Thankfully that shouldn’t be an issue. 6 years and $190 million later, surely the flight model on a space sim was nailed down years and years ago. Right, guys? Guys??
They’re going to have to either scrap all of it - or just leave it as-is. Anyone who thinks you can just waltz in and take over a software discipline you didn’t already spend DECADES on, is delusional. Especially a jnr dev who is all but clueless. Math is hard. I know. I have a degree in it.
It seems from this (and the accompanying video) that John Pritchett build a complete flight model before he left. Interesting that he then wrote a summary, and some guy posted and narrated it.
Yeah, but it has serious insurmountable problems because of the underlying engine (CryEngine) which he had to work with - and which wasn’t designed for ANYTHING of the sort.
Well, him being a creative person is irrelevant, he’s a game director and a CEO (or whatever managerial positions he has). Any creativity in those positions is, at best, a hindrance, what matters is getting things done, dreams and perfection be damned.
No wonder this is so fucked.
Yes - precisely so.
Most of the best CEOs would disagree with you, as would investors who chase those “star” CEOs. Roberts’ problem isn’t creativity, it’s the fact that it isn’t balanced by other skills (or scruples).
I had hoped to play this game someday. I’m glad I didn’t put any money in it, but it’s still disappointing that it’s more likely a scam than a game.
I suppose it was exaggerated for the sake of a burn, sorry. It’s certainly a usable thing to have, but not something you bet everything on.
I thought of the iPhone. Great, complicated, idea that wasn’t thrown into production overnight, it took a lot of smaller steps (products/os versions) backed by component research and engineering to be the behemoth it became. If they had tried to do it all at once for the sake of realizing the creativity, Apple would be long gone.
I have no idea if it was a single vision or how close anyone else was to doing similar products (or how close they might have been to failing), just acknowledging it’s not as simplistic as I said. Although I don’t think it goes much in the other way, I don’t see big companies in comfortable positions making big creative gambles until something pushes them to it.
I disagree, because what the team is supposed to have is someone between the crazy dreamer CEO and the dev team, who is actually in charge of putting together a realistic schedule and telling the CEO what can actually happen and when.
All the best Executive Producers I’ve ever worked with were realists. Maybe they weren’t pessimists, but they knew very clearly that things were not going to go according to plan, that people’s estimates were almost always too aggressive, and that their job was to translate everything for execs so it made sense. Oh, and actually ship a game, and if that meant being bad cop, that’s what they were.
You absolutely must have a bad cop Executive Producer if you ever hope to ship a game. At some point someone needs to start saying “no” when presented with an awesome new feature. Then that person needs to start cutting scope. It always happens.
Sounds like they’re lacking a bad cop.
I think what Perky_Goth is saying is that you can’t rely on just an “idea person,” however creative, and expect things to get done, unless that person is that rare breed that is both super creative and hands-on practical. And even then, that will only get you so far. But you sure as hell need someone other than technicians and managers, because then you get competent but soulless products (or don’t even get that far because your engineers don’t have the charisma to bring in capital).
And yes, indeed, it seems this company is sorely lacking that middle layer between the high concept and the nitty-gritty, the folks who wrangle the talent into making the vision real.
I assume that CR is not only the CEO but also the CFO. Am I wrong?
No. The CFO is Nick Elms, his long time buddy, and one of those also involved (along with Erin) in the Gizmondo collapse fiasco which I wrote about back in 2015.
Ah. Okay. The plot sickens.
Y’all can just relax. A little bird told me “there is no room for a reasonable person to believe there is any substantial chance Star Citizen will never release based on the content available at this point” (thank God I can lay that existential crisis to rest) and if we trust CIG’s roadmap SC will be “one of the best [games] ever made” by the end of the year.
I mean, who could ever ask for anything more than landing in a crater the size of Skyrim? Functional player to player economy? Nah…
Sheesh, what a meltdown.
This has kind of gone beyond schadenfreude for me, at this point. I realize the people pouring money into this project should clearly know better, but they’re being taken advantage of and effectively being scammed. Just because you’re not very smart doesn’t mean you deserve to get scammed.
I don’t think Chris Roberts set out to scam anyone. I think he set out to make a new space game, and then when the money started rolling in his imagination ran wild with no one around him to tell him to reign him in. Now he has almost $200 million of backer money on the line and it’s either finish the project (which is clearly never going to happen, not at the scope advertised and crowdfunded for) or give up now. Instead of giving up, he just keeps coming up with more and more ludicrous features and ideas to keep the lights on in some vein hope of some miracle happening and saving this project.
Either way, I’m past finding this amusing or absurd. The whole thing just kind of makes me feel gross and uncomfortable now. Chris Roberts may not have set out to defraud anyone, but that’s what he’s been doing for at least a couple years now.
That makes a lot of sense, Kevin. Certainly, it’s more likely than “Chris Roberts is a professional con-man.” He’s just in way over his head, and this thing got away from him. Also, wouldn’t closing up shop mean firing a bunch of friends and family?
That it’s likely true. I’m not sure it matters anymore, though. Bernie Maddov likely didn’t mean to lose billions running a ponzi scheme. He’s still in jail for it.
My good will towards the project evaporated with the $27k Legatus pack. Before that, I was willing to give the game a try if by some miracle they managed to release it. Now I’ve moved into “People need to be in jail for this” territory.
Yeah, YongYea really didn’t pull any punches. I mean, I’m still kind of hoping for yet another playable, fun, space sim MMO because who loses in that instance? Nobody.
However, it seems at this point that the “core” fanbase of SC really wants this thing to be pay-to-win, which sort of makes sense. Think of how many hundreds of dollars per backer would be seen as wasted if no true advantage were granted. The problem with this is that if you don’t have a sizable cadre of players willing to play wallet warrior then there really is no game, is there? In that sense YongYea’s video hit home because maybe ‘stay as far away as humanly possible’ is the right approach, now. It’s just hard to tell, but I can’t see Croberts turning around and giving a giant middle finger to everyone who has ponied up hundreds if not thousands on this “long con” never mind what p2w tends to mean for any type of meaningful economy or skill-based progression system.