Star Citizen - Squadron 42 not coming in 2018

Erillion

In a recent developer video discussion Chris Roberts answers questions from backers and confirms that the solo game Squadron 42 will not come out in 2018.  (Time Stamp 50:20)

"Star Citizen: Reverse the Verse LIVE - Chris Roberts on Development"

Needs more testing and optimization.  Meanwhile Alpha 3.2 is on Live servers - plenty of new stuff to playtest there.

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MadFrenchie

Were there stretch goals added to SQ42 to warrant such delays, as with the PTU?

Erillion

Delay is for technical reasons, not because of stretch goals. Needs more testing, needs more optimization.

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Kefo

Erillion said:

In a recent developer video discussion Chris Roberts answers questions from backers and confirms that the solo game Squadron 42 will not come out in 2018.  (Time Stamp 50:20)

"Star Citizen: Reverse the Verse LIVE - Chris Roberts on Development"

Needs more testing and optimization.  Meanwhile Alpha 3.2 is on Live servers - plenty of new stuff to playtest there.

Have fun

An announcement about SQ42 that surprised absolutely nobody

MadFrenchie

Erillion said:

Delay is for technical reasons, not because of stretch goals. Needs more testing, needs more optimization.

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Okay, when was the original timeline for SQ42 release?  Sometime in 2016, correct?

rpmcmurphy

MadFrenchie said:

Erillion said:

Delay is for technical reasons, not because of stretch goals. Needs more testing, needs more optimization.

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Okay, when was the original timeline for SQ42 release?  Sometime in 2016, correct?

I believe it was originally intended for 2014, every year since then Chris has said it's coming that year.

Albatroes

People still think these guys are making a game? Poor souls.

Erillion

MadFrenchie said:

Erillion said:

Delay is for technical reasons, not because of stretch goals. Needs more testing, needs more optimization.

Have fun

Okay, when was the original timeline for SQ42 release?  Sometime in 2016, correct?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

Keep in mind that the SQ42 story got enlarged to several more chapters episodes than mentioned in the original Kickstarter (but without an official due date). Original backers get the first two chapters episodes (of three in the initial story arc) ... every chapter episode is roughly the size of a full Wing Commander game (or roughly the size of the story mentioned in the Kickstarter).

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PS:

Changed "chapters" to "episodes" for clarity.

Erillion

Albatroes said:

People still think these guys are making a game? Poor souls.

Gaming magazine journalists that visited the studios and saw work in progress seem to think these guys ARE making a game. Go figure. Poor souls.

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MadFrenchie

Erillion said:

MadFrenchie said:

Erillion said:

Delay is for technical reasons, not because of stretch goals. Needs more testing, needs more optimization.

Have fun

Okay, when was the original timeline for SQ42 release?  Sometime in 2016, correct?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

Keep in mind that the SQ42 story got enlarged to several more chapters than mentioned in the original Kickstarter (but without an official due date). Original backers get the first two chapters (of three in the initial story arc) ... every chapter is roughly the size of a full Wing Commander game (or roughly the size of the story mentioned in the Kickstarter).

Have fun

That's 28 chapters for all three episodes, right?  CR mentioned that 28 chapters were all gray box or better at Citizencon back in 2016, per Polygon (they refer to the 28 as "all," which is where my question comes from).

https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/10/13226604/star-citizen-delayed-squadron-42-citizencon-2016

Erillion

Then lets call this three episodes instead of chapters.

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simsalabim77

My goodness. I would have never expected this. 

sgel

I am shocked!

Arglebargle

Shocked!   Shocked I say!

Some year the 500 developers will finally overcome CR's micromanagement.   But not this year.....

rpmcmurphy

The common refrain on the subreddit was to push the blame back onto the believer, "Oh you didn't really think it was coming this year did you? everyone who follows the development properly knew it wasn't happening...."

Their IMDB page however....
 

MadFrenchie

Erillion said:

Then lets call this three episodes instead of chapters.

Have fun

Oh, I wasn't posting that to highlight semantics, my bad if it came off as that.  I was simply trying to clarify my own knowledge of SQ42 because it is something I've paid less attention to than Star Citizen itself.

Scot

Well I never thought it was coming out this year, even in the dreaded Early Access. You know, we make so much fun of Early Access, I am sure there is someone trying to sort out a new name for it in many gaming companies PR right now.

