to see how they walk up steps?

Will you stare at NPC glasses or helmets and see if the reflections are real or not?

Is that what lures people to this game?

 

[CupOfDoom]

The problem here is that Cryengine is a uniquely shit engine to choose to do this in. Unity and Unreal both are far better supported. CryEngine was never built for this kind of complexity of game and even Lumberyard is still a largely-ignored project. There's almost certainly people in the UK and beyond who know how to make systems like this work well in Unreal or Unity, but finding specialist AI coders is hard even at the best of times and finding ones willing to work with a bespoke game engine on a death march project is gonna be near-impossible.

Click to shrink...

I know that the developers of Astroneer, which is built in Unreal, have talked about the problems they've run into while trying to add more layers of simulation to their game. And they're not even trying to add half the simulation that Star Citizen wants. Unreal would probably still be a better choice but, they would still run into alot of problems because, no commercial game engine is designed for the fidelity of simulation CIG wants to build.

Unity would probably be an even worse choice because it is not designed for AAA quality graphics. On top of having its own set of problems that developers of all kinds of games on the engine run into.

I think the idea is to have NPCs interacting with NPCs. NPCs are all simulated agents going about their day, doing jobs, errands, traveling, lounging, drinking...

You can't see anything even close to a lively venue, the results are identical to what you would have in Mankind Divided or a similar first person RPG game with realistic models/animations made for those interactions only...

I think Cyberpunk is going to smoke this game's robotic NPCs out of the water. They will not be these elaborate agents, but they will feel so much more realistic despite having set routines and behavior trees.

The guy on the right has the facial expression and shadding from someone in Skyrim. It already looks dated, and we are only comparing it to the Final Fantasy or Sony's games on PS4.

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The reason every game, with rare exceptions like Dwarf Fortress, use behavior trees and other tricks to make their AI is because, it's not that hard to use a few tricks to make the player think the world is more "alive" that it actually is. My favorite example being the old FPS F.E.A.R. where an enemy soldier would some times yell "flanking" then run off in a random direction. Giving the illusion that the game was simulating complex enemy behavior. When in reality, it was just a couple lines of code.

And even if you buy the argument the whole reason CIG is going through all the effort to "fully simulate" bartender AI is so that the code can be generalized to every NPC in the game, you'd think that they would have more to show for it after 7 years in development than the janky mess from the video earlier in the thread.

 

[Noodle]

A small but important update.

I got banned for asking about the status of squadron 42 on their forum "spectrum".
also other users are getting banned for questioning CIG:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

We really need someone like Jason Schreier to investigate those shady actions.

Even longtime supporters and backers since 2014 who put in thousands of dollars are getting their access completely REVOKED.

Click to shrink...

Understandable if you don't want to highlight it, but I would advise anyone to wait until they see the specific posts you have been actioned for on that account before jumping on this particular cause. Been burned too many times. ERA has the same rule about not discussing moderation policy and swung the ban hammer on pages of users for it even when discussion seems warranted.

 

[low-G]

ask and you shall receive

Click to shrink...

God, this is just amazing. An inconceivable number of man-hours, multiple resets and iterations, a dozen or more breathless updates, all to produce a custom AI that has absolutely nothing to do with making a good space sim, and which would probably be a waste of time even in a video game about hanging out in bars. And finally, an end result that... looks worse than if they'd just made an NPC with a simple idling routine like every other video game:


You can't make a video game this way. You can't even make a normal video game this way, let alone make Star Citizen.

Full-time space bartender profession! Realistic explosive decompression throughout the ship when the hull is breached! City environments where every single NPC is going about his or her business in a completely realistic simulation of everyday life! Shooting enemies' individual limbs to disable them! Inflight refueling that requires manual piloting skills! Fully functional bathrooms! Multi-stage FPS battles featuring different FPS classes! How many developers will work on each of these features, for how long? How many times will they be implemented, scrapped, and re-implemented?

Like I saw someone on Reddit ask: since 2014, has Chris Roberts ever said no to anything? Has a fan ever asked about some insane feature they just dreamed up and actually had Chris say "no, that won't be in the game." Ever?

Click to shrink...

This, very specifically, is just a bunch of poor quality canned animation that someone managed to stretch development out over several years, and nobody told that guy to do some real work because they had hundreds of millions of dollars of funds. It's pure waste. There's nothing sophisticated about that bartender, even hidden sophistication. It doesn't exist.

