Persistent Development

SBFord

Persistent Development

Star Citizen’s Patch 2.4 promises to be the biggest update yet. We push Gareth Harmer through the airlock to report on what’s being added.

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VorpalChicken28

Looking forward to (optimistically) playing it next year

Lheiah

If a $20 to $24 million dollar game runs out of money with $115 million brought in, I'm going to be terribly upset. Until then, I'm patiently waiting. I've always thought 6 or 7 year development time wasn't out of the question. We hit 2020 and they are still making concept sales with no actual persistence I will be pounding at their door. Squeaky wheel gets the oil.

VorpalChicken28

Lheiah said:

If a $20 to $24 million dollar game runs out of money with $115 million brought in, I'm going to be terribly upset. Until then, I'm patiently waiting. I've always thought 6 or 7 year development time wasn't out of the question. We hit 2020 and they are still making concept sales with no actual persistence I will be pounding at their door. Squeaky wheel gets the oil.

I'd have agreed with you if they hadn't bought the Cryengine and were developing their own system, as that should have cut a huge amount off their dev time.

TalulaRose

The store works, we have known this for awhile now.

Octagon7711

So what's the status of S42?

Moirae

Every mmo is in persistent development. Its the nature of the beast. Once again, we will see. I'm not falling for the hype ever again.

VorpalChicken28

Moirae said:

Every mmo is in persistent development. Its the nature of the beast. Once again, we will see. I'm not falling for the hype ever again.

Helps if you read the article before posting, it's about the fact that they've finally implemented databases on their backend servers to save information about your account/character/ship and made them Persistent rather than losing all the info once you log off the game.

Vrika

Octagon7711 said:

So what's the status of S42?

It's secret. It's being developed, but RSI has not been releasing any info about its status.

There's a lot of speculation around that it might be ready for release early 2017, but people are just speculating. No one outside RSI has any knowledge and RSI aren't telling.

Viper482

One cash grab after another. So sorry I supported this greedy clown.

Viper482

Lheiah said:

If a $20 to $24 million dollar game runs out of money with $115 million brought in, I'm going to be terribly upset. Until then, I'm patiently waiting. I've always thought 6 or 7 year development time wasn't out of the question. We hit 2020 and they are still making concept sales with no actual persistence I will be pounding at their door. Squeaky wheel gets the oil.

2020?? How about 2017?

goemoe

I thought long and hard about this during the first Kickstarter. I am still happy never paying a single coin. The management lacks experience in how to build up a MMO. This game will never be truly successful. They waste money in the wrong areas of development. After all a game has now to be most shiny and polished, it has to offer lots of content and be fun to actually *play*. I doubt this will ever happen.

honeybadger2013

Again this game sounds like cash and carry, pay and go off with your money with no actual working model for players to play, sounds awesome lol

honeybadger2013

I'm making this awesome game, I made a video to wet your appetite, so hand over your hard earned money and i'll take so many years to supposedly make the game, but I'll say I ran out of money lol

Kefo

"The most significant change introduces persistence to the universe"

Its pretty sad when the save feature is considered a major milestone.

Erillion

Kefo said:

"The most significant change introduces persistence to the universe"

Its pretty sad when the save feature is considered a major milestone.

There is a big difference between persistence and a save feature, especially in a multiplayer game. 

As an example you might want to take a look at the old Star Wars Galaxies and its player cities. Or EVE online and its player empires. Where persistent player changes to an Universe do have a big influence on how the game looks, feels and plays. 


Have fun

VorpalChicken28

Erillion said:

Kefo said:

"The most significant change introduces persistence to the universe"



Its pretty sad when the save feature is considered a major milestone.

There is a big difference between persistence and a save feature, especially in a multiplayer game. 

As an example you might want to take a look at the old Star Wars Galaxies and its player cities. Or EVE online and its player empires. Where persistent player changes to an Universe do have a big influence on how the game looks, feels and plays. 


Have fun

all they did was add a save game feature so far...

Erillion

vorpal28 said:

all they did was add a save game feature so far...

Thats why Alpha 2.4 was only the first step to persistence. The devs have already outlined their plans for the next upgrades (see the "10 for the ...XXX" videoblog series).

Conquerable player space stations is also on the TO DO list. The "map" for those stations is already existing ... it is the "Gold Horizon" map show in previous StarMarine videos (StarMarine - which will be the simpod FPS training game, where you can train infantry combat without having to fear the "Death of the Spaceman" permadeath mechanics).

