I wrote a new blog. Star Citizen - Year Six
In the sense that pre-launch I kind of expected atmospheric planet landings to have arrived at least a year ago, and most of the updates these days seem pretty tinkery, rather than adding large amounts of new content/mechanics. When the game was still in development, I was amazed at how quickly after the Kickstarter they got to a very polished (certainly compared to SC) public build. So measuring the visible progress since then is a little disappointing. It’s probably unfair as I’m sure there was a lot of work done before the Kickstarter was public, but it’s impossible not to get that impression.
Well sales have slowed down. And seeing as it is the space combat genre after all, I expected that things would peak at some point. There only way to fund this now is via DLC - which most ED players rebel against anyway.
The Free Fly ends today. I have compiled a backer review of all the ships from day 1 through 7, skipping day 4 because he couldn’t play that day.
Qt3 forums stopped working for me on Edge a couple days ago. Anyone else?
No I think you are the only using Edge.
I’m kidding. Or am I? I seriously don’t know of anyone who uses Edge.
Edgelords do, obviously.
Seeing as how most of my employer’s business apps are linked to Microsoft Cloud, and some only work correctly (don’t know why) on Edge (or IE), I guess I am kinda resigned to using it?
Back in the day I might have chosen a different I-net browser, but I don’t know of a compelling reason (other than M$ hate) to do so anymore. At least not for the way I use it.
Not like I don’t have other options though! I’m obviously not on Edge right now.
You might want to post something in the Hardware forum.
I’m always on edge.
(sorry)
Budump chiiiiiiiiii
Well played, sir.
@dsmart Hey Derek, Are you Sarsapariller on Something Awful? cos if you are not you have a plagiarism case.
and if you are. Boy you get around.
Ohhhhhh yes he does
Nah, that’s not me. I have my own account there.
He is the author of the ship reviews which I posted on my site with attribution.
Each time this happens, we get the same outcry from backers who don’t seem to get that CIG needs consistent funding to stay afloat. So, it’s that time again where the value of old money vs new money comes into question.
The idea of ship melting* was created years ago to solve various problems such as player buying the wrong ship, wanting to upgrade to a different ship, tired of waiting for the ship JPEG to make it into the game etc.
As these things go, backers soon started to use it extensively. But CIG got nuthin’ from backers using credits.
So they introduced War Bonds (I shit you not) aka “New Money”. So you could buy new ships using War Bonds, and get not only a discount, but some additional stuff (skin, lifetime insurance etc). Then they went overboard with it. For an example, take look at this sales page.
It is inconceivable to some backers that CIG needs to bring in new money in order to stay afloat; especially going by their monthly burn rate extrapolated from their UK financial filings. So it’s like a charity. They have to constantly keep raising money - somehow - in order to stay afloat while having some in reserves for the slow fundraising months. Which is why since last year, they’ve increased the sales, and they make the most money in Q4 via CitizenCon bs and the anniversary (of the project inception) etc
*converting ship value to credits, then using that to buy a new ship with said credits
This is the mindset of a backer. This guy (who apparently just had a baby) started out at backing in 2013 at $355.
Then he went all the way to $10K by 2018.
Now he’s making dissenting videos. He’s so adorable.
Side note about that video. Wow those shadows are janky as hell.
They’re working on Particle Object Streaming, which simulates each individual particle (and wave) of visible light in real-time to cast the most realistic shadows you’ve ever seen.
Sure, it’ll jack up the CPU requirements by an order of magnitude, but CIG has really been targeting the hardware of 2030 from the beginning, which is evidence of Chris Roberts’s genius.
In addition, the whole melt system is another way to get money out of people through power creep without having to even bother creating the ships. They sell a picture of a ship for $100 and then they sell a picture of a new ship that is clearly better with a superior spec sheet for $125 and offer a $25 upgrade. So they render the $100 ship picture obsolete before delivery and get another $25 out of the player purchaser. This is an ongoing strategy to get players to continue to pump money into the game.