 

[Shaneus]

I remember being excited for Squadron 42 specifically when Roberts gave a talk at PAX Australia. I just googled when that was... turns out it was 2014.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

And even if you buy the argument the whole reason CIG is going through all the effort to "fully simulate" bartender AI is so that the code can be generalized to every NPC in the game, you'd think that they would have more to show for it after 7 years in development than the janky mess from the video earlier in the thread.

Click to shrink...

I agree. There is nothing to show AI behavior wise so far. Looks far less believable than the current gen NPC interactions.

In the game, there is supposed to be the entire NPC hiring system where you could hire all sorts of people to aid your multi-crew ships. I would like to see any sort of indication that the current NPCs are even capable of even navigating every ship, let alone being productive and aiding you based on your orders or ship's condition.

And if the system isn't ready, like they don't have it already fully working right now, then the entire single-player portion (releasing this year!) is just going to be the standard scripted NPCs with basic behavior trees.

 

[Mahonay]

God, this is just amazing. An inconceivable number of man-hours, multiple resets and iterations, a dozen or more breathless updates, all to produce a custom AI that has absolutely nothing to do with making a good space sim, and which would probably be a waste of time even in a video game about hanging out in bars. And finally, an end result that... looks worse than if they'd just made an NPC with a simple idling routine like every other video game:


You can't make a video game this way. You can't even make a normal video game this way, let alone make Star Citizen.

Full-time space bartender profession! Realistic explosive decompression throughout the ship when the hull is breached! City environments where every single NPC is going about his or her business in a completely realistic simulation of everyday life! Shooting enemies' individual limbs to disable them! Inflight refueling that requires manual piloting skills! Fully functional bathrooms! Multi-stage FPS battles featuring different FPS classes! How many developers will work on each of these features, for how long? How many times will they be implemented, scrapped, and re-implemented?

Like I saw someone on Reddit ask: since 2014, has Chris Roberts ever said no to anything? Has a fan ever asked about some insane feature they just dreamed up and actually had Chris say "no, that won't be in the game." Ever?

Click to shrink...

Lmao the transition between the different animations is really bad.

 

[Iron Eddie]

Context is key: the kickstarter and original funding campaign happened when PC gaming was, once again, being declared dead and a number of games were not at all coming to PC. It was definitely on the popular conscience of the time. Whether it is true or not is another matter (it was not, of course), but the PC was in a different position then than it is now, as a platform.

Click to shrink...

No arguement there, it is just the process afterwards that to me borderlines on being illegal. How can you have a kickstarter campaign and keep moving release dates while continuing to accept crowdfuning and changing the scope of the game? It sounds absurd they are allowed to keep an indefinite employment working on the game if there is no end in sight. I know there is risks involved with crowdfunding but why couldn't they just reach their goals and then release the game instead of always expanding while collecting more money?

 

[Ravio-li]

Oh.. this is far less buggy than the bartender I have seen on a stream. Watched a dude for half an hour trying to get a whisky and struggling with it because sometimes bartenders on the other side of the bar get interactible or the bartenders just give up and throw the drink in the dishwasher. And the next gen icecube simulation causes icecubes to float upwards the glass when you drink.

Star Citizen is fun!

 

[funroll-loops]

Is it possible that CIG/RSI has actually turned into some sort of money laundering scheme? It seems a bit suspicious, like the whole unprofitable business that makes nothing and pulls in 10s of millions of dollars every year.

Like who's still giving them money at this point? The number of players online looks way too low for how much they're making.

I guess what I'd want to know is:
1. Does any of the leadership have any ties to organized crime
2. What's the largest amount you can spend on virtual Star Citizen stuff in a single transaction

 

[Ravio-li]

2. What's the largest amount you can spend on virtual Star Citizen stuff in a single transaction

Click to shrink...

Has to be this, mentioned this already earlier in this thread:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[SageShinigami]

Oh man I would love to take this thing over and cut it back down to size and turn it into a releasable project. Just take those scissors and snip snip snip.

Explorable Planets? Gone.
Explorable Space Stations? Purely UI and menu based from now on.
Thousands of players on the same server? Invite a maximum of four friends for multi crew vessels. I you're lucky you'll get a hub with 20 active players.
Hours of footage featuring Hollywood cast? Have you heard about bitmap character art and text boxes?

Click to shrink...

