2563

Yeah, the ships certainly have some heft to them. Now, many of them are pretty agile, so they have enough of a thrust to mass ratio that they can adjust their movement quickly (because otherwise you get a really floaty feeling that is not that fun), but it’s all directly related to the physics system. In the video where he is actually flying the thing live, he way overshoots the base at first because he’s coming in at such a high speed to try and cover the distance, and doesn’t try to readjust until too late.

I believe the only ship whose movement isn’t directly related to the physics of the mass and location of thrusters was the alien ship with the giant wing blade, because it was essentially impossible to make a ship with that stylistic design, which was also possible to fly, as the thrust vectors were all crazy and it didn’t handle in a way that was at all intuitive. So they put on a fake, invisible blade on the other side from the physics perspective, to even out the weight and make it more symetrical.

2564

Chris Roberts plays Star Citizen: https://youtu.be/ZWq8ynUq7wM

An unintentionally hilarious video since Chris seems unfamiliar with his game, is very unprofessional with how he critiques the game live (“I promise you guys this fucking chat interface will die a horrible death”), doesn’t have his HOTAS plugged in, among other gaffes.

A Youtube commenter describes it better than I could:

12.34 onwards is excellent, you get Chris smuggly giggling at one of his overly long animation sequences, then he looks like an old uncle at the controls, a guy tries to salute him but his character animation breaks then chris says his own chat system is ‘awkward’ while the other dudes spaceship wobbles around and floats off in the background lol. then chris accidentally crashes into said ship because he sucks at his own game and knocks it into space

Note: I am not posting this as a criticism of the game. Watching it made my morning in a Royal Tenenbaums absurdist humor kind of way. :-)

-Todd

2565

Ah, the true Star Citizen experience! We’re so lucky to have such an experienced and talented captain at the helm!

Also, Santa makes a cameo. Was that a stretch goal or something? ;)

2566

You… did you read Youtube comments? Like actual comments on a Youtube video?

Guys, do we need to quarantine him? Who knows what he came back here with!

2567

Isn’t that what the internet is always crying out for? “Real” devs/game companies instead of sterile marketing campaigns?
Is there really any reason to take these things more seriously than they need to be? I mean it is of course funny but in a good way which is why I don’t understand why people want to spin such things in a negative way.
I honestly respect what Roberts is doing there, he really doesn’t have to stick his neck out like this and yet he does and isn’t hidding like a lot of other people probably would in his situation and I’m saying this as someone who has really no stakes in this whole SC thing.

2568

Are the intense feelings of homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, and islamophobia bubbling up inside me normal? Should I see a doctor? :-P

-Todd

2569

I think that it’d be nuts for him to have pretended like there weren’t tons of flaws in those things though.

As it is, there are mountains of bugs… but the game is clearly coming together, and it’s awesome. You can run around, get in a ship, fly away to another station, get out, get in a firefight, get back in a ship, fly off somewhere else… all seamlessly.

It’s still got a long way to go, but it’s seriously getting really cool at this point. There’s really no doubt that it’s a real thing now. There’s basically no way that it can just completely fail to come together, as some had been suggesting a month or two ago. It’s well beyond the “there’s no way it can ever work!” stage, as it clearly CAN work.

I wouldn’t suggest that folks buy into it at this point, unless you want to see the game go through the development process. If you just want to play the game, I’d suggest waiting for a while. But I think it’s crossed an important threshold at this point.

2570

I don’t know about you, but I want devs/game companies to be real AND professional. That video was embarassing not because it was not real - it was - but because it was unbelievably amateurish and unprofessional.

If you’re a professional, here’s what you do before that kind of stream/presentation:

  • prepare everything/test. Make sure controllers are working, computer is correctly set up, etc.
  • do at least a small rehearsal of what you’ll do and what you plan to say in general terms. No need for scripts, but you need at least general guidelines about what you’re going to do.
  • try to anticipate possible problems and either prepare for them, or think about how you’ll respond to them if they happen.
  • don’t call the chat interface awkward and promise it will die a terrible death. That’s insulting to devs and designers, and to whomever is listening. Say you’re going to revisit the interface and improve it, instead of implying that you had not experienced that interface until that very moment (despite being the “owner” of the product) and that you think who did it is incompetent.
  • If you have to, ask “am I still on camera?” before you do something, not after.

If I did what those guys (and especially Chris Roberts) did in, say, a project/prototype presentation for a client, I’d likely be fired immediately after. I’m not talking about exceptional standards here - just what I have come to expect in my adult life, and what’s been required of me. Is that so much to ask, really?