Erillion

I think there will not be an Early Access for Squadron 42. QA is done in house only for SQ42, which is quite different from the SC Persistent Universe playtesting done by a lot of the backers/playtesters in the Alpha builds (Live server, PTU server and Evocati server).

It is my understanding that they want to minimize story leaks. Will be interesting to see how much of the story leak from 2 or 3 years ago was genuine. The one hour vertical slice of SQ42 we have seen so far DOES fit the leaked story ( amongst other things: you being on your first tour of duty in a supposedly quiet backwater system with some criminal elements at work).

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Jippiijoo

They are not releasing something? well that shouldn't be an suprise

Erillion

Jippiijoo said:

They are not releasing something? well that shouldn't be an suprise

They are releasing things every three months.

Last weekend Alpha 3.2 was released to the live servers.

Fancy yourself a miner ? Go and get rich hurting rocks (instead of other pilots) !

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MaxBacon

One thing that turned more clear over the time with SQ42 is that, I would say that the SQ42 release and the SC release will not be far apart, when you think of it both games sharing this same codebase, will need the same optimizations, improvements and polish, things that happen at late stages of development.

I would say it's those technicalities that become imposing, say they upgrading engine to DX12/Vulkan, but then SQ42 should also get it because it's a considerable graphical performance & improvement, that's likely the type of thing pushing it back, so when we consider that it feels that the completion of SC on its base stuff (improvements on visuals, tech, polish, optimization, etc..) is tied to the completion of SQ42, with any decision to "cut it out" to release sooner having a direct hit on SQ42's quality.

sgel

Yeah guys.. it's only being delayed because it's going to be even better and even prettier.

Come to think of it, it's better that it's never released because when it is released, it would look even more amazing and play even better if it was delayed even further.

Chris only wants the best... we can't have the best if the game actually releases and the dream ceases to exist.

MaxBacon

sgel said:

Yeah guys.. it's only being delayed because it's going to be even better and even prettier.

Tho you're being sarcastic you're actually being accurate.

They have been doing from graphical upgrades the past times, to the planned upgrade to DX12/Vulkan, and this is what I was talking about, the decision force a release of SQ42 sooner would have been a decision to cut its quality, it's like having to polish and optimize their engine twice.

I can understand the position they are on by doing both games at once, I would also say this is related to why we keep seeing MMO's releasing today still using Unreal Engine 3 instead of 4, because the decision to do the upgrade and benefit from its improvements would clash directly with the intended timeframe/budget.

Scot

sgel said:

Yeah guys.. it's only being delayed because it's going to be even better and even prettier.

Come to think of it, it's better that it's never released because when it is released, it would look even more amazing and play even better if it was delayed even further.

Chris only wants the best... we can't have the best if the game actually releases and the dream ceases to exist.

You jest, but highlight a real problem. The longer a game takes the come out no matter what the budget or who is developing it, the bigger the expectations. I think this is actually unfairer on MMOs with smaller budgets than SC, but it effects them all.

MaxBacon

Scot said:

You jest, but highlight a real problem. The longer a game takes the come out no matter what the budget or who is developing it, the bigger the expectations. I think this is actually unfairer on MMOs with smaller budgets than SC, but it effects them all.

It's true but if SQ42 had to release sooner considering now the reality and quality being pushed on SC itself, SQ42 would be clearly sub-par.

Not only graphically, for example the OCS (tech in dev) that is also required for SQ42, allows them to do the game without loading screens between areas, such as SC itself, if they were to take the decision "It's going to take too long to get that benefit let's release it sooner", SQ42 would be set to work loading screens.

There's always a giveaway there, or you sacrifice deadlines or you sacrifice the game quality you could achieve (because of the ongoing dev of SC).

sgel

MaxBacon said:

Scot said:

You jest, but highlight a real problem. The longer a game takes the come out no matter what the budget or who is developing it, the bigger the expectations. I think this is actually unfairer on MMOs with smaller budgets than SC, but it effects them all.

It's true but if SQ42 had to release sooner considering now the reality and quality being pushed on SC itself, SQ42 would be clearly sub-par.

I like how you definitely know that SQ42 would be sub par if it released sooner (sooner than what, considering it has no release date)... but you also definitely know that if it released when it's supposed to release (which noone knows when, not even Chris) it won't be sub par.

I'm starting to understand the compulsory optimism fans need to have in order to actually defend this project. The game is an utter mess without it.