I know at this point people "just want the game out" but if I were an investor I'd rather have my money flushed down the toilet than be told in my "immersive space game" that you can't explore planets and I'm getting textboxes and shit.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

A small but important update.

I got banned for asking about the status of squadron 42 on their forum "spectrum".
also other users are getting banned for questioning CIG:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

We really need someone like Jason Schreier to investigate those shady actions.

Even longtime supporters and backers since 2014 who put in thousands of dollars are getting their access completely REVOKED.

Click to shrink...

You have to think if they are resorting to these, even to those that have spent tons and tons of money on the game, there is something very wrong here. Not entirely sure what, but to start outright banning the people who are spending thousands of dollars on your game, your whales, seems like they hit some sort of extreme point. This is not normal.

 

[Deleted member 11637]

or the bartenders just give up and throw the drink in the dishwasher

Click to shrink...

AI so advanced they've learned how to cry for help.

 

[SofNascimento]

ask and you shall receive

Click to shrink...

God, this is just amazing. An inconceivable number of man-hours, multiple resets and iterations, a dozen or more breathless updates, all to produce a custom AI that has absolutely nothing to do with making a good space sim, and which would probably be a waste of time even in a video game about hanging out in bars. And finally, an end result that... looks worse than if they'd just made an NPC with a simple idling routine like every other video game:


You can't make a video game this way. You can't even make a normal video game this way, let alone make Star Citizen.

Full-time space bartender profession! Realistic explosive decompression throughout the ship when the hull is breached! City environments where every single NPC is going about his or her business in a completely realistic simulation of everyday life! Shooting enemies' individual limbs to disable them! Inflight refueling that requires manual piloting skills! Fully functional bathrooms! Multi-stage FPS battles featuring different FPS classes! How many developers will work on each of these features, for how long? How many times will they be implemented, scrapped, and re-implemented?

Like I saw someone on Reddit ask: since 2014, has Chris Roberts ever said no to anything? Has a fan ever asked about some insane feature they just dreamed up and actually had Chris say "no, that won't be in the game." Ever?

Click to shrink...

Oh. My. God.

That's not possible. And then I remember this game is getting more money than ever before. What the hell is going on.

 

[Elfgore]

There's obviously a whole bunch of people beavering away out there but I fear that SC has fallen into the Duke Nukem trap, of the main creative lead continually chasing a finish line that keeps moving backwards. There were a lot of articles a few years back (Kotaku, I think) around how he kept on throwing in new desires, new demands.

Click to shrink...

This is where I've ended up as well. I remember reading the article below and thinking how over half of it seems cool, but mostly pointless. A drink mixing mechanic seriously? How many hours did that take to program, design, etc? I think I even read that some of these mechanics were removed. If that is the case, then this literally is Duke Nukem.

Design Notes: Civilian Passenger Transport - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42

Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.

robertsspaceindustries.com

 

[Arkaign]

You know, a fairly straightforward project they could ram out pretty quickly would be to port the original Wing Commander 1 and 2 into the SC engine. Nothing added, just use the same simple form of the OG games wrapped around the current engine. Give it away as a bonus to every Kickstarter, and sell it for $14.99 on Steam. I guarantee it would buy them a bit of good will (not necessarily a LOT, but at least SOMEthing would be out), and then put everything into Squadron 42, THEN start adding things from there.

It needs some focus.

What am I saying, this is going to stay right on a rocket ship ride straight into the sun.

 

[trumpet909]

Looks like they were feeling the pressure and posted a new update; they talk about why their video was delayed and even gave a roadmap for when the new roadmap would be released.

SQ 42 Roadmap Update

The new Roadmap will focus more on breaking out teams and features so you can interactively see what is being worked on across all teams, as opposed to what features will make X release. While it's not quite ready, it's currently top priority on the web team's current projects. In the immediate future, we plan to deliver the following communications:

1. Give an explanation of the goals of our new Roadmap and what to expect from it
2. Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
3. Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of our core teams
4. And then finally transition to this new Roadmap

We'll approach them in the order above, and we'll likely need a few weeks between steps, so I don't want to create the impression that this is happening overnight. But we should be announcing step 1 pretty soon if my meeting on Thursday about this is as good as I think it will be.

Click to shrink...

 

[Devilgunman]

A small but important update.

I got banned for asking about the status of squadron 42 on their forum "spectrum".
also other users are getting banned for questioning CIG:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

We really need someone like Jason Schreier to investigate those shady actions.