For comparison - take a look at David Braben and Frontier. Check their videos and streams and general behavior. Don’t you see the difference in professionalism? Really?

I don’t. He should know better. He should do better. He owes that to thousands of people. That was embarassing to say the least.

2571

Yeah I think the thing that stands out is how unfamiliar Roberts seemed with his own game or the current state of it.

-Todd

2572

Ultimately I don’t think I seriously care whether Chris Roberts handles himself in a way that people deem acceptable, as long as the game’s development keeps progressing as it is.

If you’re a professional, here’s what you do before that kind of stream/presentation:

  • prepare everything/test. Make sure controllers are working, computer is correctly set up, etc.
  • do at least a small rehearsal of what you’ll do and what you plan to say in general terms. No need for scripts, but you need at least general guidelines about what you’re going to do.
  • try to anticipate possible problems and either prepare for them, or think about how you’ll respond to them if they happen.
  • don’t call the chat interface awkward and promise it will die a terrible death. That’s insulting to devs and designers, and to whomever is listening. Say you’re going to revisit the interface and improve it, instead of implying that you had not experienced that interface until that very moment (despite being the “owner” of the product) and that you think who did it is incompetent.
  • If you have to, ask “am I still on camera?” before you do something, not after.

This has always been how Roberts is though. He just isn’t focused on the kind of stuff you’re talking about.

I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s ever going to change. He’s not the kind of guy who is going to do the kind of meticulous planning for a livestream like you are expecting. They have always been, and likely always will be, the kind of thing you saw there. And the community seems quite happy with it, so there’s little reason to change the recipe.

2573

That’s mind-boggling to me, really, but I can see your point. Oh well.

2574

I think there’s a difference between meticulous planning and him looking as if it’s been the first time he’s encountered his game, and the latter was what I saw on display there.

2575

After the ridiculous open letter to the Escapist and the not-bragging-but-really-bragging note to players about how awesome a director he is, one should not be surprised when Chris Roberts acts in an unprofessional manner. Maybe the die-hard fans find it endearing. I find it frustrating and annoying.

2576

Usually developers sweat freaking bullets before live demos and run the demo over and over again to have everything perfect. That is the industry norm.

2577

This is…hard to watch. :(

2578

Aww, come on. It wasn’t as bad as his letter to The Escapist.

2579

Well, that inspires confidence! Please tell me it does not take that long to find and get into a ship.

On the plus side, that video is so uncomfortable that it made me giggle. It’s like watching George W. Bush in a spelling bee.

2580

I didn’t get the impression that he was unfamiliar with his own game, rather that his own game was behaving differently than the way with which he was familiar due to bugs and neglecting to familiarize himself with the bindings of that HOTAS. At first he tries to order a Constellation, one of the larger multi-crew ships which can only be delivered to a larger landing pad. The ship delivery screen informs him that there are no large landing pads available, at which point Chris meanders around the pads only to find that practically every pad, large or small, is unoccupied. This is a bug, and one which I have never personally witnessed before.

He then orders a smaller ship and realizes that he is unfamiliar with the HOTAS bindings, complaining that someone else had rearranged them. This situation could have easily been prevented by him quickly testing his controls beforehand. Nevertheless, he rams into another player’s ship while trying to figure out which button is assigned to strafing. He switches to a gamepad, warps to a destination, and then the game unexpectedly crashes.

The current chat interface definitely needs to be redone but I agree the way he blasted it was unprofessional, Chris is allegedly known to be derisive when critiquing his employees’ work.

Also, I recall someone in this thread asking why Braben hasn’t weighed in on the Star Citizen controversies yet. He recently included a brief comment on Star Citizen in his end-of-year letter.

What both Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous are trying to do is very hard indeed. Both games are incredibly ambitious. I am proud and excited about what we are doing, but what they are doing is ambitious too, and I am looking forward to playing Star Citizen when it is finished. What we are both doing is new; we are trailblazing. The scope of both is vast and quite different, and neither have been done before, so there is no right answer for either of the approaches. It is frustrating to see some of the criticism of Star Citizen online. We should applaud when someone tries something that is hard, that hasn’t been done, not discourage them.

2581

Well the way he reacted to the chat interface suggested that was the first time he has seen it in his life.

-Todd

2582

“The really awkward chat interface that we are definitely going to be fixing” implies that he had knowledge of his really awkward chat interface beforehand. The most embarrassing part is when he can’t figure out how to exit chat (he used alt-space to bring up his cursor and click on the chat box to activate it, pressed alt-space to get rid of the cursor assuming it would de-activate the chat box, forgot he needed to press Enter to deactivate it), but I suppose that just goes to show how awkward it is.