In Alpha 2.5 and 2.6 they add ship and ship equipment shops (weapons, shields etc.) ... and a lot of other stuff  (e.g. pirate station for those criminals that do not want to go to shiny Port Olisar).

There will also be ways to tune your equipment so it works better than the common vanilla version. This will be  improvement based on player skill. The in depth look at ship repair on the SC official homepage might be a good indicator how that could work and look like.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/15062-Ship-Repair-And-Maintenance


Have fun

holdenhamlet

Yes yes, Erillion, everyone is aware they have lots and lots of plans for the game and things on the "TO DO" list.

Kefo

Erillion said:

Kefo said:

"The most significant change introduces persistence to the universe"



Its pretty sad when the save feature is considered a major milestone.

There is a big difference between persistence and a save feature, especially in a multiplayer game. 

As an example you might want to take a look at the old Star Wars Galaxies and its player cities. Or EVE online and its player empires. Where persistent player changes to an Universe do have a big influence on how the game looks, feels and plays. 


Have fun

Please don't try and compare 2 great games to SC.

My point that you are trying to unsuccessfully gloss over is that SC implementing persistence is not something that should be touted as a huge goal since its a common feature in just about every single game.

adamlotus75

I used to save my game in Elite on my ZX Spectrum back in 1987. On cassette. Even then it wasn't ground breaking. But wow my ship and all my gear and money was still there next time I played.

Kefo

Erillion said:

vorpal28 said:

all they did was add a save game feature so far...

Thats why Alpha 2.4 was only the first step to persistence. The devs have already outlined their plans for the next upgrades (see the "10 for the ...XXX" videoblog series).

Conquerable player space stations is also on the TO DO list. The "map" for those stations is already existing ... it is the "Gold Horizon" map show in previous StarMarine videos (StarMarine - which will be the simpod FPS training game, where you can train infantry combat without having to fear the "Death of the Spaceman" permadeath mechanics).

In Alpha 2.5 and 2.6 they add ship and ship equipment shops (weapons, shields etc.) ... and a lot of other stuff  (e.g. pirate station for those criminals that do not want to go to shiny Port Olisar).

There will also be ways to tune your equipment so it works better than the common vanilla version. This will be  improvement based on player skill. The in depth look at ship repair on the SC official homepage might be a good indicator how that could work and look like.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/15062-Ship-Repair-And-Maintenance


Have fun

I see the ship and ship equipment shops coming online before anything else so they can get the systems in place to fleece more money out of backers.

That article about ship repairs does sound interesting but this was when I read it when it first came out last year (almost 7 months to be exact) but do you honestly think this is going to be in their Minimum Viable Product? By the time the feature does get implement, if ever, there will probably be games that are still just a twinkle in the devs eye that will do it better than SC.

Chris Roberts was right when he said 2 years is the perfect time frame to release the product. Too bad his ego and greed got the best of him. Now he has a laundry list of promises to deliver and hes so far behind that other games were able to take his ideas and implement them better than he could.

Erillion

Kefo said:

Please don't try and compare 2 great games to SC.

My point that you are trying to unsuccessfully gloss over is that SC implementing persistence is not something that should be touted as a huge goal since its a common feature in just about every single game.

I compare these two great games to SC all the time. I played Star Wars Galaxies from switch on to lights out. I played EVE Online for 12 years so far.

The "save" feature may be common. The other steps for persistence in the next updates are not that common. Some games have them (e.g. the ones i mentioned). Most do not (another example for that: Star Wars: The Old Republic  --> whatever you do there, other players are not really affected in any way).

What you see in Alpha 2.4 is a first step. That is not the totality of persistence in SC. To quote LaoZi "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step."


Have fun

Erillion

Kefo said:

so they can get the systems in place to fleece more money out of backers.

How do you fleece backers with in game shops selling in game items for in game money (Alpha UEC) in an Alpha test (where purchases can get wiped at any time ... and the testers know it) ? The in game money is earned by ... you guessed it ... doing missions in the game. There is no connection between Alpha UEC and real world money. 


Have fun

VorpalChicken28

Sadly I can't play the new PTU as I won't agree to the new ToS, so I have to rely on Youtube video's from now on, no way I'm going to agree to no refunds.

Erillion

Did you participate in a crowdfunding campaign and expected to be able to get a refund until one day before launch ? Really ?


Have fun