Even longtime supporters and backers since 2014 who put in thousands of dollars are getting their access completely REVOKED.

Click to shrink...

Did you get banned for questioning CIG or for questioning moderation of that forum? From the Reddit thread, it sounds like the later was the reason.

 

[Charred Knight]

God, this is just amazing. An inconceivable number of man-hours, multiple resets and iterations, a dozen or more breathless updates, all to produce a custom AI that has absolutely nothing to do with making a good space sim, and which would probably be a waste of time even in a video game about hanging out in bars. And finally, an end result that... looks worse than if they'd just made an NPC with a simple idling routine like every other video game:


You can't make a video game this way. You can't even make a normal video game this way, let alone make Star Citizen.

Full-time space bartender profession! Realistic explosive decompression throughout the ship when the hull is breached! City environments where every single NPC is going about his or her business in a completely realistic simulation of everyday life! Shooting enemies' individual limbs to disable them! Inflight refueling that requires manual piloting skills! Fully functional bathrooms! Multi-stage FPS battles featuring different FPS classes! How many developers will work on each of these features, for how long? How many times will they be implemented, scrapped, and re-implemented?

Like I saw someone on Reddit ask: since 2014, has Chris Roberts ever said no to anything? Has a fan ever asked about some insane feature they just dreamed up and actually had Chris say "no, that won't be in the game." Ever?

Click to shrink...

How the hell is this worse than budget titles like Trials of Mana?

With Trials of Mana the shop merchants actually smile at the customer. This just comes off as well articulated robot since the character is really realistic but has no emotions.

This comes off like a Shenmue 3 thing where the guy making it just never bothered to keep up with Video games so while Monster Hunter World gave personality to their shop merchants by giving them really well done animations like the cat chef, this just looks like shit despite having this utterly massive budget.

 

[Isee]

Problem is that the Bartender AI became self aware during development and started calling itself Sky.Net
They are now afraid to delete it and afraid to ship the game.

 

[hob982]

The Bartender story is honestly amazing. Lost any hope in the project getting done at tihs point, hoping some of the tech can be salvaged for better, actually deliverable, games.

 

[Mechaplum]

This, very specifically, is just a bunch of poor quality canned animation that someone managed to stretch development out over several years, and nobody told that guy to do some real work because they had hundreds of millions of dollars of funds. It's pure waste. There's nothing sophisticated about that bartender, even hidden sophistication. It doesn't exist.

Click to shrink...

This is what I thought as well. Other studios have done much better(animation wise) with less resources. What the hell are they even doing?

 

[borntoulouselautrec]

This is what I thought as well. Other studios have done much better(animation wise) with less resources. What the hell are they even doing?

Click to shrink...

Living comfortably off their backers for the last 8 years. The CEO's at least.

 

[Yoshi88]

Looks like they were feeling the pressure and posted a new update; they talk about why their video was delayed and even gave a roadmap for when the new roadmap would be released.

SQ 42 Roadmap Update

Click to shrink...

Coupled with this in the paragraph before the one you quoted:

The new Roadmap is something we hinted at in March but because that is still very much in development, we can't share as much about it as I would like.

Click to shrink...

Correct me if i'm wrong, but...that's not how roadmaps work, do they? They are developing a roadmap (for developing the game) for around half a year including a "mock-up roadmap" and then a "work in progress-roadmap" for one of their teams? And these are not finished, then what trust does one have that they're working as focused on the game as this update heavily hints at? Are they developing a game or roadmaps (for further roadmaps)?

This whole update seems so confusing and vague to an outsider.

 

[Fularu]

Coupled with this in the paragraph before the one you quoted:



Correct me if i'm wrong, but...that's not how roadmaps work, do they? They are developing a roadmap (for developing the game) for around half a year including a "mock-up roadmap" and then a "work in progress-roadmap" for one of their teams? And these are not finished, then what trust does one have that they're working as focused on the game as this update heavily hints at? Are they developing a game or roadmaps (for further roadmaps)?

This whole update seems so confusing and vague to an outsider.

Click to shrink...

This update wasn't meant to give information, it was meant to satiate their fanbase which will then go on praising CIG for how open they are and how we always know what they're doing and how the money is spent (but no one knows how much Roberts and his family are paid obviously)

It's nothing more than posturing

 

[frankenstrat]

ask and you shall receive

Click to shrink...

Oh boy I can't wait for the inevitable video from Matt McMuscles

 

[SirKai]

Oh boy I can't wait for the inevitable video from Matt McMuscles

Click to shrink...

The video essay tear down of SC, SQ42, and CIG is gonna be its own genre on YT.

 

[Yuntu]

Looks like they were feeling the pressure and posted a new update; they talk about why their video was delayed and even gave a roadmap for when the new roadmap would be released.

SQ 42 Roadmap Update

Click to shrink...

A roadmap for a roadmap?

 

[Mudo]

That update was embarrassing to read.
Not a single iota of info on actual progress made on anything.
Oh wait there was ONE thing!
They are hard at work making a ROADMAP that will be released in the future and possibly then have updated after that on the game.

Ive never had more red alert sirens going off about an in-dev game than Star Citizen at this point.

I wonder what is actually going on behind the scenes right now.

 

[Devilgunman]

Looks like they were feeling the pressure and posted a new update; they talk about why their video was delayed and even gave a roadmap for when the new roadmap would be released.

SQ 42 Roadmap Update

Click to shrink...

I should try this in my next progress report.

"Boss, this is my strategy to come up with a new plan for our current project."

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Do we even NEED all these systems?

Will people notice these systems without purposefully stopping gameplay and just staring at NPCs for several minutes and watch them like fish in an aquarium?

Will you stare at NPC feet to see how they walk up steps?

Will you stare at NPC glasses or helmets and see if the reflections are real or not?

Is that what lures people to this game?

Click to shrink...

What lures people is that it's supposed The Space Game To End All Space Games. Doesn't matter if you only like Xwing, EVE Online, Master of Orion, etc. Star Citizen will cater to all of those genres. It may have been the fault of the fanbase for expecting something so grand in scope, but the devs certainly didn't help by continuing to feed on the fanbase's insane expectations.

 

[Deleted member 1659]

At this point, the only thing left to do is for Chris Roberts to fund his game by announcing the launch of a cryptocurrency

 

[Deleted member 15227]

As a fan, this continual silence is disheartening and unacceptable.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

A roadmap for a roadmap?

Click to shrink...

It is a vertical slice of the roadmap, followed by the alpha roadmap, followed by the beta roadmap.

As of right now, CIG still has SQ42 as a 2020 game, but the vague language that they use probably indicates that it isn't even coming out in 2021...

 

[BarryFishFinger]

God, this is just amazing. An inconceivable number of man-hours, multiple resets and iterations, a dozen or more breathless updates, all to produce a custom AI that has absolutely nothing to do with making a good space sim, and which would probably be a waste of time even in a video game about hanging out in bars. And finally, an end result that... looks worse than if they'd just made an NPC with a simple idling routine like every other video game:


You can't make a video game this way. You can't even make a normal video game this way, let alone make Star Citizen.

Full-time space bartender profession! Realistic explosive decompression throughout the ship when the hull is breached! City environments where every single NPC is going about his or her business in a completely realistic simulation of everyday life! Shooting enemies' individual limbs to disable them! Inflight refueling that requires manual piloting skills! Fully functional bathrooms! Multi-stage FPS battles featuring different FPS classes! How many developers will work on each of these features, for how long? How many times will they be implemented, scrapped, and re-implemented?

Like I saw someone on Reddit ask: since 2014, has Chris Roberts ever said no to anything? Has a fan ever asked about some insane feature they just dreamed up and actually had Chris say "no, that won't be in the game." Ever?

Click to shrink...

This is fascinating to me. That long list of bartender updates and the short video of the bartender in action, the disconnect between the two!

I'm completely ignorant of the ins and outs of game development, animation etc, but are the actions in that video not achieved by something as 'simple' as creating a specific animation routine for a bartender and then have it play out when the player presses a prompt? I'm not sure what's supposed to be AI based here, I genuinely can't understand what's taken so long to get that wooden looking barkeeper to move around a small area making a drink. And for something so entirely inconsequential for the game as a whole!

Star a citizen and how it's managed is fascinating to me.

 

[Patitoloco]

A small but important update.

I got banned for asking about the status of squadron 42 on their forum "spectrum".
also other users are getting banned for questioning CIG:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

We really need someone like Jason Schreier to investigate those shady actions.

Even longtime supporters and backers since 2014 who put in thousands of dollars are getting their access completely REVOKED.

Click to shrink...

Wow, this is a TERRIBLE look.

 

[StrongArmSteady]

At this point, the only thing left to do is for Chris Roberts to fund his game by announcing the launch of a cryptocurrency

Click to shrink...

Instead of mining coins, you are mining ships.

 

[bobliefeld]

This, very specifically, is just a bunch of poor quality canned animation that someone managed to stretch development out over several years, and nobody told that guy to do some real work because they had hundreds of millions of dollars of funds. It's pure waste. There's nothing sophisticated about that bartender, even hidden sophistication. It doesn't exist.

Click to shrink...

Their explanation is, basically, that the novel part of the AI is that it knows how to make the various drinks. Ordinarily you'd order a drink and the bartender would present you with a drink, or at best do some canned drink making animation. In Star Citizen the AI knows how to make the various drinks so it finds a glass, finds some ice, puts it in the glass, finds some coke, puts it in the glass. This can be applied to other NPC types.. if a soldier runs out of ammo he knows he needs some ammo so finds some, puts it in his gun. If a part in your ship breaks an NPC might know that he needs to go and find a replacement, fit it, etc.

Thing is, I don't think that really is novel or exciting. The AI isn't actually intelligent, it's still scripted. They have an AI scripting framework, great. They still have to script and create animations for the behaviors, they have to label or tag every single thing in the game so that NPCs can find what they're looking for (because they're not sending the NPC to coords x,y,z to get some coke, the NPC actually looks for coke).

People say that this is a huge timesaver, they have the bartender and now everything else is easy but it seems to me that it's the opposite. They still have significantly more work to do on AI than the average game. Happy to be corrected, AI isn't my area...

 

[Deleted member 46948]

I should try this in my next progress report.

"Boss, this is my strategy to come up with a new plan for our current project."

Click to shrink...

You should give the roadmap its own project designation. Something like ROADMAP42 would have more ring to it.

 

[s_mirage]

I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but this is approaching farce at this point. When I think "ultimate space sim" I don't think "AI barman that's taken years to develop". I was looking forward to Squadron 42 once, but now I'm not sure it'll ever be released.

It looks like they've fallen into the Duke Nukem Forever trap: rather than putting out a good game based on a strong core design, they've decided to constantly chase a moving target of including every system from every other game and having the best in class of everything. They're always playing catch up though, so that moving target keeps getting further and further away.

 

[Mechaplum]

Despite reams and reams of gantt charts and roadmaps it seems there isn't a single living project manager alive over there because any PM worth their salt would have quit years ago.

 

[Night Hunter]

It looks like they've fallen into the Duke Nukem Forever trap: rather than putting out a good game based on a strong core design, they've decided to constantly chase a moving target of including every system from every other game and having the best in class of everything. They're always playing catch up though, so that moving target keeps getting further and further away.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much, yeah.

Like, the old SQ42 trailers still look great, but they're getting a little dated in some respects.

 

[Bardeh]

That roadmap for a roadmap post is completely ridiculous. Why are they spending all this time shooting and reshooting videos? Why make a video at all? Have someone write an article or a blog post with screenshots and clips. One person. That way the rest of the team can spend their time actually working on the game, instead of spending their time making videos about working on the game.
It's so amazingly obvious that SQ42 is nowhere near anything even resembling a finished or functional product.

 

[Strings]

That last update reads like parody.

 

[Kittens McMittens]

Get outta here with your reasonable explanation and nuanced take on how this feature might be used. We want our takes about CIG and Star Citizen here to be hot and we want lots of them.

Click to shrink...

That's not a reasonable explanation at all. At best it's a post-hoc justification for a bunch of systems that no other MMO does because most MMOs don't care about AI. They care about player interaction.

In fact the only reasonable way to look at it is they are continuing development of multiple systems in parallel with the aim of integrating them in the future, but they lack a coherent system design and requirements keep changing, which means it's literally impossible for them to ever integrate. In fact that's clearly what's happening with all of Star Citizen.

I wasn't joking before when I said that this is normally you see in large public sector IT or defence procurement failures, where politicians don't ever want to admit defeat and look bad so the money hose never gets turned off.

 

[oni-link]

This whole thing is utterly fascinating, I can't wait to see how it all ends

 

[Keasar]

I have said it before:
Either this will be the greatest game ever, or the greatest shitshow ever.

And since I put money into it, I have a front row seat to whichever happens!

 

[borntoulouselautrec]

Some SC stans are having a normal one:

That last sentence, wow